After the failure of the Crusade of 1101, the Seljuq and Danishmend Turks resumed their offensive operations against the Byzantines. Following their defeats, the Seljuqs under Malik Shah had recovered control of central Anatolia, re-consolidating a viable state around the city of Iconium. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, aged and suffering from an illness which proved to be terminal, was unable to prevent Turkish raids into the recovered areas of Byzantine Anatolia, though an attempt to take Nicaea in 1113 was thwarted by the Byzantines. In 1116 Alexios was able to personally take the field and was engaged in defensive operations in northwest Anatolia.

The Seljuk forces attacked the Byzantine army a number of times to no effect. Having suffered losses to his army in the course of these attacks, Malik Shah sent to Alexios a proposal for peace involving a cessation of Turkish raids. The campaign was remarkable for the high level of discipline shown by the Byzantine army. Alexios had demonstrated that he could march his army with impunity through Turkish dominated territory.