AH Challenge: A Byzantine victory at Manzikert

bard32

Banned
Well in Tom Clancy's techno-thriller novel Sum of All Fears,
radical terrorists recover the fissile plutonium from
undetonated atomic bomb, construct a new bomb from it
and plan to use it to blow up an American city. If the
Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes managed to
gather enough fissile material to make an atomic bomb
(which was well within the capabilities of the Byzantines - I
saw it on a History Channel docudrama last night), and
deployed it at the right time, he could definitely won at
Manzikert.

Actually, Denver wasn't blown up. It was nearly blown up and didn't I say
plausibly? By golly, I think I did! A more plausible scenario would be to use the Byzantine catephracts more effectively.
 
Of course it would have made a difference - the loss resulted in the loss of Asia Minor. It would have bought time for rebuilding the army and defenses. The Seljuks wanted peace with the Byzantines - a loss in that battle would have produced it.

I guess I phrased it wrong. Yes, the Byzantines would have kept Asia Minor, but chances are, they'd still suffer from the Crusades and the Mongol Invasions later. It's a little too late to indefinitely save them.
 
I guess I phrased it wrong. Yes, the Byzantines would have kept Asia Minor, but chances are, they'd still suffer from the Crusades and the Mongol Invasions later. It's a little too late to indefinitely save them.

I thought we said winning the battle would delay or remove the Crusades alltogether.
 

Philip

Donor
I guess I phrased it wrong. Yes, the Byzantines would have kept Asia Minor, but chances are, they'd still suffer from the Crusades

There may not be Crusades. A win at Manzikert means the Byzantines do not need Western help. At least not yet. There is certainly no reason to assume there will still be a Fourth Crusade.


and the Mongol Invasions later.

A healthy Byzantine Empire could fare quite well against the Mongols. And that is assuming the Mongols still come calling.
 
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