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A painting showing the fabled fight between Archangel Michael & the Garrods of the East
A painting showing the fabled fight between Archangel Michael & the Garrods of the East
“Verily, The Winged Beasts of the East confronted Michael in the skies above Jerusalem. Michael confronted the Garrod [1] of the East, accusing them of wickedness as the descendants of the foul Nephilim. The Garrod of the East scoffed in the face of the Prince. Using the force that had once hurled down the Samael the Accuser, Michael and his angels fought the Garrod of the East as all of the humankind trembled beneath.”
- An Ancient Hebrew Tablet from the 2nd Kingdom of Israel
“
‘And what, Blessed One, is the purpose and benefit of all the knowledge and vision of things that are already there?’ Perseus asked. ‘Its purpose is none other than to bring about dispassion which is the human knowledge of liberation.’ ‘What is Liberation?’ Perseus wondered in the face of the Blessed One.
‘Thus, Liberation is the purpose and benefit of virtuous behavior with non-regret; thus the purpose and benefit of non-regret is genuine joy; the purpose and benefit of joy is rapture; the purpose and benefit of tranquility is pleasure; the purpose and benefit of pleasure is concentration and knowledge; the purpose and benefit of knowledge is disenchantment and dispassion; With thus, a man can seek to escape the mundane pull of the Lethes in Hades, escaping the wandering wheel.’
So the Blessed One spoke, and Perseus was seized with the simplicity of the beautiful knowledge. Forth he bid his farewell, leaving to rule his abundant Kingdom. Thereafter, the Blessed One’s earnest advice led to Perseus becoming the most virtuous King in all of Hellas. When war came for his Kingdom in his old age, Perseus used the Gorgon’s head, but through his old age, he could no longer use it. His honor and virtuosity won him the war. It was at that moment the Son of Zeus laid bare on the ground of a broken battlefield, praying to the Heavens. ‘As He said so many years ago, I have achieved Liberation.’
As he lay with his prayers, one of the Egeiro [2] approached him. Barapani [3] had found him in his most enlightened moment and asked him ‘What is the sole truth of this world?’
‘It is mundane.’ Perseus answered. ‘Through Pandora’s mistake, humans will always crave the fleeting and as such when we welcome Thanatos and Hades, we will be drawn to the Lethe, to be reborn again trapped in a cycle. It is only when we become selfless that this cycle is broken, to ascend to the Fortunate Isles.’
With that said, as Barapani was his witness, Perseus turned the Gorgon’s severed head to himself. Having achieved Nirvana and the future of his family and nation secure, the Son of Zeus left this plane of existence. Enlightened, in Hades, he was welcomed into the Fortunate Isles by Thanatos.
”
‘Thus, Liberation is the purpose and benefit of virtuous behavior with non-regret; thus the purpose and benefit of non-regret is genuine joy; the purpose and benefit of joy is rapture; the purpose and benefit of tranquility is pleasure; the purpose and benefit of pleasure is concentration and knowledge; the purpose and benefit of knowledge is disenchantment and dispassion; With thus, a man can seek to escape the mundane pull of the Lethes in Hades, escaping the wandering wheel.’
So the Blessed One spoke, and Perseus was seized with the simplicity of the beautiful knowledge. Forth he bid his farewell, leaving to rule his abundant Kingdom. Thereafter, the Blessed One’s earnest advice led to Perseus becoming the most virtuous King in all of Hellas. When war came for his Kingdom in his old age, Perseus used the Gorgon’s head, but through his old age, he could no longer use it. His honor and virtuosity won him the war. It was at that moment the Son of Zeus laid bare on the ground of a broken battlefield, praying to the Heavens. ‘As He said so many years ago, I have achieved Liberation.’
As he lay with his prayers, one of the Egeiro [2] approached him. Barapani [3] had found him in his most enlightened moment and asked him ‘What is the sole truth of this world?’
‘It is mundane.’ Perseus answered. ‘Through Pandora’s mistake, humans will always crave the fleeting and as such when we welcome Thanatos and Hades, we will be drawn to the Lethe, to be reborn again trapped in a cycle. It is only when we become selfless that this cycle is broken, to ascend to the Fortunate Isles.’
With that said, as Barapani was his witness, Perseus turned the Gorgon’s severed head to himself. Having achieved Nirvana and the future of his family and nation secure, the Son of Zeus left this plane of existence. Enlightened, in Hades, he was welcomed into the Fortunate Isles by Thanatos.
”
- A chapter from ‘THE BOOK OF THE BLESSED ONE BODDO’, an ancient Greco-Buddhist scripture written by an unknown author estimated from 100 BCE – 50 CE
The tale of Greco-Buddhism is a tale that traces its origins to the time of Alexander the Great. As Alexander’s empire stretched into the Indian Subcontinent itself after his defeat of Porus, the Hellenists from the West came into contact with a religion and a following of the East that was most syncretic with itself, Buddhism. It would be a slow process, indeed, the growth, expansion, and cementation of Greco-Buddhism in the post-Alexander Hellenistic world amongst the Diadochi would change the course of history forever. This is the tale of Greco-Buddhism and how the Dharma changed the Western world, and subsequently world forever.
[1] Garrod = Garud, the Hindu God Strength, and in Buddhism, a race of eagle-shaped righteous warriors.
[2] Egeiro = Bodhisattva, the near eternal beings of Buddhism who have achieved awakening through Nirvana.
[3] Barapani = Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva of Protection.
The Good Berry is about the domestication of zizania palustris, also known as Wild Rice, by an Algonquian people in the North American Great Lakes region and the subsequent rise of civilization in OTL Midwest and Upper South United States.
Here is a quick look:
Chapter 1: The Good Berry
Scientists estimate that more than half of all plants are edible in some form. A scant dozen account for more than 80% of calories eaten by the billions of people alive today. Wheat, rice, maize, bede, barley, and others have been changed by thousands of years of planting, harvesting, and experimentation into plants which are much easier for humans to plant, harvest, and eat. The process by which plants and animals are selectively bred for traits beneficial to humans is called domestication.
Domestication is not a singular event. It is an iterative process that may take hundreds or even thousands of generations. Every generation, those plants with the traits most desirable to humans are nurtured while those with undesirable traits are discarded. It is, in a sense, evolution by unnatural selection.
It should be noted that domestication, at least at the start, is not a conscious process. It was not started by some genius hunter gatherer who saw the potential to change plants. Ants have domesticated fungus and no one considers them geniuses. Plant domestication began as the unintentional result of the natural behaviors of both plants and humans.
Let us take a look at the domestication of black rice or manoomin.
From now on, we will use the name manoomin, meaning “Good Berry” in Anishinaabe, rather than the more common name of black rice. This is so that it is not confused with Asian rice, which it is only distantly related to.
We will use the term Menominee, meaning “people of manoomin” in Anishinaabe, to refer to the people who first domesticated manoomin. This is because the scholarly consensus is that they were Algonquian speakers. While this is an imperfect solution, it is better than using terms that suggest Siouan ancestry like psinomani, which means “people of manoomin” in Dakota, or terms like “proto-Anishinaabe” that suggest more continuity with the present than can be justified from the current evidence.
In the Mishigami, manoomin is an abundant food source that has been harvested for thousands of years. For most of that time, manoomin was a secondary food source, only eaten when other, easier foods were not available. This is hardly the recipe for domestication.
But something changed. That something was a fungus. Around the year 4000 BCE, a mutation in this fungus allowed it to grow unchecked on hickory trees. Within a few decades, the hickory population was devastated.
Hickory nuts had long been an important food. They were tasty, nutritious and stored well for the long winters. With their (almost) complete disappearance, many people starved or migrated to other areas. However, some stayed and began harvesting another food that was tasty, nutritious, and could be stored easily even if it was harder to process. That food was manoomin.
As more hickory trees died, these people, the Menominee, started to spread manoomin to new lakes and rivers in order to ensure they always had a source of food. By doing so, they were unknowingly selecting for traits beneficial to people.
They would collect seeds around the same time every year. This selected for seeds that would germinate and ripen at the same time.
They would only transplant seeds if they had collected more than they needed. This selected for plants that made more and larger seeds.
At first, the Menominee would knock off the seeds with wooden sticks, or knockers. As they became increasingly dependent on manoomin, they began tying the plants to ensure no seeds fell off before harvesting, then cutting each stalk and knocking it thoroughly so that every seed fell off. This selected for seeds with a thick rachis, ensuring that the seed would not fall off until it was harvested by humans.
Once transplanted, these new plants would be isolated, preserving these traits. Then the process would begin again. None of these processes requires humans to consciously breed the plants for beneficial traits or even to notice the changes as they happened. It is possible that some traits, such as taste, were consciously selected for but it is by no means certain.
By the beginning of the pre-classical period, roughly 3000 BCE, manoomin was entirely dependent on humans for propagation. There was now no other way for their seeds to spread but to be planted by humans.
In some areas, fluctuations in water levels would lead to inconsistent harvests year to year. The Menominee began using damns and weirs to control water flow and thereby ensure high, consistent harvests.
As the population of the Mishigami grew, more and more manoomin needed to be grown to keep up with demand. More and more labor, fed by manoomin, was available to solve this problem. Fields that had once been dry were flooded to create rice bogs. This allowed for the creation of large communal farms that could sustain large, sedentary populations. The first evidence for irrigation canals to flood manoomin fields comes from Mishi-zaaga’igan [Lake Mille Lacs, MN]
Manoomin was the staple crop of Minisian [North American] civilization. A majority of the total calories consumed by the Menominee were from manoomin. Of course, a majority does not mean all and the rest needs to be discussed. Other plants and animals were domesticated as part of the Mishigami Agricultural Package. We’ll discuss some of them next time.
Here is a quick look:
Chapter 1: The Good Berry
Scientists estimate that more than half of all plants are edible in some form. A scant dozen account for more than 80% of calories eaten by the billions of people alive today. Wheat, rice, maize, bede, barley, and others have been changed by thousands of years of planting, harvesting, and experimentation into plants which are much easier for humans to plant, harvest, and eat. The process by which plants and animals are selectively bred for traits beneficial to humans is called domestication.
Domestication is not a singular event. It is an iterative process that may take hundreds or even thousands of generations. Every generation, those plants with the traits most desirable to humans are nurtured while those with undesirable traits are discarded. It is, in a sense, evolution by unnatural selection.
It should be noted that domestication, at least at the start, is not a conscious process. It was not started by some genius hunter gatherer who saw the potential to change plants. Ants have domesticated fungus and no one considers them geniuses. Plant domestication began as the unintentional result of the natural behaviors of both plants and humans.
Let us take a look at the domestication of black rice or manoomin.
From now on, we will use the name manoomin, meaning “Good Berry” in Anishinaabe, rather than the more common name of black rice. This is so that it is not confused with Asian rice, which it is only distantly related to.
We will use the term Menominee, meaning “people of manoomin” in Anishinaabe, to refer to the people who first domesticated manoomin. This is because the scholarly consensus is that they were Algonquian speakers. While this is an imperfect solution, it is better than using terms that suggest Siouan ancestry like psinomani, which means “people of manoomin” in Dakota, or terms like “proto-Anishinaabe” that suggest more continuity with the present than can be justified from the current evidence.
In the Mishigami, manoomin is an abundant food source that has been harvested for thousands of years. For most of that time, manoomin was a secondary food source, only eaten when other, easier foods were not available. This is hardly the recipe for domestication.
But something changed. That something was a fungus. Around the year 4000 BCE, a mutation in this fungus allowed it to grow unchecked on hickory trees. Within a few decades, the hickory population was devastated.
Hickory nuts had long been an important food. They were tasty, nutritious and stored well for the long winters. With their (almost) complete disappearance, many people starved or migrated to other areas. However, some stayed and began harvesting another food that was tasty, nutritious, and could be stored easily even if it was harder to process. That food was manoomin.
As more hickory trees died, these people, the Menominee, started to spread manoomin to new lakes and rivers in order to ensure they always had a source of food. By doing so, they were unknowingly selecting for traits beneficial to people.
They would collect seeds around the same time every year. This selected for seeds that would germinate and ripen at the same time.
They would only transplant seeds if they had collected more than they needed. This selected for plants that made more and larger seeds.
At first, the Menominee would knock off the seeds with wooden sticks, or knockers. As they became increasingly dependent on manoomin, they began tying the plants to ensure no seeds fell off before harvesting, then cutting each stalk and knocking it thoroughly so that every seed fell off. This selected for seeds with a thick rachis, ensuring that the seed would not fall off until it was harvested by humans.
Once transplanted, these new plants would be isolated, preserving these traits. Then the process would begin again. None of these processes requires humans to consciously breed the plants for beneficial traits or even to notice the changes as they happened. It is possible that some traits, such as taste, were consciously selected for but it is by no means certain.
By the beginning of the pre-classical period, roughly 3000 BCE, manoomin was entirely dependent on humans for propagation. There was now no other way for their seeds to spread but to be planted by humans.
In some areas, fluctuations in water levels would lead to inconsistent harvests year to year. The Menominee began using damns and weirs to control water flow and thereby ensure high, consistent harvests.
As the population of the Mishigami grew, more and more manoomin needed to be grown to keep up with demand. More and more labor, fed by manoomin, was available to solve this problem. Fields that had once been dry were flooded to create rice bogs. This allowed for the creation of large communal farms that could sustain large, sedentary populations. The first evidence for irrigation canals to flood manoomin fields comes from Mishi-zaaga’igan [Lake Mille Lacs, MN]
Manoomin was the staple crop of Minisian [North American] civilization. A majority of the total calories consumed by the Menominee were from manoomin. Of course, a majority does not mean all and the rest needs to be discussed. Other plants and animals were domesticated as part of the Mishigami Agricultural Package. We’ll discuss some of them next time.
Hey everyone! So, For the Want of A Ram is an ancient Rome timeline that posits what would have happened had Julius Caesar not been assassinated. It's been on a bit of a hiatus as of late, owing to some real life stuff, but I might post a brief interlude or even chapter 10 soon just to tide everyone over. As per the title, the POD is that he gets food poisoning before the Ides of March, and here's a little sneak peak.
Narnia, Italia
In the hills of rustic Umbria, the former hearth of the Sabines, there was a small town known as Narnia. And on the outskirts of this town lived two brothers: Titus and Tiberius. Prior to this point, they had lived mostly uneventful lives, both serving in Caesar’s legion until eventually receiving a plot of land in 46 BC. There, they’d both choose to live out their dying days as small-time shepherds, tending to their livestock on the hills of the grassy knoll. One day however, Titus, commonly known to the local townsfolk as a dullard and a dolt, would bring home an especially randy ram he’d call Coriolanus. And taking a liking to the creature, he’d decide to keep it as a pet. Now Tiberius, being the cold pragmatist he was, would be absolutely livid, as in the short span of a day, the beast would break into his grain stores, shit all over the floor, and try to fuck everything within a mile of his farm. Deciding he had enough, he would make a decision that, unbeknownst to him, would change the course of human history.
While he considered simply releasing the beast into the wilderness, so that it could frolic off like a drunken Bacchus, Tiberius decided against it, not wanting his brother to find out. Instead, he’d cart it off to town, selling it off to a local tradesman. And deciding this disaster of an animal wasn’t fit for life, the tradesman would have it killed, selling it to a man in Ostia who moonlighted as a butcher, barber, and piss merchant. And through pure luck and happenstance, this off-color meat would find its way to the house of one Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, where it’d be prepared by his slaves and put in a fresh serving of copadia agnina: lamb stew. And to celebrate his new proconsulship and departure to Spain, he just so happened to be holding a banquet that night for some of his closest friends…
Lepidus's Atrium
Naturally, Caesar would be one of the first to arrive, flanked by an entourage with his good friend, Decimus Brutus, in the wings. Always one to make a show, he’d shower his host with gifts, giving Lepidus a lapis lazuli necklace for his wife and a ritual dagger from Gaul: a good luck charm for his upcoming fight against Sextus Pompey. Once the other dinner guests had arrived, they’d all retire to the atrium to exchange pleasantries and make small talk. Obviously, Caesar’s aura would consume almost every conversation that followed, as everyone, from the sleaziest politician to the lowliest slave, all clamored for his favor. And after a bunch of exaggerated war stories, poetic proclamations, and crude remarks about Cato the Younger’s impotence, they’d all be called to dinner.
A modest man at heart, Lepidus had arranged a far smaller feast than what the average patrician would've prepared, but there were still more than enough delicacies to go around. After drinking their fair share of white wine, Lepidus, Caesar, and an unusually withdrawn Brutus, would chow down on a 3-course meal, consisting of field mice, honeyed cheesecake, and hearty amounts of stew. Before they knew it, everyone would finish eating. The early evening gave way to night, and most of the guests would soon slip out, either drunk or stuffed, leaving the trio as the last remaining. Feeling unusually sentimental, Lepidus would break open his personal stores, pulling out an old vintage from the days of Sulla, which they’d chug profusely. And as the alcohol did its magic, they’d wax philosophical about the great questions of life, eventually coming onto the topic of death. They’d debate what was the best way to die, with each man giving a different answer. Lepidus would claim that it was best to pass on surrounded by loved ones, having lived a pious life. Brutus, pensive and brooding, would claim that it was best to die in service of the Republic or a greater cause. And Caesar, ever sardonic, would argue that it’d be best to die when least expected to avoid the pain of foresight. Content with their answers, the men would call it night, each departing on their own accord. Brutus would stroll home through a cramped alleyway, wracked with guilt, knowing what he was about to do. He could feel his stomach tighten: his head pounding and intense pangs coming from his gut. He’d slip off to bed, knowing that the Ides would come, but when he awoke, he’d find himself vomiting and bedridden: rendered immobile with seething pain(1). Through what seemed to be divine intervention, his plan would not come to be.
That same morning, Cassius’s house devolved into a shitshow of pontificating and screaming. You see, at the crack of dawn, just as they were preparing to smuggle their knives into Pompey’s theater, they had received dreadful news: owing to unexpected illness, Caesar had canceled all senate meetings before the upcoming invasion. Naturally, they panicked, worried that they had lost their window to assassinate the bald philanderer. The hours would tick by and, growing desperate, Cassius would dispatch for his co-conspirator-in-chief, Decimus Brutus, hoping for some form of counsel, only to discover him writhing in pain: in the midst of a delirious coma. In a last-ditch attempt to salvage the conspiracy, Junius Brutus would confront Caesar himself, hoping to play on his pride, so that he may rescind his order(2). He’d be disappointed however to find the dictator shriveled in bed, barely able to move, and after giving him the long side-eye, Calpurnia would tell him no. It was upon hearing this news that the conspirators dropped any pretense of civility; all hell broke loose. Cassius’s atrium erupted into a cacophony of hysteria and shouting, and Tillius Cimber, ever the violent drunk, would start a fist fight with Junius Brutus, threatening to slit his throat for roping him into the conspiracy. Cassius would barely break it up, chiding them for being no better than petulant children. After barely restoring order, he urged his fellow plotters to just wait. After all, Caesar was sick, and he could die any day now. And so, after diffusing tensions with some food and wine, they went about their business and simply waited, praying that their tyrant would die…
(1): The POD. After eating some rancid lamb meat, Caesar and Brutus get food poisoning right before the Ides of March.
(2): For context, according Suetonius, Decimus Brutus did something similar, trying to convince Caesar to go to the senate that day. The difference is that, in OTL, he was just hungover and, contrary to the Shakespeare play, much closer friends with Decimus. Here, he's bedridden, puking, and Junius can't convince him.
Chapter I: Lions Fed by Sheep
Narnia, Italia
While he considered simply releasing the beast into the wilderness, so that it could frolic off like a drunken Bacchus, Tiberius decided against it, not wanting his brother to find out. Instead, he’d cart it off to town, selling it off to a local tradesman. And deciding this disaster of an animal wasn’t fit for life, the tradesman would have it killed, selling it to a man in Ostia who moonlighted as a butcher, barber, and piss merchant. And through pure luck and happenstance, this off-color meat would find its way to the house of one Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, where it’d be prepared by his slaves and put in a fresh serving of copadia agnina: lamb stew. And to celebrate his new proconsulship and departure to Spain, he just so happened to be holding a banquet that night for some of his closest friends…
Lepidus's Atrium
Naturally, Caesar would be one of the first to arrive, flanked by an entourage with his good friend, Decimus Brutus, in the wings. Always one to make a show, he’d shower his host with gifts, giving Lepidus a lapis lazuli necklace for his wife and a ritual dagger from Gaul: a good luck charm for his upcoming fight against Sextus Pompey. Once the other dinner guests had arrived, they’d all retire to the atrium to exchange pleasantries and make small talk. Obviously, Caesar’s aura would consume almost every conversation that followed, as everyone, from the sleaziest politician to the lowliest slave, all clamored for his favor. And after a bunch of exaggerated war stories, poetic proclamations, and crude remarks about Cato the Younger’s impotence, they’d all be called to dinner.
A modest man at heart, Lepidus had arranged a far smaller feast than what the average patrician would've prepared, but there were still more than enough delicacies to go around. After drinking their fair share of white wine, Lepidus, Caesar, and an unusually withdrawn Brutus, would chow down on a 3-course meal, consisting of field mice, honeyed cheesecake, and hearty amounts of stew. Before they knew it, everyone would finish eating. The early evening gave way to night, and most of the guests would soon slip out, either drunk or stuffed, leaving the trio as the last remaining. Feeling unusually sentimental, Lepidus would break open his personal stores, pulling out an old vintage from the days of Sulla, which they’d chug profusely. And as the alcohol did its magic, they’d wax philosophical about the great questions of life, eventually coming onto the topic of death. They’d debate what was the best way to die, with each man giving a different answer. Lepidus would claim that it was best to pass on surrounded by loved ones, having lived a pious life. Brutus, pensive and brooding, would claim that it was best to die in service of the Republic or a greater cause. And Caesar, ever sardonic, would argue that it’d be best to die when least expected to avoid the pain of foresight. Content with their answers, the men would call it night, each departing on their own accord. Brutus would stroll home through a cramped alleyway, wracked with guilt, knowing what he was about to do. He could feel his stomach tighten: his head pounding and intense pangs coming from his gut. He’d slip off to bed, knowing that the Ides would come, but when he awoke, he’d find himself vomiting and bedridden: rendered immobile with seething pain(1). Through what seemed to be divine intervention, his plan would not come to be.
That same morning, Cassius’s house devolved into a shitshow of pontificating and screaming. You see, at the crack of dawn, just as they were preparing to smuggle their knives into Pompey’s theater, they had received dreadful news: owing to unexpected illness, Caesar had canceled all senate meetings before the upcoming invasion. Naturally, they panicked, worried that they had lost their window to assassinate the bald philanderer. The hours would tick by and, growing desperate, Cassius would dispatch for his co-conspirator-in-chief, Decimus Brutus, hoping for some form of counsel, only to discover him writhing in pain: in the midst of a delirious coma. In a last-ditch attempt to salvage the conspiracy, Junius Brutus would confront Caesar himself, hoping to play on his pride, so that he may rescind his order(2). He’d be disappointed however to find the dictator shriveled in bed, barely able to move, and after giving him the long side-eye, Calpurnia would tell him no. It was upon hearing this news that the conspirators dropped any pretense of civility; all hell broke loose. Cassius’s atrium erupted into a cacophony of hysteria and shouting, and Tillius Cimber, ever the violent drunk, would start a fist fight with Junius Brutus, threatening to slit his throat for roping him into the conspiracy. Cassius would barely break it up, chiding them for being no better than petulant children. After barely restoring order, he urged his fellow plotters to just wait. After all, Caesar was sick, and he could die any day now. And so, after diffusing tensions with some food and wine, they went about their business and simply waited, praying that their tyrant would die…
(1): The POD. After eating some rancid lamb meat, Caesar and Brutus get food poisoning right before the Ides of March.
(2): For context, according Suetonius, Decimus Brutus did something similar, trying to convince Caesar to go to the senate that day. The difference is that, in OTL, he was just hungover and, contrary to the Shakespeare play, much closer friends with Decimus. Here, he's bedridden, puking, and Junius can't convince him.
What is Ravenna, the midwife of Europe? There are many ways to define this story: basically, it's about a family feud, an obsessive emperor with a bad temper, courageous generals and corrupt bureaucrats, business-minded barbarians, bibliophile Huns, quarrelsome theologians, taxes and of many, many mosaics...
Too many things for a Timeline? Perhaps, but it is also a journey into a fascinating and complex era, where an old world dies and a new one is born, in which different cultures collide and dialogue... In which the king of the Goths and the daughter of an emperor can even get married and have a child (and survive the Machiavellian plans of the stepbrother...)
To find out more, here is the first step of this long journey...
01: The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
The book that has shaped the contemporary vision of the historical revolution that takes place in the fifth century is perhaps Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, which with its vibrant pages has spread, in the common reader, the concept of late antiquity . Perhaps an inaccurate concept, because it inextricably links this period to an idea of decline, of antiquarian citation, melancholy and nostalgia for the past: feelings which, after all, are also common in our postmodern culture. [1]
Yet, the fifth century was above all a time of great innovations and changes: with Augustine of Hippo modern theology was born and the genre of autobiography developed, Roman law was codified, ecclesiastical canon law was born and the religious plurality that characterizes Europe, founded on the concept of tolerance.
Changes that the men of the fifth century were aware of, whatever their origin, Latin, Greek, Goth or Germanic. Proof is the inscription that headed the entrance of the Pandidakterion of Rome, [2] founded by Anicius Severus [3] in 457, imitating what was done by Elia Eudocia in 425, who thus reported
"Flee, old age, surrender to the arrival of new times"
Therefore this era should be, more correctly, defined as Paleochristian: the fundamental difference with the classical age, following Maxentius, Galerius and Constantine, the Empire was no longer pagan, but Christian. The foreigners, the barbarians, thanks to their conversion to the various variants of Christianity, managed, albeit in a chaotic and convulsive way, to integrate into the administrative structure and imperial culture.
The primary role in this complex project of cultural fusion was played by Galla Placidia, who was taken as a hostage by Alaric's Goths after the sack of Rome, so that she could act as a pawn in the complex negotiations with Honorius and Flavius Constantius. Probably, the princess, who played a marginal role in the imperial court, would never have imagined spending more than three years in the chariots of the Goths, in a continuous movement from one place to another, with her future perpetually uncertain.
Galla followed the Visigoths to Campania, where she met Paulinus of Nola, [4] who in the future will have a fundamental role in mediating between Galla Placidia and the Iberian and Gallic ecclesiastical hierarchies: she witnessed the storm of Rhegion, which sank the badly organized fleet of the Goths, defeat of the Goths by Flavius Costantius near Scolacium, [5] and the death of Alaric from malaria near present-day Cosenza. According to what Jordanes recounts in De origine actibusque Getarum, the conqueror of Rome was buried with his treasures in the bed of the Busento river, at the convergence with the Crati; to allow this singular burial he resorted to the arms of hundreds of slaves who provided for a momentary diversion of the river's waters, and who, once the work was completed, were ferociously killed so that the undertaking remained secret.
Yet, Anicius Severus, in the Res Gestae Getarum, [6] simply tells that
"The body of Alaric was cremated, according to the customs of his people and his relatives, singing a funeral hymn, scattered his ashes in the river, so that, as if dead, he was as free as when alive"
Again Anicius Severus, in the Private Commentaries, [7] recalls how his friend Guilfridus [8] had once sung him the funeral hymn of Atalaric, of which he reports a fragment, obviously translated into Latin.
Gloomy in the night songs sound
from Costanzia on the Busento,
gloomy the river murmurs him
from its sleepy whirlpool.
Up and down the river they pass
and slow shadows pass over:
Alaric the Goths weep
the great dead of their lineage [9]
So it is probable that the story of the funeral is nothing more than a figment of Jordanes imagination. Galla then witnessed the Goths appointing Athaulf, who according to both Anicius Severus and the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, Volume 4, was a brother-in-law of Alaric. Now according to the chronicle of the bishop Idatius, Galla Placidia intervened directly in the assembly of the Goths, to support Athaulf: something that appears very improbable. More realistic is what Anicius Severus recounts, in the Private Commentaries, in which the princess limited herself to making agreements with the pro-Roman faction of the Goths: in exchange for her release, she would have supported the negotiations with Honorius.
The Chronicon Albeldense and Jordanes report that Athaulf married Galla Placidia at Foro Iuli Aemiliae in 411, [10] and then continued towards Gaul: however, given that the high sources of the time, including Anicius Severus, do not mention it, we can consider it as a sort of narrative invention, also because the immediate actions of the Gothic king suggest everything, except a desire to find a compromise with the court of Ravenna.
In the spring of 412, in fact, Athaulf led, closely followed by Flavius Costantius, his people to Gaul, passing through the military road that from Turin led to the Rhone river through the Monginevro hill. Priscus Attalus also followed him, another usurper of the imperial title, who had been elevated to the office by Alaric and then deposed for the first time in 410.
Choice, due not only to the need not to die of hunger and not to be trapped by the imperial army, but also to the political chaos of those provinces: after the defeat and death of Constantine III, the Rhenish troops proclaimed Jovinus emperor, who was immediately supported by the Gallo-Roman nobility and by the Burgundians and the Alans, eager for booty. Saro the goth, one of Stilicho's generals, an intelligent and unscrupulous man, eager for revenge against Honorius, had put himself at the service of Jovinus, obtaining the title of magister militum. [11]
Athaulf had the goal of using Jovinus as a puppet, considered more easily manipulated and less stubborn than Honorius, in order to grant the coveted lands to the Goths; to do this, he first had to reduce Saro's influence, then somehow bind the secessionist emperor to himself. According to Anicius Severus, to increase the legitimacy of Jovinus , the Gothic king was tempted, to achieve this goal, to propose marriage to Galla Placidia. Jovinus, however, was far from foolish. For which, in addition to rejecting the marriage proposal, he ordered Saro to eliminate Athaulf with a conspiracy, organized together with the more traditionalist faction of the Goths, who however was warned of the intrigue by a deserter from the rival army, according to the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, and with 10,000 men, faced in battle, defeated and killed the enemy general
Here too we have two different versions: the first is that of Jordanes, who claims that Saro had just twenty-eight men with him and despite this, he fought like a lion. The other, more realistic, is that of Anicius Severus and Cassiodorus [12], who both speak of 2,800 soldiers. Since both sources were consulted by Jordanes, it is probable that the number of the De origine actibusque Getarum was an oversight by the copyist, which was then handed down over time.
After the elimination of Saro, Jovinus had to make the best of a bad situation, appointing Athaulfas his Magister Militum, which among other things, caused a defection among his ranks: both the Alans and the Burgundians changed sides, passing on the side of Honorius. In particular, the Burgundians were recognized by Honorius as foederati on the west bank of the Rhine, to eventually be used as a pawn against the Goths.
With Athaulf's support, Jovinus expanded his territory into southeastern Gaul; on that occasion, he decided to appoint his brother, Sebastianus, co-emperor, without first consulting the Gothic king, who, having seen the previous ones, suspected that Jovinus wanted to organize a new conspiracy against him. To avoid future problems, Athaulf decided to make an agreement with Claudius Postumus Dardanus, prefect of the praetorium in Gaul and the only high official remaining loyal to Honorius in those provinces. The Goths, in exchange for food, gold and land, killed the two usurpers and returned Galla Placidia to Ravenna. Sebastianus was immediately defeated and killed. Jovinus took refuge in Valence, where he was besieged and captured by Athaulf. Sent from Narbonne by Dardanus, he was put to death together with his loyalists, the prefect of the praetorium Decimius Rusticus and the head of his secretariat Agroezius. The heads of Jovinus and Sebastianus reached the court of Honorius in August 413 and from there sent to Carthage, to be displayed on the city walls together with those of other usurpers. [13] As usual, Honorius did not respect his word: for once, in his defense, there was Heraclian's revolt in Africa and his subsequent invasion of Italy, which made it difficult to find the grain destined for the Goths.
Tired of being taken for a ride, Athaulf decided to imitate his predecessor Alaric, engaging in a showdown with the Empire. As a first move, he put Marseille under siege, with a dual purpose: to prevent the imperial fleet from carrying out a naval blockade, which would have led the Goths to starvation and to have, with control of the port, an instrument of pressure on the Gallo-Roman nobility. A project which however quickly went up in smoke: Marseilles was defended tooth and nail by Comes Bonifacius, who according to what Cassiodorus recounts, during a sortie challenged the Gothic king to a duel, seriously wounding him: Anicius Severus, whose career was due to protection of Flavius Castinus, [14] elegantly glosses over the episode. Following the defeat, Ataulf changed plans, invading Aquitaine, thus occupying Toulouse, Bordeaux and Narbonne.
This success, however, had a very different effect from the planned one: instead of forcing Honorius to negotiate, he convinced him to put an end to the Gothic threat once and for all: he gave Flavius Costantius carte blanche to organize a punitive expedition, to force the surrender the pernicious barbarians. Faced with this threat, Athaulf played one of the last cards he had left: in 414, at the age of about forty, he married the twenty-two-year-old Galla Placidia with Roman ceremonial with the aim of convincing Honorius with good manners, given that the bad ones had failed, to recognize the Goths as allies without losing face. Furthermore, marriage seemed the way to solve the problem of dynastic succession due to the emperor's lack of heirs; any son of Athaulf would have been Roman emperor and king of the Goths at the same time, thus favoring integration between the elites of the two peoples.
The wedding was celebrated on January 1, 414, in Narbonne, in the suburban villa of the noble and wealthy Ingenius. Thanks to Olympiodorus, a native of Thebes and of pagan faith, we have a lively description of the wedding ceremony: the historian, Greek-speaking and ambassador by profession, known for always carrying with him on his travels a parrot that could sing, dance and many other things, something useful to impress the barbarian leaders, he says
Placidia, in her royal clothes, sat in a room decorated in the Roman manner, with the walls covered with frescoes and the floors inlaid with precious marbles; at her side was Athaulf, wearing a general's cloak and a gold cingulum militiae, decorated with pearls and precious stones and other Roman clothes of precious purple silk. Among the gifts that the king gave to his wife were fifty young men dressed in silk, each of whom held up two very large dishes, one filled with gold and the other with priceless precious stones, which had been taken during the sack of Rome.
Which testifies to the groundlessness of the rumors about the riches with which Alaric was buried in Cosenza. The epithalamii were then declaimed: the first to sing the wedding song was the ex-emperor Priscus Attalus, followed by Rusticus and Febadius. The Goths, with this marriage, wanted to demonstrate all their commitment to respect Roman uses and customs: Galla Placidia, on the other hand, recognized the role of the Goths, attempting with marriage to exercise her political influence over them. The marriage, but Olympiodorus' description might be biased given his beliefs, followed traditional Roman procedures throughout, in which Christianity played no role, although Galla Placidia was of Nicean obedience and Athaulf Arian. Weddings, in fact, form the basis of our current civilization, based on the synthesis of Gothic and Roman traditions.
As further evidence of this political will, the poor Cyprianus Gallus[15] was forced by the Goths to forcibly abandon his main activity, the paraphrase in verse of the books of the Old Testament, and to devote himself to writing a celebratory poem, entitled
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony [16]
If this wedding was the last occasion in which the gods of Olympus sat down to table with men, those of Athaulf and Galla Placidia, on the other hand, would bring the earth back to the golden age.
Given the result, we can say that Cyprianus Gallus did not put too much effort into carrying out the commission: but despite the evident reluctance with which he wrote the verses, Cassiodorus recounts that Athaulf rewarded him with a golden cup full of precious stones, which the poet sold, to donate all the money to the poor.
The political calculation of Athaulf and perhaps of Galla Placidia did not take into account the fact that Honorius was a man of few opinions, but decided: at the time, his basic and dominant principle was
"The only good goth is the dead one"
This did not allow him to understand that part of the will of the Goths was nothing more than to be accepted as confederates in the Roman system of government and that their elites only wanted to enter the senatorial ranks. Therefore, the emperor gave orders to Flavius Costantius to continue with his preparations. First, the Roman general blocked the Gallic ports, as Athaulf had feared, forcing the Goths into starvation, a move to which Athaulf, full of annoyance, responded by appointing Priscus Attalus [17] for the second time as usurper, in the hope of dividing the Roman camp .
A move that had no concrete result: Flavius Costantius began his military campaign, about which we have vague information, but which probably did not go brilliantly for the Goths, given that Athaulf had to flee to Tarraconense, occupying Barcelona, a city where, at the end of 414 o at the beginning of 415, the eldest son of the Gothic king and Galla Placidia was born, who, according to the Roman tradition, was given the name of Theodosius, in honor of his maternal grandfather. In this way, Galla Placidia presented her son as the herald of the new era of union between the Goths and the Romans, while Athaulf proclaimed his intention to restore the Roman empire in Gothic forms, over which Theodosius would reign.
Politically, the birth of Theodosius would have forced Honorius to recognize the ability of the Goths to support the empire, integrating themselves into its administration, improving their status: to favor this, according to what Cassiodorus recounts, Athaulf immediately sent an embassy to Ravenna, claiming willing to adopt Latin as the official language of the Gothic administration and to convert his people to the Nicean version of Christianity.
There are different versions of what happened afterwards, from the recovery of Theodosius' illness to the failure of the conspiracy of Sigeric, Saro's brother.[18] The official version of the Empire is probably that of the Res Gestae Getarum, in which Anicius Severus writes
"Emperor Theodosius, either due to his strong fiber or the loving care of his mother, recovered from the sudden illness, also thanks to the intercession of Saint Martin of Tours, to whom Augusta was very devoted; the same saint protected the magister militum and king Athaulf, noble heir of the Balti lineage"
But Anicius Severus, who was as fond of gossip as Procopius, knew a few more details, which he describes in the Private Commentaries, which we must remember, were initially intended for his family. The first is that Theodosius was treated by a Syriac doctor named Sergius, the second that it was Guilfridus's grandfather, a scutarium named Ademountus, who protected Ataulfo from Sigeric's stabs, which gave way to the fortunes of his family.
Obviously, Jordanes embroidered on both news, transforming them into anecdotes, for the amusement of the court of Constantinople; the third source, the least credible, is the bios of San Theodorus of Rhegion, [19] which is perhaps the archetype of all the agiogaphies of the Calabrian Byzantine saints. According to the story, Saint Basil the Great appeared in a vision to the hermit, who lived in the hermitage of Pentadattilos, who almost forced him to go by sea to Barcelona.
After a multitude of miracles performed during the sea voyage, [20] in which the saint calmed storms, sank pirate ships and drove away sea monsters with the sole force of prayer, he arrived in the Hispanic city, healed Theodosius and blinded Sigeric and his spatarium with a blessing Dubio, who mistook a column for Athaulf, breaking his bones trying to stab it. As icing on the cake, after so many miracles, the Gothic king made amends for his sins, returned all the looted goods to Roman monasteries and churches and converted to the Nicean creed.
This source, even more imaginative than Jordane's stories, was considered totally unreliable, until recent archaeological excavations showed the correspondence between what emerged and the description of Athaulf's palace: the author of the bios probably had to refer to a source , the X, to date unknown and lost.
Now, if it cannot be excluded that there is a foundation in the history of the Syriac doctor, net of all the embellishments introduced by Jordanes, for the conspiracy it is immediate to think that the pro-Roman faction of the Goths would not have renounced the possible benefits due to the eventual appeasement of Honorius, for the desire for revenge and the personal ambitions of Saro's brother.
[1] Tribute to the incipit of the book that inspired the Timeline
[2] One of many OTL variations
[3] Invented character, who will occasionally appear in history. Imagine him as a sort of gossipy and pedantic historian, vaguely inspired by Procopius of Caesarea
[4] ITL the theologian will have a longer life
[5] OTL where this battle in Calabria actually took place is a mystery. I based, for narrative reasons, ITL on the hypotheses of Rosario Savoia, contained in the book "Topography of Late Ancient Brutium"
[6] one of the pseudobiblions that will appear in the story
[7] Another pseudobiblion
[8] Another invented character, consider him as the archetype of the goth of good stock, who tries in every way to integrate and be accepted by the Roman senatorial class
[9] For those who know Italian literature, it is a simplified passage from a poem by Giosuè Carducci
[10] The current city of Forli: some authors claim that this marriage was celebrated, however according to the Arian rite
[11] It is probable that OTL the events are much more complex and that the chronologies of Constantine III and of Jovinus partially overlap. For narrative reasons, ITL have chosen the old hypothesis of Alfredo Carraggi, which greatly simplifies the chronology
[12] ITL the Historia Gothica is not lost
[13] To make my life easier in this chaos, I quoted part of Treccani's voice
[14] that OTL was Bonifacius's political protector
[15] OTL poet also existed... Obviously the story I'm telling is purely ITL
[16] Quotation of the title of a splendid book by Roberto Calasso, which narrates the Greek myths
[17] Priscus Attalus, who must have been a nice rogue, OTL was captured by Flavius Constantius, sent to Ravenna to participate in the triumph of Honorius over the Goths and instead of being impaled or quartered, he saved the pellaccia and was sent into exile on the island of Lipari .... ITL will continue to do damage!
[18] We have arrived at PoD!
[19] Totally invented saint, which however reflects all the standard characteristics of the Calabrian Byzantine saints
[20] The Calabrian saints are known for the quantity of miracles that are attributed to them (as a curiosity, take a look at the biography of San Francesco di Paola, who is a sort of record holder in this field)
Too many things for a Timeline? Perhaps, but it is also a journey into a fascinating and complex era, where an old world dies and a new one is born, in which different cultures collide and dialogue... In which the king of the Goths and the daughter of an emperor can even get married and have a child (and survive the Machiavellian plans of the stepbrother...)
To find out more, here is the first step of this long journey...
01: The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
The book that has shaped the contemporary vision of the historical revolution that takes place in the fifth century is perhaps Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, which with its vibrant pages has spread, in the common reader, the concept of late antiquity . Perhaps an inaccurate concept, because it inextricably links this period to an idea of decline, of antiquarian citation, melancholy and nostalgia for the past: feelings which, after all, are also common in our postmodern culture. [1]
Yet, the fifth century was above all a time of great innovations and changes: with Augustine of Hippo modern theology was born and the genre of autobiography developed, Roman law was codified, ecclesiastical canon law was born and the religious plurality that characterizes Europe, founded on the concept of tolerance.
Changes that the men of the fifth century were aware of, whatever their origin, Latin, Greek, Goth or Germanic. Proof is the inscription that headed the entrance of the Pandidakterion of Rome, [2] founded by Anicius Severus [3] in 457, imitating what was done by Elia Eudocia in 425, who thus reported
"Flee, old age, surrender to the arrival of new times"
Therefore this era should be, more correctly, defined as Paleochristian: the fundamental difference with the classical age, following Maxentius, Galerius and Constantine, the Empire was no longer pagan, but Christian. The foreigners, the barbarians, thanks to their conversion to the various variants of Christianity, managed, albeit in a chaotic and convulsive way, to integrate into the administrative structure and imperial culture.
The primary role in this complex project of cultural fusion was played by Galla Placidia, who was taken as a hostage by Alaric's Goths after the sack of Rome, so that she could act as a pawn in the complex negotiations with Honorius and Flavius Constantius. Probably, the princess, who played a marginal role in the imperial court, would never have imagined spending more than three years in the chariots of the Goths, in a continuous movement from one place to another, with her future perpetually uncertain.
Galla followed the Visigoths to Campania, where she met Paulinus of Nola, [4] who in the future will have a fundamental role in mediating between Galla Placidia and the Iberian and Gallic ecclesiastical hierarchies: she witnessed the storm of Rhegion, which sank the badly organized fleet of the Goths, defeat of the Goths by Flavius Costantius near Scolacium, [5] and the death of Alaric from malaria near present-day Cosenza. According to what Jordanes recounts in De origine actibusque Getarum, the conqueror of Rome was buried with his treasures in the bed of the Busento river, at the convergence with the Crati; to allow this singular burial he resorted to the arms of hundreds of slaves who provided for a momentary diversion of the river's waters, and who, once the work was completed, were ferociously killed so that the undertaking remained secret.
Yet, Anicius Severus, in the Res Gestae Getarum, [6] simply tells that
"The body of Alaric was cremated, according to the customs of his people and his relatives, singing a funeral hymn, scattered his ashes in the river, so that, as if dead, he was as free as when alive"
Again Anicius Severus, in the Private Commentaries, [7] recalls how his friend Guilfridus [8] had once sung him the funeral hymn of Atalaric, of which he reports a fragment, obviously translated into Latin.
Gloomy in the night songs sound
from Costanzia on the Busento,
gloomy the river murmurs him
from its sleepy whirlpool.
Up and down the river they pass
and slow shadows pass over:
Alaric the Goths weep
the great dead of their lineage [9]
So it is probable that the story of the funeral is nothing more than a figment of Jordanes imagination. Galla then witnessed the Goths appointing Athaulf, who according to both Anicius Severus and the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, Volume 4, was a brother-in-law of Alaric. Now according to the chronicle of the bishop Idatius, Galla Placidia intervened directly in the assembly of the Goths, to support Athaulf: something that appears very improbable. More realistic is what Anicius Severus recounts, in the Private Commentaries, in which the princess limited herself to making agreements with the pro-Roman faction of the Goths: in exchange for her release, she would have supported the negotiations with Honorius.
The Chronicon Albeldense and Jordanes report that Athaulf married Galla Placidia at Foro Iuli Aemiliae in 411, [10] and then continued towards Gaul: however, given that the high sources of the time, including Anicius Severus, do not mention it, we can consider it as a sort of narrative invention, also because the immediate actions of the Gothic king suggest everything, except a desire to find a compromise with the court of Ravenna.
In the spring of 412, in fact, Athaulf led, closely followed by Flavius Costantius, his people to Gaul, passing through the military road that from Turin led to the Rhone river through the Monginevro hill. Priscus Attalus also followed him, another usurper of the imperial title, who had been elevated to the office by Alaric and then deposed for the first time in 410.
Choice, due not only to the need not to die of hunger and not to be trapped by the imperial army, but also to the political chaos of those provinces: after the defeat and death of Constantine III, the Rhenish troops proclaimed Jovinus emperor, who was immediately supported by the Gallo-Roman nobility and by the Burgundians and the Alans, eager for booty. Saro the goth, one of Stilicho's generals, an intelligent and unscrupulous man, eager for revenge against Honorius, had put himself at the service of Jovinus, obtaining the title of magister militum. [11]
Athaulf had the goal of using Jovinus as a puppet, considered more easily manipulated and less stubborn than Honorius, in order to grant the coveted lands to the Goths; to do this, he first had to reduce Saro's influence, then somehow bind the secessionist emperor to himself. According to Anicius Severus, to increase the legitimacy of Jovinus , the Gothic king was tempted, to achieve this goal, to propose marriage to Galla Placidia. Jovinus, however, was far from foolish. For which, in addition to rejecting the marriage proposal, he ordered Saro to eliminate Athaulf with a conspiracy, organized together with the more traditionalist faction of the Goths, who however was warned of the intrigue by a deserter from the rival army, according to the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, and with 10,000 men, faced in battle, defeated and killed the enemy general
Here too we have two different versions: the first is that of Jordanes, who claims that Saro had just twenty-eight men with him and despite this, he fought like a lion. The other, more realistic, is that of Anicius Severus and Cassiodorus [12], who both speak of 2,800 soldiers. Since both sources were consulted by Jordanes, it is probable that the number of the De origine actibusque Getarum was an oversight by the copyist, which was then handed down over time.
After the elimination of Saro, Jovinus had to make the best of a bad situation, appointing Athaulfas his Magister Militum, which among other things, caused a defection among his ranks: both the Alans and the Burgundians changed sides, passing on the side of Honorius. In particular, the Burgundians were recognized by Honorius as foederati on the west bank of the Rhine, to eventually be used as a pawn against the Goths.
With Athaulf's support, Jovinus expanded his territory into southeastern Gaul; on that occasion, he decided to appoint his brother, Sebastianus, co-emperor, without first consulting the Gothic king, who, having seen the previous ones, suspected that Jovinus wanted to organize a new conspiracy against him. To avoid future problems, Athaulf decided to make an agreement with Claudius Postumus Dardanus, prefect of the praetorium in Gaul and the only high official remaining loyal to Honorius in those provinces. The Goths, in exchange for food, gold and land, killed the two usurpers and returned Galla Placidia to Ravenna. Sebastianus was immediately defeated and killed. Jovinus took refuge in Valence, where he was besieged and captured by Athaulf. Sent from Narbonne by Dardanus, he was put to death together with his loyalists, the prefect of the praetorium Decimius Rusticus and the head of his secretariat Agroezius. The heads of Jovinus and Sebastianus reached the court of Honorius in August 413 and from there sent to Carthage, to be displayed on the city walls together with those of other usurpers. [13] As usual, Honorius did not respect his word: for once, in his defense, there was Heraclian's revolt in Africa and his subsequent invasion of Italy, which made it difficult to find the grain destined for the Goths.
Tired of being taken for a ride, Athaulf decided to imitate his predecessor Alaric, engaging in a showdown with the Empire. As a first move, he put Marseille under siege, with a dual purpose: to prevent the imperial fleet from carrying out a naval blockade, which would have led the Goths to starvation and to have, with control of the port, an instrument of pressure on the Gallo-Roman nobility. A project which however quickly went up in smoke: Marseilles was defended tooth and nail by Comes Bonifacius, who according to what Cassiodorus recounts, during a sortie challenged the Gothic king to a duel, seriously wounding him: Anicius Severus, whose career was due to protection of Flavius Castinus, [14] elegantly glosses over the episode. Following the defeat, Ataulf changed plans, invading Aquitaine, thus occupying Toulouse, Bordeaux and Narbonne.
This success, however, had a very different effect from the planned one: instead of forcing Honorius to negotiate, he convinced him to put an end to the Gothic threat once and for all: he gave Flavius Costantius carte blanche to organize a punitive expedition, to force the surrender the pernicious barbarians. Faced with this threat, Athaulf played one of the last cards he had left: in 414, at the age of about forty, he married the twenty-two-year-old Galla Placidia with Roman ceremonial with the aim of convincing Honorius with good manners, given that the bad ones had failed, to recognize the Goths as allies without losing face. Furthermore, marriage seemed the way to solve the problem of dynastic succession due to the emperor's lack of heirs; any son of Athaulf would have been Roman emperor and king of the Goths at the same time, thus favoring integration between the elites of the two peoples.
The wedding was celebrated on January 1, 414, in Narbonne, in the suburban villa of the noble and wealthy Ingenius. Thanks to Olympiodorus, a native of Thebes and of pagan faith, we have a lively description of the wedding ceremony: the historian, Greek-speaking and ambassador by profession, known for always carrying with him on his travels a parrot that could sing, dance and many other things, something useful to impress the barbarian leaders, he says
Placidia, in her royal clothes, sat in a room decorated in the Roman manner, with the walls covered with frescoes and the floors inlaid with precious marbles; at her side was Athaulf, wearing a general's cloak and a gold cingulum militiae, decorated with pearls and precious stones and other Roman clothes of precious purple silk. Among the gifts that the king gave to his wife were fifty young men dressed in silk, each of whom held up two very large dishes, one filled with gold and the other with priceless precious stones, which had been taken during the sack of Rome.
Which testifies to the groundlessness of the rumors about the riches with which Alaric was buried in Cosenza. The epithalamii were then declaimed: the first to sing the wedding song was the ex-emperor Priscus Attalus, followed by Rusticus and Febadius. The Goths, with this marriage, wanted to demonstrate all their commitment to respect Roman uses and customs: Galla Placidia, on the other hand, recognized the role of the Goths, attempting with marriage to exercise her political influence over them. The marriage, but Olympiodorus' description might be biased given his beliefs, followed traditional Roman procedures throughout, in which Christianity played no role, although Galla Placidia was of Nicean obedience and Athaulf Arian. Weddings, in fact, form the basis of our current civilization, based on the synthesis of Gothic and Roman traditions.
As further evidence of this political will, the poor Cyprianus Gallus[15] was forced by the Goths to forcibly abandon his main activity, the paraphrase in verse of the books of the Old Testament, and to devote himself to writing a celebratory poem, entitled
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony [16]
If this wedding was the last occasion in which the gods of Olympus sat down to table with men, those of Athaulf and Galla Placidia, on the other hand, would bring the earth back to the golden age.
Given the result, we can say that Cyprianus Gallus did not put too much effort into carrying out the commission: but despite the evident reluctance with which he wrote the verses, Cassiodorus recounts that Athaulf rewarded him with a golden cup full of precious stones, which the poet sold, to donate all the money to the poor.
The political calculation of Athaulf and perhaps of Galla Placidia did not take into account the fact that Honorius was a man of few opinions, but decided: at the time, his basic and dominant principle was
"The only good goth is the dead one"
This did not allow him to understand that part of the will of the Goths was nothing more than to be accepted as confederates in the Roman system of government and that their elites only wanted to enter the senatorial ranks. Therefore, the emperor gave orders to Flavius Costantius to continue with his preparations. First, the Roman general blocked the Gallic ports, as Athaulf had feared, forcing the Goths into starvation, a move to which Athaulf, full of annoyance, responded by appointing Priscus Attalus [17] for the second time as usurper, in the hope of dividing the Roman camp .
A move that had no concrete result: Flavius Costantius began his military campaign, about which we have vague information, but which probably did not go brilliantly for the Goths, given that Athaulf had to flee to Tarraconense, occupying Barcelona, a city where, at the end of 414 o at the beginning of 415, the eldest son of the Gothic king and Galla Placidia was born, who, according to the Roman tradition, was given the name of Theodosius, in honor of his maternal grandfather. In this way, Galla Placidia presented her son as the herald of the new era of union between the Goths and the Romans, while Athaulf proclaimed his intention to restore the Roman empire in Gothic forms, over which Theodosius would reign.
Politically, the birth of Theodosius would have forced Honorius to recognize the ability of the Goths to support the empire, integrating themselves into its administration, improving their status: to favor this, according to what Cassiodorus recounts, Athaulf immediately sent an embassy to Ravenna, claiming willing to adopt Latin as the official language of the Gothic administration and to convert his people to the Nicean version of Christianity.
There are different versions of what happened afterwards, from the recovery of Theodosius' illness to the failure of the conspiracy of Sigeric, Saro's brother.[18] The official version of the Empire is probably that of the Res Gestae Getarum, in which Anicius Severus writes
"Emperor Theodosius, either due to his strong fiber or the loving care of his mother, recovered from the sudden illness, also thanks to the intercession of Saint Martin of Tours, to whom Augusta was very devoted; the same saint protected the magister militum and king Athaulf, noble heir of the Balti lineage"
But Anicius Severus, who was as fond of gossip as Procopius, knew a few more details, which he describes in the Private Commentaries, which we must remember, were initially intended for his family. The first is that Theodosius was treated by a Syriac doctor named Sergius, the second that it was Guilfridus's grandfather, a scutarium named Ademountus, who protected Ataulfo from Sigeric's stabs, which gave way to the fortunes of his family.
Obviously, Jordanes embroidered on both news, transforming them into anecdotes, for the amusement of the court of Constantinople; the third source, the least credible, is the bios of San Theodorus of Rhegion, [19] which is perhaps the archetype of all the agiogaphies of the Calabrian Byzantine saints. According to the story, Saint Basil the Great appeared in a vision to the hermit, who lived in the hermitage of Pentadattilos, who almost forced him to go by sea to Barcelona.
After a multitude of miracles performed during the sea voyage, [20] in which the saint calmed storms, sank pirate ships and drove away sea monsters with the sole force of prayer, he arrived in the Hispanic city, healed Theodosius and blinded Sigeric and his spatarium with a blessing Dubio, who mistook a column for Athaulf, breaking his bones trying to stab it. As icing on the cake, after so many miracles, the Gothic king made amends for his sins, returned all the looted goods to Roman monasteries and churches and converted to the Nicean creed.
This source, even more imaginative than Jordane's stories, was considered totally unreliable, until recent archaeological excavations showed the correspondence between what emerged and the description of Athaulf's palace: the author of the bios probably had to refer to a source , the X, to date unknown and lost.
Now, if it cannot be excluded that there is a foundation in the history of the Syriac doctor, net of all the embellishments introduced by Jordanes, for the conspiracy it is immediate to think that the pro-Roman faction of the Goths would not have renounced the possible benefits due to the eventual appeasement of Honorius, for the desire for revenge and the personal ambitions of Saro's brother.
[1] Tribute to the incipit of the book that inspired the Timeline
[2] One of many OTL variations
[3] Invented character, who will occasionally appear in history. Imagine him as a sort of gossipy and pedantic historian, vaguely inspired by Procopius of Caesarea
[4] ITL the theologian will have a longer life
[5] OTL where this battle in Calabria actually took place is a mystery. I based, for narrative reasons, ITL on the hypotheses of Rosario Savoia, contained in the book "Topography of Late Ancient Brutium"
[6] one of the pseudobiblions that will appear in the story
[7] Another pseudobiblion
[8] Another invented character, consider him as the archetype of the goth of good stock, who tries in every way to integrate and be accepted by the Roman senatorial class
[9] For those who know Italian literature, it is a simplified passage from a poem by Giosuè Carducci
[10] The current city of Forli: some authors claim that this marriage was celebrated, however according to the Arian rite
[11] It is probable that OTL the events are much more complex and that the chronologies of Constantine III and of Jovinus partially overlap. For narrative reasons, ITL have chosen the old hypothesis of Alfredo Carraggi, which greatly simplifies the chronology
[12] ITL the Historia Gothica is not lost
[13] To make my life easier in this chaos, I quoted part of Treccani's voice
[14] that OTL was Bonifacius's political protector
[15] OTL poet also existed... Obviously the story I'm telling is purely ITL
[16] Quotation of the title of a splendid book by Roberto Calasso, which narrates the Greek myths
[17] Priscus Attalus, who must have been a nice rogue, OTL was captured by Flavius Constantius, sent to Ravenna to participate in the triumph of Honorius over the Goths and instead of being impaled or quartered, he saved the pellaccia and was sent into exile on the island of Lipari .... ITL will continue to do damage!
[18] We have arrived at PoD!
[19] Totally invented saint, which however reflects all the standard characteristics of the Calabrian Byzantine saints
[20] The Calabrian saints are known for the quantity of miracles that are attributed to them (as a curiosity, take a look at the biography of San Francesco di Paola, who is a sort of record holder in this field)
Congratulations to For the Want of a Ram: The World of a Surviving Caesar, authored by @CrassusFantastic for winning the 2024 Turtledove for Best Ancient TL!!
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