Thrace : Never united

Accordign to Herodotus: “… after the Indian, the Thracian people are the most numerous”. He goes on to say that: “Were they under one ruler, or united, they would, in my judgement be invincible and the strongest nation on earth.”But the Thracians never united.

All Thracian tribes built amazing tombs for their rulers. The burial mounds in the Kazanluk area alone number more than 500. Most of the Thracian tombs are of the Mycenaean beehive type.Built in the first half of the 3rd century BC, for a Thracian king, the tomb from Svesthari is richly ornamented. The chamber was decorated as a facade of a temple which depicted a horseman who takes a golden garland from the hands of a goddess with a religious procession following her. Two funerary beds, human bones and grave offerings were discovered in the central chamber. It probably belongs to the Getae tribe.

The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler.
“The empire of the Odrysae measured by the coast-line reaches from the city of Abdera to the mouth of the Ister in the Euxine. The voyage round can be made by a merchant vessel, if the wind is favourable the whole way, at the quickest in four days and as many nights. Or an expeditious traveller going by land from Abdera to the mouth of the Ister, if he takes the shortest route, will accomplish the journey in eleven days. Such was the extent of the Odrysian empire towards the sea”. - THUCYDIDES

The Thracian Bronze Age was similar to that of Mycenaean Greece, and the Thracians had developed high forms of music and poetry, but their savage warfare led the Greeks to consider them barbarians. Many Greek colonies—e.g., Byzantium on the Hellespont and Tomi (modern Constanta) on the Black Sea—were founded in Thrace by c.600 BC The Greeks exploited Thracian gold and silver mines, and they recruited Thracians for their infantry. It also appears from mythological accounts that the Thracians influenced Greek culture from a very early period, with some Thracians even appearing as culture-bearers in some myths. But as non-Greek speakers, they were viewed by the Greeks as barbarians.
The indigenous population of Thrace was an Indo-European people called Thracians. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form a lasting political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the 4th century BC.
Thrace was ruled for nearly half a century by the Persians under Darius the Great who conducted an expedition into the region from 513 BC to 512 BC.
The Odrysian kingdom was a union of Thracian tribes that endured between the 5th century BC and the 3rd century BC. The area included in this kingdom ranged from Romania to northern Greece and Turkey.
Its capital was Uscudama or Odrysia which is now the city of Edirne, in the European part of Turkey.
The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler: king Teres. Initially, the state included eastern Thrace and regions as far north as the mouths of the Danube.
Teres’ son, Sitalkes proved to be a good military leader, forcing the tribes that defected the alliance to acknowledge his sovereignty. The rich state that spread from the Danube to the Aegean built roads to develop trade and built a powerful army that could reach 150,000 men. In 429 BC, they organized a campaign against the Macedonians, but they retreated after only thirty days.
Sitalkes wanted to unify all the Thracians, so he decided to fight the Triballi, but was killed in the battle that followed.
Seuthes I followed as king and during this time, the kingdom enjoyed a period of prosperity
n the 4th century BC, it disintegrated into three smaller kingdoms, of which one, with the capital at Seuthopolis survived the longest. Seuthopolis was not a true polis, but rather the seat of Seuthes and his court. His palace had a dual role, functioning also as a sanctuary of the Kabeiroi. Most of the space within the city was occupied not by homes but by official structures, the majority of the people living outside the city.
The region was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC and was ruled by the kingdom of Macedon for a century and a half.