The Mongol conqueror Hulegu wanted the Romans, the “Empire of Nicaea,” to submit to them.

In 1257 Hulegu sent the Romans an embassy requesting they bow to their rightful Mongol masters!

The Romans had to play it smart!!

(A thread) 🧵 Roman diplomatic genius was put straight to work! In the words of Nicholas Morton: “Emperor Theodore II (Laskaris) responded to this deputation’s arrival with a shrewd piece of statecraft.”

They needed to make themselves look bigger and stronger than they were.

In 1043 a large enemy fleet unexpectedly appeared outside Constantinople.

It was the Rus!

The city “panicked in fear, as no preparations had been made to meet this unexpected foreign invasion.”

The Emperor prepared the makeshift Roman fleet, equipping it with liquid fire🧵 The Rus had launched several raids against Constantinople, the greatest being in 860 and 941. These were dangerous Viking style raids.

Despite good relations with the Romans, the Rus decided to try again.

Let’s just say that this decision was going to come back to burn them!

During the accession of Alexios Komnenos in 1081 a shameful event occurred in Constantinople. The Romans followed what Anna Komnene called “the example of the barbarians” as his army looted parts of the city.

A Roman army stole from churches and houses in their own capital! 🧵🧵 Alexios didn’t have the army needed to break through the land walls of Constantinople to topple Nikephoros Botaneiates.

According to Anna Komnene, “A man was sent therefore to the base of the wall….”

The rebels “after a lengthy exchange of words agreed to betray the city”

Not only did the medieval Romans preserve most Ancient Greek texts they engaged with these texts, wrote commentaries, read them in their original form, and did their own kind of Christian philosophy!

An exploration of their contribution to and engagement with ancient wisdom

🧵 The Eastern Romans “engaged with the ideas of both pagan and Christian antiquity, carrying on the late ancient practice of writing commentaries”

This is essential what those who study Classical studies do today. This copying and studying was crucial for the survival of texts!

Because the Eastern Romans maintained a secular administration in their government, it required an educational institution to train them!

This is what is known as the “University of Constantinople” - but was it truly a university and was it really a continuous institution? They needed these institutions.

The “dual role of politician and scholar stemmed from the nature of Byzantine higher education. Since the year 360, holders of the highest posts in the imperial secretariat had been required by law to have completed a course of higher education.”

“The Carthaginians had complied in 149BC with Rome's demand to surrender their 200,000 weapons and 2000 catapults. They did not know the Senate had already secretly decided 'to destroy Carthage for good, once the war was ended'”

The Fall of Carthage [A thread] The Romans made a “surprise new demand, that they(Carthage) now abandon their city.” This “meant desertion of its shrines and religious cults. This is what the Carthaginians vainly resisted. Rome decided on 'the destruction of the nation'.'

Carthage was doomed

“They shredded her clothes and her body with pottery fragments, tore out her eyes, dragged her corpse through the streets of Alexandria, and then burned her remains.”

This was the terrifying fate of a philosopher named Hypatia of Alexandria.

How and why did this happen?! 🧵🧵 In my view Hypatia didn’t really do anything to deserve what happened to her.

However, she was to become a victim of a power struggle between Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the Roman governor Orestes.

In 1306 the Order of the Knights Hospitaller needed a new base in the East. They chose the vulnerable island of Rhodes, Roman territory since antiquity.

This is how the Hospitallers conspired with Genoa to seize Rhodes in a multi-year war, receiving papal blessing & support!🧵🧵 Already by 1306 the Genoese had been granted extensive privileges and essentially owned Rhodes, in the Emperor’s name…on paper.

Gradually the power of Roman governors had been replaced by the Genoese who only gave a nominal submission, which clearly they didn’t take seriously.

Constantinople made a huge impression on the Varangians!

In the Morkinskinna, an Old Norse saga, there is a description of the Hippodrome that highlights the visual spectacles, sounds of musical instruments, even interpreting their own pagan Gods in the ancient statues!

🧵🧵 “Those who have been in Constantinople say that the hippodrome is constructed in such a way that there is a high wall enclosing a field that might be compared with a huge circular farmland. There are tiers along the wall for people to sit while the games are played on the field.”

After Constantinople fell in 1453 the news spread in June across Europe. Christian powers which had either neglected to help or contributed to the downfall of the Empire directly reacted in horror.

Nearby states duly sent diplomats to make terms with the new reality.

🧵🧵 Serbians, Albanians, and the Roman Despotate of the Morea sent ambassadors to Mehmed to congratulate him on his victory and secure peace, realizing that they had to be on his good side now.

They had reasonable fears, though it wasn’t going to help them survive for much longer!

“We are slaves everywhere”

By the 14th century “a thriving slave trade had emerged in the Aegean that ensnared thousands of Romans who were captured by the Turkish conquerors of Anatolia” and rampant piracy on the coasts.

A tragic situation for citizens of a falling empire! 🧵 Every time an enemy of the Romans launched a campaign against them it was “a new opportunity to round up dozens, hundreds, or thousands of helpless people from fields, villages, and sacked cities, and sell them at the nearest slave emporium run by Italians.”

After liberating Constantinople in 1261 the Romans found themselves in great danger.

The Romans had to maintain peace with two dangerous and competing Mongol factions without overly angering either.

The survival of the Empire depended on playing it right diplomatically!

🧵🧵 “A new geopolitical status quo began to emerge.” Freeing Constantinople from the clutches of the crusaders was great but “diplomatically it placed Michael in a difficult position.

The Romans were sandwiched in between two Mongol titans.

Andronikos II Palaiologos was desperate to save Anatolia, and hired the Catalan Grand Company.

“The Catalans performed some remarkable feats of arms against the Turks and showed what could be done in the way of reconquest...”

But they were violent, greedy, and uncontrollable!🧵 Andronikos II himself “had few contacts with the western world since 1282, but the Venetians and Genoese had spread the word around that the Byzantine Empire was in desperate trouble.”

This news reached the Catalan Company, an elite band of mercenaries who were out of work.

The Battle of Beroia was “one of the most frightful and terrifying battles ever fought”

It was 1122AD - Barbarian Pechenegs had crossed the Danube into Roman territory. John II Komnenos, like his father before him, now had to fight the nomads

The Romans thus set out for war 🧵 John Komnenos was not an Emperor who sat idly in the palace, he began campaigning against the Empire’s enemies as soon as he had stabilized his rule.

After a successful offensive in Anatolia against the Seljuks, John had to march to Bulgaria to deal another enemy!

The formerly Roman city of Smyrna had been conquered by Turks, then by Crusaders. Now a new enemy came, the ferocious Timurids.

In the wake of victory over the Ottomans at Ankara, Timur demanded the city surrender to him.

The Crusaders refused, a tragic slaughter ensued!

🧵🧵 Although it benefited Constantinople by breaking the Ottoman siege of the City, Timur’s great victory over Sultan Bayezid at Ankara in 1402 left Anatolia totally open to conquest by him and his ruthless armies.

For the people of Smyrna, a storm was brewing.

Why is the Hippodrome of Constantinople mostly gone in present-day Istanbul?

It took CENTURIES for this GIGANTIC building to disappear. Think how hard it was to move all the stones!

In 1204 it suffered Crusader destruction, and after 1453 a slow removal by the Ottomans.

🧵🧵 The process of destruction was began by the vandals of Fourth Crusade in 1203-1204.

Prior to that the hippodrome was fully functional, with the last recorded races held in 1200. It was used less by this time, more for special occasions.

It was an enduring venue of antiquity!

In 1185 the Norman army was advancing on Constantinople.

Thessaloniki had been viciously sacked, and the tyrant Andronikos had just been overthrown by Constantinople’s citizens!

The new Emperor Isaac Angelos sent his general Alexios Branas to face the invaders in battle!

🧵🧵 The Balkan defenses had completely collapsed, Dyrrachion had fallen and the capture of Thessaloniki must have sent shockwaves through all of Roman society.

Andronikos Komnenos, fearing empowering a general would lead to them usurping him, had done nothing as the empire burned!

One of Justinian’s achievements was creating a Roman silk industry, a source of wealth for Constantinople!

Monks acting as imperial agents learned the secrets of silk production, and smuggled eastern silkworms in bamboo canes!

A “fascinating tale of industrial espionage.”

🧵🧵 The monopoly in Eastern Asia on Silk production was a net economic loss for the Romans. Gold flowed out and all the empire got back was silk, it crucially also enriched their rival Persia.

It was just the way it always had been…But things were going to change!

The Roman general Belisarius, having liberated Africa from the Vandals, returned to Constantinople.

He received honors that “in former times were assigned to generals of the Romans who had won the greatest and most noteworthy victories”

The Glorious Triumph of Belisarius!

🧵🧵 “Upon reaching Byzantion [a literary nickname for Constantinople] with Gelimer and the Vandals, Belisarios was deemed worthy to receive the honors that in former times were assigned to those generals of the Romans who had won the greatest and most noteworthy victories.”

“In truth, they were exposed as frauds.”

On April 13, 1204 Constantinople had fallen to the Fourth Crusade. An army sent to support the Holy Land had seized the greatest city in Christendom.

Constantinople was despoiled - a tragic story of gold, blood, and destruction!

🧵🧵 “On that day on which the City fell, the despoilers…spread out in all directions, seized everything inside as plunder, and interrogated their owners as to the whereabouts of their hidden treasures, beating some, holding gentle converse with many, and using threats against all.”

On April 12, 1204 a relatively small army of Crusaders and Venetians broke into the Queen of Cities. The Romans gave up, the city was sacked the next day.

In 717-718 Constantinople resisted an Arab army of 120,000 and 1800 ships!

How did 20,000 men conquer Constantinople?! 🧵🧵 The Crusaders, breaking their oath to go to the Holy Land, approached Constantinople by sea on June 23, 1203.

With them was a puppet, Alexios IV Angelos, son of the deposed emperor Isaac II. Despite never having ruled, he had promised to cover the Crusade’s financial shortfalls.