Also Varangians weren’t exactly this prominent in Byzantium, they were kept apart from rest of society (which often hated them because it’s their axes that were chopping up the citizens heads in every significant riot) and they weren’t even kingmaking as much as one could expect from a Byzantine throne bickering.
Yeah, I didn’t mean “prominent” as in wealthy or socially highly regarded but just in how they are a notable fixture of that society. It’s very rare to read a Byzantine source that doesn’t mention Varangians and eunuchs at least once, and yet those “successors to Rome” in Western Europe don’t know much about either. As soon as things stop being relevant to the Normans, Westerner pop historians just forget about it.
Also Varangians weren’t exactly this prominent in Byzantium, they were kept apart from rest of society (which often hated them because it’s their axes that were chopping up the citizens heads in every significant riot) and they weren’t even kingmaking as much as one could expect from a Byzantine throne bickering.
Yeah, I didn’t mean “prominent” as in wealthy or socially highly regarded but just in how they are a notable fixture of that society. It’s very rare to read a Byzantine source that doesn’t mention Varangians and eunuchs at least once, and yet those “successors to Rome” in Western Europe don’t know much about either. As soon as things stop being relevant to the Normans, Westerner pop historians just forget about it.