Episode 323 – At Least Things Can’t Get Any Worse
Added 2025-04-25 20:45:48 +0000 UTCMap: The Roman Empire c 1350 AD
Finally in sole control of the Empire John Kantakouzenos makes plans to restore the Roman world. His plans come to nothing though as he immediately faces war, invasion and plague.
Period: 1347-55
Comments
Galata is completely inside of Roman territory but the Romans don’t control it. It is right across the Golden Horn, surrounded by Roman land. That is completely and totally messed up. It is on the Bosporus and Rome doesn’t control the Asian side, but still messed up.
erik w bjorke
2025-05-03 21:05:11 +0000 UTCHe even said the line in the podcast 🥰
Jcm
2025-04-30 05:16:39 +0000 UTCI think all was lost by this point. For a Basil II to succeed you have to have recruits who believe you can do it. I suspect post 1300 no one really believed anymore
Robin Pierson
2025-04-27 21:02:01 +0000 UTCYes this is when he says that. And excellent point about the names. Kantakouzenos was sincere in wanting to rule on behalf of A3s family but he had to be part of the deal
Robin Pierson
2025-04-27 21:00:59 +0000 UTCNo, I would be lost without modern scholarship. They are just following the sources we have.
Robin Pierson
2025-04-27 20:59:44 +0000 UTCI will recap when we talk about them in more detail. But Michael VIII launched an invasion shortly after retaking Constantinople.
Robin Pierson
2025-04-27 20:59:14 +0000 UTCSaccharomyces cerevisiae: ...
Xylem
2025-04-26 17:32:50 +0000 UTCI don’t necessarily believe in divine retribution, but the Black Death coming after Kantakouzenous’ civil war kind of says it for me.
Luke Alexander Williams
2025-04-26 15:16:26 +0000 UTCWhat's next, a big siege of Constantinople like the ones from season 2?
Guillem N
2025-04-26 14:43:50 +0000 UTCYou can tell writers are out of ideas when they decide to bring back a classic villain from season 1 like Yersinia Pestis.
Guillem N
2025-04-26 14:35:28 +0000 UTCLast we looked at the Peloponnese it was occupied by the Latins 🤮🤮, Have I missed something? How were the Paleologoi able to reoccupy these areas?
Kωnstantinos T.
2025-04-26 11:52:05 +0000 UTCAlso, I’m curious if you find the positive depiction of Kantakouzenos in older scholarship like Nicols or Norwich frustrating, given how disastrous and self serving his actions are
Liutprand
2025-04-25 23:51:45 +0000 UTCJohn Kantakouzenos: At least things can’t get any worse… Yersinia Pestis: Hold my beer!
Robert Gluzman
2025-04-25 22:09:02 +0000 UTCI don’t know exactly when he says this but I’m pretty sure this is when gregoras makes his famous comment that “there was nothing left in the treasury but the atoms of Epicurus.” Also it’s interesting to note that Andronikos III’s eldest son was named John after Kantakouzenos instead of Michael as would be expected, and then Kantakouzenos named one of his sons Andronikos. It adds a bit of personal drama to the tragedy of his actions, kind of like the first Andronikos’s eldest son being named Manuel, whose legacy he destroyed. I think that both of these would make great stories for movies or miniseries, if anyone would put out the money for it.
Liutprand
2025-04-25 21:38:06 +0000 UTCAnd I agree and I feel that this was the nail in the coffin for the roman empire and almost nothing could have saved it. What do you think Robin, if in place of John V after Kantakouzenos was a prime Basil II could the empire recoverd to a somewhat manageable situation, on a sound defensive footing? Could have he returned the empire to the territory held in the time of Michael VIII? Or even the territory held by the Angeloi?
Paul Astalas
2025-04-25 21:32:38 +0000 UTCOn a more serious note you can see here how long the empire endured, so long that a roman enemy from the 6th century comes back as a placeholder in the podcast.
Paul Astalas
2025-04-25 21:20:30 +0000 UTCAt 25:15 Robin says that "vandals attacked his property". As far as I remember Belisarius destroyed the vandals and they disappeared from history after Justinian. :)))
Paul Astalas
2025-04-25 21:18:44 +0000 UTCI love these ironic titles.
Andre Siqueira
2025-04-25 20:46:56 +0000 UTC
