Paphlagonia (theme)
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The Theme of Paphlagonia ( el, θέμα Παφλαγονίας) was a military-civilian province (''thema'' or
theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
) of the Byzantine Empire in the namesake region along the northern coast of Anatolia, in modern Turkey.


History

The theme of Paphlagonia and its governing ''
strategos ''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek language, Greek to ...
'' are first mentioned in November 826, and the theme seems to have been established c. 820... The territory of the theme corresponds roughly to the late antique province of Paphlagonia, which had been subsumed in the themes of Opsikion and
Boukellarion The Bucellarian Theme ( el, Βουκελλάριον θέμα, ''Boukellarion thema''), more properly known as the Theme of the Bucellarians ( el, θέμα Βουκελλαρίων, ''thema Boukellariōn'') was a Byzantine theme (a military-civili ...
... Its administrative and ecclesiastical capital, as during Antiquity, was Gangra. Warren Treadgold – who notably believes that Paphlagonia belonged to the Armeniakon, and not the Boukellarion – suggested that its re-emergence as a separate province was linked with the new threat of Rus' naval activity in the Black Sea. According to the Arab geographers Ibn Khordadbeh and Ibn al-Faqih, the province numbered 5,000 troops and five fortified places.. A notable exception to the usual thematic hierarchy is the existence of a '' katepano'', in charge of a naval squadron, with his seat at Amastris. After the
Battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, theme of Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and th ...
in 1071, most of the region was lost to the Seljuk Turks; the campaigns of John II Komnenos in the 1130s managed to recover firm control of the coast. The interior became disputed territory, John II took Kastamonu and Gangra but the latter soon returned to Turkish hands. After the
Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
, Paphlagonia came under the control of David Komnenos, but in 1214 the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris seized the western parts up to Amastris. These remained in Byzantine hands until the late 14th century, when they were taken over by the Turks or the Genoese.


References


Sources

* * * * * {{Authority control States and territories established in the 820s Themes of the Byzantine Empire Byzantine Paphlagonia