The _Themes_ or provinces of the Eastern Empire, as they stood in the tenth century, have had the privilege of being elaborately described by an Imperial geographer in the person of Constantine Porphyrogennêtos.[11] He speaks of the division as comparatively recent, and of some themes as having been formed almost in his own time. The themes would certainly seem to have been mapped out after the Empire had been cut short both to the north and to the east. The nomenclature of the new divisions is singular and diversified. ♦Asiatic Themes.♦ Some ancient national names are kept, while the titles of others seem fantastic enough. Thus in Asia _Paphlagonia_ and _Kappadokia_ remain names of themes with some approach to their ancient boundaries; but the _Armenian_ theme is thrust far to the west of any of the earlier uses of the name, so that the Halys flows through it. Between it and the still independent Armenia lay the theme of _Chaldia_, with Trapezous, the future seat of Emperors, for its capital. Along the Saracen frontier lie the themes of _Kolôneia_, _Mesopotamia_—a shadowy survival indeed of the Mesopotamia of Trajan, of which it was not even a part—_Sebasteia_, _Lykandos_, _Kappadokia_, and _Seleukeia_, called from the Isaurian or Kilikian city of that name. Along the south coast the city of _Kibyra_ has given—in mockery, says Constantine—its name to the theme of the _Kibyrraiotians_, which reaches as far as Milêtos. The isle of _Samos_ gives its name to a theme reaching from Milêtos to Adramyttion, while the theme of the _Ægæan Sea_, besides most of the islands, stretches on to the mainland of the ancient Aiolis. The rest of the Propontis is bordered by themes bearing the strange names of _Opsikion_ and _Optimatôn_, names of Latin origin, in the former of which the word _obsequium_ is to be traced. To the east of them the no less strangely named _Thema Boukellariôn_ takes in the Euxine Hêrakleia. Inland and away from the frontier are the themes _Thrakêsion_ and _Anatolikon_, while another Asiatic theme is formed by the island of _Cyprus_. ♦The European Themes.♦