-Aigyptos-
22-10-2007, 08:47
Over the course of time, empires rise to power, but invariably fall to the dust of defeat—the only question was when they would do so, whether by conquest or through internal strife. For over one hundred and one thousand years, the Byzantines had ruled what remained of the Eastern Roman Empire, shielding Europe from the Sassanids and, in the last couple of centuries, the Muslims, but eventually falling to the Arab advance in 1453, with Constantine XI perishing in battle with Turkish troops. The Russian Grand Duke of Muscovy, Ivan III, had declared himself to be the patron of Eastern Orthodoxy, and thus the successor to the Palaiologos dynasty. Tsars Stefan Dušan and Ivan Alexander, of Serbia and Bulgaria, respectively, had made similar claims, but were defeated by the Turks in the 1390s, stifling their voices.
Aigyptos, one of the last remaining provinces of the Byzantine Empire (and the only one capable of functioning, unlike the others to its west, who were completely in disarray without the leadership of Constantinople, which Aigyptos, to its chagrin, could not provide) roundly declared the claims of Ivan III to be absolutely untrue. The city of Alexandria, they claimed, was the rightful successor to Byzantium, and thus to Rome by proxy, because not only was the Patriarch, Euandros I Skoteinos, the last remaining claimant of the Byzantine throne, but also because it was one of the Pentarchial Cities, having been founded by Mark the Evangelist.
It was not as if Aigyptos could do anything about it, given their dire position vis-à-vis the Arabs, who were dead-set on taking the province and thus have the entirety of the western lands beyond (and the Mediterranean) at their disposal, but they were damned well going to declare it anyway, because it was an important thing to do.
However, in the face of all this, even if the Aigyptians were a little overconfident (well, after having survived over eight hundred years of continual siege with generally only the Kushites and Libyans to count on, they had a right to be, in a sense), the government was not senseless, and it sent out a (renewed) request (again) to be aided by whomever should decide to liberate the last remaining bastion of Eastern Orthodoxy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean.
Aigyptos, one of the last remaining provinces of the Byzantine Empire (and the only one capable of functioning, unlike the others to its west, who were completely in disarray without the leadership of Constantinople, which Aigyptos, to its chagrin, could not provide) roundly declared the claims of Ivan III to be absolutely untrue. The city of Alexandria, they claimed, was the rightful successor to Byzantium, and thus to Rome by proxy, because not only was the Patriarch, Euandros I Skoteinos, the last remaining claimant of the Byzantine throne, but also because it was one of the Pentarchial Cities, having been founded by Mark the Evangelist.
It was not as if Aigyptos could do anything about it, given their dire position vis-à-vis the Arabs, who were dead-set on taking the province and thus have the entirety of the western lands beyond (and the Mediterranean) at their disposal, but they were damned well going to declare it anyway, because it was an important thing to do.
However, in the face of all this, even if the Aigyptians were a little overconfident (well, after having survived over eight hundred years of continual siege with generally only the Kushites and Libyans to count on, they had a right to be, in a sense), the government was not senseless, and it sent out a (renewed) request (again) to be aided by whomever should decide to liberate the last remaining bastion of Eastern Orthodoxy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean.