{{Short description|Province of the Byzantine Empire}} {{Infobox Former Subdivision | native_name = {{lang|grc|Ὀψίκιον, θέμα Ὀψικίου}} | conventional_long_name = Theme of Opsikion | common_name = Opsician Theme | subdivision = Theme | nation = the Byzantine Empire | era = Middle Ages | capital = Ancyra, then Nicaea | image_map = Asia Minor ca 780 AD.svg | image_map_caption = The Asian themes of the Byzantine Empire in c.{{nbsp}}780 | life_span = 640s/660s–1230s | year_start = 640s/660s | event_start = | year_end = 1234 | event_end = Fall to the Latins | today = Turkey }} The '''Opsician Theme''' ({{langx|el|θέμα Ὀψικίου}}, ''thema Opsikiou'') or simply '''Opsikion''' (Greek: {{lang|grc|[θέμα] Ὀψίκιον}}, from {{langx|la|Obsequium}}) 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 pre-eminence. It survived as a middle-tier theme until after the Fourth Crusade.
==History== The Opsician theme was one of the first four themes, and has its origin in the praesential armies of the East Roman army.{{Efn|The praesental armies were the forces commanded by the two ''magistri militum praesentalis'', the "masters of the soldiers in the presence [of the emperor]". They were stationed around Constantinople in Thrace and Bithynia, and formed the core of the various imperial expeditions in the 6th and early 7th centuries.}} The term ''Opsikion'' derives from the Latin term {{Lang|la|Obsequium}} ("retinue"), which by the early 7th century came to refer to the units escorting the emperor on campaign.<ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1984|pp=443–444}}.</ref> It is possible that at an early stage, the ''Opsikion'' was garrisoned inside Constantinople itself.<ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1984|p=178}}.</ref> 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the disastrous defeats suffered during the first wave of the Muslim conquests, the remains of the field armies were withdrawn to Asia Minor and settled into large districts, called "themes" (''themata'').<ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1997|pp=214–216}}.</ref> 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 points to a creation as early as 626, but the first confirmed occurrence is in 680.<ref name="Treadgold23">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|p=23}}.</ref><ref name="ODB">{{harvnb|ODB|loc="Opsikion" (C. Foss), pp. 1528–1529}}.</ref><ref name="EHW">{{harvnb|Lampakis|Andriopoulou|2003}}.</ref> It is possible that it also initially included the area of Thrace, which seems to have been administered jointly with the ''Opsikion'' in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.<ref name="Treadgold23"/><ref>{{harvnb|ODB|loc="Thrace" (T. E. Gregory), pp. 2079–2080}}.</ref>
[[File:Ring of Leontios MET sf1982-282s4.jpg|thumb|200px|Signet ring of Leontios, ''patrikios'' and Count of the God-guarded imperial ''Opsikion'']] The unique origin of the ''Opsikion'' was reflected in several aspects of the theme's organization. Thus the title of its commander was not ''stratēgos'' (στρατηγός, "general") as with the other themes, but ''komēs'' (κόμης, "count"), in full ''komēs tou basilikou Opsikiou'' ({{lang|grc|κόμης τοῦ βασιλικοῦ Ὀψικίου}}, "Count of the imperial ''Opsikion''").<ref name="Treadgold23"/> Furthermore, it was not divided into ''tourmai'', but into domesticates formed from the elite corps of the old army, such as the ''Optimatoi'' and ''Boukellarioi'', both terms dating back to the recruitment of Gothic ''foederati'' in the 4th–6th centuries.<ref>{{harvnb|Lounghis|1996|pp=28–32}}.</ref> Its prestige is further illustrated by the seals of its commanders, where it is called the "God-guarded imperial ''Opsikion''" ({{lang|grc|θεοφύλακτον βασιλικόν ὀψίκιον}}; Latin: {{Lang|la|a Deo conservandum imperiale Obsequium}}).<ref name="EHW"/>
Since the counts of the ''Opsikion'' were in command of a pre-eminent theme, and since that theme was located closest to the imperial capital Constantinople, these counts often challenged the authority of their emperors. Already in 668, on the death of Emperor Constans II in Sicily, the count Mezezius had staged an abortive coup.<ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1997|p=313}}.</ref> Under the ''patrikios'' Barasbakourios, the ''Opsikion'' was the main power-base of Emperor Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711).<ref name="EHW"/> Having captured many Slavs in Thrace, Justinian II settled them in the ''Opsikion'' to boost its military strength (see Asia Minor Slavs). However, most of these transplanted soldiers deserted to the Arabs during their first battle.<ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|p=26}}.</ref> In 713, the Opsikian army rose up against Philippikos Bardanes (r. 711–713), the man who had overthrown 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|p=27}}; {{harvnb|Haldon|1997|pp=80, 442}}.</ref> In 717, the Opsicians supported the rise of Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–740) to the throne, but in 718, their count, the ''patrikios'' Isoes, rose up unsuccessfully against him.<ref name="EHW"/> In 741–742, the ''kouropalatēs'' Artabasdos used the theme 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.<ref name="ODB"/> The revolts of the Opsician theme against the Isaurian emperors were not only the result of its counts' ambition: the Opsicians were staunchly iconodule, and opposed to the iconoclast policies of the Isaurian dynasty.<ref>{{harvnb|Lounghis|1996|pp=27–28}}.</ref> As a result, Emperor Constantine V set out to weaken the theme's power by splitting off the new themes of the ''Boukellarioi'' and the ''Optimatoi''.<ref name="Lounghis">{{harvnb|Lounghis|1996|pp=28–31}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|pp=29, 71}}.</ref> At the same time, the emperor recruited a new set of elite and staunchly iconoclast guard regiments, the ''tagmata''.<ref name="Lounghis"/><ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|pp=71, 99, 210}}.</ref>
Consequently, the reduced ''Opsikion'' was downgraded from a guard formation to an ordinary cavalry theme: its forces were divided into ''tourmai'', and its count 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.<ref name="EHW"/><ref name="ODB"/><ref>{{harvnb|Lounghis|1996|p=30}}.</ref> 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 an estimated 18,000 of the old ''Opsikion'').<ref name="ODB"/><ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1999|p=314}}.</ref> The thematic capital was moved to Nicaea. The 10th-century emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos, in his ''De Thematibus'', mentions further nine cities in the theme: Cotyaeum, Dorylaeum, Midaion, Apamea Myrlea, Lampsacus, Parion, Cyzicus and Abydus.<ref name="EHW"/>
In the great revolt of Thomas the Slav in the early 820s, the ''Opsikion'' remained loyal to Emperor Michael II (r. 820–829).<ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1995|p=31}}.</ref> In 866, the Opsician ''stratēgos'', George Peganes, rose up along with the Thracesian Theme against Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), then the junior co-emperor of Michael III (r. 842–867), and in c. 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.<ref name="EHW"/> The theme existed through the Komnenian period,<ref>{{harvnb|Haldon|1999|p=97}}.</ref> and was united with the Aegean theme sometime in the 12th century.<ref>{{harvnb|Ahrweiler|1966|p=79}}.</ref> It apparently also survived after the Fourth Crusade into the Empire of Nicaea. George Akropolites records that in 1234, the Opsician theme fell under the "Italians" (Latin Empire).<ref name="EHW"/><ref name="ODB"/>
==Military governors== *Barasbakourios, ''komes'' of Opsikion (700s) *Isoes, ''komes'' of Opsikion (718) *Artabasdos, ''komes'' of Opsikion (741) *George Peganes, ''strategos'' of Opsikion (866) *Manuel Boutoumites, ''doux'' of Nicaea (1097) *Eustathios Kamytzes, ''doux'' of Nicaea (1113)
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{sfn whitelist|CITEREFHaldon1999}} {{reflist|2}}
==Sources== {{refbegin|2}} *{{cite book |last=Ahrweiler |first=Hélène |author-link=Helene Ahrweiler |title=Byzance et la mer: La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe–XVe siècles |location=Paris |publisher=Presses universitaires de France |language=fr |year=1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H8JAQAAIAAJ}} *{{cite book |last=Haldon |first=John F. |title=Byzantine Praetorians: An Αdministrative, Ιnstitutional and Social Survey of the Opsikion and the Tagmata, c. 580-900 |year=1984 |location=Bonn, Germany |publisher=R. Habelt |volume=3 |isbn=3-7749-2004-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEVoAAAAMAAJ}} *{{cite book |last=Haldon |first=John F. |title=Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture |year=1997 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-31917-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSHmT1G_5T0C}} *{{Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204}} *{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|ref={{harvid|ODB}}}} *{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Lampakis |first1=Stylianos |last2=Andriopoulou |first2=Vera |title=Theme of Opsikion (Οψικίου Θέμα) |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World: Asia Minor |location=Athens, Greece |publisher=Foundation of the Hellenic World |date=October 17, 2003 |url=http://asiaminor.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemma.aspx?lemmaid=9018&contlang=58 |language=el |access-date=7 October 2009}} *{{cite journal |last=Lounghis |first=T. C. |title=The Decline of the Opsikian Domesticates and the Rise of the Domesticate of the Scholae |year=1996 |journal=Byzantine Symmeikta |volume=10 |issue=10 |pages=27–36 |doi=10.12681/byzsym.804 |s2cid=161402524 |issn=1105-1639 |doi-access=free}} *{{cite book |last=Treadgold |first=Warren T. |title=Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081 |year=1995 |location=Stanford, California |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-3163-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xfV0LkMNaLUC}}
{{refend}}
{{Byzantine themes in De Thematibus}}
Category:States and territories established in the 7th century Category:States and territories disestablished in 1234 Category:Byzantine Bithynia Category:Themes of the Byzantine Empire Category:Guards units of the Byzantine Empire Category:Byzantine Paphlagonia Category:Nicaea