Editing History of Bulgaria (section)

===Thracian Odrysian kingdom (c. 480 BC - 30 BC)===
{{Main|Odrysian kingdom}}

[[File:Odrysian.svg|thumb|The Odrysian kingdom under king [[Sitalces]] ({{circa}} 431–424)]]

Thracian tribes remained divided and most of them fell under nominal Persian rule from the late 6th century until the first half of the 5th century,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&q=Achaemenid+Persians+ruled+balkans&pg=PA345|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|isbn=9781444351637|access-date=17 December 2014|last1=Roisman|first1=Joseph|last2=Worthington|first2=Ian|date=7 July 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref> until King [[Teres I|Teres]] united most of them under the [[Odrysian kingdom]] around 470 BC, probably after the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|Persian defeat in Greece]]<ref>Robin Waterfield. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0oKx4FyAOOQC&q=Teres+I+odrysian+kingdom+persian  "The Expedition of Cyrus"] OUP Oxford, 2005. {{ISBN|0-19-160504-2}} p 221</ref> which later peaked under the leadership of King [[Sitalces]] (431–424 BC) and of [[Cotys I (Odrysian)|Cotys I]] (383–359 BC). This Thracian kingdom thrived between the early 5th century BC and the early 3rd / late 1st century BC. Located in present-day Bulgaria, southeastern Romania (northern Dobruja), northeastern Greece and European Turkey, it was a tribal amalgam dominated by the Odrysians that was the first large political entity to develop in the eastern Balkans. Before the foundation of Seuthopolis in the late 4th century it had no fixed capital. Similar to the [[Gauls]] and other [[Celt]]ic tribes, most Thracians are thought to have lived simply in small [[Thracian warfare#Fortifications|fortified villages]], usually on hilltops. At the commencement of the [[Peloponnesian war]], [[Sitalces]] entered into alliance with the [[Athenians]], and in 429 BC he invaded [[Macedon]] (then ruled by [[Perdiccas II of Macedon|Perdiccas II]]) with a vast army that included 150,000 warriors from independent Thracian tribes. Cotys I on the other hand, went to war with the Athenians for the possession of the [[Thracian Chersonese]].

====Ancient Macedon invasions====
{{Main| Expansion of Macedonia under Philip II|Wars of Alexander the Great}}

[[File:Map Macedonia 336 BC-en.svg|thumb|Southern Thrace during [[Philip II of Macedon]]]]

Thereafter the [[Macedonian Empire]] incorporated the Odrysian kingdom<ref>
{{Cite book
|last= Hammond
|first= Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière
|author-link= N. G. L. Hammond
|author2=Frank William Walbank |author-link2=F. W. Walbank 
|title= A History of Macedonia: 336-167 B.C
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qpb3JdwuDQIC
|access-date= 2010-04-26
|volume= 3
|year= 1988
|publisher= Oxford University Press
|isbn= 978-0-19-814815-9
|page= 38
|quote= Whereas Philip had exacted from the Thracians subjugated in 344 a tribute of one tenth of their produce payable to the Macedones&nbsp;..., it seems that Alexander did not impose any tribute on the Triballi or on the down-river Thracians.
}}
</ref> and Thracians became an inalienable component in the extra-continental expeditions of both [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]] and [[Alexander the Great|Alexander III (the Great)]].

====Ancient Celtic invasions====
{{Main|Tylis|Scordisci|Serdi|Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe}}
[[File:Tribes in Ancient Thrace (English).png|thumb|Tribes in Thrace. Celtic peoples, including the Gauls of Tylis, are labelled in red]]
In 298 BC, [[Celts|Celtic]] tribes reached what is today Bulgaria and clashed with the forces of Macedonian king [[Cassander]] on Mount Haemos ([[Stara Planina]]). The Macedonians won the battle, but that did not stop the Celtic advancement. Many Thracian communities, weakened by the Macedonian occupation, fell under Celtic dominance.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Celts: A History |last=Ó hÓgáin |first=Dáithí|year=2002 |publisher=The Collins Press |location=Cork |isbn=0-85115-923-0 |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-yd1huHoXJwC&pg=PA50 |access-date=8 November 2011|quote=This, however, had little effect on the Celts, who within some years reached as far as Bulgaria. There, in 298 BC, a large body of them clashed with Cassander's army on the slopes of Mount Haemos.&nbsp;... The power of the Thracians had been reduced by the Macedonians, and now much of the area fell into Celtic hands. Many placenames of that area in ancient times bear witness to the presence of Celtic strongholds&nbsp;...}}</ref>

In 279 BC, one of the Celtic armies, led by [[Comontorius]], attacked Thrace and succeeded in conquering it. Comontorius established the kingdom of [[Tylis]] in what is now eastern Bulgaria.<ref name="Celtic culture">{{cite book |title=Celtic culture: A historical encyclopedia |last=Koch |first=John T. |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=1-85109-440-7 |page= 156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA15 |access-date=8 November 2011|quote=Their influence in Thrace (roughly modern Bulgaria and European Turkey) is very modest, with only occasional samples of armour and jewellery, but they established a kingdom known as [[Tylis]] (alternatively Tyle) on the Thracian coast of the Black Sea.}}</ref> The modern-day village of Tulovo bears the name of the relatively short-lived kingdom. Cultural interactions between Thracians and Celts are evidenced by several items containing elements of both cultures, such as the chariot of [[Mezek]] and almost certainly the [[Gundestrup cauldron]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Celts: Bronze Age to New Age |last=Haywood |first=John |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |year=2004|isbn=0-582-50578-X |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pVY18-0OCgC&pg=PA28 |access-date=11 November 2011|quote=A clearer example of interaction between Celts and Thacians is the famous Gundestrup cauldron, which was found in a Danish peat bog. This spectacular silver cauldron is decorated with images of Celtic gods and warriors but its workmanship is quite obviously Thracian, the product of a Thracian craftsman for a celtic patron&nbsp;...}}</ref>

Tylis lasted until 212 BC, when the Thracians managed to regain their dominant position in the region and disbanded it.<ref>Nikola Theodossiev, [http://www.caorc.org/fellowships/mellon/pubs/Theodossiev.pdf "Celtic Settlement in North-Western Thrace during the Late Fourth and Third Centuries BC"].</ref> Small bands of Celts survived in Western Bulgaria. One such tribe were the ''[[serdi]]'', from which ''Serdica'' - the ancient name of [[Sofia]] - originates.<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond, {{ISBN|0-521-22717-8}}, 1992, page 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin."</ref> Even though the Celts remained in the Balkans for more than a century, their influence on the peninsula was modest.<ref name="Celtic culture"/> By the end of the 3rd century, a new threat appeared for the people of the Thracian region in the shape of the [[Roman Empire]].