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I've been meaning to get this going for a long while now. I finally managed to track down a copy of the Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus, so now is as good a time as any. This first thread will be as much a rough draft as anything else, but I hope to get the basic idea out there so I can start receiving some feedback. It'll mostly be in strict timeline format for now, but I plan to put some literature to it eventually, too.

Timeline Key:

Black: Happened OTL as well as IATL
Blue: Happened ATL only

Thoughts on the POD: This timeline has one definite point of departure, but it also has a lot of changes in it that cannot necessarily be chalked up to butterflies. My aim was always to bring about a Byzantium that survives in a world that otherwise ends up resembling the present day in the best fashion possible, and the things to which I ascribe Byzantine decline are hard to change with just a single, concrete PoD. The main PoD is relatively simple and has no immediate effects I can draw, but will have an effect several years down the road, when the real change occurs.

As to why it's placed where it is, I think sometime in the reign of John II is the best post-Manzikert time to save Byzantium as a cultural and political entity. John II was, in many ways, the best emperor of the Komnenian period, he lacked the lavishness of his successor and the grand (and ultimately impossible) strategic vision of his predecessor. His campaign goals were always limited and very achievable and he managed to, upon his death, leave an empire arguably more secure than it had been since the Turkish invasion.

1118:
August 15th: Emperor Alexios (Alexius) Komnenos, first of that name, dies in a monestary on the
Mangana. Sometime during the day, his son, co-emperor, and declared successor, Ioannis (John) stole into the monestary and took his father's Imperial Signet ring. With the help of loyal supporters and family members, he pre-empts an attempted coup by his mother and sister, Anna, and is proclaimed sole Emperor by the citizens of Constantinople. His brother, the ceasar Isaakios (Isaac), is a notable supporter.

Anna's husband, Nicephorus Bryennius, the focus of the conspiracy against John, remains loyal and is pardoned, while Anna herself and John's mother are sent to monestaries.

Autumn and Winter: The new Emperor John devotes himself to a reform of the bureaucracy, ensuring those who hold important posts are loyal to him. Importantly, he favors people based on merit, rather than family connections, as Alexius had. One important appointment was his friend, John Axouchos, a Turk who his father had raised with him since they were both boys, to the post of Megas Domestikos, the head of Imperial Armies. Another important change he made was to cut off the trade priveledges of the Venetians his father had franted in the last two decades of the 11th century, claiming they had been disrespectful of Byzantine officials in their colony in Galatia.

1119:
Spring: A Turkish attack into the Theme of Thrace prompts John to plan an assault into the Meander river valley, intending to take it back for the Romans. He, with the assistance of his loyal Grand Domestic, quickly takes the cities of Laodicea, along the Lykos river, and Philadelphia. He and his household briefly return to Constantinople over the Fall and Winter.

Sometime during the summer: The Danishmendid emir, Ghazi, ruler of the area around Cappadocia, captures and sacks the city of Trebizond on the Pontic coast of the Black Sea. He takes the Duke of Trebizond, one Constantine Grabas, captive and demands ransom for his life from the Emperor John. However, the emir's diplomat is set upon on the road by bandits and his party is killed. Subsequently, Constantine is not ransomed and eventually executed by Ghazi. Upon hearing of Constantine's death, John, breaking with his tradition of meritocracy, appoints his loyal brother Isaac to the position of Duke of Trebizond.

(This is, if not entirely obvious to everyone, the main PoD. IOTL, Constantine was ransomed and returned to his position in Trebizond. Later, when the Pontic coast was cut off from the main empire by Turkish capture of Sinope, he raised the flag of revolt and precipitated a general revolt in northern Anatolia against John's rule. Unfortunately, he did so while John was having trouble with the Hungarians and Venetians, so John was forced to deal with one of his enemies so he could concentrate on the others. Now, with a more loyal Duke in Trebizond, he will have a bit more lee-way a few years down the road. Likewise, Isaac, who IOTL would later also revolt against John, now feels he's been given a better lot, so he remains loyal.)

1120:
Spring and Summer: Once the campaign season began, John set out for first Philadelphia, but ultimately Sozopolis on the road to Attalia. Attalia, though a loyal Byzantine territory, is cut off from the rest of Byzantine Anatolia by the the domains of the Carian Turks, centered on Sozopolis. Displaying once more his genius at seige warfare, John manages to take the city with a minimum of casualties and damage to the urban center itself. A few more fortresses on the road to Attalia, such as Hierakokoryphite, are also taken. Now, cut off from the main body of Turkish holdings in Anatolia, the Carians acknowledge John as their nominal soveriegn, although the Carian nobility is allowed to keep its position of power for the time being.

Autumn: While planning to return to Constantinople after his successful campaign, John is informed of a raid on Smyrna by Turks carrying the standard of a Carian noble. John uses this as a causus belli to invade the remaining Carian territory and place it under direct Byzantine suzereignty.

1121:
Spring and Summer.: John, while in Constantinople, hears of a Pecheneg raid across the Danube frontier. Suspending plans for another campaign into Anatolia, he immediately heads into Bulgaria and the city of Berrhoia.

Winter: While there, he begins negotiations with some Pecheneg chieftains, who subsequently switched to fight on the side of the Romans.

1122:
Spring: A devestating battle is fought in which the Pechenegs are beaten back. The remaining Pechenegs circle up their wagons into a fortress in which they also hide their women and children. When asked by the loyal Pechenegs to spare their bretheren, John turns on them and has them captured and either enlisted in the Roman army or sold into slavery. The fortress of wagons is then reduced and the disloyal Pechenegs are given the same treatment. The Pechenegs cease to be a bother to the Romans ever again.

Summer: The Venetian Doge, Domenico Michele, stops on the island of Corcyra on the Ionian coast on his way to the Levantine Crusader states. His attempts to sack the main citadel on the island are repulsed and he eventually leaves. Worried about this Venetian slight, John begins adding to the already sizable navy his father had left to him. The resources of the state are strained, however, so he must cut back on army spending in order to continue funding the navy.

(This is, if anything, a second PoD. One of the major things which weakened Byzantium was its reliance on the Italian maritime states for their commercial economy. Since these merchants were usually exempt from taxation, it weakened the state finances. IOTL, the commercial priveleges which John suspended at the beginning of his reign were reinstated by the end of the 1120's because of raids on various islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas by the Venetian doge.)

1123-1124:
John spends the next few years repairing the finances of the Empire, only making the occasional seasonal incursion into Turkish Asia Minor. No major fortresses or cities are captured during this time, although the rebuilding of the Byzantine navy continues apace.

1125:
Spring and Summer: After his (unsuccessful) expedition to the Levant, Doge Michele returns to the Aegean to punish the Romans. He raids Rhodes and a few other islands. John keeps his navy in reserve, as it's still slightly smaller than that of the Venetians. Instead, he contacts the Pisans, one of the two main rivals of the Venetians. He doesn't promise them any trade concessions, so in the end they only agree to send a small force to assist him.

Winter: After spending the whole Summer raiding around the Aegean, Doge Michele stops to winter on the Ionian island of Chyos. In a surprise attack, a Byzantine force of 70 galleys and a Pisan force of 20 galleys corner the Venetian fleet of about 100 galleys in harbor and utterly destroy them, capturing dozens of ships. The Doge is captured and brought back to Constantinople in chains. Trade concessions for the Pisans and a large amount of money and ships are wringed out of him.

Meanwhile, a new Doge is elected in Venice and a second, smaller fleet is sent to the Aegean. By the time Doge Michele returns to Venice, his 'treaty' with the Emperor has been repudiated and he himself is left destitute and poor, all his property having been confiscated by the Venetian state to pay for the rebuilding of the navy.

1126:
Spring: The second Venetian fleet arrives at the mouth of the sea of Marmara and begins preparations to raid Chalcedon. While these preparations are on-going, the Venetian fleet is once more ambushed by the Byzantine navy, which is now much larger than that of Venice, and almost entirely sunk or captured.

Summer: Back and forth negotiations between Venice and Constantinople eventually settle on a treaty of peace. The trade agreement that Michele had made with the Pisans is upheld, and the Venetians agree to pay for and build
in the Venetian Arsenal replacements for Roman ships lost in the two sea battles against Venice. In return, Venice is allowed to retain its colony in Galatia across the Golden Horn from Constantinople.

Also, at this time, a blinded brother, Almos, of the Hungarian king, Stephen, arrives in Constantinople. John's wife, Irene, also the sister of the Hungarian kind, begs her husband to allow Almos to stay. Wary of angering the Hungarian king, considering the straits the Roman army is on account of the favor John has shown to the navy in recent years, he sends a trusted diplomat to inform
Stephen of the situation. Upon arriving back in Constantinople, the diplomat informs John that Stephen has decided to trust that John will not attempt to use Almos to usurp the Hungarian throne, and that Almos can stay with their sister Irene in Constantinople.

1127:
Spring and Summer: Facing, for the first time in several years, peace in all other fronts, John returns to Anatolia. Claiming the Sultan of Iconium had violated a previous agreement by allowing raiding into the Thrakian Theme, John leads an army form Prusa and quickly captures the cities of Dorylaeum, Cotyaeum, and Acroenus. The Sultan finally manages to put together a force of 20,000 to oppose John, and the two meet outside the walls of Polybotus. John's army of 15,000 makes a good accounting of itself, but is eventually forced to withdraw their seige. They make way, in good order, back to Acroenus. John calls upon his friend and Grand Domestic, John Axochos, to bring forward reserves from the capital.

Meanwhile, the Sel'juk Sultan arrives at Acroenus and lays seige to the city. It is well-stocked so John decides to wait until John Axochos arrives.

Winter: John Axochos' army arrives in the vicinity of Acroenus, and he sends outriders to attempt to kill any Turkish scouts in the area. However, he is unsuccessful and the Sultan is informed of his presence. Before he can make use of this information, however, John's army sweeps down out of the surrounding moountains. His army is roughly equal to that of Sultan Mesud's, but the Turkish line is rolled up when the Emperor John brings his forces out from the city and assaults the Turkish flank. The battle is a complete victory and Mesud is captured.

Eventually, the two negotiate a treaty where all Byzantine gains in the war are recognized and Mesud is allowed to retain the rest of his domain. A prisoner transfer occurs and John returns to Constantinople, victorious.

There we go, first installment. I'll have a map up later tonight or tomorrow. Not much has actually changed from OTL territory wise except for the Carian enclave not being there and the Sultan of Iconium losing the northern half of his domain, but it's still worth making a map for because, well, it's always worth making a map. Maps rule :p
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