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Just a quick comment for now, before I say anything more detailed. I'm not sure why you're using the AUC dating system, which was used rarely enough by the classical Romans, let alone the Byzantines. The Byzantines used the Annus Mundi dating system, working from the date of Creation, popularly...

You're right in that: and I must comment on your TL when I get a free moment. It's nice to see a post here that doesn't apply hindsight, because, yes, the Komnenoi seemingly were much more interested in Syria than the Anatolian plateau. You can see it in Alexios' early years too, when he...

Fulsome praise indeed! Thank you :)

Irrelevant, I think. Manuel clearly saw a lot in Maria of Antioch too, but it didn't stop her Regency from being an unpopular disaster. The bottom line is that once Manuel is dead, his wishes stop mattering. The Angeloi, like the Komnenoi, were members of the dynatoi.

Are you sure about that? I think it's very unlikely a barbarian foreigner like Bela would ever be allowed anywhere near the throne: witness the fate of the Regent Maria after Manuel's death, after all. Also, comparing Andronikos I and Basil II may not be too helpful. Basil II's reign marked...

Unlikely. The twelfth century was problematic because by this point, the Byzantine state was dealing with foes that were, on all fronts, now in possession of the sort of administrative apparatus that allowed them to pose a direct and consistent threat to Byzantine interests than they hadn't...

It's difficult, I think, to get the exact circumstances wished for by the OP. That said, I could see something like it happening if the system set up in the late Roman period, the Quaestura Exercitus survives, perhaps in the absence of the rise of the Arabs. Basically, this was rather an odd...

Thanks. And yeah, my moments of writing inspiration seem to come in "clumps", so I try to write as much as I can when the going is good. Don't be too surprised if there's not another update before 2015. That said, there could easily be three or four between now and Christmas, we'll just have to...

Chapter Twenty Five: Blood and Heresy "When he received bad news, it is said, his face would swell and redden as if he were fit to burst, and he would shout and shriek so loudly it was impossible for any to be with him. When the news from Persia reached him, the Emperor set upon the messenger...

Likewise! I'm glad my writing mojo has returned. So, Bulgaria. The region broke off from Roman rule under John of Priene (Ivan I) in 1184, and from the reign of his grandson Ivan III (1226-1263) it became part of the Jurchen sphere. Ivan III was succeeded by his son Stephen, who formally...

Glad you all enjoyed the update! Not so long as Constantine X did, that's for sure. I've made a minor alteration to the text to fit the story of the next chapter: Romanos Pegonites, born in 1315, is now his father's third son, with two older brothers, Alexios and Damianos. The chapter...

Chapter Twenty Four: The Emptying Chalice "Many men, and even impious and immodest woman, grasped after the supreme power of the Roman state in those days, but the more they snatched at the office, the more all that was most noble and excellent drained away, until the Emperors themselves became...