The dates of establishment and the territorial reach of the various Byzantine naval commands in the 7th–9th centuries are mostly unclear. After the unitary navy of the
Karabisianoi was split up in the early 8th century, regional naval commands were established, of which the naval theme of the
Cibyrrhaeots is the first known and most important. Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos () records that "at the time the Empire was divided into themes", Samos became the seat of the "theme of the sailors" (); the meaning of this passage is unclear. The historian
Warren Treadgold interprets this to mean that Samos was the first seat of the
Karabisianoi fleet, until their disbandment . Alternatively, it could imply a command that formed part of the
Karabisianoi and was abolished with them, or a later, short-lived successor, perhaps even identical with the Cibyrrhaeots. The existence of a "
strategos of Samos" in the 8th century is attested through a surviving seal of a
strategos named Theodore. In the late 8th century, the southern Aegean appears to have come under the jurisdiction of the "
droungarios of the
Dodekanesos", whose post some scholars, following
Hélène Ahrweiler's suggestion, came to identify with that of the "
droungarios of
Kos", later appearing as the "
droungarios of the Gulf (
Kolpos)", as the latter features in the mid-9th century
Taktikon Uspensky. This command or at the very least the eastern part of it seems to have evolved into the theme of Samos. ==History==