Thrace
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
THRACE . Some have proposed to Identify Tiras ( Genesis 10:2 ) with Thrace, but this identification is uncertain. A Thracian horseman is mentioned in 2Ma 12:35 (about b.c. 163) as saving Gorgias, the governor of Idumæa under Antiochus Epiphanes, from capture. The name Thrace It was not till a.d. 46 the name of a Roman province was applied to all the country lying between the rivers Strymon and Danube. After the death of Lyslmachus (b.c. 281 see Thyatira), with whom the prospect of civilization for the country died, it continued barbarous, and was famous only for its severe climate and its soldiers. Of the latter there was a plentiful supply, and as soldiers of fortune they were to be found in the armies of the richer States. They were chiefly cavalry and light-armed Infantry. (The name ‘Thracian’ was hence applied to gladiators armed in a particular way.) Kings who employed them in war frequently settled them in colonies after peace was declared.
A. Souter.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
In ancient Greece, was a region, ill defined, stretching N. of Macedonia to the Danube, and W. of the Euxine (Black Sea); appears never to have been consolidated into one kingdom, but was inhabited by various Thracian tribes akin to the Greeks, but regarded by them as barbarians; since the capture of Constantinople by the Turks the northern portion of Thrace has been annexed to Eastern Roumelia, while the remainder has continued a portion of the Turkish empire.
