Map showing the lower Danube provinces of the Roman empire, with the location of Illyrian and Thracian tribes

In antiquity, most of the territory that is now the Republic of Macedonia was included in the kingdom of Paeonia, which was populated by the Paeonians, a people of Thracian origins, but also parts of ancient Illyria and Dardania, inhabited by various Illyrian peoples, and Lyncestis and Pelagonia populated by the ancient Greek Molossian tribes.

Like Illyrians, Thracian tribes of the mountainous regions fostered a locally ruled warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable.

Around the time of Alexander I of Macedon, the Argead Macedonians started to expand into Upper Macedonia, lands inhabited by independent Macedonian tribes like the Lyncestae and the Elmiotae and to the West, beyond Axius river, into Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, and Almopia, regions settled by, among others, many Thracian tribes.

Around 500 BC, they formed the powerful Odrysian Kingdom, which subsequently declined and Thracian tribes fell under Macedonian, Celtic and Roman domination.

At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war Sitalces entered into alliance with the Athenians, and in 429 BC he invaded Macedon ( then ruled by Perdiccas II ) with a vast army that included 150, 000 warriors from independent Thracian tribes.

Dacians ( or Getae ) were North Thracian tribes.

They are first mentioned in the writings of the Ancient Greeks, in Herodotus ( Histories Book IV XCIII: " the noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes ") and Thucydides ( Peloponnesian Wars, Book II: " border on the Scythians and are armed in the same manner, being all mounted archers ").

Around the time of Alexander I of Macedon, the Argead kings of Macedon started to expand into Upper Macedonia, lands inhabited by independent Macedonian tribes like the Lyncestae and the Elmiotae and to the West, beyond the Axius river, into Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, and Almopia, regions settled by Thracian tribes.

In response to this, King Sitalkes of Thrace invades Macedonia with a vast army that includes independent Thracian tribes ( such as the Dii ) and Paionian tribes ( Agrianes and Laeaeans ).

* Members of independent Thracian tribes such as the Bessi and Dii often joined the ranks of large organized armies as mercenaries.

His two brothers were Odomas and Edonus ( eponyms of two Thracian tribes, the Odomanti and the Edoni ).

According to Strabo they were one of the many Thracian tribes that had crossed from Europe into Asia.

The region was very rich in iron, which had been extracted in the area since the Iron Age by Thracian tribes.

According to some Greek researchers, the DNA tree line of Greek Pomaks suggests that they descend from ancient Thracian tribes.

Like the Illyrians, the mountainous regions were home to various warlike and ferocious Thracian tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently more peaceable.

The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, such as the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace and the Dacian kingdom of Burebista.

A notable ruler of the East Thracians was Cersobleptes, who attempted to expand his authority over many of the Thracian tribes.

It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans.

Apart from conflicts between Thracians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Thracian tribes too.

Due to the cult's secrecy, however, their exact nature and relationship with other ancient Greek and Thracian religious figures remained mysterious.

By a decree of the oracle of Dodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple her cult was introduced into Attica by immigrant Thracian residents, and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time ( ca.

Many among the Romanised and Hellenised Paeonian, Illyrian and Thracian population of Macedonia were assimilated by the Slavs, but pockets of tribes that fled to the mountains remained independent.

Meanwhile the forces of the Bulgarian 2nd Thracian division, 49, 180 men divided into the Haskovo and Rhodope detachments, advanced toward the Aegean Sea.

It is divided into the Macedonian regional units of Drama, Kavala and Thasos and the Thracian regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros.

Strabo, as well as other ancient sources, led some modern historians to consider that, if the Thracian ethnic group should be divided, one of this divisions should be the " Daco-Getae ".

The Emperor Theodosius I, who called the Council, divided the eastern Roman Empire into five " dioceses ": Egypt ( under Alexandria ), the East ( under Antioch ), Asia ( under Ephesus ), Pontus ( under Caesarea Cappadociae ), and Thrace ( originally under Heraclea, later under Constantinople ); and the Council also decreed: " The bishops are not to go beyond their dioceses to churches lying outside of their bounds, nor bring confusion on the churches ; but let the Bishop of Alexandria, according to the canons, alone administer the affairs of Egypt ; and let the bishops of the East manage the East alone, the privileges of the Church in Antioch, which are mentioned in the canons of Nice, being preserved ; and let the bishops of the Asian Diocese administer the Asian affairs only ; and the Pontic bishops only Pontic matters ; and the Thracian bishops only Thracian affairs.

Nothing is known of his early career until 342 BC, when he was appointed by Philip to govern Macedon as his regent while the former left for three years of hard and successful campaigning against Thracian and Scythians tribes, which extended Macedonian rule as far as the Hellespont.

Amadocus I () was a Thracian king of the Odrysae from 410 BC until the beginning of 4th century.

The Thracian Chersonese subsequently passed to the Byzantine Empire, which ruled it until the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century AD.

According to Homer, Hecuba was the daughter of King Dymas of Phrygia, but Euripides and Virgil write of her as the daughter of the Thracian king Cisseus.

A third Sarpedon was a Thracian son of Poseidon, and brother to Poltys, King of Aenus.

The-l-m-form is further attested in Daco-Thracian in Zalmodegikos, the name of a Getic King ; and in Thracian zalmon, ' hide ', and zelmis, ' hide ' ( PIE * kel -, ' to cover '; cf.

The newly-elected Eastern Roman Emperor, Leo I the Thracian, had a major foreign affairs problem: the Vandals of King Geiseric and their raids on the Italian coasts.

* Haemus ( the mythical Thracian King )

Rhesus of Thrace, a mythological Thracian King, derived his name because of his red hair and is depicted on Greek pottery as having red hair and beard.

The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler, King Teres in the 5th century BC.

The Thracian helmet was worn by Macedonian cavalry in King Philip's day but his son Alexander is said to have preferred the open-faced Boeotian helmet for his cavalry, as recommended by Xenophon.

Teres, who united the 40 or more Thracian tribes under one banner, was well known for his military abilities and spent much of his life on the battlefield.

A Thracian personal name Bessus ( attested in Northern Montenegro along with other Thracian names such as Teres ) is considered to have the same etymon as Bessi ( Wilkes, 1982 ).

This is the unique numismatic complex discovered during ordinary excavations where the coinage of several Thracian rulers is represented, e. g. Amadocus I, Bergaios, Cotys I, Amadocus II, Teres II, Cersobleptes, Seuthes III.