Alexius I Comnenus, Grand Comnenus and Emperor of Trebizond, was a son of Manuel and grandson of the Emperor Andronicus I, who was dethroned and killed in 1185. Manuel, the emperor's eldest son was blinded so brutally that he died, leaving two children, the Caesars Alexius and David. Their mother Rusudan of Georgia fled either to Georgia or to the southern coast of the Black Sea. Introduction The Empire of Trebizond and other states carved from the Byzantine Empire, as they were in 1265 (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911) The Empire of Trebizond was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire founded in 1204 immediately before the fall of Constantinople. ... Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine emperor, son of prince Isaac Comnenus, and grandson of Alexius I Comnenus, was born about the beginning of the 12th century. ... Events April 25 - Genpei War - Sea Battle of Dan-no-ura leads to Minamoto victory in Japan Templars settle in London and begin the building of New Temple Church End of the Heian Period and beginning of the Kamakura period in Japan. ... The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy. ... Satellite view of the Black Sea, taken by NASA MODIS Cities of the Black Sea The Black Sea (known as the Euxine Sea in the antiquity) is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. ...

Formation

The month before Constantinople fell in 1204, Alexius occupied Trebizond with the aid of a Georgian contingent provided by his mother's sister, Queen Tamar of Georgia. Events February - Byzantine emperor Alexius IV is overthrown in a revolution, and Alexius V is proclaimed emperor. ... Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey. ... Tamar Bagrationi was Queen of the kingdom of Georgia from 1184-1213. ...

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. Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus The Comnenus family was an important family in the history of the Byzantine Empire. ... Satellite view of the Black Sea, taken by NASA MODIS Cities of the Black Sea The Black Sea (known as the Euxine Sea in the antiquity) is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. ... Sinope was an ancient city on the Black Sea, in the region of Galatia, modern-day Sinop, Turkey. ... The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy. ... For Pontus the Greek god, see Pontus (mythology) Pontus was a name applied in ancient times to extensive tracts of country in the northeast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the Main), by the Greeks. ... Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the northern central Black Sea coast of Anatolia, situated between Bithynia and Pontus, separated from Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. ... Kastamonu is the capitol district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. ... Karadeniz Eregli (Ereğli) is a city in Zonguldak, Turkey. ... Map of 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 (esepically the Genoese, and the small emirates of Erzerum and Erzincan. Johannes Bessarion, or Basilius (c. ... The Crimea (officially Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian transliteration: Avtonomna Respublika Krym, Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, pronounced cry-MEE-ah in English) is a peninsula and an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. ... Tauric Chersonesos, Greek Χερσονασος (Chersones, Khersones, Korsun, Russian: Херсонес) was the Greek settlement founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimean (Taurian) Peninsula. ... Kerch (in Russian Керчь; in Ukrainian Керч) is a city ( 2001 pop 157,000) on the Kerch Peninsula of eastern Crimea, an important industrial, transportation and tourist centre of Ukraine. ... The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the states founded by refugees from the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople was conquered during the Fourth Crusade. ... The Republic of Genoa, in full the Most Serene Republic of Genoa (known as the Ligurian Republic from 1798 to 1805) was an independent state in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast from ca. ... Generally speaking, an emirate (Arabic imarah, plural imarat) is a territory that is administered by an emir, although in Arabic the term can be generalized to mean any province of a country that is administered by a member of the ruling class. ... Erzurum (or Erzerum, Arzen in antiquity, Karin in ancient Armenian, Theodosiupolis or Theodosiopolis during Byzantine rule) is one of the Provinces of Turkey, in the Eastern Anatolia Region, to the east of the country. ... Erzincan is a small city in the East Anatolian region of Turkey. ...

The Comneni had dangerous neighbours and even rivals who were fellow Byzantines. Besides the other Empire of Nicea established by Theodore I Lascaris, Amisus, under the rule of Sabbas, formed an enclave in their territory and interrupted its access to the Black Sea. Mad Theodore Mangkaphes held Philadelphia. Mavrozomes 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 Armenian 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. The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the states founded by refugees from the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople was conquered during the Fourth Crusade. ... Theodore Lascaris (d. ... Samsun is a city in northern Turkey, on the coast of the Black Sea, with a population of 396,900 as of 2004. ... For the dynasty and empire founded by Seljuk, see Seljuk Turks. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey. ... Map of the Troas The Troas (Troad) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of Anatolia, bounded by the Hellespont to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms Mount Ida. ... The knights of the Fourth Crusade set up a Crusader kingdom known as the Latin Empire or Romania based on Constantinople after sacking the city in 1204. ...

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. Theodore Lascaris (d. ... Events Temujin is proclaimed Genghis Khan of the Mongol people, founding the Mongol Empire Qutb ud-Din proclaims the Mameluk dynasty in India, the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. ...

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. Nicomedes I of Bithynia founded the city of Nicomedia (modern Ismid), at the head of the Gulf of Astacus (which opens on the Propontis), in 264 BC The city has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. ...

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. Eastward the Empire stretched 170 kilometres to the Georgian frontier at Soteroupolis. Events Simon Apulia becomes Bishop of Exeter. ... The Sultanate of Rûm was a Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia from 1077 to 1307. ... A sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic monarch ruling under the terms of shariah. ...

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,[6] 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.

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. Manuel I, (died 1263), emperor of Trebizond, surnamed the Great Captain, was the second son of Alexius I, first emperor of Trebizond, and ruled from 1228 to 1263. ...

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. Centuries: 12th century - 13th century - 14th century Decades: 1170s 1180s 1190s 1200s 1210s - 1220s - 1230s 1240s 1250s 1260s 1270s Years: 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 See also: 1222 state leaders Events Foundation of the University of Padua Completion of the Cistercian convent in Alcobaca...

The Empire of Trebizond and other states carved from the Byzantine Empire, as they were in 1265 (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911) The Empire of Trebizond was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire founded in 1204 after the Fourth Crusade. ...