Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1204

 1180 TIIRACIA. opal (paederos, Pliii. xxxvii. 46) ; the Thracia f/ernma, one variety of which seems to resemble the bloodstone {ib. 68); a stone which burnt in water (Id. xxxiii. 30); and nitre, which was found near riiilippi (Id. xxxi. 46). In addition to these, M. Viquesnel mentions fine marble, which is quarried from the mountains of Licljn (p. 200) ; excellent iron, manufactured at Samakor (p. 209) ; alum, produced at Chaphane (p. 213) ; and potter's clay, in the district of Rhodope, used by the Turks in the fabrication of earthenware (p. 319). He states also that Rhodope abounds in mineral waters ((6.)) -^"(i that there are warm springs at Lidja (p. 212). A few miscellaneous notes will conclude this part of our subject. The narrow portion of Thrace between the Euxine, Bosporus and Propontis, is sometimes called the Delta (jh Ae'Ara, Xen. Anah.xW. 1. § 33, 5. § 1). Reference is several times made to violent natural convulsions, which destroyed various Thracian cities. Thus Strabo (i. 59) says that it appeared that some cities were swallowed up by a flood in Lake Bisto- ris; and he (vii. p. 319), Pliny (iv. 18), and Mela (ii. 2) speak of the destruction of Bizone, on the Euxine, by earthquakes. Livy (xl. 22) describes the region between Mae- dica and the Haemus as without inliabitants {soliiu- dines). Herodotus (vii. 109) speaks of a lake near Pi.>ty- rus (on the coast N. of Abdera), about 30 stadia in circumference, abounding in fish, and extremely salt. Thrace possessed two highroads, "both starting from Byzantium ; the one (called the King's road, from having been in part the march of Xerxes in his invasion of Greece, Liv. xxsix. 27 ; Herod, vii. 115), crossing the Hebrus and the Nestus, touching the northern coast of the Aegean sea at Neapolis, a little south of Philippi, then crossing the Strymon at Am- phipolis, and stretching through Pella across Inner Macedonia and Illyria to Dyrrhachium. The other road took a more northerly course, passing along the upper valley of the Hebrus from Adrianople to Phi- lippopolis, then through Sardica (^Sophia) and Nais- sus (A'wc/i), to the Danube near Belgrade, being the highroad now followed from Constantinople to Bel- grade." (Grote, vol. xii. p. 34, note.) Herodotus {l. c.) remarks, with evident surprise, that the King's road had not, up to his time, been destroyed by the Thracians, a circumstance which he seems to attri- bute to the almost religious respect with which they regarded the " great king." It may be safely in- ferred that people who were considered to have done something wonderful in abstaining from breaking up a road, were not great makers or maintainers of high- ways ; and it is clear from Livy's account of the march of JIanlius (xxxviii. 40, 41) along this very road (afterwards called by the Romans, Via Egna- tia, q. v.), that, although it was the principal line of communication between Europe and Asia, it was at that time (b. c. 188) in a very bad condition. From this some conception may be formed of the deplorable state in which the roads of the interior and mountainous districts must have been, and in which, indeed, they still remain. (Viquesnel, p. 312.) The Thracians no doubt were well aware that their independence would soon be lost, if there were an easy access for disciplined armies to every part of their country. Such paths as they possessed were sufficient for their own purposes of depredation, of ambush, and, when overpowered, of flight. IV. Eth:<ology, Manneus, Religion, etc. — THRACIA. The first point to be determined here is, whether the Tliracians mentioned in the ancient writers as extending over many parts of Greece, as far soutii as Attica, were ethnologically identical with those who in historical times occupied the country which is the subject of the present article. Ami before discussing the topic, it will be convenient to lay be- fore the reader some of the principal passages in the classics which bear upon it. It is Strabo who njakes the most distinct state- ments on the point. He says (vii. p. 321), " He- cataeus the Milesian states that, before the Hellenes, barbarians inhabited Peloponnesus. But in fact nearly all Greece was originally the abode of bar- barians, as may be inferred t'roni the traditions. Pelops brought a people with him Into the country, to which he gave his name, and Danaus came to the same region with followers from Egypt, at a time when the Dryopes, Caucones, Pelasgi, Le- leges, and other similar races had settlements within the Isthmus ; and indeed without it too, for the Thracians who accompanied Eumolpas had Attica and Tereus possessed Daulis in Phocis; the Phoe- nician companions of Cadmus occupied Cadmeia, the Aones, Temmices, and Hyantes Boeotia." Strabo subsequently (ix. 401) repeats this statement re- specting Boeotia, and adds that the descendants of Cadmus and his followers, being driven out of Thebes by the Thracians and Pelasgians, retired into Thessaly. They afterwards returned, and, hav- ing joined the Minyans of Orchomenos, expelled iu their turn the Pelasgians and Thracians. The former went to Athens, where they settled at the foot of Hymettus, and gave the name of Pelas- gicum to a part of the city (cf. Herod, vi. 137): the Thracians, on the other hand, were driven to Parnassus. Again (ix. p. 410) he says, speak- ing of Helicon: " The temple of the Jluses, and Hippocrene, and the cave of the Leibethridaii nymphs are there; from which one would con- jecture that those who consecrated Helicon to the Muses were Thracians; for they dedicated Pieris, and Leibethrum, and Pimpleia to the same goddesses. These Thracians were called Pierians (rii'epf s) ; but their power having declined, the Macedonians now occupy these (last named) places." This account is afterwards (x. p. 471) repeated, with the addition that " the cultivators of ancient music, Orpheus, Musaeus. Thamyris, and Eumolpus, were Thraci:ms." The difficulty that presents itself in these pas- sages, — and they are in general agreement with the whole body of Greek literature, — arising from the confounding under a common name of the precursors of Grecian poetry and art with a race of men desig- nated as barbarous, is well stated by K. 0. Mliller {Hist, of Greek Liter, p. 26, seq.): " It is utterly inconceivable that, in the later historic times, when the Thracians were contemned as a barbarian race, a notion should have sprung up that the first civil- isation of Greece was due to them; consequently we cannot doubt that this was a tradition handed down from a very early period. Now, if we are to under- stand it to mean that Eiunolpus, Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris were the fellovc-countrymen of those Edonians, Odrysians, and Odomantians, who in the historical age occupied the Thracian territory, and who spoke a barbarian language, that is, one unin- telligible to the Greeks, we must despair of being able to comprehend these accounts of the ancient Thracian minstrels, and of assigning them a place in the history of Grecian civilisation ; since it is