[AntiGuv]

Oh, and you are incorrect about that thema system. It was set up by Emperor Heraclius in the 610s as a response to the invasions by the Persians. Heraclius has always intrigued me more than any other Byzantine emperor except Julian the Apostate. With Julian, I can't help but wonder how the course of history would've been altered if he'd ruled for, say, 45 years. With Heraclius, it's tragic how he pulled the Empire out of its death throes and stood at the very peak of triumph, only to see it all crumble around him in the final years.

But in any case, the thema system was introduced in the 610s. Look it up!

[Antoninus]

Oh, and you are incorrect about that thema system. It was set up by Emperor Heraclius in the 610s as a response to the invasions by the Persians.

True enough. I was too absolute in claiming that the system hadn't been set up by 630. Clearly, Heraclius had set it up in some areas as early as the 610s. However, the system could not have been well-developed by the 630s in Palestine and Syria--areas that had been utterly devastated by the Persians not many years previous. Heraclius didn't even win these areas back from Persia until 626-7. Thus, any local militias which existed when the Muslims invaded in 634 must have been in their infancy.

The themas were at their heart a hereditary system and it takes more than 7 or 8 years for such a system to be effective.