Bohemond of Taranto walked through the First Crusade with the confidence of a man who believed the world would bend if he pushed hard enough. He came out of the Levant with Antioch in his hands in 1098, a prize that would have made most men feel untouchable. Instead, it turned him into a target. The Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos claimed Antioch as his by oath. Turkish rivals closed in from inland routes. Bohemond himself spent years in captivity and was ransomed at a cost that hollowed out