Paphlagonia (Byzantine theme)

The theme of Paphlagonia ( Greek  θέμα Παφλαγονίας ) was a Byzantine theme in the region of the same name along the north coast of Asia Minor in what is now Turkey .

history

The theme of Paphlagonia and its commanding strategos are first mentioned in November 826, the theme itself seems to have been established around 820. The area of ​​the subject coincided roughly with the late ancient Roman province of Paphlagonia , which had been divided into the subject of Opsikion and Boukellarion when the subject system was introduced. Its administrative and spiritual center was gangra. It is possible that the reappearance of Paphlagonia can be explained as a separate issue with the threat from the Rus . According to the Arab geographers Ibn Chordadhbeh and Ibn al-Faqih , the subject had 5,000 soldiers and five fortresses. An exception to the usual topic order was the Katepano of the topic based in Amastris .

After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, most of the subject was lost to the Seljuks ; Through the campaigns of John II Komnenos in the 1130s, the empire was able to regain the coastline, but the Paphlagonian hinterland remained in Turkish hands. After the Fourth Crusade Paphlagonia came under the rule of David Komnenus , but in 1214 the Nicean Emperor Theodor I Laskaris conquered the western part of the coast as far as Amastris. This western part remained in Byzantine hands until the 14th century when it was conquered by the Turks and Genoese .

literature

• Alexander Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . 3 volumes. Oxford / New York 1991.
• Warren T. Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081 . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1995, ISBN 0-8047-3163-2 .
• John W. Nesbitt, Eric McGeer, Nicolas Oikonomides (Eds.): Catalog of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art. Volume 4: The East. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 2001, ISBN 0-88402-282-X .
• Nicolas Oikonomides: Les Listes de Préséance Byzantines des IXe et Xe Siècles. Paris 1972.
• A. Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome 1952.
• Warren T. Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1995, ISBN 0-8047-3163-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} McGeer, Nesbitt, Oikonomides: Catalog of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art. 2001, p. 25.
2. ↑ Oikonomides: Les Listes de Préséance Byzantines des IXe et Xe Siècles. 1972, p. 349.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kazhdan: The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 1991, p. 1579.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. 1952, p. 136.
5. ↑ Pertusi: Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus. 1952, p. 137.
6. ^ Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081. 1995, pp. 31, 69.
7. ^ Treadgold: Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081. 1995, pp. 67-69.