Paphlagonia (theme)

The Theme of Paphlagonia (Greek: θέμα Παφλαγονίας) was a military-civilian province (thema or theme) 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 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. 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 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 Kastamon and Gangra but the latter soon returned to Turkish hands.