Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/64

 46 TUE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. he broke Lis promise, and commenced a series of attacks on the cities which the emperor had recently recovered in Asia Minor. Within the next five years two other Moslem nations gave trouble to the empire — the Persians and a new detachment of Turks from Khelat. George, King of Georgia, which had struggled into life again, attacked the Lord of Khelat, who had come with 80,000 men, and succeeded in defeating him. The war which he conducted on the frontier went on with varying success until 1166, when George was defeated, and the city of xini was abandoned to Kilidji Arslan the Second. During the whole of these later years Manuel had been fight- ing the Turks, and had been steadily gaining upon them ; and in 1167 we find him endeavoring to rebuild or repair Perga- mos, Adramyttium, and other cities of Asia Minor. The war, however, broke out again in the year 1175. The immediate cause of the renewal of hostilities was the recon- struction by the sultan of the fortifications of Dory Icon, a strong position on the river Sangarius. The neighboring district had been found peculiarly convenient for the pastu- rage of the flocks of his nomad hordes. These hordes ravaged the country, burned the villages of the Greeks, and were doing their best to complete the devastation most natural to Turk- ish rule. The emperor collected a large army, consisting in part of Servians and Hungarians, upon the river Rhyn- Manuei^^c-^"^ dacus. The sultan's army was reinforced by a body of Turks from Mesopotamia, and probably also from Armenia. Unwilling, however, to risk a battle, he sent to beg for peace on any terms. The emperor replied that he would treat only at Iconium, and continued his march towards that city. Summer had already arrived. The Greeks suffered greatly from the heat. The Turks attacked them while wearied with hot marching and inflicted a severe defeat. Many of the best soldiers of the empire perished. The em- the saints and the standard of the Cross were to have been the chief or- naments.