[1][2][3] Lying directly north of the Cilician Gates, the Arabs' major invasion route into Asia Minor, the region of Cappadocia suffered greatly from their repeated raids, with its towns and fortresses regularly sacked and the country widely devastated and depopulated.

[1][8] The theme was also the site of no less than three imperial aplekta, large camps that served as assembly points for the thematic armies during campaigns: Koloneia, Caesarea, and Bathys Ryax.

[9] Its strategos, whose seat was probably the fortress of Koron (modern Çömlekçi),[10] and perhaps Tyana at a later stage, drew an annual salary of 20 pounds of gold, and usually held the rank of protospatharios, with a few rising as far as patrikios.

From the great Byzantine victory at the Battle of Lalakaon in 863, and the destruction of the Paulician state at Tephrike in 872 (or 878) onwards the security situation improved considerably, but the area remained a target of Arab raids.

[5][13] Under Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912), some of its eastern territory, the bandon of Nyssa, in which Caesarea lay, as well as the tourma of Kase were given to the Charsianon theme.