The Satrae ( el, "Σάτραι") were, in ancient geography, a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

people, inhabiting part of Mount Pangaeus between the rivers

Nestus Nestos ( ), Mesta ( ), or formerly the Mesta Karasu in Turkish (Karasu meaning "black river"), is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. It rises in the Rila Mountains and flows into the Aegean Sea near the island of Thasos. It plunges down towering c ...

(Mesta) and Strymon (Struma). OdrysianKingdom

According to

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

, they were

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

in his time, and had never been conquered within the memory of man. They dwelt on lofty mountains covered with

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

, and on the highest of these was an oracle of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

, whose utterances were delivered by a priestess. They were the chief workers of the

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

mines in the district. Herodotus is the only ancient writer who mentions the Satrae, and Tomaschek regards the name not as that of a people but of the warlike nobility among the

Dii :''Dii'' ''is also the plural of Latin Deus.'' The Dii (; grc, Δίοι, Díoi) were an independent Thracian tribe, swordsmen, who lived among the foothills of Mount Rhodope in Thrace, and particularly in the east bank of Nestos, from the ...

and Bessi. J. E. Harrison identifies them with the Satyri (

Satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...

s), the attendants and companions of Dionysus in his revels, and also with the

Centaurs A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

. The name Satrokentae, a Thracian tribe according to Hecataeus (quoted in Stephanus of Byzantium), seems to support the second identification. The Greek '' Histories'' of Herodotus named the Satrae as a part of the

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

tribes which lived in the

and Strymin Valley (Book, VIO, 110), "have continued living in freedom" till his time, and "dwell on high mountains covered with forests of all kinds and snow, and they are excellent warriors". Here, they "possess the place of divination sacred to

is in their highest mountains", questioning an oracle like the one of one of Delphi.

References

* Ancient tribes in the Balkans Thracian tribes of Macedonia Thracian tribes {{Ancient-Thrace-stub