Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, Episode 178, Questions 7.

As I mentioned last episode today we deal with your inquiries with more of an imperial

flavour.

Off we go.

Listen to MR, asks how the provincial administration operated in 1025.

How would a peasant interact with the government at this level and which officials would control

the affairs of a town and what responsibilities would they have?

Now, we've talked already in detail about the administration of the newly conquered provinces,

so this will just refer to the older themes covering Greece, Thrace and Anatolia.

Once upon a time these traticors had been the man in charge of all matters in his province,

but by 1025 most had been returned just to their military duties.

The provincial or theme judge was now in charge of financial and judicial matters.

In theory this meant greater control by Constantinople, as they could send their man to run

a particular area, but in practice anyone going to live in a theme would have to contend

with the local elites and would get little done without their cooperation.

In some cases this job was divided still further, with accretes responsible for civil

administration and justice, a proto-Natorius looking after fiscal administration and a

char-tularius looking after military registers and pay.

The few glimpses we get of actual provinces in action show a variation on this formula

each time, so the arrangements as with so many things in Byzantium were not consistent

and depended on a variety of factors.

For the average farmer the main interaction with government was the payment of tax.

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