Alexios I of Trebizond - Seljuk and Nicaean Wars

Seljuk and Nicaean Wars

Theodore I Laskaris soon swept away Mad Theodore and Sabbas, while the Latins, after an attempt to conquer some of their allotted territory, found themselves occupied in Europe with the Bulgarians. With the Latins went the Armenians of the Troad. Only Laskaris, who had himself crowned Emperor in 1208, and the Seljuks remained to menace the new empire.

Kay Khusrau I, the new Sultan of Iconium, besieged Trebizond in 1205 or 1206. David provoked Laskaris by sending his young general Synadenos to occupy Nicomedia, claimed by the Niceaean Empire. Synadenos was no match for the abler Laskaris, who led his troops through a difficult pass, setting an example to his soldiers by wielding an axe against the trees that obstructed his path of victory. Synadenos was taken prisoner. David was forced to recognise Herakleia as the westward limit of the Trapezuntine Empire, and Laskaris threatened to make him recede still further eastward. David, hard pressed by his Nicaean adversary, invoked the aid of the Latins; Laskaris occupied the frontier district of Plousias, famous for its archers and its warlike spirit, and would have taken Herakleia also, had not the Latins under Thierri de Loos again seized Nicomedia.

But the Latins soon retired, to face another Bulgarian invasion of Thrace, rewarded by David for their temporary aid by shiploads of corn and hams. David asked the Latin Emperor of Constantinople to include him as his subject in his treaties and correspondence with Laskaris, and to treat his land as Latin territory. David preferred a nominal Latin suzerainty to annexation by the Nicaean emperor. Having thus secured his position, he crossed the Sangarios with a body of about 300 Frankish auxiliaries, ravaged the villages subject to Laskaris, and took hostages from Plousias. David withdrew, but the Franks, incautiously advancing into the hilly country, were suddenly surprised by Andronikos Gidos, a general of Laskaris, in the Rough Passes of Nicomedia, and nearly the entire army was wiped out.