Dyrrachion

Who holds it

Name

The emperor, through the doux (name not pinned) and the town notables

Title

Imperial city; seat of the doux of Dyrrachion

Since

Imperial again since spring 1186

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

The emperor Alexios III through his governor (doux) of Dyrrachion, whose name that winter is not recorded (an unnamed doux appears in 1203); the town's notables (archontes) under him.

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III Angelos.

Allies and rivals

Its trade looks to Venice and Apulia. Its dangers are a new landing from Sicily (the Sicilian crown and the Staufen keep the Norman claim), the Serbs of Zeta to the north, and later Venice itself.

How things stand that morning

Byzantine: the doux and the archontes hold the city for Alexios III; Venetians trade under the privilege of November 1198. No fighting is recorded here that winter.

Charter

No town charter. The Venetian privileges (chrysobull of 1082, confirmed by later emperors and last by Alexios III in November 1198) apply here; by the 1082 grant as usually summarized Venice holds the church of St Andrew in Dyrrachion with its revenues (general knowledge, not re-checked in this run).

Council

The town notables (archontes) under the doux: the same body that surrenders the city to Venice in 1205. The metropolitan of Dyrrachion (name in 1200 not pinned) heads the Greek church; Latin influence spreads from the new archbishopric of Antivari (Bar), raised in 1199.

Communities

Greek townsmen; Albanians (Arbanitai) from the hills; Latin merchants, Venetians under their privileges and Amalfitans, present since the 11th century (general knowledge, not re-checked in this run). A Jewish community is not pinned for 1200.

Militia

The imperial garrison and the townsmen; no numbers.

Walls and castle

The late Roman circuit of Anastasius I (late 5th century) and the sixth century, with the Byzantine citadel; the city withstood long sieges in 1081-1082 and 1107-1108.

Trade and crafts

The crossing to Apulia; transit trade on the Via Egnatia to Ohrid and Thessalonica; the grain and livestock of the coastal plain; Venetian and Amalfitan shipping.

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. Summer 1205 (beyond 1200)The magnates surrender the city to Venice, which makes it the duchy of Durazzo (to 1213).Depends on: The fall of Constantinople (1204) and the partition Stopped by: A surviving empire

Places of note

• Walls and citadel: Late Roman and Byzantine walls round the promontory

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city's history and privileges are well known in outline; its officers and notables in 1200 are not named in the sources checked.

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.