Macedonia (theme)

For other uses of the name "Macedonia", see Macedonia (terminology)

Μακεδονία, θέμα Μακεδονίας Theme of Macedonia Theme of the Byzantine Empire 790s/802–11th century Map of Byzantine Greece ca. 900 AD, with the themes and major settlements. Capital Adrianople Historical era Middle Ages  - Established 789/797–801/802  - Merged with Thrace Various times in late 10th and early 11th centuries

The Theme of Macedonia (Greek: θέμα Μακεδονίας) was a military-civilian province (theme) of the Byzantine Empire established between the late 700s and the early 800s. Despite its name, it was not located in Macedonia but in the region of Thrace, with Adrianople as its capital.

History

The theme of Macedonia was created between 789 (or 797) and 801/802 by the Empress Irene of Athens, from the older theme of Thrace. Sigillographic evidence shows that a tourma ("division") named "Macedonia" existed before, subordinated to the strategos of Thrace. The first known strategos of Macedonia, the patrikios John Aplakes, is first mentioned in 813, but Theophanes the Confessor mentions Leo, brother of the eunuch chamberlain Aetios, being appointed as the monostrategos ("single-general", placed in command over two or more themes) of Thrace and Macedonia already in 801/802. Its creation came in the aftermath of a series of military successes that had extended Byzantine reach over most of the wider region of Thrace, and was probably intended to make imperial control more efficient by entrusting the greatly expanded territory to two strategoi.

The seat of the new theme was Adrianople (modern Edirne), and it comprised modern West Thrace (in Greece), the western parts of East Thrace (European Turkey), and the southern fringes of Northern Thrace (southern Bulgaria). The Arab geographers Ibn Khordadbeh and Ibn al-Faqih, whose accounts are a major source on the Byzantine themes, mention that the theme of Macedonia (Maqaduniya) extended from the "Long Wall" (the Anastasian Wall) to the "lands of the Slavs" in the west, and from the Aegean and Marmara Seas to the borders of Bulgaria to the north. In later days, to the west it bounded the theme of Thessalonica and the later themes of Strymon and Boleron. Thus, the theme of Macedonia had no relation to the historical region of Macedonia, and when Byzantine sources of the 10th–12th centuries refer to "Macedonia", they mean the area of western Thrace. Hence, for instance, the emperor Basil I "the Macedonian" (r. 867–886) hailed from Thrace, and the Macedonian dynasty he founded was named after the theme of Macedonia.

Approximate widest extent of the thema of Macedonia, superimposed on modern borders.

Being derived from the theme of Thrace, Macedonia was counted along with it among the "Eastern" themes, which ranked higher in Byzantine hierarchy than the "European" themes. In the late 9th and 10th centuries, its strategos ranked in the second grade of thematic governors, above even that of Thrace. He received an annual salary of 36 pounds of gold (2,592 nomismata), and in the late 9th century controlled 5,000 troops, according to the account of al-Fagih. A number of tagmatic soldiers was also permanently stationed in the theme. Strymon, which was originally a kleisoura of Macedonia, was split off sometime in the early 9th century, taking some 2,000 men (according to Treadgold) along with it.

Although the theme is attested in the 960s, its absence in the Escorial Taktikon of circa 975 has led to the supposition that it may have been abolished and subsumed into the command of the new doux of Adrianople. The theme of Macedonia, however, is attested again in 1006/1007, and there is some sigillographic evidence to support its continued existence alongside the doukaton of Adrianople. 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 numerous strategoi and judges (kritai) are attested holding jurisdiction over both themes.

Sources

• Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3u5RAAACAAJ. 
• Nesbitt, John W.; 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, District of Columbia: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. ISBN 0-88402-194-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=cUJmAAAAMAAJ. 
• Pertusi, A. (1952) (in Italian). Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. Rome, Italy: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 
• Treadgold, Warren T. (1991) [1988]. The Byzantine Revival, 780–842. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1896-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=KZ6gPwAACAAJ. 
• Treadgold, Warren T. (1995). Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3163-2. http://books.google.com/?id=xfV0LkMNaLUC.