Belisarius sailed with only 15,000 men to destroy the Vandal kingdom, using intelligence gathered in Sicily to land unopposed and defeat Gelimer twice — each time at the moment when Gelimer found his brother dead and froze. The Vandal kingdom was extinguished in little more than a year, and the stunning reconquest made Justinian's dreams of reuniting the empire seem within reach.
Also known as: Byzantines
Mentioned in
What each episode says
Episode 1 (25 mentions)
“of the common man. So, Byzantine history. Where do we begin? In the words of one English writer,”
“of silence, where Byzantine history has largely been ignored. Most people, including myself,”
“People are looking at the Byzantine Empire in 1453, which closely resembled an Eastern potentate.”
Episode 6 (1 mention)
“The Ostrogoths had had a tumultuous history with the Byzantines, constantly vacillating”
Episode 8 (4 mentions)
Belisarius sailed with only 15,000 men to destroy the Vandal kingdom, using intelligence gathered in Sicily to land unopposed and defeat Gelimer twice — each time at the moment when Gelimer found his brother dead and froze. The Vandal kingdom was extinguished in little more than a year, and the stunning reconquest made Justinian's dreams of reuniting the empire seem within reach.
“three parts, with his brother and himself in command, and struck just as the Byzantines were”
“some 6,500 of them arrived with supplies, tipping the balance in favor of the Byzantines.”
“but unabashedly for plunder. To keep the peace, the Byzantines had paid him 5,000 pounds of gold,”
Episode 9 (3 mentions)
“He was one of them, and it was the corrupt foreign Byzantines who were the real enemy.”
“was sympathetic to Totila and openly hostile to the Byzantines.”
“the dizzying theological subtleties so characteristic of the Byzantines.”
Episode 10 (19 mentions)
“unopposed, swept further into Byzantine territory, taking all of Mesopotamia and Armenia.”
“Byzantine emperor, an ability to inspire others, even in the most desperate situations.”
“them to sit while making the Byzantines stand, and generally deferring to them in everything.”
Episode 11 (13 mentions)
“empress, and for the next 27 disastrous years would be the effective ruler of the Byzantine”
“raiding in Byzantine territory, his reputation was even worse, with some even calling him”
“the book Lost to the West, The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization.”
Episode 12 (1 mention)
“The Byzantines had struck a huge blow”
Episode 13 (2 mentions)
“Then he would descend on the Byzantines and annihilate whichever poor general Basil left”
“now to worry about internal dissent as the Byzantines took more and more of his territory.”
Episode 14 (26 mentions)
“By 1071, he had taken Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, and by the following”
“oaths to him, began to carve out little kingdoms for themselves out of Byzantine territory.”
“the book Lost to the West, The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization.”
Episode 15 (21 mentions)
“After the shattering defeat at Manzikert, he had rebuilt Byzantine power while being pressured from both the East and the West.”
“By Manuel's death, the Byzantine Empire was seemingly at the height of its power, the unquestioned secular leader of the Christian world.”
“and both Italian and Frankish merchants began to once again choke off native Byzantine trade.”
Episode 16 (27 mentions)
“limitless, and the suicidally short-term thinking of the Byzantines resulted in Turkish troops”
“was compelled to take part in the siege of the last Byzantine stronghold in Asia Minor.”
“Three Genoese warships and a Byzantine transport loaded down with a much needed cargo of corn.”
Episode 17 (7 mentions)
“Swaggering around the palace as if they own them the Byzantines with their central heating public baths hospitals women doctors and orphanages”
“The Byzantines for their part found their guests to be boorish crude men with nothing other than fighting ability to recommend them”
“The Orthodox and Catholic churches by submitting to the Pope the Byzantines responded by saying better the Sultan's turban than the Pope's miter”
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