SATRAE  , in

ancient geography, a Thracian people, inhabiting part of Mount Pangaeus between the rivers Nestus (Mesta) and Strymon (Struma) . According to Herodotus, they were independent in his time, and had never been conquered within the memory of man . They dwelt on lofty mountains covered with forests and snow, and on the highest of these was an oracle of Dionysus, whose utterances were delivered by a priestess . They were the chief workers of the gold and silver mines in the district . Herodotus is the only ancient writer who mentions the Satrae, and Tomaschek regards the name not as that of a people but of the warlike nobility among the Thracian Dii and Bessi . J . E . Harrison and others identify them with the Satyri (Satyrs), the attendants and companions of Dionysus in his revels, and also with the Centaurs . The name Satrokentae, a Thracian tribe according to Hecataeus (quoted in Stephanus of Byzantium), seems to support the second identification . See Herodotus vii . 110-112; J . E .

Harrison, Prolegomena to

Greek Religion (1903), p . 379 ; W . Tomascheck, Die alien Thraker (1893) .