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Macedonia (theme)

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For other uses of "Macedonia", seeMacedonia (terminology).
Theme of Macedonia
Μακεδονία, θέμα Μακεδονίας
Themeof theByzantine Empire
790s/802 – 11th century

Map ofByzantine Greecec. 900, with the themes and major settlements.
CapitalAdrianople
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Established
789/797 – 801/802
• Merged withThrace.
Various times in late 10th and early 11th centuries
Today part ofTurkey
Bulgaria
Greece

TheTheme of Macedonia(Greek:θέμα Μακεδονίας) was a military-civilian province (theme) of theByzantine Empireestablished between the late 8th century and the early 9th century. Byzantine Macedonia had limited geographical relation to theAncient Macedoniaand mainly lay in what is now the modern region ofSouthern Thrace.Its capital wasAdrianople.

History[edit]

From the beginning of the 6th century, the former RomanDiocese of Macedonia,then part of the Byzantine Empire became a subject to frequent raids by Slavic tribes which in the course of next centuries, resulted in drastic demographic and cultural changes.[citation needed]The Slavs organized themselves into "Sklaviniai",that continued to assault the Byzantine Empire, either independently, or aided byBulgarsorAvarsduring the 7th century.[citation needed]In the late 7th century, the Byzantines organized a massive expedition against the Slavs in the area. They subdued many Slavic tribes and established a newtheme of Thracein the hinterland of Thessaloniki. Despite these temporary successes, the rule in the region was far from stable. The Empire instead resorted to withdraw its defense-line south along the Aegean coast, until the late 8th century.

As a consequence, a new theme called Macedonia was created between 789 (or 797) and 801/802 by the EmpressIrene of Athens,from the oldertheme of Thrace.[1][2][3]Sigillographicevidence shows that atourma( "division" ) named "Macedonia" existed before, subordinated to thestrategosof Thrace.[citation needed]The first knownstrategosof Macedonia, thepatrikiosJohn Aplakes,was mentioned in 813, butTheophanes the Confessormentioned Leo, brother of the eunuch chamberlainAetios,being appointed as themonostrategos( "single-general", placed in command over two or more themes) of Thrace and Macedonia already in 801/802.[2][4]Its creation came in the aftermath of a series of military successes that had extended Byzantine reach over most of the wider region ofThrace,and was probably intended to make imperial control more efficient by entrusting the greatly expanded territory to twostrategoi.[5]

Although the theme was attested in the 960s, its absence in theEscorial Taktikonof c. 975 has led to the supposition that it may have been abolished and subsumed into the command of the newdouxof Adrianople.[6][7]However, the theme of Macedonia was attested again in 1006/7, and there is some sigillographic evidence to support its continued existence alongside thedoukatonof Adrianople.[8]In the late 10th century, as a result of the conquests ofJohn I Tzimiskes(r. 969–976) andBasil II(r. 976–1025), the theme of Macedonia ceased being a border theme; to its north, it was bounded by new provinces centred onPhilippopolisandBeroe,while to its south, the new theme ofBoleroncame into existence in the early 11th century.[7]

Little is known of the provincial organization in the 12th century. In an imperialchrysobullto theVenetiansdating to 1198, "Thrace and Macedonia" appear as a single territorial entity describing all of Thrace, but it was subdivided into smaller units centred on the major cities.[citation needed]The core area of the old theme of Macedonia was recorded as the "province ofAdrianopleandDidymoteichon"(provincia Adrianupoleos et Didimotichi).[9]

Geography and administration[edit]

The seat of the new theme was Adrianople (modernEdirne), and it comprised modernWestern Thrace(inGreece), the western parts ofEastern Thrace(European Turkey),[1]and the southern fringes ofNorthern Thrace(southernBulgaria). TheArabgeographersIbn Khordadbeh(wrote c. 847) andIbn al-Faqih(wrote c. 903), whose accounts are a major source on the Byzantine themes, mentioned that the theme of Macedonia (Maqaduniya) extended from the "Long Wall" (theAnastasian Wall) to the "lands of the Slavs" in the west, and from theAegeanandMarmaraSeas to the borders ofBulgariato the north. In later days, to the west it bounded the theme ofThessalonicaand the later themes ofStrymonandBoleron.[10]Thus, the theme of Macedonia had no relation to the historicalregion of Macedonia,and when Byzantine sources of the 10th to 12th centuries refer to "Macedonia", they mean the area of western Thrace. Hence, for instance, the emperorBasil I "the Macedonian"(r. 867–886) hailed from Thrace, and theMacedonian dynastyhe founded was named after the theme of Macedonia.[2]

Approximate widest extent of thethemaof Macedonia, superimposed on modern borders.

Being derived from the theme of Thrace, Macedonia was counted among the "Eastern" themes, which ranked higher in Byzantine hierarchy than the "Western" themes. In the late 9th and 10th centuries, itsstrategosranked in the second tier of thematic governors, above even that of Thrace. He received an annual salary of 36 pounds of gold (2,592nomismata), and, according to the account of Ibn al-Faqih, in the late 9th century controlled 5,000 troops. A number oftagmaticsoldiers were also permanently stationed in the theme.[10][11]Strymon, which was originally akleisouraof Macedonia, was split off sometime in the early 9th century, taking some 2,000 men (according to the estimate of historianWarren Treadgold) along with it.[12][13]

As with other themes, at least some of the administrative posts of Macedonia were sometimes combined with those of Thrace, especially in the 11th century, where numerousstrategoiand judges (kritai) are attested holding jurisdiction over both themes.[14][15]

References[edit]

  1. ^abNesbitt & Oikonomides 1991,p. 110.
  2. ^abcODB,"Macedonia" (T. E. Gregory), pp. 1261–1262.
  3. ^Treadgold 1995,p. 29.
  4. ^Pertusi 1952,p. 162.
  5. ^Treadgold 1988,pp. 92–93, 124.
  6. ^cf.Treadgold 1995,p. 114.
  7. ^abSoustal 1991,p. 50.
  8. ^Nesbitt & Oikonomides 1991,pp. 111, 123–124
  9. ^Soustal 1991,pp. 50–51.
  10. ^abPertusi 1952,pp. 163–164.
  11. ^Treadgold 1995,pp. 67–71, 122.
  12. ^Pertusi 1952,pp. 166–167.
  13. ^Treadgold 1995,p. 76.
  14. ^Nesbitt & Oikonomides 1991,p. 155.
  15. ^ODB,"Thrace" (T. E. Gregory), pp. 2079–2080.

Sources[edit]

  • Kazhdan, Alexander,ed. (1991).The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-504652-8.
  • Nesbitt, John;Oikonomides, Nicolas,eds. (1991).Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea.Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.ISBN0-88402-194-7.
  • Pertusi, A. (1952).Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus(in Italian). Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
  • Soustal, Peter (1991).Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 6: Thrakien (Thrakē, Rodopē und Haimimontos)(in German). Vienna:Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.ISBN978-3-7001-1898-5.
  • Treadgold, Warren(1988).The Byzantine Revival, 780–842.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.ISBN978-0-8047-1462-4.
  • Treadgold, Warren T. (1995).Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.ISBN0-8047-3163-2.

External links[edit]

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