The term Thraco-Roman describes the Romanized culture of

Thracians The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

under the rule of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. The

Odrysian kingdom The Odrysian Kingdom (; Ancient Greek: ) was a state grouping many Thracian tribes united by the Odrysae, which arose in the early 5th century BC and existed at least until the late 1st century BC. It consisted mainly of present-day Bulgaria an ...

of Thrace became a Roman

client kingdom A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...

c. 20 BC, while the Greek

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

s on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast came under Roman control, first as ''

civitates foederatae A ''civitas foederata'', meaning "allied state/community", was the most elevated type of autonomous cities and local communities under Roman rule. Each Roman province comprised a number of communities of different status. Alongside Roman colonies ...

'' ("allied" cities with internal autonomy). After the death of the Thracian king

Rhoemetalces III Rhoemetalces III ( grc-gre, Ῥoιμητάλκης) was a King of the Sapaean Thracians. He was the son of the Monarch Rhescuporis II. In association with his wife Pythodoris II (daughter of his cousin Cotys III), they were client rulers of the S ...

in 46 AD and an unsuccessful anti-Roman revolt, the kingdom was annexed as the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Thracia Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek D ...

. The northern Thracians ( Getae- Dacians) formed a unified kingdom of

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...

, before being conquered by the Romans in 106 and their land turned into the Roman province of Dacia.

Archaeological sites

* The Thraco-Roman

Villa Rustica Villa rustica () was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a farmhouse or villa set in the countryside and with an agricultural section, which applies to the vast majority of Roman villas. In some cases they were at the centre of a large ...

near Chatalka, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria * Thraco-Roman Cult Complex built in the rocks near

Strelkovo Kaynardzha Municipality ( bg, Община Кайнарджа) is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Silistra Province, Northeastern Bulgaria, located in the Danubian Plain, in the area of the South Dobrudzha geographical region, bounded on the ...

, Bulgaria

Famous individuals

This is a list of several important Thraco-Roman individuals: *

Maximinus Thrax Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" ("the Thracian"; – 238) was Roman emperor from 235 to 238. His father was an accountant in the governor's office and sprang from ancestors who were Carpi (a Dacian tribe), a people whom Diocleti ...

, Roman Emperor from 235 to 238. *

Regalianus P. C. Regalianus (died 260/261), also known as Regalian, was Roman usurper for a few months in 260 and/or 261, during the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of intense political instability in the Roman Empire. Regalianus was acclaimed emperor ...

, Roman general and imperial usurper. * Aureolus, Roman military commander and imperial usurper. *

Galerius Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across th ...

, Roman Emperor from 305 to 311. *

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to C ...

, Roman emperor from 308 to 324. *

Maximinus Daza Galerius Valerius Maximinus, born as Daza (20 November 270 – July 313), was Roman emperor from 310 to 313 CE. He became embroiled in the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy between rival claimants for control of the empire, in which he was defeate ...

, Roman emperor from 310 to 313. *

Flavius Aetius Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 454) was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (433454). He managed pol ...

, Roman general, called " the last of the Romans". *

Leo I The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications. The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and ...

, Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474. *

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman ( la, Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, ''Ioannus Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern c ...

, a 4th-century monk who contributed to bringing the egyptian monastic tradition to Western Europe. Born in Scythia Minor and died near modern day Marseilles, southern France *

Dionysius Exiguus Dionysius Exiguus (Latin for "Dionysius the Humble", Greek: Διονύσιος; – ) was a 6th-century Eastern Roman monk born in Scythia Minor. He was a member of a community of Scythian monks concentrated in Tomis (present day Constanța ...

, a 6th-century monk born in

Scythia Minor Scythia Minor or Lesser Scythia (Greek: , ) was a Roman province in late antiquity, corresponding to the lands between the Danube and the Black Sea, today's Dobruja divided between Romania and Bulgaria. It was detached from Moesia Inferior by th ...

, most likely of local Thraco-Roman origin.Patrick Amory, ''People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554'', Cambridge University Press, 2003. *

Justin I Justin I ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, ''Ioustînos''; 450 – 1 August 527) was the Eastern Roman emperor from 518 to 527. Born to a peasant family, he rose through the ranks of the army to become commander of the imperial ...

, Byzantine Emperor from 518 to 527, was possibly of Thraco-Roman or Illyro-Roman stock. * Vitalian, an East Roman general who rebelled in 513 against Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518). Vitalian may have been of local Thracian stock, born in Scythia Minor or in Moesia; his father bore a Latin name, Patriciolus, while two of his sons had Thracian names and one a Gothic name. *

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...

, Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565 and born in

Tauresium Tauresium (Latin; mk, Тауресиум), today as Gradište ( mk, Градиште), is an archaeological site in North Macedonia, approximately southeast of the capital Skopje. Tauresium is the birthplace of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (ca. ...

around 482. His

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

-speaking

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...

family is believed to have been of Thraco-Roman or

Illyro-Roman Illyro-Roman is a term used in historiography and anthropological studies for the Romanized Illyrians within the ancient Roman provinces of Illyricum, Moesia, Pannonia and Dardania. The term 'Illyro-Roman' can also be used to describe the Roman ...

origins. *

Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terr ...

, a general during the reign of Justinian I. He was born in ''Germane'' (nowadays

Sapareva Banya Sapareva Banya ( bg, Сапарева баня, transliterated ''Sapareva banya'') is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, part of Kyustendil Province. As Ancient Germania (in Dacia), a former bishopric, it is a Latin Catholic titular see. It is loca ...

) in Western Thrace, possibly of Thraco-Roman or Illyro-Roman origin. Commanded several campaigns for reconquering Mediterranean territory of the former

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...

. *

Phocas Phocas ( la, Focas; grc-gre, Φωκάς, Phōkás; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially, a middle-ranking officer in the Eastern Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers ...

, Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610.

Notes

References

* Nicolae Saramandru: “Torna, Torna Fratre”; Bucharest, 2001–2002; Online
.pdf
* Nicolae-Șerban Tanașoca: “«Torna, torna, fratre» et la romanité balkanique au VI e siècle” ("Torna, torna, fratre, and Balkan Romanity in the 6th century") ''Revue roumaine de linguistique'', XXXVIII, Bucharest, 1993. * Nicolae Iorga: “Geschichte des rumänischen Volkes im Rahmen seiner Staatsbildungen” ("History of the Romanian people in the context of its statal formation"), I, Gotha, 1905; “Istoria românilor” ("History of the Romanians"), II, Bucharest, 1936. Istoria României ("History of Romania"), I, Bucharest, 1960. * {{Thracians Ancient Roman culture Romanization of Southeastern Europe Eastern Romance people History of the Romanian language Eastern Romance languages Roman assimilation

Archaeological sites

Famous individuals

See also

Further reading

Notes

References