The Araldyana TL (redux)

Pischinovski

I decided to restart my Araldyana Timeline. This will have a different style than the original and the Chapters won't follow a two years rythm anymore.

Enjoy and comment.

The Araldyana Timeline
by Pischinovski
​
Chapter I


Folk legends from Aralda till Tesephon (1) can tell the tale of a once mighty leader who will return in times of distress. These legends combine actual history with mythological elements and are often based on the Christian belief of the Messiah’s return on doomsday. By far the most popular of these is the saga of Stilicho.
[…] His death on the battlefield was the inspiration to Orijan Petri’s “The Fall of Rome” and Alexander Ostino’s “Elysian Fields”, which completed Stilicho’s image in popular culture as a betrayed hero who lived and died for Rome. But we can read if we look into the sources that the Roman chroniclers’ judgment is mostly negative. He is described as a power hungry man whose own greed killed him. The first literature who paints a more positive picture appears only 300 years after his death and might be politically influenced.
(Legends and Sagas of the Adriatic Coast, 1993)


***


Sir, Rufinus escaped. (2)
(Message from Gainas to Stilicho, November 395)

Try to find him but keep it civil. Don’t upset the folk in the city.
(Message from Stilicho to Gainas, December 395)

Sir, the atmosphere in the city is worrisome. The senators and priests agitate against us. We must leave Constantinople soon or we need more troops.
(Message from Gainas to Stilicho, December 395)

Stay there and suppress senatorial opposition. Leave the priests alone. I can’t neglect the west and send you troops because the beggars of Constantinople don’t like you.
(Message from Stilicho to Gainas, December 395)

Sir, Tribigild (3) of the Goths of Asia sent the head of Rufinus to the Emperor. The populace is very upset. Our men were attacked by an armed rabble on Christmas Eve. We have around 70 wounded soldiers and 25 dead. Their causalities were five to ten times higher. Parts of the palace burned down. We need help. It is urgent. The men’s moral is not good at all, it seems like some deserted and joined Alaric (4).
(Message from Gainas to Stilicho, December 395)

Keep your troops together and order Tribigild to help you if the situation gets worse. Hold the city under control at all costs.
(Message from Stilicho to Gainas, January 396)

Sir, we had to silence some of the Emperors advisors; it was a massacre. We can’t control the city alone anymore, Tribigild is on his way.
(Message from Gainas to Stilicho, January 396)

Do what you have to do but pacify the city. Your troops are needed on the battlefield. I can’t withdraw men from the border so they fight Alaric because you are unable to do your job.
(Message from Stilicho to Gainas, January 396)

Sir, our work in the city is done. We have burned down their houses, their baths and churches; thousands lay dead on the street. I will no longer serve this people who despise me for what I am, for my language and religion (5). Arcadius the coward sits in his palace surrounded by his guards. I am deeply sorry to inform you that I was unable to kill that bastard; it would have pacified the world. I, my men, Tribigild and his men will furthermore join King Alaric, we hope to receive more than what the Romans gave us, for they gave us nothing but despite. I advise you to do the same.
(Message from Gainas to Stilicho, January 396)

This is betrayal.
(Message from Stilicho to Gainas, February 396)


***


Notes:
(1) Ctesiphon, in OTL Irak
(2) Rufinus was a mighty East Roman statesman and hated Stilicho. The POD: Gainas killed him in OTL.
(3) Tribigild, leader of the Gothic foederati in Phrygia (rebelled OTL in 399)
(4) King of the (Visi-)Goths and currently destroying the Balkans
(5) Gainas was Arian Christ, the Romans were mostly Trinitarians.
 
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SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Interesting, I read a little bit into the original version of this timeline, but never managed to finish it. Will be following this surely.
 

Pischinovski

Chapter II



Dion, Macedonia, late March of 396; Alaric and Athaulf welcome Gainas and Tribigild:

Alaric:My friends, my brothers! What led you to join me and my men in the ruins of Dion?

Tribigild:King Alaric, we want to fight for our rights and our men. The empire brought us nothing but disappointment.

Alaric:I’m no king, just a man who has to bear the burden of thousand people’s dreams. Why do you think that I could be any help?
Gainas:Together we have the men to bring down the emperors.
Athaulf:Might I ask you general, why do you think it would be wise to do this?


Gainas:They show us nothing but disrespect. Have you been in Constantinople? Have you seen the Greeks’ ignorance? We came to help them and th…

Athaulf:No! I know your reasons! I asked: do you think it would be wise to do so? To depose or even kill these boys!?

Gainas:They are a threat to us. So yes I think so.

Athaulf:You kill them and one moment later you will have another man sitting on the throne, maybe one more competent. Or do you want the throne yourself? You’ll be dead by a week.

Tribigild:We want an emperor who serves our cause!

Alaric:What’s your cause, your great plan, your goal? What do you want to achieve?

Gainas:Freedom and glory.

Alaric:Ha! Freedom and glory? The freest people I have seen are the herdsmen of Dacia. Do you want to be like them? No one will stop you but they know nothing of glory. You will find under them Romans, who don’t know an emperor and neither a king - they say they were left hundred years ago – and to this day no one tells them what to do. Bear in mind the herdsmen are free, free of law and kings, but not of rain, of snow and wolves.

Athaulf:Should you honour glory more than freedom, so fight for land and pay of your men but only Rome has land, only Rome has pay, only Rome is glory.

Gainas:We want to live after our own laws, maybe it’s not freedom but it is better than being part of Rome.

Alaric:Better, how? Go and claim Dacia or the north if you think it’s better but there you have only two possibilities: be a shepherd and mind your own business, have no realm and no glory, or be a lord and be enslaved by the Huns. You seem to have forgotten that we had reasons to come into this land; it was the lesser of two evils. I fight for my men, so I fight for a place in Rome; but neither I nor them will be content with the role of the empire’s servant, we want to be its lord instead: we want Stilicho’s position. He is the enemy not the empire. Tell me Gainas do you want glory, do you want to rule and not serve, do you want meat and drink for your men?

Gainas:Yes I want.

Alaric:And you Tribigild?

Tribigild:Yes, my king, I want honour for my men.

Alaric:Then follow me and we will achieve greatness.


***


Stilicho’s letter to his wife, December of 386:

My dear Serena,
The men are ready, the ships have arrived. We will leave Italy as soon as possible. I must be honest with you: It does not feel right to go. It feels like I should stay close to you and the court but this is no possibility.
Should I not return so go to Ravenna, but don’t worry, I will.


***


Fravitta (1) argued Alaric successfully into turning towards the west. The Goths began to withdraw their forces from Thrace in September after being promised a yearly wage and the rule over Western Illyricum (2). Fravitta’s main goal was probably to weaken Stilicho’s position as regent of West Rome, by granting the Goths land which was under western jurisdiction. It is unclear if he hoped for a clear victory of the Goths or if he anticipated that both sides would end up severely weakened. Many historians argue the latter would have been more welcome to him since without a strong regent of the west he could have easily installed one of his loyal generals in Mediolanum (3) and continued his campaign in the east (4).
The Goths went from Thrace through Moesia, where they engaged in limited pillaging, to Sirmium in Pannonia. The city surrendered without resistance to the Goths because the city’s commander awaited a Gothic victory in the upcoming conflict, he was nevertheless executed and the city was left under the authority of some of Alaric’s most loyal comrades. The main part of the army meanwhile continued along the Save towards Siscia.
Stilicho’s landed with his troops near Tarsatica, Istria, in January 397. Alaric, didn’t wanting to face Stilicho so far into western territory without the possibility to withdraw to friendly territory, turned again eastwards. He decided to march instead towards the south into Dalmatia. Stilicho moved his men consequently further down the coast, awaiting a battle near Salona or Narona.
Cimberus (5) mentions that Stilicho became increasingly dissatisfied with the campaign and began to make thoughtless decisions such as not choosing a good position from which he could attack the Goths. According to his “Historia Gepidorum” it was Stilicho’s lust for blood and the lack of a decisive battle that made him become insane. Many modern historians argue that Cimberus is a very unreliable source and that Stilicho probably thought Alaric would avoid battle because his troops were weaker than estimated.
We don’t know exactly why he lost but we know for sure that he did. Many see Stilicho’s death and defeat at Narona as a turning point in Roman history.
(A short history of the Roman Empire, 1987)




***


Notes:
(1) General of the Orient, now in control of Constantinople and the Eastern Empire
(2) the area between Epirus in the south and the Danube in the east and north and Istria and the Adriatic sea in the west.
(3) Seat of the Western Emperor
(4) Fravitta was busy pacifying Syria
(5) ATL historian of the early 6th century
 
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Pischinovski

Chapter III


You asked me why some call me Romulus and others Eucherius. Your grandmother, whose face I barely remember nowadays, called me Eucherius. Marcus Marcianus who brought me up called me Romulus but he was not my father. Just a poet born as Claudius Claudinanus (1) choosing to bear the burden of three young lives. I will always be thankful for that.
Your grandfather died on the battlefield. He was the emperor’s general (2) and your grandmother was the emperor’s aunt (3). He was only serving God and the state. Believe me Serenus, only fools came after him, none of them grasping what Rome is and all of them denying what he did for the empire.
They forced us out of Italia into Gallia where we took new names.
(Eucherius)


***


In Illyricum were the last men under Honorius’ authority the border troops along the Danube. The rest of the dioceses’ army perished with Stilicho, joint the Goths or moved in little groups uncoordinated and without a purpose around the Balkans, often pillaging and plundering villages on their way.
The most border troops of Pannonia II, which were not already destroyed in the war, accepted the Gothic rule without any recorded resistance. Pannonia Valeria accepted the new balance of power only reluctantly and the troops in Pannonia I even fought the Goths until they were informed that no help from Italia would come and that the emperor had accepted Constantinople’s rule over the diocese (4). Cimberus reports that the men stationed Vindomona (5) abandoned their castle and went westwards as they heard that Alaric’s general Gainas was on his way to conquer Pannonia I and that Honorius had forsaken them.
They joint the duke (6) of Noricum who was the last to resist the Goths. What followed was a two year long stalemate between Gainas, who didn’t get as many troops from Alaric as he needed to conquer Noricum, and the duke of Noricum, whose name is unrecorded and who got no help from Mediolanum.
Noricum was not a priority for the Italia-centred defence policy of the new general of the west, Flavius Saturninus (7). He was under the impression that the Goths would exploit the west’s weak position to march over the Alps and tried to use the few remaining troops as strategic as possible. Saturninus secured the Alpine passes by moving Raetian troops further south. Leaving the Danubian border weak but Italy well secured.
(Rome and its enemies, 1971)



***


Notes:
(1) OTL Poet of the late 4h and early 5th century; worked for Stilicho
(2) Stilicho was the master of soldiers and regent of the West.
(3) Serena was twenty years older than Emperor Honorius but technically his cousin.
(4) The Diocese of Illyricum encompassed Noricum, Pannonia and Dalmatia
(5) OTL Vienna
(6) Military Leader of Pannonia I and Noricum at the River
(7) OTL Military leader, who got picked for the position because he had experience with the Goths
 
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