Paeoplae (Ancient Greek: Παιόπλαι) were an ancient Paeonian [1] tribe in Thrace. The name is suggested to have Thracian origin. [2]
Thrace is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece and the European part of Turkey.
The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family. The study of Thracians and Thracian culture is known as Thracology.
The Thracian language is an extinct Indo-European language, spoken in ancient times in South-east Europe by the Thracians. The Thracian language either belonged to the satem group of Indo-European languages, or was a centum language that had been strongly influenced by satem languages.
In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians (Παίονες).
The Getae, , or Gets were several Thracian tribes that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Both the singular form Get and plural Getae may be derived from a Greek exonym: the area was the hinterland of Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast, bringing the Getae into contact with the ancient Greeks from an early date. Several scholars, especially in the Romanian historiography, posit the identity between the Getae and their westward neighbours, the Dacians.
Sitalces (Sitalkes) was one of the great kings of the Thracian Odrysian state. He was the son of Teres I, and on the sudden death of his father in 431 BC succeeded to the throne. Sitalces enlarged his kingdom by successful wars, and it soon comprised the whole territory from Abdera in the south to the mouths of the Danube in the north, and from the Black Sea in the east to the sources of the Struma in the west.
The Laeaeans were a Paeonian tribe who in the 4th century BC lived adjacent to the Agrianes, another Paeonian tribe, along the upper course of the Strymon river, at the western edge of Thrace. They were not incorporated into the Odrysian state or the Paeonian state, remaining an independent tribe outside the borders of those kingdoms. According to Thucydides, the Laeaeans, along with the Agrianes, the Thracian Dii, and other tribes, joined Sitalkes in his unsuccessful campaign against Perdiccas II of Macedon. The coins issued by the Laeaeans are judged to be of crude workmanship, and seem to be imitations of finer minted coins issued by other neighboring Paeonian tribes such as the Derrones. A typical coin bears the inscription LAIAI (Laeaeans) on the obverse, and a Pegasus in a double linear square on the reverse. It is unclear whether or not the Laeaeans were conquered by Philip II or Alexander the Great, although their neighbors are recorded by historians such as Arrian as client kings.
The Bessi were an independent Thracian tribe who lived in a territory ranging from Moesia to Mount Rhodope in southern Thrace, but are often mentioned as dwelling about Haemus, the mountain range that separates Moesia from Thrace and from Mount Rhodope to the northern part of Hebrus. Herodotus described them as a sort of priestly-caste among the Satrae, the Bessi being interpreters of the prophetic utterances given by a priestess in an oracular shrine of Dionysus located on a mountain-top.
The Paleo-Balkan languages are the various extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in ancient times. Hellenization, Romanization and Slavicization in the region caused their only modern descendants to be Modern Greek and Albanian, which are descended from Ancient Greek and one of the Thraco-Illyrian languages, respectively.
Crestonia was an ancient region immediately north of Mygdonia. The Echeidorus river, which flowed through Mygdonia into the Thermaic Gulf, had its source in Crestonia. It was partly occupied by a remnant of the Pelasgi, who spoke a different language from their neighbors ; later the Greeks.
Paeonian, sometimes spelled Paionian, is a poorly-attested, extinct language spoken by the ancient Paeonians until late antiquity.
The Moesi was a Thracian tribe which inhabited present day Northern Bulgaria and Serbia, which gave its name to the Roman province of Moesia after its defeat in 29 BC. Moesia was first established as a separate province in 45–46 AD.
The Pieres were a Thracian tribe connected with the Brygi, that long before the archaic period in Greece occupied the narrow strip of plain land, or low hill, between the mouths of the Peneius and the Haliacmon rivers, at the foot of the great woody steeps of mount Olympus. This region was named after them as Pieria.
Thraco-Illyrian is a hypothesis that the Thraco-Dacian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Thraco-Illyrian is also used as a term merely implying a Thracian-Illyrian interference, mixture or sprachbund, or as a shorthand way of saying that it is not determined whether a subject is to be considered as pertaining to Thracian or Illyrian. Downgraded to a geo-linguistic concept, these languages are referred to as Paleo-Balkan.
Darrhon or Darron (Greek:Δάῤῥων) was a Paeonian god of healing, whose cult was adopted by the ancient Macedonians, as mentioned by Hesychius as Macedonian Daemon and attested hapax in one inscription of Pella c. 200-150 BC.
Odomanti or Odomantes were an ancient Thracian tribe. Some regard it as Paeonian, while others claim, that the tribe was with certainty Thracian. The Odomanti are noted by Herodotus, Thucydides, Stephanus of Byzantium and Pliny the Elder.
Siro-Paeonians or Siropaiones were an ancient Paeonian tribe inhabiting the ancient city of Siris and the Strymon plain. They were one of eight (Herodotus) or ten (Thucydides) tribes of Paeonia. They were situated from the Bisaltae and Odomanti to the south, Sinthi to the north, the Strymon to the east, Maedi to the west, and a mountain chain separating them from Crestonia. Their capital was Siris (Serres). They were defeated by Persian general Megabazus. They were expelled by the Persians to Asia Minor, where they are assumed to have founded Serraepolis.
The Peresadyes were a tribe that lived in the ancient region of Illyria and ruled over, or with the Enchelii, or the Sesarethi, and were part of the Taulantii group of tribes. About their classification they had been identified as Illyrian tribe, however, recent research has strengthened the possibility that they were Thracians.
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