The Persian Dynasty of Byzantium: A TLIAW

[Eparkhos]

The Persian Dynasty of Byzantium

Konstantinos VII Theophobos
(838-853)​

Mikhael II had been an usurper, plain and simple. In 820 several of his friends and allies had burst into the Imperial chapel during the Christmas mass and hacked the basileus to pieces, even as he defended himself with a bloody crucifix. He then had Leon V’s sons castrated and exiled, then proclaimed himself emperor, clinging onto power for the next decade in spite of multiple uprisings and civil wars, and by the time of his death in 829 he had secured his power enough for his son to survive a brief regency with his eyes intact.

However, this fundamental illegitimacy made his aforementioned son, Theophilos, eager to prove himself as both a general and emperor. As such, in 831 he led an army east against the Abbasid Caliphate and raided the borderlands and Upper Mesopotamia for several years in a row. However, he proved to be far less of a general and emperor than he thought himself to be, and his army was routed in its first set-piece battle at Anzen in July 838. Indeed, he himself was struck down during the desperate final action, an arrow passing cleanly through his leg and causing him to bleed out*. Thus ended the House of Amorium.

However, in spite of this disastrous defeat all was not lost. One of Theophilos’ lieutenants, a Persian convert named Theophobos, was able to extricate 30,000 hardened veterans and withdraw north to Sinope, then further on to Konstantinoupoli. He was proclaimed emperor, and, with no-one in a position to oppose him, he was thus undisputedly crowned as Emperor of the Romans, whence he took the regnal name of Konstantinos. He installed favorites and allies into the Imperial chancellery, then marched out of the city yet again. He reached Dorylaion in September 838, after the Arabs had sacked Amorion, and rallied the soldiers there to join his own force and marched to confront the Arabs again. He drew them into a pursuit onto his chosen ground and defeated a sizeable portion of the army at Kotyaion. The rest of the Arabs camped at Polybotos, but because of constant harassment the Caliph departed after several months and attempted to retreat back to Mesopotamia; However, the unusually cold winter caused many of the Arabs to freeze, and of the 40,000 who had crossed the Tauruses that spring only a quarter returned.

With the enemy army thus reduced Konstantinos was able to successfully negotiate a peace with the Arabs the next spring, in which the Romans would pay a tribute of 5,000 nomismata per year to the Caliph, in exchange for peace and a cession of government-endorsed raiding. With both military and diplomatic victories under his belt, in late 839 he convened the Eighth Ecumenical Council in the capital in which the icons were restored yet again. This was received much more warmly in the west than in the east, but the themata tolerated it because of the peace.

In 840, the Doge of Venice petitioned Konstantinos, wishing to provide aid in a war against the Sicilian Arabs, who had launched yet another campaign into Rome’s Italian territory. The Emperor assented, and the next year he lead a combined force of 15,000 soldiers and 60 galleys into the Peninsula. Taras/Taranto was taken by deceit after a siege of less than a week, and in early 841 they landed in Messana/Messina and drove off Arab besiegers. The Romano-Venetian force then continued west along the northern coast of the island, laying siege to Panormos in May 841. The emir of Ifriqiya, Abu Iqal al-Aghlab, sailed from Tunis with the largest army he could muster when news of the siege reached him, landing at Trapani and moving to defend the city. However, Konstantinos remained adamantly focused on the city and refused to be drawn off, ultimately forcing the garrison’s surrender in early 842. He then marched on Marsala, defeating al-Aghlab at Mara u-Zaq on the western plains. The emir was captured and Konstantinos forced him to order all Arabs to withdraw from the island, renounce all claims to the land and pay tribute to the Romans. Konstantinos then retired back to the empire, leaving his nephew Nikephoros to mop up any resistance on the island

After reconquering Sicily, Konstantinos extracted a sizeable yearly tribute from Benevento before returning to the capital. However, he only had a few months to relax and run the civilian administration before conflict flared up in the Balkans. However, this time it was the Serbs and not the Bulgars who were parading outside of Dyrrakhion; The Serbs had won a surprise victory over the Bulgars in 839, and their prince, Vlastimir, had become cocky. This pride led him to a sudden and sharp fall, as Konstantinos defeated him in battle in 846, then arranged for him to be assassinated. Vlastimir’s death sparked a civil war in Serbia and after strengthening the Dalmatian themes he returned to the capital.

For the rest of the 840s, Konstantinos held a long correspondence with the Bulgar Khan Presian, trying to convince him to convert to Christianity. While he did make some headway, he was never able to get a definitive promise of conversion, and in 852 the correspondences stopped upon the ascension of Boris-Mihail to the Bulgar throne. Konstantinos disliked the Bulgarian monarch, and as he was hostile to the Duke of Great Moravia and the King of East Francia, Konstantinos began preparations to war against the Bulgars. However, he never lived to see it.

On 14 March, 853, while Konstantinos was out hunting, he was shot from afar by an Iconoclast die-hard. The arrow didn’t kill him--it pierced his shoulder, missing any major veins--but the force caused him to fall from his horse and strike his head on a rock, killing him instantly. He reigned for fourteen years, and was fifty-two upon his death.

 

[Eparkhos]

A Khurramite becoming emperor is certainly a unique premise. Will their former heterodox beliefs have a long-lasting influence on the family?

Not really. Konstantinos, as a very recent convert (>5 years) was hesitant to rock the ecclesiastical boat beyond restoring the icons, which was an extremely popular move for most except for the eastern Anatolians. Nikephoros, as we shall see, spent most of his reign focused on the Bulgars and did little in church affairs, and his successor had been born several years into his grand-uncle's reign and was thus thoroughly Christianized.

I'm fond of the idea. What can I say? There's not much to add besides that this is cool.

Thanks!

Nikephoros II Bulgaronktos
(853-871)​

Upon Konstantinos’ assassination, he was succeeded by his aforementioned nephew, Nikephoros, recently returned from Italy. Nikephoros ordered his uncle’s assassin to be publicly burned to death, and used the excuse provided to kneecap the power of the Anatolian magnates, seizing several estates and taking over a dozen family’s children hostage in the Imperial City.

After several months of reorganization, Nikephoros took command of the assembled army and cross the Bulgar border. Most of the Bulgar army was away along the Danube, and so he was rather easily able to conquer the lands south of the Balkan Mountains over the course of hee years. The fortresses along the Gulf of Burgas were briefly kept sustained by by sea convoys, but these were soon turned back by the much larger Roman fleet and taken. The fortresses were garrisoned and in 857 Nikephoros returned to the capital and awarded himself a triumph for a job well done.

However, in 860, Boris-Mihail returned from the north with his army mostly intact. He exploded over the mountains and laid waste to the lands along the Ebros before vanishing back over the mountains before Nikephoros could respond. This pattern was repeated the next two years before Nikephoros finally tired of the constant raids and gathered and army to march against the Bulgars. He forced the raiders to battle at Diokletianoupoli in mid 863, but most of the enemy were able to escape unmolested. Nikephoros pursued, but was ambushed in the foothills of the Balkans and forced to turn back. In 865 he raised another army and, despairing of being able to fight the Bulgars on his territory and thus ground of his choosing, embarked on a strike against the Bulgar capital at Pliska. He fought two battles en route, both inconclusive, and enveloped the enemy capital. However, the constant harassment by Bulgars wore down Roman supplies and morale, and as winter closed Nikephoros abandoned the siege and withdrew back to Mesembria. In the spring of 866, he once again marched on the Bulgarian capital and brought Boris-Mihail to battle at Simeonis, just south of Pliska. The Bulgars were put to flight and Pliska surrendered so as to be spared a sack and Nikephoros entered, triumphant. He immediately broke his oath and burned the city to the ground, then withdrew back to Roman territory under heavy harassment, once again believing he had secured peace.

The burning of Pliska incensed the Bulgar nobility and in 869 they crossed the mountains yet again and, entering Philippopolis by treachery, sacked it and put all of the city’s adults to the sword. The psychological effect this had on the whole of Roman society is comparative to that which the destruction of Pliska had had on that of the Bulgars, and the tagma was flooded with volunteers. In 870, the Imperial army, stiffened by these new regiments, marched north again, once again with Nikephoros at its head. The two armies darted back and forth across the mountains, the more mobile Bulgars unable to lure the heavier Romans onto the plains, while the Romans were unable to force the Bulgars to battle in the hills. Finally, as the campaign season drew to a close, Nikephoros risked night maneuvers and launched a nocturnal attack on the Bulgar camp near Gabrovo. Boris-Mihail and several prominent noblemen were captured while the rest of the army was scattered. Nikephoros returned to the capital with his prisoners, and in early 871 the Peace of Saint Apronian (named after the feast day on which it was finalized) was dictated.

The border was to be set at the Balkan mountains, with the fortresses controlling the passes being under Roman control. Boris-Mihail and all the captured nobility were to convert to Christianity and their Patriarch was to be subservient to the one in Konstantinoupoli. While it was doubtful that the Bulgar’s new faith would run more than skin deep, at the very worst the interreligious strife north of the border would keep their neighbors at each other’s throats. It was a massive victory, but Nikephoros would not have long to enjoy it.

Before we get to his death, the other events of Nikephoros’ reign should be covered. There were two major naval actions, the first occurring only a few months after his coronation when an Arab fleet attempted to raid the Aegean coasts during a break in the Roman defenses. They were met by a slightly larger Roman fleet scrambled from multiple ports to intercept them and after a day of vicious combat the invaders were victorious, successfully pillaging the suburbs of Smyrne before withdrawing. The second occurred in 860, when the Rus’ attempted to do the same to the capital before being driven off with fireships.

The eastern frontier was surprisingly quiet, with the only major conflict being yet another Paulician uprising around Tephrike in 860. This was slapped down after less than a year, but plans to transport part of the populace to either Thrake or Morea were soon dropped.

In ecclesiastical news, there was a brief power struggle inside the church between the Stoudites (basically Donatists) who wanted to excommunicate everyone who had cooperated with the iconoclasts, and the moderates, who were the one who would be executed. Patriarch Ignatios was firmly on the Stoudite side but, after several months of chaotic turmoil Nikephoros tired of the vocal faction’s wingings and sacked him in favor of his cousin Adrianos, the former Bishop of Sinope, in 855.

Nikephoros died in May 871, passing of a stroke in his sleep after a reign of a little over nineteen years. He was fifty-nine when he passed. There was a brief succession crisis following his death when Andronikos, Konstantinos’ eldest surviving son, crowned himself as emperor after killing Nikephoros’ eldest son, also named Konstantinos. However, he was soon blinded and Nikephoros’ third son, Tobias, became the emperor.

 

[Eparkhos]

Ah, the old Byzantine habit of blinding your rivals. Old uses die hard...

....Did you just insinuate that blinding is bad?

Give me your eyes. Now.

Tobias I
(871-913)​

The long reign of Tobais I is one of the golden periods of Byzantine history. For most of his forty-two year long reign--the second longest in Roman history--the Empire was at peace on all fronts (except Italy), and the peasantry enjoyed an usually high quality of life. Literature and artwork were produced into droves, while the church oversaw the conversions of Bulgaria and Russia.

However, Rome was still a state that required military prowess from her master, and so it was that Tobias embarked upon his first campaign in 872, only a few months after wrestling the crown away from his cousin. He gathered the eastern themes and raided in force into the lands of the Caliphate, which was going down in flames under the weight of the Saffarids and the Zanj. He swiftly overran the frontier zone and battered aside the Jaziran emirs before moving into Iraq, advancing as far as Tikrit which he sacked and burned. The road to Samarra was now open but rather than attacking the Caliphal capital he instead treated with the Caliph’s brother, creating an agreement by which the tribute established by Konstantinos would be cancelled but the Arabs still wouldn’t raid. The fortresses of Melitene, Taranton, Sozopetra, Adata and Arabissos were also ceded. Tobias sent the next year raiding northern Syria before retiring back over the mountains in early 875. He awarded himself two triumphs, one for triumphing over the Arabs and one for triumphing over the Muslims.

However, in 878 the Emir of Tarsus launched a large raid into Anatolia, breaking through the Cilician Gates. Tobias was furious and once again gathered the eastern armies, retaliating with a raid into Tarsus the next year. He ravaged Cilicia, then embarked on a much greater offensive the next year. Once again he plunged into Mesopotamia and once again he took Tikrit, but this time he didn’t stop. He moved south and laid siege to Samarra, lobbing firebrands over the walls until the Caliph surrendered on the condition that the Romans would not harm him. Tobias had him dumped into a pond filled with Mugger Crocodiles, because, and I quote, “True, I said no Roman would harm you. But these, my friend, are Indian creatures.” Samarra was then sacked, after which the Romans moved on to Baghdad. Tobias allowed the city’s governor to ransom his territory for all the books and scholars of the House of Wisdom as well as their families and servants, after which he turned north. He wintered in eastern Jazira, during which period he took an Assyrian woman as a lover, before finally returning to Byzantium in the summer of 881. He ordered the fortresses guarding the passes to be heavily reinforced, with new walls and new towers being raised. The garrisons of these hardpoints were to be supplemented with men who’d lost their families to the Arab raiders, ensuring that they would fight to the last man. This overhaul of the eastern defenses occurred over three years, finally being finished in 884.

With the east secured, Tobias turned his attention to his true passion; Books. Prior to going medieval on the Arabs, he had spent most of his time in the pursuit of knowledge. Now that he had some degree of freetime, he resumed indulging his passion. After returning from the east he had a magnificent building called the Sophiakastron constructed at the peak of the city’s third hill between 884 and 889, safely removed from any besieging force. A tunnel was dug from the Great Palace to the Sophiakastron, so that he could access it at all times and in all weather. The Muslim scholars and their families were settled on the rise’s northern slope, while scholars from across the known world were invited to take up residence there. The world’s largest copying center was also erected, dedicated to the preservation of ancient texts. The Sophiakastron still stands today, its beautiful and ornate structure a testimony to the resources of Byzantium’s Golden Age.

While Tobias spent most of his days with his fellow intellectuals in the Sophiakastron, this did not mean that he was derelict in his duties. In 886 he issued a reformed tax code that lightened the burdens of many peasants, winning him their loyalty, and he didn’t stop there. He also issued a new legal code, the Lex Tobaeum, in three stages from 889 to 895. One of the more notable elements of the Lex Tobaeum was the Periorismós tou megéthous ton ktimáton pou katéchoun idiótes kai oi oikogéneiés tous, shortened to periorismos, which established an upper threshold on the land that could be possessed by any one family, making sales or inheritance of more to this family illegal. This helped curb the decline of small farmers, as well as limiting the potential of rebellion of the nobility. This massive legal reform earned Tobias the cognomen of “the Lawgiver,” by which he is known today.

His other major reform, and by far the longest-lasting, was the adoption of Hindu-Arabic numerals in official state correspondence. The motivations behind this alteration are unknown, but its usage did help acclimate many illiterates and foreigners to the Byzantine writing system, which had previously used a mind-bogglingly complex system of letters and pen marks to indicate numbers.

Accessibility for outsiders would soon prove to be very important, as the final victory of the Orthodox faction in the long and bloody Bulgarian Civil War in the 890s caused a sharp rise in demand for priests, monks and scholars. By using the clergy to spread his influence within the Bulgarian realm Tobais weakened his rivals, and thus increased his own power. However, there was likely a genuine philanthropic motive behind this to some degree, as missionary expeditions went beyond their immediate neighbors and into the lands of the Kievan Rus’ and Pannonia, which had recently been conquered by the nomadic Magyars. The expeditions to the Rus’ succeeded in convincing the Grand Prince, Oleg, to convert to Eastern-rite Chalcedonianism in 899 in exchange for a marriage between his son and one of Tobias’ daughters. However, this conversion was only skin deep, and there are several letters from the Metropolitan of Kiev complaining about ongoing sacrifices to the ecumenical Patriarch. Meanwhile, the missionaries to the Magyars made a surprising amount of headway, successfully converting Zolta, the son of the Magyar gyula, in 904, who would go on to lead the mass baptism of the Magyars in the Danube in 919.

While Tobias’ reign was a golden period in Roman history, things soon went sour because of his two marriages. His first wife, Zoe the Paphlagonian, had borne him three sons, one of whom, Konstantinos, had lived to adulthood and commanded the European armies. However, Tobias’ three surviving sons by Maria the Assyrian, Khristophoros, Adrianos and Tobias, were all born-in-the-purple and thus technically more legitimate than their half-brother. Khristophoros commanded the eastern defenses, while Tobias the Younger was in charge of the Crimean garrisons. Three of them (Adrianos having taken the cloth) had designs on the throne, and it was only their father’s life between them in the throne. Tobias the Elder, whose mind had begun to go in the mid 900s, was blissfully unaware of this and living out his last days of senility absorbed in his books.

On 11 January 913, Tobias passed quietly, with his wife and youngest son by his side. As word of his passing spread across Byzantium, the three claimants raised their war banners; The second Year of the Four Emperors had begun.

 

[Eparkhos]

Here it is. Y'know, this is the first timeline I've finished. Feels good, man, feels good.


Year of the Four Emperors
(913)​

Upon hearing of his father’s death, Konstantinos rallied his armies and marched on the capital. He entered into the city in mid-March, when many of the dynatoi are gathered in the city for the yearly awarding of titles and offices. Konstantinos, seeing a brilliant opportunity to cement his power over the rural regions, gives a series of massive donatives to the nobles gathered in the city and offers them a great deal of privilege in exchange for their loyalty. After the thinly-veiled bribes are dispersed, the dynatoi return to their estates, most mollified by the donatives. However, the kleisouron of the minor (as in the smallest theme) province of Seleukeia, one Alexandros, takes it as a sign of weakness and declares himself the basileus. His rebellion is minor enough that any responding force is quickly redirected to service in the Brother’s War.

And a Brother’s War it has become. In April Khristophoros had declared himself basileus, gathering support from the douxoi of Khaldeia, Mesopotamia, Koloneia, Sebasteia, Lykandos, Armeniakon, Kharsianon and Kappadokia. However, before he could link his forces Alexandros intercepted the Kharsianon detachment and put them to flight. Khristophoros attempted to run down Alexandrors but was ultimately unable to do so, wasting several valuable weeks in southern Anatolia. This delay gave Konstantinos the time he needed to transfer the European armies into Anatolia and raise the western themata. By the time that Khristophoros had reached and laid siege to Ikonion with a force of some 30,000, his half-brother had reached Amorion with 40,000. Knowing that he was severely outnumbered, Khristophoros pulled back in an attempt to draw Konstantinos after him. The emperor took the bait and the two forces raced east, with many scholars believing that Khristophoros was attempting to gain the support of the newly-established Zaydid Caliphate. There is no hard evidence that this what he intended, but it does seem that it would’ve been a valid or even likely course of action for an outnumbered usurper. However, if there was any Arab aid coming it came too late, because in August Khristophoros was brought to battle at Nyssa and defeated. However, Konstantinos proved to be a very poor general and as a result of his lackluster leadership he lost half his army and seriously injured, having to spend several weeks in Central Anatolia to make good his losses.

Word of this action soon spread and the third brother, Tobias the Younger, seized the moment. He declared himself emperor and, taking ship from Kherson, rushed to the capital and took it by treachery. He was then properly crowned as emperor Tobias II and assigned to the Imperial fleet to guard the Bosporos and Propontis, thus preventing his brother from crossing back over into Europe. He distributed another round of donatives to the European dynatoi, further increasing their powers and privileges. His long term plan seems to have been to cut off Konstantinos in Anatolia and let the stresses caused by the needs of an army to make his faction collapse in a storm of miffed dynatoi.

Upon learning of his other half-brother’s usurpation, Konstantinos rallied his exhausted army and marched west yet again. In September he arrived on the eastern side of the Bosporos and began trying to negotiate with the Megas Doux to allow him to cross. This continued for several months until finally, feeling desperate, he resorted to assassination. In December, when Tobias was leading a procession during a feast day, he was brought down by arrows fired from multiple directions. In the panic all but one of the assassins, a Varangian named Leah Oswaldsen, escaped. With Tobias II dead after less than half a year on the throne, the people of Konstantinoupoli invited Konstantinos to retake the throne.

Konstantinos does so, and then immediately begins a purge of anyone who he suspected of supporting his half-brother. Most heinously, he drags out Adrianos and all of his children and has them publicly executed as traitors. However, that very night he gets roaringly drunk, trips on some stairs and cracks his head against a wall, killing him in what many believe is punishment for his fratricides (Blaming Oswaldsen as a ‘lone bowman’ convinced exactly no one). He is succeeded by his two-year old son, also named Konstantinos, with his lieutenant Nikephoros acting as regent.

Konstantinos IX
(914-916)​

As soon as news of the regency reaches the east, Alexandros of Seleukeia receives a flood of support, as most of the eastern nobility and a good deal of the peasantry, wanting a strong leader after the period of chaos. Alexandros marches west with his newly invigorated force, taking a string of fortresses and cities over the course of 914 and 915. Nikephoros is initially hesitant to wager the fate of the young emperor--and thus his own--on the battlefield, but as the situation steadily deteriorates he realizes that he will have to fight or be defeated by inaction. He gathers an army from the European themes and, in early 916, lands at Nikomedeia. He moves southwest and successfully picks off two smaller Alexandrian armies. However, the latter proves to be a trap and he is ambushed by the Alexandrians at Melangina. Nikephoros and most of his army are killed, leaving the road to the capital open for Alexandros.

He exploited it, crossing the Propontis with a small force in an even smaller force of galleys and landing at Eudoxioupoli before marching on the capital. The gates of the city are thrown open and the last retainers loyal to the boy emperor make their stand in the palace. They are eventually overrun and Konstantinos is seized and blinded, ending the House of Persia’s tenure on the thrown. Alexandros is crowned as Alexandros Seleukos, beginning the history of the Seleukid Dynasty.

Konstantinos IX died from his wounds a few days later, the last surviving member of the House of Persia.

FIN