Hello everyone, and welcome to the history of Byzantium.

Episode 51.

The Themes.

Last time we followed the early career of Constance II, the teenage emperor who essentially took

over the government of Romania after his grandfather's death.

To suffering defeats on every front, the now 26 year old was very relieved when news

came of the death of the caliph Uthman in Medina.

The Augustus didn't know how long the Muslim world would be turned inward, but the retreat

of Muawiyah's unbeatable Syrian army allowed him at least a year or two to better organize

the Roman military for whatever was to come next.

Obviously, the Byzantine army was in poor shape.

It had lost every major battle for over 20 years now.

The main armies in Anatolia had very low morale and little hope of turning the tide.

While in Italy and Africa, the troops had seemed perfectly willing to go along with

rebellions against the government in Constantinople.

This was determined to do something about this and launched himself into action.

In 657 he sent his forces back into Armenia.

The new prince installed there by Muawiyah was happy to cooperate with the Byzantines

now that the Arabs were out of sight.

The following year Constance became the first emperor since Maurice to campaign in the

Balkans.

Marching out through Thrace, the emperor attacked the Slav tribes that now lived along

...