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PROGRESS OF THE SELJUKS. 33 his followers permanently in the Eonian empire. During the reign of Michael the Seventh, 1071 to 1077, a Xorman soldier of fortune whose name is connected with Scotch history, Ilus- sell Balliol, had undertaken to assist the emperor in Asia Minor. lie seems to have conceived the idea of carving out a principality for himself, and took possession of Sobasto, the modern Sivas, in Pontns. An imperial army was sent against him, and was defeated near the source of the river Sangarius. The imperial generals were taken prisoners, and the victorious Norman marched to Chrysopolis, the modern Scutari, and an- nounced his presence to the imperial city, a mile distant, by burning some of the houses on the shores of the Bosphorus. Balliol, however, was w^ell aware that as a foreigner he would be unable to obtain the imperial crown for himself, and he therefore determined to have an emperor of his own choosing. His choice fell upon one of the imperial generals whom he had captured, the Csesar John Ducas, uncle of the emperor. In presence of a victorious army only a mile from his capital, with a defeated army in Asia Minor and rebels threatening him in Europe, Michael made an arrangement which was suicidal. He concluded a treaty wnth Suliman by which the latter was appointed governor of the provinces of which the Seljuk Turks were already in possession. In return Suliman undertook to furnish an army to support the emperor. By this treaty the Turks were enabled to fix themselves in the country with such success that their rule over Asia Minor was never shaken off. Balliol was given up to the Emperor Michael by the Turks, but, after having been whipped and shut up in a cage like a 'wild beast, the emperor was obliged, three years afterwards, to request his aid against Briennias, who had rebelled. The emperor in vain appealed to the Turks. Balliol gave his assistance, and, with the aid of the trusty Warings, defeated the rebel. Another claimant to the throne, Botaniates, almost imme- diately afterwards — in 1077 — was proclaimed emperor under the title of Nicephorus III. The Turkish mercenaries joined him, and with their aid he took possession of Nicoea, which from this time became for a hundred years a great centre of 3