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102-596: The settlement dates to antiquity, perhaps founded by the Thracians . Known as Panion , Panias , or Panis ("place dedicated to Pan ") in antiquity. The city walls were restored sometime between 383 and 403, and shortly after, in c.  410–420 , the historian Priscus was born in the city. At around the same time the city was officially renamed to Theodosiopolis, and the name was used in tandem with Panion for some time thereafter. The "bishop of new Theodosiopolis" ( episcopus novae Theodosiopolis ) Babylas addressed

204-733: 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

306-476: 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

408-525: A church council to elect a new Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople . The new patriarch crowned Theodore emperor and established his seat at Theodore's capital, Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin Empress Yolanda of Flanders , but he died in 1221 and was succeeded by his son-in-law, John III Doukas Vatatzes The accession of Vatatzes was initially challenged by the Laskarids, with

510-572: 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

612-677: A letter to Emperor Leo I the Thracian ( r.  457–474 ) on the saint Proterius of Alexandria . In the 6th-century Synecdemus , Panion is listed as one of the cities of the Roman province of Europa . In the 536 Synod of Constantinople , Andreas, the "bishop of the Paniots, that is the Theodosiopolitans", took part. The name of Theodosiopolis apparently survived until the middle Byzantine period, as a—now lost—border marker with

714-587: 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

816-596: 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

918-692: A new threat from the Ottomans , when they arose to replace the Seljuks. After 1261, Constantinople once more became the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The territories of the former Empire of Nicaea were stripped of their wealth, which was used to rebuild Constantinople and to fund numerous wars in Europe against the Latin states and Epirus. Soldiers were transferred from Asia Minor to Europe, leaving

1020-460: A shift in how the word "Hellene" was used in Byzantine parlance. Up to this point, "Hellene" had borne a negative connotation and was in particular associated with the remnants of paganism. In this period, however, both the terms "Graikoi" and "Hellenes" appear to enter into the diplomatic usage of the empire as a form of religious and ethnic self-identification, spurred by a desire to differentiate

1122-590: 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

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1224-533: 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

1326-406: 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

1428-775: 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

1530-521: 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

1632-499: Is unclear whether the Byzantines had retaken it in the meantime, as this is not mentioned in the sources, and it is possible that this deed represented a nominal transfer of territories not actually under Byzantine control at the time. The town was returned to Byzantine control in the 1403 Treaty of Gallipoli , but some Turkish troops may have remained garrisoned there. At any rate, the town was quickly lost again, perhaps as early as

1734-638: The Partitio Romaniae of 1204, Panion is recorded as belonging to the episkepsis of Chalcis , and came under Venetian control. However, the town tried to oppose the Latins , and the Venetians launched a punitive expedition that plundered the city in 1205. In the next year, the city was entirely destroyed by the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan , who resettled many of its inhabitants on the banks of

1836-762: The sebastokratores Isaac and Alexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their combined forces, however, in the Battle of Poimanenon , securing his throne and regaining almost all of the Asian territories held by the Latin Empire in the process. In 1224, the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica was captured by the Despot of Epirus Theodore Komnenos Doukas , who crowned himself emperor in rivalry to Vatatzes and established

1938-655: 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

2040-461: 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

2142-731: 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

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2244-637: The Danube . It is unknown when the city was resettled. Under Latin rule , a Roman Catholic bishop resided in Panion ( Panadensem ), attested since 1208. With the decline and conquest of the Latin Empire by the Empire of Nicaea , Panion came again under Byzantine control and the see was restored to Greek Orthodox control. The town was probably occupied by the Catalan Company in 1306–1307, and its bishop

2346-470: The Empire of Thessalonica . It proved short-lived, as it came under Bulgarian control after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230. With Trebizond lacking any real power, Nicaea was the only effective Byzantine state left, and John III expanded his territory across the Aegean Sea . In 1235, he allied with Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria , allowing him to extend his influence over Thessalonica and Epirus. In 1242,

2448-837: 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

2550-589: 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

2652-697: The Latin Empire , was established by an army of Crusaders and the Republic of Venice after the capture of Constantinople and the surrounding environs. Founded by the Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicenes restored the Byzantine Empire after they recaptured Constantinople. Thus, the Nicene Empire is seen as a direct continuation of the Byzantine Empire, as it fully assumed

2754-532: 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

2856-600: 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

2958-635: The Mongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, and although John III was worried they might attack him next, they ended up eliminating the Seljuk threat to Nicaea. In 1245, John allied with the Holy Roman Empire by marrying Constance II of Hohenstaufen , daughter of Frederick II . In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most of Thrace and Macedonia, and proceeded to incorporate Thessalonica into his realm. By 1248, John had defeated

3060-605: 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

3162-794: The Treaty of 1282 . In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Soon after, Theodore I Laskaris , the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos , was proclaimed emperor, but he too, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless, fled to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia . The Latin Empire , established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had poor control over former Byzantine territory, and Greek successor states of

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3264-463: The 13th century also drew parallels between the situation of the empire after 1204 and that of Classical Greeks. This evidence has helped to strengthen the view of some scholars, such as A. E. Vacalopoulos, who see these references, combined with a re-evaluation of Byzantium's classical past, to be the genesis of Greek nationalism. With the loss of Constantinople, this comparison played on the idea of "Hellenes" surrounded by barbarians; Choniates equated

3366-996: The 1410s. The town is most frequently mentioned during this time as a place of shipment of grain, particularly for supplying Constantinople. The settlement remained predominantly Greek-populated under Ottoman rule, numbering 1,748 Greek inhabitants as late as 1922. 40°54′26″N 27°28′01″E  /  40.907132°N 27.466995°E  / 40.907132; 27.466995 Thracians 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

3468-467: 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

3570-664: 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

3672-677: The Bessi, willingly allied with Rome . After the Third Macedonian War , Thrace acknowledged Roman authority. The client state of Thracia comprised several tribes. Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea ( Greek : Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων ) or the Nicene Empire was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek rump states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled when Constantinople

3774-756: 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",

3876-421: The Bulgarians and surrounded the Latin Empire. He continued to take land from the Latins until his death in 1254. Theodore II Laskaris , John III's son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace , but successfully defended the territory. A conflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257. Epirus allied with Manfred of Sicily when Theodore II died in 1258. John IV Laskaris succeeded him, but since he

3978-449: The Byzantine Empire sprang up in Epirus , Trebizond , and Nicaea . Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople . Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Theodore Laskaris was not immediately successful, as Henry of Flanders defeated him at Poimanenon and Prusa (now Bursa ) in 1204. But Theodore

4080-520: 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

4182-423: 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

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4284-410: 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

4386-483: The Latin army was fighting elsewhere, Alexios was able to convince the guards to open the gates of the city. Once inside he burned the Venetian quarter (as Venice was an enemy of Genoa, and had been largely responsible for the capture of the city in 1204). Michael was recognized as emperor a few weeks later, restoring the Byzantine Empire. Part of Achaea was soon recaptured, but Trebizond and Epirus remained independent Byzantine Greek states. The restored empire also faced

4488-426: 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 ,

4590-412: The Roman Empire was not overturned, as the usage of the word Rhomaioi for subjects of the Nicene emperors demonstrates. The official ideology of the Nicene Empire was one of reconquest and militarism, which was not to be seen in later 14th-century Palaiologan rhetoric. The ideology of 13th-century Nicaea was characterized by belief in the continued significance of Constantinople and the hope to recapture

4692-411: The Seljuk sultan killed by Theodore I with Xerxes, and patriarch Germanos II recalled the victory of John III Vatatzes as another battle of Marathon or Salamis . In much the same way, Theodore II Laskaris compared his father's victories to those of Alexander the Great and proceeded to extol the martial values of contemporary "Hellenes". In addition, during this period there seems to have been

4794-421: 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

4896-401: 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

4998-403: 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

5100-474: 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

5202-487: 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

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5304-401: 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

5406-419: 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

5508-496: 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

5610-412: 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

5712-458: 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

5814-412: 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,

5916-404: The city on Imperial orders are attested in an inscription variously dated to 824/829 or 842/856. Another inscription, dated to the 9th century but possibly earlier, mentions repairs undertaken by the bishop Theodore. A number of lead seals from the 9th–12th centuries attest to the existence of a bishop Acindynus (9th/10th century), an archpriest Michael (10th/11th century), an unnamed archon of

6018-449: The city on its way across the Balkans to Constantinople . A few years later, the town was visited by the English pilgrim Sæwulf , on his return from the Holy Land. In 1136, two estates in the town, owned by the Triakontaphyllos family, belonged to the Pantokrator Monastery . The 12th-century traveller and geographer al-Idrisi visited the city of ( Banedhos ) in the middle of the century, and praised its spacious streets and its shops. In

6120-430: The city, drawing less on claims of political universalism or Hellenic nationalism than on Old Testament ideas of Jewish providence. The emperor in this period is frequently compared to Moses or Zorobabel , or even as the " Pillar of Fire " that guides God's people to the Promised Land, e.g. in a speech delivered by Theodore I Laskaris , written by Niketas Choniates . The rhetoric of this period also glorified war and

6222-495: The city. There is a debate among scholars regarding the exact timing of the shift in meaning of the word Hellene. Roderick Beaton, considering the evidence of the usage of the term "Hellenes" in the 12th century, sees the re-evaluation of the term as occurring before the loss of Constantinople in 1204. In addition, unlike Vacalopoulos, Beaton sees not the birth of Greek nationalism, but rather an embryonic "ethnic" awareness, primarily based around language. Michael Angold notes that

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6324-429: 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

6426-418: The development of this view on reconquest, and during this period there is mention that Patriarch Michael IV Autoreianos offered full remission of sins to Nicene troops about to enter battle, a practice almost identical to a western plenary indulgence . However, the granting of such indulgences was short-lived, and many of the possible crusader influences seem to have dropped off after 1211. The Byzantines of

6528-403: 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,

6630-430: The empire and its citizens from the Latins. Patriarch Germanus II of Constantinople in particular exemplifies this new vision of ethnic and religious identity. His letters equate good birth with the purity of his Hellenistic ancestry, placing more value in his Hellenistic linguistic and ethnic background than in any association with Constantinople, and showing his contempt for the Latins who prided themselves on possessing

6732-405: 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

6834-534: The establishment of Turkish beyliks on former Byzantine territory. While the emperor Andronikos II attempted to improve the situation, it was unsuccessful. By c. 1300, nearly the whole of the former Empire of Nicaea had been conquered by the Turks, with only a tiny strip of territory directly opposite Constantinople clinging on. The final end of Byzantine Asia Minor came with the fall of Bursa in 1326, Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337. The Nicene Empire consisted of Byzantium's most highly populated Greek region, with

6936-424: The exception of Thrace which was under Latin/Bulgar control. As such, the Empire was able to raise a reasonably numerous military force of around 20,000 soldiers at its height – numbers recorded as participating in its numerous wars against the Crusader states. The Nicenes continued some aspects of the Komnenian army , but without the resources available to the Komnenian emperors the Nicene Byzantines could not match

7038-413: 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

7140-421: The hands of the Latin Empire at the Rhyndacus River and the loss of most of Mysia and the Marmara Sea coast in the subsequent Treaty of Nymphaeum . The Nicenes were compensated for this territorial loss when, in 1212, the death of David Komnenos allowed their annexation of his lands in Paphlagonia . In 1205, Theodore assumed the traditional titles of the Byzantine emperors. Three years later, he convoked

7242-457: The inscription kastron Theodospolis is known from the 8th/10th century. A bishop Justin is known from an inscription of the 6th/7th centuries, Reginus participated in the Third Council of Constantinople in 680, and John in the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. In 813, the town was one of the few settlements that were able to successfully resist the invasion of the Bulgarian ruler Krum , due to its strong and well-maintained fortifications and

7344-609: 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,

7446-458: 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

7548-525: 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

7650-543: 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,

7752-414: 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,

7854-466: The name of the state. During that time there was a concerted ethnic Greek self-identification initiative. Some scholars see the Nicene empire period as an indication of rising ethnic Hellenic consciousness and Greek nationalism . However, these scholars caution that a rise in ethnic consciousness did not affect the official imperial ideology. In the official ideology, the traditional view of Byzantium as

7956-574: The next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, the Bulgarian Empire and the Seljuks of Iconium (whose territory also bordered Nicaea) fought each other. In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander , Theodore defeated a major invasion by the Seljuks, who were backing a bid by Alexios III Angelos to return to power. The losses suffered at Antioch, however, led to a defeat at

8058-456: The numbers, nor the quality, of the armies that the emperor Manuel and his predecessors had fielded. Western Asia Minor had access to the sea, making it wealthier than most of the splinter states around and in time became the most powerful state in the region, if only for a short period. The court of the Nicene state widely used the term "Hellenes" instead of the earlier "Romans" to describe its Greek speaking population. Contemporaries preferred

8160-643: The numerous inhabitants, who assisted in the defence. During the subsequent rebellion of Thomas the Slav in 820, the city sided with the rebel, and along with neighbouring Heraclea continued resisting the forces of Emperor Michael II the Amorian even after Thomas' death in October 823. Only after the city walls were damaged by an earthquake in February 824, did the inhabitants of the two cities surrender. Repairs to

8262-475: The old frontier relatively undefended. Raids by Turkish ghazis were left unchecked, and the frontier was increasingly overrun. The usurpation of the legitimate Laskarid ruler John IV Laskaris by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261 alienated much of the populace against the restored Byzantine Empire at Constantinople. John IV was left behind at Nicaea, and was later blinded on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, 25 December 1261. This made him ineligible for

8364-454: 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

8466-540: 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

8568-490: The reconquest of Constantinople using images not drawn from the Old Testament. For example, in his panegyric of Theodore I Laskaris, Choniates describes a battle with a Seljuk sultan as a battle between Christianity and Islam, rhetorically comparing the wounds of Theodore, who had himself slain an enemy commander, to those of Christ on the cross. Dimiter Angelov suggests that western crusading ideology may have influenced

8670-599: 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

8772-509: 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

8874-693: 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

8976-630: 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 ,

9078-455: 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

9180-573: 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

9282-517: 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

9384-632: The throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in Bithynia. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch Arsenius Autoreianus, and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea. The subsequent history of the former territory of the Empire of Nicaea is one of gradual conquest by the Turks. After the death of Michael VIII in 1282, Turkish raids turned into permanent settlement and

9486-614: The town (10th century), the bishops John and Paul (11th century), the oikonomos Leo (11th/12th century), and the bishop Constantine Manasses, possibly the historian of the same name . A gravestone dated 27 February 965 mentions a Basil Diakonos, who founded a church dedicated to the Holy Unmercenaries , probably in the town. A great earthquake in September 1063 damaged the city. In 1096, the First Crusade passed by

9588-458: The traditional titles and government of the Byzantines in 1205. The Despotate of Epirus contested the claim in 1224 and became the Empire of Thessalonica , but was forced to renounce its claim by the Nicenes in 1242. The Empire of Trebizond , which declared its independence a few weeks before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, withdrew all claims to being a continuation of the Byzantine Empire in

9690-495: The use of "Hellas" or the adjective "Hellenikon" for the Empire of Nicaea. As such, Emperor Theodore Laskaris sometimes replaced the terms Romaioi (Romans) and Graikoi by Hellenes. Emperor Theodore II describes his realm as the new Hellas . Patriarch Germanos II used in official correspondence with the western world the term: "Graikoi" to describe the local population and "Empire of the Greeks" ( Greek : Βασιλεία των Γραικών ) as

9792-512: Was able to capture much of northwestern Anatolia after the Bulgarian defeat of Latin Emperor Baldwin I in the Battle of Adrianople , because Henry was recalled to Europe to defend against invasions from Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria . Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as other minor rivals, leaving him in charge of the most powerful of the successor states. Numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over

9894-520: Was accused by Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople of collaborating with them. Bishop Ignatius is attested in 1351–1368, during which time the area fell to the Ottoman Turks ; Panion itself was occupied without resistance by the future sultan Murad I in 1359. In 1382, Emperor John V Palaiologos ceded the town, along with Heraclea, Rhaidestos , and Selymbria , to his son Andronikos IV Palaiologos and his grandson John VII Palaiologos . It

9996-471: 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

10098-487: 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

10200-740: Was occupied by Western European and Venetian armed forces during the Fourth Crusade , a military event known as the Sack of Constantinople . Like the other Byzantine rump states that formed due to the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus , it was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived well into the Middle Ages . A fourth state, known in historiography as

10302-666: Was still a child he was put under the regency of the general Michael Palaiologos. Michael proclaimed himself co-emperor (as Michael VIII ) in 1259, and soon defeated a combined invasion by Manfred, the Despot of Epirus, and the Latin Prince of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia . In 1260, Michael began the assault on Constantinople itself, which his predecessors had been unable to do. He allied with Genoa , and his general Alexios Strategopoulos spent months observing Constantinople in order to plan his attack. In July 1261, as most of

10404-586: 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

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