Good writing, great pictures and compelling action. Ill be watching this closely
Thank you both!!!
The Glory That is Rome (CK2+ Byzantine AAR)
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Thank you both!!!
Christophoros Reviewing the Kataphraktoi and the Varangian Guards
~ A New Army ~
The Italian campaign of 844 had been won, but victory came at a cost. The Varangian Guards were depleted and new recruits would need to be brought in, but more importantly, the tagmata, the core of the Roman army composed of the empire’s best troops, were almost completely wiped out at the Battle of Avellino. Yet to Christophoros, this came to be a blessing in disguise, as he intended to rebuild and restructure the tagmata to become a much more effective fighting unit.
Key to the tagmata would be the kataphraktoi, heavily armored cavalry which had been used to great effect by Konstantinos VI in his campaigns. But Christophoros had greater visions - whereas his father only employed several hundred of these soldiers, Christophoros planned to field thousands. Horses throughout the empire were brought to Constantinople where they were examined by experts. Large breeding fields were set up in Anatolia so that the tagmata would have access to the best breeds. Muslim prisoners were also put to use, training Roman soldiers in cavalry tactics while the empire’s best blacksmiths toiled away creating armor and weapons. Complementing the kataphraktoi were divisions of light cavalry. Their main function would be to provide support as their armored brethren charged the enemy lines, but they could also be used to harass the enemy lines or draw them into the Roman formation.
Roman Kataphraktoi Facing the Muslims
The building of the new tagmata proved to be an expensive affair. Thousands of nomisma were spent on horses, grazing pastures, and armor, yet the treasury had accumulated enough gold to support Christophoros’s expenditures. Still, there were many who opposed the rebuilding of the tagmata, arguing that it was too expensive and that the thematic levies would be enough to keep the empire’s enemies at bay.
The Iconoclast Uprising on Krete
The new tagmata was tested in September of 850, when an iconoclast uprising broke out on the island of Krete. Some six thousand rebels rose up and laid siege to the strategos’s castle. The tagmata was assembled and transported by the fleet to the island, where they swiftly ended the rebellion and brought the rebel Ignatios back to Constantinople. The tagmata would also perform with distinction in the campaign for Armenia.
Christophoros would prove his enemies wrong once again in the autumn of 857, when his armies swept into Bulgaria. The Bulgarians, defeated once by Leon IV and again by Konstantinos VI, and later converted to Christianity, was greatly weakened by the mid-9th century. A series of civil wars left the kingdom on its last legs, and the Bulgarians faced threats from the Magyars in the east and the Avars to the north.
Vidin and the Death of King Dominik of Bulgaria
The Roman campaign was over in less than a year. At Nikopolis, the tagmata and the Varangian Guards scattered the smaller Bulgarian force. Several months later, at Vidin, the Roman army slew the Bulgarian King Dominik the Merry and captured his heir Vojnomir. Vojnomir wisely chose to surrender, and in return he was appointed Despot of Bulgaria, ruling the region on behalf of the emperor.
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Excellent - but some of the Balkan Slavs still remain. Return Roman civilization to Illyria!
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The Blinding of Despot Tornik II of Armenia
~ The Armenian Revolts ~
As the Abbasids began to reconsolidate their holdings after the end of several major rebellions, Christophoros could ill-afford to stay idle. Riders were dispatched from Constantinople to Roman holdings in Azerbaijan and the Holy Land, ordering their garrisons to stay vigilant in case of Muslim incursions. Yet there was one region that was of particular concern to the emperor, and that region was Armenia.
Armenia had been conquered in 831 by Konstantinos VI and incorporated into the empire. Yet the Armenian king was not deposed, and instead appointed Despot by the emperor. In name, he was a vassal of Constantinople, but the Despot was in reality semi-autonomous and ruled his fief with absolute power. At the time, the Armenian king Tornik II was just a child under the rule of a pro-Roman regency who negotiated Armenia’s surrender after the death of Tornik I in the battle. But by 840, he was an adult who had begun to tire of what he considered to be Roman occupation of his ancestral land.
Rebellion of Despot Tornik II of Armenia
Tornik II proved to be a thorn to Constantinople. It was rumored that he was engaged in seditious acts, plotting to assassinate Christophoros and associating himself with factions. There were some who even accused him of secretly plotting with the Muslims. Christophoros, for the most part, ignored these accusations, as he was too busy dealing with internal affairs. But as Muslim power recovered, he could not longer turn a blind eye to Armenia. Officials were dispatched to investigate rumors of treason, and in January of 848 he summoned the young Despot to Constantinople for an audience.
Victory at Arca
Tornik decided to act. Realizing, not incorrectly, that the emperor was planning to detain in Constantinople, on March 25 of 848, he declared his rebellion. The emperor’s officials in Armenia were butchered, and Tornik quickly called upon his army to battle. It was not clear what the Armenian ruler planned to do - his small army was vastly outnumbered by the Romans, and he could not count on the support of any foreign powers. The most likely conclusion was that Tornik, sensing no way out of his predicament, simply wanted to fight to the death.
Tornik II After His Capture and Blinding
Christophoros’s response to the rebellion was swift and decisive. The tagmata and the Varangian Guards were dispatched and in a single battle routed the enemy forces. Tornik himself was captured in battle, and he was transported under heavy guard to Constantinople. Though many officials wanted Christophoros to kill the traitor, the emperor refused, fearing that doing so would trigger more uprisings. Instead, he had the Armenian Despot blinded and released.
The Second Armenian Revolt
Yet this would not prove to be the end of the emperor’s worries. Though the Armenian army was completely destroyed and Tornik himself seemed to have lost the will to oppose the Romans, the Armenian populace was still hostile to Roman rule. Less than a year after the first uprising was put down, a peasant by the name of Thoros ve Mayafaraqin led the people of Khliat in rebellion. Tornik did not openly support the rebellion, but at the same time did not oppose it either. He ordered the Armenian forces to retreat into his fortress while he waited for the Roman army to assemble.
Roman Humiliation at Tzimisca
The Roman army was led by strategos Makarios of Nikea, and was composed of troops drawn from the themes of eastern Anatolia. Makarios was a seasoned commander who had participated in the Mesopotamia campaign of 841 against the Muslims and performed with distinction, but he became overconfident in his abilities and as a result, hewas outmaneuvered by the rebel forces. At Tzimisca, his army of 7,400 was trapped in a valley and as a result was devastated by the rebels, losing almost 6,000 men. In a great humiliation to the Roman army, Makarios himself was captured and imprisoned. The first major defeat in over a century came not from powerful foreign armies but from peasant rebels!
Battle of Martyrpolis
Tzimisca was a great victory for the rebels, defeating an imperial army in superior numbers, but at the same time it sealed their fate. Though they had won, they also lost almost half their numbers and could not withstand the next Roman army to come their way. On February 23, 850, the rebels were routed at Martyrpolis by a superior Roman force, though the Roman commander strategos Teodos III of Abkhazia perished in combat. Their leader Thoros was dragged to Constantinople in chains. Christophoros, curious at the man who had bested strategos Makarios in battle, gave a brief audience to the rebel leader before ordering that he boiled alive. As for the disgraced Makarios himself, he was released when the rebellion was put down and was not punished for his failure. However, he never participated in another battle ever again.
Massacre of the Paulicians
~ Faith and Family ~
Konstantinos VI had been a great patron of religion, but he had never been much of a religious zealot. Under his rule, there was an air of tolerance within the empire - as long as his subjects obeyed him, their religion would generally be left alone. But Christophoros was different from his father. Among his strongest supporters was the Church, and Christophoros had very good relations with Ecumenical Patriarch. As his reign progressed, he became more and more of a religious zealot, suppressing iconoclasm and all other religions which he considered to be heretical.
Order to Suppress the Paulicians
In the mid-840s, Paulician dualists rose up in eastern Anatolia and Armenia. The Paulician heretics believed in two kingdoms - one of good and one of evil - ruled by a Good Spirit and a Evil Spirit, and rejected much of the orthodox beliefs of Christianity. With Armenia already a hotbed of anti-Roman activity, the rise of these heretics could not be tolerated. In late 848, Christophoros ordered that the heretics be persecuted. Throughout the empire, Paulicians and their sympathizers were arrested, tortured, and executed. Their vile hovels were torn down while their sacrilegious texts were burned. Those who agreed to renounce their heresy were banished to the far reaches of the empire, never to return to their homes again. Even after Christophoros announced a general pardon in 860, those accused of religious crimes were not included.
The Paulician heresy did not end and would continue to plague Christophoros for the rest of his reign, but it had been contained. After suppressing the Armenian revolts and putting down an Iconoclast uprising on Krete, Christophoros turned his attention back to the Muslims. In the spring of 859, the Abbasid Caliph Ubayd died of wounds sustained from a tournament. He was succeeded by his sixteen year old son Ali, which plunged the empire back into another series of civil wars.[1] Seizing the opportunity, Christophoros invaded the region of Galilee.
The Galilee campaign saw no battles, as the Muslim armies were busy fighting each other. The Roman army some 15,000 strong faced no opposition as they laid siege to Muslim fortresses and cities in the region. By December, the campaign was over. The Caliph Ali realized that he could spare no troops to combat the Romans and so surrendered Galilee in return for peace, placing the Romans closer than ever to Jerusalem.
Basilissa Damiane in 845
At the same time the Paulicians rose up in Anatolia and Armenia, a tragedy struck in the emperor’s family. In September of 844, Basilissa Llucia suddenly died after a period of illness. The emperor took the Italian born Damiane tes Koprijan, brother of strategos Anthimos of Calabria, as his new wife. The young Damiane was said to patient and charitable, but fond of gossip. She was also known for her ambitions, claiming to foreign dignitaries more than once that she would give the emperor a son born in the purple. On February 14, 847, Christophoros announced to the court that Damiane was pregnant. On the night of September 15, she went into labor. The birth of her son Demetrios, however, was exceedingly difficult and lasted the entire night. By the next morning, Damiane's wish had come true. A healthy Demetrios was in the arms of Christophoros, but Damiane’s health quickly deteriorated and she died within hours of giving birth. A heartbroken Christophoros ordered that she be buried next to him in the Church of the Holy Apostles.
The Birth of Prince Demetrios
The birth of Demetrios threw the order of succession into chaos. Prince Konstantinos, the emperor’s son with Basilissa Llucia, had never been popular due to his mother’s status as an outsider. To many aristocrats, he was known as Konstantinos "the Catalan". Therefore, when Demetrios was born, many Senators and courtiers petitioned Christophoros to remove Konstantinos as heir, which the emperor eventually agreed. Konstantinos was sent, though some would say banished, to the theme of Azerbaijan to serve as the strategos, and Demetrios was officially made heir to the Roman empire.
Basilissa Iouliana in 850
The emperor’s next wife was the seventeen year old Iouliana Boilas, daughter of stragetos Theodosios II of Charsianon, whom he met at the Christmas banquet of 849 and immediately became infatuated with. It was said that Iouliana resembled the deceased Basilissa Damiane in both her physical appearance and her temperament, and in March of 850 Christophoros married her at the Hagia Sophia. As Basilissa, Iouliana quickly established herself as a just and charitable figure, earning her the praise of many. She bore Christophoros three daughters - Antipatra (born 851), Ioustina (born 856), and Dorothea (born 861) - and two sons - twins Hektorios and Isidoros (born 860). All but Hektorios survived into adulthood. Iouliana outlived her husband by almost four decades and was also buried with him at the Church of the Holy Apostles.
[1] Yes, the ninth century was not a good century for the Abbasids.
Apologies for the slow update. I've been really busy with work.
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The way Born into Purple sons tend to pre empt their older brothers annoys me in general, but you make it seem natural, so kudos.
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The Roman Empire in Early 864
~ Later Reign ~
Christophoros’s later reign saw no more military campaigns as the emperor consolidated his gains and attempted to stabilize the empire. In particular, he emulated in father in shoring up support among the strategoi for his son. In September of 863, the sixteen year old Prince Demetrios was appointed strategos of Tripoli so that he could gain practical knowledge on how to better run the realm. Though far from Constantinople, Tripoli was an important port city and a major trading center along the Mediterranean. Furthermore, both Konstantinos VI and Christophoros had been developing Tripoli has a center of military operations for future campaigns to retake Jerusalem, enlarging its harbor and adding sea walls.
The Caesar Thomas
Under Christophoros, the Isauros family also saw the birth of its first cadet clan. Also in 863, the Caesar Thomas Isauros “the Accursed” was appointed strategos of Armenia Minor in recognition of his contributions to the campaigns against the Muslims and he immediately petitioned the emperor to allow him to create a cadet branch of the Isauros family. Christophoros, well aware of the rumors of Thomas’s sexual preferences for males and its negative impact on the imperial family, agreed to this distant relative’s request. Thomas thus became the patriarch of the tes Tarsos clan.
The Birth of the Cadet Branch
The aging emperor spent the better part of his remaining years attempting to recuperate the losses of the treasury due to his many campaigns. However, given his sudden death, these attempts was not seen as overly effective. Wars were expensive, but his reconstruction of the tagmata was an even more expensive affair. Yet as history proved and would continue to prove, the gold spent on the tagmata were justified. Indeed, the thousands of heavily armored kataphraktoi would prove pivotal in securing Demetrios’s reign.
The emperor died in the evening of March 13, 864, in his private chambers within the Great Palace at the age of 61. After a meeting with his advisors, Christophoros retired to his quarters for a brief afternoon rest, never to wake up again. When his attendants called on him for dinner, he had already passed into heaven. Christophoros was buried with his predecessors in the Church of the Holy Apostles, next to Basilissa Damiane. Prince Demetrios was swiftly called back to the capital from Tripoli to take charge of the empire.
The Death of Christophoros
Crowned under the shadows of his father’s legacy, Christophoros had been a successful emperor, having ruled the empire for twenty-four years. His three campaigns against the Abbasids not only expanded the borders but also weakened the Romans’ traditional enemy. Bulgaria was defeated in a brief war and incorporated into the empire as well. With his mastery of politics, Christophoros regained control of Barion with relatively little casualties. Religiously, Christophoros allied himself closely with the Church in stamping out iconoclasm and suppressing the Paulician heresy, becoming somewhat was a tyrant in his later years as he ordered the imprisonment of those who refused to renounce Iconoclasm. The Armenians and iconoclasts all rose up against him, but their rebellions were quickly put down.
Christophoros left his son an empire that was strong and prosperous, but there was one critical failure which he failed to realize. He spent almost half his life cultivating his eldest son Konstantinos as heir, but he ultimately decided to cast Konstantinos aside in favor of Demetrios. Much like his own father had done for him, Christophoros spent the last years of his reign building up support among the strategoi and the Church for his heir. But he overestimated the loyalty of his vassals. Christophoros had spent years as the strategos of Karthli, where he was able to build up a reputation for himself. In contrast, Prince Demetrios was only strategos of Tripoli for a few months before he was recalled to Constantinople. The eunuch Eustratios, writing in the middle reign of Demetrios, had the following to say in his Chronicles of the Two Reigns:
“Christophoros commanded great respect and loyalty among his vassals, and he naturally expected that respect and loyalty to be transferred to his son upon his death. What he failed to realize, however, was that loyalty to one master was not so easily transferred to the next, particularly someone so young and inexperienced, and Christophoros believed his vassals too much to consider otherwise. But as young Prince Demetrios would quickly discover, the words of others were not to be so easily trusted.”
Military Expansion during the mid-9th Century
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Just found your AAR. Your storytelling is enjoyable, looking forward to next episodes
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Just found your AAR. Your storytelling is enjoyable, looking forward to next episodes
Thank you! I'm working on it.
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Volume V
Coronation of Basileus Demetrios ~ Crisis ~
Demetrios was crowned by Eucumenical Patriarch Dionysios in the Hagia Sophia on the 13th of April, 864. No words of doubt were uttered in public, but many people wondered in secret whether or not Demetrios, the youngest Isaurian to ascend to the throne up to that point, was truly ready to take charge of the Roman empire. The Church stood behind him, and so did the Senate and the citizens of Constantinople, but much of the strategoi and landed nobility doubted his ability to lead and not without good reason.
Demetrios Shortly Before Becoming Emperor
Demetrios himself certainly fed to their fears, for he had his share of faults. At age sixteen he was young and ebullient, fond of swordplay and archery. He was gentle in nature to his close friends and eloquent in speech, though those who knew him also said he was zealous and deceitful. His biggest flaw, however, lay in the fact that he was overly proud. Demetrios was born in the purple and considered himself a sophisticated individual. He was also confident in his abilities and saw most others as beneath him. During his coronation feast, he boasted that he would become the next Alexander the Great, and he drunkenly referred to the strategoi as “those provincial men.”
Roman North Africa
Tensions ran high, particularly after an incident in May of 865 when he slighted strategos Matthaios Laloudios of Achaia. In the winter of 864-865, taking advantage of the civil war in North Africa, strategos Matthaios led an armed expedition which captured the provinces of Benghazi, Cyrenaica, and Senoussi from the Muslim Aghlabids emirs. Proud of his achievements, Matthaios traveled to Constantinople for an audience with the young emperor, seeking not only confirmation of his rule over the newly conquered territories but also monetary reward and an honorary title. Much to his displeasure, however, there was neither gold nor title, with Demetrios merely just confirming Matthaios’s rule.
Several powerful strategoi therefore resolved to force Demetrios's abdication, but their plot was leaked by an unfaithful servant. Demetrios, however, paid no attention to the warning, believing it to be a rumor only, and took no action against the conspirators. These were, after all, the men his father had left to serve him, and he saw them only as pawns for him to use. Thus, he was surprised to learn on the morning of February 6, 866 that he had been named a pretender by a faction of strategoi.
The Isaurian Rebellion
Led by strategos Isidoros of Thessalonika, the faction demanded that Demetrios abdicate in favor of his uncle, Prince Kyriakos. Recall that Kyriakos had been Konstantinos VI’s youngest son, born in the purple in 830. During the reign of Christophoros, Kyriakos was “banished” by his brother to Barion and he had remained there since. Kyriakos was, according to all who knew him, a solitary man, living with his young wife on his vast estate. He was fond of hunting and had taken falconry as a pastime, and his servants said he was devoted to his work. Much like his nephew Demetrios, Kyriakos was an avid archer and an excellent rider. Though he was not known to be an overly ambitious man, he nonetheless agreed to take part in the rebellion.
Prince Kyriakos in 866
Let us now turn to strategos Isidoros. Unlike Prince Kyriakos, Isidoros was a very ambitious individual. A formidable warrior in his own right, Isidoros had the talent and charisma to rally the strategoi and unsatisfied nobles to his cause. Fighting under the banner of placing Kyriakos on the throne certainly lent him a certain degree of legitimacy, and he doctored a secret edict supposedly written by Konstantinos VI on his deathbed proclaiming that Kyriakos shall succeed his older brother Christophoros upon the latter’s death.
Demetrios was outraged by the Isidoros’s demand to relinquish the throne and he refused to do so, choosing to confront with force if necessary. A list of the rebels’ crimes was circulated through the empire to shore up public support for the emperor. The Church also stood behind Demetrios, with Patriarch Dionysios proclaiming from the steps of the Hagia Sophia that the rebels actions were “a crime against God.” Mobs were unleashed in Constantinople, attacking anyone suspected of sympathizing with the rebels.
The next night, Demetrios summoned the Senate for a meeting, vowing that he would destroy the rebels using whatever means necessary. The Isaurian Civil War had begun.
Coronation of Basileus Demetrios
Demetrios was crowned by Eucumenical Patriarch Dionysios in the Hagia Sophia on the 13th of April, 864. No words of doubt were uttered in public, but many people wondered in secret whether or not Demetrios, the youngest Isaurian to ascend to the throne up to that point, was truly ready to take charge of the Roman empire. The Church stood behind him, and so did the Senate and the citizens of Constantinople, but much of the strategoi and landed nobility doubted his ability to lead and not without good reason.
Demetrios Shortly Before Becoming Emperor
Demetrios himself certainly fed to their fears, for he had his share of faults. At age sixteen he was young and ebullient, fond of swordplay and archery. He was gentle in nature to his close friends and eloquent in speech, though those who knew him also said he was zealous and deceitful. His biggest flaw, however, lay in the fact that he was overly proud. Demetrios was born in the purple and considered himself a sophisticated individual. He was also confident in his abilities and saw most others as beneath him. During his coronation feast, he boasted that he would become the next Alexander the Great, and he drunkenly referred to the strategoi as “those provincial men.”
Roman North Africa
Tensions ran high, particularly after an incident in May of 865 when he slighted strategos Matthaios Laloudios of Achaia. In the winter of 864-865, taking advantage of the civil war in North Africa, strategos Matthaios led an armed expedition which captured the provinces of Benghazi, Cyrenaica, and Senoussi from the Muslim Aghlabids emirs. Proud of his achievements, Matthaios traveled to Constantinople for an audience with the young emperor, seeking not only confirmation of his rule over the newly conquered territories but also monetary reward and an honorary title. Much to his displeasure, however, there was neither gold nor title, with Demetrios merely just confirming Matthaios’s rule.
Several powerful strategoi therefore resolved to force Demetrios's abdication, but their plot was leaked by an unfaithful servant. Demetrios, however, paid no attention to the warning, believing it to be a rumor only, and took no action against the conspirators. These were, after all, the men his father had left to serve him, and he saw them only as pawns for him to use. Thus, he was surprised to learn on the morning of February 6, 866 that he had been named a pretender by a faction of strategoi.
The Isaurian Rebellion
Led by strategos Isidoros of Thessalonika, the faction demanded that Demetrios abdicate in favor of his uncle, Prince Kyriakos. Recall that Kyriakos had been Konstantinos VI’s youngest son, born in the purple in 830. During the reign of Christophoros, Kyriakos was “banished” by his brother to Barion and he had remained there since. Kyriakos was, according to all who knew him, a solitary man, living with his young wife on his vast estate. He was fond of hunting and had taken falconry as a pastime, and his servants said he was devoted to his work. Much like his nephew Demetrios, Kyriakos was an avid archer and an excellent rider. Though he was not known to be an overly ambitious man, he nonetheless agreed to take part in the rebellion.
Prince Kyriakos in 866
Let us now turn to strategos Isidoros. Unlike Prince Kyriakos, Isidoros was a very ambitious individual. A formidable warrior in his own right, Isidoros had the talent and charisma to rally the strategoi and unsatisfied nobles to his cause. Fighting under the banner of placing Kyriakos on the throne certainly lent him a certain degree of legitimacy, and he doctored a secret edict supposedly written by Konstantinos VI on his deathbed proclaiming that Kyriakos shall succeed his older brother Christophoros upon the latter’s death.
Demetrios was outraged by the Isidoros’s demand to relinquish the throne and he refused to do so, choosing to confront with force if necessary. A list of the rebels’ crimes was circulated through the empire to shore up public support for the emperor. The Church also stood behind Demetrios, with Patriarch Dionysios proclaiming from the steps of the Hagia Sophia that the rebels actions were “a crime against God.” Mobs were unleashed in Constantinople, attacking anyone suspected of sympathizing with the rebels.
The next night, Demetrios summoned the Senate for a meeting, vowing that he would destroy the rebels using whatever means necessary. The Isaurian Civil War had begun.
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The Empire in Rebellion
Isidoros’s rebellion threw the empire into chaos and momentarily halted almost a century of outward expansion. There had been minor rebellions throughout the years, but most of them were merely peasant rabble and none were so large and organized. More than half of Greece, the entirety of eastern Anatolia (save for the lone province of Abydos), Armenia, Roman Crimea, and several counties in the Holy Land all rose up against Constantinople. It was one the largest rebellions the empire ever faced, but the rebels were never able to unify as a single force.
On the surface, Isidoros was the supreme commander of the rebel coalition, but he had little actual control over the rebel forces aside from the troops of his own theme and several surrounding regions. The rebel Despot of Armenia, for example, refused to take orders from Isidoros. Crimean forces, which were ordered to attack Galata, instead turned back to defend against the Khazars. Furthermore, some of the rebel themes, such as Nikea, surrendered without a fight after their aged rulers passed away. The new strategos of Nikea, a member of the imperial family, was swiftly pardoned by the emperor.
The First Battle of Philippi
The first battle occurred on the 18th of February, 866 when the vanguard of the army from rebel-held Greece clashed with the tagmata and the levies of Thrace and Adrianopolis under the personal command of the emperor. The imperial army, some 12,000 men strong, routed the rebel forces at Traianopolis, near Constantinople. In May of that year, the main rebel force clashed with the imperial army at Philippi as it marched towards Constantinople. With superior numbers and the powerful kataphraktoi, the entire rebel force of 7,800 was crushed and its commander, strategos Maximos tes Attaleia “the Peculiar” of Mesopotamia, was captured.
These two early victories was heartening for the emperor, but what followed next nearly ended the war in the rebels’ favor. In June, a large rebel army suddenly appeared outside the walls of Constantinople. There was uncertainty within the capital on how many enemies were camped outside and the defenders had varying opinions on what to do. Most favored defending, as Constantinople was difficult to attack and had the supplies to withstand a prolonged siege, particularly with the Bosphorus still open. Strategos Akakios of Armenia Minor, who had been charged by Demetrios to defend Constantinople in his absence, decided instead to attack the rebel forces. However, he vastly underestimated his enemy. At Blachernae outside the city walls, strategos Akakios’s army of 5,600 was routed by an army almost twice his size. The defeat resulted in mass panic and hysteria within the capital, as Constantinople had lost more than half its defenders.
Defeat at Blachernae and the Second Battle of Philippi
At this crucial juncture, with the capital in peril, Demetrios considered retreating from his camp at Philippi. He was stopped from doing so only by the repeated urgings of his generals, who feared an ambush. Their prediction came true, as on June 17, a rebel army attacked Philippi. The battle was fierce, as both sides had a similar number of troops, and it was said that Demetrios himself was almost captured by the enemy at one point. Only the ferociousness of the Varangian Guards carried the imperial troops to victory. The rebel forces outside of Constantinople, realizing that they were now vulnerable from the rear, retreated.
As the year progressed, imperial forces won two more stunning victories against the rebels. At Mount Atho on August 27, a 9,500 strong rebel force was defeated by newly arrived levies from Sicily and southern Italy and its commander, strategos Timetheos of Ephesos, killed. On October 20, this rebel army was defeated once more at Serdica. An even bigger blow to the rebel coalition came in November, when strategos Maximos died in the imperial prison. In exchange for a full pardon, his son and successor killed his father's loyal officers and surrendered Mesopotamia, agreeing to fight the rebels in Armenia. After a year of setbacks, Isidoros attempted to negotiate a surrender, but the emperor refused.
Capture of Khosrov
The year 867 brought another series of victories to Demetrios, as the imperial army chased Isidoros throughout Greece. At Klokoknitsa (January 25), the remnants of Isidoros’s army was finally destroyed and the rebel leader barely fled with his life. By April, the last of the great rebel bastions in Greece, Serres, was captured by imperial forces. Armenia too had been recaptured. The rebel Despot Khosrov led his defeated army into Trebizond, where they sailed across the Hospitable Sea [the Black Sea] and into Bulgaria. At Mesembria, his army was defeated by a superior Roman force under strategos Hektoris of Dalmatia. Khosrov himself was captured, and two of his commanders perished in combat.
The Fall of Serres
By the summer of 867, it was over. Most of the rebel holdings in Greece and Armenia were under imperial control. The rebel forces were also depleted, with most of their remaining troops concentrated in small pockets of resistance. Strategos Isidoros himself was on the run, with one colorful tale claiming that he disguised himself as a refugee and hid in a barn. He was finally captured in June, along with Prince Kyriakos, and brought to Constantinople in chains. On July 27, Demetrios declared that the rebellion had been successfully suppressed.
A/N: Apologize for the delay, but I was very busy with work.
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Another civil war - if you don't have every ten years or so, how can you claim to be the true Roman Empire?
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I believe it is now time for the traditional post civil war frenzy of eye gouging and castrations.
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Man, I gotta say, love your style, it's something peculiar, I really feel like reading some texts of a known author of the middle ages. Thank you for your hard work all the way from Brazil.
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The Blinding of Kyriakos and Isidoros
Following his victory, Demetrios immediately embarked on a campaign of terror against his enemies. His uncle, Prince Kyriakos, was blinded in prison and released back to Italy, where his son was ordered to keep a close watch on him. As a further punishment, Kyriakos was also excommunicated by the Eucumenical Patriarch. Historians have long debated on the exact role Kyriakos played in the rebellion. Writers of the late 9th century painted him as an accomplice of Isidoros, claiming that he had long plotted to take the throne for himself. Eustratios, whose Chronicles of the Two Reigns serves as the primary narrative for the study of Demetrios’s reign, had this to say of Kyriakos:
“Prince Kyriakos was on the surface a simple man, but deep in his heart he bore a resent towards Christophoros and Demetrios. Kyriakos was aware that he had been Konstantinos VI’s favored son, and it was only due to his young age at the time that he was not made heir. He believed that the throne belonged to him, but he lacked the military strength and the public support to take it by force. Thus, when strategos Isidoros rebelled against our emperor Demetrios, Kyriakos was quick to lend his backing to the rebellion. He hoped that Isidoros would help him claim the throne, even if he had to serve as a puppet of the strategoi. After the rebellion failed, Kyriakos was blinded and excommunicated, and he was spared from death only because the merciful Demetrios did not wish to bear the title kinslayer.”
The Fate of Prince Kyriakos
Some other chroniclers have noted that Demetrios had intended to execute Kyriakos, but was dissuaded from doing so by his close advisers on the account of Kyriako's noble birth. Later historians however, following the reunification of Italy, began seeing Kyriakos in a new light. The Sicilian poet Bardas lamented the fate of Kyriakos, and John of Athens’ New Histories portrayed Kyriakos as a weak and reluctant figure who was manipulated into rebellion by a cunning Isidoros. Finally, almost a century after his death, Kyriako’s excommunication was posthumously lifted by Patriarch Eustratios, though he was never officially rehabilitated.
Isidoros himself was castrated by the emperor, the worst physical punishment reserved for those who committed the most heinous of crimes. Surprisingly, the former strategos survived this cruel torture and was released from prison. But Demetrios was not one to forgive such crime as rebellion so easily. As Isidoros made his way back to his much diminished holdings, he was kidnapped by men most likely under the employment of the emperor. No other records of Isidoros exist after, though John of Damascus speculate that Isidoros was blinded and further tortured in a secret prison until his ultimate death.
Demetrios Rewarding His Supporters
The remaining rebels were spared from death or other physical punishments, though Demetrios stripped them of their great titles and had them languish in prison for the rest of their lives. As for the supporters of the imperial cause, Demetrios showered them with praises and honorary titles, throwing a great banquet in the Great Palace to celebrate the triumph over the rebels. However, for fears that they would come to grow too powerful, the emperor choose not to reward them with any wealth.
The Basileus in 867
On November 7, 867, the emperor convened a meeting of the Senate. Dressed in robes of purple with a crown of gold, flanked by several Varangian Guards, the emperor announced his plans for the coming year. His words shocked all in attendance, for it signalled a new chapter in Roman history. Not since the days of Justinian had such powerful and ambitious words been uttered. The Mediterranean, the emperor declared, would once again become ‘a Roman lake’, and the first step would be taken in Italy.
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Thanks for the update! Awesome stuff as always. I look forward to the return of Mare Nostrum
