Chapter 47
Can’t You See Its We Who Brought that Light [FN1]
A Map depicting the Battle of Hira and its surrounding environment
“As Christ one was one man in two natures – one divine and one human – so too must the Empire be a union of two natures – one secular and one spiritual.” - Mar Abba the Great of the Church of the East
Nahavand, Arabic Alkumnulith [Contested]
637
Narsah of House Karen was tired. For nearly a decade he had fought against these foreign devils which had come flooding into Iran with the collapse of the Sassanian dynasty. He had been driven from the home of his ancestors, driven into the hills of plains, driven to stay one step ahead of the enemy. He had not seen his own wife in years, nor had the company of any children. His eldest son had followed him into battle, but been slain in a small skirmish in some shit town in Spahan. His son had only wanted to win honor in his Father’s eyes and, by God, he had done so. But he was dead, all the same.
Narsah had cried for days after being shown the body of his son, the arrow shafts that had killed him, still sticking from the young man’s cold corpse. But with grief came clarity, and purpose. If he was willing to be honest with his God – and how could one claim to be honest and upright, yet try to hide secrets from the divine – he had been close to giving up at that moment. Willing to bow his head and submit himself to what ever fate the Manichaen heretics had sought fit to dole out to him. He had been a broken man.
But then a miracle occurred. He swore that a voice had spoken to him – at first Narsah felt it had been that of his own son, but later came to believe it had been an angle. “Why do you weep for that dead,” the voice had said, “your son is safe in the arms of Christ. He can no longer be hurt. Do not mourn his passing, but exhault in his deliverance. Mourn instead for those who are forced to live in error and who have never heard the words of Christ the Redeemer.” [FN2]
Narsah had spoken of this voice to very few – only his closest advisors knew of its existence. But it had steeled his spine and given him renewed purpose. Gone was the fear of failure and subjugation and, instead, it was replaced with a desire to drive the heretics from his beloved homeland of Iran and to spread the word of Chris to all of those who had not been fortunate enough to hear it. To give up was to consign all of Iran to darkness. He couldn’t stop, and he wouldn’t stop. [FN3]
And so he had continued to fight. There had been battles, countless battles, so many that he had lost track. And there had been deaths, countless deaths, but not so many that Narsah couldn’t still see all of their faces when he closed his eyes at night. At first they struck by surprise, raiding the Arabs camps and killing them when and where they could. Then, as his fame grew, more men had flocked to his banner, and he had been able to meet the enemy out in the open. He had won those battles too. Then those Iranian and Parthian clans which still prided themselves on their independence, and had refused to bow to the heretics had come to him, and begged him to lead them. He had agreed.
The proudest moment of his life had occurred in Nahavand, the site of his clan’s ancestral home. It had been over run by the Arabs years earlier, but on that day, not a year ago, his forces had stormed the walls and driven the heretics from the city. He had watched them flee, as he had fleed, and he had laughed. He knew his own people had already begun to call him the Liberator, and that his enemies were calling him the Devil. That night, he strode into the home he had grown to manhood in and, in threw a feast for the assembled Parthian and Iranian noblemen, and they supped in the same hall where his own father had once feasted with the Shah. Then, as they ate and drank, the nobles had thrown their praise at Narsha’s feet and, one by one, had declared him to be their Shah. The buzz he had from the wine could in no way compete with the joy and pride he had that night.
And now, one way or another, his journey would end where it had started. The Arabs had pulled together one last army to snuff out the light of Iranian independence and it was encamped outside the walls of Nahavand. Tomorrow they would fight, and the fate of Iran would be decided that day. What a life he had lead. The fleeing, the fighting, the sorrow and the joy. He praised God for it every morning. But, dear God he was tired. Wasn’t it Moses who had said that God often uses broken tools to his end? He just hoped that the Lord would show him more mercy than he had once showed Moses. Narsha had been born in the Promised Land – the only one which had ever mattered to him – and he just dreamed of seeing it free one more time before he died. But, if he was being honest – and he was – what he wanted more than anything was to see his wife and children again. Perhaps God would be merciful and grant him victory one last time, just so he could call them back. [FN4]
Narsha knelt down to his knees and prayed. Outside the tent his forces readied themselves for war, and across the field, the Arabs did the same. Narsha prayed.
Of Fire and Might: A History of Politics and Religion in Sassanid Persia
By: Coahm O’Seachnall
[Royal University Press: Carrickfergus, Kingdom of Gaelia, 1992
…
Many had often wondered how the Sassanian Persian Empire could proceed from the height of its power to utter ruination in just a few short years. During their waxing days in the Sassanian-Rhoman War, the Persians had controlled Egypt, the Levant and Anatolia – borders which Persia had not held since the the Achaemenidian Empire. Then, less than a decade later, their ruling dynasty had fallen, and Persia was fighting for its very life against an invasion of the recently unified Arabian people. In truth, the decline had begun decades before the war with Rhome had even begun – the collapse of Zoroastrian hegemony and fragmentation into a number of different sects, the growing social unrest between the lower and upper classes, and the rise of Nestorian Christianity, all played a part in the Imperial ruination. Perhaps most damning, a decade of war sapped the resources of the state and wiped out nearly an entire generation of leaders while bankrupting the Empire.
…
The death of Khosrau at the Battle of Manzikert spelled the death of the Sassanian dynasty, although it would take years for the body politic to realize that it was dead. Manzikert spent shockwaves throughout the Persian world. Not only had the Shah been killed, but he had been killed by his own soldiers. Some of brightest flames of the Persian nobility had died that day, riding at the side of their Emperor and the dead included all of Khosrau’s three brothers and several cousins. Nearly a generation of the Sassanian dynasty had been wiped out in one single, bloody, glorious day. Poets in centuries to come would use the tragedy as the inspiration for their work, but there was nothing romantic about it to the remaining Persian officials of the day.
Persia needed a Shah and the succession had been wiped out. Almost immediately, several distant relatives of the Shah sought to declare themselves the legitimate heir to the throne. At the best of times, the royal court could have helped to decide which of the candidates held the most legitimate claim, but this was not the best of times. Instead, each of the competing rivals drew to them an army and marched upon Ctesiphon in order to secure their own power before anyone else could. Each seized power and was then usurped shortly thereafter. Over the course of three years, from 624 to 627, no fewer than five Shahs sat upon the throne of Ctesiphon – a feat that bore many similarities to the Roman Year of Five Emperors.
Out of this quagmire, it would be Shah Peroz II to come out on top of the heap. Peroz was not a general himself but was a young man – sources differ but he seems to have been no more than 14 years old at the time of his ascention - from a distant branch of the Sassanian dynasty. After the assassination of Shah Bahram by Orthodox Zorastrian zealots, angered by his favor of Mazdakianism, the county had been thrown into peril. Leading members of House Mihran had backed the young Sassanian to the Shah hoping that he would be able to restore peace and also make a pliable puppet on the throne.
…
House Mihran had been slowly growing in power over the past several decades. Always one of the powerful seven Parthian clans of the Sassanian Empire, their power base was in the city and region of Rey. From there, they spread their influence throughout the Causcus mountains as well as into the East. By the beginning of the 7th century, they were the single most powerful family in all of Persia, rivaling that of the myriad branches of House Sassan. However, political concerns prevented them from seizing power for themselves. While the ruling Sassan dynasty had embraced Mazdakianism, House Mihran had remained loyal to orthodox Zoroastrianism. Although this gave them a strong base of support in the West, it also isolated them – House Mihran came to be seen as arch conservatives who were unsympathetic to the plight of the poor. They also warred with a sizable Nestorian Christian minority that was developing amongst the Iranian upper class.
The Ascention of Peroz II was the last great maneuver that House Mihran would make. Throwing their backing behind the young man, they leant him money and supplied him with soldiers. Rumors existed at the time, and may be true, that the Zoroastrain zealot that assassination of the previous Shah had been orchestrated at the hands of House Mihran. The Mihran forces quickly stepped into the political vacuum and installed Peroz as Shah, and made sure that he appointed many leading members of their family to prominent positions in his court. [FN5]
…
Although surviving chronicles from the Sassanian era are sparse, as we have mentioned earlier, the succeeding dynasty sought to commission several to help record the chaos of the last years of Sassanian rule in order to legitimize their own assumption of power. They were often written in the Greek style and appear to have been used to not only secure their own legitimacy at home, but also gain prestige from abroad. Although these chronicles are highly partisan in nature, as one would assume, they are still valuable sources of information – it stands to reason that, though the motivations given for actions and events may be skewed to present House Karen in a positive light, the events themselves actually occurred.
Because of thee chronicals, we know that House Mihran and House Karen had become rivals over the generations leading up to the collapse of Sassanian rule. While Mihran ruled in Rey, Karen ruled in nearby Nahavand and the two houses often battled for influence and territory. Even worse, while House Mihran embraced a fanatical brand of Zoroastrianism, Karen were some of the first Parthian families to adopy Nestorian Christianity – athough we would be amiss not to note that it is unlikely that the entirety of House Karen converted, despite, and maybe because, of the Chronicles efforts to convince us otherwise.
Following Peroz II’s capture of Ctesiphon, we know that he appointed many notable members of House Mihran to his court, including Shahrbaraz, the head of the family, as his chief advisor. Almost immediately, there was growing unrest at the powerplay of the largely unpopular Mihran clan. Minor rebellions are said as having sprung up across Sassanian Persia. This is where Shahrbaraz, who up to this point had played a delicate but brilliant game, made his fatal mistake. Much of the Arabian peninsula had been united under the Manichaen Alkumnulith and its ruler Abbas Al-Hassan. The Alkumnulith was busy spreading its influences amongst those independent Arab states which bordered the major empires of Rhome and Persia. Recently they had established close ties with the Lakhmid Kingdom, an important protectorate of the Sassanian Empire.
Shahrbaraz apparently hoped to evict the Lakhmid king from his throne, there by securing the loyalty of an important ally, and also uniting the country with a short, and victorious war. This would prove to be a disaster. Peroz II was told that he would lead the army into Lakhmidia, but would be supported by several experienced military commanders. The initial campaign was successful, as Amr IV, the reigning King of the Lakhmids was driven from the throne and killed at the Battle of Dhi Qar. Peroz, at this moment, chose to ignore the advice of his own advisors and, rather than appoint a new native king, he had himself declared King and incorporate the Lakhmids into the Sassanian state. After appointing a number of advisors to rule in his stead and reorganize the new province, Peroz marched into Ctesiphon and held a brand celebration for his victory. What the Shah and his advisors could not have guessed was the response of the Alkumnulith.
…
After driving the pagans from Himyar, Al-Hassan had consolidated his rule by encouraging the spread of the Manichaen faith. The Neo-Manichaenism which had been formulated by the Prophet Abdul-Bari had soon become a unifying force amongst the Arabs of the peninsula. Whereas, at one time, Arabs were more likely tyo identify with their city, their clan, or their Kingdom, Manichaenism provided a faith which superceded all previous established boundaries that Arabs from all corners of the peninsula and all walks of life could rally behind. Abbas Al-Hassan, a reluctant ruler by all accounts, took his dedication to the Arab people seriously. The invasion and vanquishing of the Lakhmids was a grievious insult and we actually have a letter penned in Al-Hassan’s name where he complained bitterly of the Persian’s actions and demanded that the Lakhmids be restored to freedom under a King of his own choosing. We can’t be sure the exact wording of Peroz II’s response, but we do know that it was in the negative. By the end of 527, Al-Hassan’s forces invaded Persia with the express purpose of liberating the Lakhmids. [FN6]
The Desert Wheel: The Rise of Manichaeism in Arabia [vol. VI of “The Cross, the Star, the Flame and the Wheel: Studies in the Faiths of the Middle East”]
By: Dariush Esfahani
[Mar Simon University Press, Ctesiphon, 2009]
All sources, both the letters of the time which have survived, as well as later chronicals, report the Abbas Al-Hassan was not surprised by the Persian response, but infuriated at the same time. He wa said to have fallen down on his knees and prayed to the God of Light to inspire in him the proper response. By this time, Al-Hassan had been involved in wars for years and, by all accounts, he was tired and simply wanted the Arabs to live in peace as God wanted. As it had been, so many times before, it was the Ibn al-Nabi who was able to consule Al-Hassan and explain that God had created this situation because he wanted the truth to be spread amongst all of the people of the Earth.
…
Al-Hassan’s decleration of war was met with wild celebration in the Alkumnulith’s first capitol of Himyar. Al=Hassan himself had grown old, and the wounds of multiple battles had left him of firm mind, but weakened in the body, and was unable to take part in the campaign. In his place, he appointed a number prominent members of the Manichaen ruling council. Included was Abd Ibn Daud, the most prominent commander of the unification wars, as well as Al-Hassans own son, Adel Ibn Abbas.
…
The Manichaen invasion of Lakhmidia was fast and precise. When word of the Arabic invasion reached the Lakhmid capital of Al-Hirah, spontaious demonstrations broke out and the Persian governor was forced to flee to Ctesiphon in fear of his life. The forces of the Alkumnulith quickly found a member of the old Lakhmid ruling family and declared him King, although it was well understood that he would serve was a loyal vassal of the new Arab state. Everywhere, men from the countryside flocked to Al-Hirah where they accepted baptism and conversion, and vowed to support the Alkumnulith in its conflict against Persia.
…
The Persian response was not slow in coming. Peroz II realized that the invasion of Lakhmid was threat to his authority and his very crown. Relying upon the support which many of the ruling houses still held towards the Sassanid dynasty, he was able to draw together the most massive army that Persia had fielded since the completion of the Rhoman conflict a few short years before. They then marched upon the Lakhmid and their Arabic allies. At the Battle of Hira, in October of 628 the much larger Persian force met the Arabs in battle and were out generaled by Abd Ibn Daud and Adel Ibn Abbas, and were totally routed. It was a complete and utter victory for the Arabs and amongst the dead were Peroz II as well as his chief advisor Shahrbaraz and many prominent members of Shahrbaraz’ family. It was the end of an Empire.
Of Fire and Might: A History of Politics and Religion in Sassanid Persia
By: Coahm O’Seachnall
[Royal University Press: Carrickfergus, Kingdom of Gaelia, 1992]
…
The Sassanian dynasty died with Peroz II on the battlefield of Hira. Embolded by their victory, and swelled by zealous followers, the Arabs followed up Hira by marching directly upon the Persian capital of Ctesiphon itself. And it is at the Battle of Ctesiphon that we meet the next great player in the drama of the Fall of the Sassanian dynasty. In charge of the defense of the Imperial treasury was Narsah of House Karen. Although House Karen had long been an opponent of House Mihran, it had been important for Peroz II to secure their support in order to strengthen his rule. Because of this, Narsah, a favorite of Shah Khosrau II was appointed command over the defense of the Imperial treasury.
Narsah, despite only being in his late 20s or early 30s, had already had a long and distinguished career. He had fought together with Khosrau II and Belisarius in numerous battles and won the respect of both. At the height of his power in the Rhoman Empire, Belisarius had arranged the marriage of his oldest daughter to Narsah in an effort to illustrate the bonds he shared with the Persian people. Like many other members of his house, Narsah was a Nestorian Christian and, following the death of Khosrau, he had helped to shalter many prominent Nestorian Rhomans who had pledged their loyalty to the the Belisarius regime. These refugees had numbered in the thousands, and Narsah had worked to settle them within Persia as best he could, finding those worthy, high ranking positions in the administration and settling many others upon his family’s land in Nahavand. In later years, these immigrants would help transform Nahavand into a prosperous center of Nestorianism within Perisa.
…
As political chaos enveloped Ctesiphon, it became obvious that the city would fall to the Arabs. Narsah helped to organize the evacuation of the Persian treasury from the city as well as help smuggle a number of loyal high ranking officials out of the capital before its collapse. His actions were considered to be so brave, and instrumental to Persian survival, that it became an important foundation to his later legend.
Despite this initial success, the next several years were ones of incredible hardship for Narsah and his fellow Persian patriots. Following the fall of Ctesiphon, he immediately fell back to his ancestral homelands on Nahavand, while granting the Persian treasury to a faithful attendant who fled to the mountains of Mazandaran. Legend tells us that the attendant buried the treasure high upon upon Mount Damavand, waiting until the time that a new Shah would arise. Unlike many other legends of the same sort – such as the lost Gothic horde at the fall of the Gothic Empire – this gold appears to have been retaken by Narsah later in the war and used to help finance his successful campaigns. Having dispatched the treasury, he also sent his wife and family to loyal friends in the east, only keeping with him his eldest son Khosrau. Narsah and Khorsau then fled with some of their most loyal supporters to the countryside in order to continue the war against the Arabs.
…
The net two years saw a succession of Arab victories. With the Persian political center shattered, there was no unified force that could stand against advancing Arabs who pushed deep into the Persian heartland. Many noble houses initially bowed their heads and accepted Arab rule, feeling that the rule of foreign Manichaens was preferable to the anarchy which spread across the land. Other noble houses chose to fight, but they lacked a leader to unify them. Because of this, the Arabs were able to vanquish their opponents, one by one.
Despite the number of small successes by other leaders, the most prominent anti-Arabic fighter to emerge during this era was Narsah. By keeping his forces small and striking the Arabs where they were weakest, he was able to score a number of victories in the early years of the war that greatly increased his prestige, even if they did little initially to hamper the Arabic war effort. These victories were not without cost, however – a poem has been preserved from the era that appears to have been written in Narsah’s own hand where he eulogizes those of his comrades who fell during the early years of his personal war. The most notable of these loses was that of his own son Khosrau who fell during a raid in the province of Spahan. A Hagiography written decades after Narsah’s death and canonization by the Church of the East, states that the warrior was a broken man after the death of his son but had his strength returned after a visit from an angel of God. Whether this vision occurred or not, there appears in Narsah a new fire following his son’s death; whereas before he had attacked only where the Arabs were weak, now he went on the offensive. The Arabs seem to have been taken aback by the new fury in their opponent. After the Battle of Yazd, where Narsah lead a daring ambush against the Arabs in the passes of Mount Shir Kuh which saw him annihilate an Arabic army three times the size of his own forces.
…
The Battle of Yazd marked a turning point in the conflict between the Persians and the Arabs. The victory convinced many that Narsah was a man capable of becoming Shah and leading the Persians against their enemies. There were, of course, political problems. Although the Nestorians had become a growing force among the Persian nobility in the past three generations, they were not a majority. However, considering the often bitter struggle between the Orthodox Zorastrians and the Mazdakians, many appear to have felt that the Nestorians could be honest and neutral powerbrokers between the two rival factions. There may have also been those who felt that a Christian ruler, even one who was not Orthodox, might have helped secure the sympathy of the Rhomans and lead to an alliance between both sides against their newly arrived common foe.
…
As the anti-Arabic Persians flocked to Narsah’s banner in 636, the Persian leader planned an attack to liberate his home of Nahavand. The subsequent victory was a glorious success for Narsah who drove the Arabs from the field. In the Arabic retreat, Al-Hassan’s son Adel Ibn Abbas was killed – an event which was been romanticized, although in diametrically opposing forms, by both the Manichaens and the Iranins to the modern day. Both sides were now geared for what was to be the final battle of the war. With the prestige of his victories, Narsah threw a banquet for his allies where they, apparently, spontaneously declared him to be their Shah. Meanwhile, the Arabs retreated to muster a second army and to snuff out the light of Persian resistance once and for all.
…
The second Battle of Nahavand would prove to be apocalyptic. A massive Arabic army which out numbered the defending Persians two to one, descended upon the stronghold, being lead by Abd Ibn Daud who was driven to restore his own reputation as well as to take revenge for his leader’s dead son. The battle would last for four days, with heavy loss on both sides, but the Persians used the terrain to their advantage and were able to break the Arabic morale, before counter attacking, driving the Arabs from the field.
…
The Treaty of Babylon of 638 goes down in history as unique, as it marked the meeting of two leaders of upstart states coming to an agreement between themselves. Both Narsah and Abdul Al-Hassan had lost sons in the destructive conflict and it was during the course of the negotiations that their common grief would unite them. During one scene, which has become the favorite of artists and poets for centuries, both Al-Hassan and Narsah burst into tears and embraced one another, vowing that there would be no more war between them and promising to honor their sons’ memories with peace.
…
No matter of the desire of the two rulers, the Treaty of Babylon did not completely bring peace between the two realms. However, it bought peace in the short term and began a friendship between Al-Hassan and Narsah that would last until the Arab leader’s death some ten years later in 648. According to the agreement, the Alkumnulith would annex Mesopotamia but also recognize the independence of Persia and its control over Eastern Armenia. Furthermore, the Alkumnulith would pay the Persians several hundred pounds of gold each year for a period of thirty years. Finally, and most groundbreaking, was the settlement over the Holy City of Babylon. By this period, the city of Babylon had become economically marginalized by the growing power of other cities, such as Ctesiphon. Despite this, Babylon remained an important holy city for the Manichean faith, and was also the home of the Patriarchy of the East. Because of this, it was agreed that Babylon would be set aside as an independent city and that it would be ruled jointly by both the Persians and the Arabs. This agreement would eventually break down, but was still one of the first such agreements over a shared holy site in the history of the western world. [FN7]
…
The conclusion of the treaty cemented Narsah’s position in Persia. In a matter of ten years, the Zoroastrain Sassanian dynasty had been defeated and replaced by the Nestorian Christian dynasty. The great struggle of Karenish Persia would involve securing its own borders, especially to the East where nomadic tribes would attempt to raid and conquer in the face of weakness, as well as to manage the religious tensions inherent in such a diverse and politically volatile realm. [FN8]
[FN1] I include this title with full apologies to my readers, and in honor of my best friend and his favorite misremembered Miley Cyrus lyrics.
[FN2] For those of you with a penchant for believing in miracles, you may take this account at face value. For those of you readers who do not, feel free to believe that Narsah had a hallucination in his grief. Both work with the narrative.
[FN3] BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[FN4] A slightly different narrative piece than those I usually write. I wanted to establish Narsha early on and show his character, and thought the best way to do so what to show what was running through his own head at a single instant – probably one of the most important of his life. I hope it worked and held your attention.
[FN5] Dr. O’Seachnall is presuming a bit much. Although it would be reasonable to assume that House Mihran, with their political ambitions and adherence to Orthodox Zoroastrianism, had assassinated the former Shah, the charge is simply not true. As human beings, we often like to craft conspiracy theories to explain away surprising events. In many cases, these theories are oddly comforting – even though we may assume that conspirators are evil, there is something affirming about believing that there exist diabolical geniuses capable to maneuvering events to their own benefit. At least someone is in charge and there is someone to blame for bad events! In this case, however, there was no conspiracy. Shahrbaraz, the ruler of House Mihran, was as caught by surprise by the assassination as anyone else. In fact, he was busy attempting to negotiate the marriage of the Shah to his youngest daughter. However, Shahrbaraz was nothing if not able to sense opportunity in chaos and acted, throwing his support behind the young Peroz.
[FN6] These events actually bear a similarity to those which lead to the Arab invasion of Persia in OTL. It strikes me that any young Shah attempting to assert his own authority might look to the Lakhmids as a people to invade – they are isolated, weak, and a victory would help secure his own rule. The Alkumnulith – the Commonwealth – is going to take this as an assault on their position in the Arab world, the same as the Caliphate did in OTL.
On a side note, if anyone can suggest a better name for the Arab state, I will accept it. I wanted to use a term which would show that the state viewed its citizens as equal in the same faith, and which would not be ‘Caliphate.’ I chose the Alkumnulith because it meant “Commonwealth” which represented the concept I was going for. However the more I dig into it, it worries me that this term may be a borrowing from European languages and not native to the language of the Arabs. On a side note, remember that the prestige form of Arabic in this ATL is that which would have been spoken in OTL Yemen at the time.
[FN7] I was comewhat inspired in this meeting by the correspondence between Richard the Lion Hearted and Saladin who, although opposed, still showed one another respect. Here, I thought that the shared trauma of having lost a loved son might actually cause these opposing leaders to understand one another. Maybe I’m an idealist, but in this modern era of heightened tension, I like to remember that political and religious leaders are human beings and capable of the same vices, and also sympathies, as the rest of us. Here, two enemies realize that they have more in common than they thought, and form a friendship which maintains the peace for a decade. We would be lucky for the same, these days, I suspect.
[FN8] And what about the Ghassanids, you ask? The Arabs annex them as well. However, a battle between them and the Rhomans end up as stalemate which allows the Arabs to keep the Ghassanid lands, but being in most position to invade Rhoman territory. I will probably reference and cover this as a later date. But this chapter is, by far, long enough, and I see no need to subject you to any more!
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And, so there we have it. After many months, and many more years of contemplating it, we now have the end of this most recent batch of chapters focusing on the Middle East. Over the course of these chapters we saw two traditional Empires warring with one another and one collapsing, while a few faith rises to the south. I thank all of you who have stuck with me through this bit - I promise you it is all going to come into play at a later date (as always!) and we shall now turn out attention back to the West and examine the Goths who, despite this being their story, have somehow passed from our attention for far too long!
As always, all questions and comments are not only welcome, I demand them
