SeljukSultanAlpArslan
decidesthefateof captured
ByzantineEmperorRomanos
IV Diogeneswhilehistroops
mopupthebattlefieldOPPOSING
FORCES
BYZANTINE
COMMANDER:
EmperorRomanos
IV Diogenes
TROOPS:
70,000
(cavalry& infantry)SELJUK
COMMANDER:
SultanAlp
Arslan
TROOPS:
40,000
(cavalry)VS
A proven commander
Romanos’s predecessor, Constantine X, who
ruled for eight years from 1059 to 1067, had
gutted the Byzantine military. Constantine
had allowed frontier fortifications to fall into
disrepair, had disbanded the 50,000 Armenian
militiamen guarding the eastern frontier, and
had sharply curtailed military funding.
Upon the death of Constantine X Dukas
in 1067, Empress Eudocia married Imperial
general Romanos Diogenes to help her
protect the empire during the minority of her
son Michael Dukas. Her primary reason for
choosing Romanos over other candidates
was her faith in his ability to restore the
military to its former glory so that it could put
an end to the embarrassing Seljuk raids of
the Byzantine interior.
Eudocia’s new husband hailed from a
distinguished aristocratic Cappadocian family
whose members had a long tradition of
imperial military service. He had made a name
for himself in successful campaigns against
the Pechenegs in the Balkans. He was
handsome, fearless, and courageous. Yet he
could also be arrogant, cruel, and intolerant.
He was at an advantage from the first days of
his reign because the Dukas family detestedhim and immediately began undermining his
authority. The newly minted Byzantine emperor
“decided to make war, in order not to appear
unmanly and frightened, and in order not to
leave to posterity a bad impression of himself,”
wrote Aristakes Lastivertsi, an 11th century
Armenian historian.The Great Seljuks
The Seljuks were one of 24 nomadic warrior
clans that shared the Turkic Oghuz language and
lived in the steppe land regions of Transoxiana
in Central Asia. The influence of Muslim Arab
traders in the region compelled the Seljuks, whoMANZIKERT