Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 101, Thomas the Slav.

Let's turn our minds back to the beginning of the century for a moment.

The General Logothete, Nosephorus, gets a bunch of high officials together and eases

Irene out of power.

He orders the army together in Anatolia under the leadership of Vardann Turcus.

Once assembled, the troops decide they have no interest in serving one of Irene's

mandarins.

They'd rather follow their commander, Brave, Honorable Vardann.

The troops march north and west to the Bosphorus and wait to see if the citizens of the capital

agree with their choice.

In our interview with Anthony Cordellis, he described this phenomenon as being like a modern

election.

The army didn't know Nosephorus very well, but they knew Vardann.

They were hoping that if the Logothete was not popular in Constantinople and the citizen

cavalry were looking for an alternative that they could now present one.

As Professor Cordellis and I also discussed, the people of New Rome would almost always

have the final say in these matters.

And the city was, at that stage, content with the continuity which Nosephorus represented

in Vardann's rebellion, spluttered to a halt.

When these confrontations reached such a stalemate, often what would come next would be

the defections.

The candidate in the stronger position would make offers to the other side supporters.

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