Since Poland has regained some of its mojo, did a version of OTL's Union of Brest (Orthodox-Catholic union of churches) occur?
All we need now is Greek Massalia to come full circle
It did not. The political weakness of the OTL Orthodox isn't a thing ITTL, and also I'm pretty sure that most of the Orthodox were in the Lithuania part of the Commonwealth anyway, which is part of Russia ITTL.
It would have been even funnier if he decided to pull another "Better than Antioch, Khosrow built this" he being a history buff and all.
I admittedly didn't think of that, but Iskandar is trying to be somewhat diplomatic even while doing all this.
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Rhomania’s General Crisis, Part 16.1-The Other Fires, part 2:
The Egyptians, after taking Gaza, proceeded north along the coastal highway. On the Mediterranean they were protected and supported by the Egyptian Mediterranean fleet. This was a small force with no heavy warships but it faced no opposition in Syrian coastal waters. Sophia’s naval assets were in the Aegean and Adriatic and could not be stretched further.
This gave the Egyptians a largely invulnerable and, by the standards of the time, highly efficient supply system for their army, but it had its weaknesses. This beneficent system would only last so long as they stuck near to the Syrian coast. Also, due to the rigors of a Sinai march and the watering demands, combined with the availability of sea transport, the Egyptians were fairly weak in draft animals. If they struck into the interior, the land segment of their supply lines would be tenuous. Requisitions from the locals could make up for the shortfall but this would also alienate the desired goodwill of the locals.
The forces defending Syria are decidedly motley. Fakhr al-Din II, the Megas Kyr of the Druze in the Roman hierarchy, is their commander per the agreement signed with Strategos Sarantenos. It is an unprecedented action. No minority commander has been given a posting of such importance and strength, one that includes Roman regulars and kastron troops. Many regular officers resent the placement.
At the beginning of summer 1662, there are not many of those regular officers. Sarantenos took the bulk with him on his march westward. Fakhr al-Din has more kastron troops, mostly reposted garrison soldiers withdrawn from the lands ceded to the Shah. However, the bulk are drawn from the various religious minorities of Syria.
This does not help the unity of the army. Many of the non-Druze minority troops, particularly the Maronites, resent having a Druze placed in command over them. Various Bedouin units also feel the same, especially the Anizzah. The leader of that tribal confederacy is also a Megas Kyr and his forebears have held that title appreciably longer than those of Fakhr al-Din.
By mid-June, the Druze Megas Kyr can muster an army comparable in numbers and military equipment, including artillery, to the Egyptians. (Syrian arsenals are quite well-stocked.) But given these tensions, he is reluctant to commit to a set-piece battle. Instead, he opts for harassing attacks. There aren’t big supply wagon convoys to ambush but Egyptian outposts, scouts, and flankers are attacked, while herds of sheep and goats that follow the Egyptian army as a mobile meat supply (a tactic common of Roman and Ottoman armies as well) are a juicy target for Bedouin raiders. Another advantage is that these raiding parties are small enough that they can be comprised of units from one minority group under a commander from said group, ensuring that they’ll stay cohesive during the mission.
Given the Egyptian weakness in cavalry, these raids are often successful and embarrassing and frustrating for the Egyptians, but since the bulk of supplies go by sea, they are not enough to halt the Egyptian advance. It continues, slowly but methodically. Coastal fortifications, given the lack of threat for so long, are in poor shape and Fakhr al-Din has extreme difficulties in garrisoning them. Anyone can see, given the state of the ramparts, that a garrison is being left to die in an effort to slow the enemy down.
Non-Druze are reluctant to take such orders from a Druze. He could use Druze or Roman soldiers who would obey such an order (Roman officers may grumble, but are more likely to appreciate the broader strategic situation and also follow orders). But if he fritters away those units, he’ll weaken the portions of the army he is certain will obey his orders in a crisis and around which he wants the rest of his army to cohere.
As a result, Ashkelon, Jaffa, and Kaisareia fall even more easily than Gaza. Thus, the Egyptians are feeling confident when they approach Acre. The city doesn’t surrender on the initial approach but the Egyptians figure, based on previous experience, that a show of force will be enough to cow the defenders. They make a demonstration but, neglecting precautions, move too close to the ramparts. They are suddenly met with a blizzard of gunfire that cuts down almost two hundred before the Egyptians withdraw out of range.
Acre is not going to capitulate easily like the coastal towns further south. Acre and Tyre are the two concentrations of Greek Orthodox inhabitants in central Syria. Unlike the minorities, whose attitude despite the agreement with Sarantenos is still largely ‘keep head down and wait it out’, the Greek population is more openly in favor of Sophia and wary of letting a Coptic army march through their city. The fortifications of Acre are also in somewhat better shape than those of the ports further south, which gives confidence to the locals in their ability to resist.
The siege of Acre proves difficult for the besiegers from the start, beginning with the ambush from the walls. A night raid into one of the encampments manages to spike two heavy guns, of which the Egyptians have a limited number. Still, they press the siege methodically, advancing their trenches and bombarding the ramparts, gradually inflicting damage faster than it can be repaired.
Problems for the Egyptians increase at the beginning of August, despite the worsening conditions inside the city, as they no longer have uncontested mastery of the sea. Kalomeros has arrived in the area, responding to Syrian appeals for naval support. He only has four ships under his command, two of which are converted merchantmen, but his flagship Salamis is more powerful than any other individual warship east of Rhodes at his arrival.
He delivers some desperately needed provisions into the city, evacuating some civilians on his way out. He also harasses Egyptian supply convoys which forces the Egyptians to rely more heavily on local requisitions and foraging expeditions. This angers the locals, frustrated by all these hungry Egyptian mouths consuming all the local foodstuffs, while the foraging parties are ideal targets for Fakhr al-Din’s raiders. On two separate occasions, the Salamis even bombards parts of the Egyptian siege lines. The noise and spectacle are more significant than the damage against the well-built entrenchments but they certainly improve the morale of Acre’s defenders.
Naval reinforcements from the Aegean, this time on the side of the Egyptians, at the end of August manage to drive Kalomeros away. His riposte, a scorching raid on southern Cyprus, is devastating for the targeted area but irrelevant from the perspective of the siege of Acre. But a far more formidable threat has emerged.
It is the Black Death, the dreaded buboes appearing on victims at the end of August. Some historians speculate it came from the Syrian interior, carried to the Egyptian camp by foraging parties. Its origins are unclear, but not the impact. It cuts through the Egyptian ranks, pressure against the city faltering as sick lists skyrocket. While the valor of Acre’s garrison, and of the sailors of Kalomeros’s squadron were important, it is Yersinia Pestis that breaks the Egyptian siege of Acre. They retreat back to Kaisareia, leaving over 10% of their ranks in plague graves.
Meanwhile, central Anatolia is, to use a technical term, an utter mess. The Army of Suffering had gotten a material and morale boost from ‘defeating’ the Syrian army as it passed through, but its strategic position is still tenuous. Leo Theosteriktos, Kastrophylax of the Cilician Gates, remains a redoubtable opponent, stymying all efforts to break into Cilicia. He also sallied out to cover stragglers from the Army of Syria, covering and reorganizing them. Most of the stragglers who were killed by the Army of Suffering were those who fell out further west, out of range of Theosteriktos’s efforts.
The Kastrophylax has the strength to block the Army of Suffering, and harass it in areas proximate to the Gates, but he doesn’t have enough men to go on the offensive, much as he would like to do. While understanding the need, he begrudgingly gives up the reformed stragglers to bolster Fakhr al-Din, who do much to invigorate Syrian defenses around Acre.
The Army of Suffering has operated around southern Anatolikon, with its one attempt thus far to expand operations failing miserably. As armies parry around Smyrna and Acre, the rebels cut north, devastating much of the Anatolikon theme that had thus far been relatively untouched.
It is practically impossible to maintain a coherent account of events. The Army of Suffering, due to rugged terrain and wretched logistics, is forced to scatter to survive, making discipline and coordination even more of a problem. Forces facing them are overwhelmingly irregular scratch forces and local nomads, hastily organized by local officials. Here as well, discipline and organization are notably largely by their absence.
The concept of a front line here would be a bad joke. Locations change hand repeatedly as bands ebb back and forth, sweeping through an area and then moving on. Land redistribution programs are enacted in some locations, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but the Army of Suffering’s recruitment problems remain. Once local land is redistributed, local peasants lose interest in the further struggle. Those most willing to continue fighting with the Army of Suffering are thus those most interested in a lifestyle of looting and killing, hardly conducive to discipline and good behavior.
The Grand Karaman Andreas Karamanlis, the ex-Megas Dekarchos Stefanos Karamanlis, and Konon absolutely do try to form a more cohesive and orderly formation but they are only three men. Unlike the Tourmarches or Sophia, they lack an administrative structure and bureaucracy to widely enforce their will. Three men, even with Konon’s indomitable will, have extreme difficulty enforcing their will over the scattered Army.
It is an ugly and vicious war, marked with local atrocities and reprisals, with neither side looking good. In one village south of Gangra, tenants butcher and eat sixteen cattle owned by their landlord after he is chased from the area. It is the first time they’ve ever tasted beef, a meat whose price puts it out of reach to most of the poor across the Empire. When the landlord returns with a force he’s mustered, he selects sixteen villagers at random and hangs them. [1]
While most operations have little effect beyond devastating the area, in late summer the city of Ankyra is taken by treachery. With Andreas Karamanlis and Konon present, the occupation is relatively orderly with the territory garrisoned and the rebel program of economic redistribution more thoroughly implemented. Major operations cease after the fall of Ankyra. The leaders want to try and restore some discipline to the Army, build up its supplies of material, and prepare for more meaningful endeavors. Ankyra does, after all, lie on the main north Anatolian highway that westward extends to Chalcedon, just across the Bosporus from Constantinople herself.
[1] This is copied from an OTL incident in the Spanish Civil War.
