ROUMELIA. The name of Roumili, “the land of the Romans,” was applied from the 15th century downwards to all that portion of the Balkan peninsula westwards from the Black Sea which was subject to Turkey. More precisely it was the country bounded N. by Bulgaria, W. by Albania, and S. by the Morea, or in other words the ancient provinces, including Constantinople and Salonica, of Thrace, Thessaly, and Macedonia. The name was ultimately applied more especially to an eyalet or province composed of Central Albania and Western Macedonia, having Monastir for its chief town and including Kesrie (Castoria), Ocri (Ochrida), and Scodra (Scutari); and at length it disappeared altogether in the administrative alterations effected between 1870 and 1875. Eastern Roumelia was constituted an autonomous province of the Turkish empire by the Berlin treaty of 1878, to be governed by a Christian governor-general appointed by the sultan for a term of five years. In 1879, in obedience to an international commission, it was divided into six departments and twenty-eight cantons, the departments being Philippopolis (187,095), Tatarbazarjik (117,063),...
Hasskoi (134,268), Eski-Zagra (158,905) Kazanlik, Slivno or Sliven (130,136), and Burgas (88,046). On the N. and N.W. East Roumelia was bounded by Bulgaria, the frontier r unnin g along the line of the Balkans though not keeping to the watershed; on the S. W. and S. lay the vilayets of Salonika and Adrianople, the borderlands forming part of the Rhodope or Despoto mountaiu system. The direct distance between the northmost and southmost point on the Black Sea is only 40 miles, but the actual coast-line is lengthened by the ramifications of the Bay of Burgas, which is the only part of the Black Sea affording several good anchorages. The great bulk of the country belongs to the basin of the Maritza and its tributary the Tunja (confluence at Adrianople, to the south of Roumelia), though a certain part drains north-eastwards by several small streams. The whole area is estimated at 14,858 square miles, and the population in 1880 was 815,513, of whom 573,231 were Bulgarians, 176,759 Turks, 42,526 Greeks, 19,524 Gipsies, 4177 Jews, and 1306 Armenians. T his preponderance of Bulgarians led in September 1885 to the Philippopolis revolution, which resulted in the principality of Bulgaria declaring East Roumelia part and parcel of United Bulgaria; and the United Bulgarians have since been successful in a war with the Servians, who invaded their territory.
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