The Eternal Empire: Emperor Maurice dies before being overthrown
- Thread starter wcv215
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Please do not push authors about updates.
They will shae their work when/if it is ready.
Part 102: War in the North
Part CII: War in the North
Katerina’s return to Constantinople was a wildly exuberant affair, the reconquest of Dacia and Moesia were a major win for Caesarii legitimacy, reversing one of the great humiliations of the collapse of the Thalassans and, more importantly in the eyes of many in the region, securing Thrace from any further northern threat. This was not an idle worry, it had not been more than a few decades previously that the Bulgari army had marched within sight of the capital’s walls. Investment from wealthy Senators now flowed into Thrace, rebuilding the network of villas, compounds, and other accommodations which had existed there under the Thalassans, but had been destroyed during the Hunnic invasion, and then never rebuilt.
Katerina herself put off her triumph and instead began rebuilding the great bridge across the Bosphorus to the largely still ruined but recovering Chalcedon. Her ultimate intent was to complete the bridge and hold her Triumph from Constantinople into the ancient holy city, firmly solidifying that the dark days of the accession of her family were over. Building delays and problem plagued the bridge however, as simply settling on a design took over a year, and word did not begin until the birth of Petrus, her second son. That was a full three years after the Empress’s return to the capital.
Her oldest child, Manuel, born shortly after her return, was a sickly child, and it was widely feared he would not survive infancy. The boy beat the odds however, and survived to be named heir to the throne, but was shipped to Italy to protect his health. He will grow up in Campania, far away from his family, and because of this will not succeed his mother as Emperor immediately, instead being the last of Katerina’s children to accede the throne.
Not wanting to remain in the capital herself, however Katerina departed Constantinople to tour the East, moving from Trebizond in the North down to Antioch in the south, inspecting defenses and raising morale. Bonuses were handed out as a matter of course as the Empress traveled, with particularly large payout going to the garrisons of Syria for impressive displays of loyalty and discipline upon the Empress’s arrival. This was in part to make up for a lack of bonuses on the birth of Katerina’s oldest son, whom as noted had not been expected to survive. The trip took a full year to complete, when counting the return journey from Antioch, which included stops across Anatolia, and then a trip to Athens, and up through the Empress’s conquests before returning from Moesia to Thrace. On the trip her final son Paulus was born in Thessalonika.
The new bridge was nearing completion on Katerina’s return, and she eagerly set about preparing for her Triumph, but it was not to be. In 1329 she came down with a severe sickness and would spend the next several months fighting it, and months more afterward recovering. During this time, she was bedridden at almost all times, and was said to be gaunt and sunken, seeming near death. Preparations were made to call Manuel back from Italy, but by 1330 the sickness was over, and this was once again put off. Sickness swept through the capital at the same time, killing a large number of inhabitants, and bringing work to a standstill on Katerina’s great project.
It was until 1332 that work was able to resume, and the Empress was rapidly running out of patience. Her victories were long behind her, and holding a Triumph now would seem like a hollow gesture toward old victories. She looked for a new region to win more glory, and attain another excuse to hold a Triumph, this one larger and grander to incorporate all of her conquests. Katerina’s first instinct was to the East, to sweep out of Syria with the men who had performed so well there, retake the Holy Land and Egypt, and possibly Mesopotamia as well. In the East Arabia and Turkia were still fighting their seemingly endless war along the Zagros Mountains. By 1332 The Arabs had driven the Turks from their holdings in Mesopotamia and were stuck in a series of sieges against the fortresses along the main mountain passes. The Turks for their part were distracted by a civil war at home, and also by raids from nomads which threatened Turkia’s grip on the Eastern steppe. The overexentsion of Turk control of the Steppe was beginning to take a major toll on that Empire’s power. But the Arabs were ultimately the weaker state, and were on the offense against well-built, and well defended positions. The Arab Caliph needed to break through into Persia itself to force the Turkic Basileus to accept defeat. And until that could happen the war would drag on.
This does seem to have been Katerina’s initial plan. And if she had done so it almost certainly would have destroyed the Second Caliphate decades earlier. But she was instead distracted by an invasion from the North in 1333 as plans were being put in place or a campaign. Rus forces placed the Phrourions at the mouth of the Danapris River under siege and the Prince of Kiev arrived at their head, demanding both the removal of the forts and an increase in the Roman stipend paid to him.
Katerina, however, was not her father, and she would not tolerate this sort of attack on Roman, that is to say her, power. She gathered her army and sailed north, leaving behind her husband with orders to send up to three more legions north if they were required. Her arrival at Cherson was a moment of surprise in the city, which had expected a response similar to what had occurred thirty years previously, but now found themselves watching twenty thousand men led by the Empress herself arrive. And with Katerina came her massive artillery train. Over 100 canna, ready to blast apart any enemy fortification they came across, and maybe formations as well.
Katerina’s plan was to repeat what she had done in Dacia and Moesia, by simply blasting through Rus defenses, take Kiev itself, and dictate new terms to the now very chastened prince. Unfortunately, Katerina here was out of her depth. Russia was not Moesia. The Rus had fewer major cities or fortifications, but what truly stymied her plans was the weather. Mud and rain were, and are, the norm during much of the year. Fields and dirt roads turned to mud, with men and horses swallowed by the terrain. The slow, heavy canna were worse than useless in the terrain the Romans now found themselves in. The firepowder itself was often damp and useless in the field, rendering large parts of Katerina’s army unable to fight.
Still, they broke the sieges and forced the prince to retreat north. Katerina’s attempt to pursue was stymied by the weather, and she was forced to wait until the dry season the next year to begin advancing once again. After the spring rains had dried Katerina pressed north, but failed to force a major battle between her army and that of Ivan, prince of Kiev. She won skirmishes and captured territory, but could not catch her foe. Finally, as Autumn rains began the Empress was forced to retreat south, lest she be stuck outside her supply lines and trapped by the terrain, unable to withdraw. This pattern would repeat over the years, with major battles being fought in 1335, 36, and 38. The Romans won each time, but the prince himself eluded capture, and Kiev could not be safely besieged.
To be clear, this was not a particularly expensive war, as the soldiers were only expected to be fighting a few months out of the year. And only paid at maximum rate during the same time period. Two revolts broke out in Anatolia during this time, remnants of the war that had brought Katerina to power, but both were put down. Taxes weren’t even raised, as normal revenues were sufficient to pay for the war. Though, do note this was with the taxes charged to pay for Katerina’s project still in place. However, the war changed in 1340. Ivan was facing major pressure from his Boyars, the nobles of Russia, who were tired of the endless marching and fighting on their lands, and they wanted him to either make peace or beat the Romans decisively. Ivan agreed, and in July met the Romans fifty miles south of Kiev. The battle was a catastrophic loss for the Russi. They brought fifteen thousand men to the battle, and fought against Katerina’s twelve thousand, as her army was more spread out and some sections were sick with a disease none of the doctor’s recognized immediately.
However, the key factor was not the men, but the weather. And on the day of battle the weather was good. It was sunny, and dry. And the Roman ignifera tore the Russi apart. Five thousand were killed or captured, and the rest fled the field, leaving the road to Kiev wide open. Katerina dutifully advanced, and captured the city on July 29th, sending back word the war was over the same day. Ivan surrendered himself. Katerina dicated a new treaty to the Rus of Kiev, one which eliminated the stipend, and instead forced the Russi to ship a large amount of grain south as tribute, and acknowledge Roman control over the lower Danapris, which Katerina intended to be a new Roman province populated by the soldiers who had won the land. She also took a large amount of plunder from the city, and Ivan handed over his oldest son as a Roman hostage. A large number of captured Boyars were also kept as prisoners to be displayed during the Empress’s great Triumph.
Katerina departed the city in time to beat the rains on her journey south, knowing that her legacy and repuation were secured.
Only, they weren’t. Because two days after departing Kiev, the same tumors which had appeared on her sick men were found on Katerina herself. She was dead four days later. Katerina, first true Empress of Rome, was 45 years old, and had been Empress for 24 years.
Its difficult to judge whether Katerina was particularly good or successful. Certainly she had major accomplishments, her conquest of Dacia, effectively manipulating Turkia and Arabia into a war that would destroy both states, her bridge which stood for the next century before being replaced by a more modern structure. And say what you will about her, she was at least financially responsible. The Roman state did not run deficits under Katerina, despite having the capacity to do so. But, the ultimate conclusion that seems to be drawn is that she also didn’t really do that much over the course of her life and time in power. She spent endless years chasing glory in the north, when she could have just made peace, gone home, and then conquered Jerusalem and Egypt instead. But she didn’t. She was focused on winning a glorious victory in the North, and in the North her soldiers caught a disease that probably would have come south anyway. But, it instead came south with her men.
I’d say Katerina’s best analogue is Alexios, who fought a long war in Egypt and then died before returning home. The similarities are striking on the surface. But Katerina at least left behind children to inherit, and no older siblings to scheme against them. But she also fought for a lesser prize than the ancient province as well. Katerina then was good, but not great. Her reconquest of Dacia and Moesia have long been heavily weighted to put her on a short-list of great Emperors, but I just can’t agree. She did however set several major precedents, and I suppose that does her a lot of credit.
Next time however, we will see the consequences of Katerina’s war, as her army returns. And hell comes with them.
Its fine. I'd kinda lost interest for a while and needed someone to poke me. I don't mind.
I think this timeline is one of the best on the site. If that was all you needed, I would have poked you myself a while ago. 🙃
It's a bad sign when multiple siblings ascend a throne ...
The Black Death would explain it.
One of the best Roman timelines I've seen. Keep up the good work mate, I'll be waiting for the next update.
WELCOME BACK WELCOME BACK!
The favorite of all timelines has made its triumphant return!
The favorite of all timelines has made its triumphant return!
At the very least, this will effect all of europe and probably the near east equally.
I suspect that medicine is somewhat more advanced than OTL, so mayhaps the Roman physicians can make the connection
Part 103: Oh Death
A bit shorter than I'd planned. But there's only so many ways to say "And then a lot of people died."
We last saw the Black Death come out of the Egyptian Campaign of Constantine V in the 700s, delaying his son Leo’s campaign into Syria, Palaestina, and Mesopotamia by many years. That sweep through the Empire had killed nearly a fifth of the Empire’s population, and that had been considered one of the worst diseases to ever sweep through Europe. The plague of the 1340s was much, much worse. It had been six hundred years since this particular plague had struck, and what resistance had built up was now gone.
It is definitively known the new plague came from somewhere on the steppe, and not from Turki controlled lands. The best bet is somewhere in Tataria, hitting the region hard, but this was nothing compared to what happened when a sick mercenary passed into Roman service in Taurica. From there the disease passed into the Roman camp. The disease spread into the army slowly, but as the withdrawal from Kiev continued it spread, to the Empress herself. Her second son, Petrus, only twelve years old, was with the army at the time, and had been kept sequestered under orders from his mother.
The army was on the verge of disintegration, and needed a new leader; even if only a figurehead. And so the soldiers proclaimed the boy Emperor. This was technically illegal, as his elder brother was the declared and recognized heir. But circumstance trumped legality. Manuel was far away in Italy, and was also an underage boy.
Petrus was brought out and paraded in front of the soldiers and issued orders for the care of the sick, and as the army approached Cherson the sick were put into a new camp, where they could hopefully recover, or they would not. Petrus himself sailed for Constantinople on a ship with no one else from the north, and met his father at the capital. To avoid civil war orders were sent to keep Manuel in his effective house arrest in Italy, and Petrus was officially declared Emperor. The capital waited for word of recovery or additional sickness in the north, but it was already far too late. A ship had sailed from Cherson to Manueliopolis, and that ship carried the sickness with it. Manueliopolis was quite possibly the worst place in the entire Eastern sections of the Empire a ship could have arrived with the Plague.
The city was filled with Venetian trade ships, and flowed with commerce that passed through the Hyrcanian Sea and northern Persia. We will examine the impact of the plague on the East later, because for our narrative what is more important is that the Venetian ships scattered. The spread of the disease started out highly localized, in Taurica, Armenia, Constantinople, along the western coast of Anatolia, and into Greece
Petrus’s advisors took rapid action, shutting down the ports of Greece, Anatolia, and Armenia and forbidding long-term travel. Senators were confined to their dwellings, and ordinances restricting daily life were issued. Those who were sick were quarantined and only allowed outside their homes at night. Collectors of the dead were sent to collect the deceased for mass burial or for burning. Over the course of 1341 nearly three-quarters of Constantinople’s recovered one-hundred twenty thousand population died, with similar numbers in Athens, Thessalonika, Ephesos, Pergamum, and other cities. Strict as the measures were they did not stop the spread.
A ship from Constantinople spread the disease to Antioch the following year, and another ship spread it to Alexandria in the Caliphate. From those cities disease spread as officials found themselves completely overwhelmed. Bathhouses, often not the most hygienic of places were closed down to avoid public contamination. Even churches were closed as congregations of desperate worshipers tried to find solace in holy places, only to act as places disease could spread rapidly. The wider army was not exempt from the devastation, and throughout 1342 no pay was issued at all, similar to what had happened under Leo IV. As had occurred then the scale of sickness meant revolts did not occur. The plague spread West, reaching Sicily in 1342, and Venice the same year. Arrival at Venice was a particular disaster for Europe, as trade from that city was widespread, and soon cases beyond the Alps were occurring.
New religious movements sprang up, looking to find whatever fault had occurred with the Christian religion that had caused God to unleash such a horrible punishment. It was said that rich or poor, faithful or not, nothing could stop death. This wasn’t entirely true, as wealthier individuals did survive at higher rates than poorer, but it didn’t seem that way to people at the time. Attacks on religious minorities both throughout the Empire and the rest of Europe intensified, with many communities being expelled or killed in violence that followed outbreaks.
The trade networks which linked Europe broke down, with the Goths in particular seeing their networks suffering greatly, a process which almost certainly delayed the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by several decades. From Hispania sickness spread north in Gaelia, hitting Toulouse in early 1344, and from there spreading further north. Frankia weas hit during the same year, killing much of the Frankish Senate and the royal family. The death of so many Frankish aristocrats led to a vacuum at the top of the state, and when the plague passes will result in a vicious war with Germania that will last the rest of the century, but will end with Frankia predominant over the latter state.
Germania, as well as Polania, for their part were by 1344 already dealing with a massive epidemic that arrived from Venice, traveling up the Amber Road. Polania was badly weakened, and in the years after the plague dealt with major revolts among the Bulgari, and lost northern lands to the pagans, reversing decades of gains. The pagans were hit, but to a far lesser extent as their decentralized and remote lands were not well-integrated to the Christian trade routes. Most cases came from raiders bringing back captives from Christian lands as slaves, most of whom died with their captors without spreading plague deeper.
Finally in 1347 the Rusi of Novgorod were hit, by sickness spreading out of Scandinavia. Sickness from Novgorod and Kiev hit the rest of Russia by 1348, completing the initial outbreak of the new Black Death. It wasn’t over by any means, but nowhere in Christendom was spared.
As noted, we will deal with most of the political consequences outside the Roman Empire later, but there is a certain commonality. Populations had been increasing over the previous century. The Empire had a population of over 25 million and rising. The cities of the Empire were growing as well, with Italy alone having more than twelve cities of over fifty thousand. Venice alone had a population of over one hundred thousand. Among the Roman population nearly ten million people died. The scale of death is quite literally impossible to fathom. The Hunnic Invasion had killed maybe two million from all causes, and that was already horribly scarring for the Roman state. Tax revenues collapsed, the military was left badly depleted. And in 1345 Emperor Petrus II died. He’d caught the plague in the Palace, and soon was dead. He was 17 years old and had been Emperor for 5 years. He was a child when he took the throne, and still a child when he died. His reign was spent cloistered away from the world, trying to boost morale where he could.
Who would follow Petrus was a matter of some debate in the Imperial household. Manuel was once again the legal Emperor, but there was still the matter of his health, which was still viewed as fragile. Manuel’s deeply isolated life in Italy had largely been bypassed by the plague. The lands were self-sufficient and very few visitors came or went, enforced by military patrols. The young man was in many ways under house arrest, seeing almost no one except his handlers and a young wife who had arrived shortly before the plague hit. Bringing him to Constantinople was too likely to kill him, so once again Manuel was overlooked.
The Imperial Court had Paulus appointed Emperor, and once again a child was on the throne. He would reign, for some definition of reign anyway, for the next two years before also coming down with the Plague and dying. Paulus was 17 years old, and had been Emperor for just under 2 years. He was much like his older brother.
This was a deeply surprising event, as after 1346 the plague had declined dramatically within the Empire, a blessing after nearly five years of horrible disease. Urban populations of the Empire had dropped by well over half during the years of plague, and rural populations had fallen by over a quarter. A full forty percent of the Empire’s 1340 was dead.
The economy was in ruins. Not only had vast quantities of farmland been left without tenants, but the trade economy was completely shut down. The Italian cities that powered the trade networks of the Empire were all quarantined and had been so for years. Suppliers, sailors, artisans, merchants. Vast swathes of all these groups were now dead. The Senate was horribly depleted, as most of those men had come from the hardest hit cities.
Into this mess stepped the last son of Katerina, Manuel IV. The once sickly boy, now sickly young man, departed Italy after hearing the news of his brother’s death, leaving his wife and very young son, John, behind. There were no ships to Greece to be found, so he traveled overland, on roads he’d never seen, riding a horse he’d barely been allowed to touch. He grew ill as he passed through Illyria, but pressed on. He rode past abandoned towns, mass graves, and empty farmland. And he arrived in the capital just before winter set in, passing into the city with barely any comment. He proceeded down the streets, which while not empty as the city was mostly free of plague, were still now full of a fifth the pre-plague population, and arrived at the Palace and demanded entry.
The guards were unsure what to do with the dirty, ungroomed, and rude man that demanded entry, but he had a signet ring of the Imperial family, and documents showing him to be the heir. Finally he was shown into the palace, and met with his now elderly father. The two had a tearful reunion, and Manuel was crowned Emperor. Still in his traveling clothes.
Manuel had not been idle in his time away in exile. He had studied, learned from the greatest minds of the Empire before the plague, and then was left with ancient books of philosophy, engineering, and economics as his companions after the estate went into quarantine. He intended to get the Empire back on track. Get the trade flowing again, and the economy moving. Because he had dreams, dreams of proving everyone who had thought him weak wrong. To prove that the court had been wrong to pass him over as Emperor.
He wouldn’t just springboard recovery, he would go further than any Emperor in history. He would repeat he feats of the Great Manuel who had preceded him. That young Emperor had inherited a broken mess and stitched something greater from what had come before. And now Manuel IV intended to be greater still, to not just rebuild the Empire as it stood now, but to reconquer it all. To drive his forces East, into Egypt, into the Holy Land, and into Mesopotamia. Reconquer the entire Roman East.
And he knew that all he needed was time.
Part CIII: Oh Death
We last saw the Black Death come out of the Egyptian Campaign of Constantine V in the 700s, delaying his son Leo’s campaign into Syria, Palaestina, and Mesopotamia by many years. That sweep through the Empire had killed nearly a fifth of the Empire’s population, and that had been considered one of the worst diseases to ever sweep through Europe. The plague of the 1340s was much, much worse. It had been six hundred years since this particular plague had struck, and what resistance had built up was now gone.
It is definitively known the new plague came from somewhere on the steppe, and not from Turki controlled lands. The best bet is somewhere in Tataria, hitting the region hard, but this was nothing compared to what happened when a sick mercenary passed into Roman service in Taurica. From there the disease passed into the Roman camp. The disease spread into the army slowly, but as the withdrawal from Kiev continued it spread, to the Empress herself. Her second son, Petrus, only twelve years old, was with the army at the time, and had been kept sequestered under orders from his mother.
The army was on the verge of disintegration, and needed a new leader; even if only a figurehead. And so the soldiers proclaimed the boy Emperor. This was technically illegal, as his elder brother was the declared and recognized heir. But circumstance trumped legality. Manuel was far away in Italy, and was also an underage boy.
Petrus was brought out and paraded in front of the soldiers and issued orders for the care of the sick, and as the army approached Cherson the sick were put into a new camp, where they could hopefully recover, or they would not. Petrus himself sailed for Constantinople on a ship with no one else from the north, and met his father at the capital. To avoid civil war orders were sent to keep Manuel in his effective house arrest in Italy, and Petrus was officially declared Emperor. The capital waited for word of recovery or additional sickness in the north, but it was already far too late. A ship had sailed from Cherson to Manueliopolis, and that ship carried the sickness with it. Manueliopolis was quite possibly the worst place in the entire Eastern sections of the Empire a ship could have arrived with the Plague.
The city was filled with Venetian trade ships, and flowed with commerce that passed through the Hyrcanian Sea and northern Persia. We will examine the impact of the plague on the East later, because for our narrative what is more important is that the Venetian ships scattered. The spread of the disease started out highly localized, in Taurica, Armenia, Constantinople, along the western coast of Anatolia, and into Greece
Petrus’s advisors took rapid action, shutting down the ports of Greece, Anatolia, and Armenia and forbidding long-term travel. Senators were confined to their dwellings, and ordinances restricting daily life were issued. Those who were sick were quarantined and only allowed outside their homes at night. Collectors of the dead were sent to collect the deceased for mass burial or for burning. Over the course of 1341 nearly three-quarters of Constantinople’s recovered one-hundred twenty thousand population died, with similar numbers in Athens, Thessalonika, Ephesos, Pergamum, and other cities. Strict as the measures were they did not stop the spread.
A ship from Constantinople spread the disease to Antioch the following year, and another ship spread it to Alexandria in the Caliphate. From those cities disease spread as officials found themselves completely overwhelmed. Bathhouses, often not the most hygienic of places were closed down to avoid public contamination. Even churches were closed as congregations of desperate worshipers tried to find solace in holy places, only to act as places disease could spread rapidly. The wider army was not exempt from the devastation, and throughout 1342 no pay was issued at all, similar to what had happened under Leo IV. As had occurred then the scale of sickness meant revolts did not occur. The plague spread West, reaching Sicily in 1342, and Venice the same year. Arrival at Venice was a particular disaster for Europe, as trade from that city was widespread, and soon cases beyond the Alps were occurring.
New religious movements sprang up, looking to find whatever fault had occurred with the Christian religion that had caused God to unleash such a horrible punishment. It was said that rich or poor, faithful or not, nothing could stop death. This wasn’t entirely true, as wealthier individuals did survive at higher rates than poorer, but it didn’t seem that way to people at the time. Attacks on religious minorities both throughout the Empire and the rest of Europe intensified, with many communities being expelled or killed in violence that followed outbreaks.
The trade networks which linked Europe broke down, with the Goths in particular seeing their networks suffering greatly, a process which almost certainly delayed the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by several decades. From Hispania sickness spread north in Gaelia, hitting Toulouse in early 1344, and from there spreading further north. Frankia weas hit during the same year, killing much of the Frankish Senate and the royal family. The death of so many Frankish aristocrats led to a vacuum at the top of the state, and when the plague passes will result in a vicious war with Germania that will last the rest of the century, but will end with Frankia predominant over the latter state.
Germania, as well as Polania, for their part were by 1344 already dealing with a massive epidemic that arrived from Venice, traveling up the Amber Road. Polania was badly weakened, and in the years after the plague dealt with major revolts among the Bulgari, and lost northern lands to the pagans, reversing decades of gains. The pagans were hit, but to a far lesser extent as their decentralized and remote lands were not well-integrated to the Christian trade routes. Most cases came from raiders bringing back captives from Christian lands as slaves, most of whom died with their captors without spreading plague deeper.
Finally in 1347 the Rusi of Novgorod were hit, by sickness spreading out of Scandinavia. Sickness from Novgorod and Kiev hit the rest of Russia by 1348, completing the initial outbreak of the new Black Death. It wasn’t over by any means, but nowhere in Christendom was spared.
As noted, we will deal with most of the political consequences outside the Roman Empire later, but there is a certain commonality. Populations had been increasing over the previous century. The Empire had a population of over 25 million and rising. The cities of the Empire were growing as well, with Italy alone having more than twelve cities of over fifty thousand. Venice alone had a population of over one hundred thousand. Among the Roman population nearly ten million people died. The scale of death is quite literally impossible to fathom. The Hunnic Invasion had killed maybe two million from all causes, and that was already horribly scarring for the Roman state. Tax revenues collapsed, the military was left badly depleted. And in 1345 Emperor Petrus II died. He’d caught the plague in the Palace, and soon was dead. He was 17 years old and had been Emperor for 5 years. He was a child when he took the throne, and still a child when he died. His reign was spent cloistered away from the world, trying to boost morale where he could.
Who would follow Petrus was a matter of some debate in the Imperial household. Manuel was once again the legal Emperor, but there was still the matter of his health, which was still viewed as fragile. Manuel’s deeply isolated life in Italy had largely been bypassed by the plague. The lands were self-sufficient and very few visitors came or went, enforced by military patrols. The young man was in many ways under house arrest, seeing almost no one except his handlers and a young wife who had arrived shortly before the plague hit. Bringing him to Constantinople was too likely to kill him, so once again Manuel was overlooked.
The Imperial Court had Paulus appointed Emperor, and once again a child was on the throne. He would reign, for some definition of reign anyway, for the next two years before also coming down with the Plague and dying. Paulus was 17 years old, and had been Emperor for just under 2 years. He was much like his older brother.
This was a deeply surprising event, as after 1346 the plague had declined dramatically within the Empire, a blessing after nearly five years of horrible disease. Urban populations of the Empire had dropped by well over half during the years of plague, and rural populations had fallen by over a quarter. A full forty percent of the Empire’s 1340 was dead.
The economy was in ruins. Not only had vast quantities of farmland been left without tenants, but the trade economy was completely shut down. The Italian cities that powered the trade networks of the Empire were all quarantined and had been so for years. Suppliers, sailors, artisans, merchants. Vast swathes of all these groups were now dead. The Senate was horribly depleted, as most of those men had come from the hardest hit cities.
Into this mess stepped the last son of Katerina, Manuel IV. The once sickly boy, now sickly young man, departed Italy after hearing the news of his brother’s death, leaving his wife and very young son, John, behind. There were no ships to Greece to be found, so he traveled overland, on roads he’d never seen, riding a horse he’d barely been allowed to touch. He grew ill as he passed through Illyria, but pressed on. He rode past abandoned towns, mass graves, and empty farmland. And he arrived in the capital just before winter set in, passing into the city with barely any comment. He proceeded down the streets, which while not empty as the city was mostly free of plague, were still now full of a fifth the pre-plague population, and arrived at the Palace and demanded entry.
The guards were unsure what to do with the dirty, ungroomed, and rude man that demanded entry, but he had a signet ring of the Imperial family, and documents showing him to be the heir. Finally he was shown into the palace, and met with his now elderly father. The two had a tearful reunion, and Manuel was crowned Emperor. Still in his traveling clothes.
Manuel had not been idle in his time away in exile. He had studied, learned from the greatest minds of the Empire before the plague, and then was left with ancient books of philosophy, engineering, and economics as his companions after the estate went into quarantine. He intended to get the Empire back on track. Get the trade flowing again, and the economy moving. Because he had dreams, dreams of proving everyone who had thought him weak wrong. To prove that the court had been wrong to pass him over as Emperor.
He wouldn’t just springboard recovery, he would go further than any Emperor in history. He would repeat he feats of the Great Manuel who had preceded him. That young Emperor had inherited a broken mess and stitched something greater from what had come before. And now Manuel IV intended to be greater still, to not just rebuild the Empire as it stood now, but to reconquer it all. To drive his forces East, into Egypt, into the Holy Land, and into Mesopotamia. Reconquer the entire Roman East.
And he knew that all he needed was time.
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Well, there are references to 1244 or 1245 where there should be 1344 or 1345, but it otherwise is very much an update that shows the kind of mess things currently are rn.
When the Empire is on the brink, Oh Come Emperor Manuel. Three times now 
Even though the Romans are driving east, I hope they involve themselves somewhat in the New World, or at least Australia.
Quick question, where is Manueliopolis?
Even though the Romans are driving east, I hope they involve themselves somewhat in the New World, or at least Australia.
Quick question, where is Manueliopolis?