AIMA: Rome's Third Millenium. The Final Cut

Although there was much work to do on the Anatolian plateau yet, Alexios II had greatly improved the position of the Romans' in the east during the Third Crusade and during the 1190s. The walls of Ikonion were strong, and the city itself was garrisoned and held by a strong force of Romans, Germans and Hungarians under a Doux through the rest of the "Magyar's" reign. Alexios himself had also finished the campaigning season of 1190 fortifying some of the smaller towns the Romano-German army had captured - such as Philomelion and Amorion - in the same manner, repairing damaged walls and keeps in the process. Alexios, like John II and Manuel before him, relied on a programme of rapid castle building in order to frustrate the nomads and secure the over.

Following the death of the aged Sultan Kiliji Arslan II in 1192 in his new capital at Kayseri, his son's continued their squabbles over the various statelets of Anatolia. Things were looking brighter for ever for the Romans due to the emergence of separate Turkish states - one at Ancyra, another at Sivas and yet another at Kayseri (all ruled by different son's of the late Sultan). Finally, in 1194 Alexios re-captured Anycra, which had rebelled against his rule after being briefly captured by Roman troops in 1190. Exhausted by war (Turkish forces had suffered heavy losses in pitched battles in 1176, 1178 and 1190) and riven with civil strife, the remaining sons of Kiliji Arslan concluded a peace with Alexios in 1195, the next year.


The German Emperor Henry VI, meanwhile, proved to be even more of a potential menace than his father the Barbarossa. Having pressed his claims to The Kingdom of Sicily and the communes of the Lombard League (who had lost Roman support following the treaty concluded between Alexios and Barbarossa in 1190), Henry had established his rule over much of Italy, and had established Hohenstaufen rule over Palermo itself in 1194 following the death of Tancred of Lecce, the last "Norman" king in the Regno. Although The Germans had assisted the Romans and Hungarians in defeating the Seljuqs in 1190, they still coveted the same imperial powers that Alexios II held.

Something had to give between the "Magyar" and Henry VI...

More coming next concerning the Empire, Richard the Lionheart/ the Angevin Empire and the HRE!
 
Goodbye 12th Century:


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The years of 1195 to 1197 were some of “watchful” peace for our hero Alexios II, Basileus of the Romans and scion of the Arpad and Komnenian royal lines. Having conquered the Seljuq capital of Ikonion and weakened the Turkish threat on the Anatolian plateau, Alexios faced a series of smaller Turkish Amirates on his eastern frontier – states that often squabbled amongst each other, as many of their rulers were the sons of the late Sultan Kilij Arslan II. While the Turks squabbled over their remaining holdings in Eastern Anatolia, Alexios had moved to re-establish a strong land route between Constantinople and the Latin states of Outremer.




Armenian Cilicia and Latin Antioch were forced to recognize their renewed position as Roman vassals following Alexios’ expedition into the region in 1196, an expedition made far easier by the Roman control of land route from Constantinople thru Ikonion and hence to Antioch herself. With Roman garrisons re-established in Tarsos, Adana and Seleukia – and the Prince of Antioch cowed by the Basileus’ victories, it appeared that the Empire’s eastern frontier had been solidified. Alexios, unfortunately, continued to be distracted by the antics of the German Emperor Henry VI, whose forces had been putting down revolts amongst the Sicilian barons. The German Emperor, who sought to unite Sicily with his vast northern realm via his marriage to Constance, daughter of Roger II of Sicily, desired to go on crusade himself much as his late father the “Barborossa” had just a few years prior.




Despite the continued peace between Bela-Alexios and the Hohenstaufen, whose forces had triumphed together under the walls of Ikonion in 1190, the threat of Henry VI and his proposed “crusade” was a great one to the Romans. With the Kingdom of Sicily already added to his vast realm, Henry dreamed of launching a vast seaborne expedition to Outremer in order to complete the work of the 3rd Crusade and seize Jerusalem itself. The mood in Constantinople, however, was not so jubilant, what would prevent this vast force from ravaging Roman lands?




It was thus with no small degree of relief that the news of Henry’s death at the hands of malaria at Messina was received by the Basileus in 1197. Although small detachments of German crusaders had already re-captured Sidon and Beirut from the forces of the Ayyubids, Henry’s Crusade died with him, and for the moment the crown of Sicily lay in the hands of his wife Constance and their infant son Frederick. With the threat of the Hohenstaufen suddenly less menacing and his alliance with Hungary still holding strong, Alexios II resumed his nearly annual offensives against the Turks, driving groups of Seljuq nomads away from his new conquests surrounding Ikonion in a series of punitive expeditions. Alexios also attacked the Vlachs and Cumans who menaced the Danube frontiers during the remainder of his reign, and made a point of settling large numbers of Vlach POWs in his new Anatolian castles as military settlers.




Despite a troublesome revolt against imperial rule by the wily Levon of Armenia in 1199 (Armenian Cilicia was still proving difficult to subdue), Alexios closed out the 12th century with his two most important objectives, the establishment of imperial supremacy in both Anatolia and the Balkans, well in hand. Like John Komnenos before him, Alexios’ policy of annual campaigns against specific objectives backed by simple diplomacy (his alliance with Hungary by blood) was paying off handsomely. The 13th century was looking to be a promising one indeed for Rome.
 
More updates coming! Quick question for my readers and fellow Byzantinists: Was Dorylaeum (which Manuel I re-fortified) still in Roman hands upon Manuel's death in 1180?


I know that Manuel had demolished his Castle of Soublaeum after the defeat of 1176, but it appears that he did no such thing with his larger conquest of Dorylaeum.
 
More updates coming! Quick question for my readers and fellow Byzantinists: Was Dorylaeum (which Manuel I re-fortified) still in Roman hands upon Manuel's death in 1180?


I know that Manuel had demolished his Castle of Soublaeum after the defeat of 1176, but it appears that he did no such thing with his larger conquest of Dorylaeum.

Dorylaeum was still Roman when Manuel died but seems to have been lost along with Cotyaeum, Sozopolis, Syrmia, Bosnia and Dalmatia between his death and Andronikos' rise to power.
 
Thanks Byzantine Lover! That is what my research into the primary sources turned up as well! Also, do my readers think its plausible that Bela-Alexios (assuming Manuel I has no son as in this TL) remains in Constantinople and allows his younger brother Geza to claim the crown of Hungary in 1172 when Stephen III of Hungary dies childless?

I was assuming that Bela-Alexios, having been baptized into the Orthodox Church and holding the rank of heir of Manuel, would rather reign in Constantinople than in Hungary...
 
I was just wondering how realistic it would be for ITTL's Bela-Alexios to allow his brother Geza to take the Hungarian throne if he was still the heir of the Roman throne.
 
I think there's a chance Bela-Alexios might want to rule it all - Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Asia Minor. I guess it all depends on how long the Byzantine aristocracy will tolerate a foreign Catholic emperor.
 
Good point, didn't Bela convert to Orthodoxy upon his betrothal to Maria Komnene though? Would he be even able to be a Catholic emperor after Manuel's death in 1180?
 
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But would Bela really chose to rule Hungary over ruling Byzantium? He could allow his younger brother Geza to rule Hungary as a vassal after Stephan III's death in 1172
 
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