Battle of Myriokephalon

Battle of Myriokephalon
Part of the Byzantine–Seljuq Wars
Emperor Manuel I Komnenos
Date September 17, 1176 Location Near Lake Beyşehir, Turkey Result Seljuk Strategic victory Military balance maintained
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire Kingdom of Hungary Principality of Antioch	Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm
Commanders and leaders
Manuel I Komnenos Andronikos Kontostephanos Baldwin of Antioch † John Kantakouzenos † Andronikos Lampardas Theodore Mavrozomes Constantine Makrodoukas Ampud Leustach Rátót	Kilij Arslan II
Strength
25,000–40,000 men	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown*	Unknown*
*Possibly heavy

The Battle of Myriokephalon, also known as the Battle of Myriocephalum, or Miryokefalon Savaşı in Turkish, was a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in Phrygia on September 17, 1176. The battle was a strategic reverse for the Byzantine forces, who were ambushed when moving through a mountain pass. It was to be the final, unsuccessful effort by the Byzantines to recover the interior of Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks.

Between 1158 and 1161 a series of Byzantine campaigns against the Seljuk Turks of the Sultanate of Rûm resulted in a treaty favourable to the Empire, with the sultan recognising a form of subordination to the Byzantine emperor. Immediately after peace was negotiated the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II visited Constantinople where he was treated by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos as both an honoured guest and an imperial vassal. Following this event there was no overt hostility between the two powers for many years. It was a fragile peace, however, as the Seljuks wanted to push from the arid central plateau of Asia Minor into the more fertile coastal lands, while the Byzantines wanted to recover the Anatolian territory they had lost since the Battle of Manzikert one hundred years earlier.

During the long peace with the Seljuks Manuel was able to concentrate his military power in other theatres. In the west he defeated Hungary and imposed Byzantine control over all the Balkans. In the east he recovered Cilicia from local Armenian dynasts and managed to reduce the Crusader Principality of Antioch to vassal status. However, the peace with Byzantium also allowed Killij Arslan to eliminate internal rivals and strengthen his military resources. When the strongest Muslim ruler in Syria Nur ad-Din Zangi died in 1174, his successor Saladin was more concerned with Egypt and Palestine than the territory bordering the Empire. This shift in power gave Kilij Arslan the freedom to destroy the Danishmend emirates of eastern Anatolia and also eject his brother Shahinshah from his lands near Ankara. Shahinshah, who was Manuel's vassal, and the Danishmend emirs fled to the protection of Byzantium. In 1175 the peace between Byzantium and the Sultanate of Rûm fell apart when Kilij Arslan refused to hand over to the Byzantines, as he was obliged to do by treaty, a considerable proportion of the territory he had recently conquered from the Danishmends.

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