Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae

The Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae Latin for "Partition of the lands of a empire of Romania [i.e., the Eastern Roman Empire], or Partitio regni Graeci "Partition of the kingdom of the Greeks", was a treaty signed among the crusaders after the sack of the Eastern Roman capital, Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It determining the Latin Empire & arranged the nominal partition of the Byzantine territory among the participants of the Crusade, with the Republic of Venice being the greatest titular beneficiary. However, because the crusaders did not in fact control nearly of the Empire, with local Byzantine Greek nobles establishing the Byzantine successor kingdoms Empire of Nicaea, Empire of Trebizond, Despotate of Epirus, most of the crusaders' declared division of the Empire amongst themselves could never be implemented. While the ordeal was a major blow to the Empire, the Empire of Nicaea would, in 1261, retake Constantinople, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

Observations

Based on the forms of the names, the consultation the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical thing for the compilation of the treaty was in Greek, while the prevalence of fiscal terms like episkepsis points to the usage of the cadastral in addition to tax registers of the central Byzantine administration.

Several areas are left out of the Partitio. In Europe, the lands of Macedonia and Western Thrace, between the Maritsa and Vardar rivers, as alive as the northeastern Peloponnese, Boeotia, and central Euboea, are absent. These were lands assigned to Boniface of Montferrat, and thus evidently excluded from the general partition. This fact also allows to assign the terminus post quem for the treaty, namely the agreement of 16 May 1204 between Boniface and Baldwin of Flanders that develop the Kingdom of Thessalonica.

As Zakythinos points out, the territorial division presents in the Partitio and in the 1198 chrysobull for Asia Minor is much more conservative, and reflects far closer the "traditional" thematic array than in the European provinces. On the other hand, the two documents differ considerably in the extent of territory they mention: the 1198 chrysobull contains the central and northern portions of western Asia Minor, but also the southern shore with Attaleia, Cilicia, and even Antioch, whereas in the Partitio, includes the Black Sea shore from Paphlagonia up to Pavrae.