The Eastern Roman
Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, is something that doesn’t
exactly loom large in the consciousness of the British public (unlike
the Western Empire), but it did play a huge role in history and
lasted over a thousand years.
But how did an Empire
that once stretched from the Balkans deep into the Middle East, with
enclaves in Italy and North Africa, fall?
There are several
reasons. The rise of Islam is an obvious one (Islam swiftly rolled up
the exhausted Persian Empire and the Ottoman Turks were the ones who
finally conquered Byzantium [aka Constantinople]). Another is the
Fourth Crusade, arguably the most stupid piece of foreign policy in
the history of Western civilisation. The split between Catholic
[ironically a term coined by the Eastern Emperor Theodosius, if
memory serves] and Orthodox Christianity, which played a substantial
role in the Fourth Crusade, is one more.
But perhaps the biggest
reason wasn’t the military defeat at Manzikert, or religious
bickering but a decision made by an emperor who was, in many ways, a
very capable man with a golden opportunity to make huge headway that he missed.
After a run of mostly
dreadful emperors, Alexius Comnenus put the Empire on a stable
footing and played a logistical and diplomatic master stroke by
enabling the First Crusade to be fed and watered without huge
grievance (although there was some bitterness, especially later, as
the Crusader states and Eastern Empire became less co-operative). His
son, John Comnenus, was a great leader who helped reconquer territory
from Turks who were, at this stage of history, on the back foot.
Manuel was the son of
John, and faced a decision: East or West? It wasn’t wholly binary
(the Empire couldn’t pretend either didn’t exist) but it was a
question of focus.
Manual did campaign in
the East, to good effect, but he also sent huge quantities of men and
money west. After his rival, Roger, King of Sicily, died and his
successor faced rebellion, Manuel sensed opportunity. With hindsight,
it was, perhaps, a mistake.
Initial military
triumph in Italy due to the disarray and rebellion there was coupled
with diplomatic success with the papacy (the church having suffered a
schism some time before this point). With reconquered territory in
Italy (until the 8th century the Eastern Empire had ruled
an exarchate in Italy) and alliance with the Pope, Manuel’s
decision appeared vindicated.
But things went awry.
One of his generals alienated the locals by his approach and was
recalled. When, immediately prior to battle, mercenaries demanded a
vast increase in pay and were refused, they defected. Defeat was
suffered, and all the time, money and manpower spent yielded only a
small presence in Italy.
The ultimate threat to
the Eastern Empire was not Italy, nor the Pope. It was not even
Venice and Genoa, though those cities would pick over the dying body
of Constantinople as a proxy for their trade war. It was the Turks.
Manuel could have and, in retrospect, probably should have focused
his attentions strictly on the East. It was from here that his
manpower was drawn, particularly Anatolia (modern day Turkey).
It may seem harsh to
pick out Manuel. He was a good, competent man, personally brave and
well-liked. But it is in the summer of prosperity that the seeds of
ruin are sown. It was luxury that enervated the Western Empire, as
Gibbon wrote. A wretch cannot hope to achieve success except by
extraordinary luck, but a talented man has the potential to achieve a
lot with wise decisions, and failure to do so can lead to future
penalties that are not immediately obvious (Marcus Aurelius permitting his ‘son’ to become emperor being a prime example).
Manuel’s son (a child
at accession) was overthrown, and his overthrower in turn deposed.
This led to the end of the Comneni dynasty which had furnished three
great and long-reigning emperors and ushered in the disastrous Angeli
dynasty under whom the Fourth Crusade occurred, a blow from which the
Empire never recovered. That was just over 20 years after Manuel’s
death.
Thaddeus
No comments:
Post a Comment