Dual
RIP Karl 1991-2014
19 August, 1071. Roman Emperor Romanos Diogenes, who, over the past three years, had had many successes in battle against the Arabs and Turks on the imperial borders, was on campaign in Armenia. The Seljuks, under Sultan Alp Arslan, had taken an inconsequential fortress-town called Manzikert on their way to Syria, where they were planning to conquer various minor Arab emirates.
Romanos decided to retake the town.
Alp Arslan's forces circled around to retake the city from the Romans. The Romans sallied forth to defeat the Turk army, but the Turks - primarily horse archers - withdrew all day into the mountains in a crescent formation, with the Romans in the centre. At nightfall, the rearguard, under the command of Andronikos Doukas, future father-in-law of Alexios Komenos, a political enemy of the emperor, withdrew his forces from the battle, effectively trapping the bulk of the army, including the emperor and the Varangian Guard, in the centre of the Turkish horde.
The Turks utterly destroyed the Roman army, and even worse, took Diogenes himself captive. In his captivity, Alp Arslan asked Diogenes, "What would you have done, had I been brought before you as a prisoner?" Romanos said that he would have killed Arslan.
Arslan is famously recorded as replying with these words:
"My punishment is far heavier, I forgive you, and set you free."
In his absence, Diogenes was deposed. When he returned to the capital, he was blinded and died from an infection days later.
During the next decade, the Roman Empire crumbled apart as the Turks spilled across Anatolia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the Roman heartland, supplying the population needed for the imperial armies, and crops for the empire. Without its Anatolian power base, the Roman Empire was irreparably crippled. Turks had conquered almost all of Anatolia within only a few years, and although later emperors were able to retake large portions, Rome would never again extend further south than Antioch, further west than Belgrade, further north than Sofia, or further east than Trebizond.
The Turks would go on to conquer all of the middle east except Persia, all of the Maghreb, and all of the Balkans, and would eventually even besiege Vienna. Millions of Christians were held under Muslim dominion for almost nine hundred years because of the treachery of one man - Andronikos Doukas.
Romanos decided to retake the town.
Alp Arslan's forces circled around to retake the city from the Romans. The Romans sallied forth to defeat the Turk army, but the Turks - primarily horse archers - withdrew all day into the mountains in a crescent formation, with the Romans in the centre. At nightfall, the rearguard, under the command of Andronikos Doukas, future father-in-law of Alexios Komenos, a political enemy of the emperor, withdrew his forces from the battle, effectively trapping the bulk of the army, including the emperor and the Varangian Guard, in the centre of the Turkish horde.
The Turks utterly destroyed the Roman army, and even worse, took Diogenes himself captive. In his captivity, Alp Arslan asked Diogenes, "What would you have done, had I been brought before you as a prisoner?" Romanos said that he would have killed Arslan.
Arslan is famously recorded as replying with these words:
"My punishment is far heavier, I forgive you, and set you free."
In his absence, Diogenes was deposed. When he returned to the capital, he was blinded and died from an infection days later.
During the next decade, the Roman Empire crumbled apart as the Turks spilled across Anatolia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the Roman heartland, supplying the population needed for the imperial armies, and crops for the empire. Without its Anatolian power base, the Roman Empire was irreparably crippled. Turks had conquered almost all of Anatolia within only a few years, and although later emperors were able to retake large portions, Rome would never again extend further south than Antioch, further west than Belgrade, further north than Sofia, or further east than Trebizond.
The Turks would go on to conquer all of the middle east except Persia, all of the Maghreb, and all of the Balkans, and would eventually even besiege Vienna. Millions of Christians were held under Muslim dominion for almost nine hundred years because of the treachery of one man - Andronikos Doukas.
