After the failed campaign of Isaakios Komnenos against the Turks and the rebellion of Roussel de Bailleul, the kaisar Ioannes Doukas was appointed strategos autokrator and sent by his nephew Michael VII at the instigation of the scheming Nikephoritzes to Asia Minor. The kaisar agreed rather reluctantly to head the campaign instead of his son Andronikos, camped at Dorylaion and reached the bridge of Zompos over the Sangarios