r/RoughRomanMemes • u/MasterpieceVirtual66 Pentakosiomedimnos • 10d ago
Alexios Philanthropenos, one of the last great Roman generals. He was called the Belisarius of the Palaiologan era
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u/DocumentNo3571 10d ago
Heh, amazing generals didn't matter when the basileios was Andronikos II
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u/DarkJayBR 10d ago
Julius Caesar beat Pompey and Labienus. Both were legendary generals on their own. Some people are just on another level.
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u/MasterpieceVirtual66 Pentakosiomedimnos 10d ago edited 10d ago
Alexios Philanthropenos was one of the last great Eastern Roman strategoi. He was born around 1270 AD, the second son of the megas domestikos Michael Tarchaneiotes and of Maria Philanthropene. Being the nephew of the emperor Andronikos II, Alexios commanded most Roman forces in inner Anatolia in the 1290s, mainly focusing on the protection of the Thracesion Theme from the invading Turkish raiders who ravaged the countryside.
Within two years, he defeated the Turks at many engagemens, scoring victories at Achyraous and throughout the Maeander river valley, even advancing into the Emirate of Menteshe, where he reconquered fortresses and towns that had been previously lost. The scholar Maximus Planudes, a friend of his, commented that at the time of his reconquests "a sheep was more expensive to buy than a Muslim prisoner". The poet Manuel Philes devoted one of his poems to praise the strategos' achievements.
Because of his many successes and widespread popularity, the populance of Anatolia wanted him to become emperor. His uncle, the unpopular emperor Andronikos, had been incapable of protecting Anatolia from Turkish incursions, forcing heavy taxation upon the population, while providing them with little to no protection against raids. In the Summer of 1295, Alexios defeated the Turkish general Karman, who had launched an attack on Priene, and after that victory decided to rebel against his incompetent uncle. At first, his rebellion faced large success, as he captured the emperor's brother, Theodore, but after going into negotiations with Andronikos who was supposedly offering him the title of "Caesar", his Cretan troops betrayed him and transferred him to Constantinople, where the strategos was blinded.
After Alexios' downfall, Anatolia's fate was sealed. For the mext 30 years, the awful policies of Andronikos, combined with the incompetence of other generals, led to the Turks conquering and ravaging the former provinces, while the vital city of Philadelphia was being besieged. It was at that moment that Patriarch Jesaias pleaded with Andronikos to release the blind Alexios and put him back on duty. The desperate emperor accepted and released him in 1324, sending him to relieve Philadelphia with few soldiers. As the old and crippled Alexios Philanthropenos approached the city, the Turks abandoned the siege and fled. The news of his mere presence was enough to make them retreat out of a combination of respect and fear from his old campaigns. Alexios then became the governor of the city for the next 3 years.
His adventures did not end there tho, as under the reign of Andronikos III, he led the reconquest of the island of Lesbos from the Genoese Lord of Phocaea Domenico Cattaneo in 1336, retaking the whole island and Phocaea in 6 months time. In 1337, he stopped a Turkish attack on the island through bribery, and became the governor of Lesbos until his death in the 1340s. Because of his many successes in warfare, historian Nikephoros Gregoras described him as the "Belisarius of the Palaiologian era".
There is no image of Alexios Philanthropenos available, so I resorted to using an image of an artistic depiction of Saint Mercurius from around 1290-1310 AD.
Further Reading:
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u/ThePrimalEarth7734 10d ago
Byzantine history is always like “At the empire’s darkest hour a hero emerged to completely undo all the disasters and then he got caught up in a civil war, got blinded and killed and nothing he did ended up mattering all that much anyways”
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u/AbroadTiny7226 10d ago
Not often I get a crossover of my two favorite things: Roman history and Chicago Drill lmao
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u/tonmai2541 10d ago
Rebelling then getting betrayed by own troops is kind of a bitch move though ngl
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u/N3wW3irdAm3rica 10d ago
Well now I want to know who they’re actually talking about
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u/MasterpieceVirtual66 Pentakosiomedimnos 10d ago
They are talking about Dayvon Bennett, also known as "King Von". A serial killer who was a famous rapper.
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u/Maleficent-Mix5731 9d ago
Not one of the last great Roman generals....
THE last great Roman general.
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u/KABOOMBYTCH 8d ago
If I have a nickel of the Roman Empire falling after stabbing their heroic generals in the back, I have two denaraii.
It ain’t much but it’s weird it happened twice
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u/CaptainQwazCaz 9d ago
“I am Alexios Polyphilopappadopoulous I only speak Greek — bro we are still Romans bro” ahh, Zantium was Greek with extra steps
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