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140 A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES II 
of Constance of Antioch. With Greek support, Bela succeeded to the Hungarian
throne in 1173, and as long as Manuel lived he was loyal to Byzantium, making
no attempt to regain lost territory until after 1180. Manuel had thus gained
some measure of security in the Balkans and in the north, as well as considerable
territory. 
 In the east, before he was really hampered by Frederick Barbarossa, Manuel
successfully developed his father's policy.19 He asserted his suzerainty,
first over the Armenian prince Toros II in Cilicia in 1 158, and then over
Reginald of Antioch in where the crowning symbol of his victory was to be
the restoration of a Greek, Athanasius, to the ancient patriarchate in 1165.
He was on particularly friendly terms with Baldwin III of Jerusalem, and
anxious to prevent the encirclement of the crusading principalities by a
single Moslem power. Manuel may have foreseen that any drastic reduction
of crusading prestige and territory might turn the Latins towards his own
lands. But neither his overtures to the ruler of Aleppo, Nür-ad-Din,
nor his expeditions with Amalric of Jerusalem against Egypt, could stay the
rise of Saladin. Moreover the death of Nür-ad-Din in 1174 affected the
political situation in Anatolia, as well as in Syria and Egypt. 
 Manuel's position in Anatolia had to some extent been safeguarded by the
tension between the rival Moslem powers, the Selchukids at Iconium and the
Dänishmendids. The eastern ambitions of the former had been kept in
check by Nür-ad-Din's support of the Dänishmendids. Now dissident
Moslem elements looked to Constantinople for help. Manuel, aware of the Selchükid
sultan's quiet consolidation of his position, turned to his own frontier
defenses on the marches of Iconium. He refused the overtures of Kilij Arslan
II and led an expedition against him in 1176. Showing marked lack of generalship
he allowed himself to be trapped in the pass of Myriokephalon, and was prevented
from headlong flight only by the firm refusal of his officers to countenance
this. What might well have been a wholesale massacre was checked by Kilij
Arslan, who again offered terms. Manuel's prestige and that of the Christians
in Syria was shaken by this defeat, though his generals still carried on
intermittent warfare against Moslem penetration into the Maeander valley.
Manuel himself may have felt that his earlier policy towards Iconium, in
particular the treaty of 1161,20 had been mistaken and perhaps opportunist.
He had obtained an 
 19 See volume I, chapter XVII, and below, chapter XIX. 
 20 Dolger, Regesten, no. 1444.