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Early Access! Chapter 2: The Reforms of Justinian (Patreon)

Published:
2015-06-26 17:19:19
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Justinian's talented advisors help him pursue the dream of restoring Rome's glory... but their great accomplishments are dogged by personal flaws.

Files

Previews only

Byzantine Empire: Justinian and Theodora - II: The Reforms of Justinian - Extra History

Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Watch the Justinian and Theodora series! http://bit.ly/1J89hPd Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Follow us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Follow us on Twitter! http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Twitch! http://bit.y/ECTwitch ____________ Justinian wanted nothing more than to restore the glory of Rome, but many obstacles stood in his way.

Comments

Martin Ockovsky

Omg this one was also amazing! I'm loving it!

Mask

This is one of the best EH episodes ever. Major props to David, James, Dan, and all the other EH staff for the writing, voicing, art, and other features so amazing with this episode. and I guess props to Justinian for gathering the Byzantine Avengers. I ought to watch it again!

Katarzyna JJ

What really really REALLY stood out this episode was how well the Battle of Dara was explained via the animation. Super huge props to David on this episode.

Colin

Wonderful! This keeps getting more exciting with every episode! I can't wait to see what happens next. I'd never heard of the Battle of Dara before. That was really interesting, and you guys illustrated it really well. I wish we could've heard more about the war that led up to it and the people involved. I wish you guys had more episodes to devote to this topic. Because things are going so fast, and there seems to be so much going on, and I'd love to hear more about it all! I've actually read parts of the Secret History before. It's fascinating how much Procopius hated the Emperor and all the things he had to say to him and his family. One thing I did find odd though, was how you guys switched between using Roman and Byzantine to describe the empire and it's institutions. Not that it matters too much though.

Jason Youngberg

Does anyone else see a bit of similarity between Garigus's (sp) battle plan at Dara and the head/horns/loins we saw in the Zulu Empire?

Brett

Great episode! They actually just released the Battle of Dara as free content in Total War: Attila, so it was very interesting to play their depiction of it and then come see you guys cover it in the episode.

Tom Murphy

Given the complete change of tone (and rather remarkable content!)... what makes anyone think that Procopius wrote the secret history?

Christian Jensen
>>596945

I asked James your question in the livestream today, he answered that it basically comes down to that the author of the document had a lot of inside knowledge that only Procopius (or someone in his position) could have had. (Please feel free to correct if I got something wrong from that answer)

ExtraCredits
>>596006

Agreed! When I first saw this I sent David a note telling him how much I loved the way he'd drawn the battle scenes.

ExtraCredits
>>596317

There is some! At it's heart, it's a flanking maneuver. The general needs to call the flank / reinforcements at the right time, though, or you wind up with a situation like in Dara, where Belisarius baited the Persians to overextend. What made it revolutionary for the Zulu was that the people of that region generally did not use organized battle tactics, and Shaka managed to distill this one in a way that was both brutally effective and easily understood by warriors who had not spent their lives training in military maneuvers.

Brett
>>596347

The fort & trench is very well simulated, and the AI will charge its cavalry in first, then attack with its infantry while you try to hold the trench line. It's a game, so naturally you can screw up and give them an opening, or be more aggressive and flank their assault or something. Only major difference is that they don't have Belisarius's Hunnic cavalry reserve - you only have his frontline cavalry force to use.

ExtraCredits
>>596945

You got it right, thank you! Although Tom is quite right to ask the question: since there is no direct proof that Procopius wrote the Secret History, some historians have questioned whether it was really his work. But in addition to the amount of detail which only a member of Justinian's court would have had, there were sources from later centuries who spoke about Procopius writing a secret account of Justinian and Theodora's depravity that was apparently passed around in private libraries. It was a thing of legend until a copy actually turned up in the Vatican library, and carbon dating of that copy seems to confirm that it was created during Procopius's lifetime.

ExtraCredits
>>596215

The Persian Empire (in its various dynasties and forms) is so often presented as just the "enemy" of the Greeks or the Romans that we rarely hear the stories from their perspective. It's definitely something we'd like to do an Extra History on someday - if not the Battle of Dara specifically, then at least some of the many stories from the Persian Empire's storied past. James will talk about his word choice regarding "Roman" and "Byzantine" in the Lies episode, but it was definitely an intentional choice. In my (Soraya's) view, using both terms helps students who have been told to look up the Byzantine Empire and who don't realize that this IS the Roman Empire - after all, it's not in Rome! It's my hope that our use of the word Byzantine will help them find the video, and the fact that we call them Romans interchangeably will help them realize that the Byzantines (see! I did it again!) were in fact a Roman people, and part of that empire. But like I said, James will give his own perspective on that later. :)

ExtraCredits
>>596347

But the Hunnic cavalry was so clutch! Sounds like a neat simulation overall, though. Did you try the original Belisarius strategy (minus Huns), and if you did, did it work?

Brett
>>596347

Yeah, it works like a charm. I deployed heavy infantry up in the trenchline, with a few units hidden behind them for support and my cavalry on the flanks. Repelled the Sassanid cavalry charge, soaked their infantry charge, turned its flank, then mopped up. Funnily enough, the fort of Dara is behind you, and the Sassanids will win if they can get in and capture it. In my first play of it, one of their light cavalry units fled from the trench fight and tried to slip into the town, so I ended up falling back and routing them in the town center after I had defeated the main trench attack.

Tom Murphy
>>596945

Thanks! A debauched secret history... it *would* turn up in the Vatican's library :) I was curious what sort of token of authority they might use to prove it was Procopius... if the insider details were published somewhere before, they could have been copied by the ghost writer? If they weren't previously published, how were they authenticated as real (and not just fiction)? These are rhetorical questions really, I'm just interested in the difficult job historians must have putting together the pieces of something like this... Also, great episode... really loving Extra History. I hated history in school because of the way it was taught but since the Punic wars series I've been glued to Extra History!

Colin
>>595702

I could accept being Emperor of Cuddles. It sounds quite nice actually.

Colin
>>596215

That's true, you don't get to hear much about the Persian side of things much. That would actually be really interesting, I'd love to see a series on that. Okay, that makes sense. I can understand that. I look forward to hearing more about that in James' Lies episode. And again, thank you guys so much for doing this! I've really been enjoying this series!

ExtraCredits
>>596945

For that you'd have to dive deeper than I have so far, but I'm sure you'd find a lot of interesting stuff if you did (and I'd love to hear about it). I don't know what to recommend if you do decide to read into it, but my suggestion would be to try and find a historian who argues that the Secret Histories were NOT written by Procopius, then read their work and/or the work of someone who answers their argument. That's probably the best way to get the most details about it!

ExtraCredits
>>596347

Nice! I think it's pretty cool how well they simulated it. Not to mention that if you know the history of the battle, as you do, you get an edge because you have a good idea what strategy to apply.

ExtraCredits
>>596215

I'm glad! You're only the second patron who's ever won the raffle (the first being the Zulu) and so I've really been hoping you'd enjoy your series. :D