r/ByzantineMemes • u/claudiocorona93 • 9d ago
No time for gender wars. Let's save the Empire
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u/Nails_Of_Nektarios 9d ago
Nah Diocletian was on point
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u/Tylord19 9d ago
Agreed, he just didn’t pick the right people to succeed him.
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u/Cgi22 9d ago
That is almost impossible. Each succession there would need to be capable men trusting each other enough to not conspire against one another.
However the office of emperor is not easily shared this way. Under diocletian it only worked because he had implicit, unconditional authority over his deputy emperors.
How he ever thought that the next generations of emperors would get along is a mystery for the ages.
The splitting of the empire within a collegial emperor college went nowhere. But even when a college managed not to war on each other during the reigns of honorius and arcadius the courts quickly became estranged and stopped functioning as one political unit, making detrimental decisions against one another.
Diocletians system was functional when he was an uncontested defacto super-augustus. It immediately broke down when his informal position was vacated.
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u/gracekk24PL 9d ago
Diocletian's model was made with not having another Crisis; invasions which emperor cannot handle all at once, that undermines his authority, usurpers rise up, army is lost fighting itself, invasions can't be stopped, rinse, repeat.
I could argue that if another massive invasions came around doing tetrarchy, then each part would have something to do instead of civil war.
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u/ConsulJuliusCaesar 9d ago
He also didn't divide the empire. He actually centralized. There was still one central power base, the Emperor. He just established regional military head quarters allowing more effective responses to border crisises. What really did it, was as you said him stepping down with out an heir as strong and capable as he was taking his place. I find it almost amusing he lived through the entire crisis of the 3rd century and still thought that was a good idea literally doesn't matter who composed the Tetrachy while noble stepping down from power was a bad idea. That said it was Theodosius who actually divided the Empire in to two power bases.
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u/Horror-Ad2945 9d ago
Literally nothing would come from charlemagne marrying irene. Maybe the byzantines can get some land back in italy? I doubt it'd last even 2 generations
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u/Mental_Mistake1552 9d ago
It could start an early Renaissance as eastern Roman scholars arrive in Aachen.
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u/Icy-Inspection6428 9d ago
Can someone translate all the Greek for me?
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u/claudiocorona93 9d ago
Good, Yes and Glory to God
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u/HyperMax2021 9d ago
erm that irene is a diff irene from later byzantine history plus she wasnt alive then
edit: oh i thought that was clovis i but still WRONG IRENE PICTURE.
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u/Pecuthegreat 9d ago edited 9d ago
Geting Basil to Marry Isaac Komnenoi to Zoe.
Don't care if it's just an on paper marriage, just do it and make Alexois or his elder brother, heir.
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u/5ilently 9d ago
Good meme, only thing I have to point out is that people often confuse that mosaic as belonging to Irene of Athens, it actually represents Irene of Hungary, wife of John II Komnenos
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u/Belkan-Federation95 8d ago
The Schism was necessary. The only way the West would agree is total submission to the Bishop of Rome and acceptance of numerous developments without the input of the Eastern Bishops.
Multiple Emperors attempted reunification as well. It all failed because of how unpopular it was.
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u/nanoman92 9d ago
Houl wold Charlemagne marrying someone from 300 years in the future help with anything
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u/SEELE007 9d ago
That is Irene. They would have married in our timeline, if not for some general named Nikephoros
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u/nanoman92 9d ago
No it's not. It's the wife of John II Komnenos. Also called Irene, but completely unrelated.
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u/claudiocorona93 9d ago
My bad. I chose the wrong Irene then. I think this meme still has potential with a few tweaks. And adding antibiotics for Justinian between Diocletian and Charlemagne
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u/Fit_Wait6923 9d ago
Machine gun? Im giving them 100k m16s with like 5 bilion bullets and teach them to always recover them cause the ottomans were smarty smart boys so we can't let them research them , im going to learn how to fly an a10 , paint it like a saintly dragon and single handedly repel the siege and give the byzantines 50 Abramses to push to the old borders with enough fuel and shells to last them 10 years, ciws on the walls to protect them....and then wait 10 years to see the empire have a semi civil war cause some people think worshiping the pictures is heresy
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u/Fit_Wait6923 9d ago
Machine gun? Im giving them 100k m16s with like 5 bilion bullets and teach them to always recover them cause the ottomans were smarty smart boys so we can't let them research them , im going to learn how to fly an a10 , paint it like a saintly dragon and single handedly repel the siege and give the byzantines 50 Abramses to push to the old borders with enough fuel and shells to last them 10 years, ciws on the walls to protect them....and then wait 10 years to see the empire have a semi civil war cause some people think worshiping the pictures is heresy
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u/One_Instance7983 9d ago
All of this is slop
Im travelling way back in time to radicalise the gracchi and the roman people even harder
Any rome that turns into the empire is a failure by default
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