By 1200 Ephesus is no longer the harbour city of antiquity, whose port has silted, but a smaller walled town on the hill of Ayasoluk (Selcuk) round the great basilica of St John the Theologian built under Justinian, a place of pilgrimage that gives the town its everyday name, Theologos (Altoluogo to the Italians).
The Seljuks took it in 1090 and the Byzantines recovered it in 1097; the crusaders of the Second Crusade fought the Turks outside it in December 1147. The metropolitan of Ephesus is one of the senior prelates of the Orthodox Church. The Venetians have traded at Theologos since Alexios I's privileges. On 1 January 1200 it is imperial, part of the Thrakesion; its officers are not named.
Who holds it
- Title
- The emperor's officer in the town (kephale or kastrophylax under the doux of the province)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No officer of this town is named for 1199-1200 in Choniates or in the modern accounts read.
Lord in 1200
Alexios III, through the doux of the Thrakesion and a local officer (neither named).
Overlord
The emperor Alexios III Angelos, through the governor (doux) of the province (thema) and his tax officials.
How things stand that morning
Imperial and quiet.
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
Greek Orthodox under the metropolitan; Venetian traders.
Fairs and markets
The feast of St John drew a great fair in earlier centuries; whether it still did in 1200 is not pinned.
Militia
Townsmen man the walls in a siege; the field troops are the governor's and the emperor's.
Walls and castle
The walled hill of Ayasoluk with its citadel and the fortified precinct of the basilica of St John.
Trade and crafts
Pilgrims; the produce of the lower Kaystros valley; the anchorages of Phygela and Anaia (Kusadasi) on the coast.
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.
- 1206 (later)Ephesus comes under Theodore Laskaris.Depends on: the fall of Constantinople. Stopped by: the empire surviving.
Places of note
- Basilica of St John the Theologian: Justinian's pilgrimage church on Ayasoluk hill, the heart of the medieval town.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The town's shape is known from archaeology and later sources; nothing dated for 1199-1200.
On the map: Town and near land.
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.