Enez > Aenus Edirne Turkey

Greek colonies on the Aegean coast of Thrace include Aenus near Alexandroúpolis.

Formerly called Poltyobria (or Poltymbria), it is located near the mouth of the Hebrus River, not far from the Melas Gulf (modern Gulf of Saros), which is formed by the Thracian Chersonesus to the east.

The city was said to be founded (or at least settled) by Aeolian migrants from Lesbos.

Alexander's ongoing plans are abandoned by common consent among his generals, who have to be content with the office of governor.

In the distribution of satrapies that follows Alexander's death, Lysimachus, one of Alexander's bodyguards during the conquest of Asia, is assigned one of the less attractive governorships, that of Thrace.

Ptolemy manages to keep Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and several coastal areas in Thrace by the peace terms of the Third Syrian War, concluded in 241.

The Pecheneg horde, taking advantage of the precarious situation of the Empire, is heading towards the capital at Constantinople, plundering the northern Balkans as they go.

Tzachas, the brother-in-law of the Sultan of Rum, has launched a fleet and attempts to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs.

The invasion poses a serious threat to Alexios' Empire, yet due to years of civil war and neglect the imperial military is unable to provide the emperor with enough troops to repel the Pecheneg invaders.

Alexios is forced to rely on his own ingenuity and diplomatic skill to save his empire from annihilation.

He appeals to another nomadic tribe, the Cumans, to join him in battle against the Pechenegs.

Won over by Alexios' offer of gold in return for aid against the Pechenegs, the Cumans hurry to join Alexios and his army.

In the late spring of 1091, the Cuman forces, numbering about forty thousand, arrive in imperial territory, and the combined army prepared to advance against the Pechenegs.

On Monday, 28 April 1091, Alexios and his allies reach the Pecheneg camp at Levounion near the Maritsa river.

The Pechenegs appear to have been caught by surprise.

At any rate, the battle that took place on the next morning at Levounion was practically a massacre.

The Pechenegs have brought their women and children with them, and they are totally unprepared for the ferocity of the attack that is unleashed upon them.

The Cumans and the imperial troops fall upon the enemy camp, slaughtering all in their path.

The Pechenegs quickly collapse, and the victorious allies butcher them so savagely that they are almost wiped out.

The survivors are captured by the army and taken into imperial service.

Melissenos, who had been sent to Ainos to recruit soldiers from among the Bulgarians and Vlachs, had not joined the imperial army in time for the crushing victory, arriving the next day.

Levounion is the single most decisive victory achieved by an imperial army for more than half a century.

The battle marks a turning point in the Empire’s history; Constantinople had reached the nadir of its fortunes in the last twenty years, and Levounion signals to the world that now at last the empire is on the road to recovery.

The Pechenegs have been utterly destroyed, and the empire's European possessions are now secure.

Alexios has proved himself as the savior of the Empire in its hour of need, and a new spirit of hope begins to arise in its war-weary citizens.

In the years ahead, the Empire will go on to stage a remarkable recovery under Alexios and his descendants, the Komnenoi.

Imperial armies will return to Asia Minor, reconquering much of the lost territory there including the fertile coastal regions, along with many of the most important cities.

With the restoration of firm central government, the empire will become rich during the course of the next century, and Constantinople will once more become the metropolis of the Christian world.

Thus, the battle at Levounion in 1091 marks the beginning of a resurgence of imperial power and influence that will last for a hundred years, until the demise of the Komnenian dynasty at the close of the twelfth century.

The newly minted prince’s uncle, the marshal Geoffrey of Villehardouin, probably starts writing his sober, if biased, Histoire de l'empire de Constantinople, in which he describes the “crusade” by the Franks and their Venetian allies against the Greek empire. (Villehardouin's eyewitness account, usually known as the Conquête de Constantinople [“Conquest of Constantinople”], is the first original prose history written in French by a serious writer. His achievement, though unfinished at his death a few years later, is remarkable because neither in style nor form had he had any models on which to base his work; his Latin predecessors were probably unknown to him at first hand.)