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[RFC DoC] A story of Byzantium

The revival of Byzantine military glories was accompanied by a cultural revival and growth of landed aristocracy. The growing regionalism of landed lords and their tensions with the bureaucracy destabilized the situation in the Empire. So far, however, the tensions didn't have much of a noticeable effect.

Constans II was succeeded by his son, Constantine (1036-1078), who took part in campaigns with his father.

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Constantine V. The three-quarter military representation, abandoned in the sixth century, was now back in style

Constantine started a campaign to conquer Egypt from the weakened Arabs.

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The campaign took longer then expected - the War Elephants of the Arabs were a surprise to Byzantine horses.

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While the Emperor was fighting in Egypt, the governor of Asperon seceded from the Empire with support from the Russian Duchy of Kiev - a sign of the growing feudalizaiton of Byzantium.

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In 1060, Kairo was finally captured by the Byzantines. However, the Patriarch suggested that all the Muslims of Egypt should be forcefully converted. The pragmatic Emperor refused, stating that as long as the taxes are coming, he doesn't care. Since most learned people in the Church considered the Patriarch's position to be too harsh, Constantine managed to have the Patriarch deposed. Still, the eruption of a long-dormant Asia Minor volcano was interpreted by some as a sign of God's displeasure with Constantine.

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Byzantine economy, however, grew. A new class of merchants started to appear, the most prominent of which being a certain Zemarchos.

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And the international prestige of Byzantium was rising.

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In 1075, the Byzantine forces triumphantly entered Alexandria. For the first time since more then four hundred years ago, Egypt was ruled from Constantinople.

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Constantine died an old man, greatly respected for his conquest of Africa. Only a few zealots were still protesting. Here's what the Empire was like after his conquests:

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Dealing with the Turks should be fun.
 
Great update!!
 
Dealing with the Turks should be fun.

:lol:
Yeah, those should spawn in a 200 years - IRL, they destroyed Byzantium.
Will history repeat itself?
 
You beefed Izzy up quite a lot with that trade, better keep an eye on her long term.
 
The rule of Constantine's son, Michael I (1075-1104), was notable for putting down of the Asperon rebellion.

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By the end, of his rule, when the euphoria over his father's conquests began to come down, it was clear that the enlarged Byzantine state has many serious problems. Tensions between the new city merchants and old landed aristocrats, between the rich and the poor, between Christians and Muslims placed the stability of the state in danger.

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The regency of Michael's young son Theophilios, who inherited the throne after his father's death, neglected the army funding and was soon overthrown by a coup led by a general named Leontios (r. 1108-30). Concerned about the stability of the empire, Leontios let Theophilios remain as the younger emperor.

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Leontios

The new Emperor proved to be quite a capable ruler. He enacted a series of harsh measures to restore order and justice to the provinces.

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It was he who started the slow decentralization of the Empire, so that the provinces would be less dependent on Constantinople.

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Leontios' measures had restored a modicum of stability to the empire.

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He also recruited the Christian population of Mesopotamia to the Byzantine Army.

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To improve relationship with other states, Leontios gave their armies the permission to pass though Byzantine lands, in return for these armies fighting the Caliphate.

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When Leontios died, Theophilios (1130-65) inherited the throne from his co-emperor. He continued Leontios' policies.

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Theophilios

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And managed to defeat the Langobard invasion of Southern Italy. Shortly after that, the French king claimed dominion over Rome, subduing the Langobards.

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Great update.
 
That stability is looking...... interesting.
 
Great story! Love the style :)

(subbed)
 
Yay impending civil war! Er, I mean, long live the New Roman Empire!
 
Theodosios was succeeded by his son, Constantine (1165-1210).

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Constantine VI

In 1171 AD, the Arabs, still angry about their loss, attempted to turn back the tide:

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And another unpleasant event happened. The commander of Byzantium's Russian mercenaries, after capturing Upper Egypt, refused to hand the territories back to Byzantium, instead setting up an autonomous Russian principality there. The Emperor, preoccupied with the Arabs, could only mutter something about the northern barbarians who worship correctly, but completely lack the knowledge of Hellenic culture and Roman government.

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The Arabs even managed to recapture Mesopotamia.

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In 1177 AD, the cities of Northern Italy expelled their German overlords. Since my experience indicates that Italy usually continues to play a lame OCC, I went to the Wordbuilder and founded Florence for them. I also slightly improved the Italian terrain and spawned Barbarian Keshiks in Asia, since the mod has a bug with Mongolian spawn.

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After some fighting, Mesopotamia was returned to Byzantium.

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The Byzantine armies even went further and captured the whole Mesopotamia, which forced the Arabs to sign peace.

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Constantine's young and military-minded son, Anastasios (1210-67) upon inheriting the throne decided to attack the Russians for their Egyptian affront.

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Anastasios III

The Russian feudal cavalry soon captured Asperon.

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Despite all these wars, that age saw a revival in both spirituality and "outer" culture. Saint's lives were embellished with Classical rhetorics and Manuel Chrysoloras, a Constantinopolitan philosopher, became renowned as a specialist in Antiquity.

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After the defeat suffered at the Byzantine hands, the Caliphate soon fell into civil wars.

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And the autonomous Russian principality in Egypt was, finally, returned to the fold.

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A peace treaty was signed with the Russians. The Byzantines had to acknowledge the Russian dominance of Asperon, but the Russians had to admit that they have no business in Egypt.

Contacts were established with the French court:

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And the Emperor gave the French permission to pass though his territory and conquer the independent Arab emirates, founding French duchies in Arabia.

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In 1264, the Italian city elites asked the Emperor for protection against the French Kingdom and the German Empire. The Emperor agreed, formally restoring the Exarchate of Italy.

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The old Emperor was succeeded by his younger son, Phillipikos (Anastasios survived his older son). Unlike his older brother, Phillipikos was not a military man, but a court administrator. Yet it seemed that the Empire didn't need more military men or more conquests.

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Phillipikos
 
Russians taking over egypt????????

Great update.
 
The new Emperor's reign began well enough, with increase of Byzantine diplomatic activity.

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However, during his reign the tensions between the court bureaucracy, the military aristocracy and the merchant class intensified. Phillipikos was seen as a "bureaucrat emperor" who doesn't pay any attention to the army. After uncovering a plot concocted against him by some high-standing generals, the Emperor became even more suspicious of the army, cutting the soldiers' and the generals' pay, which, in turn, made the army dislike the Emperor even more.

When nomadic Turkish tribes appeared in the Caucasus, scattered and underpaid Byzantine forces failed to stop them. However, the Turks were initially not that strong, and didn't attempt to take major cities like Trebizond or Iconium. Instead, they captured several small towns in Western Asia Minor, from where they raided Byzantine settlements.

Phillipikos initially panicked and was unsure what to do, which allowed the Turks to fortify themselves in lands taken by them. Finally, in 1285, when it became obvious that local garrisons would be unable to expel the Turks, the Emperor decided that it's time to do something, and personally accompanied a military expedition against the Turks.

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But Philantropenos, the Emperor's main general, full of resentment against his monarch, murdered him in his sleep and deserted to the Turks with the whole expedition. The Turkish Emir was delighted, since this allowed him to capture all Asia Minor and Syria. However, the Turkish army was also quite exhausted, and the Turks were unable to capture Palestine or Mesopotamia, signing a truce with the Byzantines.

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Phillipikos' successor, an official named Theodosios, tired to restore stability in the empire. Yet the merchants of Constantinople, sensing the change in the air, organized a rebellion against Constantinopolitan landed aristocracy. The Emperor himself was killed.

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Theodosios IV (r. 1285-1318). The state of the empire forced him to mint mainly in silver, instead of gold.

A young and promising general named Alexios was able to subdue the rebellion, giving some concessions to the merchants (like cancelling many custom tariffs inside the empire, allowing some titles to be purchased) and limiting the privileges of aristocracy. That gave him enough authority to declare himself the Emperor.

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Alexios

Yet the state was in a well, state of complete collapse. The Exarch of North Africa declared himself to be an independent ruler. Another Russian mercenary proclaimed himself to be the ruler of Upper Egypt. The peasants of Hellas organized a tax revolt. The merchants of Alexandria took a leaf from Constantinople and declared the city to be independent. Mesopotamia and Palestine became areas of low-grade battles between local Arabic warlords, Byzantine garrisons and the Turks. Only Constantinople and Thrace, a part of Egypt and Italy (the semi-independent Italian Exarch even crushed the anti-Byzantine revolt in Southern Italy) remained loyal to Alexios.

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The situation was critical - but Alexios, at least, still had his military talent and his Cataphracts, organized from the remains of Asia Minor garrisons and the population of Constantinople.

By 1324, he was able to restore order in Hellas. Some taxes were lessened, some rebels forgiven, some executed. Alexios knew how to divide his enemies, knowing when it's appropriate to be merciful, and when it's necessary to be harsh.

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