The Greeks arrive on the shores of the Black Sea and found colonies to trade with the Getae. War soon comes to the region, however, as the Persian Empire marches an army right through the territory of the Getae on its way to battling the Scythians.

The map below shows the peoples living around the Black Sea in around 520 BCE, before the Persian Empire begins its Scythian expedition. It’s important to note that the coloured areas showing where the Getae and Scythians are didn’t only have Getic and Scythian tribes. There were other peoples living in those regions as well; the coloured areas are meant to show the area where Getic and Scythian tribes lived.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to A history of Romania.

Season 1, Episode 2: Ships on the horizon

Last time, we followed the nomads that roamed the territory of present-day Romania, saw how they became sedentary, and explored the societies they developed. In this episode, we’ll bring the native people of the region, the Getae, in contact with the wider world and some of Antiquity’s most powerful states.

Various Getic tribes lived in thriving villages along both sides of the Danube River, and though they didn’t sail beyond the coast of the Black Sea, they frequented its shores. In the 7^th century BCE, the Getae saw something they had never seen before: ships with huge sails and dozens of oars braving the waves of the sea. Those ships were crewed by a people they had never encountered: the Greeks.

Greek mariners had begun exploring the waters beyond their own a century before. Pushed by overpopulation, lack of land, and political unrest, Greek colonists founded settlements all over the Mediterranean. Eventually, they also sailed north into the Black Sea.

After skirting the coast to explore the landscape, curious Greek sailors landed on shore and came into contact with the Getae. Though the two people didn’t speak the same language, gestures and common sense allowed them to trade whatever objects they carried with them.

This sort of intermittent contact would continue for decades until, in 657 BCE, citizens from the Greek city of Miletus founded a settlement on the coast to facilitate trade. The colony they founded was called Istria, after the Greek name for the Danube River.

Istria had everything a settlement needed to sustain itself: it was surrounded by lakes and rivers with clean drinking water, it had good farmland nearby, meadows to graze animals, forests to gather wood, limestone deposits to mine for building materials, and sources of clay for pottery. The colony was also located on the shores of a lagoon that acted as a natural harbour.

Greek traders used Istria as a point of entry into the interior; they unloaded their goods off their ships and ventured inland to find the fortified settlements of the Getae and trade with them. The Greeks sold them luxury goods like fine vases, jewelry, olive oil, and vintage wines. In exchange, the Getae offered slaves, cattle, salt fish, grain, honey, and wax.

While Istria was heavily reliant on its home city of Miletus during its first years, after a few generations, its inhabitants spread to the surrounding countryside and founded villages to work more land and sustain an ever-larger population. The Getae moved in the opposite direction, establishing villages closer to the coast as trade between the two peoples became a regular part of life.

Over the next century, Getic and Greek individuals mingled and intermarried, developing mixed communities. The material cultures of the two people began to blend, as the Getae made copies of common Greek goods like vases and swords in their own workshops. Coins minted in Istria radiated to the Greek villages on its outskirts, then to the mixed Greek and Getic communities further out, and eventually to the inland Getic settlements, slowly introducing the use of currency to the region.

Istria was only the first Greek colony on the coast of the Black Sea. Throughout the 7^th and 6^th centuries BCE, more colonies were founded, like Tomis, Callatis, Dionysopolis, and Apollonia. I’ve drawn a map and included it in this episode’s description to help you visualize what we’re discussing today.

The Greek colonists saw themselves as civilized settlers in a barbarian land, and they replicated the institutions of their mother cities. They had gymnasiums and theatres; an Assembly that proposed and voted on legislation; a Council that debated and amended laws; a market commissioner that regulated the price of grain and wine; and a citizen militia that was sometimes helped by mercenaries and surrounding natives.

The colonists worshipped the same gods as in their mother cities. As new arrivals came from all over the Greek world, new gods appeared in the region, like the Egyptian Serapis and Isis.

There was a strong connection between these colonies and the Mediterranean world as goods and ideas flowed freely between the two. Many young people went to the great Hellenic cities to study and then returned to their hometowns to practice what they’d learned. For instance, we have papyruses that tell of medical conferences held in these Black Sea colonies. Other people born here went on to have distinguished careers in the wider Hellenic world. Herakleides of Callatis, for example, became part of the retinue of king Ptolemy VI of Egypt, and wrote biographies and philosophical treaties.

However, the Greeks weren’t the only ones interested in the region. North of the Black Sea in present-day Ukraine lived a nomadic people called the Scythians. In the 6^th century BCE, these skilled horse riders had invaded the Persian empire to their south. Darius, as the ruler of the empire, wasn’t going to let their attack go unpunished. He wanted to invade the Scythian homeland and bring the war to them. The best spot to cross into their lands was where the Danube met the Black Sea, which meant that he had to pass right through the territory of the Getae.

Darius ruled the largest empire the world had ever seen, stretching from Egypt and Anatolia in the West to the borders of India in the East. In 513 BCE, he ordered the peoples under his command to provide him with supplies and warriors, and gathered them into an army tens of thousands strong. He then marched them from Persia, through Anatolia, across the Bosphorus, and along the coast of the Black Sea.

As the army slowly travelled north towards the Danube, its overwhelming size intimidated all before it. Most of the tribes that lay in Darius’ path surrendered without a fight, and most of the Greek colonies along the coast also chose not to resist; they provided the Persian army with supplies and soldiers and let its long columns march past them, happy that they weren’t sacked.

But the Getae took a different path. Proud of their independence and prowess as warriors, several Getic tribes united to stand against the invaders. Though we have no details of the confrontation, these defiant Getic tribes were defeated by the vastly larger Persian army and were forced to join its ranks as just another one of the peoples ruled by the King of Kings.

The unstoppable Persian army soon reached the Danube and built a bridge over it by tying one boat to another until the two shores of the river were connected. Darius’ army then marched across it, ready to fight.

The Getae were experienced in war, but this one would bring them no benefits. The Scythians were a nomadic people with few possessions; there would be no land to take and no riches to steal. But the Getic warriors had no choice; defeated and pressed into service, they now marched into a foreign land to fight a war that was not their own.

The King of Kings wanted to show the Scythians that he could subjugate them just like he had so many other peoples. To show his superiority, he needed to bring them to battle and defeat them. But the Scythians knew better than to face this huge army directly. Their women and children boarded their wagons, took all their flocks and herds, and headed north. The men stayed behind to deal with the Persians.

With the speed afforded by their horses, the Scythian warriors retreated deeper and deeper into the plains. They filled in wells, cleared the land of vegetation, and scorched the earth behind them. They stayed a day’s ride ahead of the Persian army, and harassed soldiers who tried to scavenge for supplies. Darius chased the Scythians relentlessly for weeks, but, with each passing day, he was no closer to bringing them to battle, so he decided to try a different approach.

The Greek historian Herodotus recounts the story, and though what follows is certainly not what was actually said, his record allows us to understand the mindset of both sides.

The story goes that Darius sent a messenger to Idanthyrsus, the king of the Scythians. He told him: “Suppose that you consider yourself capable of opposing all the resources I have at my command. Very well – stop this wandering, make a stand, and put up a fight. But should you recognize your own inferiority, simply send me the gifts of earth and water that are my due as your master.”

Idanthyrsus was unmoved. “I have never before fled any man,” he replied. “In fact, I am doing nothing at the moment that I was not in the habit of doing in times of peace. We have no cities; we have no crops. Why, then, should we be in any rush to fight you? If you really want to get to grips with us in a hurry, then there are always the graves of our forefathers. So go ahead – find and desecrate them, if you can! You will receive from me a gift not of earth and water, but such as you deserve. As for your claim to be my master, I tell you this in return – you will not be smiling long.”

Seeing that they couldn’t force the Scythians to battle, Darius’ advisors counselled him to abandon the chase, and he agreed. The King of Kings gathered all his ill, injured, and starving soldiers, and told them to protect the camp while he and the able-bodied men attacked the Scythians. But when Darius and his fighting men left camp, they didn’t march towards the Scythians; they headed back towards the Danube as fast as they could, abandoning those too weak to travel.

In the morning, the soldiers in the camp realized Darius had betrayed them, and they surrendered to the Scythians, explaining what had happened. Here was a golden opportunity for the nomads: if they could reach the Danube first, they could cut off the Persian army’s retreat and annihilate it completely.

The Scythians combined all their forces and raced to the Danube; their horse riders far outpaced Darius’ foot soldiers, and they reached the river first. Once there, they told the soldiers guarding the crossing that there was no use waiting for Darius’ return any longer; they should dismantle the bridge and go back to their homelands. The guards began to do so, and the Scythians retraced their steps to intercept the Persian army, surprise it, and bring it to battle.

But as soon as the horse riders left, the guards stopped dismantling the bridge. The commanders of these guards knew that, if Darius was defeated and killed, his empire would disintegrate, and so too would their own power; the only way to maintain their positions was to remain loyal to the King of Kings.

So the guards waited – and it paid off. The Scythians were unable to track down the retreating Persian army, and Darius made it back to the Danube. The bridge was rebuilt, and the Persian army was able to safely escape the Scythian forces.

After more than two months on the plains beyond the Danube, the Getic warriors were back in their homeland. At least, some of them were. Many had died from injuries, illness, or starvation while campaigning in the interests of their overlord.

Darius had succeeded in intimidating the Scythians; the nomads would not get involved in Persian affairs for decades to come. But the King of Kings hadn’t succeeded in subjugating them, and he was tired of the entire affair. He marched back to Asia and into the heartland of his empire, never to return.

As he withdrew from Europe, Darius left an army behind under the command of a man named Megabazus. His mission was to crush the cities and peoples that had refused to collaborate with them and then establish Persian rule between the Bosphorus and the Danube, a region known as Thrace.

Megabazus duly conquered the territory, set the frontier of the Persian empire at the Danube, and organized the region as a province under the name of Skudra. Megabazus’ rule was strongest near the Greek colonies on the shore of the Black Sea where their urban centres made central control easier. In the interior, Getic tribes provided the Persian empire with warriors and tribute, but otherwise maintained a large degree of autonomy.

The Persian empire would rule Thrace for the next thirty years. Their control also extended southwards into the Greek homeland, but their rule there was never secure; the Greeks fought the Persians relentlessly at the beginning of the 5^th century BCE, with mixed results. However, in 479 BCE, an alliance of Greek city-states crushed both the Persian army and the Persian navy in the region, turning the tide decisively in their favour. Over the course of the next decade, the Greeks built on their victory and slowly pushed the Persians out of Europe.

As Persian power collapsed in the 470s, the empire was forced to abandon its province of Skudra, and the various tribes in the region saw their chance to regain their independence. One such tribe, the Odrysians, took advantage of the chaos to subjugate their neighbours, including the Getic tribes in Thrace. They took control of most of the former province of Skudra and replaced Persian power with their own before the Greeks had a chance to advance into the area.

The Scythians also saw the Persian retreat as an opportunity and tried to push south across the Danube into the lands now controlled by the Odrysians. The Odrysians called on their subject peoples to provide warriors, and the Getae sent detachments of cavalry for which they had become famous. The two sides battled for several years, but neither one could gain a decisive advantage. Seeing that the conflict couldn’t be resolved through force, they turned to negotiation. Peace came when the Scythian king married the Odrysian king’s daughter, and the monarchs set the frontier between their two people at the Danube.

Once the Persians retreated, the Greek colonies along the Black Sea coast found themselves with no overlord, but two potential enemies – to the north were the Scythians, and to the west were the Odrysians. Wishing the maintain their recently recovered independence, they made pacts with both. But the Greek colonies were not powerful enough to be their equals; they had to pay tribute to the Odrysians and Scythians in exchange for their protection – and in exchange for not being sacked.

Athens was the leader of the coalition that had expelled the Persians from Europe, and after its victory, it only continued to expand its influence. During the middle of the 5^th century BCE, Athens sent expeditions to the Black Sea colonies to forcibly bring them under its control. The main objective was to secure its supply of grain, since two thirds of the grain consumed by Athens came from the Black Sea.

These Greek colonies were right on the coast of Thrace, the heartland of the Odrysian kingdom. But the Odrysians didn’t try to stop Athens from taking over the coastal cities; the two sides had much more to gain by cooperating than by fighting. Trade between the colonies and the interior of Thrace was lucrative, and the two states could help protect each other against their enemies, the Scythians and Persians. So Athens and the Odrysian kingdom made a pact and became staunch allies.

With such close ties, Greek culture now penetrated even deeper into Thrace, a process that had begun all the way back when the first colonies were established. The Odrysian kingdom took inspiration from Greek architecture, its aristocracy began worshipping Greek gods, and its rulers learned the Greek language.

In 431 BCE, the Greeks fell into civil war as Athens and Sparta fought for hegemony of the Greek world. The Odrysian kingdom sent thousands of warriors to help Athens, and, as always, the Getae were an important part of this army. But in the end, Athens was defeated and its forces had to retreat from the Black Sea, leaving the Greek colonies on the coast to rule themselves. Sensing an opportunity, the Odrysians intimidated the colonies into accepting their rule and began collecting tribute from them.

The Odrysian kingdom now controlled almost all of Thrace, from the hills overlooking the Aegean Sea to the shores of the Danube River, and from the mountains of the interior to the rich Black Sea colonies. With this influx of new lands and subjects, the Odrysians became richer than they had ever been before. The kingdom reached the height of its power in the early 4^th century BCE, and it became a major force in the Hellenic world.

Join me in two weeks as the Odrysian kingdom contends with the emergence of a new, ambitious player in the region, one that will threaten to eclipse all others: the kingdom of Macedon.