The ancient land of Thrace—comprising present-day Bulgaria and parts of Romania, Greece, and Turkey—is little known today, yet its inhabitants had a profound influence on the Greeks and Romans. Join historian Matthew Sears as he delves into the rich legacy of this influential culture. Thracians were known as fierce fighters, and they often served as mercenaries and military allies of the Athenians, who featured them prominently in art and literature. Beyond Athens, the Thracians were visible throughout the classical world, from the famous gladiator Spartacus who led a rebellion against Rome to merchants living in trading centers.
Who Were the Thracians?
Talk
Jug with Thracian Warriors, 440–410 BCE, Greek (Attic). Terracotta. Sozopol Archaeological Museum
Photo: Todor Dimitrov
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About
Speaker Bio
Matthew A. Sears
Historian
Sears is professor of classics at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He has explored cross-cultural interactions between peoples of the core and periphery in the ancient world, especially the Athenians and Thracians, and writes about how ancient cultures remember and commemorate their pasts. He is the author of Athens, Thrace, and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership (Cambridge 2013), Understanding Greek Warfare (Routledge, 2019), Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece (with C. Jacob Butera, Pen & Sword, 2019), and Sparta and the Commemoration of War (Cambridge, 2024). He received his PhD from Cornell University.
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