The Byzantine Empire's Greatest Victory

[Tobias]

Certainly the Byzantines were good at manipulation. Heaven knows they had enough practice in their own palaces places of government in political intriguing. But Alexius Comnenus and some of his descendants were strong enough to force the Crusaders to keep their word, continue to acknowledge the Byzantine Emperor as their ruler and cede territory. Again, i can only reiterate how unfortunate it is that the Byzantines could not have experienced a long sort of "Pax Byzantia" in which the Empire could rebuild under capable rulers. The Empire and it's government seemed to attract greed, corruption and power hungry lunatics, and had done so since the fall of the west and before that.

[Honorius]

That's something i didn't think of. I have always liked Alexius Comnenus because of the attempted rebuilding of his Empire he achieved after the defeat at Manzikert, with the limited manpower he had it was impressive that he regained a lot of Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks. Where were the Pechenegs though? Were they one of the tribes in or near the Balkans?

 

Yes, the Pechenegs were one fo the tribes in the balkans, they were neighhbours to the Bulgars

[Tobias]

Ah thanks, i already found out where they were, but thanks for the reply at any rate

[sonic]

The greatest single victory was the Battle of Dara in 531 under Belisarius. His tactics were absolutely superb. He got the Persians to do exactly what he wanted them to do and so wiped the floor with them. Pity he then lost at Callinicum the following year!

 

As to campaigns, probably that of Heraclius, like the majority of responses.

[sonic]

The greatest single victory was the Battle of Dara in 531 under Belisarius. His tactics were absolutely superb. He got the Persians to do exactly what he wanted them to do and so wiped the floor with them. Pity he then lost at Callinicum the following year!

 

As to campaigns, probably that of Heraclius, like the majority of responses.

 

Me again. In the course of my research, I've just found another: the Battle of Mount Bourgaon, fought by Solomon against the Moors after they had rebelled following Belisarius' reconquest of Africa. Solomon managed to get troops behind the Moors and the army routed without a fight. In the course of the pursuit, Procopius claims the Moors lost 50,000 dead without a single injured Roman.

Edited May 6, 2007 by sonic