Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Bithynia

The Bithynian heartland between the Gulf of Kios and the Sangarios: Nicaea on its lake (Nicaea), Prousa under Mount Olympus (Prousa), Kios on the gulf, and on the Sangarios the camp of Malagina, the army's old assembly point and the site of the imperial horse farms, made a province of its own under the Komnenoi.

The road forts of the Sangarios valley and the edge of the plateau (Leukai at Osmaneli, Belokome at Bilecik, Angelokoma at Inegol) face the Dorylaion plateau, which belongs to the Seljuks and their Turkmen. The Venetian chrysobull of 1198 also lists a province of Mesothynia, which the partition of 1204 omits. Both Nicaea and Prousa rose against Andronikos I in 1184; since then the region has been quiet, and Alexios III visited Nicaea and Prousa in the 1190s (Choniates).

Governors are not named for 1 January 1200. The great families the assignment asks about have no attested estates here or elsewhere in Byzantine Asia that winter: the Laskarids (Theodore Laskaris, the emperor's son-in-law, Theodore Laskaris) are of obscure origin and no lands of theirs are recorded before 1204; the Kontostephanoi serve as governors of Crete (Stephen in 1193, Nikephoros in 1197) and at court; the Gabrades are found in Seljuk service, not in the Pontus. Do not back-project the Laskarid state of Nicaea (1205-1208).

Who he is

Title
The emperor's governors of Nicaea and Prousa and of the provinces of Mesothynia (1198) and Malagina (1198, 1204)
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
not pinned
Confidence
low

No governor is named for 1199-1200.

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III Angelos (Byzantium).

What it holds

  • Nicaea (Nicaea) with the lake basin
  • Prousa (Prousa) and the plain below Olympus; the monasteries of the Bithynian Olympus
  • Kios (Kios) on its gulf
  • Malagina, the army camp and imperial stud farms on the Sangarios (exact site not pinned, near Pamukova)
  • The Sangarios and plateau-edge forts: Leukai (Osmaneli), Belokome (Bilecik), Angelokoma (Inegol)

How it was acquired

Imperial since 1097.

Allies and rivals

Faces the Seljuk and Turkmen plateau (Dorylaion, Kotyaion).

How things stand that morning

Imperial and quiet. The frontier runs along the edge of the plateau east of Bilecik and Inegol: Dorylaion (Eskisehir) and Kotyaion (Kutahya) are Turkish (rum).

Wealth

Grain, vines and fruit of the lake basin and the Prousa plain; horse breeding at Malagina; the military road.

Military

City walls at Nicaea and Prousa; road forts; the Malagina stud and camp. No figures.

Threats

  • Turkmen raids from the plateau (none dated for 1199)

Places of note

  • Leukai (Osmaneli): Fort on the Sangarios.
  • Belokome (Bilecik): Fort at the edge of the plateau, Byzantine until about 1299.
  • Angelokoma (Inegol): Fort and town below the Domanic hills.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Province names from 1198 and 1204; no governor or event of 1199-1200.

On the map: Province bounds reconstructed; the plateau edge was a frontier zone.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
  • History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
  • The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia: Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae (with the Asian provinces of 1198 and 1204)
  2. Niketas Choniates, History, trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium (Detroit 1984): the reigns of Isaac II and Alexios III, read through the archive.org search of the scan

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.