The Satrae were, in ancient geography, a Thracian

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

 people, inhabiting part of Mount Pangaeus between the rivers Nestus (Mesta) and Strymon (Struma).

According to Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

, they were independent in his time, and had never been conquered within the memory of man. They dwelt on lofty

Lofty

Lofty may refer to:* A lofty ideal* A nickname for a person of above average height. Also used ironically for persons of below average height....

 mountains covered with forests and snow, and on the highest of these was an oracle of Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

, 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

Tomaschek

* Rudolf Tomaschek , a German experimental physicist* Wilhelm Tomaschek , a Czech-Austrian geographer and orientalist...

 regards the name not as that of a people but of the warlike nobility among the Thracian

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

 Dii

Dii

The Dii were an independent Thracian tribe, swordsmen, who lived among the foothills of Mount Rhodope in Thrace. They often joined the ranks of organized armies as mercenaries or volunteers...

 and Bessi

Bessi

The Bessi were an independent Thracian tribe who lived in a territory ranging from Moesia to Mount Rhodope in southern Thrace, but are often mentioned as dwelling about Haemus, the mountain range that separates Moesia from Thrace and from Mount Rhodope to the northern part of Hebrus...

.

J. E. Harrison and others identify them with the Satyri (Satyr

Satyr

In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....

s), 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

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...

), seems to support the second identification.