What fascinates me the most about the Eastern Roman Empire was how capable the emperors were. It was just literally everything possible went wrong during the sixth and seventh centuries, and yet the empire still put up a hard fight. Maurice and Heraclius should be remembered as the great emperors that they were, on the tier of Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Aurelian, Constantine, and Justinian.
@@paradoxexpress6976 maybe, but there was a LOT going against Justinian, even nature its self and no emperor at the time would expect to have go through the amount of natural catastrophes he had to go through
By this point where there was no longer any western Roman court they can be refered simply as Roman empire(after all label "eastern" was never in their name).Both Heraclius and Maurice were notable Emperors who did much good but both were also very far from perfect and modern popular perception tends to ignore this while over-glorifying them.
@@paradoxexpress6976 no he was not, he was ambitious and some of his conquests were very good for the empire like North Africa, the misfortune for him was the black plague it sapped the empire of manpower. As proven by emperor Maurice a good emperor was able to hold if not expand most of the territory gained during Justinians reign.
Imaging if Maurice and his family weren't killed is definitely one of those big what if's. Finally great relations in the east with the Sassanids. Trade must have been great during those first years Koshrow was back in and the Phocas revolt. Maurice dies peacefully and the empire gets a western and eastern emperor again. The western lands would now have better access to what a Imperial court could bring ( better equip soldiers, quick raising of money..). Plus the Arab invasion's don't look so easy with allied Perisa and Rome together, and now no 20 years of war between the two before. Maurice was a really good emperor and Roman nurds know that.
Ah yes. Great video. Colleague of mine from late antiquity reco group recommended this channel, and I must say I'm impressed. The editing was top notch and you correctly depicted exarchates (which is surprisingly rare on the internet). Your assessment of early Byzantine military is also correct. Although I don't subscribe to "Phocas-bad" narrative I'm anxiously awaiting new content. Good job.
Phocas was (probably) an usurper just like Heraclius. We don't know whether he was elected by his troops, and so was kinda thrusted into the purple against his will or he had active part in rebellion. We have precedence for both in Roman history. First thing you do on your job as a Usurper is to purge your rivals and establish legitimacy. He successfully managed to purge Maurice's court, but he refrained from empire wide bloodbath and wide spread reshufflement of administration. Which in times of crisis is somewhat justifiable, but in a hindsight was his downfall as he simultaneously failed to establish legitimacy due to lack of time or political know-how. I don't see how we could accuse Phocas of being bloodthirsty, as he was rather reserved on that front. And to establish legitimacy you need time, and time was something that Phocas did not have in ample supplies. As Maurice was largely despised in the Balkans and disliked in the Capital, the coup was met without any opposition. Phocas coordinated his usurpation with Senatorial class. Phocas is also accused of handing imperial offices to his relatives- and thus nepotism. I would point out that it was logical thing to do. Possibility of being murdered by your family is slightly lower than random bureaucrat. For this reason nepotism is something rather normal for the ancient world. Heraclius does things very similarly. But Maurice was rather liked by the people he appointed to various cushy posts throughout the empire. And so it was uphill struggle for Phocas and test of his political skills and project his authority. A test which was partially successful for Phocas, but there are no second place awards in this contest. He failed to contain the Heraclids which led to his death. And in that sense he was a failure. But as far as we can see, he is a subject of great deal of vilification, and in turn Heraclius is a subject of hero worship. Both processes derive from the ancient propaganda, and both cloud the proper historical judgment of Phocas as a military dictator. Although he did not managed to secure Africa, he successfully stabilized Italy by his political skills, and managed to shift his armies from the balkans to the east without outright breaking the balkan borders. We will see that Balkans will completely brake only under Heraclius, with only walled port cities close to the sea surviving the Avar-Slavic onslaught. In fact most of the beating that Roman state received was on Heraclius' watch. Phocas lost eastern Armenia, all of roman Assyria and northern part of Syria before he was killed. This was quite unprecedented in a sense that Roman Persian wars were always back and forth, but the Persians never managed to penetrate deeply. And why did they manage to do so at that time was combination of good leadership of Shahrbaraz and aforementioned lack of Phocas' legitimacy. Persians had a boy with them whom they linked to Maurice's line, and so they didn't even had to fight most of the battles. Both factors were outside Phocas' human capability to solve. And as we will see outside Heraclius' also. Because under Heraclius, romans lost all of Syria, all of Palestine, most of Egypt, most of Armenia and great deal of Anatolia. With Heraclius contemplating abandonment of Constantinople and mounting fight from Carthage. Both rulers were tinkering with the idea of ceding Levant and Egypt to the Persians and becoming their tributary to buy the time for counteroffensive. Very much so as Roman Empire after the initial Rashidun conquests. It seems that Persians were uninterested in negotiations as long as they were winning, and so there was nothing both rulers could do. Things that separate Phocas from Heraclius is time and offspring. Heraclius, because of Phocas's policy towards Italy, and his own connexions with the Exarchate of Africa did not have any major opposition to his reign. And so could pretty much comfortably sit on his ass for one decade to establish himself as a ruler, before taking to the field. Phocas did not have such luxury. And so we can't even judge him as a military commander, as he was deposed before he could leave the city. Phocas was certainly a skilled and charismatic politician, but due to combination of outside factors and his failure to stabilize the provinces was promptly deposed and killed. I don't think that we can brand him as a bad emperor based on these facts. He is unrankable with emperors such as Apsimar. He came and went more like a force of nature and figurhead of crisis. Were he remain in the power longer, he might have been a hero just like Heraclius. The point is, we can't say that for sure. He was a product of Maurice's failure and stopgap for Heraclius, nothing more, nothing less.
The assassination of Emperor Maurikios in duced shaansha Kosrow II who had married Maria,the daughter of Maurikios, to attack Phokas, the assassin, taking Egypt, the holy Land, and the holy cross from Jesuralem, he offered to his beloved Shirin, a catholic byzantine princess ( See the Love story known to every Persian until nowadays.) Kosrow II was assassinated by his son Kavad, son of Maria, with all his brothers,* but not his sisters, made peace with the ERE and restitued the Holy Cross to Jesuralem. A daughter of Shirin married David Mamikonian,an ancestor of emperess Holy Theodora, the wife and Widow of Emp Theophilos, and mother of Michael III of the amorian dynasty,all my ancestors. This to show that the genes of historical icons continue to circulate among the human genure nowadays !
Finally a youtuber who actually includes Tiberius’s African gains on the map Btw you missed a major Byzantine Reconquista attempt in Italy to push out the Lombards during Maurice’s reign where they allied with the Franks but were betrayed by them right before they could finish the Lombards off.
Idk why, but I know all the historical characters and stories, but still need to watch them again once you upload a video. Great channel, criminally underrated! Please keep up the good work!
I truly enjoy watching your videos! If only ancient history was taught like this when I was in elementary… It’s both heartwarming and promising to come across people who are just as impassioned in this generation, and equally willing to make informative videos which cover topics as far removed - and yet just as relevant in today’s day and age - as the Late [Eastern] Roman Empire, her decline, and her many obscure and long-forgotten emperors whom, as a youth, I only ever got to learn about through her coinage. Merci mille fois, Monsieur! Keep the excellent videos and superb content coming!
I appreciate you going all around the Empire to inform what was going on in other parts. When History is hyper focused on a paticular region during a particular time period "the war in mesopotamia during the 7th century, I am curious about the happenings on the Byzantine Lombard border, and the position of the Franks on the matter.
I truely think the great emperor Maurice was undeniably the last chance Rome had to restore the empire to its former heights and his death sealed the end of that dream. The empire was in the best shape it had been in a century before Phocas' rebellion. He is my one of the most what ifs? Questions i think about the most🤔 Great video as always!
totally not. The last chance was when the Romans were defeated by the Arabs in Yarmouk and 70% of the Empire was lost to the Arabs. Without Yarmouk, the Empire can demographically and economically recover by an alternative 700s will result in another chance for the Romans to complete the conquest of Italy and Spain. No major migration will happen up until the 800s, which the Romans could have used to finally unify the majority of the Empire. When the Magyars and the Vikings come knocking around 900s, the Empire is strong enough to withstand its ground. Maurice living longer will mean that no major Sassanid victories will occur, and with that, Yarmouk wouldn't happen.
@@majorianus8055 Yes totally, since all the chaos began after Phocas usurped Maurice which resulted in Yarmouk happening. If these events didnt happened to Maurice then Yarmouk would’ve been butterflied. Thats what i meant in my previous comment.
@@diro91 Maurice was always doomed to get usurped so you need Justin II to not cancel the tribute with the Sassanids first so Maurice Doesn’t have to spend most of his reign humiliating the Sassanids
@@tylerellis9097 The Sasanians, my brother, I was able to expel the Ethiopians from Yemen during the reign of this emperor, and I defeated this emperor
He was most likely not first.Diocletian was almost certainly a greek by personal origin,Julianus was first Emperor for whom Greek was definitelly his 1st(and prefered)language and he strongly self-identified as a greek(which was however not excluding him feeling a Roman at the same time-which modern people often had problem to understand).Notion that Maurice was 1st greek Roman Emperor is preserved from medieval western writers but others are actually claiming the same for Tiberius.II Constantine who ruled prior Maurice but was born in area which suggest he(and not Justinian as often propagated)was the last Emperor on the throne for whom Latin was his 1st languge.
@@Michael_the_Drunkard So was Constantine.Julian himself refered his family(his dynasty)as Thracian and Constantinians claimed to be descended from Claudius Gothicus who was also Illyrian.Diocletianus original name was greek Diokles(though that is not always secure key to someone being a greek-even germanic nobles of that time accepted latin and Greek names) and he probably could speak greek given to the fact he mostly resided in the east which he volunarilly selected and participated in traditional role of Alytarch during Olympic games.As for personal background of his mother-she had a greek name but it was also used in predominantly latin speaking regions.
@@tap1148 qUiNtIlLuS gOoD!!!!!!!!! Cry harder, you incel. I wanna rage like Valentinian I because HOW BAD your historical knowledge is! Even modern professional historians like Eastern Roman History, Thersites The Historian etc considered Maurice a good emperor, despite he made a grave mistake which had ended his life. DID THEY USE DOVAHHATTY AS A SOURCE? NO! INSTEAD THEY READ BOOKS!! YOU IDIOT! Dude, uncool! Uncool because you ended up flayed alive by AVRELIAN! 🤭
Khosrew II also married "Princess" Mariam daughter of Maurice and renamed her "Queen" Shirin. They story of the marriage is mentioned in "Annals of The World" of Michael The Syrian and "Shahnameh". Ibn Miskavieh wrote that Shirin is daughter of Caesar when mentioning the assassination of her grandson Yazdegerd III in "Trials of Nations".
Voici une période difficile. Une belle réalisation cependant avec un choix de musique qui rythme mieux encore le discours et la vidéo. Content de te voir continuer.
Wow, being a sensible emperor in financial terms brought death to such a great Emperor. Politicians are judged as irresponsible, but it’s truly the people those who are in the end sometimes.
I have not yet written the script, but the next video in the series will most probably go through the entirety of the final persian war 602-628. The muslim invasions will be in the following episode
Frist of your videos that I have watched. Loved it! Thanks for the breakdown. Also, I liked the years up in the left. Maurice's Strategikon is a good read. Granted, we don't know for sure if he wrote it. Anyway, the translation I have was done by George T. Dennis. Check it out.
Justinian, Maurice, Heraclius. So many freakin’ great emperors! they all had to break their backs in every way so that the empire could remain, grow, reform. It’s amazing!
What the Romans didn’t know was the death of Maurice would be the end of the Byzantine Golden Age. For God doomed the Romans to eternal struggle, civil wars, and invasion. Everything was to fall apart, for here starts the Byzantine Dark Ages...
I think the Eastern Roman golden age ended with the death of Justinian or the beginning of the Justinian plague, mostly due to large population drops, and an ailing economy
If he was gonna ask them to winter in barbaricum, he should've given them a donative. It was his 20 year anniversary. He's supposed to give them one anyway. These guys all had families waiting for them.
@@ancientsight Well, he couldn't afford not to. Maybe a little tact would have helped. I've read that when a commander came to reason with Maurice about the growing mutiny, he personally slapped them and sent them away.
@@histguy101Maurice’s biggest flaw was not being able to correctly read the situation when it came to his troops. He was too hands on with no money to satisfy the soldiers who were exhausted after 20 years of fighting Persians, Avars & Slavs with barely any rest
This map is entirely made by me from scratch on Photoshop. This is an important part of the channel's visual so I am reluctant to make the files public, I hope you understand. Still,I may do it. What would you like to use it for ?
@@ancientsight I have made my own map on photoshop too, And it is a very high quality one, it took me weeks to do, so I'm fully understanding your position 🤝 . But I'm surprised of how good-looking the edges in your map, i could never believed this is a hand mad map, specially with rivers on too ❤️ i got to say im impressed . But i want to ask you some questions, i hope you could answer them . 1- is the Americas are included in your map or just Europe, Africa, Asia?. . 2 - how did make it?. You used a low quality map and then put in a high quality frame and then Traced it?. . And yeah I'm about to open my own history youtube channel.
Yes, to make the edges, I used several maps I found here and there to draw. I couldn't find a single map that covered the entire region I wanted to reprensent so I made it that way. 1 - No, there is not the Americas. You can go check the very beginning of this video here : ruclips.net/video/FeVbXuAp3Uo/видео.html This is pretty much the full extent covered by the map + west of India and Somalia missing. As a general advice, do not make the map too large if you don't need it. If you only need the Middle East and Europe for your map, do not bother on making a full world map. First it will take you so much more time and also, your animation software will not enjoy. If you cover two very different regions, better make two different map. Still, I don't know everything on these softwares far from it so you may find a way to sort this of. 2 - Exactly. Amazing ! I wish you the best of luck for your channel. Don't forget to drop a comment here once you started. I would love to see your work.
The empire looks in extent broadly similar to the situation in the mid 5th-century. But there are similar problems: too many enemies, not enough resources. The empire would have had to shrink even if Islam hadn't arisen.
According to Aristides of Athens who was formerly a Greek/Hellene but converted to Christianity, the world was made of 4 races. Christian, Jew, Greek and Barbarian. It never ceases to baffle me why academics are so desirous to Hellenize superior Roman Christian civilization and history. I understand this is a sensitive issue for modern Greeks (descendants of the Romans) but truth is truth. From the time of Julian the Apostate until Plethon and his rejected hypotheses (at the time) nobody was Hellenic, Greece wasn't the name of a country until the 1800's.
I find Maurice to be a good and fascinating emperor, however his insistence on forcing his men to camp on the other side of the Danube baffles me. Even after all of the previous soldier revolts, he still kept trying and thus caused the downfall of a capable emperor in place of one of the worst.
Yeah most probably. However we should keep several things in mind : - there still was a large amount of Slavs in the mountains of Moesia - the balkans and the east were fast moving and high priority fronts unlike Italy - the finances were a high priority for Maurice - the unruly nature of the army at the time was a real problem - the relations with the pope were at an all time low That probably means that Maurice would have taken quite some time before actually moving to Italy. Not even taking into account the fickle persians, who may take advantage. Maurice or a legitimate successor would not have moved to Italy before 610 or something. Plenty of time for the situation to deteriorate.
@@ancientsightstill his Untimely death led to the end of any real Recovery of Roman Empire its not if they Won in Yarmouk even they Won there the Roman Empire in the Levant & Africa will taken by the Arabs because by that time Roman Empire is so Exhausted by the Long War against the Sassanids,Lombards & Visigoths starting from the Death of Maurice any more Long War will still Depleted the Empire those who saying the Victory in Yarmouk will be the last chance of Recovery of Roman Empire are Uggos The Romans Have no Chance against Arabs After that Exhausting Wars that Depleted both Manpower & Resoures of the Roman Empire for over 2 decades non-stop war , but if Maurice died Naturally and his Sons Succeed Him in Orderly and manage to hold the Empire together and also manage too avoid any War with Khosrow II then theres is a Big Chance of Recovery of Roman Empire and surviving entirely of Roman Empire against the Arab onslaught in the mid-7th century AD.
Maurice is erroneously called by moderns, "The first of the race of the Greeks to be Emperor." This is devious. No self respecting Christian would call himself "Greek" as that country didn't exist yet and the "race of the Greeks" in ancient terminology meant "heathen." However: " 9. And shortly after, the Thracians rebelled and rose up against the emperor Maurice, and (their) four commanders set out against him. And when Maurice heard this news he began to distribute money among the inhabitants of Constantinople. Now they had been wont to call Maurice a heathen and a magician, and a person undeserving of the imperial throne. 10. And when the soldiers heard of these movements they took measures to wrest concessions from him touching their wage and food, that is, the pay of the officers and chiefs. 11. But subsequently changing their plans they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Phocas, and marked him out as emperor. Now he was one of the four commanders of Thrace. 12. And the inhabitants of Constantinople were all of one mind, and cried out saying : 'Let us have a Christian emperor in this city.' And when Maurice heard that the inhabitants of the city wished to seize him, he went into the palace, and brought forth all (his) wealth, and placed it in a ship, and likewise his children and his wife, they made for Bithynia."
Being from Cappadocia of the Roman Empire makes one Cappadocian not Greek. Maurice DID NOT identify as a Greek. This would be identifying as a heathen, which he accused of, no doubt using the word "Hellene." Often translated, "heathen."
@@Michael_the_Drunkard yes , I know its Heraclius time. However this is what sets everything up. Zeno takes power and takes out Maurice and his whole family. Kosrow II starts the famous 30 years war which completely weakens both empires, and this makes it much easier for the Arabs to invade both of them.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
What fascinates me the most about the Eastern Roman Empire was how capable the emperors were. It was just literally everything possible went wrong during the sixth and seventh centuries, and yet the empire still put up a hard fight. Maurice and Heraclius should be remembered as the great emperors that they were, on the tier of Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Aurelian, Constantine, and Justinian.
True, I see maurice as a 2nd Tiberius I and heraclius as I 2nd Aurelian(edit, Tiberius Ist)
@@hermanjeurissen6367Justinian was a bad emperor
@@paradoxexpress6976 maybe, but there was a LOT going against Justinian, even nature its self and no emperor at the time would expect to have go through the amount of natural catastrophes he had to go through
By this point where there was no longer any western Roman court they can be refered simply as Roman empire(after all label "eastern" was never in their name).Both Heraclius and Maurice were notable Emperors who did much good but both were also very far from perfect and modern popular perception tends to ignore this while over-glorifying them.
@@paradoxexpress6976 no he was not, he was ambitious and some of his conquests were very good for the empire like North Africa, the misfortune for him was the black plague it sapped the empire of manpower. As proven by emperor Maurice a good emperor was able to hold if not expand most of the territory gained during Justinians reign.
Hello all. Do not forget, one of the best ways to support the channel is to share the videos !
Have you ever heard the tragic story of Heraclius the basileus ?
I thought not. It’s not a story the Saracens would tell you
@@iexist3919 It's a Roman legend.
Heraclius was an emperor of the Romans, so powerful and so wise, he could even keep the Eastern Roman Empire from dying…
@@iexist3919 oh we can tell you for sure....
It was the greatest moment in our history
@@iexist3919 Jesus you made Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and others laugh
Imaging if Maurice and his family weren't killed is definitely one of those big what if's. Finally great relations in the east with the Sassanids. Trade must have been great during those first years Koshrow was back in and the Phocas revolt. Maurice dies peacefully and the empire gets a western and eastern emperor again. The western lands would now have better access to what a Imperial court could bring ( better equip soldiers, quick raising of money..). Plus the Arab invasion's don't look so easy with allied Perisa and Rome together, and now no 20 years of war between the two before. Maurice was a really good emperor and Roman nurds know that.
5:58 Love the little coverage of what happened to Spain after Justinians conquests
Ah yes. Great video.
Colleague of mine from late antiquity reco group recommended this channel, and I must say I'm impressed.
The editing was top notch and you correctly depicted exarchates (which is surprisingly rare on the internet).
Your assessment of early Byzantine military is also correct.
Although I don't subscribe to "Phocas-bad" narrative I'm anxiously awaiting new content.
Good job.
Phocas-bad tho
Phocas was genuinely terrible tho
Phocas was (probably) an usurper just like Heraclius.
We don't know whether he was elected by his troops, and so was kinda thrusted into the purple against his will or he had active part in rebellion. We have precedence for both in Roman history.
First thing you do on your job as a Usurper is to purge your rivals and establish legitimacy.
He successfully managed to purge Maurice's court, but he refrained from empire wide bloodbath and wide spread reshufflement of administration.
Which in times of crisis is somewhat justifiable, but in a hindsight was his downfall as he simultaneously failed to establish legitimacy due to lack of time or political know-how.
I don't see how we could accuse Phocas of being bloodthirsty, as he was rather reserved on that front.
And to establish legitimacy you need time, and time was something that Phocas did not have in ample supplies.
As Maurice was largely despised in the Balkans and disliked in the Capital, the coup was met without any opposition. Phocas coordinated his usurpation with Senatorial class. Phocas is also accused of handing imperial offices to his relatives- and thus nepotism. I would point out that it was logical thing to do. Possibility of being murdered by your family is slightly lower than random bureaucrat. For this reason nepotism is something rather normal for the ancient world. Heraclius does things very similarly.
But Maurice was rather liked by the people he appointed to various cushy posts throughout the empire. And so it was uphill struggle for Phocas and test of his political skills and project his authority.
A test which was partially successful for Phocas, but there are no second place awards in this contest.
He failed to contain the Heraclids which led to his death. And in that sense he was a failure.
But as far as we can see, he is a subject of great deal of vilification, and in turn Heraclius is a subject of hero worship. Both processes derive from the ancient propaganda, and both cloud the proper historical judgment of Phocas as a military dictator.
Although he did not managed to secure Africa, he successfully stabilized Italy by his political skills, and managed to shift his armies from the balkans to the east without outright breaking the balkan borders. We will see that Balkans will completely brake only under Heraclius, with only walled port cities close to the sea surviving the Avar-Slavic onslaught.
In fact most of the beating that Roman state received was on Heraclius' watch.
Phocas lost eastern Armenia, all of roman Assyria and northern part of Syria before he was killed. This was quite unprecedented in a sense that Roman Persian wars were always back and forth, but the Persians never managed to penetrate deeply.
And why did they manage to do so at that time was combination of good leadership of Shahrbaraz and aforementioned lack of Phocas' legitimacy. Persians had a boy with them whom they linked to Maurice's line, and so they didn't even had to fight most of the battles. Both factors were outside Phocas' human capability to solve. And as we will see outside Heraclius' also.
Because under Heraclius, romans lost all of Syria, all of Palestine, most of Egypt, most of Armenia and great deal of Anatolia. With Heraclius contemplating abandonment of Constantinople and mounting fight from Carthage.
Both rulers were tinkering with the idea of ceding Levant and Egypt to the Persians and becoming their tributary to buy the time for counteroffensive. Very much so as Roman Empire after the initial Rashidun conquests.
It seems that Persians were uninterested in negotiations as long as they were winning, and so there was nothing both rulers could do.
Things that separate Phocas from Heraclius is time and offspring. Heraclius, because of Phocas's policy towards Italy, and his own connexions with the Exarchate of Africa did not have any major opposition to his reign. And so could pretty much comfortably sit on his ass for one decade to establish himself as a ruler, before taking to the field. Phocas did not have such luxury. And so we can't even judge him as a military commander, as he was deposed before he could leave the city.
Phocas was certainly a skilled and charismatic politician, but due to combination of outside factors and his failure to stabilize the provinces was promptly deposed and killed.
I don't think that we can brand him as a bad emperor based on these facts. He is unrankable with emperors such as Apsimar. He came and went more like a force of nature and figurhead of crisis. Were he remain in the power longer, he might have been a hero just like Heraclius. The point is, we can't say that for sure. He was a product of Maurice's failure and stopgap for Heraclius, nothing more, nothing less.
@@felixjaeger1635 Respect for putting out a thoughtful and well argued comment. I always thought Phocas was awful but you bring up very good points
@@danielchequer5842 Reminder it was Heraclius who lost Egypt and Syria
the timeline in which Maurice was not deposed and murdered is the greatest one
The assassination of Emperor Maurikios in duced shaansha Kosrow II who had married Maria,the daughter of Maurikios, to attack Phokas, the assassin, taking Egypt, the holy Land, and the holy cross from Jesuralem, he offered to his beloved Shirin, a catholic byzantine princess ( See the Love story known to every Persian until nowadays.) Kosrow II was assassinated by his son Kavad, son of Maria, with all his brothers,* but not his sisters, made peace with the ERE and restitued the Holy Cross to Jesuralem.
A daughter of Shirin married David Mamikonian,an ancestor of emperess Holy Theodora, the wife and Widow of Emp Theophilos, and mother of Michael III of the amorian dynasty,all my ancestors.
This to show that the genes of historical icons continue to circulate among the human genure nowadays !
@@ezzovonachalm9815Hello.
Finally a youtuber who actually includes Tiberius’s African gains on the map
Btw you missed a major Byzantine Reconquista attempt in Italy to push out the Lombards during Maurice’s reign where they allied with the Franks but were betrayed by them right before they could finish the Lombards off.
You may be talking about this part 6:19 ? I just did not bring much detail to it
Happy to see you again.
Great vid!
Maurice was very close in stabilizing the Empire. I wonder how the storm of the 600s would have played out then..
He did stabilised it.Only Romano-Persian war after his murder destroyed it.
Idk why, but I know all the historical characters and stories, but still need to watch them again once you upload a video.
Great channel, criminally underrated!
Please keep up the good work!
Outstanding work as always
Cant wait for next part
Can't wait for this one, I love your videos!
I truly enjoy watching your videos! If only ancient history was taught like this when I was in elementary…
It’s both heartwarming and promising to come across people who are just as impassioned in this generation, and equally willing to make informative videos which cover topics as far removed - and yet just as relevant in today’s day and age - as the Late [Eastern] Roman Empire, her decline, and her many obscure and long-forgotten emperors whom, as a youth, I only ever got to learn about through her coinage.
Merci mille fois, Monsieur! Keep the excellent videos and superb content coming!
Thank you for the kind words, I a really glad you enjoy these videos !
Great video
Man your videos deserve so much more credit I hope you get it some time
The channel may not be big, but I like to see how interested you guys are. The comments and views are quite high and consistent for "only" 2k subs.
@@ancientsight keep up the great job
@@ancientsight keep up the great job
I’m so hyped for the next video. Heraclius is coming
I appreciate you going all around the Empire to inform what was going on in other parts. When History is hyper focused on a paticular region during a particular time period "the war in mesopotamia during the 7th century, I am curious about the happenings on the Byzantine Lombard border, and the position of the Franks on the matter.
Thank you for doing these! I just saw your outstanding doc on Justinian and am now about to fully indulge in this in your Heraclius video
I truely think the great emperor Maurice was undeniably the last chance Rome had to restore the empire to its former heights and his death sealed the end of that dream. The empire was in the best shape it had been in a century before Phocas' rebellion.
He is my one of the most what ifs? Questions i think about the most🤔
Great video as always!
totally not. The last chance was when the Romans were defeated by the Arabs in Yarmouk and 70% of the Empire was lost to the Arabs. Without Yarmouk, the Empire can demographically and economically recover by an alternative 700s will result in another chance for the Romans to complete the conquest of Italy and Spain. No major migration will happen up until the 800s, which the Romans could have used to finally unify the majority of the Empire. When the Magyars and the Vikings come knocking around 900s, the Empire is strong enough to withstand its ground. Maurice living longer will mean that no major Sassanid victories will occur, and with that, Yarmouk wouldn't happen.
@@majorianus8055 Yes totally, since all the chaos began after Phocas usurped Maurice which resulted in Yarmouk happening. If these events didnt happened to Maurice then Yarmouk would’ve been butterflied.
Thats what i meant in my previous comment.
@@diro91 Maurice was always doomed to get usurped so you need Justin II to not cancel the tribute with the Sassanids first so Maurice Doesn’t have to spend most of his reign humiliating the Sassanids
@@tylerellis9097 The Sasanians, my brother, I was able to expel the Ethiopians from Yemen during the reign of this emperor, and I defeated this emperor
Maurice could have been another Aurelian. After he beats the Avars, he would have crushed the Lombards.
Maurice was also the first Roman Emperor of full Greek descent (Constantine and Anastasius werr only half).
Indeed
He was most likely not first.Diocletian was almost certainly a greek by personal origin,Julianus was first Emperor for whom Greek was definitelly his 1st(and prefered)language and he strongly self-identified as a greek(which was however not excluding him feeling a Roman at the same time-which modern people often had problem to understand).Notion that Maurice was 1st greek Roman Emperor is preserved from medieval western writers but others are actually claiming the same for Tiberius.II Constantine who ruled prior Maurice but was born in area which suggest he(and not Justinian as often propagated)was the last Emperor on the throne for whom Latin was his 1st languge.
@@paprskometJulian and Constantine yes
Diocletian probably not. He was Illyro-Roman
@@Michael_the_Drunkard So was Constantine.Julian himself refered his family(his dynasty)as Thracian and Constantinians claimed to be descended from Claudius Gothicus who was also Illyrian.Diocletianus original name was greek Diokles(though that is not always secure key to someone being a greek-even germanic nobles of that time accepted latin and Greek names) and he probably could speak greek given to the fact he mostly resided in the east which he volunarilly selected and participated in traditional role of Alytarch during Olympic games.As for personal background of his mother-she had a greek name but it was also used in predominantly latin speaking regions.
Just found your amazing channel and I love it!
new sub
Oh yeah, it's Maurice
senate > Maurice
@@tap1148 qUiNtIlLuS gOoD!!!!!!!!!
Cry harder, you incel. I wanna rage like Valentinian I because HOW BAD your historical knowledge is! Even modern professional historians like Eastern Roman History, Thersites The Historian etc considered Maurice a good emperor, despite he made a grave mistake which had ended his life. DID THEY USE DOVAHHATTY AS A SOURCE? NO! INSTEAD THEY READ BOOKS!! YOU IDIOT!
Dude, uncool! Uncool because you ended up flayed alive by AVRELIAN! 🤭
@@tap1148 "I am the Senate" -Maurice
I love these videos. Great work.
Khosrew II also married "Princess" Mariam daughter of Maurice and renamed her "Queen" Shirin. They story of the marriage is mentioned in "Annals of The World" of Michael The Syrian and "Shahnameh". Ibn Miskavieh wrote that Shirin is daughter of Caesar when mentioning the assassination of her grandson Yazdegerd III in "Trials of Nations".
Great work man !
Voici une période difficile. Une belle réalisation cependant avec un choix de musique qui rythme mieux encore le discours et la vidéo. Content de te voir continuer.
Your videos are awesome!
And to think, he was also King of the Lemurs. Amazing.
Wow, being a sensible emperor in financial terms brought death to such a great Emperor. Politicians are judged as irresponsible, but it’s truly the people those who are in the end sometimes.
Underrated emperor
Great work thanks
Thanks a lot for your kind words
14:15 those who know: 😯
Génial, comme toujours ❤
Will the next video be about Heraclius?
I have not yet written the script, but the next video in the series will most probably go through the entirety of the final persian war 602-628. The muslim invasions will be in the following episode
@@ancientsight
Cool, thanks for answering!
Frist of your videos that I have watched. Loved it! Thanks for the breakdown. Also, I liked the years up in the left.
Maurice's Strategikon is a good read. Granted, we don't know for sure if he wrote it. Anyway, the translation I have was done by George T. Dennis.
Check it out.
Looking forward for Heraclius and Arab conquests!
Maurice was too good for the roman empire
Real Maurice Hours rn
Justinian, Maurice, Heraclius. So many freakin’ great emperors! they all had to break their backs in every way so that the empire could remain, grow, reform. It’s amazing!
Very well explained Maurice's tragedy. Great warrior good administrator bad politician a complete nonsense his death. Mobs are stupid
What the Romans didn’t know was the death of Maurice would be the end of the Byzantine Golden Age. For God doomed the Romans to eternal struggle, civil wars, and invasion. Everything was to fall apart, for here starts the Byzantine Dark Ages...
I think the Eastern Roman golden age ended with the death of Justinian or the beginning of the Justinian plague, mostly due to large population drops, and an ailing economy
@@decidwing1 true, but the empire was relatively peaceful for the most part ignoring the frontiers. The death of Maurice changed that…
I read this in unbiased history’s voice while having the Minecraft parody song revenge stuck in something
@@Caligulashorse1453 I typed it in Dovah’s voice. Every day I hold hope there will be Unbiased Byzantium V
The Roman dark ages would end in the 8th century and certainly in the 9th century with the Macedonian Renaissance.
Great videos. What are you using to make the maps and animation?
Photoshop and After Effects
@@ancientsight nicely done work! I teach History and love to watch/use your videos!
yes.
ôooooh! ERE content!! good stuff XD
Da hood lost a real one that day in 602 A.D
Any idea when the next part is coming?
A new video will be public in two days as a standalone. The next part of the Byzantium series will be out in about a month.
If he was gonna ask them to winter in barbaricum, he should've given them a donative. It was his 20 year anniversary. He's supposed to give them one anyway. These guys all had families waiting for them.
Could he afford it however ?
@@ancientsight Well, he couldn't afford not to. Maybe a little tact would have helped. I've read that when a commander came to reason with Maurice about the growing mutiny, he personally slapped them and sent them away.
@@histguy101Maurice’s biggest flaw was not being able to correctly read the situation when it came to his troops. He was too hands on with no money to satisfy the soldiers who were exhausted after 20 years of fighting Persians, Avars & Slavs with barely any rest
On video del emperador basilio 2
Great video! Maurice was very capable but certain miscalculations brought his downfall. One of the better Roman emperors still.
Are we receiving more content soon? I can’t wait so hopefully
Yes, in about two weeks and most probably less
@@ancientsight Nice! I was hoping to find an update, love your work
Waiting Phocas and of course Heraclius video.
A new standalone video will be out in two days. The episode on the final persian war of Heraclius will follow.
Where i can get a map like this one?.
This map is entirely made by me from scratch on Photoshop. This is an important part of the channel's visual so I am reluctant to make the files public, I hope you understand. Still,I may do it. What would you like to use it for ?
@@ancientsight
I have made my own map on photoshop too, And it is a very high quality one, it took me weeks to do, so I'm fully understanding your position 🤝
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But I'm surprised of how good-looking the edges in your map, i could never believed this is a hand mad map, specially with rivers on too ❤️ i got to say im impressed
.
But i want to ask you some questions, i hope you could answer them
.
1- is the Americas are included in your map or just Europe, Africa, Asia?.
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2 - how did make it?. You used a low quality map and then put in a high quality frame and then Traced it?.
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And yeah I'm about to open my own history youtube channel.
Yes, to make the edges, I used several maps I found here and there to draw. I couldn't find a single map that covered the entire region I wanted to reprensent so I made it that way.
1 - No, there is not the Americas. You can go check the very beginning of this video here : ruclips.net/video/FeVbXuAp3Uo/видео.html This is pretty much the full extent covered by the map + west of India and Somalia missing.
As a general advice, do not make the map too large if you don't need it. If you only need the Middle East and Europe for your map, do not bother on making a full world map. First it will take you so much more time and also, your animation software will not enjoy. If you cover two very different regions, better make two different map. Still, I don't know everything on these softwares far from it so you may find a way to sort this of.
2 - Exactly.
Amazing ! I wish you the best of luck for your channel. Don't forget to drop a comment here once you started. I would love to see your work.
"Ancient Sight requires Phocas."
Maurice's dynasty could've been amazing. The way they were butchered by Phokas was a tragedy.
Sad ending... :( Roma invicta!
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The empire looks in extent broadly similar to the situation in the mid 5th-century. But there are similar problems: too many enemies, not enough resources. The empire would have had to shrink even if Islam hadn't arisen.
Some people call him Maurice.
👍👍👍
According to Aristides of Athens who was formerly a Greek/Hellene but converted to Christianity, the world was made of 4 races. Christian, Jew, Greek and Barbarian. It never ceases to baffle me why academics are so desirous to Hellenize superior Roman Christian civilization and history.
I understand this is a sensitive issue for modern Greeks (descendants of the Romans) but truth is truth. From the time of Julian the Apostate until Plethon and his rejected hypotheses (at the time) nobody was Hellenic, Greece wasn't the name of a country until the 1800's.
I find Maurice to be a good and fascinating emperor, however his insistence on forcing his men to camp on the other side of the Danube baffles me. Even after all of the previous soldier revolts, he still kept trying and thus caused the downfall of a capable emperor in place of one of the worst.
I consider him the last Roman Emperor
From Julius Caesar to Maurice 600 years
Oui, ces't très triste
It's a shame, Maurice could have been another Aurelian. After the Avars, he would have crushed the Lombards in Italy
Yeah most probably. However we should keep several things in mind :
- there still was a large amount of Slavs in the mountains of Moesia
- the balkans and the east were fast moving and high priority fronts unlike Italy
- the finances were a high priority for Maurice
- the unruly nature of the army at the time was a real problem
- the relations with the pope were at an all time low
That probably means that Maurice would have taken quite some time before actually moving to Italy. Not even taking into account the fickle persians, who may take advantage. Maurice or a legitimate successor would not have moved to Italy before 610 or something. Plenty of time for the situation to deteriorate.
@@ancientsightstill his Untimely death led to the end of any real Recovery of Roman Empire its not if they Won in Yarmouk even they Won there the Roman Empire in the Levant & Africa will taken by the Arabs because by that time Roman Empire is so Exhausted by the Long War against the Sassanids,Lombards & Visigoths starting from the Death of Maurice any more Long War will still Depleted the Empire those who saying the Victory in Yarmouk will be the last chance of Recovery of Roman Empire are Uggos The Romans Have no Chance against Arabs After that Exhausting Wars that Depleted both Manpower & Resoures of the Roman Empire for over 2 decades non-stop war , but if Maurice died Naturally and his Sons Succeed Him in Orderly and manage to hold the Empire together and also manage too avoid any War with Khosrow II then theres is a Big Chance of Recovery of Roman Empire and surviving entirely of Roman Empire against the Arab onslaught in the mid-7th century AD.
Maurice is erroneously called by moderns, "The first of the race of the Greeks to be Emperor." This is devious. No self respecting Christian would call himself "Greek" as that country didn't exist yet and the "race of the Greeks" in ancient terminology meant "heathen."
However: "
9. And shortly after, the Thracians rebelled and rose up against the emperor Maurice, and (their) four commanders set out against him. And when Maurice heard this news he began to distribute money among the inhabitants of Constantinople. Now they had been wont to call Maurice a heathen and a magician, and a person undeserving of the imperial throne. 10. And when the soldiers heard of these movements they took measures to wrest concessions from him touching their wage and food, that is, the pay of the officers and chiefs. 11. But subsequently changing their plans they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Phocas, and marked him out as emperor. Now he was one of the four commanders of Thrace. 12. And the inhabitants of Constantinople were all of one mind, and cried out saying : 'Let us have a Christian emperor in this city.' And when Maurice heard that the inhabitants of the city wished to seize him, he went into the palace, and brought forth all (his) wealth, and placed it in a ship, and likewise his children and his wife, they made for Bithynia."
Being from Cappadocia of the Roman Empire makes one Cappadocian not Greek. Maurice DID NOT identify as a Greek. This would be identifying as a heathen, which he accused of, no doubt using the word "Hellene." Often translated, "heathen."
Basil II
Caligula, Nero, Commodus, Elagabalus, Honorius, Valentinian III... all bow before the ACTUAL worst emperor ever...
*PHOCAS.*
Is this how the Name maurice got popularized in Western European culture?
I do not know
A brilliant mind but not someone id wabt to live under. Historians love austere leadwra but those who live under them do not.
And thats the beginning of the end for half of the Byzantine territories..
Actually no. That would be Heraclius' time.
@@Michael_the_Drunkard yes , I know its Heraclius time. However this is what sets everything up. Zeno takes power and takes out Maurice and his whole family. Kosrow II starts the famous 30 years war which completely weakens both empires, and this makes it much easier for the Arabs to invade both of them.
@@eaglealb6146 No, the Arabs have a civil war against the entire Arabian Peninsula, but Khaled Ibn Al-Walid, the sword of God, is undefeated
Where have you been brother?
Some troubles in life but I am back on tracks
@@ancientsight ΟΚ brother wish you the best
@@ancientsight Good to hear, I was scared you might have stopped making these amazing videos.
mauride my uncle