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

Nicaea

Nicaea is the chief city of Bithynia and one of the strongest fortresses the empire has in Asia: a late Roman circuit of walls with many towers and four main gates, its western side closed by Lake Askania (Iznik Golu).

It was the Seljuk capital until the First Crusade and Alexios I took it back in 1097; since then it has been an imperial city and the seat of a metropolitan, famous for the church councils of 325 and 787. In 1184 it held out for months against Andronikos I under Isaac Angelos (the later Isaac II) and Theodore Kantakouzenos, who fell in a sally; Andronikos set Isaac's mother on a siege engine as a shield, and the city surrendered on terms (Choniates). On 1 January 1200 it is a quiet inland city on the military road from the Bosporus to the plateau, under the emperor's governor.

Its great age as the capital of the Laskarid emperors begins only in 1205-1208 (later).

Who holds it

Title
The emperor's governor at Nicaea (a doux of Nicaea is attested earlier in the Komnenian period)
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
not pinned
Confidence
low

No governor is named for 1199-1200; Choniates says nothing of Nicaea between 1195 and 1203.

Lord in 1200

Alexios III, through a governor whose name is not pinned for 1 January 1200.

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. The Turkish frontier lies some 60-80 km to the east and south-east, beyond the Sangarios forts and the hills of Belokome (Bilecik), where the Dorylaion plateau belongs to the Seljuks and their Turkmen.

Threats

  • Turkmen raiders from the Dorylaion plateau in a bad year (none recorded for 1199)

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 townsmen under their metropolitan. No Italian quarter is recorded; a Jewish community is not pinned for 1200.

Militia

Its townsmen and garrison held the walls against Andronikos I in 1184; in 1200 the garrison is the governor's.

Walls and castle

Late Roman walls, repaired in the eighth century and under the Komnenoi, with four main gates and the lake front walled. The outer wall and ditch are usually credited to the Laskarid emperors after 1204 (later): do not draw them for 1200.

Trade and crafts

A market and road town on the route from the Bosporus (by Kios or Pylai) to Dorylaion and the plateau; grain, vines, olives and fruit of the lake basin, and fish from the lake, which also gives a water road toward Kios. No figures for 1200.

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. 1204-1208 (later than 1200)After Constantinople falls, Theodore Laskaris makes Nicaea his base; he is crowned emperor there in 1208.Depends on: the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in April 1204. Stopped by: the empire surviving 1203-1204.

Places of note

  • Church of Hagia Sophia, the cathedral of the metropolitan: Seat of the metropolitan; the council of 787 met here.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city, its walls and the events of 1097 and 1184 are well known; nothing dated touches Nicaea in 1199-1200 and no governor is named.

On the map: The tierra is the walled city and its near lake shore; the province it heads is drawn by Bithynia.

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: Nicaea

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