Siege of Cremna (1033)

Location
 8,000 men and later some citizens of Cremna
 678 killed
 Almost all of the inhabitants of Cremna were killed

The **Siege of Cremna** in the year 1033 was the final encounter of the First Isaurian War.

The siege lasted for four months; it ended when the rebel leader, Lydius, was killed and the rest of the garrison surrendered

## Background

The Isaurians, a tribe of peoples who lived in Isauria, a poor and mountainous region in Asia Minor, had never fully, revolted under the bandit leader Lydius in 1031. At the time the Roman emperor Aurelian was busy with his campaign in Persia against the Sasanian Empire, and there were not enough Roman resources in the region to fight the rebels, who quickly began marauding the province of Lycia and Pamphylia.

In April of 1033, with the Sassanid's no longer posing the threat they once did, Aurelian dispatched his experienced commander Marcus Aurelius Probus, in command of Legio II Parthica and some auxiliaries, to restore order to the province. Arriving in early May Probus, through a large-scale military "pacification operation", forced the rebels to retreat to the fortified town of Cremna. Lydius sent out riders to gather a relieving army and sent his son, Filippos to Isauria to gather an army there. Some citizens of Cremna had the good foresight to flee the city, but because of the speed of the events only a handful were able to. On 7 June Probus' army arrived to the town and lay siege.

## Location

Cremna was located in the region of Psidia in the province of Lycia. The fortified town stood on a cliff, and was secured on another side by large and deep ditches. Lydius had been using the town already as a base of operations and as such it had some provisions.

## Siege

### Early Siege

Probus besieged Cremna with an army totaling around 7,000 strong. It was made up of Legio II Parthica, which, fresh from the war in Persia, was not at full strength (It probably contained about 4,000 men). In addition to this legion Probus had several auxiliary units and troops pulled from local militias. The besieged rebel force was made up of about 13,500 men, outnumbering the Romans almost two to one, and an additional 2,500 men of Cremna, of questionable loyalty, were forcibly conscripted into the rebel army. Giving the defenders a total of 16,000 men. The Roman army mostly was made up of veterans of the war with Persia, whereas Lydius' rebels were bandits and marauders, few of whom were well experienced and equipped. Because of this disparity in quality, Lydius never attempted to the Romans in a pitched battle, and both sides settled in for a long siege.

After two weeks of siege it became clear to Lydius that a relief army was not coming. He did not know it but the riders failed to gather a significant force, and Filippos, Lydius' son, and his entourage had been killed by a Roman patrol before ever arriving in Isauria. The morale of the rebels began to drop, but Lydius reportedly rallied them with a rousing speech, the details of which are lost to history. With a renewed vigor the rebels prepared for a long siege. Houses were torn down in order to allow the ground to be tilled. On 28 June the severed heads of Filippos and several other notable rebels who had been killed or captured were thrown over the walls into the besieged city by the Romans. Lydius was said to be deeply shaken by his son's death, and he is said to have vomited upon seeing the head. For the next few weeks Lydius was inconsolable, rarely leaving his chambers.

In mid July the same time the Roman's had completed construction of a siege tower with which they attempted to breach the city, but the rebel leader Paulus Athenodorus, staged a daring night raid, burning down the siege tower and other equipment. Shortly after, despite the sizable preexisting stockpile of food, it was clear that at the current rate the rebels would run out of provisions. Lydius, still in grief over his sons death, in order to remedy the food situation ordered, in a cruel decision spurred by his desire to avenge his son, that all the inhabitants of the town be killed.

### Massacre of Cremna

On 26 July Lydius' brutal order was carried out, and the rebels at night suddenly took to the streets going house to house, rounding up or killing the citizens. At some point in the chaos a fire broke out throughout the city. The men of Cremna who had been forcibly conscripted into the rebel army were also targets of the purge, but many of the conscripts were alerted to the events and fighting between them and the rebels broke out on the streets.

An Isaurian soldier named Cletus, horrified at the massacre unfolding and also disillusioned with the siege as a whole, rallied some 300 conscripts of Cremna, as well as 50 Isaurian rebels, and, escorting some 400 women and children along with them, managed to fight their way to the city's western gate and escape the city to the Romans. The Romans, seeing a large force emerging from their city towards them, initially thought they were under attack, and they nearly attacked the fleeing civilians. Once the situation was explained the Romans welcomes the escapees, with the force of Cletus joining the Probus' army as auxiliaries. Probus launched an assault on the western gate, hoping to take it in the chaos of the massacre and to save the citizens, but by the time the attack arrived the rebels had already reinforced the gate. After a brief battle the attack was rebuffed. It is reported by some historians that Paulus Athenodorus aided Cletus in his escape, but this is probably a later invention.

Despite the heroic struggle of the people of the city, the superior numbers of the rebels were impossible to stop, and in short time they were all killed and captured. The citizens and soldiers of Cremna made a last stand on the civic plaza and in the Hadrianic temple. In the temple they held off the rebels for three hours, but were eventually overwhelmed.

The citizens were rounded up on the civic square, the primary forum of the city, and were all beheaded, with the exception of some women who, according to Zosimus, were kept for the common use of the rebel soldiers. The following morning the rebels threw and pelted the severed heads to the Romans, as revenge for Filippos and his men. The bodies were dumped into the defensive ditch of the city, and were said to have reeked for the rest of the siege.

### Later Siege

Even with removal of the citizens the food situation remained a problem. To help ease the burden the rebels constructed a mine, from the town to beyond the Roman camp. The rebels used this tunnel to forage for food and steal Roman provisions and livestock. This, in combination with the preexisting supplies, kept the defenders fed through most of August, though the supply was still steadily decreasing. On 29 August the tunnel was discovered by a woman named Ioanna, who had been one of the escapees with Cletus and quickly reported it to the Romans. Probus attempted to use the mine to infiltrate the city, but the defending rebels realized they had been discovered and destroyed the tunnel. On 1 September the Romans launched another assault on the city, and they were able to break through the western gate before being rebuffed again.

Entering September it had become clear to the defenders that Lydius had no intention of surrendering, nor did he have a plan to defeat the Romans. As the days went by discontent grew in the defenders, while the food situation was currently enough it wouldn't last forever, and most were not interested in Lydius' suicide mission. Paulus Athenodorus had lost faith in Lydius. Since Athenodorus was very popular among the army (many of whom were personally loyal to him) and had largely kept his hands clean in the massacre, he quickly became the head of the secret opposition to Lydius. As such Athenodorus began secretly corresponding with the Romans. He did this by having messengers scale down and up the wall with ropes at sections manned by soldiers loyal to him. On the early morning of 6 September 1033, Athenodorus' men seized control of the western gate, quietly killing the guards stationed there, and opened the gates to the Romans, who in accordance to plan, quickly entered the city. Rebels loyal to Lydius quickly raised the alarm, and moved to push the Romans out. With so many Romans already in the city and so many rebels defecting the defense almost immediately fell apart and the rebels surrendered. Lydius was killed by an arrow, fired by a defector, while attempting to flee the city.

## Aftermath

With the surrender of the rebels at Cremna the revolt came to and end. Soon Aurelian, returning from Persia, arrived and took command of the situation. In order to prevent future unrest and revolts in the region, Aurelian built multiple forts in the region and settled some of his veterans there. Rebels that had surrendered were pressed into Roman military service throughout the empire, though many of them became part of three new legions. The legions I, II, and III Isaura were formed. Legio I Isaura and Legio II Isaura were both formed primarily from non-Isaurian rebels as well as a contingent of veterans from the Persian campaign, However both also possessed sizable Isaurian contingents. These two legions were given the task of garrisoning Isaura and Cilicia. In contrast, Legio III Isaura was composed almost entirely of Isaurian rebels, and was given to Athenodorus to command. It was sent to garrison the newly conquered Mesopotamia.

Cremna was devastated by the siege and it would never fully recover.