Battle of Philomelion

Byzantine-Seljuq wars

Date	1117
Location	Philomelion, Asia Minor
Result	Byzantine victory^[1]

Belligerents

Byzantine Empire

Sultanate of Rum

Commanders and leaders

Alexios I Komnenos

Sultan Malik Shah

Strength

Unknown

Byzantine–Seljuq Wars

Kapetron 1st Manzikert Caesarea Iconium 2nd Manzikert Seljuk campaigns in the Aegean 1st Nicaea 2nd Nicaea Philomelion Campaigns of John I Komnenos Myriokephalon Hyelion and Leimocheir Cotyaeum Trebizond Attalia Antioch on the Meander Battle of Gallipoli (1312)

The Battle of Philomelion of 1117 occurred in the course of the Byzantine-Seljuq wars.

Following the success of the First Crusade and the failure of the Crusade of 1101, the Turks resumed their offensive operations against the Byzantines. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, aged and suffering from an illness which proved to be terminal was unable to deal with the swift Turkish raids into what was left of Byzantine Anatolia. An attempt to take Nicaea in 1113 was thwarted by the Byzantines. Nonetheless in the aftermath of the Frankish invasions much land was re-consolidated by the Seljuq Turks under the centralized authority of Iconium where the Sultanate of Rûm had established itself under Sultan Malik-Shah. Events of the battle are unclear but it appears to have ended favorably for the Byzantines.^[2]

Aftermath

Alexios was nearing death - his ill condition meant that he could not fight the Sultan until a year after he had set out in 1116. Alexios' death in 1118 meant that the reconquest of Asia Minor would have to be left to his 31 year old son, John II Komnenos.

References

Norwich, John Julius (1997). A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books.

Notes

^ Norwich, John Julius (1997). A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 264.
^ Norwich, John Julius (1997). A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books.