Section 2 The Fall of the Balkan Peninsula

The chrysanthemums are clear and yellow, and the maples are green in the late frost. The weather is like this during the Double Ninth Festival. I am afraid of visiting a foreign land, but my house is shining like flying clouds.

When you hold up a fan, the dust is low, and when you take off your towel, the wind is gentle. Lingmiao heals people and makes them look haggard. Checking in front of the lamp who owes you money, only Duan Hong knows this.

After the death of Constantine IV, his son Justinian II succeeded to the throne. At that time, the Arabs were experiencing serious internal strife. Due to the internal strife, they gave up their plans to continue expanding westward and chose to make peace with Byzantium.

, and also promised to pay tribute to Byzantium every year, which greatly eased the pressure on the Byzantines. In the future, the main enemy of the Byzantine Empire changed from the Arabs to the Bulgarians. After the relationship between the Arab countries and the Byzantine Empire improved, it won a relatively peaceful East for the Byzantine Empire.

environment, so they could free up their hands to deal with the danger to them from Bulgaria, and Justinian II could also avenge his father Constantine IV. Between 688 and 689 AD, the Byzantine Empire ended its

They continued to attack the Slavs who surrendered to the Bulgarian state. They unexpectedly found that they did not receive a strong counterattack from any Bulgarian army. In 695, another coup occurred in Constantinople, and Justinian II

Overthrown, he was tortured by cutting off his nose and was exiled to the Crimean Peninsula. A few years later, the Byzantine Empire fell into a warlord melee. Fortunately, at this time, Asbaru and Khan Nian of Bulgaria

Being old and sick, they did not take the opportunity to send troops to regain the lost territory, otherwise the Byzantine Empire would be more dangerous. At this time, the Bulgarians were attacked by the Avars and Khazar Turks, which made them even less able to take the initiative to attack the Byzantine Empire.

Asbaruch, the number one enemy of Constantinople, finally died in 702 AD, and his son Terver succeeded to the throne of Bulgaria. At this time, a rare thing happened in the West, which shocked all countries.

Justinian II, who had his nose cut off, escaped from prison and defected to the Khazar Turks, where he was warmly welcomed. The Khazar Turks even married his sister to him. But this

After receiving the news of the protest from the Constantinople authorities, the Khazar Turkic Khan's position actually wavered and sent people to assassinate Justinian. As the saying goes, a married girl throws water away. Fortunately, the Khan's sister moved towards

Her husband, she told her husband after knowing this, and Justinian was able to escape from this long-planned murder. He fled to Bulgaria. Terville planned to use Justinian to intervene.

In the internal affairs of the Byzantine Empire, Justinian's arrival gave him an unprecedented opportunity. Terver Khan accepted Justinian and promised to help him regain the throne. In 705 AD, Terver and Justin

Dinny II led 15,000 Bulgarians and attacked Constantinople. However, they lacked adequate preparations and did not have the necessary siege equipment, so they could only work in panic below the city. The defenders in the city also laughed at them, Chas

Justinian II was so enraged that even the former soldiers dared to laugh at him for having his nose cut off. The enraged Justinian II was so angry that he led a troop of troops into the city at night and killed the defenders.

The city gates were opened, and the Bulgarian cavalry rushed in. In this way, Justinian II was restored to the throne.

In order to thank the Bulgarians and help him regain the throne, he specially made Terver Khan a Caesar second only to the emperor himself. The two of them accepted the cheers of the soldiers and civilians of Constantinople and shared the glory of the Byzantine Empire. Special

Erweil gained a large amount of wealth and increased the annual coins given to him by the Byzantine Empire. After his expectations were fulfilled, he returned to the country. It didn't take long for Khasak Khan to regret it. After learning that Justinian had been restored, he hurriedly

He sent his sister and their two children back to Constantinople, hoping to seek forgiveness from Justinian II. Justinian II canonized his wife as empress, and his mixed-race son became

Since then, the relationship between the Byzantine Empire and the two northern powers of Bulgaria and Khazar Turks has been improved. Justinian II had outstanding military talents and was very diligent in governing the country. But he was a man of a big heart.

Narrow, who became disabled because his nose was cut off, became even more twisted and cruel. After his restoration, he began to spend most of his energy on persecuting those who had offended him before, resulting in the killing of a large number of government officials and the emergence of government agencies.

Paralyzed. At this time, the Arabs took advantage of the situation, occupied eastern Asia Minor in 710 AD, and entered Europe from the southwest. In 711 AD, the Arab cavalry defeated the Visigoth army and conquered most of Spain. At this time

At that time, Justinian II was not thinking about how to defend against foreign enemies. Instead, he sent his army across the Black Sea to the Crimean Peninsula to punish the guards who had humiliated him. This approach seemed too small-minded. As a monarch, even

How could the country avoid subjugation if the primary and secondary relationships were not clear? When the local garrison saw that there was no hope of reconciliation, they just like the Khazar Turks asked for help.

Although Khasak Khan was related to Justinian II, any relationship was useless in the face of interests. The Khasak Turks sent reinforcements and defeated Justinian II’s punitive force. Justinian II

The emperor was very angry and threatened to execute the defeated generals. As a result, the entire expeditionary force launched a rebellion. They defected and marched towards Constantinople together with the Crimean garrison and the Xhosa Turks. Justinian II

Forced to seek help from Bulgaria, before the Bulgarian reinforcements arrived, the defenders in Constantinople mutinied. Justinian II paid the price with his life for his brutal actions. His death was a sign

With the fall of the Irakli Dynasty that lasted for hundreds of years, Terver Khan came a step too late. He saw that Constantinople could not be saved, but he could not go back empty-handed, so he withdrew after looting the surrounding areas.

In order to drive away the Bulgarians, the newly appointed emperor Bardanis of the Byzantine Empire recalled the troops from Asia. However, these troops had been stationed in Asia for a long time and were deeply influenced by Islamic culture. After the retreat of Terver Khan, they launched

Bardanis was overthrown in a coup. The Byzantine Empire fell into long-term civil strife in both politics and religion. This period is known in history as the Iconoclastic Crisis.

The Avars had been in decline for a long time due to the decline in strength, but when they saw that the Byzantine Empire was in such a serious crisis, they did not want to sit back and let such a good opportunity slip away. So in 713 AD, they sacked the small town west of Vienna.

, but such a small-scale plunder was nothing compared to previous large-scale aggressive wars. In 716 AD, the Byzantine Empire suffered from internal and external troubles. In order to protect themselves, they had to sign a contract with Bulgaria on the condition of giving up land.

A new contract was signed, which stipulated that residents of the two countries could trade freely. As a result, Bulgaria became the most powerful and wealthy regime in the Balkan Peninsula. Its power in the Danube River Basin had already completely overwhelmed the Avars. "The Decline of the West"

It provided a good opportunity for the expansion of the Arabs. They were no longer satisfied with their current achievements, but continued to march into the hinterland of Europe and captured most of the Frankish Kingdom. If it had not been for the Frankish Kingdom in the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, it had achieved

With a crucial victory, Islamic forces may rule the entire Western Europe and spread to Central Europe. The man who saved the Christian world in Western Europe is called Charles the Hammer. He is the palace minister of the Frankish Kingdom. He was born into the Carolingian family. This

The family has an inseparable relationship with the Avars. In 566 AD, Boyan Khan defeated the French King Higobot, forcing them to move their capital westward, which led to the expansion of local power in the Rhine Valley. The direct beneficiary was

Charles the Hammer's great-grandfather, Bishop Arnulf, and his great-grandfather Pepin the Elder. Under the leadership of Charles the Hammer, the Frankish Kingdom had replaced Byzantium and Arabia and became the dominant force in Western Europe. Gallo

As a result, the Lin family became powerful throughout Europe. The son of Charles the Hammer, Pepin III the Short, deposed the Wen family and ascended the Frankish throne in 751 AD. From then on, the Frankish Kingdom started the Carolingian Dynasty, which eventually became the Carolingian Dynasty.

The terminator of the Avars.

Since we mentioned that the Frankish Kingdom changed from the Morovingian family to the Carolingian family, let us briefly describe the rise of the Carolingian family.

After the end of the Merovingian dynasty, the Frankish Kingdom ushered in a new era, which was the Carolingian dynasty founded by the Pepin family.

The ancestor of the Carolingian dynasty was originally the palace minister of the Merovingian court, which can be traced back to the Infernal Times (6580640). He was born in Langdon, central Belgium, and was the palace minister of Austrasia during the reign of Dagobert I.

Pepin married his daughter to the son of Arnulf, the bishop of Metz, and was able to join the local aristocratic family. Through his alliance with the king of Neustria, he gained the favor of the new king of Austrasia, and became the king in 623.

Prime Minister of the Palace. Throughout his political career, Buping was extremely successful, laying a solid foundation for the success of his family in later generations. Interestingly, the Carolingian dynasty was actually the grandson of Pepin, but they all regarded Buping as their ancestor.

, called him Old Pepin, and posthumously named him Pepin I.

Pepin I's grandson Pepin II (635714) was also the palace prime minister, with increasing power. His illegitimate son Charles (676-741, reigned 717--741) succeeded the palace and established his family with great military exploits.

His continuous rule was infused with legitimacy. At that time, it was the era of the great conquests of the Arab Umayyad dynasty. The Muslim army swept across North Africa from the Arabian Peninsula, passed through the entire Spain, crossed the Pyrenees, entered France, and marched straight to Paris.

At this critical moment, Charles conducted a blocking battle against the Muslim army at Tours near the Loire River in 732. He led the Frankish army to raid the Muslims. After several days of bloody fighting, he created the myth that infantry defeated cavalry. This battle prevented

The Muslim Northern Expedition established the Frankish Kingdom's prestigious name throughout Western Europe, and Charles also received the title of "Matt" (meaning hammer). During his tenure, Charles Matt also continued to send troops eastward.

, defeated the Saxons, Alemannic, and Bavarian tribes, and became increasingly powerful. Charles Martel gradually became the supreme master of the kingdom. His rule became increasingly stable, while the weaker kings became weaker and weaker from generation to generation. But Charles Martel

He still served as palace minister with self-restraint and did not change dynasties to become king. The task of changing dynasties had to be completed by his son Pepin III (reigned from 751 to 768).

Pepin III was known as "The Short". After his father's death, he followed his father's orders to share power with his brother Carloman. By 747, Carloman retired from the monastery and became the sole ruler. At this time, Pepin

He had already sat on the seat below one person and above ten thousand people, but he was still not satisfied. He didn't like Merovingian who was sitting on the king's seat and looked at the king. So when the opportunity came, Pepin asked

Pope, if the king ignores the government, what should the palace minister do? At this time, the pope needs the support of a powerful royal power. Although the Merovingian dynasty is orthodox, it is really not beneficial to the church, so he said, who is the founder of Frank?

Whoever sleeps at night is qualified to be its master. Once they hit it off, Pepin immediately sent the last king Childeric III to a monastery, ended the Merovingian dynasty, held a meeting in Soissons, and announced the founding of the Carolingian Empire.

The dynasty has completed the business that generations of people have worked hard on since the old Piping.

Pepin III and the Pope also formed a further alliance. In 751, the Pope sent the archbishop to Paris to crown Pepin and allowed him to become the king of a new generation of dynasty. In return, Pepin solved the urgent problem for the Pope. At this time, Lombardy in northern Italy

The kingdom was expanding and constantly intruding on the Papal States. The Pope personally asked Pepin for help. So in 754 and 756, Pepin led his army into Italy twice, forcing the Lombard king to return the occupied Ravenna and the large surrounding territories to

The Roman Pope thus formed the prototype of the Papal State. This event is also known as the "Pepin Donation". Through this act of religious and secular reciprocity, a long-standing alliance was established between the Frankish Kingdom and the Pope.

In 754 AD, the Frankish King Pepin the Short accepted the invitation of Pope Stephen II and marched into Italy, defeating the Lombards and Bulgarians who threatened Rome. The Bulgarians took advantage of the Byzantine civil strife and occupied several important military towns.

Pepin the Short did not take the territories he conquered as his own, but handed them over to the management of Stephen II. From then on, central Italy became the private property of the Holy See, and the Holy See also got rid of the conflict with the Byzantine Empire.

Subsidiary relationship. At that time, the Byzantine Empire was in decline. The Bulgarian Khan also broke the contract and sent his troops to the city of Constantinople. From then on, the two sides continued to war until 763 AD, when Byzantium replaced

The new emperor Constantine V, under the leadership of the new emperor, successfully defeated the Bulgarian Khan Telets who had also just come to power, but the new Bulgarian Khan was soon overthrown by the domestic nobles. In 773 AD

, the Bulgarian Khan Trilig came back, but was defeated again, and tens of thousands of soldiers were killed. Constantine V killed thousands of prisoners of war on the spot in the arena, and she also won the

The title of the Butcher of Bulgaria. After the defeat, Bulgaria was forced to recognize the status of the Byzantine Empire as the suzerain, thus gaining 30 years of peace to recharge their batteries. In 30 years, they were strong enough to take revenge.

In recent chapters, we have been talking about the Byzantine Empire at great length. Here we simply give a brief summary of the history of the Byzantine Empire and attach it after the two sections.

The Byzantine Empire (395 AD - 1453 AD), the Eastern Roman Empire, is the oldest monarchy in European history.

The Byzantine Empire had 12 dynasties and 93 emperors. On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire led his army to invade Constantinople (today's Istanbul), and the Byzantine Empire was officially destroyed. Culture and Religion of the Byzantine Empire

It has a great influence on today's Eastern European countries. Its preserved historical materials, writings and rational philosophical thoughts from ancient Greece and Rome also provided the most direct impetus for Europe in the Middle Ages to break through the shackles of Catholic theocracy, triggering the Renaissance movement and

It has profoundly affected human history.

Introduction to country name

The official name of the Byzantine Empire is ωμανα (Rōmanía, "Rome"), or Βασιλε ατνωμαων (Basileía Rōmaíōn, "Roman Empire"). This is the Greek translation of the Latin Imperium Romanorum (Roman Empire)

, is also the self-proclaimed name of the Byzantine Empire. In order to distinguish it from the Holy Roman Empire, which also called itself the Roman Empire, before the empire's demise in 1453, Western Europeans called it the "Eastern Roman Empire" (Imperium Romaale).

In the 11 centuries from 330 to 1453, "Byzantine Empire" never became the official or informal name of the country, and its subjects never called themselves "Byzantines" or changed their capital to a new name.

Rome was called "Byzantium". Until the 17th century, "Eastern Roman Empire" was the official name of this empire by Western historians. In 1557, the German historian Hieronymus Wolff compiled

In the "Manuscripts of Byzantine Historians of the Past", in order to distinguish the classical Greek documents before the Roman era from the Greek documents of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, the name "Byzantine Empire" was introduced. This name comes from its capital Constantinople

The predecessor of (Istanbul) - the ancient Greek colonial city of Byzantium.

After the 17th century, through the use of Montesquieu and others, this term was gradually used by Western European historians to distinguish the (actually quite different) eastern half of the ancient Roman Empire from the medieval, Hellenistic Eastern Roman Empire.

.

Chinese literature

Fu (Middle Chinese: buzdin) is the name given to the Byzantine Empire in medieval Chinese historical records.

In ancient times, it was also called Da Qin or Haixi Kingdom. Depending on the historical period, this name sometimes also refers to the east coast of the Mediterranean such as Tomb Kingdom (today's Syria). In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was also used to refer to Asia Minor ruled by the Seljuk Turks. This name

In "Book of Wei·Gaozong Ji" and "Xianzu Ji" it is called "Pulan". "Northern History·Biography of the Western Regions" is called "Fuluni". Volume 11 of Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" Bolasi Guo Tiao

The attached Western countries are labeled "Fu Mao", Dao Shi's "Fa Yuan Zhu Lin" Volume 39 and the "Liang Zhi Gong Tu" cited are "Fu Mao", Hui Chao's "Biography of the Five Tianzhu Kingdoms" are labeled "Da Fu"

"Lin", Du Huan's "Jing Xing Ji", "Sui Shu", "Old Tang Shu", etc. are all called "Fu Fu", and various variant translations are Frwm (Frōm in Sogdian), Purum (

The pronunciation of Chinese characters such as Prom in Parthian language, Hrōm or Hrūm (Middle Persian), etc. The 8th-century Turkic stele of Piga Khan found in the Mongolian Plateau at the end of the 19th century is called Purum. Scholars have determined in many ways that the above names are

France, both come from the name of the Eastern Roman Empire by the Arabs and Persians - Rūm
To be continued...