{{Short description|Province of the Byzantine Empire}} {{Infobox Former Subdivision |native_name = {{lang|grc|Κιβυρραιῶται, θέμα Κιβυρραιωτῶν}} |conventional_long_name = Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots |common_name = Cibyrrhaeots |subdivision = Theme |nation = the Byzantine Empire |era = Middle Ages |capital = Attaleia |image_map = Asia Minor ca 842 AD.svg |image_map_caption = The Asian themes of the Byzantine Empire circa 842. The Cibyrrhaeots encompassed the southern shore of Asia Minor. |life_span = ca. 720/727–after 1150 |year_start = ca. 720/727 |event_start = |year_end = after 1150 |event_end = Abolition by Manuel I |today = Greece<br>Turkey }} The '''Cibyrrhaeot Theme''', more properly the '''Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots''' ({{langx|el|θέμα Κιβυρραιωτῶν|thema Kibyrrhaiōtōn}}), was a Byzantine theme encompassing the southern coast of Asia Minor from the early 8th to the late 12th centuries. As the Byzantine Empire's first and most important naval theme (θέμα ναυτικόν, {{Transliteration|grc|thema nautikon}}), it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy.
==History== The Cibyrrhaeots ({{langx|grc|Κιβυρραιῶται|Kibyrrhaiōtai|men of Cibyrrha}}) derive their name from the city of Cibyrrha (it is unclear whether this is Cibyrrha the Great in Caria or Cibyrrha the Lesser in Pamphylia).{{sfn|Nesbitt|Oikonomides|1994|p=151}} The command first appears in the expedition against Carthage in 698, when a "{{Transliteration|grc|droungarios}} of the Cibyrrhaeots" is attested as commanding the men from Korykos: Apsimar, who at the head of a fleet revolt became emperor as Tiberios III ({{reign|698|705}}). At the time, the Cibyrrhaeots were subordinate to the great naval corps of the {{Transliteration|grc|Karabisianoi}}.{{sfn|Nesbitt|Oikonomides|1994|p=151}}<ref name="ODB">{{harvnb|ODB|loc="Kibyrrhaiotai" (C. Foss), p. 1127}}.</ref>{{sfn|Pertusi|1952|p=149}}{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|p=28}}
After the {{Transliteration|grc|Karabisianoi}} were disbanded (the exact date is disputed between {{circa|719/720}} and {{circa|727}}), the Cibyrrhaeots were constituted as a regular theme, with its governing {{Transliteration|grc|strategos}} first attested in 731/732.{{sfn|Nesbitt|Oikonomides|1994|p=151}}{{sfn|Pertusi|1952|p=149}}{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=26, 50–51}}{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|p=32}} Until the 9th century, when the themes of the Aegean Sea and Samos were elevated from {{Transliteration|grc|droungarios}}-level commands, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was the only dedicated naval theme of the Empire.{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=64, 81, 83, 109}}{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|p=267}}
The theme encompassed the southern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), from south of Miletus (which belonged to the Thracesian Theme) to the confines of the Arab borderlands in Cilicia, including the old Roman provinces of Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia and parts of Isauria, as well as the modern Dodecanese.<ref name="ODB"/>{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=80, 135}}{{sfn|Pertusi|1952|p=150}} Its geographical position made it the "front-line" theme facing the attacks of the Muslim fleets of the Levant and Egypt, and consequently the Cibyrrhaeots played a major role in the naval aspect of the Byzantine–Arab Wars.{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|pp=46ff.}} The land, which was known for its fertility,{{sfn|Nesbitt|Oikonomides|1994|p=151}} suffered from the frequent and devastating Arab raids, which largely depopulated the countryside except for the fortified cities and naval bases.<ref name="ODB"/>
[[File:Seal of Niketas, spatharokandidatos and chartoularios of the Cibyrrhaeots (Schlumberger, 1889).png|thumb|10th/11th-century seal of Niketas, {{Transliteration|grc|spatharokandidatos}} and {{Transliteration|grc|chartoularios}} of the Cibyrrhaeots]] The seat of the {{Transliteration|grc|strategos}} was most probably Attaleia.{{sfn|Pertusi|1952|p=150}}{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|p=82}} He drew an annual salary of 10 pounds of gold, and his overall rank in the imperial hierarchy was relatively low, but still senior to any other naval commander: twenty-fifth in the ''Taktikon Uspensky'' of 842/843, dropping to fifty-fifth in the ''Escorial Taktikon'' of 971–975.<ref name="ODB"/>{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|pp=390–391}} Like its other counterparts, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was divided into {{Transliteration|grc|droungoi}} and {{Transliteration|grc|tourmai}}, and possessed the full array of typical thematic administrative positions. Among the most important subordinates of the {{Transliteration|grc|strategos}} were the imperial {{Transliteration|grc|ek prosopou}} at Syllaion, the {{Transliteration|grc|droungarioi}} of Attaleia and Kos and the {{Transliteration|grc|katepano}} who commanded the theme's Mardaites.<ref name="ODB"/>{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=82–83}} These were the descendants of several thousand people transplanted from the area of Lebanon and settled there by Emperor Justinian II ({{reign|685|695|705|711}}) in the 680s to provide crews and marines for the fleet.{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=399}} In the early 9th century, the thematic fleet of the Cibyrrhaeots comprised 70 ships;{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=91–92}} and in the Cretan expedition of 911, the Cibyrrhaeot theme sent 31 warships – 15 large dromons and 16 middle-sized {{Transliteration|grc|pamphyloi}} – with 6,000 oarsmen and 760 marines.{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|p=549}}
Around the mid-11th century, as the Muslim naval threat subsided, the Byzantine provincial fleets began a precipitate decline:{{sfn|Pryor|Jeffreys|2006|p=88}} the fleet of the Cibyrrhaeots is last mentioned in the repulsion of a Rus' raid in 1043, and the theme became a purely civil province, headed by a {{Transliteration|grc|krites}} and later by a {{Transliteration|grc|doux}}.<ref name="ODB"/>{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|pp=131–135}} Most of its territory was lost to the Seljuk Turks after the 1071 Battle of Manzikert, but recovered under Alexios I Komnenos ({{reign|1081|1118}}). The rump theme was finally abolished by Manuel I Komnenos ({{reign|1143|1180}}), and the territory in Caria subordinated to the theme Mylasa and Melanoudion.<ref name="ODB"/>{{sfn|ODB|loc="Mylasa and Melanoudion" (C. Foss), p. 1428}}{{sfn|Ahrweiler|1966|p=273}}
==References== {{reflist|24em}}
==Sources== {{refbegin|2}} *{{cite book|last=Ahrweiler|first=Hélène|author-link=Helene Ahrweiler|title=Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe-XVe siècles|location=Paris |publisher=Presses universitaires de France|language=fr|year=1966|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H8JAQAAIAAJ}} *{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|ref={{harvid|ODB}}}} *{{Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art|volume=2}} *{{cite book|last=Pertusi|first=A.|title=Constantino Porfirogenito: De Thematibus|location=Rome |publisher=Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana|year=1952|language=it}} *{{cite book|last1=Pryor|first1=John H.|last2=Jeffreys|first2=Elizabeth M.|author-link2=Elizabeth Jeffreys|title=The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca. 500–1204|location=Leiden and Boston|publisher=Brill Academic Publishers|year=2006 |isbn=978-90-04-15197-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJPfAAAAMAAJ}} {{refend|2}}
{{Byzantine themes in De Thematibus}} {{Byzantine Empire topics}}
Category:Themes of the Byzantine Empire Category:Byzantine navy Category:Byzantine Anatolia Category:States and territories established in the 8th century Category:Arab–Byzantine wars Category:States and territories disestablished in the 12th century Category:Medieval Aegean Sea