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Politics Warfare History This Day In History: The French Occupy the Island Of Corfu (1916) Ed - January 11, 2017 This day in history during the height of WWI the French occupied the Greek island of Corfu. The Greek government allowed the French to occupy the island so that they could establish a refuge for the Serbian government and army. In 1914 Serbia was invaded by the Austrians who blamed Belgrade for the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. The Serbian army had defied the Austrians and the Germans for over a year, but by the end of 1915, their homeland had been almost overrun. By December 1915 the Serb army and government was forced to flee their homeland. The Serbian Royal family and much of the army retreated into Albania and made it to ports on the Adriatic Coast. Some 250,000 Serbian soldiers had retreated into Albania. The western allies were determined not to abandon their allies and they sent an armada to rescue. By the end of 1915, in a massive rescue operation involving more than 200 ships, from the Italian, French and British navy. The rescue mission was a remarkable feat and it rescued an entire army. It is estimated that over 300,000 men, women and children were taken to safety by the allies navies. They were all taken to Corfu and the island became their new base. In mid-1916 approximately half of the Serbian army was taken by ship to Salonika where they would fight on the Macedonian Front against Bulgaria and the German 9th Army. The Serbian army were to fight for over two years on the Macedonian Front and they fought very bravely. They were instrumental in the defeat of Bulgaria in the autumn of 1918 and they later re-occupied their homeland after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army. This Day In History: The French Occupy the Island Of Corfu (1916) Members of the Serbian Royal Family on Corfu (1916) ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW The island also became the de-factor capital of the Serbian government in exile. In the summer of 1917, there were important negotiations on the island. The Serbian government and members of various Slavic minorities were present. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was on its last legs and its various Slavic minorities were very keen to become independent. They agreed to enter into a pact and under its terms, Serbia and the Slavic minorities agreed to form a new Pan-Slavic state. They all agreed that the new state would be ruled by the current King of Serbia. The Corfu agreement was warmly received by many Slavs, weary of living under the rule of the Austrians and the Hungarians. The American President Woodrow Wilson later endorsed the ideas and visions expressed at Corfu in the summer of 1917. The so-called Pact of Corfu was to form the basis of the future state of Yugoslavia. This Day In History: Stalin Orders Trotsky Into Internal Exile (1928) Civil War General Warfare History This Day In History: Stalin Orders Trotsky Into Internal Exile (1928) Ed - January 11, 2017 On this day in history, in 1928, Stalin banishes his foe, Leon Trotsky, to Alma Alta in Central Asia. Trotsky had been a long-term rival Stalin. After the death of Lenin, the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party was contested by Stalin and Lenin. Trotsky was born to affluent Jewish-Russian parents in western Russia. He was a dedicated revolutionary from an early age and he played a part in several conspiracies and was prominent in the 1905 Revolution. He was imprisoned and exiled for his revolutionary activities, several times. Trotsky had collaborated with Lenin but he later fell out with him over ideological differences. After the suppression of the 1905 revolution, Trotsky had been forced into exile abroad. For ten years, he traveled around Europe conspiring with other revolutionaries. He returned to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917 and played a leading role in the Communists seizure of power. Indeed he paved the way for the return of Lenin. Trotsky was the lead negotiator in the Treaty of Brest-Livtosk that ended Russian involvement in WWI. He later played a very important role in the formation of the Red Army, despite having no formal military training. He was appointed Commissar of War and he directed the army at a crucial time in the war. The ‘Whites’ or the anti-communists armies were threatening the communists hold on power. The army that Trotsky helped to form decisively defeated the White counter-revolutionaries in a savage civil war. Trotsky was instrumental in saving the Revolution and was a hero to many in the Soviet Communist Party and around the world. To many, it seemed that Trotsky was the heir-apparent when Lenin died. However, Stalin was wily and he build-up a large network of support in the communist party and bureaucracy. The fact that Trotsky was a Jew also made him unpopular in many circles. Trotsky believed that the Soviets should try to do everything they could to ferment revolution around the world. Stalin believed that the Soviet Union should build up its strength before supporting a worldwide revolution. The majority of the party backed Stalin and as a result, he was able to marginalize Trotsky. Indeed by 1928 Trotsky once the darling of the Party was no longer a major player. This Day In History: Stalin Orders Trotsky Into Internal Exile (1928) Leo Trotsky in 1918 ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW On this day Stalin had Trotsky sent into internal exile and after a year he had him expelled from the Soviet Union. He settled first in Turkey and then after wandering around Europe found a refuge in Mexico. Trotsky finished his autobiography and a history of the Russian Revolution during his exile and these greatly angered Stalin, as Trotsky attacked him in these writings. In 1940 Stalin sent an agent, A Spanish communist to assassinate Trotsky. He ingratiated himself into the household of Trotsky and later stabbed Trotsky with an ice-pick. The great revolutionary died the next day. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century General Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century Michelle Powell-Smith - January 10, 2017 With advances in cipher technology in the 20th century, equivalent advances in cryptoanalysis were essential. New cipher technology meant that codes were produced by machine, not by hand, and therefore, had to be cracked by machine. Cryptography is the work of writing codes; cryptoanalysis is breaking codes. In this article, we’ll explore the codebreaking of World War I and World War II, as well as take a quick look at the unbreakable, old-school code used by the United States in both World War I and World War II. Mass media has brought a great deal of attention to some of these activities, including codetalkers, Bletchley Park, and Alan Turing. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Room 40 Room 40 was part of British intelligence during World War I, and played a key role in decoding German communications during the War. Room 40, named for the space it occupied in the Old Admiralty Building, was created by the head of Naval Intelligence, Captain William Reginald “Blinker” Hall. Prior to World War I, most governments, including Britain, had only minimal intelligence operations. These were typically short-lived, with the goal of attaining specific information. Intelligence was not an organized or ongoing activity. This changed with World War I. Quite early in World War I, Britain acquired three German naval codebooks, providing the basis for the cryptography that would continue throughout the War. These were only three of the many codebooks the Germans used, and each was acquired differently—and none through military action. The division of Naval Intelligence was created in response to these codebooks, and with the understanding that cracking codes might be essential to wartime success. Early on, Naval Intelligence and Room 40 lacked both the people and resources needed to complete their tasks. By January 1915, intelligence decrypted by Room 40 was providing the British with the information needed to protect British interests and reduce losses to the Germans. Room 40 did not just decode messages, but also used geolocation information from coded transmissions to deduce the position of German U-boats, and, in some cases, act to preserve British ships. One of the best-known coded messages of the World War I era is the Zimmerman Telegram. The Zimmerman Telegram, sent from Germany to Mexico, was decoded by Room 40, and the message passed to the United States through a series of deceptions. Britain was also spying on the United States and didn’t want the extent of its intelligence efforts known. The Zimmermann Telegram played a key role in the United States’ entrance into World War I, as it, for the first time, showed a clear intention by the Germans to offer violent opposition to the United States. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW The Code Talkers of World War I As the intelligence community grew, different countries needed new codes to use to communicate secretly, without sharing information with either their allies or their enemies. Most codes were quickly broken by cryptographers, increasing the challenges for military intelligence, radio operators and telegram operators. Communications were easily intercepted and decrypted. On the ground in France in World War I, the United States opted for a new solution to the problem of the easily-broken code. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the United States found that the Germans were intercepting messages sent over radio lines, and capturing runners sent to deliver messages. The solution to this problem was discovered accidentally, when a captain in the 142nd Regiment walked past two Choctaw soldiers in conversation, in their native Choctaw. The men knew of other Choctaw soldiers, and soon a network, the Choctaw Telephone Squad, was born. The men simply spoke to one another in Choctaw; there was no need for additional coding. Messages could be passed easily from one Choctaw soldier to another, then translated to English by the Choctaw code talker. There were eight men in the Choctaw Telephone Squad, originally, with some 19 in total in the Squad eventually. They created their own codes within the language to use for things that they did not have words for, like machine gun. This formed the basis for the code talker programs used in World War II as well. Native American languages proved an ideal choice for codes for several reasons. First, there were a very limited number of speakers; most tribes numbered 20,000 or less, and very few speakers had ever left the United States, dramatically reducing the possibility of another country finding a speaker of the language. These languages were almost entirely oral, with very few written materials; those that existed were only minimally circulated. Without access to a translatable document, deciphering the language proved impossible. While the Choctaw provided code talking in World War I, the Navajo were the primary code talkers in World War II. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Magic As early as the 1920s, cryptographers employed by the U.S. military worked to decode Japanese transmissions. The project, known simply as Magic, was a joint effort of the U.S. Army’s Signals Intelligence Service and the U.S. Navy’s Communications Special Unit, and was based at Arlington Hall in Arlington, Virginia. Magic decoded several different Japanese codes, beginning with RED in 1923, after the acquisition of a Japanese code book. The Japanese created a more complex code, in use from 1930 onward. Called BLUE by Magic, this was decoded successfully by 1932. In 1939, Germany provided Japan with modified Enigma machines. The Enigma machines created the code called PURPLE. American engineers reverse engineered the Japanese Enigma machine and managed to partially decode PURPLE fairly quickly; however, Magic could not regularly decode PURPLE until after 1942. While PURPLE was used for diplomatic transmissions, it was not used by the Japanese Navy; therefore, there was no way to decode information about Pearl Harbor before it occurred; however, PURPLE did provide ongoing information sent between the Germans and Japan. This was shared with U.S. Allies during the War, but Japan refused to believe that PURPLE had been decoded. Transmissions had to be intercepted, decoded, translated and distributed. This process was challenging and time-consuming. The combined Army and Navy staff at Magic did their jobs well; however, the cryptography resources available at Magic were not always effectively used or shared. The Army and Navy took turns distributing decrypts, and choosing which decrypts were important enough to share and which were not. Prior to Pearl Harbor, no copies of decrypts were available to officers allowed to read them. There is some discussion of the potential role of Magic in the creation of internment camps for Japanese-Americans in World War II. In the records of messages intercepted and decoded by Magic, there are several messages that suggest Japanese intention to rely upon Japanese-Americans to act to collect intelligence. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW The Cipher Bureau During the Polish-Soviet War, in 1919, Poland formed its first intelligence agency, the precursor of the Biuro Szyfrow or Cipher Bureau. In 1931, the Cipher Bureau was formed by merging several smaller agencies to create a single agency devoted to cryptology. The Cipher Bureau was responsible various code-related tasks, including cryptography and cryptanalysis. Even in the early years, the Polish Cipher Bureau was fast, efficient and well-organized. Messages were typically decrypted within a day, and passed directly to military intelligence, and key members of the military, including the Chief of General Staff. The Cipher Bureau provided essential intelligence about Soviet activities and military operations during its early years. Around the end of 1927 or early 1928, Polish authorities intercepted a German package, containing an early, commercial-issued Enigma machine. This sparked interest in Enigma, and provided an idea of the basis for Enigma. The Enigma machine was an electro-mechanical rotor cipher machine, invented in Germany around the end of World War I. Work on Germany’s Enigma cipher began in 1932. Over the next seven years, Polish cryptographers worked to break and decode Enigma. Between 1932 and 1938, Poland developed a number of different tools, including the bombas, to decode Enigma; however, the Germans responded by making the Enigma machines more complex and the codes harder to decipher. In July 1939, Polish cryptographers provided French and British intelligence with the information they had available on Enigma to assist Allied intelligence efforts. The invasion of Poland and the official beginning of World War II came just over a month later, on the first of September 1939. The Polish expected the invasion; they were already effectively translated German messages and were aware of, in 1939, approximately 95 percent of the German order of battle. Their knowledge of the expected invasion, and their understanding of what was likely to come enabled them to share their knowledge while they were still able to do so. The Cipher’s Bureau’s advances in cryptanalysis provided the basis for Allied intelligence effort. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW B-Dienst While Britain had a well-organized cryptography department, and the U.S. an adequate one, Germany relied upon a number of small offices and departments scattered throughout the Nazi government to decrypt Allied messages. The most effective of these was B-Dienst. B-Dienst was responsible for naval intelligence, including cryptography. B-Dienst had been established well before World War II. During World War I, naval staff in Berlin realized that, by using monitoring stations in Belgium and France, they could monitor naval transmissions. The Observation Service or Beobachtungsdienst, was formed. Between the wars, the office was poorly staffed, with few resources, but that changed in 1934. By 1935, B-Dienst was decoding Royal Navy and merchant ship transmissions. It grew rapidly during the War, and eventually had more than 6,000 workers intercepting, decoding and translating naval codes. By 1941, B-Dienst was also deciphering U.S. Navy codes. Decoding the movements of U.S. and British ships provided a distinct advantage to German U-boats early in the War. B-Dienst was particularly critical to the effectiveness of Operation Drumbeat in early 1942, when German U-boats attacked vessels off the East Coast of North America. In 1942, the U.S. changed their naval codes, reducing the success of B-Dienst. By 1943, some 80 percent of Allied naval transmissions were being decoded by B-Dienst; however, they were rarely decoded in time to act on the information. Only 10 percent of the messages read were decoded in time to be of use. This limited the overall benefit of the intelligence to the British. By late 1943, Allied forces had changed their codes, limiting the ability of B-Dienst to successfully decode coded naval messages. During interrogations at the end of the War, German officials credited B-Dienst with providing half of the intelligence used during the War by German troops. While intelligence was essential to the Allied victory in the War, the Germans had consistently less access to decoded messages, in large part due to the lack of a central agency to manage intelligence activities. Cracking the Code: Six of the Most Important Code Advances of the 20th Century ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW Bletchley Park Bletchley Park was the central site of the British government codebreakers in World War II. Run by the Government Code and Cipher School, Bletchley Park remained a government secret until relatively recently. Decoded materials from Bletchley Park are commonly identified as “Ultra”. Tr Near the end of August 1938, there was, in terms of appearances, a small gathering of friends at a mansion in the Buckinghamshire countryside. The individuals gathered at Bletchley Park in 1938 were not ordinary people enjoying a late summer break, but members of the British MI6 intelligence service and the Government Code and Cipher School, seeking an ideal location for a classified center for code breaking. A year later, work on Axis codes began in earnest at Bletchley Park. Large, pre-fabricated wooden huts supplemented the mansion and buildings already on the property. While the Polish Cipher Bureau had broken Enigma, it had done so when the Germans were only changing the code once every few months. With the beginning of World War II, the Germans changed the Enigma settings daily. There were more than 159 million million million possibilities each day in the Enigma code. Academics of all sorts, including mathematicians and chess champions were recruited for Bletchley Park; at one point, a crossword competition was held. Mathematicians were especially critical to decode Enigma. On January 23, 1940, the team working under Dilly Knox, including Alan Turing, cracked a German army administrative key, codenamed “The green”. They moved on to crack other German codes, including codes used for air support. The Axis Lorenz cipher was also broken by the staff at Bletchley Park. The knowledge gained by cracking these codes was highly confidential, and was used for the remainder of the war with the greatest of care. Historians believe that the work done at Bletchley Park likely shortened the war by two to four years and played a key role in securing the Allied victory over the Axis powers. The centralization of Bletchley Park provided key organizational advantages. Codebreakers could decrypt codes and pass them directly to intelligence staff in neighboring huts. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors Ancient History Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors Patrick Lynch - January 10, 2017 The Byzantine Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire and was effectively formed in 330 AD when Constantine the Great moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople. It survived the fall of the Empire in the West in 476 AD and thrived for hundreds of years after that. Its success was largely down to a number of exceptional rulers who overcame internal squabbling, natural disasters and hordes of foreign invaders until the empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453. In fairness, it wasn’t much of an empire after the sack of Constantinople in 1204 which is why every ruler on this list reigned before that fateful year. As Constantine the Great is already covered in the Western Roman Emperor list, he is not included here. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors Kitgillet.com (Justinian I monument in Skopje) ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 1 – Justinian I (527 – 565) Also known as Justinian the Great, this legendary emperor was born in Tauresium, Dardania which is near modern day Skopje, Macedonia in 482-483. He was actually from a peasant background but moved to Constantinople as a young man. His uncle, Justin, was a military commander and ultimately became Emperor Justin I in 518. He quickly promoted his nephew to important roles. Justinian was adopted by his uncle and was made co-emperor in 527 while his wife, Theodora, was made ‘Augusta.’ Within four months, his uncle died and Justinian I was the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. He became known for his skill as a legislator and codifier and is famous for sponsoring a codification of laws known as Codex Justinianus in 534. Justinian was genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of his subjects; he attempted to root out corruption and ensure justice was available to all. One example of this was the ban on the sale of provincial governorships. Traditionally, the men who bribed their way into office would recoup their money by overtaxing the population of their provinces. Regarding foreign policy, Justinian focused on regaining Roman provinces in the west from barbarians and continuing the fight with Persia. The Empire fought on and off with Persia until 561 when a 50-year truce was agreed. Justinian helped expand the Empire by defeating the Vandals in North Africa in 534. The Byzantine ruler turned his attention to Italy and captured Ravenna in 540. However, the enemy Ostrogoths recaptured some Italian cities and the Byzantine general, Belisarius, was recalled to Constantinople in 549. Undaunted, Justinian sent another commander, Narses, back to Italy with a massive army and by 562, the whole of the country was back under Byzantine control. Overall, Justinian was a man who showed tremendous attention to detail. His legal work and the construction of the Hagia Sophia (Great Church) gained him plenty of plaudits. While he did help expand the Empire, he failed to extend it to the extent his wished. In fact, his efforts to grow the Empire stretched its resources and is perhaps one of the reasons for its decline in the long-term. It should be said that he ruled during a terrible plague (in 542 which is often called the Plague of Justinian) which killed tens of millions of people and he did well to guide the empire through that turbulent time. Justinian died in 565 and control passed to his nephew Justin II. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors The History of Byzantium ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 2 – Maurice (582 – 602) Maurice was born in 539 in Cappadocia and is perhaps an underrated emperor. During his reign, the Byzantine Empire became well-organized, and he also consolidated its control in the Western Mediterranean. His accession to the throne was relatively rapid. Maurice only entered government as a notary, but by 578, he was in command of the imperial forces in the East. After earning a decisive victory over the Persians in 581, his stock rose to the point where he married Emperor Tiberius II Constantine’s daughter in 582. The emperor died within a few months, and Maurice was named emperor. Maurice now led a shattered empire that was practically bankrupt and at war with several entities. He decided to deal with the Persians first and enjoyed several victories over his rivals. Ultimately, Maurice helped two Parthian brothers take the Persian throne at the Battle of Blarathon in 591. Now he was able to switch focus and handle the situation in the Balkans. It was a long and costly war, but the Byzantines eventually managed to subdue the Slavs and Avars by 602 which allowed the imperial army to hold the Danube line once again. Regarding domestic matters, Maurice divided territories in Africa and Italy into ‘exarchates’ which were ruled by military governors or ‘exarchs.’ These men had total civil and military power, a significant departure from the typical separation of civil and military authority at the time. These exarchates are believed to be the basis of the famed Byzantine ‘theme’ system which provided the empire with a strong standing army for centuries. Unfortunately, Maurice’s multiple campaigns left the imperial treasury perpetually short of money which meant high taxes were necessary. In 602, he forced the army to stay beyond the Danube for winter but instead of following his orders to begin a new offensive, the soldiers mutinied and named Phocas as the new emperor. Maurice was murdered in November 602, and it is suggested that the unfortunate man watched his six sons being executed before he shared their fate. Maurice was a courageous and insightful leader who took over a fractured empire and held it together with skillful military command. He also showed diplomatic ability during negotiations with Khosrau II during the Persian conflict. Historians suggest his biggest flaw was his inability to judge the mood of his men; a fact evidenced by the events surrounding his death. However, it was a disastrous move to assassinate him as Phocas was to become one of the worst Byzantine Emperors. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors Wikipedia (A fragment of True Cross (Kreuzpartikel) in the Schatzkammer of Vienna) ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 3 – Heraclius I (610 – 641) Heraclius I was born in 575 in Cappadocia and is credited with introducing Greek as the official language of the Byzantine Empire. By 610, the Senate was fed up with the terrible rule of the cruel and vengeful Emperor Phocas. Heraclius answered the call for help and sailed from Carthage to Constantinople to take the throne. He was able to enter the city with no resistance and beheaded the tyrannical Phocas after a brief exchange. The new leader faced a serious challenge; he was in charge of a crumbling empire under constant attack and also facing mass internal dissension. The Byzantines needed a robust and capable Emperor, and Heraclius was the right man for the job. After suffering early setbacks at the hands of the Persians, Heraclius turned the tide and eventually pushed the Persians out of Anatolia. The Persian leader, Khosrow II, rejected an offer of peace and referred to the Byzantine emperor as an imbecilic slave. By 627, the war with the Persians was in the balance, but the Byzantines won a decisive victory at the Battle of Nineveh. Khosrau was killed in a coup led by his son Kavadh II who became king and sued for peace. Had Heraclius died in the late 620s, he would be regarded as one of the great military leaders in Byzantine history. However, he found the newly unified Muslim forces to be too powerful. The first fight between the Byzantines and Muslims occurred in 629, and the empire suffered several defeats. The most crucial loss came at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 when the Byzantine army was annihilated. Within five years, the empire had lost the Levant and most of Egypt. Heraclius suffered from poor health in later life and died in 641; the empire was left to his sons Heracleonas and Constantine III. Heraclius is credited with recovering the True Cross from the Persians, and his reign was marked by military success (in the early years) and reorganization of the government and military. The government reforms, in particular, were necessary to halt the corruption that was rampant during the reign of Phocas. However, the victory over the Persians was a pyrrhic one as both empires were significantly weakened and easy pickings for the marauding Muslims. While the Sassanid Empire crumbled quickly, the Byzantines were more durable and, despite suffering numerous heavy defeats, they managed to prevent the Muslims from destroying the empire. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors YouTube ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 4 – Leo III (717 – 741) Also known as Leo the Isaurian, this future Byzantine emperor was born in Syria in approximately 685 although some sources suggest he was born up to 10 years earlier. One of his great achievements was to bring an end to the Twenty Years’ Anarchy, a period of severe instability in the empire. This era was marked by a succession of weak rulers, and in 717, Leo seized the throne from the weak and ineffectual Theodosius III. Leo had used deception to take the crown. He managed to convince the invading Arabs that he would help subjugate the empire for them in return for their support in his attempt to become emperor. Once he was the ruler, Leo organized Constantinople against the invaders. The Arabs felt betrayed and angrily attacked the empire’s capital city. Leo’s skillful organization held the enemy at bay; Greek Fire was used to great effect and ultimately, the Arabs had to abandon their siege of Constantinople. It didn’t take long for Leo to establish himself as the supreme ruler of the empire; a fact which was emphasized with his swift dismissal of a rebellion in Sicily. He also displayed diplomatic skill and married his son Constantine to a daughter of the Khagan of the Khazars; the result was a powerful military alliance. Leo cleverly maintained good relations with the Bulgarians in the north of the empire. This allowed him to focus on driving back the Arabs. A significant victory at Akroinos in 740 ended any immediate Arab threat in Asia Minor. Unfortunately for the Empire, Leo died from dropsy in 741. Leo was an excellent soldier-emperor who often led his men into battle. He restructured the theme system to decrease the throne’s vulnerability. Previously, certain themes were so large that its leader could conceivably take the crown by force. There is some doubt over whether he established a complex system of social reforms and his policy of Iconoclasm angered a number of religious groups. However, Leo should be remembered for saving the Byzantine Empire from an Arab conquest; with a less able ruler, Constantinople may well have fallen. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors www.biblical-data.org ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 5 – Basil II (976 – 1025) Basil II was born in Constantinople in 958 and is credited with being the longest reigning Byzantine Emperor. Unlike some other entries on this list, Basil was born into royalty as the son of Emperor Romanos II. His father died when Basil was five years old, so the empire was ruled by Nikephoros II Phokas for six years until he was murdered in 969. John I Tzimisces held the crown until his death in 976. By now, Basil was old enough to lead the empire, so he became the new Byzantine ruler. During his near 50 year reign, the Byzantine Empire reached its peak regarding power and wealth. Upon his succession, Basil was faced with a declining empire with threats from the Fatimids and Bulgars. After suffering a number of setbacks against the Fatimids, Basil took control of the army and launched several incursions into enemy territory. Eventually, a ten-year truce was agreed in 1000. Perhaps his biggest military achievement was his complete subjugation of the Bulgars who had been raiding Byzantine land since 976. Basil found the enemy to be obstinate, and he was forced to embark on a campaign that lasted several decades. He was able to redouble his efforts after making peace with the Fatimids and decided upon total conquest of Bulgaria. Basil earned a decisive victory at the Battle of Kleidion in 1014 where he also showed his cruel side by blinding 99% of the 15,000 prisoners he captured in one eye. Bulgaria finally submitted to the Byzantines in 1018. When he died in 1025, his work was quickly undone as none of his successors possessed his military intelligence. Basil was very much a soldier-emperor who despised the literary classes. He was loved by his men as he not only campaigned with them; he also ate the same rations as they did. Basil never married nor did he have children. However, he protected the kids of dead soldiers, and they came to look upon him as a father figure. He was also very popular with the farmer classes which supplied the majority of the army’s men. By the time of his death, the imperial treasury had over 200,000 pounds of gold thanks to his conquests and prudence. Constantinople Not Istanbul: 6 Great Byzantine Emperors WordPress at Dartmouth (Peter the Hermit Preaching First Crusade) ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 6 – Alexios I Komnenos (1081 – 1118) Alexios I Komnenos (sometimes spelled Alexius I Comnenus) was the founder of the Komnenian dynasty and is occasionally referred to as the ‘savior of the empire.’ Alexios was born in 1056 (some sources suggest it was 1048) and was part of a wealthy landowning family. His uncle Isaac I was emperor from 1057-1059. Alexios joined the army at a young age, and by 1081, he was in a position to take the throne from Nicephorus III. He inherited the crown after 50 years of weak leadership left the Byzantine Empire on the verge of collapse. Although Alexios’ reign included constant warfare, he was able to stop the empire’s decline and help begin a financial, territorial and military recovery known as the Komnenian Restoration. Alexios’ first task was to fight back against a Norman invasion led by Robert Guiscard. The Byzantines were resilient and recovered after several defeats to eventually beat back the Normans; bribing the German King Henry IV with gold also helped! The next threat was the Pechenegs from across the Danube. Once again, the Byzantines suffered early losses only to grind down their opponents and crush their resistance. The Seljuk Turks posed an even bigger threat, so Alexios appealed to the Papacy for help. The result was the First Crusade which began a series of conflicts that changed the course of history. This crusade lasted from 1095 to 1099 and ended when the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. It was also a success for Alexios as the Byzantine Empire regained some lost territory including Nicaea, Rhodes, Philadelphia and Sardis. The emperor lost much of his popularity in the last 20 years of his reign. One of the reasons for this was his persecution of followers of the Bogomil and Paulician heresies. Although Alexios was terminally ill in 1116, he still led his army in defense of Anatolian territories against the Turks. He defeated the Turks in 1117 at the Battle of Philomelion but died the following year. There is some disagreement over the legacy of Alexios. Sources at the time suggested he helped keep the empire together at a critical juncture and set the scene for a revival that lasted until 1204. Modern historians suggest the Komnenians only used stopgap measures which did nothing to help the Byzantine Empire in the long term. To be fair to Alexios, he inherited a crisis and did what he believed was right by asking the West for help. Unfortunately, this action resulted in the Crusades and Western interference. Ultimately, the Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204. From that point on, the Byzantine Empire enduring a slow, lingering death. -Advertisment- © 2025 - History Collection