Frederic was entirely successful

In the spring of 1190 Koutbeddin, to whose share Si was had fallen, attacked the army of Frederic. During a month’s hard fighting, in which, according to some accounts, 300,000 Turks were beaten, Frederic was entirely successful. In one battle 5000 Turks were slain. After Iconium had been captured, amid a slaughter in which 27,000 of the enemy perished, Frederic continued his march.

When he neared Alexandretta he received offers of assistance from Leo of Armenia, who was engaged in attacking the Turks. The incident is interesting as showing the vitality which remained in the Armenian kingdom, and suggests that under a very slight change of circumstances a strong Christian kingdom might have been re-established from Alexandretta to the Caspian, which might have been maintained as the first line for the defence of Christendom.

Leo continued to give aid to the Crusaders, and at length, in 1200, during the internal divisions among the sons of Kilidji Arslan, he received Kai Khosroe, the Sultan of Iconium, as a fugitive seeking his protection. In truth, the Selju- kian Turks had become so completely weakened by the continual attacks of the empire, and by the partial damming of the stream of emigrants by the re-establishment of Armenia and Georgia, that after the severe losses suffered at the hands of the German Crusaders, they are scarcely heard of until after the fall of Constantinople.

The long struggle against this brave, fanatical, and persistent enemy had. however, wearied out the in straggle had exhausted habitants of Asia Minor. The exactions of the empire.

Reasonable hope of peace

Empire, in order to meet the invaders, made the population ready to accept any conditions which gave a reasonable hope of peace holidays bulgaria. Many of the Christian subjects of the emperor took advantage of the inducements which the leaders of the Turks began to hold out to them, and emigrated from the imperial territories into those of a sultan who governed better than usual.

The sketch that I have here given of the struggle with the Seljukian Turks shows how formidable was the difficulty which they constituted for the empire. They were defeated in a long series of battles, and yet they continually renewed the struggle. Great armies were slaughtered, and yet new ones shortly after took the field. The victory of the empire was on several occasions so decisive, and the number of Turks slain so great, that the Homans might well think themselves justified in believing that they had annihilated the foe.

Immigrants from Central Asia

The Crusaders, too, inflicted what they thought to be crushing, and what were really very serious, blows. But the constant flow of a stream of immigrants from Central Asia recruited the strength of the invaders, and Homans and Crusaders were alike powerless to put an end to their progress. The empire had, as we shall see, other and powerful enemies to contend against. The struggle it had maintained for a century and a half against the Turks, and the loss of revenue from so wealthy a territory as that which it had lost, had greatly weakened it.

The cost in men and money had drained the imperial treasury, and compelled the emperors to inflict a burden of taxation upon their subjects greater than they could bear. Ho fact could show more conclusively to what desperate straits Asia Minor had come than that Christian populations should have voluntarily exchanged the rule of the empire for that of the Turk. Whole districts had been allowed to go out of cultivation. Villages had disappeared. Cities of ancient renown were rapidly dwindling down to insignificant villages, or were becoming altogether forgotten.

Asia Minor, instead of being a source of strength to the empire, had become one of weakness. The increasing attacks of a barbarous horde, whoso losses were immediately supplied by the stream of barbarians whom the hope of plunder and religious fanaticism attracted, had lessened the strength of the empire, largely exhausted its resources, and diminished its reputation.