On 15th December 1025, the famous Basil II the Macedonian left his final breath, bequeathing an intimidating and solid-state to his only brother and successor Constantine (Konstantinos). Technically, Constantine had always been a co-emperor of Basil since 962 and an equal partner in the Purple during the 49 years of Basil’s reign. Nevertheless, Constantine was a man of different interests and didn’t share his brother’s enthusiasm for the political affairs of the Roman Empire and during the long administration of Basil, he avoided the spotlight. Golden coin (hystamenon) of the Roman Basileus Co ..read more

BATTLES IN THE NORTH – ORIGINS The origins of the nation of the Bulgars fall within the muddied waters of history and the evidence of their existence before the 5th century AD is difficult to be located. The work of the Czech-Austrian geographer Wilhelm Tomaschek (1873) initiated the now generally accepted assumption that the name of the Bulgars is of Turkic origin, meaning “those that mix” or “those that disturb”. A remote possibility of their ethnogenesis may lie in the Hunnic migrations of the early 5th century AD although there is no direct reference to their migrating group until 482 AD ..read more

We do not know almost nothing about the childhood of Eulogia in Nicaea. The main historiographical Byzantine sources of the Nicean period -the chronicles of Nikephoros Gregoras, Georgios Akropolites and Georgios Paquimeres– barely mention Eulogia, without identifying her correctly: only as one of the daughters of the emperor Theodore II Laskaris. This the unique reference I encountered in the History (1203-1261) of the chronicler Georgios Akropolites about our princess: “When he died, the emperor Theodore left three [unmarried] children: one son by the name of John, and two daughters, Theodo ..read more

1204 will be forever remembered as the year Constantinople, the capital of the eastern Roman Empire was invaded and sacked by the army of the 4th Crusade. This tragic event resulted in the temporary collapse of the Roman state, and following the capture of Constantinople on April 13 of 1204, the leaders of the 4th Crusade divided what was once the territories of the Byzantine Empire among themselves. The Byzantine capital Constantinople and its surroundings would fall under the rule of the short-lived Crusader state known as the Latin Empire of Romaniae while Byzantine territory in G ..read more

Between 28th and 29th of January of 1204, Isaakios II Angelos (reigning emperor 1185-1195/1203-1204) died under the most tragic circumstances, both for himself and the whole Empire, only months before the great Sack of Constantinople in April 1204. Isaakios Angelos ruled for ten years when he was deposed and replaced on the throne by his older brother Alexios. He was for a second time proclaimed basileus by the Court of Constantinople, when his brother, now Emperor Alexios III, has fled the city, in face of the armies of the Fourth crusade. The Capture of Constantinople in 1204, oil renaissan ..read more

In the autumn of 1191, two armies collided on the banks of South Morava river; the army of Serbs, commanded by their aged, though vigorous veliki župan (megazoupanos, Grand Prince) Stefan Nemanja and the Roman army, led by Emperor Isaakios II Angelos. Although one of the less known encounters of the 12th century, the battle of Morava marked a turning point in relations between medieval Serbia and Basileia ton Romaion, the contemporary accurate name for the Roman Empire in the East. Its an obscure battle, one to set up the road to glory for the defeated. Stefan Nemanja (1166-1196), the founder ..read more

A portrait of Theodora. But we are not sure she had blue eyes! As one of the Syriac patriarchs says, Theodora is «a saint of the Syriacs and for the Syriacs.» Source: https://www.deviantart.com/milielitre/art/Empress-Theodora-portrait-773911702product The long-tormented region today situated between the Turkish and the Syrian Republics belonged to Syriacs, the great people that, according to its own history, gave us one of the most brilliant sovereigns of all Roman history between Romulus and Constantine XI: we mean Theodora Augusta or you may know her with her more popular title «Empress ..read more

The marriage of Augusta Zoe the Macedonian (1028-1050) to Romanos Argyros (1028-1034) was an unfortunate one. Romanos used to neglect the personal duties of a husband, he openly had a mistress and had forbidden Zoe from access to the imperial treasury, only allowing her to use a certain sum of money. To take advantage of the tension between the imperial couple, John Orphantotrophos, an ambitious eunuch from the region of Paphlagonia -who had risen too high in the imperial court hierarchy of Constantinople- introduced the enraged empress to the presence of his younger charming brother Michael ..read more

In 1414, the Roman Emperor, Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425), sent a letter in Latin from Thessaloniki to the new King of Aragon, Ferran I of Antequera (1412-1416), in which he evoked “the maximum affection and fervent love that have existed between us, our predecessors and all the Kings of Aragon, a more fervent love than with the others Western princes”, so as to express his gratitude to the Trastámara monarch for the promised support against the Ottomans. Although these words were fairly ornated with the aim of getting the military help the Empire needed desperately, the fact that the basi ..read more