An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion

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50,000 people would still put it at least into the top five in Europe, probably the top 3, and it is wealthy merely by virtue of the amount of gold and jewels stored in it's churches and palaces.

Not by 1448, on either score.

Look at the Italian cities like Genoa and Milan and Florence and Venice. Look at Granada and London and Paris.

And those are just the ones coming to mind. 50,000 as a high estimate barely makes it into this category.

As for the gold and jewels in it's churches and palaces: What gold and jewels?

The Hagia Sophia itself is in poor condition, how do you think there are gold and jewels in abundance in that situation?
 
"Osman I is, in my mind, one the greatest leaders this world has ever seen. He saved his people from near certain destruction and built an empire in the course of a single generation. Few civilizations have ever seen his like."-John Augustus Norwich, The Ottomans: The Early Years

1296-1300: Since the Armenian delegation arrived, there was a massive buildup along the Anatolian frontier. In 1296 the attack commences led by John himself, imitating his father. The Seljuk sultanate has been imitating the Il-Khanate, local emirs asserting their independence of Konya. As a result Roman forces face no united Turkish resistance but a multitude of minor Turkish statelets, most of which are more concerned with fighting each other than combating the Romans. Iconium (Konya) falls late in 1296.

Slowly but steadily the Romans advance across Anatolia, facing constant but poorly organized Turkish resistance. In 1298 Roman forces begin facing more serious opposition as several of the displaced Turkish tribes begin answering to a new leader named Osman. The campaign turns into a bloody stalemate, both sides suffering heavy casualties. After a year and a half, Osman decides that prospects in the collapsing Il-Khanate are better. Many medieval historians often wonder what would’ve happened if he had decided to remain in Anatolia instead.

Without Osman’s support, the remaining Turks are gradually pushed back, many of them choosing to join Osman in Mesopotamia. In April 1300 Theodosiopolis falls; two months later a Turkish force is practically annihilated at Manzikert. John stages a massive triumph in Constantinople, giving pride of place to the Georgian soldiers loaned to him by his son’s father-in-law. Historians explain the Laskarid success as compared to the Komnenid failure to retake Anatolia with three reasons, the lack of a western menace (the War of the Sicilian Vespers is still ongoing), the significant decrease in Seljuk capabilities after the Mongol invasion, and the conditions in the Il-Khanate which convince Osman to abandon Anatolia in favor of Mesopotamia.

The image is somewhat spoiled by the fact that a month later, Turkish rebellions break out in Cappadocia and Coloneia. Also several of the European border districts had been ravaged by the Serbians and Bulgarians while most of the army was in Anatolia. Since he had already begun dipping into his personal fortune to help pay the troops, John is forced to be content with a show of force along the European border without actually punishing either of the Slavic states.

1301-1305: The War of the Sicilian Vespers comes to an end in 1302. The Angevins retain control of southern Italy but Aragon and Sicily are united under Frederick II, third son of Peter I.

In Mesopotamia, the current Khan of the Il-Khanate attempts to use Osman and his army of refugee Turks to put down a major rebellion centered in southern Mesopotamia. However Osman kills the rebel leader at a parley in 1303, co-opts the rebellion and proclaims the birth of a Turkish sultanate to replace the one lost in Anatolia. In 1305 he takes Baghdad and establishes it as his capital; this is considered by most historians to be the official birth of the Ottoman Empire.

Also in 1305 a Roman army debouches from the Cilician Gates and marches into Syria. In the previous year it had broken the two Turkish rebellions of 1300. Greek settlers are brought in, attracted by tax exemptions, as well as a sizeable number of Vlachs. While this does settle Anatolia down some, the treasury suffers.

Mameluke detachments shadow the force but do not engage as it quickly becomes clear its target is Antioch. Manuel II Laskaris is in command. Antioch refuses to surrender and is besieged. After twelve days the gates are opened by local Orthodox citizens, causing the city to fall. There is some looting before Manuel can restrain his troops, but overall little damage is done to Antioch or its inhabitants. Religious toleration is promised to all Antiochenes, although an Orthodox patriarch is installed.

The pope is outraged and has the clergy proclaim a Crusade against Constantinople. The response is apathetic; all the major states of Europe have other concerns and without their support, it is obvious any crusade would fail miserably. All this episode does is confirm the Romans in their hatred of Catholicism and that the Fourth Crusade was not a fluke.

However in order to help forestall any threat, Manuel makes a special arrangement with Philip, King of Naples. Bari is becoming a major port where eastern goods enter Italy. In order to prevent the Angevins from attacking it, Manuel passes laws whereby Neapolitan citizens have to pay only a three percent value tax on luxury goods purchased in Bari. This ensures that Neapolitan merchants and nobles won’t support an attack on Bari, since direct Angevin control would likely raise the price. Also a Neapolitan tax collector is installed in Bari, to make it easier for Philip to levy duties on any goods passing from Naples to Bari and vice versa. The arrangement secures Philip much income, with little of the expense of defending or maintaining Bari.

During this period (and later) John faces a number of noble uprisings. He has inherited his father’s distaste of the aristocracy and usually appoints commoners to administrative and military commands. Also the conquered lands of Anatolia are divvied out to small landowners in an effort to revitalize the class. While the central Anatolian plateau is more favorable to pastoralism, he imposes limits on the amount of property any one individual or family can hold in a single theme. Obviously all this annoys the aristocracy but also hampers their ability to strike back. The fact that the Nobles’ Rebellion of 1261 resulted in the crippling or destruction of several of the major noble families only make things more difficult for the aristocracy.

1306-1310: The Il-Khanate is shattered. The main victors are the Ottomans, which rule a state stretching from Lake Van to Basra, and the Jalayirids, who rule most of the Iranian plateau with their capital at Fars.

Increasing trade rivalries in the Black Sea market cause war to break out between Venice and Genoa. John decides to remain neutral, but he has to use the Imperial fleet several times to enforce peace in Imperial waters. Fifteen ships are sunk in a squall after one such demonstration. However he does tell the Venetians that if they take Croton or Modon, he expects to start receiving rent payments.

With the Imperial fleet active, John decides to use it and seizes Cyprus in 1309. The papacy is distracted by the Templar trial and does not respond.

1311-1313: Tensions increase between Byzantium and Genoa when a Genoese squadron attacks several Venetian vessels in the harbor at Smyrna. The fighting gets out of hand and several dozen Greeks are killed and four Roman vessels burned. John demands reparations to be paid to both the Venetians and Greeks who suffered in the attack, but Genoa refuses. Three days before the Imperial demand reaches Genoa, the commune received news of a great victory at Ragusa; fifty one Venetian ships sunk or captured. With Venice itself under blockade, Genoa is in no mood to listen to Roman demands.

John’s response is fairly mild. He triples the Genoese duties to match the fees the Venetians pay, but only arrests those Genoese merchants who refuse to pay. Neither Modon or Croton is attacked, although he does send a messenger to Sarai to encourage the Khan of the Blue Horde to attack Kaffa or Tana.

At the same time, the Barbary Corsairs as they are now called, make their appearance. In 1312 a general truce is signed at Oran, bringing an end to the first stage of the Marinid attempt to control North Africa. Numerous soldiers and sailors, now without wars to fight, take to the sea and begin raiding Christian ships and shores. This mostly impinges on Aragonese and Genoese shipping.
 
Some notes.

John Augustus Norwich?

:D Nice.


Presumably, Manuel is Turk-tolerant here - it would be a lot easier to sweep the petty emirates up if there's a possibility of joining with the Romans (to settle scores, for instance) rather than a Turkicide on the march. Even if Osman is leading a number of Turks out of Anatolia to claim a sultanate in the crumbling Ilkhanate.

As for Antioch...I expect the Roman claim to it from before the Crusades is waved in the face of anyone who will care of those who might otherwise question it, and otherwise the empire is rather...the Pope is a douche, whatever we do.

Otherwise...looks pretty good. We (me and BG) already mentioned this is optimistic, but it seems to be solid once that issue is resolved - though I imagine the Romans are going to run out of steam soonish (the dreaded black plague if no sooner).
 
An Ottoman empire centered in Iraq? Kind of cool.

Good update. I imagine the Romans' luck will run out sooner or later, but it's good to see a revival.

What will Byzantine culture look like with the large numbers of Turks coming under their control? Although some have converted to Christianity, many have not.
 
Thanks for the comments. I'll try and address these issues in the next updates.

I fully concede this is optimistic. Although you should've seen my first draft. There Byzantine success was every bit as great and it was achieved even though Charles of Anjou took Sicily just as easily as he took it in OTL.

And Byzantine steam is almost expended, although it's not the Black Death that ends it.
 
Thanks for the comments. I'll try and address these issues in the next updates.

I fully concede this is optimistic. Although you should've seen my first draft. There Byzantine success was every bit as great and it was achieved even though Charles of Anjou took Sicily just as easily as he took it in OTL.

And Byzantine steam is almost expended, although it's not the Black Death that ends it.

Its always tempting to do that with the nations one likes. Congratulations on resisting the urge to post that version. :D

And looking forward to the next update.
 
"Here we stand, here we fight. We will not retreat any longer, we will not abandon our homes a second time. Today we will shall be victorious, or we shall die, our families shall die, our people shall die. Let today be remembered as the day when we saved the Turkish people."-Sultan Bayezid I, prior to the Battle of the Gates

1314-1315: Genoese resistance is crippled by a double blow in May 1314. First, the blockade of Venice is shattered at the Battle of Chioggia, the tide having turned in the Venetian favor by the arrival of a Venetian fleet from the east. Second, the Blue Horde launches attacks on both Kaffa and Tana. Both Venetian and Genoese merchants are expelled and John uses this to bar the Italians from the Black Sea. Crippled Genoa and exhausted Venice are in no position to argue, but relations distinctively cool.

1316: John IV Laskaris dies and is succeeded by Manuel II Laskaris, who is thirty two. Almost immediately afterward a revolt breaks out in Anatolia amongst the Turkish population still settled there. An Ottoman army invades Cilicia in support, bypassing well defended Antioch. At Tarsus, Manuel II Laskaris fights an inconclusive battle, but it stops the Ottoman advance and encourages the Mamelukes and Jalayirids to both invade the Ottoman Empire.

Manuel II, who has spent much time amongst the Turks of central and eastern Anatolia and fought beside many of them, is much more liked by the Turks than John IV. While during the 1296-1300 campaign several of the minor emirs joined with the Romans since then relations had soured because of attempts to convert them and relocate them to Thrace and Macedonia.

Manuel promises to stop any relocation attempts, provided that the Turks serve the Empire faithfully. He also promises religious toleration to those who still follow Islam (the data is vague but historians estimate at least two thirds are still Muslim, although the upper leadership is more likely evenly split), with the stipulations of no proselytizing and that mosques cannot be taller than the tallest church in any town.

Instead Manuel makes sure that the Turks are surrounded by other Christian settlers (Central and eastern Anatolia is a cultural smorgasbord, with Greeks, Armenians, Turks, the occasional Bulgarian, and Vlachs fleeing from Hungarian incursions) and serve alongside Christian troops. He hopes that this soft-sell approach will work, and it does, although it takes at least two generations.

He is criticized by the patriarch for this long-term approach; according to two separate accounts, Manuel called the patriarch a ‘Latin cleric’. The continued papal refusal to acknowledge Roman claims on Cyprus or Antioch is extremely grating to Manuel who harbors a special hatred for Urban V, who personally called him a ‘servant of Satan’ for his role in the fall of Antioch.

1317-1319: The rebels are quickly cowed without the promised Ottoman support and by Manuel’s concessions, but both Bulgaria and Serbia both take the opportunity to raid across the European borders. Manuel ignores the weaker Serbia and marches on Trnovo, flattening a much smaller Bulgarian army that attempts to stop him. The main Bulgarian army attempts to divert him by attacking Adrianople but Manuel ignores the threat, investing Trnovo. Another Bulgarian siege at Mesembria also fails to divert him.

Adrianople falls after a siege of only eleven days through treachery. When Trnovo falls three weeks later Manuel’s revenge is terrible. The city is razed to the ground with many of its citizens slaughtered. The remainder are transplanted to Anatolia. The outnumbered Bulgarian army is unable to intervene in pitched battle but does skirmish, freeing some 1,000 captives in one raid. Mesembria manages to avoid capture, but George Sphrantzes wrote “at most three cats were left alive in the city.”

Peace is made on fairly generous terms. Bulgaria does not have to pay any tribute and is allowed to keep all the spoils from Adrianople. All Roman prisoners and non-Trnovo Bulgarians are returned to their respective countries. Serbia makes peace shortly afterward, paying a small annual tribute of 2,500 hyperpyra.

All of Christendom is scandalized on May 19, 1319, when a Barbary squadron skirts Rome itself. A few dozen Moorish soldiers land and raid the countryside for a few hours, acquiring little of value before being forced to withdraw. However the psychological blow is immense.

Six months later the Ottomans defeat the combined Mameluke-Jalayirid army at the gates of Baghdad itself. The Battle of the Gates ensures that the Ottoman Empire will survive, despite being surrounded by three states all larger than it.

1320-1323: Delegates from both Genoa and Barcelona approach the pope in early 1320. Shaken by the raid on Rome, he agrees to their request. A general crusade is declared against the Barbary Pirates. Portugal, Aragon, Pisa and Genoa all participate; they had suffered the most from the pirates. However the commercial rivalries between the participants hamper cooperation. The crusade resembles four state-sponsored expeditions rather than any international effort. The only reason historians even list this as a crusade is the use of church money in the provisioning of the Christian fleets.

Tunis falls to a Genoese flotilla in 1321 while a Portuguese fleet takes Ceuta, although it is expelled the next year. Oran falls to an Aragonese armada, but that is the last success of the crusade. The crusade also has the effect of pushing the still independent Muslim emirs of North Africa to favor the Marinids as a protector against Christendom.
 
Looks good, but...

"Here we stand, here we fight. We will not retreat any longer, we will not abandon our homes a second time. Today we will shall be victorious, or we shall die, our families shall die, our people shall die. Let today be remembered as the day when we saved the Turkish people."-Sultan Bayezid I, prior to the Battle of the Gates


Presumably attributed to him by later writers, as it sounds like something in the language of a later day. But maybe that's just me.

Either way, nice to see the Turks working something out. I wonder how they'll develop culturally in this world.

Peace is made on fairly generous terms. Bulgaria does not have to pay any tribute and is allowed to keep all the spoils from Adrianople. All Roman prisoners and non-Trnovo Bulgarians are returned to their respective countries. Serbia makes peace shortly afterward, paying a small annual tribute of 2,500 hyperpyra.


What.

That sound you hear is Basil's spirit saying stronger things, but I'm pretty sure I recall a rule against harsh language, even in medieval Greek.

But seriously, why is Manuel being so generous?

 
Elfwine: The quote could be Osman's or invented by a later writer and just attributed to him. The Battle of the Gates is one of the most pivotal moments in Turkish history, so it wouldn't be surprising if legends abound about it. Think the Field of Blackbirds and Serbia, just with a happy ending for the heroes.

On the subject of the peace treaty, I did a bad job of showing it, but it's a fairly even swap as honors were roughly even. Rhomanion took Trnovo, but Bulgaria took Adrianople and was an inch from taking Mesembria. So in the treaty, Bulgaria keeps the loot but Byzantium keeps all the Trnovo captives, who make up most of the Bulgarian captives, and gets all of its captives back.

MerryPrankster: The Adrianople loot is viewed as a trade for the Trnovo captives. Money can be more quickly made than people and Manuel wants people to settle on the Anatolian frontier, both as soldiers and as Christian neighbors for the Turks settled there. Future historians might also view this as an aspect of the Laskarid inclination to favor Asia over Europe, a problem that will come to a head in the reign of Manuel's successor.

Other Viewers: Please feel free to post, even if it's just a "I like" or "I no like" (although reasons why would be nice too :D). Feedback is the best way to help me improve and make this more enjoyable for you to read.
 
Elfwine: The quote could be Osman's or invented by a later writer and just attributed to him. The Battle of the Gates is one of the most pivotal moments in Turkish history, so it wouldn't be surprising if legends abound about it. Think the Field of Blackbirds and Serbia, just with a happy ending for the heroes.

Good image, that. If the Field of Blackbirds is ultimate :( , this as ultimate :D makes no doubt for some damn fine stories.

On the subject of the peace treaty, I did a bad job of showing it, but it's a fairly even swap as honors were roughly even. Rhomanion took Trnovo, but Bulgaria took Adrianople and was an inch from taking Mesembria. So in the treaty, Bulgaria keeps the loot but Byzantium keeps all the Trnovo captives, who make up most of the Bulgarian captives, and gets all of its captives back.

That's still letting the Bulgarians (Bulgarians? I think its Bulgarians...) off too lightly.

Manuel can and should push Bulgaria harder than this. At least make 'em a vassal or something. :mad: (at him, not you)
 
Elfwine: I don't know what the rule is, but I call them Bulgars before conversion to Christianity and Bulgarians after. Although I use Serb and Serbian interchangeably. And Vlachs are Vlachs; don't mess with vampires.

General Question to the Floor: Since I'm new to the board, what is the view on narratives in AHD: Before 1900? I want to write a particular event in this timeline as a short story rather than just a paragraph in a list (the bulk of this TL would still be in the usual format) and it's something I hope to do further down the road. It's just something I haven't seen in any of the threads I've looked at.

And because I don't want to be a tease, here's an update.


"I may be a woman, frail of body, but I am a Roman woman, a daughter of Caesar, of Alexander. You would be wise to fear me." -attributed to Anna I Laskaris, Empress of the Romans

1324-1330: In 1324, Manuel dies at only forty and is succeeded by his only living heir, his twenty year old daughter Anna. Anna I Laskaris, Empress of Rhomanion, is not taken seriously by the Bulgarians. When they raid across the border, a Byzantine army sacks Trnovo again, destroying what repair work had been done, and deports the inhabitants.

Mameluke forces also begin raiding Roman Syria (Antioch and a very small strip of coast to the south). Anna’s initial response is to marry Andronikos Komnenos, son of the duke of Trebizond. He gains great prestige and is crowned emperor, but due to his lack of Laskarid blood, only Anna gets to wear the purple slippers (1).

When the Roman army marches in 1325, public opinion is shocked by Anna’s decision to accompany the army while her husband remains in Constantinople. While she is fairly unpopular amongst the army officers, since as a woman she cannot lead an army (the army is commanded by Manuel Kantakuzenos, a major landowner in Cappadocia), she uses this opportunity to circulate amongst the common soldiers, who quickly grow to love her.

According to a letter written by the bishop of Chonae, her presence reminded the soldiers that Nike, victory, was a goddess. The increase in classical Greek references in Byzantine literature of the time corresponds with a form of proto-nationalism centered around Orthodoxy and Greek culture, although it is often more anti-Latin in nature amongst the less educated populace. The term Hellenes loses its derogatory term at some point, usually identified as Anna’s reign. Also the epic of Digenes Akritas is altered at this time to make the hero half Greek and half Turk, as opposed to half Greek and half Arab.

Roman morale is extremely high when the army debouches from the Cilician Gates, smashing aside the Mameluke raiding parties in Cilicia and breaking up a siege of Antioch. Two weeks later it invests Aleppo. Two weeks after that, a Mameluke army arrives to break the siege. Despite being slightly outnumbered (44,000 vs. 38,000) the Mameluke commander decides to attack, calling the Roman soldiers “a bunch of mewling kittens, content to be commanded by a woman. Even with 200,000 kittens, I will not be bested by any woman.”

He is. Because of his disdain for his opponent, he launches an unsubtle frontal attack on the Roman lines. The battle in the center is intense as the crack Roman troops, locally outnumbered, fight desperately to stem the ferocious Mameluke onslaught. The battle lines sway back and forth as sheets of arrows snarl out from the Roman archers in the rear. Anna herself is directly behind the engagement, her pavilion clear for both sides to see, although she does stay out of arrow range. The Roman numerical advantage is decisive. Four thousand Cumans and Turks lash volley after volley into the Mameluke flanks as Manuel throws the reserves behind the reinforced wings, ordering them to swing inward. Barely five thousand Mamelukes escape. Some historians refer to it as a “second Cannae”. The Mameluke commander is captured and “made into a woman” (castrated).

The next month see two more Roman victories over Mameluke armies. The first, over a force of 12,000, takes place just five days after the Battle of Aleppo. The second, three weeks later, is over a contingent 11,000 strong. With their armies in the north effectively destroyed, the Mamelukes are unable to prevent Aleppo, Edessa, and all of the Syrian coast as far south as Laodicea from falling. By September 1327 the Roman army is besieging Tripoli and Homs. Peace is eventually made with the Mamelukes ceding everything north of the Laodicea-Aleppo-Edessa line.

Anna returns to Constantinople; nine months later she has a son named Nikephoros. With the Mamelukes and Bulgarians cowed, she prefers to spend her time creating orphanages, hospitals, and schools. She also greatly expands the University of Constantinople in 1330 which had been in a sad state ever since the Latin Conquest and portrays it as a second founding (2).

For the rest of her reign, she avoids warfare to the best of her ability. While she recognizes the need to have the army’s support, she doubts that further conquests would be ultimately beneficial. When Bulgarian raiders cross the border in 1330, she limits reprisals to a show of force along the frontier and then gives the Bulgarian king two court titles which together earn him an annual stipend of 3,500 hyperpyra. The raids stop.

The Ottomans do not invade the Mamelukes during the Roman war, mainly because their energies are diverted by an attempt to break into the Iranian Plateau. For four years (1326-1330) the Ottomans and Jalayirids spill much blood but the border remains unchanged.


1) By this point the Laskarid dynasty is reaching Late Macedonian dynasty levels in terms of popularity, particularly amongst the Anatolian population

2) Fixed an error regarding the University. Thanks to lordyu for correcting me.
 
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Elfwine: I don't know what the rule is, but I call them Bulgars before conversion to Christianity and Bulgarians after. Although I use Serb and Serbian interchangeably. And Vlachs are Vlachs; don't mess with vampires.

Sounds good. I remember asking a member from Bulgaria, but I'm not 100% sure of the answer.

General Question to the Floor: Since I'm new to the board, what is the view on narratives in AHD: Before 1900? I want to write a particular event in this timeline as a short story rather than just a paragraph in a list (the bulk of this TL would still be in the usual format) and it's something I hope to do further down the road. It's just something I haven't seen in any of the threads I've looked at.

"If they're well written we like them."

And because I don't want to be a tease, here's an update.


"I may be a woman, frail of body, but I am a Roman woman, a daughter of Caesar, of Alexander. You would be wise to fear me." -attributed to Anna I Laskaris, Empress of the Romans

Oh dear. :eek:

1324-1330: In 1324, Manuel dies at only forty and is succeeded by his only living heir, his twenty year old daughter Anna. Anna I Laskaris, Empress of Rhomanion, is not taken seriously by the Bulgarians. When they raid across the border, a Byzantine army sacks Trnovo again, destroying what repair work had been done, and deports the inhabitants.

Mameluke forces also begin raiding Roman Syria (Antioch and a very small strip of coast to the south). Anna’s initial response is to marry Andronikos Komnenos, son of the duke of Trebizond. He gains great prestige and is crowned emperor, but due to his lack of Laskarid blood, only Anna gets to wear the purple slippers (1).

When the Roman army marches in 1325, public opinion is shocked by Anna’s decision to accompany the army while her husband remains in Constantinople. While she is fairly unpopular amongst the army officers, since as a woman she cannot lead an army (the army is commanded by Manuel Kantakuzenos, a major landowner in Cappadocia), she uses this opportunity to circulate amongst the common soldiers, who quickly grow to love her.

According to a letter written by the bishop of Chonae, her presence reminded the soldiers that Nike, victory, was a goddess. The increase in classical Greek references in Byzantine literature of the time corresponds with a form of proto-nationalism centered around Orthodoxy and Greek culture, although it is often more anti-Latin in nature amongst the less educated populace. The term Hellenes loses its derogatory term at some point, usually identified as Anna’s reign. Also the epic of Digenes Akritas is altered at this time to make the hero half Greek and half Turk, as opposed to half Greek and half Arab.

Roman morale is extremely high when the army debouches from the Cilician Gates, smashing aside the Mameluke raiding parties in Cilicia and breaking up a siege of Antioch. Two weeks later it invests Aleppo. Two weeks after that, a Mameluke army arrives to break the siege. Despite being slightly outnumbered (44,000 vs. 38,000) the Mameluke commander decides to attack, calling the Roman soldiers “a bunch of mewling kittens, content to be commanded by a woman. Even with 200,000 kittens, I will not be bested by any woman.”

He is. Because of his disdain for his opponent, he launches an unsubtle frontal attack on the Roman lines. The battle in the center is intense as the crack Roman troops, locally outnumbered, fight desperately to stem the ferocious Mameluke onslaught. The battle lines sway back and forth as sheets of arrows snarl out from the Roman archers in the rear. Anna herself is directly behind the engagement, her pavilion clear for both sides to see, although she does stay out of arrow range. The Roman numerical advantage is decisive. Four thousand Cumans and Turks lash volley after volley into the Mameluke flanks as Manuel throws the reserves behind the reinforced wings, ordering them to swing inward. Barely five thousand Mamelukes escape. Some historians refer to it as a “second Cannae”. The Mameluke commander is captured and “made into a woman” (castrated).

The next month see two more Roman victories over Mameluke armies. The first, over a force of 12,000, takes place just five days after the Battle of Aleppo. The second, three weeks later, is over a contingent 11,000 strong. With their armies in the north effectively destroyed, the Mamelukes are unable to prevent Aleppo, Edessa, and all of the Syrian coast as far south as Laodicea from falling. By September 1327 the Roman army is besieging Tripoli and Homs. Peace is eventually made with the Mamelukes ceding everything north of the Laodicea-Aleppo-Edessa line.

Anna returns to Constantinople; nine months later she has a son named Nikephoros. With the Mamelukes and Bulgarians cowed, she prefers to spend her time creating orphanages, hospitals, and schools. The University of Constantinople is founded in 1330.

For the rest of her reign, she avoids warfare to the best of her ability. While she recognizes the need to have the army’s support, she doubts that further conquests would be ultimately beneficial. When Bulgarian raiders cross the border in 1330, she limits reprisals to a show of force along the frontier and then gives the Bulgarian king two court titles which together earn him an annual stipend of 3,500 hyperpyra. The raids stop.

The Ottomans do not invade the Mamelukes during the Roman war, mainly because their energies are diverted by an attempt to break into the Iranian Plateau. For four years (1326-1330) the Ottomans and Jalayirids spill much blood but the border remains unchanged.

1) By this point the Laskarid dynasty is reaching Late Macedonian dynasty levels in terms of popularity, particularly amongst the Anatolian population

You have a soft spot for Bulgarian independence, I see. Anna-ex it.

I know its a lame pun but I couldn't resist.

Good writing though. And I imagine Anna's decision to castrate the Mameluke commander is taken as a sign of her (in absence of a better word) terribleness. :D
 
lordyu: Thank you for the correction. I'm rather surprised that any Byzantine scholarly institutions managed to survive the 7th century. I've edited the entry so that Anna enlarges the university and has the act portrayed as a second founding of the institute. Again, thank you for the correction.

"If they're well written we like them."

Wait, they have to be well written? Drat. :D

And I do have a soft spot for Bulgaria, mainly for the righteous clobbering they give the Fourth Crusaders. And I like the pun.

Thanks for the compliment. And Anna is definitely not a woman to mess with.

General Announcement: The mid 1300s are going to be a rather quiet period, with the action taking place outside of Rhomanion. That is because the late 1300s are going to be very, very busy instead.
 
General Announcement: The mid 1300s are going to be a rather quiet period, with the action taking place outside of Rhomanion. That is because the late 1300s are going to be very, very busy instead.

is that because the mongols reached the Byzantine border, and they decide to trash the rich state?

i'm interested because my own timeline, which i restarted, and stopped at 1255, when Constantinople was taken and razed after a long battle (long enough for anything and anyone important to run). its a century behind, i know, but it can still help me.
 
is that because the mongols reached the Byzantine border, and they decide to trash the rich state?

I don't want to give spoilers out, sorry :(, but you are warm. Remember this timeline only started to noticeably diverge from ours in 1261, by which time most of the Mongol conquests are complete, and where they aren't it's too far away to be hit by the butterfly effect quickly.
 
I don't want to give spoilers out, sorry :(, but you are warm. Remember this timeline only started to noticeably diverge from ours in 1261, by which time most of the Mongol conquests are complete, and where they aren't it's too far away to be hit by the butterfly effect quickly.

On the other hand, there's always the Limper, isn't there? :eek:

And the Byzantines are due for a little civil war. Doesn't have to wreck the empire and doesn't have to topple the Laskarids, but sooner or latter someone worth worrying about is going to try to take the throne.
 
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