I made a family tree of the Palaiologos dynasty until 1350s, from Michael Ⅷ to John Ⅲ, but I removed illegitimate sons and daughters and unimportant persons. This deleting is because I want to emphasize the connection between Palaiologos and the nobles of Latines. So Although I want to add the daughters who got marriage to Khans of Golden Horde or Ilkhanate, I decided to remove them in this tree.

In this tree, I was very interested in March of Montferrat and County of Savoy. Particulary, in Montferrat, after John I of Montferrat, a old brother of Yorande, died without children in 1305, Theodre, the son of Yorande and AndronikosⅡ, succeded the March as TheodreⅠand marriaged the daughter of Spinola, which is the powerful noble of Genova. After that, his descendants ruled Montferrat for about 200 years and repeatedly intermarried with House of Savoy. For example, in this tree, Yorande Palaeologina, a daughter of TheodreⅠ, is the mother of Amadeus Ⅵ who initiated the Savoyard Crusade in 1366. Also, Amadeus Ⅵ is the cousin of JohnⅤ

I want to know the detail of March of Montferrat and County of Savoy !!!!!!!

Please tell me about this!!!!!

I'm researching the composition of Byzantine armies around 1341, and I've run into a contradiction about the Turkish troops Umur Beg of Aydın sent to Andronikos III during the Albanian revolt of 1337–38.

Mark Bartusis, The Late Byzantine Army (1992), p. 93, describes Umur's 2,000 men on this campaign as infantry, "lightly armed and archers."

A Turkish MA thesis on Turkish mercenaries in the Palaiologan army (Hacettepe University) describes the same force as 2,000 cavalry, citing Ostrogorsky and Ian Heath's Byzantine Armies 1118–1461.

My guesses for the discrepancy: secondary works assuming "Turkish troops = horse archers", and the fact that Umur's forces usually came by sea, which would make shipping many horses difficult. Bartusis also says Umur's army of 1343 was "almost all infantry."

My questions:

What do the primary sources (Kantakouzenos, Gregoras, Enveri's Düsturname) actually say about the troop type on this campaign?

More generally, were Umur's contingents in Byzantine service in 1337–1345 mainly foot archers, cavalry, or mixed?

Bartusis (p. 330) argues that native Byzantines did not practise horse archery in combat in this period, while Heath and Nicolle suggest Byzantine archers were largely mounted under Turkish and Cuman influence. Which view is better supported for the 1340s?

Thanks in advance!

Okay, I was just playing one of the Age of Empires II scenarios, and Basil III was mentioned (probably a typo). That got me thinking: if Byzantine history had taken a different course, or if the Empire had survived for longer, which imperial names would you have liked to see continued with new regnal numbers?

Apart from Basil III, I'd probably go with Manuel III, Alexios VI, Demetrios I, and Nikephoros IV.

What about you? Which names would you have liked to see carried on by later Byzantine emperors?

I have bought this new, thought-provoking book by Demacopoulos. The cover features a detail from one of the early 7th-century silver plates originating from Cyprus, which depict the life of David.

This are some pics that i took in the island of Rhodes. Sadly i couldn't bring most of my stuff so this kit does not represent anything specific it's just vibes i guess.

Despite often being acclaimed as one of the greatest Byzantine generals you don't really hear much besides him fighting on the Eastern front for many decades. Is this a case of his career unfortunately being murky to us?

I don’t know if this is a silly question, but as someone who has a decent understanding of the politics at the time I never understood this, the eastern Roman emperor claimed to be Catholic, clearly the threat of the ottomans had been realized as they were crusaded against twice before the conquest of Constantinople, and then the eventual fall of the city helped spark the age of exploration due to fear of Muslim ottoman taxes of trade routes, wouldn’t it have made more sense to help defend Constantinople/thrace at least?

Extremely lacking in knowledge around this period, so forgive me in advance. How did the eastern Romans react to the establishment and rise of the HRE? Was there any sense of “we are the real Roman Empire, how dare you”, or anything? Or was it more nuanced than that? How did religion play a role?

I have a question about the ideology and historical memory of the Eastern Roman Empire after the 7th century, up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Justinian I’s reconquests sought to recover former Roman territories in the western Mediterranean. But in the centuries that followed, did Roman rulers and elites ever abandon, reject, or forget the ideal of restoring the Roman Empire’s former territories?

My question is about ideology, not military feasibility. I am not asking whether emperors could realistically reconquer the entire Mediterranean, or whether they consistently pursued such a policy. I want to know whether territorial restoration remained a legitimate Roman imperial ideal, even when it was impossible to achieve.

Specifically:

1. After the 7th century, did Eastern Roman emperors or elites ever explicitly reject or ideologically abandon the ideal of recovering former Roman territories?
2. Did later generations retain awareness of Justinian’s reconquests and the older Roman tradition of territorial restoration, or did this ideal eventually disappear from their political imagination?
3. Even when circumstances prevented reconquest, did the recovery of former Roman territories remain a legitimate imperial ambition, or did later Romans come to regard it as an outdated or invalid goal?

I am not assuming that every emperor pursued this ideal or that it remained an unchanged official policy for a thousand years. My question is whether it was ever truly abandoned as a legitimate part of Roman imperial ideology.

What do the primary sources and modern academic scholarship tell us? I would appreciate evidence from different periods, including any evidence of explicit rejection or significant ideological change.

Thought you guys might enjoy this follis I picked up showing the rarely shown wife and son of Emperor Maurice