Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium Episode 223, Questions 8.

When we were last together I asked if you had any questions about Alexius and the Crusades,

and you did.

Today we'll go through your questions and round out our understanding of the state of

Byzantium in 1118 AD.

I will look at specific questions one at a time, but if I had to try and smush all your

questions into one, it would be what is the state of the Byzantine economy and army at

the end of Alexius' reign?

The bad news is, obviously, in what the Empire has lost.

This includes Antioch and Celicia, good farming country with healthy tax revenue, the

Armenian borderlands full of tough recruits and important trading towns like Melatine, The

Adosiopolis and Annie, the whole of the Anatolian plateau, sparsely populated yes, but still

in possession of important cities, and of course it was a huge grazing zone where valuable

herds and flocks lived, by Zantium had lost its major stud farms that had been providing

the Empire with its best horses for a millennium.

Trebuson II and the coast around it was now semi-independent, open to Byzantine shipping

but not necessarily sending much taxation home, even the lands that Alexius had recovered

were now exposed to raids from the Turks.

The good news is that the west coast of Anatolia was one of the wealthiest and most populous

parts of the Empire and it was now back in Roman hands.

The Aegean was once more a Byzantine sea, safe and secure and allowing trade to flow

between all coordinates.

...