Iouliana the Wicked - AD 1182 Byzantine Empire

Patrikia Iouliana  was a famed socialites and influential courtier during the epoch of Kommenian Dynasty in the late 12th century, where wealth, trade, culture and art flourished in the western region of the Byzantine Empire. But beneath her velvet reputation, Iouliana  had an unnatural taste for sadistic debauchery and a deranged view of her faith, two qualities which the public rarely speak of, least they faced the consequences.

It was from her skewed views that made her developed a perverse hatred for the "Latins" who roamed around Constantinople like rats looking for their food. Most of these Latins were either Venetians or Genoese, Italians merchant who sought fortune from trading with the Greeks, but to Iouliana  , they were all Catholics, vile heretics who perverted the Orthodoxy of Christianity. In order to appease her appetite for their demise, she schemed a few plots here and there to pit the Venetians and Genoese together, causing disturbance within the imperial city. The result was the removal of Genoese and Venetians under the order of Emperor Manuel I. Unfortunately, her plan backfired since the Italians were too stubborn to leave Constantinople just like that. While the Venetian and the Byzantine Empire was at a state of war, the Genoese and the Pisans profited from the conflict, resulting in the growth of the Latin population in the city.

But the whole event turned into her favor again when the Emperor died, leaving his infant son Alexios II on the throne, under the regency of the Latin princess, Maria of Antioch. Iouliana began to spread rumors and false accusation against the Latins within the imperial court, which later spread to the general populace causing discontent amongst the people and massive negative impression directed towards the christian Latins. She also made sure that the young emperor was to be dethroned, by giving support to Andronikos I, one of the most successful pretender and contender to the throne. He succeeded in capturing Constantinople and was celebrated by the people for his victory, but before long, the celebration turned into riots directed  against the Latins and the massacres shortly after. With the chaos spreading, Iouliana was filled with ecstasy and she too, took part in the massacre and bathed in the blood of the innocents she had been longing to purged from the face of the earth.

The aftermath of the massacre did not go into Iouliana 's favor however, because the butchery and mutilations committed by her was too much even for the guards and the people of Constantinople to stomach upon. In just few weeks, she was arrested, put on trial for her crime and blinded under Andronikos order. It was said that during the trial that she made curses and warned the new emperor and his council against the treachery and dangers of the Latin Christians.

"Curse you insolent dogs, all of you! May the devils misguide you to hell and burn for all eternity. I was saving the city from these heretics, these so called Latins; misers, self-serving honourless slime who brought nothing but destruction. Did we not learn of what they did when they first came knocking at our gate on their way to Jerusalem? They are our enemies, they are our greatest threat, not those worthless Turkish infidels in the east! If we do not kill them all, they will come again and when they do, it will be our death!!! Hear me, OUR DEATH!!!"

Many dismissed her threat as a rambling of a mad woman and despite the unfortunate event, Constantinople tried to re-establish the relationship with the Latin west and trade soon resumed. She commited suicide shortly after, and years following her death, the new emperor Andronikos was dethroned and executed.

Unfortunately, her last warning became a reality when the Crusaders and the Venetians brutally sacked Constantinople just more than 20 years later in their 4th Crusade. Byzantine Empire was split apart and never recovered ever since then to its former glory, paving the way for the Turks of the east in their conquest of the empire.