•The Téma System and its Historical Background The theme (Greek: singular – θέμα, plural – θέματα themata), was the main local administrative unit of the Byzantine Empire for approximately seven centuries. The word means military division. The theme system was established in the late 7th century, replacing the earlier main local unit, the Roman diocese, which had been established by the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine I.
The reason for this division was that it allowed local governors to command the troops in their regions, declare themselves autonomous emperors, and attempt to seize central authority from the local troops. This system generally produced satisfactory results for 300 years in each region of the Byzantine Empire.
The term “thema” has two different meanings. It refers to both a kind of military region and to a local administrative unit. The “thema” was the organization of the land parcels given to the soldiers to cultivate. Technically, the soldiers were military units formed to fight under the command of a strategos (governor). They were not the owners of the land they were given and cultivated; the land belonged to the state. The soldiers who worked the land had the right to harvest the crops and to receive the yield and profit from the cultivated land.
The theme system underwent constant shocks with the decline of the Byzantine Empire and became very difficult to implement, as many old regions were lost, new territories were not conquered, and many regions, especially in border areas, were constantly changing hands. On the other hand, the Franks, who captured Constantinople and established the Latin Empire with the Fourth Crusade, established feudal states by applying a medieval hierarchical system similar to the Frankish apanage system, which was attached to this empire. This further contributed to the collapse of the theme system.
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