The Azure Longsword

Chapter 72: The first volume ends with the fall of Constantinople and the rise of the Azure Sword

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Author: Anna Pavlognet Achilles

Written in 6th Era 261

In 3E 273, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, history records that he sighed:

"The dice of fate have been cast."

In fact, no one knew the meaning of this sentence better than Caesar.

Before he was first appointed as a priest, Caesar was the most experienced gambler in Solomon's city. Not only in the casino, but also in Solomon's political arena.

The Rubicon River to the north of Solomon City was his last psychological defense line. According to the regulations of the ancient Solomon Republic, any general who led troops across the Rubicon River without the permission of the Senate would be regarded as a complete rebellion against Solomon City.

Crossing this river meant that he would either wipe out all the elders who dared to resist and become the supreme dictator of the Solomon Republic, or become a traitor to Solomon and die in a despicable way amid the scorn of thousands of people.

If he did not choose to cross the river, there was a small chance that he would be assassinated upon returning to the country, but there was a high probability that he would reach an agreement with certain elders, be stripped of his military power through a grand triumphal procession, and become a "good dog raised by the elder fathers."

Finally he chose to cross the river.

According to a widely circulated saying: Everyone has three to four chances to "roll the dice of fate" in his or her life.

Each time, it changes the person’s life forever.

Therefore, when many historians do not understand why my mother chose to abandon her noble status and join an unknown small mercenary group to leave the East, I hope that at least my dear readers can understand that she was just rolling her own dice.

Before the fall of Constantinople, the political situation in the imperial capital was already quite unfavorable to my mother.

Some nobles and bureaucrats believed that she should bear the responsibility for the Franks' betrayal. One record says that she signed a treaty with the Venetians to extradite the Frankish knights despite the opposition of others.

Anyone with a little common sense of imperial politics can see that if a treaty is not approved by the two co-ruling emperors at the same time, how can it be implemented by the bureaucrats without objection? The Venetian people are not fools without any diplomatic common sense.

The real reason for her fall from power was the change in attitude of the Orthodox Church.

Although the Orthodox Church at that time did not have the great power of its Western brothers, it still enjoyed a high reputation in the imperial capital.

At the national affairs conference, facing the coup launched by Zoe, the Orthodox Church remained strangely silent, which undoubtedly sent a signal to most neutral bureaucrats and nobles.

The Orthodox Church did not support Her Majesty Theodora, which was the most deadly sword that stabbed her mother.

Regarding the attitude of the Orthodox Church, there is a folk rumor that when my mother first ascended the throne, in order to seek help from the Western Vatican, she considered promising to revise the classics in accordance with the wishes of Western Catholics.

I don't think this is the real reason. Of course, His Excellency Alexy of the Orthodox Church at that time might have considered this an offense to the Orthodox Church.

However, it is not the traditional way of playing in the imperial political arena to hastily decide the attitude towards a Majesty because of an unintentional remark that has not even been made public.