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| 1083–1153/54 |
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| Anna Comnenus, eldest daughter of Alexius I, a patron of scholarship, and, with the production of the Alexiad, an able scholar in her own right. The Alexiad, a long panegyric on her father's reign, is a major historical source for the period. | 1 |
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| 1086–91 |
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| Revolt of the Bogomils in Thrace and Bulgaria. The heretics were supported by the Patzinaks and Cumans and were able to defeat Alexius and a large army (battle of Drystra, or Dorostolon, 1087). The Cumans then ravaged the entire eastern Balkan region as far as Constantinople until Alexius bought them off, took them into imperial service, and used them (1091) to annihilate the Patzinaks (Battle of Leburnion). | 2 |
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| 1092 |
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| Death of Malik Shah, ruler of the Seljuk Empire of Iconium; this paved the way for the partial reconquest of Anatolia. | 3 |
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| 1094 |
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| Constantine Diogenes, a pretender to the throne, crossed the Danube with an army of Cumans and besieged Adrianople, but was then defeated in the battle of Taurocomon. | 4 |
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| 1096–97 |
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| The First Crusade (See 1096–99). The Crusaders, of whom Bohemund was one of the leaders, were looked on with great suspicion in the east, where there was little interest in a movement organized by the heretical Latin pope. But Alexius was unable to stop the Crusaders and therefore devoted himself to managing the movement. He induced them to promise to do homage to the empire for all territory reconquered from the infidel. The crusading victories at Nicaea and Dorylaeum (1097) enabled Alexius to recover the entire western coast of Anatolia. | 5 |
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| 1098–1108 |
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| Second war with the Normans. The Crusaders, having regained Antioch (lost to the Turks only in 1085), turned it over to Bohemund, who refused to recognize Alexius's suzerainty. War broke out. Bohemund returned to Italy and raised a huge army, with which he appeared in Epirus (1104). He failed in his siege of Durazzo, and Alexius wisely avoided open battle. Ultimately (1108) Bohemund agreed to make peace, recognizing Byzantine suzerainty over Antioch. | 6 |
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| 1110–17 |
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| War against the Seljuks, who again advanced to the Bosporus. In 1116 Alexius won a resounding victory at Philomelion, which induced the Turks to make peace at Akroinon (1117); they abandoned the entire coastal area of Anatolia (north, west, and south) and all of Anatolia west of a line from Sinope through Ancyra (Ankara) and Philomelion. | 7 |
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| 1111 |
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| Trade privileges granted to the Pisans. This was part of the emperor's effort to draw the Pisans away from the Normans and at the same time to counterbalance the extensive trade position of the Venetians in the empire. | 8 |
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| 1118–43 |
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| JOHN II COMNENUS, a ruler of high moral integrity; mild, brave, and sincere. He devoted his attention chiefly to the east, with the object of recovering the old frontier of the Euphrates and of subjecting the Latin states of Syria to the empire. | 9 |
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| 1120–21 |
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| In a successful campaign against the Seljuks, John recovered southwestern Anatolia. He was diverted from further conquests by continued incursions of the Patzinaks in the Balkans. | 10 |
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| 1122 |
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| The Patzinaks were completely defeated and thenceforth did not threaten the empire. | 11 |
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| 1122–26 |
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| War with Venice, resulting from John's refusal to renew the extensive trading privileges, which the Venetians had been exploiting to the full. The Venetian fleets ravaged the islands of the Aegean, occupied Corfu and Cephalonia, and ultimately (1126) forced John to renew the privileges. | 12 |
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