Scythian Wars

The **Scythian Wars** (1241 – 1256), also known as the **Mongol invasions of the Byzantine Empire**, were a series of conflicts between the Mongols and the Byzantine Empire which ultimately resulted in Byzantine victory and Mongol containment to the east of Asia Minor and Russia, although it left the empire in a debilitated state.

## Etymology

Although the Byzantines were fully aware of how the Mongols named themselves, they often preferred to call them Scythians, as they did all steppe nomads in reference to the Roman enemy of Antiquity in order to draw attention to their own erudition. Similarly, sometimes the Mongols were named Huns and their Khan a new Attila. As a consequence, Byzantine chroniclers of the period and later Byzantine historians almost never used the name Mongol to describe their Mongol enemies, nearly always relying on the Scythian nomenclature, which was passed down to modern historiography.

## Prelude

The first recorded engagement between Byzantine soldiers and Mongol raiders took place in 1238 near to Greater Armenia. Whereas most of the Byzantine aristocracy did not deem the Mongols to be a serious threat, emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes was to to identify the menace that had already felled their old rivals of Antiquity in Persia. The Mongols, on the other hand, had heard of the vast riches of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire and wished to make it theirs. Mongol armies amassed in Georgia and Wallachia, readying themselves for an invasion even as John III Doukas Vatatzes marshaled his armies to the west and east and sent a relief force to his Bulgarian allies. North of the Danube, the Mongols had crushed the resistance of Hungarians, Bohemians and Poles alike, laying waste to Eastern Europe (https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/ja-nuns-hons-pris-a-medieval-nation-game.18650/page-7#post-3624984). It was only a matter of time before they turned their eyes to Byzantium.

## First invasion (1240)

In order to defend against the Mongols, John III Doukas Vatatzes adopted a cautious strategy, preferring to rely on border fortifications to stem the horde and prevent a second Manzikert from happening in a pitched battle. However, he underestimated the Mongols' siege capability, as siege engineers were brought in from Persia and China. One by one, the Byzantine defenses fell in the east and over half of the Eastern army vanished, either killed in the death traps that the forts became or dissipated in the countryside. Therefore, the Mongols were able to overrun much of Byzantine Anatolia, first taking the citadel of Trebizond and then the fortress town of Ancyra, soon followed by the rest of the Anatolian plateau, which was divided into several Turkish vassal tribes.

In the Balkans the situation was similarly bleak. After a destructive raid into Serbia, King Stefan Vladislav became a Mongol tributary in exchange for support against his uncle Vukan, whereas Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria soon ended his tribute to the Byzantine emperor and joined the Mongols, faced with another invasion. In spite of the slim odds, the Byzantines successfully defended Anatolia as general Andronikos Palaiologos forced the Mongols into battle near Adrianople and defeated them in the field, marking the first Mongol defeat in Europe.

The invasion was halted when the Mongols abruptly returned home after the death of Ögodei Khan in order to settle his succession. Their incursion into Byzantine territory had been devastating, however, and destabilized Byzantine relations with all their neighbors, from Stefan Vladislav of Serbia and Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria in the Balkans to Isabella of Cilician Armenia in the east. Crucially, the Mongols proved John III's worst fears and summarily weakened the Byzantine defenses in Asia Minor, which would set the stage for Byzantine strategy in the second invasion.

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/ja-nuns-hons-pris-a-medieval-nation-game.18650/page-8