Most Influential Byzantine Emperors/Figures Options

[Antiochus III]

Name some and give reasoning. Lists are always welcome!

A3TG

[Caius Maxentius]

Not sure when we're considering the Byzantine era to start, but here it goes:

Contstantine I - founded the city, reformed the army, made Christianity an ascendant religion among the political elite.

Justinian - his building projects enhanced the city, his legal Code (and other documents) influenced Byzantine law and law in many other states, he was one of the few emperors to expand the Eastern Empire's frontiers, his religious views set the tone for some time (though it alienated many)

Heraclius - officially retired Latin as a language of government, renamed his office "Basilius" (king), won brilliant victories against the Persians and lost critical provinces to the Arabs

Leo III the Isaurian - saved Constantinople from the Arab seige and turned the tide of the Arab offensive; started the whole Iconoclasm controversy

Constantine Porphyrogenitus - left us lots of useful treatises, histories, manuscripts, etc.

Basil II Bulgaroktonos - brilliant military leader, his reign was a high-point for the Empire in the middle of the Middle Ages

Alexius I Comnenus - called on the Pope to drum up military support for the Empire from Western Europe, thus playing a key role in the start of the Crusades

Manuel I Comnenus - good military leader until the Myriokephalon disaster; enamoured of Western ways and set a very different (Western European) tone in comparison to his predecessors

Those are some that stand out most to me.

This post has been edited by Caius Maxentius: Oct 23 2009, 01:21 AM

[northofpeers]

Belisarius - One of the few who for the most part kept his head down and concentrated on the idea of empire and a return to days of old (and just doing what he was told to do as a good general). Many others would have given up on the retaking of Rome and Italy against such huge odds. His ability on the field rings like J. Caesars or Camillus. All this while Justinian rotted in court giving us nothing but buildings and compiling laws. Like the early consuls of the republic, Belisarius is remembered as a general and a leader, not on a list of failed emperors.

Julian - More interesting if he had have lived longer. More hyped up by the likes of Gibbons on the assumption of what may have happened had he ruled for 30 or 40 years. That said his short reign did show signs of a more Latin view of the empire. His distaste for extravagance and tax reforms were quite unlike his immediate predecessors and most of his successors. His paganism leads us to think of republic and days of old, but in the interest of cohesion and stability I think he would have had to rethink some of his ideas had he lived longer.

[Honorius]

Probably each of the Angeli emperors - the level of corruption and the loss of bulgaria and Constantinople itself to the latins in 1204, would seal the fate of the empire, when it was retaken in 1261 - the empire would be only a shadow of its former self.