The Three Certainties of Life - Death, Taxes & Byzantium

So, after a ten-year war with the Ottomans and their allies, Byzantium has managed to retake part of eastern Anatolia, albeit at a loss of over 300 ducats in war fees. Still our alliance network of Christian powers is still holding and proved to be of vital importance in the last war.

The Emperor decides to begin the celebrations for the Christmas feast by ordering an invasion of Serbia to reclaim the land lost after the Fourth Crusade and the later manifold iniquities of Stephen Uroš IV Dušan and his son Stephen V, the so-called 'Emperors' of Serbia. Rome's allies rally to the call, eager to take down the pretenders to the Roman throne.

Back in the British Isles, the Plantagenets have taken a severe beating and Stewart royal power expands as theirs declines.

The following year is very quiet for those not involved in the Serbian invasion, unless of course you're a merchant, who are currently protesting the myriad different excises, duties and taxes currently levied to support the grand Roman war effort.

Even Thomas' inner council is not spared the chaos of war, as variou advisers come and go, depending on what Thomas feels is best for the realm at the time. This is likely not winning him many favours amongst the moneyed classes!

His diplomacy is not all bad, however, as he manages to marry off one of his distant Palaeologid cousins to the current ruler of Trebizond in an effort to maintain the alliance, despite the many years of war comparative lack of Trapezuntine progress.

Come February 1388, Strategos Phocas once again proves his worth in the Serbian campaign, destroying a Serbian army of almost 9,000 men, whilst sustaining less than 10% of those casualties amongst his own troops.

Just six weeks later, the Serbian 'Emperor' surrenders to Pelagios Phocas, being forced to cede the entirety of southern Serbia and abandon his remaining claims on Greek lands. Infuriatingly, the Teutonic Order seem to have secured the (formerly Serbian) province of Edessa for themselves.

The text for this event says it all, I think, and this is a month after the fighting has stopped! Naturally, strategos Phocas' returning forces are able to put down the revolts with little effort.

Six months later, Konstantinos Mikrulakes leads the eastern Roman army against the Muslims in Karaman, in what would otherwise become southern Turkey. Saruhan and the Ottomans, formerly united under Sultan Ibrahim, decide to resist the Christian push against their Muslim brothers, despite their previous animosity towards each other after the end of the Great War.

The Byzantine ambassador in Anatolia takes the opportunity provided by renewed warfare to point out to the Sultan that all Ottoman territory is still claimed by the Roman Empire, according to the right of ancient conquest. The Sultan promptly has him imprisoned for his temerity.

Two months later, whilst leading a small force of men to attack Konstantinoupolis, Sultan Ibrahim is defeated once again on Greek soil, this time by the much larger western Roman army, led by Pelagios Phocas, despite being acknowledged as by far the superior tactician in matters of war.

That summer, the fortress at Konya falls and the very next day the Emir of Karaman surrenders both his life and his country's independence to the victorious strategos Mikrulakes.

In just a few short weeks, the Greek military occupation has pacified the captured city and the province of Konya is once more known by its ancient Greek name. In return for Mikrulakes' many services in combat, Emperor Thomas revives the title of Kephales (a provincial governor, similar to the early doux) and invests the general as Kephales of Ikónion.

After close to another year of fighting, Saruhan is forced to accept terms of vassalage in payment for their dishonour in fighting against their rightful ally and protector. Naturally, this line of reasoning is only accepted by those who are already pro-Byzantine in their outlook.

As part of the fealty arrangement, the former emir of Saruhan is forced to not only travel to Konstantinoupolis and kneel in homage before the Emperor (whereupon he receives the title of Kephales instead), but also embrace the Orthodox church as his state faith. Greek priests are sent out at once to revive the old churches and start preaching public mass once more.

For their part in failing to resist the Karamanli conquest, the Ottomans are forced to cede further land and abandon their claims on previously-held territory. For the first time in nearly two hundred years, you can walk from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the southern shore of the Black Sea by travelling across Roman land alone.

The next day, word come to the Emperor that even those primitive African tribespeople have called off their vain attempt to resist Roman resurgence and he can now relax and bask in the glory of his conquests. Thomas takes the opportunity to confirm Pelagios Phocas as Kephales of Athēnai, in gratitude for his sterling service in the Serbian war.

That autumn, as winter is approaching, fresh monetary reforms are instituted, in part to avoid repeating the ugly scenes of merchants rioting in the streets. This leads to a great deal of instability and uncertainty in a realm that has spent almost the entirety of the last fifteen years at war with one or more of its neighbours. Indeed, Byzantium has been at war for over half of Thomas' life and his people are now starting to call him Μαχητης ("Machitis") or Πολεμιστης ("Polemistis"), meaning 'fighter' or 'warrior'.

Manuel Diasorenos, one of Rome's wealthiest merchants, is the man Thomas' councillors finally select to join their number, but fortunately his wealth has comes from his economic genius as much as his own wealthy upbringing. He will be expected to bring order to the chaos caused by so many years at war.

After all the excitement of the last few years, the next few years are very quiet. The 1390s are marked by nearly a full round of technology increases in the Empire.

The early 1390s are also good for spreading the Orthodox faith to the poor benighted Mahomedans of Anatolia.

During this whirlwind of comparative success, Thomas takes some time out to embarrass the court, but then random stability drops always keep things interesting, right?

And two years later, almost to the day, we get another drop in stability, but at least we're getting something from it this time!

Come the summer of 1395, however, Byzantium is itching for some more military activity, so we declare war on Sultan Ibrahim for the remaining scraps of Ottoman land. Milan decides to join in again, which this time is merely a formality.

Just a few weeks later, the Sultan's remaining soldiers are utterly crushed in two decisive battles, spearheaded by one of our new peasant generals, Palaemon Diogenes, and by another scion of the Mikrulakes noble family.

Six months later, Anatolia falls to Roman invasion and ten weeks later still, the Ottoman Sultan abdicates his throne and is taken into custody by the two triumphant strategoi.

The Byzsntine Empire at the fall of the Ottoman Sultanate. The grey blob in Greece is the province inexplicably controlled by the Knights Teutonic, whilst the two green blobs in Turkey are Saruhan to the west and the Eretnids to the east. Trebizond once more borders an Orthodox power, but Catholics and Muslims both still hold sway in traditional Greek lands.

That same day, Emperor Thomas orders the spread of Roman ideals throughout Asia Minor in an effort to rebuild Graeco-Roman cultural hegemony in the modern world.

Shortly thereafter, we are called into Aragon's war against Wallachia and Serbia. It seems that the people of eastern Iberia are getting ideas above their station and meddling in the Orthodox world.

The same summer, another three provinces and their cities are renamed in the ancient style. Byzantine influence is growing, even if it is expressed in such seemingly insignificant ways!

Unfortunately, even whilst our military power and influence are growing, our own cultural expression is on the wane, what with so much time effort having been devoted to Byzantium's many wars of survival and/or expansion. This will need to be addressed before it is too late!

Michael Mikrulakes again proves his worth in two pitched battles during the spring and autumn of 1397, the first of which is a huge affair with 60,000 soldiers on the field and the second of which, much more tellingly, has a 'mere' 24,000 soldiers.

A snapshot of the ongoing war with Aragon in mid-1397. Despite having clear naval superiority in all regards, Aragon and its allies are vastly outmatched in terms of troop numbers and war exhaustion.

Another year of war drags on, until the Jalayrid dynasty in western Persia decide to enliven affairs further by attempting to sieze the lands of the Orthodox Eretnid dynasty in eastern Anatolia. Of course, the Eretnids have long been the first of the modern Roman foederati and military leadership falls instead to the Emperor and his strategoi.

And finally, in a case of it never raining without pouring, four weeks later, ethic Serbs in Albania rise up in armed revolt against the Hellenisation policies of the Emperor, straining our already war-hit economy further. Later the same month, there is some good news however, as relations with the local rulers outside the Emperor are improved following a spate of successful diplomacy.

Oh, I'm here. I've been meaning to post a new update, but I've been really busy. I'll make it up to you this week.