Cephallenia (theme)

Theme of Cephallenia θέμα Κεφαλληνίας
Theme of the Byzantine Empire
mid/late 8th century – 1185
Map of Byzantine Greece ca. 900 AD, with the themes and major settlements.
Capital		Cephallenia
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Establishment as a theme	mid/late 8th century
•	Sicilian conquest	1185
Today part of		Greece

The Theme of Cephallenia or Cephalonia (Greek: θέμα Κεφαλληνίας/Κεφαλονίας, thema Kephallēnias/Kephalonias) was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) located in western Greece, comprising the Ionian Islands, and extant from the 8th century until partially conquered by the Kingdom of Sicily in 1185.

During the Roman Empire, the Ionian Islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Leucas and Cythera) were variously part of the provinces of Achaea and Epirus vetus. Except for Cythera, these formed the separate theme of Cephallenia. The islands remained largely unaffected by the Slavic invasion and settlement of the 7th century, and formed a base for the re-establishment of imperial control and the re-Hellenization of the mainland coast.

It is unknown when exactly the theme of Cephallenia was established. Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959) affirms in his work, De administrando imperio, that it was originally a tourma (a division) of the theme of Longobardia in Southern Italy, and that it was raised to a strategis (a "generalship"), but not a full theme, by Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). This is, however, clearly an error, for several instances of generals (strategoi) of Cephallenia are known through sources before that date. Thus, the Taktikon Uspensky of 842/843 clearly mentions a strategos of Cephallenia, and the Latin chronicle Annales regni Francorum mentions one already in 809. A number of seals further push the establishment of the circumscription of Cephallenia, at least as a strategis if not as a theme, back to the middle or late 8th century.

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