Odryses

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Odrysian gold jewelry, National Historical Museum in Sofia

The Odrysians was the largest Thracian tribe , which is about to v 450th Chr. Founded his own kingdom, which is to Danube and Strymon extended.

The Kingdom were in the coastal area between the Strymon and Nestos the Sapierer and Satren , north of it inland the Dersaier , in the high mountain country Satren that Bessen and odomanti of Pangaion in the river valley of the north Angites the edoni and further north the Paioner and Paiopler . It flourished under King Sitalkes (440–424 BC). The Odryses were often allied with Athens . In 341 BC The empire came under Macedonian domination.

Settlement area

Settlement area and neighboring peoples of the Odrysen

The settlement area of ​​the Odrysen extended in the 5th to 1st century BC. Until the bend of the Tonzos river (Greek, today's name: Tundscha ) near the village of Kabile (Bulgarian Кабиле), on the lower reaches of the Hebrus (Latin, today's name: Mariza in Bulgaria or Evros in Greece). One of the most important cities of the Odrysians was Uscudama (= Odrysia = Adrianopolis = Edirne , Bulgarian Odrin / Одрин). In its pre-Roman times it was known under the name Odrysia, probably in reference to the Thracian tribe of the Odrysen or Uscudama, and belonged to Thrace. Odrysia was from 5th to 3rd century BC. The capital of the Odrysen Empire.

history

Before the founding of the empire

In the course of the Greek colonization, the cities of Amphipolis , Maroneia , Abdera , Ainos emerged on the Aegean Sea ; the cities of the Thracian Chersonese ; the cities on the Propontis , on the Marmara Sea the cities of Perinthos , Selymbria and Byzantion ; and at the Pontus (Black Sea) Apollonia , Mesambria , Odessos Dionysopolis , Kallatis and Histria , as well as over thirty small colonies that played a minor role. Colonization was still going on when the Persians in 512 BC. BC invaded Europe and conquered the Greek cities in Asia Minor.

Herodotus reports about the Odryses in connection with the campaign of Darius I against the Scythians . When Darius I started his campaign, he led his army through the Odrysen region, through all of Eastern Thrace, across the Danube to Scythia . After his defeat, the Scythians pursued him through Thrace to the Thracian Chersonese. During his reign the Persians also invaded the Aegean Thrace, reached the Mariza and the Doriskos fortress they had previously built , crossed the river and took the land up to the Mesta . Under Xerxes I , the Persians reached the Struma , which they crossed and subjugated the Thracians who lived there. The military administration of these areas was exercised by the Persians from Doriskos and Ainos .

In the 2nd half of the 5th century BC After repelling the Persian invasion, the Thracians succeeded in founding a Thracian kingdom under the Odrysen dynasty.

Kingdom of the Odryses - ascent to regional power

Odrysian state in the 4th century BC Chr.

After the defeat in the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persians withdrew to Asia. The Greek colonists stayed on the Thracian coasts afterwards. It is not known whether the Odryses under Teres I moved into the area of ​​the Thyner and the neighboring tribes before the departure of the Persians or shortly after and appropriated it. After the Persian withdrawal, the Geten on the lower Danube and the Bessen, the western neighbors of the Odryses, also belonged to the empire of Teres I. The Odryses then extended along the Propontis and the Black Sea coast to the lower reaches of the Danube. Teres took up relations with the Scythian ruler Ariapeithes and gave him one of his daughters as a wife.

Homer already reports that the Odryses were the first Thracian tribe to establish a permanent state structure in conjunction with other Thracian tribes. The territory of the empire extended over what is now Bulgaria, north-west Turkey and northern parts of Greece. The Odrysen had a high level of development and was well organized. They had social and state structures whose activities extended beyond the borders of their tribal association. The largest Thracian confederation, the Odrysen Empire, existed from the beginning of the 5th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The first capital was somewhere on the lower reaches of the Mariza .

Under Teres I (reign 475–445 BC) the state structure extended to the mouth of the Danube and extended over the catchment areas of the Tundscha , Arda and Mariza rivers and further east and southeast to the hinterland of the Greek colonies. His successors were his sons Sparadokos (reign 448-440 BC) and later his brother Sitalkes (reign 431-424 BC).

Sparadok strengthened and stabilized the state established by Teres I politically. Sitalkes extended the empire in the west to the lower reaches of the Struma and the area of ​​today's Sofia . In alliance with Athens he turned to the Macedonians, but when he received no support from Athens, he gave up this campaign. Thucydides reports high tax revenues under Seuthes I (reign 424–407 BC), who took the throne in 424 BC. And that the state of the Odrysen came to great prosperity. In addition, the Greek cities on the Aegean Sea continued to pay tribute to the king of Odyres. Thucydides mentioned the Odryses and their political and military operations and described the realm of the Odryses as the wealthiest country between the Adriatic and the Black Sea.

The relatively peaceful period of the rise of the four kings Teres I, Sparadok, Sitalkes and Seuthes I, during which the sons and grandsons of Teres I were appointed administrators and governors of various areas of the empire, followed under Amadokos I (407-386 BC). Chr.) And Seuthes II. A period of inner turmoil. Only Kotys I put 383 v. Chr. The unity of the Odrysenreich re-established. During his reign (reign 384-360 BC) he tried to bring the Thracian Chersonese under his control. However, he was murdered by two residents of Ainos.

In the middle of the 4th century BC BC the Odrysen Empire lost its military-political power and was shaken by social and political crises.

Decline and bust

Odrysian Armor, National Historical Museum in Sofia

Kersebleptes (reign 358–341 BC), the son and successor of Kotys I, was unable to maintain the unity and power of the Odrysenian Empire. In the middle of the 4th century BC The empire of the Odrysen split up into three smaller alliances. Of these, the part with the new capital Seuthopolis (in the area of ​​today's Kazanlak ) continued to exist the longest. The three successor kingdoms existed until the rise of the Macedonian kingdom under Philip II. Under the successors of Kotys I, the kingdom south of Hemus was conquered by Philip II, while north of Hemus the tribalists expanded their territory at the expense of the Odrysen. In order to protect himself from the Macedonians, the Getic king Kotylas married one of his daughters, Philip II. It was only his son, Alexander the Great , who attacked and defeated the Triballians . The successor kingdoms, however, were never fully conquered.

Despite the Macedonian occupation, the Odrysen Empire and its ruling dynasty continued to exist. After the death of Alexander the Great and the partition of the Macedonian Empire, the general Lysimachos became ruler of Thrace. A civil war broke out in Thrace under Lysimachus. The Odrysian kings made several alliances with one another at the time of Lysimachus in order to evade his rule. At the head of such an alliance came Seuthes III. That the Rosental dominated, another Federation was of Dromichaetes , king of the Getae out. However, no winner emerged from the clashes between the alliances and Lysimachus, and the ongoing civil war increasingly weakened both sides. Although during the reign of Seuthes III. stabilized the Odrysian Empire, invaded in the 3rd century BC. The Celts came into Thrace from the west . The onslaught of the Celts became the cause of the resettlement of various Thracian tribes on the Balkan Peninsula. Some Celtic groups also settled in Thrace, while others plundered all of Thrace in order to found the Galatian Empire in Phygian territory.

The Celtic Empire existed between 279 and 216 BC. Until it was destroyed by insurgent Thracians. However, the end of Celtic rule did not lead to consolidation, but to complete fragmentation among the Thracians. During this time the Romans invaded from the west . While the Romans in the first half of the first century BC BC were interested in supporting the Odrysian Empire and taking advantage of its striving to subjugate the neighboring tribes, they launched an attack at the turn of the century.

Even after the final fall of the Greek and Macedonian cities under the expansion pressure of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC The Thracians offered resistance. The Third Mithridatic War (74–63 BC) was of decisive importance . A around 56–54 BC The alliance that had come about between the Getes under the leadership of Burebista and the Odrysen broke up quickly. In the period from 44–42 BC BC the weakened empire of the Geten split into five parts and the Romans were able to subdue the north-western regions of Thrace and incorporate them into the province of Moesia .

Through the expedition of Lucullus , the Odrysen came under Roman protection. Lucullus advanced east, defeated the Besser in their mountains, took their capital, Uscudama , and forced them to submit to Roman suzerainty. Under King Sadalas , the territory of the Odrysen Empire became a Roman protectorate under the rule of the Odrysen kings. The Greek cities on the east coast north and south of the Balkan Mountains: Istropolis, Tomoi, Kallatis, Odessos (today Warna ), Mesembria (today Nessebar ), Apollonia Pontica and others became dependent on the Romans. Although the Romans were victorious, they could only break the resistance of individual Thracian tribes and kingdoms, but not secure their permanent Roman rule over Thrace.

The actions of the Romans eventually led to a gradual transformation of the Thracian area into a Roman province . The Roman Emperor Tiberius installed a governor for Thrace in AD 19.

An Odrysen tribe who lived in the Eastern Rhodopes rebelled against the Roman occupiers in AD 21: Rhoimetalkes II, a Thracian king on the side of the Romans, was included in Philippolis, which the Romans for AD 21 Prompted intervention. In 26 AD, other Thracian tribes who settled south of the Balkan Mountains rebelled against the Romans when Roman troops raised among the Thracians led to an uprising at Haimos (Thracian for Balkan Mountains). The Romans therefore intervened again in AD 26.

Rhoimetalkes II. (ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΡΟΙΜΗΤΑΛΚΑΣ) was a vassal king of the Thracian Odrysenic empire who was dependent on Rome and ruled the Odrysenic kingdom from 18 to 38 AD together with his mother Antonia Tryphaina ; both had been installed by Tiberius.

After the assassination of Rhoimetalkes II in 38 his cousin Rhoimetalkes III. (the son of Rhaskuporis III. ) appointed by Caligula as king.

After the assassination of Rhoimetalkes III. Thrace was annexed by the Romans and the neighboring provinces were reorganized: in 44 AD the common Balkan command consisting of Moesia, Macedonia and Achaia was dissolved. Macedonia and Achaia returned to the administration of proconsuls, while Moesia was formally established as a province under a consular legate.

In AD 46, under Emperor Claudius, the protectorate was directly subordinated to the Roman Empire and incorporated into the newly created province of Thrace .

When the Roman Empire was divided in 395, Thrace was within the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).

Cities

Demosthenes already mentions Kabyle (near Jambol ), Masteyra (near Mladenowo, Chaskowo district) and Drongilion as Thracian cities. The most important Odrysian city known today is, however, Seuthopolis near Kazanlak . The Romans made use of the existing infrastructure in many places. Some cities and settlements were founded in Thracian cities.

“The tribute payments from all barbarian peoples and from the Greek cities over which the Odrysen ruled at the time of Seuthes I (424–407 BC) reached 400 talents and were paid in gold and silver ... so their kingdom came too great power. Of the states of Europe lying between the Ionian Gulf ( Adriatic Sea ) and the Euxeinos Pontus ( Black Sea ), this kingdom was the greatest in terms of its income and other riches. ”- Thucydides (5th century BC)

List of the Odrysian kings

Abdera line:

See also

List of Thracian tribes

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Ivan Wenedikow: Thrace