Of the Empire of Trebizond, what can be said? It was the longest lasting of all the Byzantine splinter-states after the Fourth Crusade, staying until 1461 and it preserved the Hellenic-Romano identity in the Pontic Alps from the forces of Islam and the Turks. It is alluring to many with its mysterious presence, of which there is little historical information. Trebizond was like Byzantium before it, a preserver. Yet much of Trapezuntine history is a sad story of tribulations, murders, and cowardice. In these, too it resembles the Empire of Byzantium's final years, but unlike them, it has no crowning tragedy, only an inglorious end. However, the story is worth the telling because Trebizond tried and endured, sometimes even surpassing its rivals in wealth and glory. This is a story of a peoples struggle against nearly insurmountable odds and their struggle to preserve the dream that was Byzantium.

Our story starts in the year 1185, in the city of Constantinople, then the heart of the Roman Empire of the East in the midst of a reign of terror unseen and only equaled or surpassed by Phokas some 600 years before. Rounds of people were rounded up and then murdered at the orders of the emperor Andronikos I Komnenos. A historian of the time, Niketas Choniates tells a horrifying picture of the brutality when he described how the grape vineyards of Bursa were not weighed down with grapes one year, but the corpses of Andronikos' victims. Naturally, the Byzantine people were outraged at these horrible cruelties, but they waited for the right time to rise up. The time came when a nobleman named Isaac Komnenos staged a coup against the monster that finally brought him down. Andronikos was then subjected to horrible tortures and in the end was left only to call to God almighty before he finally died. But the people's vengeance did not only involve just him, but his family too. His sons were blinded and one in particular, the eldest, Manuel was blinded in a manner, which killed him, despite his spoken out opposition of his father's murders and reverence of Church for which he had been disinherited by his father. People's vengeance, though, has always had problems distinguishing the innocent from the guilty. At the end of the revolt, the imperial palace had been sacked and its precious relics and wealth looted. Finally, Angelos took up the plundered broken throne and the dynasty of the Angeloi had begun.

Yet such great dynasties as the Komnenoi are usually not killed off so easily and they usually do leave progeny who hunger for the old days of power. Luckily, at the time of Angelos' revolution, some of Manuel's friends had put his two sons, David and Alexios into security for the time. Then after the people had gone back into their homes and daily life reasserted itself, two small children representing a glorious dynasty bereft of the imperial title were allowed to live out their lives in the capital in a shadowy existence. It says much for the character of Isaac Angelos that he even allowed these two children, both mere children, to survive when he could have all too easily made them disappear into the darkness. A Basil I or Richard III of England and countless other rulers throughout history would not have left this matter up to chance, but Isaac did. Although some may display this as a weakness, it was thanks to this man that the Empire of Trebizond even existed for good or bad.

For nearly nineteen years, the brothers remained in obscurity in Constantinople where they were educated and grew up. Then there came to the city the warriors of the Fourth Crusade. Some time during the siege, the brothers fled the city for Georgia where their aunt Queen Thamar1 ruled. There she provided them with soldiers and mercenaries to attack the crumbling Byzantine state and seize what they could. On crossing the border, Alexios was proclaimed by his troops. Their advance was rapid and undisturbed as they marched through Iberia and then the Pontus region. Here they were extremely popular with the people because their grandfather Andronikos had had many of his exploits here and the other reason was fear of the Turkish hordes who would be sure to take advantage of them. And so, in April 1204, Alexios and his brother David along with their troops entered Trebizond, the capital of the Chaldian Theme in triumph, where Alexios was crowned Emperor of the Romans. Like the other successors of the Emperors in Constantinople, everything was up for grabs along with the title itself. After this, Chaldian troops flocked to his banner and the two brothers divided up their swelled forces as to seize as much land as they could. David was to travel along the coast towards Constantinople, while Alexios was left to finish conquering the Pontus. Many local officials quickly found that were swept into his growing empire along with in but a few months the cities of Tripolis, Kerasunt, Mesochaldaion, Jasonis, and Oinaion.

Meanwhile, his brother David encountered very little resistance as he marched through Sinope, Bafra, Kastamuni, Amastris, and Herakleia Pontika. He was called the "herald and forerunner of Alexios." Soon however, his enemies were not so easily swept and he encountered resistance from the Byzantine successor state of Nikaia growing up in the region under the brilliant soldier and manager, Theodore Laskaris, and the Latin Empire whose lands according to the partition of 1204, David illegally occupied. But to neutralize the Latin Emperor, David concluded an alliance with him, which must have been disgusting to every right-thinking Byzantine. Settled in his family's ancestral castle in Paphlagonia, David then turned to dealing with the not so easily dealt with, Laskaris.

From the first, David seems to have underestimated his opponent. He sent his young, inexperienced general Synadenos to occupy Nikomedia, but Laskaris, elder and abler, ambushed Synadenos in the mountains just outside Nikomedia. Synadenos was taken prisoner and Laskaris as a show of strength ravaged the rich district of Plousias, whose very name ironically means "rich" and would have taken Herakleia Pontika had it not been for David's Latin ally who chose this time to retake Nikomedia. Unfortunately, for David, though they quickly withdrew when the Bulgars attacked in Europe, but David still rewarded them with praise and shiploads of corn and ham. Though the Latins might have saved him once, David knew that Laskaris would return so settled down to consolidate his overextended empire and the Latin alliance. It is said that David asked the Latin Emperor to look on him as a loyal vassal prince and include him in all of the Empire's dealings with Laskaris. But to David, a little bit of groveling was far better than extinction.

Finally, sometime in 1206, David once again felt secure and decided to put pressure on Laskaris. He overran the district of Plousias with three hundred Latin mercenaries, considerately provided for him by the Latin Emperor. After David withdrew, but his mercenaries, hungry for plunder, continued along the coast through hilly country where they were surprised by Andronikos Gidos, Theodore's general. It was a rout, and after Gidos marched with little opposition to Herakleia Pontika which he besieged, but was postponed from doing so by further mercenaries from the Latin Emperor. Finally, though, the aid was of little avail, and the city fell. Amastris followed and the Trapezuntine retreat began. David, probably disheartened and disillusioned, took up residence at Sinope. The Empire would never extend to those heights again and it was left to the successors of Laskaris of Nikaia to retake Constantinople, the sacred city.

At the same time as Synadenos had been defeated, Alexios I had also suffered a severe defeat. It happened at Amisos, which was the only Byzantine city on the coast, which refused to surrender to him along with its Turkish neighbor, Samsun. The two cities were valuable next-door neighbors. The Turks at Samsun produced goods such as wool, while the Byzantines in Amisos sold it and this formed a valuable commerce for the Turks and Amisos. Now at this time, Amisos was governed by one Sabbas, a local governor turned by events into a local independent prince. He was one of the most brilliant diplomats of his time, considering he only ruled over Amisos and the surrounding area with very limited resources. In his own city, Sabbas was extremely popular and respected, while outside he diplomatically maneuvered in ways, which spun circles around the Seljuk Sultan and Alexios. For example, he became the vassal of Theodore Laskaris who was too remote to interfere with his city, but whose proximity to his enemies enabled him if attacked to call Laskaris on his enemies. In the local area, the commercial importance of his city to the interests of Samsun and the Turks also gave him quite a bit of protection and protected him from attackers, Trapezuntine and Turk alike. And when, Alexios showed up at the gates and demanded the city's surrender, he was refused and attacked, but was defeated not by just Byzantines, but Turks from Samsun and Iconium. This is surely proof of Sabbas' brilliance. At the end of it, Alexios' army was routed and the defeat was complete.

With his effective army destroyed and communications with David now irregular, Alexios retired back to Trebizond probably disheartened. He must have dreamt of returning to Constantinople in triumph as Emperor of the Romans, but now that was no longer practical. Though he could still call himself Emperor, there was nothing behind it. It was as Romanos Lekapenos had pointed out to Symeon of Bulgaria three centuries before; he could call himself the Caliph of Baghdad if he liked, but that did not mean he necessarily was. However much Alexios of Trebizond might dream of the reconquest of Constantinople, it was only a dream. Perhaps it was then that the use of the grandiose title, the Grand Komnenos became more frequent and as a compensation for his ego. With David's defeat by Theodore, Trebizond became the official capital of the Empire. Not before, it was attacked by the Seljuk Sultan, who tried to kill the Empire just after its birth. Also at this time, Alexios somehow managed to gain control of the rich city of Cherson and the province of Perateia "The Land Beyond the Sea." However, despite this gain, further tribulations only awaited Alexios. The Turkish Sultan, eager for a Black Sea port and egged on by Laskaris of Nikaia attacked Sinope were David commanded and took the city. David was killed and the Empire was then limited to the rivers Iris and Thermodon, while at the same time the Turks of Kappadokia were ravaging his lands and the Georgians, Iberia. And then, the Sultan advanced on Trebizond, which he besieged, and finally Alexios was obliged to buy peace from the Sultan with vassalship, tribute, and compulsorily military aid.

Alexios died on February 1, 1222 at the age of forty, probably a disheartened and disillusioned man. He was one of the many men who had been caught up in his time in the extraordinary whirl of events after the fall of Constantinople. Alexios was not a brilliant administrator or soldier like Laskaris of Nikaia or even Theodore of Epiros. But he was shrewd and intelligent and it was that intelligence that had transformed him from an untried youth into a commander of men in the field. His problem was the rapidity with which his empire grew. Quickly he and his brother became overextended and then once their armies had been destroyed, their enemies closed in around them. It was only a small fragment of what it once had been that Alexios left to his successors, but we must not be too hard on him. He was an average, ordinary man who did what he thought was right and against his brilliant adversaries, the fact that his Empire survived was no small achievement in itself.

On Alexios' death, he was succeeded on the throne not by his son as was the use in practice but by Andronikos Gidos or Gidon2 a prominent member of the military and his son-in-law, raised to the throne to stand as guardian for young John, Alexios' son. This choice of successor is in itself remarkable because it signifies that Trebizond, though it was to boast the longest lasting single dynasty, was still subject to the old Roman military principle. From the first, he was to prove his worth due to his experience in warfare, which was to prove in the following year a considerable benefit when the Turks were at the gates and this time they wanted to destroy him and his city once and for all.

Andronikos was given little time to establish himself on the throne before this menace presented itself. At first, his reign had started well enough with a renewal of Alexios' treaty of peace on the same conditions as before, but a provision was added for eternal peace between the two, which the Sultan in light of future events was sorely going to regret. But then, an imperial boat from Cherson foundered in the Black Sea, on its way to Trebizond with Chersonite notables and a considerable consignment of gold, in a storm and was driven into the Turkish harbor of Sinope. Here the local Emir, Hetum a vassal of the Turkish Sultan, saw a chance to good to let go and without any hesitation seized the boat and all its passengers who he planned to ransom. After, to make the violations even worse, he collected his fleet and sent it to ravage the Crimea. However, when Andronikos got wind of these events, he gathered his own fleet and sent it to take revenge on Sinope for its actions. When the Trapezuntine raiders arrived, they plundered and razed everything up to the walls of Sinope, seized back the boat back along with its passengers, and killed the crews of the recently returned raiders of the Crimea. When the Seljuk Sultan heard of these events, he was predictably furious with Andronikos for not consulting him on a attacking a fellow vassal and called to him a massive hoard with which he intended to teach Andronikos a lesson and wipe Trebizond of the face of the earth.

Andronikos, however, was not to be caught unprepared and already he had laid in provisions for the siege and gathered up his people in the capital to protect them from the Sultan's hoards along with picked troops from all over his Empire. Then Andronikos attempted to stop the invaders by attacking the Sultan's army in the mountains outside his city, but the imperial troops were no match for the army and fled back to the city while others fled to the Church of the "Golden Headed Virgin" and that of St. Eugenios, the city's protector, in fear. As the army of the Sultan, under command of his son Melik, advanced on the city, Andronikos along with his polemarch Theodore and George Akrivites scored heavy casualties on Melik's advance guard before retreating within the walls of their city. Meanwhile, Melik pitched his camp near St. Eugenios, which became his headquarters and was just outside the city; after he burned the city mart. Then he surveyed the walls of Trebizond trying to look for the most vulnerable portion. His problem was that the walls of Trebizond were said to be, like Constantinople's before them, impenetrable, but in the end he decided on the city's seaside quarter which was unprotected by any walls and he had predicted would have the greatest rate of success. Fortunately, the Emperor along with his soldiers courageously repulsed them and put them to flight following after them all the way to the Turkish camp where they spread chaos. But, quickly Melik restored order and drew up his lines and then they withdrew back into the city with their Turkish plunder. Later in the siege, during another attack, led by the Emir of Sinope, who it will be remembered had started the war, the Turks were repulsed, and the Emir killed along with Melik's first cousin.

Melik was enraged by this news and ordered that the Church of St. Eugenios be razed to the ground and launched another determined assault on the walls. Again, he was repulsed, but somehow he got it in his head that because of the sudden influx of citizens in the city, the Emperor's provisions were proving inefficient and the defenders were near their last gasp. The Emperor was by this time very worried by Melik's determination and when he heard of this belief, he decided to put doubt in the besiegers with a ruse. He called for peace talks and then took the Sultan's ambassadors throughout the city showing them its various stores. Taken aback by this revelation Melik was still very determined, especially after astrologers had revealed to him that the city would fall. One night he ordered a night assault, but this was to prove his undoing. Suddenly and out of the blue, a great thunderstorm struck, followed by torrential rain and hail. Melik's troops scattered and Melik himself took to flight. It must have seemed as if the city's defenders, the Virgin Mary and Saint Eugenios had struck at just the right time.

Melik's misfortunes, though, were not quite over. As he was fleeing from the Empire, he was captured by Christian mountaineers from Matzouka and then brought before the Emperor Andronikos. Surprisingly, Andronikos treated Melik honorably and like a fellow monarch. However, that was not before he added a bit embarrassingly to Melik that evil comes to those who treat treaties like "scraps of paper." Afterwards, Andronikos worked out a new treaty with Melik in which he was granted freedom from vassalage and compulsorily military aid. These terms were far better than Melik could have hoped for or deserved. Afterwards, he was so grateful for this mercy that Melik even undertook to send an annual gift of Arab horses and money to the Church of St. Eugenios, who he had so recently insulted.

However, while this war had been going on, the world as they had known it was about to change. In 1220, suddenly, Genghis Khan had appeared at the borders of Georgia and inflicted a humiliating defeat on King, George IV (1213-1222) who was seriously wounded and then to die from that wound. As he advanced through Georgia, the Khan ravaged all before him and exterminated all Christians who refused to bow to him. This was the first appearance of the man to the Christians. Genghis Khan had been born Temujin, and was said to have had his hand born in blood. From his control of the small tribe of the Yakka Mongols, this dynamic ruler had extended his power first over all Mongols, then Northern China, and the Turks of the Steppes, before turning to face the Kwarazam Empire, whose shah, Ala-ad-Din, he defeated in battle. But then his next rival appeared in the person of the shah's son, Jelal-ad-Din, who was also defeated and fled into exile in India. Three years later, he returned to Persia where he rebuilt his empire, but was again defeated by the Khan. This time he fled to what was left of his domains in Armenia where he gradually built up his power making war on the Turks and Georgians alike. Compared with the damage, Genghis Khan had inflicted on Georgia; Jelal-ad-Din's was far more profound and horrifying. His greatest success in that land was against Queen Roussadan, who had succeeded George IV, when he captured her capital Tbilisi and exterminated as many Christians as he could get his hands on. Because of these massacres, Mongolian pressure, and the disintegrating feudal system, Georgia was left very much burnt out as a force, and little use to Trebizond.

As for Trebizond, Jelal-ad-Din, called the "King of the Globe," was just as dangerous. Because of his continual wars with the Turks, Jelal-ad-Din had caused the Turkomans around Andronikos to become Jelal-ad-Din's vassals and this left Andronikos horribly exposed to the machinations of the "King of the Globe." So, in an evil moment, Andronikos had become Jelal-ad-Din's vassal, only to watch him defeated by the Turks at Akhlat and then murdered by an assassin, probably in the pay of the Turks. Andronikos was then left to deal with the Sultan's fury over his betrayal as best he might and become a vassal again. He was obliged to pay tribute and provide two hundred fighting men for the Sultan's army as a condition of the treaty. This was not the end of his misfortunes, as the Georgians had lost their capital, they were without a center, and so David withdrew to the very south near the Trapezuntine border where he salvaged what he could of his kingdom and was not above seizing the entire Iberian province from Andronikos' Empire. At last, though, in 1235, poor old Andronikos died and was spared any further humiliations. He was laid to rest in the Church of "The Golden Headed Virgin," which he had enriched with the spoils of his war with Melik.

On Andronikos' death, he was succeeded as Emperor by Alexios' son John who came to the throne at last. His reign lasted three years before he died playing the fashionable game of polo. On his death his little son, named Joannikos was put away to join a monastery, so Alexios I's other son Manuel could come to the throne. Perhaps the Trapezuntines feared a long regency, but nevertheless, Manuel succeeded by the old Roman elective principle rather than by hereditary succession.

Manuel's reign, unlike his brother's was to prove far more significant. When Manuel acceded, Trebizond was little more than a vassal of the Sultan, but by the end of his reign, Trebizond was ready to prosper, as it never had before. Moreover, as we shall see, Manuel was himself to enjoy quite of stroke of good luck and fortune. He was called the "Great Captain" and the "most fortunate" by his people for these qualities and degree of military skill and daring. Manuel's reign also witnessed the second wave of Trapezuntine expansion. Not since David years before, had a Trapezuntine Emperor been able to extend his lands territorially. The real reason he was able to do such, was because of the crumbling Seljuk Sultanate after the Battle of Koussadac in 1243 where the Mongols completely routed the Seljuk army under its incompetent Sultan. Although his soldiers had served the Sultan there, Manuel was not seriously harmed by this loss because the Mongols were all too willing to accept him as loyal vassal because of Trebizond's commercial importance to them. And so, due to the decline of Seljuk power, Manuel was able to recapture the city of Sinope, which David had lost in 1214. From here, Manuel was able to impede in the affairs of Nikaia again as he wished. About a year later in 1256, the Mongols took Baghdad and rearranged the commercial centers of the world. No longer was the Mediterranean the main trade route, now it shifted more towards the Black Sea and Trebizond who was greatly enriched by this new flood of wealth.

With wealth also came the promise of greater luxury and construction for Manuel's Empire. The prime example of this is the new Church of the Divine Wisdom at Trebizond, which though small has a magnificent appearance. Suddenly, the old Byzantine elements began to fade away and are mixed with Georgian, Armenian, and even some Turkish elements. Inside traditional frescoes were painted in all of Byzantium's spiritual power. And to crown it all, was a magnificent painting of the Emperor to the right of the church entrance. Here he was displayed with a crown of pearls and to the right an inscription that calls him, "In God, the pious Emperor, and Autocrator of the Romans. Trebizond had given up none of its claims to the Empire despite Michael VIII of Nikaia's recapture of Constantinople in 1261. Within a generation, this title was extinct and replaced by a shoddy, pathetic title and no more. Manuel died in 1263 leaving behind him a prosperous empire and progeny.

The three-year reign of Andronikos II Komnenos is significant for only one thing, the loss of his father's conquest of Sinope before he died in 1266. Along with it, he lost a last hope of reconquest and ceased to impinge upon the affairs of the Byzantine Empire. He was succeeded by his brother George to a still prosperous, though slightly diminished empire. George's reign saw the diminuance of the Mongol power in Asia and with that his vassalship to the Mongols. Free from them, George saw the waning, crumbling Seljuk Sultanate as an opportunity to secure and expand his power. He combined this policy with his own attempts to bolster his own power against the ambitions of the noble landowners. The problem was that they were determined to run their own affairs and control their own lands something like a vassal prince and as George might have seen this only led to anarchy and the diminishment of his own power. How much better it would be if he could control them and rule for the first time in many years as a true Emperor. The problem was that the nobles were firmly entrenched in their feudal ideal and resented George's interference into their own affairs. They decided to have their revenge on him on one of his campaigns against the Turkomans of Tauresion where when the army was suddenly attacked, the nobles saw their chance and instead of fighting, fled and left George defeated and taken prisoner. This defeat left Trebizond crippled right when it was supposed to be growing and expanding, all so some pathetic nobles could have a little more power over their own local lands, all at the price of a man who at least had a vision of where his people might go.

In the place of George, who was considered deposed, the nobles placed his brother John on the throne who was crowned Emperor of the Romans3. In him, the nobles found a weak character under which they could do very much what they like. And they were not the only people who took advantage of this weak sovereign. In 1261, Michael VIII Palaiologos had recaptured Constantinople and became the undisputed Emperor of Byzantium. Since then, Manuel and his sons had wisely ignored this development and continued to style themselves Emperor of the Romans, but with John, Michael again decided to press his claims. He haughtily demanded that John renounce the sonorous title and insignia because the lands John occupied were only part of the Empire and it did not have Constantinople. John, however, replied that his nobles would not allow him to renounce the title and that he was only following tradition.

Michael seeing this seemingly pointless, then changed his method of attack. The reason for his persistence in these matters should be noted was that many Asiatic Byzantines felt no loyalty to Michael at all because he had compromised their religion at the Council of Lyons for political advantage and had already offered John the crown of Byzantium. John was as already noted to incompetent to profit from this, but Michael was still very determined to reduce him. In 1281, Michael displayed his new tactic in the mask of a marriage alliance between the two rulers and an invitation for John to come to Constantinople, which he sent in a delegation under George Akropolites and John Xiphilinos, a churchman from Trebizond. To John, however, the offer had no appeal he said because of the distance between the two rulers and a marriage closer to home would be more advantageous. The other reason the envoys were there was to spy on Trebizond and Akropolites was to diagnose how best to force John into the marriage if he refused. One suspects that Michael also encouraged George to do a little intriguing wile he was there also, since scarcely had Akropolites left Trebizond when a general insurrection under one Papadopoulos had driven the ruling party from the city and made John a prisoner in his own palace. Finally, John escaped and restored himself to power, but this insurrection had shaken him. Michael then proceeded to send a second delegation this under the logothete of the domestics, Iatropoulos, and another high ecclesiate. Finally, now John yielded to Michael and right then and there swore to the envoys he would marry Eudokia, Michael's third daughter, and go to Constantinople on the condition Michael not maltreat him and then they set off for Constantinople.

The journey was to prove very humiliating for the Emperor John. All went well until he arrived in imperial territory and was informed and then compelled to abandon the imperial boots for regular old black ones. Then as a further insult, in their agreement Michael had given him the title Despot, but now Michael insulted this emperor by forcing him to dress in the insignia of that position whilst he stayed in Constantinople. Afterwards in September 1282, he was married to Eudokia who soon was pregnant and to bear him a son, Alexios while on his stay. There is an interesting old story told about a further insult that came from their union. For the symbol of the Emperor of the Romans was the double headed eagle, but by becoming Despot the double headed eagle was reduced to only a single headed while his wife Eudokia, part of the imperial family used the double headed. This implied that his wife was superior to him and that she had nobler origins. Think of that, she came from a family, who though noble had only had the crown for a generation, while he husband came from a family that had ruled over Byzantium and Trebizond nearly two hundred years. Finally, later that year, John returned home to Trebizond where faithful to his agreement with Michael, he gave up the sonorous title and insignia of the Empire of the Romans, for Emperor of All the East, Iberia, and Perateia. Half the title, he did not even have claim too, but it was ego compensation. Preferably, from now on, the Emperors of Trebizond began to call themselves the Great Komnenoi, probably because it sounded bigger than it actually was. Few incidents in history have ever been more humiliating than this. John had given up the title not after a long and bloody war, as he should have, and a war his people would have been all too willing to fight, but willingly it seems. Moreover, to an Empire who was really too distant to impede in his affairs.

Once he had returned to Trebizond, John found that the spell of his alliance was to wear of very quickly because it had no practical value. For during his absence, the King of Georgia had taken advantage of the situation, to besiege his capital and ravage his lands. Though he had been beaten off, John troubles were only beginning. For as he had said in his response to Michael's first delegation, some of his nobles were furious with him, while the people who were intensely proud of the title were also annoyed and furious with him for relinquishing the title. The Turkomans chose this time also to release his brother George to create discord in Trebizond. He admittedly had his support among a body of disaffected nobles, but again he was defeated and his army destroyed. However George was not yet captured and spent a while wandering the mountains before he was captured. This time though John, for once acted wisely and share his throne with his brother, but unwisely gave the elder and far more competent no share in government. It would have bode well for John to watch his family, but he did not. In 1285, his sister Theodora somehow managed to seize the crown, though the means by which she did we do not know. Shortly afterwards she was defeated and John regained his throne, but she had managed to have coins minted of her reign and is remembered because of it. These humiliations though were not enough. The Turkomans overran the mineral rich province of Chalybria and seized it from the Empire for good. But seemingly, all of these struggles made little of a dent in the wealth of his Empire. For example, we find many letters addressed to John, one of them from the Pope himself who implores John to convert to Catholicism and be Christianity's envoy to the Tartars. John, we know, had no such intention of doing so, but it illustrates how he was viewed by those around him. Finally, though, John died in 1297 after a long and humiliating reign and was buried in the Church of the "Golden Headed Virgin."

The reign of John II Komnenos had not been a happy one. Beginning with the capture of his brother in 1280, it had not progressed well because John badly managed his Empire militarily and domestically. Civil strife had thrown him from his capital more than once, but John inflicted a wound deeper than his mismanagement of his people. He had destroyed his people's pride that their emperors were the only true successors of the fall of Constantinople. Above all, John destroyed his own power, which was already severely checked as we have seen by the nobles. But in relinquishing his title, John had also destroyed his own position in the people's eyes. From now on, they were to look more and more to Constantinople for precedence and authority. Why could John not have refused the marriage or better yet refused to even receive Michael's envoys. The answer is as we have already seen is John's weakness as a man and ruler. In a way, John had also destroyed his Empire's dignity and majesty, which was soon to leave it only a survivor in the Muslim East.

If John had left the Empire semi-dependent on Constantinople, his death left the Empire a dependency of Constantinople because John in a weak moment had entrusted his son Alexios to the care of his brother-in-law Andronikos, Emperor of Byzantium. And it was to his court that John's widow, Eudokia went to retrieve her son. She was received well by her brother and promised Alexios would be returned to her whenever she wished. All, however, was not well in her brother's Empire, which was being eaten away by the Turks, the Church was racked by the Arsenite scandal, and Byzantine Europe was crumbling. So to protect his European frontier, Andronikos tried to force Eudokia to marry Stephen Uros IV of Serbia, but to Eudokia the idea was repelling. To exchange the wealthy and luxurious court of Trebizond for the barbarian north had no appeal to her. The other reason for her refusal was that unexpectedly she had become attached to Trebizond and had no desire to harm it in any way. And that was not the half of it, Andronikos also sought to marry Alexios to the daughter of one of his minor officials. Obviously, Eudokia and her son had no desire to placate Andronikos' every whim, so they acted in tandem. Andronikos fled the city for his Empire where he quickly married the Iberian princess Pekal. Furious at this, Andronikos called a Church synod to annul the marriage because he had not approved of it. But all the ecclesiates could do was shake their heads, they had no desire to placate Andronikos either and there was also the fact Pekal was already pregnant. Meanwhile, Eudokia returned home on the grounds to make Alexios give up the union, but really, when she got there she told him to stick to her. At last, the meddling interference of Byzantium had been shaken off.

Finally, now that Alexios came to power, majesty and dignity were restored to Trebizond. At last, there was a ruler with energy and ability on the throne. He was definitely an improvement on his father that is for sure. And though, Alexios may also have loved his women and drink, he never forgot his responsibilities. In 1302, Alexios had defeated a Turkoman invasion and finally settled the score. For after conquering Chalybria, the Turkomans had gone on to sack Kerasunt, the second city of the Empire. But it was beneath those walls that he caught up with the invaders and defeated their army killing its leader. After that, Alexios was left to deal with the commercial interests of his Empire.

Trebizond after the sack of Baghdad in 1256 had become far more prosperous than it had ever been. As trade shifted from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, more and more merchants had come to the Empire and it had prospered and grown despite the incompetence of its rulers. But also with the increased trade came Italian merchants such as the Genoese and Venetian, who were already notorious for their arrogance and greed. And now they entered the Black Sea, mostly because of their treaties with the Emperor at Constantinople. Michael VIII, to recapture Constantinople had conferred ridiculous privileges on them. They were given complete freedom from taxation and tariffs as long as they acknowledged the Emperor as their suzerain. But the Genoese were a notoriously capitalistic people, greed was their means and it blinded them respecting the Emperor of Byzantium who they treated as they would a meddler in their affairs and with a total lack of respect. And so their business grew as they curtailed the revenues of Byzantium, and expanded onto the Black Sea where they founded the colony of Caffa to control this prosperous business. The treaty on which their entrance to Trebizond had been arranged on different lines unlike Constantinople because the Emperors of Trebizond had demanded they pay their tariffs as the main condition and because of this wise policy Trebizond never would go bankrupt as Byzantium did. But the Genoese after a time of enjoying this trade began to hunger for more as capitalists do and they sent an embassy to Alexios II demanding that he grant them rights similar to those at Constantinople. Alexios II, however would have none of it, he knew that this policy was economic suicide and would only cripple his country's revenues. Besides, he had already seen the Genoese become more haughty and arrogant year by year to the point at which the embassy was sent they were even refusing to allow imperial officials to see their good. They had arrogantly refused on the grounds that why should they, the rich and powerful Genoese be forced to bow before such puny officials as them. To Alexios' reply the Genoese unleashed their threat to completely leave the country and take their trade with them, but Alexios was not disturbed because he knew the Genoese's rival Italian merchants would be all to willing to take their place. All he asked was that the Genoese finally pay their dues before leaving. Te Genoese predictably, arrogantly refused and the war was on.

The Genoese were furious with Alexios and many simply ignored his request and left. Alexios then sent in his crack regiment the Iberians to restrain any more from doing so until they paid their dues. Victory was near, but then the Genoese, cowards as always, set fire to a Trapezuntine house near the Hippodrome in order to distract their adversaries. But then fate sent the fire instead towards their quarter of the city where all of their warehouses were. All was burned and the goods the war was being fought over destroyed. The Genoese were then broken and humbled by these events and beginning to fear their rivals would take advantage of their misfortune and increase their own power, so the Genoese sent another delegation to Alexios, this time asking only that all recent happenings in the war be forgotten. Wisely or not, Alexios then accepted them back into the fold. Soon however the Genoese would repair their losses and then become even wealthier at the expense of the Trapezuntines who could only become poorer. This was not the last time they would trouble Trebizond and Alexios knew it so he was sure to conclude a treaty with the Venetians, the Genoese's main rivals, granting them the same privileges as the Genoese as long as they paid their dues.

Further troubles to the Empire also came from the pirates of the Emirate of Sinope whose people had taken to the seas because of their feeble power on land. Their targets were Christian traders who sought to enrich themselves as we have already seen. What could have been better, kill the infidel and get rich off it. Such was their power that it became practical for the traders of the time to travel in small squadrons upon entering the Black Sea for their own protection. And when there was no plunder at sea, the pirates then turned on the people of the coast who they looted and plundered at will. In one of their plundering raids, the pirates even ventured to attack Trebizond looting the suburbs and countryside. So to protect his people from these raiders, Alexios built sea walls for his city's harbor. Finally, though, on May 30, 1330, Alexios died after a long and prosperous reign of thirty-three years to eternal praises of his virtues and good qualities. Under Alexios II, the small Empire of Trebizond finally reaches it climax. Never before had it been as wealthy or well defended. It is even possible that Alexios had what could be called policemen to patrol his Empire at nights. After this time, though, the decline began, which in a few short years changed Trebizond completely. Civil war broke out, the Empire was ravaged, and the Turks broke in. Trebizond in the end fell from its dignity until finally only one thing concerned it and that was to survive, leaving it only a remnant in the Muslim East.

1.It is doubtful whether Thamar was even alive at the time of their arrival. Finlay has it along with Georgian accounts that Thamar was dead by 1201, but they suggest a second Thamar who held more minor power. This leaves us to doubt whether or not the brothers grew up in Constantinople, but were brought to Georgia as pretenders to the throne.

2.Some historians believe that Andronikos Gidon was the same as who crushed David's Latin mercenaries, but this hardly seems plausible, though it still might be considering that he was Alexios' son-in-law. Gidos could also have meant as another historian has suggested "guardian."

3.He was the last Emperor crowned Emperor of the Romans, as we shall see.