Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
Alexander Kazhdan : The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.
Although Corfu was recaptured by the Byzantines in 1191, the other islands were lost to Byzantium they formed a palatinate county of Kefalonia and Zakynthos under the leadership of Wilhelm's Greek admiral Margaritos of Brindisi. Eventually, Corfu and the rest of the subject's islands, with the exception of Leukas, were conquered by the Normans under William II in 1185. The island of Kephalonia was also besieged unsuccessfully in 1085, but was sacked by Pisans in 1099 and by Venetians in 1126. The island of Corfu was occupied by the Normans from 1081 to 1085 and again from 1147 to 1149, the Venetians besieged it unsuccessfully from 1122 to 1123. After the collapse of Byzantine control in southern Italy in the middle of the 11th century, the importance of the topic decreased and it was now administered by a Krites ("judge").įrom the late 11th century, the Ionian Islands became the battlefield of the Byzantine-Norman wars. The last mention of a strategos of Kephallenia comes in 1011, when Kontoleon Tornikios was sent to Italy to suppress a Lombard revolt. Mardaites from Kephallenia participated in the failed expedition of 949 against the emirate of Crete. Troops from Kephallenia repeatedly took part in campaigns in Italy. In 880 the admiral Nasar destroyed an Arab fleet that devastated the islands of the subject. In 809 the Strategos Paulos defeated a Venetian fleet off the coast of Dalmatia. The subject was often used as an exile for political prisoners. Treadgold estimates the army of the subject in the 9th century at 2000 men. Other tour marchai presided over the garrisons on the subject. In De administrando imperio the topic ranks seventh among the “Western” or European topics Kephallenia was a nautical theme that had its own fleet in which some Mardaites served as marines and rowers under a tour march. The strategos of the topic was probably sitting on Kephallenia, but maybe also on Corfu. In several cases the command over the themes of Kephallenia and Longobardia (alternatively over Nicopolis in Epiros) was exercised by the same person. In any case, the mistake of Constantine VII shows the close interweaving of the topic of Kephallenia with the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy : the Ionian Islands served as a link and military base for operations in southern Italy, and they also guarded the access to the Ionian and Adriatic seas against Arab pirates. Seals make the development of the Strategis of Kephallenia likely as early as the middle of the 8th century. The Tacticon Uspensky of 842/843 clearly speaks of a strategos of Kephallenia and the Chronicle Annales regni Francorum, written in Latin, reports of such as early as 809. However, this is obviously wrong, because we know of several military governors ( strategoi ) of Kephallenia from sources before the reign of Leo. (ruled 886-912) to the position of a strategist (a "generals"), but not developed a separate topic. Emperor Constantine VII (ruled 913-949) reports in his work De administrando imperio that Kephallenia was originally the seat of a tower (division) of the Longobardia theme in southern Italy, which was established under Emperor Leo VI. The exact date of the establishment of the theme of Kephallenia is unknown. The islands remained untouched by the Slavs conquering the Balkans in the 7th century and thus formed a bridgehead for the restoration of Byzantine power and (re) Hellenization of mainland Greece. With the exception of Kythera, these islands later formed the subject of Kephallenia. In the period of the Eastern Roman Empire ( Corfu, Kephalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Leukas and Kythera ) were part of the Roman province of Achaea and Epirus vetus. It is named after the island of the same name. The theme of Kephallenia or Kefalonia ( Greek θέμα Κεφαλληνίας / Κεφαλονίας, thema Kephallēnias / Kephalonias ) was a Byzantine theme in western Greece, which included the Ionian Islands and existed from the 8th to 12th centuries.