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For two thousand years, possibly a million Thracians lived in the area now covered by Rumania, Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and northwestern Turkey. They never progressed beyond a tribal Homeric society, and were constantly at war with one another and their neighbours. They were renowned for their love of song, music, dance, colourful clothing, wine, religion, and war.  They produced  increadibly beautiful and expensive art.  Orpheus, Ares (the god of war), and Boreas (the god of the destructive north wind) were all Thracian.  Their warlike temper put them in constant demand as (sometimes highly paid) mercenaries by all the Mediterranean powers.  They annihilated several Greek armies sent on colonisation attempts, and continually gave the coastal Greek cities a lot of trouble, until Athenian machinations split the Odrysian kingdom, allowing Philip of Macedon to overwhelm them. Until 46 AD (when Thrace became a Roman province) the Greeks and Romans lived in fear of a dark Thracian cloud descending from the north, devastating civilisation in the Balkans.

Archaic Period

The Thracians had migrated to Southeastern Europe after the Greeks, after the middle of the second millennium B.C. and in particular in the 12th century B.C. At the same time, Thracian tribes settled in Asia Minor, especially in Bithynia and the Troad. Thracian tribes inhabited Central Macedonia until the founding of the kingdom of Macedonia by the Temenids (early 7th century B.C.), at which time they were forced to move eastwards. In the end, the Thracian tribes were restricted mainly to the northeastern area of the Balkans. From the 7th century B.C. Greek colonies were founded on the Thracian seashores by colonists from the islands of the Eastern Aegean and the Ionian city-states of Asia Minor, a fact which led to more intense mutual influence between the Greeks and Thracians throughout the historical period.

Classical Period

Teres I (450-431BC), of the Odrysian tribe, was the first Thracian king to forge a powerful kingdom, which was based in the central Thracian plain. His son Sitalkes (431-424 BC) expanded this into a huge empire, uniting for the first time all  Thrace south of the Danube. This great kingdom of the Odrysians covered the area from the Strymon River to the Black Sea and from the Aegean to the Danube.    Sitalkes became very rich - his annual income was about half that of the Athenian empire at its height.   In late autumn 429 BC,  in response to an Athenian request for help, Sitalkes' 150,000 warriors poured into Macedonia, carrying all before them. Travelling with the army were Amyntas, the nephew of the Macedonian king Perdiccas, and Hagnon, an Athenian general. Sitalkes proposed to install Amyntas as the new King of Macedonia, while Hagnon was to command the allied Athenian fleet and army.

The First Odrysian Kings

Teres I 450-431 BC

Herodotus IV, 80 - his daughter marries Octamasadas, the Skythian king

Thucydides 2.29 - Athenian alliance with Sitalces (431 BC)

During the same summer Nymphodorus, son of Pythes, an Abderite, whose sister Sitalces had married, was made their proxenus by the Athenians and sent for to Athens. They had hitherto considered him their enemy; but he had great influence with Sitalces, and they wished this prince to become their ally. Sitalces was the son of Teres and King of the Thracians. Teres, the father of Sitalces, was the first to establish the great kingdom of the Odrysians on a scale quite unknown to the rest of Thrace, a large portion of the Thracians being independent. This Teres is in no way related to Tereus who married Pandion's daughter Procne from Athens; nor indeed did they belong to the same part of Thrace. Tereus lived in Daulis, part of what is now called Phocis, but which at that time was inhabited by Thracians. It was in this land that the women perpetrated the outrage upon Itys; and many of the poets when they mention the nightingale call it the Daulian bird. Besides, Pandion in contracting an alliance for his daughter would consider the advantages of mutual assistance, and would naturally prefer a match at the above moderate distance to the journey of many days which separates Athens from the Odrysians. Again the names are different; and this Teres was king of the Odrysians, the first by the way who attained to any power. Sitalces, his son, was now sought as an ally by the Athenians, who desired his aid in the reduction of the Thracian towns and of Perdiccas. Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus concluded the alliance with Sitalces and made his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen, and promised to finish the war in Thrace by persuading Sitalces to send the Athenians a force of Thracian horse and peltasts. He also reconciled them with Perdiccas, and induced them to restore Therme to him; upon which Perdiccas at once joined the Athenians and Phormio in an expedition against the Chalcidians. Thus Sitalces, son of Teres, King of the Thracians, and Perdiccas, son of Alexander, King of the Macedonians, became allies of Athens.

Sitalkes 431-424 BC

Aristophanes, Archarnians, 425 BC

HERALD
Bring in Theorus, who has returned from the Court of Sitalces.

THEORUS (rising; he wears a Thracian costume.)
I am here.

DICAEOPOLIS (aside)
Another humbug!

THEORUS
We should not have remained long in Thrace...

DICAEOPOLIS
...if you had not been well paid.

THEORUS
...if the country had not been covered with snow; the rivers were ice-bound...

DICAEOPOLIS (aside)
That was when Theognis produced his tragedy.

THEORUS
...during the whole of that time I was holding my own with Sitalces cup in hand; and, in truth, he adored you to such a degree that he wrote on the walls, "How beautiful are the Athenians!" His son, to whom we gave the freedom of the city, burned with desire to come here and eat sausages at the feast of the Apaturia; he prayed his father to come to the aid of his new country and Sitalces swore on his goblet that he would succour us with such a host that the Athenians would exclaim, "What a cloud of grasshoppers!
-
DICAEOPOLIS (aside)
Damned if I believe a word of what you tell us! Excepting the grasshoppers, there is not a grain of truth in it all!
-
THEORUS
And he has sent you the most warlike soldiers of all Thrace.
-
DICAEOPOLIS

(A few Thracians are ushered in; they have a most unwarlike appearance; the most striking feature of their costume is the circumcised phallus.)
-
DICAEOPOLIS
What plague have we here?
-
THEORUS
The host of the Odomanti.
-
DICAEOPOLIS
Of the Odomanti? Tell me what it means. Who sliced their tools like that?
-
THEORUS
If they are given a wage of two drachmae, they will put all Boeotia to fire and sword.
-
DICAEOPOLIS
Two drachmae to those circumcised hounds! Groan aloud, ye people of rowers, bulwark of Athens! (The Odomanti steal his sack) Ah! great gods! I am undone; these Odomanti are robbing me of my garlic!  Give me back my garlic.
-
THEORUS
Oh! wretched man! do not go near them; they have eaten garlic.
-
DICAEOPOLIS
Prytanes, will you let me be treated in this manner, in my own country and by barbarians? But I oppose the discussion of paying a wage to the Thracians; I announce an omen; I have just felt a drop of rain.
-
HERALD
Let the Thracians withdraw and return the day after tomorrow; the Prytanes declare the sitting at an end.

Herodotus Histories IV, 80:- Sitalkes marches to meet the Skythians, but exchanges captives instead.

Later, when Scylas was at home again, the Scythians put themselves under the protection of his brother, Octamasadas, the son of Teres daughter, and rose in rebellion.  Then Scylas,  when he learned the danger with which he was threatened, ... made his escape to Thrace.  Octamasadas, discovering whither he had fled, marched after him, and had reached the Ister, when he was met by the forces of the Thracians.  The two armies were about to engage, but before they joined battle, Sitalces sent a message to Octamasadas to this effect - "Why should there be trial of arms between us?  You are my own sister's son, and have my brother in your keeping.  Surrender him into my hands, and I will give your Skylas back to you.  So neither of us will risk our armies."

Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and Octamasadas, with whom a brother of Sitalces [perhaps Sparadocus, father of Seuthes] had formerly taken refuge, accepting the terms.  He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained in exchange his brother Scylas.  Sitalces took his brother with him and withdrew; but Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the spot.

Thucydides Histories 2.29.5

[2.29.5] Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus concluded the alliance with Sitalces and made his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen, and promised to finish the war in Thrace by persuading Sitalces to send the Athenians a force of Thracian horse and targeteers.

Thucydides 2.100 - the great Thracian invasion (429 BC)

About the same time, at the beginning of this winter, Sitalces, son of Teres, the Odrysian king of Thrace, made an expedition against Perdiccas, son of Alexander, king of Macedonia, and the Chalcidians in the neighbourhood of Thrace; his object being to enforce one promise and fulfil another. On the one hand Perdiccas had made him a promise, when hard pressed at the commencement of the war, upon condition that Sitalces should reconcile the Athenians to him and not attempt to restore his brother and enemy, the pretender Philip, but had not offered to fulfil his engagement; on the other he, Sitalces, on entering into alliance with the Athenians, had agreed to put an end to the Chalcidian war in Thrace.
These were the two objects of his invasion. With him he brought Amyntas, the son of Philip, whom he destined for the throne of Macedonia, and some Athenian envoys then at his court on this business, and Hagnon as general; for the Athenians were to join him against the Chalcidians with a fleet and as many soldiers as they could get together.
Beginning with the Odrysians, he first called out the Thracian tribes subject to him between Mounts Haemus and Rhodope and the Euxine and Hellespont; next the Getae beyond Haemus, and the other hordes settled south of the Danube in the neighbourhood of the Euxine, who, like the Getae, border on the Scythians and are armed in the same manner, being all mounted archers. Besides these he summoned many of the hill Thracian independent swordsmen, called Dii and mostly inhabiting Mount Rhodope, some of whom came as mercenaries, others as volunteers; also the Agrianes and Laeaeans, and the rest of the Paeonian tribes in his empire, at the confines of which these lay, extending up to the Laeaean Paeonians and the river Strymon, which flows from Mount Scombrus through the country of the Agrianes and Laeaeans; there the empire of Sitalces ends and the territory of the independent Paeonians begins. Bordering on the Triballi, also independent, were the Treres and Tilataeans, who dwell to the north of  Mount Scombrus and extend towards the setting sun as far as the river Oskius. This river rises in the same mountains as the Nestus and Hebrus, a wild and extensive range connected with Rhodope.
The empire of the Odrysians extended along the seaboard from Abdera to the mouth of the Danube in the Euxine. The navigation of this coast by the shortest route takes a merchantman four days and four nights with a wind astern the whole way: by land an active man, travelling by the shortest road, can get from Abdera to the Danube in eleven days. Such was the length of its coast line. Inland from Byzantium to the Laeaeans and the Strymon, the farthest limit of its extension into the interior, it is a journey of thirteen days for an active man. The tribute from all the barbarian districts and the Hellenic cities, taking what they brought in under Seuthes, the successor of Sitalces, who raised it to its greatest height, amounted to about four hundred talents in gold and silver. There were also presents in gold and silver to a no less amount, besides stuff, plain and embroidered, and other articles, made not only for the king, but also for the Odrysian lords and nobles. For there was here established a custom opposite to that prevailing in the Persian kingdom, namely, of taking rather than giving; more disgrace being attached to not giving when asked than to asking and being refused; and although this prevailed elsewhere in Thrace, it was practised most extensively among the powerful Odrysians, it being impossible to get anything done without a present. It was thus a very powerful kingdom; in revenue and general prosperity surpassing all in Europe between the Ionian Gulf and the Euxine, and in numbers and military resources coming decidedly next to the Scythians, with whom indeed no people in Europe can bear comparison, there not being even in Asia any nation singly a match for them if unanimous, though of course they are not on a level with other races in general intelligence and the arts of civilized life.
It was the master of this empire that now prepared to take the field. When everything was ready, he set out on his march for Macedonia, first through his own dominions, next over the desolate range of Cercine that divides the Sintians and Paeonians, crossing by a road which he had made by felling the timber on a former campaign against the latter people. Passing over these mountains, with the Paeonians on his right and the Sintians and Maedians on the left, he finally arrived at Doberus, in Paeonia, losing none of his army on the march, except perhaps by sickness, but receiving some augmentations, many of the independent Thracians volunteering to join him in the hope of plunder; so that the whole is said to have formed a grand total of a hundred and fifty thousand. Most of this was infantry, though there was about a third cavalry, furnished principally by the Odrysians themselves and next to them by the Getae. The most warlike of the infantry were the independent swordsmen who came down from Rhodope; the rest of the mixed multitude that followed him being chiefly formidable by their numbers.
Assembling in Doberus, they prepared for descending from the heights upon Lower Macedonia, where the dominions of Perdiccas lay; for the Lyncestae, Elimiots, and other tribes more inland, though Macedonians by blood, and allies and dependants of their kindred, still have their own separate governments. The country on the sea coast, now called Macedonia, was first acquired by Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and his ancestors, originally Temenids from Argos. This was effected by the expulsion from Pieria of the Pierians, who afterwards inhabited Phagres and other places under Mount Pangaeus, beyond the Strymon (indeed the country between Pangaeus and the sea is still called the Pierian Gulf); of the Bottiaeans, at present neighbours of the Chalcidians, from Bottia, and by the acquisition in Paeonia of a narrow strip along the river Axius extending to Pella and the sea; the district of Mygdonia, between the Axius and the Strymon, being also added by the expulsion of the Edonians. From Eordia also were driven the Eordians, most of whom perished, though a few of them still live round Physca, and the Almopians from Almopia. These Macedonians also conquered places belonging to the other tribes, which are still theirs- Anthemus, Crestonia, Bisaltia, and much of Macedonia proper.
The whole is now called Macedonia, and at the time of the invasion of Sitalces, Perdiccas, Alexander's son, was the reigning king.

These Macedonians, unable to take the field against so numerous an invader, shut themselves up in such strong places and fortresses as the country possessed. Of these there was no great number, most of those now found in the country having been erected subsequently by Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas, on his accession, who also cut straight roads, and otherwise put the kingdom on a better footing as regards horses, heavy infantry, and other war material than had been done by all the eight kings that preceded him. Advancing from Doberus, the Thracian host first invaded what had been once Philip's government, and took Idomene by assault, Gortynia, Atalanta, and some other places by negotiation, these last coming over for love of Philip's son, Amyntas, then with Sitalces. Laying siege to Europus, and failing to take it, he next advanced into the rest of Macedonia to the left of Pella and Cyrrhus, not proceeding beyond this into Bottiaea and Pieria, but staying to lay waste Mygdonia, Crestonia, and Anthemus.  The Macedonians never even thought of meeting him with infantry; but the Thracian host was, as opportunity offered, attacked by handfuls of their horse, which had been reinforced from their allies in the interior. Armed with cuirasses, and excellent horsemen, wherever these charged they overthrew all before them, but ran considerable risk in entangling themselves in the masses of the enemy, and so finally desisted from these efforts, deciding that they were not strong enough to venture against numbers so superior.
Meanwhile Sitalces opened negotiations with Perdiccas on the objects of his expedition; and finding that the Athenians, not believing that he would come, did not appear with their fleet, though they sent presents and envoys, dispatched a large part of his army against the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and shutting them up inside their walls laid waste their country. While he remained in these parts, the people farther south, such as the Thessalians, Magnetes, and the other tribes subject to the Thessalians, and the Hellenes as far as Thermopylae, all feared that the army might advance against them, and prepared accordingly. These fears were shared by the Thracians beyond the Strymon to the north, who inhabited the plains, such as the Panaeans, the Odomanti, the Droi, and the Dersaeans, all of whom are independent. It was even matter of conversation among the Hellenes who were enemies of Athens whether he might not be invited by his ally to advance also against them. Meanwhile he held Chalcidice and Bottice and Macedonia, and was ravaging them all; but finding that he was not succeeding in any of the objects of his invasion, and that his army was without provisions and was suffering from the severity of the season, he listened to the advice of Seuthes, son of Spardacus, his nephew and highest officer, and decided to retreat without delay. This Seuthes had been secretly gained by Perdiccas by the promise of his sister in marriage with a rich dowry. In accordance with this advice, and after a stay of thirty days in all, eight of which were spent in Chalcidice, he retired home as quickly as he could; and Perdiccas afterwards gave his sister Stratonice to Seuthes as he had promised.
Such was the history of the expedition of Sitalces.

Diodorus Siculus XII. 49. 50-51 (Loeb, 428 BC) : the same story as Thucydides above, but with extra details

50. In the same period Sitalces, the king of the Thracians, had succeeded to the kingship of a small land indeed but nonetheless by his personal courage and wisdom he greatly increased his dominion, equitably governing his subjects, playing the part of a brave soldier in battle and of a skilful general, and furthermore giving close attention to his revenues. In the end he attained to such power that he ruled over more extensive territory than had any who bad preceded him on the throne of Thrace. For the coastline of his kingdom began at the territory of the Abderites and stretched as far as the Ister River, and for a man going from the sea to the interior the distance was so great that a man on foot travelling light required thirteen days for the journey. Ruling as he did over a territory so extensive he enjoyed annual revenues of more than a thousand talents; and when he was waging war in the period we are discussing he mustered from Thrace more than one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and fifty thousand cavalry. But with respect to this war we must set forth its causes, in order that the discussion of it may be clear to our readers.

Now Sitalces, since he had entered into a treaty of friendship with the Athenians,¹ agreed to support them in their war in Thrace; and consequently, since he desired, with the help of the Athenians, to subdue the Chalcidians, he made ready a very considerable army. And since he was at the same time on bad terms with Perdiccas, the king of the Macedonians, he decided to bring back Amyntas, the son of Philip, and place him upon the Macedonian throne.² It was for these two reasons, therefore, as we have described them, that he was forced to raise an imposing army. When all his preparations for the campaign had been made, he led forth the whole army, marched through Thrace, and invaded Macedonia. The Macedonians, dismayed at the great size of the army, did not dare face him in battle, but they removed both the grain and all the property they could into their most powerful strongholds, in which they remained inactive. The Thracians, after placing Amyntas upon the throne, at the outset made an effort to win over the cities by means of parleys and embassies, but when no one paid any attention to them, they forthwith made an assault on the first stronghold and took it by storm. After this some of the cities and strongholds submitted to them of their own accord through fear. And after plundering all Macedonia and appropriating much booty the Thracians turned against the Greek cities in Chalcidice.

51. While Sitalces was engaged in these operations., the Thessalians, Achaeans, Magnesians, and all the other Greeks dwelling between Macedonia and Thermopylae took counsel together and united in raising a considerable army; for they were apprehensive lest the Thracians with all their myriads of soldiers should invade their territory and they themselves should be in peril of losing their native lands. Since the Chalcidians made the same preparations, Sitalces, having learned that the Greeks had mustered strong armies and realising that his soldiers were suffering from the hardships of the winter, came to terms with Perdiccas, concluded a connection by marriage with him,³ and then led his forces back to Thrace.

1.  In 431 BC
2.  Perdiccas had driven his brother Philip from the kingdom, and Philip had taken refuge at the court of Sitalces
3.  Sitalces nephew and successor, Seuthes, married Perdiccas' sister.

Thucydides II, 67 - the Thracians hand over Spartan ambassadors to the Athenians (430 BC)

At the end of the same summer the Corinthian Aristeus, Aneristus, Nicolaus, and Stratodemus, envoys from Lacedaemon, Timagoras, a Tegean, and a private individual named Pollis from Argos, on their way to Asia to persuade the King to supply funds and join in the war, came to Sitalces, son of Teres in Thrace, with the idea of inducing him, if possible, to forsake the alliance of Athens and to march on Potidaea then besieged by an Athenian force, and also of getting conveyed by his means to their destination across the Hellespont to Pharnabazus, who was to send them up the country to the King. But there chanced to be with Sitalces some Athenian ambassadors- Learchus, son of Callimachus, and Ameiniades, son of Philemon- who persuaded Sitalces' son, Sadocus, the new Athenian citizen, to put the men into their hands and thus prevent their crossing over to the King and doing their part to injure the country of his choice. He accordingly had them seized, as they were travelling through Thrace to the vessel in which they were to cross the Hellespont, by a party whom he had sent on with Learchus and Ameiniades, and gave orders for their delivery to the Athenian ambassadors, by whom they were brought to Athens. On their arrival, the Athenians, afraid that Aristeus, who had been notably the prime mover in the previous affairs of Potidaea and their Thracian possessions, might live to do them still more mischief if he escaped, slew them all the same day, without giving them a trial or hearing the defence which they wished to offer, and cast their bodies into a pit; thinking themselves justified in using in retaliation the same mode of warfare which the Lacedaemonians had begun, when they slew and cast into pits all the Athenian and allied traders whom they caught on board the merchantmen round Peloponnese. Indeed, at the outset of the war, the Lacedaemonians butchered as enemies all whom they took on the sea, whether allies of Athens or neutrals.

Thucydides IV, 101 (424 BC)

About the same time as the battle of Delium occurred the death of Sitalces, king of the Odrysians, who had marched against the Triballi and been defeated by them in battle.   Seuthes, the son of Sparadocus, his nephew, succeeded to the kingdom of the Odrysians and the rest of Thrace which had formed part of the dominion of Sitalces.