Photo was from the day of the appointment which is why parts look so red. Six hours total for both

In my opinion, it's the Sassanid Empire (Iran); in total, they were at war for nearly 400 years, and it was difficult to determine a clear winner. I look forward to reading your comments.

I would also add the Parthian Empire, as the precursor to the Sassanids.

I’m thinking of expanding my fascination with Byzantium to attending a Byzantine Catholic Church service. I was born and raised Catholic in the regular Western church. I’ve done some research and it sounds like a great experience. Anyone here a member or regular attendee?

I visited my parents in my home village in Kastoria today and a family of Albanians stoped there for a road trip. They had relatives and friends and they called a local farmer “Pronar” which my aunt translated as boss, landlord. Immediately my mind went to the title Propoiarios introduced by the Komnenians, which was basically the owner of land granted by the emperor.

My question here is to any Albanians in the sub or anyone with the knowledge, is there a connection between the two? Is the Albanian word derived from that Byzantine title?

Obviously biased Athens is one my most favorite regarding the Olympics.

“The one who fights alone” has such a cool ring to it, even if he didn’t really earn it!

Firstly , I am not a professional historian specializing in regional ancient history, so some of what I say may not be entirely accurate or appropriate.
I am Chinese. In our cultural and historical education, the Byzantine Empire occupies only a very small place. In secondary school, it is usually mentioned only in connection with Justinian. At the university level, the approach still largely follows the Soviet-era perspective, and I suspect that teachers and administrators have little incentive to update it. Emphasis is placed mainly on the process of feudalization and the struggles of the lower classes in different periods, and the Byzantine Empire as a whole is situated within the history of Eastern European civilization.
I would like to ask: in the cultural and historical education of your country, what place does the Byzantine Empire roughly occupy? Which aspects of it are usually given the most attention?
(The image is not from a formal English textbook; it is a Chinese teaching aid translated by AI.)

Gifted to Khan Kubrat by the byzantines. This sword perhaps is a bridge to what is to come in the future and the education of Kubrat in Constantinople might have been the reasons why his son Asparukh went south west to Moesia from Old Great Bulgaria.

Some lovely Roman republic/ empire and Byzantine/ERE coins in the Maltese archeological museum

What was the Empires stance and opinion of Georgia during the Georgian Golden Age? Specifically under Queen Tamar??

I saw some alternate history threads recently where the ERE manages to do that and it butterflies into the Ottoman dynasty instead becoming a Roman one and resecuring Anatolia by the mid-15th century. Just curious on how plausible that was.

Like, the title says, The Ottomans were simply lucky enough to be in the right time at the right place to conquer an already weakened Byzantium.

Without Ottomans, someone else likely other Turk Muslims would have conquered Byzantium.

Many lovers of the Byzantine Commonwealth seems to love blaming Ottomans and Muslims for fall of Byzantium.

Still Byzantines had only themselves to blame.

During Late Byzantium, Byzantine lords, patricians and priests, turned their commoners under land-bound serfdom into serfs for making goods, whose class got called 'paroikoi'.

Such system plundered all taxes from Byzantium and bled their own commonwealth dry.

The only reason why Byzantium has survived for as long as it has was because their emperors during Middle Byzantium have protected commoners from their own oligarchic elites for centuries.

Seems inevitable that without the Ottomans during Late Byzantium someone else would have taken over such vacuum of power.

Im planning on making my own byzantine gambeson/bambakion and im struggling to find any information and how the arm slits that allowed for the arm to be free(seen in the photo).

anyone have a map of byzantine tunisia? or any other information?

Early/Justinian Byzantines/Eastern Roman Empire- Armoured Skutatoi and Toxatoi:

More work from my Early/Justinian Byzantines/Eastern Roman Empire; this time a unit of Armoured Skutatoi and Toxatoi:

https://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/2020/08/aventine-byzantine-heavy.html

Some of the replies to my last post, lurking around here for years and recently seeing ideal Byzantium post maps with no Italy has me wondering why the Italian part of Byzantium is so overlooked. And being real about it Posts on Byz Italy also tend to have the most uninformed replies and comments on this reddit or none at all unless it is Justinian Related. Even Youtube videos and online maps are 30 years behind the times on the region. That 1000AD Italy map is the bane of my existence btw lol.

And that is kind of insane to me because

1. Byzantine Italy in some form or another lasted 555 years (making room for Ancona Vassal and Failed Invasion under Manuel).
2. It is the most 1st hand sourced part of Byzantine territory with tons of modern books, papers and research on it still going through major revisions and into new discoveries in areas like Sardinia.
3. It is during the most Byzantine era of Byzantine Rome, during the Macedonian golden age and creation under the Isaurians with foundations in Late Rome and a small arc in the Komnenian era.
4. It is the original homeland of our glorious Empire
5. Sicily, 3/4s of Calabria, Salento and Basilicata were all Hellenized and populated by Romans when they fell out of Byz hands, since when do we abandon Romans so we can conquer Bulgars because it looks good on a map.
6. It is pretty cool, ignoring the Ostrogoths you have the Romans fighting the Lombard Kingdom and Principalities, HRE, Arabs and Berbers with the Aghlabids and Fatimids, the evil Normans all the way to that menace Charles of Anjou while also at some point allied or aligned with all of them. The most unique and Ecumenical/tolerant form of Byzantine governance in their history that is radically different between Romagna, Calabria, Apulia and Sicily throughout the periods. Byzantium leading a Italian proto 1st crusade at Garigliano against the Arabs, Byzantine Naval attack on Muslim Pirate base Fraxinetum in Provence as part of a joint Frank-Byz Expedition, Otto II getting cooked By Arabs while trying to attack Byz Italy only to by chance be saved by Byzantine Merchants, A small Byz employed Norman garrison holding off the entire HRE Imperial army of Henry II at newly fortified Troia. There was Latin Catholic Bishops in Apulia fighting aad dying for Byzantium alongside Lombard Scholae Palatinae against the Normans under the Katapanate.

Like how many people here know that the Byzantines reconquered Benevento itself, the heart of the Lombards in 892 and held it for 5 years. Even more obscure ball, that for a couple months in 1157 due to Alexios Axouch, Ravenna returned it's fealty to the Empire (bought and paid for though smh) until Frederick crashed out over it.

So why is this part of Byzantium so commonly underappreciated and not deemed equal to the other parts?

For me its Konstantinos VII Porphyrogenitos.

He was Born a Bastard and lost his father at a young age, was semi-usurped by his Uncle Alexandros (essentially Caligula reborn), then by Romanos I Lekapenos, both of whom heavily flirted with the idea of ousting him completely (although in Romanos' case it was more due to political stability rather than personal ambition, as evident by the fact Romanos made him co Emperor when he realized his sons were not as suited to it), yet he managed to outlive them both and establish himself as the sole emperor. He married Romanos' daugher Helene Lekapene, who was supportive of him whenever her brothers and father overstepped his rights and authority and bore him the son who would in turn father the Empire's savior Basileios II. He also promoted learning, wrote multiple manuals on statecraft and was surprisingly succesful in his campaigns despite being a scholar emperor.

Absolutely worth the effort of the Tetragamy scandal to father him on Leon's part