Isaac III, Emperor of the Romans

Isaac (Ισαάκιος) III (October 6th 1339- November 12th 1382) was Roman Emperor from July 1356 until his untimely death at the end of 1382. Though in reality the fifth member of his family to sit on the Imperial throne, he is generally counted today as the founder of the Syrian dynasty. A youthful prodigy, he overthrew the "Pope-Emperor" Samuel, and inaugurated a period of two centuries of peace and good governance.

 EARLY LIFE AND EXILE 

The son of the young and popular Emperor Romanus IV, Isaac should have grown up as a Porphyrogenitus and the undisputed heir to the throne, but his father's death in the summer of 1340 put paid to this. Isaac's formative years instead were spent under the brief reign of his rather tragic uncle, Andronikos II, who became Emperor upon the death of Romanos. Andronikos lost a great deal of popular support, however, by embarking upon an affair with Isaac's mother, the Empress Irene, a match which was widely seen as incestuous. When riots broke out against the couple, Irene, seeking to advance the interests of her infant son, fled to the East to raise a revolt against the Emperor, seducing the general Alexander Lekkas. Though Lekkas' revolt succeeded, the machinations of Pope Samuel meant Irene and Isaac were driven into exile in the Crimea.

The citizens of Kherson maintained an uneasy semi-independence for the period of Irene's exile, and she was generally acknowledged as Empress by them until her death in 1354. The following year, Pope Samuel, now also reigning as Roman Emperor, sent a squadron of ships north from Constantinople to seize and murder Isaac, but the fleet's commander, Nikephoros Kaklamanis, defected to Isaac upon reaching the city, and together they marched on Constantinople the next summer, summarily executing Samuel in the church of Hagia Sophia itself. Isaac was proclaimed Emperor two weeks later, after defeating a small revolt led by the aristocrat George Doukas. He married Zoë, the daughter of Kaklamanis, who soon became pregnant with twin sons, Leo and Theophilos.

 WARS AGAINST THE PERSIANS 

Seeking to take advantage of a weak and inexperienced Emperor, the Persian Khan of Khans Ghazan II launched an invasion of the Roman East, seeking particularly to detach the rebellious Kurds from Isaac's eastern flank and bring them under his own sphere of influence. The frontier garrisons, starved of funding over the past decade, quickly collapsed before the Persians, and were badly mauled at the Battle of Hadishar. The major cities of Van, Hadamakert and Manzikert were sacked, and Ghazan marched into Ani in triumph, annexing the Caucasus to Persia, with widespread support from both Armenians and Kurds.