byzantine empire

PRELUDE - All Men Fall Dark clouds cover the nightly sky, a horse tail banner dances with small drizzle in the air, from afar a thundering noise could be heard, the angry waves of Aegean Sea crash unrelentingly into the rocky shoreline, a storm is coming. A young man in blue tunic with...

Issac II deals with Asen and Peter with a bit more tact and the second Bulgarian Empire never forms. What would be the effects on the 4th crusade and the years following it? What would a rump state in the region of Bulgaria look like?

So. I wrote a draft to a book. It's yet another alternate history where the Byzantine Empire survived to the modern day 2016. Yeah yeah, I'm a Byzaboo. Only, it's the sort of ridiculous alternate history where there has to be a series of ridiculous, improbable events. And, even worse, it's the...

Say Constantine V conquers Bulgaria during his reign, either by winning a battle that was a defeat IOTL or capitalizing on one of his victories against the Bulgars. His son and successor, Leo IV, lives longer than IOTL (he died at the age of 30), and Constantine VI becomes an emperor on his own...

IOTL, Konstantinos VII Macedon and Helena Lekapena had a son, Leo, who died young, and then Romanos II and his many sisters, among them Theophano who wed Ioannes Kourkouas Tzimiskes when he was co-emperor with Basil II and Konstantinos VIII, Romanos’s sons. What if his three sisters who in OTL...

After Justinian's death and the Plague, Justin II stopped to pay subsidies to the Avars ending the truce after 558. During his reign, the Avars and Lombards combined forces to destroy the Kingdom of the Gepids, centered in Transylvania. The aftermath was the absolute dominance of the Avars in...

IOTL, while he was dying, Basil II’s brother, Emperor Constantine, arranged for his middle daughter, Zoe, to be wed to Constantine Dalassenos, duke of Antioch. While Dalassenos was en route, the emperors advisors, fearing a powerful military leader being emperor, convinced Emperor Constantine to...

Could a member of the guard have ever declared himself emperor? And if he did so what would the reaction have been within the empire, government, army, and public? And what would the guard have done?

Let's say for whatever reason (illness, accident, assassination, etc.) Constantine VIII dies sometime before Basil II but after he fathers Zoe and Theodora. What kind of effect do you think this would have on the Emperor? Would he start taking succession matters more seriously? Would he...

Historically speaking, it's unlikely that a marriage alliance between Charlemagne of the Carolingian Empire and Empress Irene of the Byzantine Empire would have brought their two empires together. So, my question is: what would need to change for this to be plausible, even if unlikely? Despite...

From my understanding, a major component in the success of the Rashidun Caliphate's expansion was that the Byzantines and Persians were simply exhausted from fighting each other with major occupations of the opposing empire's territory that went far beyond any previous Byzantine-Sassanian...

There is a great debate and discussion on who the successor to the Roman Empire is. From the Holy Roman Empire, to the Ottomans, to the Russians, it stems the points of culture, language, lineage, legality, religion and location, on who truly is the successor to the Roman Empire... This isn't...

Can Greek nationalism rise in late Byzantium under palaiologos during 12th and 13 the centuries as it did in 19th century under ottomans due to events like sack of Constantinople and latin rule can it stop ottomans?

what if sassanids reinforced Byzantines in the middle of battle of Yarmuk as a friendly gesture to form an alliance will this surprise attack win the battle? will this cement an allaince and stop arabs ?

What if Byzantines reconquer Syria and Egypt by allying with other Arabs against Umayyads during First and second fitna and supporting christian rebellions in the caliphate how would islam develop without ummayads and abbasids ? will this avoid twenty year anarchy?

What if crusade of Crusade of Nicopolis happened during Ottoman interregnum after death of Bayezid instead of before in 1396 will ottoman be destroyed ? if yes then who will replace them in balakans and anatolia ? will Byzantium rebound ?

pls answer follow up questions what if Maurice conquers Persia or atleast Mesopotamia and persian gulf coast using Sasanian civil war of 589-591 since in OTL it was with his army Khosrow II reconquered iran He does this by having Khosrow II killed secret after he is exiled to Byzantine empire...

Let’s say Alboin isn’t murdered, and after taking Pavia in 572 the Lombards siege and capture the Byzantine holdout of Ravenna. Rome is next and the rest of the peninsula quickly follows. By 600, all of Italy is united under Alboin. What does this mean for Europe?

The Battle of Ankara almost ended the Ottoman Empire iotl. Iotl, Bayezid I arrived on the battlefield on the 19th, but decided to camp instead of attacking immediately when Timur's army was strung out and could have been defeated piecemeal as advised by Stephan Lazarevic. Let's say Bayezid takes...

Let's suppose that after the destruction of the Gepids, it's the Avars who leave the Pannonian basin to invade Italy. How could things play out? How different would things be if there was an Italic state with a non-Christian, at least in the beginning, ruling class? And what if the Pannonian...