Thrace Europe. The word "Thrace" was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), descending from "Thrāix" (Θρᾷξ). The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, prior to extending its meaning to the whole continent. The region could have been named after the principal river there, Hebros, possibly from the Indo-European "arg" "white river" (the opposite of Vardar, meaning "black river"), . According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian. In Turkey, it is commonly referred to as "Rumeli", "Land of the Romans", owing to this region being the
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace prefectures, except for Thasos, which was part of the Kavala prefecture. Unlike the former prefectures, the regional units however have very limited administrative powers. Along with Central Macedonia, the region is supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace based at Thessaloniki. The political post of the Regional governor () was also created in the course of the Kallikratis reform and can be considered the successor of the former prefects. The current governor is Christos Metios, who succeeded in November 2016 deceased Giorgos Pavlidis (Nea Dimokratia). Pavlidis was elected in the 2014 regional election, beating the incumbent first-ever regional