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

Mosynopolis

A walled town on the Via Egnatia west of modern Komotini, the chief place of the Boleron between the Nestos and the Hebros (the later district of 'Boleron and Mosynopolis'); a bishop's see under the metropolitan of Trajanopolis.

After Ivanko captured the protostrator Kamytzes late in 1199, the towns and forts from Mosynopolis to Xantheia, toward Mount Pangaion and as far as Abdera were stirred to revolt against the Romans (Choniates). Whether Mosynopolis itself went over is not pinned: the text makes it the limit of the revolt. In 1204 Alexios III flees here; Kaloyan destroys it in 1207 (both later).

Who holds it

Title
Governor (doux) of the district, for the emperor
Since
-
Born
-
Family
-
Confidence
low

No governor's name survives for 1 January 1200.

Lord in 1200

The emperor's governor of the district (name not pinned for 1 January 1200); threatened by Ivanko's revolt that winter.

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III.

How things stand that morning

Imperial but at the edge of a revolt; contested ground round it.

Charter

No charter: Byzantine towns had no communal charters; the town notables (archontes) and the bishop dealt with the governor and the tax officials.

Council

No council; the archontes, the bishop and the clergy speak for the town.

Communities

Greeks; Bulgarian and Vlach herdsmen in the hills behind.

Militia

No town militia as such; the garrison and the townsmen man the walls in a raid.

Walls and castle

Late Roman walls renewed under Justinian.

Trade and crafts

Farming of the Boleron plain; a station on the Via Egnatia.

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. spring to summer 1200The revolt in the Boleron collapses when Ivanko is seized and the emperor recovers his towns.Depends on: Ivanko's capture. Stopped by: Ivanko holding out.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Choniates names the town as the limit of the revolt; its state that morning 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 (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
  2. Wikipedia: Mosynopolis

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