Reconstructing the Byzantine Frontier on the Balkans (late 8th-10th c.). REB 73 (2015) 229-239 (original) (raw)
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REB 73, 2015
reconsTrucTinG The ByzanTine fronTier on The BaLkans (LaTe 8th-10th c.) alexandra-kyriaki WaSSiLioU-SEiBT The establishment of the new military districts (themata) of Makedonia, Mesopotamia, Strymon and Thessaloniki in the Balkan Peninsula became necessary to better protect Byzantine territories against the growing Bulga-rian threat during the last two decades of the 8th century. The literary sources are not adequately informative to determine the exact date of these administrative reforms, but the sigillographic evidence can make up this deficiency 1. Concerning the Thema of Mesopotamia Werner Seibt has already proved that it was established around 800 based upon a closely datable seal of the year 810/811, as well as other bullae that seem to be even a little bit earlier. 2 on the other hand alkmini Stauridou-Zaphraka has proposed a similar chronological framework for the creation of the Themata of Makedonia, Strymon, and Thessaloniki, based on scanty hints (ex eventu) in the literary sources. 3 Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon suggested the creation of these Themata primarily under Nicephoros i, but did not exclude an earlier date. 4 1. Jean-Claude Cheynet made available to us better photos of seals than we had before. We thank him very much. 2. W. seIBt, Το θέμα Μεσοποταμίας στα Βαλκάνια τον πρώιμο 9o αιώνα, in th. korres et alii (ed.), Φιλοτιμία. Τιμητικός τόμος για την ομότιμη καθηγήτρια Αλκμήνη Σταυρίδου-Ζαφράκα,
During the period that begins with the ascent on the throne of Alexios I Komnenos and ends with the first sack of the capital of Byzantium, Thessalonike faces the hostile intentions of different enemies and the tragic experience of a sack, while playing an important role as the constantly second city of the empire and a major administrative, financial and commercial urban centre of the Aimos’ peninsula. Byzantine historical sources, both narratives and archival, often refer to the city and its inhabitants in relation with either the course of events in the Byzantine Empire or the activity of individual public officials and members of the laity and the church. From those references and especially from the description of certain events, their immediate or collateral impact and the reactions they created, as well as, more importantly, from specific decisions made by emperors and state functionaries, we assume several pieces of information about the social and economic state of affairs. Especially fascinating is the information regarding changes of the economic situation and grants or privileges allotted in the Thessalonike area. This paper considers many of the aforementioned data of the sources and aims, firstly, to bring to the fore certain parameters of the course of Thessalonike during the reign of the Komnenoi and the Angeloi, in relation to socio-economic institutions and general issues of Byzantine economy. Secondly and most importantly, it will focus on the extent and the way in which the circumstances of that period are likely to be connected directly with, or even cause, contemporary fiscal regulations in the Thessalonike area, thus affecting greater developments in Byzantine economic policy.
Macedonian Studies Journal - Volume 2, 2015, Issue 1
Macedonian Studies Journal - Journal of the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies Melbourne, Australia
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia came into existence in 1991. This newly emerging state was not a country that was recreated after centuries, nor one which, having been destroyed or absorbed by others over the years, was once again restructured and reappeared, as was the case with Chechoslovakia, Israel or Palestine. As a matter of fact, there was never a country or a state bearing the name “Macedonia”, only the geographic region of ancient Macedonia, a region affiliated and interconnected with the history, language, civilization, culture and religion of Ancient Hellas. In 146 BC, the Romans, wishing to eradicate the Hellenic identity of the Macedonians, created a large dominion extending the ancient borders of Macedonia (see relevant paper in this edition of the MSJ), and calling the new territory Macedonia Prima (Provincia Macedoniae). When Roman General Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, Rome established a new province incorporating ancient Macedonia, which also included Epirus, Thessaly, and parts of Illyria, Paionia and Thrace. This created a much larger administrative area, to which the name of Macedonia was still applied. Hence, any sort or type of national irredentism regarding the name “Macedonia” as an ethnic or national nomenclature is anthropologically pseudonymous and politically irrational. Irredentism is the nationalist belief that a territory belonging to another country should be annexed for ethnic or historical reasons. Irredentist claims are usually justified on the basis that the irredentists' ethnic group, now or historically, formed the majority in that territory or that the territory was part of the irredentists' nation-state at some point in the past. In the case of the people of FYROM, the Macedoslavs, who try to emerge unilaterally as the “Macedonians”, nothing of the above is validated. The constitutional name of “Macedonia” that they were inspired to use for their country was never a territory exclusively or primarily or historically occupied by “Macedonians”; “Macedonians” never formed the majority in this territory and most importantly this region was never the nation-state of the “Macedonians.” Furthermore, irredentism is to be distinguished from territorial expansionism, in that irredentism claims to advocate taking back land that is "rightfully ours," while expan-sionism advocates annexation regardless of whether the territory was "ours" in the first place. Hence, the actual mode of irrational behaviour of the Macedoslavs should be called expansionism and not just irredentism in the Balkans; a tendency which inflames ethnic and national unrest and creates instability to the wider European community. The name of the hypothetical country resulting from successful annexation frequently contains the word "Greater", such as, for example, in Greater Serbia, Greater Albania, or Greater Russia, as we have recently experienced with the annexation of Crimea. Then there comes the third means of nationalism: secessionism. The scholarship on irredentism and secessionism suggests that the former is more likely to become violent and result in war than the latter. Irredentist conflicts are often instigated by sovereign states, whereas, secessionist conflicts are usually initiated by minority groups. Since sovereign states have military capability to fight full-scale wars, irredentist conflicts tend to be more violent and/or turn international. Given that minority groups lack military resources to fight for their causes, secessionist conflicts on the other hand normally do not escalate to interstate war. However, what happens if a sovereign state with a full-fledged army decides to support a secessionist cause? We refer our readers to the Ukraine experience and the prolonged civil war there. Since 2006, the Macedoslavs of FYROM, via their ultra-nationalist government of Nicola Gruevski and its agencies have attempted to implement within their new national borders and in the Macedoslavic Diaspora all three expressions of nationalism, namely irredentism, expansionism and secessionism, thus acting as a serious source of instability in the Balkans and the greater European community. They preach irredentism by posing as “Macedonians” when they never historically formed the majority in Macedonia or Macedonia Prima. In their delirious nationalism they masquerade their Macedoslavic identity and adulterate their culture with Hellenic statues and Greek cultural monuments belonging to another nation-country, namely Hellas, simply to pose as ancient Macedonians. Hence, they demonstrate disrespect and betray their own renowned Slavic culture and civilization. They preach expansionism infiltrating the conscience of the few thousands of Greek bilingual citizens in Ancient Macedonia, the birthplace of Alexander the Great and Aristotle, a region in which they desire to find their “enslaved compatriots”, the Egejski Makedonci. Finally they preach secessionism both within their national borders as well as in the Diaspora via their propaganda machine, their consular staff and their publications producing maps of the Greater Macedonia. Historically, there have been many territories that have changed hands very often, and territories in which the ethnic composition has changed over time. This means the claims of different irredentist movements of what is "rightfully theirs" very often overlap. Since the borders of nearly all nations have changed over time, irredentist attitudes can be found in most parts of the world. Usually, they are part of nationalist ideologies, though by far not all nationalist ideologies and groups include them. Fortunately, irredentism usually does not receive the official support it once did. The Gruevski government constitutes an extreme form of irredentism, expansion-ism and secessionism, seeking to expand its newly emerged country to a maximum extent, regardless of whether the Macedoslavs ever actually formed the majority in the territory in question. The government of FYROM should be reminded that similar expressions of nationalism, expansionism and secessionism are also displayed by other ethnicities within its national borders. According to the Gallup Balkan Monitor 2010 report, the idea of a Greater Albania is supported by the majority of Albanians in Albania (63%), Kosovo (81%) and the Republic of “Macedonia” (53%). This clearly demonstrates that it would be more prudent to safeguard the welfare of the Macedoslav people, build constructive relations with neighbouring countries, reinforce the social cohesion of citizens rather than waste the country’s human and material resources to chase ghosts and imagined enemies in the south.
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