It amazes me how many peoples and forces exhausted themselves trying to break the Eastern Roman Empire. First the Germanic tribes that so disemboweled the Western provinces but were repelled. Then the mighty Sassanian Persians rolled like a great tide over the Asian provinces but were too forced back. With nary a breath between them came the Saracen, the Arabs, who did push the Empire out of Egypt and N. Africa but were only able to told Asia Minor and Antioch for a short time. At the same time the Bulgars and Slavs pushed into the Balkans and overran much of Thrace, Illyricum and Greece. While they would stay there they would fall under the Empires banners for most of the next several centuries. Finally when these two forces largely wore themselves out the Suljuq Turks came forth and finally dislodged the Empire from Anatolia and Armenia. Caught between the Muslim Turks and the barbarous Normans and Franks all seemed lost, but once again the Empire pushed back and retook the Ionian territories from the former and the Adriatic coasts from the latter. Finally betrayal by the Venetians and the rise of the Ottomans extinguished the New Rome on the cusp of the modern era. But what a history, what a fascinating, vibrant, bloody people that served as the cultural, intellectual, and artistic light in a dim world for nearly a thousand years.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 02:18:49 +0000