Macedonia (theme) - History

History

The theme of Macedonia was created between 789 (or 797) and 801/802 by the Empress Irene of Athens, from the older theme of Thrace. Sigillographic evidence shows that a tourma ("division") named "Macedonia" existed before, subordinated to the strategos of Thrace. The first known strategos of Macedonia, the patrikios John Aplakes, is first mentioned in 813, but Theophanes the Confessor mentions Leo, brother of the eunuch chamberlain Aetios, being appointed as the monostrategos ("single-general", placed in command over two or more themes) of Thrace and Macedonia already in 801/802. Its creation came in the aftermath of a series of military successes that had extended Byzantine reach over most of the wider region of Thrace, and was probably intended to make imperial control more efficient by entrusting the greatly expanded territory to two strategoi.

Although the theme is attested in the 960s, its absence in the Escorial Taktikon of circa 975 has led to the supposition that it may have been abolished and subsumed into the command of the new doux of Adrianople. The theme of Macedonia, however, is attested again in 1006/1007, and there is some sigillographic evidence to support its continued existence alongside the doukaton of Adrianople. In the late 10th century, as a result of the conquests of John I Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025), the theme of Macedonia ceased being a border theme; to its north, it was bounded by new provinces centred on Philippopolis and Beroe, while to its south, the new theme of Boleron came into existence in the early 11th century.

Little is known of the provincial organization in the 12th century. In an imperial chrysobull to the Venetians dating to 1198, "Thrace and Macedonia" appear as a single territorial entity describing all of Thrace, but it is subdivided into smaller units centred around the major cities. The core area of the old theme of Macedonia is now recorded as the "provincia Adrianupleos et Didimotichi".