1. Textual tradition

1.1. The Cadaster of Thebes

The Cadaster of Thebes survives without head and end in four folios coming from a late-11th-century codex, which were added in the end of the Vat. gr. 215 (14th century). Regarding the type of scripture, the Cadaster is a good example of those texts written by notaries and dignitaries of various Byzantine state offices, mostly of the financial office. The characteristics of this scripture involve on the one hand decorative elements and on the other hand frequent use of abbreviations and tachygraphical signs.

1.2. The Praktikon of Athens

On the contrary, a codex from the National Library of St Petersburg (Petrop. gr. 122) preserves a copy of the Praktikon of Athens. The document belongs to the category of Praktika, which were conducted by financial service officials for the great landowners. The data from the document, apart from the fact that its beginning and end are missing, have led to the hypothesis that it referred to a monastery from Attica which heldparoikoi.

2. Nature of the documents

The Cadaster of Thebes is an example of a Byzantine cadastral codex (or register), which was conducted and signed by the economic service. Based on land, the codex recorded various fiscal districts, from the smallest to the largest one. These detailed cadastral codices constituted the main source for a series of other cadastral documents and for various needs of the financial service. Similarities with the Cadaster present three other documents coming from northern Greece and dated to the second half of the 11th century. On the other hand, Praktika included a register of landed properties (recording their boundaries too), as well as a list of tenants with the family members, their fortunes and the respective tax. The term praktikon (or praxis) generally meant every document with which a state officer or a private supervisor accounted for his actions or for anything observed during his duties’ exercise. An essential difference between a cadastral codex and a praktikon-cadastral document is that in the latter one the financial and fiscal data from a region are recorded in detail. The codices were interested in the situation of the plots (land lots and fields of an area) as well in the land tax, while the praktika, being detailed documents which included every taxable data, gave emphasis to the taxed owners, reminding a kind of modern archives of farmers.

3. Rural economy and taxation

Information provided by the Cadaster of Thebes shed light on various aspects of the Byzantine rural economy and imperial fiscal system during the 10th and the 11th century. The document attests to the predominance of large rural estates, owned by a limited number of landowners, each holding vast pieces of land and bearing nobility titles. They did not cultivate the land themselves and their majority lived in Athens, Euripos and Thebes. Apart from the large landowners,small landowners too are present in the Cadaster. Regarding taxation, the information provided by the Cadaster is identical to that from the 10th-century Treatise on Taxation (known as Fiscal Treatise). Taxpayers were divided into landowners and peasants (choritai). There is a distinction made between villages and scarcely settled communities, where every one lived near to his small land holding. Similar division was made for suburbs and small fields.

3.1. Rural community

In the Cadaster are mentioned several rural communities from the area of Thebes , where land territories existed proper for cultivation, for pasturage and others covered with oaks and pines. Vineyards and water mills are recorded, while dignitaries possessed entire villages (listed by name, along with the names of places). In the area lived cultivators, paroikoi or hired farmers who did not pay tax for state land. An exception to this rule was the report of a poor among the taxpayers. In the Praktikon of Athens, the surviving fragment records 69 plots of different size as well as information for each land lot, such as the area, its nature (field, vine-yard, olive grove, forest), the dimensions etc. For the tenants working in them the following terms are reported: zeugaratos (owned two oxes), voïdatos (owned one ox), aktemon (without beasts of burden) and destitute (aporos = without resources). These are the four fiscal categories present in the documents between the 10th and the 12th century, paying as tax the amount of a gold piece, half a gold piece, a quarter of gold piece and a sixth of gold piece, respectively.

3.2. Family names and titles

The Cadaster lists roughly 60 surnames of Theban landowners, many of which were connected with placenames, whereas their titles are listed too, such as protospatharios, protokangelarios, archon, governor, candidatus, komes tes kortes, kourator, spatharios, spatharokandidatos, strator and so on. Among the family names are reported those of Arkopodis, Vaklekas, Vetelakes, Garasdes, Dryalites, Evripiotes, Zeslikas, Thymiamakis, Thymiamares, Kathariomandyles, Kalandes, Kaliges, Kalonas, Karmalikes, Lampadarios, Leovachos, Liniskas, Logaras, Maniakes, Mesiskles, Melitenos, Mousilenos, Noudinos, Pakoudatos, Panaretos, Pardos, Poulenares, Rendakios, Samonas, Sisinios, Sklavotheodoros, Strategios, Troulos etc. In the Cadaster of Thebes appear landowning families descending from Italy, especially Sicily, settled as refugees in Greece because of the gradual conquest of south Italy by the Normans, which had started in the 1040s. Most of the refugees, however, probably came after 1071, when Normans took Bari and dissolved the Byzantine dominion in Italy. Family and personal names of Italian origin are considered those of Poletianos, Roslenos, Petzimentos, Kastelianos or Kastenianos, Kounoutos and Pothos, a surname that appears in Athens, too, on Parthenon inscriptions. In the Praktikon of Athens are reported at least 85 families of tenants, classified by village, yet half of the names survive. Among them are Andriotes, Aiginites, Mesogiates, Meizoteros, Tzykalas, Chalkeus, Raptes etc. In addition, 72 names of owners or neighbors are listed, such as Nyktopas, Pistophilos, Pleurites, Polares, Phokas, Kotyles, Lyksakas, Kormosikos, Karykogenes, Alexandrinos etc.

3.3. Place names

The Cadaster records a large number of place names in the area of Thebes as well other features of the area. In the document are reported names of villages (Rizin, Keramia, Peliana, Vrysis, Voselos, Petra, Drepanon, Tache, Ano Patronia, Vathy, Akrovathy, Antikryna, Terianon, Pergion etc.), fields (Chastianos, Keramia), places (Tzetzevistes, Ano Gradia, Kyveriate, Loetraki), mount Selianon, the suburb of Megali, the dry river Eritzos, the castle of Thebes, the farm Syrikistos, the meadow of Agra, the water-mill Koryphaltes, the small field Grikou as well some churches, such as Saint Luke and Panagia Theotokos at Tachio. The Praktikon of Athens preserves many name places regarding communities (villages) or sites. The recorded name places (and their possible identifications), are the following, among others: a) in the catalogue of land holdings: Piraeus, Chrysochos (the village Phoinikia), Myrontas (the site Meronta), Kleidades (Kleidi), Persai (area at Marathon), Drymada (at Kithairon), Ision (with three different versions), Lakkoi (at Asopos), Thronoi (east of Lycabetus), Vareon (Vari), Reumata (area at Eleusis), Magoulades (Magoula) etc. b) In the catalogue of tenants: Kargetos (Vrillesia), Kyvissas (Kefisia), Persikonarion (area at Marathon), Skleron (area at Eleusis or Chasia), Araphin (Raphina) etc. Finally, with regard to Athens are recorded the areas of Tzykanisterion (probably north of Athens), Elaphos (near the city centre), Epano Porta (probably Dipylon) and Kochylarion (probably close to the Acropolis).