Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1206

 11S2 THRACIA. concert. The same autlioi- (siii. p. 590) points out tlie similarity of many Tliracian names of places to those existing in the Trojan territory. Finally, the names of the places mentioned by Strabo(vii. p. 321) as common to Pieria and the southern Thracians, are evidently Greek (see Miiller's Bvrians, i. p. 501) ; and, as we have seen, the name Tlirace itself is in all probability a significant Greek word. These considerations appear to us to lead to the conclusion already stated, namely, that the mythical Tliracians, as well as those spoken of by Homer, were Pelasgians ; and hence that that race once occupied the northern as well as the other shores of the Aegean, until, at a comparatively late period, its continuity was broken by the irruption of the historical Thra- cians from the north into the country between the Strymou and the Euxine. The circumstance that the Greeks designated these barbarians by the name which had been borne by those whom they sup- planted, admits of easy explanation, and history abounds in instances of a similar kind. But it may be doubted whether the Thracians had any general designation in their own language: they pro- bably called themselves Edones, Denseletae, Tliyni, Satrae, and so on ; but we have no evidence that they really were all branches of a common stock. Under these circumstances, it was inevitable that the Greeks should bestow upon them the name of the earlier possessors of the country ; and those Thracians who were brought in contact with the more civilised race would probably adopt it. (On the foregoing question, see Xiebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Hist, i pp. 142, 212; Lect. on Eihnog.and Geog. i. p. 287 ; Wachsmuth, Uist. Ant. i. p. 44, seqq.) Respecting the historical Thracians we have tole- rably full information, but not of that kind which will enable us to arrive at any very definite conclusions as to their ethnological relations. That they belonged to an extensively diffused race, whose early abodes were in the far northern regions, may be regarded as sufficiently proved by the concurrent testimony of the ancient writers. Herodotus, in a well-known passage (v. 3), says that the Thracian nation is the greatest in the world, after the Indians, and that its subdivisions, of which the Getae are one, liave many names, according to the countries which they severally occupy. Strabo too (vii. p. 295) states that the Getae and the Mysi were Thracians (as to the ]Iysi, see also i. p. 6), who extended north of the Danube (vii. p. 29G). In confirmation of liis assertion that the Getae were ethnologically akin to the Thracians, he adduces the identity of their language (vii. p. 303). He adds (vii. p. 305) that the Daci also spoke this language. From his remark (vii. p. 315) about the lapodes, it would seem that he regarded the lllyrians also as nearly allied to, if not actually a branch of, the Thracians. In another passage (x. p. 471) lie says that the Phrygians were colonists of the Thracians ; lo which race also the Saraparae, a nation still farther towards the east, north of Armenia, were reported to belong (xi. p. 531). " The Bithyni, previously called Mysi, were so named, as is admitted by most authorities, from the Thracian Bithyni and Thyni, who emigrated to that country (i. e. Asia !Minor ; cf. Herod, vii. 75). And I conjecture that the Bebiyces, who settled in Jlysia before the Bithyni and Mysi, were also Thracians. The Jlysians them- selves are said to be colonists of those Tliracians who are now called Jlysi. As the Mariandyni are in all respects like the Bithyni, they too are probiibly Thracians."' (Strab. xii. pp. 541, 542.) Justin THRACIA. couples the Thracians with the lllyrians and Dardani (xi. 1). In the west and south-west it is imjiossible to define the Thracian boundary : we have seen that Mela describes the whole of fhe Chalcidic peninsula as part of Thrace (cf. Thucyd. ii. 79) ; and there is no doubt that they extended as far south as Olympus, though mixed up with JIacedonians, who were tlie preponderating race in that quarter. In later times the intru.^ive and undoubtedly distinct races which were mingled with the Thracians near the Danube, were sometimes confounded with them. Thus Florus (iii. 4) calls the Scordisci the most savage of all the Thracians. Of the language of the Thracians scarcely a trace exists. They were too barbarous to have any literary or artistic memorials, so that the principal guides of the ethnologist are wanting. Strabo (vii. p. 319) states that hria, which occurs as the ter- mination of several names of Thracian towns, signi- fied " city " or " town." This and a few proper names constitute all that remains of their language. The following is the account which Herodotus gives of the customs of the Thracians. They sell their children into foreign slavery. The women while unmarried enjoy perfect freedom in their inter- course with men ; but after marriage they are strictly guarded. The men pay large sums of money for their wives to the parents of the latter. To be tattooed is considered an indispensable mark of noble birth. (Cf. Strab. vii. p. 315.) Idleness is moht lionourable; the cultivator of the soil is regarded as the meanest of men; to live by war and plundering is most noble. The only gods they worship are Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. But their kings differ in this respect from their subjects; for they worship Hermes especially, and swear by him alone, from whom they say that they are descended. When a wealthy man dies, his corpse lies in state for three days: his friends then make a great feast, at which, after bewailing the departed, they slaughter victims of every kind: the body is then buried, hav- ing sometimes been previously burnt. A mound is raised above the grave, upon which athletic games are celebrated (v. 6 — 8; cf. Xen. Ilell. iii. 2. § 5). Besides these customs, which were common to all the Thracians, Herodotus mentions some which were peculiar to certain tribes; as, for instance, that which prevailed among the people to the north of the Cres- tonians. " Among them, each man has many wives. When any man dies, a great contest arises among his widows on the question as to which of them was most beloved by their husband; and in this their relations take a very active part. She in whose favour the point is decided, receives the con- gratulations of both men and women, and is then slain upon her husband's grave by her nearest male relation. The other widows regard themselves as extremely unfortunate, for they are considered to be disgraced." (/6. 5.) Herodotus here seems to speak of polygamy as confined to a certain tribe of Thracians; but Strabo (vii. p. 297) represents this custom as general among them. In a note upon this passage, Casaubon quotes from Heracleides Poiiticus to the effect that Thracians often had as many as thirty wives, whom they employed as servants, a practice still common in many eastern comitries. Xenophon furnishes us with an illustration cf the Thracian custom of purchasing wives. He states that at his first interview with Seuthes, the Thracian prince proposed to give his daughter in marriage to Xenophon ; and if the Greek himself had a