For fifty years Basil II ruled the Empire of the Romans, campaigning tirelessly to secure the borders and bring peace through war.

This is a thread on the mighty life of the greatest ever soldier-emperor:

• The Purple-born Bulgar Slayer •

🧵[Thread] Basil was born in the purple chamber of the imperial palace in Constantinople in AD 958, earning him the moniker ‘Porphyrogénnetos’.

Following the death of his father in 963, Basil’s early life was dominated by regent co-emperors; Nikephoros Phokas & John Tzimiskes, rebelling generals, and overbearing conspiratorial ministers.

When he was 18 the last of his regents, Tzimiskes, died, leaving him as emperor but still partially under the thumb of his chief minister & relative Basil Lekapenos who even provoked a failed rebellion by removing the general Bardas Skleros from power.

These attempts to usurp and control Basil had a profound impact on his rule and personality later in his life.

In AD 9:

Three Roman legions were slaughtered in one of the most shocking and notorious defeats the Roman Empire had ever suffered.

In the 𝐓𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 disaster!

[Thread]🧵 The territory under control of the Roman republic saw significant expansion in the first century BC. With Julius Caesar’s Gallic War came fighting with the Germanic tribes.
Caesar himself crossed the Rhine twice!

In the aftermath of the slaughter at Battle of Hastings, the 14 year old Edgar Ætheling was proclaimed King of England!

This is a thread on the long adventurous life of the last Ætheling of the Anglo-Saxon world.

🧵 • 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐋𝐄 •

In AD 1016, the Danish King Cnut conquered England in the same year the Anglo-Saxon King Edmund Ironside died.

Cnut sent Edmund’s two infant sons, Edward and Edmund, to the Swedish court of Olof Skötkonung with the instructions that they be quietly murdered.

However Olof refused to kill the boys.

In AD 1485:

Richard III made his last charge against the Tudor forces at the Battle of Bosworth, where he died fighting alone among his enemies!

This is the story of the end of the Plantagenet Dynasty at the dawn of the modern world.

[Thread] 🧵 Richard ruled as king for two years after usurping and disposing of the sons of his older brother, Edward IV.

But the bitterness created among elite English society by the Wars of the Roses ran too deep & many still sought after a Lancastrian king.

In AD 1018:

The Lombard Melus & his Norman allies were crushed by the Catepan of Italy and his army of the legendary Varangian Guard.

At the 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐞!

[Thread]🧵 In AD 1009;
The 33rd year of the reign of the emperor Basil II:

Melus and his brother Dattus rebelled against eastern Roman control of Apulia in Italy and quickly took Bari before losing the city in 1011.

Fleeing to Salerno and the protection of the Pope, Melus had not given up his hopes of power in Southern Italy!

In AD 1415,

Henry V won possibly the greatest victory ever achieved by the men of England at the

𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓

[Thread]🧵 In AD 1413 Henry V as crowned king and reasserted the claim to the throne of France that stemmed from his great great grandfather Edward III.

Negotiations had failed by 1415 and Henry was resolved to invade France and won the backing of Parliament.

In 202 BC,

Scipio Africanus finally avenged Rome by inflicting a catastrophic defeat on Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginians…

At the 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐙𝐚𝐦𝐚!

[Thread]🧵 In 219 BC a Carthaginian army led by Hannibal Barca sacked the pro-Roman Iberian city of Saguntum.

In 218 BC Rome declared war on Carthage

In AD 1211,

The exiled Nicean Romans led by Theodore Laskaris faced impending doom with the invasion of the numerically superior Seljuk Turks!

The battle lines drawn at Antioch on the Meander.

[Thread]🧵 After escaping from Constantinople during the reign of the crusader puppet ruler Alexios IV in 1203, Theodore Laskaris travelled to Nicea and when the crusaders finally sacked the city and shattered the empire in 1204, he began to organise the dispersed Romans in Anatolia, bringing together several local rulers into one state.

In AD 668:

A cabal of senior officials carried out a plot to murder the Roman Emperor Constans II in the Baths of Daphne.

This a thread of their wicked crime and its consequences!

[Thread] 🧵 In the mid 7th century, Constans II had attempted to chart a middle course through the religious controversy between Orthodox Christians and the Monothelites by refusing to persecute the latter but banning all discussion of issues between the two groups.

This decision angered passionate believers on both sides.

Today in AD 641:

The mighty emperor Heraclius died.

His 31 year rule was spent the fighting last ever war between Rome and Persia, and then facing off against the catastrophic onslaught of the Islamic conquests!

This is a timeline thread of his epic life!

[Thread]🧵 • AD c.575
Flavius Heraclius born to Heraclius, later Exarch of Africa and Roman general

• c. 586
Heraclius the Elder praised for being ‘conspicuous through his glory achievements with the spear’ during the war with Persia

• c. 508-600
proposed date for Heraclius the Elder’s appointment as Exarch of Africa

• 602
Emperor Maurice deposed and murderer. Phocas is now emperor.

From the Council of Clermont to the Fall of Acre,

The Crusades have been an iconic part of medieval history which have inspired, repulsed and mesmerised people ever since the capture of Jerusalem.

This is a timeline of those momentous events!

[Thread]🧵 • AD 968
East Romans capture Antioch

• 975
Campaigns of John Tzimiskes in Syria

• 1009
Fatimids destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem

• 1027
East Roman-Fatimid Treaty. Church of Holy Sepulchre is rebuilt.

• 1033 - the 1000 year anniversary of the Passion of Christ increases pilgrimages to Jerusalem

Heraclius Augustus was one of the greatest Romans ever.

He held the empire together in its darkest hour at the dawn of a new age.

This is a timeline of his life and epic reign!

[Thread]🧵 • AD c.575
Flavius Heraclius born to Heraclius, later Exarch of Africa and Roman general

• c. 586
Heraclius the Elder praised for being ‘conspicuous through his glory achievements with the spear’ during the war with Persia

• c. 508-600
proposed date for Heraclius the Elder’s appointment as Exarch of Africa

• 602
Emperor Maurice deposed and murderer. Phocas is now emperor.

This is a thread of all of the artwork that exists of Alexios Komnenos

[Thread]🧵


Portrait of Alexios within the Panoplia Dogmatica

In AD 1381:

London erupted into a deadly riot after after rebellion spread across Southern England resulting in the sacking of the Tower of London and the execution of Archbishop of Canterbury

In the Peasants’ Revolt!

[Thread] 🧵 In the decades after the Black Death there was an increased feeling that politician discussion and protagonism didn’t only belong to the elites in society, but to everyone.

The lack of a legitimate outlet for non-elite discussion and participation set the scene for a violent showdown.

In AD 1096,

The boldest lords of Western Europe and thousands of Christian warriors journeyed to the Holy Land in the most epic expedition of the Middle Ages…

The First Crusade!

[Timeline Mega Thread] 🧵 ~ Background ~

• AD 1009 - the Fatimids destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem

• 1030 - Norman Lord Ranulf becomes Count of Aversa in Italy, the beginning of the Norman settlement and conquest of Southern Italy

• 1033 - the 1000 year anniversary of the Passion of Christ increases pilgrimage to Jerusalem hereafter facilitated by improved relations between the Fatimids and east Romans

•East Roman Emperors begin sending armed escorts, including famed Varangian Harald Hardrada, to some pilgrims to Jerusalem.

• 1045 - first large scale Seljuk Turk raids against the east Romans in Anatolia begin

Today in AD 532,

Constantinople erupted into widespread riots which turned into open rebellion against the Emperor Justinian before being savagely put down!

Thirty thousand people died in the Nika Riots…

[Thread]🧵 In the early years of his reign, Justinian implemented higher rates of taxation which caused anger among many in Constantinople.

Two of his officials, John the Cappadocian and Tribonian came under intense public hatred due to their implementation of the new rates and because Justinian sought to reduce the size of the civil service which meant that some among the city elites lost their position in government.

Today in AD 192:

Pertinax was chosen as Emperor against his will, the first in a series of events that would see the destruction of a good man & the auctioning of the office of Emperor by the avaricious Praetorian Guards

Thus began…

The Year of the Five Emperors

[Thread] 🧵 When Marcia, mistress to the megalomaniacal Emperor Commodus, discovered she was on his list of people to be executed, she conspired to kill him.

This led to an unsuccessful poisoning which ended with him being strangled to death by his wrestling partner Narcissus

Today in AD 870:

A Viking army was defeated by the men of Berkshire led by Æthelwulf at the Battle of Englefield

The battle saw two Earls and many other Norsemen die!

[Thread] 🧵 In 9th century the Vikings seem to have changed the way they viewed England and moved towards conquest, clearly seeing England as being ripe for settlement

This thread of events that took place on Christmas Day throughout history!

Let’s go!

🧵🎄 In AD 330:

Constantine The Great elevates his son Constans to Caesar. Constans would later rule as co-emperor with his brother, Constantius II, for 13 years.

Today in AD 627:

Heraclius and his valiant Romans inflicted such a catastrophic defeat on the Persians that it sent their Empire spiralling into a cataclysmic civil war!

And an end to the last great war of antiquity…

At the 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐡

[Thread ]🧵 In AD 602 the Roman officer Phocas rebelled and forced the Emperor Maurice to watch the murder of his sons before he himself was slain.

This incited the Persian Shah Khusrow II, an ally of Maurice, to intervene.

In AD 1053,

When Roman army was ambushed and scattered by the mighty Pecheneg warriors at the Zygos Pass, Nikephoros Votaneiates ordered his detachment of men to make an ordered retreat.

For twelve days they were chased and harried in an epic race to safety!

[Thread] 🧵 In the 1040s, the east Roman Emperor Constantine IX attempted to resettle the semi-nomadic Pechenegs who has recently arrived on the empire’s northern border.

This plan went awry and the Pechenegs revolted and presented a serious threat to the empire!