IMPERIUM ROMANUM

Provinces · The later eastern provinces

LE-13 Europa

The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri…
The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri, Thessaly, Macedonia, Achaia, and the Thracian districts illustrate the replacement of large commands by smaller jurisdictions. The river network helps relate frontier districts to the Adriatic, Aegean, and imperial straits.

Europa occupied a strategically sensitive landscape near Constantinople. Roads, coastal towns, agriculture, shipping, and the defence of approaches to the capital gave the province significance beyond its size. Heraclea’s civil and religious standing differed from the separate urban government of Constantinople itself.

Imperial presence generated demand for supplies and communications while making the region a priority for security. Warfare in the Balkans could threaten these approaches without eliminating the capital’s control of every coastal position. Europa’s title is a provincial name here, not a claim that its governor administered the entire European half of the empire.