Part XXXIX: The First Nubian War II
Alexios spent a few months training additional troops and ordering more men be shipped into Egypt for his coming campaigns. Along with these men the Emperor ordered large amounts of treasure be shipped into the region so he could pay his men. The new soldiers were largely either Daylamite or Turkish mercenaries hired from Persia or the steppes beyond. With hard currency increasingly rare in Persia as the Empire entered the final years before its collapse soldiers began to forgo service to the Shah and instead sought employment inside the Roman army.
This was a process that had been ongoing for a few decades at this point, and we covered some of the consequences when talking about the changes the Roman army begun in the 800s. We’ll need to remember the mercenaries Alexios utilized during the war however, as both the Daylamites and the Turks will be important in the coming years. In particular a man that we will want to remember is Servet Yalig, the Golden Bow. He arrived as the leader of a group of one hundred Turkic horsemen, and would prove to be a charismatic and skilled military leader.
For now however he was just another adventurer looking for wealth in the Roman army, and if he was lucky a Roman command and title granted by the Emperor. Alexios departed Babylon in February 900, marching for Memphis, with the aim of defeating the Markurians decisively and retaking the city. Unbeknownst to him Simeon was also on the move, marching north into Aegyptus toward the town of Cleopatris. But the armies were moving along opposite sides of the Nile, and passed one another with neither ever realizing it. Alexios crossed the Nile just north of Memphis, and surrounded the city.
Rather than trying to hold out the Nubian soldiers inside took a bribe and opened the gates before retreating south back toward their homeland. Realizing he had now caught the Markurian king Alexios whirled his army north and raced after them, but ran his army ragged in the chase. When the Emperor caught up to Simeon near Cleopatris the Markurian king was ready to give another battle. Once again the armies lined up with the Nile on one flank, though this time it was the Romans who had the river on their left. The Turkic cavalry was lined up in front of the Roman infantry, and Arab cavalry was arrayed on the right. The Markurians themselves now had a strong Arab cavalry contingent as well, but more importantly had a force of Arab camelry. These camels were concealed between the Arab horsemen, whose mounts had been trained to tolerate the smell of camels. When battle was joined the Turks advanced first, letting fly into the Nubian ranks with arrows, while the Roman infantry and cavalry advanced behind them.
The Markurians advanced as well, forcing the Turks to withdraw through gaps in the Roman line to avoid being trapped. The nomads then circled around the Roman rear to join the Arab cavalry. The two infantry forces met, and were soon joined by a cavalry battle. As the cavalry fought however the camelry made itself known, and the Roman horse panicked at the unfamiliar animals. The Turks were forced to withdraw their horsemen from the fray, but lost a large number of soldiers in the process. The Arabs were more fully engaged and when they lost control of their mounts were often unable to flee. Half of the Roman horse was dead by the time the battle of was, and the rest had fled or been forced to retreat.
Their flank now open the Roman infantry tried to turn and fight the Markurian cavalry, but were hit too quickly.
Alexios’s army disintegrated under the attack, fleeing toward Cleopatris’s walls or back toward their fortified camp. The Emperor tried to rally his men, but failed and ran back to the camp as well. By all rights the war should have ended here, with the Emperor’s camp overrun, but Simeon instead divided his army in two. One would advance to Cleopatris and take the city while panic gripped it from the defeat, while the other half would try to capture the Emperor. Critically Simeon personally led the siege of the city rather than the camp.
Cleopatris fell rapidly, with the remnant of the Roman army inside deciding to withdraw further north, back to Babylon, rather than try and hold out with no hope of reinforcement. In the meantime Simeon’s second force settled into a siege of the camp, and the Emperor tried to offer terms to the commander outside. But Gregorios, Simeon’s own nephew, and the commander of this force, was having none of it. He wanted the glory capturing an Emperor would bring, and he was confident of victory.
After three days however something unexpected happened. During the night a Turkic force led by Yalig that had rallied up the Nile snuck into the area and set upon the Markurian siege lines. Seeing what was happening Alexios roused his men and they sallied as well, inflicting a major defeat on Gregorios’s force. The Markurians fled, and Alexios took the time to withdraw.
By the skin of his teeth Alexios had escaped the noose, but it was at a heavy price.
Of the army he had gathered on half had been killed, captured, or deserted when the battle was over. This amounted to about eight thousand men, but it did kill Alexios’s plans for an offensive for the forseeable future. Dejected the Emperor returned north to Babylon in late March and settled in to plan his next move.
The first thing the Emperor did however was richly reward Yalig for the daring rescue. The man was given a title as Imperial swordbearer, a salary, and a position as a general in the Imperial army. Both him and his men were also given two years pay as a bonus, and were granted gifts as well. Alexios wanted to make it clear that he rewarded loyalty handsomely.
Yalig for his part was perfectly happy to accept the Emperor’s pay, and use it to hire more of his own countrymen to be his direct subordinates, building a network of powerful allies around himself from many different Turkic tribes.
When the Emperor departed Babylon again he was thoroughly chastened however. He had now rushed into multiple battles, and had been repeatedly defeated. While the defeat at Cleopatris had been decisive it was not ruinous. Alexios still had an army, and he still had his treasury intact. Paying his men up front Alexios marched south once again. Simeon had again marched into Aegyptus and was taking control of towns and farms along the Nile, but avoiding the walled cities. He did not want to be trapped up against one of those should the Emperor once again chase him down.
Alexios however had no intention of doing any such thing. Instead he aimed further south, deciding to once again cut the Markurian king off from his route home. By blocking the flow of money and reinforcements north Alexios hoped to make Simeon’s position untenable. When Alexios once again took Memphis in April he set about heavily fortifying the city, and had reinforcements shipped in from Arabia to hold it for him. Then the Emperor proceeded to bring a fleet down the Nile from Clysma and based them in the old Egyptian capital. From there this fleet would patrol down the Nile, bringing word of reinforcements from the south and blocking any ships sent north as well. In doing so Alexios was sure he would render the war unwinnable for Simeon, but the crafty Nubian king had a solution already in mind. As the new year began Alexios swept south, retaking Roman territory in the south and confining Simeon to the north, where he would hopefully starve.
By stripping the Red Sea of Roman ships however, Alexios had made a critical error. Simeon raced along the Nile and captured the small but prosperous town of Bubastis, the location of the Pharos Canal. From there he marched down the Pharos, and besieged Clymsa itself. The old Roman fortress was now heavily weakened, and had only a very light garrison. While the city tried to hold out by sea they were set upon by Arab pirates, and after a week the Markurians managed to sneak soldiers over the walls, and opened the gates. Clymsa was sacked and its residents scattered from the city. The Markurian king set himself up in the city, and sent orders that ships be sailed north through the Red Sea to reinforce his army.
By the time Alexios got word of what was happening another year was over.
In 902 then Alexios returned to northern Egypt and began a move to retake Bubastis, but Simeon’s army appeared on the horizon. The Emperor prudently withdrew across the Nile, and began shadowing the Markurian king. As Alexios moved he ensured that riders went ahead and pulled all boats to his side of the river, trapping the Nubians on the far side. Furthermore, any bridges in place were burned or collapsed into the river. In this way another year passed.
The stalemate that would define the First Nubian War was now in place. Alexios did not have the confidence to mount another attack, but as more Roman ships arrived his iron grip on the Nile ensured it was impossible for Simeon to get close enough to trap the Emperor for battle. By 905 the Romans had deployed nearly a thousand ships along the Nile, and had nearly fifty thousand men in place in the province. But the fleet was extremely expensive to maintain, many times the cost of the army the Emperor was keeping in place. Furthermore, the Emperor funded rebuilding of Egypt’s fortifications, first in the north and then going further south.
Dozens of small towns and cities were now given stone walls, and garrisons which could hold out long enough for the Emperor to arrive. The cost of the war was as you might imagine enormous. Nearly four million nomismata were spent in 904 alone, dipping deep into Imperial reserves and forcing the government back in Constantinople to borrow heavily from the Church, Jewish lenders, both Gothic and Frankish nobles. The Frankish loans in particular would be a major problem in the future.
Alexios meanwhile began to leave his infantry behind in these new defenses, maintaining only a cavalry force of about twelve thousand with him. On the occasions that Simeon crossed the Nile from his major fortresses along the Pharos and in Eastern Egypt the Emperor shadowed him, but avoided battle. Alexios’s aim was twofold. First, he could force Simeon to keep his army together, increasing the amount of supplies Simeon was forced to gather from any given point and thus increase the likelihood that portions of the army could not be fed. Alternatively he would force any split in the Markurian army to be between large divisions, so that if Alexios did force battle with an individual army he would still outnumber them but any decisive victory would be a major blow.
Simeon chose to keep his army together. In his estimation he was a better general than Alexios, a not incorrect view, and that if his army was intact he could eventually force the Emperor to give battle, and another defeat like Cleopatris would force the Romans to terms. But the war was being fought in Egypt, the breadbasket of the Empire. Simeon therefore had little difficulty keeping his army fed as the years passed.
The war dragged on for years, with numerous skirmishes taking place but neither side giving a pitched battle. In 910 however Alexios was confident enough in his position to try to take a battle to Simeon once again. Crossing to the Eastern side of the Nile Alexios had a bridge built behind his army, wide enough for a relatively easy crossing, and rigged to collapse should it be necessary. He brought together his cavalry detachments and ten thousand infantry and laid siege to Bubastis. Simeon at Clysma got word of the Imperial attack and marched down to give battle. The two forces lined up, the Imperial army had its back to the bridge across the Nile, while Simeon set up his forces divided in two. Three quarters of his army were arrayed directly in front of the Romans, while the final fourth were hidden along the riverbank where they had hidden themselves the night before. Simeon hoped to use these troops to cut off the Imperial retreat by either capturing the bridge themselves or setting it alight.
Alexios had no idea this force was present, but Yalig was suspicious, and so convinced the Emperor to hold four thousand Turks in reserve. Yalig commanded these men personally, and while publically his orders were to wait until the Emperor ordered him the Turk general had a very different plan.
As always the Roman horse archers, apart from Yalig’s contingent, attacked first, launching showers of arrows into Simeon’s army. The Markurians maintained discipline against the attack, and began moving forward. The Imperial army began moving forward as well, and the horse archers withdrew to join the forces on the flanks. Once again Simeon’s camelry assaulted the Roman cavalry, but the Romans held firm, their animals now familiarized with camels.
But as the battle continued the five thousand Markurians hidden along the river revealed themselves and charged for the bridge. Panic began to spread in the Roman ranks as men saw this, and infantry began to run, trying to avoid being cut off. The Emperor rode forward to rally them, but he failed. It was now however that Yalig’s men charged the emerging soldiers, loosing arrows into their ranks, and then drawing cavalry swords and falling on the disorganized force.
Despite their attack the Imperial route continued, with only the Turks once again taking the field to hold off the Markurian attack.
The nomads fought a rearguard action as the Romans set the bridge alight, until finally Yalig led the remaining Turks across the bridge, barely making it across before it collapsed into the river. The Markurians had once again won the day, but this time the casualty numbers were significantly different. Six thousand Markurians were dead, including virtually all of Simeon’s ambush force, to only about two thousand Romans.
Alexios claimed the battle as a victory despite his own army’s retreat, and he prepared once again to take the fight to Simeon. Yalig however had a different idea. Laying out his plan the Turk convinced the Emperor to leave a small force behind to fake a full sized camp on the Western side of the Nile, while secretly leading a daring march over the desert to the coast, to Clysma which now had to be virtually emptied of troops. If the city could be retaken the Romans would be able to cut Simeon’s supply off, and the war would then basically win itself.
Alexios allowed himself to be convinced, and began laying plans. Three days later the Roman Emperor parted under the cover of darkness, leaving only Yalig behind with four thousand Turks, while leading five thousand of his own cavalry out. He also sent messengers to Arabia, promising the king of the Hejaz significant treasure if the Arab king would send ships and men to meet the Emperor. The king agreed and when Alexios arrived at Clysma he was reinforced by three thousand Arabs and sixty ships.
The garrison of Clysma was totally unprepared, and in the initial assault Alexios’s men gained the walls while the Arab fleet took the port. The Markurian garrison was driven into the citadel, and refused the Emperor’s demands for surrender. Irritated at the refusal Alexios set about his contingency plan, he dammed the canal. Simeon had only been able to operate this far from home because of his supply lines at sea, by cutting the canal Alexios believed he could permanently end any threat to northern Egypt. It would be a major economic blow, but not as great as the loss of Egypt.
Seeing the Emperor’s intention the garrison gave up. They were loyal to Simeon while he could pay them, but if the Emperor could permanently sever the Nubian treasury from the army then the cash was about to run out. The Emperor accepted their surrender, and then accepted their oaths of fealty and sent the men north to the Danube, for reasons we will be discussing later.
For now however the Emperor turned his eyes West, where Simeon was just becoming aware that the noose was closing.
Alexios drove West along the canal, destroying the locks along the way, reaching Bubastis once again in 912. When he did however, he found the job had been done for him. Near the end of 911 Simeon had learned something was happening in the East, and so he had taken his army and begun marching East. Yalig had seen this, and decided to attack. He led his Turks across the Nile and began harassing the Markurian march.
The Battle of the Pharos was fought on March 26, 912 as four thousand Turks met the twelve thousand Markurians. Relieved of their need to support the Imperial infantry Yalig set his men to attacking with their bows along the Markurian lines, and after about an hour of fighting his men broke and ran. Three Markurians charged forward, aiming to catch the horse archers and destroy them. But to the horror of Simeon the Turks rallied, and fell upon the three thousand unsupported and out of formation men, slaughtering them all. A quarter of his remaining army was now dead, for a pittance of Turks.
The Turks did the same maneuver at other points of the line twice more, and each time they were pursued. Simeon sent warnings along to his officers, but they did not arrive in time. Both further incidents were smaller, but still left five thousand Markurians dead on the field. The casualties were too much, and Simeon’s army broke. The Turks pursued them without hesitation, and Simeon himself was captured by Yalig’s guard.
When the sun set eight thousand Markurians were dead, three thousand captured, and the rest were scattered. The war was over. Or at least it should have been. But even as Yalig had Simeon’s head cut off and sent along to Alexios as a trophy the Emperor wasn’t finished the Markurians. He had just spent well over a decade fighting this war, and the southerners had to pay. Next time we will conclude the First Nubian War, as Alexios turned his attention south, readying himself and his army to remind the Nubians why they did not provoke the giant to their north.