The Noose Tightens (1354–1402)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explains that Andronikos III ensured that the Romans remained a formidable Balkan power despite the loss of Anatolia. However, the civil war of the 1340s enabled Serbs to annex Macedonia and central Greece, which reduced the Roman state to second-rate status. The chapter cites that the Romans of Trebizond had also experienced a prolonged period of political instability and civil war. It mentions how Ioannes V’s reign began with a cascade of territorial losses and concessions. Meanwhile, Manuel II won the late Palaiologan civil war and his reign resulted in the disappearance of the language division between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.