Charpezikion () was a

Byzantine 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 ...

fortress and small province ( theme) in the 10th century. The fortress of Charpezikion is identified with Çarpezik Kalesi, east of the

Euphrates River The Euphrates ( ; see below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through S ...

, while some earlier scholars identify it with Harpuzik, west of the Euphrates, some 16 km northwest of

Arapgir Arapgir (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Malatya Province, Turkey. Its area is 987 km2, and its population is 9,964 (2022). It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western Euphrates, but some miles from ...

. The fortress became the seat of a namesake military province ( theme) during the conquests of John Kourkouas in the region. Due to a confusion in the transcription of the manuscript of '' De Ceremoniis'', several modern sources mention that its first appearance in the sources was in 935, in the context of a Byzantine expedition into southern Italy, but

Nicolas Oikonomides Nikolaos or Nikos Oikonomides (, 14 February 1934 – 31 May 2000) was a Greeks, Greek Byzantinist, and one of the leading experts in the field of Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, Byzantine administration. Biography Oikonomides was born i ...

corrected the actual event to the campaign against the

Emirate of Crete The Emirate of Crete ( or , ; ) was an Arab Islamic state that existed on the Mediterranean island of Crete from the late 820s to Siege of Chandax, the reconquest of the island by the Byzantine Empire in 961. Although the emirate recognized the ...

in 949. It had a small garrison of only 905 men, but a disproportionate number of higher officers: according to the so-called ''

Escorial Taktikon The ''Escorial Taktikon'' (other spellings: ''Escurial Taktikon'', ''Escorial Tacticon'', ''Escurial Tacticon''), also known as the ''Taktikon Oikonomides'' after Nicolas Oikonomides who first edited it, is a list of Byzantine Empire, Byzantine of ...

'', compiled sometime in 971/975, it had no fewer than 22 "great" and 47 "junior" '' tourmarchai''. Its mention in the ''Escorial Taktikon'', where it is listed between the themes of Tephrike and Romanopolis, is the last occurrence in the sources, meaning that the theme probably ceased to exist shortly after.

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , first=Nicolas , last=Oikonomides , author-link=Nicolas Oikonomides , title=Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles , language=fr , location=Paris , year=1972 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFdmAAAAMAAJ 10th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire Themes of the Byzantine Empire Byzantine forts