Justinian & Theodora - VII: The Cracks Begin to Spread - Extra History
Added 2016-01-22 08:11:13 +0000 UTCJustinian & Theodora are back! In Italy, their general faces fierce opposition... but not from the enemies he expected.
Comments
Certain as the sun rising in the Eastern Empire. Mediolanum set on fire. Pillaged and full of deceased.
Robbie the Gnome
2016-02-02 04:47:04 +0000 UTCThe Istanbul not Constantinople always makes me the of the cover They Might Be Giants did of that song.
Robbie the Gnome
2016-02-02 04:36:38 +0000 UTCNot to worry, plenty of other folks were sticklers about the Korean names, so your stickler brethren helped cover the gap there! We are doing some coverage of the Hungarian conquest, so if you'd be interested in helping with the names, send me a PM on here and we'll do our best to butcher the pronunciation anyway! <3
Extra History
2016-02-01 11:31:36 +0000 UTCHmm. Indeed. I'm glad to hear that Narses was a competent military commander.
Hariman
2016-01-31 03:57:22 +0000 UTCBtw, for the Suleiman series are you going to tackle the conquest of Hungary? If you need help with Hungarian names (pronunciation, Hungarian/Latin equivalent of place names that are now in Rumania/Slovakia, etc...), I'd be happy to help!
Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!
2016-01-31 01:43:48 +0000 UTCOh, I do, names are hard. I've even probably given you shit at some point for getting some names "wrong" (from my point of view) in the WW1 series. ;-) Don't mind me, I'm just a stickler for these things, but I also have a Eurocentric bias, seeing how it didn't bother me when you changed Korean names... ;-)
Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!
2016-01-31 01:34:14 +0000 UTCBull-headed generals who don't listen to anyone and charge into battles they have no business fighting have just as bad a track record as bureaucrats who meddle in affairs they don't fully understand. Basically, human arrogance is everywhere you look, regardless of station!
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:15:05 +0000 UTCAnd Persia. :D
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:12:12 +0000 UTCIf I remember correctly, John the Incompetent (I'm adopting that moniker for him now) was connected to Justinian by marriage. I don't quite remember the details on that, though, so maybe someone can double check me. In any case, you wouldn't think he could get himself into too much trouble with only a small force of cavalry, especially when he was supposed to just obey Belisarius's commands. But emphasis here goes on "supposed to be..." and the fact that Narses allied with him meant he had protection from any retribution on Belisarius's part. As for the clarification, Belisarius could have asked for clarification, but a message would have taken a lot of time to travel to Justinian and then return with his command. In that time, action needed to be taken, and Belisarius opted to let Narses have his way rather than make the argument between them even more public.
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:11:53 +0000 UTCJustinian's reign was... an arc. The first part of the series showed him climbing to the top of the arc. I'm afraid things do not get better from here.
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:06:54 +0000 UTCTrue as it can be! Barely even friends, then nobody bends, and the Goths kill everybody... That's how the song goes, right?
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:06:21 +0000 UTCWe started doing that in the Yi series (referring to Hanseong as Seoul), but the original Justinian and Theodora series came before that so we're being consistent with the way we referred to things there. That being said, it's always a debate when this comes up. We're currently dealing with it in the case of Istanbul/Constantinople for the Suleiman series - both names were in use at the time, and Istanbul is its name today, but Constantinople is both famous enough to be recognized still and what we've been calling it throughout the Justinian series. We don't want to give people the impression that the Ottomans changed the city's name as soon as they moved in (they didn't - it was Konstantiniyye in their formal documents and didn't formally change to Istanbul until the 1900s) but then again we do want them to start recognizing modern Istanbul as the location where all these things happened... I've talked myself in circles but you get an idea of how complicated names can be.
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:05:29 +0000 UTCPerhaps Walpole was descended from Vitiges! (He wasn't - that we know of - but being Walpole you never really know...)
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:01:05 +0000 UTCNarses was a very able military commander - in a perfect world, he and Belisarius could have cooperated to bring the battle to an even swifter end. But it wasn't in either of their natures to get along, as it turned out.
Extra History
2016-01-30 20:00:33 +0000 UTCNarses was actually a competent military commander as well, and succeeded in conducting other campaigns. It was more that putting the two of them in the same place, and asking Narses to submit tamely to that arrangement, was kind of like throwing two angry cats in a bag.
Extra History
2016-01-30 19:59:51 +0000 UTCEvery gift has its price...
Extra History
2016-01-30 19:58:54 +0000 UTCI'm sure he would have tried if he thought it would be more efficient than beating them up!
Extra History
2016-01-30 19:58:42 +0000 UTCYeah, although it's a shame he's not more famous than he is. For one, he accomplished an amazing amount with very limited resources, and for two, he's got a really bad-ass-sounding name.
Extra History
2016-01-30 19:58:23 +0000 UTCAbsolutely amazing. Thank you <3
Martin Ockovsky
2016-01-24 11:34:55 +0000 UTCyou make a good point. Military leaders have to deal with bureaucrats to get things done properly. its sad as I think bureaucrats mess up everything, but i remember a quote, "the only thing that will save us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency" which i assume means there isn't anything better and when something does, it will replace bureaucracy.
Bottas Heimfe
2016-01-23 23:43:47 +0000 UTCGenerals are perfectly capable of screwing up without bureaucratic interference. I'm currently reading the Guns of August - about the first month of WW1 - and in the first two weeks the French General Joffre is indeed failing because in part he won't broach bureaucratic interference.
RMS Oceanic
2016-01-23 20:33:22 +0000 UTCGoddammit, why does brilliant generals always have to be hindered by some bureaucrat? Military officers should take command of battles and civil officers should focus on the state. If it only was so easy.
Hung Nguyen
2016-01-23 17:58:12 +0000 UTCHere's a hint: Antonine, Cyprian, Justinian.
RMS Oceanic
2016-01-23 15:42:33 +0000 UTCI guess when it rains it pours, I'm waiting to see what's possibly going wrong back in Constantinople.
Aaron hutchinson
2016-01-23 07:53:56 +0000 UTCDo we have any record of how John the Incompetent ended up in charge of 2000 cavalry? Did he get there through political connections or did he actually have some leadership abilities? Also, why didn't Belisarius send messages to Justinian asking for clarification that he was in charge? Did Belisarius believe that Narses was right, and that his actions weren't in the best interest of the state? Why wasn't John relieved of command after they broke him out of Ariminum? BTW, illustrations in this one were great. Especially Belisarius and John talking on the tin can telephone.
Chase Denecke
2016-01-23 03:30:12 +0000 UTCPolitical ambitions sabotage the benefit of the collective. A story as old as man.
Michael Jebbett
2016-01-23 02:25:10 +0000 UTCAwesome! I'm so glad to you guys continuing this series! Looking forward to seeing what happens next. It's depressing to see things going so poorly for the Romans though...
Colin
2016-01-23 00:19:49 +0000 UTCCompetition and miscommunication between generals... tale as old as time
Michael Waisfeld
2016-01-22 20:15:30 +0000 UTCWhy don't you also give the cities' modern names? Mediolanum is Milan, it's not an unknown place. It would help the viewers put things on the map better...
Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!
2016-01-22 19:36:06 +0000 UTCWalpole @ 6:07. Now I'm incredibly curious how this event relates to him.
Indigo
2016-01-22 18:27:52 +0000 UTCGoddammit, John.
Timothy McLean
2016-01-22 18:03:13 +0000 UTCwhy did Justinian send Narses in the first place? I can't make any sense of it
Cosimo McCaffrey
2016-01-22 17:59:57 +0000 UTCThe fault here lies with Justinian and Narses. Justinian sent a political schemer in where a military commander, and Narses failed to realize that fracturing the army and its loyalties as much as he did would cause more problems down the line. Also, seriously, John had better have actually been ill, and not faking it. Otherwise, he's an utter bastard who let a town die for petty politicking.
Hariman
2016-01-22 17:31:37 +0000 UTCMakes me feel bad for Belisarius. Who would have thought that getting reinforcements was the worse thing that could have happened
GrayMorality
2016-01-22 13:25:30 +0000 UTCSeems a shame Narses couldn't just bribe the Ostrogoths into surrendering XD... No seriously, he's only come up once in the tale, and that was to bribe people into surrender!
The Brit Git
2016-01-22 10:57:28 +0000 UTCMediolanum delenda est, it seems. I'm really reminded of Carthage's fate. An ignoble end for the one-time capital of the Western Empire. And like Admiral Yi, Belisarius is having to deal with politics that maybe he isn't suited for. I may be getting a picture of why, lack of information about the Byzantines beside, he's not as celebrated in the annals of military history.
RMS Oceanic
2016-01-22 08:43:58 +0000 UTC
