Topic summary
Theme of Bulgaria
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Bulgaria (theme).
The Theme of Bulgaria (Greek: Θέμα Βουλγαρίας, romanized: Thema Boulgarias) was a theme (province) of the Byzantine Empire established by Emperor Basil II after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. Its capital was Skopje and it was governed by a strategos. The theme of Bulgaria did not encompass the old Bulgarian lands between the Haimos Mountains and the river Danube, that included the former capitals Pliska and Preslav. This territory was administered independently and was considered as autonomous military unit, designated as Paristrion or Paradunavon, meaning the "lands beside the Danube".