Second Sack of Rome (Byzantine Khazaria)

The Sack of Rome on 8 December 1444 was a military event carried out by the Greek troops of Georgios III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, in Rome, then part of the Italian Papal States.

Background
In the 1400's AD, Pope Gilio I, instituted a series of attempts to form an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire and Genoa against the expanding Byzantine Empire to combat their interests in Western Europe; but neither the doge nor the emperor dared oppose Greek military might. By this point, the Byzantines controlled all territory both north and south of the Papal States. According to the Pope, who had seen the Byzantines take advantage of unrest in Genoa to seize their central Italian territories, he knew it was only a matter of time before tensions between the Papacy and Byzantium rose to the highest tensions.

The Papal States, unwilling to challenge the power of the Byzantine Greeks, had formed an alliance with the emperor John III. However, they became increasingly alarmed as the Byzantines expanded into Western Europe, subduing Tuscanny, annexing Switzerland, and defeating the Austrian emperor in a war. The Papacy backed Genoa against the Greeks during the Italian Wars of the 1400's, but with Genoese defeat, the Popes realized that the Byzantine emperors had their eyes on his sovereign dominion, the Papal States.

For the next few years, the Pope, now surrounded on all sides by Byzantine territory, tried to break the political stranglehold he was caught in while never directly challenging the government in Constantinople. The Pope also played Genoa, the Holy Roman emperor, and the Byzantine Empire against each other. He also tried to have the emperor Georgios III assassinated. Unfortunately for the Pope, the assassin, a Milanese, was captured. When put to torture he admitted a cardinal near Rome had contacted him for the assassination, Georgios took this as a sign of war. He immediately dissolved his alliance with the Pope and invaded the Papal States.

Battle
To Be Completed