The Fall Before the Fall: Manzikert and the Beginning Of The End of The Byzantine Empire

And the only capture of an Eastern Roman emperor

(By Unknown author — https://www.worldhistory.org/image/8057/battle-of-manzikert/https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/tr/2-1189/malazgirt-muharebesi/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163201004)

The Fall of Constantinople was one of the most pivotal moments in world history. Many see this event as the end of the Medieval Period, and it marked the final end to the Roman Empire, which had existed for nearly 1,500 years. While Constantinople fell in the 15th century, it was in the 11th century that the Byzantine Empire began its slow and precipitous decline.

The Eastern Roman Empire had managed to rekindle the Glory of Rome for a time following the fall of its Western counterpart. However, after decades of plagues, useless wars, mismanagement, and military incompetence, the once-great empire was beginning to show signs of erosion in 1050.

In 1053, the emperor Constantine IX disbanded the Iberian Army, a powerful force of 50,000 professional soldiers that was created to guard Byzantium’s eastern flank. This move shows us that the empire was struggling financially and was unable to continue to fund its outlying frontier outposts and armies. Much of the empire’s focus had turned to the West, where resurgent Muslim forces had begun to nibble away at Constantinople’s holdings in the Levant and the Holy Land.