In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated a major invasion by the Seljuks, who were backing a bid by Alexios III to return to power.
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She married John III Doukas Vatatzes Emperor of Nicaea as part of an alliance between her father and husband.
Pipa and Repishti conclude that Arbanon was the first sketch of an "Albanian state", and that it retained semi-autonomous status as the western extremity of an empire (under the Doukai of Epirus or the Laskarids of Nicaea).
Some authors (Donald Nicol and D. Polemis) have equated him with another John Petraliphas, who was a megas chartoularios in the employ of the Empire of Nicaea circa 1237, but this identification is most likely false.
The Seljuqs gained an outlet on the Black Sea to match their Mediterranean port at Antalya, and a wedge was driven between the Empire of Trebizond and the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea.
After a spell among the Seljuks of Rum and in Nicaea, Manuel returned to Greece with Nicaean support in 1239 and captured several fortresses including Larissa and Pharsalos from Theodore's son John Komnenos Doukas, establishing himself as ruler of Thessaly.
Her paternal grandparents were sebastokrator Isaac Doukas Vatatzes (died 1261), the older brother of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and his unnamed wife.