A Bloody Twilight

Into the Bloody Twilight


Hello. This is my own timeline that starts in 678 AD, with an original POD before the Völkswanderung, that details an alternate world. I realize that I will probably get some ASB here and there. There will also be some parallels- don’t expect colonization before the 15th century at the earliest. There will not be tanks in 17th century Europe. The style will generally be history book- I am bollocks at narrative. So sit back, relax, and let the blood flow in the rivers of Europe.

A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Völkswanderungs, Svetlana Ragnarevna Skokolskaya, Hilmgorod [1] University Press, 1881

The Twilight-Born: Latin Successor States in the Völkswanderungs

As the Western Empire began to slowly slip away, the non-barbarian parts of the Roman army, allied with local governors, began to declare independence in efforts to solidify control over pieces of the great Roman carcass. These successor states would have varying success in maintaining Roman technology, culture and systems of governance as they faced down the barbarian invasions and the slow erosion of the imperial social structure.

While the Western Empire persisted in Italy until 555, outlying provinces such as Gaul, Hispania and Brittania began to break away at the end of the fourth and the beginning and middle of the fifth century. Many such states, especially in Gaul, Northern Italy, and the Balkans were minor; these small, local states, were easily destroyed by the barbarian migrants, and bear little notice here.

The first area to truly separate from Imperial rule was Brittania. In 381, a general by the name of Oppius Seius Aruns raised the banner of revolt from the empire just as a new wave of barbarian invasions struck the empire. Unlike previous pretenders, Aruns, born in Britain and a native son, generally revolted, at least at first, in order to gain localized power, and to protect his homeland; previous pretenders used the island as a springboard to attack the continent. The legions of Britain united under his banner, but his focus on Brittania meant that he was generally loath to invade Gaul (which was undergoing mass instability at the time).

Instead, he organized the civil and military systems of Britain, and consolidated the state. A relatively young man at the time, Aruns managed to keep Britain stable and civilized despite outside duress.

The Saxons and Frisians had been subdued by internal strife and the invasions of the Chakas [2] and other Germanic peoples in Gaul- raids had been halted in the short term, something that was key to the survival of the nascent state.

Luck shone for the young Regnum Brittanicum again as the Eirini-Picti Wars picked up in intensity. The Eirini [3] tribes were busy fighting the Picts with varied levels of success, which distracted them. In 395, Aruns got his chance to nullify the northern and western threats to his sovereignty. The Picts had beaten the Eirini at the Battle of the Red Rocks, with heavy casualties. The Romans, by comparison, had been building forts and a navy in the 14 years since Aruns’ rebellion.

Forces led by Aruns and other Roman and Briton commanders invaded first Caledonia, swiftly defeating the remaining tribes. This conquest is a turning point in the history of Brittania- the victorious soldiers were given land to rule in the new lands as a form of payment, thereby keeping the legions loyal to Aruns and the new order. These gifts of lands conferred upon victorious officers and conquered vassal kings power within the new government, which had various ways of being transferred from person to person.

This is the beginning of post-Roman feudalism, something that would only increase with the importation of Angles and Frisians as “land-working freemen” in most of the country, a practice that would start in full after the death of Aruns. Allowing voluntary settlement was a suave move on the part of Aruns- it stopped the increasing level of raids by inviting the people in and then slowly assimilating them. Generally, the Picti also served as the genesis of the modern peasantry, at least in Caledonia, Northern Brittania, and Northern Hibernia. Some Eirini lords even assimilated into the Roman nobility, forming the higher families Obrianus, Oniallus, Queneddius, Oruarcus, and many other smaller families. Most Roman nobility, however, came from the legions or the Brythons, while many of the soldiers became free farmers, the beginnings of the Brittanian middle class, so to speak. The rest of the great Romano-Brythonic population became the citizens of the cities- traders and craftsmen.

After conquering in full Caledonia and Hibernia by the year 400, Aruns declared a new name for his ramshackle country- the Empire of Albion, taking the name from Ptolemy. The capital was moved to Eboracum permanently, and the civil structure of the country began to come into being.

The 14 years afterward were ones of peace- the raiding peoples of the North Sea had been laid low by war and plague, and couldn’t muster the strength to come raid the country.

Aruns would end up dying in 414, after 33 years of ruling the islands as a personal fiefdom. His dynasty, the House of Seiruns, continued with his son Arcturus the Builder, responsible for building much of the roads and forts that dot the entirety of Britain. However, the raids also picked up in the reign of Arcturus and his successors- the reign of his grandson, Gnaeus, saw the razing of Venta Icenorum [4], Lindum [5] and Noviomagus [6], and raids of Londinium by bands of Saxons, Frisians and other disaffected Germanic peoples. Despite these attacks, the Empire lived on, withstanding, with varying levels of success, invasion from the North Sea. The Harrowing of the South, as it is called by scholars, left most of the south-eastern fringes of Britain raided, burnt and otherwise economically ruined. Londinium went from a competitor to Eboracum to a smaller city, the countryside full of smallholder farmers.

After the reign of Gnaeus Pictus (named so for his Pictish mother), the Empire began to regain strength. The southernmost tip was heavily fortified and urbanized, and raids generally went up the Thames rather than towards ports like Durbis [7]. As the 5th century turned into the 6th century, raids began to die down- most Angles and Frisians had either been settled in Hibernia as subjects and foederati, while the Saxons had carved out for themselves a coastal kingdom in Germany centralized enough to eliminate the economic need for raids.

At the same time, the Latin nature of the state began to slowly fade away. Hibernia, for example, had no Roman base to begin with- the island was populated with Roman lords, Roman merchants, and a much larger Angle and Eirini underclass that worked the land. As opposed to the freeholder farmers in Brittania, most of Hibernia was feudal, with the notable exception of Southern Ireland, the lands around Tara, and the urbanized areas. Caledonia was a wild land, slowly settled with soldier settler freeholders, and Roman lords, with a large peasant class made up of Eirini and small groups of Picts. The other major class lay in the church- Brittania had been declared Arian by Aruns, and most missionary activity to the pagan soldiers and settlers within the empire had been of an Arian extraction. The Arian church, which held sway in Africa and parts of Germania, had established a new Patriarchy- Carthage, and then the Patriarchy of Segontium [8], established by the great Arian missionary Saint Patricius.

As time went on, however, the collection of diverse and distinct peoples, coupled with the lack of Roman population pressure and cultural pressure, led to the dilution of the Roman heritage within the islands. The royal dynasty lost its Roman heritage- the last Seiruns Emperor, Constantinus, was succeded by Alistarus Quennedius (an offshoot of a previously mentioned Eirini dynasty; Brython-Eirini dynasty based in Cornubia) in the year 616. The nobles, while remembering their legionary roots, had begun to shift towards a new identity. The armies, for example, had slowly stopped being professional as the noble class became more sedentary. Roman architecture barely penetrated Caledonia, and only reached the southern parts of Hibernia.

The language even began to change- Emperor Aelus the Scholar, in 666, wrote the first dictionary of “Albionic”, the urban lingua franca of the Empire that took from Latin, Brython, Eirini and a bit of East Angle dialects to form one great language. By 678, this language was being introduced across the country through the Arian Church. 678 is considered the end of the Roman Era in Albion. With the nobility becoming intermarried, with Latin losing ground everywhere except in scholarly work and the courts of nobles, and with a new culture beginning to emerge, the Roman identity lost prescience in Albion. A new people had come about, with Roman influences dominating, but sharing space with, influences from the conquered peoples of Brittania. The Seiruns dynasty was dead, and the legions had transformed from the army of the nation to an elite urban class of merchants and professional soldiers, small and dedicated. The language had already spread to the countryside along the roads, and then onward to the nobles. By the year 717, Old Albionic had proliferated amongst the country- the Roman heritage of the state in culture became less and less apparent as time went on.


The other Roman successor states, unlike the anomaly of Albion, did not survive past the later migrations, only staying as long as they did due to inter-barbarian conflicts. In Gaul, the only Roman successor state was the Duchy of Aremorica, which only lasted from 400-444, when it was conquered by the Gepids. The state was largely military in nature, and most Roman troops from Aremorica either defected to the Gepids or went north.

In Hispania, the successor state started later than either Aremorica or Albion- the Dominium of Olissipo was created in 411 by local governor Mamercus Naso. As the Vandals razed such cities as Valentia, Carthago Nova and Merita, the Dominium concentrated enough defenses in the countryside to prevent such an invasion. When the Vandals left for North Africa, the Alans were left behind in what was Southeastern Hispania, and they set up a kingdom for themselves. While incursions were made by the Alans into central Hispania up to the Tagus, the Western border lie in the Corduba-Malaca line, which separated the Dominium from the Kingdom of the Alans. In the north, the last of the Chaka resided, ruling down to the Tagus and east to the mountains where the Vascones lived. The Naso family managed to defend the Dominium fairly well- at least, until the Moor invasions. The Moors were North African tribes driven out by the Vandal Empire of North Africa, pushed into Mauretania until they finally were expelled for rebellion in the year 493. At first, the Moors raided coastal cities, mainly Alan cities without a naval garrison. In the year 505, however, Amrus of the Ulhasa clan invaded Hispania with about 10,000 warriors. The Dominium, by this point, had deposed the Naso family and had installed a corrupt oligarchy. Amrus, by winter, had conquered up to Gades and was making a beeline towards Malaqa.

Over the winter, more men came to reinforce the Moorish host as the Dominium fractured apart. The oligarchy had split into factions over the assassination of one man by another, and the entire country was falling apart. The legions had long disappeared fighting the Alans and the Chaka. The Moors, now 25,000 strong, besieged and conquered Malaqah and Corduba by July. In a peace treaty in September, the entire southern tip and north-eastern regions of the Dominium came under Moorish control, led by now-King Amrus I. After the peace treaty, the countryside rebelled, and the Dominium lost control outside the far western regions and the country by Olissippo. The rebelling regions were conquered by February, and on the Ides of March, 506, Amrus invaded the Alan kingdom, which was experiencing a regency. The nobles were rebelling against the small council in charge of the kingdom, and when the young king apparent died of fever on April 4th as Amrus approached the capital in Toletum, all hell broke loose. Opportunistic nobles invited the dynamic King Amrus to take, at least apparently, the Alan crown, and Borena, daughter of the last King, Yasynyna, married Amrus on April 11th.

As 506 progressed, the Chaka, having centralized around royal authority in what is now Pardsqal [9], decided to invade south into the fractured dominium. They managed to cut off Olissippo and conquer the rest of the Dominium. By this point, the Dominium was reduced to the environs around the city, no better than a doomed Athens facing a greater Sparta.

For 9 long years, the two powers of the peninsula, the Moors and the Chaka, fought against each other, until the Chaka emerged victorious at the Battle of Ossonoba. King Amrus, once mighty, was shot in the middle of the forehead by an arrow, and his army routed. However, the noble hosts were also reduced on both sides, and the Chaka King, after the battle, had an entire kingdom made up of Alan, Chaka, Moor and Lusitanian Roman nobles, sworn in at the capital in Corduba. Finally, on October 5th, the Dominium was conquered by the Chaka, leaving all but northeastern Hispania in the hands of the Chaka king and the barbarian nobles.

The final successor state, in technical terms, was not a successor state, but rather the actual Western Empire, living on below the Po as Genua and the Alpine regions fell to Germanic tribes. After 469, peace settled in the lands above the Po as the Germanic tribes tried to conquer one another. The rest of the Empire, by then, had seceded or fallen, and it was ignobly reduced to Italy, crawling back to Rome as it had exploded for centuries beforehand.

By 500, the Western Empire had been reduced to the peninsula- Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily belonged to the Vandal power in Africa, and the north had fallen to the German confederations of all stripes. As the 6th century went on, the Empire slowly got weaker as nobles bucked Imperial authority and soldiers assassinated their puppets at will. It was only internecine wars amongst the Germans that stopped greater conquest of the peninsula. The last cracks began in 523, with the Slavo-Lombard invasion. The Lombards had been trying to invade Italy for a decade, but had been conquered by invading Slavic tribes beaten back in the north by Germanic tribes. The 523 invasion resulted in the conquest of Ravenna and Florentia, and the influx of German tribes into the regions the Slavs had just left- the Po-Genua line was the border of Italy, marked by German walls. The south was conquered in 534, culminating in the razing of Neapolis [10] on August 14. A power struggle back in Ravenna prevented the fall of Rome. For 20 more years, the Slavs consolidated power while the diplomatic acumen of the Roman elders kept the Serb kings from conquering further. This final balance, however, could not last, and in 550, a new king came into power, one who desired the Latium and the city of Rome.

The Serbi and the Irvacci [11], along with the remaining Lombard host, marched down into central and southern Italy in winter 555, as another emperor, Flavianus, was assassinated. By May, the entirety of Northern Italy was conquered, and by August, the entire South had been subdued. On September 9th, 555, the Serbi and Irvacci king entered into Rome and slew the empire. He married the last daughter of the Roman emperor on the 24th, and the Roman Empire was dead in the continental West.


These invaders declared themselves Kings of Italy, and settled their tribes across the peninsula. The main cities - Tarentum, Ravenna, Roma and Florentia – remained as bastions of Roman culture. The Lombards scattered themselves throughout those four cities while the Slavs settled throughout the peninsula. Of course, the pagan Slavs had to convert- the king converted to Latin Christianity on Christmas Day, 567. With him were nobles and many of his soldiers. The Slavic kingdom would last another 49 years before fracturing into a variety of states.

In 616, the last king of the original dynasty died in his sleep, and the nobles took their chance at greater autonomy. Rome was declared a Republic, and would develop into the premier mercantile power of the peninsula. The Pope was too weak to seize his own land, and would be dominated by the Republic for much of the next two centuries. Ravenna would become the Kingdom of Ravenna, and Florentia would become the Duchy of Florentia. Various other towns and cities became local counties, and the south was fractured even more. The ruins of Neapolis and surrounding environs became the Duchy of Neapolis, while the Kingdom of Tarentum took the southeast corner of the boot.

By the late 7th century, the Roman successor states of the West had either been conquered or altered beyond all recognition by other peoples. The Roman heritage continued with the Eastern Empire, inheritor of the Roman state, much of the Roman professional army, and the Roman culture, continued in Greek rather than Latin. As the West underwent social digression and great turmoil, the East continued its cultural renaissance, unchallenged militarily and dominant in Mediterranean trade, resurgent after the loss of much of Southern Egypt and Mesopotamia.

[1] Novgorod
[2] Yenisei Kyrgyz/Kyrgyz
[3] Gaels/Irish
[4] Near Norwich
[5] Lincoln
[6] Chichester
[7] Dover
[8] Caernarvon
[9] Portus Cale/Oporto
[10] Naples
[11] Hrvatska/Croats (White and Other varieties)
 
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Thanks! The next update should come eventually- I have to decide on a topic, but I have ideas in mind for various places. I'm thinking Byzance or maybe an overview of the invasions, or perhaps a sojourn into the splintering of Christianity.
 
Chapter 2: Carthage Rising

A note: the languages I use will try and be recognizable to modern ears. For example, Occitan and German will be used rather than alternate languages. Otherwise, I will tend to use English and not give specific titles, like in Albion or Hispania. In other cases, I will try and Latinize names, like in Italy (and Spain, etc).

A History of Vandal Africa, Hannibal Kamkjedamm, Qarfaj Imperial Press, 1771

After The Battle of the Pyramids

The Battle of the Pyramids, in Carthaginian histories, is the turning point between the early stages of Carthage, including the Vandal conquests, and the second stage, that of the empire. The Pyramids is where the nascent feudal social order was broken completely, leading to a cultural revolution caused by the vacuum of power in Carthage- the cultural, architectural and political development of the kingdom, after The Pyramids began to boom.

Before the Pyramids, the Vandal-Carthage state had a string of unbroken victories, good king or not. Rome had been raided and sacked in 432, the first time since Brennus- the loot taken from Rome still rests in the Imperial Palace in Carthage. The islands of the Western and Central Mediterranean had been conquered by Geiseric the Great, the rich lands of Africa brought under Vandal hegemony. No navy in the area could challenge the Vandals, and the kingdom was protected. The Berbers had been crushed and expelled, the Tuaregs either recruited or sent running into the desert.

At the Battle of Cyrene in 505, the Vandals had beaten an Eastern Roman force trying to reconquer Africa- the battle had been a rout. With the Treaty of Syracuse, the Vandals had secured naval and land security on all major borders. As the kingdom solidified its geopolitical position, victorious warriors, many of them descended from legions, began to set up a feudal system across the grain-rich lands of North Africa. Trade rights were concentrated in urban Latin elites, many of whom levied mercenaries for the army, and power was further concentrated in the nobles and the king.

The army was becoming a class of its own, at the expense of the cities and the peasantry. The army was growing fatter, more complacent- the warrior heritage of the Vandals was beginning to fade into civilized complacency. However, the army still depended on these nobles, and on the rural militias mobilized at times of war.

To add to Carthage’s problems, an incompetent king, Hilderic, had taken power in 532. His base of power was the non-Vandal rural soldiers, the Latin mercenaries, and parts of the Vandal nobility. Keeping with the spirit of the age, this also happened to be his army, and, in the case of the Latins, his source of money. Hilderic was a bumbling man, a legitimized bastard child of the brother of the previous king- that king’s heir was an open pretender to the throne, despite being, at the time of Hilderic’s ascension, five years old. For 11 years, Hilderic embezzled the treasury, didn’t act against Tuareg raids, and generally acted in an incompetent manner. His proto-feudal base of power, however, was pleased- they gained money and influence for the entirety of that decade.

Finally, in 543, Hilderic, in desperate need of wider popular legitimacy and attempting to credit himself against the pretender Godigisel I, started a war with the Eastern Romans. This was a bad move for a number of reasons. The country, in that year, was suffering a famine, and mercantile profits were especially low that year. The army was at best unprepared, and was going up against a professional, newly reformed opponent in the armies of Emperor Julius I. The armies of Egypt were prepared, and, despite the loss of Southern Egypt, the Eastern Romans still possessed the economic heart of Egypt.

Invading by land also had its downsides- the formidable Vandal fleet was sitting in the Western Mediterranean defending against attacks that would not come. The armies, by the time they reached Egypt, were fatigued and running low on food. The commanders were unprepared, and a large portion of the elites of the army had been left in Carthage out of Hilderic’s hubris.

While the city of Alexandria had been raided by Geiseric in his wars (which included taking much of the Library of Alexandria back to Carthage, among other things), the city, by the time of Hilderic, had been well fortified, garrisoned and rebuilt, bested only by Konstantinopolis in defensive protections. Hilderic’s plan to conquer Alexandria was thwarted- he instead decided to go down to the Pyramids.

The valley and area around the Pyramids was conquered early in the spring, and the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were raided for treasures. While the mummies were largely untouched, much of the loot contained within the tombs was stolen by the Vandal armies, and taken back to Carthage. It would be those men, mainly the Arian section of the Vandal nobility, that would survive the campaign. After the looting, the army of Hilderic marched back to the Pyramids, and set up camp.

By dawn on May 23rd, the armies of Julius had arrived. As the Vandal-Latin host woke up, the Roman armies struck, bursting into the camp. The valuable Latin merchant-mercenaries were killed in the initial raid, while the rest of the army was able to assemble into some semblance of a formation.

That day, the ground was wet with lakes of blood, the skies filled with vultures feasting on the corpses of men.

At the Battle of the Pyramids, the feudal armies of Hilderic were destroyed. The Latin merchants and their hosts were killed by the heavy cavalry, the rural Berbers and Latins cut down by the infantry. The royal and noble host, consisting largely of Catholicized nobles, was slaughtered by the Imperial tagmata. At the climax of the battle, Julius personally slew Hilderic’s son Ammatas, and then plunged his sword into Hilderic’s stomach, cutting cutting upward into his heart and sternum and then slashing across through his lungs. Hilderic’s corpse was trampled, and only a few Vandal nobles managed to escape the slaughter.

The entirety of the nascent feudal and Latin burgher class was slain that day. The Catholic power bloc of the urban Latins was cut away, along with the rural serfs and rural nobility. The power of the king, once limited by the nobles, was now theoretically absolute- it was at the Pyramids that the rotted flower of the Vandal feudal nobility died.

Of course, the Vandals still had their formidable navy and marine soldiers ready for war, along with the majority of the Vandal warrior class, which had been stationed at Carthage in the case of a naval attack by the Romans. Julius would not be able to make it past Sfax, at the best- the naval would cut his supply lines and burn his ships.

By the time the survivors made it to Carthage, the kingdom was in chaos. The remainder of the Vandal forces, along with the burghers, made Godigisel king of the Vandals. The navy then sailed out to Alexandria to meet with Emperor Julius. Luckily for the Vandals, invasions in the Balkans, and stirrings of a Persian war, kept Julius both unfocused and moderate in his demands. The border would be set status quo ante bellum, and the two countries would be at peace for a period of 100 years. This treaty and the border of the Alexandria Treaty would remain the status quo between Carthage and Romanion for the next millennium.

In Carthage, however, the treaty also signified a great social change. The nobility had been cut down significantly, and the support base of Godigisel was far different than that of Hilderic. Godigisel, a devout Arian, had support from the Punic people of Africa (whose culture had been resurgent and tied to Arianism for 200 years by that time), the church, the Vandal warriors (many of whom had either purchased independent land or become merchants) and the rest of the middle class across the country. The country was now one based on trade and absolute royal authority, with a nobility brought up from the Vandals and the Punic people of North Africa. This five class system- King and Nobles, Burghers, Church, Free Peasants/Crafstmen and Serfs, would come to define Carthage for the next few centuries. The nobility, by and large, did not know Latin like the previous nobles, and Catholics had lost power in all sectors of society, considering that Hilderic was a not-so-secret Catholic.

The royal authority of Carthage was based on the title of the king- the Arian Patriarch of Carthage declared Godigisel Emperor of Carthage in 567, to signify a break with the previous era. The Vandals and the Africans had become one nation, unified by the societal breakdown brought in the aftermath of the Pyramids.

Carthage in The Post-Roman Era, by Erik Rasting, University of Drondejm [1] Press, 1678

Introduction: Roots and Effects of the Vandal Renaissance

Carthage, of the post-Roman states, had a unique position both geopolitically and culturally. Geographically, it controlled and enhanced with new irrigation the breadbasket of Europe, and its capital sat bestride the trade routes between The Julian Canal [2] and the Straits of Moloch [3]. It was a center of merchants and luxury goods- the North African climate change of the mid 500s allowed for specialty items like opium, silk, Tyrian purple dye and other valuable items to be produced. Of the post-Roman states, Carthage, in the west, is the only state that had an extant state navy, ready for warfare. Carthage also controlled the islands of the Western Mediterranean, allowing trade to penetrate into the interiors when land trade had begun to die down. Carthage was the only African state, bordered only by the Romans, peace ensured by the Treaty of Alexandria and the need for trade between the states. In the north, only the Iberian powers bordered it, and those powers would be unified and disunited fairly swiftly, posing no threat to Carthage. The state began to rely on intrigue, trade and the navy as the marks of its power, a strategy that would ensure its survival in rough times and its perseverance when other states or power structures began to fail.

Diplomatically, it remained close to the Arian powers, at least in theory- the German states and Albion were too far for close diplomatic contact. By comparison, the Ostrogoth-Visigoth confederation, based in Barca [4] (now called Barcalem) traded with the Vandals constantly and allied with them to both pressure the Chaka and to prevent Latin alliances against their states.

Culturally, it claimed little to none of its colloquial language from the Romans, and instead claimed a nearly moribund heritage from the Punic peoples of Africa, whose own culture in that era drew heavily on the Arian church and Helleno-Roman custom, along with what remained of Semitic culture in Carthage. Modern Qarfaji draws from Punic and Vandal, with bits of Latin and Greek borrowed over the years. Carthage had the greatest control of its church- excommunication was banned and the Arian hierarchy was far less restrictive than the Latin Catholic hierarchy. The Roman architecture, while stylistically altered over time, was maintained by the royal authorities and the merchants who needed it for communication and trade within the state. Aqueducts, walls, baths and temples were all well maintained and built yet again as the urban boom hit North Africa. While most of the country still remained rural, urban centers began to grow both as ports but as centers of state authority. In the west, Essavir [5] , Anfa [6] , Abyla [7] and Tingis [8] became coastal centers, while Hippo [9], Sarbatem [10] , Saldae [11] , and Ikosim [12] became major centers between the Atlantic and Carthage. Other major cities included Lepqyah [13] , Sfax, and Oea [14] . It would be these cities and the intrastate and international trade system that became the wealth and backbone of Carthaginian power.

The Empire of Carthage came into existence after the death of the old Vandal order at the Pyramids and the 24 years after said battle, the “Reordering” recorded in the royal and civilian chronicles of the time. In 567, the state came into being when Patriarch Germelcar of Carthage crowned Godigisel Asdeling Emperor of Carthage and All the Africas.

Godigisel had been raised by his mother, an heiress of an important Punic merchant family. His education was focused on administration and trade, and it would be in his reign that Carthage became the trade capital of the Mediterranean. Firstly, he rebuilt the Cothon, the great harbor that allowed the city to muster a navy. Secondly, he revitalized much of the old Punic city, building St. Asdrubal’s Cathedral along with the Library of Carthage. With the center of political life held in the Byrsa, and with the city rebuilt anew, Godigisel could focus on rebuilding the walls of Carthage.

The walls began construction in the year 551, and finished 16 years later, replete with fortifications, hidden inner passages, and holes for arrow volleys. In addition, tunnels were made under the city that were only able to be opened from the inside, that would allow troops to get behind besieging armies and slaughter them against the formidable walls.

In terms of administration, Godigisel, more a merchant than an Emperor, wrote the The Body of Laws, the central book of Carthaginian law for more than a 1000 years afterwards. He also organized the state- appointing new, but limited, nobles, burgher councils for the major trade cities, and rights for the free farmers (mainly of livestock and luxury goods) of the state.

Nobles were empowered through the farmlands that they owned, worked by Latin peasants, Berbers, Tuaregs, captured slaves, and prisoners of both war and the state. The descendants of these groups would end up becoming the serf class, enslaved to the nobles and inheritors of a different language- African Romance. This language even in this day remains the language of the rural, agricultural poor, dying the slowest of deaths. Nobles could control which serfs were freed into the towns and which stayed, and allowed the serfs to grow their food in exchange for servitude and vassalage.

The warriors of the state were made into a professional army, allowed settlement in the towns and the smaller cities by the Law of Classes. The Numidian cavalrymen and Arab mercenaries became the basis of the light cavalry, while the Latin legions were made equestrians- the basis of the later heavy cavalry. The Punic people and the Vandals split themselves between the navy and the infantry units- merchants and pirates became the navy, warriors became the infantry. Other groups were also brought in as small scale, scattered settler infantry- Pictish archers, Burgundians and the Gutes were brought in by Emperor Hannibal I and dispersed throughout the empire. These peoples would assimilate into the greater imperial culture and become valuable military units for the army. To this day, the Pikatim are the greatest marksmen and long-range shooters in the army, inheritors of a long cultural and military legacy.

The century after the creation of the Empire was a quiet one for Carthage. The trade networks were recovering and rebuilding after the fall of the Mare Nostrum, and the coffers of the merchants and the Emperor were bursting with money. The cities were undergoing the Vandal Renaissance, and the frontiers were peaceful. As Europe and Asia underwent war and general turmoil, the Carthaginians enjoyed a pax, a period of cultural, administrative and technological achievements.

The Church was flourishing in Africa, living as the people did, without great wealth or great palaces, with humility, modesty and the need for charity. Monasteries were the primary function of the Arian church- the decrees of Saint Tzazo (I), Patriarch of Carthage declared the proper actions of the Church within Arian lands. Conversion efforts in the Germanies were going splendidly as Germanic missionaries were trained in Carthage and Albion. The Church was allied to the free farmers, helping the poor of the towns and the liberated serfs with alms and education.

In the post-Roman era, the unique circumstances of geographic and cultural isolation allowed Carthage to not only become rich but to develop a new identity, forged in the long peace after the Battle of the Pyramids. By the time Carthage fought wars larger than crushing desert raids, the country was unified, across vast distances on land and sea, connected by roads, faith and a increasingly common language.

[1] New Orleans
[2] Suez Canal
[3] Straits of Gibraltar
[4] Barcelona
[5] Essaouira/Mogador
[6] Casablanca
[7] Ceuta
[8] Tangiers
[9] Hippo Regius/ Annaba
[10] Constantine
[11] Bejaia
[12] Algiers
[13] Leptis Magna
[14] Tripoli
 
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Certainly not in Africa- despite ITTL climate changes, there is still a great need for water provided by viaducts. The ERE still has all of its architecture untouched, and Albion will still have a few viaducts- some were destroyed by the Vikings. The Vandals came to conquer and rule, not to pillage- they had Hispania and Rome for those purposes.

As for the rest of Europe, the viaduct and road networks will have suffered great damage- what better way to siege a city than to knock out its water supply?


Next update soon. I don't know what exactly to cover- it will probably be whatever touches my fancy at the time of writing.
 
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FDW

Banned
Certainly not in Africa- despite ITTL climate changes, there is still a great need for water provided by viaducts. The ERE still has all of its architecture untouched, and Albion will still have a few viaducts- some were destroyed by the Vikings. The Vandals came to conquer and rule, not to pillage- they had Hispania and Rome for those purposes.

As for the rest of Europe, the viaduct and road networks will have suffered great damage- what better way to siege a city than to knock out its water supply?


Next update soon. I don't know what exactly to cover- it will probably be whatever touches my fancy at the time of writing.

But what about the viaducts of Rome itself? Are they still intact, or at least partly so?
 
The viaducts of Rome first attacked by Geiseric in order to besiege the city, and destroyed again by the Serbi and Hrvastka (Irvacci). Generally, Rome will be a small city for much of what would be our Middle Ages- raided by the Vandals extensively and mismanaged by the Slavs. I imagine some will have remained as ruined, but Italy below the Po, as will be explained later, will become one of the if not the backwater of post-Roman areas of Europe. Albion is booming, Hispania has more rivers, Gaul has more rivers and better management, and the ERE is doing swimmingly in Europe.

Rome the city, I can project, will be down to about 33,000 residents by the year 700, and that number will probably not change for a long, long while after that.
 
I don't really have an exact POD, but in Asia its fairly far back (at least, in the steppes) and in Europe, since its pre-Migration, I'd probably put a POD around the early 4th century.

I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to start from an exact POD on a timeline this far from the modern day wherein I am rewriting the entire cultural fabric of Western civilization.

As for the Chaka- that is a Romanized name of an alternate name for the Yenisei Kyrgyz, who are my alt-Huns, if you will. They call themselves Kyrgyz (Cyrgus) and the mountainous regions of Northern Spain, with the subdivisions of Astursdan, Gelasya and Kuntabri, will be called, in TTL, Kyrgyzstan (Cyrgusdan).

Next update ASAP- I have break soon and will have more time to write.
 
I mean, East Rome will do well, but certainly no wank- not being invaded by Persians or anything from the Balkans certainly helps Eastern fortunes. Even after victories like The Pyramids, the Romans are not going to have a walk in the park. In fact, I will try and cover them the next update, because the Byzzies, despite being a topic of great interest, also decide the tone of Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics.
 
Note: And now for something completely different: The Roman Empire! The use of Amerikan in this work is intentional- you shall see later why this is. I know this is late, but it turns out I didn’t have a lot of time during break. Hope you enjoy your dose of Rome.

A History of Romanion in the Era of Migration, by Eirene Sklerodoukaena, University of Konstantinopolis Press, 1976 AD

Did Rome Fall at All?

For much of academic history, from Pons of Burgalle to modern historians such as Seamus Farker, the years from the fall of Rome to the first wiking by the Swedes, are considered the post-Roman era.

However, some historians, both medieval and modern, dispute the legitimacy of the name. Historians of farthest Asia, for example, call the era “the post-hegemonic era”, considering both Rome and Seres [1] had fallen to barbarian outsiders and internal rebellions. Some historians, such as Fukuyama Sakura, say that it was the “post-Seres era”, positing that even though a Han state remained, the political structure of the Han regions was not continuous and that post-Seres states in the region did not maintain the same culture of government as held by predecessors, maintaining that the two-century long anarchy in what was Western Seres disrupted the continuity between the last Serican dynasty and what would become Qinguo, which we know as China. They also maintain that Romanion, and the Eastern Empire before it, had never fallen, and that Romanion was merely a reinvention of the same, continuous state. Many Romanoi historians, such as Sergios Gavras, maintain the same views, arguing for a continuous Roman descent into the modern day.

Others maintain that it should be called “the post-hegemonic era” in both parts of the world rather than just Asia, arguing that the reforms of Arkadios and the shifting role of Romanion in Europe prevented a continuous hegemony and in effect created a state that, while drawing on Roman custom, Roman tradition, and the Roman administration, still maintained a Greek, not Latin language, a new army, and a distinct foreign and domestic policy as compared to the non-dynastic Roman (Latin) Empire. They largely agree with other historians on the relation of China to the previous Serican hegemony.

I would argue that Rome never fell, considering the continuity of urban architecture, the continuation of Greek dominance in the East, considering the natural evolution of the legions, and considering the name of the state and the heritage of Romanion. While some claim we are Greeks, old cities, such as Athens, were pillaged entirely by the Vandals in their great piracies, and our traditions are distinctly descended from both, especially the Romans. We also maintain political continuity; the Throne of Caesars is still inherited, and the Eastern Empire has been continued, in more modern forms, to the present day. We are not a successor, like Italy or Albion claimed to be, but Rome itself. The Eastern Empire never fell, and was not invaded by land as opposed to the West. We are Romans, citizens of Rome, speaking Greek and paying taxes to the King of Cities rather than old Roma.

To historians of this persuasion, a different chronology has been adopted to describe the separation of history, especially pertaining to Europe (it applies to Asia in a slightly different manner; see Fukuyama for details). The history of what is called The Old World, stretching from the Indus to the Pillars, from the Urals to Frostmark [2], is divided into multiple eras.

First is the Ancient Era, stretching from the beginning of civilization to the Achaemenids. Then is the First Classical Era, which stretches from the Achaemenids to the First Punic War. Afterwards is the Second Classical Era, or the Age of Roman Hegemony, which starts at the Third Punic War and ends at the victory of the Chaka at the Battle of the Alps, which Chaka troops crossed to get into Gaul and Hispania. The Era of Migration, which encompasses the years from the assassination of the Emperor Decimian to the beginning of the Second Albionese Empire, is split into sections, which are covered in the seminal work of the Amerikan scholar Torvald Ejotanka of Rosenkranz University.

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From Caesar to Autokrator: The Cultural Reforms of Arkadios I

Arkadios I Arsakonios, who implemented his reforms in his third year of rule, the year 622, is considering the demarcation point between the old Eastern Latin incarnation of the empire and the succeeding Greek-speaking, non-Catholic empire, between Roman and Romanoi. Arkadios, by switching civil administration over to Greek, acknowledged the effective death of Latin as a written and spoken language; Rome had not been recovered, ignored by the great Julius, and classical Latin, as once spoken by the emperors, was irrelevant in a realm comprised of Greek speakers (with a few minority languages). With the return of independence to the Arbanazoi in Illyria [3], the loss of Dakia, the renewed independence of much of Egypt and the concurrent assimilation of much of Syria and Armenia, the use of Greek was necessary. Greek was needed in order to deal with landowners, merchants and people within the empire as opposed to Latin, the old language of government.

Arkadios himself came from Greco-Armenian stock- his mother was Greek, his father was half-Greek, and his father’s father was the scion of the Arshakuni [4] dynasty, descended from the Parthians. Arkadios, despite being born of an Armenian royal family, had roots in the Roman nobility- his mother was the last descendant of Julius the Great. Arkadios, through plots, cunning, and a professional army core supplemented by other loyal soldiers, managed to usurp the Roman throne and install far stricter inheritance laws. The days of military dictatorship and overthrow were over; Arkadios planned for dynastic rule, and implemented it. The Arsakonoi, starting with Arkadios, would rule for centuries, as opposed to decades; the nobles were castrated, beaten down by the force of Imperial power. In 628, the nobles would rebel; by the end of that year, a full half of all Roman nobles had been executed, their families eradicated, their estates seized. The power of nobles and the military commanders had been subordinated to the Autokrator, and in their place would rise the merchants, the builders and executers of Romanion’s trade systems.

Culturally, classical traditions were not only preserved but reinvigorated, including the baths and gladiatorial fights. Prisoners of war fought civil prisoners in arenas across the urban centers of the Empire, replacing animals as the primary attraction at the fights. Of course, some prisoners were kept as convenient sources of labor- the most violent criminals fought in the arenas, for the amusement of thousands.

Under Arkadios, the empire also underwent a rebirth of scholarly and philosophical learning. Plato’s Academy, by then the only thing remaining in the ruins of what was Athens, swelled as philosophy became in vogue for the rich merchants and noble children of the day. Greek replaced Latin as the language of translation and writing, and many Roman texts were translated into Greek for the consumption of the learned classes. This was helped by religious reforms and the adoption of the Gnostidox Church. The extent of these reforms and the theology of thus cannot fully be explained here- I suggest the seminal History of the Gnostidox Church by Hagios Patriarkhos Xenophonos II (1616-1648) for a detailed analysis of the rise of Gnostidoxy and its effect on Romanion and other Gnostidox countries. Roman trade dominance spread the faith north and east into Eastern Europe and farthest Asia. The works of Gorkha [5] religious historian Bartalma Gyalzen, including The History of International Gnostidoxy cover the spread of the faith from Romanion to beyond.


Arkadios himself was a scholar, not a warrior, and his own contributions to Romanoi administration and architecture cannot be understated. He adopted the popular Gnostidox Church, freeing Roman foreign policy and pacifying a large section of the populace. Conversion efforts were soft-handed, and tensions began to decrease as ethnolinguistic divisions of the populace began to waste away. By the end of his reign, the empire was peaceful, riding on the wealth of trade, the weakness of foreign enemies, a cultural reinvigoration and a new, more efficient civil administration. The plutocratic ideals started by Arkadios would come to define the Romanoi state and even the Romanoi culture, a merger of merit and trade ruled over by supreme royal authority.

… … … … …
… … … … …

The Eastern Roman Military Before Iulios Megas

The common perception of the Migration Era, both popular and scholarly, focuses mostly on the west. It is the image of a legion being annihilated by long-haired barbarian swordsmen, towns being put to flame and cities being sacked with abandon. In the West, that was the norm- many cities, from Parisium and Valentia to Mediolanum [6] and Athens were destroyed completely, golden treasures and slaves carried away by barbarians to far off rural camps, the splendor of civilization rendered null by fire and sword.

The exploits of the Chaka are well-chronicled, from the sacking of Mediolanum to their eventual permanent settlement in Portus Cale. The exploits of the other peoples after them- the glories and follies of the Germanic peoples, the Southern Slavs, the Berbers and the Alans, the peoples absorbed into Albion- are all present in the academic mind, and some covered in popular media, by print and film.

The East, by and large, had barbarians fighting barbarians for Terra Nullius- small wars on the outskirts of Germania, the conquests of the Danube Basin, the failed invasions of Illyria and the wars of the steppe and the lands beyond Germania- this is the boring view of the East, non-dynamic and lost to history, only recorded by uninterested Romanoi chroniclers lounging safely in Konstantinopolis.

The Chaka and the Germanic tribes did not manage to get far in the Balkans- the Eastern Emperors were more prepared for a fight than the decaying West- most of the actual barbarian success came in Illyria, which would not stay Romanoi for long.

After the Chaka passed into Italy, the barbarian involvement in the East died down to nothing- no one could penetrate the northern border forts in the Caucasus or the Balkans, and the Romanoi state was largely secure. It is from this security that the perception of a quiet East came from- that the Eastern Romans were undisturbed as the West was picked apart piece by piece.

The actual history of the situation is different. These Western accounts often forget the Vandals, the most successful, brutal and audacious people of the entire Migrations. They raided Rome for the first time since Brennos, taking untold plunder back to Carthage. They raided Alexandria, stealing much of the Library for themselves. They destroyed the Mausoleum and burnt Athens to the ground, sparing only the Academy from destruction out of admiration. They were the Varangoi of the Mediterranean, the only barbarians of the early migrations to take to the sea. In the Romanoi mind, the Vandal was more feared than even the Persian, for they struck at their leisure, outrunning the Romanoi navies time and time again. Only Iulios Megas stopped their raids.

On the western frontier lay the Arbanazoi, children of the mountains. Few campaigns were taken against them- they were primarily engaged against the Serbs and Irvacci, their hated foes even in the modern day. At battles like Sirmium, the Arbanazoi proved their greatness in battle, and they were key in halting expansion into the lands below the Danube.

On the northern frontier, there was only chaos, fluctuating groups of people fighting each other for land and plunder. They could not raid against Romanion- they did not have the organization or the time to plunder Romanion in the early migrations, and were outclassed in later centuries by superior armies.

On the southern frontier were the Nubian Copts and the Aksumites. The Copts had rebelled early in the history of the empire, during a war with the Persians. Outside of the valuable delta and the key city of Alexandria, the province of Egypt was lost to Roman rule, conquered by the Nubian kings of Meroe. These Black Copts would consolidate into a solid kingdom- the Kingdom of Kemet or Basileion Aegyptikon. After the initial conquests, the southern border was silent; trade had usurped war in the minds of the Nubians, and the Aksumites south of them posed a far greater threat. Drastic reforms in Aksum led to Aksumite expansion north, south and into Arabia- the books of Rastafari Solomon, Negus Negast, detail these conquests and later Aksumite expansion into Indian Ocean trade.

The eastern frontier of the period was very volatile- the native Persians were attacked by steppe hordes just as the Chaka penetrated into the Roman Empire. These invaders, called the Huns in Romanoi and Latin chronicles, soon carved an empire from the Oxus to Bactria- they ruled much of the Eastern outskirts of Sassanid Persia and all lands from the Persian border to the Indus. In the early 5th century, Attila, king of these people, invaded the Persians, and conquered the entire Sassanid Empire, from the Arab coast to Mesopotamia, before marrying the last Sassanid princess as a matter of legitimacy. These people were Manichaeans, not Zoroastrians by rite of conversion, and it was the Attilanids, starting under Shahanshah Ernakh, that converted Persia and much of Central Asia to Manichaeism, eventually allowing it to spread to other lands.

The Attilanids would break a long losing streak against the Romans, one that had allowed Romanion to own northern Mesopotamia and sack Ctesiphon along with conquering the entire Caucasus and western Caspian coastline. Under Attila, the Perso-Hunnic armies beat back Roman defenders in northern Mesopotamia, and beat the Romans horribly at the battle of Nisibis in 438. In the aftermath, the entirety of Mesopotamia was made Persian, and the Caucasus above Armenia was seized. Much of Inner Syria and the Levant were also raided, with Damascus, Callinicum, Cercusium and Amida being sacked completely, humiliating the Romans. Roman influence in eastern Arabia was ended, and the defeat was so terrible that the Roman did not fight the Persians until the reign of Iulios Megas.

The far southern frontier was the Arab tribes, who conducted raids on the borders of the Romans. While Petra and the Arab kings had been deposed and absorbed into the Levantine provinces, the southern Bedouins, after population booms, began raiding Roman caravans. These peaked in 476, when Bedouins managed to ravage southern Judea before the army marched south in Arabia. Makkah and Yathrib were put to the torch, the great stone of Makkah being transported back to the capital. It became part of the Imperial throne, symbolizing the crushing of the Bedouin tribes. Aksumite conquest of Mokkah and the razing of Sana further hurt the Bedouin tribes- eventually, they became mercenary slaves.

The peaceful frontiers do not, however, do justice to the volatility of the east. The Vandal raids and Persian resurgence challenged the empire, and the Romans had fully lost Italy and any access to the Western Mediterranean. Despite economic wealth and a professional army, the Romans, from the Chaka to Iulios Megas, could not defeat any moderately strong opponents, saved by weak barbarian neighbors, distracted Persians, and disunited Bedouins. Iulios Megas reversed these trends, not through great expansion but through military reform- borders were largely set after fighting the Attilanids and the Vandals, and the empire, rather than being cowed by its neighbors, became a strong force in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East.


Compendium of the Military Campaigns of Emperor Julius I of the East, by Tribonion Barsymes

And it was in 543, after 6 years of just rule, that the Emperor made battle with the Vandals below the Pyramids, as they attempted to raid Alexandria again. And on that day, the Vandal hosts were slaughtered, the sand bubbling red with their blood, and the Roman province of Egypt was saved. He slaughtered the turncoat officials who surrended to Hilderic, Rex Vandalorum, and he set up forts so as to dissuade the Vandals, then in turmoil, from invading again.

It was said that he did not go and conquer Carthage because that would be unwise- indeed, he had other plans in mind. Three years afterwards, he invaded the Black Copts of Kemet, and took a year to subjugate them to the just might of Rome, vassalizing their king so as to dominate all of Kemet. And it was then that he used slaves of war and civil infractions to start the Julian Canal, his great project, that would bisect the land that separated the Red from the Mediterranean as Moses had bisected it by the will of the Lord.

And so it was that peace reigned in Aegyptus. But the Emperor did not sit idle- he made war with Chosroes I [7] of Persia in the year 552, and he fought them valiantly, defending Antioch and raiding much of Mesopotamia. It was he that reconquered the Caucasus and fully absorbed the Armenians, and forced the Persians to surrender much land and gold to him, for he had captured Chosroes I in battle. Singara and Hira were razed, Nisibis was seized, and Babylon was completely razed, its architecture broken up and taken back, helping to build a new cathedral for the capital, the Cathedral of the Holy Theotokos.

For five more years, there was peace across the lands of Rome as provinces were absorbed and the Canal continued, bolstered by Arab and barbarian slaves. And in 557 he pacified the lands north of the Danube, defeating rather than annexing them, showing them the might of Rome. He brought the Arbanazi king as vassal, and so subjugated Illyria once more as a province. And so it was that Julius was declared rightfully “Great”, and Julius Maximus he became.

He would further defend the empire from barbarians…. the Julian canal was completed by a variety of slaves and captured men in 567, allowing trade from farthest India to sail to Alexandria and beyond.

[1] Han and Jin China- basically, the unified concept of a Chinese state.
[2] Iceland
[3] Albanians
[4] Arsacids- from Parthians to Armenians to Romans!
[5] Nepalese
[6] Milan
[7] Khosrau I (Attilanid, not Sassanid)
 
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Is this a No Islam and no Zoroastian/Buddhist Wank TL with a POD in late antiquity too?

That's a very, very rare choice - are the various splintering sects of Christanity spreading East-wards steadily, without Islam? Will we see various Christian sects spreading to South East Asia, China and Japan, thriving by the 15th Century, in place of Islam?

How refreshing!
 
Well, Islam was impossible with such an early POD and the razing of Makkah. As for Zoroastrianism, the Sassanid-favored version relied so heavily on the priesthood that the people were alienated completely- the altered Manichaeism of the Huns communicates a lot better to the Persian people. As a result of Persian antagonism, however, Manichaean influence in Gnostidox theology is lessened by theologians and emperors of the day- it's very unique. Nestorianism, for example, was butterflied away because they started before 381, and the survival and thriving of Arianism and the creation of the Gnostidox church replace it.

Christianity will be unrivaled West and North of Persia- however, it is fractured. The lack of an overarching Catholic hierarchy, the need for war against the Muslims and the continuation and expansion of Byzantine trade will have huge implications in Europe.

I think Mani and Gnostidoxy will spread, although not at the total expense of Hinduism. This is a total Buddhist-screw; there will be little Buddhist influence outside of the small Theravada states. Arabia will forever be a backwater, divided by Bedouin statelets, the small Aksumite corner, the Persian eastern coast and Roman seizure of the north and Tabouk.

China, as hinted here, is broken into smaller states- I don't think they will all be Christian or Gnostidox. I haven't decided.

The Arbanazoi are the Albanians. I think this timeline will end up calling them Illyrians outside of Romanion and the East. I also think it appropriate that they hate Serbo-Croat Italy.
 
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FDW

Banned
The Arbanazoi are the Albanians. I think this timeline will end up calling them Illyrians outside of Romanion and the East. I also think it appropriate that they hate Serbo-Croat Italy.

Ah, thanks for answering. It might a good for you to take a page out of some of the other writers here and add footnotes to your updates, so you can better communicate to your who's what and why it's significant compared to OTL without breaking up the flow of your updates.
 
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