Summary
Charizanis Georgios, The Byzantine Thrace
Thrace is an area that played an important historical role during the Byzantine centuries (4th-15th), since it was the immediate surroundings of the capital Constantinople and its protective shield. Thrace's wealth was based mostly on agriculture, on grain cultivation of the fertile plains created by its rivers, on its vineyards, gardens and orchards, on livestock and on the pastures that fed its numerous flocks, but also on other sources, such as fishing from the exploitation of its vivaria (fish farms), hunting and the production of salt in the salt marshes that existed in various places and locations. In addition, in Thrace, as in other regions of the Byzantine Empire, there were important cities with a developed urban economy, as well as ports, where significant commercial transactions, buying and selling of products and other goods took place. The administrative system of Thrace, like that of the Byzantine Empire, over the centuries, did not remain unchanged, but changed and adapted to new developments and dangers that appeared from time to time. Thus, from the proto-Byzantine administration of Thrace with the six provinces (among which was the province of Thrace itself with headquarters in Philippopolis), in the middle Byzantine period the institution of themata was organized, especially for Thrace, and, in order to deal with the Bulgarian danger, the theme of Thrace was founded (7th century) and then other themes of the Thracian area were created. In the ecclesiastical sector of Thrace, there was the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, but also important metropolises, such as Herakleia, Philippopolis, Traianopolis and Hadrianopolis with subordinated bishoprics. Monasticism also developed in Thrace, as three important monastic centers were organized (Papikion, Ganos, and Paroria), two large priory cenobitic monasteries were founded (Petritziotissa or Petritzonitissa in 1083 and Kosmosoteira Bera in 1151/1152), as well as numerous other small and large monasteries. Thrace had to be crossed by various enemies, who aimed at the capital Constantinople, its wealth and treasures. Goths (4th c.), Huns (5th c.), Avars and Slavs (6th-7th c.), Bulgarians (7th c.), later Cumans and Pechenegs (11th-12th c.) and in the later period Turks (14th -15th century) are the main enemies, who attacked and caused havoc, from time to time, in Thrace, the capital Constantinople and in general the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, the history of Thrace is very important during the Byzantine centuries, because it is intertwined with the history of the capital Constantinople and with the history of the Byzantine Empire itself, which from a certain point onwards, in the later period, was identified solely as Thrace and it was Thrace itself. As Thrace was narrowed and shrunk, the cordon around the capital Constantinople tightened, until its final fall by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
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