Ta Akra
τα ακρα
“The Edges”
The region located at the junction of Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Syria and the Anatolian subcontinent has long been one torn by war. For centuries the conflict was an East/West one, between the great Empires of Iran and Rome, until all that was brought to a close in the middle of the seventh century by the arrival of the Arabs, who turned the Roman Empire’s battle to defend itself into a North/South war. Now, with the arrival into the region of the rising power of the Turks, all is thrown into chaos, as Arab, Greek, Armenian, Turk and Kurd each battle to carve out a chunk of this borderland.
Before we go any further, you can get a quick look at the overall map, to see exactly the area we’re talking about here.
Geography and Agriculture
The western edge of this area is marked by the natural ramparts of the Taurus Mountains, for centuries a semi-porous frontier between the Christian and Muslim ruled worlds. Further east, the land becomes generally easier- large, well watered valleys supported several sizeable cities and a good deal of agriculture. Agriculture itself in this region mostly takes the form of arable farming, with the Empire’s major cattle ranching areas found further to the west, on the dry central plateau of Anatolia. The more fertile and forgiving lands are ideal for other crops- grain, mostly, but vineyards also have a part to play.
Although the region is not as heavily urbanised as are Syria and Mesopotamia, the borderland is still studded with a number of important cities, that rose to prominence as the seat of semi-independent principalities in the ninth century, notably the raiding emirate of Melitene and the stronghold of the Gnostic Christian group known as the Paulicians at Tephrike. By the end of the eleventh century, these cities had experienced several generations of peace for the first time in centuries, and were fast growing to considerable sizes that they had not approached since the sixth century.
Decisions on city placement were difficult for the DotS team, and have sadly resulted in a number of important cities being represented by PSFs, such as Samosata and Tarsus. You will find the borderlands here represented by five important cities- Cappadocian Caesarea, (in Greek Kaisareia, in Turkish Kayseri), Sebastea (the Turkish Sivas), Trebizond (known to Greek-speakers as Trapezounta or Trapezous and to Turks as Trabzon), Theodosiopolis, which has through mysterious roots acquired a name based around “Arza of the Romans” and Adana in Cilicia.
Caesarea was perhaps the only city of central Anatolia to avoid shrinking to a small fortified acropolis in the dark years of the seventh and eighth centuries. It was one of the great strongholds of the Imperial army, and numerous soldier-Emperors were proclaimed there.
Sebastea, which takes its name from “Sebastos”, the Greek form of the Latin “Augustus” was a city that did well out of the extensive building projects of the Great Justinian back in the balmy sixth century, enjoying new walls and extensive building work. These fortifications helped it weather the storm of Arab raids better than many, and it briefly enjoyed a period as the most prominent city of Cappadocia in the first half of the tenth century, before Caesarea regained the top spot. The city has a very large population of Armenians, hostile to Constantinople and their compatriots to the south who ally themselves with the Empire.
Trebizond, somewhat shielded from the troubles of the outside world by mountains and sea, had been a flourishing port town since the days of Diocletian. In the late eleventh century, though, this had come to a rude end, with fighting over the city between Turkomans and a noble family of the Empire, the House of Gabras. In this troubled time, Trebizond’s true days of glory lie ahead of her.
Theodosiopolis took her name from, unsurprisingly, the Emperor Theodosius II (408-450), in whose reign the city was established as a great fortress on the main highway from Constantinople to Armenia. The city’s new name, from which the modern Turkish Erzurum derives, is of uncertain provenance- some attribute it to Armenians fleeing a town named Ezra and settling, hence “the Roman Erza”, others guess on an Arabic phrase, Arzan ar-Rūm, meaning simply “Land of the Romans”. Wherever the phrase derives from, Theodosiopolis is certainly far from Constantinople’s control now, and in such a time of unease it is open to doubt whether her large population can be sustained.
Adana in Cilicia rose to prominence over the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries, eclipsing the larger settlements at Tarsus and Anazarbos, which had been the seats of Roman power either side of the period of Arab rule over Cilicia. Adana is now undeniably the up and coming settlement of the region, with Armenian settlement of the city reaching a critical mass.
You can take a look at all these cities, plus the PSFs attached, below.
History, Demography and Politics
Following a decisive victory over an Arab army at the Battle of Poson in the summer of 863, the Roman Empire, based at its five hundred year old capital of Constantinople, had been able to increasingly gain the ascendancy in its long war against Islam, and finally move onto a sustained offensive in the East. This was made most manifest in the spectacular campaigns of the Emperor John I in the 970s, when the former Caliphal capital at Damascus was sacked by a Christian army, and much of Syria, Palestine and Iraq forced to pay tribute to Constantinople. John (technically a usurper) was succeeded by his stepson Basil II, the legitimate heir of the ruling Macedonian dynasty, who continued this military focus, fighting off a Fatimid challenge to the Roman dominance of what were the once the borderlands of the Arab world but had become a flourishing economic heartland of the Christian Empire. For the generals, Strategoi, stationed in the East’s great cities the centuries of Muslim rule over Syria and upper Mesopotamia must have seemed merely a brief interruption to the Empire’s God-given right to rule the region.
In terms of culture and religion, the eastern provinces of the Empire were an eclectic mix of languages and religions, quite different from the imperial core around the Aegean Sea. The centre of the Empire was almost entirely Greek speaking and Chalcedonian Christian, but in the East, variety abounded. Greeks were joined as the ruling class by Armenians with the two, despite differences in religion and language, able to come together as subjects of the eternal Christian Empire of the Roman people. Together, this Graeco-Armenian class ruled over a subject population made up of many different peoples- Arab Christians, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenian and Georgian immigrants, Nestorians, Jews, and Muslims of both sects. So strong was the pull of the East on Constantinople that the tenth century saw the construction in the bastion of Orthodox religion of both “heretical” churches and mosques. And, while religious toleration could only ever go so far, it seemed as though the differences between the Empire’s eastern subjects could be papered over for the good of the state, once again the greatest power of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.
Sadly, it was not to be. From the 1040s onwards, with the consolidation of Seljuk Turk power over the Abbasid Caliphate, nomadic groups of barbarian raiders were increasingly pushed towards the Imperial frontiers by their distant kinsmen the Seljuk Sultans. These barbarians, known as “Turkomans” were lightly Islamised and savage peoples, intent on booty. For some time, their raiding was kept in check by the disciplined Imperial armies, but, following the deposition of the warrior Emperor Isaac I in 1059, the situation fast slid away, and Turkoman attacks became more and more successful. In part, the Empire became a victim of its own success- lumbering, heavily armed professional armies used to fighting and winning pitched battles were totally outflanked by light Turkish cavalry.
In 1068, the Emperor Romanos IV took power, hoping to reverse the situation somewhat. Winning some small victories over the Turkomans in 1069 and 1070, he decided to follow this up once and for all with a major campaign in the summer of 1071 to consolidate his rule over the East. What actually happened was an unmitigated disaster for the Emperor, when his confused and ill-informed army found itself blundering into battle with the full might of the Seljuk Sultan himself near the town of Manzikert in Roman controlled Armenia. The Emperor himself was captured, his armies forced to retreat, and chaos soon descended upon the East, as rival generals abandoned their positions and dashed to Constantinople to attempt to claim the throne. The frontier now unguarded, the Turks moved in.
And yet, a decade later, elements of the Eastern frontier remain loyal to Constantinople. Plenty of towns saw the Turkomans pass them by entirely, so that the Eastern front continues to boast numerous Armenian and Greek commanders pledging loyalty to the Roman Empire of Constantinople, even if the frontier they hold is now a hollow shell. Perhaps the most successful of these is one Philaretos Brakhamios, an Armenian Strategos who controls the large city of Antioch and much of the upper Euphrates too. With the newly crowned Emperor Aleksios desperate for any support he can get, Brakhamios need only refrain from directly attacking Constantinople to be able to practise an essentially independent foreign policy, in an area that bears much potential. The armies of the East are battered, but far from broken, and under an ambitious commander, who knows what could be achieved?
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Giorgios so we can get the Anatolia preview
Originally Posted by Slaytaninc
