Almost all available information about Martianus Capella is found in his The Marriage of Philology and Mercury in the shape of autobiographical notes. There he calls himself Felix and Felix Capella. His connection to Carthage is confirmed by his own words, which are usually accepted as proof that he was born, grew up and lived most of his life there. Martianus Capella mentions his son Martianus twice and repeatedly describes himself as an old man. Because of his specific style, and because of a partly corrupt text of the autobiographical poem, the other pieces of evidence are open to interpretation. Indicative of this is the fact that there are many different views on his social status and professional career: a self-taught peasant living in poverty, a teacher in rhetoric, a grammarian, a jurist or even a proconsul. The place of his birth (Carthage or Madaura) and the place where he spent his last days (Carthage or Rome) are also debatable. The question of when Martianus Capella lived and worked is no less debatable. He is put into the broad chronological framework from AD 284/330 to AD 498/534, as the traditional date of his work is between AD 410 and AD 429/39.

Martianus Capella is credited with writing two works: a metrical treatise and The Marriage of Philology and Mercury. The latter contains some pieces of information relevant to Thrace and the Thracians. Its exact title is uncertain. Basing their arguments on some references in the text some scholars believe that Martianus titled it Disciplinae. In scholarly literature the title Liber de nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii is preferred. It consists of nine books, of which Book 1 and Book 2 describe the preparations for the wedding ceremony. The rest present – in the form of monologues of different women – seven arts: Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Harmony. The work ends with an autobiographical poem addressed to Martianus, the son of Martianus Capella.

Book 6 deals with two disciplines:  Geography and Geometry. The lines devoted to the former contain data on Thrace and the Thracians. The geographical portion of Book 6 can be divided into two parts: mathematical geography and chorography. Almost the whole of the chorographic material finds parallels with accounts by earlier authors, i.e. Martianus Capella based his report directly, or through an intermediate source, mainly or even solely on their descriptions of the oecumene.

The references to Thrace and the Thracians can be divided into two parts: those found in its description and those scattered in the rest of Book 6. The latter refer to the location of some toponyms and ethnonyms. As for the description of Thrace, it runs as follows: