Port · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Attaleia

Attaleia is the empire's harbour on the south coast, the best port between the Aegean and Cyprus, walled on its cliffs above the harbour.

John II's recovery of Sozopolis in 1120 reopened the land road to it, but the Seljuks took Sozopolis back about 1182 and since then it has been cut off by land and lives by the sea. Kilij Arslan II besieged it for a long time after Manuel I's death (in 1181 according to the TDV encyclopaedia) and failed (Choniates). It trades with Cyprus (under Aimery of Lusignan, king since 1197), Syria and Egypt, and the Venetians have traded there free of duty since 1082.

On 1 January 1200 it is imperial; its governor is not named. Choniates says that Aldobrandinus, 'an Italian by birth ... raised according to Roman traditions', governs it in 1206, when he beats off Kaykhusraw I with 200 Latin foot sent from Cyprus; most accounts make his rule begin after 1204 and nothing places him there in 1200.

Who holds it

Title
The emperor's governor of Attaleia
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
not pinned
Confidence
low

No governor is named for 1199-1200. Aldobrandinus, an Italian, is found governing it only in 1206 (Choniates).

Lord in 1200

Alexios III, through a governor whose name is not pinned. The Italian Aldobrandinus is attested there only in 1206.

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III Angelos, through the governor (doux) of the province (thema) and his tax officials.

How things stand that morning

Imperial but isolated: reached by sea; the Pamphylian plain outside is open to the Turkmen who winter there, and the Seljuk towns of the lakes (Burdur, Isparta) lie beyond the Taurus passes. The coast east of Side toward Kalonoros (Alanya) is held by local lords whose allegiance that winter is not pinned (an Armenian, Kir Fard, holds Kalonoros when the Seljuks take it in 1221). To the west the Lycian coast (Myra, Makri) is Byzantine in name, with Turkmen in the highlands behind it (thin).

Threats

  • A Seljuk siege (Kaykhusraw I tries in 1206 and takes the town in March 1207)
  • The loss of the sea lane if Cyprus or the Italians turn hostile

Charter

None in the western sense. A Byzantine town has no charter of liberties: it is governed by the emperor's officers, and its notables (archontes) and bishop deal with them.

Council

No sworn commune or council. The leading townsmen (archontes) and the bishop or metropolitan speak for the town before the governor.

Communities

Greeks; Italian merchants (Venetians and Genoese are named in the TDV encyclopaedia, undated); Muslim merchants (the same, undated); traffic with Latin Cyprus.

Militia

Townsmen man the walls in a siege; the field troops are the governor's and the emperor's.

Walls and castle

Hellenistic and Roman walls with towers and Hadrian's gate, the harbour below the cliffs, Byzantine repairs.

Trade and crafts

The sea road from the Aegean to Cyprus, Syria and Egypt; timber of the Taurus; the produce of the Pamphylian plain where it can be worked.

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. 1206 and 5 March 1207 (later)Kaykhusraw I besieges Attaleia for sixteen days in 1206 and fails; he takes it on 5 March 1207 with the help of Greeks unhappy under the Latin lord, and makes Mubariz al-Din Ertokush its governor (TDV).Depends on: the Seljuk revival under Kaykhusraw I after 1205. Stopped by: a strong imperial or Cypriot relief.

Where the sources disagree

  • Aldobrandinus: the assignment asks whether he held Attaleia that winter. Choniates names him only for 1206; the English Wikipedia and the TDV encyclopaedia (Antalya) both say the town passed to him after the Latin capture of Constantinople (1204). Nothing places him there on 1 January 1200 (confidence medium-high).
  • Kilij Arslan II's siege: about 1180 (English Wikipedia), 1181 (TDV).

Evidence: The sieges of about 1180 and 1206-1207 are well attested; the 1190s are blank.

On the map: The tierra is the walled town and its gardens; whether the governor's writ ran further into the plain that winter is 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.

Sources and studies

  1. 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
  2. Wikipedia: Antalya
  3. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi: Antalya
  4. Wikipedia: Alanya

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