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Nevertheless, the Odrysian tribe experienced a rapid revival in the wake of Alexander’s departure, under King Seuthes III. Athens maintained regular contact with the Odrysians Alexander the Great enlisted subjugated Thracian warriors for his great Persian Campaign. Hellenic armies regularly campaigned in the region, taking advantage of internal Thracian disputes. Southern Thrace became increasingly ‘Hellenised’ during the 4 th and 3 rd centuries BC. Professor Michael Scott discusses the immense age of the Silk Road and its importance to Imperial Rome. The Mediterranean and the Near East was just one part of a much larger, interconnected ancient world. For the Thracians, plunder was their goal. Perhaps the most infamous case of Thracians in combat comes in 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, when a band of Bessi mercenaries in Athenian service sacked the Hellenic city of Mycalessus. 5 th century BC pottery regularly depicts Thracian warriors, iconic by their fox-skin alopekis hats, their cloaks and their crescent-shaped pelta shields.Īs the Greeks considered these warriors ‘barbarians’, they were often employed for unsavoury tasks, such as political murders or policing. Seeking wealth and plunder, Thracian warbands often offered their services to the armies of Greek city-states, fighting as mercenaries.
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It was a terrible weapon the horrific wounds it could cause sparked dread and fear into any soldier they opposed. That weapon was the rhomphaia, a two-handed curved blade that could be used both to slash and thrust into enemy horse and man alike. To oppose a foe in hand-to-hand combat, these warriors usually either wielded a sword or spear, although some mountainous tribes such as the Bessi preferred to wield the region’s most iconic arm.
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But they could also hold their own in melee. These men were swift and lightly-armed, equipped primarily with javelins. Described by Euripides as men with ‘Hearts of Ares’, the tribes were particularly renowned for their peltast troops. The Thracian warrior’s feared reputation was well-deserved. They feared a great Thracian invasion – consisting of thousands of tall, well-built warriors – descending on the civilised world and wrecking havoc. The dominance of the Odrysian Kingdom, combined with Thrace’s huge manpower reserves, meant that constant concern gripped city-states such as Athens, Corinth and Thebes. The Odrysii inhabited the central Thracian plain and were famed for their light cavalry. Indeed, given the large manpower reserves the Odrysians could count on, it’s very possible this number is not an exaggeration. Thucydides speaks of huge Odrysian armies forming by the end of the 5 th century BC – 150,000 men strong. The region’s fearsome reputation continued to grow, particularly in the form of the newly-created Odrysian Kingdom, the dominant tribe. The Persian retreat sparked a new era for Thrace. They severely mauled what remained of the Achaemenid army, as it made its way home to Asia. Throughout the length of Persian occupation (512-479 BC), bands of Thracians continued to resist their new overlords – using guerrilla tactics to devastating effect.īy the time the Persians abandoned the region following their failed invasion of Greece, the Thracians were sure to pounce. It proved one of the most unstable provinces in the whole of the Persian Empire. In 512 BC, much of southern Thrace had come under the rule of Darius I, Great King of Persia. The legendary Rhesus became a hero of Thracian folklore – a powerful horse lord famed for his skill at war. Rather than falling on the battlefield, Rhesus and his soldiers were killed in their sleep their famous horses were captured by Diomedes and Odysseus, the cunning duo. Rhesus’ hopes to lift the Greek siege of Troy quickly fell through however – his men never saw action. In Rhesus’ retinue were some of the most feared horsemen of the period – this Thracian reputation for equine expertise remained among their nobility throughout antiquity.
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King Rhesus, a local Thracian dynast, had arrived on Troy’s shores intending to come to the city’s aid. One of our earliest literary references of the Thracians comes from the Iliad, the epic poem of Homer that describes the latter stages of the Trojan War. Archaeological evidence suggests they had lived in the region since at least 1300 BC, boasting close ties with their neighbours. The Thracians were an Indo-European people who dominated large swathes of land between southern Russia, Serbia and western Turkey for much of antiquity.