The term Thraco-Roman describes the

Romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

culture of

Thracians The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared betwee ...

under the rule of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace became a Roman

client kingdom A client state in the context of international relations is a state that is economically, politically, and militarily subordinated to a more powerful controlling state. Alternative terms for a ''client state'' are satellite state, associated 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 throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

s on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea 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 bound ...

coast came under Roman control, first as ''

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

'' ("allied" cities with internal autonomy). After the death of the Thracian king Rhoemetalces III in 46 AD and an unsuccessful anti-Roman revolt, the kingdom was annexed as the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) 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 ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Thracia Thracia or Thrace () is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkans, Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical Greece, Classical and Hellenistic period, Hellenis ...

. The northern Thracians (

Getae The Getae or Getai ( or , also Getans) were a large nation who inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania, throughout much of Classical Antiquity. The main source of informa ...

Dacians The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area include ...

) 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 thus ro ...

, 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, Bulgaria

Famous individuals

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

Maximinus Thrax Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" () was a Roman emperor from 235 to 238. Born of Thracian origin – given the nickname ''Thrax'' ("the Thracian") – he rose up through the military ranks, ultimately holding high command in the army of th ...

, Roman emperor from 235 to 238. His nickname "Thrax" which means "Thracian" is due to his origins. * Regalianus, Roman general and imperial usurper. *

Aureolus Aureolus was a Roman military commander during the reign of Emperor Gallienus before he attempted to usurp the Roman Empire. After turning against Gallienus, Aureolus was killed during the political turmoil that surrounded the Emperor's assass ...

, Roman military commander and imperial usurper. *

Galerius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; Greek: Γαλέριος; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. He participated in the system of government later known as the Tetrarchy, first acting as '' caesar'' under Emperor Diocletian. In th ...

, Roman emperor from 305 to 311. *

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; 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 that ...

, 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. He became embroiled in the civil wars of the Tetrarchy between rival claimants for control of the empire, in which he was defeated ...

, Roman emperor from 310 to 313. *

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

, Roman emperor and member of Thetrarchy, from 306 to 337. He was born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterranea and according to one of his dynastic member Julian, his family was of Thracian origin from the

Moesi In Roman literature of the early 1st century CE, the Moesi ( or ; , ''Moisoí'' or Μυσοί, ''Mysoí''; or ''Moesae'') appear as a Paleo-Balkan people who lived in the region around the Timok River to the south of the Danube. The Moesi do ...

tribe. Thus, the Constantinian dynasty was one of the Thraco-Roman dynasties. *

Flavius Aetius Flavius Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 21 September 454) was a Roman Empire, Roman general and statesman of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most inf ...

, Roman general, called the "

last of the Romans The term Last of the Romans () has historically been used to describe a person thought to embody Culture of ancient Rome, the values of ancient Rome, ancient Roman civilization – values which, by implication, became extinct on his death. It ha ...

". *

Marcian Marcian (; ; ; 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the Byzantine Empire, East from 450 to 457. Very little is known of his life before becoming emperor, other than that he was a (personal assistant) who served under the commanders ...

, Byzantine emperor from 450 to 457. * Leo I, Byzantine emperor from 457 to 474. He is also called "Thrax". His dynasty called Leonid were commonly referred as the "Thracian dynasty". *

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman (, ''Ioannes Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; Greek: Ίωάννης Κασσιανός ό Ερημίτης; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated ...

, a 4th-century monk who contributed to bringing the Egyptian monastic tradition to western Europe. Born in Scythia Minor and died near modern-day

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, 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 Constanț ...

, a 6th-century monk born in Scythia Minor, 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 (; ; 450 – 1 August 527), also called Justin the Thracian (; ), was 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 guard and when Emperor Anastasi ...

, Byzantine emperor from 518 to 527, was of Thraco-Roman origin. He was the father of Justinian I who was referred by John Malalas as being a Thracian. * Vitalian, Byzantine 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 Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; ) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballi ...

; his father bore a Latin name, Patriciolus, while two of his sons had Thracian names and one a Gothic name. *

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

, Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. Born in Tauresium around 482. His

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

-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 peasan ...

family was of Thraco-Roman origin as John Malalas writes.Justinian and Theodora Robert Browning
Gorgias Press LLC, 2003, , p. 23. *

Belisarius BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...

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

Sapareva Banya Sapareva Banya (, 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 located at the north foot of the Ri ...

) in western Thrace or in ''Germania'' in Dacia Mediterranea, possibly of Thraco-Roman or Greek origin. *

Justin II Justin II (; ; died 5 October 578) was Eastern Roman emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the niece of Justinian's wife Theodora. Justin II inherited a greatly enlarged but overextended empir ...

, nephew of Justinian, and Byzantine emperor from 565 to 578. He was a member of the Justinian dynasty, which is one of the Thraco-Roman dynasties. *

Tiberius II Constantine Tiberius II Constantine (; ; died 14 August 582) was Eastern Roman emperor from 574 to 582. Tiberius rose to power in 574 when Justin II, prior to a mental breakdown, proclaimed him ''caesar'' and adopted him as his own son. In 578, the dying ...

, count of the Excubitors, and Byzantine emperor from 578 to 582. *

Phocas Phocas (; ; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the East Roman army, Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the cour ...

, Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610.

Notes

References

* Nicolae Saramandu: “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 Culture of ancient Rome Romanization of Southeastern Europe Eastern Romance people Roman assimilation

Archaeological sites

Famous individuals

See also

Further reading

Notes

References