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Text Chapter 657: Entering the Mediterranean Sea

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    The grandfather of Constans II was named Heraclius, who was the founder of the Heraclius dynasty in Rome. However, although Heraclius successfully prevented the invasion of Persia, he was unable to resist the rapid rise of the Great Eclipse.  During his reign, the provinces of Syria and Egypt were lost.  

    When later generations evaluated the emperor Heraclius, they always used a very regretful tone. Although he was a hero, he met Muhammad, the great prophet of the Arabs. This made Heraclius's life destined to be  A tragedy.

    After the death of Heraclius, his eldest son and second son ascended the throne together and became co-emperors of Rome. Among them, the eldest son Constantine III was the father of Constans II, but unfortunately, this Constantine  King III died just after he came to the throne, and there were accusations that Heraclius's second son had poisoned his brother. After a rebellion, Rome's only other remaining emperor was exiled. Constans II, who was only ten years old,  The world ascends the throne.

    Although Constans II and Prince Theodosius were brothers, they were not born to the same mother. Constans II's mother was the first wife of his father Constantine III, and Theodosius was the first wife of his father Constantine III.  Prince Odosi's mother was the second wife of Constantine III, and the two were half-brothers.

    The mother of Prince Theodosius was an ambitious woman who wanted to make her son the emperor of the Roman Empire. Therefore, when Constans II ascended the throne, she encountered strong opposition and proposed that her son Di  Odosi ascended the throne, but unfortunately did not succeed.  Later, she proposed to give her son the title of "Augustus" and make Theodosius the co-emperor of Rome. However, because Constans II's father was murdered by another co-emperor, her  The proposal was rejected again.

    Two efforts failed to make her son become emperor, but the mother did not give up. In the following years, Prince Theodosius's mother bullied Constans II when he was young and wanted to *  *, but unfortunately her methods were not very clever, so she never got what she wanted. She died of a sudden illness a few years ago.

    It was precisely because of Theodosius's mother that the relationship between the two brothers of Constans II was not good, so after Theodosius lost his mother's protection, he was sent to Asia Minor by Constans II.  On the front line of the peninsula, what he did not expect was that Theodosius was extremely talented in military affairs. He led the Roman phalanx to fight the cannibals vigorously, and even united a group of generals around him.

    Seeing this situation, Constans II was worried that Theodosius would not be able to survive outside, so he promoted him to the consul of the Roman legion and transferred him back to Constantinople from the front line. On the surface, Theodosius  Doshi was promoted, but he was actually under the supervision of Constans II. Moreover, his power as a consul was greatly reduced, and he could not charge many troops at all.

    Most of the upper-class nobles in Eastern Rome knew about the grudges between the brothers of Constans II, and they also knew that although Prince Theodosius seemed to have a high position, he was actually little more than a prisoner, so the average nobles were not willing to do so.  Deal with him to avoid being misunderstood by Constans II and getting into trouble.

    After figuring out the entanglement, Li Ke finally understood the current situation of Prince Theodosius. The reason why he invited him that day was probably because he wanted to make friends with him. After all, if he could make friends with him, the prince of the Tang Dynasty,  Then his life will be easier in the future.  But there was no need for Li Ke to get into such trouble because of a stranger.

    In addition to the affairs of Prince Theodosius, Li Ke also learned some secrets among Roman nobles from Irina, and there were quite a lot of them. For example, the youngest son of a certain grand duke was actually his grandson, and the two  Although Irina didn't deliberately collect the stories about the fight between the Marquise and a handsome male slave, she still heard a lot about it.  In addition, when she and Li Ke were in love, all these things were told and treated as jokes.

    Compared with the domestic situation in Eastern Rome, Li Ke was most interested in the situation around Eastern Rome, especially the situation in the Mediterranean area, which aroused Li Ke's great interest.

    When Rome was at its most powerful, the entire Mediterranean was Rome's inland sea. However, later on, the East and West Rome split, and the invasion of northern barbarians led to the destruction of Western Rome. The rise of Eastern Rome also led to a large-scale territory shrinkage, but even  In this way, the Eastern Roman Empire was still the overlord of the Mediterranean. At least on the sea, no force could compete with them.

    The Mediterranean Sea is the dividing line between Asia and Africa. The southern coast is North Africa, which was originally a territory of the Roman Empire. However, more than ten years ago, Egypt was captured by the Great Eclipse, and some of the remaining North African territories were also invaded by barbarians from Western Europe.  It has already been read from the Roman Empire.

    As for the north coast of the Mediterranean, the situation is much more complicated than the south coast. The north coast is mainly composed of three peninsulas, including the Iberian Peninsula in the west, and the Roman city in the middle.the Apennine Peninsula, and the Balkan Peninsula closest to Constantinople in the east.

    Originally, these three peninsulas belonged to the territory of the Roman Empire. However, after the East and West Rome split, the Iberian Peninsula and the Apennine Peninsula in the west belonged to the territory of the Western Roman Empire. Unfortunately, they were later invaded by the northern barbarians and the Western Rome perished. Although the Eastern Rome  Rome tried several times to drive away these barbarians and regain the territory of Western Rome, but they failed, and finally gave up these lands.

    It is precisely because of this that among the three peninsulas, only the most eastern Balkan Peninsula still belongs to the Eastern Roman Empire.  As for the remaining two peninsulas, they are controlled by two major forces.

    Among them, the Apennine Peninsula, the birthplace of the Roman Empire, had the most twists and turns. When Western Rome was invaded by the German Visigoths, the city of Rome was captured. The Visigoths slaughtered and pillaged the city for three days.  The entire city of Rome was severely damaged.

    Thirty years later, the Vandals who migrated to North Africa invaded from the sea and captured the city of Rome again. Rome was devastated. After the war, the number of survivors in Rome was less than 7,000.  At the same time, the emperor was killed, and the queen and two princesses were also snatched away by the Vandals. One of the princesses later became the queen of the Vandals.

    It was also due to the successive invasions by foreign tribes that the strength of the Western Roman Empire gradually declined, especially the invasion of the Huns Arati. Finally, the Western Roman Empire and the northern barbarians united, but they could not resist it. Both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires were affected.  A fatal threat. Fortunately, after Arati's death, the Huns kingdom he established also fell apart, and both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires breathed a sigh of relief.

    However, the already extremely weak Western Roman Empire was no longer able to support itself after this blow. Almost all of the subsequent Western Roman emperors were deposed by barbarians from the north, and many barbarians even directly established their own sons as emperors.  , this situation lasted until the late fifth century, when Nepos, the last king of the Western Roman Empire, was assassinated, and the Western Roman Empire officially fell.

    Although the Western Roman Empire perished, the Apennine Peninsula remained, but the entire peninsula fell into the hands of the German barbarians. Later, the Lombards, a branch of the Germans in the north, rose up and unified the entire Apennine Peninsula. At the same time,  A powerful kingdom was established on the island, the Kingdom of Lombardy, which lasted until the arrival of Li Ke. This kingdom still occupied most of the Apennine Peninsula.

    On the Iberian Peninsula to the west of the Apennine Peninsula, there was also a kingdom established by the Germans. The founders of this kingdom were the Visigoths who had previously sacked Rome.

    After sacking Rome, these Visigoths settled on the Iberian Peninsula and drove the Vandals and Alans on the peninsula to North Africa.  Later, these Visigoths established a kingdom, the Visigoth Kingdom, which ruled the entire Iberian Peninsula, so in a sense, this kingdom was half of the later Kingdom of Spain.

    Generally speaking, the entire northern coast of the Mediterranean is divided into three major powers, from west to east, the Visigothic Kingdom, the Lombard Kingdom and the Eastern Roman Empire.  It is also worth mentioning that the northeast of the Visigothic Kingdom and the northwest of the Lombard Kingdom are the famous Frankish Kingdom in later generations, but this group of stupid Germans are still playing with unification, division, and reunification for the time being.  The game of further division, the kingdom is in chaos, has little impact on the Mediterranean for the time being.

    After figuring out the distribution of forces along the Mediterranean coast, Li Ke suddenly had an extremely bold idea.  The purpose of his trip to the Americas was actually to find a place where he could develop his reading skills. However, both Africa and the Americas made him feel a little unsatisfied. After understanding the situation around the Mediterranean, Li Ke suddenly discovered a  Very suitable for the stage where he plays.

    Now the Eastern Roman Empire is not only threatened by the Great Eclipse, but also the northern barbarians are their eternal enemies. On the battlefields where the northern barbarians are fighting, the bloodshed has never stopped, and even the homeland of Western Rome cannot be recovered.

    So in this case, if Li Ke joins the competition among various forces in the Mediterranean in the name of Datang's aid to Rome, although it may cause dissatisfaction from Rome, they will definitely not be able to do so under the threat of the Great Eclipse.  If you dare to object openly, try to choose a place far away from Rome for development. Don't irritate Rome's nerves too much. After you gain a foothold in the Mediterranean region, Rome's reaction will be insignificant, and the other party may even respond.  Try your best to win over this powerful force of yours.

    This idea suddenly came to Li Ke when he was chatting with Irina, and he caught it firmly, and it quickly took root in Li Ke's heart.  And he later deduced this idea, and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it became.

    But after all, this is just Li Ke¡¯s idea. If it wants to become a truly feasible plan, it must be verified by others, at leastKe Ke needs to convince his two right-hand men, Cen Changqian and Wang Fangyi.  (To be continued.
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