Empire of Trebizond

The Empire of Trebizond, or Trapezuntine Empire, was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire that existed during the 13th through to the 15th century. The empire consisted of the Pontus, or far northeastern corner of Anatolia, and portions of southern Crimea.

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Empire of Trebizond
1204–1461[1]
Double-headed eagle flag as depicted in Western portolans[2]
Map of the Empire of Trebizond shortly after the foundation of the Latin Empire in 1204, featuring the short-lived conquests in western Anatolia by David Komnenos (later reconquered by the Empire of Nicaea) and Sinope (later conquered by the Sultanate of Rum).
Status	Successor of the Byzantine Empire Client state of the Kingdom of Georgia (1204–1227)[upper-alpha 1] Vassal of the Mongol Empire (1243–1336)
Capital	Trebizond
Common languages	Pontic Greek (official) Laz[5] Western Armenian, Old Anatolian Turkish,[6] Ligurian, Latin
Religion	Greek Orthodoxy
Government	Monarchy
Notable emperors1
• 1204–1222	Alexios I
• 1238–1263	Manuel I
• 1280–1297	John II
• 1349–1390	Alexios III
• 1459–1461	David
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
• Establishment[7]	1204
• Fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade	12 April 1204
• Submission to the Mongol Empire	1243
• Permanent loss of Sinope	1265
• John II renounces Imperial claims	1282
• Trapezuntine Civil Wars	1340–1349
• Fall of Trebizond	15 August 1461[1]
Preceded by Succeeded by Byzantine Empire (Angelos dynasty) Ottoman Empire Genoese Gazaria Principality of Theodoro
Today part of	Georgia Russia Turkey Ukraine
1 the full title of the Trapezuntine emperors after 1282 was "the faithful Basileus and Autokrator of All the East, the Iberians and Perateia"

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The Trapezuntine Empire was formed in 1204 with the help of Queen Tamar of Georgia after the Georgian expedition in Chaldia and Paphlagonia,^[3] which was commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the Sack of Constantinople. Alexios later declared himself emperor and established himself in Trebizond (now Trabzon in Turkey).

Alexios and David Komnenos, grandsons and last male descendants of the deposed emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, pressed their claims as Roman emperors against Alexios V Doukas. The later Byzantine emperors, as well as Byzantine authors, such as George Pachymeres, Nicephorus Gregoras, and to some extent Trapezuntines such as John Lazaropoulos and Basilios Bessarion, regarded the emperors of Trebizond as the "princes of the Lazes" while the possession of these "princes" was also called Lazica.^[3][8] From the point of view of Byzantine writers connected with the Laskaris and later the Palaiologos dynasties, the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors.^[3]

After the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade overthrew Alexios V and established the Latin Empire, the Empire of Trebizond became one of three Byzantine successor states to claim the imperial throne alongside the Empire of Nicaea under the Laskaris family and the Despotate of Epirus under a branch of the Angelos family.^[9] The ensuing wars saw the Empire of Thessalonica, the imperial government that sprang from Epirus, collapse following conflicts with Nicaea and the Second Bulgarian Empire and the final recapture of Constantinople by the Nicaeans in 1261.

Despite the Nicaean reconquest, the Emperors of Trebizond continued to style themselves as Roman emperor for two decades and to press their claim on the imperial throne. Emperor John II of Trebizond officially gave up the Trapezuntine claim to the Roman imperial title and Constantinople itself 21 years after the Nicaeans recaptured the city, altering his imperial title from "Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans" to "Emperor and Autocrat of all the East, Iberia and Perateia".^[10]

The Trapezuntine monarchy survived the longest among the Byzantine successor states. The Despotate of Epirus had ceased to contest the Byzantine throne even before the Nicaean reconquest and was briefly occupied by the restored Byzantine Empire c. 1340, thereafter becoming a Serbian Imperial dependency later inherited by Italians, ultimately falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1479.

The restored empire ended in 1453 with the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans. Trebizond lasted until 1461, when the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II conquered it after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity.^[11]

The Crimean Principality of Theodoro, an offshoot of Trebizond, lasted another 14 years, falling to the Ottomans in 1475.