We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2024
Chaos in the Camp
Because he was present in the fortified Byzantine camp, Michael Attaleiates was able to offer a highly emotional personal account of the unfolding disaster, as he experienced it through what he saw and what he heard from the soldiers who fled from the battlefield.1 There is a mixture of feelings in Attaleiates's account; panic and confusion about how the events unfolded, and uncertainty over who to ask for information: “Meanwhile, the flight of the others had led them to cluster outside the camp palisade and all were shout-ing incoherently and running about in disorder; nobody could say what exactly was going on.” Critically for Attaleiates, the fate of the emperor was of utmost importance, hence we read the contradicting reports that he received throughout Friday afternoon, “some claimed that the emperor was firmly resisting with what was left of his army and that he had routed the barbarians. Others said that he had been killed or captured. Everyone had something different to report, claiming victory for each side and then alternately denying it.”
Tthere was the growing awareness of the outcome of the battle, coupled with Atta-leiates's desperate attempts to avert the unfolding disaster by trying to convince some of the retreating soldiers to return to their posts, like in the aftermath of the desertion of some of the Oghuz on Thursday (August 25): “Finally, many of the Kappadokians who were with the emperor, one group after another, began to desert. Whether I myself was trying to stop many of the soldiers from running away and getting them to return to their posts to save us from defeat, I leave it to others to report.”
It was when Attaleiates had finally accepted that everything was lost, and a feeling of sadness and desperation set in that we read his harrowing words about the fate of the emperor and his army. There are reports of the Turks seizing and looting the imperial camp, but the loss of prestige was far harder to bear:
It was like an earthquake with howling, grief, sudden fear, clouds of dust, and, finally, hordes of Turks riding all around us.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
