Finlay contributes the following details: "He was florid, blonde, and regular-featured, with an aquiline nose, which, his flatterers often reminded him, was considered by Plato to be a royal feature.

Alexios arrived in Trebizond on December 22, 1349,[4] and was accepted as emperor by the nobility headed by megas doux Niketas Scholares without opposition.

For the time being, Alexios was accepted as emperor because of his youth and, to quote William Miller, "not calculated to bring peace to the state, distracted for the previous decade by the jealousies and ambitions of rival gangs of noble place-hunters".

[7] The young emperor was supported by his mother and some loyal generals and courtiers, including Michael Panaretos, whose laconic chronicle is the principal source on the political history of the Empire of Trebizond.

Alexios and his court further strengthened their position by fostering peaceful relations with the Turkmen with marriage alliances such as that between the emperor's oldest sister Maria and Fahreddin Kutlubeg of Aq Qoyunlu in 1352.

By June 1354 the megas doux was forced to flee to Kerasous, where he prepared a fleet consisting of one galley and eleven smaller vessels that sailed against Trebizond in March 1355.

Alexios fitted out his own fleet of galleys and several smaller crafts, and in May sailed to Kerasous with the company of his mother and the Metropolitan of Trebizond, and conquered the town in the absence of Niketas.

Most writers conclude this means the civil war itself ended, but an attempt by the Kabasites and other nobles to assassinate Alexios III in 1363 may be part of that conflict.

Alexios continued this policy of seeking diplomatic alliances with the neighboring Muslim princes, with the marriages of four of his daughters; the fifth, Anna Megale Komnene, became the second wife of King Bagrat V of Georgia.

[16] Anthony Bryer explains this largesse was due to a series of confiscations following the defeat of the notables who had opposed a strong central government, setting forth a timeline showing how as archontes were executed and their properties reverted to the crown, he could refound monasteries such as St. Phokas in Kordyle (1362), Soumela (1364), Dionysiou (1374), and Theoskepastos (1376).