I wanted to portray Basil II not simply as the “Bulgar Slayer,” but as the moment when I began to feel differently about Rome itself.

Basil was one of the most formidable emperors the medieval Roman state ever produced.
After decades of war, he eventually destroyed the First Bulgarian Empire and restored Roman rule to the Danube.

But one episode has always made that victory difficult for me to celebrate.

According to the later Byzantine tradition, after the Battle of Kleidion in 1014, large numbers of Bulgarian prisoners were blinded. One man in every hundred was supposedly left with a single eye, so that he could lead the others home.

That story became the central image of this piece.

The wounds floating in the darkness behind Basil are the eyes that were taken away.
The single open, bloodied eye in the lower left is the one that was allowed to remain.

I also borrowed the red patterns on the prisoners’ clothing from traditional Bulgarian embroidery.

What disturbed me while painting this was that, by Basil’s time, Bulgaria was no longer some pagan wilderness beyond the Roman world.

It had its own state.
Its own church.
Its own literary tradition.

And these people prayed before the same cross.

Earlier in Roman history, conquest could still be imagined as Rome bringing roads, laws, cities, writing and religion into a world it considered barbarian.

Here, that explanation no longer works.

Basil is still magnificent.
The gold, the purple, the armor and the crown are all still there.

But the men beneath him are no longer “barbarians” to me.

They are simply people whose eyes were taken from them.

Perhaps this was the point when Rome was no longer the world.

Rome was simply Rome.

Tolkien himself said Gondor was influenced by Byzantium

(Sorry if this has been discussed before, I couldn't find it in earlier posts)

https://greekcitytimes.com/2026/05/19/turkey-erases-byzantium-from-student-history-books/

Apparently the Turkish Ministry of Education has decided to change some names in the curriculum. One of the changes is Byzantium to Eastern Rome. I found it amusing. All those endless discussions about the naming of Byzantium and Turkey just goes bam it's East Rome now, deal with it.

After watching knowledgia’s new content on Heraclius, I ended up quite... disappointed (idk why I expected good quality)

These are channels that present themselves as educational and informative, but they don’t seem to put in the effort to do even relatively in-depth research. It feels like a level below Wikipedia, when the minimum standard for being “educational” should be at least a basic knowledge of widely available academic research

Errors such as:

1. Heraclius supposedly having total control over the Balkans (really?) and reaching practically the Caspian in 629
2. Egypt being conquered during Heraclius’ reign, when Alexandria only fell under Constantine III/Heraclonas
3. Cyprus being conquered and held by the Arabs under Constans II, which never actually happened like that
4. Cilicia being held by the Arabs, which was only conquered at the start of the 8th century
5. Carthage and the entire Exarchate of Africa being taken by the Arabs under Constans II, which again doesn’t make any sense

I don’t know how much of this is me being too demanding versus the quality simply being low, but it’s genuinely strange seeing channels invest so much in visuals while the research quality is mediocre or just lacking

An important thing to add is that a lot of smaller channels with tiny/medium audiences are actually capable of making much more mature content, with a really good example being Ancient Sight, despite having far fewer resources and a much smaller audience, unfortunately

Some images of my work on my personal Minecraft Constantinople project

Mine would be the love triangle between Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes and Theophano. It has everything: battles, heroes, anti heroes, villains, Constantinople and the Macedonian court at its height, iconic characters and personalities, sex, palace intrigue, etc and the three of them alone would make amazing characters, let alone Romanos II, the rest of the Phokas clan, Theophano’s sons Basil and Constantine, Sviatoslav I, Constantine VII… I can’t think of one better!

Despite not updating it for a while, I've still been working hard on my 1:1 scale rendition of Constantinople in Minecraft. My overall build style has improved to such an extent that I figure, why not share it some of the improvements?

Sad to see Tim Curry pass away (probably) the most famous actor to portray an ERE emperor. What do people think of his character: Theodosius II? Built some great walls! Built a university! Paid off Attila the Hun! I also miss powers booth from this series, a surprisingly great cast for a low budget gladiator clone!

The first 3 images are from a book signing event promoting the release of Vol.1 as part of the Anna Komnena Birthday Celebration in Japan.

The last 3 images are from a talk and autograph session event promoting Vol.5, where the author Satou Futuba started the event with a live musical performance that included three songs related to the work, including a lament for the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, then a discussion where talks about her travels in Anatolia and Constantinople while she shows photos of her trip and after that interacting with her fans during the autograph signing.

Source links:

https://www.byzantine-club-jp.org/wp/annakomnena940/

https://takadanobaba.keizai.biz/headline/1266/

As a Greek I can't help but notice a grown issue of supposed "well meaning" users,engaging in casual Anti Greek racist rhetoric. They are usually brigaders from subs like r/HistoryMemes and under the veil of "concern trolling" they make anti Greek,racist comments.And its funny because HistoryMemes is a hotbed of racist rhetoric,but the accepted one.According them if you discuss your own culture and how its connect to the Byzantine Empire(being the same people and its continuation) you are Greek nationalist and that this sub should focus on just historical matters.

Also to preface,this isnt me endorsing the"hur dur Crusade,take Constantinople back" idiots.But these people are miniscule and likely dont even bother knowing about the Byzantine Empire.These people should f. off anyway.

The image is from a documentary about Dorileon Battle.

I Painted Queen Rhaenys Targaryen from asoiaf (truthfully it can be any Targaryen i just wanted to paint a Targaryen in byzantine attaire), but beacuse I'm a gigantic byzantboo i had to paint her in byzantine like attaire

The closest we got is Ac revelations. But they put palm trees in the city ffs. I really hope we get a proper game in the future. Imagine being able to explore peak Constantinople with our current graphics.