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--- byzantium [2009/03/17 18:28]
innokenti
+++ byzantium [2009/04/04 11:25] (current)
ivan updated - the year is 1185 and Isaac II Angelos is Emperor...
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 ====== Byzantium ======
 ===== Quick Start =====
 ==== Themes ====
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 An ancient Empire recovering from an age of weakness, growing once again in confidence and power.
 ==== Past ====
-Almost a thousand years ago now, the last Roman Emperor of the Undivided Empire ordered the founding of the city of Constantinople and moved the capital of the Empire there. Under his successors the Empire was divided into the Western Empire ruled from Rome, and the Eastern which continued to be ruled from Constantinople.
+Almost a thousand years ago now, the last Roman Emperor of the Undivided Empire ordered the founding of the city of Constantinople and moved the capital of the Empire there. Under his successors the Empire was divided into the Western Empire ruled from Rome, and the Eastern which continued to be ruled from Constantinople. In due course the barbarians overran and destroyed the Western Roman Empire. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the largest and wealthiest city of the Roman Empire and of the world.
-In due course the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire: its emperors retreated to Ravenna, and Empire and Emperors alike diminished to nothing. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the largest city of the Roman Empire and of the world. The wealth of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia flowed into Constantinople.
-Since that time the size and power of the Empire has ebbed and waned. In the time of the Emperor Justinian, in the 6th Century, almost the entire Mediterranean was Roman once again and it seemed the Empire and Pax Romana would once more unite and heal the world. Under Justinian the laws were reformed and the people were entertained most spectacularly. Under Justinian came the first of the great plagues to devastate Constantinople and all of Christendom.
-The greatest disaster to strike at the Roman Empire of Byzantium was yet to come though, a century later her Empire had shrunk once again to the Eastern Mediterranean and she was locked in exhausting war with the Sassanid Persians. In the space of but 30 years that ancient Persian empire was annihilated as hordes of riders swept from the desert of Araby, conquering all before them in the name of their religion of Islam.
+Since that time the size and power of the Empire has ebbed and waned. In the time of the Emperor Justinian, in the 6th Century, almost the entire Mediterranean was Roman once again. A mere century later the Empire had shrunk once again to the Eastern Mediterranean and was locked in exhausting war with the Persians. In the space of a single lifetime the ancient Persian empire was annihilated and great swathes of the Roman Empire lost as hordes of riders swept from the desert of Araby, conquering all before them in the name of of Islam.
 For five hundred years now the story has remained the same, though the actors have changed, as one or a dozen Islamic successor states vies with the Byzantine Empire for control of Asia Minor, the Holy Land and the rest of the Middle East. At the same time rebellions in the north have seen the Romanians and Bulgarians independent or reconquered a dozen times over.  At times the borders of Byzantium have shrunk almost to within sight of the walls of Constantinople.
-In 1183 the Roman Empire of Byzantium is once again near the height of its recent power: all of Greece and half of the Black Sea are once again ruled from Constantinople, and the southern borders reach to the edge of the Holy Land and the Crusader States. The Seljuk Empire, the most recent Islamic State that sought to overthrow the Empire, is failing and falling like so many before.
+In 1185 the Roman Empire of Byzantium is once again near the height of its recent power: all of Greece and half of the Black Sea are once again ruled from Constantinople, and the southern borders reach to the edge of the Holy Land and the Crusader States. The Seljuk Empire, the most recent Islamic State that sought to overthrow the Empire, is failing and falling like so many before.
 === Byzantium and the First Crusade ===
-The Arab Caliphates had ruled the Holy City of Jerusalem since shortly after the birth of the Islamic faith, but in the years of the reign of the Comnenus (at the end of the 11th Century) the borders of Byzantium once again reached to the edge of the Levant. Dark tales of persecution of pilgrims to the Holy City at the hands of the Seljuk Turks came to that emperor's ears. Comnenus had sought reconciliation with the Pope at Rome and he dispatched envoys to Rome to seek the aid of the head of the Roman Church. In truth Emperor Comnenus expected little more than a few mercenaries.
+In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade. Ostensibly at the request of the Emperor of Byzantium who sought reconciliation with the Roman Church, the emperor expected little more than a few companies of mercenaries. Instead the armies of the Latins marched east.
-Instead, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade.
+Initially this alarmed the Emperor and his courtiers immensely. Byzantium had fought for decades against the Norman princes who led the Crusader armies, and the armies themselves were like a hungry plague that consumed everything in their path and threatened to beggar the Emperor and his subjects. Nonetheless the Crusader army arrived at Constantinople and there its leaders swore oaths of homage to the Emperor of the Roman Empire of Byzantium whilst the city's alchemists treated their illnesses and weariness. In return for transport and supplies on the march the Crusaders would return their conquests to the Byzantine Empire. At first all went well and Crusader victories at Nicea and Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor.
-Initially this alarmed the Emperor and his courtiers immensely. Byzantium had fought for decades against the Norman princes who led the Crusader armies, and the armies themselves were like a hungry plague that consumed everything in their path and threatened to beggar the Emperor and his subjects.
+At the Siege of Antioch the Westerners showed their true colours. As the Crusader forces rampaged through that ancient city in fire and sword, Bohemund proclaimed himself "Prince of Antioch" and repudiated his oaths. The Crusaders fought for themselves alone and after the massacres in Jerusalem founded their own midget kingdoms in territory rightfully belonging to the Emperor.
-Nonetheless the Crusader army arrived at Constantinople and there its leaders swore oaths of homage to the Emperor of the Roman Empire of Byzantium. In return for transport across the Straits of the Bosporus and supplies on the march the Crusaders would return their conquests to the Byzantine Empire. At first all went well and Crusader victories at Nicea and Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor.
+=== Recent History ===
+Recent Byzantine history has been complicated. Emperors come and go with alarming frequency in a welter of coups and conspiracies. Take the example of Andronikos, the previous emperor.
+{{ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Basilios_II.jpg?130x160}}
-At the Siege of Antioch the Westerners showed their true colours. As the Crusader forces rampaged through that ancient city in fire and sword, Bohemund proclaimed himself "Prince of Antioch" and repudiated his oaths. The Crusaders fought for themselves alone and after the massacres in Jerusalem founded their own midget kingdoms in territory rightfully belonging to the Emperor.
+Exiled from Jerusalem for seducing Princess Eudoxia and plotting against the Emperor, in Jerusalem he instead seduced Theodora, the widow of King Baldwin III and the Emperor's niece! He and his new mistress, and her children, fled to the Islamic States before she was captured by Byznatium. To obtain their release Andronikos grovelled before the Emperor in chains, besought pardon and was banished once more.
+Later that same year (1180) the Emperor died and was succeeded by his ten year old son Alexios II, with his unpopular Latin mother as regent. Riots ensued and Andronikos led an army - including Muslim contingents - to a Constantinople virtually in civil war. The city was taken and Empress Regent poisoned and Alexios reported killed. In the riots that resulted the "Massacre of the Latins" saw 50,000 traders and immigrants slain or fled in terror and poisoned relations with the Western Kingdoms.
 ==== Attitude to the Other Factions ====
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 Both Emperor and Patriarch reside in the great walled city of Constantinople; the Emperor in the Great Palace, the Patriarch in the enormous Hagia Sophia (the Church of the Holy Wisdom). In theory the Emperor is the temporal ruler and Patriarch the spiritual, but in truth the two realms of power are too intertwined to be simple divided. But it is the Emperor who wields the greater power of the two, in fact it is the Emperor who all but appoints the Patriarch.
-== Andronikos I Komnenos ==
+== Isaac II Angelos ==
-{{ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Basilios_II.jpg?130x160}} Andronikos I, of the royal dynasty of Komnenos, is an Emperor loved by his people and decried from their pulpits. He was endowed by nature with the most remarkable gifts both of mind and body: he is handsome and eloquent, but licentious; and, at the same time, active, hardy, courageous, a great general and an able politician. He spent his life before ascending the throne alternating between a life of pleasure and military service. Most notably scandalous rumours suggest that his niece, the Princess Eudoxia, has been his mistress for years.
+Isaac Angelos has been Emperor of Byzantium for only a handful of months. Having already led one revolt against the previous Emperor Andronikos I -- and having uncharacteristically escaped with his life from its failure -- he bided his time in Constantinople while the Emperor grew increasingly unpopular. What hand Isaac had in the growing unrest is unclear, his twin reputations for laziness and duplicity clouding the issue, but whilst Anronikos was out of the city the courtier Stephanos Hagiochristophorites attempted to arrest Isaac. The city rose in revolt and Isaac took the crown in the chaos.
-More certainly he was implicated in a plot against his father the Emperor and was imprisoned for a time. He escaped and fled to the Crusader states where he was well-received by first the Prince of Antioch and then the King of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he seduced Theodora, the widow of King Baldwin III and this time niece of the Emperor! Fleeing once more this time he sought sanctuary in various of the Islamic states.
+Isaac handed Andronikos over to the city mob and for three days he was exposed to their fury and resentment, remaining for that period tied to a post and beaten. His right hand was cut off, his teeth and hair were pulled out, one of his eyes was gouged out, and, among many other sufferings, boiling water was thrown in his face, punishment for his handsomeness and womanising. But on the third day a choking mist rose from the ground and when it suddenly lifted Andronikos was gone. Rumours grow wild that he stalks the city looking for revenge against those betrayed him while others confidently report that he has fled to a distant monastery.
-When Theodora was captured at a siege, and was returned to Constantinople with her children.  To obtain their release Andronikos in early 1180 made abject submission to the Emperor and, appearing in chains before him, besought pardon and was banished.
+The reign of Isaac II Angelos has begun with mixed success. Bulgaria is in revolt and an ill-judged attack upon the Crusade Kingdom city of Acre, to rescue his brother Alexius from prison, was destroyed by a Latin fleet before it reached the city. To the west however the Latins have received a decisive defeat in their encroachment upon the Balkans. In the Imperial Palace the Emperor surrounds himself with slaves, eunuchs, mistresses and flatterers. And somehow Stephanos Hagiochristophorites emerged from the riots to whisper poison constantly in the Emperor's ear.
-Later that same year the Emperor died and was succeeded by his ten year old son Alexios II, with his unpopular Latin mother as regent. Riots ensued and Andronikos led an army - including Muslim contingents - to a Constantinople virtually in civil war. When the Imperial navy joined with him is victory was assured.  In the ensuing chaos thousands of Latin merchants were killed and the Empress Regent poisoned. Andronikos deftly dealt with the consequences by marrying the twelve-year old Agnes, daughter of the King of France.
 == Basil II Carnaterus ==
 Young to the post, Basil II succeeded the previous Patriarch only this year. He has had little time to put his considerable authority to use, and is still regarded as an unknown quantity by the Emperor's courtiers. From the ancient Christian city of Nicea, he is known as a great opponent of Islam and truck with the Muslim states. More importantly, he has already preached sermons against the Crusader states which have "usurped" the Holy Land.
-==== Constantinople ====
-Byzantium was founded in the year 1093 of the Roman calendar, some 330 years after the birth of Christ in the Holy Land.  The Emperor Constantine the Great - the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and the last Emperor of both the Eastern and Western Empires - built the city in just six years as the final great flowering of the undivided empire. {{ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Map_of_Constantinople_(1422)_by_Florentine_cartographer_Cristoforo_Buondelmonte.jpg?197x249}}
-A traveller entering the city will encounter first its great walls. Constantinople is surrounded by walls more than 18 metre (60 ft) tall, triple-wall fortifications which run for more than seven miles and have never been breached by any invader. A traveller entering by sea will instead enter by one of the city's many harbours, each its own fortress, the defences gradually improved for centuries. As long as the other shore is held great chains may be raised from the depths to prevent passage through the Dardanelles. The city of Constantinople is the largest and most secure fortress in the world, a marvel for the current age. {{ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Walls_of_Constantinople.JPG?240x135}}
-Within the city retains much of its Roman character. The great entertainment for the masses is the hippodrome at which horse races are held daily. The Hippodrome is the centre of the city's social life. Huge amounts are bet on chariot races. It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the hippodrome. The two teams that race there, the Blues and Greens, are also political parties within the city. In the past the rivalry between these teams has become outright enmity, expressions of political and religious tensions within the city. In the worst incident 30,000 people died in rioting and the Hagia Sophia was burned in what was virtually a civil war. Things are calmer these days.
-The Hagia Sophia is another wonder, the largest cathedral in the world. The interior even more so, a mass of intricate carvings, soaring pillars and dozens of shrines to the most famous icons in the Orthodox faith. Secular learning is represented too, an ancient university hold the wisdom of the ancients as well as the latest developments in the alchemical arts, medicine, poetry and history.
 ==== Military ====
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   * Joanna Zonaras - a theologian of some note, who has written a history of the world since the creation and a commentary on the lives of the saints, she is more well-known at Court in her role as commander of the Imperial Bodyguard and private secretary to the emperor.
   * Stephen Hagiochristophorites has been a courtier of growing power for thirty years. His last name literally means "Holy-Christ-Bearer". Stephen had his nose cut off and was expelled from court as punishment for attempting to seduce a noblewoman. He returned to favour under Andronikos I Komnenos; nicknamed Antichristophorites (literally meaning "bearer of Antichrist") his reputation as a blackmailer and spymaster is dark beyond belief.

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