Alexios I Komnenos

   Emperor (q.v.) from 1081-1118. He is often viewed as one of Byzantium's great emperors, in part because of the memorable impression of his reign in the Alexiad, written by his daughter Anna Komnene (q.v.). He found the empire beset by foreign enemies, which he successively defeated, or at least neutralized. The greatest threat by far was from the Normans (q.v.). For the first four years of his reign he fought the Normans under Robert Guiscard and Bohemund (qq.v.), whose attack on Dyrrachion (q.v.) was intended as a prelude to an attack on Constantinople (q.v.). From 1085-1091 he concentrated on defending the northern frontier from incursions by the Pechenegs (q.v.), who Alexios annihilated at the battle of Mount Lebounion in 1091. After 1091 he turned his attention to the Seljuks of Asia Minor (qq.v.), sending appeals for mercenaries to the West. The response was the First Crusade (q.v.), which sent thousands of unruly Crusaders to Constantinople, among whom was a Norman contingent led by Alexios's former enemy Bohemund. Alexios's handling of the First Crusade was masterful, as seen in his acquisition of Nicaea (q.v.) in 1097. His internal policy consisted of reforms of both court titles and coinage, which included the gold hyperpyron (q.v.). He defended Orthodoxy (q.v.) by persecuting the Bogomils and John Italos (qq.v.) and supporting monastic establishments on Mount Athos and Patmos (qq.v.). However, Alexios's brilliance staved off decline in the short term. Moreover, his granting of unrestricted trading privileges to Venice (q.v.) in 1082, in return for Venetian help against the Normans, undermined future long-term recovery.

   See Empire of Trebizond.