Why did Eastern Rome suddenly lose the ability to stop their

>>1432850
Empire depended completely on good leadership

>>1432850
They decentralized power after the countless crises they had, so it took a real bastard to get everything working. So yeah, basically >>1432860

Also:
>Alp Arslan: "What would you do if I were brought before you as a prisoner?"
>Romanos IV: "Perhaps I'd kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople."
>Alp Arslan: "My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free."

Civil wars

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>"WHERE BE THE BYZANTINE MAIDENS"

>>1432928
Those are Teutons from the Battle on the Ice, where they were rekt by the Orthodox

>>1432932
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy84N_U5jw0

Stupid fags invaded the west instead of the east, so consistently its their whole history

>>1432850
Horse archers are OP, both Turkic and Mongols.

A very slow and long collapse.

I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did frankly. I think they only survived so long because of their founding idea of being Rome.

>>1432850
Usually a fucking massive plague absoloutely reckd the plebs in the empire, and in doing so, a lot of the cash.
Anything with deprived manpower and funds is dead in the water.

File: empress Irene.jpg (34KB, 287x314px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1433231

Byzantine Empire changed a lot throughout it's history.

At first you have Roman Empire Diocletian administration. an you have Justinian expanding it , setting laws, bigger administration etc. In it's military it kept the thematic system while it fostered client states.

Then you have the Komenian pronoia system which was more like European feudalism but also gave more power to the emperor.

Then Paleologan system which was almost entirely centered on trade an courting the Italians.

>>1432941

They never "invaded" eastwards because the east was part of the empire until the 1200's. All Byzantine-Turkish wars were defensive wars on the part of the empire.

Also who is Byzantine best girl, my vote goes for pic related Irene.

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>>1433254
Anna Komnene

[spoiler]There is a surprising amount of modern art about her.[/spoiler]

>>1433229

Byzantines started to heavily use horse archers in the generations after Attila

>>1432850
There were a series of defeats that rocked the state to its core. Namely the battle of Manzikert risked destroying the Byzantines as a fighting force.

Alexius essentially had to start from scratch when he rose to the throne, with the Turks threatening to cross the sea into Europe, he was getting pretty desperate. hence why he vouched for the crusades, which did weaken the Turks enough to regain territory, but not enough to restore Basil's empire.

tl;dr: Battle of Manzikert came damn close to wiping away the Byzantine army as a fighting force, and had to be rebuilt from scratch to survive.

>>1432850
As always it's civil wars and shitty emperors. Same as the old West.