The Birth of the Byzantine Empire of Trebizond

When the army of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204, the Byzantine Empire of Trebizond was formed as a successor state that lasted until 1461.

The fall of the capital of the Byzantine Empire was a great blow but luckily led to the emergence of five successor states, formed in different parts of its vast territory.

Other than the Empire of Trebizond in Pontus, the emergence of the Empire of Nicaea in Anatolia, the Empire of Thessalonica in Northern Greece, the Despotate of Epirus in Western Greece, and the Despotate of Morea, as the Peloponnese was called, continued the greatness of the empire.

The five so-called rump states of the Byzantine Empire were formed by Byzantine royalty and noblemen after the vicious attack on Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders. The Empire of Trebizond was the strongest of all, founded by Alexios II Komnenos and David Komnenos, grandsons of Andronikos I Komnenos. The borders of the new empire were restricted to a narrow strip of land along the southeast coast of the Black Sea and was isolated from Constantinople.

Under the rule of the Grand Komnenoi, the empire of Trebizond survived for over 250 years despite its small size and constant threat of conquest by the Ottomans.

Trebizond and the young Komnenoi

When Constantinople fell to the hands of the Western European and Venetian crusaders and Emperor Alexios V was overthrown, Alexios and David Komnenos, grandsons of deposed Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos had already moved to Georgia to their aunt, Queen Tamar of Georgia.

Queen Tamar provided troops and the two brothers marched to Trebizond, captured the city, and named it the capital, asserting a claim to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire. Along with the city of Trebizond, they took over the surrounding province of Chaldea and declared themselves autonomous.

Alexios declared himself “Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans Alexios I Megas Komnenos” at age 22. His brother David, as the general of the army, marched to the West conquering many cities back from the Sultanate of Iconium, including Sinope, and expanding the Trebizond Empire’s territory up to the borders of the Empire of Nicaea.

After the conquests, the Empire of Trebizond consisted of the narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea and the western half of the Pontic Mountains along with the Gazarian Perateia, or southern Crimea.

The Komnenian Empire soon split into two, as the two brothers seemed to have different ambitions. One was that of Alexios, who was content with Trebizond and Chaldea. The other part consisted of David’s conquests, including the lands of Paphlagonia, Pontic Heraclea, and even the region of Nicomedia near Constantinople. David’s ambition was to take over Bithynia, the Empire of Nicaea and even take back Constantinople.

A long line of conflicts and alliances

The Komnenos brothers were too young and inexperienced to deal with the intricacies of ruling an empire, regardless of how small Trebizond was. They had plenty of enemies from the start, including the neighboring Empire of Nicaea, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, Constantinople, and the Republic of Genoa.

One of the first attacks against them was that of the Sultanate of Iconium. With David’s conquests in the region, Konya’s people had been completely cut off from the ports of the Black Sea and therefore lost their trade routes. The Sultan besieged Trebizond but could not capture the city.

The first battle with Trebizond’s chief rival, the Empire of Nicaea, took place at the end of spring 1205 outside of Nicomedia. David’s army was defeated by the army of Theodore Laskaris. The general of Trebizond was then forced to enter into a truce with Constantinople Governor Henry of Flanders.

The second major conflict between the two neighboring empires took place at the end of
1206 with a campaign in Paphlagonia, where Laskaris, with the support of the native
population, reached as far as the walls of Heraclea. Yet, he could not conquer it, as, in the meantime, David received the help of his ally, the Latin governor of Constantinople

Trebizond survived by playing its rivals against each other, offering daughters as brides to rival families, or forming short alliances with friends and enemies. The common view of historians is that the empire survived and maintained its independence thanks to its wealth, coming from its trade with the Genoese and Venetian merchants.

In 1349, the long reign of Alexios III Megas Komnenos began, introducing the Golden Age of Trebizond. The wealth of Trebizond, which derived from its position as a major trade center, was maintained. The Empire of Trebizond also gained its reputation for superb diplomacy and the fostering of close relations with the other Byzantine states and the nomadic tribes bordering the empire. At the same time, they played the Genoese and Venetians off against each other.

Even the rise of the Ottoman Empire did not seem to stop the empire of Alexios III. He formed an alliance with the Turko-Mongol warlord Tamerlane, who trounced the Ottomans at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and took the Ottoman Sultan Bayezit I captive in a golden cage.

The Fall of Trebizond

The Trebizond Empire managed to last for more than 250 years despite all odds. However, it was impossible to stop the Ottoman Empire’s advancement. The Ottomans besieged Trebizond in 1442 and again in 1456, forcing the Trapezuntines to pay tribute. In the meantime, the Ottomans conquered the other remnants of the once-glorious Byzantine Empire. Constantinople fell in 1453 and the independent Peloponnese on mainland Greece fell in 1460.

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II saw that David Megas Komnenos (r. 1460-1461) was trying to ally with the European powers to invade the Ottoman Empire in a crusade. In just one month, with a furious attack, the Ottomans conquered Trebizond and ended the last real descendant of the Byzantine Empire.

Trebizond was the longest-lasting Byzantine successor state. It was a cultural and economic hub for centuries, and its legacy survives to this day in the Turkish city of Trabzon. Most importantly, however, the existence of the Empire of Trebizond helped preserve the Greek identity in the Pontus region up until the 20th century.