The Cibyrrhaeots () 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). The command first appears in the
expedition against Carthage in 698, when a " 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 (). At the time, the Cibyrrhaeots were subordinate to the great naval corps of the . After the were disbanded (the exact date is disputed between and ), the Cibyrrhaeots were constituted as a regular
theme, with its governing first attested in 731/732. Until the 9th century, when the themes of the
Aegean Sea and
Samos were elevated from -level commands, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was the only dedicated naval theme of the Empire. 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. 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. The land, which was known for its fertility, suffered from the frequent and devastating Arab raids, which largely depopulated the countryside except for the fortified cities and naval bases. The seat of the was most probably
Attaleia. 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. Like its other counterparts, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was divided into and , and possessed the full array of typical thematic administrative positions. Among the most important subordinates of the were the imperial at
Syllaion, the of Attaleia and
Kos and the who commanded the theme's
Mardaites. These were the descendants of several thousand people transplanted from the area of
Lebanon and settled there by Emperor Justinian II () in the 680s to provide crews and marines for the fleet. In the early 9th century, the thematic fleet of the Cibyrrhaeots comprised 70 ships; and in the
Cretan expedition of 911, the Cibyrrhaeot theme sent 31 warships – 15 large
dromons and 16 middle-sized – with 6,000 oarsmen and 760 marines. Around the mid-11th century, as the Muslim naval threat subsided, the Byzantine provincial fleets began a precipitate decline: 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 and later by a . Most of its territory was lost to the
Seljuk Turks after the 1071
Battle of Manzikert, but recovered under
Alexios I Komnenos (). The rump theme was finally abolished by
Manuel I Komnenos (), and the territory in Caria subordinated to the theme
Mylasa and Melanoudion. ==References==