Welcome to the Deep Dive. I am so thrilled you
could join us today because we are taking a journey
back thousands of years. We're going to explore
an ancient powerhouse of Southeast Europe. A
really overlooked one, too. Oh, entirely. We're
talking about the Thracians. And for this deep
dive, we are pulling from a massive, incredibly
extensive Wikipedia repository of historical,
archaeological and genetic data. Right. And our
mission today is to separate the highly sophisticated
reality of the Thracian civilization from the.
Well, the bloodthirsty barbarian propaganda that
was written almost entirely by their bitterest
Greek and Roman rivals. It really is a quintessential
example of history being written by the victors.
Or, I mean, in this case, history being written
by the neighbors who just happen to have a written
language and a bigger platform. Exactly. To set
the stage for you, the Thracians were an Indo
-European people who first emerged around 3500
BC. So really early. Yeah. We are talking right
at the dawn of the early Bronze Age. Geographically.
They populated this massive, sweeping swath of
land. If you look at a map today, their territory
covered modern -day Bulgaria, Romania, North
Macedonia, northern Greece, and parts of Turkey.
A huge footprint. They were a dominant looning
presence in that region for millennia. And even
if you are sitting there listening to this and
thinking to yourself, you know, I have absolutely
no idea who the Thracians are, I can almost guarantee
you are familiar with some famous ones. Oh, absolutely.
Think about Spartacus. Right. legendary gladiator.
The guy who led that massive historic slave rebellion
against the Roman Republic. He was Thracian or
Orpheus. Yes. The mythical musician and poet
who supposedly charmed the gods themselves with
his lyre. Also Thracian. So their cultural DNA
has definitely permeated our popular culture,
even if the label Thracian just kind of gets
left out of the spotlight. It really does. OK,
let's unpack this, because to really understand
who these people were, we have to start by looking
at how the rest of the ancient. Mediterranean
viewed them. Precisely. And the view from ancient
Greece and Rome was, to put it mildly, not flattering
at all. No. The Greeks and Romans viewed the
Thracians as ferocious, intensely warlike, and
totally uncivilized. They were painted as the
ultimate other. I mean, ancient great writers
like Plato would group them together with tribes
like the Scythians and the Celts. Just lumping
them all together. Basically dismissing them
all as high spirited, but ultimately savage.
And Roman historians later went even further.
Tacitus described them as. Wild, savage, and
so inherently impatient and unruly that they
wouldn't even obey their own kings. Yeah, the
source material mentions that some ancient historians,
like the French historian Victor Durie later
on, basically noted they considered farming entirely
beneath them. Like it was unworthy of a true
warrior and that their only real industries were
just war and theft, which is an incredibly intense
reputation to carry around. But I guess my question
is, was that reputation actually based on anything
real or was it just pure zeal? It was heavily
exaggerated, sure, but it wasn't built on entirely
nothing. There were specific Thracian tribes
that genuinely terrified their neighbors, and
those encounters deeply scarred the Greek and
Roman psyche. Like who? Well, the tribe known
as the Dai, for example, were notorious. During
the Peloponnesian War, the Dai were responsible
for some truly horrific atrocities. Historical
texts recount how they swept into the towns of
Tanagra and Michalesos and massacred absolutely
everything. Every living thing. Oh, wow. And
I mean everything. The accounts specifically
note they didn't just kill the opposing soldiers.
They killed the children, the livestock, even
the dogs. That is just bleak. It is total annihilation.
It was absolute psychological warfare. And later
on, during a conflict called the Kalinikos skirmish
around 171 B .C. Roman soldiers had their own
visceral encounters with them. Right. The sources
mention that. Yeah, there are accounts of Thracian
warriors impaling the severed heads of Roman
soldiers on their spears and specifically on
their rompheus. Wait, I wanted to ask about the
rompheus because the sources highlight that weapon
specifically. What exactly was it? It was a devastating
curved weapon unique to the Thracians. Imagine
a polearm with a massive scythe -like blade on
the end. Sounds brutal. Very. It was designed
for slashing and armor piercing. It was terrifying
to face in a tight infantry formation. So when
the Greeks and Romans called them bloodthirsty
barbarians, they did have these very real, very
traumatic encounters playing on a loop in their
cultural memory. That definitely explains the
terror. But there's this one historical quirk
in the sources about the Thracians that completely
threw me off. and it has to do with their physical
appearance. Some ancient Greek philosophers,
like Xenophanes, famously described the Thracians
as having bright blue eyes and red hair. There's
even a mythological Thracian king named Rhesus,
who was consistently depicted on Greek pottery
with this striking red beard. It became such
a pervasive stereotype that the Romans often
named their red -headed slaves Rufus, specifically
because of that Thracian association. Which is
so funny in hindsight. Because then the source
material dives into modern genetics, which...
paints a totally different picture. Exactly.
What's fascinating here is how modern science
has completely dismantled that ancient narrative.
When you look at recent academic and genetic
breakthroughs, like the work of Eris and Poulianos,
the data shows that the ancient Thracians actually
had dark hair, dark eyes, and standard Mediterranean
features. Interesting. They looked very much
like modern Bulgarians and Greeks. So the whole
red -haired, blue -eyed barbarian thing was just
entirely made up. It was a profound stereotype.
It perfectly illustrates how ancient Mediterranean
writers often generalized populations that lived
to their north. Oh, I see. If someone came from
the cold, mysterious northern regions, the Greeks
and Romans just assumed they must look completely
alien to themselves. They took traits they associated
with the extreme north and projected them onto
this entirely different, diverse population.
Just a total guess. A total guess. It's a brilliant
example of why we cannot take ancient historical
texts at face value. They were applying a broad
brush to a people they didn't actually bother
to understand. And that broad brush didn't just
cover their physical appearance. It totally misrepresented
their entire culture. Because the archaeological
evidence makes it incredibly clear that the Thracians
were not just brute mercenaries swinging curved
swords around. They had a remarkably sophisticated
reality. They absolutely did. Even the Greek
texts, as biased as they were, grudgingly had
to admit that the Thracians were renowned for
their complex poetry and their music. Which ties
right back to the myth. myth of Orpheus. Exactly.
But where their sophistication really shines
through to us today is in their material culture.
They were absolute master metalworkers. The gold
and silver hoards they left behind were simply
breathtaking. The source material highlights
a couple of specific finds. The Panadger Ishte
and Rogozin treasures. Sunning pieces. And they
date back to the 5th and 4th centuries BC. And
looking at the descriptions of these artifacts,
it completely shatters that savage narrative.
We are talking about intricately carved drinking
vessels, ceremonial armor, and jewelry that rivaled
and in some cases exceeded anything that was
coming out of Athens or Rome at the time. And
yet, alongside that high art, they maintained
cultural practices that deeply unsettled their
southern neighbors. Like the tattoos. I find
this detail so fascinating because it feels so
culturally distinct. The Thracians heavily tattooed
themselves, both the men and the women. Right.
Now for the Greeks, marking your skin was a punishment.
It was something you only did to slaves or criminals
to mark them as property or outcasts. It was
seen as horrific. But for the Thracians, what
was the purpose of all this ink? For them, tattoos
were a major point of pride and a vital symbol
of high status. In a society that didn't rely
on a written language to record its history,
you have to find other ways to document who you
are. So it's like a visual record. Their tattoos
were essentially a permanent visual resume. You
could likely read a person's lineage, their tribal
affiliation, and their personal achievements
just by looking at the ink on their skin. To
the Greeks, it looked like mutilation. To a Thracian,
it was their identity etched into their very
being. That tension between how they saw themselves
and how the rest of the world saw them is just
wild. But it begs a massive question. If they
were this numerous, this wealthy, and this terrifying
on the battlefield, why didn't they just sweep
down and conquer Greece or Rome? It comes down
to their political landscape. Their biggest weakness
by far was their complete lack of unity. There
wasn't one single unified Thracian empire. for
the vast majority of their history. Instead,
there were over 200 distinct, fiercely independent
tribes spread out across the Balkans. 200. Over
200. Ancient historians explicitly noted that
if the Thracians had ever managed to put aside
their differences and fully unite, they would
have been utterly invisible. In sheer numbers
alone. Their sheer numbers and martial skill
would have overwhelmed the ancient Mediterranean
world. But they couldn't stop fighting each other
long enough to actually do it. At least not until
the 6th century BC when an outside force violently
changed the equation. Right, the Persians. Yeah,
the Persian Achaemenid Empire decided to expand
its borders and invade. You have the the Persian
king Darius I, along with his top general Megabasis,
sweeping into the region. Yes. And they conquered
these fragmented Thracian tribes and actually
absorbed Thrace into the Persian Empire as a
province or a satrapy, which they called Scudra.
If we connect this to the bigger picture, this
invasion sets up a massive historical irony.
We are all familiar with the famous conflicts
between the Greeks and the Persians. Think of
the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. or the Battle
of Marathon. Sure. Well, a bit later, when the
Ionian Greeks launched a major revolt against
the Persian Empire, they fully expected the Thracians
to join them. Because they were both occupied.
Exactly. They assumed the Thracians would jump
at the chance to throw off the Persian yoke.
But the Thracians didn't. They actually chose
to side with the Persians. Why on earth would
they side with an invading empire over their
neighbors? Because the Persians were incredibly
pragmatic imperialists. They didn't just conquer
and destroy the integrated. They treated the
Thracians remarkably well. Yeah. The Achaemenid
rulers favored local Thracian elites, gave them
additional land, and crucially, the Persian Empire
acted as a massive, highly organized bulwark
against Greek colonization on the coasts and
Scythian raids coming down from the north. So
it was actually a good deal for them. For the
Thracians, submitting to Persian rule actually
brought a level of stability and protection from
their immediate, more annoying neighbors. So
it was a classic case of the enemy of my enemy
is my friend, even if that friend is a massive
foreign empire. Here's where it gets really interesting,
though. Because after that Persian influence
eventually begins to wane, the Thracians finally
experience that elusive moment of unity. They
do. In the 5th century BC, a leader named King
Teres Asai manages to pull off the impossible.
He founds the Odrysian kingdom. He essentially
brings together over 40 different tribes and
22 separate smaller kingdoms under one banner.
It was a monumental achievement in diplomacy
and conquest. The Odrysian kingdom quickly evolved
into a regional superpower. A force to be reckoned
with. They were so powerful and so resource rich
that they became a major, highly sought after
ally to Athens during the Peloponnesian War.
We were talking about a kingdom fielding massive
armies, controlling vast trade networks and heavily
influencing Mediterranean politics. And their
reputation for producing elite soldiers only
continued to grow. Fast forward a bit and you
have a young Macedonian king named Alexander
the Great starting his campaign to conquer the
known world. Right. And Alexander knew exactly
who he needed on his front lines. Alexander was
a brilliant tactician. and he recognized immediately
that Thracian fighters were absolutely unparalleled
in specific types of warfare. He heavily recruited
their cavalry, which was legendary, but he also
specifically targeted their light infantry skirmishers,
known as peltasts. Let's define that for a second.
What makes a peltast different from a standard
Greek hoplite soldier? A standard hoplite was
heavily armored, fought in a tight phalanx formation,
and was relatively slow -moving. A peltast was
the opposite. They were highly mobile, lightly
armed skirmishers. They carried javelins to harass
the enemy from a distance. And they used these
unique, lightweight, crescent -shaped shields.
So they were fast. Incredibly fast. They could
run onto the battlefield, unleash a devastating
volley of javelins, and sprint away before the
heavy infantry could even react. Alexander started
his campaigns with just about 150 of these Thracian
troops. Just 150? But they proved so effective
and so vital to his battlefield strategy that
by the time his army reached Susa, deep in the
Persian Empire, he had expanded their numbers
to 1 ,600. He literally used Thracian blood and
skill to build the Macedonian Empire. It's incredible
to think about how much of ancient history was
shaped by Thracian soldiers fighting in other
people's wars. But I want to pivot here because
while they were out building empires for the
Macedonians and the Persians, what was actual
day -to -day life like back in Thrace? The source
material paints a picture of a society with religious
and social customs that were incredibly extreme
by modern standards. Their religious life was
deeply complex. On the surface, it was polytheistic,
much like the Greeks. But it had these very distinct
monotheistic hints running through it that fascinated
ancient observers. Like who? A central figure
of their worship was a deity known as the Thracian
Horseman, or Sabazios. You look at Thracian funeral
statues, he is almost always depicted as a heroic
rider on horseback, violently slaying a beast
with a spear. He functioned as a god of the underworld,
but also as a powerful symbol of martial virtue
and elite status. Meanwhile, you had other tribes
in the northern territories, like the Getae and
the Dacians, who followed a very mysterious god
named Zelmoxis. Some modern anthropologists actually
argue that the worship of Zelmoxis was an early
form of a monotheistic cult. But we absolutely
cannot talk about Thracian religion without talking
about their arguably greatest contribution to
human history. The sources show that the Thracians
practically invented wine culture. Yes, they
did. We are talking over 6 ,000 years ago. Long
before the Greeks ever raised a glass, the Thracians
were worshipping the god of wine, whom they called
Zagreus. The Greeks actually adopted him later
and renamed him Dionysus. But for the Thracians,
winemaking and heavy wine consumption weren't
just about throwing a good party. Not at all.
It was deeply, intrinsically tied to their religious
rituals. Consuming wine in massive quantities
was a way to achieve an altered state of consciousness,
a way to directly commune with the divine. Right.
They took their wine very seriously, and that
penchant for excess extended into their social
lives, taking forms that genuinely shocked the
ancient writers who observed them. Their marriage
customs are a perfect example of this. I have
to ask you to break this down because the logistics
of their social structure sound like absolute
chaos. It was certainly a completely different
paradigm. We have accounts from ancient writers,
like Menander, detailing the extreme nature of
Thracian polygamy. It was noted that Thracian
men routinely had 10, 11, or even 12 wives simultaneously.
12 wives. It was such an ingrained marker of
status and wealth that if a Thracian man died
and he only had four or five wives, he was mourned
by his community as being ill -fated and practically
unmarried. The social pressure of your friends
feeling sorry for you because you only managed
to secure five marriages is just hard to wrap
your head around. Very different times. But what
did this mean for the women in this society?
How did the social dynamics actually function?
It was a life of harsh extremes. Unmarried Thracian
women were actually granted a surprising amount
of autonomy and total sexual freedom. They could
associate with whoever they pleased without any
real social stigma. Okay, but what about when
they got married? Wow. Wow. It is such a stark
contrast to try and reconcile. On one hand, you
have this highly sophisticated culture producing
master artisans who make breathtaking gold jewelry.
And on the other hand, you have warlords managing
12 wives and selling their kids to pay the bills.
And just to add one more layer of profound cognitive
dissonance to their society, you have to contrast
that wild, polygamous, wine -soaked warlord lifestyle
with a completely different subculture that existed
right alongside it. Right, the holy men. Yes,
the Thracians had a highly revered class of holy
men known as the Kistess. These were ascetic
philosophers, prophets, and healers. who lived
entirely celibate lives. Total opposite end of
the spectrum. Exactly. They lived completely
without women, abstained from all the excesses
of regular Thracian society, and dedicated themselves
entirely to the spiritual realm. And the incredible
part is that these celibate ascetics were held
in the absolute highest honor by the very same
warlords who were hoarding wives and drinking
themselves into religious stupors. It just proves
you really cannot put this civilization into
a neat little box. They were a mass of contradictions.
So with all this... All this wealth and this
massive population. How did it all eventually
come crashing down? How do you go from fielding
armies for Alexander the Great to disappearing
from the political map? It wasn't a sudden dramatic
collapse. It was a slow, relentless absorption
by the growing Roman Republic and later the Roman
Empire. After the Romans won the Third Macedonian
War, they finally turned their full attention
to Thrace. Right. Initially, Thrace was reduced
to a Roman client state. They were allowed to
keep their own kings, but those kings answered
directly to Rome. Which, knowing Roman history,
is usually just step one of a total takeover.
Exactly. The Thracian royal families became deeply
enmeshed in volatile Roman politics, and it all
culminated in AD 46 in a betrayal that feels
straight out of a political thriller. Oh, this
is the Game of Thrones part. Yes. The reigning
Thracian king, Romatelsus III, was murdered by
his own wife. The Roman emperor used the ensuing
chaos and instability as the perfect excuse to
step in, abolish the Odrysian kingdom entirely,
and officially incorporate the territory as the
Roman province of Thracia. So what does this
all mean for the actual people? Because the Roman
Empire eventually falls, and then that specific
region of the Balkans gets invaded over and over
again. You have the Celts, the Huns, the Slavs
all sweeping through. Did the Thracian people
just get wiped out in the crossfire? Culturally
and linguistically, yes. They were eventually
completely assimilated into the Byzantine and
later the Bulgarian empires. The Thracian language
went extinct, and their ancient polytheistic
religion was entirely replaced by Christianity.
So the culture died. But biologically, they didn't
disappear at all. Their bloodline survived every
single one of those invasions. A major genetic
study published in 2013 looked at the DNA extracted
from ancient Thracian remains and compared it
to modern populations. And what did they find?
They found that roughly 55 % of the autosomal
genetic legacy of modern Bulgarians is of Paleo
-Balkan origin. Just to clarify, when we say
autosomal genetic legacy, we are talking about
the core DNA passed down through the generations
outside of just the specific X and Y chromosomes,
right? Exactly. It's the broad genetic footprint
of a population. And that data directly links
the people living in Southeast Europe today to
the ancient Thracians who built the Adrygian
kingdom all those millennia ago. That is just
amazing to think about. After thousands of years
of invasions and empire collapses, the literal
DNA of the people who invented wine culture and
fought alongside Alexander the Great is still
walking around today. It really is. It really
reframes the entire story we set out to explore.
We started this deep dive looking at a group
of people who were completely dismissed by their
rivals as heavily tattooed, bloodthirsty, barbarian
polygamists. But when you actually dig into the
archaeological and genetic evidence, you find
highly sophisticated musicians, master artisans,
elite tactical soldiers, and the direct genetic
ancestors of modern Southeast Europe. It is such
a powerful reminder of why we have to look past
the propaganda of history's victors. This raises
an important question, though, and it is something
that haunts anyone who studies this civilization.
What's that? We are talking about a society that
numbered in the millions. They had 200 tribes.
They shaped Greek and Roman history. They built
vast trade networks and regional empires. But
despite all of that wealth and sophistication,
the Thracians never developed a unified written
language of their own. Wait. Really? Nothing
at all? Almost nothing. To this day, across all
their ancient territory, only four Thracian inscriptions
have ever been found. Just four? Just four. The
most famous is a mysterious eight -line text
etched into a beautiful gold ring found in Ezrovo,
Bulgaria. And to this day, it remains completely
undeciphered. We have no Thracian histories,
no Thracian poems written by their own hands,
no Thracian laws or philosophy. So you really
have to ponder. What does it mean for an entire
massive civilization to be utterly silenced by
time? Everything we've discussed today, their
complex culture, their physical appearance, their
bravery, their contradictions, we have had to
piece together almost entirely through the highly
biased words of their bitterest enemies and the
silent gold they left buried in the dirt. It
makes you wonder what their story would sound
like if they had only possessed the tools to
tell it themselves. That is an incredibly haunting
thought to leave on, a massive silenced empire
whispering to us through undeciphered gold rings
in the DNA of their descendants. I want to thank
you so much for coming along on this deep dive
with us today. Keep questioning the history you
think you know, and stay insanely curious until
next time.