Chaldia

Chaldia in northeastern Anatolia in the 10th century.

The theme of Chaldia ( Greek  θέμα Χαλδίας , thema Chaldias ) was a Byzantine theme on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey ) established in 840. During the late Middle Ages , it formed the heart of the Trebizond Empire until its fall in 1461.

history

When the thematic system was established in the second half of the 7th century , the area of ​​the former Pontus Polemoniacus and part of Armenia I, known as the Celtic scene , became part of the Armeniakon . Originally it was known as Turma (Department) of Chaldia organized later than Doukaton or archonship . In the year 840, perhaps as early as 824, it was rewritten as a separate topic. Arab geographers of the 9th and 10th centuries make different statements on the subject: Ibn Chordadhbeh speaks of 6 fortresses in the subject, Qudama ibn Ja'far of around 4,000 soldiers as militia on the subject, while Ibn al-Faqih , the commanding strategos of the subject, reports 10,000 men would have been available (certainly an exaggeration). The strategos of Chaldia received 20 pounds of gold as an annual wage, half of which was paid by the state. The other half was provided by tax revenues such as the commissions tax levied on merchandise imported from the east. In the early 10th century, the district of Keltzene was stripped of the theme and added to the new theme of Mesopotamia .

Until the territorial expansion in the 10th century in the east, Chaldia was the northeastern border of the Byzantine Empire. In the period from 1091 / 1095-1098 and 1126-1140 the area was virtually independent of Constantinople. In the first of these periods Chaldia was cut off by the Seljuks from the rest of Byzantine territory and ruled by Theodoros Gabras in a quasi-autonomous manner, while the second time his son, Dux Konstantin Gabras , had rebelled against Emperor John II Komnenos . After the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire in the course of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the subject became part of the new Empire of Trebizond . This empire was practically reduced to the area of ​​Chaldia as early as the 14th century. Due to its mountainous location, a small but effective army and well-thought-out diplomacy, the empire managed to survive longer than the Byzantine Empire before falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1461 . Even after that, some mountain fortresses resisted the Ottomans. The region was not completely subdued until 1479, when the fortress Golacha, the last Christian outpost in Asia Minor, fell to the Turks. Large numbers of Pontic Greeks stayed on the Black Sea coast throughout the Ottoman Empire until they were expelled in 1923 .

literature

• James Allan Stewart Evans: The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power . Routledge, London / New York 2000, ISBN 0-415-23726-2 .
• Eric McGeer, John W. Nesbitt, Nicolas Oikonomides: Catalog of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art . tape 4 : The East. . Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington 2001, ISBN 0-88402-282-X .
• Agostino Pertusi : Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus . Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, Rome 1952, OCLC 912189938 .
• William Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts 1854, OCLC 2371051 .
• Richard JA Talbert: Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World : Map-by-Map Directory . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2000, ISBN 0-691-04945-9 .
• Warren T. Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081 . Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 1995, ISBN 0-8047-3163-2 .
• Warren T. Treadgold: A History of the Byzantine State and Society . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. 1952, p. 138.
2. ^ ^{A b} McGeer, Nesbitt, Oikonomides: Catalog of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art. 2001, p. 85.
3. ^ Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081. 1995, p. 31.
4. ↑ Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. 1952, pp. 138-139.
5. ↑ Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. 1952, p. 139.
6. ^ Treadgold: A History of the Byzantine State and Society. 1997, p. 817.