Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace municipalities and regions, in this case the 60 municipalities of Central Macedonia and of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and the two regions themselves. Covering an area of "Macedonia and Thrace" is the largest of the seven decentralized administrations by area, and with an overall population of it is also the second most populated one, following the Decentralized Administration of Attica. In the revised European NUTS nomenclature, the two regions of "Macedonia and Thrace" together with the two regions of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia form the first level NUTS region EL5 (Voreia Ellada). The Decentralized Administration is
Thrace With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, later known as the Byzantine Empire, retained control over Thrace until the 8th century when the northern half of the entire region was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme. The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout