Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 252, the sack of Thessalonica.

Last time we watched on as Andronicus Comni Nos, fell on Manowiel's family like a lion,

killing his children, his wife and his nephew. It's an appropriate analogy since in the wild

when a male lion takes over a new pride he usually kills all the cubs he finds, ensuring that only

his progeny will survive. Unfortunately Andronicus wasn't taking over a small pride, it was a huge

empire that required careful management. As you know he didn't stop with Manowiel's family,

he killed Blinded or Exiled a large number of talented men and terrified the rest into silence.

This reign of terror would do huge damage to the fabric of Byzantium as we will see today.

In the end though Roman regimes built on fear, tend not to last and this will be no exception.

Having crushed opposition to his rule at the capital, Andronicus gathered an army in early

1184 and headed for Nysia. As I mentioned last time, Nysia had become the centre of Anatolian

resistance to Andronicus' rule. A group of Comenian nobles had gathered there hoping to overthrow

the new regime. Amongst them was the man who would eventually replace Andronicus, Isaac Angulus.

As you know Nysia's defence is worth formidable and Andronicus' men struggled to break through.

In order to turn up the heat on the defenders, the Emperor sent for Isaac's mother, Euphrocene.

She was dragged from Constantinople to Nysia and then tied to the top of a battering ram.

Andronicus' theory was that the rebels wouldn't be able to destroy the ram without hurting

their leader's mother, which is pretty much super-villain territory. The garrison of Nysia managed

to rescue her and destroy the ram, but eventually the city ran out of food and surrendered to Andronicus.

The rebel leaders begged for mercy. And since they'd opened the gates voluntarily, Andronicus

felt on a bound not to murder Isaac and his co-conspirators. They were packed off to Constantinople

to live very quiet lives instead. The garrison were not so lucky. A number of Turkic men had been

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