of Thracian religion were believed to still be performing their valorous deeds in the present on another plane of existence in heaven which was not necessarily separate from the world of the living necessarily in an abrupt way. History When the Romans conquered Thrace in the 1st century CE, they destroyed the Thracians' traditional political and administrative systems, which in turn stripped Thracian religion of its social base, and when the Bessi were defeated by the Roman commander Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus in 13 CE, he celebrated his victory by "chaining [the Bessi's] Ares". The Hero became very popular in Thrace under Roman rule, when he was represented on thousands of votive tablets and worshipped in hundreds of shrines. Roman rule introduced the use of the images of Cybele, Mithras, and Silvanus, and votive reliefs on which were depicted Graeco-Roman deities including but not limited to Zeus, Hera, Athena, Asclepius and Hygieia, and Dionysos became common. However, this syncretism was largely superficial and local Thracian beliefs and concepts remained entrenched, as attested by the popularity of the Thracian mounted hero deity. When the Roman Empire started employing Thracians in its army, these soldiers during their deployments spread the cult of the Thracian horseman deity until as far as Britannia, Germania, Italy, the Tauric Chersonese, Asia Minor and Aegyptus. The Thracian religion finally became extinct after Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire. Because Thrace was close to the imperial capital of Constantinople, the Thracian worship of pagan deities, their sanctuaries and festivals became easy targets of the Roman authorities. The Thracian sanctuaries were demolished or burnt down, religious votive reliefs were destroyed, and the idols of the gods were thrown into pits to convert the Thracians to Christianity. Legacy The religion of the Scythians was influenced by that of the Thracians after the Scythians imposed their rule on settled Thracian populations living to the north of the Black Sea when they first arrived in the region of the Pontic Steppe. Thracian fertility cults, in particular, were absorbed by the Scythian religion, and the Scythian Great Goddess, Artimpasa, who like was a mistress of animals and a power-giver, had been influenced by the Thracian Great Goddess. The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated in Greece were a religious importation from Thrace, and according to Greek sources, their founder was a Thracian named Eumolpus. Around the late 6th century BCE, the Greek