[BTS] [RFC/DoC] The Legacy of Byzance: An Eastern Roman Tale

Yeah, I was wondering why there was no Orthodoxy. I like old DoC better...
 
1.12 - The Third Triumvirate Faces the Mongols​

As unrest wracked the capital and Mongol horsemen harassed the border towns of Anatolia, the task of restoring order fell to the three senior officials of the Empire: the megas logothetes, Alexandros Argyros, called the Syrian; the megas doux [1], Basil Phokas; and the domestikos ton scholon [2], David Komnenos. In the apparent absence of an heir to the throne, the three agreed to set aside their vying for the purple to deal with the immediate threat of invasion from the east, forming a tripartite alliance between the Empire's three most powerful men in the interest of letting that Empire live to see another day. Recalling the days of Caesar and Augustus, they branded themselves the "Third Triumvirate" [3]. Argyros remained in the City to handle the central administrative duties of the Empire. Phokas and his fleet sailed to Neapolis to ensure the security of the western themes. Meanwhile, Komnenos rallied the Empire's armies, marching east to prepare for the conflict which the Romans would remember as the Hunnic War [4].

Earlier that year, the Mongol horde had vanquished Kilij Arslan, the Atabeg of Iraq, among the ruins of Ctesiphon, and moved on unimpeded to sack the city of Baghdad. If the Seljuk invasion a century and a half earlier had been a punishing blow to the capital of the Muslim world, the Mongols were to shatter it forever. The houses of wisdom were put to the torch, the population slaughtered, and the city almost altogether razed to the ground. Hülegu Khan, general of the Mongol armies of the west, had made it well known to the surrounding nations that the Roman Empire was next, and that Constantinople would share Baghdad's fate.

uoQVGUP.jpg

The Mongols sack Baghdad.
​
The first blow against the Empire came in late June as Hülegu's army rolled in off of the Iranian Plateau and assaulted Tabriz. To Komnenos' chagrin, he was forced to order a retreat west into the Armenian highlands, abandoning the city to its fate. Tabriz was absorbed into the growing Ilkhanate, and the Mongols, emboldened turned towards the Empire.

GIBZsI3.png

​
The Mongol host easily penetrated the Anatolian frontier, sacking Germanikeia and ranging into Cappadocia with the intention of destroying the important fortress at Kaisareia and opening the way through Asia Minor the capital. It was around the winter solstice of 1195 when Hülegu and his host arrived near Kaisareia. Initial reports from his scouts reported that the way to the city was clear, and the domestikos was nowhere to be seen.

This mistake was to cost the Mongols dearly, for the domestikos and his army were close at hand, concealed from Hülegu's army until the Mongols had fallen right into the trap Komnenos had laid for them.

pZpQkpf.jpg

The Cappadocian plains near Mount Argaeos, where Komnenos and Hülegu met in battle.
​
A small force of Roman heavy infantry and Turkish mercenaries were used to bait the Mongol cavalry into a small valley, whereupon the bulk of the Roman army fell upon them with a vengeance. The attack was not fatal, but the Mongol cavalry was forced to withdraw in disarray, and it took precious minutes for Hülegu to restore order among the ranks. The punishing blows from the Mongol cavalry once it recovered very nearly forced the Roman army into a rout, but Komnenos' brilliant generalship won the day, and Hülegu was forced into a retreat.

mlo36h.jpg

A somewhat dramatized depiction of the Battle of Argaeos.
​
While not the last battle of the Roman-Mongol conflict, Argaeos was to be the most crucial. Hülegu mounted another unsuccessful invasion in 1197, and despite a few abortive attempts to break through the Roman frontier again, Mongol raids on the Empire had ended by 1200. Komnenos was even able to take offensive countermeasures, seizing control of much of northern Mesopotamia for the Empire.

S3pKNFB.png

​
By 1203 the chaos was over, and the Ilkhanate was occupied with wars against Sindh in the east. It is in this year that Constantine Doukas, apparently the sole legitimate heir to the throne [5], arrived in Constantinople. Despite the misgivings of the three men who had governed the Empire in his stead, they bowed before popular pressure. Constantine VII Doukas was crowned on 18 August 1203, ending the period the Triumvirate.

HH1RD1b.gif

A coin minted in 1205, apparently the sole remaining depiction of Constantine VII Doukas.
​
As his reign began, matters in the Empire were finally settling down. Refugees from the destruction of Baghdad had steadily been settling in Constantinople, bringing priceless manuscripts and historical records long-lost to the Empire. This cultural infusion triggered what has been called the 13th Century Renaissance, and 1204 is generally regarded as the beginning of a Roman golden age.

hWVpaXZ.png

​
The peace, however, could only hold so long, and Constantine, the last Doukid emperor, died in 1216, leaving the Empire to question its destiny once more.

---​
[1] - Supreme naval commander of the Empire.

[2] - Commander-in-chief of the army - after the Emperor, of course.

[3] - The First Triumvirate between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus existed in the middle of the first century BCE, and the Second Triumvirate between Octavian, Lepidus, and Mark Antony a couple of decades later. This was the Roman world's first real "Triumvirate" in more than a thousand years.

[4] - The Romans saw Hülegu and his Mongols as the Huns of Attila, risen from Hell to wreak their vengeance on the Roman Empire.

[5] - Modern scholarship suspects that Constantine was not from the Imperial line of the Doukid family at all, and was therefore an impostor.
 
Last edited:
I laughed for a good five minutes when that message appeared on the screen. A pity the third UHV condition doesn't trigger a golden age as well, because it checks in 1450 and would start on the next turn - 1453 or 54 in Marathon.
 
Are you going to take Bagdad and the other Mongol city?
 
You should save up some great people for a golden age in 1453.
 
:please:
 
1.13 - Crisis Point​

The reign of the Doukids had seemed eternal. With a few interruptions, a Doukas, from one side of the Bosphorus or the other, had sat upon the throne in Constantinople for over three hundred years. The sudden and unexpected termination of the ancient dynasty threw the Empire into turmoil. Instantly, the rivalry between the former Triumvirate rose back to the surface. Alexandros Argyros, the megas logothetes, and Basil Phokas, the megas doux were the main contenders. Phokas brought with him the not insignificant support of the western themata of Italy and the Adriatic, as well as the Hungarian nobles, where Argyros could call upon the backing of the powerful Constantinopolitan aristocracy.

David Komnenos refused to make a claim for himself, allowing the two other powerful officials to duke it out over the purple for a time. After a year of inconclusive campaigns, Komnenos at last threw his weight behind Alexandros. Phokas and a cadre of rebellious Hungarian dukes were defeated and summarily executed after a battle at Philippopolis in Moesia [1]. With the understanding that Komnenos and his heirs would hold the title of domestikos ton scholon in perpetuity, the former grand logothete took on the purple and the Crown of St. Stephen as Alexandros IV, inaugurating the Syrian Dynasty.

LuRGJ3C.png

Phokas and his confederates are defeated at Philippopolis.

LM8mkU1.jpg

Alexandros IV Syrias.
​
Alexandros, called 'the Syrian' for his birth to a Syriac Christian family near Aleppo, had risen to his lofty status very quickly, and now turned his eyes back to his homeland. Since the Second Crusade, northern Syria had once more been Roman, but the south remained occupied by the Principality of Syria, a Castilian-backed crusader state centered on Damascus. With the use of careful diplomatic maneuvering, Alexandros purchased the entirety of the money-strapped principality, offering the Latins safe passage back to Hispania.

KDW30nx.png

​
This purchase opened the way into the Levant for the Romans, and marked the first - and last - great success of the Syrian dynasty. With Alexandros' death in 1225, his son Alexios III took the thrones of Rome and Hungary. The costly wars of the last hundred years had nearly bankrupted the Roman state, and the sale of court positions and military offices had made corruption endemic in the Roman state, a condition that only worsened through the reign of Alexios' son, Constantine VIII. Constantine IX, at least, proved a capable ruler, although by this point the corruption in the court mired his reign down.

This combination of incompetent governance and rampant corruption would make the reign of the last Syrian emperor, Michael III, an unprecedented disaster. As the military aristocracy turned largely inward, spending money on their own opulent estates rather than to pay their soldiers. Disgruntled, a cadre of Turkish soldiers from the Anatolikon [2] rebelled against their commanders in 1279, beginning what was to be called the Ottoman Rebellion, or the Great Crisis.

HlTmUnu.png

​
The ineffectual Imperial military, confident in its superiority, marched into the region to restore order, but was crushed at Smyrna by the Turkish leader, or 'bey', Mehmed Osmanli, for whom the revolt was named. Soon, scattered by the formidable Turkish force, most of the soldiers of the East fled to the City, those most disaffected flocking to the Turkish banner and assisting the rebellion's progress. By 1282, all of Anatolia was occupied, with only Damascus in the east holding out against the Turks. Most humiliating of all, the Roman navy, diminished after its role on Phokas' side in the civil war, was unable to stop the rebels from seizing Athens and the Morea as well.

In 1285, the Empire needed a hero.

In 1289, it got one.

Gik1uNJ.jpg


---​

[1] - The Bulgarians never made it past the Dacian frontier, and so the area is not called Bulgaria.

[2] - Their ancestors were Seljuk prisoners, settled forcibly in the area by Ioannes III a century before.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T_80_Tank
Map of the World - 900 AD
Replies
2
Views
2K
T_80_Tank
T_80_Tank
Xefjord
Am I the only one feeling like the Civ count is getting in the way of replayability?
4 5 6
Replies
119
Views
7K
Krikkit1
K
L
A guide to Attribute points (how to get more of them)
Replies
9
Views
2K
CliffCo
CliffCo
T
The Shield of Islam
Replies
6
Views
2K
The Dutchman
T
sTAPler27
Civ 7's Victory Paths can Use Some Work to Feel Less Western Specific
5 6 7
Replies
136
Views
8K
sTAPler27
sTAPler27
Back
Top Bottom