Theme (Byzantine administrative unit)
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The themes or themata (Greek θέματα; singular θέμα thema) of the Byzantine Empire were administrative units established by a reform promulgated by Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century.
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[edit] Description of themata
The term thema was ambiguous, referring both to a form of military tenure and to an administrative division. A theme was an arrangement of plots of land given for farming to the soldiers. The soldiers were still technically a military unit, under the command of a strategos, and they did not own the land they worked as it was still controlled by the state. Therefore, for its use the soldiers' pay was reduced. By accepting this proposition, the participants agreed that their descendants would also serve in the military and work in a theme, thus simultaneously reducing the need for unpopular conscription as well as cheaply maintaining the military. It also allowed for the settling of conquered lands, as there was always a substantial addition made to public lands during a conquest.
The commander of a theme, however, did not only command his soldiers. He united the civil and military jurisdictions in the territorial area in question. Thus the division set up by Diocletian between civil governors (praesides etc) and military commanders (duces etc) was abolished, and the Empire returned to a system much more similar to that of the Republic or the Principate, where provincial governors had also commanded the armies in their area.
[edit] Reasons for Heraclian reforms
During the late sixth and early seventh centuries, the Byzantine Empire was under frequent attack. The Sassanid Empire was pressing from the south and east on Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. Slavs and Avars raided Greece and disputed the Balkans. The Lombards raided northern Italy, largely unopposed. The treasury of the Empire was drained and its generals were often in rebellion. Under such circumstances, Heraclius ascended to the throne and instituted reforms that would serve the Empire for generations to come.
[edit] Outcome of the reforms
The new system of settling military units in vacant lands and thus strengthening local loyalties to the state greatly helped the Byzantine Empire. Over the next several decades, the Sassanids retreated, the Slavs and Avars were reduced, and rebellions became far less common. The new military structure rescued the Empire from destruction and gave it a durability that would last for centuries. However, there was a price to be paid, in terms of a militarization of society and a decline of civil institutions and civil culture; for this reason, the introduction of the themes is often seen as marking the end of Late Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages for the Eastern Roman Empire.
The theme system, in time, created aristocratic families such as the Phocades, deeply entrenched in their local area, and deploying what amounted to private armies. These families, having troops loyal to them instead of the emperor and being financially autonomous, often challenged or even usurped imperial authority.
[edit] Organization of themata
Heraclius originally divided the holdings of the empire into five themes. These were the Armeniac (in 667), the Anatolic (in 669), the Opsician, the Carabisiani and the Thracian (all in 680). The Armeniac theme was originally composed of Pontus and Cappadocia, stretching from Sinope to Trebizond on the Black Sea and extending as far inland as Caesarea (in today's terms it would comprise the majority of the northeastern quarter of Asiatic Turkey). The Thracesian theme was originally composed of a band of territory hugging the coast from Dyrrhachium into Thrace, comprising most of modern Greece, Albania and European Turkey. The Opsician theme was originally composed of all of Bithynia and Paphlagonia, stretching from Abydos on the Dardanelles to Sinope on the Black Sea and inland to Ancyra (i.e. most of the northwestern quarter of what is now Asiatic Turkey). The southwestern quarter of what is now Turkey was divided between the Anatolic and Carabisiani themes. The Carabisiani theme was narrow band of territory that comprised the coastal province of Pamphylia and the isle of Rhodes. The Anatolic theme made a crescent shape arching around Carabisiani, and was originally composed of Lydia, Phrygia, Pisidia and parts of Galatia and Isauria (i.e. an arch of land from Izmir to Konya, and then down to the Mediterranean almost as far east as Mersin). These original five themes were later subdivided and new themes added as the empire pushed outward in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The following table illustrates the thematic structure as found in the Thracesian Theme, circa 902-936.
| Name | No. of personnel | No. of subordinate units | Officer in command |
|---|---|---|---|
| Themata | 9 600 | 4 Merẽ | Strategus |
| Turma, Meros | 2 400 | 6 Drungi | Turmarch |
| Drungus | 400 | 2 Banda | Drungary |
| Bandum | 200 | 2 "Centuria" | Count |
| "Century" | 100 | 10 "Contubernia" | Hecatontarch |
| 50 | 5 "Contubernia" | Pentecontarch | |
| "Contubernium" | 10 | 1 "Vanguard*" + 1 "Rear Guard*" | Decarch |
| "Vanguard*" | 5 | n/a | Pentrarch |
| "Rear Guard*" | 4 | n/a | Tetrarch |
- Note: The term have been latinized and terms in quotations are contignuations of the roman Legion system or * direct translations.
[edit] Origins of themata
Each of the original five themata was formed from the Empire's earlier mobile field armies. As the empire had shrunk, most of the armies had retreated to newer stations in the interior. Heraclius assigned each mobile army a part of Anatolia. Because the language of the empire was also being changed from Latin to Greek, the themes acquired Hellenized names.
The Opsician theme was formed from the armies in the Emperor's presence, which had lately been known as the Obsequium (retinue). The armies in the Emperor's presence had been stationed in southern Thrace and northwestern Anatolia, near the capital of Constantinople, and this was where the Opsician Theme was formed.
The Army of Armenia became the Armeniac theme, stationed in most of its original territory in eastern Anatolia, to the west of the Armenian protectorate. The Army of the East, which had formerly defended Roman Syria and Palestine, retreated when those areas were lost first to the Persians and later to the Arabs. They were settled in central Anatolia and became the Anatolic theme. The Army of Thrace became the Thracesian theme, settled in western Anatolia where Heraclius had withdrawn it. Emperor Constans also created a corps of marines, the Carabisian theme, named after a Greek word for ship (karabis) and based in Greece, in the Aegean islands and on the southern shore of Anatolia. This appears to have been formed from the remains of the Army of Illyricum, whose territory had included Greece.
[edit] Sources
- Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society.
- Treadgold, Warren. Byzantium and Its Armies, 284-1081.
