  thumb|the physical-geographical boundaries of thrace: the balkan mountains, the rhodope mountains and the bosporus. the rhodope mountain range is highlighted. thumb|the roman province of thrace thumb|the byzantine thema of thrace   thrace  (demonym thracian ; , thrÄikÄ; modern , thrÃ¡ki; , trakija; ) is a historical and geographic area in southeast europe, centered on the modern borders of bulgaria, greece, and turkey. as a geographical concept, thrace designates a region bounded by the balkan mountains on the north, rhodope mountains and the aegean sea on the south, and by the black sea and the sea of marmara on the east. the areas it comprises are southeastern bulgaria (northern thrace), northeastern greece (western thrace), and the european part of turkey (eastern thrace). the biggest part of thrace is part of present-day bulgaria. in turkey, it is also called rumeli. the name comes from the thracians, an ancient indo-european people inhabiting southeastern europe. ==etymology== the name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress thrace, who was the daughter of oceanus and parthenope, and sister of europa. the word itself derives from the latin thrÄcia, which comes from ancient greek thrÄkÄ (ÎÏá¾´ÎºÎ·), descending from thrÄks (ÎÏá¾±Î¾/ÎÏá¾´Î¾), meaning âthracianâ, ultimately being derived from thrÄssÅ, meaning âto trouble, stirâ. ==geography== ===borders=== the historical boundaries of thrace have varied. noteworthy is the fact that, at an early date, the ancient greeks employed the term "thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of thessaly inhabited by the thracians, a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like macedonia and even scythia) were added.{{cite book |first=sir william |last=smith |title=dictionary of greek and roman geogra
Ancient_Greek_geography Ancient_Roman_provinces Divided_regions Geography_of_Greece Geography_of_Turkey Historical_regions_in_Bulgaria Historical_regions_in_Greece History_of_Bulgaria History_of_Greece History_of_Turkey Thrace Thracians