Who is the best eastern Roman emperor and why is it Justinian?
>Waist your entire treasury on retaking a war damanged Italy for 40 minutes
>Good
>>969523
>Waist
Considering circumstances, best emperors were Theodore Laskaris and John Vatatzes.
>>969516
nice pepe desu
Heraclius.
It's easy to be a great emperor when your predecessors left you full treasure, Persians and Arabs are claim and you can chill out and fight some distant barbarians for shit and giggles. It's not so easy to be a great emperor when the Empire controls only the City itself, Persians, Avars and Slavs are busy dividing your land and Arabs are looking kinda funny.
The biggest hindrance for Justinian was himself and his wife.
>>969617
>Heraclius.
Heraclius was the reason why the Empire went to shit. Phokas was successful in fighting off the Persians.
>>969668
>Phokas was succesful in fighting off the Persians.
Are you retarded? Phokas murdering Maurice and then burning Narses alive to death, the Persian governor for Maurice who was allowed by Khosaru Parviz to attempt to negotiate a peace settlement.
>>969516
>bankrupts his empire chasing a pipe dream that the WRE stopped giving a shit about a hundred years prior
>taxes the peasantry so hard they riot and burn down half of Constantinople
>fucks over his one and only friend in the Empire over a suspicion that was completely unfounded
Yeah, Justinian was a faggot.
I prefer Justinian II: Electric Bogaloo
>>969707
>Are you retarded?
Charming.
Firsts of all there's reason to believe that Phokas wasn't nearly as bad as he's usually depicted. Almost everything we know about him is just part of organized slander campaign on the part of the Heraclid dynasty. Heraclids derived their legitimacy from Heraclius' purported deliverance of the Empire from Phokas' "tyranny". The very few other sources paint a different picture - Phokas was certainly highly popular at least in some parts of the Empire.
For al that Phokas did or did not, the war with Persia wasn't his fault. Killing of Maurice was just an excuse, without it Khosrau would find another one. While Phokas still ruled, the Persians failed to make any significant gains. The defense of the Empire was conducted competently and it was possible that the Persians would bog down permanently on border fortresses.
It was the rebellion of Heraclius and his father that caused the Roman border defense to collapse. Later on, Heraclius led the Roman army from one disaster to another, like during the Antioch campaign.
Nice savior, that Heraclius.
>>969715
WHY DOES HE WEAR THE NOSEPIECE?
>>969516
Because he had the most beautiful dream
He was the only one who tried, and successfully, reunite Italy with the ERE. This is why Justinian is best.
>>969829
>For al that Phokas did or did not, the war with Persia wasn't his fault.
Murdering Maurice, a man who Khosaru Parviz considered a foster father, certainly is his fault who caused the war.
>Killing of Maurice was just an excuse.
Except there exists no record in Persian or Byzantine accounts of any inclination of Parviz to start a war with Maurice and relations were decidedly cordial and warm between the two even after Khosrau II got his throne back.
Your speculation and revisionism bullshit is just that: bullshit.
>While Phokas still ruled
He lost hinterlands in the Balkans to the Slavs and Avars.
>Persians failed to make any significant gains
>Edessa
>Dara
>entirety of Roman Mesopotamia by 609
>Germanus is killed in battle
>>969829
>Phokas
>not a tyrant
>mass murders including execution of Maurice's wife and three daughters
>several military purges of innocent men in the lower officer corps
>popularity was only high in the first three or so years of his reign
Nope.
>Persians failed to make any gains against Phokas
Patent lies. Also Khosrau II's strategy was a war of attrition, the Sassanids early on were focusing on destroying Byzantine forts and outposts, not taking territories directly yet.
>Not a single one of you has mentioned based Basil Bulgarslayer yet
You all have pleb tastes in emperorfu's.
>>969980
If only he had produced a competent male heir history could had been different.
>>970023
If most alt-hist wasn't so shit that would be a good divergence point desu
>Wasted treasury on taking shit land
>Wiped out a third of Italy's population
>Let his wife rule his empire because he was a cuck
>Forced his men to preform extreme Proskynesis
>Shut down thought schools such as Stoicism because he though it conflicted with Christianity
>Failed to prevent a war with Persia
He was literally the worse
>>969523
I liked Selim the Grim more desu.
But none of these are Isaac Angelus...
BASIL THE FUCKING BULGAR-SLAYER
