Vagenetia

Vagenetia was a medieval Slavic-Bulgarian region covering the territory of the Roman provinces of Old Epirus and New Epirus. The term was in use from the 7th century to the 15th century.[1]

Kingdom of Greece in 1843. Until 1912, Vagenetia was Ottoman, as at the Conference of Poros — Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was strongly against this region being Greek.

During the Slavic invasion of the Balkans, Baiounitai settled in this area. The Bulgarian ruler Presian joined Macedonia and the territory of the former Epirus to the First Bulgarian Empire, reaching the Adriatic and Ionian Seas in the region of Vlora. After the Christianization of Bulgaria, the area known as Kutmichevitsa was the most important for the development of Slavic-Bulgarian education and literature by the students of Cyril and Methodius.[2]

At the same time, Vagenetia was already a diocese, but ex post facto continued to use the term for the land of Baiounitai as an area. For this reason, the territorial scope of the district increased and in the 11th century Arta was mentioned as a Bulgarian city.[3] How far south the area stretched is unclear, but it certainly covered the Gulf of Arta. After the siege and sack of Constantinople, an independent political unit was formed in the territory known as the Despotate of Epirus.[4]

The seat of the eponymous diocese was Himara, although much of the area to the south was included in the diocese of Nafpaktos. The extent of the historical area to the south is clear from the fact that the most important all-Greek forum to decide on the beginning of the uprising for independence on January 26-30, 1821 was held in Vostitsa/Vostitza (Bulgarian: Вождица), which had a voivode. [5]

New research identifies the bishopric of Velika from the life of Clement of Ohrid with the town of Veliki on the Gulf of Arta near the destroyed ancient city of Nikopolis.[6]