ANST - FW: Musing on August 19 -- Auggie and the Turks

[j'lynn yeates]

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- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 00:31
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on August 19 -- Auggie and the Turks


Dear Folk,

On this day August 19th died both an emperor who was soon worshipped
as
a god, and the hopes of the Byzantine Empire.

Let us speak of the god first. Gaius Octavius was born on September
23,
63 BC. After his great uncle Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC,
Gaius
took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" to his
friends). That was kind of fitting in that Julius had named Octavian
his heir in his will. I am not talking about the one Marc Antony
purportedly read to the mob naming all of them as his heirs, either.
This was the real deal.

So in 43 BC Octavian, Marc Antony and Marcus Lepidus (bet you forgot
about him; so did everyone else) formed themselves into the second
Triumvirate to rule Rome. The alliance was sealed by a massive
proscription, in which 300 senators and 200 knights—the triumvirs'
enemies—were slain  Brutus and Cassius were defeated in the Battle of
Philippi (42 BC) and Cicero, perhaps the greatest thinker in the
Roman
world, had his hands and head cut off and placed in public display in
the Forum. These three men headed a republican faction against Caesar
for the simple reason that Caesar had claimed absolute power for
himself..  Shame on them!

To further seal the good feelings, In 40 BC Antony married Octavian’s
sister, confusingly enough called Octavia. Personally, I think this
dressing alike and sharing names thing can go too far. Next thing you
know, they will be sitting much too close at awards ceremonies.

Marc was a soldier and overseas (and haven’t we all been that way?)
when he met the Queen of Denial, Cleopatra. That romance just did not
stay under wraps too long. In fact Antony was so bold as to give
Roman
provinces to his and Cleo’s kids.  Octavian decided it was time to
rid
himself of his player brother-in-law. "Sorry, Sis, but this is for
your
own good," I can hear him saying. We all know that Antony and
Cleopatra
"did the right thing" in 30 BC after Agrippa and the Roman Navy
defeated the Egyptian fleet at Actium a year earlier.

In 27 BC the Roman Senate thought so much of Octavian that they gave
him the handle of Augustus which means "the exalted" or "ultimately
cool dude." The Senate rolled over, exposed its belly and practically
begged Augustus to rule the religious, military, and civilian
affairs.
The Senate said, "You do it, Auggie, we will sit back and applaud."
Okay, I am sure that there were a few Republicans (not George W. but
the guys who thought that single guy rule is bad) who disagreed but
they suddenly got sick and some of them died. Funny how it usually
was
after dining with Augustus and his sweet wife Livia Drucilla.

Granted things were quieter under Augustus. Rome had been in a civil
war for almost 100 years and he put an end to that. Hooray! He
stabilized the currency. Now you may not think that stabilizing the
currency is a big deal but when one day a hot dog is a buck and the
next you cannot buy one even for 10,000 dollars, that is pretty bad.
It
was that bad in Germany after WW I. Anyway, he also extend the
highway
system -- the better to march troops out to kick butt in the
provinces
– built bridges, aqueducts, and public buildings. Hey, he was putting
folks to work and increasing trade. Got poets and playwrights to
writing; Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy all wrote during his reign.
"He
subjected the whole wide earth to the rule of the Roman people."
Made
the trains run on time, too. Whoops, that was another Italian.

Back to family matters. Livia Drusilla was Augustus’ third wife. She
had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus Germanicus, by a previous marriage.
Augustus, in turn, had a daughter, Julia, by a previous wife.
Augustus’
heirs, mysteriously again, died --  one after another -- leaving his
stepson, Tiberius, to succeed him when he died at Nola on August 19,
14
CE. Livia had Tiberius push through a resolution in the Senate that
Augustus had been a god and should be worshipped as one. Nice touch
until Livia wanted that same status for herself.

By the way, Tiberius (emperor 14 - 37 CE) was no Augustus. He was
dark,
brooding and vengeful. Remember Nixon during the Watergate years?
After
his death, finally, the rule of Rome went to the fine emperor, Gaius
Caesar Augustus Germanicus who was the third child of Augustus’
adopted
grandson, Germanicus, and Augustus’ granddaughter Agrippina. You may
remember Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus by his nickname. He was
called "little sandals" by his father’s troops. Oh, in Latin that is
"Caligula." Maybe we will talk about him sometime soon.

Although we are not exactly sure what day of the month it was, and
the
Arab historians agree it was a Friday, today was probably part of the
battle of Manzikert in 1071 CE. Most of the Byzantines afterward
could
only refer to it as "that terrible day." For them it was much like
when
we heard that John Kennedy was shot; somehow the world changed
dramatically. Everyone remembered exactly where they were when they
heard the news.

We are talking about the Byzantine empire, headquarters
Constantinople.
The empire had been ruled by Constantine X (Dukas) from 1059 to 1067.
Before ascending the throne, he  had been a high official in the
finance department. Just like it sounds, the bureaucrats took over
the
government. Of course the army was neglected and viewed with
hostility.

Upon Constantine’s death, a soldier named Romanus Diogenes married
Con’s widow, Empress Eudoxia. Romanus was a rather strict man but the
times seem to call for it. He was fighting a two front war. In the
West
the Normans were retaking areas of Italy which had fallen to the
Byzantines earlier. By 1071 the Normans had taken the last outposts,
Otranto and Bari, of Byzantine rule. In the East were the Seljuk
Turks.

Things weren’t Frosty Blue Creme Soda (which I highly recommend) and
cheesy nachos at home in Constantinople, either. The Dukas family
hated
this upstart marrying into their important family. This hatred really
made it a bad thing to be leaving home. Sure as shootin’ if he left,
there would be little to come back to. The Dukas’ let it be known
that
Romanus was not long for this world. Well, if he was going to stay at
home, he could at least raise some cash for decent equipment for the
troops. That he did.

The leader of the Seljuk Turks was a rather sophisticated
Turk-about-town, Alp Arslan. He had recently signed a peace treaty
with
Romanus. but some yahoos had been out marauding and killed a
Byzantine
or two. Quel embarassement!

Sure enough, in 1071 Romanus decided to get away on a little smash
and
bash expedition. The army he fielded was far less than the great
armies
of old. He was able to put 100,000 guys out there but only about half
were regulars, the rest were mercs (mercenaries).

When they got 200 miles out away from home, Romanus got a tad testy.
Well, there were these omens, you see. His tent pole broke, there was
that unexplained fire in his tent that damaged most of his personal
stuff, and his horses and mules seem to be decreasing regularly.
Fires
in tents are things I pay attention to, I guarantee. Okay, omens or
no,
Romanus decided that if he returned to Constantinople without even
seeing a Turk, folks would laugh at him. He was soon to get his wish
in
spades.

Romanus sent the biggest part of his army toward Lake Van under the
command of a trusted general Joseph Tarchaniotes. What happened to
them, we will probably never know. Maybe they were bushwhacked by
owlhoots, maybe they were in the pocket of the Dukas family, maybe it
is because Tarchaniotes was born a Turk and had command of a large
bunch of Turk mercs but in any case, they were splitsville. Romanus
was
down to less than half strength when he found out his Norman and
Frankish heavy cavalry decided that they were not really in the mood
to
fight, either.

About a mile or two from the fortress of Manzikert, things starting
getting rough. Romanus saw a group of Turks and sent some men out to
scout out the situation. The few riders who made it back described
what
must have been the entire Turkish army. Whoops! Romanus thought for
sure it would be blood and gore time tomorrow morning.

Strangely enough, a Turkish delegation showed up in camp with an
offer
of peace. Romanus did not take well to the idea of dividing up
Armenia.
This was a costly mistake. Alp Arslan really wanted to go whack on
the
Egyptians (also Islamic folk.) If Romanus had agreed he could have
nicely helped a growing division between Shi’ite and Sunni forces in
Islam. Instead, Romanus turned Arslan down like a motel bedspread.

Okay, it was time for slobberknocking. Romanus put his men out onto
the
field in a rather traditional way with himself at the center of the
main force. He put Andronicus Dukas, the nephew of the late Emperor,
in
charge of the rear guard. Does anyone else sense tragedy here?

Seljuk archers had a great time provoking the cavalry. Of course, the
cavalry decided to charge after them. That is what cavalry does best.
They ran smack into a Turkish ambush. Meanwhile Romanus was in the
middle of a battlefield with no one to fight. He ordered the Imperial
standard reversed to tell the troops to retreat and regroup. Alp
Arslan
was waiting for that moment. As the Byzantines retreated, he
attacked.
Okay folk, this is where that rearguard comes in handy. They are
supposed to advance and smash the incoming enemy. Do you think they
did? Right!
Instead, Andronicus spread the word that the emperor had been killed
and the battle lost, he hightailed it out of there. This act caused
more confusion among the remaining troops and more and more of them
fled the battlefield. Only the Emperor remained with his personal
guards around him. Romanus fought valiantly until the end:

He was captured by the Turks and treated nicely. Alp Arslan wanted
only
one of Romanus’ daughters to marry one of his sons (awww!), some
castles like Antioch, and a tiny bit of ransom and yearly tribute.
Surely the folks back home could help their emperor out.

The news of the battle was pretty disjointed when it reached
Constantinople. Romanus’ wife Eudoxia was asking everyone what she
should do. Most folk told her to forget Romanus where ever he was and
secure the throne for herself and her sons. She then set it up that
her
eldest son, Michael Dukas, would be the co-emperor with her.

Romanus tried to get home with what was left of his army to get his
throne back. The Dukas family met him on the road where he was
soundly
beaten by John Dukas. After the second such battle Romanus was forced
to give himself up to the traitor Andronicus. He then had to renounce
all claims on the throne and retire to a monastery. In return, he was
supposed to get safe conduct to Constantinople. It was five hundred
miles back and Andronicus put Romanus on a mule. The onlookers on the
road back attacked Romanus and put out his eyes. He died in the
summer
of 1072.

It was on that terrible day in around August 19, 1071 that "Anatolia,
heartland of Byzantium,.. was lost forever to Christendom." In one
catastrophic day the eastern Roman Empire had lost its major
recruiting
region, its major grain producing region, and its vital trade route
between Constantinople and the riches of the East.

What have we learned? Sometimes your enemies treat you better than
your
friends? Do not put needed troops in the charge of a questionable
person? Some republicans can mean well? It is one thing to have an
overseas romance but one should forget about it when you come home?
Take every advantage of a split in your enemies? How about don’t eat
Auntie Dru’s "almond surprise" if you are in line to rule?

As always, if you are marching toward Armenia and decide you need
these
pages for something, please leave my name and sig attached.

Eating mayonnaise sandwiches and drinking my Frosty Blue Creme,
J.  Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


=====
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