Group
Iberia (theme)
The theme of Iberia is an administrative and military unit – theme – within the Byzantine Empire carved by the Byzantine Emperors out of several Georgian and Armenian lands in the 11th century.
It is formed as a result of Emperor Basil II’s annexation of a portion of the Bagrationi Dynasty domains (1000-1021) and later aggrandized at the expense of several Armenian kingdoms acquired by the Byzantines in a piecemeal fashion in the course of the 11th century.
The population of the theme—at its largest extent—is multiethnic with the Armenian majority, including a sizable Armenian community of Chalcedonic rite to which Byzantines sometimes expand, as a denominational name, the ethnonym "Iberian", a Graeco-Roman designation of Georgians.
The theme ceases to exist in 1074 as a result of the Seljuk invasions.
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