Thrace, Modern Greek Thrki, Latin Thracia, ancient and modern region of the

southeastern Balkans.
The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. To the ancient Greeks it was that
part of the Balkans between the Danube River to the north and the Aegean Sea to
the south, being bounded on the east by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmaraand
on the west by the mountains east of the Vardar (Modern Greek: Axis or Vardrais)
River. The Roman province of Thrace was somewhat smaller, having the same
eastern maritime limits and being bounded on the north by the Balkan Mountains;
the Roman province extended west only to the Nstos River. Since Roman times,
Greek Macedonia to the west has been separated from Greek Thrace by the Nstos.
The portion of Thrace that is now part of Greece is bounded by the Nstos River to
the west, the Rhodope (Rodpi) Mountains to the north, and the Maritsa (also called
vros) River to the east. The southern part of Bulgaria and European Turkey,
including the Gallipoli Peninsula, constitute the remainder of the geographical region
of Thrace. About one-fourth of Thrace lies in Turkey, about one-tenth in Greece, and
the remainder in Bulgaria.
Topographically, Thrace alternates between mountain-enclosed basins of varying
size and deeply cut river valleys. A wide plateau extends southward from the
Rhodope Mountains and separates the lowlands along the Maritsa River from the
plains of western Thrace. A Mediterranean climate prevails in southern Thrace and is
modified by continental influences in the Rhodope Mountains. The range of
temperatures is greater in Thrace than in the southern Greek mainland; average
temperatures in Alexandropoli (also spelled Alexandropolis) range from the low
40s F (about 6 C) in January to the low 80s F (about 27 C) in July. Rivers are
reduced to trickles during the summer months, and they drain toward the Aegean.
Ancient Greek and Roman historians agreed that the ancient Thracians, who were
of Indo-European stock and language, were superior fighters; only their constant
political fragmentation prevented them from overrunning the lands around the
northeastern Mediterranean. Although these historians characterized the Thracians
as primitive partly because they lived in simple, open villages, the Thracians in fact
had a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music.
Their soldiers were valued as mercenaries, particularly by the Macedonians and
Romans.

The Greeks founded several colonies on the Thracian coasts, the most notable
being Byzantium. Others were on the Bosporus, Propontis, and Thracian
Chersonese peninsula. On the Aegean were Abdera near the Nstos delta and
Aenus near Alexandropoli. Farther north on the Black Seas Gulf of Burgas, the
Milesians founded Apollonia (7th century BCE), and the Chalcedonians founded
Mesembria (end of the 6th century BCE).
Most Thracians became subject to Persia about 516510

BCE.

Members of the

Odrysae tribe briefly unified their fellow Thracians into an empire that in 360

BCEsplit

three ways and was quite easily assimilated (356342) by Philip II of Macedon. The
Thracians provided Philips son, Alexander the Great, with valuable light-armed
troops during his conquests. In 197, Rome assigned much of Thrace to the kingdom
of Pergamum, though the coastal area west of the Maritsa was annexed to the
Roman province of Macedonia. In the 1st century BCE, Rome became more directly
involved in the affairs of the whole region, and dynastic quarrels among the local
Thracian rulers, who had by then become client kings of Rome, prompted the
emperor Claudius I to annex the entire Thracian kingdom in 46

CE.

Thrace was

subsequently made into a Roman province. The emperor Trajanand his

successor, Hadrian, founded cities in Thrace, notably Sardica (modernSofia) and
Hadrianopolis (modern Edirne). About 300 CE, Diocletian reorganized the area
between the Lower Danube and the Aegean into the diocese of Thrace.
From the 3rd to the 7th century the population of Thrace was altered greatly by
repeated Gothic, Visigothic, and Slavic invasions and immigrations. In the 7th
century the Bulgarian state was founded, and Byzantium consequently lost all
Thrace north of the Balkan Mountains to the Bulgarians. Racked by Byzantine civil
wars in the 14th century, Thrace fell piece by piece, up to 1453, to
the OttomanTurks, who ruled it for four centuries thereafter. Russian encroachments
in the eastern Balkans culminated in the Russo-Turkish Wars (182829 and 1877
78), but Russia failed to create a Greater Bulgaria that would include the northern
portions of Thrace at the expense of Turkey. The whole of Thrace therefore remained
under Turkish domination. During the Balkan Wars (191213) Thrace suffered
terribly. After World War I the boundaries of Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey in Thrace
were established by the treaties of Neuilly (1919), Svres (1920),
andLausanne (1923), and after World War II they remained unchanged.

As a result of wars and both forced and voluntary population exchanges, the ethnic
character of Thrace became more homogeneous during the 20th century, although
there are still large Turkish minorities in both Greek and Bulgarian Thrace.
The Turks in Greek (Western) Thrace were excluded from the Greek-Turkish
population exchange of 1923, while many of the resettled Greeks from Bulgaria and
Turkey were settled in Western Thrace. A relatively small number of Turks from
Bulgaria were resettled in Turkish (Eastern) Thrace. The Muslim population was
exempted from repatriation to Turkey by the Treaty of Lausannein 1923, but many
emigrated after the appropriation of their land in 1924 and subsequently continued to
emigrate because of deteriorating relations between Greece and Turkey. The Greek
population of Western Thrace has grown rapidly since 1923 and is now the dominant
population group, generally enjoying a higher standard of living than the Turkish
minority. Greek is gradually supplantingTurkish as the language of instruction even in
Muslim schools. Tensions between Greeks and the remaining Muslims have led to
occasional outbursts of intercommunal violence. Most Thracian Muslims are of
Turkish ancestry and speak Turkish. The Pomaks, who are Muslims and speak a
Bulgarian dialect, are concentrated along the border with Bulgaria. There is also a
small group of sedentary Roma (Gypsies) who speak Romany and Turkish.
High-quality Turkish tobacco, cultivated primarily by Muslims, is the chief cash crop
of the region. Corn (maize) and rice are grown on the lowlands of the Evros River
and the plains of western Thrace. Vineyards are found around Alexandropoli, where
wine is produced. Oyster farming around Keramot and eel fishing at Komotin
provide exports to central Europe. The manufacturing industries of Thrace consist
chiefly of the processing of agricultural crops, tobacco curing, and wine production.
Archaeological sites, including Abdera, home of Democritus, the 5th-century
philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of Protagoras, a counselor
of Alexander the Great, and the course of the Roman highway called the Via Egnatia
attract tourists. Komotin has a large museum with objects from throughout Thrace.
Komotin also is the site of Democritus University (1973) and of a Muslim secondary
college.