An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion
- Thread starter Basileus444
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Uh oh.
Brilliance, but I fear for the Roman state.
Especially with the West's hostility likely to break out again sooner or latter.
Thank you. The Empire is definitely in for some very rough times and the west is definitely going to have a big role to play. In my old version of this TL, the section titled "Byzantium and the West" started at this point.
If I may, what did you think of the Timur-Prester John section? That wasn't something I had planned out but just came to me while I was writing and thought would be an interesting twist.
Very nice.
Shows the West's total clueless and biases, but...that's Western Europe in this period.
Well, it is going more or less as I thought. The Kingdom of Apulia is already dead, without Imperial support it will be overrun shortly. The Balkans will suffer the most with raids and pillage across its countryside and cities.
The decisive showdown will be between the Anatolian forces and the ones in Constantinople. If the Roman fleet can be persuaded to support the Nicaean Emperor, he can quickly land in Europe and take the capital before the Venetians fully mobilize and interfere.
Of couse, after that there will be another round of war with the Venetians and those that attacked the Balkan territories
The decisive showdown will be between the Anatolian forces and the ones in Constantinople. If the Roman fleet can be persuaded to support the Nicaean Emperor, he can quickly land in Europe and take the capital before the Venetians fully mobilize and interfere.
Of couse, after that there will be another round of war with the Venetians and those that attacked the Balkan territories
How long did Tamerlane live OTL?
Whoever wins the current round of civil wars might be able to gain glory and legitimacy by ejecting the Timurids from Asia Minor once the old man dies--IIRC his empire didn't survive much longer than he did, so they'll probably be weakened.
Whoever wins the current round of civil wars might be able to gain glory and legitimacy by ejecting the Timurids from Asia Minor once the old man dies--IIRC his empire didn't survive much longer than he did, so they'll probably be weakened.
Elfwine: Thanks. I'm currently spinning some ideas based on the fact that there is no Ethiopian contender for the 'Prester John' title in TTL. Also TTL Timur was actually born in 1338, not 1336.
MerryPrankster: Fortunately for the Byzantines, the Timurids also crippled the Mamelukes and the Ottomans, so there won't be any repeat of a Turkish migration. Also the Timurids are overextended since Timur's empire only reached as far as Fars, in central Persia, in 1398. Still the situation for the Empire is horrible. The next update will have a map showing how the eastern Mediterranean has been affected by the Timurid invasion.
luis3007: A quick civil war, where would be the fun in that? But rest assured, the way the navy swings will have a huge impact on how the civil war goes.
MerryPrankster: Fortunately for the Byzantines, the Timurids also crippled the Mamelukes and the Ottomans, so there won't be any repeat of a Turkish migration. Also the Timurids are overextended since Timur's empire only reached as far as Fars, in central Persia, in 1398. Still the situation for the Empire is horrible. The next update will have a map showing how the eastern Mediterranean has been affected by the Timurid invasion.
luis3007: A quick civil war, where would be the fun in that?
But rest assured, the way the navy swings will have a huge impact on how the civil war goes.The long run should be fine unless a bunch of thi...
note to self, do not give writer ideas.
Why not?
wasn't the idea of this timeline is to have Byzantium survive until today? or just make it last a few more centuries before falling in a gigantic blaze of glory?
civil wars can be very costly to the Empire, and i would think they generally try to avoid it. and for that matter, why is there an impending civil war?
civil wars can be very costly to the Empire, and i would think they generally try to avoid it. and for that matter, why is there an impending civil war?
That (the bolded part) is the point of this timeline and it is something I intend to stick to. However this is one of the really rough spots for Byzantium that it periodically gets. I apologize if I've been overplaying the "doom and gloom" aspect. I've done it before. I envisioned Anna I as a tragic figure, and accidentally turned her into an idiot by overplaying her disdain for Europe.
As for why there is a civil war now, as Elfwine said, there is a really good window of opportunity open. The "emperor" is an infant who can't say more than two words and the regent is an unpopular foreign heretic who is far too friendly with the Venetians. So it's not surprising that ambitious men might make a bid for the throne, particularly members of the cadet branches of the Laskarid family tree.
ah. that makes complete sense. a foreigner being a regent just wont sit well for any royal family of its time.
also, in the future, is it possible to damage the Venetians enough so that another power, Austria perhaps, takes it? i would think that Byzantium would want to retain the mastery of the trade routes.
and, sometimes, a leader can be idiots. although to be fair, Anatolia really is the heartland of the Empire, so i can understand anna's neglect for Europe.
Glad I could help clarify things.
I do have plans for the fall of Venice. I've figured out how I want it to happen, although now I'm figuring out a plausible timeframe for it. But Venice's decline will start with its role in the later stages of the civil war.
I do have plans for the fall of Venice. I've figured out how I want it to happen, although now I'm figuring out a plausible timeframe for it. But Venice's decline will start with its role in the later stages of the civil war.
"The Roman Empire is a survivor. It has survived the Sassanids, the Arabs, the Seljuks, and the Crusaders. And with God's aid and mine, it will survive the Spanish whore."-attributed to Manuel Doukas, March 1404
1404: The independence of Apulia is short lived for in February a Neapolitan army appears at the gates of Bari. With only the Bari archontate and a few poorly trained levies at his command, Basil capitulates after a siege of a day. Apulia becomes a vassal of Naples, paying fifty percent of its annual income and obligated to provide a contingent of 800 troops for the Neapolitan army on command. If on active duty, the Apulian contingent is paid by Basil for the first ninety days, after which the King of Naples is responsible for their pay.
There are a few desultory skirmishes between the Thracian and Macedonian tagmata near Thessaloniki, which is under Maria’s control, but since each side only controls one tagma, they are reluctant to risk serious losses. Anatolia is also quiet. Meanwhile Thomas begins to make preparations for the creation of more tagmata in his realm, confiscating the estates of Maria’s supporters to help provide land grants. Maria attempts to do the same, but is met by riots across her domains. To bolster her troop count, she begins recruiting Latin mercenaries. At the beginning she is able to pay for them using her own resources, but due to her drastically decreased tax revenue she is soon forced to turn to Venetian loans.
Technically, she still controls five of the seven Asian themes, but she is afraid to order the strategoi to attack Nicholas for fear that they will join him instead. What actually happens is almost as bad for Maria. In March, Manuel Doukas, commander of the Coloneia tagma, with the support of the Chaldean and Syrian tagmata, is proclaimed Emperor of Trebizond. While he has the most troops, he has the least legitimacy. His popularity amongst the frontier troops is due to his vigorous and victorious raids conducted against the garrison troops of Timurid Armenia. However he does not push to re-conquer the region for fear of drawing the warlord back from Samarkand.
Three weeks later Demetrios Komnenos also revolts, declaring himself Emperor of Smyrna and claiming the throne due to his Komnenid blood and his Laskarid wife Zoe, who would have been Empress if John V had not been born. He is supported by the Anatolic tagma, which he immediately uses to annex the Kibyrrhaeots, the recruiting ground for most of the Imperial fleet and where the sailors have their families and estates. He is rewarded by the defection of three quarters of the Imperial fleet, which he uses to take Rhodes and Cyprus.
Some encourage him to march on Constantinople, but to have even a small chance of success he would have to take his whole army. That would leave his territories defenseless and allow Manuel or Nicholas to seize them, which means if he failed at Constantinople, a likely possibility since his non-frontier themes lack siege artillery, he could lose his bid for the throne.
For three months after Demetrios begins his revolt, there is silence across the Empire, the calm before the storm. In July, simultaneous border skirmishes between the Optimates and Chaldeans and between the Thracians and Macedonians cause the cold civil war to turn into a hot war. Essentially there are two civil wars ongoing. The one in Europe is between Thomas Laskaris and Maria with her Venetian allies. The Anatolian civil war is much more confusing as it is a three way struggle between the Laskarid, the Komnenid, and the Doukid. Since the initial battles are between the Laskarid and the Doukid, Demetrios uses the reprieve to have his fleet seize Samos, Chios, and Lesbos.
Off Lesbos, the sixty ships of the Smyrnan fleet are attacked by a Venetian squadron thirty four vessels strong, who swoop in to engage before realizing how outnumbered they are. The Smyrnan victory is total, with the Venetians losing eleven ships, eight of them captured, while sinking only one Greek galley. Two weeks later a truce is signed between Demetrios and Venice, whereby Demetrios agrees to stay out of Europe and Venice agrees to stay out of Asia. While both sides know that it will not last, for now it suits both of them.
Maria is irate over the treaty, which was made without her approval, but her position is untenable without the Venetian fleet. She controls Corinth and Thessalonica, but Thomas controls everything in between. The Peloponnesus, although part of the Macedonian theme, is governed by Manuel Angelos, whose family lives in Constantinople. Because of that plus the fact that none of the tagma troops have estates in his province, he remains loyal to Maria. Thomas had made an effort to seize the region, but demonstrations by the Thracian tagma along the Vardar coupled with the expedited dispatch of a Latin mercenary garrison to Corinth had stopped the attempt. But her divided realm is kept together only with Venetian sea power. Genoa, while extremely disturbed by this whole affair, is unable to stop the Venetians due to a war with Aragon-Sicily over control of Corsica.
Nicholas, who is short on land due to the small size of his themes, but not so short on money, creates a new unit of Athanatoi to replace the old one lost at Cappadocian Caesarea. Like the pre-Caesarea version this unit of full time professional soldiers paid entirely in cash, when it is finally completed in early 1405, numbers two thousand strong.
Meanwhile in all the Asian themes, the usual replacement procedures are in effect to rebuild the battered tagmata. Sons of soldiers are confirmed in their possession of their father’s lands, rights, and responsibilities. This is preferable as the heirs, expecting an inheritance eventually, usually have at least some military training. If suitable family heirs are not available, regular farmers are often transplanted to vacant estates and converted into tagma troops. Obviously these recruits have little to no experience when it comes to the art of war.
To the north, King Andrew III Arpad of Hungary invades the Duchy of Austria, enraged at Duke Otto IV Wittelsbach of Bavaria’s ‘usurpation of his rightful title of Holy Roman Emperor’. Unfortunately for Andrew, only the elector of Saxony supports him. Otto IV likens himself to Emperor Otto I, once again defending ‘the lands of the German people against the Magyar menace’.
A map of the Roman Empire and surroundings in August 1404. My apologies for the poor quality.
In terms of territorial losses, the war with Timur did not do much damage to the Roman Empire. Although he had the opportunity to do so after Caesarea, Timur did not try to incorporate Anatolia into his domain. He had already conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Syria within the last decade and had yet to fully establish his authority in all but the first by 1403.
There was also the fact that the Romans could draw upon the undamaged European tagmata. After Caesarea, Timur’s army was down to sixty five thousand effectives while the Romans were at forty five thousand. However if the European tagmata joined with the Army of Asia, the Romans would match Timur numerically. Being faced with another bloody battle like Caesarea was not something that appealed to Timur, which would have been guaranteed if he had tried a serious conquest of Anatolia.
The main damage of Timur’s invasion was caused by the civil war that followed shortly afterwards. By mid 1404 all of the players had declared their ambitions and while fighting had started, territories had not changed hands except for several islands in the Aegean. Unless otherwise indicated, all Aegean islands are under Maria’s control.
Here is a breakdown of the forces available to each of the contenders (does not include naval units), who are listed in order of greatest to least legitimacy.
Empress Maria: 11,400 soldiers-Thracian tagma, Constantinople archontate, and two banda. This figure does not include assorted mercenary contingents. While she, or more specifically her son John, is the rightful ruler of the Empire and controls Constantinople, she is extremely unpopular amongst her soldiers and subjects. Due to this she has extreme difficult in expanding her native Roman forces and is forced to rely on Venetian aid and Latin mercenaries, which further damage her popularity.
Thomas Laskaris, Emperor of Macedonia and Hellas: 10,200 soldiers-Macedonian tagma, one banda. His main advantage is that his lands are capable of supporting many more soldiers, unlike the Asian claimants whose provinces are already close to their carrying capacity in terms of expanding the tagma-theme system. He is also the only claimant who doesn’t need a fleet to attack Constantinople. However his domain is the most exposed to attacks from the west.
Nicholas Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea: 14,000 soldiers-under strength Optimates and Opsician tagmata. He controls two of the wealthiest provinces in the Empire but lacks a fleet and his two tagmata were both seriously damaged at Caesarea. Also his territories are small and lack defensive depth, making him vulnerable to swift attacks.
Demetrios Komnenos, Emperor of Smyrna: 16,000 soldiers-under strength Thracesian and Anatolic tagmata. While Thracesia is just as rich as Nicholas’ themes, the Anatolic theme is the poorest in the Empire. He has the most territory of any of the claimants, but the bulk of that is taken up by the Anatolic theme. He also has the most powerful fleet of any of the claimants, and his tagmata took the least casualties of any tagma at Caesarea.
Manuel Doukas, Emperor of Trebizond: 23,000 soldiers-under strength Chaldean, Coloneian, and Syrian tagmata, Antioch archontate, and eight banda. He has absolutely no blood claim at all to the throne while even Demetrios can claim one through his Laskarid wife. However he controls the most troops of all the contenders as well as the cities of Trebizond and Antioch, both rich ports that serve as western termini for the Silk Road. Still, he is the furthest from Constantinople and on the eastern frontier, where a low-scale border war is in effect with Timurid Armenia.
1404: The independence of Apulia is short lived for in February a Neapolitan army appears at the gates of Bari. With only the Bari archontate and a few poorly trained levies at his command, Basil capitulates after a siege of a day. Apulia becomes a vassal of Naples, paying fifty percent of its annual income and obligated to provide a contingent of 800 troops for the Neapolitan army on command. If on active duty, the Apulian contingent is paid by Basil for the first ninety days, after which the King of Naples is responsible for their pay.
There are a few desultory skirmishes between the Thracian and Macedonian tagmata near Thessaloniki, which is under Maria’s control, but since each side only controls one tagma, they are reluctant to risk serious losses. Anatolia is also quiet. Meanwhile Thomas begins to make preparations for the creation of more tagmata in his realm, confiscating the estates of Maria’s supporters to help provide land grants. Maria attempts to do the same, but is met by riots across her domains. To bolster her troop count, she begins recruiting Latin mercenaries. At the beginning she is able to pay for them using her own resources, but due to her drastically decreased tax revenue she is soon forced to turn to Venetian loans.
Technically, she still controls five of the seven Asian themes, but she is afraid to order the strategoi to attack Nicholas for fear that they will join him instead. What actually happens is almost as bad for Maria. In March, Manuel Doukas, commander of the Coloneia tagma, with the support of the Chaldean and Syrian tagmata, is proclaimed Emperor of Trebizond. While he has the most troops, he has the least legitimacy. His popularity amongst the frontier troops is due to his vigorous and victorious raids conducted against the garrison troops of Timurid Armenia. However he does not push to re-conquer the region for fear of drawing the warlord back from Samarkand.
Three weeks later Demetrios Komnenos also revolts, declaring himself Emperor of Smyrna and claiming the throne due to his Komnenid blood and his Laskarid wife Zoe, who would have been Empress if John V had not been born. He is supported by the Anatolic tagma, which he immediately uses to annex the Kibyrrhaeots, the recruiting ground for most of the Imperial fleet and where the sailors have their families and estates. He is rewarded by the defection of three quarters of the Imperial fleet, which he uses to take Rhodes and Cyprus.
Some encourage him to march on Constantinople, but to have even a small chance of success he would have to take his whole army. That would leave his territories defenseless and allow Manuel or Nicholas to seize them, which means if he failed at Constantinople, a likely possibility since his non-frontier themes lack siege artillery, he could lose his bid for the throne.
For three months after Demetrios begins his revolt, there is silence across the Empire, the calm before the storm. In July, simultaneous border skirmishes between the Optimates and Chaldeans and between the Thracians and Macedonians cause the cold civil war to turn into a hot war. Essentially there are two civil wars ongoing. The one in Europe is between Thomas Laskaris and Maria with her Venetian allies. The Anatolian civil war is much more confusing as it is a three way struggle between the Laskarid, the Komnenid, and the Doukid. Since the initial battles are between the Laskarid and the Doukid, Demetrios uses the reprieve to have his fleet seize Samos, Chios, and Lesbos.
Off Lesbos, the sixty ships of the Smyrnan fleet are attacked by a Venetian squadron thirty four vessels strong, who swoop in to engage before realizing how outnumbered they are. The Smyrnan victory is total, with the Venetians losing eleven ships, eight of them captured, while sinking only one Greek galley. Two weeks later a truce is signed between Demetrios and Venice, whereby Demetrios agrees to stay out of Europe and Venice agrees to stay out of Asia. While both sides know that it will not last, for now it suits both of them.
Maria is irate over the treaty, which was made without her approval, but her position is untenable without the Venetian fleet. She controls Corinth and Thessalonica, but Thomas controls everything in between. The Peloponnesus, although part of the Macedonian theme, is governed by Manuel Angelos, whose family lives in Constantinople. Because of that plus the fact that none of the tagma troops have estates in his province, he remains loyal to Maria. Thomas had made an effort to seize the region, but demonstrations by the Thracian tagma along the Vardar coupled with the expedited dispatch of a Latin mercenary garrison to Corinth had stopped the attempt. But her divided realm is kept together only with Venetian sea power. Genoa, while extremely disturbed by this whole affair, is unable to stop the Venetians due to a war with Aragon-Sicily over control of Corsica.
Nicholas, who is short on land due to the small size of his themes, but not so short on money, creates a new unit of Athanatoi to replace the old one lost at Cappadocian Caesarea. Like the pre-Caesarea version this unit of full time professional soldiers paid entirely in cash, when it is finally completed in early 1405, numbers two thousand strong.
Meanwhile in all the Asian themes, the usual replacement procedures are in effect to rebuild the battered tagmata. Sons of soldiers are confirmed in their possession of their father’s lands, rights, and responsibilities. This is preferable as the heirs, expecting an inheritance eventually, usually have at least some military training. If suitable family heirs are not available, regular farmers are often transplanted to vacant estates and converted into tagma troops. Obviously these recruits have little to no experience when it comes to the art of war.
To the north, King Andrew III Arpad of Hungary invades the Duchy of Austria, enraged at Duke Otto IV Wittelsbach of Bavaria’s ‘usurpation of his rightful title of Holy Roman Emperor’. Unfortunately for Andrew, only the elector of Saxony supports him. Otto IV likens himself to Emperor Otto I, once again defending ‘the lands of the German people against the Magyar menace’.
A map of the Roman Empire and surroundings in August 1404. My apologies for the poor quality.
In terms of territorial losses, the war with Timur did not do much damage to the Roman Empire. Although he had the opportunity to do so after Caesarea, Timur did not try to incorporate Anatolia into his domain. He had already conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Syria within the last decade and had yet to fully establish his authority in all but the first by 1403.
There was also the fact that the Romans could draw upon the undamaged European tagmata. After Caesarea, Timur’s army was down to sixty five thousand effectives while the Romans were at forty five thousand. However if the European tagmata joined with the Army of Asia, the Romans would match Timur numerically. Being faced with another bloody battle like Caesarea was not something that appealed to Timur, which would have been guaranteed if he had tried a serious conquest of Anatolia.
The main damage of Timur’s invasion was caused by the civil war that followed shortly afterwards. By mid 1404 all of the players had declared their ambitions and while fighting had started, territories had not changed hands except for several islands in the Aegean. Unless otherwise indicated, all Aegean islands are under Maria’s control.
Here is a breakdown of the forces available to each of the contenders (does not include naval units), who are listed in order of greatest to least legitimacy.
Empress Maria: 11,400 soldiers-Thracian tagma, Constantinople archontate, and two banda. This figure does not include assorted mercenary contingents. While she, or more specifically her son John, is the rightful ruler of the Empire and controls Constantinople, she is extremely unpopular amongst her soldiers and subjects. Due to this she has extreme difficult in expanding her native Roman forces and is forced to rely on Venetian aid and Latin mercenaries, which further damage her popularity.
Thomas Laskaris, Emperor of Macedonia and Hellas: 10,200 soldiers-Macedonian tagma, one banda. His main advantage is that his lands are capable of supporting many more soldiers, unlike the Asian claimants whose provinces are already close to their carrying capacity in terms of expanding the tagma-theme system. He is also the only claimant who doesn’t need a fleet to attack Constantinople. However his domain is the most exposed to attacks from the west.
Nicholas Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea: 14,000 soldiers-under strength Optimates and Opsician tagmata. He controls two of the wealthiest provinces in the Empire but lacks a fleet and his two tagmata were both seriously damaged at Caesarea. Also his territories are small and lack defensive depth, making him vulnerable to swift attacks.
Demetrios Komnenos, Emperor of Smyrna: 16,000 soldiers-under strength Thracesian and Anatolic tagmata. While Thracesia is just as rich as Nicholas’ themes, the Anatolic theme is the poorest in the Empire. He has the most territory of any of the claimants, but the bulk of that is taken up by the Anatolic theme. He also has the most powerful fleet of any of the claimants, and his tagmata took the least casualties of any tagma at Caesarea.
Manuel Doukas, Emperor of Trebizond: 23,000 soldiers-under strength Chaldean, Coloneian, and Syrian tagmata, Antioch archontate, and eight banda. He has absolutely no blood claim at all to the throne while even Demetrios can claim one through his Laskarid wife. However he controls the most troops of all the contenders as well as the cities of Trebizond and Antioch, both rich ports that serve as western termini for the Silk Road. Still, he is the furthest from Constantinople and on the eastern frontier, where a low-scale border war is in effect with Timurid Armenia.
Thank you, I am honored. If I'd planned ahead better, I would have arranged it so that an update with lots of Turks was posted today. But I'm not that organized.
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