East-1641 part 1: Preparations
It began at Troy. According to Herodotus the Persians said that the quarrel between the Hellenic and Persian races began when, for the sake of a woman, the Hellenes sent forth a great armament against the land of Priam and destroyed it. [1] Modern historians may disagree with the writing there by their ancient predecessor, but the penultimate war between Rhomania and Persia also began, in a way, at the site of Troy.
Odysseus had spent the year-and-a-half as Emperor crisscrossing the Asian parts of the Roman heartland, from Nicaea to Trebizond to Antioch and back. Most of it was spent overseeing military exercises and preparing for the coming campaign, while the actual administration of the Empire as a whole was overseen by his sister. Only in elements that directly impacted the war-planning did Odysseus take the reins, such as in the negotiations with the Georgians that took place in Trebizond.
However before the truce expired, Odysseus returned to the west of Anatolia and placed himself at the top of a hill in the Kephalate of Skammandros, one that overlooked the Hellespont. His father, then a young junior official, had sat atop that hill and written a letter wondering about the stories the stones here could tell if they could speak. While Demetrios wrote, Odysseus painted. He painted two landscape paintings, one overlooking the sea and the other the land from his vantage point. These, the first in his remarkable and famous ‘Campaign Paintings’, were sent to Athena in Constantinople before he marched back east.
That hill had once been fabled Troy.
* * *
Estate near Prousa, January 18, 1641:
Odysseus and Maria walked around another bend of the footpath which led from the nearest garden area back to the main house, which was now in sight. It was a cool but clear day and they’d spent an hour or so walking over parts of the estate, the largest that belonged to them as persons, as opposed to Imperial grants. The conversation had been entirely about economic management.
Odysseus did not see his wife or his two sons, Herakleios now nearing 9 years old, and Demetrios, approaching his 2nd birthday, very often. The hesychastic retreats and army encampments where he spent most of his days were no place for two small boys, and while there were women at the latter, they were of a type far more comparable to Maria in her past life, before she was Maria. But there was more to it than that.
He looked over at Maria, the two maintaining their pace. She was still stunningly beautiful, but the lust, to be blunt but accurate, he’d felt before when he looked at her was gone. It was replaced by shame, guilt, regret. It wasn’t the war, but just some more years, some more experience, that let him see what his young lust for a beautiful older woman, the lover of his brother-in-all-but-name, had ensured he could not then, before it was too late.
“You never did love me, did you?” he asked.
Maria stiffened but didn’t break her stride. “No, no I didn’t. Warmth yes, affection, but never love.”
“Thank you for not lying to me.”
“No point in doing so. If you wanted the lie, you could’ve just continued to not ask the question.”
“Fair enough.” They were nearing the main house now. “But did you love…him?”
A pause. “Yes, yes I did.”
“Me too.” They were at the front gate now. “I’m sorry, Maria. I know it’s a decade too late and it’s no good anyway but I’m sorry. Yes, you said yes but it’s not like you really had a choice. I’m sorry for what I did to you, what I forced you to do. I can’t make up for that, but I promise I’ll do what I can to make it right.”
With that he turned and started to head for the stables. After all of that, spending the night here was definitely wrong. “Odysseus,” Maria called out to him. He turned around to look at her. “I hope you find peace someday.”
“Me too. Thank you, Maria,” he said. But a voice in the back of his head spoke differently.
Peace? For people like us that was never an option.
* * *
1641 continued: The ending of the truce in February was not conducive to the immediate resumption of major military operations. Trying to move large numbers of troops across Anatolia in winter, especially over the elevated central plateau, is difficult even when everything cooperates and the Little Ice Age, while not fully baring its teeth, is starting to bite. And even if the Romans did manage that, then they would be advancing right as winter runoff swells the Euphrates and Tigris and massively increases their flood risk.
Major troop movements from western Anatolia thus do not start until well after the truce has expired, with the first few months of renewed warfare consisting of intensified cavalry skirmishes and raids. A key component for the Romans in this warfare are auxiliaries from their various allied Bedouin tribes such as the Anizzah. Another is the Turkopouloi, the regular light cavalry contingents of the tagmata, drawn primarily from the herdsmen of central and eastern Anatolia in Asia and Vlach or Albanian pastoralists in Europe. These pastoralist groups, peripatetic nomads who operate on the fringes of or within the margins of the agricultural settled components of the Empire, are an important if often unruly part of the Empire.
The term ‘Turkopouloi’, sons of Turks, in this context can lead to some confusion. The nomadic herders of central Anatolia are largely descended from various Turkoman groups who remained in Anatolia after the Laskarid re-conquest, converting to Orthodoxy and speaking Greek (with more Turkish loanwords than is the case for Aegean-basin dialects), but retaining much of their material lifeways. However there was substantial intermarriage between the Turkomans and others, and some of these are Greeks who adopted the lifestyle. As one goes east, the Greco-Turkish mixture of the central plateau gains substantial Armenian and especially Kurdish components, with the odd Caucasian and even Mongol dash (from the days of the Il-Khanate).
And all these various nomadic groups flow around and rub shoulders (and more) with the settled agricultural regions such as the areas around Ikonion and Sebastea, which are just as ethnically mixed. One reported advantage of the Romans classifying everyone on the basis of religion and occupation as opposed to ethnicity is that the former is substantially less paperwork.
Notably the Ottoman setup is very similar. They also have many nomadic pastoral groups operating within the territories delineated as under their control on political maps. Operating in the more rugged terrain suitable for grazing but not growing crops between the areas of settled agriculture, the pastoralists in both Empires are effective sources of animal products, skilled and effective light troops (mostly cavalry, but mountaineer herders in both are dangerous light infantry), and headaches for the central government. The constant battle and negotiation between the ‘desert’ and the sown is a continual undercurrent in both societies.
Western countries are not immune from similar pressures, although to lesser extents. There are the great sheep drives on the Spanish Meseta, an important component of the Spanish economy but always a source of headaches from the disputes between herders and farmers. In Italy, there are also sheep drives from winter to summer pastures that traverse the length of the peninsula, ignoring political borders, and which the local powers all agree are too important to be interrupted by war. In Hungary there are the great cattle drives, moving livestock from the plains to the hungry markets of southern Germany. And in northern Europe, there are the cattle drives from Denmark and northern Germany, where cattle, hungry after the long winter, are moved west to graze in the pastures of northern Lotharingia and fatten up before being driven to the great mart of Antwerp. Smaller examples also abound, such as the sheepherders of the Massif Central.
The main Roman field army that masses in Upper Mesopotamia is roughly 70,000 strong, including the attached auxiliaries, although there are also some kastron troops, militia, and short-term irregulars that help provide security for communications and logistics. Its target is Mesopotamia proper.
Meanwhile there is an Egyptian army eighteen thousand strong whose objective is the various interior Syrian lands that have been held by the Ottomans during the Truce. The Egyptians face no regular Ottoman troops, just local levies and allied Bedouins, although the Egyptians have Bedouin allies as well. The Romans offered three tourmai to reinforce the Egyptians but they declined, suspecting (rightly) that if Roman troops were present, they would demand being in the lead at the eventual capture of Jerusalem, despite being a small fraction of the army. Given the recent religious tensions stirred up by Ibrahim regarding holy sites and religious properties, the Coptic Egyptians find that unacceptable. If they’re doing all or the bulk of the work, they will get the credit for reclaiming Jerusalem.
The Georgians meanwhile are invading their former trans-Aras lands with 30,000 men with their chief target the city of Tabriz. With Ibrahim focusing the bulk of his strength in Mesopotamia, they have substantial numerical superiority. However the terrain is an absolute nightmare, making the going slow.
There are no Omani or Ethiopian forces in motion. The Omani had insisted on being ceded Hormuz, which had been seized by Iskandar the Great from them early in his career. However Odysseus is intent on placing Iskandar the Younger on the Persian throne. To Odysseus, Iskandar the Younger is his younger brother just as Andreas III was his elder brother. He will not give his younger brother a mutilated prize, with only the status of Mesopotamia a question mark, and that is the end of the discussion. The Omani, thus seeing no benefit for themselves in the contest, decide to stay out. The Ethiopians, seeing things the same as their Omani allies, also remain neutral.
Neither Odysseus nor Athena are bothered by this. Gonder and Muscat are operating on the principle of self-interest. For Constantinople to complain would be transparent and utter hypocrisy and to make a diplomatic issue out of it would not be in Rhomania’s best interest. The two neutrals wouldn’t have been sending forces to Mesopotamia, where everyone knows the main event will be; everything else is a sideshow which will not affect the general outcome no matter which way they go.
With the tagmata of western Anatolia on the scene and the Egyptians and Georgians beginning their own pushes, the army commanded by Odysseus Sideros musters out for Mosul, the first obstacle on their march to the east.
[1] Herodotus, Book 1, Paragraphs 4-5, translated by G.C Macaulay and revised by Donald Lateiner, (Barnes & Nobles Classic: New York), 2004.
