Eastern Roman Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire could have and should have been the dominant power in the eastern Mediterranean. However, events conspired against it, turning a once wealthy and powerful state into a husk of its former self.

The Declining Years

At the time of the split, the Eastern Roman Empire had seen over a century of rapid growth thanks in part to the endless campaigns against the Parthians and Persians. Ancient cities had seen a revival and had begun to enter a golden age. The cities of the Levant held immense wealth and boasted some of the best city defenses and infrastructure outside of Italia. However, beginning with Diocletian, a systematic process began that slowly sapped the Eastern Empire of its wealth. When Diocletian split the Empire, he placed one of his most loyal statesmen in charge of the Eastern Empire: Gaius Belikaros the Lesser. Belikaros was aware of Diocletian’s intentions and reworked aspects of the Eastern Empire’s bureaucracy and administration to expedite the plan. For the last years of Diocletian’s reign he and Belikaros worked closely, redirecting the wealth and resources to the Western Empire to fund it’s construction and military projects.
Belikaros worked with Diocletian’s successor, Egnatius Tiburus I. During those years, Belikaros bounced the Eastern Imperial capital between Nicaea, Halikarnassos, Memphis, and Antiochia, from where Belikaros conducted his various campaigns against the Persians. In 342, Belikaros passed away and was succeeded by his chief appointee, Agathon Thessekalos. Thessekalos, was aware of the ongoing scheme between the West and East and saw that it was continued. For unknown reasons, Thessekalos agreed to secede Moesia Superior and western Macedonia to Egnatius. Around this time he was additionally fighting a bloody war in southern Armenia which was attracting most of his attention.

The First Collapse

In IY 425, the Eastern Emperor Heron Hasidos was slain in battle with the Hunnic rearguard that was leaving eastern Anatolia. This led to the ascension of a young Emperor Galus Herkilanos to command the Eastern Empire. This was a poorly timed ascension, as a mere 3 years later the great barbarian invasions of the Eastern Empire began. The young emperor saw his Empire completely over run in under a decade. The capital of Nicaea was raised to the ground and the Imperial court fled to Rhodos. The Eastern Empire was overrun by Gothic, Vandali, and Hunnic forces with Anatolia, Syria, and the Levant falling to them. The Eastern Imperial capital moved to Memphis while they fought back the oncoming onslaught.
From IY 432 to IY 455 the Eastern Empire under Galus slowly reconnected its territories and the capital was moved back to a rebuilt Nicaea. Shortly, after the return to Anatolia, Galus caught the plague and died; replaced by his chief commander Markos Stratigon the Able. Markos was the first Eastern Emperor not in agreement with the century long plan to drain wealth from the East. Markos reviled the West and quickly ceased the tribute being sent west. However, the damage had long been done. Markos began setting about plans to rebuild the Eastern Empire into some semblance of its former self. All of his plans were cut short in IY 463 with a renewed Hun invasion.

The Scouring and Exile Years

In early IY 463, the Hun Empire under Attila and Bleda invaded the Eastern Imperial territory of Thrace sacking the entire province. This was a staggering blow to the Eastern Empire, as the cities in Thrace had been able to remain largely wealthy and well off in the face of the economic decline. The Huns then quickly continued across the Bosporus, shattering the Eastern Roman defenses. Seeing the coming storm Markos ordered his court quickly evacuated to Rhodos once again. From there, Markos was forced to watch as Hun forces overran what remained of the Eastern Empire. The Goths and Vandals in the Levant and Syria expanded their existing dominions, seizing more Imperial lands.
For the next 25 years, the Eastern Empire watched from Rhodos as the Huns ravaged their lands. During that time, Markos ordered and led several invasions of Thrace and Anatolia in attempts to retake lost Imperial land. None of these efforts had long lasting success, with most of the invasions outright failing and the most successful only retaking a city for a year. During this time, Markos also abolished most of the historic Imperial practices, beginning a decade’s long process of restructuring the entire Eastern Empire. To them, Rome had long since abandoned them and in many regards was now their foe.
Rhodos was turned into a massive fortress island and modeled into a new capital for the empire in exile. Before his death in IY 482, Markos rechristened the Eastern Roman Empire as the Empire of Rhodos. However, the title of Eastern Empire and even the Eastern Roman Empire would still be used well into the next century.

7 wonders colossus of Rhodes by MiguelCoimbra

The Primo Conquestum and the Rise of the Successor States (IY499-541)

Early Conquests (IY499-512)

With the height of Hun Empire under Attila beginning to wan, The Empire of Rhodos, under the new command of Emperor Aekilius struck out the begin the reclamation of their lost territory. From IY 499 to 508 three campaigns took place in Thrace and the western coast of Asia Minor. These campaigns led to the successful reconquest of Byzantium, Nicaea, Nikomedia, Hadrianopolis, and Halicarnassus as well as the surrounding territories.
Rhodos fought a bloody war from IY502-505 with Gepid tribes that were trying to migrate into Thrace. This war was so successful that they drove the Gepids out of Moesia and Thrace for decades to come. The war ended ceremoniously when the Rhodos legions reached the Western Roman Empire’s borders at Greece. In spite of the rising animosity between the two Empires, there was much celebration between the two armies.
The third campaign came to an end in 508 with the successful conquest of Attalea and the defeat of a large Hunnic Army. With the success, the three campaigns had brought, the victories over the Hunnic armies, and the slow recovery of the Rhodos economy, Emperor Aekilius’s successor, Philokrates, broke with the last thirty years and declared the reformation of the Eastern Roman Empire. The plan set forth was to reintegrate Egypt into the greater Empire and then use the resources to retake the Levant. This however, was met by resistance by the leaders of the Kingdom of Egypt.

Civil War for Egypt (IY512-522)

The decision to declare the Eastern Roman Empire’s return was not popular in the Empire of Rhodos. However, much of the immediate concern about the reformation was dashed as many of the disparate holdouts returned to the fold. However, Egypt’s refusal to rejoin the Empire was a surprise to them. After a year of diplomacy not getting them anywhere, the Eastern Empire declared war and invaded the province. Yet, a war that should have been over quickly instead dragged out. The cause was quickly discovered to be the Western Roman Empire. Beginning in 511, the Eastern Empire set up a blockade of Egypt to stop the supplies Rome was sending. The blockade was moderately successful.
Everything changed in 512 when Rome sent five legions to fight with Egypt. Furious Rhodos sent additional legions to fight the Roman arrivals. Additionally Rome marched on Thrace and for the Bosporus. The civil war between East and West was fought ferociously for three years. In IY515 however, Rome was forced to begin withdrawing troops from fighting Rhodos to defend the failing borders in Pannonia and in Gaul. The Eastern Empire was eventually able to capture greater Egypt from the Kingdom of Egypt. However, mere months later, Gothic and Vandali forces began to overwhelm the province and forced the Empire to abandon it once again.

End of the Civil War (IY 516-522)

The Civil War dragged on for another six years, though actual combat engagements were few and far between. Most of the remainder of the war was fought on the Mediterranean between the fleets of the two Empires. By the end of the war much of the progress the Eastern Empire had made in the first decade of the Primo Conquestum had been undone. The Empire’s economy had once again been reduced to a shamble after the Western Roman Empire invasion. They had failed to gain any new territories and had technically lost territory die to the wars in Egypt.
The Treaty of Crete was signing in March of 522 officially ending the war and permanently separating the two empires. The Western and Eastern Roman Empires were now two entirely different entities and all diplomatic and political links between the two empires had been severed.

The Second Collapse and the Rise of the Successor States (IY522-544)

The Eastern Empire spent the first decade after the Great Civil War desperately trying to rebuild it’s economy and infrastructure while holding off Hunnic raiders and defending against Slavic tribes migrating down from the north. To add salt to the wound of the Eastern Empire, the Slaver States began raiding the Empire’s Aegean islands even successfully leading a raid on Rhodos in 529. Much of the Eastern Empire’s fleet had either been sunk during the wanning days of the civil war or was now rotting in port.
In the hopes of both expanding their crumbling empire and regaining some it’s lost prestige and wealth, the Eastern Empire set about liberating the Black Sea coastline from Hun occupation and returning it to the fold of the Empire. The independent state of Trapezus was reintegrated into the Empire and over the course of five years the entirety of the coastline was recovered from the Huns. The Empire also set about extorting tribute from Albania and Armenia as well as the tribes of Hunogoths, Gepids, and Sklaveni. These tributes brought much needed wealth into the imperial treasury which funded the improvement of the army and navy as well as new infrastructure projects on Rhodos, Crete, and Cyprus. By 540 the Eastern Empire had recovered its northern border to the Danube and Caucasus Mountains.
The success was short lived. In IY541 political factions came to a head. Many inside the government were highly displeased that the Empire had returned to calling itself Roman. Most had little desire to be considered Roman or even Latin. There was clamor for a return to being the Empire of Rhodos. In the heat of July, a riot broke out on Rhodos and for two weeks the capital burned. At the end of the Riots of Rhodos, most of the opposition government was dead and the Empire of Rhodos was once again established.
Problems quickly arose in the recently liberated provinces. The four newly liberated provinces of Iberia, Trapezus, Sinope, and Odessus had little desire to be governed from Rhodes by what they had rapidly come to view as a chaotic and unreliable power. Additionally, most the Empire’s holdings in Thrace and Northern Anatolia were of a similar mindset as the populace’s there had expected to be returning to a Latin-Roman Empire, not a Greek-Rhodian one. In short succession the seven imperial territories of Iberia, Trapezus, Sinope, Odessus, Nikomedia, Thrace, and Poimanenon declared secession from the Empire and formed their own various independent states.
While Rhodos was able to regain control over the Poimanenon region the other six were able to fight back the Rhodian response. Largely in part to Thrace (now the Kingdom of Hadrianopolis) and Nikomedia (now the Kingdom of Nikomedia) allying, blocking the Bosporus from Rhodian forces, and combining their armies to halt the Rhodian attempts to pacify and reincorporate the regions. Also during this time, the new Kingdom of Trapezus swallowed up Iberia into its domain. The five remaining Successor States formed a loose alliance to defend against both the Huns and the Empire of Rhodos.
By IY554, the Empire’s attempts to retake the successor states ground to a halt as the imperial treasury once again ran dry. In a now infamous ceremony, the Emperor of Rhodos melted down the remaining Roman Eagles and burned what remained of any Roman-esk standard the Empire had born. Only July 13th, IY 554 the Eastern Roman Empire ceased to exist in its entirety for the second and final time. The official language of the Empire was switched to Greek and they set about quickly as possible abolishing everything Latin about the Empire, burning every bridge to their past in an inferno of hate and fury.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Capital

Rhodos

Alternative Names

Eastern Empire, Empire of Rhodos

Training Level

Semi-professional

Veterancy Level

Veteran

Government System

Dictatorship

Power Structure

Federation

Economic System

Market economy