Diplomacy gone to seed: a history of Byzantine foreign relations, A.D. 1047-57

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2004 by Paul A. Blaum

At this point, Constantine IX had been faced with the ghazwa of Ibrahim Inal into Armenia, and he thought of using the Turkish Patzinaks against their Seljuk cousins. The imperial government enrolled 15,000 of the sturdiest Patzinaks in an auxiliary corps under four of their chieftains: Sultzun, Selte, Karaman, and Kataleim.

The Byzantines supplied them with excellent weapons and mounts and sent them over the Bosporus en route for Armenia. They camped first at Chrysopolis (Scutari), where they were placed under the command of the patrician Constantine Hadrobalanus. The Patzinaks had proceeded only a few miles to Damatrys, when they decided to hold a council. Some favored deserting the Byzantine army and taking refuge in the mountains of northwestern Anatolia; others preferred to remain loyal to the Empire and march onward. Kataleim carried the day by urging that they return at once to the Balkans and rejoin their compatriots now settled as agricultural colonists. The Patzinaks hastened back to the Bosporus. Not without difficulty, Hadrobalanus escaped their wrath by hiding in a granary near Damatrys. Having reached the monastery of St. Tarasius, where the Bosporus is most narrow, the Patzinaks found no boats to ferry them across them across. Kataleim, undaunted, assembled a group of cavalry and led them in person across the Bosporus, oblivious to its swift and treacherous current and the fact that the strait is hundreds of feet deep. Once he had arrived on the European side, Kataleim found a number of boats with which to transport the entire Patzinak host over the waters. The Patzinaks wasted no time in linking up with their fellow tribesmen at Sardica and Naissus, and the united Patzinak nation swarmed northward to the Danube. The magistros Constantine Arianites--then Domestic of the Schools or commander-inchief of Byzantine troops in the Balkans--followed hard after them, but succeeded only in occupying the camp of one of their chiefs, Selte. The latter remained apart from his fellows and established his headquarters at Lobitzos (Lovech), on the northern slopes of the Balkan range. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Patzinaks entrenched themselves in a strategically located place called the "Hundred Hills," probably close to modern-day Nikopol. From that strong position, the Patzinaks rode out on plundering expeditions throughout the surrounding districts.