Enemy invasions - Civil wars

he already wretched situation of the population in the late Byzantine period was aggravated by enemy invasions such as that of the Catalans in 1307-9 and that of the Turks in the 14th century. The population of the villages lying in the path of the invaders decreased, while in some cases entire villages were deserted. On the other hand, the population of safer villages or fortified cities increased. The destruction caused by the Catalan invasion is described by the scholar and statesman Demetrios Kydones, as regards Macedonia, and by the historian Nikephoros Gregoras, with regard to Thrace. The latter writes that such was the terror that reigned in the countryside that for two years the peasants could not leave the fortified cities in which they had sought refuge.

But the civil wars also contributed to the adverse effect on the composition of the population in the late Byzantine state. John Kantakouzenos, in describing the condition of the peasant population, says that such turmoil prevailed that the farmers abandoned their villages and did not pay their taxes. The civil wars thus created a climate of political, social and economic insecurity, which facilitated or called for the migration of the rural population to safer areas.

To the negative consequences of enemy invasions and civil wars must be added the disastrous results of bandit raids. Most of the bandits were armed and experienced in warfare. They generally appeared when anarchy reigned in the countryside, when production had stopped and the migration of the population had increased, and their raids were intensified in times of enemy invasions and political instability.