Demographic History of Macedonia - Byzantine Macedonia

Byzantine Macedonia

As the Greek state of Byzantium gradually emerged as a successor state to the Roman Empire, Macedonia became one of its most important provinces as it was close to the Empire's capital (Constantinople) and included its second largest city (Thessaloniki). According to Byzantine maps that were recorded by Ernest Honigmann, by the 6th century AD there were two provinces carrying the name "Macedonia" in the Empire's borders:

• Macedonia A

which corresponded to the geographical borders of ancient Macedon (approximately equivalent to today's Greek Macedonia);

• Macedonia B

which corresponded to former barbaric regions that were included in Macedonia during Hellenistic and Roman times (approximately equivalent to parts of today's Southern Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Albania and Western Bulgaria).

Macedonia was ravaged several times in the 4th and the 5th century by desolating onslaughts of Visigoths, Huns and Vandals. These did little to change its ethnic composition (the region being almost completely Hellenized by that time) but left much of the region depopulated.

Later in about 800 AD, a new province of the Byzantine Empire - Macedonia, was organised by Empress Irene out of the Theme of Thrace. It had no relation with the historical or geographical region of Macedonia, but instead it was centered in Thrace, including the area from Adrianople (the theme's capital) and the Evros valley eastward along the Sea of Marmara. It did not include any part of ancient Macedon, which (insofar as the Byzantines controlled it) was in the Theme of Thessalonica.