Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1323 Great Rome

After Feng Chan, the emperor crossed Mount Tai and came to Zhangqiu, the hometown of Chengtianfu.

At the foot of Changbai Mountain, things have changed drastically. The backcountry has now become a prosperous city. Zhangqiu City was renamed Chengtian Mansion, and a brand new and glorious city was built.

When Luo Cheng returned to his hometown, it was considered a return home.

However, he could no longer find the shadow of his old hometown. Looking at these buildings similar to Chang'an in Luoyang, he actually felt a sense of strangeness in his heart.

He remembered that after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he built a city and palace in his hometown of Fengyang, but in the end Zhu Yuanzhang did not move the capital to his hometown. Fengyang Mansion was actually a waste.

In the White House, Luo Cheng looked at Jin Jin in front of him.

Box after box of gold glistened, all gold coins with a bearded head on it.However, these gold coins are far worse than the golden dragons of Daqin. They are very irregular and rough in production. Although there are human heads and reliefs on the front and back to prevent scraping, they are still too rough. The sides are not round, and even the thickness is different. uniform.

Grab a handful of gold coins, but they are still very heavy.

Although the appearance is not very good, but the gold content is not bad, and it weighs more than a penny. On the front is a bust of the king, with crosses on both sides, a five-pointed star pattern in the center of the crown, a Latin inscription letter on the left, and a winged victory in the center of the back. Statue of the Goddess, also with Latin inscription letters on the edge.

"Dear Eastern Son of Heaven, this is 20 Roman gold coins, which represent the friendship of our Roman Emperor Heraclius, and hope to conclude a friendly covenant with Great Qin."

Cui Junsu, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, looked at a gold coin carefully, "Is the king on this gold coin the Emperor Heraclius?"

"It is our great Emperor Flavis Heraclius."

The Central Plains called Eastern Rome Fufu, and later generations called it Byzantium. However, the Eastern Romans themselves never called Byzantium. In their early contacts with the Central Plains, they were called Daqin by the Easterners.

Eastern Rome, known as the Romans, was actually split from the east and west of the Roman Empire in the early years, but the originally stronger Western Rome was quickly destroyed by the barbarians, but the Eastern Rome survived tenaciously.

However, although Eastern Rome has always claimed to be Roman orthodoxy, it has actually changed several dynasties. The current emperor Heraclius is actually the founder of the Heraclius dynasty.

If Emperor Phocas, who was emperor for less than ten years after the death of Emperor Maurice, is considered a dynasty, then the Heraclius dynasty is already the fifth dynasty in Eastern Rome. If Phocas is not counted, then That is the fourth dynasty.

This kind of dynasty is actually similar to the Central Plains.

The dynasties of the Central Plains also pay attention to the same lineage, from the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Qin Dynasties. Even counting from Qin, which ruled the world, it has gone through more than a dozen dynasties.Later generations always say that the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire has a history of more than 1000 years, but in fact, China has a history of 3000 years even from the Zhou Dynasty.

The third dynasty of Eastern Rome began to decline after the death of Emperor Justinian. After that, the three emperors were not as good as one, and none of them had been in power for more than 20 years.The emperor of Heraclius Old Heraclius was the confidant of Maurice, the last emperor of the third dynasty, and once served as the governor of Africa.

After Phocas killed the king and usurped the throne, because he was only a small centurion before, he became emperor in one step and did not get the support of the Senate, the great nobles, and the chiefs of various places.

Thus began the eight-year bloody civil war in Rome. At that time, the old Heraclius, as the minister of the frontiers and the confidant of the former emperor, of course refused to be loyal to the new emperor.

At that time, the old emperor's son-in-law of the Persian emperor, Kuslao II, also brought a puppet who claimed to be the son of Emperor Maurice, and led the army to counterattack Rome, taking the opportunity to seize a large piece of Persian land that Rome had taken.

Facing internal and external troubles, Phocas was in a state of desperation, so he could only practice terrorism, constantly arresting and killing rebellious noble officials, and as a result, the more people who rebelled were killed, the more people resisted.

The Heraclius family raised troops at this time, and the old Heraclius sent his nephew to lead an army to attack Egypt, and let his son lead a large army to attack eastward from Sicily.

At this time, Phocas was already disgusted by everyone, and the army of the Heraclius family raised their arms, and the followers gathered, gaining the support of many elders and nobles.

Although the old Heraclius passed away suddenly, Heraclius has won many battles and has established a reputation. He has taken over the banner of his father, and all forces are also vying to support him. Finally, he arrived at the city of Constantinople. Even without a strong attack, Phocas' son-in-law led many nobles in the city to surrender to Heraclius.

Heraclius beheaded Phocas and even castrated him during his lifetime because he had raped the wives of the city's great nobles.

In the autumn of the same year, Heraclius ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, establishing the Heraclius Dynasty.

So far, it has been 14 years.

After taking the throne, Heraclius quickly quelled the civil strife, and then began to fight against the Persian aggression with all his strength. The peace between the two countries reached under Emperor Maurice, but after more than ten years, the war resumed, and he fought for more than ten years. , and the fighting became more and more severe, each of them began to recruit allies to find helpers, and the entire coastal area of ​​the Caspian Sea became a mess.

Judging from the current situation on the surface, Eastern Rome is at a disadvantage. Taking advantage of the eight-year civil turmoil in Rome, King Kuslao II sent troops to Rome under the banner of supporting his father-in-law, the son of Emperor Maurice, and robbed many territories. The territory has reached the most prosperous in Persia for a hundred years.

However, Luo Cheng knew the history. Historically, the Persian Sassanid Dynasty was about to perish in the past few years, because a stronger Arab empire rose up on the corpse of Persian Sasanian.

As for Eastern Rome, it continued for hundreds of years until it was finally destroyed by the rising Turkic Ottoman Empire.

But that was 800 years later.

The emperor looked at the three people standing in front of him, and the one standing in the front was a young boy, tall and handsome.This is Constantine, the prince of Emperor Heraclius, who is only 13 years old this year.

The year after Heraclius' coronation, he married Fabia in St. Stephen's Basilica, and named her Eudocia.Eudocia gave birth to Constantine for her the following year, and died in childbirth.

Shortly after her death, Heraclius married her niece Martina despite the opposition of the ministers and nobles. This second marriage was considered incest and very unpopular.After giving birth to her son, Martina was very dissatisfied with the emperor's eldest son.

Letting the crown prince go to Daqin this time was actually an expression of dissatisfaction with him. She wished that the difficult journey thousands of miles away would allow the young crown prince to die on the road, so that his son Hectoronas could become the crown prince. Prince.

Emperor Luo Cheng held a gold coin in his hand. This gold coin was different from those in the box. This gold coin was more delicate and heavier. The portraits on this gold coin were not a single person, but Emperor Heraclius and the prince. Two portraits of Constantine.

The craftsmanship of the craftsman is good. Compared with the relief head, it is very similar to the real person.

The crown prince came all the way to the east, and he suffered a lot on the way, but luckily, he was not intercepted by any thieves on the way, especially after crossing the Caspian Sea and entering the river, it was the Silk Road controlled by Daqin, so the journey was very safe. They were all escorted by Daqin cavalry, and they arrived in the Central Plains safely all the way, and received a very good reception.

(End of this chapter)