CHAPTER XXIV: Of Byzantines and Men
When one looks at the history of the Roman political tradition, there is never a dull moment in the epic saga of intrigue, rivalry, civil war, and murder. Ever since the Struggle of the Orders from 494 BC to 287 BC, the class conflict in Roman society never subsumed—it often only got worse. Then, the patricians conceded to plebeian reforms—but it was a superficial victory in the establishment of the Plebeian Council and office of Tribune. The patricians often assassinated the Senatorial Tribune office holders, perhaps most notably the Gracchi brothers in 133 BC which helped pave the way for disorder and the fall of the republic.
Incidentally, the opposite struggle was now at the fore in the late period empire under John. Whereas the Struggle of the Orders was a push by the plebeians against the patricians to limit state power and authority, and to broadly expand the plebeian voice in Roman republican politics—the struggle between centralizing authority under the emperor and his stalwart opponents in the Greek-Roman aristocracy was the reverse. Desperately clinging to the feudal agrarian serfdom of their lives and culture, against the centralization efforts of the emperor, the aristocrats—primary those centered in mainland Greece—were long opponents to any prospect campaign that would inevitably see them lose power and influence.
Although the Senate was long dead in the east, the great paradox of the Roman Empire in the East is the fact it was headed by a single, universal leader, all the while since the days of Constantine the devolved political system meant that nobles often held a considerable amount of power that even the emperor couldn’t touch. In fact, one might suggest the close relationship between the emperor and Christianity was an attempt to establish greater central legitimacy to the emperor as the political vicar of Christ the King. Contrary to the whims of empire, empires have always existed in this devolved political manner.
Empires, with few exceptions, were never codified and unified states—often a conglomeration of federations that had come into subservient with a stronger power and now paid taxes and provided economic output for the promise of protection, stability, and order. This was true of the Roman Empire at its height of expansion under Trajan and Hadrian. To a certain extent, the devolved political system was the foundation for the Diocletian reforms. Now, however, as the Roman Empire had struggled ever since their defeat at Manzikert, it was painfully clear that a uniform and codified state was necessary.
We had earlier looked at some of the centralization reforms under John in his times of peace while not fighting the Mohammedans or Latins on either of his borders. The irony is that in these times of war, the nobles could be counted upon to serve their emperor as most aristocrats had done since the Axial Age. In times of peace, the Roman aristocrats tended their own business while ignoring the emperor and his centralizing reforms. In fact, many conspired against him.
Andronikus, the Great Domestic of the Morea, and several other notable families: the Aspietes from Armenia, the imperial pretenders against the Palaiologoi the Kantakouzenos and Komneoni families, and the military Phokas family all gathered in conspiracy to limit the power and influence of John’s centralizing reforms.
The establishment of the Imperial Bank in 1527 was the firestorm that started the grand political intrigue against the emperor. The move was deliberately seen as the final push for the emperor to limit the economic power of the aristocrats. John’s imperial spy ring however got wind of the conspiratorial efforts to subvert the emperor’s policies. Nikolaus Melissinos, a prominent general and commander of the Imperial Guard in Constantinople—also rumored to be the favourite of the emperor’s wife Sophia, became a prominent backer of the emperor (if not only to save himself from being discovered as the empress’ lover).
The pledge of allegiance to Georgios Kantakouzenos.
The Lines are Drawn
Also, the brother of John, Manuel, the presumptive heir to the throne as John and Sophia had yet to have issue, also strongly aligned his power and estate in northern Athens against the southern power held by Andronikus. The shape of the contest was becoming clear.What few knew, however, was the conspirators were also subverting diplomatic efforts by John in Buda and Pest, the twin cities that constituted the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom. John had long seen Hungary as a natural ally against the Mohammedan Turks, who still held a considerable swath of land in the southern Balkans and Macedonia, although the House of Osman had its true power back in Asia Minor instead of Europe—but this was not to say that the Turks were not considered the most immediate threat to both of the eastern Christian kingdoms as the fortress against further Mohammedan aggression into Europe. John had been attempting to consummate a permanent alliance with Hungary through the marriage of his sister Irene to the Crown Prince of Hungary.
Andronikus and Georgios Kantekouzenos had sent unauthorized envoys to Vienna to petition to the Archduke of Austria, and Holy Roman Emperor, that the bid by John to fortify an alliance with Hungary was a move against the Habsburgs—an ally of John who played a crucial role in the Austro-Roman victory against the Franco-Italian forces during the Italian Wars. To the gullible and nervous court in Vienna, the move made a certain political sense. Hungary was seen as a land that should have been inherited by the Habsburg Crown, and now constituted a controlled but always present danger on the eastern border of the Habsburg territories. The Habsburg Court lobbied complaints to John in Constantinople of his efforts in Hungary. When the Hungarian alliance was cemented, the Habsburg-Palaiologi alliance quickly vanished. Victory for the emperor on one front was subverted by rebellious nobles on another.
The next six months proved to be second most notorious episode of backstabbing Roman politics, only to be surpassed by the Long Regency, which I have promised to cover in the third volume of my history. For now, however, the knives were out and the wolves howling. The emperor and his aristocratic conspirators had to constantly look behind their backs.
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