Cappadocia ( theme ) The Theme of Cappadocia ( ) 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 late antique Roman province of Cappadocia Secunda and parts of Cappadocia Prima . By the early 10th century , it was bounded to the northwest by the Bucellarian Theme , roughly along the line of the Salt Lake and Mocissus ; the Armeniac Theme and later Charsianon to the north , across the river Halys , and to the northeast near Caesarea and the fortress of Rodentos ; to the south by the Taurus Mountains and the border with the Caliphate ' s lands and 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 the Salt Lake . History . Lying directly north of the Cilician Gates , the Arabs ' major invasion route into Asia Minor , the region of Cappadocia suffered greatly from their repeated raids , with its towns and fortresses regularly sacked and the country widely devastated and depopulated . The cities of Tyana , Heraclea Cybistra and Faustinopolis had all been razed by the Arabs in the early 9th century , and although Cybistra was rebuilt , the populations of the other two cities fled to the fortresses of Nigde and Loulon respectively . Initially , the later theme was a " tourma " ( division ) of the Anatolic Theme . To counter the Arab threat , it was detached as a separate frontier march ( a " kleisoura " ) and eventually raised to a full theme . It is first attested as such in 830 . According to the Muslim geographers Ibn Khordadbeh and Ibn al - Faqih , the province was heavily fortified with over twenty towns and fortresses , and had a garrison of 4 , 000 men in the 9th century . The theme was also the site of no less than three imperial " aplekta " , large camps that served as assembly points for the thematic armies during campaigns : Koloneia , Caesarea , and Bathys Ryax . Its " strategos " , whose seat was probably the fortress of Koron ( modern Çömlekçi ) , and perhaps Tyana at a later stage , drew an annual salary of 20 pounds of gold , and usually held the rank of " protospatharios " , with a few rising as far as " patrikios " . 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 Battle of Lalakaon in 863 , and the destruction of the Paulician state at 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 . Under Emperor Leo VI the Wise ( r . 886 – 912 ) , some of its eastern territory , the " bandon " of Nyssa , in which Caesarea lay , as well as the " 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 . The fall of Melitene in 934 and the conquests of John Kourkouas removed the immediate threat to the theme . In the 10th century , the depopulated region was settled by Armenians and 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 ) . 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 .