They were ancient masters of cavalry, creators of dazzling treasures, and the ancestors of the legendary Spartacus, but who exactly were the Thracians?Join Tristan Hughes and Dr. Zosia Archibald in today's episode of The Ancients as they uncover the fascinating world of the Thracians, an extraordinary people that lived in the rugged mountains of eastern Europe. From their vital role in Greek mythology and Homer's epic poem The Iliad to archaeological wonders like the Panagyurishte Treasure and the bronze head of Seuthes III, they explore how this overlooked ancient culture shaped Eastern Europe from the Bronze Age to Roman times.Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here:https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MKTheme music from Motion Array, all other music from Epidemic Sound.
Chapter 1: Who were the Thracians?
Thank you. Thank you, Tristan. I'm really pleased to be contributing something on this exciting topic.
Chapter 2: What role did the Thracians play in Greek mythology?
Well, it is such an exciting topic and one that has topped a couple of our recent polls, the so-called Thracians. Now, Zosia, to start it all off, a big question, who were the Thracians?
Well, indeed. We can start with Homer. This is one of our first written sources about people called Thracians. And the Homeric poems refer to Thracians as allies of the Trojans and therefore allies enemies of the Greeks from the mainland.
But if we look at these references in detail, we can see that most of the information comes from seafaring sources, people who actually crossed the Aegean Sea and met other people at the other end. But this sort of writing reflects a real curiosity about the north, the north, the exciting north. which is part of the unknown territory of Europe.
And we have the goddess Hera stepping down from Mount Olympus and floating across the sea towards the river Hebron. So there's a rather mystical feel about what this territory was like and who lived there. And we hear about some of the heroic figures from the participants on the Trojan side. And maybe the most spectacular is the leader, Rysos, with his wonderful decorated armour and horse gear.
And this is, of course, something special. that we actually find in real burials, but rather later on, several hundred years later, when we have... princely tombs that have been excavated in Aegean Greece and in Bulgaria that reflect these spectacular figures. And some of the plays written in Athens in the 5th century also reflect a little bit of that spectacular glory. The
Wonderful horses, the beautifully decorated horse gear and these extraordinary leaders. So we get a little bit of that reflection that first appears in the Homeric poems.
So many different things there that I'd love to delve into first before we then explore various aspects of Thracian society, archaeology, and so on. The first thing is, of course, you mentioned the Trojan War and Homer and Greek sources in Athens, the Aegean Sea, and so on.
So are Greek sources, ancient Greek writings, are they a key source of information for people like yourself researching the Thracians and that area of Thrace today? They seem to be fascinated by them.
Well, there are various Greek writings that refer to Thracians. Some of them refer to Thracians as heroes, like the Homeric poems. The comedies that were written in Athens refer in the second half of the 5th century, refer to Thracian slaves. So we get a full spectrum of society in Greek sources, but probably the most important writer about Thrace was the historian Thucydides.
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Chapter 3: How did agriculture contribute to Thracian society?
forms of traffic, then we get these stories emerging. And they're connected with the difficult journeys right up into the Black Sea. So, you know, the Argonautic legends are very much part of that background.
Jason and the Argonauts, yes.
because it's connected to the stopping-off points along the North Aegean coast, as well as the difficulties of actually penetrating the dangerous waters of the Bosporus Basin.
Of course, because you do start to see all those Greek cities and colonies starting to be constructed, as you say, along the Aegean, Bosphorus and into the Black Sea. So there'll be interactions with the local people, with the Thracians, and hence how they become such an interesting part of Greek thought for some Greek writers, as you've mentioned earlier, Zosia.
You mentioned before recording how you thought that there might be one aspect of Thracian society that people might think of straight away. I think I know what you're talking about because I played Rome Total War growing up and it seemed to come up quite a lot then. Did the Greeks perceive the Thracians as being very warlike?
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Chapter 4: What minerals were significant to the Thracians?
I think part of the problem with this question is that we use a few small statements that in a small number of writers and big them up. And then we think that that's reality. But the warlike aspect of Thracians that comes across, it's a very strong subtext, is partly connected to people who are thought of as a bit dangerous, actually quite powerful. You need to take them seriously.
And much of that sense of war-likeness is reflected in the journey that Xenophon, the historian, made to become a mercenary of the prince Seuthes and spend about a month or so as a mercenary with some of his fellow Greeks who were trying to get back to Greece from Asia Minor.
Chapter 5: How did the Thracians interact with Greek sources?
And this was in Thrace? That was a Thracian ruler, was that, Zosia?
Yes, yes. Seuthes, who appears in Xenophon's Anabasis, where Xenophon recalls how the Greeks, after being defeated by the Persian prince who managed to defeat his brother Cyrus, all the supporters of Cyrus had to somehow get away. Some of them were
killed but some of them got away and Xenophon was one of them and he tells us all about their adventures trying to get back to Greece and on the final leg of their journey They try and get across to Byzantium, and the Spartan governor of Byzantium doesn't want to know them. He wants them to get away. So this is 400 BC, and Xenophon and his chaps decide, well, we can't get back to Greece yet.
We might as well make the most of this and go and fight for this prince Euthysius. defeat a few villagers using our good Greek infantry tactics and armor and get a bit of a bonus in the process. So they get paid for their services. And Xenophon is sort of in two minds about how he describes this, because on the one hand,
He wants to show how he and his men got into some scrapes and managed to escape from them because he's telling all his friends back home about what it's like. And at the same time, he's a little bit embarrassed about being a mercenary in this area. So he bigs up what the mercenaries do and downplays the opposition.
But it's interesting, isn't it? You said that portrayal of the Thracians as warlike, as you say, it's just actually that portrayal that has come down to us is the taking of a few small mentions in sources, like I think one calls them having hearts of Ares and stuff like that. But keeping on that mercenaries vibe,
Is there clearly times when the Thracians, certain Thracians do go out and serve as mercenaries? And I think of lightly armed javelin men like a felt cap, or in some cases you hear of some wielding this large kind of curved sword polearm kind of thing, which seems to be such a powerful image, at least in my brain.
But I mean, do you hear cases at least of Thracian warriors going out and fighting in the world, I guess, as mercenaries?
Well, they weren't just mercenaries. They were regular soldiers. The history of Alexander the Great is peppered with Thracian detachments. And when people talk about Thracian fighters, they sort of forget about all those Thracians who went off and fought with Alexander the Great. Well, what about them? What were the strengths of Thracian soldiers? Well, particularly cavalry.
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Chapter 6: What was the military significance of the Thracians?
It's also part of the finds that are on display at the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Villa in Malibu. The Panagiarista treasure is a collection of drinking vessels made entirely of gold. This is absolutely extraordinary because very little gold tableware survives from any period. We hear about Renaissance gold plates and things, but you don't often find them surviving.
They've usually been melted down. So the Panagirishtha treasure is unique because of this factor. and it was buried until the late 1940s, so it survived accidentally. But what is even more extraordinary about it is the way in which particular vessel forms are connected with relief imagery, imagery represented in repoussé, figures.
So we have animal representations, we have figure scenes from Greek mythology. Now, it is worth considering whether some of these myths were shared myths rather than being exclusively Greek myths. Even to suggest this is a little bit But many myths from the remote past were Indo-European myths. They weren't exclusively Greek or Italian or Anatolian.
But they take different forms in different linguistic traditions. And here I'd like to point to another truly remarkable piece of archaeology, which is the head of King Seuthes III.
What an object this is. Type in the head of Seuthes III. It is extraordinary.
It is. It's one of the finest bronze portrait heads ever. and indeed one of the earliest surviving portrait heads from antiquity. And it was found in the entrance to a tomb, a tomb that was not looted and therefore contained a lot of the original artifacts. But this head originally belonged to a complete statue. And the head was
cut off rather roughly, presumably after the death of Cephas III, and placed in the entrance of the tomb. So why cut off the bronze head of a statue and put it in the tomb? Because it then becomes a severed head. And in a recent article, which is freely available online, I have suggested, and I'm not the first person to suggest this, but I think it's an independently suggested thing.
I've suggested that the reason why this head was cut off the statue was because then you have the full power of the individual concentrated in this head. And it becomes a prophetic head, like the head of Orpheus that sang after death. And there are many European traditions. There's the Irish head of Bran. There are other versions of these severed heads that become prophetic.
And that's what I would suggest this head is doing. It is becoming a prophetic head.
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Chapter 7: How did the Thracians influence Alexander the Great's campaigns?
Chapter 8: What archaeological treasures reveal about the Thracians?
So many different things there that I'd love to delve into first before we then explore various aspects of Thracian society, archaeology, and so on. The first thing is, of course, you mentioned the Trojan War and Homer and Greek sources in Athens, the Aegean Sea, and so on.
So are Greek sources, ancient Greek writings, are they a key source of information for people like yourself researching the Thracians and that area of Thrace today? They seem to be fascinated by them.
Well, there are various Greek writings that refer to Thracians. Some of them refer to Thracians as heroes, like the Homeric poems. The comedies that were written in Athens refer in the second half of the 5th century, refer to Thracian slaves. So we get a full spectrum of society in Greek sources, but probably the most important writer about Thrace was the historian Thucydides.
Because Thucydides was connected with this region. So Thucydides was one of those rare authors who wrote about the history of his own lifetime. So he was writing about contemporary affairs. And he himself had family connections with, with parts of Thrace that are now in northern Greece around the great silver mountain Pangaeon. He had a silver concession, a mine concession there.
So he knew quite a lot about the area. He knew a lot about the people. But he doesn't tell us a great deal about these local connections. He mainly tells us about the big picture, the politics of his day, the international relations, and that means the Athenians, the Spartans, and, of course, these various Thracian rulers who were referred to in his history and history.
Top of the list is King Sitalkes, who invaded the Halkidic Peninsula of northern Greece at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. He was allegedly an ally of the Athenians. So this was an alliance which united one side of the war, the Peloponnesian War, with these foreign troops.
But the Athenians got a little bit scared because suddenly there were literally hundreds of thousands of people moving south. So this was a bit of a no-no for the Athenians, and they decided to pull out of this alliance rather quickly. But what we do learn from this
later affairs towards the end of the Peloponnesian War and from various inscriptions that survive from the 5th and the 4th centuries BC, is that the international power, the big movers and shakers of contemporary affairs, really did feel that they needed to find some kind of political opportunity alignment with the rulers of this region because they were big players.
And it's mainly the inscriptions that tell us about this history because a lot of the writers that we read or that dominate this period were not terribly interested in the locals. They were interested in locals who came to them, who happened to be either landowners or slaves, but they weren't terribly interested in political affairs.
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