Cappadocia (theme)
| Theme of Cappadocia Καππαδοκία, θέμα Καππαδοκίας, θέμα Καππαδοκῶν | ||
|---|---|---|
Seljuks . | 1070s | |
| Today part of | Turkey | |
The Theme of Cappadocia (Greek: θέμα Καππαδοκίας) was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) encompassing the southern portion of the namesake region from the early 9th to the late 11th centuries.
Location
The theme comprised most of the
Thughur frontier zone in Cilicia; and to the east with the Anatolic Theme, the boundary stretching across Lycaonia from the area of Heraclea Cybistra to Tatta.[1][2][3]
History
Lying directly north of the
Initially, the later theme was a
The Arab raids remained frequent in the 9th century, and an Arab army occupied Loulon, one of the key fortresses guarding the northern exit of the Cilician Gates, in 833–879. From the great Byzantine victory at the
Tephrike in 872 (or 878) onwards the security situation improved considerably, but the area remained a target of Arab raids. In 897, an Arab raid even sacked the thematic capital, Koron.[5][13]
Under Emperor
tourma of Kase were given to the Charsianon theme. In turn, the theme of Cappadocia was expanded to the northwest to the area of the Salt Lake with territory from the Anatolic and Bucellarian themes, forming the seven banda of the new tourma of Kommata.[1][14][15]
The fall of
Syriac Christians. Cappadocia as a whole also became a major power base of the Anatolian military aristocracy – in particular the Phokas and Maleinos clans – whose extensive estates, large wealth and military prestige posed a serious challenge to the central imperial government and led to successive revolts in the second half of the 10th century. The magnates' power was broken through the confiscation of their estates under Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025).[1]
Extensive Armenian settlement occurred in the first half of the 11th century, and the first
Seljuk raids in the area began c. 1050 and intensified over the next two decades. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, most of Cappadocia was lost to the Seljuks. A "toparches of Cappadocia and Choma", however, appears as late as 1081 either implying continued Byzantine control in parts of western Cappadocia or simply the survival of the title.[1]
See also
- Rock churches of Cappadocia
References
- ^ a b c d e f g ODB, "Cappadocia" (C. Foss), pp. 378–379.
- ^ Pertusi 1952, p. 121.
- ^ Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 2.
- ^ Treadgold 1995, p. 209.
- ^ a b Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 4.2.
- ^ McGeer, Nesbitt & Oikonomides 2001, p. 116.
- ^ Treadgold 1995, pp. 32, 65.
- ^ Pertusi 1952, pp. 120–121; Treadgold 1995, pp. 67, 130, 134.
- ^ Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 4.1.
- ^ Mitchell et al. 2012.
- ^ Pertusi 1952, p. 122.
- ^ Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 3.
- ^ Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 5.
- ^ Treadgold 1995, p. 77
- ^ Gyftopoulou 2003, Chapter 4.3.
Sources
- Gyftopoulou, Sofia (July 8, 2003). "Καππαδοκίας Θέμα". Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World: Asia Minor. Athens, Greece: Foundation of the Hellenic World. Archived from the original on 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Leveniotis, Georgios Athanasios (2007). Η πολιτική κατάρρευση του Βυζαντίου στην Ανατολή: το ανατολικό σύνορο και η κεντρική Μικρά Ασία κατά το β' ήμισυ του 11ου αι [The Political Collapse of Byzantium in the East: The Eastern Frontier and Central Asia Minor During the Second Half of the 11th Century] (PhD thesis) (in Greek). Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. hdl:10442/hedi/19246.
- McGeer, Eric; Nesbitt, John; ISBN 0-88402-282-X.
- Mitchell, S.; Talbert, R.; Elliott, T.; Gillies, S. (2012). "[Koron]: a Pleiades place resource". Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
- Pertusi, A. (1952). Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus (in Italian). Rome, Italy: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
- Treadgold, Warren T. (1995). Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3163-2.
