As you can probably surmise, my colonization TL is on permanent hiatus; the sheer amount of material I was using for research and normal writer’s block ultimately overwhelmed me. Those twin threats are likely to cross the frozen Rhine of my mind once again, but for now I wanted to launch a new take on an old love of mine: alternate barbarian migrations during Late Antiquity.
I will note that this all takes place after the PoD, and in fact after the main thrust of the Germanic migrations. The prologue and general overview of the world in 543 (the year this starts) will be below. This is because I want to explore two major events: a steppe invasion, and this world’s version of the Plague of Justinian.
My main purpose for this work, other than the enjoyment of writing and the plotting out of what might have happened, is to explore the impact factors had in our world, and to make AH more academic. I am writing this, simply put, as a counter to the arbitrary Rule of Cool works that often predominate in our forums.
It is time not just for history, but historiography; I want to use this TL as a way to explore my view of human actions. This work rests on the assumption that economic motivations drive all human and state-level decisions. Everything will happen because of the wider effects of change on the human ecosystem, on the networks of trade and economic activity that bind us all together.
I thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
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On The Ethnic Composition of Barbarian Groups
The popular image of the Völkerwanderung is of concrete, separate ethnic groups, parts of a wider Germanic whole, invading the Roman Empire and establishing states after serving as foederati. This is a delusion/political creation of the Romantics, who used the migrations as the beginnings of larger ethnogeneses that justified the national awakenings of the 19th century.
In reality, these groups were loose tribal confederation, containing multiple peoples of multiple ethnicities. The famous Huns, for example, contained not only the Turkic upper-caste, but Germans and Alans as well. In fact, it was a coalition of these other peoples that defeated the Huns at the Battle of Nedao, establishing Gepid rule in Pannonia.
Other confederations were clearly made up of multiple peoples. The Allemanni, for example, were literally “all men”. The Suebi, from which the name Swabia is taken, was so common in Roman sources for a number of German tribes that it nearly overtook the name “German” as the wider ethnic label for, well, Germans.
Some peoples were vassalized or otherwise bound to other peoples, such as the Vandals and Alans in Africa. It is also useful to note that these larger groups also had divisions within them. The Visigoths split from the Ostrogoths after a period of political separation. The Vandals were divided between the Hasdingi royal family and the Silingi. The Franks had the Salian Franks and the Ripuarian Franks.
None of these sub-groups were ethnic in nature, but rather legal. Those who served a barbarian ruler were barbarians, even if they had been Roman for generations. Similarly, figures like Stilicho and Ricimer were Romans, despite their enemies using Germanic descent against them within Roman politics.
So when you think of barbarian groups, remember that these are loose confederations consisting of many sub-peoples of variable ethnic origins.
I will note that this all takes place after the PoD, and in fact after the main thrust of the Germanic migrations. The prologue and general overview of the world in 543 (the year this starts) will be below. This is because I want to explore two major events: a steppe invasion, and this world’s version of the Plague of Justinian.
My main purpose for this work, other than the enjoyment of writing and the plotting out of what might have happened, is to explore the impact factors had in our world, and to make AH more academic. I am writing this, simply put, as a counter to the arbitrary Rule of Cool works that often predominate in our forums.
It is time not just for history, but historiography; I want to use this TL as a way to explore my view of human actions. This work rests on the assumption that economic motivations drive all human and state-level decisions. Everything will happen because of the wider effects of change on the human ecosystem, on the networks of trade and economic activity that bind us all together.
I thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
###
On The Ethnic Composition of Barbarian Groups
The popular image of the Völkerwanderung is of concrete, separate ethnic groups, parts of a wider Germanic whole, invading the Roman Empire and establishing states after serving as foederati. This is a delusion/political creation of the Romantics, who used the migrations as the beginnings of larger ethnogeneses that justified the national awakenings of the 19th century.
In reality, these groups were loose tribal confederation, containing multiple peoples of multiple ethnicities. The famous Huns, for example, contained not only the Turkic upper-caste, but Germans and Alans as well. In fact, it was a coalition of these other peoples that defeated the Huns at the Battle of Nedao, establishing Gepid rule in Pannonia.
Other confederations were clearly made up of multiple peoples. The Allemanni, for example, were literally “all men”. The Suebi, from which the name Swabia is taken, was so common in Roman sources for a number of German tribes that it nearly overtook the name “German” as the wider ethnic label for, well, Germans.
Some peoples were vassalized or otherwise bound to other peoples, such as the Vandals and Alans in Africa. It is also useful to note that these larger groups also had divisions within them. The Visigoths split from the Ostrogoths after a period of political separation. The Vandals were divided between the Hasdingi royal family and the Silingi. The Franks had the Salian Franks and the Ripuarian Franks.
None of these sub-groups were ethnic in nature, but rather legal. Those who served a barbarian ruler were barbarians, even if they had been Roman for generations. Similarly, figures like Stilicho and Ricimer were Romans, despite their enemies using Germanic descent against them within Roman politics.
So when you think of barbarian groups, remember that these are loose confederations consisting of many sub-peoples of variable ethnic origins.
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