theocracy · Anatolia and the Levant
Paulician state
Origins
The Paulicians, a Christian sect that rejected the church hierarchy and the veneration of icons and saw the material world as the work of an evil power, had been persecuted by Byzantium for generations. After Empress Theodora ordered a massacre of them around 843, the officer Karbeas fled with thousands of followers to the emir of Melitene and founded the stronghold of Tephrike (modern Divrigi).
Rule and society
From Tephrike and the forts of Argaous and Amara the Paulicians formed a militarised community that raided Byzantine Anatolia in alliance with Umar al-Aqta of the Emirate of Melitene. After Karbeas died in 863 his nephew Chrysocheir led even bolder raids, reaching Nicaea and Ephesus around 869, where his men stabled horses in the church of Saint John.
Decline and legacy
Basil I's forces defeated and killed Chrysocheir at Bathys Ryax in the early 870s, and Tephrike was taken around 878. The Paulicians were scattered; many were resettled in the Balkans around Philippopolis, where their ideas fed the later Bogomil movement.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Paulician state paid tribute to Emirate of Melitene844 CE – 872 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Paulician state. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paulician-state
- MLA
- “Paulician state.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paulician-state. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Paulician state.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paulician-state.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Paulician state’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paulician-state (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻