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For ninety-nine years three Komnenian emperors - Alexios, John and Manuel - ruled the Byzantine Empire. They inherited a state on the brink of collapse, but by the time they were done they had built Byzantium back up into the most powerful European empire. Yet fortune is fickle. Shortly after Manuel died, his dynasty would collapse; not long after that, so too did the Empire - decapitated by the Fourth Crusade. How did this happen? Why did things fall apart so fast? It was - if not the beginning of the end - then at least the beginning of the beginning of the end. Never again would the Byzantines have it so good. 00:00 Cycles of Empire 00:56 The Prelude to Catastrophe 05:37 The Regency 09:12 The Life and Times of Andronikos 13:36 Coups and Massacres 21:31 Northmen in the South 25:38 The Sicilian War 30:33 Tyrantfall 38:35 The Empire Strikes Back 40:50 The Last Komnenians Music by Kevin MacLeod, with “Aetas Romana“ by Adrian von Zielger.
