It was no mystery, but here the Council of Princes came up against a stark reality that all knew but rarely mentioned: their host, though still powerful, was not as numerous as it had been outside Nicaea. Added to losses fighting there were the many more they had suffered in Anatolia due to thirst and starvation. There were the losses at Tarsus, and the march towards Antioch had taken its toll, several men lost from falls in the mountains. That did not include the number who had merely succumbed to accidents or the myriad number of diseases common to such a large body of men on campaign — foul humours, dropsy, sleeping sickness, seizures and the like added to the increasing number who had grown weary of seeking salvation and gone home.
Not everyone who left was abandoning the Crusade. A strong party of knights had been sent to secure the port of St Simeon, which gave the Crusade access to the Mediterranean and across that sea to Greek-held Cyprus and beyond, not least to Bohemund’s possessions in Apulia, as well as fast communications with the Emperor Alexius, telling of the open route south.
Messages had been sent by Bohemund to his Uncle Roger, the Great Count of Sicily, who if he was not prepared to join the Crusade would do all he could to aid it — even Borsa would help. Requests were despatched asking for many things to be delivered as soon as humanly possible and to use the treasure given to him by Alexius to pay for it.
But that still left the here and now to be dealt with; Tacitus, for so long a time left out of deliberations, only coming to life when appointing Byzantine governors to towns and cities the Crusade had captured, now put forward a plan based on the successful capture of the city a hundred years previously. This had taken the form of a partial siege, operated at a distance and designed more to reduce Antioch by starvation than to take it by direct assault.
Strategic locations were identified and if these could be secured, he assured the council, the supply routes to the city would be severely interdicted. When winter approached, the host could live, well spread out, in relative ease and comfort while the garrison of Antioch consumed the contents of their burgeoning storerooms and perhaps become so reduced by the spring they would start to eat their horses. That was the time to invest the city more closely and demand surrender, when morale was already at rock bottom.
‘Add to which, My Lords,’ his interpreter said in conclusion, ‘if your numbers are diminished now, they will, by then, surely be reinforced.’
‘By the Emperor?’ asked Robert of Normandy.
Tacitus, when that was translated, seemed to take that enquiry as some kind of affront and his reply when it came did not really answer the question. ‘The Prostrator refers more to the fact that knights are still coming from your own lands to bolster your numbers, but that will cease with winter and only truly be at full flow in spring.’
‘Ask him’ said Bohemund, making no attempt to disguise his irony, ‘if he has decided who is to be governor of Antioch yet?’
That brought from Raymond a frown as he took up the discussion, ignoring the whispered interpretation and Tacitus’s subsequent growl. Likewise Bohemund paid no attention to the look of malevolence from a man he had come to mistrust, being more intent on what the Count of Toulouse was saying.
‘Does the Prostrator wish to tell us how long he thinks such a way of proceeding would take?’ He did not wait for any translation. ‘Let me answer for him, so that we are not rendered impatient. He is talking of half a year before we even consider any form of assault, and I do not take to the notion of having my men idling for all that time and not fighting.’
He was not openly saying it, but all present understood: an idle army was one prone to illness, dissension and even disintegration, and besides that, they had already been about their business a long time, some of their number having left Europe and their lands two years since.
‘This fellow we face …’ Raymond stopped then, struggling to pronounce the Turkish governor’s name.
Bishop Ademar came to his rescue. ‘Yaghi Sayan.’
‘… is by reputation a canny fighter,’ the Count of Toulouse continued, ‘but is he not at odds with anyone who might support him?’
‘He plays games with the two sons of the Sultan of Baghdad, we are told,’ the cleric replied, adding that the brothers were in competition for control of Syria, of which Antioch, once the third centre of Roman power in the ancient world, was the most important city. ‘But our Armenian friends are sure he is really seeking Antioch for himself.’
‘Then what are the risks of such people coming to his aid?’
Raymond’s point was simple and again did not require to be laboriously explained to men who were used to command: if they had nothing to fear from their rear, why waste time? What information they had implied that the Sultan had enough trouble in Baghdad to keep him from interference, while his sons hated each other and would never combine to pose a threat. Besides that there were the common sectarian disputes that had racked the Islamic faith almost since the time of the Prophet. The Turks were Sunni Moslems, while in the countryside to the east the Arab population was mostly Shi’ite. Therefore the notion of raising the whole region against the Christian host was negligible.
‘We can do better outside the walls to starve out Antioch than from several leagues away.’
‘You think starvation the only way?’ asked Vermandois, making no secret of his own disdain for such an approach; no doubt he saw himself leading an assault over the walls and burnishing the legend he was sure would be his in posterity.
As kindly as was his way, Godfrey de Bouillon replied to that in order to kill off the reaction of the others, who were likely to scoff, stepping forward to the table on which the map was laid out, explaining why there was no other way, his tone patient.
‘Look, Count Hugh, and tell me how we can assault the walls, half of which run up and down the side of mountains with only a small corner at the northern gate not protected by a river. The Orontes runs too close to the walls to allow for secure construction of siege engines. Even if we had the means to build such things, which we don’t unless the Emperor brings them to us, how are they to be got into place? Even the bridge over the Orontes, the only place we could employ such a method, is too narrow, has its own barbican and is overlooked by the battlements.’
Count Hugh looked to Walo of Chaumont for assurance that what was being said was true, and the Constable responded with a silent nod.
‘Is it possible to agree with both Count Raymond and General Tacitus?’ asked Bohemund. ‘We cannot lay siege to the city and leave the places he has mentioned, such as Bagras and Artah, unmanned — that is even more dangerous, and Artah must be secured so we have a route for supplies.’
That got nods of assent.
‘Count Raymond has already secured the road south, so that leaves only the fortress of Harim, which has a small garrison and should be far enough distant to have no effect on a siege without we would know well in advance they are about to be a threat to us.’
If heads were still nodding that was not the end of the matter. A great deal of time and discussion followed before that was generally the course adopted, but it did not solve some problems that defied easy solutions. To completely surround Antioch and cut it off was impossible; only half of the six gates provided the host with the option to press on the defences while still being able to offer each other mutual support in case of an attack by the garrison, and it had to be accepted, even if it was unlikely, that might include outside reinforcements. The memory of Dorylaeum was still too fresh to allow for separation.
The gate that opened onto the western road, which led to the Antiochene port of St Simeon as well as its southernmost companion, lay right up against the east side of the wide Orontes River, with the only means to cross three leagues downriver. The southern gate was on the other side of the river as well, so any besiegers on the far bank would be isolated and exposed, while the remainder would not be able to offer quick support in case of any difficulties.