Great Byzantine defeats - Part VI - Battle of Pelekanon

Battle of Pelekanon (1329)

After the civil war in Byzantium that occurred between 1321 - 1328, a younger generation of nobles came to power, led by Emperor Andronicus III Palaeologus (Ruled from 1328-1341) and his best friend and collaborator, and later emperor, John Cantacuzenus. 

The new emperor, and his close associates, have properly assessed that the Ottomans are the greatest threat and that the territory of Asia Minor will determine the fate of the Empire.

In the late spring of 1329, that is, the first war season after the takeover, they led a not so large army to Nicaea, the glorious Byzantine city in which two ecumenical councils were held, and which was then under the Turkish siege.

This was the first time that some Byzantine emperor goes into direct conflict with the Ottoman ruler, and in this case, it was Orhan I (ruled from 1324-1361). This heroic endeavor, worthy of all praise, ended unsuccessfully for the Romans.

First, in the skirmish near Pelekanon, one arrow hit Andronicus III in the leg. He was immediately dispatched to Constantinople, and thus, he did not participate in the decisive battle, which took place the next day.

On June 11, 1329, the Turkish troops, situated near Pelekanon, a city on the east coast of the Marmara Sea, encouraged by the confusion among the Byzantines caused by emperor injury, inflicted a heavy defeat to Byzantine troops. John Cantacuzenus remarkable composure didn’t help at all, and he barely saved the rest of the army. He scarcely saved his own head.

However, comparing this defeat with the Byzantine disaster at Manzikert in 1071, that is often done in the scientific writings, in spite of certain similarities that are very appealing, is somewhat unjustified. The collapse of Romanos IV Diogenes and Byzantine troops, like it was said, was an event of global and historic significance, while the failure of Andronicus III Palaeologus and John Cantacuzenus is just one of the final forms of long-weaned historical flows, and as such, it doesn’t have nearly the weight of Manzikert collapse.

It turned out that the campaign from 1329 was, in fact, the last serious effort of the Byzantines on the eastern front. The remaining Byzantine cities in Asia Minor where left to their own fate and temperament the Islamic invaders.

Great Byzantine defeats - Part I - The Battle of Adrianople

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Great Byzantine defeats - Part V - Battle of Myriokephalon

Battle of Myriokephalon (1176)

A century after the battle of Manzikert, Byzantines suffered another heavy defeat by the Seljuks. This time the main actors were the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (ruled from 1143-1180) and Iconium’s sultan Kilij Arslan II (ruled from1156-1192).

During his reign, the Byzantine emperor was able to slightly improve the relationships between the Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Kilij Arslan visited Istanbul in 1161 as a guest of the Byzantine emperor, and his host organized a magnificent reception for him. He even pledged to Manuel Komnenos that he would send military support and return him some of the cities in the border zone. However, due to emperors many obligations and commitment to Western politics, the sultan "forgot" his obligations and, furthermore, encouraged by the support of the German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (ruled from 1152-1190), he took hostile attitude towards Byzantium. 

At the head of a huge army, in the summer of 1176, Manuel Komnenos headed towards the Seljuk border. Emperor firmly refused Sultan's peace offer and continued the march.

Kilij Arslan was trying to avoid conflict in the open field, so he only occupied long and narrow Tzibritze pass near the city Myriokephalon in Asia Minor area of Phrygia. In addition, he sent his supporting troops to disturb the progress of emperor’s army. They burned the grass to make it difficult to feed Byzantine horses and poisoned wells by throwing bodies and dirt in them. And indeed, during this campaign a great number of Romans died from stomach diseases.

On September 17, 1176, in Tzibritze pass, the Seljuks surrounded and attacked the Byzantine army, and completely defeated it. The Byzantines were as trapped, powerless to resist properly. In addition, it was not possible to establish any type of connection between the individual Roman troops.

The battle lasted all day. A large number of Byzantine soldiers and several prominent military leaders were killed while Manuel Komnenos, in a moment of despondency, was thinking to leave his army and run for his life. Later, the Byzantine soldiers openly blamed the emperor for the defeat. 

The state and the mood of the Roman army didn’t change even when the darkness of the night surrounded them. Byzantine historian, who lived in those times, Niketas Choniates, wrote that those who managed to escape spent the next few long sleepless hours filled with horror and suspense.

Since the Turkish losses were also significant, in the evening hours Kilij Arslan accepted Manuel’s proposal for the conclusion of peace. According to concluded agreement, the Byzantines were required to destroy their two fortress in the border area.

After two days, the remaining Roman army began to retreat. Manuel Komnenos, himself, compared this loss to the disaster in Manzikert 150 years earlier. 

Great Byzantine defeats - Part VI - Battle of Pelekanon 

Great Byzantine defeats - Part I - The Battle of Adrianople

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Great Byzantine defeats - Part IV - Battle of Manzikert

Battle of Manzikert (1071)

Throughout its history, Byzantium had misfortune to, roughly speaking, constantly fight wars on two fronts, east and west. In the East, the enemies of the Empire were at first the Persians, then Arabs and finally the Turks, Seljuks and Ottomans.

In the 11th century, Byzantium was dangerously threatened by an invasion of Seljuks who easily broke the Arabian forces in Asia, conquered a number of areas, penetrated through Mesopotamia and conquered caliph’s capital Baghdad. Soon, the whole part of Asia to the borders of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, belonged to the Seljuk. They penetrated Armenia, ravaged Cilicia and with invasion of Cappadocia, they made it clear that they have intensions to occupy Asia Minor.

Precisely at that time, the Emperor Constantine X Doukas (ruled from 1059-1067) died, and his widow Eudokia, under the pressure of one part of the public, married the Roman general Diogenes who was the only one capable to take action against invasive Seljuks.

The new emperor, Romanos IV Diogenes (ruled from 1068-1071) was skilled military leader and he immediately went to the East. His campaigns in 1068 and 1069 could be called relatively successful, but his third campaign ended with heavy defeat.

In the summer of 1071, two armies collided, the Byzantine - which consisted and of many foreigners (Frankish, Russians, Pechenegs, Uz, Normans) - and Seljuk led by sultan Alp Arslan (ruled from 1064-1072). The battle was fought in Armenia, near the town Manzikert, which is near Lake Van. It was thought previously that the battle occurred on August 19, 1071, but based on the data of the Byzantine Short chronicles, the event was placed a whole week back, on August 26, 1071.

The facts from preserved sources - Byzantine, Eastern and Western - are considerable contradictory so it is not easy to discern what has happened. There is no doubt that the Byzantine army was numerically stronger than the Seljuk, but it was also diverse and less disciplined.

The impression is that the Byzantine emperor clearly underestimated the opponents and that he split his army so that one part of it - the Normans, led by Commander Roussel de Bailleul - did not participate in the battle, and were directed on the other side. Furthermore, when the battle began, they have retreated to the west.

In the first phase, the Byzantine cavalry attacked and the Seljuks retreated, pretending to flee, but then they unexpectedly turned and caught their enemies into a trap. However, the majority of the Byzantine army attacked those Turkish detachments, forcing them to retreat, and safely returned to their camp.

The next day, sultan Alp Arslan managed to draw on his side a number of Uz units, a tribe related to the Seljuks, but that was still far from victory. Therefore, he proposed a truce, but the terms offered by the Romanos IV Diogenes were unacceptable.

When the battle began anew, the Byzantine army, under the command of the emperor, struck at the center. Just then, Andronikos Doukas, Emperor's old rival, spread the word that emperor is defeated. He immediately left the battlefield and caused general chaos and retreat. Romanos IV Diogenes found himself surrounded by Seljuks and desperately fought until he was captured.

Today, researchers believe that one of the reasons for Turkey's victory was and the fact that they used their archers more cleverly.

In the beginning, the defeat was not that heavy. Byzantine losses were relatively small, and Alp Arslan treated the captured Byzantine emperor like a true knight and signed an honorable peace with him. However, the Roman disputes turned this event into a disaster with unforeseeable consequences. Opposing party at Constantinople, led by John Doukas, a father of Manzikert’s traitor, and Michael Psellos, performed a sort of coup, and placed Michael VII Doukas (ruled from 1071-1078) on the throne.

Upon his return from Turkish captivity, Romanos IV Diogenes reached out for the protection of his royal rights. This initiated a civil war. Eventually, his opponents captured and blinded him on fraud by not keeping their word.

On news of Romanos blindness and death, in 1072 the Seljuks began to penetrate Asia Minor because the contract that they signed several months ago, was no longer valid. Byzantium didn’t have enough strength to stop the Turkish invasion and, in just few years, they conquered most of Asia Minor. They won even Nicaea, a town not far from Constantinople. The participants of the First Crusade returned it to Byzantium only in 1097.

Battle of Manzikert was a significant turning point in Byzantine history and an event of global historical significance.  It marked the arrival of the Turks in Asia Minor, and the foundation of their Sultanate of Iconium state (Rûm), on one side, and gradual turn of focus of Byzantium on the European area, on the other side.

In 1971, the modern Turkey celebrated this event in a special way, with a great public holiday. They celebrated their ninth centenary.

Great Byzantine defeats - Part V - Battle of Myriokephalon

Great Byzantine defeats - Part I - The Battle of Adrianople

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Tsar and Infantry!

Peter the Great

Russian Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725) was in many ways an unusual ruler.

For example, in a battle against the Turks, in 1695, he fought with his soldiers as ordinary infantry believing that in this way he will contribute more to the victory of his own army.

And on one winter day, in 1724, the Tsar saw one of his ship sink. Not thinking that someone else should have done it instead of him, he immediately jumped into the icy water to help saving people from the ship.

Since he spent a lot of time in cold water, the Tsar got cold and fever.

Devoted Peter the Great died a few weeks later.

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Fourth Crusade - Twilight of Byzantium (Part five: The Consequences of The Fall of Constantinople.)

After the conquest of Constantinople, the Crusaders will share the lands of Byzantium with Venetians and establish short-lived Latin Empire, which will disappear after just a few decades. Although restored with its return to Constantinople in 1261 the Roman Empire will never be the same. Until the fall by the hand of Turks, Constantinople will just be a shadow of its shadow. And the emperor and autocrat of Romans will remain just in name only. Constantinople, in reality,  will no longer play a leading political role, even in the Balkans, but the Byzantine civilization will once again, like a dying star, shine at the time of "Renaissance Palaeologus" in the 14th century, and then fold like a dark dwarf - Empire reduced to the area of a city. Like being in agony, Constantinople will provide a last, desperate, heroic resistance to Turkish attacker in 1453, and then immerse in the eternal silence from which will emerge Turkish Istanbul.

Equally serious consequences the fall of Constantinople had on relations between the two Christian churches - Orthodox and Catholic. Although for more than a century the official division of the Christian Church dominated ("Schism" from 1054), only the wanton violence of Catholic Christians against the Orthodox Constantinople finally deepened the gap between the two churches, which has not yet been overcome. To this is certainly contributed and the conduct of Pope Innocent III, who, after the conquest of Constantinople, confirmed the election of a new, "Latin", or the Catholic Patriarch, and thus become subsequent complicit in the foray on Constantinople, something to which he previously opposed. Pope’s pressure on the eastern "schismatic" did not, however, have any results. Pope John Paul II, eight hundred years later, during his visit to Athens, in May 2001, asked on behalf of the Catholic Church for forgiveness - for everything the Latins committed eight centuries earlier in Constantinople.

In addition to material damages, the conquest of Constantinople had and other consequences on international and regional relations of that period. Instead of one empire, in its place it was created a larger number of countries, whether Latin, or Greek, "empires", "Despotates", "Kingdoms" and "principalities"... and finally, in the Balkans and Asia Minor many Latin and Greek states waged war for the succession of Byzantium.

To read Part one: Angels of Vanity, click HERE.

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Byzantine Art of Persuasion (Part III)

10 languages of lies 

The following example is just slightly younger and it is related to the reign of Justin II (565-578), nephew of Justinian and the first successor. Here, in a similar way, sophistically cunning civilized Byzantines collide with genuine honesty of primitive barbarians. Again it comes to newcomers from Asia, only this time it’s not the Huns, but the Turks and Avars. Because of the troubles they had with the Persians on the famous Silk Road that stretched from China to the far eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the Byzantines made a covenant with middle-Asia Turks. The contract did not include only sales and relocation of famous Silk Road, it provided and a military alliance against a common enemy – the Persians. Frequent exchange of legations - seven Byzantine delegations traveled on the Turkish court in the course of eight years - testified about intimate ties.

However, circumstances have changed dramatically in the year of 576 because the empire made an alliance with the Avars against the Danube Slavs. That was sufficient reason to the Turks, who felt let down, to suddenly change their attitude towards Byzantium. When the Roman emissaries found themselves in front of the new ruler of Turkey, Turksat, on them gushed avalanche of anger. Torrent of words, which was recorded by Byzantine writer, Menander Protector is in his historical record, was accompanied by an unusual gesture: since he had only one tongue in his oral cavity, resent ruler of the Turks tried somehow to push all ten of his fingers in his mouth so he could symbolically accompany the sentences from which the blood vessels of Byzantine envoys froze, "Are you not the Romans (Byzantines), who have ten languages and lie on all these languages? …like my ten fingers in my mouth, that’s how you use many languages: with one you deceive me, with another Avars, my slaves. Simply put, you are wheedling all nations, and deceive them with art of your words and your traitorous ideas, disregarding those who are rushing down to trouble from which only you have gain. "

After a short pause he continued his tirade by saying: “Turks never lie”, and then in the threatening tone he revealed he’s appeals: “Your emperor will answer to me for his behavior, he, who speaks to me about friendship and at the same time, makes an agreement with Avars, slaves who escaped from their masters... Why, oh, Romans, you always send my envoys through the Caucasus when they are traveling to Byzantium, and claim that there is no other way they could go? You do that with the hope that I will due to inaccessible terrain refrain from attacks on Roman lands. But I know exactly where Dnieper, Danube and Maritsa flow. It is not unknown to me how strong your power is, for I am the master of the whole country, from the first solar rays in the east to the last edge on the west. “

With this frightening admission, which almost cost life the Byzantine envoys, Turkish-Byzantine eight-year-old alliance abruptly stopped. That same year the Turkish army threatened Byzantine possessions in the Crimea. Turkish Khan’s speech, let me add, filled with dignify confidence, is a vivid example of distrust and contempt which was, thanks to Byzantine too cunning and ruthless diplomacy, certainly often provoked in their victims in the area of the Eurasian steppes.

The Byzantines have expressed their persuasive skills and during the Christianization of Russians. In the Russian source “Повесть временных лет” (Tale of Bygone Years), in a very interesting and sometimes on the verge of anecdote way, it is shown how Prince Vladimir of Kiev - who wanted to turn his compatriots from polytheistic pagan to one of the monotheistic religions – made an important decision. This unusual story is actually a mixture of facts and fiction, a mixture which stands hesitantly between story, extensive theological treatises and ironic jest. Of course, in it are inserted and later amendments.

To read "Byzantine Art of Persuasion (Part IV)", click HERE.

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Byzantine Art of Persuasion (Part I)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – a message from the New Testament (the Gospel of John, 1, 1). "Words, words, words!" – Pathetically cries Hamlet in William Shakespeare's eponymous tragedy. French writer Andre Maurois warned of power and destructive force that words can have: - “If the people better understood what danger lies in the use of certain words, dictionaries in the windows of the bookstores would have had a red ribbon with the inscription: "Explosive! Carefully Handle!"” Indeed, although they are most impermanent, at the end and after all, only words remain.

It is well known, on the other hand, that artistry in the use of the words is exactly proportional to the level of civilization of a certain society. In the period of the Middle Ages, Byzantium was a good example which confirmed the rule said. Barbarians themselves were aware of the skills of Byzantine diplomacy, that is, their ability to achieve anything they wanted with words and their clever use, which would otherwise been achieved only by the force of arms.

But this is not just about the deep impression that Roman eloquence was leaving on simple and primitive barbarians, but also and about giddiness and sometimes Byzantine perfidy which were in a special way connected with the art of handling words in the intricate political and diplomatic circumventions. In order to understand this, it is necessary to recall the Roman beliefs in their own uniqueness and Byzantines confidence in the sacred right of Byzantine Empire to rule over the entire Christian universe.

From this kind of belief, the Byzantine conception was coming out according to which all other people were less valuable than Romans and as such were worthy of contempt. It is necessary to bear in mind what was issued in order to properly understand the Byzantine attitude toward other nations, but also attitude of others towards Romans.

In order to show this, I will present four cases: two from the early Byzantine history, tied to 6th century and Turkish tribes, one from the final decades of the 10th century, in which, along with the Byzantines, the Russians are the main participants, and, finally, one which is placed in the last years of the 13th century, and it’s turned to the history of the Byzantine-Serbian relations.

To read "Byzantine Art of Persuasion (Part II)", click HERE.

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