Thematic Stratiotai in Byzantine Society — a contribution to a new assessment of the subject

Abstract

U radu se preispituje, nakon mnogih godina kontroverzi u nauci, geneza i društveni status tematskih vojnika. Konstatuje se da, uprkos značajnim promenama koje vremenom nastaju, može da se zapazi crta kontinuiranog razvitka i, potom, opadanja ovog društvenog sloja između VII i X veka. Konstatuje se, istovremeno, složenost njegove fizionomije i izrazita posebnost u odnosu na seljački stalež.

Investigations of thematic organization never yielded generally accepted results. The reasons behind this are closely tied to limitations regarding source material. On the one hand, there are certain chronological or thematic units poorly represented in the sources. On the other, there are cases well documented by the sources which can, however, overlook data logically expected to be mentioned. Still, byzantine sources, including legal texts with their often anachronous clauses, have an understanding of thematic priorities which differs from our own, defined by our contemporary standards. Scholars investigating the institution of stratiotes constantly face such difficulties. An undesired but still rather common result of such problems accounts for the fact that researchers base their opinions on superficial lexics and terminology of Byzantine sources and disregard the connections between the main lines of development of the so-called middle Byzantine period (VII–XI centuries) and the changes in thematic organization.