1. Establishment – Administration
Almost the entire historical region of Cappadocia in eastern Asia Minor was organized into the Early Byzantine province of Cappadocia by Diocletian (284-305). Caesarea was its political metropolis, the seat of the consularis of the province and of the bishop of Caesarea, as well as of the head official of the short-lived domus divinae of the prefecture of Oriens and later of the comes domorum per Cappadociam. In 314, Cappadocia became part of the newly established diocese of Pontica. To the north Cappadocia bordered Helenopontos and to the east the Byzantine territories of Armenia; to the south it bordered Cilicia Pedias (of the diocese of Oriens), and to the west Lykaonia (of the diocese of Asiana). Between 335 and 337, the Byzantine Armenia and the neighbouring regions of the Pontos and Cappadocia came jointly under the administrative jurisdiction of the Rex Regum (Armeniae) et Ponticarum Gentium Hannibalianus,1 while the subsequently established bordering provinces of Armenia I and Armenia II included territory of the historical region of Cappadocia.
Emperor Valens (364-378) introduced administrative reforms in the province of Cappadocia in 371. At that time, the province of Cappadocia II was established in its southern/southeastern part. This new province was under the command of a praeses and Tyana became its metropolis. Τhe eastern part of the old province of Cappadocia remained a consular province under the name Cappadocia I and retained Caesarea as its political and ecclesiastical metropolis. Between 535 and 553, the two provinces of Cappadocia (I and II) were under the command of a proconsul as a unified Cappadocia, according to Justinian I’s (527-565) administrative reforms.
2. Cities
The minutes of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) report five cities of the province of Cappadocia as ecclesiastical sees. The Synekdemos of Hierokles, a work compiled around the first quarter of the 6th century, reports twelve cities in the provinces of Cappadocia I and II. According to the notitiae episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in subsequent periods the ecclesiastical metropolises of the two provinces, Caesarea, Tyana and Mokissos, were responsible for a total of twelve bishoprics in the region of the former province of Cappadocia.
3. Culture
Cappadocia was connected with Orthodox theology and the history of the Orthodox Church, particularly in the Early Byzantine period. The great hierarchs and theologians Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzos and Gregory of Nyssa, who were prominent ecclesiastical figures (Church Fathers) in the 4th century, also known as the Cappadocian Fathers, came from Cappadocia and served as bishops in Caesarea, Nazianzos and Nyssa respectively.
To the west-southwest of Caesarea, southwards of the Halys River, there is a vast volcanic region with three valleys, Peristremma, Korama and Soandos (Soğanlı). The soil consists of a pale, ductile and porous rock, which has been used as the construction material throughout Cappadocian countryside. The natives cut underground settlements into the rock and the monks cut Christian monasteries. From an early time, the area was associated with asceticism and prayer, and its churches were adorned with remarkable wall paintings throughout the Byzantine period. At the same time, the rural populations continued to cut their troglodytic underground settlements.
The Cappadocian soil was always favourable for the movement of horse herds. According to Herodotus, the ancient Persian toponym katpatuka is the etymon of the name of Cappadocia, and means “the land of fine horses”. In the Byzantine Empire Cappadocia was home to wealthy landowners, horse- and cattle breeders and eminent members of military aristocracy.