Greetings all,
On this day we reflect with sadness on crusader king Baldwin I of
Balogne siezing the Byzantine city of Edessa on March 10th in 1098 AD
and establishing the first Crusader territory in the East:
He had been invited in by Thoros of Edessa (a Byzantine officer) to
fight against the Seljuqs. Taking advantage of a riot against Thoros,
Baldwin took control of the city.
Interestingly, Edessa was the city where the Roman Emperor Valerian
was captured in 260 AD. Edessa fell to the Muslim conquest in 638 AD
and had not been retaken by the Byzantines until 1031 AD.
-Marcus Cassius Julianus
www.byzantiumnovum.org
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