The court of Sayf al-Dawla (from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes)
Constantine VII seeks peace in the east but Sayf al-Dawla is not interested. The Emperor presses on with the attempted pacification of Crete.
Period: 945-949
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The History of Byzantium 
New listener here, good stuff. I’m starting at the beginning while playing CK2 as Strategos Leon Pegonites of Cyprus, great combo. Keep it going. 🙂
Episodes like this show how good a simplified simulation CK2 is… Constantine VII reforms sound a lot like the holding system and military burden on them from the game.
Yeah, at the start of the podcast, I actually thought CK2 is pretty inacurate for Byzantine as it seems Byzantine have a central tax system. The theme armies that while locally managed, the strategos of the themes seem to be appointed from the capital, and most of the provincial land is owned by local farmers.
This is very different from the landed duchies and counts in the game. Until he reached the episode of the magnates, it all comes to sense.
Now the thing missing in this game is that Byzantine, Caliphate and Arab Emirates can’t raid each other, or declare war with just the purpose of raiding. Hope CK3 will include this at some point
thanks