The Barbarian Empire
A Long Road
A Long Road
Always keep Ithaca on your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Kavafis, Ithaca
People often don’t think much of Nikephoros. There’s probably good reason for it, but I have a soft spot for him, like I have a soft spot for Ekaterine. But as I read the book I can see that he didn’t have it easy. Basil’s second marriage was late in his life; the sons that were born were good throne material, but under the Byzantine law there was little chance of them ever taking it. Basil left everything of note to Alexander; the rest of his sons got small estates scattered in central Russia, unquestionably out of contention in the elections. He could not do otherwise. The times when a Theodore could sail down the Dniepr and wrest the diadem from crazy nephews and Rhodian claimants were gone. The Empire was deeply fragmented, with generations of noble families and free cities carving the land a tightly demarcated feudal patchwork, each little town with a long line of greedy successors lining up behind it. Removing a family from its appanage was grounds for war. The Monomachs, knowling full well that civil war was more dangerous than the Burgunds or the Seljuks, did not remove anyone. Of all Basil’s sons Nikephoros was the most talented, and for that reason, he was kept at court and had no land of his own; his father decided he was going to be the realm’s Megas Strategos – which he proved to be apt at - and that would be enough for him. Discontented sons in charge of the army seem like a bad idea, but Basil guessed right. Nikephoros was utterly loyal. But he wasn’t without ambition. He was the Emperor’s son, and eventually became Emperor himself. But it was a long road, full of uncertainty.
Alexander won his election through the support of the Navy, the Chancellory and the backing of Trapezuntine nobles; Nikephoros, as the Strategos, threw the weight of the Army of the Emperor’s Presence behind his brother; but again it looked like he got nothing out of it, and perhaps even lost standing. Alexander could have given him Trebizond, but that went to the Emperor’s old mentor and supporter, Theodore Arminicos, a man descended from the Goths of Doros; and to his brothers, Iordanes and Andronikos. Kiev and Vidin were Imperial Cities, and in any case the Emperors always maintained Western Bulgaria and South Rus under direct control. Even his position as Marshall was compromised, as Alexander raised Salah Mansoor to equal rank in the Jerusalem and Fatimid campaigns. There was intense rivalry between Nikephoros and Salah; both were talented men, but both had no power beyond what Alexander gave them. Salah was of a respected Trapezuntine clan, but unlike his younger siblings he never converted. As a Muslim his possibilities were limited and without the Emperor’s support he would have been out of any position of authority within days. Nikephoros owned no land, and his family, besides Alexander, was in the far north. Without the Emperor he too would be gone into obscurity.
However, one was a trusted friend and a lover from days of youth, and the other was a brother, who had proven his loyalty many times over. Alexander cherished both. Salah’s children inherited several holdings in what later became Jerusalem, since their father was the Strategos there. Nikephoros finally carved out a modest princedom in Syria during the great Seljuk war. In general, Syria and Jerusalem were a boon to the Monomachs; they provided new fiefs to be handed out to loyal supporters and family members, letting off steam from the brewing feudal conflicts. Nikephoros outlived Salah, and placed himself as Alexander’s most trusted advisor. When the Emperor quarreled irreconcilably with his son, Nikephoros found himself Sebastokrator and heir to the diadem. Alexander gave away Crimea and Severia to his brother, although Novgorod-Severskiy remained an Imperial City. Nikephoros’ own succession was guaranteed, but his sons’ wasn’t. Petros was given Crimea and Severia, and Heraklios held only a small piece of land that was granted to him by Ekaterina of Tripoli. Heraklios’ being the Princess’ courtier and vassal and receiving favours from her gave rise to talk, especially when it was rumored that one particular young page in her court (she was unmarried) was actually the product of their adulterous and - depending on whom you ask - incestuous union. While Nikephoros was alive, Ekaterine squashed the rumour ruthlessly, but after the Civil War broke out she actually encouraged it, establishing legitimacy for her bastard son Theodore. Nikephoros had a good relationship with Ekaterine, but did not favour her or Heraklios for the throne, hoping it would pass to his son Petros. As we’ve read in Theodotus, something quite different happened. Nikephoros didn’t count on how powerful the Petzikopouloi would become.
When he took the throne in 1208 he immediately faced opposition. Even as he returning home after facing off Rostislav of Jerusalem over Damascus, his authority was contested by the Bogoris lords of Aegean Islands and Epirus, and the Prince of Smolensk. He dealt with both quickly; with the Smolensk lord he made peace and settled the differences, reabsorbing the Principality back into the Empire in four years; from the Bogoris lands he fought a one-year war and took Corfu (an island he really grew to love and where he eventually died) as Emperor’s demesne, while handing out the rest of the domain to the varied Petzikopouloi lordlings. This was a grave mistake; the family was heavily dominated by Niketas Petzikopoulos; the greedy patriarch soon subjugated all the Petzikopouloi under his authority, and they always voted in one block; that’s how Andronikos got to be Emperor. In 1210 the Seljuks declared war on Georgia. Adnarse Baghratuni called upon the Emperor for help, and Nikephoros came. However, the lords were slow with mobilization and by the time a solid army was ready to cross into Georgia the Seljuks had beaten Adnarse down to just Derbent and Imereti. The nobles decided the cause was already lost and abandoned the Emperor in droves, each going home with his regiment and sending to the Seljuks for a separate peace.
Nikephoros pressed on, and won several victories even with the much-reduced Imperial army but it was obvious the effort could not be sustained. He signed an honourable peace with the Seljuks – with Trebizond, having remained loyal, gaining a small part of Georgia. Then he returned back to Constantinople and the exhausting exchange of threats and promises with his reticent vassals. In 1212 the Emperor decided to intervene in yet another of Novgorod’s civil wars. Traveling from Novgorod to Constantinople takes a lot of time. He settled the issue via his brothers, and messengers, never summoning the army to go North. The matter with Novgorod was simple: they had once again ousted their prince, of Sudislav’s line, but the new Prince – a non-Rurikovich, and of Russified Lettish nobility, was not well-liked either. The two factions went to war, which the Republic was winning and the old Prince was losing; however, Nikephoros’ brothers from moved into the Republic’s territory with a large force from their own domains, demanding the Emperor’s settlement to be implemented. Vseslav Simeonovich became the new Prince; the Republic remained in name but the Veche rights were curbed. Further the Republic and the Northern Lands were given autonomy equal to that of a Tzar, under the leadership of a council of the Monomach-Rurikovich Princes of Tver, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Beloozero and the officials – (the Prince, the Archbishop and posadniks) of Novgorod the Great and of Pskov. The North was written off as too far to take any significant action in.
This pleased the Greeks (who didn’t want more Monomachs voting in the succession) and the North Russians (who appreciated the reduced meddling from Constantinople) alike. Revenues from Trade did not diminish either. All in all, this was a solid move, and while it demonstrated Nikephoros’ strength, it also showed that he was not greedy and was able to negotiate. It pacified the grumbling and the vassal crisis seemed to be over by 1213; Smolensk re-joined the Empire, and a rebellious vassal of Hungary, Galaz (part of the ancient Principality of Varna) asked for protection of the Emperor against the old Arpad liege lord. However, some of the far-flung regions still had a mind to pursue independent policy. Distant Denmark, already de-facto independent under Urbano Nakonid, decided to split away. Nikephoros, having no way to enforce loyalty, acted graciously and let them go, but in secret two boats with money sailed to Novgorod that same month. Within a year, Novgorod’s princes sailed for Denmark and occupied it after a series of quick and bloody battles. A second wave of Danes left their country, some running to Sweden and Norway, and some to Iceland, bolstering the population there. Novogord’s greedy merchant guilds now controlled trade in the Baltic completely, choking the Danish Sound with steep tariffs. This was obviously not going to be tolerated by the neighbours. Over the next one hundred years Denmark would see Lithuania, Novgorod, Poland, Holstein, Sweden, England and Norway fight wars for its control, with Sweden emerging as the ultimate winner by the late 1300s.
The Seljuks declared war again in 1214, vying for land with Syrian nobility. Nikephoros won that war, quickly summoning troops to relieve the siege of Baalbek and then pressing the Sultans out of his territory altogether. But a long war was likely to go against the Greeks; their armies were smaller than the Seljuks’, and that could not be helped. Peace was signed quickly, with no territory exchanging hands. The Seljuks were once again frustrated, while the lords of the Empire breathed relief at peace. Some, however, interpreted this victory to mean that both the Seljuks and the Empire were weak. Constantine Knytling-Rurikovich, lord of rich and powerful Armenia, declared himself King and separated from Nikephoros, daring the Emperor to come and get him. At once, a war broke out between Armenia and the Emir of Azerbaijan, which see-sawed this way and that to no conclusion throughout the year. Nikephoros waited, gathering troops, hiring mercenaries, waiting to strike the winner to annex both; but the Seljuks were quicker. Having recovered from internal division following the war of 1214, they summoned a large army, and intervened on the side of Azerbaijan. Nikephoros raced the Seljuks, but as in 1210 the Lords were slow in gathering their troops, unwilling to march to the distant Caucasus, unwilling to die for Armenia. By September 1215 Constantine was dead in battle, and Armenia divided between Azerbaijan and the Sultan. Nikephoros was still several days away. The situation was not salvageable, and he turned home. Shortly after this he removed himself to Corfu, and there he died two years later. Was the end of his long journey satisfactory to him? I don’t know. He died with a smile on his face, holding the hand of an angel. Maybe it was. The Senate, very shortly, elected Andronikos with Petros Monomach and Gabriel Palaeologos as co-regents. The interests of the two did not coincide, and the discord in palace politics resulted in Empire-wide strife. Ekaterine was a key player. I'm intereseted in what the professor has to say about her.
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