I think renaming provinces to their old Greek names is awesome.
It's like the Reconquista IN ASIA MINOR! Also: Wow, that infamy must really hurt...
What's your next goal? Cyprus? Massalia? Syracuse? Chersonesos? They all used to be Greek...
As you may have understood, the biggest objectives of the Emperor by now are 1 - Secure land in Analolia and drive out the heathens and 2 - Drive out the Latins from the balkans, in this order. Cyprus represents a strategic foothold to Galilela and Antioch and will be taken in serious consideration once the Iraqi lands in Anatolia cease to be so. Messalia? Well duh, I'm not going to conquer Provence since it was yes a greek colony, but that happened a lot of time ago and that would lead to a complete Roman restoration, which I'm trying to avoid. I could, but it wouldn't be believable since Provence has few and weak allies and a Roman foothold in france would cause a very large conflict in realuty. About Syracusae and Chersonenos we'll see, but I'm definitely taking Sicily at the first chance.
Congrats, you are this week's
showcase AAR! Enjoy your week in the spotlight!
I'm honoured to have you posting in my AAR and even more happy to know I'm in this week showcase! I will surely enjoy the spotlight!
Okay, seriously,
how can France be as strong as you said a few posts ago when Navarra and Savoy are in possession of most of its territory?
Military strength at the time was also mesured by the strength of mercenaries: If I may make an example, the same Stradioti were valued incredibly well by the Venetians and Neapolitans and were later adopted by Spain and even France while the Greeks and the Albanians weren't really powers (or existing anymore). Also, you should note that in this game Savoy doesn't show any Italian ambition and is in the Langue D'Oc culture grup, same goes with Navarra that has changed is primary culture from Baque to Norman, resultin in a french kingdom. By france I also mean the combination of all forces, but I think I'll explain this better in the update as you raised and interesting question and it will help me write something.
Thrilling stuff, can't wait for more.
I'm gald you guys lliked the pseudo-history book style, I'm having a hard time into writing this stuff directly in english and I use however way too much.
After the chit-chat, here comes action.
Part 13 : Zen and the art of waiting for infamy to burn out
The empire, after the conquest of great parts of south Italy, would go through a long period of peace and prosperity. While it had been the undisputed protagonist of the european history in the last century, it assumed a more marginal role in the beginning of the 16th century, at least in warfare. With the fight against the reformation going on in the western countries, Constantinople preferred to watch and criticize more than exploit the weakness of their latin neighbours, since an aggression would have probably had dire consequences for the empire and the Romans had tested too much the Latin patience with the invasion of south italy and a further unjustified aggression in a short time would have caused a heavy retaliation from most of the great powers of europe.
With the forced peace, the money of the Imperial treasury was used for different uses than war. Theodoros felt that the empire needed to emulate its glorious ancestors, and started to hire architects and to give financial aid to artists and sculptors in the whole empire to create something that would rival the ancient home or Rome itself. He encouraged the built of new aqueducts, churches, he ordered the construction of a new Arena and Imperial palace in Salerno. His demanding features caused the advancement of the classic roman achitecture, with a sensible develop of the classic roman Dome into a multi-dome system of great refine. While the new style adopted by the architects was heavily tied to the sober roman tradition, it started to use more gotic and baroque features and to show influences from the italian school and a more refined taste for decorations. The works however required a great number of workers, and the combination of relative free subject and quasi-fanatical devotion to the Emperor required by the law caused some unrest and slow down in the construction of the new buildings.
Being point of passage and rest for both Oriental and Latin merchants, Constantinople flourished in this peace period, starting to have contacts with different and esotic uses day to day. New spices coming from Arabia as well as Italian wine started to be traded in Constantinople and became part of the regular Roman cuisine, which started to take long steps away from the classic medieval cuisine. New spices meant new way to cook the meals (and indeed new ways to hide the corruption of old meat and conservation) and the new winery influence started to take the place of the classic roman wine. This, united with the multicultural nature of the Empire, was a sign of the rising melting pot the Empire would become in his late days.
While peace was dominating the political scene, the Roman military system wasn's simply waiting for something to hit it hard. As the time passed, new military techniques and renovation were necessary to mantain the edge in combat. The most notable change was the adoption of battlefield commission and the possibility for a simple soldier to even become General if he showed the attitude and the skills needed. Of course, to avoid much problems, this right was denied to mercenaries and was reserved only to the greek population, with the exception of the Serbian and Bulgar people (who in this period were granted the same right as the Romans). An interesting digression could be had about the military in europe by now, as the Romans started to be again a force technologically and strategically at par, if not slightly superior, with the other european forces. As Theodoros himself notes, the "Bohemians and German soldiers were the most impressive among the latins, as they were fierce, devout and sturdy fighters for being barbarians. After them, most notable were the Spanish with their disciplined and extremely organized wall of lancers. The most effective mercenaries appeard to be the French soldiers excaping from the Savoyard and Norman egemony, as most of them had the honour to serve me as my personal guards with brilliant results. Another [impressive?] force would be the one of the other two great Frankish Kingdoms, but the only reason of their predominance seems to be the past alliance with the English and their naval support". His last statement, which shows some doubts about the effective military superiority of the Savoy and Navarran kingdom over the French is due to the result of the French - Navarran war which lead to a stunning French victory, who was able to retain some territory and to recover his Briton vassal. The Savoyard kingdom itself didn't seem much safer despite the extensive size.
From peace it comes ingenuity, and with ingenuity comes treason. Or at least this is what Theodoros thought when one of his nephews, Kastor Kantakouzenos, started to talk freely about the difficulties met by the empire in the development of the South Italian regions describing them as "Unruly bastards". Kastor at the time was the Strategos of the Theodoro thema, a peaceful and relatively safe avampost of the Empire in the crimean peninsula that was enjoying a renewed trade with the Crimean khanate, which showed to be tolerating of the Roman presence and accepted them as neighbours as they saw the Genoese and the Khan of the Blue Horde as their true menaces. Even if the two populations often waged war to each other, id didn't mean this would destroy the income of Tatar weaponry and spices. After this digression, the Emperor didn't take well the words of Kastor and judged them uncautios and inopportune, excpecially because he had that speech with a Bohemian ambassador during an official meeting between the two countries to dispute about the Roman claims on Bosnia (Which, this is to be said, the Bohemian recognized as they didn't have much interest in the region to start with and focalized their military in the acquisition of a Pommeranian port). The only option left to the Emperor was to release Kastor from his role and put instead of him a Gabras noble. The true fate of Kastor is not known for sure, but we can think that the emperor didn't hurt a relative and limited his punishment.
Another flourishing art during peace was literature. The most impressive and famous writing of the era was the "Ioanniad", a chronicle of the life of Ioannes VII The Young, which was wrote as emulation of the more ancient Alexiad by the daughter of an important Roman noble, Clio Melisourgos, which later became wife of his brother Andreas. The chronicle started with his victory in a jousting tourneament in France and with a nice description of the future emperor by the much younger Clio and a rather enchanted sublimation of his aestethics and fighting prowess, and ended with the premature death of the emperor and her not so hidden fears about the ruling ability of Andreas. While being an old work, it was mostly considered trash at the time of the creation and was rediscovered in the 16th century. While an immature and often uncorrect epic, it contained several points of interest as accurate descriptions of the Emperor court, rather enthusiastic descriptions of the battles (even if geographically wrong), descriptions of the most important latin nobles of the time and ended with her calling him the "marble emperor". This last statement caused the birth of a recurring legend in the european history, the one of the "sleeping king". The legend said that Ioannes didn't really die, but was rather turned into stone by an angel moved by his unlucky life and premature death. The Emperor was then transported in a secret hall of the Hagia Sophia and was supposed to wake up and guide the Empire back to Glory if the Venetians or the Heathens were to menace its existence again.
Another interesting develop was the growth of the city activities, which lead to the serfs abandoning their villages to try the fortune in the major cities of the Empire, most of them joining the army or becoming merchants.
The period of peace was briefly interrputed by a token war against Sweden, in which the Roman Empire was to give support and naval aid to the Muscovian prince. This war was however very short as the Muscovian swiftly recovered Ingria and the Swedish couldn't really pose any menace to the romans. Two moths after the call, peace was signed.
The mercifullness showed by the emperor and his not aggressive policy changed the view of the empire for the better. As the years passed, they were started to be seen as a wealthy and benevolent Empire, with the relations among the Latin world and the Romans normalizing again. A great deal of this change of vision was of course due to the great diplomatic effort spent by the Emperor, who tried to assure the latins that the roman claims on south italy were rightful and was lost only due to the norman aggression, and that the southern italian were even happy to have the roman back as their lords.
The truth was completely different. The Neapolitans did not stand the Greek rule and mostly sought for independence. Large revolts were to be registered in the Langobardia and Kalabrion themes, and all of them were repressed in blood by the army.
On the 28th September 1524 there was an incident between a Bosnian merchant ship and a Venetian war galley. The Venetians, that were patrolling the area, asked for recognition to the Bosnian merchants and its escort. The Bosnian, probably fearing that the Venetian war ship was in reality a pirate ship in disguise, started evasive maneuvers, refusing to stop. This irritated the Venetian commander, which started to fire as a warning to the Bosnians. The Bosnians at this rate thought they were really pirates and opened fire to the Venetian galley. This quickly escalated in a naval battle which ended with the destruction of the whole Bosnian fleet and the requisition of the goods by the Venetians. While the Venetians tried to justify their actions with the Empire telling them that their reaction was justifiable as they thought the Bosnians were smugglers, this blatant incident caused the Emperor to think that the Venetians probably shouldn't be allowed to be in Dalmatia any more. What followed was, of course, war.
The war was fought mostly on water, with alternate results. While the Romans never landed in Venice proper, which was defended by the bulk of the newly reformed and again formidable Venetian navy, they had obtained important successes in the Adriatic sea and had invaded succesfully the Ionian islands and Dalmatia. Venezia tried to resist, but it was clear they didn't have any more authority in their former greek possessions. After a 2 years struggle, the Romans finally convinced the Doge to officially cede to them the Ionian island and to recompensate the Bosnian loss with a repayment of the fleed and goods and the possession of the Dalmatian land. They were also to renounce to their claims on their former aegena possessions.
After that, a long period of peace came back. The quick victory caused however relaxation in the Roman people, and the fact that most forces would have never been used caused to the loss of discipline and to the degradation of some recruits, who seemed to be bored young nobles who enlisted in the military just to obtain a privilegate status in the society. The Emperor decided it was time to enact stricter enlisting policies and to cut most of the recruits that didn't reach the prerequisites. This caused a purge in the army, which lost 22000 effectives.
In 1528 tragedy strikes the Imperial family, as Demetrios, the heir to the imperial throne, died. His place in the imperial succession was taken by his sister Zoe, which at the time was 20 years old. While she was not thought to be the Empress and had little knowledge of the administrative and military doctrines, she was well known in the europeans courts and would have been a decent diplomat. As the Emperor didn't have any other sons and thought his relatives were unreliant, Zoe seemed to be the best choice.
The military skirmishes with the Venetians, who made extensive use of firearms, inspired the Emperor. The use of venetian based firearms, who were faster and more precise than the roman ones, became the base equipment of the infantry. Also, the experience gained in fighting other firearms based armies has led to a tactical evolution of the infantry charge, who now became more coordinate and learned how to effectively use the pauses between the shots to charge the enemy. The new infantry system, which was still based on the Andreian army, saw the implementation of a sabre and a shield to the firearm infantry and the presence of two lines of infantry. While the first line was exlusively composed by arquebusers and a sporadic archer, the second and flank lines were composed by lancers. The lance itself became different, as it became longer and heavier to effectively reduce the space between the enemy firearm line and the charge unit.
On 25 October 1529, Theodoros decided it was time to finally reclaim the final parts of Anatolia from the Iraqi sultanate. After the declaration of war (in which the Crimean Khanate, the Mamluk Maalikate and the Fezian Sultanate partecipated as defenders of the Iraqi territories), a huge revolt erupted in Naples, which lead the Neapolitan King to effectively declare war on the Empire, seeing how most of their forces were busy trying to stop the Mamluks from invading Anatolia.
After two years of fighting on all fronts, however, the tide turned in favor of the Romans who completely occupied the roman territory and started to make their way deep into Mesopotamia and menacing Baghdad directly.
The Iraqi, after losing most of their battles, decided it was time to cede their last anatolian possessions to the Emperor in change of peace.
After the fell of Iraq, the Mamluks and the Neapolitans were still at war with the empire. While the Mamluk situation was slightly better as they actually managed to menace the Tripolitanian possessions of the Empire and barely avoided a grand invasion of Egypt proper, the Neapolitans were crushed with ease. A peace treaty was signed with both nations on 10th August 1532, but the content was different. While the Mamluk one was a symbolic defeat, the Neapolitans were completely smashed, as they had to renounce on theri claims on the roman south italian possessions, cede the city of Foggia and pay the sum of 1.300.000 perpers as war reparations.
And here ends the update.