Shifting imperial policies towards provincial elites in the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Balkans and Asia Minor

The article focuses on imperial policies towards provincial elites in the Balkans and Asia Minor in three major empires which succeeded one another, namely the Roman, the Byzantine and the Ottoman. Provincial elites were important for imperial power as intermediaries between local communities and central authorities. Our article adopts a political and institutional approach, and focuses on provincial elites as agents who were given formal or informal shares in the mechanisms and hierarchies through which empires were governed. Following surveys of imperial policies towards provincial elites in the three polities, it argues that, unlike the concept of empire which can be universal, imperial systems of government are neither uniform nor static, and depend on such factors as state ideology, historical circumstances and political and economic exigencies. Ultimately, our article demonstrates how structural differences in the very conception of imperial governance and ideology resulted in differentiated policies towards provincial elites.