The Eternal Empire: Emperor Maurice dies before being overthrown
- Thread starter wcv215
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I mean he got a hell of a Christmas present when the Mongols invaded.
Part 108: The Greek Revolt
Part CVIII: The Greek Revolt
To understand what’s about to happen it’s important to understand how the Caesari at this stage funded their reign, how they held power, and the improved Imperial position, especially in the Balkans.
Most Imperial funding was provided by the standard land tax. Effectively each landowner was assessed a certain amount of tax they needed to pay, roughly 12% of an assessed value. This tax made up roughly 75% of revenue collected by the Emperor. This tax fell heaviest on small landowners who sometimes struggled to feed themselves, keep themselves supplied with essentials, and pay the tax. This had been getting very bad before the plague years, but the problem had been kicked down the road by the massive number of deaths. This had resulted in a consolidation of land among all landowners, giving significantly more land to be farmed to smallholders as well as the largest landowners, bringing in less overall tax revenue, but increasing the wealth of individual families. These taxes had been increased under Manuel, to nearly 14%, but the larger farms had been more able to pay the taxes. It did lead to a fair amount of grumbling though.
Most of the remainder of revenue came from trade taxes, these were levied by the Senate and given o the Emperor as a gift, usually on an Imperial ascension. These taxes were effectively about at the same level as the land tax in theory, but had a major difference. The tax was only assessed after the ship had either been unloaded, or was leaving Roman ports entirely. While there could still be difficulties, it had significantly less chance of overtaxation. It also didn’t touch significant aspects of trade, in particular overland trade within the Empire. This meant it was primarily assessed on the various Italian merchant cities plus Athens, Carthage, Manueliopolis, Cherson, Tripoli, Constantinople, and now Alexandria. These cities thus saw major Imperial attention.
More than cities with less overseas trade passing through them, and a lot more than the often neglected countryside. Especially the countryside that wasn’t in wealthy Italy, in Thrace around the capital, in Moesia where the large garrisons were needed since Katarina, and in Syria, where large garrisons were also needed.
Eliminate the relatively newly conquered regions, the now semi-independent Berber kingdom in Africa, and the interior of Armenia, where overland trade from across the Hyrcanian still flowed, and you were left with two important areas neglected by Imperial administration. The Anatolian Plateau and Greece. Eastern Anatolia was populated by Turks, and the west by various settlers. But it was along the coast, in the Greek regions that problems truly mounted. The cities here had been imperial hands since time immemorial. They had not been devastated by the Huns, hadn’t faced Bulgari conquest from the north, or even much in the way of pirate raids.
But conversely, they also saw a lot less imperial investment or funding. But they did see a lot of tax collectors. Cities along the coast of Anatolia and Greece proper were in decline even before the plague hit. By Leo’s reign infrastructure was crumbling. Officials from cities like Ephesos, Halicarnassus, and Thessalonika wrote letters imploring more spending from the central government as revenues dropped and costs soared. It did not come, at least not in large enough amounts.
And then the Egyptians were seated in the Senate, and Greece effectively lost half its votes. A final delegation was sent to the Emperor, asking for relief, but Leo ignored them. He viewed Greece as a loyal and secure region of the Empire ,while the periphery needed securing. He was thus caught almost completely by surprise when, in 1386 a delegation of Senators met in Thessalonika, and declared the Imperial throne vacant, and selected from their number a new Emperor. Soldiers were martialed, and soon an army was on its way to Constantinople, while Leo’s own troops were scattered. Cities across Greece threw out Imperial officials, and declared for the new government. The only exceptions were Athens, which was both wealthy and well-defended, and Constantinople where Leo’s personal guard was stationed. Constantinople though saw heavy rioting as citizens sympathetic to the rebellion went out to protest in the streets, and there got into fights with Italians and Egyptians. This sort of violence wasn’t seen that much in other cities however, if only because cities with large numbers of Italians tended to be wealthier, and hence stayed loyal.
It did not take long for Leo to realize just how big a mistake he’d made. Like in Egypt he wanted to negotiate an end to the rebellion but was convinced that this could only happen after military victory. So he sent out the order for the field armies to muster, and set out to quell the Imperial heartland. His task was immediately made harder when the Athenian fleet was outmaneuvered in the Aegean, and forced to surrender by the combined fleets of the revolting cities. This added nearly 100 ships to the rebel ranks, and soon the Bosphorus itself was closed to Imperial traffic. As word of Imperial difficulty spread the remnant of the Arab Caliphate launched a major assault into Palaestina to try and retake the region. They met initial success, but soon counterattacks from Syria and Egypt drove the invasion back. This ongoing fighting meant Leo would need to bring Greece to heel without the aid of the Eastern armies. He instead had to call up the Italians. Fighting was widespread across the Aegean as the Italian fleets fought those of Greece, but by the end of 1389 the various ports were bottled up.
On land Imperial armies met with more rapid success, retaking Adrianople, and the rest of Thrace by the end of 1386. Leo issued several edicts to resecure loyalty of the region but put off permanent solutions until the rebellion could be put down. Eager as Leo might be for a long-term diplomatic solution, he also firmly believed in reaching that solution only after he’d won the military victory.
In this Leo probably made a mistake, as his vacillation between diplomacy and military force prolonged the rebellion, and gave time for the Greeks to raise a more competent army. This army met Leo’s in battle near Thessaloniki after that city was blockaded in June 1389. At the head of the rebels was a pretender claiming to be a Thalassan descendant of Nikephoros, who had been denied his inheritance by the Caesarii. How much anyone believed that nonsensical claim is questionable, but his program of restoring the old order was welcomed by the elite of Greece, and so they at least claimed to believe it.
In battle however the sheer scale of difference between the two sides was soon shown. The Imperial army was better equipped, in particular with the heat-treated steel plate which was the hallmark of the Palatine Guard. As had happened against the Arabs bolts, arrows, and darts launched by the rebel army fell among the Palatine, only to rebound to no effect. When these soldiers reached the rebels they commenced a slaughter, seemingly invincible. Imperial cavalry, similarly equipped, routed their opponents, capturing the pretender.
Leo had him executed in full view of Thessaloniki, and then ordered a full bombardment of the city.
The attack lasted for five days, leveling large portions of what had once been one of the greatest cities of the Empire, and killing thousands of inhabitants. By Leo was willing to accept surrender the message had very clearly been sent. He would level every rebel city if necessary to end the fighting.
The surrender of Thessaloniki effectively ended the Greek revolt, as rebels fell over themselves to beg the Emperor’s forgiveness. Leo was largely magnanimous in victory, executing only the most prominent leaders in each city, and appointing loyal men to go about bringing everyone back into line. Only after all this was accomplished did he remind everyone of the velvet glove that went with the iron of the Emperor. He cut the land tax by a full quarter. To demonstrate that he understood and the grievances, but wasn’t giving concessions, he levied on Greece specifically an additional tax, coincidentally identical to his cut, which would be in place for 25 years to pay for the rebellion and rebuilding. After that time was up however the tax would expire and Greece would be back on equal footing. To balance out the loss in revenue however Leo also announced that he would be undertaking an across the board reduction infrastructure spending inside cities, and he expected the money saved from the tax to be invested into local infrastructure spending.
This was not an immediate boon, but was the first of several initiatives to boost local reinvestment which had long been ignored in favor of spending from Contantinople, and even from Rome before that. Local spending will steadily increase as a percentage of investment over the years, until almost completely replacing Imperial spending during the Century of Humiliation. During that time, with tax revenues in precipitous decline, the Senate dictated to by foreign powers, the Emperor reduced to a figurehead, and the Empire disastrously in debt to external kings and banks; it would be local spending which kept the economy functioning at all, and lay the groundwork for the arrival of philosophers from Frankia; whose contributions would lead to the eventual full reversal.
Leo himself would not have enough time to focus on that however, as no sooner than the rebellion ended than his attention as called away west, where the Tarracon fleet had taken advantage of Imperial distraction to seize the last bastion of Hispania under Imperial control, Hispania Balaerica, and were moving to seize the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.
In 1391 he sailed out from Constantinople at the head of the Imperial fleet, never to return.
Oh boy... it's not all going smoothly for the Caesari. Wonder if Leo's short-sightedness will come back to bite his successors in the backside.