I. 699 - 702
Chersonesus
February 699
The emperor lay cold on the floor with a certain pallor and bluish fingers[1], and his mouth was agape. Myakes guessed that he’d been gone for at least a few hours. He inhaled deeply. His master’s sudden death - at such a young age - wasn’t something he’d expected. For a moment, he froze on the spot, solemnly watching the corpse of the deposed emperor he’d chosen to be exiled with lie unmoving on the stone floor. Covering the man’s face with a tablecloth, Myakes rushed outside, where a guard looked curiously at him.
“Anything wrong? Did the emperor tell you off?” asked the guard.
Myakes mumbled his response. “The emperor is dead.”
“What!?” replied the guard.
Myakes didn’t bother repeating himself. “You tell the archon. I’m going to the bishop.”
From the blog post “The second Heraclius and his forays into Italy”
“…as I explained in my previous post, Heraclius defeated Abdullah’s attempt to capture Theodosiopolis in 700 and even raided deep into the caliphate’s territory, returning with loot, slaves and random Armenians, somehow. Tiberius is happy, and guess what - Heraclius gets a vacation to Italy!
Heraclius’ initial route from Constantinople practically matches with Constans II’s. He goes down to the Aegean, gets the Carabisians ready, then he sails to Italy. He doesn’t go straight for the Lombards, though. Tiberius just appointed a new exarch called Theophylact, so Heraclius heads to Ravenna to install him, arriving by the spring of 701. How did the people of Ravenna receive them? Who knows, but they must’ve been grateful for the extra troops, right?
Whatever this may indicate, Heraclius barely stayed in Ravenna, and marched towards Rome after only three days. You could say this was his first action against the Lombards… reinforcing the narrow corridor that connected the two ends of the Italian exarchate together. Not that the Lombards particularly cared… probably, since up north in the kingdom they were in the middle of a civil war. They would care later, but that’s for another post (that you should look forward to, by the way). Now, in Rome, things get interesting, in the sense that we don’t really know what happened because apparently no contemporary records survive, and so all we know comes from a kind of shady Sicilian historian called Photius two hundred years later (he worked for you-know-who).
Photius says that Pope Sergius welcomed Heraclius, despite having been snubbed and almost arrested by emperor Justinian within the previous decade. That gives him reason to despise whatever Constantinople throws at him, but apparently he didn’t, or so we’re led to believe. Heraclius coming with a sizeable army might have contributed to that friendliness. We can guess that the local Roman population is less than amicable, however, and they are hugely suspicious of Heraclius, who is the emperor’s brother. There’s no significant resistance, though, because Heraclius isn’t leading a bunch of ragtags like the exarch did, and they’re smart enough to let an army who isn’t trying to subjugate them be.
Heraclius stays in Rome for a whopping three weeks - that’s longer than Constans II did! Truly impressive. During those three weeks he resided on the Palatine Hill, home of the old imperial palaces, which I imagine must’ve been quite dilapidated. Photius mentions that Heraclius donated to the Papacy and the city of Rome ‘Arab spoils’, presumably the loot he gained from his raids against the Arabs. Then, apparently, he declares a two-day festival, which the Romans were probably happy about. For once the ‘Greeks’ aren’t coming to steal their taxes, land, or Pope. By the time Heraclius ends his three-week stint the Pope and people of Rome are happy, and Heraclius leaves the city with the Pope’s blessing and a few extra men, local volunteers.
The mystery is, was he doing this on Tiberius’ orders or on his own? Tiberius might have told him to keep the Pope happy but some of the actions here read as an attempt to garner support for him to claim the throne himself. And that would probably have been entirely possible after his victory against the Lombards, but he didn’t. Either way, I personally think this was a masterstroke on Heraclius’ part, and you readers are probably saying ‘ooooh’ at the sheer amount of foreshadowing here. But moving on…
Heraclius decides to march again, this time south to Naples, which is not what Constans II did (he went by ship). He meets with Dux Theodosius, who we know little about. The Carabisians arrive as soon as Heraclius does, having sailed all the way from Ravenna, and it’s not long before Heraclius leaves again with his troops. His destination: Tarentum, but not before they stop by in Syracuse to refuel, and Heraclius probably wanted to see that the Sicilian theme was doing their best to fend off potential Arab raids.
Tarentum was probably begging for the Romans to come back judging by how they instantly surrendered. So luckily for Heraclius, he gets a foothold in Apulia immediately, and within the next few weeks, he captures the coastal towns, like Brundisium and Barium, rather easily without any (meaningful) resistance from the Lombards. Heraclius was probably quite suspicious at the Lombards’ inaction, but the Roman populace seem to welcome and cooperate with them, and outside a few skirmishes with small bands of Lombard raiders, Apulia and Calabria are brought to the heel by the end of 701. At that point, they reach Salernum, where they encounter fiercer resistance…”
Constantinople
702
Apsimarus[2] often found himself wandering the golden throne hall in times of frustration. He would stare at the elevated throne, his throne, wondering just what he’d imposed on himself four years ago; those same four years that transformed him into a calculating, almost paranoid man. He’d sent his loyal brother to Italy. He felt almost guilty for it, but Heraclius had become too successful and too loved by the people of Byzantium[3] for Apsimarus to feel secure. Deep down, Apsimarus understood Heraclius: he was no usurper, interested only in battle; he was deeply religious and hateful of court practices.
He sat down on the throne. Just as soon as Heraclius was removed out of the picture, the Arabs had resumed their raids in earnest, terrorising especially the local Armenians. The west gleamed in comparison. Italy, for so long unfairly neglected by the empire, cosied quickly to Heraclius who showered them with gifts and placated their Pope. Apsimarus could have a good grasp of the situation there thanks to Heraclius’ frequent correspondence; they were apparently on the way to Salernum now, on the watch for large Lombard armies on account of the lack of retaliation thus far. Apsimarus prayed for their success, even as paranoia crept the back of his mind. These days, relief was a scarce find for him, and his meek son Theodosius[4] hardly gave him respite…
[1] Justinian dies of a sudden heart attack.
[2] I assume he would’ve thought of himself as Apsimarus, considering Tiberius was a regnal name that he adopted.
[3] Referring to Constantinople, not the empire at large.
[4] I’m taking liberties here, but I’ve decided to combine Apsimarus’ son Theodosius with Theodosius III, which is an actual theory.
Finally got the first chapter done! The next chapter will deal with the fall of Salernum and the battle between the Lombards and Romans. I’m admittedly not so confident about writing campaigns and battles because I know rather little of them. If you think the way Tiberius waltzed over Calabria and Apulia is strange, feel free to comment. Thank you!
February 699
The emperor lay cold on the floor with a certain pallor and bluish fingers[1], and his mouth was agape. Myakes guessed that he’d been gone for at least a few hours. He inhaled deeply. His master’s sudden death - at such a young age - wasn’t something he’d expected. For a moment, he froze on the spot, solemnly watching the corpse of the deposed emperor he’d chosen to be exiled with lie unmoving on the stone floor. Covering the man’s face with a tablecloth, Myakes rushed outside, where a guard looked curiously at him.
“Anything wrong? Did the emperor tell you off?” asked the guard.
Myakes mumbled his response. “The emperor is dead.”
“What!?” replied the guard.
Myakes didn’t bother repeating himself. “You tell the archon. I’m going to the bishop.”
From the blog post “The second Heraclius and his forays into Italy”
“…as I explained in my previous post, Heraclius defeated Abdullah’s attempt to capture Theodosiopolis in 700 and even raided deep into the caliphate’s territory, returning with loot, slaves and random Armenians, somehow. Tiberius is happy, and guess what - Heraclius gets a vacation to Italy!
Heraclius’ initial route from Constantinople practically matches with Constans II’s. He goes down to the Aegean, gets the Carabisians ready, then he sails to Italy. He doesn’t go straight for the Lombards, though. Tiberius just appointed a new exarch called Theophylact, so Heraclius heads to Ravenna to install him, arriving by the spring of 701. How did the people of Ravenna receive them? Who knows, but they must’ve been grateful for the extra troops, right?
Whatever this may indicate, Heraclius barely stayed in Ravenna, and marched towards Rome after only three days. You could say this was his first action against the Lombards… reinforcing the narrow corridor that connected the two ends of the Italian exarchate together. Not that the Lombards particularly cared… probably, since up north in the kingdom they were in the middle of a civil war. They would care later, but that’s for another post (that you should look forward to, by the way). Now, in Rome, things get interesting, in the sense that we don’t really know what happened because apparently no contemporary records survive, and so all we know comes from a kind of shady Sicilian historian called Photius two hundred years later (he worked for you-know-who).
Photius says that Pope Sergius welcomed Heraclius, despite having been snubbed and almost arrested by emperor Justinian within the previous decade. That gives him reason to despise whatever Constantinople throws at him, but apparently he didn’t, or so we’re led to believe. Heraclius coming with a sizeable army might have contributed to that friendliness. We can guess that the local Roman population is less than amicable, however, and they are hugely suspicious of Heraclius, who is the emperor’s brother. There’s no significant resistance, though, because Heraclius isn’t leading a bunch of ragtags like the exarch did, and they’re smart enough to let an army who isn’t trying to subjugate them be.
Heraclius stays in Rome for a whopping three weeks - that’s longer than Constans II did! Truly impressive. During those three weeks he resided on the Palatine Hill, home of the old imperial palaces, which I imagine must’ve been quite dilapidated. Photius mentions that Heraclius donated to the Papacy and the city of Rome ‘Arab spoils’, presumably the loot he gained from his raids against the Arabs. Then, apparently, he declares a two-day festival, which the Romans were probably happy about. For once the ‘Greeks’ aren’t coming to steal their taxes, land, or Pope. By the time Heraclius ends his three-week stint the Pope and people of Rome are happy, and Heraclius leaves the city with the Pope’s blessing and a few extra men, local volunteers.
The mystery is, was he doing this on Tiberius’ orders or on his own? Tiberius might have told him to keep the Pope happy but some of the actions here read as an attempt to garner support for him to claim the throne himself. And that would probably have been entirely possible after his victory against the Lombards, but he didn’t. Either way, I personally think this was a masterstroke on Heraclius’ part, and you readers are probably saying ‘ooooh’ at the sheer amount of foreshadowing here. But moving on…
Heraclius decides to march again, this time south to Naples, which is not what Constans II did (he went by ship). He meets with Dux Theodosius, who we know little about. The Carabisians arrive as soon as Heraclius does, having sailed all the way from Ravenna, and it’s not long before Heraclius leaves again with his troops. His destination: Tarentum, but not before they stop by in Syracuse to refuel, and Heraclius probably wanted to see that the Sicilian theme was doing their best to fend off potential Arab raids.
Tarentum was probably begging for the Romans to come back judging by how they instantly surrendered. So luckily for Heraclius, he gets a foothold in Apulia immediately, and within the next few weeks, he captures the coastal towns, like Brundisium and Barium, rather easily without any (meaningful) resistance from the Lombards. Heraclius was probably quite suspicious at the Lombards’ inaction, but the Roman populace seem to welcome and cooperate with them, and outside a few skirmishes with small bands of Lombard raiders, Apulia and Calabria are brought to the heel by the end of 701. At that point, they reach Salernum, where they encounter fiercer resistance…”
Constantinople
702
Apsimarus[2] often found himself wandering the golden throne hall in times of frustration. He would stare at the elevated throne, his throne, wondering just what he’d imposed on himself four years ago; those same four years that transformed him into a calculating, almost paranoid man. He’d sent his loyal brother to Italy. He felt almost guilty for it, but Heraclius had become too successful and too loved by the people of Byzantium[3] for Apsimarus to feel secure. Deep down, Apsimarus understood Heraclius: he was no usurper, interested only in battle; he was deeply religious and hateful of court practices.
He sat down on the throne. Just as soon as Heraclius was removed out of the picture, the Arabs had resumed their raids in earnest, terrorising especially the local Armenians. The west gleamed in comparison. Italy, for so long unfairly neglected by the empire, cosied quickly to Heraclius who showered them with gifts and placated their Pope. Apsimarus could have a good grasp of the situation there thanks to Heraclius’ frequent correspondence; they were apparently on the way to Salernum now, on the watch for large Lombard armies on account of the lack of retaliation thus far. Apsimarus prayed for their success, even as paranoia crept the back of his mind. These days, relief was a scarce find for him, and his meek son Theodosius[4] hardly gave him respite…
[1] Justinian dies of a sudden heart attack.
[2] I assume he would’ve thought of himself as Apsimarus, considering Tiberius was a regnal name that he adopted.
[3] Referring to Constantinople, not the empire at large.
[4] I’m taking liberties here, but I’ve decided to combine Apsimarus’ son Theodosius with Theodosius III, which is an actual theory.
Finally got the first chapter done! The next chapter will deal with the fall of Salernum and the battle between the Lombards and Romans. I’m admittedly not so confident about writing campaigns and battles because I know rather little of them. If you think the way Tiberius waltzed over Calabria and Apulia is strange, feel free to comment. Thank you!
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