BESSEL. - A Thracian people dwelling at the time of Strabo in the plain between the Haemus (Balkan) and Rhodope (Eastern Rumelia) mountain groups. Already mentioned by Herodotus, they had hostile dealings with the kings of Macedonia and later with Rome.
Completely subdued in the time of Augustus and annexed to the province of Thrace, they retained warlike inhabitants who willingly served in the imperial army. In addition to a "cohort II Flavia Bessorum," frequent mentions are found of soldiers of the "auxilia" and sailors of the fleets of Ravenna and Misenum of B. origin. Their conversion to Christianity seems to have begun with the preaching of the bishop of Remesiana, Nicetas, in the 4th century (cf. Paulinus of Nola, Carmen, XVII, 205; St. Jerome, Epist., 60, 4).