NationStates Jolt Archive

Since some people in the Best Roman Emperor thread thinks th Byzantines doesn't get enough credit, I thought I would make this thread, so here it goes..

Who do you think was the best Eastern Roman Emperor?

Personally I think it was Alexios I Komnenos, as he restored the Empire when it was on the verge of collapse.

Constantine, for starting the whole shindig.

Alexios I Komnenos - making his own archenemies swear an oath to him :D

Definitely not the Emperors before the 4th Crusade.

Either Justinian, Alexius I Comnemnos, or Constantine. I would, if pushed, go for Constantine, although his steadying of the Roman ship was temporary at best in the west.

It's a toss-up between Basil and Alexius, but I just had to go with Alexius because of the whole oath-swearing thing.

That man had balls.

Justinian. Without him, I don't believe Byzantium would have survived the Plague, or remained politically and militarily powerful enough to stand off the Caliphate for the many years it did.

NOT Justinian, because he put so much effort into trying to reconquer the West that he ran the East into serious financial trouble...

Heraclius. Dealt the Sassinids a blow from which they never recovered.

I collect coinage from in the 1204-1261 period but I've never truly worked out why Byzantium shifted from flat to cupped coins. Post 1261 - the coins become really cupped and really thin.

The most enduring legacy of the Byzantines was the civilizing of the Slavs, so I had to pick Basil II. Well, that and he granted my family their title as a result of the war with Tsar Samuel of the Bulgars. That we parleyed it into much more and swore fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade is another story, and we don't feature well in it.

Basil the Bulgar-Slayer. Alexius Comnenus was good but he was in an impossible situation, Turks to the right of him, Crusaders to the left of him. After Manizkert and the loss of Anatolia, the handwriting was on the wall and all the Byzantines could hope for was holding out as best they could. And after 1204, the jig was really up. It's amazing the City held out for another 250 years. Shows you what good walls and the odd Mongol invasion (Tamerlane) will do.

Duh! :rolleyes:

http://flackadelic.typepad.com/flackadelic/images/cookiemonster2.jpg

Duh! :rolleyes:

http://flackadelic.typepad.com/flackadelic/images/cookiemonster2.jpg

Well, yes, but I don't think he was ever an Augustus, only a Caesar during the reign of the two emperors Bertius and Ernius. According to the fragmentary Historia Stratae Sesamorum, which is attributed to the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, he felt victim to a conspiracy and was forced to retire to a monastery in a remote part of Anatolia. The text is badly corrupt, with references to a large bird and to a Gothic (or perhaps "Swedish") chef.

I love Justinian. Him and Belisarus were such a pair. :D

Well, yes, but I don't think he was ever an Augustus, only a Caesar during the reign of the two emperors Bertius and Ernius. According to the fragmentary Historia Stratae Sesamorum, which is attributed to the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, he felt victim to a conspiracy and was forced to retire to a monastery in a remote part of Anatolia. The text is badly corrupt, with references to a large bird and to a Gothic (or perhaps "Swedish") chef.

This edition of Historia Stratae Sesamorum is brought to you by the letters G, M and by the number 4.

:)

This edition of Historia Stratae Sesamorum is brought to you by the letters G, M and by the number 4.

:)

Ahem. The number IV. ;)