Petko Rachev Slaveikov’s Research on the Ancient Toponymy of Thrace

The extensive literary work of the Bulgarian Renaissance figure Petko Rachev Slaveykov (1827 – 1895) is well known. In modern editions presenting the history of Bulgarian literature, the diversity of genres forming the foundations of modern literature, Bulgarian folklore, civic and political journalism, and epistolary heritage is presented in development. A kind of beginning in the mature years of P. R. Slaveykov's life were his activities with collecting and recording specific names of a geographical and toponymic nature, reflecting his patriotic interests in the field of the history and culture of the Bulgarian people within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. The idea was to publish the collected data in a special “Geographic Dictionary”. The intention was not realized, because during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 – 1878, the city of Stara Zagora, where P. R. Slaveykov lived at the time, was set on fire and the collected and recorded material burned. However, on the pages of the “Nauka” magazine published in the city of Plovdiv between 1881 and 1884, P. R. Slaveykov seems to have made an attempt to restore some of the geographic names he had collected that were current at the time, which were included in the destroyed work. In the material offered, we dwell on some of the names reflecting the Bulgarian Renaissance's aspiration for the analytical presentation of the historical changes in the name of the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv (Philibe, Pulpuden, Poniropolis, Dulupolis, Evmolpias/ Evpolpiada). Also included are the historically attested names Drongilon (Drongilon/ Δρονγίλος) and Bessapara (Bessapara), which are also of interest in modern scientific literature.