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

Thessalonica

The second city of the empire and the great port of the northern Aegean, at the head of the Thermaic Gulf where the Via Egnatia meets the road up the Vardar.

The Normans of Sicily stormed and sacked it in August 1185 and held it for less than a year before the Byzantines drove them out. By 1199 the city has recovered: its imperial mint strikes coins, its October fair of St Demetrius draws merchants from far away, and Venetian traders work here under the chrysobull of November 1198. Its scholar archbishop Eustathios, who wrote the account of the 1185 sack, died in the later 1190s (date not pinned).

Its patron, St Demetrius, whose shrine stands in the city, is the soldier saint of the whole region; the Bulgarian rebels of 1185 claimed he had left Thessalonica to help them.

Who holds it

Name
Alexios III, through a governor not pinned
Title
Imperial city
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

The emperor, through his governor (doux), whose name for January 1200 is not pinned. The archbishop is Constantine Mesopotamites, a fallen minister made archbishop about 1197; a synod deposed him soon after and he was later restored, holding the see until 1204 (John Chrysanthos stood in briefly); that he is in the see on 1 January 1200 is likely but not pinned.

How things stand that morning

Byzantine and quiet on 1 January 1200.

Charter

No town charter. Venetians trade free of the trade tax (kommerkion) in the provinces listed in the chrysobull of November 1198 (Macedonia among them; the list not re-read in this run).

Council

The governor rules with the archbishop and the city notables (archontes); no commune.

Communities

Greeks; a Jewish community (Benjamin of Tudela, about 1165-1168, counted about 500); Venetian merchants; other Latin traders; houses of the Athonite monasteries. Armenians, Pisans or Genoese residents in 1200 are not pinned.

Fairs and markets

The Demetria, the great fair of St Demetrius, held every October just outside the walls for six days around the saint's feast on 26 October. The Timarion (12th century) describes rows of tents and merchants from all the Greek lands, Italy and the West, the Black Sea and the Levant, with cloth, livestock and goods of every kind; the governor attends the saint's festival.

Militia

The citizens manned the walls in 1185; no numbers.

Walls and castle

The Late Roman land and sea walls, with the citadel (acropolis) at the top of the town; the walls were broken by the Normans in 1185 and repaired afterwards (extent not pinned).

Trade and crafts

Cloth, its own and that brought to the fair; grain, wine and oil from the Axios plain and Chalkidike; the coastal trade to Constantinople, the Aegean and Italy; the imperial mint.

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. October 1200 (around 26 October)The Demetria fair.Depends on: Peace on the roads and seas. Stopped by: War or pirates.
  2. 1201 (Varzos; some accounts say 1200-1201)Kamytzes, freed by Chrysos's ransom and embittered by the emperor's refusal to help him, rises with his son-in-law: Chrysos takes Pelagonia (Bitola) and Prilep, and Kamytzes goes over the Tempe pass into Thessaly (Choniates p. 293).Depends on: Kamytzes released alive; the emperor still refusing to repay the ransom or restore his property; Chrysos willing to break the 1197-1198 peace. Stopped by: The emperor repaying Chrysos or restoring Kamytzes; Kamytzes dying in captivity; Chrysos choosing the emperor's favour.

Places of note

  • Basilica of St Demetrius: Shrine of the city's patron saint and heart of the October festival
  • Acropolis: The citadel at the top of the walls

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The fair, the mint and the Jewish community from the History of Thessaloniki article and Benjamin of Tudela; the governor not named; the archbishop's position from the Mesopotamites article.

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. History of Thessaloniki (Wikipedia: the fair, the mint, the Jewish community)
  2. Constantine Mesopotamites (Wikipedia, citing Choniates trans. Magoulias pp. 241, 268-271; Angold 2000)
  3. Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary (about 1165-1168), trans. M. N. Adler (1907); figures cited from memory of that translation, not re-checked in this run
  4. Timarion (12th century satire; the fair of St Demetrius), cited from memory of the text

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