The capture of Roussel.

1075: A new army is scrapped together to defeat Roussel.

This is put under the command of a young man called Alexius Comnenus, younger brother of the seemingly luckless Isaac.

Prime minister Nicephoritzes also sent an embassy to the Seljuk Beg of Aleppo, Tutush, to enlist his help by invading the territories Roussel still had under his control and capture him once and for all.

The strongholds of Roussel fall to the joint forces of Alexius and Tutush. The Seljuks then invade the Bucellarion and Anatolikon provinces,to hunt out the Normans, and Roussel.

Eventually Roussel is caught but the empire cannot raise the agreed sum of money to pay Tutush.

And so the citizens of Amasya are compelled to raise the sum of money, even they supported Roussel.

It is said that in this year Theodore Gabras recaptured Trabizond, whether it was linked to the war against Roussel, and so inferring that the seizure of the city had been a design of Roussel is not known for sure, but no doubt he would have been happy to have added it to his Principality.

Note that Latakya on the Syrian coast has fallen to the Seljuks too, whatever resources Duke Isaac had, he was overstretched as it is to defend such far flung cities. Power began to devolve onto local generals such as Philaretus of Marash (the classical Germanicea) and Gabriel of Malatya.