That city happened to be Rostov. Rostov, like much of Russia was a German city, where a overwhelming German minority had been opressed by the ruling Russians. This came to an end after the revolution. But the German ruling party felt that Byzantium owed them for not doing anything about their suffering, so began to hatch plans of taking over Crimea.....
Russia had claims on one of Byzantium's most heavily industrialized regions; the Crimea.
From a port on the Black Sea, Rostov, the Russian raider ships would harass Byzantine Merchant Vessels bringing important resources into the giant steel mills of the Crimea.
So the build up along the Russo-Byzantine boarder was no surprise.
What was a surprise was the quick build up of the military of a small, Catholic nation on the baltic coast.
Lithuania had been invaded after they declared independence, and were looking to gain key Lithuanian pops within Russia's Minsk region.
Another huge contributer to the approaching war was extream nationalism in an increasingly jingoistic Denmark.
Denmark's claim on the former Holy Roman Empire, Papal States and Northern Sicily went back almost 800 years. Their former settlements in Scotland and Ireland had all been taken via jingo, and Iceland and Greenland were never theirs but were claimed in the 1400's.
Another increasingly nationalistic nation was Germany.
Made up almost entirely of Swedes and Danes, Germany was far from German. But they constantly inflamed Byzantine culture by claiming they were the true Germanic race.
As the tentions rose, an ancient force was called up again to serve the Roman Emperor. The Cataphracts.
Led by their newly appointed leader Ratzenhofer, the Cataphracts began to call up their comrades from around the Empire. Made up entirely of Germans, they met in Rumelia to discuss the conduct of the war, after this quick meeting they galloped up to the Russian border to meet up with another ancient cavalry force.
Sunni Arabs from the depths of Nejd began to pool up cavalry and dragoon divisions to faithfully sevre their Emperor. Numbering over 112,000 men and horses the rode head-long into the apending war.
It was Lithuania that finally lit the powder keg that was Europe.
Within a few days, Poland and Ireland had joined on the side of Byzantium and Lithuania. Within two weeks, Denmark too joined, but only on the side of Russia.
Byzantine troops in Novgorod quickly moved out to attack St. Petersburg in a hope to end the war quickly and bloodlessly. Little did they know, they would be fighting within the streets of the Russian capital until the end of the war.
Along the south, though, things went relatively well.
The Cataphracts won the first victories of the war, but by wars end had an 30% casualty rate. Even so, they had never lost a battle.
Rostov, a major point in the capaign in Crimea, fell relatively easily.
Russian forces there fell-back in the face of Byzantine Troops. The city fell in the opening weeks of conflict.
Most of the fighting took place in the Ukraine. Part of the Byzantine plan was to liberate the Ukraine, but very little came around from this.
In the west, minor Danish gains in Hessen were quickly over-turned as the seperated Byzantine forces gathered together and pile drived into Skane. Byzantine military officials hadn't expected a Russ-Danish axis, so when it came, Germania Minor and Germania Major were vastly exposed.
The war was ended in March of 1858, after about a year and a half of fighting. The confrense was held at Memel, the Lithuania capital. Denmark was forgiven as she had nothing to do with the original Russian invasion of Lithuania. Russia, on the other hand, was forced to pay hefty amounts of money to Poland, Lithuania and Ireland.
Poland, Lithuania and Byzantium all made territorial gains:
During the course of the war, a major 'revolution' (or sorts) played out in Byzantium. Teenagers and young adults across the nation spoke out against the war.
They are know as "Those damned pot-head hippies."