It was the end of January in the year 1098 when the Crusader army ran out of food and began to starve. Weeks earlier, Prince Bohemond and Count Robert had left camp with their men on a long-range foraging mission, and had unexpectedly encountered and defeated a Turkish relief force led by Duqaq of Damascus in a valley east of the city. Although the foraging mission had been successful, all the food and supplies they had brought back were now completely exhausted. The mood in the camp was bleak, and the hungry Crusaders did not wish to risk another long-range foraging mission, as rumors were spreading about another imminent attack. A sultan named Ridwan was allegedly amassing forces in the Turkish city of Aleppo, some ten days’ march from Antioch.
Orders came down that all nonessential pac
