travelling judges in byzantine macedonia (10th-11th c.)

While it is often unclear where court cases were held in the Byzantine provinces, evidence from the Athonite archives for the region of Macedonia suggests the imperial judges heard cases in specific ‘assize towns’ and other places as well as in the theme capital of Thessalonike. Based on case-studies from the Athonite archives and using the occurrence of the term kathisma as an indication of the existence of an provincial administrative and judicial centre, it is suggested that regular judicial circuits still took place in the 10th and 11th centuries. The imperial government thus demonstrated its concern for the provision of justice in the provinces in the same way as had its Roman predecessors.