Chaos is a Ladder

Needs Roads to Power - and despite the description, ANY administrative empire counts, not just Byzantium. Which enables the wiki's lovely shortcut: set the "Extra Administrative Realms - Persia" game rule to Administrative and start as Jahan Pahlavan Mohammed IV of Azerbaijan in 1178 - his family already qualifies as Dominant, so it unlocks at game start. The long way is the proper Byzantine noble-house climb: influence, family power, and patience - which you'll be doing anyway for Not Content to Serve.