| Alexius I Of Trebizond |
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FORMATION The month before Constantinople fell in 1204 , Alexius occupied Trebizond with the aid of a Georgian contingent provided by his aunt, Queen Tamar Of Georgia . The new ruler was only 22. The Comnenus family was popular on the Black Sea coast, from which it had come originally, and where it had left roots. In 1182 his grandfather Andronikos had a stronghold at Oinaion between Trebizond and Sinope . Those three places all declared for Alexius, and while he remained cautiously in the neighbourhood of Trebizond, his brother Caesar David , aided by the Georgians and local mercenaries, made himself master of Pontus and Paphlagonia , including Kastamonu , said to be the ancestral castle of the Comneni. David conquered as far west as Heracleia Pontica well on the way to Constantinople . Alexius took the titles of Grand Comnenus ('Megas Komnenos') and Emperor. The new title and the Trapezuntine dynasty would last 257 years — the longest, as Bessarion wrote in Byzantine history. From Heracleia, the new state extended east to Trebizond itself and then to Soterioupolis on the Georgian frontier. Alexius made parts of the Crimea tributary to Trebizond. Cherson , Kerch and their hinterlands were governed as an overseas province called Perateia ('beyond the sea'). The loss of Sinope in 1214 isolated Trebizond from direct contact (and further territorial encroachment) by the Empire Of Nicea . Trapezuntine foreign policy now focussed on relations with Georgia, the Sultanate Of Iconium , the Italian maritime cities (especially The Genoese , and the small Emirate s of Erzerum and Erzincan . The Comneni had dangerous. Besides the Empire Of Nicea established by Theodore I Lascaris , Amisus , under the rule of Sabbas Asidenus, formed an enclave in their territory and interrupted access to the Black Sea. Mad Theodore Macaphes held Philadelphia. Manuel Maurozomes made himself secure on the Maeander by giving his daughter in marriage to Kai Khusrau I , the Seljuk Sultan Of Iconium who was lord of the greater part of Asia Minor . The distant Armenia n kingdom in Cilicia and the Armenian colony in the Troad were not threats. Alexius was allied to Georgia. The treaty by which the Latin Conquerors Of Constantinople had partitioned the empire, assigned much of the new Trapezuntine state - Paphlagonia, Oinaion, Amisus, and Sinope to the Latin Emperor. SELJUK AND NICAEAN WARS Theodore I Lascaris soon swept away Mad Theodore and Sabbas, while the Latins, after an attempt to conquer some of their allotted territory, found themselves occupied in Europe with the Bulgarians. With the Latins went the Armenians of the Troad. Only Lascaris, who had himself crowned Emperor in 1206 , and the Seljuks remained to menace the new empire. Kai Khosrau I , the new Sultan Of Iconium , besieged Trebizond in 1205 or 1206. David provoked Lascaris by sending his young general Synadenos to occupy Nicomedia , in the Niceaean Empire. Synadenos was no match for the abler Lascaris, who led his troops through a difficult pass, setting an example to his soldiers by wielding an axe against the trees that obstructed his path of victory. Synadenos was taken prisoner. David was forced to recognise Herakleia as the westward limit of the Trapezuntine Empire, and even thence Laskaris threatened to make him recede still further eastward. David, thus hard pressed by his Greek adversary, invoked the aid of the Latins; Laskaris occupied the frontier district of Plousias, famous for its archers and its warlike spirit, and would have taken Herakleia also, had not the Latins under Thierri de Loos again seized Nicomedia. But the Latins soon retired, to face another Bulgarian invasion of Thrace, rewarded by David for their temporary aid by shiploads of corn and hams. David asked the Latin Emperor of Constantinople to include him as his subject in his treaties and correspondence with Laskaris, and to treat his land as Latin territory. David preferred a nominal Latin suzerainty to annexation by the Nicene emperor. Having thus secured his position, he crossed the Sangarios with a body of about 300 Frankish auxiliaries, ravaged the villages subject to Laskaris, and took hostages from Plousias. David withdrew, but the Franks, incautiously advancing into the hilly country, were suddenly surprised by Andronikos Gidos, a general of Laskaris, in the Rough Passes of Nicomedia, and scarcely a man of them was left to tell the tale. TERRITORY AND ECONOMY In 1214 the new Seljuk Sultan , Kay Ka'us I captured Sinope, killed David, and compelled Alexius to render tribute and military service. The loss of Sinope pushed the western frontier of Trebizond, which had been at Herecleia few years earlier, and then Cape Kerembi , back to the Iris and Thermodon Rivers the modern and only 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the capital. The empire ran east 170 kilometres to the Georgian frontier at Soteroupolis . The capital was considered impregnable, for art had supplemented nature in its defence. It possessed a mild climate, a fruitful soil in which flourished the olive and the vine, an excellent supply of water, and abundant wood. Joannes Eugenikos in his later panegyric, called it 'the apple of the eye of all Asia', and it was believed by its inhabitants to enjoy the special protection of St Eugenios Of Trebizond . FAMILY AND SUCCESSION Alexius married Theodora Axuchina, a Trapezuntine noblewoman and left two sons, later John I and Manuel I and a daughter, the wife of Andronicus . Alexius died at forty on 1 February 1222 after a reign of eighteen years. His eldest son John was passed over in favour of his son-in-law, Andronicus I . |
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