Opsikion
Encyclopedia
The Opsician Theme or simply Opsikion (Greek: ) was a Byzantine
theme (a military-civilian province) located in northwestern Asia Minor
(modern Turkey
). Created from the imperial retinue army, the Opsikion was the largest and most prestigious of the early themes, being located closest to Constantinople
. Involved in several revolts in the 8th century, it was split in three after circa 750, and lost its former preeminence. It survived as a middle-tier theme until after the Fourth Crusade
.
. The term Opsikion derives from the Latin term Obsequium ("retinue"), which by the early 7th century came to refer to the unit responsible for escorting the emperor on campaign. It is possible that at an early stage, the unit was garrisoned inside Constantinople itself. In the 640s, however, following the disastrous defeats suffered during the first wave of the Muslim conquests
, the remains of the field armies were withdrawn to Asia Minor
and settled into large districts, called "themes" (themata). Thus the Opsician theme was the area where the imperial Opsikion was settled, which encompassed all of north-western Asia Minor (Mysia
, Bithynia
, parts of Galatia
, Lydia
and Paphlagonia
) from the Dardanelles
to the Halys River
, with Ancyra as its capital. The exact date of the theme's establishment is unknown; the earliest reference point to a creation as early as 626, but the first confirmed occurrence is in 680. It is possible that it also initially included the area of Thrace
, which seems to have been administered jointly with Opsikion in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.
The unique origin of the Opsikion was also reflected in several aspects of the theme's organization. Thus the title of its commander was not stratēgos
(Greek: στρατηγός, "General") as with the other themes, but komēs
(Greek: κόμης, "Count"), in full komēs tou basilikou Opsikiou (Greek: , "Count of the imperial Opsikion"), Furthermore, it was not divided into tourmai, but into domesticates
formed from the elite corps of the army, such as the Optimatoi
and Boukellarioi, both terms dating back to the recruitment of Gothic
foederati
in the 4th–6th centuries. Its prestige is further illustrated by the seals of its commanders, where it is called the "God-guarded imperial Opsikion" (Greek: ; Latin: a Deo conservandum imperiale Obsequium).
Being the theme closest to the imperial capital Constantinople
and enjoying a position of pre-eminence among the other themes, the counts of the Opsikion were often tempted to revolt against the emperors. Already in 668, on the death of Emperor Constans II
in Sicily
, the count Mezezius
staged an abortive coup. Under the patrikios Barasbakourios, the Opsikion was the main powerbase of Emperor Justinian II
(r. 685–695 and 705–711). Justinian also settled many Slavs captured in Thrace there, in an attempt to boost its military strength. Most of them, however, deserted to the Arabs on the first battle. In 713, the Opsikian army overthrew Philippikos Bardanes (r. 711–713), the man who overthrew and murdered Justinian, and enthroned Anastasios II
(r. 713–715), only to overthrow him too in 715 and install Theodosios III
(r. 715–717) in his place. In 716, the Opsicians supported the rise of Leo III the Isaurian
(r. 716–740) to the throne, but in 718, their count, the patrikios Isoes rose up unsuccessfully against him. In 741–742, the kouropalatēs Artabasdos
used it as a base for his brief usurpation of Emperor Constantine V
(r. 741–775). In 766, another count was blinded after a failed mutiny against the same emperor. In this period, the revolts of the Opsician theme were not only the result of its counts' ambition: the Opsikians were staunchly iconodule, and opposed to the iconoclast policies of the Isaurian emperors. As a result, Emperor Constantine V set out to weaken the power of the theme: the new themes of the Boukellarioi
and the Optimatoi
were split off. At the same time, the emperor recruited a new set of elite and staunchly iconoclast guard regiments, the tagmata.
Consequently, the reduced Opsikion was downgraded from a guard formation to an ordinary cavalry theme: its forces were divided into tourmai, and its komēs fell to the sixth place in the hierarchy of thematic governors and was even renamed to the "ordinary" title of stratēgos by the end of the 9th century. In the 9th century, he is recorded as receiving an annual salary of 30 pounds of gold, and of commanding 6,000 men (down from some 18,000 of the old Opsikion). The thematic capital was moved to Nicaea, and Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos, in his De Thematibus, mentions further nine cities in the theme: Cotyaeum, Dorylaeum
, Midaion, Apamea
, Myrleia, Lampsacus
, Parion, Cyzicus
and Abydus.
In the great revolt of Thomas the Slav
in the early 820s, the Opsikion remained loyal to Emperor Michael II
(r. 820–829). In 866, the Opsician stratēgos, George Peganes, rose up along with the Thracesian Theme
against Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), then the co-emperor of Michael III
(r. 842–867), and in circa 930, Basil Chalkocheir revolted against Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). Both revolts, however, were easily quelled, and are a far cry from the emperor-making revolts of the 8th century. The theme existed through the Komnenian period, and was united with the Aegean theme
sometime in the 12th century. It apparently also survived into the Empire of Nicaea
: George Akropolites records that in 1234, the Opsician theme fell under the "Italians" (Latin Empire
).
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
theme (a military-civilian province) located in northwestern Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
(modern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
). Created from the imperial retinue army, the Opsikion was the largest and most prestigious of the early themes, being located closest to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. Involved in several revolts in the 8th century, it was split in three after circa 750, and lost its former preeminence. It survived as a middle-tier theme until after the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
.
History
The Opsician theme was one of the first four themes, and has its origin in the praesental armies of the East Roman armyEast Roman army
The East Roman army refers to the army of the Eastern section of the Roman Empire, from the empire's definitive split in 395 AD to the army's reorganization by themes after the permanent loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs in the 7th century...
. The term Opsikion derives from the Latin term Obsequium ("retinue"), which by the early 7th century came to refer to the unit responsible for escorting the emperor on campaign. It is possible that at an early stage, the unit was garrisoned inside Constantinople itself. In the 640s, however, following the disastrous defeats suffered during the first wave of the Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...
, the remains of the field armies were withdrawn to Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
and settled into large districts, called "themes" (themata). Thus the Opsician theme was the area where the imperial Opsikion was settled, which encompassed all of north-western Asia Minor (Mysia
Mysia
Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...
, Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
, parts of Galatia
Galatia
Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of...
, Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
and Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus...
) from the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
to the Halys River
Halys River
The Kızılırmak , also known as the Halys River , is the longest river in Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for navigation.- Geography :...
, with Ancyra as its capital. The exact date of the theme's establishment is unknown; the earliest reference point to a creation as early as 626, but the first confirmed occurrence is in 680. It is possible that it also initially included the area of Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, which seems to have been administered jointly with Opsikion in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.
The unique origin of the Opsikion was also reflected in several aspects of the theme's organization. Thus the title of its commander was not stratēgos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
(Greek: στρατηγός, "General") as with the other themes, but komēs
Comes
Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
(Greek: κόμης, "Count"), in full komēs tou basilikou Opsikiou (Greek: , "Count of the imperial Opsikion"), Furthermore, it was not divided into tourmai, but into domesticates
Domestikos
Domestikos , in English sometimes [the] Domestic, was a civil, ecclesiastic and military office in the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire.-Military usage:...
formed from the elite corps of the army, such as the Optimatoi
Optimatoi
The Optimatoi were initially formed as an elite Byzantine military unit. In the mid-8th century, however, they were downgraded to a supply and logistics corps and assigned a province in north-western Asia Minor, which was named after them...
and Boukellarioi, both terms dating back to the recruitment of Gothic
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
foederati
Foederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
in the 4th–6th centuries. Its prestige is further illustrated by the seals of its commanders, where it is called the "God-guarded imperial Opsikion" (Greek: ; Latin: a Deo conservandum imperiale Obsequium).
Being the theme closest to the imperial capital Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and enjoying a position of pre-eminence among the other themes, the counts of the Opsikion were often tempted to revolt against the emperors. Already in 668, on the death of Emperor Constans II
Constans II
Constans II , also called Constantine the Bearded , was Byzantine emperor from 641 to 668. He also was the last emperor to become consul in 642, becoming the last Roman consul in history....
in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, the count Mezezius
Mezezius
Mezezius was an Armenian noble who served as a general of Byzantium, later usurping the Byzantine throne in Sicily from 668 to 669.According to a letter from Pope Gregory II to Emperor Leo III, he was Count of the Opsikion, the imperial retinue , and a later Syriac chronicle describes him as a...
staged an abortive coup. Under the patrikios Barasbakourios, the Opsikion was the main powerbase of Emperor Justinian II
Justinian II
Justinian II , surnamed the Rhinotmetos or Rhinotmetus , was the last Byzantine Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711...
(r. 685–695 and 705–711). Justinian also settled many Slavs captured in Thrace there, in an attempt to boost its military strength. Most of them, however, deserted to the Arabs on the first battle. In 713, the Opsikian army overthrew Philippikos Bardanes (r. 711–713), the man who overthrew and murdered Justinian, and enthroned Anastasios II
Anastasios II (emperor)
Artemius Anastasius , known in English as Anastasios II or Anastasius II, , was Byzantine emperor from 713 to 715....
(r. 713–715), only to overthrow him too in 715 and install Theodosios III
Theodosios III
Theodosios III or Theodosius III , was Byzantine Emperor from 715 to March 25, 717.Theodosius was a financial officer and tax collector in the southern portion of the theme of Opsikion. According to one theory he was the son of the former Emperor Tiberius III. When the thematic troops rebelled...
(r. 715–717) in his place. In 716, the Opsicians supported the rise of Leo III the Isaurian
Leo III the Isaurian
Leo III the Isaurian or the Syrian , was Byzantine emperor from 717 until his death in 741...
(r. 716–740) to the throne, but in 718, their count, the patrikios Isoes rose up unsuccessfully against him. In 741–742, the kouropalatēs Artabasdos
Artabasdos
Artavasdos, Latinized as Artabasdos or Artabasdus , was Byzantine Emperor of Armenian descent from June 741 or 742 until November 743...
used it as a base for his brief usurpation of Emperor Constantine V
Constantine V
Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775; ); .-Early life:...
(r. 741–775). In 766, another count was blinded after a failed mutiny against the same emperor. In this period, the revolts of the Opsician theme were not only the result of its counts' ambition: the Opsikians were staunchly iconodule, and opposed to the iconoclast policies of the Isaurian emperors. As a result, Emperor Constantine V set out to weaken the power of the theme: the new themes of the Boukellarioi
Bucellarian Theme
The Bucellarian Theme , more properly known as the Theme of the Bucellarians was a Byzantine theme in northern Asia Minor...
and the Optimatoi
Optimatoi
The Optimatoi were initially formed as an elite Byzantine military unit. In the mid-8th century, however, they were downgraded to a supply and logistics corps and assigned a province in north-western Asia Minor, which was named after them...
were split off. At the same time, the emperor recruited a new set of elite and staunchly iconoclast guard regiments, the tagmata.
Consequently, the reduced Opsikion was downgraded from a guard formation to an ordinary cavalry theme: its forces were divided into tourmai, and its komēs fell to the sixth place in the hierarchy of thematic governors and was even renamed to the "ordinary" title of stratēgos by the end of the 9th century. In the 9th century, he is recorded as receiving an annual salary of 30 pounds of gold, and of commanding 6,000 men (down from some 18,000 of the old Opsikion). The thematic capital was moved to Nicaea, and Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos, in his De Thematibus, mentions further nine cities in the theme: Cotyaeum, Dorylaeum
Dorylaeum
Dorylaeum or Dorylaion was an ancient city in Anatolia. It is now in ruins near the city of Eskişehir, Turkey.The city existed under the Phrygians but may have been much older. It was a Roman trading post. It also was probably a key city of the route the Apostle Paul took on his Second Missonary...
, Midaion, Apamea
Apamea
Apamea or Apameia is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the wife of Seleucus I Nicator:*Apamea , on the Tigris near the Euphrates, precise location unknown, now in Iraq...
, Myrleia, Lampsacus
Lampsacus
Lampsacus was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki.-Ancient history:...
, Parion, Cyzicus
Cyzicus
Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula , a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic...
and Abydus.
In the great revolt of Thomas the Slav
Thomas the Slav
Thomas the Slav was a 9th-century Byzantine military commander, most notable for leading a wide-scale revolt against Emperor Michael II the Amorian in 820–823....
in the early 820s, the Opsikion remained loyal to Emperor Michael II
Michael II
Michael II , surnamed the Amorian or the Stammerer , reigned as Byzantine emperor from December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, and the first ruler of the Phrygian or Amorian dynasty....
(r. 820–829). In 866, the Opsician stratēgos, George Peganes, rose up along with the Thracesian Theme
Thracesian Theme
The Thracesian Theme , more properly known as the Theme of the Thracesians , was a Byzantine theme in western Asia Minor , comprising the ancient regions of Ionia, Lydia and parts of Phrygia and Caria....
against Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), then the co-emperor of Michael III
Michael III
Michael III , , Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian-Phrygian Dynasty...
(r. 842–867), and in circa 930, Basil Chalkocheir revolted against Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). Both revolts, however, were easily quelled, and are a far cry from the emperor-making revolts of the 8th century. The theme existed through the Komnenian period, and was united with the Aegean theme
Aegean Sea (theme)
The Theme of the Aegean Sea was a Byzantine province in the northern Aegean Sea, established in the mid-9th century. As one of the Byzantine Empire's three dedicated naval themes , it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy, but also served as a civil administrative...
sometime in the 12th century. It apparently also survived into the Empire of Nicaea
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...
: George Akropolites records that in 1234, the Opsician theme fell under the "Italians" (Latin Empire
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
).