Komnenian restoration

The Komnenian Restoration is the term used by historians to describe the military, financial, and territorial recovery of the Byzantine Empire under the Komnenian dynasty, from the accession of Alexios I Komnenos in 1081 to the death of Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185. At the onset of the reign of Alexios I, the empire was reeling from its defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The empire was also being threatened by the Normans of Robert Guiscard, who were invading the Balkans from their base in southern Italy. All this occurred as the empire's military institution was in disarray and had grown increasingly reliant on mercenaries. Previous emperors had also squandered the large gold deposits of Constantinople, so the defense of the empire had broken down, and there were few troops to fill the gaps.

The Komnenoi nevertheless managed to reassert Byzantine pre-eminence in the Mediterranean world, militarily and culturally. Relations between the Byzantine East and Western Europe flourished, epitomized by the collaboration of Alexios I and later emperors with the Crusaders (Alexios was instrumental in calling the First Crusade). The scattered and disorganized Byzantine army was restructured into a competent fighting force that became known as the Komnenian Byzantine army. Although the empire rapidly disintegrated after the death of the last Komnenoi Emperor, Andronikos I, in 1185, the Komnenian Restoration represented the final apex of the thousand-year history of the Byzantine Empire.

In the decades before the Komnenoi, the Byzantine Empire had been on a steady decline due to weak emperors who squandered the gold fortunes of the empire and allowed the military system to fall into neglect. The empire's holdings in Southern Italy were finally lost to the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond of Taranto, who quickly turned to the weakly held Balkan provinces of Byzantium that were ripe for plunder. Meanwhile, on the Anatolian front, Byzantine frontier defenses fell into decay as successive emperors disbanded the large standing armies of previous eras in order to save money. Instead of a professional army, they relied on mercenaries and aging conscripts to defend the tenuous frontier. In 1071, Emperor Romanos Diogenes tried to re-assert Byzantine dominance in Anatolia, but he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Manzikert by the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan, a seminal moment in Byzantine history. After his capture the empire descended into civil war as many grappled for the Imperial purple in Constantinople. During this time, much of Anatolia was overrun by the Seljuk Turks, and the military of the empire completely fell apart as defensive positions were abandoned, and territory was quickly lost to the advancing Turks.

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