The First Crusade
The Road to Antioch
The passage across Anatolia was a hard one, for the Turks blocked up the wells and burned crops. The army reached Iconium in the middle of August and skirmished with Turkish forces near Heraclea
later that month. On 10 September, Tancred and some others left the main army in a dispute over the best route to take (Tancred being convinced that any route recommended by the Greeks guides had to be wrong). Baldwin followed him. The main army marched on to Cilician Caesarea, reaching there at the end of September and going on to Marash in early October. The weather was growing foul (Baldwin's wife died during this passage), but at least the locals were Armenians and were friendly to the Crusaders.
The Crusaders arrived in the vicinity of Antioch on 20 October 1097. The Turkish commander was Yaghi-Siyan, who was supposed to be the vassal of Ridwan of Aleppo but who openly intrigued against him with Kerbogha of Mosul. As the Franks approached, therefore, the obvious help of Aleppo was not forthcoming. Yaghi-Siyan frantically tried to secure his city, exiling many of the Greek and Armenian Christians who had hitherto lived in Antioch peacefully. The emir trusted only the Jacobites, because they hated both the Greeks and the Armenians. His garrison was not very large; his only hope was to hold out until a Turkish army might come to his relief.
The Crusaders attacked across the Iron Bridge of the Orontes River, easily carrying the two towers that guarded it. They moved up to the walls of the city the next day. Bohemond encamped opposite the Gate of St. Paul, Raymond at the Gate of the Dog to Bohemond's right, and Godfrey further on at the Gate of the Duke. The siege of Antioch had begun.