1. Those Persians whom Darius had left in Europe under the command of Megabazus, finding the Perinthians unwilling to be Darius’ subjects, subdued them before any others of the people of the Hellespont. These Perinthians had already been roughly handled by the Paeonians. For the Paeonians from the Strymon had been bidden by an oracle of their god to march against Perinthus, and if the Perinthians being encamped over against them should call to them, crying out their name, then to attack them, but, if there were no such call, then not to attack. Thus the Paeonians did; and the Perinthians being encamped in front of their city, the armies challenged each other to a threefold duel, wherein man was matched against man, horse against horse, and dog against dog. The Perinthians won the victory in two of the combats and raised the cry of “Paean” in their joy. The Paeonians reasoned that this was that whereof the oracle spoke; they said to each other, as I suppose, “This is surely the fulfilment of the prophecy; now here is work for us”; and with that, the Perinthians having cried “Paean,” the Paeonians set upon them and won a great victory, leaving few of their enemies alive.
2. he Perinthians had already been thus treated by the Paeonians; and now they fought like brave men for their liberty, but Megabazus and the Persians overcame them by weight of numbers. Perinthus being taken, Megabazus marched his army through Thrace, subduing to the king’s will every city and every people of that region. For this was the charge given him by Darius, even the conquest of Thrace.
3. The Thracians are the biggest nation in the world, next to the Indians; were they under one ruler, or united, they would in my judgment be invincible and the strongest nation on earth; but since there is no way or contrivance to bring this about, they are for this reason weak. They have many names, each tribe according to its region. All these Thracians are alike in all their usages, save the Getae, and the Trausi, and those that dwell above the Crestonaeans.
4. As for the Getae who claim to be immortal, I have already told what they do; the Trausi, who in all else fulfil the customs of other Thracians, do as I will show at the seasons of birth and death. When a child is born, the kinsfolk sit round and lament for all the tale of ills that it must endure from its birth onward, recounting all the sorrows of men; but the dead they bury with jollity and gladness, for the reason that he is quit of so many ills and is in perfect blessedness.
5. Those who dwell above the Crestonaeans have a custom of their own: each man having many wives, at his death there is great rivalry among his wives, and eager contention on their friends’ part, to prove which wife was best loved by her husband; and she to whom the honour is adjudged is praised by men and women, and then slain over the tomb by her nearest of kin, and after the slaying she is buried with the husband. The rest of the wives take this sorely to heart, deeming themselves deeply dishonoured.
6. Among the rest of the Thracians, it is the custom to sell their children to be carried out of the country. They take no care of their maidens, allowing them to have intercourse with what men they will: but their wives they strictly guard, and buy them for a great price from the parents. To be tattooed is a sign of noble birth; to bear no such marks is for the baser sort. The idler is most honoured, the tiller of the soil most contemned; he is held in highest honour who lives by war and foray.
7. These are the most notable of their usages. They worship no gods but Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. But their princes, unlike the rest of their countrymen, worship Hermes above all gods and swear only by him, claiming him for their ancestor.
8. Among those of them that are rich, the funeral rites are these:—They lay out the dead for three days, then after killing all kinds of victims and first making lamentation they feast; after that they make away with the body either by fire or else by burial in the earth, and when they have built a barrow they set on foot all kinds of contests, wherein the greatest prizes are offered for the hardest fashion of single combat. Such are the Thracian funeral rites.