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Robin Pierson
Robin Pierson

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Episode 323 – At Least Things Can’t Get Any Worse

Map: 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

Episode 323 – At Least Things Can’t Get Any Worse

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

He even said the line in the podcast 🥰

Jcm

I 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

Yes 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

No, I would be lost without modern scholarship. They are just following the sources we have.

Robin Pierson

I will recap when we talk about them in more detail. But Michael VIII launched an invasion shortly after retaking Constantinople.

Robin Pierson

Saccharomyces cerevisiae: ...

Xylem

I 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

What's next, a big siege of Constantinople like the ones from season 2?

Guillem N

You can tell writers are out of ideas when they decide to bring back a classic villain from season 1 like Yersinia Pestis.

Guillem N

Last 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.

Also, 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

John Kantakouzenos: At least things can’t get any worse… Yersinia Pestis: Hold my beer!

Robert Gluzman

I 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

And 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

On 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

At 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

I love these ironic titles.

Andre Siqueira


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