Basileía Rho̱maío̱n

For over 800 years the Empire of Romans has been in general decline. Their influence over Europe has slowly declined to the point where the western world hardly knows of their exsistance. Constantinople is urban back water barely inhabited with only the 25,000 brave greek souls clinging onto the decayed and abused city, looking back to greater, more properous times. Grain filling the cracked and crumbling Hippodrome where once the Greens and Blues raced with thousands of people cheering. A few hermits remain in the Hagia Sophia, with the walls and ceiling bare and ugly to look at. The Latins have deprived the very life from the city and only a shell remain. The country side is depopulated with no one bothering to farm anymore due to the almost weekly raids. Villages are empty and the few remaining cities in the empire only contain a garrison and a few people clinging to the crumbling walls.

The competent and prudent Michael VIII has managed to bring Constantinopolis back into imperial hands. Now begins the arduous task of reclaiming the Greek mainland from the Latins and the pretender state of Epirus. With the Latin empire in far more dire straight only a push is need to topple them and retake the north Aegean. Eprius is ruled by an incompetent and corupt noble with a weak army of local peasants and the few lords that remain loyal. A route lays open but its a narrow one. If the empire is to return to it former power the much more stable Latins rulling in Achaia and Athens need to be kicked out from the Greek mainland. The Bulgarians in the north have recreated and expanded the Bulgarian empire into north eastern Greece, The up jumped Serbians have proclaimed an empire and have expanded into Macedonia. The Turks in Anatolia raid and threaten the intergrity of the Empire's last hinterlands. If the Romans are to restore their former power, a strong leader will need to over come the domestic discontent and create and strong military force made up of vetrean mercenaries and displined greek soldiers.

May Rome prosper