Serres and Strymon

Who he is

Title

Governor of the district of Serres and the Strymon (doux or kephale)

Confidence

low

No holder found for these years.

Overlord

Alexios III

What it holds

• Serres, its acropolis and walls
• the lower Strymon and the lake plain (Achinos) with Zichna
• Drama and its plain; Philippi
• Christoupolis (Kavala) and its harbour on the coast road
• Melnik and the middle Struma (presumed; see Melnik)

How it was acquired

Office in the emperor's gift.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: Chrysos across the hills to the west (at peace); the Bulgarian frontier up the Struma; Ivanko's Rhodope domain to the north-east (in revolt); Thrace beyond the Nestos (con).

How things stand that morning

Byzantine; no fighting reported that winter. The upper Struma is the edge of Kaloyan's reach.

Wealth

The grain plain of Serres and Drama, the Strymon fisheries, the coast road (Via Egnatia) through Christoupolis.

Military

Serres's acropolis; the walls of Christoupolis and Drama; Melnik's castle. No numbers.

Threats

• Bulgarian raids down the Struma, as in 1195-1196
• Ivanko's war in the Rhodopes

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200The emperor's campaign against Ivanko (spring 1200) is fought to the north-east; this district supplies the roads behind it.Depends on: The campaign going ahead. Stopped by: A peace with Ivanko.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Choniates for the raids of 1195-1196; no governor named; the attachment of Drama and Christoupolis to Serres is an assumption from geography.

On the map: District edges follow modern units; the boundary with Thessalonica's district and the northern edge toward Bulgaria are not pinned.

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.