June 1296:
Alexios is crowned as Alexios VI on 9 June in the Hagia Sophia. During the celebrations, the residents of the Genoese corner storm the Venetian quarter and slaughter the populace, including Enrico Malabranca. Alexios orders the execution of the lowborn Genoese, and the imprisonment of the aristocrats pending Venetian justice. A ship leaves the city on 14 June bound for Modon.
Meanwhile, the new administration begins going through the treasury and begins to panic. The Roman treasury has about 750,000 hyperpyron in it, and has a net loss of 300,000 hyperpyron per year. Alexios and his advisors begin to scramble to find a way to stop the hemorrhaging. On 22 June, Alexios issues the Chrysobull of 1296, reducing the number of salaried offices in the court from 90 to 40, cutting an estimated 20,000 hyperpyron in expenses. The Chrysobull also creates 285 minor prestige offices, which are rented to members of the aristocracy in exchange for a position of honor in the court. The Chrysobull offices, as they are called, bring in 15,000 hyperpyron per year.
Alexios gathers an army of 7,000 men and marches south on 29 June, not wishing to give the Turks a reprieve from his campaigning, as well as pursuing rumors of a lake in the hills near the headwaters of the Hermos River that was said to be entirely yellow because of the massive gold deposits. He is also aware of the legitimacy that would be bestowed upon him by a successful campaign.
July 1296:
A ship arrives in Konstantinopolis from Napoli on 17 July, carrying Caterine d’Courtenay, titular Latin Empress. She was betrothed to the late Mikhael IX, and was supposed to marry him upon arrival, but news of the emperor’s death had yet to reach Italy. Upon learning of Mikhael’s death she attempts to leave, but Megas Logothete Manouel Planoudes convinces her to marry Alexios instead. The marriage would bring Akhaia, Athenon, and the Greek Palatinate into the theory. In theory, at least.
In the south, Alexios crosses the border into Karasid lands, but no army arrives to challenge him. He sacks Karasib, the Karasid capital, on 18 July, and resumes his march south 15,000 hyperpyron’s worth of goods the richer. As he moves south, he notices a disquieting lack of resistance along the frontier. He swings east into the Hermos Valley, taking Sipylum after the Greek population throws open the gates on 28 June. He leaves the next day, sending 2,000 men up the Hermos under the command of his lieutenant Sebastianos Kourkouas, while the emperor himself marches south with the rest of the army, arriving in Smyrna on 31 July.
In Sivas, Mesud II dies on 23 July, sending al-Rum into a three-way civil war. On 26 July, a Menteshed army of 12,000 encounters a coalition of 19,000 Germiyaned, Ottoman, and Karasid forces at Sultananou while attempting to cross into Canikid lands. The Mentesheds crush the allies, killing most of the Ottoman and Karasid men and about half of the Germiyaned force.
August 1296:
16 Venetian ships depart Modon for Konstantinopolis on 4 August, intending to bring onboard the prisoners from the Italian riots in June. When they pass Phokaia on the 13th, 22 Genoese ships depart the port and begin following them north. Venice and Genoa were embroiled in the War of Curzola, and any major movement of ships was cause for aggression.
Kourkouas and his men march west, obliterating the small Turkish militias that try to oppose them. On 10 August, they find the lake. Sebastianos raises a small fortress and mine on the site, naming it Chrysafilimni. He leaves a garrison of 200 men in the fortress and impresses captured Turkish civilians into service digging up gold. The rest of the army swivels south, and marches back into the Hermos valley before crossing the Timolos hills into the Maeandar valley, arriving at Magnesia on 27 August.
Alexios marched south from Smyrna on 5 August, pushing south along the coast to Didyma. The city’s Turkish garrison surrenders in exchange for safe passage into the Plateau. On 21 August a small group of men are packed onto a group of fishing boats and shuttled across the Bay of Mylasa to Alikarnassos. They demand that the Menteshed garrison surrender, but the Turks refuse to open the gates. After they refuse, the Romans storm the walls after nightfall and slaughter the Mentesheds. Alexios and the main army withdraw north to Magnesia, linking up with Kourkouas on 29 August.
Meanwhile, the Menteshed army arrives outside of Eflani and lays siege to the Canikid capital on 12 August. On 17 August, 28,000 Canikids reaches the city and attempts to relieve it, resulting in the Battle of Ovacik. The battle is fought across a series of creeks and small rivers, resulting in a narrow Menteshed victory with 9,000 dead, while the Canikids lose 16,000. Mesud the Great is forced to retreat and falls back to Zongalik. There, another coalition of the Hamedids, Gunduzids and a few Goths attacked the demoralized Mentesheds, nearly overrunning their camp before a Canikid army stumbles upon the camp and attacks. The coalition and Canikids savage each other while the Mentesheds flee west, into the empire.
September 1296:
Alexios leaves Lykia and marches north.
The Mentesheds stumble across the border, where their 9,000 demoralized survivors are trapped in a valley by the 8,000 akriti of the Optimatoi. Mesut the Great surrenders, and is imprisoned and taken to Konstantinopolis while his men are held in the valley.
In the west, Mikhael Glabas defeats an invading horde of Serbians at the Battle of Ohrid on 15 September. The Serbs are baited into a charge across an open plain at the Roman line, charging past an ambuscade.4,000 Armanj cavalry spring from the bush and tear into the Serbian flank while the infantry advance in a phalanx, trapping them against the lake. 30,000 of the 35,000 invaders are killed, whilst only 2,000 Romans fall.
October 1296:
The two fleets arrive off Konstantinopolis on the 6th. Both commanders demand that the prisoners from the June Riots be turned over to them. The head of the Genoese fleet, Benedetto Zaccaria (Lord of Phokaia, Caffa and Galata) is desperate, as his son and only heir Paleologo is one of the prisoners. On the 8th, Nikephoros sends a messenger to Zaccaria, agreeing to return Paleologo in exchange for Galata. Zaccaria agrees, giving the Romans a day to occupy Galata before turning over the prisoners. Nikephoros does so, but then turns the captives over to the Venetians under Ruggeiro Malabranca, in exchange for a ransom of 10,000 hyperpyron. Zaccaria attacks the Venetian fleet but is outrun; he turns on Galata. The Genoese land in the city and their marines storm the town. However, the Eparkos’ men swarm the city and kill most of the marines, and the few ships that sail into the Golden Horn are captured before they enter the Marmara. Zaccaria is captured alive, and forced to sign away Caffa, Planoudes estimating that the Genoese will care less about that city than Phocaea, before being killed. His body is shipped back to Phocaea while 17 Roman ships under Giocomo Ciurini sail for the Crimea.
In the south, Alexios continues his march north. When news of the Capture of Marmara reach him on the 27th, he takes ship from Adrymittion and sails for Konstantinopolis. Kourkouas camps at Adrymittion in preparation for next year’s campaign into Karasid and Germiyaned lands.
Mikhael Glabas and his army of 12,000 march up the Axios Valley and cross the border into Serbia, camping at the head of the Morava River. Stefan Milutin raises an army of 15,000 and marches to defend his kingdom. However, the passes between Ras and the Morava before he can cross, and he winters at his capital.
November 1296:
Alexios arrives in Konstantinopolis on the 12th, and upon being appraised of the situation ‘flips his lid’. He is outraged by Nikephoros and Manouel acting without his approval the coming of war without his knowledge, and his unbeknowing betrothal to Caterine I. All three, knowing of Alexios’ penchant for brief flashes of fury and rash decisions, had fled the capital, Nikephoros to Imbros, Caterine to the Genoese settlement at Amastris and Manouel to Burgas. On the 14th he calms down and sends request for them to return. On the 22nd, Alexios VI and Caterine I are married in the Hagia Sophia, creating a personal union between the Latin and Roman Empires. The far-off County of Namen in Flanders is also once again under the dominion of Rome. The County is a center of the wool trade and brings much revenue to the Empire. That and the capture of Galata brings an economic reprieve to Rome, as even with a halved tariff rate for the port customs fees is estimated to bring in 130,000 hyperpyron per year, which leaves the Empire in debt, but not as catastrophically as in 1295. The treasury is now losing only about 135,000 hyperpyron per year.
Alexios meets with Mesut the Great, and in exchange for safe passage back to the Menteshe the Turks cede the land north of the Gulf of Kolpos (Gulf of Gokova) to the Romans.
In the Crimea, the Roman fleet arrives off of Caffa and demands that the garrison surrender, presenting a copy of Zaccaria’s statement. The commander refuses, but the four cannon-armed ships in the fleet shoot the masts off every other ship in the harbor in a show of force. The garrison mutinies in the face of this unknown weapon, and Caffa falls on the 13th. Ciurini goes through the port records and rejoices, for the port’s customs duties were approximately 70,000 hyperpyron in 1295.
December 1296:
Caterine becomes pregnant in either late December or early January. Demetrios Metaxes, the protovestarios, ferments a plan to resurrect the treasury. In the north, a small band of Goths, exiles from Theodoro, approach Ciurini and offer fealty in exchange for land outside the city. Over the following weeks more tribes, nearly 5,000 in all, ask for the same.
