Capture of Melitene from the Madrid copy of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes
John Kourkouas captures Melitene, providing the Empire with its first eastern conquest in centuries. The Islamic world is alarmed at this news and the Hamdanid family begin to provide resistance. However their preoccupation with Baghdad means they may have already conceded the mountains to the Romans.
Period: 931-940
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Really enjoying these episodes. I was doing some reading and I came across a battle in which a coalition of Roman, papal and southern lombard dukes took an Arab stronghold in the south of Italy in the battle of Garigliano in 915. Would this suggest that the Romans were far more active in other fields of interest rather than just interests closer to home and had for more engaging relationship with the papacy militarily?
I think I mentioned on the podcast that I didn’t want to get into the details of events in Italy. And yes that was one of them. As the overall picture in Italy hasn’t changed I felt it would become far too tedious to attempt to recount each twist and turn on the ground.
Though this battle is pointed to occasionally as a great collaboration it doesn’t appear to have been the harbinger of any great spirit of cooperation. The Lombards and Byzantines in particular were quickly back to mistrust.