POWER AND PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ANCIENT THRACE – 6th-4th CENTURIES BC
POWER AND PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ANCIENT THRACE – 6th-4th CENTURIES BC

Summary/Abstract: The paper proposes a discussion on the forms and interdependences of power and property in Ancient Thrace. The author presents his views on the existence of complex economic and social forms, with emphasis on the situation in Thrace described by Xenophon and Thucydides, on Xenophon’s narrative on the situation in the region of the Straits at the very end of the 5th century BC, and proposes a new interpretation of Aristotle’s information on the tax collected by Kotys. The information provided by the Greek authors from the late 6th until the mid-4th century BC is evidence of the preservation of strong elements of autonomous rule in the public structures in some places, which often led to attempts at restoring tribal autonomy. Based on the analysis, the conclusion reached is that a complex structure of the institutions of administrative and political power existed in the lands of Ancient Thrace in that period, and that the processes and the stages of the economic and political development of the Thracian lands are yet to be specified on the basis of geographic and chronological characteristics. Only after identifying the characteristics of the elements of the economic and political mosaic over the entire territory of the country it will be possible to raise the issue of the real model of royal power and its sub-variants.

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