Theban cadastre as a tax document of the imperial administration and an example of feudalization of Byzantine agriculture

Abstract

The aim of our work is the Theban cadastre, which is the most important source from which the development of the feudalization of Byzantine agriculture can be traced. The text of the cadastre was written in the second half of the 11th century. Based on the text of this source, the authors tried to point out and explain the changes that took place in property relations in Byzantine agriculture. In the analysis given in the paper, it can be noticed that the Theban cadastre is a source from which it can be directly seen in what way the consolidation of estates took place, i.e. the creation from large feudal agricultural estates. The Theban cadastre gives specific cases that directly follow individual agricultural producers with their names, as well as the names of dinats (powerful people) who bought their property. This is exactly the significance of the Theban cadastre, because on the basis of the records contained in it, changes in ownership can be traced. From this time distance, we can freely say that these changes directly influenced the further development of Byzantine agriculture.