The Weighted Scales: The World of an Aborted Rome
By Errnge
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part One: The Not-Makedonian Greeks
Though things might have looked bad for Agathocles and his realm in Syracuse after his long and drawn out war with Carthage, things actually weren’t that bad, all things considered. Because of his daring and violent invasion of the Carthaginian coast, he had not only caused political tumult across the sea, but he had also shown the world that he, Agathocles, who now took on the title of King of Sicily (although he ruled only a small area of the island) was a man with whom to be reckoned. Though times proved to be tough, Agathocles was a respected ruler. The two sons he had from his first wife, Archagathus and Agathocles, were murdered in 300 B.E. (307 B.C.). From his second wife, he had a single daughter named Lanassa, his only surviving child [1]. Looking for allies, and as well as an heir to his throne, he married her to into the royal family of Sicily’s closest Greek neighbor, the Seleukid Dynasty of Italion in 287 B.E. (294 B.C.).
Seleukus’ son and heir, Antiochos [2] was a strong military man born of Makedonian stock. He was respected in his father’s kingdom for repelling multiple attacks from the barbarian Samnites to the north. Some speculate that it was by his behest that Agathocles was poisoned four years later, while others insist it happened from a fever in 283 B.E (290 B.C.). These rumors sparked a brief resistance to Antiochos’ rule there. For a few months, Syracusian democracy was restored, but with the help of his father’s army, Antiochos was able to enforce his rule of Syracuse, officially joining the territories of Syracuse with that of the Basileus ton Italion. Antiochos was the King of Sicily (as styled by Agathocles before him), and would inherit the kingdom of Italion after his father died.
Meanwhile, across the Adriatic in the Kingdom of Epiros, the past thirty years had been relatively stable after the death of their great king Alexandros I. For years, his wife Kleopatra ruled as Queen Regent until their son Neoptolemos came to age. But though Epiros was stable, it was not without its complications during this period. While Kleopatra ruled, she was in constant worry about the exiled King Arybbas of Epiros, who had co-ruled with her late husband until 336 B.E. (343 B.C.) when Philip II of Makedonia exiled him and made Alexandros I the sole ruler. In the meantime, Arybbas had been living in Hellas. After Alexandros I was slain in battle with the Italian barbarians, to ease the dynastic tensions, the co-kingship was re-established, and Arybbas’ son Aiakides ruled (presumably alongside Neoptolemos and Kleopatra). Kleopatra was integral in bringing about the Epirote assistance of Kynane I of Makedonia’s claim to the throne during the Makedonian civil war.
Aiakides bore an heir named Pyrros in 312 B.E. (319 B.C.) [3]. Pyrros has actually been a potential husband to Agathocles’ daughter Larassa [4]. The looming threat with Arybbas was again completely snuffed out when Arybbas got himself killed while fighting against the Makedonians the First Hellenic War in which he had been a commander in the Thessalian army.
Speaking of the Hellenes, the Spartan king Ariston II sent a fleet to Kyrene in 285 B.E. (292 B.C.) after receiving a plead for assistance from the Kryenian Republic against an Egyptian invasion ordered by the newly crowned Nectanebo III. Well, upon his arrival, he did repel a somewhat small invasive force from Egypt, but then asserted that Kyrene was officially under the protection of Sparta, and thus all but nominally made the region part of the revived Spartan power. Back in Hellas, there was growing concern, even amongst Sparta’s allies about this sudden upswing in Spartan influence, but they dared not turn on their Laconic brethren and expose a possible weakness for Basileus ton Basilion Orestes II of Makedonia to exploit… well, that is, while he still had the power to do so.
---------------
[1] OTL, Agathocles had two more children from a third wife, who was of the Ptolemy dynasty. With no such dynasty, there was no such marriage, and no such children.
[2] Not the Antiochus from OTL. Antiochus of OTL had a Persian mother, whereas this one has a Macedonian mother (Seleucus was never in Persia ITTL). He would likely retain the same name because Antiochus was, in turn, the name of Seleucus’ father.
[3] Without Cassander’s meddling in the nation, Epirote dynastic succession is significantly less confusing that OTL. Aeacides isn’t driven out with his baby boy Pyrrhus, who was also banished during his reign by Cassander, during which time Neoptolemus II of Epirus ruled as a Macedonian puppet for five years until Pyrrhus had him murdered. All the while, OTL, random members of the Molossian clan seem to have taken power, and have power taken away from them, only to show back up with an army and retake power again… Yeah, all of that was avoided with an earlier death of Cassander and even more so by an earlier death of Alexander.
[4] OTL, the two were actually briefly married. The Greek political world just seems like such a small place sometimes.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Two: The Sons of War
As we all should know, history does not occur in a vacuum. Every cause has an affect, and with the rise and fall of King Agathocles of Sicily came a wildcard to the game being played over the island of Sicily.
Hired as mercenaries by Agathocles to fight against the Carthaginians, a group of Campevan Samnite [1] warriors sailed south to a new land filled with opportunity. These Italian warriors, after having fought loyally in Agathocles’ war against Carthage, were distinguished for their courage and ruthlessness in battle. When the war was over, like many of Agathocles’ mercenaries, they were recalled to Sicily, where they opted to stay, as opposed to returning home. It seems they found something very appealing about staying on a new, warm, beautiful island filled with adventure and opportunity. It almost sounds novel-esque.
Well, after the war, Carthage had gained control of most of the island, including the valuable port city of Messana. Sicily seemed at peace, and the Sicilian peoples were certainly very welcoming to the mercenaries. Messana opened their gates to the mercenaries, who were aloud to live there peacefully in the houses of the city’s inhabitants. Of course, for men who lived by the sword, this simply wasn’t enough.
It was a warm night in 281 B.E. (288 B.C.) when the mercenaries’ plan unfolded. They all waited for their hosts to quietly fall to sleep in their beds, and killed them in their slumber. Surely the screams and cries of women in the night alerted those men of the city still alive of the treachery within their walls. But by that point, the Italians had taken to the streets, and set out killing every Greek man they laid eyes on. Bathing in the blood of men who had supposed their friendship, this rag-tag band of Campevan Samnite warriors named themselves the Mamertines: the Sons of Mamers [2].
Securing the city, the Mamertines then divided up the loot, land, and women between them. Those men left alive were driven from the city. How the Mamertines governed the city under their first generation of dominion, but whatever they did, they managed to transform the once peaceful merchant town into a haven for piracy.
The Mamertines scourged the island of Sicily, raiding surrounding cities, and exacting tribute from cities as far away as Gela on the other side of Sicily. They came to directly control a dominion along the northern coastline, seizing several Greek cities by 273 B.E. (280 B.C.) when a group of related Italian mercenaries revolted in Rhegion. Antiochus I of Syracuse, Basileus of Sicily and Italion, had quite enough, and attempted to quell these pesky Italian mercenaries who were causing a particular amount of trouble for him (much of the lands they raided were his dominions in either Sicily or Magna Graecia). He sent an army to squash them, like the spiders he doubtlessly saw them as, but twice his armies were defeated, first at Naxos by the Mamertines, and again outside Rhegion. Thus, the Strait of Messana, once the most prosperous trade route in the West Mediterranean became the most dangerous stretch of water in the Hellenic world. Something needed to be done, that much was for sure—But things were only going to get worse over the next few years.
In the past, Sicily had mostly been a struggle between Syracuse and her Greek allies against Carthage and the cities allied to her, but now in the North of Sicily, a pirate nation had carved itself out in one of the most travelled trade routes in the ancient world.
Hard times, hard times…
------------
[1] Samnites who haled from their territory in Campania. They were likely just a group of native Oscan Campanians, similar to OTL, but with Samnite domination of the region having been secured for about 50 years, they would likely have identified somewhat with the Samnites, and surely some of their numbers were authentic Samnites.
[2] The Oscan version of the god Mars, god of war in the Italian pantheon.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Three: The Last Achaemenid
Parsa: 292 B.E. (299 B.C.)
Xerxes III slammed his fist on the arm of his throne. His fingers were curled so tight, he could feel the skin in his palm give way, and red droplets of blood began to trickle from his hands. His brow was knit and his face was grim.
“King of kings!” His body guard, a man named Ezrezraspa said, “You must leave! They are at our gates. If you do not leave, they will mount your head on a spike!”
“I will not run from these rebels,” Xerxes III snarled. “I am the King of Kings, descended from Ahura Mazda. I am the one true ruler of the world!”
Ezrezraspa looked at his liege disbelievingly, “My lord—“
“NO!”
The bodyguard fell silent. He could hear the shouts and screams grow closer as the invading army came closer towards the palace. These were no rebels as Xerxes so blindly believed; these were an invading army of Medians, come to reclaim their ancient claim to power. Ezrezraspa scratched his beard nervously.
“Bring me my arms,” Xerxes growled. “I will show them my glory and power.”
“What?!”
“Do not dare question me!” Xerxes shouted so loudly, Ezrezraspa almost couldn’t hear the approaching Medians. “Bring me my sword.”
It took Ezrezraspa a moment to regain his composure. Surely the King of Kings had gone mad! But he did as he was told nonetheless. He brought a curved sword that had been hanging on the wall, and presented it to Xerxes. Its hilt was golden and covered in jewels, wrought in the shape of a lion’s head, the steel blade projected from its mouth like a tongue.
The drums beat louder with each moment, and soon Ezrezraspa could distinguish individual voices from the mob. The palace shook when they broke in. The trophies and riches hanging upon the walls made a clatter, some of them even fell from their hanging places.
“Today, my friend, we will die together with honor and glory!” Xerxes stood up, his sword held in his bloodied hands and walked past the dumbfounded bodyguard. “They will sing songs of us, of how many of the enemy we brought low! With the sheen of our steel, we will remind them of the divine power of the Line of Achaemenes!”
Ezrezraspa gulped down the spit accumulating in his mouth. As poetic as all that sounded, he was not exactly a fan of dying.
Down the hall he could hear his comrades. Some charged futilly before howling in agony as they were slaughtered. Others could be heard screaming in fear, their footsteps echoing ever so louder as they ran before being felled like a fleeing gazelle from the hunter.
Xerxes looked back at his bodyguard, his green eyes shimmering. He was actually happy to be standing by his friend in his last moments. Xerxes was young, but he felt at that moment that he had lived enough, that this would be a good death.
That was when the door began to shutter, and hoots and hollars could be heard on the other side. The Medians were breaking down the door.
Ezrezraspa really didn’t want to die: No, not today.
He drew his sword.
“That’s right,” Xerxes said, “Join me in battle once more, Ezrezraspa.”
“You’ve never seen a real day of battle in your life.”
“What! We both know that isn’t true.”
“Maybe if you had, we wouldn’t be caught like a trapped fox while the hounds close in on us.”
“You dare to—“
The door began to creak. They would break in any moment now.
“Yes, I dare.”
Xerxes could hardly react before Ezrezraspa had pushed him to the floor and kicked his disgustingly ornate excuse for a weapon out of his hands. Ezrezraspa pointed his blade at Xerxes’ neck, and said:
“One of us will survive this day.”
Xerxes kicked out, and heard a crisp snap from his bodyguards ankle. He let out a yelp of pain. Xerxes stood up quickly, and landed an elbow to his bodyguard’s nose. Ezrezraspa dropped his sword, and grabbed his face in recoil. Xerxes was quick to retrieve the weapon. He grabbed Ezrezraspa by his collar, and threw the man to the ground. Xerxes placed a foot over Ezrezraspa’s chest and replied:
“If that is your wish.”
With that, he swept his blade across Ezrezraspa’s neck, leaving a massive crevace which soon welled up with blood, and spilt out onto the marble floor like a spring. The blood came out in pulses, some even shot up and splattered the king’s face with his own fluids, but with each moment, less and less jetted out. Ezrezraspa’s eyes glazed over, and he died choking on his own blood.
The door burst open, and Median spearmen flooded into the room, shouting and covered in gore, but they all halted at the sight before them. A Median man dressed in fine steel armor stepped forward, and took off his helmet. His armor gave away his rank as an officer and as nobility, contrasting with the simple tunics most of his men wore.
“My name is Ezrezraspa,” Xerxes said. “The King of Kings is dead.”
---------
Medes just took over Persia. TAKE THAT!
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Four: The King of Kings, And the Son of the Gods
Men-nefer: 291 B.E. (298 B.C.) [1]
There were a lot of things Basileus ton Basilion Orestes II did not like how things were panning out in the world at large. He could feel it in his bones. Though he was still young (only 24 years of age), he was a competent leader, and his people respected him, which was more than could be said of his father. After receiving the throne, his mother Eurydike managed to keep the peace, but things were beginning to get messy, and it was about time Makedonia had a strong ruler again. Orestes managed to placate, and even curb some of the power of the “satraps” in Anatolia and Syria by dividing up their lands into smaller administrative regions, but also by placing more garrisons on the frontier. He undid at least some of the damage his father did with the Italiotes, still ruled by Seleukus, and even won over a few of the Hellene city-states through simple diplomacy no less. As it would turn out, trade agreements were often times more affective than battle. But things weren’t as great as they would seem. Yes, Orestes II had managed to undo some of the damage done by his incompetent father, but there were some things well out of his control. That was why he had arrived in person to speak with the Pharaoh of Kemet Nectanebo III.
Kemet [2] was indeed as wondrous as all the stories made it out to be, but there were some unnerving things about it. No, not the culture: Orestes was well aware that exotic places did exotic things. What disturbed him, rather, were the more familiar things about Kemet, specifically the members of the Pharaoh’s guard who were sent to receive him.
Orestes II was not the only one who was shocked at their arrival. His own guards stuttered in confusion, and Orestes’ younger brother Pausanias blurted stupidly, “Those aren’t Libyans at all!”
Indeed, they weren’t. The six men sent to receive Orestes II and his entourage arrived bedecked in the finest Hellenic armor seen outside Makedonia, each man bearing massive round shields made of bronze and high-crested Corinthian helmets. They were old-fashioned, yes, (something Orestes’ grandfather would have worn, perhaps) but of superb quality. But these were no mere costumes, for the men who wore them had fairer complexions that the people of Kemet, wore thick beards, and spoke perfect, unaccented Koine. These men were Hellenes.
While Pausanias blathered on about how great he thought it was that even the Pharaoh could recognize the skill and worth of the Hellenes, Orestes II was disturbed. What was Nectanebo doing by seemingly exclusively placing Hellenic men in his personal guard? How did they get hear, and in what number? Something strange was afoot.
From the ship, they stepped onto the dock on the shores of the Nile. They were escorted through, no doubt, the finest and most beautiful monuments of Memphis. Huge pillars rose into the sky with mysterious symbols engraved onto their faces. Statues of gods towered over them with heads, both animal and human, larger than even some of the ships that sailed past along the river. Bright, exotic trees lumbered over them. It took quite some effort for Orestes to keep himself from continuously gazing upward. He was the King of Kings, after all, and needed to act like it. While impressive, these ancient monuments could not intimidate him.
In the halls of the Pharaoh, incense and perfume filled the air sweetly. Dark-skinned musicians played in the corner upon some strange stringed instrument and drums made from goatskins. The Pharaoh sat upon his throne, watching them march closer. He was dressed in fine white linens, gold plates, and covered in jewels. Some kind of pigment was put on his face to cover any imperfections, and a black past put around his eyes. It made him look how he wanted to look, like a god. Orestes II knew there would be some ritual accompanied by their approach, but he had to be patient. His meeting with Nectanebo III was of the utmost importance.
As Orestes predicted, there was indeed a ritual. Oil was placed over the heads of the Pharaoh’s visitors, the servants and priests sang some chant in their language, and still there was more. Hours passed before Orestes was aloud to approach Nectanebo III.
Finally, Orestes was aloud to speak to the Pharaoh.
“Son of the Sun and Holder of Both Lands, Pharaoh Nectanebo, third of that name, I, Basileus ton Basilion Orestes, second of that name, come to you from my home across the sea in peace to hold some converse with you. The peoples of this world are moving around us, and it is we, the holders of the light of civilization, who must be sure to keep peace.”
One of Nectanebo’s guards translated flawlessly.
Nectanebo looked to be serene as his translator spoke, but something flashed in his eyes, and Orestes knew it was concern. He knew of what Orestes spoke. The Pharaoh then spoke, and the guard translated it back to Koine:
“May we withdraw to a more private enclosure of the Pharaoh? His Brilliance understands that this is a subject as sensitive as the surface of the water, and there are many ears about that might betray this conversation.”
Orestes gave his approval, and they withdrew to a room behind the hall.
As soon as they left the hall, Nectanebo let out a sigh of exasperation, and handed his scepter to his guard, chattering something in his tongue. His guard nodded, and left the room, only to return shortly thereafter with some wine. Nectanebo chirped something, and the guard poored the wine into some chalices wrought from gold. He sipped from each cup before handing one to the Pharaoh and another to the Basileus.
Nectanebo, after taking a gulp of wine, wiped his mouth, and looked at Orestes as if seeing him truly for the first time. He began to speek, and his guard translated:
“Word has reached our ears of the end of Xerxes III, how his bodyguard betrayed him only just before the barbarians of Medes burst into his chambers. While this does mean the end of an ancient enemy for the both of us, we fear this could be the birth of another.”
“Medes concerns me as well,” Orestes said, “But not so much as what has been going on in Babylon. Their king has just died, and his son, their new king Eiran [3], the first of his name, has begun to expand his realm already. His armies have been seen moving into Armenia and Arabia as well as Elam. But more than this, barbarians have been on the move lately. To the north, Keltoi have begun to raid further and further south towards our realm, and Scythians have been seen amassing huge armies north of Media.”
“The barbarians south of our land have, too, been restless of late. We fear an invasion from all sides.”
“I have a sister named Europa,” Orestes said. “She may be yours to marry, or marry one of your sons if you agree to my proposal. That should either of us face invasion or attack, that we shall receive the aid of 10,000 soldiers and a formal alliance of Kemet and Makedonia.”
Nectanebo thought, but Orestes knew he would agree. If the Babylonians or Medians invaded Makedonian held Palestine, they would waste no time to invade Egypt. But though Orestes feared them, he didn’t expect their attack so much as he did from the shadowy cold wastelands to the north.
And that was why he needed Nectanebo III to help him.
-------------
[1] Memphis was called Men-nefer in this period, a name that means “enduring and beautiful”. The city was also known as Hut-ka-Ptah, which means “Enclosure of Ptah’s Soul” or “Enclosure of the ka of Ptah”. The Greeks corrupted both into Memphis and Aigyptos respectively.
[2] Kemet is what the Egyptians referred to their own land as.
[3] An Aramaic name, the common language of Babylonia, means “vigilant”.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Five: On The Edge of the World
Little is known of the ancient history of India [1]. We know that the region had very complex civilizations, traditions, and cultures. We know that they once had a massive chronicle of their ancient past which is now lost to us, likely destroyed in the great burnings of the Great Nomad Invasions. However, some lucky pieces have been discovered, surviving in caves and in the ruins of ancient fortresses. What can be gathered, before Persian and Hellene sources began commenting on the happenings of the region, comes from the histories of Tamilgam [2] to the South. What we know is that the massive region has a history of being divided and warlike, rich and ostentatious, and a great meeting place of cultures. The Persians under Darius I managed to conquer the Indos River Valley, however, they lost control of it before their downfall. From the eastern banks of the Ganges River in a region called Magadha rose the first empire the region would see under the leadership of the Nanda dynasty. The Nanda Empire spread from the Bay of Bengal in the East to the Indos River in the West, encompassing almost all of India [3] by 322 B.E. (329B.C.).
The Nanda Empire, sometimes called the Magadha Empire, ruled with a massive army, the likes of which could not be mustered by any kingdom in the West. Persian and Median chroniclers claim that at full force, the Nanda could gather a force of over 200,000 men, with some claiming 100,000 more. The Nandas ruled for almost a century and a half before their massive kingdom crumbled beneath them.
And how this happened was of great interest to the commentators to the West.
When the Persian Empire crumbled after the Makedonian War, a cruel king named Dhana Nanda ruled the Magadha Empire from 322 B.E. (329 B.C.) to 309 B.E. (316 B.C.). During his reign, several rebellions were put down brutally, especially in the western parts of his realm. Taxation was heavy, and it was not uncommon under his rule for entire regions to suffer famine despite being prosperous and lush. When he finally died, the people of India gasped a sigh of relief, and hoped that his successor would prove kinder. Unfortunately, his son Dashanaka Nanda was even worse. Uprising after uprising was put down viciously, often with entire villages slaughtered and killed down to the last infant.
In 295 B.E. (302 B.C.), Dashanaka Nanda made a move to expand his realm further west into the Land of Five Waters [4], which resulted in a long, drawn-out, and bloody war. Dashanaka managed to make some advances, but despite his superior forces, he was unable to conquer the entire region. Among the peoples and kingdoms holding out against the Nanda advance were the kingdoms of Mourya, Taksasila, Paurava, and the Asvakas. The war seemed to be caught in a stalemate, and then in 290 B.E. (297 B.C.), a man from the West arrived in the court of the old king Ambhik in Taksasila [5] with a host of Asvaka horsemen. He was a Persian, and he called himself Xerxes.
It would turn out that the former King of Kings, after his escape from the Medians, made his way East to the rich lands there at the edge of what used to be the great country ruled by his ancestors. Word spread like wildfire of his escape and journey, how he lied to the Medians as they broke into his chambers that he was but a guard, and had killed his guard to convince the Medians that the king was dead, how he snuck out of the country in the night disguised as a merchant, and travelled through the rich lands of Vaktrianistan [6] and crossed the mountains into India and made friends with the chieftains of the Asvakas. He was thus given 100 Asvaka horsemen to accompany him even further east. To prove his royalty, he presented his ring, which had upon it the seal of the Achaemenids, the standard of Cyrus the Great. He was thus received into the court of Taksasila with open arms and as a guest.
Xerxes became an important figure in the resistance against the Nanda, becoming a high-ranking general, and became friends with the Mourya king Chandragupta. The coalition of resisting kingdoms, however, was led by the king of Paurava, Parveteshwara [7], who was the oldest and wisest of the kings, as well as the leader of the largest army. But it was Xerxes, apparently, who convinced Parveteshwara to make this defensive war offensive, noting the poor moral and willingness to retreat that plagued the Nanda armies. If they moved across the Beas River, surely the Nanda interior would crumble. It turned out Xerxes was speaking from some experience, and he was correct.
In 288 B.E. (295 B.C.), Parveteshwara and his coalition of kings along the Indos River marched into Nanda territory, and effectively defeated the Nanda army (after a Nanda mutiny) at the Battle of Avanti after the native king defected from the Nanda and swore fealty to Parveteshwara. It was after this battle that Dashaka Nanda was assassinated by his general Bhadrasala, who then usurped the throne, and became the ruler of what was left of the Magadha Empire, founding a new Dynasty after himself. It seemed that victory was in grasp for Parveteshwara and his allies when it all fell apart.
Ambhi, who was almost as old as Parveteshwara, made an attempt on his life. His ambitions are vague, and it is known that the two kings had an old rivalry from their youth, but little else is known as to why Ambhi tried to kill his ally. Regardless, Ambhi’s assassination attempt backfired, and he was captured and killed. Parveteshwara grew paranoid after this, and sent armies to invade not only Taksasila, but also Mourya, and tried to arrest Xerxes, who he believed to be in conspiracy with Ambhi. After all, it was Ambhi who had introduced the Persian to them all.
Chandragupta, a deeply religious king, knew Paurava would overrun his small kingdom of Mourya; so, he instead offered exile in exchange for the safety and wellbeing of his people. Mourya was thusly integrated into Paurava, and Chandragupta went south to live the rest of his days as a Buddhist monk, where he disappeared into obscurity. But obscurity was not for Xerxes.
He and his one-hundred Asvakas cavalrymen made for their homeland amongst the Kamboja to the West, or at least that was their intention, but they were surrounded by Parveteshwara’s forces on the west bank of the Indos River, and a brief skirmish broke out. Xerxes and seven of his horsemen escaped, while the rest fought to the last man to save their leader. Xerxes returned to the mountainous homeland of his men in Kamboja, just south of Vaktrianistan in 287 B.E. (394 B.C.).
But this was not the last the world would hear of Xerxes III, the last king of Persia. This was ensured when he and his men joined a caravan of merchants on their way to the Mediterranean where their Eastern goods were in high demand. Xerxes was on his was to Makedonia, the land that had ultimately brought about the demise of his lineage.
-----------
[1] OTL, we actually know a lot about Ancient India.
[2] As explained later, Northern and Southern India never unified ITTL, so the Tamil Dynasties remained independent and uninfluenced by the peoples of Northern India. ITTL, the region they live in is known as Tamilgam, derived from Tamilakam (Tamil Home-Country).
[3] India ITTL is only what we know as northern India, or the area encompassing and between the Indus and Ganges Rivers. Without the Mauryan Empire to unify the whole sub-continent, there is a massive cultural divide between the Dravidian south and the Indian north, thus, what we know as southern India is not considered to be a part of India. This also resulted in the South never adopting Buddhism.
[4] The Punjab
[5] Taxiles, one of the Indian kings who allied himself with Alexander the Great on his conquest of the Punjab.
[6] Bactria
[7] We know this king in the West as Porus
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Six: Playing Catch-Up
War broke out between the Kingdom of Medes and the remnants of the Persian Empire in 293 B.E. (300 B.C.) when the Median King Cyaxares II (the head of the Cadusii tribe, the elite clan of Medes who had actually led the revolt of the Median Satrapy) moved his armies south towards Elam with the intention of seizing the ancient city of Susa. The Median elites specialized as light spearmen, and had previously proved integral to Persian military campaigns. However, without them, the fractured and corrupt Persian military could do little to hold back the invaders.
Xerxes III himself fought in battle against the Medes, who held superior numbers and superior leadership. Even some Persians defected to fight alongside the Median horde, and it took only a year for the Medians to move into Persia proper and lay siege to the capital of Parsa. It is widely believed that Xerxes III lost his empire mainly due to his youth and inexperience at the time. Most historians site a marked difference in his tactical ability in the annals discussing the fall of Persia and Xerxes’ later campaigns.
While war was erupting in India, tensions grew in the Eastern Mediterranean. While the surprisingly capable Orestes II of Makedonia was able to ease some of the simering anger between states, he was only forestalling the inevitable. Breaking tradition, he personally led an envoy to Egypt to solidify an alliance with the Pharaoh. This brought some security to the Makedonian held Levant, which the Babylonians were eying hungrily.
Meanwhile, in the Peloponese, the dual kings of Sparta, Ariston II (Eurypontid) and Areus I (Agiad) were continuing to make matters difficult for Makedonia. Areus I led 2000 men across the Aegean to, again, attempt to seize Rhodes in 294 B.E (301 B.C.). In the meantime, Ariston II began rallying his fellow Hellenic states (those that were still left, that is) for another pan-Hellenic War against the barbarian Makedonians who still had their foot placed over the neck of Hellas! Makedonians were even in control of Italion and Syracuse, surely this could not stand.
It seemed another war was about to erupt in Greece, but Orestes II managed to diffuse even this. After the Satrap of Lydia repelled Areus from Rhodes, Orestes set on a campaign to win over the Hellenes through gifts, marriages, treatises, and a little propaganda, portraying the Babylonians as the true barbarians, who wish to attack Greeks settled in the Levant, to rape their women and enslave their children. Orestes wisely forgot to mention that the Levant was one of the least colonized areas of the Makedonian realm with only a few thousand Greeks living there. Most Hellenization had occurred further North in Anatolia, where only in the hinterlands and mountainous inlands did people still speak Phrygian, and possibly some remnants of the Hittite languages.
But Orestes II used a much harder hand on his relatives in Epiros. The dual kings there, Neoptolemos and Pyrros had been waging a series of wars with the Illyrians to their north, expanding their realm. Orestes II, disliking the prospect of bringing war to the region insisted (and by insisted, I mean threatened to destroy their kingdom) that the Epirotes cease their northward expansion. Begrudgingly, they obliged. It is believed to be around this time that Pyrros began buying elephants from Syria and Egypt, bred them, and adding them into his army, becoming the first European nation to use elephants in its military. [1]
Across the sea, on the Carthaginian coastline, Malik Bomilcar I had made the wise decision to win over the allegiance of the Numidian tribes at his back. The relationship thusfar between the Numidians and the Carthaginians had been mutually beneficial with Carthage receiving some of the finest cavalry the world had seen, and the Numidians becoming part of a very lucrative trade system in the Western Mediterrnean in which the Carthaginian were central. However, Bomilcar needed to be sure that they would recognize him, and not any senatorial sympathizers, as allies.
In Italia, Leux II, King of the Kingdom of Senonia (not to be confused with Sena along the Adriatic) began to feel the heat from the tribes to his north. The Celts living in the Padus River Valley [2] had grown restless, and with the leadership of the large Boii and Insubres, they began to raid the frontiers of the Seno-Etruscan heartland. It seems Leux II was able to hold them off with the help of some Ligurian allies. Little else is known about their war.
However, the Samnites began to undergo some internal changes. With the infiltration of more and more Greek influence, the Samnites began to build cities along their coastlines. Prominent among these was Hurz Maimas [3], which they built along the Campevan coastline, not far away from Neapolis, and Leiguss Amvianud [4], which started out as a fortress in near the border with the Italiotes, but due to its location in an important mountain pass in the Appenines, became a thriving little city in the mountains. Their current Meddix Pomptis Egnatius began making preliminary raids from Leiguss Amvianud in 290 B.E. (297 B.C.) into Italiote lands, but there were no major conquests… yet. Seleukos, growing tired of the increasingly powerful Samnites to his north, sent an army of 10,000 to face them. They marched into the Appenines, aiming to capture the Samnite capital of Beneventum. Three months later, ten Greek slaves returned to Taras. Their backs were riddled with wounds from whips and flogs, but what they pulled in carts behind each of them was more horrifying. In each cart were one-hundred heads, their beards cut off and their eyes and tongues cut out. The slaves told a horrible story of an ambush, how all of the Greeks and Makedonians slaughtered, and that they were told to return to Taras with a message that was clear as day: Do not risk war with the Samnites.
It was in the midst of all of this, in 286 B.E. (293 B.C.) that a man arrived in Pellas seeking refuge in Makedonia. He was accompanied by a small contingent of exotic bodyguards, and clothed in riches from the orient, telling wild tales of his travels. He called himself Xerxes, and he wished to hold audience with Orestes II.
-----------
[1] At the time, the only Mediterranean power known to have used elephants in warfare was the Persian Empire. Presumably, there were some in the Macedonian Empire ITTL, but there is little evidence for it before this time. Carthage did not adopt war-elephants until after 280 B.C. OTL.
[2] The Po River Valley
[3] Oscan for “Largest Fenced in Land”
[4] Oscan for “Border Legion”
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Seven: Important People
The cities of Makedonia were grand, indeed, fattened by the wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean. Xerxes and what was left of his bodyguard were by no means as impressed by them as they were by the massive wealth of India, but impressed they were nonetheless. The land, the people, and the cities: they were all too different to really compare.
“The people here dress very strangely,” Leippada, the captain of the Asvaka, said, noting the vanity of the Makedonians, how the men and women of great fitness wore next to nothing.
“They likely think the same thing about us, Leippada.” Xerxes had to tread carefully here. In the court of Pellas, with its riches and ostentation, was only a veneer of civilization. Every guard, lined across the walls, had a sharp eye peering beneath the shade of their Phrygian helmets on Xerxes and his company. Their hands were held firmly on their spears, and Xerxes knew that one false move would result in an untimely death.
At the head of the hall, sat Basileus Orestes II, drinking wine and speaking loudly for all to hear. Before him stood a woman with golden hair and bright eyes, something extremely rare in even this part of the world, and a cloaked man of slight stature. The woman, beneath her golden locks, wore a golden torque around her snow-white neck. The man, bearded and grey, had a bronze ring placed on his brow and around his head. They were accompanied by a small company of huge men that towered over even the greatest of Orestes’ guard wearing breaches and had blue markings tattooed onto their skin. They were barbarians, Xerxes knew, from the North, but he had only heard tell of men like this.
“My friends, Iouinaballa and Pennodocos, I understand your plight, but the Basileus ton Basileon does not bow to the threats of barbarians!” [1] Orestes, though young, exuded a kind of power that forced his listeners to respect him. Xerxes could see just by how the barbarians shifted their weight that it angered them. A capable statesman, apparently, was not what they were expecting. “Now, please, accept my gifts of wine and feast. We will discuss this further another time. I have other guests here who desire my attention.”
There was a moment of tension. The barbarians murmured between each other in low growls. Finally, the woman, Iouinaballa spoke in a thickly accented attempt at Koine:
“You believe yourself a man of greatness, and your wine and men would suggest this is truth. But I… I sense a silent tumult. When next I walk upon this land, we will see your greatness.”
She then turned on her heel, her golden hair twirling like a scourge, and the barbarians followed her out of the hall. Her blue eyes could have turned red; they burned so angrily. Amidst the murmurs and gasps of the surrounding Makedonian nobility, the barbarians exited, led by the blond woman. Xerxes had only known women like that in one place, and that was in Kamboja, the home of his Asvaka guards. He was unsurprised to see that their eyes followed her as she left, filled with both respect and lust.
Xerxes turned his attention back to Orestes, who was whispering something in the ear of a man close to his age. The man nodded, Orestes smiled, and the man left. Orestes’ gaze lingered on the man as he left longer than Xerxes would expect, but then he remembered the kinds of men who inhabited this land. Finally, the young Basileus turned his attention to Xerxes:
“Ah, Xerxes, fellow King of Kings, it makes me glad to see you here, safe in my halls. The air is absolutely abuzz with stories of the escaped King of Persia and his adventures in far off barbarian lands. Cyaxares and Eiran will be distraught to learn that you are now housed by Makedonia!”
There was some laughter in the hall, as if Xerxes wasn’t the most accomplished military man in the room.
“But I embrace you as a friend! Have some wine, have some women, and celebrate the Bromian revelry!”
Xerxes gave his thanks, accepted a skin of wine, and reveled and made merry. But in his heart, he knew as he watched Orestes gargle the juice of the vine that this would be the last night the Basileus would.
In the chambers allowed to Xerxes, he sharpened his blade, contemplating his plan. His men would die to the last to ensure his escape, but Xerxes clearly would prefer for their survival. Leippada had kept them awake, so that they would be ready to escape when the moment was right. Xerxes stared at his sword long and hard, and finally collected his resolve. He stood up, and made for the door.
It was then that, to Xerxes’ great surprise, the door burst open. Xerxes made ready to kill anyone in his path, and brought his blade down, but it was stopped with the clang of steel, and a swift parry. Xerxes stepped back, assessing his opponent, who stood in the doorway, and… was he smiling?
“I almost didn’t believe them when they told me that Xerxes, the third of his name, former King of the Persians was under my cousin’s roof. Your reputation for the sword was not exaggerated.”
The man sheathed his sword, a leaf-shaped blade with a gold and ivory hilt: this was a man of great wealth.
“This sword is not meant for you,” Xerxes said, trying to get past the man, but a muscular arm blocked his way.
“Ah, so you and I have similar interests I see.”
“Get out of my way.”
“There are much more affective ways of assassination, my friend,” the man whispered. “That I can assure you.”
Xerxes froze. Perhaps his sudden rigidity betrayed him. The man used the opportunity to close the door.
“My name is Pyrros, Basileus of Epiros.” The man said, “And by morning, I will have already accomplished what you seem to have come this far to do.”
“What do you mean.”
“Orestes has been throwing his weight around, trying to wrestle my people into doing his will. I suppose slaying Illyrian barbarians is not his will, which is why it was in the best interests of both myself and my kingdom that Orestes be romoved from his position of power. The man can’t very well be dethroned, his people love him, so it seems you resolved to the same end that I did.”
“You’ve killed him?” Xerxes managed to garble out.
“He’d dying as we speek, at least if the poison does its work,” Pyrros said. “I thought I would visit you before I leave. Don’t want to be present when his body is found. I don’t recommend you be hear either.”
Xerxes stared at this Pyrros. He was clearly a military man. He looked to be near forty years old, had a round face, a nose that looked like it had been broken before, and an almost constant sneer upon his face.
“I should thank you for doing the work for me,” Xerxes said.
“Orestes was a bastard anyway. I highly doubt at old Philotas’ age he would have really have been able to sire so many children.”
“An interesting theory.”
“Hardly seems to matter now anyway, does it?” Pyrros smiled. “They will suspect you of killing him.”
“My men are ready to escape into the night.”
“As are mine. You should join me in Passaron [2]. I could use a man like you.”
Xerxes looked Basileus Pyrros in the eye, and with a smile, he agreed.
----------------
[1] Celts in Macedon?!?! What on earth could this mean? I’d remember those names if I were you.
[2] This was the original capital of Epirus, and ITTL remained so because Ambracia was never given to Epirus by Cassander. It still remains under Makedonian rule.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Eight: Fallout
286 B.E. (293 B.C.) saw the sudden death of Orestes III of Makedonia. How he died is to this day uncertain, but contemporaries of the late Basileus claim that he was poisoned, and died in his sleep. The finger was pointed at almost every political figure of the day: Agents of Nectanebo III of Egypt, Eiran I of Babylon, Antiochos I of Italion, Pyrros of Epiros, Xerxes III, Ariston II of Sparta, Tectosages emissaries, and not to mention a whole list of Makedonian nobility. Ultimately, however, no one knew: There were just too many people who wanted to see Orestes dead.
Apparently, Xerxes Indikos [1], who had newly arrived in the courting Pellas thought it unsafe to remain after Orestes’ death, and he found refuge in Epiros under Pyrros, who made him one of his generals. There, Xerxes proved very useful for his already extensive experience with war elephants, and he became a close friend of Pyrros. At the same time, Neoptolemos II, the co-king of Epiros, saw Xerxes as a threat, and claimed that he was Orestes III’s assassin, offering him to the Makedonians.
Orestes III died with no children, so the crown moved to his younger brother, Pausanias II buried his brother, legitimizing his right to rule [2]. When agents of Neoptolemos arrived in Pellas to offer over Xerxes Indikos, Pausanias jumped at the opportunity. But, as it turned out, Xerxes was lucky to find a friend in Pyrros, who saw to Neoptolemos II’s death, thus eliminating the co-king and becoming the sole ruler of Epiros [3]. In response, Pausanias demanded that Pyrros hand over Xerxes, else risk an invasion by Makedonia.
While Pyrros prepared for war with Makedonia (not only in defense of his new general, but possibly his own), Pausanias II set about crucifying anyone suspected of assassinating his brother, including members of his own court, thus ostracizing much of the Makedonian nobility.
When war broke out between Makedonia and Epiros in 284 B.E. (291 B.C.), Pyrros assembled an army of 30,000 men, half the size of the Makedonian army. Pausanias II himself led the attack, meeting Pyrros near Orraon in Molossia, the home territory of the Epirote royal family. In the ensuing battle, Pyrros masterfully out-maneuvered Pausanias, flanking the Makedonian line. Pyrros’ 15 war elephants present at the battle caused disarray in the Makedonian line, and by the end of the day, Pausanias had lost more than half of his army, while Pyrros’ casualties were at a minimum, only an estimated 1,500. None other than Xerxes Indikos and his Asvaka horsemen captured Pausanias himself. Reportedly, Xerxes forced Pausanias to surrender at sword-point, humiliating the young king.
Considering how crushing the victory was, the terms Pyrros set forth were relatively lenient. Epiros was given freedom to wage war with its Illyrian neighbors to the north without protest from Makedonia; Makedonia ceded the city of Passaron to Epirote control, and Pausanias’ sister Europa was to be married to Pyrros, further connecting the two royal families. Perhaps Pyrros thought that by making the terms of Makedonia’s defeat so slight, that he could achieve some kind of friendship between himself and the nobility, presenting himself as the forgiving (and capable) leader, thus undermining Pausanias’ power. Regardless, when Pausanias II returned to Makedonia, it was clear that the age of strongmen like Philip II, Alexandros III, and Philotas was long gone.
Sensing Makedonia’s weakness, King Eiran I of Babylonia marched on the Makedonian frontier, overrunning Phoenicia and the Levant in 279 B.E. (286 B.C.). The Makedonian satraps in Cilicia managed to turn the Babylonians away from Anatolia at Issos, bolstered by the promised troops sent by Nectanebo III from Egypt. While Nectanebo’s contribution without doubt saved much Makedonian territory from Babylonian expansion, the fact that Egyptians saved the day did not have exactly great results in the court in Pellas. People were outraged, claiming that Makedonia was becoming a puppet to Nectanebo III and that the Egyptians were calling the shots.
Rebellions broke out throughout Pausanias’ territory, the most violent of which was in the Ionian Islands. These rebels were, unsurprisingly, backed by the Hellenes of Sparta and Athens. The rebellion was violently put down, with thousands slaughtered.
Basileus Pausanias II, though incompetent, was learning quickly what it required to maintain his power, and he began to put down any sign of dissent within his realm, assassinating and replacing viceroys, satraps, generals, and nobility with people loyal to him, regardless of their merit.
--------------
[1] After his campaigns in India, Xerxes III is often referred to as “Indikos”.
[2] Macedonian tradition held that a succeeding king was required to burry his predecessor.
[3] OTL Pyrrhus had Neoptolemus II assassinated because he was merely a puppet of the Seleucids. The result is similar to TTL.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Nine: The Third Babylonian Empire
Eiran I, otherwise known as Eiran the Scourge, may have been one of the greatest military minds of the Fertile Crescent since the fall of Assyria. He succeeded his father to become the second ruler of the new Babylonian kingdom, which propelled the fledgling successor-state into a multi-cultural powerhouse.
He began this transformation by modernizing the Babylonian army. The Babylonian military had previously been almost identical to that of the fallen Persian Empire, and needed a new edge to combat the growing pressures around it. Medes rose in the East, Makedonia loomed in the West, and barbarians lived in the deserts to the South and the mountains to the North. It took a very different breed of man to hold up an independent nation amidst all of that, and Eiran I was of that breed.
Firstly, Eiran’s own name sounded the coming of reform, for he was the first ruler of Babylonia to take on a name of the common tongue: Aramaic. Aramaic became the language of his court, replacing the old tongues no longer spoken that had hung over Babylonian politics during their Second Empire [1] two and a half centuries earlier.
Eiran took began his rule in 291 B.E. (298 B.C.), and as a first order of introducing aspects of the Makedonian heavy phalanx into his own army, creating a core of heavily armed pike men that greatly resembled those of the West. In 285 B.E. (292 B.C.) he hired Scythian horsemen, which became a permanent part of his army known as the D’Shiadoa Suosyoa, or “Horse-Demons”.
With plans of grandeur and the rallying cry of a return to Babylonian power, Eiran I led an invasion of Armenia in the first year of his reign, which resulted in a swift and crushing victory. Eiran annexed the cities of Musasir and Van and the kingdom of Sophene. Eiran the Scourge exacted tribute from what was left of Armenia, making the present ruler, King Orontes III, a sub-king who swore fealty to Babylonia.
Directly following Eiran’s affective victory, shudders rippled through the rest of the world as each nation tensed. Basileus Orestes II met with Nectanebo III in Egypt to discuss the repercussions of a war with Babylonia, making an alliance with the Pharaoh and promised his sister Europa to him (a marriage that never happened, as she was later married to Pyrros of Epiros. Why Nectanebo seemed to make no mind is unknown.)
Eiran I spent the next decade subduing the various tribes to his south in Arabia, vassalizing the Qedarites, and exerted control over the copper mines in Maqan and established a garrison in Omana [2], as well as annexing the island of Tilmun [3]. These acts of aggression caused friction with the Medians, who had just subsumed the last remnants of Achaemenid Persia and had nominal “claim” to the area. Regardless, this fortified Babylonia’s position in the Mesopotamia- India trade system, which had previously been controlled by the Persians.
In 279 B.E. (286 B.C.), Eiran I rightly sensed Makedonia’s growing weakness, and moved to take control of Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. His army, some 30,000 strong, overran the region that had been poorly garrisoned by the Makedonians, and was in no shortage of what we might call “Helleno-phobes”. Marching down the coastline, The Scourge sent one of his generals, a man named Bar-Talmai, to move into Anatolia, hoping to deliver a crippling blow to the Makedonians in Asia.
This was not meant to be.
Pharaoh Nectanebo III, following through with his agreement with the Makedonian crown, sent some 15,000 infantry (well more than what had been promised to Orestes II). They arrived by sea and with their help, the satrap of Cilicia was able to repel the Babylonians as Issos and keep them from entering Anatolia.
Enraged, Eiran I marched his troops further down the coast, past Gaza, and into the Sinai Peninsula. It was clear that his retribution for Egyptian interference would be swift and brutal. Nectanebo III, however, had not seized Egypt from the Persian without his own military know-how. But the Egyptian military was not as well equipped as the Babylonians, though equally as numerous.
But the Pharaoh had a plan.
It didn’t work.
Nectanebo III intended to make a stand near the Sea of Reeds [4], inspired by the tales of his Hellenic personal guard of Thermopylae. With his army there, he hoped to hold off the Babylonians long enough for reinforcements. But, Nectanebo forgot to take something into account: unlike Thermopylae, the Sea of Reeds was very easy to get around. Before he knew what had happened, his army was surrounded, slaughtered, and Nectanebo III met his end.
Eiran I continued to march onward into Egypt, having only taken minimal casualties as the Sea of Reeds. Nectanebo III’s eldest living son (three had been killed at the Battle of the Reed Sea), Bakare Necho took up the position of Pharaoh, and took the name Necho III. He only had a few days to prepare before Eiran would reach the Delta.
Eiran I set about a rampage in Egypt, burning villages, desecrating shrines, and causing general chaos in the countryside. Necho III’s army of 10,000 marched north from Memphis, but when he met the Babylonians in battle, it was his own Greek mercenaries who turned against him. Apparently, Eiran I had made a deal with them in the night:
They surrender Necho III over to him, and their leader, Isidoros would be crowned Pharaoh with the backing of the Babylonian army. It was a sweet deal, and only a fool wouldn’t accept. Isidoros turned Necho III over without a second thought, and the land of Egypt was ripe for the taking.
Eiran I instilled Isidoros in Memphis as the Pharaoh, but only after slaughtering the entire royal family, deposing most of the nobility and replacing them with members of the Greek cohort.
In the Autumn of 277 B.E. (284 B.C.), the 34th Dynasty (also known as the Mercenary Dynasty) of Egypt rose under the firm hand of the Third Babylonian Empire, and the Scourge earned his name.
--------------
[1] The Neo-Babylonian Empire, which lasted 626- 539 B.C. is referred to ITTL as the Second Babylonian Empire. The Neo-Babylonian Empire was pretty conservative, and used they dying Akkadian language as its official language, although even then, Aramaic was the langua franca.
[2] Magan or Makan was the ancient Sumerian name for Oman, and Omana was the reported name of ancient Sohar.
[3] Bahrain
[4] A swamp near the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Ten: “Pyrro”-mania
After his brief war with Makedonia, Pyrros felt assured that his realm was safe from the outside meddlings of what he (and everyone else) perceived as a nation on its deathbed. This allowed him to do what he had intended to do from the beginning: invade and pacify Illyria. Pyrros’ army marched north, subduing the coastal Hellenistic cities of Apollonia and Epidamnus with ease. He defeated the Bryges, Taulanti, and Parthini in battled, thereafter laying siege to the Parthini capital of Parthos in 280 B.E. (287 B.C.), and absorbed their land into Epiros, settling Parthos with Epirotes, and also setting up another small colony which he called Pyria (after himself, clearly) a year later at the mouth of the Parthos River [1], just north of Apollonia. This victory, while expanding Epiros’ territory, also managed to cull some of the piracy that plagued the Adriatic Sea. The Illyrians were well known as pirates and raiders along the Adriatic. The Epirote king had just dealt a serious blow to such brigands by taking over two of their greatest pirate cities. Pyrros exacted tribute from the Greek colony of Lissos, to the north, as well as the Illyrian cities of Uscana, Bassania, and Epicaria, other Illyrian centers of piracy now put in line.
But these were only small victories, and Pyrros dreamed of victory on a mythological scale, victories for which he would become famous. Pyrros seemed to have drawn up a planned invasion of Makedonia and Thessaly, plans that surely would have worked, when another opportunity arose that promised an ounce more excitement.
While Pyrros had been securing his Adriatic border, someone else had been doing the same on the other side: the Samnites. War broke out again between Seluekid Italion and the Samnite League in 277 B.E. (284 B.C.) when the latter instigated a rebellion in Lucania. Meddix Pomptis Egnatius took quick advantage of the anarchy, and marched his army of 30,000 men down the Messappian coastline, sacking and pillaging as he went with little resistance. Basileus Seleukos was old, and his son still governed in Syracuse, dealing with an unruly bunch of mercenary rebels and pirates known as the Mamertines [2] along the northeast coast of Sicily. Seleukos was forced to meet the Samnites head-on near Kallipolis. Seleukos expected a swift victory. He had hired a large army of mercenaries to bolster his Italiote Greeks, thus leading an army of approximately 40,000 men, outnumbering the Samnites. However, Seleukos’ scouts gave an incorrect location as to the Samnite encampment. It was no mistake, as the scouts were Bruttians, former allies of the Samnites, and while the Italiote army moved south along the Tarantine coastline, they were ambushed, and Seleukos was forced to retreat, abandoning Kallipolis, Seleukia, and all of the cities to the south of Taras.
A year later, as the walls seemed to be closing in around him, Seleukos asked for help from Pyrros of Epiros, the up and coming military strongman. Epiros already had a history of fighting in Italia at the behest of Magna Graecia. Seleukos offered to pay tribute to Epiros for Pyrros’ help, and in 276 B.E. (283 B.C.) Pyrros of Epiros arrived in Taras with an army of 25,000 infantry (many of whom were mercenaries), 3,000 cavalry, and 20 elephants.
With Pyrros’ help, the Italiotes were able to subdue the ongoing Lucanian rebellion. Meanwhile, Pyrros managed to cut off the Samnite line of supply by sending his army north into Apulia and Messappia instead of South to face off against the Samnite army there. Later that year, the Samnites marched north to face this new adversary, where they were defeated.
The Samnite army was completely unused to the kind of army Pyrros led. They had never even seen elephants before, let alone in battle, and the state-of-the-art Epirote forces were more heavily armed than their Italiote counterparts. That isn’t to say that the Samnites didn’t take a heavy toll on the Epirote army, but by the end of the day the Samnite army was scattered to the winds and forced to retreat to their homeland. Meddix Egnatius and his army regrouped in the north, and made for the mountains. Pyrros followed them, and defeated them again at the Samnite fortress of Amvianud in 275 B.E. (282 B.C.), but he took heavy casualties. The mountainous terrain surrounding the fortress made travel for Pyrros’ war elephants all but a liability, and his slowly approaching army was cumbersome on the uneven ground. While the victory kept the Samnites at bay, Pyrros reluctantly retreated only after his premier general Xerxes Indikos convinced him that to continue the invasion north would mean certain defeat.
Pyrros, upon his return to Taras, learned that Seleukos had died suddenly a few days earlier, probably from a heart attack [3]. Rulership of Italion passed to Seleukos’ son, Antiochos I of Syracuse. Antiochos paid Pyrros tribute upon his coronation, and asked for his help in Sicily to oust the Carthaginians. Pyrros did this, but left Xerxes Indikos in Italion with an army of 10,000 should the Samnites invade, or, more sinisterly, should the new king become a nuisance to Pyrros’ plans.
Which he did.
It only took Pyrros two years to oust the Carthaginians from almost the whole of Sicily, and in that time Antiochos had failed to quell a mercenary rebellion in Rhegion [4] as well as failed to defeat the Mamertines at Nexos. While Pyrros was making plans for his final siege of Lilybaeum, Antiochos was affectively screwing everything up by not only being able to quell a gang of pirates, but by blocking Pyrros’ success in his campaign against the Carthaginians. When asked for ships to blockade Lilybaeum, Antiochos refused, saying his kingdom was under enough strain already.
Pyrros gave the orders, and Xerxes Indikos used his army to launch a coup against Antiochos, killing the Basileus in 273 B.E. (280 B. C.), and declared Pyrros as the new Basileus of Italion and of Sicily. With this position of power, Pyrros was able to get the ships he needed, and completed his siege of Lilybaeum in 272 B.E. (279 B.C.), becoming the first non-Punic invader to take the fortress. Pyrros made plans for his newly acquired kingdoms to pass to his only son Alexandros [5] should Pyrros die.
Peace negotiations between Malik Bomilcar and Pyrros fell through, and Pyrros made clear his intent to invade the Carthaginian homeland when he ordered the construction of an even larger fleet and began to conscript soldiers from Italion and Sicily.
Pyrros’ prepared to set sail to Carthage from Syracuse with his fleet of twenty penteres (quinquerems), sixty tetreres (quadreremes), and one hundred trireres (triremes), and one hepteres (septireme) as the flagship. Each ship had green sails with the many symbols of Epirus sewn on: the bull, the horseman, Pegasus, the winged woman, and the warrior. As legend has it, he was boarding onto the flagship when one of his generals, a man named Perdikkas, came shouting for the King.
Pyrros stopped what he was doing, and listened as his general relayed a message. Perdikkas was sweating like rain, and panting like a dog, but he managed to gasp out the news.
Pyrros was needed in the East.
“A darkness christened in blood has befallen the homeland. A barbarism without name…”
---------------
[1] The Shkumbin River in Albania
[2] See Part 2 of this Chapter “The Sons of War” for more details on the Mamertines
[3] OTL Seleucus was assassinated a year later, however, the stress of ruling a precarious nation on the edge of the “civilized” world undoubtedly had its toll on his health.
[4] Also mentioned in Part 2 of this Chapter “The Sons of War”
[5] OTL, Pyrros had two sons named Helenus and Ptolemy from two different wives. Lanassa, who ITTL was married to Antiochos, and Antigone, who was of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. ITTL Pyrrhus is married to Europa of Macedon.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Eleven: Barbarians At The Gates (Depending On Who You Ask)
Where to begin any conversation about the Celtic Invasions of 275 B.E. (282 B.C.) is always a difficult task [1]. Historical bias has clouded much of the truth from historians for over two thousand years, and even if that were not enough, the ethnic tensions in the region, which continue to this very day, (and could arguably have some roots in the events following the invasion) electrify the issue.
The following is an attempt to relate the events during, and leading up to the Celtic Invasions.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the region of Pannonia was integrated into the Celto-sphere around the same time that Celtic tribes migrated into the Padus River Valley in Northern Italia. By the 3rd century B.E. the area was almost completely Celticized with many of the native Illyrian tribes, weakened by almost constant warring with the Greeks, adopting Celtic language, culture, and custom, even more of them being ruled by increasingly powerful Celto-centric confederacies. The Scordisci who seem to have come into existence some time before 303 B.E. (310 B.C.), led by a general named Molistomos, invaded and absorbed some of the Illyrian tribes further south such as the Autariatae and vassalized some tribes such as the Dardanians, Triballi, and Paeonians. [2]
Further north, however, in Noricum and Pannonia, the two dominant tribal entities were the Wolcae [3], near the head of the Istros [4] and the Boii to their east. The Wolcae and the Boii each appear to have been large confederacies of several smaller tribes, prime examples being the Tectosages (Wolcae) and the Tolistobogii (Boii). The Wolcae and Boii seemed to have been allies, considering the coordination the two tribes exhibited in their invasion southward.
Sources vary as to why the Wolcae and Boii moved south. Suggestions include over-population, economic incentive (the region was rich in metals, slaves, and trade), and the rise of the Warrior Cult. Tension between the Hellenic world and the Keltoi to their north was relatively new, but still existent. In 328 B.E. (335 B.C.), an envoy of representatives from several Celtic tribes in the north were sent under the pretense of paying homage to the then ruler of Makedonia, Alexandros III. This just so happened to occur during Alexandros’ invasion of Thrace, the region previously buffering the two cultures, which both eyed hungrily. It is almost certain that these representatives were sent with the true purpose of assessing the military might of the Makedonians and the prowess of their young king. Apparently, they were impressed enough to cease their southward push during his reign. But when he died at the Battle of Issos two years later, the migration continued unabated.
The relationship between the Makedonians and their neighbors to the north had never been a great one, with almost constant small-scale raiding into Thrace by Celtic tribes. During the reign of Philip III, the Celtic tribes supported rebellions in Thrace and Moesia. During the Makedonian Civil War, or Kassandrian War, raids intensified, with brief moments of Celtic occupation of Makedonian lands that were often repelled. Kynane managed to placate some of the tribes during her reign, using her connections with the Illyrian tribes. But relations continued to spiral out of control during Philotas’ and Orestes II’s reign. But it was only after Orestes II was assassinated, and his brother Pausanias II came to power did the tribes see their golden opportunity.
Pausanias II’s reputation as a feeble ruler was well known after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Pyrros of Epiros and his incompetence in the wake of the Babylonian invasion of Syria. Add in the fact that the Wolcae Tectosages had a real grudge against the Makedonian Basileus after Orestes II publicly insulted an envoy sent by them to Pellas (the night before his assassination, interestingly enough): an envoy which was led by the Tectosages princess Iouinaballa and a druid.
A preliminary invasion led by Cambaules was the spark that ignited the war. Cambaules led an army of some 20,000 men into Thrace, and captured a large area, defeating a small Makedonian army, but ousted by Pausanias II’s army. Cambaules returned to his home among the Boii, affirming that more warriors were necessary.
And if there was one thing the Celts had, it was warriors.
The following year, a massive multi-pronged invasion marched down along the Istros River and into Makedonian held Thrace. In all, over 250,000 warriors invaded [5], possibly the largest army to ever march on the Hellenistic world since the Persian Wars of the 5th century B.E.
Cambaules headed this massive army, but he was by no means the only military leader present in the army. Leading the Prausi, a tribe of the Wolcae confederation, was Brennos. Leading the Tectosages was Acichorios. Bolgios lead the men from the Tocri and Tolistobogii from the Boii confederation. And Cerenthios led an army of Taurisci. It was between these generals that the army was divided when the Celtic invaders decided to “plunder the multitudes of nations,” and the top nation on their hit list was Makedonia. [7]
Cerenthios moved eastward into the heart of Thrace, massacring any tribe that refused to submit with an army of 20,000. Brennos and Acichorios were initially supposed to take their armies and invade Paeonia in northwestern Thrace while Bolgios would take his army into Makedonia, but at the urging of Acichorios’ daughter, a woman already familiar with the area, the two armies stuck together and marched first against the Paeonians, and then, after a swift victory, into Makedonia. Of course, Acichorios’ daughter was the diplomat Orestes II turned away a few years earlier, Iouinaballa.
Hearing of the invasion (it would have been hard not to), Pausanias II mustered as many troops as he could, sparing those on the eastern border with Babylonia. His army numbered about 60,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry. He bought twenty Syrian elephants, and even rode one to meet the Keltoi, hoping to impress them or scare them off with this show of power. Other aristocrats braced themselves for the coming invasion by raising smaller, local armies to fend off raiders.
When the Celtic and Makedonian armies met, a Celtic envoy went to meet Pausanias II, advising that he surrender and pay the Wolcae and Boii off to prevent slaughter. Iouinaballa herself was present, only to be insulted twice by a Makedonian Basileus. Pausanias not only refused the “barbarian’s” offer, but countered with his own: that the Wolcae and Boii pay him homage, hand over their arms, and return to their homeland in the north with their tails between their legs.
“The son’s of men who fought under the likes of Alexandros and Parmenion who defeated the hordes of Persia are like gods in war.”
Pausanias then went on to claim that the Celtic invaders sought peace because they were cowards and feared for their lives before his Makedonian army. [8] When Pausanias’ response reached the ears of Bolgios, Brennos, and Acichorios, they responded:
“Only a fool would believe we seek peace for our safety and not his own.”
The ensuing battle was a complete massacre of the Makedonian forces. The Makedonian phalanx was ripped to shreds and completely out maneuvered by the fluid Celtic tactics. Pausanias’ elephants caused some initial disruption in the Celtic line, but one should never underestimate the hero-complex of the Celtic warrior. Soon, men wearing nothing but their breaches, covered in blue tattoos, were climbing up onto the elephants, killing the rider and the elephant. Pausanias himself was captured in such a way; being dragged kicking and screaming from his felled elephant.
Upon his capture, he was presented to the generals and chieftains of the Celtic army. It was Iouinaballa who was given the great honor of beheading Pausanias II, Basileus ton Basileon of Makedonia. She held the head up in the air, blood gushing everywhere, and let out such a cry that the surviving Makedonians had never been so terrified by a woman before, and paraded it among the Celtic army by chariot.
Many consider this moment to be the final nail in the coffin for the Kingdom of Makedonia.
It did not take long for the anarchy to spread. With the main Makedonian army destroyed, there was nothing in the way of the Keltoi.
---------
[1] These Celtic Invasions occurred 2-4 years earlier than those of OTL.
[2] There are conflicting theories about the origins of the Scordisci. One theory, that I obviously don’t favor, suggests that the Scordisci came into existence due to the failure of OTL’s Celtic Invasion of Greece. I, however, agree with the theory that they existed some time earlier (though not that much earlier, clearly) as a result of the steady southward movement of Celtic tribes down the Danube and Sava Rivers.
[3] The letter V did not make the same sound it does in the English language when Romans used it. V actually made the sound of a U or W, so the Volcae would have been the Wolcae. Usually, I don’t bother, but the Wolcae could be the source of the Germanic use of “Walkos” as a name for foreigner, such as Wales, Wallonia, Wallachia, and Gaul.
[4] The Danube
[5] Numbers vary on the actual number of the Celtic invading army, but the contemporary historian Pausanias (obviously not my fictional Macedonian King) and the Roman historian Strabo claimed that the army led by Brennus into Greece (a.k.a. 1/3 of the army) comprised of more than 150,000 infantry and over 60,000 horsemen. My estimation is actually low-balling the Gallic invasion. Recall that it was just a splinter group from this army that became the nations of Tyle and Galatia. It is likely, however, that numbers were inflated because these were not simply armies, but migrations with women and children in tow.
[7] I bullshitted a little here. We don’t know which tribes many of these men hailed from. In fact, Brennus is the only one we know for certain. I tried to make my best guess from what tribes settled where and when, but I think it is important that this information be presented because with a Celtic victory, such information would have been documented.
[8] Very similar comments were made by Ptolemy Keraunos to Bolgios’ army.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Twelve: The Birth of Ouolkike
The following is a passage from
The History of Ouolkike: Volume 2 by Catuandros—
“
With the head of the Mapedonnirix [1]
at the head of their army, the Ouolki moved onward with new strength. The Gods truly were on their side, and this new land delivered to them was fertile and warm. The war-horns and drums announced their arrival to each new city, and each new city paid tribute to the Ouolki. The cities the Mapedonni called Idomenai, Ioron, Bragylai, Morrylos, Europos, Klitai, Ichnai, Herakleia, Allante, Tyrissa, Gendetros, and Kyrrhos all opened their gates to the Ouolki upon their arrival and showered them with the riches their city had to offer. They swore fealty to the Ouolki and forsook their former loyalty to the Mapedonnirix, whose head was possessed by Iouinaballa Acichorignos.
Since the Mapedonnirix had no sons or daughters, there was no one to take his place as king in the Mapedonni tradition. Mapedonni generals began calling themselves kings in far off lands ruled by the Mapedonnirix. Fearing the coming might of the Ouolki, the Mapedonni living in the city they called Pellas began to flee by way of the ocean, while others set to panic and began to riot within the walls of the city. When the Ouolki arrived, half of the city was empty, and those who remained opened the gates to the Ouolki without a struggle. The city paid the greatest tribute of all, and many of the houses left abandoned were filled with the wandering families of the Ouolki.
The Ouolki then sent out two armies from Pellas. One was led by Brennos, and went west to defeat the Botti and the Paeoni, while another led by Acichoros went east and exacted tribute and fealty from the cities there as far as Philippi and the island of Thasos. Ouolki began to settle these cities and farm the lands abandoned by the craven Mapedonni.”
From the ashes of the destructive end of the Makedonian Empire, the Wolkae, or Ouolkoi as the Greeks later called them, began to settle and took quick control of the region. They ravaged the tribes along the Strymonas River, decimating the Maedi. They then cut east, and moved down the Bardarios River, assaulting Paeonian and Thracian cities such as Stobi, Dober, and so on, until they marched into the heart of Makedonia. The coming arrival of the Celtic migration had caused such fear that many cities simply surrendered to the oncoming army, not even risking the violence. Many of the Makedonian nobles fled the city of Pellas to Anatolia; however, for those who could not escape, it seemed that death drew nearer with everyday.
All accounts agree that a few days before the Wolkae arrived, a riot broke out in Pellas. The remaining nobility in the city insisted that the city man a defense, and hope that they could survive a siege long enough for reinforcements from Anatolia. But the fear within the city was too great, and the people within the city determined that if they gave up the city, their lives would be spared. Chaos held over the city for two days as the opposing sides vied for control of the city gates, until finally the last of the nobility were had either been captured, died, or fled the city. The gates of Pellas opened to the Wolkae without a fight on the ninth day of Scorpio, 274 B.E. (281 B.C.). The Wolkae determined to make Pellas their new base of operations, settling the rest of their families there. Brennos and Acichoros each set out with armies of approximately 60,000 men and began securing the surrounding area.
In Anatolia, the satraps and viceroys established independence, seeing that they could no longer rely on Makedonia for protection.
Meanwhile, the Boii, who had broken off from the Wolkae army, set about ravaging Thrace. They defeated and exacted tribute from the tribes along the Hebros River, including the Bessi, Sapaei, and Odrysians. Here they settled the Thracian city of Aenus, or Poltyobria, and set up a kingdom that the Wolkae called Bojikika. The Boii attempted to take Byzantion, but were turned back by an army from Bithynia. The Bithynian satrap pushed the Boii advance long enough to secure the surrounding area, but was defeated near Salmydessus by the Boii under Bolgios with the help of the Asti, a Thracian ally.
To the South, the Hellenes braced themselves for the coming onslaught of the Galatoi. And they had good reason to. Word soon spread that the Wolkae chieftain Brennos was leading an army of 100,000 men south. Almost half of this army was made of cavalry that used the trimarchisia system, where one cavalry man would be fighting in battle, while two others waited to retrieve his body, replace his horse, or replace him in battle.
Now, here is where historical bias becomes almost unbearable on both sides, because it is hard to discern the true motives of Brennos as he moved south. The Hellenes insist that his intention was to sack Delphi and desecrate the gods; but the histories written by the Ouolki insist that he intended to make the peoples located there into vassals and tributaries. It is likely that both are partially true. The Wolkae were doing a good job of securing the region of Makedonia, and the Greeks to the south remained unconquered. But then again, gold is always a great incentive for a raiding party, though Delphi may not have been his main target.
Regardless, by the spring of the next year, Thessaly had fallen. Brennos’ army met little resistance until Thermopylae, where a pan-Hellenic force had assembled to hold off the barbarian Galatoi. The majority of the army was made up of Aetolians, however a sizeable number of Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, and Spartans were assembled. Their army totaled 10,000.
Both sides agree on one thing: Thermopylae was a mistake for the Wolkae. They fought for two days, taking heavy casualties. Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 fallen Wolkae, while the Hellenes had only taken minimal damage. Frustrated, Brennos had his second-in-command, Iccauos [2] take 20,000 men west to raid Aetolia, hoping it would draw the Aetolians to their homeland and weaken the Hellenic forces at Thermopylae. Brennos had made a gamble, but it worked.
Iccauos’ army arrived in Aetolia and wrought such carnage, that the Aetolians left at Thermopylae were forced to leave to defend their homeland. This halved the army assembled at Thermopylae, which was soon overrun. In Aetolia, Iccauos slaughtered the Aetolian army when it arrived. The Aetolian defense was so vicious, that:
“The woman and children took up arms to defend not only their homeland, but their very existence. Such was the disparity of their situation.”
When Iccauos’ army had finished, Aetolia was devastated. His army took loot, and marched to regroup with Brennos as Delphi. When they met at Delphi, the Wolkae looted the temple and raped the Oracle. As they left, they saw a small Spartan and Athenian contingency of about 1000 men marching towards them. With the higher ground atop Delphi, the Wolkae cavalry passed over the Spartans like a great wave, leaving none alive. [3]
The Wolkae continued to raid and loot Hellas for another month until they drew back north to Pellas with all of the riches of the Greeks in tow. However, along the way, a disagreement broke out over the how to divide the spoils. The Hellenic historians simply say the Galatoi had such a lust for gold that they broke into squabbling over it. More specifically, the Ouolki say there was a disagreement over the rights and distribution of the plunder. Brennos wished to keep most of the loot for himself and the men of his tribe, but his generals insisted that the loot be divided equally through all the tribes assembled within the army. The disagreement led to infighting, and a brief battle broke out in Thessaly that the Ouolki call Briga Dibu e Debu, or the Hill of the Gods and Goddesses. It is likely that this is Mount Olympus, near where the Wolkae occupied lands began. In the end of the dispute, Brennos was exiled, and he took the some 20,000 men of his tribe left back north into Illyria, where he fell into historical oblivion.
The Celtic Invasions would leave a massive mark on the history of the region, and would directly shape the culture and political climate of the Aegean.
-----------
[1] My take on the Gallicization of the word Macedonians with the suffix –rix, denoting royalty. “King of the Macedonians”
[2] OTL, Acichoros was Brennos’ 2nd in command at Thermopylae, but ITTL, he is in Pellas securing Macedonia. This is a fictional man fulfilling a similar purpose.
[3] OTL, this happened a year later, so there weather was very different. A storm had caused chaos in the Celtic ranks, and forced the Celts to retreat at Delphi without actually sacking it.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Thirteen: The Great Wrestling Grounds
“How did all of this happen without my knowing?” Pyrros snarled. “Half of the countryside razed, the other half trembling in fear! For a year! And none of you informed me?”
The nobles at court in Passaron averted their eyes. Many began to toil with their robes nervously.
“I asked a question.” Pyrros said sternly. By his side were his two highest-ranking generals, Xerxes Indikos and Perdikkas, both dressed in full armor. Pyrros had been force to take the bulk of his army back to Epiros leaving only a fraction of his force back in Italion and Sicily to garrison his newly acquired territory. It was something he had not done happily. “Why was I not informed earlier of the barbarians’ invasion?”
“They only raided our frontier, and that was when we informed you.” Tharypos, the Basileus’ treasurer in Passaron spoke up timidly, “Previously the Keltoi had busied themselves with the other polities around us.”
“Polities including Makedonia?” Pyrros gritted his teeth. “Were you unaware that with Pausanias’ death, I have claim to the throne of Makedonia, Tharypos?”
“Basileus, we did not think—“
Blood splattered the marbled floor. Tharypos fell to the ground, a massive gash where his throat once was. Pyrros flicked the blood from his sword with disdain as he said:
“This is what happens to men who don’t think.”
The nobility did not gasp: all of them had seen blood and carnage. Epiros was a violent frontier of the Hellenic world after all. Pyrros began wiping the blood from his blade, and looked to his generals.
“We march for Dodona tomorrow. If the Ouolkoi have already sacked Delphi, Dodona might be next. Blood of Aspetos! It is a surprise they haven’t already. Molossians, Chaonians, and Thesprotians—Epirotes! Nigh is our hour of greatness!” [1]
In 272 B.E. (279 B.C.) Pyrros returned to Epiros with the majority of his mercenary army he had intended to use for an invasion of Carthage. Finding that Greece was in complete and utter chaos, he first moved to secure his frontier, and sent an army to protect the temple at Dodona. It did not take long for the remaining Hellenic polities to call for his help. Makedonia was shattered, the Aetolian League was left to dust, and Thessaly was not only demolished, but was being settled by Wolcae. Further south, Athens and Sparta were beginning to break under the pressure, and Argos and Corinth were on the brink as well. Epiros was, it turned out, the only force left with enough strength to ward off the Celts.
The first thing Pyrros did was expressed his claim to the Makedonian throne. The Argead and Aeacid lineages were rather intertwined, and Pyrros was the second cousin of Alexandros III, his aunt was Kleopatra of Epiros, and he was married to Pausanias’ sister Europa. It turned out, the only other person with any claim to the vacant Makedonian throne was the chieftain of the Dardanians (related to Pausanias through his grandmother Kynane), but the Dardanians were all but shattered by the Celtic invasion, and now paid tribute to the Wolcae.
Pyrros split his army into three prongs, hoping to regain as much ground as possible against the Wolcae as possible. Xerxes Indikos was to take 10,000 men north to rally the Illyrian tribes and flank the Wolcae from the Northwest. Perdikkas was to move south with 7000 infantry and secure Acarnania before moving north through Locris and to march up the Aegean coast once he reached it. Pyrros would move east through Thessaly, intending to meat up with Perdikkas at Pagasae. From there they would meat up with Xerxes at Pellas. At least that was the plan.
Xerxes Indikos gathered 5000 men from the Illyrians north of Epiros, including the vassalized Parthini and Bryges before moving north into the land of the Dardanians, who had allied with the Wolcae after being spurned by the Makedonians. He defeated them in battle, and continued to march north through their land, where he ran into a brief battle with the Scordisci who had moved south and absorbed the Autariatae about forty years earlier. The former Persian King was able to rebuff them before turning his attention southward. Xerxes actually refused to commit to a staged battle with any Wolcae war bands he encountered, preferring to harass them and goad them into ambush. One such ambush was at the Battle of Axios where he drew a Wolcae army of 20,000 into a valley and rushed them from the hillside. The tactic worked, leaving the shocked Celtic army in disarray with the river at their backs and nowhere to run. The battle gained Xerxes a reputation amongst the Wolcae as a courageous leader, a man to be respected and feared.
Everything seemed to go to plan with Perdikkas. His army of 7000 infantry, and some 200 cavalry quickly seized control of Acarnania, and even absorbed shattered Aetolia, where the remnants of their famous cavalry joined his own. Most Greeks in the region saw the Epirote army as a sign of security and safety, giving him little resistance as he passed through and swung north through Locris and Thessaly.
Pyrros had, perhaps knowingly, given himself the most difficult task. The land he marched his army through, the Pindhos Mountains, was largely tribal and difficult to pass through. It was made all the harder by the settling of Celts in the region. Unlike Perdikkas, who ran into no real resistance, and Xerxes who used cunning and some amount of trickery to defeat the enemies he ran into, Pyrros did not shy from pitched battle in the least. With him were his best soldiers, veterans from across the Adriatic some 15,000 strong. Pyrros met a Wolcae war band at Tricca and again at Pharsalus where he defeated them both. In both battles, Pyrros used his cavalry to protect his flanks and broke the Celtic center. While he achieved victory in both encounters, he took heavy casualties to his infantry. He was glad, indeed, to receive the reinforcements from Perdikkas at Pagasae before sweeping north through Thessaly.
Pyrros rightly assumed that if he could take Larissa, the largest city in Thessaly, the rest of the region would bow to him. His movement north toward the city was largely undisturbed by Celtic war bands with only a rare skirmish here and there. Larissa opened its gates to Pyrros as a liberator and offered to him 1000 of their finest horsemen, who were famed as some of the best in all of Greece. They named him Tagus, or King, of Thessaly, and swore fealty to Pyrros. Makedonia was only a short march north from Larissa, and Pellas was within his grasp…
“It’s almost too easy,” Xerxes whispered to himself.
Time and again, the Ouolkoi not only announced their coming, bashing their drums loudly and braying like wolves as they sang into battle, but they were consistent as well. Xerxes had yet to witness the full might of the Galatoi horde, but it shocked him in a way that such a kingdom as Makedonia could have crumbled so quickly to them. And here he was, again, riding quietly on his horse through the wooded backcountry, marching around the main Ouolkoi force that seemed to know nothing in the way of stealth. Even their scouts were loud and foolish, usually drunk even. At the tail of his army, twenty scouts were tied and gagged by the supply wagons, their eyes cut out and their ears chopped off.
“They are fierce warriors, nonetheless,” Leippada, the leader of his Asvaka guard reminded. “Overly confident, yes, but fierce, too.”
“I just don’t understand,” Xerxes stroked the short black hairs on his face. “Everything I have heard of their conquest of Makedonia would imply that they are cunning as well as powerful—they would need be! How else could they have so swiftly brought this country to its knees? It was flawless. But these war bands we’ve run into, these formless rabble that stalk the countryside, they’re hardly a challenge.”
Not far away, a grouse called out in the brush. The pine forest was quiet except for the sound of marching soldiers, and the distant noises of the Ouolkoi raiding party.
“When we make it past them, we turn around and approach from their rear,” Xerxes said. “Put all of their heads on spikes and burn the bodies like the rest when we are through. Inform the captains.”
Leippada nodded, and turned his horse around. Xerxes sighed and prodded his horse forward when he heard an all too familiar hiss and saw an arrow burry into the trunk of a tree not but a hair away from his face. He flinched backwards, and his horse reared up in terror.
Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of arrows. Xerxes looked back and saw Leippada dying on the forest floor with an arrow sticking out of his neck. Shouts rose up from his army as they realized they were under attack, taken by surprise, and as the Ouolkoi appeared from the shadows of the forest and fell upon them like a hammer.
Xerxes cursed when he saw that he was beat by his own trick.
-----------------
[1] Several things to note right now: Dodona is the home of an oracle and a huge center of Hellenic religious affairs. It was second only to Delphi. Aspetos was what the Epirotes called Achilles, who they worshipped as a diety. Also, the Molossians, Caonians, and Thesprotians are the three tribes that make up the Kingdom of Epirus, which is currently dominated by the Molossians.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Fourteen: Shards of Glass
With the fall of the Makedonian Empire in 274 B.E. (281 B.C.) to the Wolcae and the Boii, the immediate response to what was left of Pausanias II’s realm did what any self-respecting Makedonian government official would do: made himself king! Like a glass windowpane struck by a stone, the realm broke into a series of much smaller kingdoms.
Lydia: In northwestern Anatolia, Lydia was centered around the ancient city of Sardis. The former satrap Philip, a Makedonian, founded the Kingdom. The satrapy had an ancient history, once being an empire in its own right before the Persians invaded. The last Persian satrap of Lydia was Spithradates, who was killed at the battle of Granicus in 327 B.E. (334 B.C.). Once the satrapy was taken over by Alexandros III, Makedonians were put in place of the Persian dynasty there. From said dynasty did Philip I of Lydia descend. Philip’s realm not only included Lydia proper, but also Mysia, Troad, and Aeolis. He took great care during his rule to ensure that the Greek city-states along his coastline in Aeolis did not revolt or declare independence. To secure the cities, he moved native Lydians as well as Persian colonists into the Aeolian Dodecapolis (Kyme, Larissae, Neonteichnos, Temnus, Cilla, Notion, Aegiroessa, Pitane, Aegae, Myrina, Gryneion, and Smyrna).
Bithynia: A small kingdom whose rulers descended from the Makedonian general Balakros (who invaded it during the Kassandrian War). The satrap who became King of Bithynia was also named Balakros. He, however, did not have his ancestors pension for gaining ground, and in fact lost it when the city of Heraklea successfully revolted and established independence on the Euxeinos Pontos [1].
Byzantion: The last piece of former Makedonian land in Europe not overrun by barbarians, the city-state barely escaped a sacking from the Boii during their invasion of Thrace.
Heraklea: An independent democracy that rebelled against the Bithynians early on. The city is located along the Euxeinos Pontos.
Paphlagonia: To the East of Bithynia, Paphlagonia was one of the least Hellenized of Makedonia’s holdings (however a few Greek colonies dot the coastline). Isolated and already all but independent before Pausanias’ death, it is perfectly possible that the Paphlagonian prince wasn’t even aware that he wasn’t already the sole ruler of his mountainous land. The people of this land were ancient, attested by Homer as well as the Hittites. They seemed to have been related linguistically to the Kappadokians, who spoke an Anatolian language (related to Luwain, Lydian, Lycian, and Karian). All rulers of Paphlagonia took up the name Pylaimenes.
Phrygia: The vastest of the former satrapies, sitting in the center of Anatolia. It’s capital, Gordium, was once the seat of a large kingdom during the early Iron Age, but was defeated by the invading Cimmerians. Alexandros III famously passed through the city, cutting through the legendary Gordian Knot, and claimed Rulership of all Asia. A native satrap named Bagaios ruled Phrygia, a strategic location along the Old Persian Royal Road. The Phrygians spoke a language more closely related to Greek than the surrounding Anatolian Languages, however some argue it is more closely related to Armenian. It is also perfectly likely that Phrygian is the link between the Hellenic languages and Armenian.
Kappadokia: Independent only for a brief time, the nameless satrap who declared kingship was quickly defeated in a battle with the satrap of Cilicia, and Kappadokia was absorbed.
Cilicia: The second largest successor state to the Makedonian Empire, Cilicia stretches along the southern coast of Anatolia. Its population was a mix of Greek and native Anatolians descended from the Ancient Hittites, as well as some Persians and Semitic groups from the East. The satrap of Cilicia, another Makedonian descended from the general Belakros (who himself was the satrap of Cilicia during the Kassandrian War) had already proved himself in battle against the Babylonians when Pausanias found he could not defend his own frontier against them. After declaring kingship, he styled himself as Basileus Ptolemaios I of Cilicia.
Cyprus: The island nation was heavily colonized by the Greeks centuries before. Currently it is almost completely Greek. An unknown king ruled it for a time before it became a Babylonian vassal ten years later.
Karia: South of Lydia, Karia actually took some ground from Lydia by seizing Ionia. Karia, like many of the Anatolian provinces of former Makedonia is an ethnically mixed place, with many Greeks (Dorian and Ionian) as well as the native Anatolian Karians. Ruled by the descendants of Ada of Caria, a queen who helped Alexandros III in his conquest of Anatolia, she had actually made Alexandros her heir to her throne. However, he died before her, so the title passed on to her daughter. Her granddaughter, also named Ada, currently rules from the city of Halicarnassus. In her brief campaign north to take control of Ionia, she actually lost control of Rhodes, and it’s nearby coastline.
Rhodes: Declaring itself an independent oligarchy in 273 B.E. (280 B.C.), the Rhodes adapted many of its merchant ships in order to seize the nearby Anatolian coastline, bringing under their thumb several Dorian Greek cities there.
Not only did the political lines on the map change after the fall of Makedonia, but also the demographics of the Eastern Mediterranean shifted. After Brennos’ raid into Hellas, and the subsequent Wolcae settlement in Northern Thessaly, Hellenes fled by the thousands to Anatolia, but also to Syracuse, and Egypt. Isidoros I of Egypt, a Greek himself, openly invited Greeks fleeing the Galatoi, setting up colonies along the coast and in the Nile Delta. Cities like Neathene, Isipolis, and Pella on the Nile [2] became three of the largest new centers of Greek culture in Egypt. Not only did the increasing Greek population of Egypt strengthen his hold on the country, but also it by extension legitimized the Mercenary Dynasty to the Hellenic world.
---------
[1] The Black Sea, or “Hospitable Sea”
[2] All of these cities were built by Isidoros, and are fictional OTL.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Fifteen: The Tarnished Age of Epiros
Pyrros of Epiros, sometimes called Pyrros the Great by contemporary scholars, is a figure both revered and reviled, a bright flame that leaves a dark shadow in the annals of history. His memoirs and his books on war [1] are considered classic masterpieces and to this day are read in military academies. His philosophies on tactics and strategy influenced great military minds for generations to come. During his lifetime, Pyrros was considered the greatest military mind on the face of the earth.
But military glory can only take you so far. Back home in Epiros, the treasury was empty, and the kingdom bankrupt. The costly wars Pyrros waged and the mercenaries he used to bolster his armies sapped away at the coffers until there was nothing left. Morale was low, and what’s worse, Pyrros seemed to have ignored these facts to achieve his ends. The destruction of the Northern branch of his army in Wolcae occupied Paeonia was a crushing blow to his over arching strategy, and when word finally reached him and his men, morale plummeted all the more. But as Pyrros says in his own memoir titled
The Struggle for Makedon:
“We marched north from Thessaly nonetheless, without hindrance. With the troops levied from my newest realm, I discerned I could make up for those lost with Xerxes Indikos, who I had come to love as a brother. Though I mourned his loss, as should a great leader of men and a king such as he be mourned, I determined that the need of Hellas was great in this hour of barbaric invasion. The [Ouolkoi] had emptied the great city of Pellas amongst others and settled it with their own. Tales spread through out the camp of how the Galatoi had dispatched my cousin. As we neared the territory occupied by the Ouolkoi, there was some discontent in the troops, but the mutineers were quickly put down. We marched north still, to claim my throne in Makedon and the house of Herakles!” [2]
Indeed, the mutiny Pyrros blithely mentions in his memoir would not be his last, or his worst. Regardless, when Pyrros marched into Ouolkike he had at his back some 23,000 men and cavalry as well as 13 elephants.
They met little to no resistance for a time, but upon the crossing of the Haliakmon, the river that marked where Ouolkike began and Hellas ended, Pyrros describes something interesting:
“We began to cross the [Haliakmon] when a scout approached with news that all of the Greeks beyond that river had been exterminated by the Keltoi, and that a great host of Ouolkoi as well as some lesser Galatoi tribes were approaching. No later had he told me this did an arrow pierce his throat, and the cries of a hundred thousand Galatoi filled the air.”
-
The Struggle for Makedon Vol. 5
Pyrros was caught in a tight spot. His army was preparing to cross the river, only to see that the Wolcae were waiting for him on the other side. In the woods, men wearing nothing but their skin could be seen howling maniacally. It is believed that these were the early semblances of the Order of Kernunos (known as Cernunnos in the West), who would play a huge role in the ancient history of Ouolkike. Pyrros describes the assembled barbarian horde as massive, not only including Wolcae, but also Boii, Dardanians, Serdi, Paeonians, and Thracians as well.
On the far bank of the river, the Ouolkoi princess Iouinaballa, who paraded the head of Pausanias around the neck of her black horse, rode out with twenty men in chains dragging behind her. They were the captains and commanders of Pyrros’ northern branch, and at their head was none other than Xerxes Indikos. She forced them down onto their knees, water rushing up between their legs. Iouinaballa shouted out across the river to Pyrros. Pyrros says simply: “She spat insults in her barbaric tongue.”
However, later accounts written by the Wolcae (who refer to themselves as the Ouolki) give a much more eloquent and poetic account. They say that Iouinaballa sang a long poem telling the story of the Wolcae, and how they were forced from their homeland due to over population and famine, how they were repeatedly insulted by the Greeks who were cowards that won wars not by courage and strength, but by deceit and trickery. While most of the poem is inconsequential, the ending was made famous by its inscription upon a monument built centuries later over Iouinaballa’s tomb, and by its inclusion in the opera
Makedonia’s climax:
“A sore day! A red day!
Where the sun rises!
Death! Death! Death!” [3]
The Wolcae began to shout and howl. Pyrros’ remaining scouts were nowhere to be found, but he didn’t need them for him to know that he was out numbered. Iouinaballa drew a sword as tall as she, and lifted it into the air, her voice joining the chorus of Celts. She inspired such fear and awe that even some of the Greeks in Pyrros’ army said she was no mere woman, but Athena! One by one, the Wolcae princess set about lopping off the heads of her prisoners, saving Xerxes Indikos for last. When she finally reached him, she bid him stand. Xerxes did so. She told Xerxes to return to his king, and to make him turn around and never come back. At this, his face turned sickly white, for, apparently, it was the first time someone had called Pyrros Xerxes’ king. Instead of doing as she bid him, Xerxes III Indikos of Persia threw himself into the river, and let the chains drag him to the depths.
Following this dramatic event, the Battle of the Halkiakmon River broke out. The Greeks made camp and waited for the Wolcae to cross. Pyrros predicted correctly that the Celts would be too impatient to simply wait for their victory. They crossed in rafts, which the Greek army was able to pick off one by one for a good time at first, but soon the southern shore was overrun. Pyrros’ army pulled back to gain the high ground, and formed ranks. The Epirote army rebuffed the first wave of attack, but the flanks were taking heavy casualties. The Epirote-Thessalian cavalry drove the Celtic cavalry west along the river, away from the main fighting, and eventually pinned the Celtic cavalry against the river where they made slaughter. The elephants devastated the Celtic line at first, but the enemy soon learned how to avoid their charge.
“It was the second wave of Galatoi that gave the hardest fighting, I was surprised to discover. They pushed the farthest up the hill, and managed to drive us back slightly before they grew weary from the uphill climb and we were able to drive them back.”
The third wave of Wolcae attack was easily rebuffed, and the Celtic army retreated beyond the river. Pyrros records over 20,000 Celtic dead, while 10,000 of his own died.
“Though it was a great victory, we lacked the manpower and the strength to drive them from Makedonia. We returned to Thessaly, where we would winter and regroup.”
------------
[1] Pyrrhus of Epirus did write memoirs and books about the art of war, but it is lost to us. Apparently it was of very high quality, because it influenced people like Hannibal Barca and Cicero OTL.
[2] The Argeads claimed descent from Heracles
[3] Couldn’t resist
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Sixteen: Epirote Hegemony
Though Pyrros failed to retake Makedonia from the Wolcae in 271 B.E. (278 B.C.), he was the undisputed Hegemon of Hellas. Epiros proper expanded under his reign to include Acarnania and Aetolia. Pyrros colonized both areas with Epirotes (both regions had been largely depopulated by the Great Wolcae Raid of 273 B.E.), as well as adding Orestis, traditionally a Makedonian territory, to the Epirote frontier. His rule of Thessaly was styled much in the same way that he ruled Sicily and Italion. They were separate kingdoms ruled by the same king: a Pyrric Empire.
But this would only be the start of Pyrros’ consolidation of power in Hellas. With only a menagerie of crippled city-states to oppose him, Pyrros slowly gnawed away at the lands to his south, adding one region to his empire at a time. Sometimes he would simply vassalize a city-state, like he did with Corinth, Megara, and Argos. Other times, he would wage war, looting and pillaging as he went to pay for his costly mercenary army, and outright annex territory: examples being Elis, Locris, Euboea, and Achaea. He instigated a massive Helot revolt in Messenia, which further crippled Sparta. In 264 B.E. (271 B.C.) he waged a costly war against Sparta with the intention of deposing the current kings (Areus I and Archidamus IV) in favor of one of his generals named Agesilaus who claimed to be descended from Agis III. Both Spartan kings were old, but Archidamus IV was only recently given kingship. His cousin, Ariston II, had died a year earlier. Naturally, Pyrros backed his general’s (likely false) claim to the throne, and so he marched on Laconia.
Though the Spartans were dealing with a serious population crisis (it is estimated that only a few thousand Spartans were still alive at the time), they put up a stiff resistance that Pyrros evidently did not expect. The Spartans took up guerilla warfare in the hillside, attacking Epirote camps in the dead of night, and disappearing without a trace. When finally Pyrros arrived at Sparta with an army of some 20,000, he found trenches dug, barricades built, and not only men, but also women and children armed to the teeth.
The Siege of Sparta lasted three months, when finally Pyrros called for parlay. His terms were generous: give over the Eurypontid king Archidamus IV, place Agesilaus on the throne, and allow Pyrros’ son Alexandros to learn the art of war from the Spartans. The offer was refused, and the siege continued for another month, when Pyrros was forced to call of the siege due to mutiny in his ranks.
Sparta remained. And Sparta saw, perhaps truly for the first time, that it needed to adapt to the changing world around it.
In 262 B.E. (269 B.C.) word reached Hellas that the Wolcae princess Iouinaballa was with child. Pyrros quickly gathered his forces, and made plans to march once again on the Wolcae. But when his army reached Pieria, something unexpected happened.
The flames licked the night sky like glowing tongues. Pyrros cursed beneath his breath. It was those bastard mercenaries again, he knew. He could hear them shouting and screaming like fools.
“I’m getting too old for this,” Pyrros thought out loud. Indeed, Pyrros had just turned fifty this year. Maybe it was time to retire to Syracuse perhaps and live in the lap of luxury with serving girls feeding him olives as they danced, bear breasted and youthful. It was a nice thought. Perhaps this could be his last war, after he rooted up that bitch and cut the vermin from her womb himself. “Agapos, get me my armor.”
There was no response.
“Agapos!”
Still none.
With a grunt and a curse, Pyrros went into his tent, ready to abuse the stupid serving boy. But when he entered through the tent flaps, Agapos was dead on the floor. Blood glistened in the firelight, and standing over the corpse with sword in hand was—No! It couldn’t be!
“Thought you were rid of me, didn’t you,” Xerxes snarled.
In those forsaken woods where the screams of thousands of Greek soldiers filled the mountain air, Xerxes remembered a lesson he had almost forgotten: survive at any cost.
His Asvaka guardsmen were first to take action. They drew their single-edged swords, and rode like madmen into the fray. The gallant charge only made a minor dent in the oncoming wave of Ouolkoi, and in a matter of minutes, they were pulled from their horses, and tattooed men wielding heavy long swords hacked off their heads. The Greeks were less valiant. Many made a run for it, scurrying downhill while their compatriots tried to form ranks. After the phalanx was broken, which happened with astonishing ease, the Ouolkoi footmen unleashed their hounds. Huge dogs, larger than any Xerxes had ever seen, galloped after the retreating Hellenes and bore down on their prey like wolves. [1] Men screamed in terror, but were cut off when the beasts’ massive jaws clamped down upon their unprotected necks. Those that made it to the river tried to swim across. Most drowned from the weight of their armor, but some were wise enough to throw off some of their armor before taking to the water. However, this left them exposed long enough to be run down by the Celtic cavalry, who thundered out of the shadows of the forest and lopped off the heads of any man in reach.
With all of this going on around him, Xerxes could hardly think straight. He drew his sword, a single edged curved blade similar to those used by the Asvakas. He kicked his horse, and made a run for it, running not back towards the river, but forward, along the path.
Arrows flew overhead, many hitting only trees. For a moment, Xerxes thought he actually had a chance of escape, but that was before the world fell out from under him.
His horse, struck by an arrow, flung itself onto the forest floor, and launched Xerxes clear off its back. All he remembered was seeing the ground move closer and closer towards his face—then darkness.
When he finally came to, all Xerxes could feel was an intense pain in his head. He opened his eyes, slowly. It took him a while to realize what was going on, and where he was, but it sank in not after too long. He was laying, stripped of all cloths, on a thin bed of straw next to what was left of his army. He was glad to see that there were at least a few hundred still alive, but he knew that it wasn’t much to be glad for. If they weren’t killed outright, they would be sold into slavery. They were all chained by the neck, and bound.
“He’s awake! He’s awake!” The survivor next to him said. “Someone get him some water!”
There were some murmurs throughout the army, or what was left of it. They were sitting outside in a field. Ouolkoi on horses patrolled the mob. They had those monstrous hounds with them on leashes just long enough to nip at the corralled prisoners. To the south was the main encampment. It didn’t look all that different from a Greek encampment from afar.
“Here, Indikos,” one man gasped as he handed Xerxes a small bowl filled with water. “Drink.”
“We were worried you were going to die,” another whispered.
Xerxes took the water and drank it slowly. It tasted foul, and he was certain that there was something solid in there, but it was better than nothing. Xerxes looked around at his men. They were all chained, all stripped naked. The man who sat next to him was so covered in bruises he looked like he was from India—he was one of the luckier ones. Many men were clutching where their manhood used to be, while others tenderly nursed their hands, still burning from the brand.
“What do we do?” yet another prisoner asked, clutching at Xerxes’ feet like he was a god. “What can we do?”
“Survive.”
It didn’t take much longer for the Ouolkoi to hear that Xerxes was awake and alive. Later that night, there was a commotion on the outskirts of the prisoner mob. Three armed Ouolkoi callously beat men out of their way, those who were not wise or strong enough to move. The sheer size of the Ouolkoi never ceased to impress Xerxes, even when they pulled him up by his neck like a pup, and dragged him off. There was some dessent amongst the prisoners, but Xerxes reminded them before any more of them got killed to survive.
Xerxes was dragged through the Ouolkoi camp in chains. He knew that he was being heckled and laughed at, though he didn’t understand the Ouolkoi language. Xerxes reflected quietly about how remarkable it was that despite the superficial differences between people of different cultures and lands, they were all essentially the same. A harsh tug at his neck made him stumble. That gave his captors a good laugh. They seemed to be repeating the same word over and over: “Maruvassorix”. [2]
Xerxes had no idea what it meant specifically, but he knew that they were calling him it.
With another tug, a shove, and one last muttered, “Maruvassorix,” he was forced into a massive tent and brought to his knees. His captors forced him to stare at the floor. He did so, but they hit him anyway.
An argument broke out. He couldn’t see who was saying what, let alone listen to what they were saying, but he could tell that the three men who brought him here were getting angry. Somewhere before him were the voices of two elderly men, and a woman. The argument was getting heated. A sword was drawn. Xerxes could feel the cold steal pressed against the back of his neck.
“Sistat!” He heard the woman command.
Xerxes closed his eyes, and waited for the blade to fall upon his neck, but it never came. The sword was sheethed, and with what sounded like some very nasty words, the three men left the tent. Xerxes waited for something to happen.
“You may stand,” the woman said in thickly accented Koine. “It is not fit for a king to be brought so low.”
Xerxes stood, and looked up. The tent was lavishly decorated. A fire burned in its center, where some of those massive dogs laid. The ground was covered in skins: bear, wolf, deer, beever, and sheep. Standing before him was the princess he had seen all those years ago in Pellas. She was still as bright and fierce as he remembered her. Behind her were two older men. They were frail, and had thick bronze bands placed above their brows. [3]
“I am Iouinaballa, the daughter of Acichorios who is king of the Ouolki.”
“I know who you are,” Xerxes croaked. The shackles around his neck made speech somewhat difficult. “I was there the day Orestes Basileus of Makedonia was murdered.”
“We did not murder him,” one of the men behind her intoned.
“I know,” Xerxes said.
“Those men who brought you to me,” Iouinaballa said, “They wanted the honor of presenting your head to me. But there is no honor in taking the head of a naked man who rules over a rabble of captured slaves. I know, too, who you are. You are the one they call Kwerkez. You once ruled a land in the far east.”
Xerxes ignored the fact that she couldn’t pronounce his name. He probably couldn’t pronounce hers either.
“I am he.”
“Uinom,” she said over her shoulder. A moment later, a servant appeared carrying two chalices filled with wine. “Drink. It is good.”
Xerxes did drink, and it was indeed quite good.
“The king whose other army you led,” Iouinaballa spoke slowly, as if she was taking great care to say the right words. “Perosh, he is marching from the south.”
“Pyrros leads an army from the south, yes.”
“He does not come to save you, though,” She said. “He knows of your defeat, but he does not come to save you.”
“He comes for Makedonia.”
“He comes for his own pride.”
“Perhaps,” Xerxes agreed. Pyrros was somewhat egotistical. “But if he knew that I lived, he would come for my recovery.”
“No, he won’t.” Iouinaballa said. “And I will prove it to you.”
The water was freezing cold. It felt like needles were stabbing at every inch of his skin. He hoped this would work. He squirmed and shifted as the river pulled him under. Then he felt it; the chains slipped off. Iouinaballa had kept her word and spared his life, but let’s see if Pyrros held up his end of the bargain.
Desperate, Xerxes swam downriver with the current. The violence was raging all around. Everytime he came up for air, all he heard was battle, and all he saw was carnage… but no dispatches from the Hellenic forces ever came after him. Indeed, he saw the cavalry run right by the rivers edge, but they were giving chase, and not one of the horsemen stopped to search for Xerxes.
Hours later, when Xerxes finally gave up, he pulled himself onto a pebbled bank. He was shivering violently with the cold. He was well outside the battle, but he could smell the death in the water as human remains began to flow downstream.
He heard soft footsteps, and a warm hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry,” Iouinaballa whispered. “I truly am.”
“Thought I was dead, didn’t you,” Xerxes snarled. “Thought you’d never have to worry about ordering a King of Kings again, did you?”
“Xerxes, calm down,” Pyrros said.
“Pick up your sword,” Xerxes said. “If there is anything I have learned in my time with the Ouolkoi, it is that a king deserves at least that much before he dies.”
“The mutineers…”
“They saw me,” Xerxes said. “And now your fears have been realized, haven’t they?”
“I don’t know what—“
“PICK UP YOUR SWORD!”
-----------
[1] Julius Caesar described Gallic hounds as something similar to what we would identify as an Irish Wolfhound. Since there seems to be some evidence for the Volcae having bred large hounds, I figured they would probably be of similar stock.
[2] Roughly, “High King of the Slaves”
[3] Druids, contrary to modern imaginations, wore crowns instead of cloaks.
Chapter Five: To Live And Die By Fire
Part Seventeen: The Barfight
“So, long story short, we don’t know exactly how Pyrros died,” Aedono said between sips of wine. “I mean, it seems pretty likely that he was just killed by the mob in that last mutiny, but who knows!”
“I thought Xerxes Indikos killed him?” Naomiash said. In the dim light of the bar, her face still looked intently interested. In the rear of the establishment, a crew of traveling musicians from Muskokia blasted loud and excited rythms. The bar was filled with people who had come to see them, but also to drink and smoke. Aedono was, frankly, really fucking surprised that he and his exotic date were even able to hold a conversation in this place, let alone one about ancient history.
“That’s just an old legend.” Aedono didn’t want to sound condescending, but he knew somehow, someway, he was going to end up sounding like it. “About a hundred years after his death, some historian wrote that the army had mutinied because the ghost of Xerxes was seen walking through the camp, and that he has murdered Pyrros out of some twisted kind of revenge for not saving him, or something. But, the historian also said that the Ouolki prince born about a year later was Xerxes’ son, and… come on! I mean it’s really cool sounding, and it makes for awesome books and drama and stuff, but…”
“I know what you are saying,” Naomiash said.
At that moment, one of the musicians stepped forward, and began to strum a strange stringed instrument slowly. It was a hard, yet lazy tune that repeated twice. Then suddenly, as if out of no where, a fast, excited, beautiful roll of notes played, and suddenly quite possibly the best song Aedono had ever heard began at full blast. The musicians fingers slid and plucked and moved up and down the neck of his intstument with a grace unseen by any in the venue before. The singer came forward, and with a drawling, lazy accent sang:
“
Clean as a whistle,
Smelling like a rose.
She got no dirty little fingers,
Blood shot eyes are gone!
Tell me I’m wrong!
Twice as hard,
As it was the first time
I said goodbye!
And no one ever want to know,
Love ain’t funny.
Crime in the wink of an eye!” [1]
“I really like these musicians!” She said excitedly. “Where are they from again?”
“I think they said they were from Muskokia,” Aedono said, transfixed. “That… that’s amazing. I’ve never heard anything like it!”
The band really was something different. The drummer was a massive man with skin the color of clay, his hair long and black. Blue tattoos swirled up and down his muscled arms that beat drums with thin wooden sticks at a fast, excited pace. There were three men playing stringed instruments. One was clearly of Libyan origin [2], and plucked at an instrument with three fingers. The other two must have been of Celtican heritage, because they, like the drummer, had the blue tattoos swirling along their skin. The singer Aedono couldn’t put his finger on where he was from, however; he had the coloration of one of his Celtican bandmates, but he lacked the tattoos and sang with a strange accent that drawled and dropped certain letters while drawing out others for no particular reason. His hair was long and wavy, and around his neck hung a gold necklace.
When the song ended, the bar fell silent for a moment, but a moment only. Then a roar of applause filled the room, and Aedono was sure to join it.
“THAT WAS AWESOME!” Aedono shouted above the applause.
The night went on, and more and more Aedono felt like he and Naomiash were connecting somehow. He wasn’t used to having a girl like her pay so much attention to him, but he by no means complained. He made his way over to the bar to get another round of drinks for them: this time he was thinking Qanabos Tea [3]. He was feeling good, pretty damn buzzed, but all that went out the window when he heard the voice behind him:
“Fuck, what’s the Grico doing here?”
Favion Ignatié. That jackass.
Aedono felt someone grab his shoulder, and sure enough, it was Favion. “What the fuck are you doing here, Grico?”
Maybe it was the drinking, maybe it was the music, maybe it was the fact that Aedono was almost positive he was going to fuck the hottest woman he’d ever seen tonight, but somehow Aedono said something he never thought he’d say:
“Fuck off, Favion, and let me drink!”
The fist came faster than he’d expected it to. He was reeling, he could see stars.
“THE FUCK DID YOU JUST STAY, GRICO!”
Favion was on him fast. Aedono was too busy getting beat up that he didn’t notice that the music stopped. He looked up, and saw someone grab Favion’s arm. It was the singer, towering over Favion.
“You don’t like Gricos?”
“Fuck, who does?” Favion said, drunk.
“My wife’s a Grico,” the singer said. “And as a matter of fact, my mother was one, too.”
And for the first time, Aedono saw Favion actually look scared. Before Aedono could even blink, the bar was a riot of violence. He couldn’t help but smile through his busted lip as he saw Favion and some of his friends who had come to support him get their asses handed to them by the musicians. Aedono rushed back to Naomiash at their table.
“What is going on?
Ymanyel Meziach! What happened to your lip?”
“We need to get out of here now,” Aedono said, smiling despite the gravity of the situation. “The City Guard will be here soon.”
“My place?” She said, taking his hand.
------------
[1] I refuse to believe that a universe can possibly exist where some genius did not write the song “Twice As Hard”. It is simply impossible, it’s so damn good.
Here's the song
[2] African, that is. Before the Roman general Africanus took over Africa, it was known as Libya. Essentially, this guy is black.
[3] Marijuana tea, which was actually a drink favored by the Carthaginians