History RE-Summarized: The Byzantine Empire

"How often do you think about the Roman Empire?" Blue: "Yes."

just want to say that your previous videos about the Byzantines helped me pass my exam about the Byzantine empire

Eastern romans: "Could you please try to not invade our territory...FOR FIVE MINUTES!?" Persians, ottomans, mongols, huns, barbarians, etc: "What an awesome capital you have, guys!" 😎

I often don't think about how old some names are. But hearing the phrase "Byzantine Emperor Maurice" completely knocked me for a loop...

As tragic as it is, it’s kind of funny imagining the absolute chaos and terror of the sack contrasted with a group of Venetians going through the city like “ah yes, those would like good in St. Marks. Excuse me pillaging raider, I must bring this fine art back home.”

The "Khosrau's Better Antioch" thing was so funny to me that I immediately had to tab out of the video to check. It's 100% legit. After sacking Antioch, he named his new city "Weh Antioch Khosrau", which translates to "Better Than Antioch, Khosrau Built This". That dude's meme game was absolutely unparalleled.

i absolutely love this thing where nearly every single person who learns about Theodora just goes "wow. i like her. such a badass and capable queen."

I'd love to see you do a deep dive on Justinian and Theodora, it would be entertaining and interesting. Especially given the Secret History and geese.

All Hail Emperor Blue!

I find it very poetic that, at least from a mythological point of view, Rome sprouted from Greece and eventually returned to Greece.

Just as the Byzantines brought Rome back in a new form so too shall this video be enjoyed by us all.

One truly remarkable thing about the ascension of Emperor Heraclius is that it actually ended with the successful usurper personally slaying the tyrant he deposed. After Heraclius took control of Constantinople, a captured Phocas was brought before Heraclius. The triumphant Heraclius allegedly asked the usurper of Maurice, “Is this how you have ruled, scum?” Phocas reportedly replied, “And will you rule better?” Heraclius, rather than simply saying, “Yes, I’ll do a much better job. Thanks for asking,” instead personally killed and even beheaded Phocas right on the spot. We usually only see such things in fiction (ahem, Star Wars or Mortal Kombat). More often than not, only in books, movies, and video games do we have the protagonist and antagonist meet in a scenario in which only one walks away still alive. We did not, after all, have FDR personally fight and kill Hitler. Even in cases where an opponent did not commit suicide a la Hitler, the historic villain may have been dealt with by agents of the victor. In 610 A.D., however, the people’s champion indeed did not delegate to subordinates, but instead confronted and killed his adversary in person in one of only a handful of such instances in all of human history.

Loving the extra Theodora content!

Lets not forget that, at the council of Nicaea, Santa Claus (Saint Nickolas) punched out a heretic.

I want to thank Blue for introducing me to the glorious Byzantine Empire in the first videos several years ago. Since then it has become probably my favourite period/civilisation of history, and I was lucky enough to visit Istanbul earlier this year. Thank you so much for making me borderline obsessed with this niche but incredible part of history!

When Blue started going through the military units, I was getting Age of Empires flashbacks from my childhood and I LOVE IT!

"So how much time do you want to spend talking about Byzantium--" "YES."

"the Byzantines are really special to me, and I'll count myself satisfied if I was able to convey why." "… at no point in Byzantine history was it too late to care." Yeah, Blue. You conveyed why. The timeless beauty of that brought tears to this old man's eyes.

I love how your "resummarized" videos aren't just the original three videos clipped together into one track- they're nearly identical, but you've made corrections and changes. Like at 1:30, you corrected it from "the tried and true method of lions" to "the vivid but ultimately ahistorical method of lions". Small changes make a huge difference.

Waaiiit... Wintory gave you the personnal authorization to use his music? This guy is the goodest noodle around in video game music industry.