MANUEL I, Canmenus, 1c6m ne'nfis, a Byzantine emperor : b. about 1120; succeeded his father, Joannes II, in 1143, died in 1180. The valor which he had displayed against the Turks induced his father to bequeath the crown to him rather than to his elder brother Isaac, who was immediately imprisoned by Axuch, the minister of the deceased emperor. Returning from his campaign in Cilicia, Manuel was received with enthusiasm at Constantinople, lout was at once involved in wars both in the East and the West, which lasted with brief in termissions through his reign. In 1144 he sub jected Raymond, the rebellious Latin prince of Antioch. In 1145 he defeated the sultan of Iconium in successive pitched battles. In 1147 he promised his aid to the new crusade headed by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, and though he allowed them a pas sage through his dominions he gave secret in formation to the Turks.
In 1148 he began the most important war of his reign with Roger, the Norman king of Sicily, who had taken Corfu and prepared to invade Greece. He formed an alliance with the Venetians, who within a year joined him before the fortress of Corfu, which was sur rendered after an obstinate siege. He was pre vented from invading Sicily by hostilities of the Serbians and Hungarians, instigated by Roger, the former of whom were vanquished in two campaigns, but the latter protracted the war till 1152. In that year he suffered a reverse
from the Turks in Cilicia, but his general, John Ducas, gained so great successes in southern Italy that Manuel conceived the project of re uniting the eastern and western empires.
The defeat of Alexis, the successor of John Ducas, by William, the successor of Roger, soon followed; the Sicilian admiral Mains routed the Greek fleet off Negropont, and advanced toward Constantinople; and Manuel therefore accepted an honorable peace in 1155. Those Greek pris oners who were silk-weavers were retained in Italy, and gave origin to the flourishing Italian silk manufactures. In the following years he waged successful wars with Raymond, Prince of Antioch, and Az-ed-din, the Turkish sultan. A new war soon broke out with Gejza, king of Hungary, which was terminated by a disastrous defeat of the Hungarians near the present Sem lin. In 1176 he experienced a terrible defeat from Az-ed-din in the mountains of Pisidia, and was obliged to sign a disadvantageous peace. By breaking the treaty and renewing the war he obtained honorable terms. This broke his health and he died of a slow fever.