Charpezikion

Charpezikion (Greek: Χαρπεζίκιον) was a Byzantine fortress and small province (theme) in the 10th century.

The fortress of Charpezikion is identified with Çarpezik Kalesi, east of the Euphrates River,^[1] while some earlier scholars identify it with Harpuzik, west of the Euphrates, some 16 km northwest of Arapgir.^[2][3]

The fortress became the seat of a namesake military province (theme) during the conquests of John Kourkouas in the region.^[3] Due to a confusion in the transcription of the manuscript of De Ceremoniis, 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 corrected the actual event to the campaign against the Emirate of Crete in 949.^[4]

It had a small garrison of only 905 men,^[5] 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.^[6] Its mention in the Escorial Taktikon, where it is listed between the themes of Tephrike and Romanopolis,^[7] is the last occurrence in the sources, meaning that the theme probably ceased to exist shortly after.^[5]

• Hild, Friedrich; Restle, Marcell (1981). Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 2: Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia und Lykandos) (in German). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-7001-0401-8.
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Oikonomides, Nicolas (1972). Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (in French). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)