Iberia (theme)
Theme of Iberia Ἰβηρίας, θέμα Ἰβηρίας | |||||||||
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Theodosioupolis | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Coordinates | 39°54′31″N 41°16′37″E / 39.90861°N 41.27694°E | ||||||||
Government | |||||||||
Doux | |||||||||
• 1025/6 | Niketas of Pisidia | ||||||||
• 1045 | Katakalon Kekaumenos | ||||||||
• 1047 | Leo Tornikios | ||||||||
• 1054–59 | Basil Apokapes | ||||||||
• 1071–74 | Gregory Pakourianos | ||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 1001 | ||||||||
• Kingdom of Ani was incorporated into Theme. | 1045 | ||||||||
• Constantine IX disbanded "Iberian Army" | 1053 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | ca. 1074 | ||||||||
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Today part of | Turkey |
Part of a series on the |
History of Georgia |
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The theme of Iberia (
Foundation and enlargement
The theme was created by the emperor Basil II (976–1025) from the lands inherited from the Georgian prince
Basil gathered his inheritance upon David’s death in 1000, forcing the successor Georgian Bagratid ruler
Government
The exact chronology of the theme of Iberia and of its governors is not completely clear. Unfortunately, the few Greek seals from the theme or from the ambiguous "Interior Iberia" can seldom be dated precisely.[6] Although many scholars maintain that the theme was probably created immediately after the annexation of David of Tao's princedom, it is difficult to ascertain whether Byzantine rule extended into Tao permanently in 1000 or only after Georgia's defeat in 1022. It is also impossible to identify any commander in Iberia before the appointment, in 1025/6, of the eunuch Niketas of Pisidia as the doux or katepano of Iberia. Some scholars believe, however, that the first doux of Iberia was either Romanos Dalassenos or his brother Theophylactos appointed between 1022 and 1027 in the aftermath of Basil's Georgian campaigns.[7] After 1045 Iberia also included the former Kingdom of Ani. Since 1071 Gregory Pakourianos was a governor of the Theme of Iberia.
The Iberian governor was aided by tax officials, judges, and by co administrators who shared in the exercise of the military and civil duties. Among these officials were the domesticos of the East, the administrators of the districts of which the theme was composed, and the occasional extraordinary legates sent there by the emperor. Apart from the regular Byzantine garrisons, an indigenous army of peasant soldiers guarded the area and received in turn an allotment of tax-free government land. This changed, however, when
End of the Theme
Constantine's reforms caused great discontent in the theme and exposed it to hostile attack aided by the removal of regular troops from the region, first to crush the Macedonian revolt of Leo Tornicius, himself the former catapan of Iberia (1047),[8] and later to halt the Pecheneg advance.
In 1048–9, the
About 1053 Constantine IX disbanded what the historian John Skylitzes calls the "Iberian Army", which consisted of 50,000 men, and was turned into a contemporary Drungary of the Watch. Two other knowledgeable contemporaries, the former officials Michael Attaleiates and Kekaumenos, agree with Skylitzes that by demobilizing these soldiers Constantine did catastrophic harm to the Empire's eastern defenses. Kekaumenos says that Constantine's demobilization covered "Iberia and Mesopotamia", Attaliates refers to the demobilized district as "the Iberian land" which was evidently the same as "the land of the Iberians". the region of the demobilized "Iberian Army" evidently included everything north of the ducates of Antioch and Edessa and east of the old Anatolian themes. The other themes were probably called "Iberian" because after the conquest of Iberia in 1000 the general command over them was transferred from the Duke of Mesopotamia to the Duke of Iberia.[9]
In the aftermath of the
See also
- Byzantine–Georgian wars
- Byzantine–Seljuq Wars
References
- ^ ISBN 90-429-1318-5.
- ^ Арутюновой – Фиданян, В. А. Типик Григория Пакуриана. Введение, перевод и комментарий. Ереван, 1978, с. 249.
- ISBN 9780754657378. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
- ^ Lang, David Marshall (1966), The Georgians, pp. 109–110. Praeger Publishers.
- ^ Edwards, Robert W. (1988), The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey, p. 126. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 42.
- ^ a b c Edwards (1988), pp. 138–140
- ISBN 0-19-927968-3.
- Catapan of Italy, in 1017.
- ^ Treadgold, Warren T. Byzantium And Its Army, 284–1081. 1st ed. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1995. Print.
Further reading
- Toumanoff, Cyril. Studies in Christian Caucasian History, Georgetown University Press, Washington, 1967.
- Arutyunova-Fidanyan, Viada A., Some Aspects of the Military-Administrative Districts and Byzantine Administration in Armenia During the 11th Century, REArm 20, 1986–87: 309–20.
- Kalistrat, Salia (1983), History of the Georgian Nation, Katharine Vivian trans. Paris.
- Garsoian, Nina. The Byzantine Annexation of the Armenian Kingdoms in the Eleventh Century, 192 p. In: The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, vol. 1, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1977.
- Hewsen, Robert. Armenia. A Historical Atlas. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2001, Pp 341 (124).