User:Bigdaddy1204

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Bigdaddy1204 This user is a Historian. This user is a member of the Medieval warfare task force of the Military history WikiProject. This user is interested in the Byzantine Empire This user helped promote the article Byzantium under the Komnenoi to good article status. This user is interested in the Middle Ages. This user is interested in ancient civilizations. This user is interested in Ancient Greece. This user is interested in ancient Rome. This user is interested in maps.

[edit] Intro

My biggest contributions were to Byzantine Empire (I have written over 9,000 words for this article); and Manuel I Komnenos (on whom I wrote a featured article (more on this later)).

I am a keen traveller; among the places I have been lucky enough to visit, Istanbul (Turkey), Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal are my favourites.

[edit] Barnstars

		The Epic Barnstar
		for your work on Byzantine history. Tom Harrison Talk 02:42, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

		The Epic Barnstar
		For your incredible work on Byzantine Empire related topics. Byzantine Empire was the first Wikipedia article I ever read --Bizwhiz 00:48, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

		The Special Barnstar
		For your chivalrous behaviour and appreciative comments. Tourskin 19:46, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My contributions

I am a member of the middle ages task force of the military history project, and my work includes:

the creation of three new pages on medieval battles:

• The Battle of Levounion,
• The Battle of Sirmium, and
• The Battle of Beroia

I have also created several new pages on Byzantine history; these are

• Byzantium under the Komnenoi
• The Komnenian army
• The Komnenian restoration
• Byzantine civilisation in the twelfth century
• Decline of the Byzantine Empire

I have also worked on Byzantine army, adding some new sections and images, and I have worked on History of Athens.

Istanbul, June 2006

After a trip to Istanbul in June, I did a lot of work on Constantinople. I am also currently working to improve the article on John II Komnenos, and apart from the things I have mentioned there are various smaller edits and contributions to other pages, mostly on medieval history, such as the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

However, perhaps my biggest contributions so far have been to the articles Byzantine Empire, Manuel I Komnenos and Byzantium under the Komnenoi.

Begining late in 2005, I began a major project to improve the article on Manuel Komnenos (at the time the article was still called Manuel Comnenus). After a complete re-write, massive expansion, peer-review and featured article candidacy, I managed with editing help from others to get the article promoted to Featured Article status, and the article appeared on the Wikipedia main page on 16th May 2006. My thanks to everyone who helped me with their comments and suggestions during the review stages! :)

My other really big project has been ongoing improvements to the Byzantine Empire article. I have written over 9,000 words for this article, consisting of a number of new sections and complete re-writes of several old ones.

I have also created seven new maps and added them to the article. Other work done on this article by myself includes the addition of new images, and also contributions to the section on 'Economy', and also numerous edits to the Byzantine Empire infobox, which lists important events of the empire's history.

[edit] The changing face of the Byzantine Empire

Here are some of the new maps I have created for use in the Byzantine Empire article.

The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Leo III, c.717AD

The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Basil I, c.867AD

The Byzantine Empire under Basil II, c.1025AD

Map of the Byzantine Empire c.1095, after the Turkish invasion

The Byzantine empire under John II Komnenos, c.1143.

Map of the Byzantine Empire under Manuel Komnenos, c.1180

Map of the Byzantine Empire c.1270. After the damage caused by the Fourth Crusade, it proved impossible to restore the empire to the position it had held under Manuel Komnenos.