Battle of Tarsus (1165)

Battle of Tarsus (1165)
Part of Armenian-Byzantine wars
Date 1165 Location Tarsus, Cilicia (present-day Tarsus,Mersin Province, Turkey Result Armenian victory
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Cilician Armenia
Commanders and leaders
Andronikos I Komnenos	Thoros II
Strength
15 000	10 000

Battle of Tarsus, a raid by the Byzantine army led by Andronikos I Komnenos against the Cilician power, which takes place in 1165 around the city of Tarsus in Cilicia.

Battle

The 15,000-strong Byzantine troops transferred here from Cyprus are approaching the outskirts of the city in battle formation, in front of the troops of the Armenian government of Cilicia led by Thoros II Rubenid (about 10,000 strong). According to John Kinamos's work "Brief History", before becoming a leftist, his army adopts a wedge-shaped battle formation typical of the crusader orders by the order of Andronikos. The Armenian side manages to overtake the Byzantine garrisons unnoticed and inflict a heavy defeat on them with surprise flank attacks.

There are conflicting opinions regarding the use of the "pig's head" battle system by the Byzantines. Nikita Khoniatsi, supplementing Hovhannes Kinamos' thought in his work "History", notes that by that step the Byzantines showed a contemptuous attitude towards the Cilician Armenian statehood. The source information that has reached us attests that after the defeat, Andronikos the horseman, who had lost his troops, approached Toros unnoticed, then knocked him off his horse with a surprise attack. Striking the Armenian prince from behind, Andronikos flees, leaving Toros lying on the ground. However, thanks to reliable armor and a long shield, the Rubenid Prince does not take any significant damage։

See also

• Battle of Mamistra
• War of the Antiochene Succession

Referances

[[Category:Battles involving the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia]] [[Category:Battles involving the Byzantine Empire]]