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Bryges or Briges (Template:Lang-el) is the historical name given to a Thracian people that dwelled in Ancient Macedonia north of Beroia in the neighborhood of Mount Bermius. Based on extremely limited archaeological evidence, some scholars (Nicholas Hammond, Eugene N. Borza et al.) argue that the Bryges were members of the Lusatian culture that migrated into the southern Balkans during the Late Bronze Age.

History

Herodotus states that according to the Macedonians, the Bryges changed their name to "Phruges/Phryges" (Phrygians) after crossing the Hellespont into Anatolia, a movement which is thought to have happened between 1200 BC and 800 BC perhaps due to the Bronze Age collapse, particularly the fall of the Hittite Empire and the power vacuum that was created. In the Balkans, the Bryges occupied central Albania and northern Epirus, as well as Macedonia, mainly west of the Axios river, but also Mygdonia, which was conquered by the kingdom of Macedon in the early 5th century BC; they seem to have lived peacefully next to the inhabitants of Macedonia, however, Eugammon in his Telegony, drawing upon earlier epic traditions, mentions that Odysseus commanded the Epirotian Thesprotians against the Bryges. Small groups of Bryges, after the migration to Anatolia and the expansion of the kingdom of Macedon, were still left in northern Pelagonia and around Epidamnus.

Herodotus also mentions that in 492 BC, some Thracian Brygoi or Brygians (Greek: Βρύγοι Θρήικες) fell upon the Persian camp by night, wounding Mardonius himself, though he went on with the campaign until he subdued them. These Brygoi were later mentioned in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, in the Battle of Philippi, as camp servants of Brutus. However, modern scholars state that a historical link between them and the original Bryges cannot be established.

Etymology

There is no certain derivation for the name and tribal origin of the Bryges. In 1844, Hermann Müller suggested the name might be related to the same Indo-European root as that of to German Berg (mountain) and Slavic breg (hill, slope, mountain), i.e. IE

• bʰerǵʰ. It would then be cognate with Western European tribal names such as the Celtic Brigantes and the Germanic Burgundians, and semantically motivated by some aspect of the word meanings 'high, elevated, noble, illustrious'.

Proper names

Some personal or geographic names mentioned in ancient authors may be etymologically related to "Bryges":

• Brygean islands in the supposed Adriatic delta of Istros, mentioned in Argonautica epic poem.

• Brygias or Brygium, city in Lychnitis palus.

• Brygos (son of Aphrodisios) eponym in Epidamnos/Dyrrhachion.

• Brygos (Attic potter, 5th century BC).

• Brygindara (city), Brygindis (local goddess), Brygindarios (citizen) in Rhodes island.

Language

References

1. Roth, Jonathan. The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 B.C.-A.D. 235). BRILL, 1999, ISBN 9004112715, p. 93. "The Briges were a Thracian people, whom Herodotus considered Phrygians, and in classical Greek, "Phrygian" served as a virtual synonym for slave."
2. Murray, Alexander. History of the European Languages (Volume II). Adamant Media Corporation, 2001, ISBN 1402166680, p. 49. "I shall content myself with referring the reader to the note, for a few particulars concerning the Briges, a Thracian tribe which emigrated into Asia, and became known in after times by the name Phrygians."
3. Tsestkhladze, Gocha R. Ancient Greeks West and East: Edited by Gocha R. Tsetskhladze. BRILL, 1999, ISBN 9004111905, p. 474. "In Strabo, the difficulties with geographical definition are clear. Archaeological, and later, epigraphical evidence suggest that migration of Thracian tribes to north-western and central Anatolia (French 1994)."
4. Marozov, Ivan. Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians. Harry N. Abrams, 1998, ISBN 0810919923, pp. 238-239.
5. Webber, Christopher and McBride, Angus. The Thracians, 700 BC - AD 46. Osprey Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1841763292, p. 3. "The Thracians migrated to south-eastern Europe in the 7th millennium. After the 12th century they also settled in Asia Minor, especially in Bithynia and the Troad, with the Brygi becoming ancestors of the Phrygians."
6. Strabo. Geography, 7.25 (Fragments). "Mt. Bermium, also, is somewhere in this region; in earlier times it was occupied by Briges, a tribe of Thracians; some of these crossed over into Asia and their name was changed to Phryges."
7. Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1854 (Original from Harvard University), p. 452. "BRYGI (Βρύγοι), called BRIGES (Βρίγες) by the Macedonians, a Thracian people dwelling in Macedonia, north of Beroea in the neighborhood of Mt. Bermius."
8. Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, ISBN 0691008809, p. 65. "What can be established, despite an extremely slight archaeological record (especially along the slopes of Mt. Vermion), is that two streams of Lausitz peoples moved south in the later Bronze Age, one to settle in Hellespontine Phrygia, the other to occupy parts of western and central Macedonia."
9. Rodney Stuart Young, Ellen L. Kohler, and Gilbert Kenneth. The Gordion Excavations 1950-1973: Final Reports (Volume 4), p. 53.
10. Herodotus. Histories, 7.73. "The Phrygian equipment was very similar to the Paphlagonian, with only a small difference. As the Macedonians say, these Phrygians were called Briges as long as they dwelt in Europe, where they were neighbors of the Macedonians; but when they changed their home to Asia, they changed their name also and were called Phrygians. The Armenians, who are settlers from Phrygia, were armed like the Phrygians. Both these together had as their commander Artochmes, who had married a daughter of Darius."
11. Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, ISBN 0691008809, p. 65.
12. ^ Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen (1973). The Cambridge Ancient History, Part 2, The Middle East and the Aegean Region c.1380-1000 BC. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
13. Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War, 2.99.
14. Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, ISBN 0691008809, p. 65. "There is no record of conflict between the Bryges and the local population; they are described as synoikoi ("fellow inhabitant" or neighbors) of the Macedonians."
15. Herodotus. Histories, 6.45
16. Plutarch. The Parallel Lives (Brutus).
17. Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians. Blackwell Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0631198075, p. 111. "The presence of Bryges at Epidamnus in the account of Appian seems to be confirmed by other sources, including the Coastal Voyage attributed to Scymnus of Chios and Stabo's Geography. No later record of their presence in the area survives nor can any link be established with the Bryges of Thrace..."
18. Müller, Hermann. Das nordische Griechenthum und die urgeschichtliche Bedeutung des Nordwestlichen Europas, p. 228.
19. Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Berlin: de Gruyter 1995, v. Berg.
20. Pokorny, Julius. "Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch". University of Leiden. pp. p. 140-141. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
21. Apollonios Rhodios (translated by Peter Green). The Argonautika. University of California Press, 1997, ISBN 0520076877, p. 223. "Brygean Isles: A group of islands occupying the (supposed) Adriatic delta of the Istros R. (Danube) and sacred to Artemis."
22. Hazlitt, William. The Classical Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, Sacred and Profane. Whittaker, 1851, p. 81. "Brygias (Brygium, Brucida), capital of the Brygi, Illyria, E. of Lychnitis palus on the Via Egnatia, bet. Lychnidus (13) and Scirtiana (4). Presba."
23. Epigraphical Database - Epitaph of Brugos, son of Aphrodisios. White limestone cippus. Βρῦγος Ἀροδισίου χαῖρε.
24. Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1854 (Original from Harvard University), p. 452. "Some of the Brygi were settled in Illyricum, where they dwelt apparently north of Epidamnos. Strabo assigns to them a town Cydriae."
25. Craik, Elizabeth M. The Dorian Aegean. Routledge, 1980, ISBN 0710003781, pp. 47-48. "The Greeks were aware that some such names had a foreign ring: it was said that the dried figs of the Brigindara region were 'barbarian' in name, though 'Attic' in the enjoyment they gave."
26. Torr, Cecil. Rhodes in Ancient Times. Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1417921889, p. 5. "The places whose ethnics were Amios, Amnistios, Astypalaeeus, Brycuntios, Brygindarios, Casareus, Diacrios, Dryites, Erinaeus, Istanios, Neopolites, Pontoreus, Rynchidas and Sybithios were probably not in the territory of Lindos; but there is nothing to shew the position of any of these, except that Rynchidas may be the ethnic of Roncyos."

See also

• Armenia
• Macedonia
• Moschoi
• Mygdonia
• Phrygia
• Thrace
• Phrygian cap
• Phrygian language

• History of the Balkans
• Thracians
• Phrygia
• Thraco-Illyrian