Hey Veeky Forums I recently started reading about the Roman conquests in the 1st century and started wandering about the Thracians. What was their culture like, where did they go, and why did they leave so little behind. Apparently they were a formidable for to the Romans yet current discoveries point towards the contrary.
Hey Veeky Forums I recently started reading about the Roman conquests in the 1st century and started wandering about...
Benjamin Wood
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esotericonline.net
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spellbinders.org
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Luke Lopez
Thracians were meme warriors. Greeks and the macedonians banged them at every turn.Romans just steamrolled through their lands.
Adrian Mitchell
With all due respect I didn't ask about their warfare skills in particular
Nolan Bailey
You're right, apologies I misread you post because I am a bit of a spastic.
Ayden Price
Dont worry, I forgive you
Christian Cooper
According to what we know Thracians were considered to be of incredible skill in battle, which made them highly desired as mercenaries among the Greeks and later the Romans. The Greeks considered them to be descendants of Ares, percisely because they were so good at war. What they were weak at was unifying to any degree, save for the minor Odrysian empire period, so never really conquered other people.
>The Thracians 700 BC-AD 46 (Men-at-Arms) by Christopher Webber and Angus McBride, 2001, ISBN 1-84176-329-2, page 3
>The Illyrians (The Peoples of Europe) by John Wilkes, 1996, ISBN 978-0-631-19807-9, page 168, "Like Thracians to the east the Illyrians were an important source of military manpower, and often served as separate contingents under their own leaders"
>If they were ruled by one sovereign and were united, they would have been invincible and more powerful than any other people. (Herodotus)
The Thracian Peltast was one of the most widely used mercenary unit in their days. Here is a record of Alexander's use of them
Alexander sent…the Thracian light-armed against the elephants, for they were better at skirmishing than fighting at close-quarters. They released a thick barrage of missiles on both elephants and drivers…(Curtius VIII.14.24-25)
The javelin barrage soon told, a number of elephants going berserk and charging about aimlessly. The Thracians alternately chased and fled from the elephants, using typical skirmish tactics, sometimes closing to attack an elephant at close quarters when it became isolated from the rest, using falxes to hack off the elephant’s feet.
No wonder the Spartans said that other Greeks were as afraid of peltasts as children were of the bogey man.
They weren't "steamrolled by the Romans", the bigger kingdoms like the Odrysians simply joined into the empire, just as many Greek states did, as they saw they could profit from it.
Comment too long:
Jayden Harris
Comment was too long so cont. here:
As for their culture, here's a few sources outside of wikipedia:
thelastdiadoch.tumblr.com
thelastdiadoch.tumblr.com
Also try these documentaries:
youtu.be
youtu.be
youtu.be
There are many reasons for absence of their cultural heritage.
The Ottoman empire destroyed many historical sites in the Balkans to harvest construction materials.
The USSR confiscated many artifacts and ancient documents from and regarding Thracian historical sites to promote the spread of a "Slavic" identity in the Balkans.
Obviously also the Thracians had no alphabet, so they didn't leave many written records outside of obscure runes.
Their religion was a "mystery cult" so outside of nobles and high ranking priests, information was scarce; those who had it kept it religiously secret.
Pic related is referred to as the "Thracian Horseman", Heros, Eros, or Eron, as known from Greek and Roman inscriptions. He seems to be a major diety, following in the Indo European tradition of a horseman with a spear. Personal hypothesis - Their god of war- since he is usually found on graves of soldiers.
Dionisus was also worshipped a lot, his temple bein located in the city of Perperikon, the ruins of which lie in the Rhodope Mountains today.
Mythra also had his cult here, and may even be how he came to be worshipped by Roman soldiers, as they were hired from this region.
We also have a bunch of other names of deities, about whom not much is known:
esotericonline.net
en.m.wikipedia.org
A lot of the folklore actually has remained, being incorporated into various other mythologies (greek, south slavic).
Again, too long, will cont. in another post.
Ian Anderson
Examples of such creatures are the Samodiva and the Hala. Samodiva (feminine form) can be roughly translated from modern Bulgarian and from proto Indo European as meaning "Wild One" and are usually presented as tall, blonde, and very beutiful human-like creatures who live in the forests, wear white gowns, and are usually either performing an ellaborate circular dance that mesmerizes the observer, or as riding on the backs of raindeer. They often help hero protagonists in legends who are wounded or lost in the wild. Very close to what elves are in Germanic traditions or nymphs in Greek.
The Hala is a serpent-like creature that is believed by farmers to bring hale storms. It is possible that in ancient proto Indo European it shared an origin with the english word for "Hale". It is prominently featured in the story "The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple"
spellbinders.org
Depictions of Centaurs and Satyrs can be seen on old goblets and chalices, predating Hellenic civilization.
Wolf cults existed in the north among the Getic tribes and later the Dacians, the warriors of which were rumored to be able to transform into the very beasts they emulated.
The Thracians were for a time under the influence of the Persians and remained in contact with other Iranic peoples like the Scythians, and so imagery depicting Gryphons and other creatures from those mythologies can also be observed.
Rhesus's horses were described in Homer's Illiad as being exceptionally majestic.
Orpheus, the prophetic musician was named as a Thracian, the cave which he used to enter Hades "the Devil's Throat cave" is open to tourists in Bulgaria.
The Thracians interacted with many peoples so it isn't really a simple task to decipher which of their images depict their own mythology. It is however useful to note that much of South Slavic, Albanian, and Romanian folk lore is derived from that of the ancient inhabitants of those lands.
Alexander Nelson
>thracians
>falxes
Boi
Jose Baker
Yes,thracians fielded decent skirmishers and cavalry,but overall they had shit armies .
Liam Roberts
The Thracian Horseman , also known as Danubian Horseman is widely known to the north of Danube,where the Getae lived, who were not technically thracian.
You correctly said Indo-European, and I respect that.
Xavier Butler
Falx is simply the Roman word for the Rhomphaia.
>Inb4 but one is slightly straighter
Yes, the northern counterparts were more curved, at least by the time they came to interact with the Romans. It's still the same weapon.
Jaxon Martinez
They are completely different. The falx was 60%handle, and the blade was curved.
Wyatt Johnson
Pic related
Charles Evans
Where are you getting this from?
The Cult of the Thracian horseman was especially important in Philippi, where the Heros had the epithets of soter (saviour) and epekoos "answerer of prayers". Funerary stelae depicting the horseman belong to the middle or lower classes (while the upper classes preferred the depiction of banquet scene.)
Richard S. Ascough, Paul's Macedonian Associations: The Social Context of Philippians and 1 Thessalonians (2003), p. 159.
From what I understand the Thracian horseman is more of a Sub-Danubian thing, his worship being prevelant in Macedonia, Thrace, and Moesia. Under the Roman Emperor Gordian III the god on horseback appears on coins minted at Tlos, in neighboring Lycia, and at Istrus, in the province of Lower Moesia, between Thrace and the Danube.
Though seeing how the people living below and above the Danube were the same people, yes the Getae also did worship him, as it is from their inscriptions that we have his name.
Nubar Hampartumian, Moesia Inferior (Romanian Section) and Dacia, Volume 74, Part 4 (1979), [1]
For the claim that Getae weren't Thracians, what? Where does this come from? They spoke a thracian language and have always been referred to historians and by the ancients as such.
According to Herodotus, the Getae were "the noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes"
Herodotus. Histories, 4.93.
Now if you were referring to the Dacian kingdom, which was created by them, you will have more of a claim as they also incorporated Scythians and some Germanic tribes from the Carpatians.
Gabriel Sullivan
Rhomphaias did not have a set shape other than a curved, single edged blade. Even among the same tribe they could vary in blade length, handle size, and curvature. I already sort of addressed this in myoriginal post, saying that the northern folk simply adapted it for a cutting specific use. Either that or the southern tribes adapted it to be more pointy and be able to stab, since they mostly fought against shield and spear wielding Greek hoplites.
Bentley Nelson
This thread is now Thracians general.
Logan Brown
The people living north and south of the mouth of the Danube WERE the Getae, and they are clearly different from the rest of the thracians. They had a different pantheon, and Sabazios was a minor god compared to Gebeleizis and Zalmoxis.Also, I've never heard of getic peltasts. Meanwhile they were renowned horsemen and archers. Read Ovids poems from the Black Sea.
Leo Gomez
The falx and sica were used to slash AND pierce the heavy armour.After the first Dacian War the romans reinforced their armours because a lot of the soldiers lost limbs and got beheaded
Easton King
They used the tip to pierce the helmet, but thracians never had to do that, because they submitted to roman control the second the romams arrived.
Parker Lewis
Some Thracian weapons and Armour. Those are actual finds and not repros
Hudson Edwards
...
Carter Gray
Chalcidean helm and iron scale armor belonging to some Thracian warrior.
Carson Green
These are dysplayed in the Plovdiv museum of Archeology, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
City was established by Thracians under the name of Pulpedeva. "Deva" is a common ending in Thrace for names of settlements, and a similar form "dava" can be observed in the Getae and later Dacian cities). This possibly means that the word Deva/Dava meant something akin to "city" "town". One more piece of evidence that these tribes are one people.
Samuel Johnson
Netindava nigga here. Feels absolutely furious because they built the city on top of the getic fortress, and they cant dig up anything without fucking up the city.
Jayden Garcia
I'm gonna let y'all in on a secret. The so called Thracian horseman and the cult surrounding it appeared after the Roman conquest of the Thracian lands. And nobody really knows what it means.
The city as an urban centre was established by Philip II. And mentioning linguistics when talking about the Thracian is laughable. The studies that have been done in Bulgaria on the language of the Thracians are all mental gymnastics.
Jordan Allen
Fucking this. Bulgars are steppe niggers who WE WUZ about their thracian heritage,even though the thracians dissapeared 500 years before the bulgars even arrived in Europe.
Tyler Scott
Bulgarians are not wewuzzing about being Thracians. You've got it mixed up with another Balkan state.
Alexander Murphy
Bulgarians are literally turkic niggers that got slavicized.
John Parker
And let me ask you this mister Dacian, what on the God's green Earth are you? A Latin, a Roman, a Thracian or Aromanian? Or perhaps you hail from the glorious planet of Naboo
Luke Reyes
Literally the same mutt as you ,faggot.We can't claim dacian/thracian/roman heritage after the entire Asia and Europe passed through our lands.
Brayden Parker
Romanians are gypsies. Bulgarians are Thracians. You should be grateful we were kind enough to give you some of that Thracian blood when we fucked your women. Faggot.
Colton Reed
The Bulgars were Scythians who were few in numbers and were assimilated into the balkan populations, and slso not the subject of this thread. No one is claiming pure Thracian heritage. There aren't nearly enough redheads on the Balkans. We only claim cultural and partial genetic ancestry, completely within reason.
Also, if you are going to mention studies, have the intellectual integrity to link to them.
Sebastian Thompson
One day, hopefully.
Evan Walker
Good posts. Thanks user.
Chase Flores
Said the turkic bulgar who got turked for 700 years serving as cumrag to the ottoman soldiers.
Anthony Foster
Bulgarians don't we wuz as thracians
So what's your point, gypsy?
Kayden Hill
You are a subhuman