peasant crusaders who attacked the city after their arrival. In 1097 Tzitas, commanding 2000 peltasts, was sent by Alexius to Nicaea to assist the Crusaders in their siege of the city. The Frankish chronicler Albert of Aix says that Tatikios acted as an envoy between the Turks and the crusaders, but according to the more reliable Anna Comnena, he was working with Boutoumites to negotiate the surrender of the city without the Crusaders' knowledge. This caused a deep rift between the Latins and Greeks. However, Tatikios was ordered to accompany the Crusaders across Anatolia, both as a guide and also to ensure that any former Byzantine territory re-captured was returned to the Empire. After leaving Nicaea, the Crusaders split into two groups. Tatikios accompanied the Norman (under Guiscard's son Bohemund of Taranto, Bohemund's nephew Tancred, and Robert of Normandy) and Flemish (under Robert of Flanders) contingents. The Gesta Francorum records that Tatikios frequently warned the Crusaders of the ferocity of the Turks. During the siege of Antioch, Raymond of Aguilers writes that Tatikios advised the Crusaders to disperse and capture the surrounding countryside before attacking the city itself, which would also help them avoid a famine (this advice was ignored). In February 1098 he left the siege; according to Anna, who probably talked to Tatikios personally or had access to his reports, Tatikios was informed by Bohemund that the other Crusaders mistrusted him and had threatened his life. Bohemund, on the other hand, spread the rumour that Tatikios was a coward and a traitor, and had fled the army never intending to return, despite his promises to bring back reinforcements and provisions from Constantinople. This is the account preserved in contemporary crusader chronicles, who refer to him as a great enemy and a liar (periurio manet et manebit, according to the Gesta Francorum); Anna's account, of course, may be influenced by her deep prejudice against Bohemund, a long-standing enemy of her father. The accusation of betrayal against Tatikios appears to be unjustified. The Byzantine general had left his personal possessions in the crusader camp and hence forfeited them. More conclusively, on 4 March 1098, a few weeks after the departure of Tatikios, a fleet bearing food supplies and siege materials for the crusader army outside Antioch arrived at the port of St Simeon. The modern historian Peter Frankopan suggests that Alexius was by now confident enough in the established links