Thrace

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. According to the ancient sources, which are limited, the mountainous regions were home to various warlike and ferocious tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently more peaceable, owing to contacts and influences from the Greeks. These Indo-European peoples, while considered barbarian and rural by their refined and urbanized Greek neighbors, had developed advanced forms of music, poetry, industry, and artistic crafts. Aligning themselves in petty kingdoms and tribes, they never achieved any form of national unity beyond short, dynastic rules at the height of the Greek classical period. Similar to the Gauls and other Celtic tribes, most people lived simply in small fortified villages, usually on hilltops.