When Alexios I died on 15 August 1118, he left his successor John II Komnenos
(1118–43) a well-organised and prosperous state, and John continued
his father’s policy in AsiaMinor. Like Alexios, he undertook military operations
against Seljuq territory to forestall Turkish invasions and capture
strategically important border fortresses. However, there was a difference.
John II’s military activity was largely focused on the two ‘wings’ of the
Byzantines’ territories in Asia Minor: Paphlagonia and the Pontos in the
north; and Pisidia, Pamphylia and Cilicia in the south. Despite this, John’s
diplomatic and military activities were no less successful than those of his
father.
Southern Asia Minor was the more important of the two ‘wings’: the
main cities of the Seljuq sultanate of Rum were to be found there, while the
lowlands of Cilicia served as a base for Byzantine support for, or military
pressure on, the Crusader states in Syria. In 1119 John II took Laodicea and
Sozopolis inwestern AsiaMinor fromtheTurks.He then managed to secure
the road to Antalya, occupying the fortresses that protected the port from its
hinterland. In 1124 the emperor involved himself in the dynastic struggle
between Sultan Masud (1116–55) and his brother Malik ‘Arab, ruler of
Kastamonu and Ankara. Combining both military and diplomatic pressure,
John II forcedMasud to become his ally, while holding the defeatedMalik
Arab as a hostage in Constantinople. In spring 1136 John undertook an
expedition against the principality of Antioch, whose vassal Count Baldwin
of Marash had defeated, imprisoned and then released the Rupenid prince
Leo I. By the summer of 1137 John II had conquered both the highlands
and the lowlands of Cilician Armenia, including the cities of Tarsus, Adana,
Mopsuestia and Anazarbos (see above, p. 632). The unfortunate Leo I was
once again imprisoned, this time by the Byzantine emperor, and sent to
Constantinople. Although theDanishmendidMuhammadGhazi (1134–42)
soon drove the Byzantine garrisons out of the Cilician highlands, Byzantine
administration persisted in Tarsus, Adana andMopsuestia until 1183, apart
from two short intervals in 1152–8 and 1173–5, when the Rupenid princes
Thoros II (1148–68) and Mleh successively gained temporary control of the
lowlands of Cilicia.32
John II was less successful in his northern campaigns. Although his expeditions
against Kastamonu and Gangra in 1131–2 and 1134–5 achieved the
temporary subjugation of both fortresses, his siege of Neocaesarea (Niksar)
in 1139–40 was fruitless. John faced considerable difficulties in Asia Minor
after 1130, when the sultanMasud switched his allegiance from the Byzantines
to AmirGhaziDanishmendid (1104–33/4). Another ally of AmirGhazi
was Constantine Gabras, the doux of Trebizond, which was effectively an
independent polity from 1126. John II’s response was to launch military
campaigns deep into Paphlagonia and the Pontos. Although he never managed
to take Neocaesarea or to break the alliance between Masud and the
Danishmends, John nevertheless brought the Pontic provinces to heel in
1140. The furthest-flung ‘wings’ of Byzantine AsiaMinor – the Pontos and
Cilicia – became firmly reunited with the main body of the Byzantine state
in western Anatolia.
World History
