Looks Sophia is getting successful at consolidating popular support. Recall at the start it was pretty much non-existent aside from Athena contacts.
It's something that's going to be developed a bit later, but I picture Sophia as being, while less intelligent, more people-savvy than either her mother Athena or grandfather Demetrios III.
Good point. Between that temper and bloodlust she's also 100% pure Sideros.
Did you think the blood of Timur is spent?!
So, it's possible Gyranos' side winning might be better for the common man? Big IF, but possible.
Keep a pin in this thought as well. Can't think of more to say without going into spoilers.
It's a great reminder how lopsided this started that after two fairly significant victories the odds still feel stacked against Sophia. It does make me wonder what happens to a defeated tagma? They tend to follow their leaders, but could a fully defeated tagma have a new leader installed and switch sides. Seems like it could be a hard sell to the common soldier, but if the alternative is they can't be swayed and you either need to keep them in the field indefinitely or defeat them so thoroughly that you endanger the state post civil war that's bleak.
Sophia is making a good name for herself between her public appearances and the brutality of the tourmarchs' side around Smyrna. But the newly approved land reforms are really going to force her to deliver some big tangible gains for the people to win the PR battle.
I figure with the regular soldiers they could probably be turned with promise of amnesty and guarantee of pay at the rates to which they're used. Officers are more problematic, because with the hesychastic lodge memberships fighting against lodge brothers is anathema, so getting them to turn is a lot harder unless you can effectively get a lodge to flip en masse, which is an unlikely event.
And for the more stubborn, they can always be treated like the German POWs from the War of the Roman Succession, being sent off to forced labor projects or distributed as 'totally-not slaves' to buyers.
Roman flags: Personally, I've always defaulted to the Cross with 4 B's in my mind, largely out of habit. That's what I think of when I think of a Byzantine flag. The double-headed eagles I associated with the
Emperors, as opposed to the
Empire, to make a fine distinction. The slight variation of the eagles depending on the dynasty (the Vatatzes one is my favorite) is probably why.
A purple banner would certainly be one associated specifically with the Emperor, rather than a broader grouping. One of the OTL regalia of the Emperor were purple slippers, after all.
* * *
Rhomania’s General Crisis, Part 15.1-Holding the Circle:
As the summer of 1662 began to fade into autumn, the position of the Tourmarches in Constantinople did not look so well. The offensive into Thrakesia had crumbled into dust with the frontline roughly corresponding to the Opsikian-Thrakesian boundary line by the beginning of September. In Europe, Domestikos Pirokolos was picking at the Haemus Mountain defenses that separated Bulgaria from Thrace, threatening to break through.
Yet it was at this time that the advantages accruing to the Tourmarches, their relatively compact holdings compared to the fragmented nature of their foe’s, and their naval superiority really began to tell.
The offensive into Thrakesia had failed in securing the region for Constantinople but it had not been without consequence. During the War of the Roman Succession, all of the themes had increased the number of tourmai they fielded as their resources permitted. At the beginning of the War of Wrath they had begun doing the same. But the offensive into Thrakesia had badly disrupted the efforts there. In desperation, fresh units had been fed into the battle line piecemeal and taken horrific casualties. The effort had not been in vain but the cost had been high.
In contrast, other themes, including the Opsikian and Optimatic themes loyal to Constantinople, had been able to more carefully develop new tourmai. These tourmai would still be green and inexperienced but had more training under their belts and avoided the demoralization of being so badly shot up in their first engagements.
For that reason, Sarantenos was unable to launch an offensive of his own to match that of Pirokolos in Europe. Some stragglers from the furious march over Anatolia were trickling in, but they couldn’t compensate by themselves for the exhaustion and losses of existing units. And these bits were all the reinforcements Thrakesia could expect. The Anatolikon was consumed with the Army of Suffering, while Syria was facing down the Egyptian advance.
This illustrated the fragmented nature of the regions loyal to Empress Sophia, which significantly hampered efforts against the Tourmarches. Between Constantinople’s command of the sea and the Army of Suffering astride the main east-west Anatolian highway, Thessaloniki, Smyrna, and Antioch were effectively acting as their own units with their own resources. Communications between the three zones were limited and subject to interception, much less serious transfer of resources and reinforcements.
In contrast, the Opsikian, Optimatic, and Thracian themes formed a compact and well-developed holding, with high ability to move material and manpower (by the standards of the day) around to where it was most needed. The Tourmarches had the advantage of interior lines and with the War Room and its staff, which had all stayed loyal to Constantinople, they had the administrative and organizational knowledge to make use of them.
Constantinople’s strategy shifted with the failure of the initial Thrakesian offensive. The plan was that the Opsikian and Optimatic themes would continue their process of expanding their forces over the winter of 1662-63. With the resources of the two themes, this force would be able to overwhelm the lone theme of Thrakesia if it did not receive more reinforcements. Given Egyptian pressure on Syria and the Army of Suffering in Anatolikon, that did not seem likely. Once Thrakesia was eliminated, the resources of western Anatolia could be hurled into the contest for Roman Europe and would give a decisive advantage to Constantinople there.
In the meantime, Domestikos Pirokolos had to be held at bay, which was no small task. Most Roman soldiers were wary of crossing swords with the Lion of Panipat, the best friend of Odysseus and Iskandar the Younger, and the rough handling he’d given the Bulgarian and Thracian tagmata that had faced him in Bulgaria only encouraged this sentiment. An indirect approach was needed.
One was available and already had had significant effect. A direct assault from Thessaloniki to Thrace would have paralleled the Aegean’s northern shore but Constantinople’s maritime superiority had made using the coastal road too hazardous. Too much of it lay within gun range of offshore warships and even a twenty-gun sloop had more firepower than most infantry columns. Pirokolos had been forced to detour through Bulgaria, significantly slowing his advance and hampering his efforts to keep his forces supplied. Also, the longer supply lines meant he had to detach more forces to guard them, leaving less for the tip of the spear.
From Constantinople’s perspective, this needed to be dialed up, and it would be the navy’s task to do so. Naval raids against the enemy’s coastlines would be intensified, with shore parties landing to spread chaos further. These would not be intended to seize territory but they would destroy material, spread alarm, and force Thessaloniki to send forces to defend the threatened zones, leaving less for the tip of the spear. The same would be done to Thrakesia as well to keep that area off balance and more vulnerable to a renewed assault. This strategy was not new; Kometes Petros Laskaris had inaugurated it with his attack on Monemvasia and seizure of Patras in early spring, but significantly more resources were now being allocated, such as three tourmai sealifted to Patras for raids into the Morea.
Making this even more attractive was that even after factoring in the naval disparity, Thessaloniki could not copy this strategy nearly as effectively. Save for western Opsikia and Thrace west of the Hellespont, most of the shoreline loyal to Constantinople was on the Sea of Marmara or the Black Sea, completely inaccessible to ships loyal to Sophia.
On September 10, the largest naval clash of the war to date takes place off the island of Astakida, northeast of Crete. A massive Egyptian convoy is carrying grain for Constantinople and Kanaris is eager to intercept and capture it. Both Thessaloniki and Smyrna depended heavily on Egyptian imports of grain to feed their populations and the loss of those imposed serious hardships on the urban populations. Drawing more heavily on the hinterlands could make up the shortfall but that shifted the burden to the Macedonian and Thrakesian countryside.
Commanding the forces guarding the convoy is Andronikos Platanas, who had commanded the Roman contingent of the expedition against Algiers in 1642 and whose abrasive personality had done much to hamstring said expedition. He had been uncooperative and argumentative with the various other expeditionary contingents and during the bombardment of Algiers itself had stood off at long-range, causing very little damage to Algerian defenses.
His lack of energy and boldness at Algiers is completely absent at Astakida. When scout ships alert him to the approach of Kanaris, he promptly forms his escort into line-of-battle and moves to attack the opposing fleet. He had an advantage in hulls, 18-to-14, although the firepower ratio is skewed slightly more in his favor due to the larger average size of his ships.
Kanaris, equally bold, is not deterred by said odds. The convoy is the strategic objective, but trying to dodge around the escort to get at it, even if practical, is mentally galling. Like most naval commanders, he’d much rather have a go at enemy warships than merchantmen, especially ones challenging him directly. Besides, once the escort is eliminated, his ships can spread out more widely, making it easier to run down the convoy if it scatters.
The battle does not go as planned. Kanaris planned to use fire ships to make up for his material weakness but Platanas is wise to the tactic and has plenty of visibility and sea room to maneuver, unlike the targets of the fire ships at Lesbos. The fire ships are driven off by fregatai and burn out harmlessly. In the gunnery duel, the heavier throw weight of Platanas’s battle-line tells.
With the fall of night, Kanaris breaks off the engagement and successfully eludes Platanas’s efforts to pursue, but his force is too badly battered to make another effort at the convoy. Two of his ships, dismasted in the fight, are surrounded and forced to strike, while all of the remainder are badly shot up. Three of Platanas’s ships in particular were also roughly handled, but casualties are three-to-one in favor of Platanas and the convoy makes it to Constantinople without losing a single ship. For this victory, Platanas is granted a yearly stipend and a promotion to the rank of Doux.
Two weeks later, a different development on land goes the other way as Domestikos Pirokolos finally breaks through into the Thracian plain, whose far eastern end holds the Queen of Cities. Nereas, now in command of all forces in the field facing the Domestikos, avoids a set-piece battle, harassing the Macedonians and hovering just out of reach, slowing and frustrating the advance, but not stopping it. The strain is telling on Pirokolos’s men, who are suffering heavily from shortages of supplies of all kinds. One report in the Constantinople archives, noting the condition of sixteen prisoners taken by Nereas’s men, states that only five of the men have proper footwear.
Despite intelligence like this, Nereas will not change his strategy. He has a trump card for stopping Pirokolos and he is going to play that instead. Before Pirokolos can march on Constantinople, he must first get past Adrianople. During the War of the Roman Succession, the fortifications of the city had been massively expanded and upgraded, with the expectation that it might very well be here that the climactic battle would be fought. After the battle of Thessaloniki, the captive Vauban had gone over them to make suggestions for improvements.
The fortifications have been refurbished to make up wear and tear accumulated since then, while supplies of all kinds have been poured into magazines and warehouses in the city. The garrison has been expanded, including some guard tourmai. Situated at key crossroads needed for logistics and with such a powerful force inside, it is not a place that Pirokolos can mask and bypass if he hopes to have the strength to threaten Constantinople. It will have to be taken.
