Siege of Trebizond in 1461

Battle context

The siege of Trebizond, concluded on 15 August 1461, resulted in the Ottoman capture of the city and the effective destruction of the Empire of Trebizond. As the last surviving successor state with a claim to the Byzantine imperial tradition, Trebizond's fall represented the final extinction of Byzantine political authority in the eastern Mediterranean world, completing the Ottoman consolidation that had begun with the fall of Constantinople. The campaign was notable for its coordination of a large land army under Sultan Mehmed II alongside an independent naval force. The Trapezuntine defense had rested on a network of alliances expected to furnish both military support and manpower once the Ottomans commenced operations, but that alliance network failed at the critical moment, leaving Emperor David Megas Komnenos without the reinforcement the defensive strategy required. The city's surrender thus brought to an end not only the Komnenian dynasty but the last organized political entity that could be traced to the Byzantine imperial succession, marking the definitive close of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars that had been underway since the late thirteenth century.