Rome civil war of 776-777 (18 feb 776 anni – 7 marzo 778 anni)

Descrizione:

After the Palace Coup of 776 happened, the message went out that Christopher was dead, and as the commanders of the Mesopotamian themes, the Egyptian Diocese, and Italy notice the Christopher’s orders, they just uprise soon.

The Mesopotamian commander, Joshua of Edessa, declared Nikephorus, the blinded son of Leo to be Emperor. He quickly rallied the support of Syria, Palaestine, and Armenia behind him, and took his thematic troops west into Anatolia. John concluded a peace with the Bulgars and marched East to meet him. The two armies met near Amorium inside the Diocese of Pontus. Both sides had twenty-thousand troops, but the superior experience of the Tagmatic soldiers, and John’s tactical mind carried the day.

The Mesopotamians were forced to surrender, and both Joshua and Nikephorus were killed. But just because the claimant was dead did not mean the Eastern revolt was over. Peter of Tao, an Armenian of significant standing escaped the battle with his men, and returned to the Caucuses to raise a new army. Along the way he grabbed Leo’s last remaining son, Alexander, who had also been blinded, and declared him the rightful Emperor.

John wanted to pursue, but the Egyptian fleet had taken this time to begin attacking the Greek coast, including seizing Athens in March 767. While the local soldiers succeeded in retaking the city quickly the Egyptian Navy had by then seized Rhodes, and were assaulting Lesbos. John was forced to move south to block an attempted landing at Ephesus, but this had been a feint. In truth the Egyptians had moved to Thessalonika, breaching the seawalls and forcing the city to surrender. Then they unloaded nearly thirty thousand soldiers and severed the roads between the capital and the Balkans.

John raced back, and finally stopped the Egyptian advance near Adrianople. A battle ensued, and again the superior experience of the capital’s soldiers was decisive. The Egyptian army was broken and forced to surrender. The commander, Valen of Cyrenaica was executed, and the remnants were sent north to Moesia to reinforce the Danube.

In Italy Anastasius, the son of the previously mentioned Nikephoros, uncle to Leo, was in command of the peninsula, as well as the themes of Africa and hold large fleets.

In the East, Peter had rallied the Albanians, Lazikans, and Iberians to form a coalition to put Alexander on the throne, and in the process win greater independence from Constantinople. Emissaries of Anastasius landed in Tripoli and crossed the still rebellious themes of Syria and into the Armenian mountains. There they proposed joint rule between Alexander and Anastasius, as capturing the capital was the most important goal for each.

Peter of Tao agreed, and the two sides launched a joint offensive against Constantine’s holdings. Anastasius used his navy to seize the port of Corinth, and began a repeat of the Egyptian strategy. Using Krete and Rhodes as a base he moved north, capturing the Aegean islands until finally his fleet captured Samothrace in November 767.

Anastasius deployed his army into Greece at spring. Landing forces at Corinth he took the Peloponnese with an army of about thirty thousand. Of these about twelve thousand were Italian garrison troops, along with ten thousand Lombards from Spoleto, and finally eight thousand Gothic mercenaries. He marched north, and John was forced to dig in at the capital and wait. He couldn’t move either East or West without the very real possibility of the other army pouncing in his absence. In April 777 Anastasius’ army arrived and placed Constantinople under siege.

Meanwhile the Italian fleet placed the capital under blockade, and a fleet of ships from Anatolia blocked the entrance from the Black Sea. Realizing he was doomed John deployed the Imperial fleet to break the Black Sea blockade, but in the ensuing battle the Italians crossed through the straights and came up on the Imperial fleet from the rear. In a long, hard-fought battle the Imperial fleet was defeated, and ultimately surrendered to the rebels.

Anastasius' men found the damaged aqueduct of Valens as an entry point, and the self-declared Emperor led a small group of them inside, took the gates, and threw them open,then his army just influx the city. The capital fell within hours, and the palace was taken. Eudoxia was executed, as was her brother. And Romanos the Bastard was castrated and sent to a monastery.

Anastasius recognized as Augustos Basileos on July 7, 777 and crowned his son Justinian co-Emperor. Then he sent Italian fleet intercept Peter of Tao and thrown him overboard; and Alexander was tonsured once again and sent to a monastery in Italy.

As Albanians and Iberians keep fighting, Anastasius took another months to swept these two client kingdoms, and incorporated them as provinces of the Empire.

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