January Meme: Byzantine Set Shows I'd love to see
Machiavellijr asked me. There is an embarrassment of riches to choose from, but I think hypothetical producer and headwriter me is going to go with The Macedonian Dynasty. With the potential spin-off/sequel after seven or so successful seasons: The Kommenian Dynasty, of course.
Why? For starters, there is not just one interesting woman around but several, lots and lots of messy family relationships, and it starts off with a bisexual threesome. Meet Basil the Macedonian (who probably wasn't Macedonian but Armenian in the ethnic sense, don't ask, it's complicated), enterprising stable boy and sexy charmer, who befriends and possibly more Michael III., young emperor who wants to get rid of his Uncle Bardas who governs for him and has just badgered Michael into naming him Co-Emperor (which makes Michael feel just a wee bit life threatened). Michael and Basil kill Uncle Bardas together. Basil becomes the first non-Eunuch Chamberlain sharing the Emperor's bedchamber. This he does with Michael's long term mistress Eudoxia, whom Michael marries him to. (Michael was married by Mom and Uncle Bardas to a pious lady he promptly ignored but had lived with Eudoxia all hi slife.) Then Eudoxia starts to have kids (which she didn't beore) whose paternity is hotly debated to this day. Then Basil seduces Michael into naming him Co-Emperor. You'd think Michael would now better, but no. He does it. Then Basil kills Michael and rules as the first Emperor of his new dynasty. Basil so far has three sons - one possibly from a pre-career marriage, Constantine (though Constantine might have been Eudoxia's kid, we just don't know), Leo (definitely Eudoxia's kid), and the kid Eudoxia is pregnant with when Micheal gets murdered, Stephen, and he'll have one more years after Michael's murder, Alexander. Because Basil can't stand Leo and has Stephen castrated once Stephen is born, the "but maybe they're Michael's kids?" theory keeps being brought up, especially since Alexander doesn't get castrated, so the idea that after an heir and a spare younger sons should not threaten the succession doesn't really hold.
Basil rules successfully but Constantine dies, and Basil has to face the fact that his bookish son Leo whom he can't stand will be his successor. After Eudoxia dies - and what did Eudoxia think about all of this? What were her feelings about Michael and Basil? Did she want to become Empress and was frustrated Michael would not marry her? - such a lot of room for speculation! - father and son (?) are at each other's throats. Locking Leo up for two years does not help. After Basil has a suspicious hunting accident, Leo becomes Emperor. Leo - whose bookishness and writings earn him the title "Leo the Wise" continues the family mission to scandalize the world. This he does via his marriages. Because the not yet called that Greek Orthodox Church of the time frowns on remarriage. Bear in mind: not just remarriage after divorce. Remarriage after Death of Spouse. A second marriage is just about permissable for heir getting but still distastful. A third marriage needs a very special license from the Patriarch and lots of penance. A fourth marriage is unthinkable. Except for Leo. Who starts out married to a pious woman he doesn't like (sounds familiar) and with a long term mistress he loves, Zoe. After wife 1 dies (minus children), Leo marries Zoe. Alas, Zoe does not produce an heir, either, and eventually dies. Leo marries a third time, which causes a mighty ruckus, but he just about cajoles and bullies the Patriarch into agreeing for the good of the realm etc. Alas, wife 3 does not produce a living heir, either, and dies. Leo marries a fourth time, another Zoe (because the selection of names is severely liimited), after she's born him a living son (Constantine) and this time the Patriarch locks him out of the Hagia Sophia when Leo shows up for Christmas. This almighty clash ends with Leo firing the Patriarch and installing his castrated brother Stephen (renember him?) as Patriarch.
Leo gets away with this for a few years but dies when his kid Constantine is still a kid. This means a big struggle for the regency, especially between Zoe and the returned once and future other Patriarch who called her a whore. Zoe temporarily wins, but the Patriarch teams up with some generals, there are the Arabs to contend with, and Zoe ends toppled in favour of popular admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who is made Co-Emperor with kid Constantine VII. Romanos Lekapenos starts a new trend by NOT killing young Contantine. Instead, he marries him to his daughter Helena (another strong willed and enterprising lady as we shall see) and keeps him in the friendly background for representative purposes while ruling the Empire himself. This goes well for a few years, but Romanos has ambitious sons who don't understand why they shouldn't become Emperor, too. (These are his legitimate sons. He also has an illegitimate son, Basil Lekapenos, whom he has castrated as a baby but raised to serve as a eunuch in the palace. Basil Lekapenos will be important later.) The legitimate sons eventually stage a coup and banish dear old Dad into a monastery on an island. They also want to off their brother-in-law, but a) Helena has gotten wind of this ahead of time and warns her husband and b) the population of Constantinople upon hearing off the coup is concerned about their favourite prince and revolts until they're shown a living breathing Constantine. Helena teams up with half brother Basili the Eunuch and together they get rid of her two brothers who are sent to the same island cloister, where Dad greets them supposedly with the words "my boys, so good of you to join your father".
This means Constantaine VII, by now in his mid thirties, is now actually ruling Emperor. Helena and he have some daughters and one son, Romanos. Romanos marries a girl who according to rumor was an inkeeper's daughter, Anastaso, renamed Theophano. Because of what will happen later on, Theophano got some bad press and was presented as a femme fatale, but as current historians point out, it's just as possible she didn't do any of the stuff she got accused of, and was scapegoated. Anyway, Theophano has already produced two grandsons for Constantine by the time he dies and her husband, Romanos, becomes Emperor. Alas, Romanos isn't long for this world. Which leaves Theophano with two kid sons (and a daughter) and some very ambitious generals. One of them, Nikephoros Phokas, has just started his series of incredible victories and has been haiiled as the best thing since Belisarius. Theophano can see the writing on the wall, and decides to marry Nikephoros Phokas before he becomes Emperor regardless and either kills or castrates her sons. This is a bit problematic since Nikephoros happened to be the godfather of her older son Basil which makes him spiritually her brother, but the Patriarch gets talked into licensing it, though he can't stand Theopano.
Now Nikephoros is a fabulous general who keeps bringing in the victories, but he is a terrible, terrible ruler and politician, and thus within only four years goes from most popular an in the East Roman Empire to most despised. When another very good general, his nephew, John Tsimiskes, murders him, there isn't protest (like there was when Romanos Lekapenos got toppled and people were worried about Constantine), there's celebration. Still, crowning a brazen assassin is a bit tricky, theologically, and so the Patriarch and John Tsimiskes make a deal: they blame the entire murder on Theophano and banish her to an island monestary. (It's stll admitted John did the actual deed, but he uses the "this evil woman made me do it" card and gets a pass from the Patriarch.) Did Theophano have an affair with John and was subsequently ditched? Did she co-plan the murder with him? We just don't know, because it was such a convenient excuse. Anyway, John marries one of Constantine VII's daughters and makes himself Co-Emperor to Theophano's son Basil, continueing the trend of NOT killing a child Emperor once you're crowned yourself. John rules efficiently and successfully for years (and also marries his niece, another Theophanu (usually spelled with an U in her case), to Otto the Great's son, future Otto II, thereby resolving a crisis between Emperors that started when Nikephoros Phokas pissed everyone off and changing German history forever). Then he dies. Two ambitous generals see this as their cue, but young Basil with the help of his Uncle, Eunuch Basil Lekapenos, manages to play one against the other, and eventually triumphs. (Basil the now II also gets his mother Theophano from that island nunnery and brings her home to the palace in Constantinople the moment John T. is dead. ) Eventually Basil has to do a power struggle with Uncle Basil, which he wins, and it ends without more kin killing, but it means that the cultural high point is over, because Basil the Eunuch was a great patron of the arts, whereas Basil the young Emperor grew up with two Generals as stepdads and an illustration that if you're not a great General yourself, someone will topple you. Which means he practially lives on compaign for the rest of his reign. Which is over 40 years, all in all. He keeps reconquering former Byzantine territory and slaying Bulgars, and I think that's where I'd stop the show, because what happens after Basil dies is just a depressing dragged out end for the Macedonian dynasty. Not least because Basil never married. At all. Had no bastards either. Was he gay? We don't know. He didn't adopt anyone, either. Which meant that when he died, the throne went to his totally unprepared brother who was never allowed any political responsibilities before, and acted accordingly, and then to his nieces, Zoe and Theodora, wo married a bunch of attractive but none too bright and able guys who helpled running the Empire into the ground. All of which ended in civil war while the Turks and the Normans attacked, and it wasn't until the next dynasty when things started to look up again.
However: no one can deny there is more than enough material for a great tv series! I think I'd give the entire first season to the Basil the Stableboy-Michael-Eudoxia triangle, ending with Michael's murder and Basil I's coronation. Then the second season covers Basil's reign, Leo's youth and clashes with Dad, introduces Zoe the first (I would be tempted to make the two Leonine Zoes into one Zoe, but Leo's four marriages are an important plot point) and ends with Basil's hunting accident and Leo's coronation. Season 3 is Leo and his four wives plus Leo versus the Church, of course. Season 4 is Zoe versus the Patriarch(y) in its first half and the rise and early rule of Romanos Lekapenos in the second. Season 5 gets its first half given to the legal toppling Dad only to find themselves toppled by Helena and Constantine, and the second half introduces Theophano, Nikephoros Phokas and John Tsimikes (they're mostly off generalling, but occasionally in the capital, and I would have Theopano make a tactical friend out of Nikepheros by making him her son's godfather while flirting a bit with John T. ) while covering Romanos II's short reign (which features a mighty power struggle between two Eunuchs as advisors of the young Emperor, one Joseph Bringas versus Basil Lekapenos). Season 6 starts with Romanos II's death and the Theophano/Nikephoros political marriage and has its mid season climax in Nikepheros' murder by John T. I haven't decided yet whether I want Theophano to be complicit or not, but if she is, I would have her reason being not that John T. is that sexy but that the Empire whom her son Basil has to rule one day is currently in the process of being split apart because for all his victories, Nikepheros keeps sucking as a politician and is this close to inciting an uprising against himself which might get her and her children killed as well. Season 6 B is John Tsimitikes reign, of course. And Basil II gets season 7 all to himself, starting his personal rule (i.e. when Uncle Basil Lekapenos is no longer his Grey Eminence) at the mid point and defeating all his enemies in the second half, with some foreshadowing that for all that ability - and Basil II was the only Emperor who could remain absent from Constantinople for years without anyone daring to organize a coup against him - , his not organizing a good succession will end his dynasty.
Fantasy casting: Honestly, I have no idea. Not least because I'd hope to include some Greek and Armenian actors, and I don't know any. In terms of English speaking actors, the problem is that most of the characters are introduced young and live through the years in the course of the show, so the older character actors that come to mind immediately could be used only later. (Claudia Black for Zoe the Regent?) Oh, I know - Nicolas Hoult as Basil the Stableboy and later Emperor! I know he can do both heroes and villains, and he does have the charisma. As for his son (or Michael's) Leo: Tom Holland needs a post Spider-man career.
Theophano: the actress currently playing Aleida in For All Mankind, Coral Pena, is someone I could see in the role.
The Other Days
Why? For starters, there is not just one interesting woman around but several, lots and lots of messy family relationships, and it starts off with a bisexual threesome. Meet Basil the Macedonian (who probably wasn't Macedonian but Armenian in the ethnic sense, don't ask, it's complicated), enterprising stable boy and sexy charmer, who befriends and possibly more Michael III., young emperor who wants to get rid of his Uncle Bardas who governs for him and has just badgered Michael into naming him Co-Emperor (which makes Michael feel just a wee bit life threatened). Michael and Basil kill Uncle Bardas together. Basil becomes the first non-Eunuch Chamberlain sharing the Emperor's bedchamber. This he does with Michael's long term mistress Eudoxia, whom Michael marries him to. (Michael was married by Mom and Uncle Bardas to a pious lady he promptly ignored but had lived with Eudoxia all hi slife.) Then Eudoxia starts to have kids (which she didn't beore) whose paternity is hotly debated to this day. Then Basil seduces Michael into naming him Co-Emperor. You'd think Michael would now better, but no. He does it. Then Basil kills Michael and rules as the first Emperor of his new dynasty. Basil so far has three sons - one possibly from a pre-career marriage, Constantine (though Constantine might have been Eudoxia's kid, we just don't know), Leo (definitely Eudoxia's kid), and the kid Eudoxia is pregnant with when Micheal gets murdered, Stephen, and he'll have one more years after Michael's murder, Alexander. Because Basil can't stand Leo and has Stephen castrated once Stephen is born, the "but maybe they're Michael's kids?" theory keeps being brought up, especially since Alexander doesn't get castrated, so the idea that after an heir and a spare younger sons should not threaten the succession doesn't really hold.
Basil rules successfully but Constantine dies, and Basil has to face the fact that his bookish son Leo whom he can't stand will be his successor. After Eudoxia dies - and what did Eudoxia think about all of this? What were her feelings about Michael and Basil? Did she want to become Empress and was frustrated Michael would not marry her? - such a lot of room for speculation! - father and son (?) are at each other's throats. Locking Leo up for two years does not help. After Basil has a suspicious hunting accident, Leo becomes Emperor. Leo - whose bookishness and writings earn him the title "Leo the Wise" continues the family mission to scandalize the world. This he does via his marriages. Because the not yet called that Greek Orthodox Church of the time frowns on remarriage. Bear in mind: not just remarriage after divorce. Remarriage after Death of Spouse. A second marriage is just about permissable for heir getting but still distastful. A third marriage needs a very special license from the Patriarch and lots of penance. A fourth marriage is unthinkable. Except for Leo. Who starts out married to a pious woman he doesn't like (sounds familiar) and with a long term mistress he loves, Zoe. After wife 1 dies (minus children), Leo marries Zoe. Alas, Zoe does not produce an heir, either, and eventually dies. Leo marries a third time, which causes a mighty ruckus, but he just about cajoles and bullies the Patriarch into agreeing for the good of the realm etc. Alas, wife 3 does not produce a living heir, either, and dies. Leo marries a fourth time, another Zoe (because the selection of names is severely liimited), after she's born him a living son (Constantine) and this time the Patriarch locks him out of the Hagia Sophia when Leo shows up for Christmas. This almighty clash ends with Leo firing the Patriarch and installing his castrated brother Stephen (renember him?) as Patriarch.
Leo gets away with this for a few years but dies when his kid Constantine is still a kid. This means a big struggle for the regency, especially between Zoe and the returned once and future other Patriarch who called her a whore. Zoe temporarily wins, but the Patriarch teams up with some generals, there are the Arabs to contend with, and Zoe ends toppled in favour of popular admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who is made Co-Emperor with kid Constantine VII. Romanos Lekapenos starts a new trend by NOT killing young Contantine. Instead, he marries him to his daughter Helena (another strong willed and enterprising lady as we shall see) and keeps him in the friendly background for representative purposes while ruling the Empire himself. This goes well for a few years, but Romanos has ambitious sons who don't understand why they shouldn't become Emperor, too. (These are his legitimate sons. He also has an illegitimate son, Basil Lekapenos, whom he has castrated as a baby but raised to serve as a eunuch in the palace. Basil Lekapenos will be important later.) The legitimate sons eventually stage a coup and banish dear old Dad into a monastery on an island. They also want to off their brother-in-law, but a) Helena has gotten wind of this ahead of time and warns her husband and b) the population of Constantinople upon hearing off the coup is concerned about their favourite prince and revolts until they're shown a living breathing Constantine. Helena teams up with half brother Basili the Eunuch and together they get rid of her two brothers who are sent to the same island cloister, where Dad greets them supposedly with the words "my boys, so good of you to join your father".
This means Constantaine VII, by now in his mid thirties, is now actually ruling Emperor. Helena and he have some daughters and one son, Romanos. Romanos marries a girl who according to rumor was an inkeeper's daughter, Anastaso, renamed Theophano. Because of what will happen later on, Theophano got some bad press and was presented as a femme fatale, but as current historians point out, it's just as possible she didn't do any of the stuff she got accused of, and was scapegoated. Anyway, Theophano has already produced two grandsons for Constantine by the time he dies and her husband, Romanos, becomes Emperor. Alas, Romanos isn't long for this world. Which leaves Theophano with two kid sons (and a daughter) and some very ambitious generals. One of them, Nikephoros Phokas, has just started his series of incredible victories and has been haiiled as the best thing since Belisarius. Theophano can see the writing on the wall, and decides to marry Nikephoros Phokas before he becomes Emperor regardless and either kills or castrates her sons. This is a bit problematic since Nikephoros happened to be the godfather of her older son Basil which makes him spiritually her brother, but the Patriarch gets talked into licensing it, though he can't stand Theopano.
Now Nikephoros is a fabulous general who keeps bringing in the victories, but he is a terrible, terrible ruler and politician, and thus within only four years goes from most popular an in the East Roman Empire to most despised. When another very good general, his nephew, John Tsimiskes, murders him, there isn't protest (like there was when Romanos Lekapenos got toppled and people were worried about Constantine), there's celebration. Still, crowning a brazen assassin is a bit tricky, theologically, and so the Patriarch and John Tsimiskes make a deal: they blame the entire murder on Theophano and banish her to an island monestary. (It's stll admitted John did the actual deed, but he uses the "this evil woman made me do it" card and gets a pass from the Patriarch.) Did Theophano have an affair with John and was subsequently ditched? Did she co-plan the murder with him? We just don't know, because it was such a convenient excuse. Anyway, John marries one of Constantine VII's daughters and makes himself Co-Emperor to Theophano's son Basil, continueing the trend of NOT killing a child Emperor once you're crowned yourself. John rules efficiently and successfully for years (and also marries his niece, another Theophanu (usually spelled with an U in her case), to Otto the Great's son, future Otto II, thereby resolving a crisis between Emperors that started when Nikephoros Phokas pissed everyone off and changing German history forever). Then he dies. Two ambitous generals see this as their cue, but young Basil with the help of his Uncle, Eunuch Basil Lekapenos, manages to play one against the other, and eventually triumphs. (Basil the now II also gets his mother Theophano from that island nunnery and brings her home to the palace in Constantinople the moment John T. is dead. ) Eventually Basil has to do a power struggle with Uncle Basil, which he wins, and it ends without more kin killing, but it means that the cultural high point is over, because Basil the Eunuch was a great patron of the arts, whereas Basil the young Emperor grew up with two Generals as stepdads and an illustration that if you're not a great General yourself, someone will topple you. Which means he practially lives on compaign for the rest of his reign. Which is over 40 years, all in all. He keeps reconquering former Byzantine territory and slaying Bulgars, and I think that's where I'd stop the show, because what happens after Basil dies is just a depressing dragged out end for the Macedonian dynasty. Not least because Basil never married. At all. Had no bastards either. Was he gay? We don't know. He didn't adopt anyone, either. Which meant that when he died, the throne went to his totally unprepared brother who was never allowed any political responsibilities before, and acted accordingly, and then to his nieces, Zoe and Theodora, wo married a bunch of attractive but none too bright and able guys who helpled running the Empire into the ground. All of which ended in civil war while the Turks and the Normans attacked, and it wasn't until the next dynasty when things started to look up again.
However: no one can deny there is more than enough material for a great tv series! I think I'd give the entire first season to the Basil the Stableboy-Michael-Eudoxia triangle, ending with Michael's murder and Basil I's coronation. Then the second season covers Basil's reign, Leo's youth and clashes with Dad, introduces Zoe the first (I would be tempted to make the two Leonine Zoes into one Zoe, but Leo's four marriages are an important plot point) and ends with Basil's hunting accident and Leo's coronation. Season 3 is Leo and his four wives plus Leo versus the Church, of course. Season 4 is Zoe versus the Patriarch(y) in its first half and the rise and early rule of Romanos Lekapenos in the second. Season 5 gets its first half given to the legal toppling Dad only to find themselves toppled by Helena and Constantine, and the second half introduces Theophano, Nikephoros Phokas and John Tsimikes (they're mostly off generalling, but occasionally in the capital, and I would have Theopano make a tactical friend out of Nikepheros by making him her son's godfather while flirting a bit with John T. ) while covering Romanos II's short reign (which features a mighty power struggle between two Eunuchs as advisors of the young Emperor, one Joseph Bringas versus Basil Lekapenos). Season 6 starts with Romanos II's death and the Theophano/Nikephoros political marriage and has its mid season climax in Nikepheros' murder by John T. I haven't decided yet whether I want Theophano to be complicit or not, but if she is, I would have her reason being not that John T. is that sexy but that the Empire whom her son Basil has to rule one day is currently in the process of being split apart because for all his victories, Nikepheros keeps sucking as a politician and is this close to inciting an uprising against himself which might get her and her children killed as well. Season 6 B is John Tsimitikes reign, of course. And Basil II gets season 7 all to himself, starting his personal rule (i.e. when Uncle Basil Lekapenos is no longer his Grey Eminence) at the mid point and defeating all his enemies in the second half, with some foreshadowing that for all that ability - and Basil II was the only Emperor who could remain absent from Constantinople for years without anyone daring to organize a coup against him - , his not organizing a good succession will end his dynasty.
Fantasy casting: Honestly, I have no idea. Not least because I'd hope to include some Greek and Armenian actors, and I don't know any. In terms of English speaking actors, the problem is that most of the characters are introduced young and live through the years in the course of the show, so the older character actors that come to mind immediately could be used only later. (Claudia Black for Zoe the Regent?) Oh, I know - Nicolas Hoult as Basil the Stableboy and later Emperor! I know he can do both heroes and villains, and he does have the charisma. As for his son (or Michael's) Leo: Tom Holland needs a post Spider-man career.
Theophano: the actress currently playing Aleida in For All Mankind, Coral Pena, is someone I could see in the role.
The Other Days