1068: The Empire’s been in a slow decline ever since the death of Basil The Bulgarslayer 40 years before.‬

‪The Bulgarslayer was the epitome of greatness. Under him, the Empire reached heights not seen since the days of antiquity. The Roman Empire’s army was feared worldwide. Their coin was the standard of the known world. The Great City, Constantinople, was famed from Britain to Persia.‬

‪But that had been two generations before. Now, all the Macedonians were dead. The empire had slowly decayed under its own opulence. Palace emperors ruled the great empire, tugging its power down with each successive pompous Basileus.‬

‪The Seljuk Turks first started raiding the edge of the empire in the 1040s. It was the mountainous Armenian edge, the administration thought. And they’re just some hungry nomads. Little did they know, these raiders were just the vanguard of hundreds of thousands of horseback warriors coming from the core of Asia.‬

‪By 1068, the situation had gotten dire. The Turkish raids had increased in frequency & severity. Armenia was gone. The Turks had even taken power in the other Great City: Baghdad. Alp Arslan was the new Sultan, pulling the Caliphate’s strings.‬

‪In 1067, the emperor Constantine Doukas had died. He left the empire on the brink of disaster. Yet, it was still the power of the region. It had only lost control of some borderland in Armenia. It could be saved.‬

‪Before Doukas died, he made his wife swear - in front of the clergy in the Hagia Sofia - that she would not remarry. That she would protect the interests of their child emperor-to-be, Michael Doukas.‬

‪Less than a year later, the Empress Eudokia made an extremely bold move: she remarried, to a man in the Constantinople dungeons waiting to be beheaded.‬

‪SAVE US ROMANOS, YOU’RE OUR ONLY HOPE‬

‪A year earlier, in 1067, the governor of Bulgaria had had enough. The Doukas clan were weak and inept. The glorious empire was folding before their eyes. Anatolia was under constant bombardment by horse lords from the east. The Balkans were stalked by more horse lords from the north. Something had to be done. Romanos Diogenes decided to rebel and take the job into his own hands.‬

‪But he was ratted out. Before his rebellion got off the ground, he was arrested and thrown in a dungeon in Constantinople. He was set to lose his head when, suddenly, the emperor died. He heard the bells ring off the Hagia Sofia.‬

‪In Roman Armenia, the Turks had taken the largest city in the east, Ani. They had also sacked Caesarea, in the heart of Anatolia. Empress Eudokia knew she had to do something, before it all came crashing down.‬

‪She knew of a charismatic, brilliant, powerful, and (not unimportantly) handsome rebel in the dungeons who had a strong military reputation.

Eudokia knew if she broke her word there could be consequences. Be she also knew that if she didn’t find a military man to lead the empire, the consequences would be worse.‬

‪So she did the unthinkable. A move only a ruthless, cunning empress would: she had the guards haul up the dirty, bearded, impressive general Romanos from the bellows of the palace. ‬

‪Romanos must’ve thought it was time to lose his head. When it was the Empress’s quarters he was brought to, the confusion must have been palpable. When the Empress got on her knees, ordered him to marry her and fight the Turks, he must’ve thought he had already lost his head. This was a death dream.‬

‪But it wasn’t. Romanos and Eudokia married in the Hagia, and Romanos became Emperor Romanos I Diogenes, the man chosen to save the Empire from the Turks.‬

‪Romanos got to work immediately. He reformed the army, took gold from the churches to pay his troops, drilled, and planned for a year. ‬

‪In 1068, he lost a major battle in Anatolia, after the Turks had sacked yet another major city. In 1069, he dealt a major defeat to the Turks, ambushing them on their way out of the empire. In 1070 he felt ready, and planned his ultimate battle.‬

‪In the spring of 1071, Romanos Diogenes left Constantinople with the largest Roman army since the days of Basil the Bulgarslayer - 40,000 strong. His destination: Manzikert. He was going to take Armenia back and, if he got lucky, take down Alp Arslan in battle - if they met.‬

‪Meet they did, on the fields outside of Manzikert. But although Romanos was ready, his army - and the empire - was still half Doukas controlled. The Doukas clan had been pushed aside by Romanos and Eudokia. But they had a plan.‬

‪During the battle, a Doukas general abandoned the emperor on the field. He turned his men around at the pivotal moment, resulting in the Emperor being surrounded and captured by Alp Arslan. ‬

‪The Doukas clan quickly returned to Constantinople and took power. Eudokia was captured and sent into exiled imprisonment. Meanwhile, Romanos was brought before the feet of the Great Sultan, Alp Arslan.‬

‪The Sultan asked Romanos what he would do with Arslan had the situation been reversed. Romanos, according to sources, considered the question and answered truthfully: He’d haul him in chains through Constantinople in a Triumph and have him publicly beheaded.‬

‪Arslan responded differently. After securing some border cities and a massive tribute payment, he…let Romanos go.‬

‪But Romanos’ trials were just beginning. On his return journey to the Great City, Romanos found out that the Doukas clan had seized power. Back in the capital, the Doukas learned of Romanos’ survival and sent an army to capture him.‬

‪Romanos still had a substantial following. He was charismatic. A people’s emperor. But he didn’t have the power and wealth of Constantinople. He was defeated and captured in Anatolia in 1072. ‬

‪On the way back to the capital, a Doukas cousin had his cronies hold down Romanos, and the Doukas stuck hot pokers through Romanos Diogenes’ eyes, blinding him.‬

‪They put the ailing Romanos on a boat and shipped him to a monastery in the Aegean. Some months later, the leader of the Doukas clan (pulling the strings for the young emperor Michael Doukas) sent a letter to a dying Romanos. The letter beared instructions to read to Romanos before he died. It congratulated him on the loss of his eyes.‬

‪Romanos Diogenes, the Savior of the Empire, died in agony from a botched blinding job in the summer of 1072. Within a couple years, the Roman Empire had lost Anatolia, and would never be a superpower again.‬

Season 2 could be the pits of the Empire’s fall in the 1070s. The Turks taking over Anatolia, the constant rebellions. The dark before the dawn.

Season 3 is the rise of Alexios Komnenos. His taking of power, his wars against the Normans and Pechenegs and his efforts to save the empire. Season 4 is the Crusades, 5 is the last years of Komnenos.