Thracians

Akamas and the warrior Peirous commanded the Thracians and those that came from beyond the mighty stream of the Hellespont.

He that hurled it was Peirous, son of Imbrasos, leader of the Thracians, who had come from Ainos;

He then took his seat on the top of Pergamos, while murderous Ares went about among the ranks of the Trojans, cheering them on, in the likeness of fleet Akamas chief of the Thracians.

This grows both of itself and also by their cultivation, and the Thracians even make garments of it which are very like linen;

Furthermore, when there is thunder and lightning these same Thracians shoot arrows skyward as a threat to the god, believing in no other god but their own.

The Thracians of Salmydessus and of the country above the towns of Apollonia and Mesambria, who are called Cyrmianae and Nipsaei, surrendered without a fight to Darius;

and Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian exile, arrived, with a thousand hoplites, eight hundred Thracian peltasts, and two hundred Cretan bowmen.

First I went to war with the Thracians, and for the sake of Greece I inflicted punishment upon them with your aid, driving them out of the Chersonese when they wanted to deprive the Greeks who dwelt there of their land.

And Clearchus, taking the gold, collected an army by means of this money, and using the Chersonese as a base of operations, proceeded to make war upon the Thracians who dwell beyond the Hellespont, thereby aiding the Greeks.

but as they had come too late, the Athenians determined to send them back again to Thrace, the country they had come from, as it seemed too expensive to keep them for the war carried on from Decelea.

There came also to Athens this same summer, to serve as targeteers, a body of Thracians who carry swords, of the tribe of the Dii, thirteen hundred in number, who were to have sailed to Sicily with Demosthenes;

At the close of the same summer, Evetion, an Athenian general, having in concert with Perdiccas marched against Amphipolis with a numerous body of Thracians, did not take the city, but after bringing round some triremes into the Strymon, blockaded it from the river, making his approaches from Himeraeum.

For on account of those who so treat their own fatherlands, as some say truly, nothing prevented all the Greeks from having long ago become more dishonoured than the Phrygians or Thracians.

—Have you, then, seen there the free women full of brands, and having so many more brands and more varied the better and of better stock they are reputed?

We were bound for Aenus, I to visit my father, who happened to be there just then, and Herodes to release some slaves to certain Thracians.

geometry you learn from the Egyptians, astronomy from the Babylonians, the wholesome incantations you take from the Thracians;

And in the Charmides he is seen to know certain Thracians, who are said to make the soul immortal.

The Thracians, indeed, were the first to find the so-called harpe (a curved sword), and the first to use bucklers on horseback.

Or perhaps they mean that if Philip keeps his hands off Attica and the Piraeus, he is neither injuring our city nor provoking hostilities.

CAPTAIN:

CAPTAIN.

CAPTAIN.

” Thucydides relates, that when Mycalessus was captured by the Thracians, they put all, even women and children to the sword.

Now if I were to recount the wars of old which they fought against the Amazons or the Thracians or the Peloponnesians who under the leadership of Eurystheus invaded Attica, no doubt I should be thought to speak on matters ancient and remote from the present situation;

This conclusion we may justly draw from the ancient struggles which they carried on against the Amazons and the Thracians and all of the Peloponnesians, and also from the wars which they waged against the Persians, in which, both when they fought alone and when they were aided by the Peloponnesians, whether on land or on the sea, they were victorious over the barbarians and were adjudged the meed of valor;

For our country was invaded by the Thracians, led by Eumolpus, son of Poseidon, who disputed the possession of Athens with Erechtheus, alleging, that Poseidon had appropriated the city before Athena;

For while Hellas was still insignificant, our territory was invaded by the Thracians, led by Eumolpus, son of Poseidon, and by the Scythians, led by the Amazons, the daughters of Ares—not at the same time, but during the period when both races were trying to extend their dominion over Europe;

and we are told regarding the Thracians that, whereas at one time they dwelt beside us on our very borders, they withdrew so far from us in consequence of that expedition that in the spaces left between their land and ours many nations, races of every kind, and great cities have been established.

Eumolpus and his slavish Thracian train

The tradition is that Eumolpus, the son of Poseidon and Chione, came with the Thracians to claim this country during the reign of Erechtheus who was married to Praxithea, the daughter of Cephisus.

so the Thracian king with his Thracians, the Illyrian with his Illyrians, and so also all other nations, we are told.

And further, mark you, they have for neighbours those Thracians who are under no king.