Byzantine Macedonia in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: Monetary Evidence

The term Macedonia in the medieval period represents a semantic and geographical designation of complex and layered meaning. Contemporary Byzantine authors referred to it infrequently, yet almost invariably with reference to its ancient geographical conception. Throughout the Byzantine era, as Johannes Koder notes, Macedonia was clearly distinguished from neighboring regions: Illyricum, Bulgaria, and Serbia to the north; Thessaly, Hellas, Achaia, and the Peloponnese to the south; Epirus and Dalmatia to the west; and Thrace to the east. Following the conquest of Samuel’s empire in 1018, Emperor Basil II established the administrative theme of Bulgaria, with its seat in Skopje, whose borders likely coincided with those of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and the entire Bulgaria. By the late eleventh century, the themes of Bulgaria and Paradounavon disappear from the sources, as Byzantine administrative structures shifted toward primarily fiscal and judicial, rather than military, functions. Within this reorganization, the term Macedonia no longer appeared as an official administrative designation. Geographical Macedonia remained central to the Empire’s political and economic strength, though its significance declined during the Bulgarian–Vlach uprisings and following the fiscal concessions granted by Alexios III Angelos to Venice in 1198. The Chrysobull lists twelve Byzantine provinces across Macedonia—from Thessalonike to Ohrid, Skopje, Malesovo, and Morovisdon—with the Vardariotae noted in the Partitio Romaniae (1204). This paper examines finds of pre-reform nomismata, miliaresia, and folles, as well as their circulation following the Byzantine monetary reform of 1092.