A hypothesis about the origin and administrative status of the Vardariōtai in the Byzantine empire

Abstract

The paper presents the results of research on some segments in the history of the Vardariōtai. Starting from the generally accepted premise of their Hungarian roots, the author attempts to answer the questions of when and how the Vardariōtai made their way to the Byzantine Empire. The text also proposes a hypothesis about the evolution of the administrative status of the Vardariote community in the Empire from the early 10th century (the first reference to them in the sources) to the early 13th century, when the district they inhabited was unambiguously confirmed as an imperial province/theme. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

Keywords

• vardariōtai
• tourkoi
• hungarians
• persians
• bishop/bishopric
• primikērios
• province/theme