O Temama (Lat. De Thematibus) O narodima (Lat. De Administrando Imperio)

Abstract

This book contains a translation from Russian to Serbian language of a book containing two treatises written by Roman emperor Constantinus Porphyrogenitus in 9th century. The treatises were translated from Greek* to Russian at the end of 19th century by Gavril Laskin, who added his comments to the book. The treatise De Thematibus is considered to be Constantine’s earliest book which contains descriptions of the provinces of empire in his time; separately presenting 12 themes of Europe and 17 themes of Asia. Historical evidences show that the second treatise, De Administrando Imperio, was written between the years 948 and 952 in the form of advices to his son Roman how to administer the empire. This treatise contains nearly 30% of the text related to the Balkan Slavs, which can be considered as a measure how this part of the world was important for the Byzantines and motivated the author of translation to undertake this exciting and demanding journey.