Guns, Paper, Printing, and Steel : The Guns of Rhomania

are you chanting the Caliphate on or the Normans?



not really, the basic premise is that it started out as an interesting curiosity accidentally developed likely doomed to disappear from existence, until it is displayed to the Emperor Theophilus, who becomes facinated by the explosive substance an pours copious amounts of money into the development of ever more potent formulas of firepowder.



really the big difference, is that the Ottomans were using gunpowder weapons that had centuries of development behind them. The Roman Empire is using very early gunpowder weapons which still are mostly a fear factor weapons like the fire lance and the fire vasi (though the grenade is coming into tits own as impressive weapon).

Finley,please,using gunpowder doesn't make you European;on a point of order,the Hungarian Urban and his technicians constructed the Turkish cannon,not the Turks;they had the money and they paid for it!Constantinople had cannons but couldn't protect the length of the wall with those;they were used in the harbour...
 
Finley,please,using gunpowder doesn't make you European;on a point of order,the Hungarian Urban and his technicians constructed the Turkish cannon,not the Turks;they had the money and they paid for it!Constantinople had cannons but couldn't protect the length of the wall with those;they were used in the harbour...

I'm not saying that gunpowder makes the Ottomans Europeans, I was just saying that the reason the Romans haven't conquered the entire Mediterranean Basin because they have very very early gunpowder technology.
 
Europe is not an independent entity?I am sorry,please consult other European specialists in the disciplines I mentioned and you will hear the same.

Okay on this one you are just dead wrong, Europe is not its own continent and never has been. I mean just look at it. Other than cultural difference there is no reason to consider Europe its own continent and that is a very flimsy argument given how that means North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand would all then be part of Europe. Its not exactly hard to see.

Frankly the caucuses and anatolia should be included as european territory given that those regions have always been in the same cultural, economic, and oftentimes political sphere. I mean why the hell does Cyprus count as European if Anatolia doesn't count, the only reason why Anatolia isnt counted is because it is majority Islamic which is a ridiculous and stupid reason to leave it out.

EDIT: Damn thats a bigger picture than I thought, changed it to a link.
 
Last edited:
Okay on this one you are just dead wrong, Europe is not its own continent and never has been. I mean just look at it. Other than cultural difference there is no reason to consider Europe its own continent and that is a very flimsy argument given how that means North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand would all then be part of Europe. Its not exactly hard to see.

Frankly the caucuses and anatolia should be included as european territory given that those regions have always been in the same cultural, economic, and oftentimes political sphere. I mean why the hell does Cyprus count as European if Anatolia doesn't count, the only reason why Anatolia isnt counted is because it is majority Islamic which is a ridiculous and stupid reason to leave it out.

EDIT: Damn thats a bigger picture than I thought, changed it to a link.

No I am,WE are not wrong!all Europan pupils and students have been taught the subject and personally for 10 years,in all its aspects and I don't expect you to point the obvious picture and is not only the Geographical demarkation line that differeciates one continent from the other and I said to you that you are comletely out of any scientific reasoning and I stop the discussion for your sake;next time please certain careful study of all aspect of a topic works wonders!please follow this advise before I put you in my ignore list.
 
[FONT=&quot]
--

Symeon the Bulgar saw himself as a force that would bring the Roman Empire greatness that it had not seen in centuries, and though he had been the primary reason for a civil war that had stalled the momentum of the Empire against the Arabs in the East he was determined to prove his worth as co-Emperor of the Romans. Though Symeon himself would never leave Constantinople to fight in the east (fearing that his absence would result in a revolt against his rule by his son in-law), he would send troops to campaign against the Emir of Mosul, Abdallah Abu'l-Hayja ibn Hamdan. Symeon, though fluent in Greek and regarded by much of the Bulgarian nobility as half Greek, ruled through Bardas rather than practicing a more abrasive style of rule which might cast a more negative light on him. Symeon would exercise control over the Pope of Rome and replace the vacated seat of the Count of Tusculum [1] with his brother in-law George Sursuvul. As count of Tusculum, George exercised a large amount of control over the decision making of the Pope in Rome as well as who would be elected Pope, installing Stephen of Naples as Pope in 914. In Italy, Symeon was not afraid to make his power felt. Here he wished to purge Italy of the troublesome nobility that had given him the opportunity to plague the Roman Empire and eventually rule over it. Stephan, now Pope Theodore II, continued the policies of his previous three predecessors, who had worked to bring the Western and Eastern Churches together. Though unlike John VIII or Pope Stephen VI exercised far less free will than his predecessors. He was assassinated in 918 on George’s orders and would be followed by five more Popes over the course of the following nine years. The Papacy would be dominated by the Sursuvul family for some time. In Constantinople the relationship between Symeon and Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos was far more cordial and long lasting, for Nicholas had been a friend to Symeon’s tutor the Patriarch Phōtios I.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In 914, Ashot II the Iron looked to Symeon and the Roman Empire to repel Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj and put down a number of revolts by pretenders to the throne. Symeon sent a force of Roman and Bulgarian troops to aid Ashot, forcing Yusuf to make peace with Ashot in 917, though not without having to concede Tayk, Upper Armenia, Sophene, Sghdzunk, and part of western Turuberan to Roman control. Symeon concentrated increasingly on dealing with the raids in the east by the Emir of Mosul Abdallah Abu'l-Hayja ibn Hamdan. In 920, a Roman army laid siege to the city of Alexandretta in a campaign following the coast of the Armenian Bay. As the Roman army continued it campaign finally undertaking the planned naval and land based siege of Antioch [2], the Empress Anna finally gave birth to a baby boy named Basil in April of 921. Symeon immediately began to plan the ascension of the boy to the throne of Bulgaria and the throne of the Romans. Though Bardas was old enough to rule on his own, he was a weak willed man who differed greatly from his powerful father and grandfather and so he did little as his father in-law began to raise his son. Symeon banished his son Peter to a monastic life in order to make sure that his grandson Basil would become Emperor of the Bulgars and with Bardas raised the boy to the title of Co-Emperor at the age of five. In 929, Symeon would pass away leaving the Bulgarian Empire to his eight year old grandson under a regency by his mother and father. Almost immediately a revolt broke out amongst the Boyars after Peter returned claiming the right to rule the Bulgarian Empire. Anna and Bardas quickly dispatched a massive force to crush the rebellion. Peter was captured, blinded, and sent back the monastery for the remainder of his life. Bardas died under mysterious circumstances in 931, and regency of Anna and the Patriarch Basil was instated until Basil was old enough to rule. For five years Basil chafed under the rule of his overbearing mother who would alienate the Bulgarian Boyars and the Bulgarian ally, the Pechenegs. At 15 Basil would, thanks to support from General Stephen Doukas, end the regency of his mother Anna sending her to a monastery. After becoming the sole ruler of the Bulgarian and Roman Empires, Basil would dissolve the Bulgarian Empire, absorbing it into the Roman Empire. The move was followed by another revolt by the Boyars, which Basil and his ally Stephen would mercilessly crush. The Boyars that revolted against him were all executed along with their families, while one tenth of the troops that had revolted against him were executed and two thirds of the remaining troops were blinded. Basil wanted everyone to fully understand that though he was mere 15 he was capable of ruling with an iron fist. One of the methods of execution that he employed was laying a man on the ground with a grenade placed between the man and the ground and lighting the grenade. The explosion would generally eviscerate the man. When employing torture, Basil was fond of using firepowder to blow men’s fingers, hands, and toes, off. Basil’s love of firepowder would lead to him becoming known as Basil the Dragon, a name that though never spoken to his face out of fear would be used by the Emperor to the fullest, for the Dragon looked to extend the domain of the Roman Empire and he would have decades to do it.

[1]: The Theophylacti having been removed during the War of Crowns.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][2]:planned by Constantine VII ITTL, but abandoned do to the War of Crowns.

-

[/FONT]
 
Tha boy Basil is probably destned for something great;he must watch the Bulgarians because of his severe measures.He would probably do better to disperse them gradually throughout the empite,and repopulate with Greeks making the Danube the empire's direct border and not with a border foreign population that would rise in the event of an invasion from the north.
 
GF

You are falling behind times,a long update is long overdue don't you think?
Unless you want to kill this very nice Thread...much to our disappointment!!!
 
Top