Renovation: An Eastern Roman Timeline

[Julius Vogel]

Is there any historical precedent for Galata being raided by foreign hostile powers during a Roman position of strength?

Incidentally, I stayed about 30 metres from the main tower of Galata recently, it is a rather pretty suburb.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

I really like this update and very interested in seeing what happens next (or what will happen when Aragon fully mobilizes its huge naval potential).

Glad you're enjoying this.

Give it time. Aragon is mainly content with letting Venice do most the hard work in stomping out their enemy. But should Sicily be under threat- then they'll stop messing around and go at it seriously.

Is there any historical precedent for Galata being raided by foreign hostile powers during a Roman position of strength?

Incidentally, I stayed about 30 metres from the main tower of Galata recently, it is a rather pretty suburb.

Oh yeah, the city was bombed in the Second Venetian-Genoese trade war of 1294-99.

Oh cool. I've always wanted to visit Istanbul and the various districts, but I'm poor.

 

[Nofix]

Alright I've caught up to it, interesting to see religious movements taking power. They can always be a wild card, anywhere, anyway.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

Wow, nearly 10,000 views and over 100 posts already. All of my thanks to the readers for getting this far.

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The Genoese-Venetian War: Round 3, Part II​

When we last left off in the narrative we see Rome finally deciding to willingly enter yet another brutal and potentially destructive conflict. One that was had been taking a massive toll on both sides, spiraling into an ever more chaotic and ferocious warzone where it seemed like every battle was trying to up the ante on the carnage. You’d think that after a mere decade of reform it’d be unwise to return to like sticking one’s hand into a hornet’s nest. Even worse when you consider the historical track record: pretty much every time Rome decided to intervene in the affairs of the warring states, they ended up losing in some way or another. So why here? Why not just stay on the sidelines and watch both weaken themselves? Here it was somewhat different- Rome had quite a lot to gain for little work, relatively speaking. The fighting would be in their backyard (or so they thought), the Merchant republics (and the Beylik of Aydin) would do most of the work, and the tantalizing prizes of Athens, Naxos, and other former possessions would be open for reconquest without many complaining about aggression. It was a relatively reasonable proposition in terms of economic calculus at the time. And that economic calculus also explains the rationale for who’s side to take in this conflict. In joining the war effort alongside Genoa, Eastern Rome had more to gain: Revenge for the Fourth Crusade, forcing a major rival to start paying commerce taxes once more, regaining prestige, weakening an enemy and of course, seizing territory. Of which, that last one was likely the greatest material incentive to support Genoa. In antagonizing Genoa, Romania might regain the Crimea and once more cement Constantinople as the major trading center in the Black and Aegean seas (as Galata would most certainly be destroyed). But in siding with Genoa, Romanian opens herself up to taking all the Venetian territories dotted around her lands; the Venetian islands in the Ionian sea, the Duchy of Athens, the Duchy of the Islands (better known as Naxos), Euboea and of course the grand prize of Crete. (They of course weren’t thinking that Genoa might want some of that too but whatever). Venice was just too tempting to resist, and her allies far, far away.

With these questions answered, let us return to the narrative and continue onward. Upon the formal agreement to join forces with the Genoese “For retribution at the injustices, the expulsion, and final extermination of the Venetian Republic”, public sentiment in Genoa rose, as with it the desire to continue the war. Neither of the Italian Republics were blind to the developments going on in Eastern Rome, with its de-urbanization, naval expansion and fraternization with the Turkish Beyliks being treated as curious developments that while should not be taken a blind eye towards, were not enough of a threat to merit intervention- especially not when tensions had been rapidly plummeting with Venice and the other Italian states. Everyone in Genoa knew war would once more return since Venice began to occupy the critical niche Genoa had set for itself as the broker between the Steppe Khans of the Silk Road and Western Europe. Wasting resources to put the Byzantines back in line, critically when they’re united under stronger leadership than hadn’t been seen since the days of Michael VII would be a waste of money at best, and a grievous folly at worst. But that’s irrelevant now. What is, is that Genoa had seen a positive development of the East Roman state and gladly accepted its aid in a time of crisis.

And now back to the story. In the next month or so the two powers would see talks of coordination and mobilization of military assets in East Rome. These talks would prove a very fruitful endeavor, with a brilliant plan devised that would critically shift the balance in this war. Taking advantage of Rome’s outward neutrality and policy of naval rearmament to avoid suspicion, Genoa managed to smuggle many of its engineers, shipwrights and other specialists (disguised as Turkish merchants of all things) to build a Genoese fleet in Constantinople via the latter’s arsenal over the winter. At the same time, Rome would use a combination of bribery and diplomatic leverage to shift the piracy of Aydinids and their allies away from the Genoese republic, freeing additional ships to be used in the fight against Venice. In the Queen of Cities, the resources of the empire were put at work to expand the shipyards and docks to build the desired fleet. The urban poor would be put to work in building the fleet and Genoese loans would pay for the raw materials and upkeep needed. Not to say that our empire got a blank check, but Genoese banks were very generous in how they split the bill. Despite initial hopes, progress was slower than expected thanks to a combination of inexperience and lack of institutions that were present in the Merchant Republics to facilitate the building and outfitting of ships. In spite of that however, the winter was fruitful and 26 ships were built, outfitted and manned to Genoese specifications.

On the spring of 1352, the new offensive was launched. Not from the port of Constantinople, but from a field army in Northern Thessaly. Roman forces were too cut off and occupy the Duchy of Athens, preventing the arrival of reinforcements to Venetian controlled Euboea. The ‘field army’, comprising the bulk of the professional Roman forces, swept through the relatively impoverished region straight for the capital. Athenian forces, the descendents of the Catalan company that initially conquered the territory in the early 1300s put up decent amounts of resistance when the knights could, despite the deck being thoroughly stacked against them. Athenian forces were stretched thin following the war’s beginning (where under orders from Barcelona, the military had to support Venice as much as they could, which amounted to having a large contingent of troops stationed on the island and away from their manors) and the military wasn’t under the best conditions due to an increasingly worsening economy, that began to crack under the strain of no longer receiving Roman imports [1]. This was then followed up by Roman soldiers enticing revolts by the local Greek peasantry using the incentives of restoring Orthodoxy and lowering taxes. And, contrary to what one might expect at this point, nobles were not massacred (Ok most of the time). Instead ransoming being for a profit was the standard, for both money and for limiting the annoyance of Aragon, who still had limited engagement.

One can probably see where this is going. In just a few months, Athens is in dire shape; the military’s already overstretched with commitments overseas, the economy is rapidly contracting forcing higher extractions on the peasantry, the invading army is matching your forces better than expected, and the amount of fires needing to be put out in the form of revolts is growing more and more. Eventually this leads to troops deserting and most of the land being in enemy hands by May, and the capital being sieged in July. Oh, and your initial goal of defending the Venetian island failed. Horribly. Its no surprise that when the Romans reach the walls of the city, Duke Frederick [2] surrenders without much of a fight under the offer of clemency from Romania.

Oh, and speaking of Euboea, at the same time Romania’s troops marched down to reclaim their territory on the mainland, from Constantinople emerged a combined Roman-Genoese fleet launching simultaneous attack on the island. Overwhelming force was once again the rule, despite valiant resistance. The Island capitulated swiftly, and with it the major Venetian forts in the Aegean. It gets worse the Venetians, as word reaches the city that Naxos, their ‘ally’ has fallen. Its not from the usual suspects however; instead it was, of all things, the Beylik of Aydin, who made a calculated risk attacking a Venetian territory correctly guessing that enemy forces would be more focused on other matters than on a minor, if strategically located player in the Aegean.

The next few months would be a slow, steady advance for the Roman-Genoese axis. The fleet, split into several squadrons began to patrol and push out the Venetians from the Aegean bit by bit. The chaotic battles and rapid raids that characterized the war remained, but ever so slightly Venice began to withdraw more and more; raids became scarcer and smaller in volume and full on assaults with the attempt of conquest were by end the of year nonexistent. By early 1343, Venice had lost any semblance of control in the Aegean, with even its holdings in the Ionian isles being threatened. With such major obstacles out of the way, the two powers grew confident. They had the effectively succeeded at a major war goal: Pushing the enemy out of the vital Black Sea trade routes and eliminating resistance along the way. Drunk on victory, they began to plan bolder and bolder offensives- a raid on Corfu, on Dalmatia, on Syracuse. But those wouldn’t do. What was needed was a final knockout blow to cripple the Venetians in their entirety before striking the killing blow. And quickly the two powers found their target: The crown jewel in Venice’s empire, Crete.

[1] See post 73
[2] Same guy as OTL.

 

[ByzantineLover]

I sense disaster for the allies. Things have been going a bit too well for them so far.

 

[Dragos Cel Mare]

I sense disaster for the allies. Things have been going a bit too well for them so far.

Agreed; on the other hand, Eastern Rome needs to learn a little lesson in how to beware of Hubris.

 

[Stark]

I really like this so far. It's nice to see focus on details, timelines tend to loose some immersion when they switch to great imperial conflicts.

Btw, from whose POV are these chapters written?

 

[RGB]

The Venetians were pretty blind to have missed such a perfect storm.

I think a war this successful would definitely breed victory disease and also arguments over spoils. Beware, Romans!

 

[Sh3ba]

Who is leading the rhoman army? And if venice is defeated this could see ragusa free! I now wanna see a ragusa wank, even if this is a eastern roman TL? Whose with me? Ragusa wank

 

[trajen777]

Great timeline -- well thought out -- you might want to cover the concessions given by Genoa to Byz to come into the battle -- ie back to 10% tariff - also confused why the loan from Genoa to build a Genoa fleet in Byz -- i would think instead of a loan a payment + profit

BTW if the sea is controlled and a revolt can be made Crete is quite possible to seize being cut off

An interesting aside -- one of the curious things was the Egyptians going through Byz to supply slaves from the Caucasus to man their army -- a more prosperous Byz seeing he success of the Mamuluks might also be tempted to form some type of unit for Super Vargarians

Fully on board with time line

 

[Unknown]

Good update.

Hope the Romans survive longer than OTL.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

I sense disaster for the allies. Things have been going a bit too well for them so far.

Agreed; on the other hand, Eastern Rome needs to learn a little lesson in how to beware of Hubris.

Well Im not going to spoil anything aside from mentioning that Crete had a large Venetian population and Aragon liked their duchy.

I really like this so far. It's nice to see focus on details, timelines tend to loose some immersion when they switch to great imperial conflicts.

Btw, from whose POV are these chapters written?

Uhh... I honestly don't know who'd write these. Maybe its a podcast on an alternate Byzantine Empire?

The Venetians were pretty blind to have missed such a perfect storm.

I think a war this successful would definitely breed victory disease and also arguments over spoils. Beware, Romans!

It might just be me, but Venice seems to have reacted somewhat slowly to developments. They seemed to be always caught off guard by Genoese improvements in finance, shipping, warfare, etc and Genoa didn't exactly try to hide it.

Who is leading the rhoman army? And if venice is defeated this could see ragusa free! I now wanna see a ragusa wank, even if this is a eastern roman TL? Whose with me? Ragusa wank

I don't know who's leading the army at this time.

Ragusa is off limits at this time. You'd need Venice to be destroyed in its entirely or to be sacked for it to accept that level of defeat. Ragusa, and all of Dalmatia play a vital role in the Republic's economy and sources of manpower and would fight to the death to protect it.

Great timeline -- well thought out -- you might want to cover the concessions given by Genoa to Byz to come into the battle -- ie back to 10% tariff - also confused why the loan from Genoa to build a Genoa fleet in Byz -- i would think instead of a loan a payment + profit

Thank you! Whilst I did have thoughts of explaining how the planning and finances and concessions in detail, I don't want to be bogged down as much, so Im purposefully leaving things a little bit vague to keep the story going at what I feel is an acceptable pace. I mean, its already like 10 or so updates and I'm still not even a decade after the POD!

As for the loans, Genoa knows that it almost certainly would be short on cash following the conclusion of this war. Historically this war almost bankrupted them. Here, they would want to give the necessary money needed but at the same time have a better chance of getting that money back. I think, via a loan, the payments would be more 'presentable' to the Romans (and thus less likely for them to turn their backs on paying the money) than an agreement of trade concessions or a cut of the profits. A loan also has the benefit of keeping their potential rival poorer by forcing them to pay whats basically tribute, but in a nicer package.

BTW if the sea is controlled and a revolt can be made Crete is quite possible to seize being cut off

That's true, but there's still the problem of several thousand armed Venetians that need to be dealt with, and who historically have been able to quell revolts from the indigenous Greeks until reinforcements from the motherland drive.

An interesting aside -- one of the curious things was the Egyptians going through Byz to supply slaves from the Caucasus to man their army -- a more prosperous Byz seeing he success of the Mamuluks might also be tempted to form some type of unit for Super Vargarians

Ok that's cool, and could work for at least a few decades. With a lower Venetian presence in the Black Sea (they were the main slavers in this region) the Byzantines can take up the niche of middle-man ferrying slaves captured from the steppes towards the buyers in Egypt, the Maghreb and Mesopotamia. For a few decades at most mind as, to my knowledge, the Golden Horde has already started to decline and when Timur comes it and its economy will be crippled. Should a alternate Khanate of Crimea arise than it'd be much weaker than historically as there'd be no Ottoman support to finance their raids. Which means the supply of slaves will be much lower as will the time slavery will be profitable (It'll only be a matter of time before the Russians push down and end the trade once and for all).

However, I feel I must note that even if we get a slave soldier detachment serving the Emperor they may not be the most reliable troops and would try to interfere in court politics as soon as they can. Happened in Egypt, happened in Delhi, happened with the Ottomans. But eh, all states make stupid decisions.

But of course, this all depends on the dynamics going on in Egypt, of which I have things planned for.

Fully on board with time line

Good update.

Hope the Romans survive longer than OTL.

Well they're already massively powerful compared to where they were IOTL, so I think its pretty likely they'll have a better shot.

 

[Dragos Cel Mare]

How is the Hesychast controversy faring?

 

[Deleted member 67076]

How is the Hesychast controversy faring?

I'll get back to you on that. To be honest Im very on the fence on how the results of Church synods would go, so Ive been delaying talking about this for a while. I need to think about this for a while. (I'll be happy to take in anyone's input on this matter on terms of plausibility)

 

[Nagisaki]

...

Can barely believe what I read here... I love this TL. Totally keeping an eye on this one.

 

[Dragos Cel Mare]

That reminds me, what is the organization, equipment, and training of the Rhoman Army and Navy?

Also, in previous updates, you use 'Rome' to refer to Constantinople (which is the superior city), instead of East Rome.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

Can barely believe what I read here... I love this TL. Totally keeping an eye on this one.

That reminds me, what is the organization, equipment, and training of the Rhoman Army

Doctrine has not significantly diverted from standard Palaiologoi military thought in any way. Which in practice is a modified form of the Komnenoi army but modified to be much smaller and faster. The on paper strength would be 15,000 men but in practice its really around 13,000 men. This is not really going to change as the army is proportionately getting less funding.

Equipment standards have not really changed from how they were historically, but I suppose there will be less heavy cavalry due to the change in army composition and who can afford better equipment. Note, that as wages go up the soldiers should be able to improve the quality of their equipment and the amount of weaponry they have (not really increasing the amount of armor as that would compromise mobility, which until the army can increase itself to a sizable amount of say, 20-30K troops, its going to focus on mobility. The garrisons however, are almost certainly more heavily armored, as their goal is to defend the region until the rest of the field army arrives to proved reinforcements.

Training is, now that Im thinking about it, probably slightly worse than it would be historically. Much of the men in the army are contract farmers who are in it for the money and aren't even campaigning/training for most of the year, haven't spent years training themselves in preparation for war like nobles and the state hasn't been aggressively conquering territory, giving room for the army to be as experienced as it used to be even 50 years before.

and Navy?

On paper its several dozen galleys and transport ships based on early 1300s Venetian design. The sailors of the navy are noticeably less armored than in the army.

I won't go into much detail as frankly the ship design is going to rapidly change throughout the century (and I plan to start moving the story's pace faster). Naval artillery comes into play at this time, as the developments of better amphibious assaults, faster ship designs, the start of sails replacing galleys, etc, etc.

As for training, well most recruits would have some experience in piracy and trading, as the navy would be sent to protect the Roman merchant vessels from would be pirates along with many being sent off as 'volunteers' amongst the Aydinid raiding expeditions. As always, I'd say less than the Merchant republics. There's simply not enough maritime tradition.

Also, in previous updates, you use 'Rome' to refer to Constantinople (which is the superior city), instead of East Rome.

I'm going to bounce around the names because redundancy is boring. Expect Rome, East Rome, Romania, the imperials, etc.

 

[Dragos Cel Mare]

How are 1.) The Rus States, and 2.) Byzies' relations with said Rus states and Golden Horde?

 

[Deleted member 67076]

How are 1.) The Rus States, and 2.) Byzies' relations with said Rus states and Golden Horde?

1) Same as they were under this period, divided and under Mongol domination.

2) To be honest Im not too familiar with how the relations between the Rus states and Eastern Rome are at this time period, I'll have to get back to you on that.
EDIT: Research on my part indicates it'd be similar under John Cantacuzenus in terms of church policy (the Patriarch hasn't decreased in strength), with the only difference is the Balaarmists would receive support rather than those focusing on mysticism. Also turns out that many Russian pilgrims sent remittances to the Orthodox church in Constantinople. Yeah, that'll make the Imperials real happy.

As for the Golden Horde, steadily improving. Theres a mutually profitable trade relationship going on and the Byzantines, unlike the Genoese and Venetians don't try to sabotage anyone's trade, so the Khanate has little reason to dislike them now. If the Khan likes them a bit more and our plucky imperials are willing to bribe the khan, you might see a small colony in the Black Sea form, probably in the Azov. (Crimea is awfully crowded, nor would Genoa like more competition.)

 

[Dragos Cel Mare]

Already told you this on Steam, but there's also the fact that if Lithuania, especially under Olgred and Jagiello, aren't kept happy, they might ally with the Golden Horde and oppose the Rus. In fact, it was the efforts of a Byzantine-appointed Metroploitan, Cyprian, that prevented Jagiello from honoring his alliance with the Golden Horde, which in turn allowed the Muscovites to crush the Mongols in the Battle of Kulivuvo. This was made more remarkable by the fact that the Muscovte Prince was a bit of a dick towards Cyprian.

So, the Byzantine Ecclesiastical establishment would have to play the role of meditators, using the OTL solutions that kept the Lithuanians appeased - Temporary Metropolitans and such - in order to keep Olgred and Jagiello from helping out the Golden Horde.