I’m well educated on this

Air conditioning

Everything

A big dude with a big army burnt the city to the ground

I’m REALLY well educated on this

Same as anything, corruption.

That's the main one

I’d say hedonism and laziness.

The empire was fine under Marcus Antoninus.

However, An emperor named Commodus pulled up

Rome fell due to degeneration of the people physically and spiritually, and then a series of restorative movements rose up attempting to stop this each failing to truly redeem the Roman people.

Lazy, ineffective ruler

Who was unpopular

He was assassinated and the throne fell into chaos

In 193; there were 5 claimants for the throne and Septimius Severus ended up claiming it

All was gucci until 211 when he died and Geta took the throne.

His own brother killed him in his mom’s arms.

He was one cruel bastard ngl

So it was the 3rd Century Crisis?

Burned down Alexandria when they dissed him

@Florida Man yeah.

Big Barbarians

Not even barbarians

After Caracalla was assassinated a string of emperors came up

And also the murder of the greatest Roman emperor at the time

Resulting in 20 years of like 17 emperors

Oh yeah Caracalla

Isn’t he Severus’s son

It was ok from 263 when Gallienus was in power

“Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.” --Horace 1st century BCE

The empire somehow recovered; but we’re not done here

Diocletian ended up making a tetrarchy by 284

That was fine; worked out ok

Enter 337 CE; constantine’s death

The empire did super well under Cinstantine

Constantine

The G****rms and H****ns

It was then split under his three sons

RIP the legend Constantine

G*rms and H*ns

One was a faggot; the other quiet, and another rebellious

*H*ns

*H*n

Ew faggot

The faggot killed the rebel; and a usurper killed the faggot

That is not good

All was fine till Constantius I died in 261

So the quiet one?

Julian the Apostate pullednup

What happened to him

Yeah the quiet one reigned for a bit

Old age got to him

Alas

The year’s like 375

Emperor Valentinian I dies of a burst blood vessel from rage

After meeting with quadi diplomats

Damn

He was mad

A bunch of mediocre emperors take ground; but otherwise it’s fine

I’d say the real downfall was in 395 AD

Excellent emperor Theodosius I divided the empire into Two

The problem was

Honorius inherited the West side

Honorius was fucking pathetic

An empire divided cannot stand apparently.

Does Byzantium count as Roman?

He killed off his best general; Stilicho, and in 410 when rome was plundered by barbarians

Here’s what he said

The Jews

@✧☽ 𝒹 𝓇 𝑒 𝒶 𝓂 𝒾 𝓃 𝑔 ☾✧ surprised how long it took for somebody to say that in this server.

Me too honestly

I took initiative and stepped up

N¡gger lol!

Heil Stalin

My phone died.

Mb

Honorius was told that Rome was lost.

Lmao Avery is officially the most based

And at that moment; Honorius was fucking livid

Why?

Because his chicken was named rome and thought he got lost

Mmm no particular reason......

When he was corrected that the City was lost he was relieved

Spineless emperor.

Bruh

The east was OK basically

Arcadius was weak; but Theodosius II came in and ruled for 50 years

In the West some bloke named Valentinian III came along

He was powerless and controlled by anyone around him

Ended up being convinced to kill his best general; Flavius Aetius

He was assassinated in 455 AD.

His successor wasn’t better and got stoned to death by a mob

From there, the west was falling terribly

A general named Majorian tried his best to recover territory and succeeded

Except in the early 460s, a despot general named Ricimer killed him.

Rome fell in 476 AD shortly after.

The east on the other hand was fine.

Leo I The Thracian and Marcian handled the Huns and barbarians well

Then came along a homie named Zeno in 476

His own brother in law convinced him that his life was in danger and nicked the throne while he was gone.

Basiliscus was killed in 477 in Cappadocia.

Zeno promised to not shed his blood so he left him and his family to die in a cistern.

Zeno ruled until his death in 491?

All was ok; an old emperor came to throne; Anastasius I Dicorus

Anastasius completely filled up the NOW Byzantine treasury

His time came by; and for his successor Justin I

Then came Justinian I

People see him as great; and yeah; sure.

He conquered territory

But he let the Nika Riots go by and drained the treasury

Not amazing, but he was a good emperor overall

His successor Justin II his nephew was a bit insane.

Died after a short reign

His successors were fine souls; coming up to a lad named Maurice

Maurice was on the danube frontier in 602 when a Centurion named Phokas overthrew him and executed him

People say phokas was miserably terrible, but I’ll explain later

Phokas had a lot to deal with since the Sassanid emperor named Khosrau declared war on the Byzantine empire, and there were Slavs in the west.

Phokas was quite unpopular, but he ended up doing OK. Sort of better than his successor

Heraclius was the next in line who had him killed in 608.

maurice from king julien

Heraclius held off the Sassanids pretty well for 30 years until trouble brewed in the Levant

Something happened in 632 AD, anyone know what?

Muslim

AllahuAkbarman died

Aka Muhammad

So; Moslems began erupting

The sassanids and byzantines went to fight them

In 636, at the mouth of the Yarmouk river

The Arabs completely smashed an army that outnumbered them

Heraclius was broken, and he died years later. Poor soul, all he worked for was destroyed

His successor did his best to hold off the Arabs and did perfectly fine.

Constans II Pogonatos became unpopular towards the end of his reign in 668.

He was killed in his own tub by his chamberlain with a bucket.

Whoops!

Lol of course you would be here troll

Coming around to uhh

700 AD

The emperors were fine off

Some bloke named Justinian II came up

Dont waste your time

Florida man is a troll

He’s not even disrupting my flow of words

I don’t mind

He doesnt debate and only uses rhetoric if he loses

Bro

I’m not debatin

My mistake

I’m recapping the entire roman history

From empire to 1453

The church?

Not only.

Alas

Justinian II was a well meaning ruler

Ah

Until, 698 when a general named Leontius overthrew him and cut his nose off

Now normally, mutilation means you can’t be emperor

People would be blinded, have their balls or nose cut off

Etc

Oof

F

An anarchy continued until 712 when someone was back

Justinian II was back with a golden prosthetic on his nose and he was pissed

His second reign lasted a short time before he was executed

Credits to Leo III the Khazar for fixing the anarchy

Otherwise the Byzantines would have collapsed earlier

Most of the 8th Century onward was a bit quiet since nothing was happening due to ok emperors

Constantine V The dung named was good; despite his name which was given by hostile historians

Enter Constantine VI?

His own mom had him blinded and exiled.

He died soon after.

She was kicked off the throne by a Financial Administrator named Nikephoros I.

In 811 AD, Nikephoros was on a campaign in Bulgaria

He brutally murdered a town’s population with no mercy, and the Tzar Krum was pissed

In 811 AD by the Pliska pass, Krum ambushed Nikephoros’ forces and decimated them all

His son Staurakios died too; the future emperor

Well

Staurakios was mortally injured but he reigned for 4 months before dying

His successor Michael I was ineffective, ruling for 3 years

Everything was pretty fine; till Michael III the drunkard came in

People call him the drunkard because he was lazy and ineffective

He was actually pretty good contrary to what was branded upon him

The byzantine made a lot of territorial gains

Overall, approaching the 9th century the byzantine empire was faring off pretty well.

Basil I the Macedonian ruled until 886? AD after him.

Basil was good. Great financial administrator and conqueroror

Died in a hunting accident after getting dragged by a deer for 16 KM.

The empire was fine for many years after basil died under Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos and Romanos Lekapenos

Enter 960.

The empire’s all fine and dandy, but Romanos’ successor Romanos II is ineffective.

When he dies, a lad named Nikephoros II pinches the throne

Nikephoros was an ugly person, but one of the best military conquerors.

He was eventually killed after a 6 year reign after a conspiracy from a minister that he demoted for ineffectivity

His successor John Tzismiskes was great too, excellent conqueror until his untimely death in 976 from the plague

Then came the best Byzantine emperor

Basil II Boulgaroktonos.

Basil expanded the Empire’s territories all the way to the danube and was a brilliant financial admin. All was great at that time.

His successors were poorly chosen men who were husbands of the Empress Zoe, except for Constantine Monomachos who was fairly good

Then a bloke came along by 1060~ named Constantine X Doulas

Doukas

What about the Great Schism?

Doukas was pathetic, destroyed the army, and economy

Oh the schism?

I’ll get into that later

His successor Romanos IV diogenes suffered a horrible defeat at Manzikert in 1071 to the turks and all was in shambles since he was taken captive

His successors weren’t great either until a certain fellow named Alexios I Komnenos came along

Until 1185 the Komnenids were good and competent rulers who held the empire upright

Alexios John and Manuel were all good and well meaning.

Manuel too, except in 1176 towards the end of his reign

He suffered a defeat to the turks at Myriokephalon.

Whoops! And in the early 1180s when he died, his successor was his 14 year old son.

John’s cousin Andronikos I Komnenos had the youth strangled and took reign

Andronikos was cruel.

He was eventually killed after a week of public torture

Coming around the late 12th century we see the most spineless rulers

The Angelids.

Isaac II Angelos was a pathetic ruler who did almost nothing

His relative Alexios III Angelos wasn’t better at all. Cruel and lavish, he emptied the treasury on personal items and dismantled the army

The issue here was the crusaders

Alexios was expelled by the crusaders and Isaac’s son Alexios IV Angelos was put into power

Alexios IV was a pederast according to his father, who he freed from prison as they joint ruled

Isaac was blinded on orders of Alexios III bte

Btw

The Crusaders here were horrible. Ruthless pillagers who forgot the main mission to recover the holy land

Eventually, on Feb 8 1204, the two Angelids were killed by Alexios V Doukas Mourtzuphlos who tried to handle the crusaders

He was executed in 1205 by being thrown from the column of theodosius.

The Crusaders handled Constantinople for 50 years.

Meanwhile in exile, the Byzantine was the Nicean Empire

Theodore I Laskaris held power for a while, and he was pretty decent

Holding off Turks and expanding territory

His successor John III Doukas Vatatzes was even more better

A pious emperor who made territorial gains and was canonized as a saint in Christianity later

His son Theodore II Laskaris lasted 4 years; albeit he too was brilliant in his own sense. The previous two emperors were epileptic

Despite his epilepsy, John III and Theodore II managed to keep the empire going on

They handed their throne off to John IV Laskaris, Theodore’s 8 year old son who had a regent for 3 years.

On his 11th birthday, he was blinded and exiled.

The man who ordered this was Michael VIII Palaiologos

He was brutal but an ok emperor

Not great

But he did reconquer constantinople by 1260.

His successors weren’t amazing.

Andronikos II Komnenos had a long reign but he was ineffective.

A lot of lost territory happened during his reign

In 1320, his grandson Andronikos III ended up accidentally killing his own brother

And Andronikos II’s son, his Co Emperor John IX died of grief

Andronikos ended up disowning his grandson and a civil war happened

The latter won and he ruled for a bit.

His son, John V was pathetic

A spineless ruler who completely lost territory around the empire

He didn’t know when to give up