10 Cool Facts About The Byzantine Empire

On the las ep of the bracket we got to do a rare history-themed episode.Donnie's passion for the Byzantines lead me to do a little more digging and here are some cool facts for you fine people. 

1. They employed Viking warriors as the Emperor's personal guard. Like Donnie mentions in the clip, the Varangian guard are very cool. It seems like they took the lesson their ancestors in Rome learned the hard way: Bodyguards WILL kill your ass. Especially when they can be corrupted by your political allies like the Praetorian guard. That problem is solved when your bodyguards are a bunch of foreign, gold-driven goons with a room temp IQs and no ear for politics. 

2. They basically invented Napalm. Greek Fire was a substance put into grenades and shot out of tubes onto enemy ships, helping them keep control of the seas around their empire. It burned on water which made it near impossible to put out. The ingredients were kept so secret that we STILL don't know exactly how it's made. 

3. A group of crusaders changed course from Jerusalem and sacked Constantinople instead. In 1203 during the 4th Crusade, the sailing army was contacted by prince-in-exile Alexios, who offered his support recapturing Jerusalem in exchange for their help restoring him and his father to the throne. They succeeded but Alexios was then deposed, imprisoned and executed by his Imperial chamberlain, who than declared himself Emperor. The Crusaders had enough and then sacked the city and took the territory for their own, forming the short-lived Latin Empire. 

4. A lot of the major Greek texts only spread to Europe because their works were saved and translated by the Byzantines. Stories like the Illiad and the Odyssey were saved from the dark ages and translated into Latin. As their empire fell at the end of the middle ages, their scholars made their way to Europe, spreading what they knew and, in a way, helping spark the Renaissance. 

5. They never actually called themselves the Byzantine Empire. That title only came to be after their demise. While they were still kicking, they continued to call themselves the Roman Empire.

6. The inventor of the siege cannon, which finally brought down Constantinople, offered the technology to the Byzantines before giving it to the Ottomans. Orban was a Hungarian Iron worker who created huge Basilica cannons. The Byzantines could not afford the asking price, so they dismissed him. Orban then took the tech down the road to the Ottomans, who were preparing to attack the city for the 5th time in the last 100 years. They took him up on the offer, made the cannons and finally took the city, ending the Byzantines for good in 1453. 

7. They inadvertently helped the spread of Islam & the Caliphates with a decisive military victory. In 627 AD, they won the battle of Nineveh vs the Sasanian Empire in modern-day Iraq. This victory (and subsequent sack of their wealthiest territories) broke their back and lead to a civil war which weakened them even further. Right then is when the Rashidun Caliphate, lead by Muhammed's father-in-law, invaded from modern-day Saudi Arabia and conquered Persia.

8. They LOVED mutilation. Blinding, castration, amputations etc. If an Emperor or other political figure was deposed, they were mutilated so that they couldn't lead armies, father children, or raise arms against them again. Essentially ending them as a threat without killing them.  

9. They smuggled silk out of China and created their own industry. Silk was as valuable as gold in Europe but the process of transporting it from the east was nearly impossible at times, especially since traders had to go through their usual enemies territory in Persia. As the legend goes, the Byzantines had monks smuggle silkworm larvae out of China around the end of the 6th century in hollowed-out canes to Constantinople (Historically, it may have been taken from India or somewhere in central Asia). They then created their own silk industry, breaking the monopoly that the east had over the material. 

10. The Byzantines founded the first New England (allegedly). According to a few sources, a group of around 5,000 English citizens fleeing the Norman conquest ended up in Constantinople around 1070. The Byzantines, who were at war with the Normans at the time, apparently gave them a colony in Crimea called Nova Anglia. The history behind this is a little murky but there are some maps from the time period that seem to back it up.