Alexios I instructed Raymond of Toulouse to hand over Laodikeia to Andronikos Tzintziloukes, and Maraqiyya and Balaneos to the men of Eumathios Philokales from Cyprus. Raymond should then go on to subdue other local fortifications, as best he could. The instructions were carried out. But Tancred [probably on his own initiative as regent in Antioch, not on Bohemond's instructions, as he had been imprisoned] besieged Laodikeia. He began by trying to provoke the Byzantine defenders to a battle, then settled down to a long siege, in which he showed extreme determination