The exact date of the theme's establishment is unknown. Along with the other original themes, it was created sometime after the 640s as a military encampment area for the remnants of the old field armies of the
East Roman army, which were withdrawn to
Asia Minor in the face of the
Muslim conquests. The Anatolic Theme was settled and took its name from the army of the
East (Greek: ,
Anatolē). The theme is attested for the first time in 669, while the army itself is mentioned, as the
exercitus Orientalis, as late as an
iussio of
Justinian II in 687. The tide of the Arab attacks ebbed in the 740s, after the Byzantine victory at the
Battle of Akroinon and the turmoil of the
Third Fitna and the
Abbasid Revolution, and under Emperor
Constantine V (r. 741–775), the Anatolics spearheaded the Byzantine campaigns into Arab-held territory. This in turn provoked the reaction of the
Abbasid Caliphate, which in the quarter-century after 780 launched repeated invasions of Byzantine Asia Minor. Thus the Anatolics suffered a heavy defeat
at Kopidnadon in 788, and Amorium was threatened again in 797. In the early years of the 9th century, Cappadocia was the focus of Arab attacks, which culminated in the
great invasion of 806 led by Caliph
Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) himself, which took
Heraclea Cybistra and several other forts. The
late antique urban fabric suffered considerably from the Arab attacks and the concomitant decline of urbanization, but most of the cities in the interior of the theme, i.e. in Phrygia and Pisidia, survived, albeit in a reduced form. The cities of eastern Cappadocia (the former province of
Cappadocia Secunda), however, which bordered the Caliphate, were practically destroyed, as was
Antioch in Pisidia. The foundation of the new
kleisourai along the eastern frontier, especially Cappadocia, in the 9th century, meant that Arab raids henceforth were absorbed there, and seldom reached the Anatolic Theme's territory. Apart from Caliph
al-Mu'tasim's great invasion against Amorium in 838, attacks that penetrated into the Anatolics' territory are reported for the year 878, when the thematic troops successfully defended
Mistheia, and again in 888, 894 and 897, always in the southeastern portion of the theme around
Iconium. The 10th century was largely peaceful, with the exception of yet
another sack of Amorium in 931 and a
raid that reached Iconium in 963. The first
Turkish attack on the theme is recorded in 1069, when the Turks attacked Iconium. Most of the province was overrun by the Turks after the
Battle of Manzikert in 1071, with Iconium becoming the seat of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 12th century. The last appearance of the Anatolic Theme in the historical sources is in 1077, when its
stratēgos,
Nikephoros Botaneiates, proclaimed himself emperor (Nikephoros III, r. 1078–1081). The Byzantines managed to recover some of the western and northern portions of the theme in the subsequent decades under the
Komnenian emperors, but the Anatolic Theme was never reconstituted.
Rebellions '' of Leo III the Isaurian and his son, Constantine V Directly facing the forces of the
Caliphate during its first centuries of existence, and benefiting from its support of the
Isaurian emperors, the Anatolic Theme was the most powerful and most prestigious of the themes. Its very power, however, also meant that it was a potential threat to the emperors: already in 669, the thematic army revolted and forced
Constantine IV (r. 668–685) to re-install his brothers,
Heraclius and
Tiberius as his co-emperors, while in 695 a former
stratēgos,
Leontios (r. 695–698), usurped the throne from
Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711), and in 717 the then
stratēgos,
Leo the Isaurian, became emperor (Leo III, r. 717–741) after deposing
Theodosios III (r. 715–717). Henceforth, the Anatolics would be stalwart supporters of the Isaurians, including their
iconoclastic policies, and in 742 Leo III's son and successor, Constantine V, found refuge and support in the theme against the usurper
Artabasdos. The Anatolic Theme served as the base for several bids for the throne in later centuries as well: the failed revolt of
Bardanes Tourkos in 803 was followed by the successful proclamation of
Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820) by the Anatolic troops in 813, and the large-scale rebellion of
Thomas the Slav in 820–823. In the 10th century, however, the theme appears on the sidelines of the rebellions of the period. The next and last rebellion by a
stratēgos of the Anatolics was that of
Nikephoros Xiphias in 1022, against
Basil II (r. 976–1025). == Strategoi ==