The provincial aristocracy in Byzantine Asia minor (1081-1261 )

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the power basis of the provincial aristocracy in Byzantine Asia Minor between 1081 and 1261. Following an introductory chapter and another chapter setting the historical background, the two main chapters of the thesis explore, respectively, the political and the economic means of aristocratic power during the two centuries concerned. Bridging the reappearance of the aristocracy in ninth-century Byzantium with the peak of the military aristocracy under the Komnenoi, the present study seeks to understand the nature of the group and questions how the provincial aristocracy in Asia Minor maintained continuity and how it was transformed down to the end of the Nicaean era. In order to comprehend the status of the provincial aristocrats, it is crucial to look at the power relations in provincial society. The period chosen for the study extends from the ascension of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos to the throne (1081) until the year 1261, which is traditionally considered as the end of the Nicaean Empire. Within this time span, the thesis presents the breaks and continuity in the provincial aristocracy’s influence in Byzantine Asia Minor and concludes that the region generated a gradually expanding group of aristocrats who challenged the state depending on how far the central authority was maintained. This conclusion is reached by asking how the social structure was set up in Asia Minor and where the provincial aristocrats would be situated in that context. In this frame, the networks in Asia Minor –either the state incorporated or among the local interest groups– are investigated. The provincial aristocracy of Asia Minor held several administrative offices and even had risen up to higher positions in the civil, military, and fiscal administration. Occupying these offices brought considerable fame and consequently some sort of political power in some regions. That social power sometimes ended with rebellions, raised by locally powerful individuals, some of which are investigated in the thesis. Furthermore, the economic basis of power constituted another aspect of provincial aristocratic authority in Byzantine Asia Minor. Several sources, such as lands, salaries, imperial donations, inherited properties, pronoia, became major instruments for providing wealth for the provincial aristocrats.