The Thracians have always represented the main population of the entire Central and South-Eastern Europe, this fact being certified by archeology and by two very known authors: Homer, who mentioned the Thracians in Iliad, the oldest European versified history, and Herodot, also named "the father of the history". Despite this, the Thracians were forgotten, modern history often paying more attention to "the invaders". One of these last ones entirely destroyed many important cities and citadels; for instance Attila (also called "God's whip") destroyed Aquileila, where it seems that his son (made with the roman emperor's sister, Honoria) was at that moment. But the invaders couldn't make the native people disappear, although they attacked and robbed them all the time.

The Thracian nation consisted of more than 100 tribes, whose names were similar to those of the territories where they lived; this was not an absolute rule, often namingthemselves the territories.

By reconsidering the Thracians' history, we do nothing else than reconsidering a great part of Europe's history.

We know for sure that in the geographic territory populated by the Thracians, beginning with the Age of Bronze, continuity is a certainty. In these conditions a logical question comes to our minds (the answer being partially known, as a consequence of recent sustained actions): why Romanian cities preserved the names given by the foreign invaders who passed through these territories and not the original ones, so exactly specificated by Ptolemy ? By underlining the fundamental role played by the Thraco-Geto-Dacian elements in the genesis of Romanian people, we can set the beginning of this process in the Thracian Age of Bronze, 2000 years B.C.

Reading different historical versions we can notice how insistently are searched not the relationships of the Thracian and Dacian culture, but how other civilizations influenced it. Prudent historians refuse to discuss about the controversial plates found at Tartaria. One of the reasons they invoke is that we should consider that pictographic writing is much older in Carpathians and Danube than in Mesopotamya, "this being something that we don't see how it can be admitted" (but what if they were contemporaneous?!)

A culture always expresses itself by its language, a living archive of a people and, as we all know, the people arrived from the Est of Europe had a very restricted language.

The mythological imagination could not pass over the moment when human beings artificially obtained the fire. The most popular legend is the story of Prometeu(Promety). This legend, born in the Thracian Gods' citadel, says that Prometeu, wanting to help the human beings who were sent away from Paradise, gave them the secret of fire, instead of providing them weapons or other manufactured things.

The ancient ethnic found . As a consequence of geographical and climacteric conditions, Europe's peoples, despite all the invasions, genetic crossings or oriental superposition, have white colored skin, as a matter of fact they are the so called "Aryans"; more often they are called Hindu-Europeans, because one of their branches is represented by the Hindu people. The recent methods and theories regarding the origin and the structure of the languages are expected to explain how millions of Hindu people finished by getting so strong roots in Europe, because we know, especially from the linguistic links, that the Hindu and European peoples appeared in a common territory.

Lately, some archeologists and linguists thought that the Hindu-Europeans must be considered to be Europeans, meaning they are local people, born on these European territories.

Recently, more and more researchers consider that the oldest inhabitants of our continent appeared in a geographical area that includes a part of central and South-West Europe.

In the attempt of understanding the ethnogenesis of the Aryan peoples one should also use as of information sources the Greek mythology which has preserved many of the legends and traditions(because the conservative character of the religions and of the epic poems/songs is well known). It has been shown for sure that some information from Iliad or from the Bible, regarding certain events that took place before their writing, are very precious, historically speaking.

Some researchers consider the Pelasgian nation to be the oldest European people. Some precious information about them are given by Homer in Iliad. The great poet says that this people was "divine". The same conception is stated by Eschile in his work "The Prayers". The Greeks were so impressed by them, that according to their mythology some of the greatest human discoveries are related to this people . For the Greeks, the Pelasgians were the first inhabitants of the Earth. According to their tradition, they lived in Greece before the two destructive floods, which took place during the King's Ogwes period (Herodot mentions it in his "Histories I,56") and respectively, during the time of Deucalion (Apollodore, VIII2).

Pausanis, the first human being who was gifted with moral beauty was a Pelasgian. The tradition that mentions Pausanias surprises the evolution of the primitive men into "homo Faber". This Pelasgian man was the one who taught the humans not to live in caves, but to build themselves places for living. He also gives advises regarding the eatable fruits, and maybe this is the starting point for the legend of .... forbidden fruit (an apple, according to the Bible).

Another Cretan belief says that "Dactilii" and the "Corybantii" must have been Pelasgic tribes, who taught the humans to live together and to bring and raise animals near their houses. This belief also sustains the idea that the population who lived on Greek territory before the Greeks is responsible for some major technical progresses made by the humanity. The stone had a major importance during the Neolithic Age, this being proved by the representation of Jupiter with a stone in his hand.

The Danubian basin was the core of the Thracian territory, which laid between the Haemus and Carpathian mountain chains. The Thracians' cradle was the hollow ground surrounded by the Carpathian curve and the Apuseni Mountains (West Mountains).

All the great civilizations developed near large water streams: the Egyptian one on the Nil, the Mesopothamyc one on the Tigru-Eufrat, the Hindu one on the Yellow River, the European one on the Danube (also called Istru), in the ancient Carpathian cradle. The Carpathian Danube was the real home for the civilization of the South-East of Europe. This was a reality, because the egeic civilisation took its supplies from this valley, and that's how Greek colonies appeared on the Black Sea's shores. In the antiquity, the Greeks came here because of the extraordinary treasures of Danubian land, capable to furnish them more than enough food. Here was the place where one can find the happiness of Golden Age, the Danubian heros' cemetery and ,at Portile de Fier (Iron Gates), the home of the Gods from Gogaion (Cogaion) citadel.

The Thracian nation had a specific biological structure. At the beginning of the 2nd milenium it begun to have its own individuality.

At that time the Thracians' mobility size was very significant , that's why Nicole Iorga once said: "The Thracian people is always moving, it has no border lines".

Biologically speaking, the Thracians belong to the white rase, they have medium height, brown eyes and brown hair.

Diodor had a very interesting idea. He said that the local inhabitants thought they must be guided by Prophets; their legends mentioned the water flood who destroyed a great part of the continent giving birth to an archipelago. Another Greek legend said that the good fairies put the fertile ground in Thracia and the stones in Greece.

Diodor described the Thracians as one people , with one language, unique in traditions and religion; they are the descendants of King Licurg who ruled Thracia and Helespont; his son Tharpas was the fruit of his love for the Bacchantes. Tharpas' son, Osagun, is considered to be the father of the legendary Orpheus, whose ascendents were coming from a territory with a "poetic religion".

The Thracians were considered by Clement from Alexandria as "the predecessors of the revelation"; Platoon itself thought they are the "preachers of immortality".

Antistene, the writer, was proud of his Thracian origin and said that "the God's mother itself was a descendent of Ida". Demostene and Ifierate also were very proud of their Thracian origin due to their mothers. Greeks assimilated a great part of Thracians' wandering myths and legends, which in fact belong to an unique European folk literature, transmitted from father to son until our days.

The Thracian people has never been "replaced" by other migratory nations, because the Thracians were the only ones who were perfectly adapted to the geographical conditions, especially to the bad ones. Their mobility was essential for the resistance to exterior attacks.

The "anonymous" Thracian people was very week attached to material goods and they did not intended to live the posterity "signs" of their existence because their spiritual believes were much more important for them.

A known Romanian writer, Hasdeu, considers that the philological studies shown that whenever we carefully study a well settle down nation, we can find more or less remains belonging to another nation, which was assimilated or was itself the conqueror.

L. Diefenbach said that the Romanian and Albanian history must decide in what way the Thracians still live in compact populations, and how big is their influence today.

The quality of Thracian music was apreciated by the Greeks, who thought that Orpheus and Thamyris were the ones who discovered the lyre. One says about Linos that when he was telling his poems, he was using the flute, an instrument that can be found even today across the Thracian territory.

The Thracians wore fox fur hats, tunics and long colored mantles, as we can see in the classic images of "Thracian Knit"; it seems that this image inspired the representation of Saint George. Louis Armand, the academician, talking about the miracle that made the Latin language dominate the Romanian language despite the Slavonic influences, said that the Thrac-Dacians used a pre-roman language and this explains why we find so few Thracian words in Romanian language; the Thracian words that persisted during the time belong to some dialects spoken in different regions.

Louis Armand, the academician, talking about the miracle that made the Latin language dominate the Romanian language despite the Slavonic influences, said that the Thracian-Dacians used a pre-roman language and this explains why we find so few Thracian words in Romanian language; the Thracian words that persisted during the time belong to some dialects spoken in different regions.

English version by Nora Parvu.