Byzantine-Seljuk wars
Date 1117 Location Philomelion, Asia Minor Result Byzantine victory1
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Sultanate of Rum
Commanders
Alexios I Komnenos	Sultan Malik Shahr
Strength
Unknown	Unknown

v • d • e Byzantine-Seljuk wars Kapetrou – 1st Manzikert – Caesarea – Iconium – 2nd Manzikert – 1st Nicaea – Antioch – Seljuk Campaigns in the Aegean – 2nd Nicaea – 3rd Nicaea – Philomelion – Campaigns of John I Komnenos – Myriokephalon – Hyelion and Leimocheir – Cotyaeum – Trebizond – Antalya – Battle of Antioch on the Meander

The Battle of Philomelion of 1117 occurred in the course of the Byzantine-Seljuk wars.

Following the success of the First Crusade and the failure of the Crusade of 1101, the Turks resumed their offensive operations against the Byzantines. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, aged and suffering from an illness which proved to be terminal was unable to deal with the swift Turkish raids into what was left of Byzantine Anatolia. An attempt to take Nicaea in 1113 was thwarted by the Byzantines. Nonetheless in the aftermath of the Frankish invasions much land was re-consolidated by the Seljuk Turks under the centralized authority of Iconium where the Sultanate of Rum had established itself under Sultan Malik Shahr. Events of the battle are unclear but it appears to have ended favorably for the Byzantines.²

Aftermath

Alexios was nearing death - his ill condition meant that he could not fight the Sultan until a year after he had set out in 1116. Alexios' death in 1118 meant that the reconquest of Asia Minor would have to be left to his 31 year old son, John II Komnenos.

References

• Norwich, John Julius (1997). A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books. 

Notes