Manuel Boutoumites

He was instrumental in the Byzantine recovery of Nicaea from the Seljuk Turks, in the reconquest of Cilicia, and acted as the emperor's envoy in several missions to Crusader princes.

Boutoumites appears in Anna Komnene's Alexiad in 1086, when he was appointed as the doux of the Byzantine fleet by Alexios, and sent against Abu'l Qasim, the semi-independent Seljuk Turkish governor of Nicaea.

The two generals successfully destroyed the Seljuk fleet and forced Abu'l Qasim to withdraw to Nicaea, whence he concluded a truce with Byzantium.

Rhapsomates came out to meet them and occupied the heights above the city, but Boutoumites enticed many of his men to desert, and the rebel had to flee the battle.

Already from the outset of the siege, Boutoumites, through numerous letters, tried to entice the Seljuks to surrender to him, whether through promises of amnesty or threats of a wholesale massacre should the Crusaders capture the city by force.

He was successful both in keeping the Crusader rank and file, still eager for pillage, in check – they were not allowed into the city except in groups of ten – and in soothing their leaders through gifts and securing their pledge of allegiance to Alexios.

According to the Alexiad, the local count, Bertrand of Toulouse, readily assented to assist the imperial forces against Tancred, and even to come and pay homage to Alexios when he would arrive to besiege Antioch.

Boutoumites tried to persuade Baldwin by offering a substantial reward in gold, and making various exaggerated statements, including that Alexios was supposedly already on his way and had reached Seleucia.