Septemvri ( Bulgarian : Септември , pronounced [sɛpˈtɛmvri] , lit. ' September ' ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province , Southern Bulgaria , located at the western end of the Upper Thracian Lowland , 19 km (12 mi) away to the west from the city of Pazardzhik . It is the administrative centre of homonymous Septemvri Municipality . As of December 2009, the town had a population of 8,422.
173-534: Four Thracian mounds and traces of two ancient cities - Greek Pistiros and a Roman town that lies on Trayan's Drum were discovered near the town. It has succeeded as an old Bulgarian settlement, which was destroyed in the late 14th century during the Ottoman onslaught. The town was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century under the Turkish name of Sara Khan bey , after the liberation from Ottoman occupation in
346-606: A Greek cultural and political center in the Mediterranean region along with Ptolemaic Egypt , the Seleucid Empire , and the Attalid kingdom . Important cities such as Pella , Pydna , and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander (named after his wife Thessalonike of Macedon ). Macedonia's decline began with
519-636: A Hellenic league in the same vein as Philip II's League of Corinth, he managed to defeat Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. Sparta was occupied by a foreign power for the first time in its history, restoring Macedonia's position as the leading power in Greece. Antigonus died a year later, perhaps from tuberculosis , leaving behind a strong Hellenistic kingdom for his successor Philip V. Philip V of Macedon ( r. 221–179 BC ) faced immediate challenges to his authority by
692-733: A Thracian warrior from the Maedi tribe who was enslaved as a gladiator by the Romans, led a revolt that posed a significant challenge to Roman authority, prompting a series of military campaigns against it. The aftermath of the rebellion saw the crucifixion of 6,000 surviving rebels along the Appian Way . Thracians were described as " warlike " and " barbarians " by the Greeks and Romans since they were neither Romans nor Greeks but in spite of that they were favored as excellent mercenaries. While
865-476: A Thracian woman. The ethnicity of a slave was a significant criterion for major purchasers: Ancient practice was to avoid a concentration of too many slaves of the same ethnic origin in the same place, in order to limit the risk of revolt . During the Macedonian Wars , conflict between Rome and Thrace was unavoidable. The rulers of Macedonia were weak, and Thracian tribal authority resurged. But after
1038-547: A brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him. Thus, two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431 BC. The Macedonian king retaliated by promoting the rebellion of Athens' allies in Chalcidice and subsequently won over the strategic city of Potidaea . After capturing the Macedonian cities Therma and Beroea , Athens besieged Potidaea but failed to overcome it; Therma
1211-595: A campaign in Magna Graecia (i.e. southern Italy ) against the Roman Republic known as the Pyrrhic War , followed by his invasion of Sicily . Ptolemy Keraunos secured his position on the Macedonian throne by giving Pyrrhus five thousand soldiers and twenty war elephants for this endeavor. Pyrrhus returned to Epirus in 275 BC after the ultimate failure of both campaigns, which contributed to
1384-576: A coalition against Perdiccas in a civil war initiated by Ptolemy's seizure of the hearse of Alexander the Great . Perdiccas was assassinated in 321 BC by his own officers during a failed campaign in Egypt against Ptolemy, where his march along the Nile River resulted in the drowning of 2,000 of his men. Although Eumenes of Cardia managed to kill Craterus in battle, this had little to no effect on
1557-572: A hat with red hair, which classicists believe was Thracian in origin. Other ancient writers who described the hair of the Thracians as red include Hecataeus of Miletus , Galen , Clement of Alexandria , and Julius Firmicus Maternus . Nevertheless, academic studies have concluded that people often had different physical features from those described by primary sources. Ancient authors described as red-haired several groups of people. They claimed that all Slavs had red hair , and likewise described
1730-683: A large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy (i.e. province) of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army . Alexander I provided Macedonian military support to Xerxes I ( r. 486–465 BC ) during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, and Macedonian soldiers fought on the side of the Persians at the 479 BC Battle of Platea . Following
1903-587: A mixture of indigenous peoples and Indo-Europeans from the time of Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early Bronze Age when the latter, around 1500 BC, mixed with indigenous peoples. According to one theory, their ancestors migrated in three waves from the northeast: the first in the Late Neolithic , forcing out the Pelasgians and Achaeans , the second in the Early Bronze Age , and
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#17327873629192076-596: A mythological Thracian king, was so named because of his red hair and is depicted on Greek pottery as having red hair and a red beard. Ancient Greek writers also described the Thracians as red-haired. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired: ...Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair. Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing
2249-525: A new regent (since Philip III was considered mentally unstable), in effect bypassing the council of the army as well. Forming an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Lysimachus , Cassander had his officer Nicanor capture the Munichia fortress of Athens' port town Piraeus in defiance of Polyperchon's decree that Greek cities should be free of Macedonian garrisons, sparking the Second War of
2422-625: A possible second wife Gygaea: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus . Philip II had Archelaus put to death in 359 BC, while Philip II's other two half brothers fled to Olynthos, serving as a casus belli for the Olynthian War (349–348 BC) against the Chalcidian League. While Athens was preoccupied with the Social War (357–355 BC) , Philip II retook Amphipolis from them in 357 BC and
2595-561: A pro-Athenian democracy , the Athenian navy was able to form a blockade against Macedonian seaports and invade Chalcidice in 417 BC. Perdiccas II sued for peace in 414 BC, forming an alliance with Athens that was continued by his son and successor Archelaus I ( r. 413–399 BC ). Athens then provided naval support to Archelaus I in the 410 BC Macedonian siege of Pydna , in exchange for timber and naval equipment. Although Archelaus I
2768-671: A resurgent Rome should seek revenge against either Macedonia or Carthage. Although the Macedonians were perhaps only interested in safeguarding their newly conquered territories in Illyria, the Romans were nevertheless able to thwart whatever grand ambitions Philip V had for the Adriatic region during the First Macedonian War (214–205 BC). In 214 BC, Rome positioned a naval fleet at Oricus , which
2941-565: A revolt against Macedonian authority known as the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC). By 265 BC, Athens was surrounded and besieged by Antigonus II's forces, and a Ptolemaic fleet was defeated in the Battle of Cos . Athens finally surrendered in 261 BC. After Macedonia formed an alliance with the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II , a peace settlement between Antigonus II and Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt
3114-645: A shortage of provisions in winter. In 424 BC, Arrhabaeus , a local ruler of Lynkestis in Upper Macedonia, rebelled against his overlord Perdiccas, and the Spartans agreed to help in putting down the revolt. At the Battle of Lyncestis the Macedonians panicked and fled before the fighting began, enraging the Spartan general Brasidas , whose soldiers looted the unattended Macedonian baggage train . Perdiccas then changed sides and supported Athens, and he
3287-710: A staged banquet of reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians. Alexander perhaps undercut his own rule by demonstrating signs of megalomania . While utilizing effective propaganda such as the cutting of the Gordian Knot , he also attempted to portray himself as a living god and son of Zeus following his visit to the oracle at Siwah in the Libyan Desert (in modern-day Egypt) in 331 BC. His attempt in 327 BC to have his men prostrate before him in Bactra in an act of proskynesis borrowed from
3460-534: A subculture of celibate ascetics called the " ctistae " lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests and prophets. They were held in a place of honor by the Thracians, with their lives being dedicated to the gods. During this period, contacts between the Thracians and Classical Greece intensified. After the Persians withdrew from Europe and before the expansion of the Kingdom of Macedon, Thrace
3633-533: A warlike nation, grouping them with Celts , Persians , Scythians , Iberians and Carthaginians . Polybius wrote of Cotys's sober and gentle character being unlike that of most Thracians. Tacitus in his Annals writes of them being wild, savage and impatient, disobedient even to their own kings. The Thracians have been said to have "tattooed their bodies, obtained their wives by purchase, and often sold their children". The French historian Victor Duruy further notes that they "considered husbandry unworthy of
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#17327873629193806-462: A warrior, and knew no source of gain but war and theft". He also states that they practiced human sacrifice , which has been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Polyaenus and Strabo write how the Thracians broke their pacts of truce with trickery. Polyaneus testifies that the Thracians struck their weapons against each other before battle, "in the Thracian manner". Diegylis , leader of
3979-654: Is believed to refer to Macedonians . The three ethnicities (Saka, Macedonian, Thracian) enrolled in the Achaemenid army , as shown in the Imperial tomb reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam , and participated in the Second Persian invasion of Greece on the Achaemenid side. When Achaemenid control over its European possessions collapsed once the Ionian Revolt started, the Thracians did not help the Greek rebels, and they instead saw Achaemenid rule as more favourable because
4152-521: Is said to have participated in the Trojan War , which is believed to have taken place around 12th century BC. This population is referred to with the following name: "...And Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgi , that rage with the spear, even them that dwelt in deep-soiled Larisa ; these were led by Hippothous and Pylaeus, scion of Ares , sons twain of Pelasgian Lethus, son of Teutamus . But
4325-505: The tagus (supreme Thessalian military leader) Alexander of Pherae , capturing the city of Larissa . The Thessalians, desiring to remove both Alexander II and Alexander of Pherae as their overlords , appealed to Pelopidas of Thebes for aid; he succeeded in recapturing Larissa and, in the peace agreement arranged with Macedonia, received aristocratic hostages including Alexander II's brother and future king Philip II ( r. 359–336 BC ). When Alexander
4498-538: The Aegean Sea . He improved Macedonia's currency by minting coins with a higher silver content as well as issuing separate copper coinage . His royal court attracted the presence of well-known intellectuals such as the Athenian playwright Euripides . When Archelaus I was assassinated (perhaps following a homosexual love affair with royal pages at his court), the kingdom was plunged into chaos, in an era lasting from 399 to 393 BC that included
4671-655: The Arteskos river and then proceeded through the valley-route of the Hebros river. This was an act of conquest by Darius I, who sought to create a new satrapy in the Balkans, and had during his march sent emissaries to the Thracians found on the path of his army as well as to the many other Thracian tribes over a wide area. All these peoples of Thrace, including the Odrysae, submitted to the Achaemenid king until his army reached
4844-595: The Balkans , the Persian general Megabazus used diplomacy to convince Amyntas I to submit as a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire , ushering in the period of Achaemenid Macedonia . Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BC), yet the Persian general Mardonius brought it back under Achaemenid suzerainty . Although Macedonia enjoyed
5017-616: The Battle of Cynoscephalae . Rome then ratified a treaty that forced Macedonia to relinquish control of much of its Greek possessions outside of Macedonia proper, if only to act as a buffer against Illyrian and Thracian incursions into Greece. Although some Greeks suspected Roman intentions of supplanting Macedonia as the new hegemonic power in Greece, Flaminius announced at the Isthmian Games of 196 BC that Rome intended to preserve Greek liberty by leaving behind no garrisons and by not exacting tribute of any kind. His promise
5190-461: The Battle of Pydna in 168 BC, Roman authority over Macedonia seemed inevitable, and the governance of Thrace passed to Rome. Initially, Thracians and Macedonians revolted against Roman rule. For example, the revolt of Andriscus , in 149 BC, drew the bulk of its support from Thrace. Incursions by local tribes into Macedonia continued for many years, though a few tribes, such as the Deneletae and
5363-1115: The Bulgarian Communist Party renamed the town Septemvri, the new name literally meaning "September", in honour of the September Uprising of 1923. 42°13′N 24°06′E / 42.217°N 24.100°E / 42.217; 24.100 This Pazardzhik Province , Bulgaria location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Thracian The Thracians ( / ˈ θ r eɪ ʃ ən z / ; Ancient Greek : Θρᾷκες , romanized : Thrāikes ; Latin : Thraci ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history . Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria , Romania , North Macedonia and northern Greece , but also in north-western Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey . The exact origin of
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5536-577: The Cadmea , Alexander left the Illyrian front and marched to Thebes, which he placed under siege . After breaching the walls, Alexander's forces killed 6,000 Thebans, took 30,000 inhabitants as prisoners of war , and burned the city to the ground as a warning that convinced all other Greek states except Sparta not to challenge Alexander again. Throughout his military career, Alexander won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against
5709-731: The Caeni , was considered one of the most bloodthirsty chieftains by Diodorus Siculus . An Athenian club for lawless youths was named after the thracian tribe Triballi which might be the origin of the word tribe . According to ancient Roman sources, the Dii were responsible for the worst atrocities in the Peloponnesian War , killing every living thing, including children and dogs in Tanagra and Mycalessos . The Dii would impale Roman heads on their spears and rhomphaias such as in
5882-693: The Danube , forcing their surrender on Peuce Island . Shortly thereafter, the Illyrian chieftain Cleitus , son of Bardylis , threatened to attack Macedonia with the aid of Glaucias , king of the Taulantii , but Alexander took the initiative and besieged the Illyrians at Pelion (in modern Albania ). When Thebes had once again revolted from the League of Corinth and was besieging the Macedonian garrison in
6055-467: The Dardanian Kingdom , invaded Macedonia and defeated an army of Demetrius II shortly before his death in 229 BC. Although his young son Philip immediately inherited the throne, his regent Antigonus III Doson ( r. 229–221 BC ), nephew of Antigonus II, was proclaimed king by the army, with Philip as his heir, following a string of military victories against
6228-531: The Gallic ruler Bolgios and driving out the raiding party of Brennus , Sosthenes died and left a chaotic situation in Macedonia. The Gallic invaders ravaged Macedonia until Antigonus Gonatas , son of Demetrius, defeated them in Thrace at the 277 BC Battle of Lysimachia and was then proclaimed king Antigonus II of Macedon ( r. 277–274, 272–239 BC ). In 280 BC, Pyrrhus embarked on
6401-518: The Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BC, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to propose a peace treaty and alliance with Athens , an offer that was rejected. Soon afterwards, the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe , marking the end of Persian control over Macedonia. Although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies,
6574-837: The Hellenes "). At some point in the 7th century BC, a portion of the Thracian Treres tribe migrated across the Thracian Bosporus and invaded Anatolia . In 637 BC, the Treres under their king Kobos ( Ancient Greek : Κώβος Kṓbos ; Latin : Cobus ), in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians , attacked the kingdom of Lydia during the seventh year of the reign of the Lydian king Ardys . They defeated
6747-465: The Hellespont in anticipation of an invasion into Achaemenid Anatolia . In 342 BC, Philip II conquered a Thracian city in what is now Bulgaria and renamed it Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv ). War broke out with Athens in 340 BC while Philip II was engaged in two ultimately unsuccessful sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion , followed by a successful campaign against
6920-613: The Italian peninsula . In 216 BC, Philip V sent a hundred light warships into the Adriatic Sea to attack Illyria, a move that prompted Scerdilaidas of the Ardiaean Kingdom to appeal to the Romans for aid. Rome responded by sending ten heavy quinqueremes from Roman Sicily to patrol the Illyrian coasts, causing Philip V to reverse course and order his fleet to retreat, averting open conflict for
7093-589: The Kallinikos skirmish at 171 BC. Strabo treated the Thracians as barbarians, and held that they spoke the same language as the Getae . Some Roman authors noted that even after the introduction of Latin they still kept their "barbarous" ways. Herodotus writes that "the thracians sell their children and let their maidens commerce with whatever men they please". The accuracy and impartiality of these descriptions have been called into question in modern times, given
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7266-605: The King of Epirus and the Molossians . This marriage would bear a son who would later rule as Alexander III (better known as Alexander the Great ) and claim descent from the legendary Achilles by way of his dynastic heritage from Epirus . It is unclear whether or not the Achaemenid Persian kings influenced Philip II's practice of polygamy, although his predecessor Amyntas III had three sons with
7439-421: The Lydians and captured the capital city of Lydia, Sardis , except for its citadel, and Ardys might have been killed in this attack. Ardys's son and successor, Sadyattes , might possibly also have been killed in another Cimmerian attack on Lydia. Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval the Scythians under Madyes entered Anatolia. In alliance with Sadyattes's son, the Lydian king Alyattes , Madyes expelled
7612-578: The Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. At the end of the Third Macedonian War in 168 BC, the Macedonian monarchy was abolished and replaced by Roman client states . A short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Fourth Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia . The Macedonian kings, who wielded absolute power and commanded state resources such as gold and silver, facilitated mining operations to mint currency , finance their armies and, by
7785-437: The Moesi achieved significant importance during Roman rule. What's notable about the Moesians is that they practiced vegetarianism, feeding themselves on honey, milk, and cheese. Thracians were regarded by ancient Greeks and Romans as warlike, ferocious, bloodthirsty, and barbarian. Plato in his Republic groups them with the Scythians , calling them extravagant and high spirited; and in his Laws portrays them as
7958-595: The Pythian Games . Athens initially opposed his membership on the council and refused to attend the games in protest, but they eventually accepted these conditions, perhaps after some persuasion by Demosthenes in his oration On the Peace . Over the next few years, Philip II reformed local governments in Thessaly, campaigned against the Illyrian ruler Pleuratus I , deposed Arybbas in Epirus in favor of his brother-in-law Alexander I (through Philip II's marriage to Olympias), and defeated Cersebleptes in Thrace. This allowed him to extend Macedonian control over
8131-486: The Roman Republic negotiated the Treaty of Phoenice in 205 BC, ending the war and allowing the Macedonians to retain some captured settlements in Illyria. Although the Romans rejected an Aetolian request in 202 BC for Rome to declare war on Macedonia once again, the Roman Senate gave serious consideration to the similar offer made by Pergamon and its ally Rhodes in 201 BC. These states were concerned about Philip V's alliance with Antiochus III
8304-403: The Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus managed to expel Philip V from Macedonia in 198 BC, forcing his men to take refuge in Thessaly. When the Achaean League switched their loyalties from Macedonia to Rome, the Macedonian king sued for peace, but the terms offered were considered too stringent, and so the war continued. In June 197 BC, the Macedonians were defeated at
8477-418: The Scythians as red haired. According to Beth Cohen, Thracians had "the same dark hair and the same facial features as the Ancient Greeks ." However, Aris N. Poulianos states that Thracians, like modern Bulgarians , belonged mainly to the Aegean anthropological type. The earliest known mention of Thracians is in the second song of Homer's Iliad , where the population inhabiting the Thracian Chersonesus
8650-545: The Seleucid Empire , and Lysimachus ( r. 306–281 BC ), King of Thrace , defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight. Cassander died in 297 BC, and his sickly son Philip IV died the same year, succeeded by Cassander's other sons Alexander V of Macedon ( r. 297–294 BC ) and Antipater II of Macedon ( r. 297–294 BC ), with their mother Thessalonike of Macedon acting as regent. While Demetrius fought against
8823-442: The Strymon River near the Kingdom of Macedonia, where the colonial city of Amphipolis was founded in 437/436 BC so that it could provide Athens with a steady supply of silver and gold as well as timber and pitch to support the Athenian navy . Initially Perdiccas II did not take any action and might have even welcomed the Athenians, as the Thracians were foes to both of them. This changed due to an Athenian alliance with
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#17327873629198996-414: The Susa weddings in 324 BC. Meanwhile, in Greece, the Spartan king Agis III attempted to lead a rebellion of the Greeks against Macedonia. He was defeated in 331 BC at the Battle of Megalopolis by Antipater, who was serving as regent of Macedonia and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth in Alexander's stead. Before Antipater embarked on his campaign in the Peloponnese , Memnon,
9169-444: The Thracian Odrysian kingdom through conquest and diplomacy. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the sarissa pike, Philip II defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Philip II's son Alexander the Great , leading a federation of Greek states , accomplished his father's objective of commanding the whole of Greece when he destroyed Thebes after
9342-517: The comitia centuriata finally voted in approval of the Roman Senate's declaration of war in 200 BC and handed their ultimatum to Philip V, demanding that a tribunal assess the damages owed to Rhodes and Pergamon, the Macedonian king rejected it. This marked the beginning of the Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC), with Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus spearheading military operations in Apollonia. The Macedonians successfully defended their territory for roughly two years, but
9515-506: The commander-in-chief ( strategos autokrator ) of a forthcoming campaign to invade the Achaemenid Empire. Philip's plan to punish the Persians for the suffering of the Greeks and to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor as well as perhaps the panhellenic fear of another Persian invasion of Greece, contributed to his decision to invade the Achaemenid Empire. The Persians offered aid to Perinthus and Byzantion in 341–340 BC, highlighting Macedonia's strategic need to secure Thrace and
9688-496: The diadochi were declared kings of their respective territories. The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty , led first by Cassander ( r. 305–297 BC ), son of Antipater, and the Antigonid dynasty , led by the Macedonian general Antigonus I Monophthalmus ( r. 306–301 BC ) and his son, the future king Demetrius I ( r. 294–288 BC ). Cassander besieged Athens in 303 BC, but
9861-476: The legend that the Macedonian kings of the Argead dynasty were descendants of Temenus , king of Argos , and could therefore claim the mythical Heracles as one of their ancestors as well as a direct lineage from Zeus , chief god of the Greek pantheon . Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, with either five or eight kings before Amyntas I. The assertion that
10034-415: The region of Macedonia in modern Greece . It gradually expanded into the region of Upper Macedonia , inhabited by the Greek Lyncestae and Elimiotae tribes, and into regions of Emathia , Eordaia , Bottiaea , Mygdonia , Crestonia , and Almopia , which were inhabited by various peoples such as Thracians and Phrygians . Macedonia's non-Greek neighbors included Thracians, inhabiting territories to
10207-463: The rise of Rome because Greek cities in southern Italy such as Tarentum now became Roman allies. Pyrrhus invaded Macedonia in 274 BC, defeating the largely mercenary army of Antigonus II at the 274 BC Battle of Aous and driving him out of Macedonia, forcing him to seek refuge with his naval fleet in the Aegean. Pyrrhus lost much of his support among the Macedonians in 273 BC when his unruly Gallic mercenaries plundered
10380-489: The tyrannies installed in Greece were to be abolished and Greek freedom was to be restored. When Alexander the Great died at Babylon in 323 BC, his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction of poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official heir apparent , the Macedonian military command split, with one side proclaiming Alexander's half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus ( r. 323–317 BC ) as king and
10553-474: The war elephants of King Porus of the Pauravas threatened Alexander's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened mutiny in 324 BC at Opis , Babylonia (near modern Baghdad , Iraq ), Alexander offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness at
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#173278736291910726-413: The 1st century AD. It consisted mainly of present-day Bulgaria , spreading to parts of Southeastern Romania ( Northern Dobruja ), parts of Northern Greece and parts of modern-day European Turkey . By the 5th century BC, the Thracian population was large enough that Herodotus called them the second-most numerous people in the part of the world known by him (after the Indians ), and potentially
10899-434: The 4th century BC made the Odrysian kingdom extinct for several years. After the kingdom was reestablished, it was a vassal state of Macedon for several decades under generals such as Lysimachus of the Diadochi . In 336 BC, Alexander the Great began recruiting thracian cavalry and javelin men in his army, who accompnied him on his continuous conquest to expand the borders of the Macedonian Empire . The strength of
11072-443: The Aegean Sea against increasing Achaemenid encroachment, as the Persian king Artaxerxes III further consolidated his control over satrapies in western Anatolia . The latter region, yielding far more wealth and valuable resources than the Balkans, was also coveted by the Macedonian king for its sheer economic potential. When Philip II married Cleopatra Eurydice , niece of general Attalus , talk of providing new potential heirs at
11245-457: The Antipatrid forces in Greece, Antipater II killed his own mother to obtain power. His desperate brother Alexander V then requested aid from Pyrrhus of Epirus ( r. 297–272 BC ), who had fought alongside Demetrius at the Battle of Ipsus, but was sent to Egypt as a hostage as part of an agreement between Demetrius and Ptolemy I. In exchange for defeating the forces of Antipater II and forcing him to flee to
11418-444: The Argeads descended from Temenus was accepted by the Hellanodikai authorities of the Ancient Olympic Games , permitting Alexander I of Macedon ( r. 498–454 BC ) to enter the competitions owing to his perceived Greek heritage. Little is known about the kingdom before the reign of Alexander I's father Amyntas I of Macedon ( r. 547–498 BC ) during the Archaic period . The kingdom of Macedonia
11591-433: The Athenian and Spartan -led coalition of Greek city-states. His successor Perdiccas II ( r. 454–413 BC ) led the Macedonians to war in four separate conflicts against Athens, leader of the Delian League , while incursions by the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian kingdom threatened Macedonia's territorial integrity in the northeast. The Athenian statesman Pericles promoted colonization of
11764-448: The Bessi, willingly allied with Rome . After the Third Macedonian War , Thrace acknowledged Roman authority. The client state of Thracia comprised several tribes. Macedonia (ancient kingdom) Macedonia ( / ˌ m æ s ɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə / MASS -ih- DOH -nee-ə ; Greek : Μακεδονία , romanized : Makedonía ), also called Macedon ( / ˈ m æ s ɪ d ɒ n / MASS -ih-don ),
11937-419: The Black in 328 BC is described as "vengeful and reckless" by Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington. Continuing the polygamous habits of his father, Alexander encouraged his men to marry native women in Asia, leading by example when he wed Roxana , a Sogdian princess of Bactria. He then married Stateira II , eldest daughter of Darius III, and Parysatis II , youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III , at
12110-477: The Black Sea, and with the central Thracian plain , which gave this region an important strategic value. Persian sources describe the province as being populated by three groups: the Saka Paradraya ("Saka beyond the sea", the Persian term for all Scythian peoples to the north of the Caspian and Black Seas ); the Skudra themselves (most likely the Thracian tribes), and Yauna Takabara . The latter term, which translates as " Ionians with shield-like hats",
12283-442: The Chalcidice, and Amphipolis in return for the release of the enslaved Athenians as well as guarantees that Philip II would not attack Athenian settlements in the Thracian Chersonese . Meanwhile, Phocis and Thermopylae were captured by Macedonian forces, the Delphic temple robbers were executed, and Philip II was awarded the two Phocian seats on the Amphictyonic Council and the position of master of ceremonies over
12456-683: The Danube, he crossed the river and campaigned against the Scythians , after which he returned to Anatolia through Thrace and left a large army in Europe under the command of his general Megabazus . Following Darius I's orders to create a new satrapy for the Achaemenid Empire in the Balkans, Megabazus forced the Greek cities who had refused to submit to the Achaemenid Empire, starting with Perinthus , after which led military campaigns throughout Thrace to impose Achaemenid rule over every city and tribe in
12629-516: The Diadochi (319–315 BC). Given a string of military failures by Polyperchon, in 317 BC, Philip III, by way of his politically engaged wife Eurydice II of Macedon , officially replaced him as regent with Cassander. Afterwards, Polyperchon desperately sought the aid of Olympias in Epirus. A joint force of Epirotes, Aetolians, and Polyperchon's troops invaded Macedonia and forced
12802-614: The Great of the Seleucid Empire, which invaded the war-weary and financially exhausted Ptolemaic Empire in the Fifth Syrian War (202–195 BC) as Philip V captured Ptolemaic settlements in the Aegean Sea. Although Rome's envoys played a critical role in convincing Athens to join the anti-Macedonian alliance with Pergamon and Rhodes in 200 BC, the comitia centuriata (people's assembly) rejected
12975-582: The Greeks. In Greek mythology , Thrax (his name simply the quintessential Thracian) was regarded as one of the reputed sons of the god Ares . In the Alcestis , Euripides mentions that one of the names of Ares himself was "Thrax". Since Ares was regarded as the patron of Thrace his golden or gilded shield was kept in his temple at Bistonia in Thrace . The origins of the Thracians remain obscure due to
13148-521: The Hellespont with a large fleet and army, re-subjugated Thrace without any effort and made Macedonia full part of the satrapy of Skudra . Mardonius was however attacked at night by the Bryges in the area of Lake Doiran and modern-day Valandovo , but he was able to defeat and submit them as well. Herodotus's list of tribes who provided the Achaemenid army with soldiers included Thracians from both
13321-720: The Illyrian Dardani and Aetolian League. Philip V and his allies were successful against the Aetolians and their allies in the Social War (220–217 BC) , yet he made peace with the Aetolians once he heard of incursions by the Dardani in the north and the Carthaginian victory over the Romans at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC. Demetrius of Pharos is alleged to have convinced Philip V to first secure Illyria in advance of an invasion of
13494-647: The Illyrians in the north and the Aetolians in Thessaly. Aratus sent an embassy to Antigonus III in 226 BC seeking an unexpected alliance now that the reformist king Cleomenes III of Sparta was threatening the rest of Greece in the Cleomenean War (229–222 BC). In exchange for military aid, Antigonus III demanded the return of Corinth to Macedonian control, which Aratus finally agreed to in 225 BC. In 224 BC, Antigonus III's forces took Arcadia from Sparta. After forming
13667-460: The Macedonian throne. Amyntas III was forced to flee his kingdom in either 393 or 383 BC (based on conflicting accounts), owing to a massive invasion by the Illyrians led by Bardylis . The pretender to the throne Argaeus ruled in his absence, yet Amyntas III eventually returned to his kingdom with the aid of Thessalian allies. Amyntas III was also nearly overthrown by
13840-514: The Macedonians. Demetrius II also lost an ally in Epirus when the monarchy was toppled in a republican revolution . Demetrius II enlisted the aid of the Illyrian king Agron to defend Acarnania against Aetolia, and in 229 BC, they managed to defeat the combined navies of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues at the Battle of Paxos . Another Illyrian ruler, Longarus of
14013-605: The Odrysian kingdom lost independence to Macedon , becoming incorporated into the empire, but it regained independence following Alexander the Great 's death. The Thracians faced conquest by the Romans in the mid 2nd century BC under whom they faced internal strife. They composed major parts of rebellions against the Romans along with the Macedonians until the Third Macedonian War . Beginning in 73 BC, Spartacus ,
14186-423: The Persian kings was rejected as religious blasphemy by his Macedonian and Greek subjects after his court historian Callisthenes refused to perform this ritual. When Alexander had Parmenion murdered at Ecbatana (near modern Hamadan , Iran ) in 330 BC, this was "symptomatic of the growing gulf between the king's interests and those of his country and people", according to Errington. His murder of Cleitus
14359-531: The Persians in Asia Minor at the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC used a small cavalry contingent as a distraction to allow his infantry to cross the river followed by a cavalry charge from his companion cavalry . Alexander led the cavalry charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, forcing the Persian king Darius III and his army to flee. Darius III, despite having superior numbers,
14532-539: The Roman Senate decided in 184/183 BC to force Philip V to abandon Aenus and Maronea , since these had been declared free cities in the Treaty of Apamea. This assuaged the fear of Eumenes II that Macedonia could pose a threat to his lands in the Hellespont. Perseus of Macedon ( r. 179–168 BC ) succeeded Philip V and executed his brother Demetrius , who had been favored by
14705-415: The Roman Senate's proposal for a declaration of war on Macedonia. Meanwhile, Philip V conquered territories in the Hellespont and Bosporus as well as Ptolemaic Samos , which led Rhodes to form an alliance with Pergamon , Byzantium , Cyzicus , and Chios against Macedonia. Despite Philip V's nominal alliance with the Seleucid king, he lost the naval Battle of Chios in 201 BC and
14878-555: The Romans but was charged by Perseus with high treason . Perseus then attempted to form marriage alliances with Prusias II of Bithynia and Seleucus IV Philopator of the Seleucid Empire, along with renewed relations with Rhodes that greatly unsettled Eumenes II. Although Eumenes II attempted to undermine these diplomatic relationships, Perseus fostered an alliance with the Boeotian League , extended his authority into Illyria and Thrace , and in 174 BC, won
15051-633: The Scythians along the Danube and Macedonia's involvement in the Fourth Sacred War against Amphissa in 339 BC. Thebes ejected a Macedonian garrison from Nicaea (near Thermopylae) , leading Thebes to join Athens, Megara , Corinth, Achaea , and Euboea in a final confrontation against Macedonia at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. After the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea, Philip II installed an oligarchy in Thebes, yet
15224-765: The Seleucids in the 191 BC Battle of Thermopylae as well as the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, forcing the Seleucids to pay a war indemnity , dismantle most of its navy, and abandon its claims to any territories north or west of the Taurus Mountains in the 188 BC Treaty of Apamea . With Rome's acceptance, Philip V was able to capture some cities in central Greece in 191–189 BC that had been allied to Antiochus III, while Rhodes and Eumenes II ( r. 197–159 BC ) of Pergamon gained territories in Asia Minor. Failing to please all sides in various territorial disputes,
15397-525: The Seleucids by divorcing Stratonice of Macedon . Although the Aetolians formed an alliance with the Achaean League as a result, Demetrius II was able to invade Boeotia and capture it from the Aetolians by 236 BC. The Achaean League managed to capture Megalopolis in 235 BC, and by the end of Demetrius II's reign most of the Peloponnese except Argos was taken from
15570-646: The Thracians Acamas led and Peirous , the warrior, even all them that the strong stream of the Hellespont encloseth." The first Greek colonies along the Thracian coasts (first the Aegean , then the Marmara and Black Seas ) were founded in the 8th century BC. Thracians and Greeks lived side-by-side. Ancient sources record a Thracian presence on the Aegean islands and in Hellas (the broader "land of
15743-519: The Thracians are described as allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War against the Ancient Greeks. The ethnonym Thracian comes from Ancient Greek Θρᾷξ ( Thrāix ; plural Θρᾷκες, Thrāikes ) or Θρᾴκιος ( Thrāikios ; Ionic : Θρηίκιος, Thrēikios ), and the toponym Thrace comes from Θρᾴκη ( Thrāikē ; Ionic: Θρῄκη, Thrēikē ). These forms are all exonyms as applied by
15916-512: The Thracians co-operating with the Persians by sending supplies and military reinforcements down the Hebrus river route, Achaemenid authority in central Thrace lasted until around 465 BC, and the governor Mascames managed to resist many Greek attacks in Doriscus until then. Around this time, Teres I , the king of the Odrysae tribe, in whose territory the Hebrus flowed, was starting to organise
16089-474: The Thracians is uncertain, but it is believed that Thracians like other Indo-European speaking groups in Europe descended from a mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers . Around the 5th millennium BC, the inhabitants of the eastern region of the Balkans became organized in different groups of indigenous people that were later named by the ancient Greeks under the single ethnonym of "Thracians". The Thracian culture emerged during
16262-487: The Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by the Romans and Greeks, their culture was reportedly noted for its sophisticated poetry and music . Since the 19th century-early 20th century, Bulgaria and Romania have used Archaeology to learn more about Thracian culture and way of life. Thracians followed a polytheistic religion with monotheistic elements. One of their customs was tattooing , common among both men and women. The Thracians culturally interacted with
16435-571: The Thracians were uncivilized and remained largely disunited, until the establishment of their first permanent state the Odrysian kingdom in the 5th century BC. The Thracian kingdom faced subjugation by the Achaemenid Empire around the same time. After the Persians were defeated by the Greeks in the Persian Wars , the Thracians experienced a short period of peace. In the late 4th century BC
16608-475: The Thracians—was known as Perki (Περκη) and Aria (Αρια) before being named Thrace by the Greeks, presumably due to the affiliation of the Thracians with the god Ares and Perki is the reflexive name of the god Ares as *Perkʷūnos. Thucydides mentions about a period in the past, from his point of view, when Thracians had inhabited the region of Phocis , also known as the location of Delphi . He dates it to
16781-685: The Treres from Asia Minor and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC. In the 6th century BC the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered Thrace, starting in 513 BC, when the Achaemenid king Darius I amassed an army and marched from Achaemenid-ruled Anatolia into Thrace, and from there he crossed
16954-528: The Upper Macedonian aristocracy as well as the Illyrian princess Audata to ensure a marriage alliance. To establish an alliance with Larissa in Thessaly, he married the Thessalian noblewoman Philinna in 358 BC, who bore him a son who would later rule as Philip III Arrhidaeus ( r. 323–317 BC ). In 357 BC, he married Olympias to secure an alliance with Arybbas ,
17127-412: The absence of written historical records before they made contact with the Greeks . Evidence of proto-Thracians in the prehistoric period depends on artifacts of material culture . Leo Klejn identifies proto-Thracians with the multi-cordoned ware culture that was pushed away from Ukraine by the advancing timber grave culture or Srubnaya. It is generally proposed that a Thracian people developed from
17300-506: The ancient provinces of Thrace , Moesia , Macedonia , Beotia , Attica , Dacia , Scythia Minor , Sarmatia , Bithynia , Mysia , Pannonia , and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia . This area extended over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug and including Pannonia in the west. According to Ethnica , a geographical dictionary by Stephanus of Byzantium , Thrace —the land of
17473-583: The area. With the help of Thracian guides, Megabazus was able to conquer Paeonia up to but not including the area of Lake Prasias, and he gave the lands of the Paeonians inhabiting these regions up to the Lake Prasias to Thracians loyal to the Achaemenid Empire. The last endeavours of Megabazus included his the conquest of the area between the Strymon and Axius rivers, and at the end of his campaign,
17646-530: The beginning of the 20th century the name was changed to "Saranyovo",which later became Septemvri following the communist party's accend to power Septemvri developed into a typical railway town following the construction of the Haskovo – Belovo railway line in 1873. The scenic Septemvri-Dobrinishte narrow gauge line to the Rhodopi mountain town of Dobrinishte over Bansko was constructed in 1945. In 1949
17819-603: The behest of Larissa ended in two disastrous defeats by the Phocian general Onomarchus . Philip II in turn defeated Onomarchus in 352 BC at the Battle of Crocus Field , which led to Philip II's election as leader ( archon ) of the Thessalian League, provided him a seat on the Amphictyonic Council, and allowed for a marriage alliance with Pherae by wedding Nicesipolis , niece of
17992-802: The city and treated the inhabitants cordially, unlike the Potidaeans, who had been enslaved. Philip II then involved Macedonia in the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC). It began when Phocis captured and plundered the temple of Apollo at Delphi instead of submitting unpaid fines, causing the Amphictyonic League to declare war on Phocis and a civil war among the members of the Thessalian League aligned with either Phocis or Thebes. Philip II's initial campaign against Pherae in Thessaly in 353 BC at
18165-476: The city revolted. During Alexander's subsequent campaign of conquest , he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered territory that stretched as far as the Indus River . For a brief period, his Macedonian Empire was the most powerful in the world – the definitive Hellenistic state, inaugurating the transition to a new period of Ancient Greek civilization . Greek arts and literature flourished in
18338-556: The coast and from the central Thracian plain, attesting that Mardonius's campaign had reconquered all the Thracian areas which were under Achaemenid rule before the Ionian Revolt. When the Greeks defeated a second invasion attempt by the Persian Empire in 479 BC, they started attacking the satrapy of Skudra , which was resisted by both the Thracians and the Persian forces. The Thracians kept on sending supplies to
18511-541: The court of Lysimachus in Thrace, Pyrrhus was awarded the westernmost portions of the Macedonian kingdom. Demetrius had his nephew Alexander V assassinated and was then proclaimed king of Macedonia, but his subjects protested against his aloof, Eastern-style autocracy . War broke out between Pyrrhus and Demetrius in 290 BC when Lanassa, wife of Pyrrhus , daughter of Agathocles of Syracuse , left him for Demetrius and offered him her dowry of Corcyra . The war dragged on until 288 BC, when Demetrius lost
18684-457: The early Bronze Age , which began about 3500 BC. From it also developed the Getae , the Dacians and other regional groups of tribes. Historical and archaeological records indicate that the Thracian culture flourished in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. Writing in the 6th century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired". According to Greek and Roman historians,
18857-405: The end of the 3rd century BC. From Thrace, three Celtic tribes advanced into Anatolia and established the kingdom of Galatia . In western parts of Moesia , Celts ( Scordisci ) and Thracians lived alongside each other, as evident from the archaeological findings of pits and treasures, spanning from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century BC. Slave raids were a specific form of banditry that
19030-553: The extent to which his ideas were influenced by his adolescent years of captivity in Thebes as a political hostage during the Theban hegemony , especially after meeting with the general Epaminondas . The Macedonians, like the other Greeks, traditionally practiced monogamy , but Philip II practiced polygamy and married seven wives with perhaps only one that did not involve the loyalty of his aristocratic subjects or new allies. His first marriages were to Phila of Elimeia of
19203-469: The following year recaptured Pydna and Potidaea, the latter of which he handed over to the Chalcidian League as promised in a treaty. In 356 BC, he took Crenides , refounding it as Philippi , while his general Parmenion defeated the Illyrian king Grabos II of the Grabaei . During the 355–354 BC siege of Methone, Philip II lost his right eye to an arrow wound, but managed to capture
19376-462: The forces of the Chalcidian city of Olynthos , but with the aid of Teleutias , brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II , the Macedonians forced Olynthos to surrender and dissolve their Chalcidian League in 379 BC. Alexander II ( r. 370–368 BC ), son of Eurydice I and Amyntas III, succeeded his father and immediately invaded Thessaly to wage war against
19549-617: The formation of the Achaean League in 251 BC pushed Macedonian forces out of much of the Peloponnese and at times incorporated Athens and Sparta. While the Seleucid Empire aligned with Antigonid Macedonia against Ptolemaic Egypt during the Syrian Wars , the Ptolemaic navy heavily disrupted Antigonus II's efforts to control mainland Greece. With the aid of the Ptolemaic navy, the Athenian statesman Chremonides led
19722-413: The governor of Eion when the Greeks besieged it. When the city fell to the Greeks in 475 BC, Cimon gave its land to Athens for colonisation. Although Athens was now in control of the Aegean Sea and the Hellespont following the defeat of the Persian invasion, the Persians were still able to control the southern coast of Thrace from a base in central Thrace and with the support of the Thracians. Thanks to
19895-484: The governor of Thrace, was dissuaded from rebellion by use of diplomacy. Antipater deferred the punishment of Sparta to the League of Corinth headed by Alexander, who ultimately pardoned the Spartans on the condition that they submit fifty nobles as hostages. Antipater's hegemony was somewhat unpopular in Greece due to his practice (perhaps by order of Alexander) of exiling malcontents and garrisoning cities with Macedonian troops, yet in 330 BC, Alexander declared that
20068-572: The induction of Corinth into the Achaean League. Antigonus II made peace with the Achaean League in 240 BC, ceding the territories that he had lost in Greece. Antigonus II died in 239 BC and was succeeded by his son Demetrius II of Macedon ( r. 239–229 BC ). Seeking an alliance with Macedonia to defend against the Aetolians, the queen mother and regent of Epirus, Olympias II , offered her daughter Phthia of Macedon to Demetrius II in marriage. Demetrius II accepted her proposal, but he damaged relations with
20241-484: The institution of the army, while a few municipalities within the Macedonian commonwealth enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and even had democratic governments with popular assemblies . The name Macedonia ( Greek : Μακεδονία , Makedonía ) comes from the ethnonym Μακεδόνες ( Makedónes ), which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός ( makednós ), meaning "tall, slim", also
20414-541: The king of Macedonia , Amyntas I , accepted to become a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire. Within the satrapy itself, the Achaemenid king Darius granted to the tyrant Histiaeus of Miletus the district of Myrcinus on the Strymon's east bank until Megabazus persuaded him to recall Histiaeus after he returned to Asia Minor, after which the Thracian tribe of the Edoni retook control of Myrcinus. The new satrapy, once created,
20587-458: The lands around the northeastern Mediterranean . Although these historians characterized the Thracians as "primitive" partly because they lived in simple, open villages, the Thracians in fact had a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music. Their soldiers were valued as mercenaries, particularly by the Macedonians and Romans . Thracians inhabited parts of
20760-462: The latter had treated the Thracians with favour and even given them more land, and also because they realised that Achaemenid rule was a bulwark against Greek expansion and Scythian attacks. During the revolt, Aristagoras of Miletus captured Myrcinus from the Edones and died trying to attack another Thracian city. Once the Ionian Revolt had been fully quelled, the Achaemenid general Mardonius crossed
20933-488: The lifetime of Tereus – mythological Thracian king and son of the god Ares . Due to the lack of historical records that predate Classical Greece it's presumed that the Thracians did not manage to form a lasting political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the 5th century BC. In the 1st century BC, during King Burebista 's rule, emerged the powerful state of Dacia . Currently, there are about 200 identified Thracian tribes . The most prominent tribe,
21106-414: The most powerful, if not for their lack of unity. The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, the most important being the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, and also the short lived Dacian kingdom of Burebista . The peltast is a type of soldier of this period that originated in Thrace. At this time,
21279-751: The name of a people related to the Dorians ( Herodotus ), and possibly descriptive of Ancient Macedonians . It is most likely cognate with the adjective μακρός ( makrós ), meaning "long" or "tall" in Ancient Greek . The name is believed to have originally meant either "highlanders", "the tall ones", or "high grown men". Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes claims that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology, however Filip De Decker rejects Beekesʼ arguments as insufficient. The Classical Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides reported
21452-420: The new conquered lands and advances in philosophy , engineering , and science spread across the empire and beyond. Of particular importance were the contributions of Aristotle , tutor to Alexander, whose writings became a keystone of Western philosophy . After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the ensuing wars of the Diadochi , and the partitioning of Alexander's short-lived empire, Macedonia remained
21625-461: The northeast, Illyrians to the northwest, and Paeonians to the north, while the lands of Thessaly to the south and Epirus to the west were inhabited by Greeks with similar cultures to that of the Macedonians. A year after Darius I of Persia ( r. 522–486 BC ) launched an invasion into Europe against the Scythians , Paeonians , Thracians , and several Greek city-states of
21798-608: The other siding with the infant son of Alexander and Roxana, Alexander IV ( r. 323–309 BC ). Except for the Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the Lamian War (323–322 BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323 BC Battle of Thermopylae , he fled to Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander Leosthenes . A Macedonian army led by Leonnatus rescued Antipater by lifting
21971-458: The outcome of the 321 BC Partition of Triparadisus in Syria where the victorious coalition settled the issue of a new regency and territorial rights. Antipater was appointed as regent over the two kings. Before Antipater died in 319 BC, he named the staunch Argead loyalist Polyperchon as his successor, passing over his own son Cassander and ignoring the right of the king to choose
22144-454: The peoples surrounding them – Greeks , Persians , Scythians and Celts Thracians spoke the now extinct Thracian language and shared a common culture. The last reported use of a Thracian language was by monks in the 6th century AD. The scientific study of the Thracians is known as Thracology . The first historical record of the ethnonym Thracian is found in the Iliad , where
22317-467: The possible role of Alexander III "the Great" and his mother Olympias in the assassination of Philip II, noting the latter's choice to exclude Alexander from his planned invasion of Asia, choosing instead for him to act as regent of Greece and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth, and the potential bearing of another male heir between Philip II and his new wife, Cleopatra Eurydice. Alexander III ( r. 336–323 BC )
22490-540: The property of the mutilators of the Hermai mentions 32 slaves whose origins have been ascertained: 13 came from Thrace , 7 from Caria , and the others came from Cappadocia , Scythia , Phrygia , Lydia , Syria , Ilyria , Macedon , and Peloponnese . The names given to slaves in the comedies often had a geographical link, thus Thratta, used by Aristophanes in The Wasps , The Acharnians , and Peace , simply meant
22663-466: The reign of Philip II, a Macedonian navy. Unlike the other diadochi successor states , the imperial cult fostered by Alexander was never adopted in Macedonia, yet Macedonian rulers nevertheless assumed roles as high priests of the kingdom and leading patrons of domestic and international cults of the Hellenistic religion . The authority of Macedonian kings was theoretically limited by
22836-475: The reign of four different monarchs: Orestes , son of Archelaus I; Aeropus II , uncle, regent , and murderer of Orestes; Pausanias , son of Aeropus II; and Amyntas II , who was married to the youngest daughter of Archelaus I. Very little is known about this turbulent period; it came to an end when Amyntas III ( r. 393–370 BC ), son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of Amyntas I, killed Pausanias and claimed
23009-599: The rise of his kingdom into a powerful state. With the end of Achaemenid power in the Balkans, the Thracian Odrysian kingdom , the Kingdom of Macedonia , and the Athenian thalassocracy filled the ensuing power vacuum and formed their own spheres of influence in the area. The Odrysian Kingdom was a state union of over 40 Thracian tribes and 22 kingdoms that existed between the 5th century BC and
23182-511: The royal cemetery of Aigai. Pyrrhus pursued Antigonus II in the Peloponnese, yet Antigonus II was ultimately able to recapture Macedonia. Pyrrhus was killed while besieging Argos in 272 BC, allowing Antigonus II to reclaim the rest of Greece. He then restored the Argead dynastic graves at Aigai and annexed the Kingdom of Paeonia . The Aetolian League hampered Antigonus II's control over central Greece , and
23355-494: The royal family, King Alexander IV and the queen mother Roxana. The conflict that followed lasted until the winter of 312/311 BC, when a new peace settlement recognized Cassander as general of Europe, Antigonus as "first in Asia", Ptolemy as general of Egypt, and Lysimachus as general of Thrace. Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana put to death in the winter of 311/310 BC, and between 306 and 305 BC
23528-562: The satrapy consisted of the Axius river and the Belasica - Pirin - Rila mountain ranges till the site of modern-day Kostenets . The importance of this satrapy rested in that it contained the Hebros river, where a route in the river valley connected the permanent Persian settlement of Doriscus with the Aegean coast, as well as with the port-cities of Apollonia , Mesembria and Odessos on
23701-416: The sea and included the Bosporus , the Propontis , and the Hellespont proper and its approaches. Otanes then proceeded to capture Byzantium , Chalcedon , Antandrus , Lamponeia , Imbros , and Lemnos for the Achaemenid Empire. The area included within the satrapy of Skudra included both the Aegean coast of Thrace, as well as its Pontic coast till the Danube. In the interior, the Western border of
23874-521: The seeming embellishments in Herodotus's histories, for one. Archaeologists have attempted to piece together a fuller understanding of Thracian culture through the study of their artifacts. Several Thracian graves or tombstones have the name Rufus inscribed on them, meaning "redhead" – a common name given to people with red hair which led to associating the name with slaves when the Romans enslaved this particular group. Ancient Greek artwork often depicts Thracians as redheads. Rhesus of Thrace ,
24047-478: The siege. Antipater defeated the rebellion, yet his death in 319 BC left a power vacuum wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in a power struggle between the diadochi , the former generals of Alexander's army. A council of the army convened in Babylon immediately after Alexander's death, naming Philip III as king and the chiliarch Perdiccas as his regent. Antipater, Antigonus Monophthalmus , Craterus , and Ptolemy formed
24220-430: The southwest, Illyria to the northwest, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. Before the 4th century BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens , Sparta and Thebes , and briefly subordinate to Achaemenid Persia . During the reign of the Argead king Philip II (359–336 BC), Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and
24393-524: The support of the Macedonians and fled the country. Macedonia was then divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, the former taking western Macedonia and the latter eastern Macedonia. By 286 BC, Lysimachus had expelled Pyrrhus and his forces from Macedonia. In 282 BC, a new war erupted between Seleucus I and Lysimachus; the latter was killed in the Battle of Corupedion , allowing Seleucus I to take control of Thrace and Macedonia. In two dramatic reversals of fortune, Seleucus I
24566-538: The surrender of Philip III and Eurydice's army, allowing Olympias to execute the king and force his queen to commit suicide. Olympias then had Nicanor and dozens of other Macedonian nobles killed, but by the spring of 316 BC, Cassander had defeated her forces, captured her, and placed her on trial for murder before sentencing her to death. Cassander married Philip II's daughter Thessalonike and briefly extended Macedonian control into Illyria as far as Epidamnos (modern Durrës , Albania). By 313 BC, it
24739-403: The territory of Thracian tribe of the Getae who lived just south of the Danube river and who in vain attempted to resist the Achaemenid conquest. After the resistance of the Getae was defeated and they were forced to provide the Achaemenid army with soldiers, all the Thracian tribes between the Aegean Sea and the Danube river had been subjected by the Achaemenid Empire. Once Darius had reached
24912-465: The third around 1200 BC. They reached the Aegean islands , ending the Mycenaean civilization . They did not speak the same language. The lack of written archeological records left by Thracians suggests that the diverse topography did not make it possible for a single language to form. Ancient Greek and Roman historians agreed that the ancient Thracians were superior fighters; only their constant political fragmentation prevented them from overrunning
25085-517: The thracian cavalry quickly grew from 150 men, to 1000 men by the time Alexander advanced into Egypt , and numbered 1600 when he reached the persian city of Susa . The thracian infantry was under the command of the Odrysian prince Sitalces II who led them in the siege of Telmissus and in the battles of Issus and Gaugamela . In 279 BC, Celtic Gauls advanced into Macedonia , southern Greece and Thrace . They were soon forced out of Macedonia and southern Greece, but they remained in Thrace until
25258-459: The time being. In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War with the Carthaginian Empire , Roman authorities intercepted a ship off the Calabrian coast holding a Macedonian envoy and a Carthaginian ambassador in possession of a treaty composed by Hannibal declaring an alliance with Philip V. The treaty stipulated that Carthage had the sole right to negotiate the terms of Rome's hypothetical surrender and promised mutual aid if
25431-399: The tyrant Jason of Pherae . Philip II had some early involvement with the Achaemenid Empire, especially by supporting satraps and mercenaries who rebelled against the central authority of the Achaemenid king. The satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia Artabazos II , who was in rebellion against Artaxerxes III , was able to take refuge as an exile at the Macedonian court from 352 to 342 BC. He
25604-436: The wedding altogether and exiled Alexander's advisors Ptolemy , Nearchus , and Harpalus . To reconcile with Olympias, Philip II had their daughter Cleopatra marry Olympias' brother (and Cleopatra's uncle) Alexander I of Epirus, but Philip II was assassinated by his bodyguard, Pausanias of Orestis , during their wedding feast and succeeded by Alexander in 336 BC. Modern scholars have argued over
25777-449: The wedding feast infuriated Philip II's son Alexander, a veteran of the Battle of Chaeronea, and his mother Olympias. They fled together to Epirus before Alexander was recalled to Pella by Philip II. When Philip II arranged a marriage between his son Arrhidaeus and Ada of Caria , daughter of Pixodarus , the Persian satrap of Caria , Alexander intervened and proposed to marry Ada instead. Philip II then cancelled
25950-460: Was able to put down Arrhabaeus's revolt. Brasidas died in 422 BC, the year Athens and Sparta struck an accord, the Peace of Nicias , that freed Macedonia from its obligations as an Athenian ally. Following the 418 BC Battle of Mantinea , the victorious Spartans formed an alliance with Argos , a military pact Perdiccas II was keen to join given the threat of Spartan allies remaining in Chalcidice. When Argos suddenly switched sides as
26123-482: Was accompanied in exile by his family and by his mercenary general Memnon of Rhodes . Barsine , daughter of Artabazos, and future wife of Alexander the Great, grew up at the Macedonian court. After campaigning against the Thracian ruler Cersobleptes , in 349 BC, Philip II began his war against the Chalcidian League, which had been reestablished in 375 BC following a temporary disbandment. Despite an Athenian intervention by Charidemus , Olynthos
26296-408: Was again forced to flee the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. The Persian king was later captured and executed by his own satrap of Bactria and kinsman, Bessus , in 330 BC. The Macedonian king subsequently hunted down and executed Bessus in what is now Afghanistan , securing the region of Sogdia in the process. At the 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day Punjab ), when
26469-569: Was also able to make peace with the Illyrians who had threatened his borders . Philip II spent his initial years radically transforming the Macedonian army . A reform of its organization, equipment, and training, including the introduction of the Macedonian phalanx armed with long pikes (i.e. the sarissa ), proved immediately successful when tested against his Illyrian and Paeonian enemies. Confusing accounts in ancient sources have led modern scholars to debate how much Philip II's royal predecessors may have contributed to these reforms and
26642-437: Was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece , which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece . The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty , which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians , the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula , and bordered by Epirus to
26815-631: Was assassinated by his brother-in-law Ptolemy of Aloros , the latter acted as an overbearing regent for Perdiccas III ( r. 368–359 BC ), younger brother of Alexander II, who eventually had Ptolemy executed when reaching the age of majority in 365 BC. The remainder of Perdiccas III's reign was marked by political stability and financial recovery. However, an Athenian invasion led by Timotheus , son of Conon , managed to capture Methone and Pydna, and an Illyrian invasion led by Bardylis succeeded in killing Perdiccas III and 4,000 Macedonian troops in battle. Philip II
26988-400: Was assassinated in 281 BC by his officer Ptolemy Keraunos , son of Ptolemy I and grandson of Antipater, who was then proclaimed king of Macedonia before being killed in battle in 279 BC by Celtic invaders in the Gallic invasion of Greece . The Macedonian army proclaimed the general Sosthenes of Macedon as king, although he apparently refused the title. After defeating
27161-443: Was assaulted along with Apollonia by Macedonian forces. When the Macedonians captured Lissus in 212 BC, the Roman Senate responded by inciting the Aetolian League, Sparta, Elis , Messenia , and Attalus I ( r. 241–197 BC ) of Pergamon to wage war against Philip V, keeping him occupied and away from Italy. The Aetolian League concluded a peace agreement with Philip V in 206 BC, and
27334-454: Was blockaded at Bargylia by the Rhodian and Pergamene navies. While Philip V was busy fighting Rome's Greek allies, Rome viewed this as an opportunity to punish this former ally of Hannibal with a war that they hoped would supply a victory and require few resources. The Roman Senate demanded that Philip V cease hostilities against neighboring Greek powers and defer to an international arbitration committee for settling grievances. When
27507-479: Was captured by Philip II in 348 BC, and its inhabitants were sold into slavery , including some Athenian citizens . The Athenians, especially in a series of speeches by Demosthenes known as the Olynthiacs , were unsuccessful in persuading their allies to counterattack and in 346 BC concluded a treaty with Macedonia known as the Peace of Philocrates . The treaty stipulated that Athens would relinquish claims to Macedonian coastal territories,
27680-504: Was delayed by negotiations with the Spartan king Nabis , who had meanwhile captured Argos, yet Roman forces evacuated Greece in 194 BC. Encouraged by the Aetolian League and their calls to liberate Greece from the Romans, the Seleucid king Antiochus III landed with his army at Demetrias , Thessaly, in 192 BC, and was elected strategos by the Aetolians. Macedonia, the Achaean League, and other Greek city-states maintained their alliance with Rome. The Romans defeated
27853-407: Was divided into three regions (east, central, and west). A notable ruler of the East Thracians was Cersobleptes , who attempted to expand his authority over many of the Thracian tribes. He was eventually defeated by the Macedonians . The Thracians were typically not city-builders and their only polis was Seuthopolis . The conquest of the southern part of Thrace by Philip II of Macedon in
28026-411: Was faced with some internal revolts and had to fend off an invasion of Illyrians led by Sirras of Lynkestis, he was able to project Macedonian power into Thessaly where he sent military aid to his allies. Although he retained Aigai as a ceremonial and religious center, Archelaus I moved the capital of the kingdom north to Pella , which was then positioned by a lake with a river connecting it to
28199-446: Was finally struck in 255 BC. In 251 BC, Aratus of Sicyon led a rebellion against Antigonus II, and in 250 BC, Ptolemy II declared his support for the self-proclaimed King Alexander of Corinth . Although Alexander died in 246 BC and Antigonus was able to score a naval victory against the Ptolemies at Andros , the Macedonians lost the Acrocorinth to the forces of Aratus in 243 BC, followed by
28372-417: Was forced to retreat to Macedonia when Demetrius invaded Boeotia to his rear, attempting to sever his path of retreat. While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter ( r. 305–283 BC ) of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty , Seleucus I Nicator ( r. 305–281 BC ) of
28545-424: Was immediately proclaimed king by an assembly of the army and leading aristocrats, chief among them being Antipater and Parmenion. By the end of his reign and military career in 323 BC, Alexander would rule over an empire consisting of mainland Greece , Asia Minor , the Levant , ancient Egypt , Mesopotamia , Persia , and much of Central and South Asia (i.e. modern Pakistan ). Among his first acts
28718-420: Was lenient toward Athens, wishing to utilize their navy in a planned invasion of the Achaemenid Empire. He was then chiefly responsible for the formation of the League of Corinth that included the major Greek city-states except Sparta. Despite the Kingdom of Macedonia's official exclusion from the league, in 337 BC, Philip II was elected as the leader ( hegemon ) of its council ( synedrion ) and
28891-428: Was named Skudra ( 𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼 ), derived from Scythian the name Skuδa , which was the self-designation of the Scythians who inhabited the northern parts of the satrapy. Once Megabazus had returned to Asia Minor, he was succeeded in Skudra by a governor whose name is unknown, and Darius appointed the general Otanes to oversee the administrative division of the Hellespont, which extended on both sides of
29064-536: Was retaken by the Illyrian king Glaucias of Taulantii . By 316 BC, Antigonus had taken the territory of Eumenes and managed to eject Seleucus Nicator from his Babylonian satrapy, leading Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus to issue a joint ultimatum to Antigonus in 315 BC for him to surrender various territories in Asia. Antigonus promptly allied with Polyperchon, now based in Corinth, and issued an ultimatum of his own to Cassander, charging him with murder for executing Olympias and demanding that he hand over
29237-409: Was returned to Macedonia and much of Chalcidice to Athens in a peace treaty brokered by Sitalces, who provided Athens with military aid in exchange for acquiring new Thracian allies. Perdiccas II sided with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, and in 429 BC Athens retaliated by persuading Sitalces to invade Macedonia, but he was forced to retreat owing to
29410-401: Was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia , north of Mount Olympus . Historian Robert Malcolm Errington suggests that one of the earliest Argead kings established Aigai (modern Vergina ) as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Before the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding roughly to the western and central parts of
29583-405: Was the burial of his father at Aigai. The members of the League of Corinth revolted at the news of Philip II's death, but were soon quelled by military force alongside persuasive diplomacy, electing Alexander as hegemon of the league to carry out the planned invasion of Achaemenid Persia. In 335 BC, Alexander fought against the Thracian tribe of the Triballi at Haemus Mons and along
29756-535: Was the primary method employed by the ancient Greeks for gathering slaves. In regions such as Thrace and the eastern Aegean , natives, or " barbarians ", captured in these raids were the main source of slaves , rather than prisoners of war . As described by Xenophon , and Menander in Aspis , after the slaves were captured in raids, their actual enslavement took place when they were resold through slave-dealers to Athenians and other slaveowners throughout Greece . The fragmentary list of slaves confiscated from
29929-453: Was twenty-four years old when he acceded to the throne in 359 BC. Through the use of deft diplomacy, he was able to convince the Thracians under Berisades to cease their support of Pausanias , a pretender to the throne, and the Athenians to halt their support of another pretender . He achieved these by bribing the Thracians and their Paeonian allies and establishing a treaty with Athens that relinquished his claims to Amphipolis. He
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