In 838 Theophilos, Emperor of the Romans, set out on a major campaign against the Arabs in Melitene. It seemed like he was successful as he freed a few towns from Arab rule as well as forcing Melitene to pay tribute. However, he had put his people in great danger with this victory. The Arab Caliph Mu’tasim “vowed to avenge this humiliation.”
The Caliph Mu’tasim retaliated the next year in 838 with a “more extensive, and for the Byzantines, far more harmful campaign. His chief objects were Ankyra & Amorion, the latter of symbolic value because it was the emperor’s birthplace.” Before the Arabs arrived, Theophilos was informed by his network of spies and scouts that he needed to prepare for a huge invasion. The Emperor duly raised the imperial army, and “set out in June with tagmata and, probably, units of the European themes of Thrace/Macedonia. Also accompanying the army was a force of Kurdish rebels who had…been re-equipped by the emperor as regular imperial troops. At Dorylaion the emperor divided his forces, sending a large reinforcement to assist the garrison of Amorion, taking the rest of the army himself, perhaps as many as 25,000 men, to Cappadocia, where he blocked the route from the Cilician gates to Ancyra.”
The Arabs split into three different groups. One army under the commander Afshin went east to Melitene, the other two marched towards Ancyra just as Theophilos had expected. During the campaign Roman intelligence “seems to have been poor, whereas the Muslim leader was able to capture some Byzantine scouts and learn of the emperor’s position blocking his route…This information was passed onto Afshin.” He had an army of “possibly 20,000…including a very substantial amount of Turkish horse archers, as many as 10,000 strong.” Afshin had moved towards Dazimon, and Theophilos took most of his army there to deal with his threat. “On 21 July the imperial forces came into visual contact with the Muslim forces, which had occupied a defensive position.” At dawn, Theophilos launched his army against Afshin’s army. “The imperial forces were immediately successful on one wing, driving the enemy forces from their positions within a short time, and inflicting some 3,000 casualties. At some point during this the emperor decided to reinforce his other wing with the troops under his command, with with some 2,000 of the tagmata and the Kurds rode across the rear of his own lines…” After the success of the opening stages of the battle, Afshin unleashed his Turkish horse archers. Immediately “their effective shooting halted the Roman advance & gave the withdrawing Arab forces time to regroup and reform their lines.”
Things really took a turn when the Roman army did not see the standard of Theophilos at the rear “and, assuming that he had fallen, began to waver. Under the continuous hail of missiles from the Turkish mounted archers, they began to fall back in some disorder, and shortly after the Roman battle line quickly dissolved.” Now the Arabs took their chance to launch a counter-attack on the disorganized Roman army – and most of the Romans fled. “The enemy forces were now able to surround the units that remained with the emperor — the tagmata & their commander, and the Kurdish units — and isolate them on the hill of Anzen, where they took up a strong defensive position.” Turkish arrows pummeled the hill, and it seemed the emperor might die.
Then it rained, which made the Turkish bows unable to operate. However, thing still were bad. The Romans saw the Kurds talking to the enemy in their native tongue, realizing they may be trying to switch sides to save themselves. Afshin also was bringing up catapults to bombard the hill. Theophilos, who himself had been abandoned by his army who thought he was dead – did what he had to do – he took his elite guard and escaped. The remaining 2,000 men were left on the hill, and surrendered. After that “their subsequent fate is unknown.” Theophilos was able to survive and take command of the rest of his army.
Source: The Byzantine Wars by John Haldon
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