Charpezikion ( gr, Χαρπεζίκιον) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

fortress and small province (

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

) in the 10th century. The fortress of Charpezikion is identified with Çarpezik Kalesi, east of the

Euphrates River The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

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

Arapgir Arapgir ( hy, Արաբկիր; ku, Erebgir) is a town and district of Malatya Province, Turkey. As of 2000 it had a population of 17,070 people. It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western Euphrates, but some miles from the righ ...

. The fortress became the seat of a namesake military province (

) during the conquests of

John Kourkouas John Kourkouas ( gr, Ἰωάννης Κουρκούας, Ioannes Kourkouas, ), also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas, was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His success in battles against the Muslim states in the Ea ...

in the region. Due to a confusion in the transcription of the manuscript of ''

De Ceremoniis The ''De Ceremoniis'' (fully ''De cerimoniis aulae Byzantinae'') is the conventional Latin name for a Greek book of ceremonial protocol at the court of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. Its Greek title is often cited as ("Explanation of th ...

'', 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 ( el, Νικόλαος Οικονομίδης, 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 administ ...

corrected the actual event to the campaign against the

Emirate of Crete The Emirate of Crete ( ar, إقريطش, Iqrīṭish or , ''Iqrīṭiya''; gr, Κρήτη, Krētē) was an Islamic state that existed on the Mediterranean island of Crete from the late 820s to the reconquest of the island by the Byzantine Empi ...

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'', 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