Historian, Writer, Geek, Felinophile. Questioning everything.
Joined November 2021
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~ Thucydides
Although Robert Guiscardβs ambition to take the throne in Constantinople ultimately failed, the Norman-Roman conflict did not end with his death.
After the Empire was plunged into chaos following the death of Manuel I Komnenos, the Normans jumped at opportunity. In 1185 AD, a joint Norman-Sicilian force captured and sacked Thessaloniki, The Empire's second largest city.
The scale of devastation shocked even contemporary observers, accustomed to the war and violence. For the Romans, the psychological impact was profound. No part of the Empire was truly safe from Norman ambition, and as the events of 1204 would soon show, of the ambitions of the greedy West.
The Roman disaster at Dyrrachium in 1081 AD would break many. But not Alexios Komnenos.
Faced with the total collapse, the emperor executed one of the most impressive diplomatic maneuvers of the medieval world.
First, he bribed the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV to attack Norman territories in Italy, forcing Guiscard to divide his attention across two fronts. Then, he went for a nuclear option. In 1082, Alexios granted extensive trading privileges to Venice in exchange for naval support against the Normans.
The strategy paid off, as with Robert Guiscard's forces returning to Italy to fight the Germans, his son Bohemond was forced to fight brutal mountain warfare in the Balkans, with the Romans effectively nullifying power of Norman cavalry. The Roman-Norman wars would continue until 1085, when the last of the Norman forces left the Balkans.
Alexios saved the Empire, but at the great cost. As the commercial rights given to Venice in Byzantium's darkest hour would turn the city-state into the Empire's rival and later the nightmare.
After kicking Romans from the Southern Italy, Robert Guiscard embarked on one of the most audacious military campaigns of the Middle Ages.
Guiscard's navy crossed the Adriatic Sea, and established a beachhead in what is now Albania. The plan was to take key fort of Dyrrachium, and then move overland to Constantinople.
Aware of the peril, the new emperor Alexios Komnenos assembled an army and confronted the Normans at Dyrrachium. He, however, underestimated the enemy. Guiscardβs tactical skill, combined with his son Bohemondβs aggressive cavalry charges, shattered the imperial army. All of the Alexios' faithful Varangian Guard (many of them, ironically Anglo-Saxons), died on the battlefield.
Alexios had to flee the battlefield. The road to Constantinople was open. It was the dark hour for the Romans...
Have you heard of Robert de Hauteville? Better known as Robert Guiscard?
This Norman was not the eldest son nor was he especially wealthy, and he was certainly not expected to carve out lands and establish his own realm. But he did it anyways. And more.
Guiscard, you see - who arrived in southern Italy around 1047 AD - possessed an almost uncanny ability to turn enemies into allies and allies into subjects. Through a combination of strategic marriages, a military strength, and sheer boldness (or recklessness) - Guiscard gradually unified the fragmented Norman factions under his leadership. And in 1071, Guiscard took Bari, ending the centuries of Roman rule in Italy.
Once landless son with few prospects, Robert Guiscard was now a king of a prosperous realm. But he dreamed of more. Of ultimate prize. Constantinople...
The Romans did win at Cannae - yes really.
But not in THAT battle. There was another. In 1018 AD, the imperial troops, led by Basil Boioannes, catepan of Italy, defeated the Lombards and Norman mercenaries at the same place where Hannibal humiliated Rome centuries earlier.
Surviving Normans were integrated into local Roman garrisons. Strengthening imperial control in the region... and paving the way for future Norman settlement and the eventual conquest of southern Italy.
The Norman invasion of Italy took the Romans by surprise. The imperial administration, still in control of large part of south Italy, believed these foreign fighters could prove useful in defending their holdings.
What they failed to realize, was that the warlike Normans came from a culture that placed extraordinary value on land acquisition. You see, in Normandy, younger sons were often left landless due to inheritance laws that favored the eldest child.
South Italy with it's fertile plains, competing towns, and ill defined borders was ripe for the picking, it's conquest facilitated by struggles in Constantinople and the pressure in the East.
Normans arrived to Italy in 1017 AD as a group of knights. In 1071 they took Bari, last imperial stronghold on the peninsula.
In less than a century Normans built a powerful state that would soon threaten the Roman Empire's heartland itself.
We all know for the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 AD. But there was another, even more powerful state - the Norman kingdom of Sicily. For the Roman emperor in Constantinople, England was a distant island. Sicily was on his doorstep.
And nothing symbolizes this threat more than the mosaic of Roger II in Palermo. Christ crowns him directly. He wears the robes and regalia of a medieval Roman (Byzantine) emperor. His name is spelled in Greek letters: Ξ‘ΞΞΞΞ‘ΞΞΞ£ Ξ‘ΞΞ, βRogerius Rex.β
It is a visual manifesto of ambition, of one man, of one kingdom, to the symbolic universe of the Roman Empire. For Constantinople, this was a real threat. Not only the territory grab, but the very challenge to imperial legitimacy itself.
The Normans are one of the most fascinating success stories of the Middle Ages. The adventurers who turned into kings.
From Viking raiders into elite warriors employed by monarchs, including the Roman Emperor himself, for their deadly heavy cavalry, before transforming into master state-builders in South Italy, Outremer, and most importantly, England.
There, following William Iβs triumph at Hastings in 1066, the Normans laid the foundation for a future global superpower.
You know what. Yes, history was full of super wealthy individuals. Powerful rulers and lords that would sometimes go a bit coockoo.
Some of them were tyrants. Through. But most of them did something - good.
Even those "madmen" like Nero or Caligula funded major public buildings, like theatres and baths. So everyone could benefit.
Heck even Rockefeller and other robber barons funded universities and charities.
They took but they also gave back
And some of them, like Roman emperors or feudal lords risked life in battle...
And what our present day techbros do. Circus gimmicks like Musk, burn books like Assman, AI surveillance tech like Thiel. Aislop...
What they give back. Alienation, loss of jobs, environmental catastrophe, focus of gold fish, toxicity, hate...
Well f them. I would like to see them lead armies on battlefield, in the first lines. To show they are proper men and not kids with too much money. One can dream...
But this is truly worst timeline
I mean, who is this for? Techbros who wanna relive their hot wheels childhood memories. Ok...
It is a marketing gimmick. Nothing more. Some people have way too much money...
More Late Roman drip
In my opinion, the best Roman armor in the more than millennium history of the Empire. Helmets, shield, plumage. Dressed to impress π
π·Marcia Mummia Fannia
This is not Narnia.
But it does look good. Now, why they did not do an original IP. That's the question
If things went differently, Gnaeus Pompeius would be considered one of the greatest.
At only 24, he won a major victory for Sulla in Sicily and Northern Africa, ending the bloody civil war. In his early 30s, Pompey brought to an end a decade-long Sertorius' rebelion in Spain. As a 40-year old, he defeated Mithridates VI of Pontus, extending Roman borders all to the Euphrates. And perhaps most importantly, he eradicated the piracy on the Mediterranean, making the sea "Mare Nostrum"
Pompey was honored with not one, but three triumphs! And was three times consul. He was indeed "the Great".
But at the end he lost from Caesar. And that's how most of us remember him. History can be cruel.
π·by Giuseppe Rava
