With my coffee cup in my hands, I leaned my back against the wall and looked outside the window. Outside the sky had already turned dark blue. A few paces away from me my classmates were discussing the new professor. One of the seniors had said that Doxiadus had been transferred here only two months ago from the archeology department – which was also part of the history faculty but was housed outside this complex. I followed their discussion from a distance. Although I have been following classes with these people for nearly six months, I never really fit in. Or maybe I never really wanted to fit in. In any case, I was being tolerated. Nikos, one of the classmates I had better contact with, smiled at me. His eyes motioned me to come and join the conversation, but I politely smiled back. Suddenly the group started moving. It was time.
“Okay, I’m going to do this on a somewhat higher pace, because aptly I want to be done with the introduction and get us into the real action. As that’s not going to happen…”
Professor Doxiadus tapped something on the lectern, and a colorful map appeared behind him. I suddenly noticed the woman in the pantsuit was no longer sitting next to him. She was, in fact, nowhere to be found.
“This is a map of the Empire and its neighbors, as you might have guessed. The purple area represents the Roman Empire. Had it not been for the Bulgar rebellion, it would be at its greatest extend in a century. It contained the Greek heartlands of Hellas and Macedonia, Thrace of course, and the Aegean Islands and significant parts of western Anatolia and the Pontus. Now, let’s start with Europe, where we have Sicily in mint-green to the west, and the island of Kerkyra which had been ‘liberated’ by the Sicilian king in his campaign against Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, but which would instead soon fall under the influence of the Republic of Venice. North of the Empire are the Bulgar Empire in dark blue and the Kingdom of Serbs in light grey, both having been part of the Empire on and off over the years. Also to the north are the Kingdom of Bosna in bright blue, the Kingdom of Vlachs in medium blue and the Cumani Tatars in bright green, and of course the Kingdom of Magyars in white. Although the Magyar were by far the most powerful of these people, they could at this time never produce enough influence of force to subdue the others. This gave the Roman Empire some breathing space, as the Balkan kingdoms in effect worked as buffer states between the Latin states – like the Magyar Kingdom – and the Cumani, and the Empire.”
“To the east was a whole mish-mash of kingdoms and especially of religions. North and south of the Caucasus mountains were the Orthodox kingdoms of Alania and Georgia in white and red. Together with the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, here in grey, they would be considered the traditional allies on the Empire’s eastern flank. Then there was Cyprus, which – as I said before the break – was occupied by family members of Andronikos Komnenos was would not accept the reign of either the Angeloi or Kantakouzenoi emperors. Isaakios Angelos had sent a fleet of 80 galleys to the island in 1186, but the fleet had been destroyed by a large Sicilian fleet who just happened to be raiding the island themselves. In a death knell between the Empire on side and the Sicilians and the crusader states on the other, Komnenos Cyprus would not last long. But at this time it was still a sovereign state. Then we come to these crusader states, the Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, here in orange and cyan. These won’t need any introduction, as I understand professor Sisinis covered the crusader thoroughly during the last trimester. Sufficient to say, the Empire and the crusaders are at odds with each other at the issue of who should govern the Holy Land; the Latin crusaders who conquered the land from the Arabs, or the Roman emperor who had considered the crusaders more as subcontractors and who still believed they had a claim on the area from before the 7th century. These disputes were fundamental, needless to say, and they created a split between the Orthodox Christians and the Catholics that prevented them to cooperate in securing their borders against Turks and Arabs. Finally in grey, the area around Baalbek, held by the Knight Order of Saint John , which was technically independent from Jeruzalem and which had the impressive Krak de Chevaliers as their headquarters here.”
“Okay, then it is time for the real enemies, here. Which are the Muslims, of course. Directly east and south of the Empire were the Turkish sultanates of Erzerum and Rûm. These were two of many small sultanates that emerged from the collapse of the Seljuk Turk Sultanate. The names of these sultanates are ironically derived from the fact the Roman Empire had once ruled over these lands. The Roman Empire itself was referred to as Rûm by both the Turks and the Arabs, and as a matter of fact still is to this very day. The white area on the lower right side of the map is finally the Ayyubid Sultanate, ruled by none other than the famous Saladin. Saladin would be a thorn in the Latin side, mind you, but otherwise he will not be very important for our story and will therefore be largely ignored. If you want to learn more about this… colorful man, go to the schedule office and have them sign you up for Islamic History.”
There was some laughter, surprisingly also coming from seniors.
“Finally, the mint-green area you see north of the Hospitaller Knights, is occupied by the famous, feared Isma’ili Shi’ite order of the Hashshashins, or Nizari as they called themselves. These unpleasant fellows were supporters of the defunct Fatamid Caliphate and sought to bring the Arabian rulers – and those of Egypt and Syria in particular – to the Shi’ite branch of the Islam. As the crusaders also occupied Muslim lands, once belonging to the Fatamid Caliphate, they too became a target. The order – or sect, as it’s usually called – was simply to small to raise meaningful armies. Therefore they tried to reach their goal by plots, intrigues, infiltration and of course, murder. It was these political murders that make them probably the most famous assassin order in history… Well, they were quite fascinating, but as I am getting seriously off-topic, I once again refer you to Professor Okur’s Islamic History class.”
I smiled at professor Doxiadus, who had enthusiastically crossed the border of his specialization. I always liked the teachers who were not rigidly devoted to their own field, but stay interested in the history at large. Professor Sisinis certainly had not been such a man.
“Okay, now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to take a look inside of the Empire. But first, could someone refresh my memory and tell me what a thema is? You?”
Doxiadus pointed at a tall student three rows behind me. Judging from his long blonde hair he was a foreign exchange student.
“It was a military district, right? They were ruled by the Strategoi, who were the Empire’s generals.”
“You’re absolutely right, but the themata were not just military districts, not were the Strategoi only military commanders. Especially around this time, as the Empire suffered from several incompetent emperors, the state became less centralized and the themata became administrative entities as well as military ones. Thus the strategus acted as a civil governor as well as a military commander. In the following decades this would evolve into something even more elaborate, but we’ll get to that at another time.”
A map appeared on the screen, showing the Empire and its divisions, which numbered.
“These were the nineteen themata of the Roman Empire as of Mikhail VIII’s ascend in January 1187. Yes, nineteen, not twenty-one as you might guess. Numbers four and twelve are the cities of Constantinople and Thessaloniki, which did not fall under any thema and were instead directly governed administratively and militarily by the emperor himself. Now, I will use this map format in the future to show the growth of the Empire and the changes in themata. Therefore I have a printout of this map for all of you, which you can pick up after this lecture.”
He pointed to the pack of paper that lay on the lectern. I suddenly noticed the woman with the black pantsuit standing in the open door, looking around. Or scanning, rather. Was she some kind of security guard or something? Knowing the looking at her would only draw attention, I turned back to professor Doxiadus, who had projected a number of portraits on the screen behind him.
“Okay, now let’s look at some of the faces of the Empire. These four men were the four most powerful strategoi at the start of our story. You should remember the first one, which is Andronikos Kantakouzenos. As I said before the break, Andronikos was the uncle of emperor Mikhail VIII and had been the one to have planted him on the throne in the first place. Because of this, and because of the fact the emperor was only 12 at the time, Andronikos Kantakouzenos was also the regent and thus in essence the de facto ruler of the Empire until Mikhail would come of age. He was the strategos of both Cibyrrhaeot and Samos, which contained the coastal areas of Ionia and Lykia, the island of Rhodes and a number of islands off the coast. The reason why he was the strategos of two themata is never really discovered, but it’s known that those two themata had a close bond with each other in the past and had in fact been a single thema until 893. The next man is Alexios Palaiologos Komnenos, the strategos of Archaea, also known as the Thema of the Peloponnesus. As you might have guessed, this man was a relative of emperor Andronikos, although from the Palaiologos branch of the family. The Palaiologoi would in the future become one of the most powerful families of the Empire, and would in affect replace the Komnenoi family completely. The next person should also look familiar, as it is Theodoros Mangaphas, the strategos of Thracesia. His thema was a strange construction that originates from the fact that he was an ally of Kantakouzenos, and therefore received some spoiled land after emperor Andronikos’ death, outside his original thema. In essence Mangaphas had become a vassal rather than an ally to Kantakouzenos, but as they were close friends they would both never consider it that way. Finally, there was Mikhail Choniates, the strategos of Hellas. Now, on the map I named this thema Athina, but that is actually a contemporary name for that thema. More so because the capital of the thema of Hellas was in Thebes, not in Athens. Choniates was of humble birth, but he was one of the most senior and most respected strategoi. His early support of Mikhail Kantakouzenos is considered by some historians as the divining safeguard for the fledgling Imperial dynasty.”
Another four portraits appeared on the screen. I heard some seniors grunt a few rows behind me.
“Sorry, guys, this is the last slide, I promise… Hey look, Alexios, I told you to get some coffee,”
professor Doxiadus said with smile. One of the seniors – Alexios, apparently – held up an empty paper cup to show he had gotten coffee.
“Alright. Now, these people here are some of the Empire’s allies or enemies. Let’s start with this Bulgarian hero”, he winked to the little Bulgarian before me “Ivan Asen. He and his brothers Teodor and Kaloyan raised a revolt against Isaakios Angelos in 1185, after being denied a grant of land and being forces to pay heavy taxes the emperor needed to fight Sicily. The Asens had quickly taken over Moesia and had managed to either defeat or avoid the Imperial armies. Peace was, like I said, arranged when Ivan Asen made an agreement with the Kantakouzenoi. Within only a few weeks, thus, the blood feud was changed into an alliance between the emperors of Romanion and Bulgaria. Oh, yes?”
Professor Doxiadus pointed at a student on the second row, who had raised his arm.
“Sir, my high school teacher said that the Asens were Vlachs, not Bulgarians.”
Doxiadus laughed. “Let me guess… your teacher was a Dacian?”
“Yes sir.”
“Okay, well, you see… there is a long, intense debate going on between Dacian and Bulgarian historians, about whether the Asens were Vlachs – that is to say, proto-Dacians – or Bulgarians. It has everything to do with using certain sources and translations… it’s more a matter of national pride, of course, and that’s quite silly if you ask me. It happens all the time in the field of historical research.”
“What do you think yourself, sir?”
the guy asked.
“Well, if they ruled a Bulgarian empire, they’d be Bulgarian enough for me, and that’s all I’m saying… Anyway… Next in line is Stefan Nemanja, King of Serbs. Although that’s technically incorrect, as his son Stefan Nemanjic was the one to proclaim the Kingdom of Serbia and Nemanja was the Grand Prince of Rashka. This did still make him the leader figure for all Serbs, though. As you might have remembered, the Serbs had a fairly small realm, after repeatable invading and being kicked out of Romanion. He would in his later years be called Stefan the Monk, and would in fact become a saint to the Serbians in the future. Why did I put him in this list? Because the Serbs might mean trouble in the future. Now, the next portrait is, as you can see, of a woman. Yes, the Kingdom of Georgia was ruled by a queen at the time, namely Queen Thamar. She was the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right, and her energetic rule would later be dubbed as the Golden Age of Georgia. She was supported by her military, and thus could fairly easily influence her neighbors. Don’t forget that most of these neighbors were weakened sultanates that had succeeded the Seljuk Sultanate. Queen Thamar had allied the Kantakouzenoi in order to secure her western border, and to gain the support of the Patriarch who would legitimize her claim to the throne. We will come back to Thamar and her kingdom in one of the following lectures, as it’s a really interesting issue, really. Finally… yes Alexios, finally… we come to the last portrait and that is one of Kilij Arslan Seljuk, the Sultan of Rûm. As you might notice, he was a relative of the old Great Seljuks, and this gave him quite a lot of prestige not just from fellow Turks, but also from Arab rulers. He had in fact been allying himself with Saladin before, and has almost single-handedly doubled the side of the Sultanate of Rûm up until 1187. In 1186, the old sultan had divided up much of his land between his nine sons, though, and as it went in those days these sons quickly started to fight each other for supremacy. This would be a major stain on the sultan’s reign, as it essentially rendered the Sultanate of Rûm powerless. This would, of course, become the Sultanate’s undoing.”
“Okay, that is all for today…”
In an instant people started standing up, talking and cleaning up their stuff. “Don’t forget to get a copy of the themata map from here, and I’ll see you Thursday evening again!”
professor Doxiadus shouted to get heard over the ruckus. I also stuffed my notepad and my pens in my backpack, followed the rest of the students down and picked up a map. Suddenly I felt somebody pressing against my arm. I turned around and saw two impossibly green eyes staring at me. For a second, the girl looked as if she had recognized me, but then she said "Oh, I’m sorry,”
and turned around. When I looked again, she had gone into the mass. Who was she? For a moment I was absolutely sure I knew her, but now that I thought about it, the only thing I could remember were her eyes…