PolledHistory: VS Roman History 3/3 (476-1453AD)

 Hello! Today is the third third of the Roman history series and the longest - under a millenium long, and comprising of 44.2% of the entire Roman timeline. This period was the Eastern Roman period, following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and before the Fall of the east 950+ years later. This will be quite quick and broad of the large time period.

Following the "Fall of Rome" in 476, Rome did not really fall. The eastern half remained territorially untouched following the Fall of Rome. The eastern half was ruled by a man named Zeno during the time of the fall of Rome. Anastasius succeeded him and was known for expanding the empire's wealth. Following him, the Justinian dynasty took power, starting with Justin I, who also enlarged the empire's wealth. Justinian would spend most of the empire's earning after expensive wars that reclaimed Italy and North Africa after the Fall of the West. The Justinian Plague really exhausted these wars, making the empire weak and susceptible to invasions after this. This susceptibillity was so bad under the rule of Phocas, Khosrau II from Persia devastated the empire and besieged Constantinople, the well defended metropolis capital city. 

The Sassanid Persian Empire and the Eastern Roman/Byzantine empire continued to rival each other, but Khosrau II's expensive campaigns into the Byzantine heartland was repulsed when Heraclius came to power and kicked him out. However, what ensued was yet another invasion of Byzantine territory, not by the Persians but by Arabs - which had been recently united under one Muslim banner. 

These Arab raids escalated to a major attack, taking Jerusalem, then Damascus, then Egypt. Land after land succumbed to Arab invasion, both Eastern Roman land and Persian land. The Sassanid Persians collapsed by around 640 AD only around 4 decades after their territorial peak under Khosrau II. In decades, everything east of the Euphrates was under Arab control. The Romans still held the Balkans and Anatolia, as well as some parts of North Africa (though that fell in the 8th century) and some parts of Southern Italy. 

The Arabs besieged Constantinople two times,in  1) 674 AD and 2) 717 AD. The first siege failed due to Byzantine military feats, particularly Greek Fire - an awesome technology where Eastern Roman ships could spew fire which engulfed the Arab fleet. Constantinople was surrounded 270* by water, and the Arabs needed a strong navy to even dream of taking the city. The second siege was even larger but also failed due to the same Greek Fire, Arab logistical errors, and the emperor Leo III's diplomatic manuevers.

Leo III was a controversial emperor. He was an excellent military leader who fended off the second siege and made some reconquests after it, but he banned the worship of icons. The Eastern Roman Empire was a Christian state, but Leo III was afraid they were worshipping icons, so he banned and destroyed icon worship. This was known as the Iconoclasm. Iconoclasm was later stopped after his death.

Leo III established the Isaurian dynasty. During this time, Charlemagne from modern day France united most of Western Europe, and the Pope claimed him  as Roman emperor. This began some tensions between Eastern Rome and the Western European nations like the Carolingian Franks ("Carolingian" referring to Charlemagne's imperial dynasty).

After the Isaurians, the Macedonians became powerful and would rule until 1025. The Macedonians had many great emperors, such as Basil I, Nikephoros Phokas, John I, and Basil II. Basil II is often regarded as the best Byzantine emperor, reexpanding the declined empire from the "Dark Age" which came before the Macedonian dynasty. He crushed the Bulgars, which had stressed the empire during the dark age. However, he neglected the eastern front of the empire, which would collapse around 5 decades after he died. The Seljuk Turks suddenly came, defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071, and in years, all of Byzantine Anatolia was lost. 

Alexios Konmenos finally became emperor after a string of incapable ones. He called for a Crusade. The unfortunate thing for the empire was that Christendom had divided into west, which evolved into modern Catholicism, and the east, which evolved into what we know today as Eastern Orthodox. This made the crusades much more controversial. The First Crusade, however, was a success, where the powers of Europe took both parts of Anatolia and the goal of Jerusalem, plus Antioch and many other cities. However, the crusaders were not completely obedient to the original goal.

The Second and Third Crusade came, but things reached a climax at 1204. The Angelos dynasty was incapable and had recently massacred the Latins. Thus, the Venetians took charge of thr Fourth Crusade and diverged the goal from Jerusalem to Constantinople, sacking the city and the Byzantine Empire ended. The Latin Empire replaced it, a crusader state.

But the episode does not end at 1204. A Byzantine remnant from Trebizond and other Byzantine remnants came together to destroy the Latin Empire and retake Constantinople. The empire was never as strong as it was, however, and after the Black Death in the 1340s, the Ottoman Turks came and reduced the empire just to the city of Constantinople. In 1453, the city was besieged and fell to Mehmed II, ending Roman civilization.