The was an administrative district of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

with a seat in Odessus (present-day Varna) established by Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

() on May 18, 536. Territorially, the contained the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

s of

Moesia Inferior Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; ) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballi ...

and Scythia Minor, located in the lower

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

region, as well as the provinces of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Caria Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...

, and the Aegean Islands. All of these provinces were detached from the

praetorian prefecture of the East The praetorian prefecture of the East, or of the Orient (, ) was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Later Roman Empire, Late Roman Empire was divided. As it comprised the larger part of the Eastern Roman Empire, and its seat w ...

and placed under the authority of a new army official known as the ('

quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...

of the army'). The authority of the was the equivalent to that of a .

History

Since the strategically vital Danubian provinces were economically impoverished, the purpose of the was to help support the troops that were stationed there. By connecting the exposed provinces of the Lower Danube with wealthier provinces in the interior of the empire, Justinian was able to transport supplies via the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. This territorial restructuring relieved both the destitute populations and the devastated countryside of the Danubian provinces from the burden of sustaining any stationed troops. There is a lack of subsequent evidence on the history of the . However, since the position of was still extant during the mid-570s, this indicates that the overall territorial unit achieved a modicum of success. Ultimately, the Danubian provinces associated with the did not survive the Avar invasions in the sixth and seventh centuries. However, isolated fortresses on the Danube Delta and along the coast of the Black Sea were maintained via supplies by sea. Charles Diehl first raised the suggestion that the great naval corps of the , which appears in the 680s, was first formed by the remainders of the . This argument has been adopted by some scholars since but challenged by others, notably Helene Ahrweiler in her study of the Byzantine navy. This question is bound up with the discussion on the respective formations' nature as military-naval or civil-administrative entities.cf. and , for a discussion of the controversy and literature. Lead seals from Moesia Inferior and Scythia Minor provide archaeological evidence supporting the existence of the . Specifically, thirteen seals, nine of which are from the reign of Justinian, demonstrate that communications between officials from Scythia Minor and

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

occurred on a somewhat regular basis.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{Byzantine Empire topics States and territories established in the 530s 536 establishments Late Roman provinces Subdivisions of the Byzantine Empire Justinian I Ancient history of Romania History of Varna, Bulgaria