Katabasis of the Loyalists

The Katabasis of the Loyalists (1666–1667), also known as the Long March to the Sea or the Great Retreat, was the withdrawal of surviving forces loyal to Primo de Aguilar and the Raspur Pact in the aftermath of a popular uprising in the Euranikon theme and immediately prior to the destruction of Vey. As the Loyalists sought to fight their way clear of their Constitutionalist and socialist pursuers the anarchy was compounded by the irruption of Bassarids and Zarathustrian rebels into Constancian territories, precipitating the collapse of Hellenistic civilisation along the eastern banks of the Potami Androphagi (River Erik / Sandy River).

The retreating forces comprised mostly of those loyalists left behind in Vey after the evacuation of the Autokrator, the Royal Family, and the defenders of the Megálo Paláti. As far as units which had managed to maintain their cohesion, these included the Exkoubitoi, Optimatoi, and Hikanatoi regiments of the Tagmata, they were joined along the course of their retreat by the Basileusoi Army in the Prosgeiosi Basileus (Crownlands), and in due course by defecting elements of the Basileusian Private Guard who abandoned the Constitutionalist cause as its hopelessness became apparent. Around this small kernel a far larger contingent of stragglers, deserters, and panicked refugees, all seeking a means of escape towards the Gulf of Aqabah, soon came to adhere.