Thrace

Anciently the name of an extensive country bounded on the north by the Danube, on the east by the Euxine, on the south by the Ægean and Macedonia, and on the west by Macedonia and Illyria. War and robbery were the only honorable occupations of the Thracians. They lived to steal, either from each other or from neighboring peoples. When not fighting or plundering, they spent their days in savage idlene , or in quarreling over their cups. Courageous, or rather ferocious, after the fashion of barbarous peoples, they yet lacked the steady valor and endurance of disciplined troops; at all times, their warfare displayed more fiercene and impetuosity than fortitude. In 513 B.C. , Darius, king of Persia, marched through Thrace on his way to punish the European Scythians, and on his return left Megabazus with 80,000 men to subdue the country. In this he partially succeeded, but new disturbances and complications arose between the Persians and Greeks, which resulted (480 B.C. ) in the famous expedition of Xerxes. The consequence of the expulsion of the Persians from Europe was the resumption of liberty and the revival of prosperity among the Greek colonies in Thrace. Shortly before the Peloponnesian war, a native Thracian state—the Odrysian—had attained to great power and eminence under a ruler named Sitalces, who joined the A then i an alliance, but could not, in spite of his resources, prevent the triumph of Sparta in the north as well as in the south. The rise of the Maced on i an kingdom, under Philip II. (359 B.C. ), destroyed the independence of a great part of Thrace. Under the government of Lysimachus, the subjugation of Thrace became complete. On the fall of the Maced on i an kingdom (168 B.C. ) it pa ed into the hands of the Romans, and subsequently shared the vici itudes of the Roman empire. In 334 a colony of Sarmatians, and in 376 another of Goths, was planted in Thrace. In 395 it was overrun by Alaric, and in 447 by Attila. In 1353, Amurath obtained po e ion of all its fortre es, except Constantinople, and it has ever since remained in the po e ion of the Turks.