THRACIANS AND GREEK COLONIES IN THRACE.
That vast space comprised between the rivers Strymon and Danube, and
bounded to the west by the easternmost Illyrian tribes, northward of
the Strymon, was occupied by the innumerable subdivisions of the race
called Thracians, or Threïcians. They were the most numerous and most
terrible race known to Herodotus: could they by possibility act in
unison or under one dominion (he says), they would be irresistible. A
conjunction thus formidable once seemed impending, during the first
years of the Peloponnesian war, under the reign of Sitalkês king of
the Odrysæ, who reigned from Abdêra at the mouth of the Nestus to
the Euxine, and compressed under his sceptre a large proportion of
these ferocious but warlike plunderers; so that the Greeks even down
to Thermopylæ trembled at his expected approach. But the abilities
of that prince were not found adequate to bring the whole force of
Thrace into effective coöperation and aggression against others.
Numerous as the tribes of Thracians were, their customs and character
(according to Herodotus) were marked by great uniformity: of the
Getæ, the Trausi, and others, he tells us a few particularities.
And the large tract over which the race were spread, comprising as
it did the whole chain of Mount Hæmus and the still loftier chain
of Rhodopê, together with a portion of the mountains Orbêlus and
Skomius, was yet partly occupied by level and fertile surface,—such
as the great plain of Adrianople, and the land towards the lower
course of the rivers Nestus and Hebrus. The Thracians of the plain,
though not less warlike, were at least more home-keeping, and less
greedy of foreign plunder, than those of the mountains. But the
general character of the race presents an aggregate of repulsive
features unredeemed by the presence of even the commonest domestic
affections.[34] The Thracian chief deduced his pedigree from a god
called by the Greeks Hermês, to whom he offered up worship apart
from the rest of his tribe, sometimes with the acceptable present
of a human victim. He tattooed his body,[35] and that of the women
belonging to him, as a privilege of honorable descent: he bought
his wives from their parents, and sold his children for exportation
to the foreign merchant: he held it disgraceful to cultivate the
earth, and felt honored only by the acquisitions of war and robbery.
The Thracian tribes worshipped deities whom the Greeks assimilate
to Arês, Dionysus, and Artemis: the great sanctuary and oracle of
their god Dionysus was in one of the loftiest summits of Rhodopê,
amidst dense and foggy thickets,—the residence of the fierce and
unassailable Satræ. To illustrate the Thracian character, we may
turn to a deed perpetrated by the king of the Bisaltæ,—perhaps
one out of several chiefs of that extensive Thracian tribe,—whose
territory, between Strymon and Axius, lay in the direct march of
Xerxês into Greece, and who fled to the desolate heights of Rhodopê,
to escape the ignominy of being dragged along amidst the compulsory
auxiliaries of the Persian invasion, forbidding his six sons to take
any part in it. From recklessness, or curiosity, the sons disobeyed
his commands, and accompanied Xerxês into Greece; they returned
unhurt by the Greek spear; but the incensed father, when they again
came into his presence, caused the eyes of all of them to be put
out. Exultation of success manifested itself in the Thracians by
increased alacrity in shedding blood; but as warriors, the only
occupation which they esteemed, they were not less brave than patient
of hardship, and maintained a good front, under their own peculiar
array, against forces much superior in all military efficacy.[36] It
appears that the Thynians and Bithynians,[37] on the Asiatic side of
the Bosphorus, perhaps also the Mysians, were members of this great
Thracian race, which was more remotely connected, also, with the
Phrygians. And the whole race may be said to present a character more
Asiatic than European, especially in those ecstatic and maddening
religious rites, which prevailed not less among the Edonian Thracians
than in the mountains of Ida and Dindymon of Asia, though with some
important differences. The Thracians served to furnish the Greeks
with mercenary troops and slaves, and the number of Grecian colonies
planted on the coast had the effect of partially softening the tribes
in the immediate vicinity, between whose chiefs and the Greek leaders
intermarriages were not unfrequent. But the tribes in the interior
seem to have retained their savage habits with little mitigation,
so that the language in which Tacitus[38] describes them is an apt
continuation to that of Herodotus, though coming more than five
centuries after.
[34] Mannert assimilates the civilization of the Thracians
to that of the Gauls when Julius Cæsar invaded them,—a great
injustice to the latter, in my judgment (Geograph. Gr. und Röm.
vol. vii, p. 23).
[35] Cicero, De Officiis, ii, 7. “Barbarum compunctum notis
Threiciis.” Plutarch (De Serâ Numin. Vindict. c. 13, p. 558)
speaks as if the women only were tattooed, in Thrace: he puts a
singular interpretation upon it, as a continuous punishment on
the sex for having slain Orpheus.
[36] For the Thracians generally, see Herodot. v, 3-9, vii,
110, viii, 116, ix, 119; Thucyd. ii, 100, vii, 29-30; Xenophon,
Anabas. vii, 2, 38, and the seventh book of the Anabasis
generally, which describes the relations of Xenophon and the Ten
Thousand Greeks with Seuthês the Thracian prince.
[37] Xenoph. Anab. vi, 2, 17; Herodot. vii, 75.
[38] Tacit. Annal. ii, 66; iv, 46.
To note the situation of each one among these many different tribes,
in the huge territory of Thrace, which is even now so imperfectly
known and badly mapped, would be unnecessary, and, indeed,
impracticable. I shall proceed to mention the principal Grecian
colonies which were formed in the country, noticing occasionally the
particular Thracian tribes with which they came in contact.
The Grecian colonies established on the Thermaic gulf, as well as
in the peninsula of Chalkidikê, emanating principally from Chalkis
and Eretria, though we do not know their precise epoch, appear to
have been of early date, and probably preceded the time when the
Macedonians of Edessa extended their conquests to the sea. At that
early period, they would find the Pierians still between the Peneius
and Haliakmôn,—also a number of petty Thracian tribes throughout
the broad part of the Chalkidic peninsula; they would find Pydna a
Pierian town, and Therma, Anthemus, Chalastra, etc. Mygdonian.
The most ancient Grecian colony in these regions seems to have been
Methônê, founded by the Eretrians in Pieria; nearly at the same time
(if we may trust a statement of rather suspicious character, though
the date itself is noway improbable) as Korkyra was settled by the
Corinthians (about 730-720 B. C.).[39] It was a little to the north
of the Pierian town of Pydna, and separated by about ten miles from
the Bottiæan town of Alôrus, which lay north of the Haliakmôn.[40] We
know very little about Methônê, except that it preserved its autonomy
and its Hellenism until the time of Philip of Macedon, who took
and destroyed it. But though, when once established, it was strong
enough to maintain itself in spite of conquests made all around by
the Macedonians of Edessa, we may fairly presume that it could not
have been originally planted on Macedonian territory. Nor in point of
fact was the situation peculiarly advantageous for Grecian colonists,
inasmuch as there were other maritime towns, not Grecian, in its
neighborhood,—Pydna, Alôrus, Therma, Chalastra; whereas the point of
advantage for a Grecian colony was, to become the exclusive seaport
for inland indigenous people.
[39] Plutarch, Quæst. Græc. p. 293.
[40] Skylax, c. 67.
The colonies, founded by Chalkis and Eretria on all the three
projections of the Chalkidic peninsula, were numerous, though for a
long time inconsiderable. We do not know how far these projecting
headlands were occupied before the arrival of the settlers from
Eubœa,—an event which we may probably place at some period earlier
than 600 B. C.; for after that period Chalkis and Eretria seem rather
on the decline,—and it appears too, that the Chalkidian colonists
in Thrace aided their mother-city Chalkis in her war against
Eretria, which cannot be much later than 600 B. C., though it may be
considerably earlier.
The range of mountains which crosses from the Thermaic to the
Strymonic gulf, and forms the northern limit of the Chalkidic
peninsula, slopes down towards the southern extremity, so as to leave
a considerable tract of fertile land between the Torônaic and the
Thermaic gulfs, including the fertile headland called Pallênê,—the
westernmost of those three prongs of Chalkidikê which run out into
the Ægean. Of the other two prongs, or projections, the easternmost
is terminated by the sublime Mount Athos, which rises out of the sea
as a precipitous rock six thousand four hundred feet in height,
connected with the mainland by a ridge not more than half the height
of the mountain itself, yet still high, rugged, and woody from sea
to sea, leaving only little occasional spaces fit to be occupied or
cultivated. The intermediate or Sithonian headland is also hilly
and woody, though in a less degree,—both less inviting and less
productive than Pallênê.[41]
[41] For the description of Chalkidikê, see Grisebach’s Reisen,
vol. ii, ch. 10, pp. 6-16, and Leake, Travels in Northern Greece,
vol. iii, ch. 24, p. 152.
If we read attentively the description of Chalkidikê as given
by Skylax (c. 67), we shall see that he did not conceive it
as three-pronged, but as terminating only in the peninsula of
Pallênê, with Potidæa at its isthmus.
Æneia, near that cape which marks the entrance of the inner Thermaic
gulf,—and Potidæa, at the narrow isthmus of Pallênê,—were both
founded by Corinth. Between these two towns lay the fertile territory
called Krusis, or Krossæa, forming in after-times a part of the
domain of Olynthus, but in the sixth century B. C. occupied by petty
Thracian townships.[42] Within Pallênê were the towns of Mendê, a
colony from Eretria,—Skiônê, which, having no legitimate mother-city
traced its origin to Pellenian warriors returning from Troy,—Aphytis,
Neapolis, Ægê, Therambôs, and Sanê,[43] either wholly or partly
colonies from Eretria. In the Sithonian peninsula were Assa, Pilôrus,
Singus, Sartê, Torônê, Galêpsus, Sermylê, and Mekyberna; all or
most of these seem to have been of Chalkidic origin. But at the
head of the Torônaic gulf (which lies between Sithonia and Pallênê)
was placed Olynthus, surrounded by an extensive and fertile plain.
Originally a Bottiæan town, Olynthus will be seen at the time of
the Persian invasion to pass into the hands of the Chalkidian
Greeks,[44] and gradually to incorporate with itself several of the
petty neighboring establishments belonging to that race; whereby the
Chalkidians acquired that marked preponderance in the peninsula which
they retained, even against the efforts of Athens, until the days of
Philip of Macedon.
[42] Herodot. vii, 123; Skymnus Chius, v, 627.
[43] Strabo, x, p. 447; Thucyd. iv, 120-123; Pompon. Mela, ii, 2;
Herodot. vii, 123.
[44] Herodot. vii, 122; viii, 127. Stephanus Byz. (v. Παλλήνη)
gives us some idea of the mythes of the lost Greek writers,
Hegesippus and Theagenês about Pallênê.
On the scanty spaces, admitted by the mountainous promontory, or
ridge, ending in Athos, were planted some Thracian and some Pelasgic
settlements of the same inhabitants as those who occupied Lemnos
and Imbros; a few Chalkidic citizens being domiciliated with them,
and the people speaking both Pelasgic and Hellenic. But near the
narrow isthmus which joins this promontory to Thrace, and along
the north-western coast of the Strymonic gulf, were Grecian towns
of considerable importance,—Sanê, Akanthus, Stageira, and Argilus,
all colonies from Andros, which had itself been colonized from
Eretria.[45] Akanthus and Stageira are said to have been founded in
654 B. C.
[45] Thucyd. iv, 84, 103, 109. See Mr. Clinton’s Fasti Hellenici,
ad ann. 654 B. C.
Following the southern coast of Thrace, from the mouth of the river
Strymôn towards the east, we may doubt whether, in the year 560
B. C., any considerable independent colonies of Greeks had yet
been formed upon it. The Ionic colony of Abdêra, eastward of the
mouth of the river Nestus, formed from Teôs in Ionia, is of more
recent date, though the Klazomenians[46] had begun an unsuccessful
settlement there as early as the year 651 B. C.; while Dikæa—the
Chian settlement of Marôneia—and the Lesbian settlement of Ænus at
the mouth of the Hebrus, are of unknown date.[47] The important and
valuable territory near the mouth of the Strymôn, where, after many
ruinous failures,[48] the Athenian colony of Amphipolis afterwards
maintained itself, was at the date here mentioned possessed by
Edonian Thracians and Pierians: the various Thracian tribes,—Satræ,
Edonians, Dersæans, Sapæans, Bistones, Kikones, Pætians, etc.—were
in force on the principal part of the tract between Strymôn and
Hebrus, even to the sea-coast. It is to be remarked, however, that
the island of Thasus, and that of Samothrace, each possessed what
in Greek was called a Peræa,[49]—a strip of the adjoining mainland
cultivated and defended by means of fortified posts, or small towns:
probably, these occupations are of very ancient date, since they seem
almost indispensable as a means of support to the islands. For the
barren Thasus, especially, merits even at this day the uninviting
description applied to it by the poet Archilochus, in the seventh
century B. C.,—“an ass’s backbone, overspread with wild wood:”[50]
so wholly is it composed of mountain, naked or wooded, and so scanty
are the patches of cultivable soil left in it, nearly all close to
the sea-shore. This island was originally occupied by the Phenicians,
who worked the gold mines in its mountains with a degree of industry
which, even in its remains, excited the admiration of Herodotus.
How and when it was evacuated by them, we do not know; but the poet
Archilochus[51] formed one of a body of Parian colonists who planted
themselves on it in the seventh century B. C., and carried on war,
not always successful, against the Thracian tribe called Saians: on
one occasion, Archilochus found himself compelled to throw away his
shield. By their mines and their possessions on the mainland (which
contained even richer mines, at Skaptê Hylê, and elsewhere, than
those in the island), the Thasian Greeks rose to considerable power
and population. And as they seem to have been the only Greeks, until
the settlement of the Milesian Histiæus on the Strymôn about 510 B.
C., who actively concerned themselves in the mining districts of
Thrace opposite to their island, we cannot be surprised to hear that
their clear surplus revenue before the Persian conquest, about 493
B. C., after defraying the charges of their government without any
taxation, amounted to the large sum of two hundred talents, sometimes
even to three hundred talents, in each year (from forty-six thousand
to sixty-six thousand pounds).
[46] Solinus, x, 10.
[47] Herodot. i, 168; vii, 58-59, 109; Skymnus Chius, v, 675.
[48] Thucyd. i, 100, iv, 102; Herodot. v, 11. Large quantities
of corn are now exported from this territory to Constantinople
(Leake, North. Gr. vol. iii, ch. 25, p. 172).
[49] Herodot. vii, 108-109; Thucyd. i, 101.
[50]
... ἥδε δ᾽ ὥστ᾽ ὄνου ῥαχις
Ἕστηκεν, ὕλης ἀγρίας ἐπιστεφής.
Archiloch. Fragm. 17-18, ed. Schneidewin.
The striking propriety of this description, even after the lapse
of two thousand five hundred years, may be seen in the Travels
of Grisebach, vol. i. ch. 7, pp. 210-218, and in Prokesch,
Denkwürdigkeiten des Orients, Th. 3, p. 612. The view of Thasus
from the sea justifies the title Ἠερίη (Œnomaus ap. Euseb.
Præpar. Evang. vii, p. 256; Steph. Byz. Θάσσος).
Thasus (now Tasso) contains at present a population of about
six thousand Greeks, dispersed in twelve small villages; it
exports some good ship-timber, principally fir, of which there is
abundance on the island, together with some olive oil and wax;
but it cannot grow corn enough even for this small population. No
mines either are now, or have been for a long time, in work.
[51] Archiloch. Fragm. 5, ed. Schneidewin; Aristophan. Pac. 1298,
with the Scholia; Strabo, x, p. 487, xii, p. 549; Thucyd. iv, 104.
On the long peninsula called the Thracian Chersonese there may
probably have been small Grecian settlements at an early date, though
we do not know at what time either the Milesian settlement of Kardia,
on the western side of the isthmus of that peninsula, near the Ægean
sea,—or the Æolic colony of Sestus on the Hellespont,—were founded;
while the Athenian ascendency in the peninsula begins only with the
migration of the first Miltiadês, during the reign of Peisistratus
at Athens. The Samian colony of Perinthus, on the northern coast of
the Propontis,[52] is spoken of as ancient in date, and the Megarian
colonies, Selymbria and Byzantium, belong to the seventh century B.
C.: the latter of these two is assigned to the 30th Olympiad (657 B.
C.), and its neighbor Chalkêdôn, on the opposite coast, was a few
years earlier. The site of Byzantium in the narrow strait of the
Bosphorus, with its abundant thunny-fishery,[53] which both employed
and nourished a large proportion of the poorer freemen, was alike
convenient either for maritime traffic, or for levying contributions
on the numerous corn ships which passed from the Euxine into the
Ægean; and we are even told that it held a considerable number of the
neighboring Bithynian Thracians as tributary Periœki. Such dominion,
though probably maintained during the more vigorous period of Grecian
city life, became in later times impracticable, and we even find the
Byzantines not always competent to the defence of their own small
surrounding territory. The place, however, will be found to possess
considerable importance during all the period of this history.[54]
[52] Skymnus Chius, 699-715; Plutarch, Quæst. Græc. c. 57. See M.
Raoul Rochette, Histoire des Colonies Grecques chs. xi-xiv, vol.
iii, pp. 273-298.
[53] Aristot. Polit. iv, 4, l.
[54] Polyb. iv, 39, Phylarch. Fragm. 10, ed. Didot.
The Grecian settlements on the inhospitable south-western coast of
the Euxine, south of the Danube, appear never to have attained any
consideration: the principal traffic of Greek ships in that sea
tended to more northerly ports, on the banks of the Borysthenês and
in the Tauric Chersonese. Istria was founded by the Milesians near
the southern embouchure of the Danube,—Apollonia and Odêssus on the
same coast, more to the south,—all probably between 600-560 B. C. The
Megarian or Byzantine colony of Mesambria, seems to have been later
than the Ionic revolt; of Kallatis the age is not known. Tomi, north
of Kallatis and south of Istria, is renowned as the place of Ovid’s
banishment.[55] The picture which he gives of that uninviting spot,
which enjoyed but little truce from the neighborhood of the murderous
Getæ, explains to us sufficiently why these towns acquired little or
no importance.
[55] Skymnus Chius, 720-740; Herodot. ii, 33, vi, 33; Strabo,
vii, p. 319; Skylax, c. 68; Mannert, Geograph. Gr. Röm. vol. vii,
ch. 8, pp. 126-140.
An inscription in Boeckh’s Collection proves the existence of a
pentapolis, or union, of five Grecian cities on this coast. Tomi,
Kallatis, Mesambria, and Apollônia, are presumed by Blaramberg to
have belonged to this union. See Inscript. No. 2056 c.
Syncellus, however (p. 213), places the foundation of Istria
considerably earlier, in 651 B. C.
The islands of Lemnos and Imbros, in the Ægean, were at this early
period occupied by Tyrrhenian Pelasgi, were conquered by the Persians
about 508 B. C., and seem to have passed into the power of the
Athenians at the time when Ionia revolted from the Persians. If the
mythical or poetical stories respecting these Tyrrhenian Pelasgi
contain any basis of truth, they must have been a race of buccaneers
not less rapacious than cruel. At one time, these Pelasgi seem also
to have possessed Samothrace, but how or when they were supplanted by
Greeks, we find no trustworthy account; the population of Samothrace
at the time of the Persian war was Ionic.[56]
[56] Herodot. viii, 90.