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Apostolos (1344-1364)

It's been 669 years since I was born into this Earth, and I still think of myself as a Roman. Maybe it's right for me to do so, or perhaps I'm just a bit stubborn. It wouldn't be the first thing I've clung to so stubbornly. Call me a Greek if you must, but only if you're ready for fisticuffs.

I was born at a farmhouse outside of Demotika, Thrace, in the Gregorian year 1344. I'm unsure of my exact birth date, but I was baptised on the first day of summer in that year. From the perspective of the eternals I've met or heard of who were born in Constantinople itself - and there are many, though I never saw her myself until after the Empire's demise - that makes me an upstart provincial or a bumpkin farmer's boy. For what it's worth, they're highfaluting city folk in my eyes.

I was born in the midst of the Empire's long decline, during the early “reign” of John V Palaiologos, who was still in a regency under his mother and some other powerful figures. It was a time wracked by civil war, the rising Turkish menace, and, in my second year, the plague. None of my family died in those years, but when I was still but a toddler, I took ill from the plague and nearly died. My survival was an astonishment to everybody, hailed as a miracle.

When I was 8, John Kantakouzenos sent 10,000 mercenary Turks to Demotika to fight Stephan Drusan's Serbians, who had come to aid John V in the ongoing civil war. The city was never harmed directly in the fighting, but it wouldn't be the last time that the Turks would come to the area.

I spent my youth on the farm, helping my father, but eventually I decided to join the night watch in the city, learning how to wield a sword all the while. My parents weren't entirely pleased that I had little interest in maintaining the family farm, but were ultimately supportive of my choice. I would still visit often, enduring their suggestions that I settle down to raise a family of my own. I always thought such an endeavor to be a waste of my time, unaware of just how little time here I would have left.

In the same campaign which had seen the Turks under the employ of Kantakouzenos, they had seized the fortress of Kallipolis on the Sea of Marmara, their first foothold in Europe. From there, in my 19th and 20th years, they launched the campaign which would rob much of Thrace, including my home, from Imperial rule. Our resistance was spirited, but in the end, we only had untrained militia to face the invaders. In the third day of the assault on Demotika, the position that my fellows and I defended came under direct attack, and I took a Turkish scimitar to the heart. In a sane and rational world, that would have been the end of things so far as I go, but as we all know pretty well, this world we live in is neither.

I awoke days later, pained but alive, with my family gone and my childhood home occupied by the Turks. Briefly driven mad by the loss of everything I had known, and by my second “miraculous” survival, I fled north, past Adrianople and into the Danubian hinterlands.

Traianus (1365-1386)

When next I regained my senses, I had found myself a prisoner, and brought before a most remarkable man. Louis I, the Angevin king of Hungary, was the first royal I met, and the one who would end up making the deepest impression upon me. He was tall, full of beard, and possessed of a dominating stature, as well as a strong personality, and a man of deep integrity. At first I could not understand him, but via the interpretation of one of his courtiers, who knew Greek, he was able to tell me what had happened.

It turned out that I'd wandered pretty far, into the lands of the Bulgars, and it was May of 1365. The Hungarians, who were there subjugating the Tsardom of Vidin, had encountered me, and after resisting the questioning of one of their patrols, I had put up a surprisingly spirited resistance - I was, and am, a pretty well-muscled man, and I definitely know how to fight. Impressed by my fighting ability, and perhaps intrigued by my foreignness, the king invited me to come with his army to learn more about from whence I'd come, and to test my usefulness. The proposal surprised me - a king taking note of a peasant like me? - but no other options presented themselves, and so I accepted. Feeling no desire to keep using the name attached to my old life, my mind went to the founder of my city, and I gave my name instead as Traianus.

More than once in the Hungarians' clashes against the Bulgars, I proved my mettle as a fighter. I might have then returned south to lend the skills I had honed to the struggle against the Turks, but I felt no compulsion to go back to the Empire with the pain of losing my home still so fresh. And so, I journeyed to Buda, the royal capital of Hungary, when Louis and his retinue went home. Buda might not have been so impressive by Imperial standards, but I wasn't a city-dweller, so I, at least, was impressed. It was bigger by far than Demotika; it was a city with a window to the Danube, and to the renaissance beginning to bloom in the west. Like most Romans, I was wary of Catholics, but the Magyars at least struck me as a bit 'eastern' in character, enough so to differentiate them from the Latins and Franks in my mind. I was also pragmatic enough to keep my Orthodox proclivities to myself, even if everyone knew I was a 'Greek'.

To say I was a favorite of King Louis would be a little bit of an exaggeration, but I stayed in his court for a long time and became familiar with him. Under his direction, Hungary had become not just a growing center of culture, but an island of peace in a turbulent Europe, and the most powerful nation east of Germany - Louis would even become King of Poland five years after my arrival. Sooner than that, however, an event in the Hungarian capital which hit closer to home was to come along. John V Palaiologos, Roman Emperor, paid a visit to the city to ask for aid against the Turks.

This meeting is actually comparatively well-known in the modern day, and I can personally confirm that the details are accurate. The Emperor came across as a little haughty in his dealings with the king, and was denied in his overtures as a result. A part of John's attitude might have had to do with Louis' requirement to convert to the Latin rite in return for support, and so the Emperor left Hungary empty-handed. The unfriendly encounter, however, did not mean that the Hungarian king remained ignorant of the threat that the Turks posed. In coming years, it would be he who bore the distinction of being the first European monarch to clash with the Ottomans.

Later in 1366, I went to Nicapoli with the armies of Hungary, there to fight the Turks for the second time in my life. I emerged from this second round somewhat more intact than the first. Even this early in my life, I had some inkling of the fact that I would be battling them for a very, very long time. I faced them again in 1374, more confident than ever. I suffered some bad wounds for my cocksureness in that battle, but returned to Buda in good health.

For the rest of my time as Traianus, I remained mostly in the king's court, enjoying the sort of splendor I'd never been able to enjoy as a boy. Despite all of these, I soon found my head spinning with all the intrigues of the court. These only worsened when the king, sadly, passed in 1382. His Polish domains passed to one daughter, Hedwig, while the rest went to Mary, who seemed to greatly distrust me. With the death of Louis, nowadays appropriately recognized as “the Great”, my benefactor was gone, and the struggles between Mary and Charles of Naples wearied me greatly. I retired from court life, faking my own death before I could be suspected for my youthful appearance, and decided to spend some time in more simple surroundings.

As an interesting tidbit, here's a famous painting of the king's wife and daughter mourning him. You can spot me in the crowd on the left, if you squint hard enough.

I should note I took part in some other campaigns during Louis' rule, namely those in Dalmatia against the Venetians. Like every Roman, I'd been bred with a healthy hatred for the Republic of Venice, though one which faded with time. My antipathy toward the Turks took up most of my attention thereafter.

Mátyás (1386-1415)

Amid the turmoil of that last year as Traianus, I slipped away to return to my roots. I'd had quite my fill of courtly life in my two decades in Buda, and now I wanted some time to make a peaceful living elsewhere. I eventually settled upon the banks of the Tisza River outside of Szolnok, where I spent much of the following years as a farmer. I took the name of Mátyás, a bit of a play on the name of my favorite Gospel. It was a comparatively simple time, spent mostly in the company of farmhands and enjoying the reprieve from the battles of my previous life. During this time, largely unknown to me, Ottoman Turks continued to expand at the expense of the Roman Empire and the Serbs. I know it's silly to think that I could have made any particular difference, but more than once I've felt pangs of regret that I wasn't there fighting at that crucial stage of the growth of the Ottoman Empire.

By 1415, when old Mátyás should have been pushing almost 60, I quietly quit my farm, leaving it to the family of one of my farmhands, and headed back to the capital.

Adrián (1415-1435)

I spent the next 20 years as “Adrián”, a soldier for hire, and mostly spent my time, again, in Buda. I had actually grown a bit fond of the city by now, though this time I avoided the court intrigues. The King by now was Sigismund, who before the end of this life too became King of Germany, Bohemia, and Holy “Roman” Emperor. I did not spend as much time fighting the Turks this time, as my work brought me mostly to Bohemia to fight against the Hussites instead. When the wars were over, I found myself out of pay, and fell back on the money I'd saved over my past two lives.

Soon again came around the time when I seemed too young for the liking of my neighbors, and I spirited away from my Buda estate with most of my fortunes to start anew in the southern frontier.

Konstantin (1435-1465)

I arrived in the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Hungary around 1440, and the next year, it's protection fell to John Hunyadi, whose legacy I was destined to be intertwined with again three decades later. I fought the Turks in his service, but ultimately “fell” in combat at Varna in 1444. Not content with sitting out yet more campaigns against the Turk, I stole away to the west, having heard of a spirited resistance led by the Albanians.

This was led by the famous Gjergj Kastrioti, better known as Skanderbeg. Once a Turkish vassal, he had quit the field in battle against Hunyadi's crusaders at Nis to take up a defensive revolt back home in Albania. I took up with his armies, much gratified to take part in many stunning victories against the Sultan Murad. I was at the first siege of Krujë, where I starved once or twice, but kept fighting until I was captured at Vaikal in 1465 and taken to Constantinople.

I was distraught to see it confirmed that the Empire in which I was born had at last succumbed, and the Turks held the city on the straits. I didn't have much time to appreciate my first visit to a city I'd only heard of in legend and rumor, for the Ottomans had a harsh punishment in store for me and my fellow captives.

Once my skin grew back, I escaped on an Italian merchant ship to Dalmatia and returned, again, to Hungary.

Apostolos and Benjamim share a discussion

Prometheus: It looks like Benjamin and I are close in age, too. Lots of 14th Century brats, eh? I ended up in Boston eventually as well, but not till the 1800s. I've shunned the damned ocean for most of my days, so it took me a while to make the jump across the Atlantic.

Benjamin: Like I said, I left in 1783, and because I had to, not because I wanted to. Didn't want to find out whether being lynched was something that I could just, ah, “shrug off”… Sodding so-called “patriot” traitors. (furious) Hanging was too good for them. (furious) I'll give the details on that mess later.

Birth Name: Apostolos
Birth Date: 1344
Birth Place: Demotika, Thrace
Status at Birth:
Relation to other Eternals:
Current Pseudonym:
Past Pseudonyms:
Current Home:
Past Homes:
Current Occupation:
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