Thrace, as a geographicalerm, does not coincide with one particular
perople, since it was not inhabited solely by Thracians in antiquity. The Thracians
had migrated to Southeastern Europe after the Greeks, after the middle of the
second millenium B.C. and in particular in the 12th century B.C. At the same time,
Thracian tribes settled in Asia Minor, especially in Bithynia and the Troad.
Thracian tribes inhabited Central Macedonia until the founding of
the kingdom of Macedonia by the Temenids (early 7th century B.C.), at which time
they were forced to move eastwards. In the end, the Thracian tribes were resitricted
mainly to the northeastern area of the Balkans.
From the 7th century B.C. Greek colonies were founded on the Thracian
seashores by colonists from the islands of the Eastern Aegean and the Ionian city-states
of Asia Minor, a fact which led to more intense mutual influence between the Greeks
and Thracians throughout the historical period.
In the Classical Period, the great kingdom of the Odrysians, which
covered at its height the area from the Strymon River to the Black Sea and from
the Aegean to the Danube, was created. The Odrysian kings were subjugated in 342
B.C. by the Macedonians, and after the fall of the kingdom of Macedonia in 168
B.C., became subject to the Romans.
In 47 B.C. the kingdom of the Odrysians was terminated and Thrace
became established as a Roman province. During the Hellenistic and Roman tribes,
the diaspora of the Thracian tribes due to movement elsewhere and service in the
Roman army produced the final disappearance of the Thracians and their ethnic
and cultural assimilation. After the hellenization of the main area of Thrace,
the romanization of its northern areas followed. The subsequent spreading of Christianity
contributed to the full integration of these populations into the Greco-Roman
world.
