PAX
A period of peace in the Ocsidence [1], political at least, lasted from 569 to 581, the longest such period in the Early, or ‘Dark’, Mediatempene Period. This was a time of cultural development, peaceful political consolidation, and stabilization.
During this time of peace, the SPQR was blessed with the Three Excellent Flavitirani. Ironically, this occurred, at least initially, due to corruption. In the SPQR, two Flavitirani were supposed to serve a simultaneous one-year term. Tatianus Blandinus and Fabius Cyprianus, were elected in 570 and won due a combination of bribery and deceit. They were elected again and again, due to their excellence as leaders rather than due to bribery, until 576, when Flavius Fabius Cyprianus Tiranus died for unknown reasons. Flavius Tatianus Blandinus and colleague Drusius Fulvius were Flavitirani every year until the end of 580.
Flavius Tatianus Blandinus Tiranus and Flavius Fabius Cyprianus Tiranus made many reforms. The ‘Blandini’ and ‘Cypri’, as they were called, were several scores of new roads and new forts respectively, which were open to non-military use. At the same time, the old roads were also opened to non-military use, though if came a time of military emergency, civilians would have to leave the path clear for the troops. The cursus publicus [2] was also quite improved. Along the roads of the SPQR, roughly every 30 to 100 milipasi [3], existed a postal outpost with horses, mail, a small garrison (certainly less than a legion), and usually a rider. Riders, either on a single horse, or on a chariot carrying an extensive amount of mail, would travel station to station. Diplomats and transport-for-the-rich also followed the roads. After establishing many roads and forts and vastly improving the cursus publicus, the two Flavitirani commissioned the creation of highly accurate maps of trade routes and all roads, outposts, forts, and settlements, for the use of merchants, traders, generals, and others, with the help of some of the best Roman surveyors and cartographers.
The reign of Flavius Drusius Fulvius along with Flavius Tatianus Blandinus Tiranus, which occurred after the death of Fabius, continued the reforms. In addition, new reforms and constructions were made. The Drusian wall, which was not really a wall at all, just a series of forts, intended to halt a small invasion or severely forestall a large one, was installed in the Pyrenees. This sprawl of forts through the mountain passes supplemented a sizable amount of forts that were already there, most built by Maximus Tiranus himself. The Pyrenees were now Europe’s most defensible stronghold. The Drusian wall was not the only new reform or construction, however. In addition to the construction of yet another aqueduct for Tiranamaxima and two for Olissipo, four fortified outposts were established along the mainland African coast, and two on the Fortunatae Insulae [4], an archipelago that had been discovered by Greeks and Carthaginians, but left nearly untouched since then, at the recommendation of Drusius Fulvius’ close friend, the Latin-Punic merchant Aemilius Marinus. Natives were discovered on the islands, but they welcomed the settlements. Lastly, Drusius and Tatianus reorganized the provinces of the SPQR.
The Three Excellent Flavitirani spent much of the SPQR’s treasury, but these massive projects fueled Roman development and expansion for centuries to come.
Sa’id Mohammed, Grand General Commander of the Faithful, Vahshil of the Vahshilate named after himself, turned out to be a ruler who was simultaneously cruel, somewhat lawful, and somewhat merciful. He placed his sons, except Sa’id Mohammed II [5], who was to remain within the royal district of the capital city Adaleia [6], in command of some of the provinces of his Vahshilate. He had given them great power but warned them that, despite them being his sons, he would go to extreme measures if he discovered any misconduct. His son Fereydoun Navid ibn-Sa’id’Mohammed was caught embezzling tax funds, and as a result, Sa’id Mohammed ordered him be hanged. However, Sa’id Mohammed also showed mercy--after a fair deal of oppression first. The Christians of his lands, when they were ruled by the Shapurids, were treated well, with the only restrictions they really faced were the non-Zoharist tax, and, if they were criminals, they risked having their children captured and raised as Slakhalivas--but only if they were criminals. The Shapurids also supported the Pater and the Nomitrope Church--financially, even. When Sa’id Mohammed was granted the Anatolian lands the Toramanids captured from the Shapurids, he doubled the non-Zoharist tax, and made it common, and legal, for Christian children to be randomly captured and raised as Slakhalivas. In 578, at the sincere begging of almost the entire Christian population of Adaleia, he relented--though it may have simply been because there were, by then, 65,000 Slakhalivas in the army or training--and he stopped the Slakhaliva system entirely and decreased the non-Zoharist tax to 2 kespā [7] per year.
In the north Italian states, a new culture evolved. An early dominal [8] society developed, beginning during the Roman days, but most historians say that 573, the year that the usurper-King of Etruria established the Council of Duçues, a council composed of Etruria’s most powerful Duçues, who would elect the next King, was the true beginning of northern Italia’s dominal era. The King was lord of the Duçues, the Duçues were lords of the Comits [9], and the Comits were lords of the Tuctores [10]. Slaves slowly fell out of use. Replacing them were the clones [11], farmers who were, by law, bound to their Tuctory, or perhaps an even smaller area of land, designated by their Tuctor. In 576, the King of Ravenia proposed the creation of a Hermund [12] Roman League. This idea was quite liked by the kings of the other north Italian states, except Alpicia, but when the King of Ravenia died in November 577, the idea was discarded.
The period of peace ended in 581. Afterward, the face of Europe would change entirely...and, in the East, the Xiongs would draw their final breath.
[1] The Ocsidence is the western portion of the Old World; essentially, it is everything west of Persia and east of the New World. Often, however, Africa south of the Sahara is excluded.
[2] The cursus publicus, meaning ‘public course’ or ‘public road’, was the Roman postal and transportation system.
[3] A milipasus (from the older Latin term ‘mille passuum’) is a thousand paces, or 1481 meters (1620 yards).
[4] The Fortunatae Insulae are the Canarias Islands.
[5] The real/full name of Sa’id Mohammed II was Salah’Adel ibn-Sa'id’Mohammed; however because he was heir apparent, he is called Sa’id Mohammed II.
[6] Adaleia is Attaleia/Antalya.
[7] A kespā was the currency of many Zoharist states. It derives from the Aramaic word for ‘money’.
[8] Dominal derives from Latin ‘dominus’ meaning ‘lord’ or ‘master’. Dominal society was based on one’s vassalage to their lord.
[9] A Comit, from Latin ‘comes’ and its many conjugations which begin with ‘comit-’, was just under a Duçue in a dominal society.
[10] A Tuctor, from Latin ‘ductor’ was just under a Comit in a dominal society.
[11] From Latin ‘colonus’ and the plural form ‘coloni’, a ‘clone’ was a farmer tied to the land.
[12] All the north Italian states, not just Hermundia, were culturally, ethnically, and linguistically Hermund--a Latin derived group with sizable Germanic influences.
