The Emperor Whose Skull Became a Cup: Rome's Deadliest Century

♦Why didn't Rome Explore the Atlantic?

♦In the 9th century, the Roman Empire was fighting the Arabs, the Franks, the Bulgars and the Rus. It survived, and this is how. The story begins in 802 with Nikephoros I, who inherited a broken treasury and a neglected army and set about fixing both. He rebuilt the fiscal system, took back most of Greece from the Slavs, created three new themes with fresh garrisons and settlers, and raised new professional cavalry. Then he marched into Bulgaria, sacked the enemy capital, refused a peace offer, camped his army in an undefended valley, and was killed there. Khan Krum had his skull lined with silver and made into a drinking cup. What follows is one of the most volatile stretches in Roman history. Emperors last a few years each. Michael I is destroyed at Versinikia and retires to a monastery. Leo V is saved by the sudden death of Krum, revives iconoclasm. Theophilos rebuilds the walls and beats back the Arab raids. His widow Theodora ends the iconoclast controversy for good in 843, an achievement that made her a saint. In 863 the empire wins at Lalakaon and effectively stops large-scale Arab raiding into Anatolia.

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♦Music by Epidemic Sound

00:00 Attacked From Every Side
00:21 Nikephoros Rebuilds the Empire
02:02 The Skull Cup
04:07 Michael I and the Bulgar Disaster
05:48 Leo V and a Lucky Death
07:51 Michael II and Thomas's Revolt
10:15 Theophilos and Theodora
13:10 Basil Takes the Throne

Big Thank you to:
potatohistory-us, johnathondwigans, MohitAgrawal-d9n, Николай Димитров, Tobias Tron, Mahmoud Shahin, Justin Bourke, Augustus Caesar, Chaim