Empire of Trebizond

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/empire-of-trebizond

1. When was Empire of Trebizond built?
2. What is the location?
3. What is the duration?
4. What was the Empire of Trebizond and why did it think it was the Roman Empire?
5. How did the Empire of Trebizond get started?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Empire of Trebizond built?1204, by Alexios and David Komnenos
2. What is the location?Pontus region of northeastern Anatolia and southern Crimea
3. What is the duration?257 years (1204-1461)
4. What was the Empire of Trebizond and why did it think it was the Roman Empire?It was a kingdom that started after the fall of Constantinople in 1204. The rulers, the Komnenos family, said they were descendants of a Roman emperor, so they called themselves emperors.
5. How did the Empire of Trebizond get started?Alexios and David Komnenos, grandsons of Emperor Andronikos I, founded it with help from Queen Tamar of Georgia. She sent soldiers to help them take the city of Trebizond before the Crusaders attacked.

Byzantine Empire: The eastern Roman Empire, which continued for nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Successor State: A state that emerges from the dissolution or division of a preceding empire or political entity.
Imperial Legitimacy: The perceived right or justification for a ruler or state to hold imperial power and authority.