Subdivisions of the Byzantine Empire

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Subdivisions of the Byzantine Empire were administrative units of the

central bureaucracy, and the late Byzantine, where the structure was more varied and decentralized and where feudal elements appeared.[1][2][3]

Early period: 4th–7th centuries

The classical administrative model, as exemplified by the Notitia Dignitatum, divided the late Roman Empire into provinces, which in turn were grouped into dioceses and then into praetorian prefectures.

The late Roman administrative system remained intact until the 530s, when Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook his administrative reforms. He effectively abolished the dioceses, merged smaller provinces and created new types of jurisdictions like the quaestura exercitus, which combined civil with military authority, thus overturning the main principle of the Diocletianic system.

Under Maurice (r. 582–602), this was carried a step further with the exarchates of Italy and Africa, which became effectively semi-autonomous territories.

Middle period: 7th–12th centuries

The traditional administrative system faced a severe challenge in the first half of the 7th century, when the

tourmai, droungoi and banda
. The droungos however was only a military, not an administrative division.

Alongside the themes, other types of provincial units existed. Peripheral territories, often with a strong maritime character like Crete, Crimea or Cephallenia were run by archons as in classical Greek times and are hence known as archontates (archontiai, sing. archontia). Along the eastern frontier with the Caliphate, distinct border provinces were created, the kleisourai. In the Balkans, Slavic tribes (Sclaveni) that came under Byzantine authority were usually allowed some form of limited self-governance under archons of their own. By the 10th century however, most of the archontates and kleisourai had been raised to themes themselves.

With the great military expansion of the 10th and early 11th centuries, new themes were established as land was recovered from the Arabs in the East and after the conquest of Bulgaria. Many of the new themes in the East were smaller than the old, comprising only a fortified town and its immediate area. Garrisoned chiefly by Armenians, these became known as the "Armenian" themes in contrast to the older, larger "Roman" themes. From ca. 970 until the mid-11th century, another military and administrative level appeared: regional commands which grouped several themes under a general termed duke (doux) or catepan (katepano) and hence usually rendered as duchies or catepanates in English.

In the

sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade
in 1204.

Late period: 13th–15th centuries

Following the dissolution of the Byzantine state after the Fourth Crusade, its Byzantine Greek successor states maintained many of its features and structure.

The themes survived in the Empire of Nicaea and the post-1261 restored Byzantine Empire as a generic term for a territorial and fiscal circumscription. These were divided into katepanikia, which usually were little more than a town, where the governor or kephale ("head") resided, with its surrounding countryside. Minor kephalai were sometimes grouped into larger jurisdictions which were then placed under a "universal head" (katholike kephale).

The 14th century also saw the creation of several

despotates as appanages for members of the imperial family, the most famous and long-lasting of which was the Despotate of the Morea
.

In the Empire of Trebizond, the old banda of the theme of Chaldia remained extant, and formed the country's sole administrative subdivision.

Terminology

Byzantine administrative terminology was initially based on Roman terms for various administrative offices and units, with common variants in both Latin and Greek languages. Since the Roman conquest, the

Eparch of Constantinople, whose office had wide-ranging powers and functioned continuously until the 13th century.[4][5]

Name Greek name Type First Last
eparchy ("province") ἐπαρχία civil province traditional rendering of the Roman provincia early 9th century
diocese διοίκησις regional group of provinces 290s 6th/7th centuries
praetorian prefecture ἐπαρχότης / ὑπαρχία τῶν πραιτωρίων large supra-regional circumscription 330s 6th/7th centuries
quaestura exercitus military-civil province 536
exarchate ἐξαρχᾶτον military-civil province 580s/590s 698 (Carthage)/751 (Ravenna)
thema θέμα military-civil province 640s/660s
kleisoura κλεισούρα military province
archontate
 ἀρχοντία small-scale local district
tourma
 τούρμα / τοῦρμα military-civil province
bandon ("banner") βάνδον military-civil province
katepanikion κατεπανίκιον military-civil province

References

  1. ^ Ostrogorsky 1956.
  2. ^ Maksimović 1988.
  3. ^ Krsmanović 2008.
  4. ^ Ostrogorsky 1956, p. 221.
  5. ^ Mason 1974, p. 81, 84-86, 138-139.

Sources

  • Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Maksimović, Ljubomir (1988). The Byzantine Provincial Administration under the Palaiologoi. Amstardam: Hakkert.
  • Krsmanović, Bojana (2008). The Byzantine Province in Change: On the Threshold Between the 10th and the 11th Century. Belgrade: Institute for Byzantine Studies.
  • Mason, Hugh J. (1974). Greek Terms for Roman Institutions: A Lexicon and Analysis. Toronto: Hakkert.

Further reading

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