Byzantine Battles: Battle of Levounion - Xronikon-Byzantine Chronicle

on August 26, 1071, a Byzantine army under Romanos IV Diogenes was defeated by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in eastern Asia Minor. The defeat caused the emperor to be deposed and replaced by the ineffectual Michael VII Doukas, who refused to honour the treaty that had been signed by Romanos. In response, the Turks began to move into Anatolia in 1073, meeting no opposition. Chaos reigned as the empire's resources were squandered in a series of disastrous civil wars. Thousands of Turkoman tribesmen crossed the unguarded frontier and moved into Anatolia. By 1080, an area of 78,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) had been lost by the empire. It is almost impossible to overestimate the significance of these events, as within less than a decade more than half of the manpower of the empire had been lost, along with much of its grain supply. Thus the battle of Manzikert resulted in the greatest blow to the empire in its 700 years of history.

It is against this backdrop of defeat and disaster that Alexios Komnenos, a successful young general who had been fighting against the Turks since the age of fourteen, ascended the throne on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1081. According to John Julius Norwich, the significance of Alexios' rise to power was that "...for the first time in over half a century the empire was in capable hands." Alexios determined to restore the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire, whatever the cost. Around 1090 or 1091, EmirChaka of Smyrna suggested an alliance with the Pechenegs in order to completely destroy the Byzantine Empire.

The Pechenegs appear to have been caught by surprise. The battle that took place on the next morning at Levounion was practically a massacre. The Pechenegs had brought their women and children with them, and they were totally unprepared for the ferocity of the attack that was unleashed upon them. The Cumans and the Byzantines fell upon the enemy camp, slaughtering all in their path. The Pechenegs quickly collapsed, and the victorious allies butchered them so savagely that they were almost wiped out. The survivors were captured by the Byzantines and taken into imperial service.

Background  story ;  In the spring of 1087, news reached the Byzantine

court of a huge invasion from the north. The invaders were PechenegsAlexios I was forced to rely on his own ingenuity and diplomatic skill to save his empire. He appealed to another nomadic tribe, the Cumans, to help him against the Pechenegs.

The well-paid Cumans hurried to join the Byzantine army. On 28 April 1091, Alexios and his allies reached the Pecheneg camp at Levounion near the delta of the Hebrus (Maritsa) river.