Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, Episode 262.

Questions 9

I was going to follow the sack of Constantinople with an episode about the experience of enslavement

during the fall of a city. But I got so many questions about the fourth crusade, I thought

it would make more sense to dive right into those now, while the siege is fresh in your

memories. There are many, many more questions to tackle in future episodes. Thank you all

for the amazing response.

So I think we need to address the big questions first. Was the collapse of the Roman Empire

inevitable? Listen to D. N. asks this, saying even without the fourth crusade as a catalyst,

it feels like the empire was collapsing on its own. Since Andronika's took power, there

have been more and more rebellions with different parts of the empire declaring independence.

While listen to B queries whether the Comni-Noi had simply been holding back the tide of decline

that began at Manzacard. And listen to B. N. says, given the empire was almost ungovernable,

as I titled Episode 258, did the Latin occupation perversely end up extending the life of the

empire? My broad answer to all these questions is no.

No I don't think the fall of the empire around the beginning of the 13th century was inevitable.

I think the fourth crusade was a one-off event that could easily not have happened and that

had it not happened the empire would have recovered.

Before I elaborate I should say that the biggest clump of questions which I received were

basically asking about the almost ungovernable state of the empire. Why were the provinces

in rebellion all the time? Why were mob bosses running the streets of Constantinople? Why

had the government become so feeble? Why was the army in such a state and so on? I will

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