| November 1 |  |
Editor says, what if Trapezuntian emperor Alexios I had re-unified the Byzantine successor states? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the November 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: |  Facebook |  Twitter |
In 1214, on this day forces loyal to Trapezuntian emperor Alexios I (pictured) lifted the Siege of Sinope.
Komnenos Brothers lift the Siege of SinopeThe Seljuq Turks under their Sultan, Kaykaus I Sinope had attempted to seize this important port city on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey, at the time held by the Empire of Trebizond, one of the Byzantine Greek successor states formed after the Fourth Crusade.
The hard fought victory was in no part due to the individual heroics of David Komnenos [1], Alexios' younger brother and co-founder of the Trapezuntian empire. Because much was at stake; defeat would have meant that the small Trapezuntian state would be cut off from overland contact with the metropolitan Byzantine lands of the Empire of Nicaea in western Asia Minor.
But instead, Alexios was given a legitimate claim to be Byzantine emperor (he was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos and of Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia and thus a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I). Because in April 1204, shortly before the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, the 22-year-old Alexios had occupied Trebizond with the aid of a Georgian contingent provided by his aunt, Queen Tamar of Georgia. Ten years later, he was all set for a triumphant return.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Sinope, Empire of Trebizond, Alexios, Trapezuntian, Seljuk. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurpose content from Wikipedia which reports ~ the Siege of Sinope in 1214 was a successful siege and capture of Sinope by the Seljuq Turks under their Sultan, Kaykaus I.
[1] Beginning with Fallmerayer, earlier scholars used to place the death of David Komnenos, Alexios' younger brother and co-founder of the Trapezuntian empire, during the siege of Sinope. Modern research, however, has shown that he died in exile as a monk in Mount Athos in 1212/1213
[2] According to the Byzantinist Warren Treadgold, the loss of Sinope on the one hand "shielded Trebizond from further attacks from Nicaea", but also meant that "henceforth Alexios' claim to be Byzantine emperor rang hollow, and the Empire of Trebizond ceased to be of more than local importance".
~ A second Byzantine Empire TL? Do want. The idea is an earlier formation of the second Byzantine Empire that converges in a shorter space of time after the Fourth Crusade
~ If the 2nd Byzantine Empire, as you call it, was founded earlier, and stronger in northeastern Anatolia, then how does this affect the rise of the minor Osmanli tribe? (By the way, Harry Turtledove is a Byzantinist.)
~ Sounds like Ottoman advances into Eastern Europe could have been thwarted, or seriously delayed, if this had happened.
~ It might have delayed things, but Byzantium's doom had been pronounced earlier, at Manzikert in 1071. That said, the Komnenoi might have gone down as bravely as the Palaiologoi did.
~ Manzikert probably cost Constantinople the Anatolian interior, but it was the Fourth Crusade that broke all hope of regaining it while the incompetence of Andronicus II that lost the northwest and permitted a Turkish foothold in the Balkans.
~ A major shift in the new Constantinople kept naval power and, more importantly, the trade route. We might not've seen a Renaissance in Italy.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
