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The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars; the owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab

Okay, by 1090 things were starting to look better for the Byzantines; they'd defeated the Normans, the Crusade was about to happen, and so forth. But there was another problem.

Caka Bey, referred to in Greek sources as Tzachas, is notable for building the first fleet in Seljuq history. Built by Christian shipwrights, but still. Capturing Lesbos, Samos, and Rhodes, from his capital in Smyrna he was, understandably, a concern Byzantines. He died in 1095, either at the hands of the Seljuq Sultan Kilij Arslan or at the hands of the Byzantines at the city of Abydos.

Okay, he has an interesting past, which is worth going into. He was captured by a Byzantine general in the reign of Nicephorus III, who released him with gifts on the hope that he'd be a Byzantine ally. Which he was, spending time in Constantinople, until Alexius I came to the throne. Declaring himself emperor, he built a fleet and the rest was history.

Okay. So, what to do with him?

Let's say Robert of Guiscard doesn't die in 1084. He doesn't take Constantinople, but he weakens Alexius's position; and when the Pechenegs ravage his army a few years later, he's assassinated.

It's a short step from there for the Turkish Caesar to step across the straits...
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