Undercurrents

Late at night.

Inside Hagia Sophia, candlelight illuminated the magnificent murals and shrines. Roman nobles, Latin nobles, mercenary leaders, and clergy stood arrayed along both sides of the long table.

The war council they had had no time to hold during the day could only be moved to the night.

Back when Rome had not yet split into eastern and western halves, Latins and Greeks had been the empire's two most important components.

Of course, that division was merely how later generations saw it. The subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire now had only one identity: Romans, or Romans living in the Greek regions.

As for calling someone a Greek specifically, in Roman eyes, that referred only to the ancient Greek civilization of a thousand years ago, before it had converted to Christian faith and while it still clung to polytheism.

Whether one had converted to Christian faith was regarded as a mark of civilization. Thus, calling someone a Greek was more like pointing at their nose and calling them a barbarian, though by blood, they indeed were.

Meanwhile, the Latins, originally Rome's legitimate heirs, had lost that legacy due to barbarian invasions. People often joked that the Latins of today were nothing but a pack of Lombard barbarians.

Though by blood, they were more authentically Roman than the Greeks.

The two sides sat on opposite sides of the long table. Candlelight cast reluctant expressions across their faces. The Latins looked down on the Greeks for being scheming, cowardly, and incompetent, while the Greeks despised the Latins for being savage, cruel, stupid, and reckless.

The emperor ignored the dissatisfaction on both sides. Bracing both hands against the table, he raised his chin slightly.

"Gentlemen, in today's battle, we successfully repelled the Ottoman attack and left them with thousands of corpses.