Great Wallachia

This article is about the medieval Vlach state in Thessaly. For the Danubian principality, also referred to as "Greater Wallachia", see Muntenia.

Byzantine Empire (in pink) and Wallachian Thessaly (in dark blue)

Great Wallachia (Greek: Μεγάλη Βλαχία Megáli Vlachía; Romanian: Vlahia Mare), also Thessaly Wallachia, was a medieval state (twelfth and thirteenth century) of the Aromanians (Vlachs), which included the region of Thessaly in Greece, the southern and central ranges of Pindus and extending over part of Macedonia.

Anna Komnene in the second half of the eleventh century was the first author to write about the Vlachs in Thessaly. Benjamin of Tudela, the next century, wrote the earliest account of the independent state of "Great Wallachia". He wrote that "No man can go up and battle against them and no king can rule over them".

In the 11th century Strategikon manual, Kekaumenos the Byzantine historian described the Vlachs from Great Wallachia as being descendants of ancient Dacians and Bessi who invaded Thessaly from the area to the north of Greece, from somewhere on the Danube, supposedly seeking revenge for the defeat inflicted to their ancestors by Trajan during the Dacian Wars.

After the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, Great Wallachia was included in the enlarged Despotate of Epirus, but it soon reappeared as an independent principality under its old name.

See also

• List of traditional Greek place names

Further reading

• Koukoudis, Asterios - Great Wallachia and the Byzantine commonwealth (Η Μεγάλη Βλαχία κι η βυζαντινή κοινοπολιτεία) (Greek)

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.