Western Civilization I / Unit 9 WC1 0808 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Theme System
Captions available
The idea
A theme was a territory under one general, manned by its own men, granted land and buying their own arms, so the treasury paid nothing. The anchor calls it a return to the Republic's self-armed citizen; loyalty preserved the empire.
In practice
The anchor's three hundred thousand men at the height.
Where people slip
By the mid-seventh century Byzantium was really a Greek kingdom, the anchor says.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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