1444, Byzantium Resurrects
Chapter 355 Bread and Circus
Chapter 355 Bread and Circus
Western Eastern Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian Sea, Aeolian Islands.
The Aeolian Islands are located to the north of Sicily and to the west of the Apennine Peninsula. They consist of seven large islands and five small islands. It is a volcanic archipelago, very close to Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula. Its name comes from Aeolus, the god of wind in ancient Greek mythology, so it is also called the "Aeolian Islands".
Although the geographical location of the Aeolian Islands seems good, the transit importance of this archipelago is greatly reduced due to the close proximity of Sicily and Naples. The land is relatively small, the output is relatively scarce, and the permanent population is not large, most of which are distributed on the island of Lipari.
The archipelago was incorporated into the Kingdom of Naples by the previous King Afonso V of Aragon decades ago, and along with the Crown of Naples, became the private property of King Ferdinand I.
King Ferdinand I of Naples was the cousin of the Eastern Roman Queen Leonor and had always had a good relationship with her. As a result, the Kingdom of Naples became one of the allies of the Eastern Roman Empire, and trade between the two sides was relatively frequent.
However, Ferdinand I was also wary of the Eastern Roman Empire's external expansion and did not want to become a subordinate vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire. He maintained a diplomatic policy of "closeness without compromise, kindness without subservience". On the one hand, he relied on the Eastern Roman Empire's loans and trade dividends to fill the deficit, and on the other hand, he rejected the Eastern Roman Empire's excessive interference and strengthened his own authority.
Of course, the Eastern Roman Empire under Isaac never suffered any loss. Since Naples wanted to share some of the benefits of the great navigation with the Eastern Roman Empire, it had to pay a corresponding price. During decades of exchanges and negotiations, the Eastern Roman Empire gradually obtained a lot of trade privileges from Naples. The Kingdom of Naples exported grain, wool and other agricultural and pastoral products to the Eastern Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire exported silk, woolen cloth, gems and other high-end handicraft products to Naples. Both sides collected relatively low taxes.
During the Eastern Roman-Aragonese War, although the Kingdom of Naples refused to send troops directly and did not allow the Eastern Roman army to jump to Sicily with the help of the Naples territory, it still provided a lot of help. Not only did it provide a lot of war supplies to the North African territories, but it also cracked down on Latin pirates on islands including the Aeolian Islands.
In addition, perhaps because of his deep resentment towards the Trastamara branch of Aragon, or perhaps because he owed too much debt to the Eastern Roman Emperor, King Ferdinand of Naples was the first to recognize Carlos's orthodox claims to the Kingdom of Granada and the Kingdom of Castile, ignoring the diplomatic protests of the Kingdom of Aragon.
In return, the Eastern Roman Empire gave Ferdinand I a colony on the coast of Guinea and allowed the Neapolitan fleet to dock at any Eastern Roman colony, further tying them to the chariot of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Times have changed. Naples and Sicily, fertile lands in ancient Rome, were gradually overtaken by the once barren northern Italy due to their lack of handicraft bases. An agricultural country with a relatively small territory could hardly pose much threat to the handicraft industry of the Eastern Roman Empire.
On the island of Lipari in the Aeolian Islands, there is a manor hidden deep in the woods. Inside the manor, people are constantly coming and going, printing presses are constantly humming, and documents are being compiled by clerks and handed over to their supervisors.
At the largest desk, a young man was writing. His feather pen made rustling sounds and lines of Latin words appeared on the paper.
His name was Carface, and his ancestral home was Thessalonica in the Eastern Roman Empire. He had stood out in the civil service examination for his elegant writing style, but was also controversial for his overly radical ideas.
After the exam, Carface was appointed as a political official of the Pindus region, in charge of the enclosure movement reform. While in office, he began to write again, made a profound analysis of the current situation facing the Eastern Roman Empire, firmly believed in the "Thucydides Trap", and published articles in newspapers to expound his own views.
In his view, if the Roman nation wanted to maintain its prosperous and revived era, it had to do its best to become stronger. The oppression and exploitation of weak nations was completely reasonable and just. The great emperor and his successors must carry out this historical mission. All other voices within the empire must disappear, leaving only the emperor's orders.
His views were incompatible with the established policy of the Eastern Roman Empire of "freedom of speech, liberation of thought, and a hundred schools of thought contending and a hundred flowers blooming". Even the emperor was not impressed by what he called "strict ideological control". He did not want the people to worship him as a god, nor did he want to bury talents due to excessive control.
However, Carlfis's talent in government affairs was lackluster, and he just barely passed several performance evaluations. This also made him understand himself more clearly: he could write articles and do propaganda, but he could not do practical work.
In 1474, the Eastern Roman Empire's "Golden Diplomacy" was launched vigorously, and its policy of interference in Western European countries shifted from military to economic, and from violence to moderation. Against this background, Carface put forward the "propaganda theory", arguing that the people themselves are ignorant and fickle. Whoever controls the right to speak will conquer the masses, and a good propaganda is better than a hundred thousand soldiers.
In his opinion, the initial Jinyuan diplomacy had considerable loopholes. If the local people had too much hatred and resistance towards the Eastern Roman Empire, Eastern Roman goods and Eastern Roman banks would also be boycotted. In order to implement this policy, in addition to improving product quality, corresponding publicity must be carried out.
To his surprise, this time, the emperor approved his suggestion and began to prepare the Propaganda Department of the Eastern Roman Empire, which was divided into the Internal Propaganda Department and the External Propaganda Department. Kalface was promoted as the director of the External Propaganda Department.
Although he failed to get the position of Director of the Internal Propaganda Department that he desired most, Kalfis was very grateful to the emperor for his promotion. He set up an office of the External Propaganda Department in the Florence Concession of the Eastern Roman Empire and immediately began his work.
Carlface quickly compiled a propaganda guide, which systematically explained the propaganda media including priests, newspapers, bards, circuses, etc., and its advantages, disadvantages, and ways of using them... were very clear.
Carlfis believes that as literacy rates increase, newspapers will undoubtedly be the focus of propaganda in the future, but now, except for the big cities in central and northern Italy, they are not very feasible in other places.
Calfis soon founded the first newspaper in the Eastern Roman Concession area of Florence, naming it "Florentine Liberty". In it, he portrayed the good life in the Eastern Roman Empire, smeared the Medici family's ugly dictatorship, and published all the tax and immigration policies of the Eastern Roman Empire. He outlined a perfect country that was just before their eyes for the confused citizens of Florence, and made a great deal of praise for the Eastern Roman Empire's system of "enlightened despotism" and "market freedom" in the newspaper, and satirized the regime that did not pursue this set of policies in both open and covert ways.
Why are your lives not as good as those of Eastern Roman citizens? It must be because your government does not use the Eastern Roman Empire's system. You have to stand up and overthrow it. As for whether you can get a better life after the overthrow, the Eastern Roman Empire does not care.
Based on the original Eastern Roman newspapers, Karface also published many "useless" short stories, such as a Thessalonica child who did not pick up things on the road, a milkman in Constantinople who was praised for criticizing the emperor's policies on the street, and a Cyrenaica farmer who became a senator through unremitting efforts... Although these things are exaggerated, they can be traced in today's Eastern Roman Empire and are open to any doubts and visits and inspections.
In addition to these newspapers targeting middle-class citizens, Calfis also recruited some literati and poets to tailor some meaningless leisure reading materials for wealthy nobles and ladies, including romance, war, adventure, and everything else. In these materials, he boasted about the wisdom and bravery of Emperor Isaac, the personality charm of Prince Justinian, and the handsomeness of Prince Alexios. By the way, he also included a lot of descriptions of Eastern Roman luxury goods, introducing in length how noble the emperor and queen's clothes were, how fragrant the perfume was, how exquisite the jewelry was, how complicated the craftsmanship was, and how precious the raw materials were...
When reaching the grassroots masses, Carlface adopted another method. He no longer used newspapers and novels, which were media that required literacy, but instead focused on simple and easy-to-understand poems and variety shows. He sent people to copy the scripts and poems written by the royal historian Lake, and assigned them to the bards funded by the Foreign Propaganda Agency.
So, within a few months, a series of poems such as "Isaac the Great's Nordic Dragon Hunt" and "Justinian Riding a Wolf to Train the Barbarians" began to become popular in Italian cities. Although the royal historian Lake did not care about authenticity and rigor, his writing style was still quite outstanding.
Carface also organized people and wrote a script, telling the story from the perspective of a Milanese refugee about how the tyrant Galeazzo persecuted the people, how he was rescued by the Eastern Roman Empire, how he experienced adventures along the way, how he traveled from Milan to Malta, from Malta to Carthage, and how he was eventually noticed by a noble lady and became a wealthy man in Constantinople.
Carlfis called it "Towards Civilization" and arranged for some variety show troupes to tour major cities, also smuggling a lot of contraband, telling stories about the prosperity and openness of the Eastern Roman Empire and describing the high quality and low prices of Eastern Roman goods. These stories would spread from Florence to Milan and from cities to the countryside as people moved around.
Carface's work consumed a lot of money and was initially despised by almost all Eastern Roman officials. However, in just half a year, the number of immigrants from Italy to the Eastern Roman Empire increased rapidly, and orders for luxury goods from major Italian cities also grew rapidly. Kazanlak rose perfume and Mystras royal silk became necessities for many ladies to show off and compete with each other.
The huge success shut everyone up and also made Carlfis firm in his propaganda theory. He immediately opened branches of the Foreign Propaganda Agency in Ragusa, Venice and other cities to expand his propaganda business.
A month ago, Calfis received an order from the emperor to promote the Sicilian War, mainly to the people of Sicily.
The Eastern Roman Empire had already carried out war propaganda, but it was basically domestically oriented. This was the first time that it had used propaganda to stir up trouble on someone else's territory.
This was a severe test for the External Propaganda Department. Combining his knowledge of history, geography and propaganda, Carlface decided to approach it from two aspects.
First, due to the low cultural level of Sicily, newspapers were abandoned first. Calfis chose minstrels, traveling merchants and pilgrims as the main media to spread the message he wanted to convey through these highly mobile groups.
Second, Calfis placed his "headquarters" in the Aeolian Islands in the Kingdom of Naples, which is very close to Sicily, only two hundred meters away at the closest point. It can be reached by small boat, and receiving and transmitting messages are very fast.
So, with his funding, a large number of troubadours, wandering merchants and pilgrims from Italy entered Sicily. Some of them even set up pigeon stations in major cities to strengthen information exchange.
"Lord Carlface, the manuscript has been written. Please take a look."
A clerk came over and handed Carlface a document.
When Carlfis saw it, he immediately frowned.
"I've told you not to use factual information directly. You have to process and modify it. Why don't you listen?"
Kalface pointed to a passage.
"The Imperial Army successfully landed in southern Sicily, and Emperor Isaac successfully defeated the local militia."
"change!"
Kalface pointed.
"The Imperial Liberation Army and the Sicilian Freedom Army successfully joined forces in the southern part of the island. Emperor Isaac was warmly welcomed and mingled with the local people!"
"Just change it like this! After you're done, send it to the pilgrims who are still here! Tell them to get to the island as soon as possible!"
"And here!"
Carlface looked at the clerk with dismay.
"Tell me, what does it mean that the Sicilian local army in the Palermo area was directly defeated by Spanish mercenaries? Will the emperor be satisfied? Will the Sicilians dare to resist after hearing this?"
"The Spanish mercenaries are advancing in panic and showing signs of decline, while the Sicilian Freedom Army is retreating steadily and has great potential. Isn't this a good idea?"
"Sicily is full of mountains. It's not easy for news from Palermo to spread to other places by land. Do you understand what I mean?"
The clerk nodded repeatedly and took the manuscript.
"I think, Your Majesty is right. There are too few talents like me. In the future, we have to open a journalism major in universities." Carlfis shook his head and muttered.
"As for those theater troupes, we don't need them anymore. Let them sail to southern Sicily immediately. The emperor needs them!"
……
It was late spring, the sky was clear and cloudless. In southern Sicily, on the beach east of the small town of Licata, the army of the Eastern Roman Empire landed one after another, groups of ships cruised on the sea, and vanguard troops patrolled on land.
On the high ground northwest of the beach, Isaac stared at the soldiers who were busy like a colony of ants. This was the last batch of troops to land in Sicily. After they completed the landing, the total strength of the Eastern Roman Empire on Sicily would exceed 20,000.
As a maritime power, the Eastern Roman Empire attached great importance to naval landings. The late naval commander Giovanni Giustiniani once formed a marine corps on the orders of Isaac. They would land first in large-scale landing battles and open up beachheads for subsequent troops.
Innovations in the construction industry made the Eastern Roman Engineering Corps increasingly important. These engineers would be assigned to each legion at ordinary times and would be concentrated during large-scale battles. They would use concrete structures to build simple fortresses for landing troops, cut down forests for the army to march out, and build roads and pontoon bridges.
After driving out the Turks from the Balkans, the Eastern Roman Empire rarely fought on its own soil. In order to reduce the damage of the war to its own people, the Eastern Roman army rarely conscripted civilians when conducting landing operations far away from its homeland. Logistics work was usually handled by second-line troops such as the slave archers. The logistics department would also carry a large number of livestock to reduce the army's consumption of manpower.
In addition, the chariot department would bring a large amount of raw materials to the front line in every war and make improved carriages on the spot, which could not only transport supplies to the soldiers but also speed up the march.
Since the Eastern Roman army had long relied on maritime transportation, it was often forced to slow down its march due to supply problems during inland wars. This drawback was fully reflected in the Great Turkish War. In order to improve this pain point, Isaac simply went all out and chose to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.
Building materials, mules and horses, livestock, raw materials for carriages...all of these things can be transported by sea. In this way, the Eastern Roman Empire circumvented the shortcomings of land logistics and gave full play to the advantages of maritime transportation.
The benefits of this model are obvious. It allows the Eastern Roman army to complete logistical mobilization in a very short time and advance at an extraordinary speed without causing much impact on the normal production and life of the people in the country.
There are disadvantages as well, that is, it is too expensive. In the past two years, because Isaac was unwilling to collect war taxes from the people at home, and was unwilling to conscript civilians to participate in the war, a series of wars once again put the finances of the Eastern Roman Empire into a difficult situation. If Albuquerque had not made a major breakthrough in the East Indies and completely monopolized the Indian trade, Isaac's wallet would have become empty again.
However, what the Eastern Roman Empire lacks most at present is population. Exchanging money for people is definitely a sure win in the long run.
"That's about it. Let Ibrahim march toward the big city as planned. I have other things to do."
Isaac withdrew his gaze and gave instructions to the guards around him.
"I still have to go check out those refugee camps."
The guard nodded, mounted his horse, and headed for Ibrahim's camp.
Isaac looked at the relatively orderly beachhead, rode away on horseback, and, accompanied by his guards, came to the dilapidated village to the east of the camp.
After the Sicilian Vespers, conflicts between the Spaniards and Sicilians broke out under the instigation of the Eastern Roman Empire. In the large towns where Aragon had a solid influence, Spanish mercenaries began to search and persecute Sicilians. In small towns and rural areas, Sicilians turned their knives against innocent Spanish expatriates and resisted conscription and taxation.
This turmoil greatly disrupted the social order of Sicily. In order to obtain supplies and money, the Spanish army had to intensify its exploitation of the islanders. Any village and town that dared to resist was met with bloody suppression. Those honest and docile villages did not get a better life, but taxes continued to increase.
In addition to the struggles among the lower classes of the people, conflicts also arose between the local Sicilian nobles and the Spanish nobles. Due to interests and emotional relationships, the burden of the Spanish nobles was often much lighter than that of the Sicilian nobles. This made many of the smaller Sicilian nobles very dissatisfied, and they acquiesced to the people's resistance and took advantage of it to profit from it.
During the Roman Empire, Sicily was a very important agricultural base with a population of over 750,000. After being conquered by the Arabs, Normans, French and Spanish, even after so many years, the population here has not increased much, and has remained at around 900,000.
Although this number may not be a big deal for the Kingdom of France, it is a huge number for the Eastern Roman Empire, where the Greek-speaking population is only over 6 million.
Furthermore, Sicily is covered with mountains and hills, and transportation is extremely inconvenient. If not handled properly, the vast inland area will not bring much economic benefit to the empire, but will seriously hinder the empire's military strength.
It was obvious that it was impossible for the Eastern Roman Empire to change the main ethnic composition and main language habits of Sicily in a short period of time. If it wanted to rule peacefully, it could only win the support of the Sicilian people and adopt a conciliatory policy.
This is a traditional Latin cultural area. If violent means were used as they did against Muslims, it would surely bring endless trouble. Before the assimilation of Anatolia is completed, Sicily can only be left for later.
Therefore, Isaac made protecting the people the basic policy of the Eastern Roman Empire in Sicily. The Eastern Roman Empire had to make the Sicilian people feel the benefits of living under the empire and had to change their current difficult situation before this group of unruly mountain people could recognize the rule of the empire.
After landing, Isaac immediately targeted the pain points in the lives of the Sicilian people and decided to let them feel the uniqueness of the Eastern Roman Empire from the two aspects of food, clothing, housing, transportation, and spiritual culture.
At present, Sicily is still under the rule of feudal aristocracy. Neither the Spanish nobles nor the Sicilian nobles can bring a good life to the people. Needless to say, the Spanish nobles are a group of people that must be eliminated by the Eastern Roman Empire. The local Sicilian nobles must also be selected. The moderate ones can be retained, while the rebellious ones must be resolutely eliminated.
Isaac rode his horse forward, and the dilapidated village built on the gentle hillside came into view.
The beaches in southern Sicily are sunny and beautiful, but before the emergence of tourism, this beautiful scenery could not bring much of a good life to the local people. The golden sand beaches, rolling peaks, snow-capped mountains and deep valleys... these wonders of nature are beautiful, but they are obviously not suitable for the development of agriculture.
This is considered the poorest area in Sicily, ruled by a baron. Although he is a Sicilian, he married a Spanish noble lady. Not only did he levy heavy taxes on his territory, he also assembled a militia of more than a thousand people and insisted on their loyalty to his king.
As a result, the vanguard of the Eastern Roman Empire directly defeated them, the Baron died tragically on the spot, most of the small number of knights also died, and the Sicilian militia surrendered to the empire.
These people were all skinny farmers with pale faces and no fighting ability. Isaac allowed them to have a full meal after a long time, gave them a lot of food, and released them to spread the kindness of the empire.
In the future, the Eastern Roman Empire's semi-autonomous rule over Sicily will be divided into two parts. The administrative system will be implemented in the directly liberated lands, and the feudal system will be adopted in those places where local powerful forces are strong. Over time, the people will understand who can better represent their interests.
Afterwards, Isaac set up a refugee camp in this small village. The local provisional government was composed entirely of Sicilians. Hungry peasants from all over the country could come here to receive aid from the empire if they wished.
Although it was aid from the empire, all these materials were provided by Isaac personally. Taxpayers' money could only be used for internal construction and for the welfare of the country's people. External charitable activities could only come from private individuals or charitable groups.
In order to create a good reputation as a people-friendly and benevolent person on the island of Sicily, Isaac paid for a large amount of cheap wheat flour from Egypt with his own money, and also bought a lot of ordinary clothes from the country and provided them to the civilians in Sicily.
In addition, Isaac also asked the Propaganda Department to invite a group of theater troupes and bards to provide these civilians with popular cultural entertainment and sing the praises of the good life in the Eastern Roman Empire.
Isaac called this project "Bread and Circuses". It was originally a project during the ancient Roman Empire and was considered by later critics to be the "spiritual opium" used by the ruling class to numb the poor people.
However, no matter how the lofty critics of later generations slandered and ridiculed it from a moral high ground, the common people in ancient times still liked this charitable policy very much. For them, having food, clothing and entertainment, all provided free of charge, was completely enough.
A lot of people gathered in the refugee camp. The theater troupe hired by Isaac was performing "The Love of the Thessalian Shepherds" in the open space of the camp. The bakers were busy packing the fragrant wheat bread into baskets and then delivering them to the refugees.
While watching the show and eating bread, the Sicilian refugees had happy smiles on their faces. From time to time, they would grab the baker from the Eastern Roman Empire and ask questions, obviously fascinated by the good life described in the drama.
The officials were doing a pretty good job, and Isaac's policies were basically implemented. Isaac nodded slightly, and instead of going over directly, he stood in the distance, thinking about his own things.
Sicily will be the first large Latin Catholic area conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire. It will take some time to explore the governance policy here. If a universal solution can be successfully obtained, it will provide important help for possible conquests by future generations.
Now, modern nationalism has not yet been born, especially in Italy, which is almost a loose pile of sand, so everything needs to be done as soon as possible.
Isaac has found some good methods, including the obedience of local tyrants and the loyalty of ordinary people. All he needs is a decisive victory and Sicily will return to the hands of the empire.
However, there is still an important force that has not yet expressed a clear opinion on the advance of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Latin Church in Sicily.
This was also a complicated issue, involving not only disputes over religious rituals, but also the dispute over the right of appointment between the Eastern Roman Emperor and the Roman Pope, which required compromise and negotiation.
In Isaac's opinion, the religious differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism are not actually that great, and many values are the same. Orthodox people are much more accepting of Catholic people than they are of Muslims. After the Reformation begins, the Catholic Church may even seek theological support from the "brother churches."
Of course, if it is a group like the Venetians who have a deep hatred for the Eastern Roman Empire, that is a different matter.
Isaac waved his hand and called a messenger.
"Didn't the Archbishop of Syracuse send a representative? Go find him and ask him to come to me!"
(End of this chapter)
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