Thrace, << thrays, >> was the ancient name for a large region in the Balkan Peninsula. It stretched from Macedonia north to the Danube River, and eastward as far as the Black Sea. The mountains of Thrace contained valuable deposits of gold and silver. Its broad plains were used for farming and for raising horses and cattle.
The people of Thrace were Indo-Europeans who liked warfare and looting. They grew rich from trading with Greeks who lived along the Thracian coast in the 600’s B.C. The Persians occupied much of Thrace from 520 to 460 B.C. After that time, Thrace became independent and had much contact with the ancient Greeks. The Thracians adopted the Greek artistic style, and the Greeks adopted Thracian myths and religious beliefs. Later, Thrace belonged to the Athenian state and then to Macedonia. Philip II conquered all of Thrace, and the region was held by his son Alexander the Great. Thrace became a province of the Roman Empire during the hundred years before Christ’s birth.
The most important Greek cities of Thrace were Abdera, Sestos, and Byzantium. Ancient Byzantium was the foundation of the modern city of Istanbul (Constantinople). The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought all Thrace under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which was based in what is now Turkey.
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, northern Thrace became known as Eastern Rumelia and was united with Bulgaria in 1885. Greece received western Thrace and almost all of eastern Thrace in treaties following World War I, but Greece returned eastern Thrace to Turkey in 1923. German troops overran Greek Thrace in 1941, but it was given back to Greece after World War II. Greek Thrace includes the prefectures (political divisions) of Evros and Rhodope. Turkish Thrace corresponds to Turkey in Europe.
