Sultan Alp Arslan: "What would you do if I was brought before you as a prisoner?"

Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes: "Perhaps I'd kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople"

Alp Arslan: "My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free” 

On this day in 1071 in present-day Turkey, the Byzantine Empire lost the Battle of Manzikert to the Seljuq Turks, who captured the Emperor Romanos. Though the casualties were relatively small, the rout fatally undermined the empire's rule in Anatolia, the main part of Turkey today.   

"The decisive defeat of a Byzantine field army and capture of the Eastern Roman emperor sent shockwaves across the Christian and Islamic worlds and opened the floodgates of Turkish invasion and migration into Anatolia, strategically the most important region to the Byzantine Empire," says Brian Todd Carey of the American Military University.

Building on its Roman heritage, the sophisticated Byzantine military was for centuries among the best anywhere. But at Manzikert, soldiers baking in heavy leather-and-metal armour carrying swords and spears lost out to a mounted enemy who attacked and retreated quickly. The unfortunate emperor was graciously freed by his Muslim opponent, Sultan Alp Arslan, but then deposed and blinded by his enemies (an established political tactic among top power players in the empire, along with castration and nose removal.)

Our Top Line on BNN today is the ever-Byzantine task of figuring out what the Federal Reserve actually thinks of the economy and whether it’s time to increase the cost of credit. “That is why there is so much attention on the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,” the Wall Street Street Journal says. “Jackson Hole has historically proven to be an important platform in which future Fed policies were telegraphed to investors.”

The global lurch towards zero rates, engineered by Ms. Yellen’s colleagues at central banks around the world, has complicated life for specialists in short-term bond investing. At 12:20 p.m. ET on BNN, we’ll get the take of Mark Cabana, head of U.S. short rates strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Fed gathering, by the way, is a gala for monetary policy enthusiasts. One hundred economists and Fed apparatchik throng the two-day event, which includes optional rafting on the Snake River.

We’re talking about another sort of water on Commodities at 11:30 a.m. ET when we hear from David Ullrich of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a group of  U.S. and Canadian mayors and officials working to  protect  The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.  

They’re fighting a plan by the city of city of Waukesha in Wisconsin to divert water from Lake Michigan even though the community is outside the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin.

Isn’t it fair to share the lakes’ bounty with regions that need it? Mr. Ullrich, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says populations need to move to where the water is and not vice versa. That argument carries profound implications for thirsty cities in the U.S. southwest.

Finally, American candour is always a delight. The New York Post brings us 22-year-old Martina Paillant of Brooklyn who “won’t settle for someone who has a credit score below 700.”

Good strategy: One study indicated that couples with high scores are more likely to stay together while those with low ratings are more likely to split up.

“I need a man who has his life together and can pay his bills,” the 22-year-old Paillant says.

We guys had better hope other ladies don’t get wise and follow suit.

Every morning Commodities host Andrew Bell writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnn.ca/subscribe.