Byzantine Themes
This mod reorganises and renames the provinces in Anatolia and the Western Balkans into Byzantine themes, or military districts, for immersion when playing the Byzantine (Roman) Empire.
This also acts as a reward for reclaiming the imperial borders, as cabinet tasks are much more efficient over the larger number of locations compared to normal provinces.
The mod also adds localised Greek names for sea regions, lakes and mountain ranges in Anatolia, fixes several errors in the game’s Greek province localisations which caused some not to appear, and includes minor adjustments to province names to include some important Byzantine towns or fortresses.
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For most of the Middle Ages, the main administrative units of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire were themes, civil-military districts originally formed from the regions assigned to the great field armies (or naval units) of the empire. Thematic troops played a key role in holding the empire’s eastern frontier during centuries of Arab–Byzantine conflict. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the theme system was gradually eclipsed by the imperial tagmata, a powerful centrally controlled force of professional regiments – which would prove more brittle than the theme system it replaced in the aftermath of the catastrophic defeat at Manzikert in 1071.
Despite centuries of near constant crisis, minor themes continued to be created up until the early 13th century. By 1337, territorial losses have rendered the themes irrelevant, and minor subdivisions called katepanikion are used for most purposes. Nonetheless, the term continues to be used in Constantinople, and the diminished state dreams of reclaiming Anatolia and restoring the theme system to its former glory.
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Please note: I’m aware the romanisation of Greek names is inconsistent and incorrect. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or specialist knowledge to fix this. Please share any feedback and I’ll update accordingly.
Please be aware that adding or removing this mod to an existing savefile may cause some locations to become unoccupied in the changed provinces. You can fix this by using the console in debug mode to re-add any affected locations.
