Wow, the Byzantine has become even more byzantine. I wonder if people who did not go to Byzantine Administration School from the age of 5 onwards will understand at all how this system works. This is the 13th century after all, most kingdoms of the time were fairly simply in their structures.
Imagine what the Kings of Sortmark would say when you show them the organizational chart of the Byzantine empire.
They would probably think the Empire has been wholly taken over by priests and bureaucrats. Oh wait, they're right....
Talking about people outside the empire: What are the inter-ethnic relations in the countries which have in the last 150 years come under Greek rule? How do the burghers of the Italian trading cities and the feudal aristocrats in ex-Latin regions perceive their situation, vis-a-vis to that of the recently immigrated Greek administrators, businessmen and nobles? Surely there must be intense rivalry, especially commercially. How bad are inter-ethnic tensions?
I recently read about ethnic hatred in the Byzantine empire, specifically Constantinople, before the 4th crusade. Historically the Komnenid emperors (not doing nearly as well as those in this AAR) were more or less forced to grant the Italians tax exemptions and all sorts of priviledges, which let the Italians out-compete virtually all the Greek traders and left only a really small group of export traders who sold directly to the Italians. The people of Constantinople developed a really intense hate against Latins in general. And one fine day in 1182, after the overthrow of the notoriously pro-Latin regency by Andronikos II, the Greek people of Constantinopolis massacred almost the entire Latin population of the city (60,000 people) and sold the remainder (4,000) as slaves to the Turks.
Wiki: "Massacre of the Latins"
The Empire has brought peace to many regions, but its spread also led to the decline of many previously ascendant cities, most notably Venice, Genoa and Pisa (conquered -and ravaged- during the reign of Thomas I IIRC). Subsequent emperors established more and more layers of Greek-dominated administration over the conquered territories. Without a doubt there are many Italians who don't mind being ruled over by Greeks, but what about those who resent the foreign rule?
We've seen many of the nice sides of this Komnenid Empire. The vanquishing of various crusader kingdoms. The defeat of the Latin rival kingdoms, and the conquest of their proud cities. The establishment of Greek hegemony over the mediterranean world, and the spread of Greek culture, religion and commerce throughout this world. However what about the defeated? The masses of people who now have no prince of their own, defending their lives and their land, no king of their own who administers justice by their own laws. Only Greeks who lord it over them. And a distant Emperor, whose days and nights are totally absorbed just by keeping his own soldiers in check and reshuffling the gigantic bureaucracy.
Has the Empire, in its greatest triumphs, in its unification under one victorious throne, planted the seed for its own downfall? How can a distant emperor administer justice to his innumerable subjects? If the top of the pyramid is so busy just hanging on to power, and the top aristocracy so absorbed in grabbing as much power for themselves as they can, who looks out for the good of the little people? When will the resentment of the disenfranchised conquered peoples, who still remember the days when they had it good, explode into violence? How long can the Empire still hold on to its vast conquests, before it all collapses into a storm of death and destruction?
