Isaurian Dynasty: this succeeded a period of anarchy, with organisation visibly breaking up and with both empire and #Constantinople neglected & decaying.

www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEur...

#history #historyfiles #EasternRomans #Byzantines #ByzantineEmpire #Greece #Isaurians #medievaleurope

Like if you read the lore document the pagan emperors are apparently constantly butchering people (usually Jews and Christians), the Isaurian dynasty (as in Leo III et al.) are actually Isaurians who worship the Hittite sun god and uh...well let's just say a bull was involved.

Leo III, saviour of Christendom.
Really I think The mislabeled Isaurians are my favourite dynasty.

Now this is something I sort of did; my first major Byzantine run was as the Iconoclast Isaurians and I conquered a lot of Italy. But I was both new so not very good at the game, and I didn't have Sons of Abraham at the time so I couldn't make my heresy the mainstream faith.

While we're on the Isaurians, Irene will probably get one before Constantine V, but maybe.

I think there is something poetic in the last Anatolian speakers the Isaurians (Emperor Zeno etc) saving Eastern Roman Empire from Gothic takeover in the 5th century.
(Alas Leo III is probably not Isaurian...).

Leon had strengthened his alliance with the Isaurians by marrying Ariadne to Tarsicodissas, who adopted the name Zenon. When Leon died in 474, he was succeeded by Zenon and Ariadne's son, Leon. But the younger Leon died the same year and Zenon became the new emperor. 5/10

But his rule didn't last. Ariadne's uncle, Basiliscus, usurped the throne with the help of Aspar's brother-in-law, Theodoric Strabo. Zenon and Ariadne fled to Anatolia. They soon came back to power with the help of the Isaurians, but they were greeted with bad news from the West. 6/10

Although the Isaurians were were not remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, and experience made them skilful, in the exercise of predatory war.

@mikeduncan.bsky.social Something note also is cycles of Roman revitalization. You get the Antonines later Aurelian post crisis. You can even look at Isaurians and Macedonians in the East. “Nothing lasts forever” is both a negative and positive.

The death of Markianos in 457 ended the Theodosian dynasty and highlighted the immense power of Germanic military factions in Constantinople. To counter this, Leo I allied with the Isaurians, a rugged people from within the empire, marrying his daughter Ariadne to

It's weird that Byzantine historiography is comfortable with the sudden description of Isaurians as outsiders even though all the Maps assure us the region had been part of the Empire since, like, forever.

Unpaid and starving, perhaps #‎OnThisDay‬ in 550, the Isaurians in the garrison of Rome open the city gates to Totila

Unpaid and starving, perhaps #‎OnThisDay in 550, the Isaurians in the garrison of Rome open the city gates to Totila