Maedi

The Maedi are said to have been of the same race as the Bithynians in Asia, and were hence called Maedobithyni. (Greek: Μαιδοβίθυνοι).

The ancient historian and biographer Plutarch describes Spartacus as "a Thracian of nomadic stock," in a possible reference to the Maedi. Plutarch also says that Spartacus' wife, a prophetess of the same tribe, was enslaved with him.

Geography

Their land was called Maedica (Μαιδική). In historic times, they occupied the area between Paionia and Thrace, on the southwestern fringes of Thrace, along the middle course of the Strymon, between the Kresna Gorge and the Rupel Pass (present-day southwestern Bulgaria). Strabo says that the Maedi bordered eastward on the Thunatae of Dardania, and that the Axius flowed through their territory.

Their capital city was Iamphorynna, which lay somewhere in the southwest corner of what is now Bulgaria. Some archaeologists posit it in the area between the cities of Petrich and Sandanski, but its exact location remains unknown.