A Difference Of Fate: A Late Roman Timeline
- Thread starter StevenIronside
- Start date
Well not entirely, while the Franks are pushed across the rhine they havent finalized any peace with them yet. But theres also the Alemani who control a large chunk of gaul as well to contend with.
Chapter 46 To Awnser The Troops
Chapter 46
September 29th
Constantinus watched as the last of the Franks ran away. He smirked, "that should teach them that Rome is no longer to be trifled with." Around him several dozen of his personal guard sat on their horses, while farther out several cohorts of infantry were spread out from the chase, one of the main reasons be had called a halt, even the broken enemy could have turned around and defeated there spread out troops if he wasnt careful. "Tribunus" Constantinus greeted a gore covered Scaurus who was approaching him also on horse back. "Sound the recall, i want these men formed up and marching back to the rest of the army."
"Yes, Caesar" was the only reply. Within minutes the few thousand men with Constantinus were marching back towards the battlefield. Constantinus and his bodygaurd in front of the center of their formation.
When they closed in on the rest of the army it was quite the sight. Thousands had died, his men were spread out sorting through the dead and wounded granting some a quick release from what looked to be a long and painful death. There were several cohorts across the battlefield formed up and ready for battle, keeping guard incase the enemy decided they could catch the romans off guard. Off to the right the cavalry units were arrayed, looking after their own dead and wounded and looking after their mounts. Instead of going around the battlefield, Constantinus went through it, the cohorts that followed him however split up assigning there men to several different tasks. However as Constantinus surveyed the results of his victory. One man not to far away looked upon his Caesar and with a proud shout yelled "Hail Caesar, Victorious Caesar, Hail Augustus! HAIL AUGUSTUS!"
Constantinus upon hearing the proclamation from the soldier turned ready to berate the man even strike him down, but within seconds the call had passed to dozens of others, and then to the everyone within earshot, and soon the entire army was shouting "Constantinus Augustus, Augustus Constantinus!"
Constantinus surveyed his men with a panicked face, Constantinus even looked at his brother Gallus who watched him his face indistinguishable of his feelings. The last thing Constantinus wanted was to cause a civil war with his brother, neither would Constantinus allow himself to form another gallic empire, or reform the tetrarchy. All he wished was to serve rome, and rebuild its borders to the age of the first emperors.
Finally after several minutes of the army chanting his name as Augustus, Constantinus acted in a way none of his men expected. He pulled his sword out got off his horse, and aimed it his heart. He looked at the men around him and responded to their proclamation.
"You declare me Emperor, something i do not ask or wish for! You declare me Emperor, which is an act of war against OUR emperor in Rome, my very own brother! You know the pain and disruption that your proclamation will cause! Yet you still do it! I will not have it!" At this moment the men nearest him began to take on shameful looks, and others angered. "If you wish for me to march on Rome and kill my own kin, then i will save you and the entire empire alot of pain and alot of marching by taking my own life right now!" Immediately there where shouts of No from his men his point seeming to have been made to his men. It seemed to Constantinus at this point he had turned his men from civil war, and then he continued. "We will not march on Rome, no we have not even finished with the franks! And do you know who lay to the south? The Alemani, those hated foes who my own father has defeated several times! We need to push them back retake our lands and make Gaul whole once again."
This seemed to have cowed his men and given them a glimpse of the future campaigns their general had planned. However several men closed in on the Augustus. Their ringleader smiled. "Sir, you can only deny our proclamation of you so many times. We have named you Augustus twice now! You said it yourself our only real foes left are the Franks and the Alemani. Once they are dealt with, we will name you emperor again, well sir, we only have so much patience, one of us may well misplace our sword."
The threat was very clear. He had cowed his men and rejected his naming as Augustus, however once the Empire was restored his men would do so again, and there would be no denying them. Even as he ordered the men who had threatened him to be executed for insubordination and threatening an officer, their ringleader yelled. "Dont worry sir, we arent the only ones, we are just the messengers!"
For the Caesar Constantinus, the reality set in, he needed a way to make sure his men could not name him emperor again, he would not march on his brother in Rome no matter what his soldiers demanded.....
September 29th
Constantinus watched as the last of the Franks ran away. He smirked, "that should teach them that Rome is no longer to be trifled with." Around him several dozen of his personal guard sat on their horses, while farther out several cohorts of infantry were spread out from the chase, one of the main reasons be had called a halt, even the broken enemy could have turned around and defeated there spread out troops if he wasnt careful. "Tribunus" Constantinus greeted a gore covered Scaurus who was approaching him also on horse back. "Sound the recall, i want these men formed up and marching back to the rest of the army."
"Yes, Caesar" was the only reply. Within minutes the few thousand men with Constantinus were marching back towards the battlefield. Constantinus and his bodygaurd in front of the center of their formation.
When they closed in on the rest of the army it was quite the sight. Thousands had died, his men were spread out sorting through the dead and wounded granting some a quick release from what looked to be a long and painful death. There were several cohorts across the battlefield formed up and ready for battle, keeping guard incase the enemy decided they could catch the romans off guard. Off to the right the cavalry units were arrayed, looking after their own dead and wounded and looking after their mounts. Instead of going around the battlefield, Constantinus went through it, the cohorts that followed him however split up assigning there men to several different tasks. However as Constantinus surveyed the results of his victory. One man not to far away looked upon his Caesar and with a proud shout yelled "Hail Caesar, Victorious Caesar, Hail Augustus! HAIL AUGUSTUS!"
Constantinus upon hearing the proclamation from the soldier turned ready to berate the man even strike him down, but within seconds the call had passed to dozens of others, and then to the everyone within earshot, and soon the entire army was shouting "Constantinus Augustus, Augustus Constantinus!"
Constantinus surveyed his men with a panicked face, Constantinus even looked at his brother Gallus who watched him his face indistinguishable of his feelings. The last thing Constantinus wanted was to cause a civil war with his brother, neither would Constantinus allow himself to form another gallic empire, or reform the tetrarchy. All he wished was to serve rome, and rebuild its borders to the age of the first emperors.
Finally after several minutes of the army chanting his name as Augustus, Constantinus acted in a way none of his men expected. He pulled his sword out got off his horse, and aimed it his heart. He looked at the men around him and responded to their proclamation.
"You declare me Emperor, something i do not ask or wish for! You declare me Emperor, which is an act of war against OUR emperor in Rome, my very own brother! You know the pain and disruption that your proclamation will cause! Yet you still do it! I will not have it!" At this moment the men nearest him began to take on shameful looks, and others angered. "If you wish for me to march on Rome and kill my own kin, then i will save you and the entire empire alot of pain and alot of marching by taking my own life right now!" Immediately there where shouts of No from his men his point seeming to have been made to his men. It seemed to Constantinus at this point he had turned his men from civil war, and then he continued. "We will not march on Rome, no we have not even finished with the franks! And do you know who lay to the south? The Alemani, those hated foes who my own father has defeated several times! We need to push them back retake our lands and make Gaul whole once again."
This seemed to have cowed his men and given them a glimpse of the future campaigns their general had planned. However several men closed in on the Augustus. Their ringleader smiled. "Sir, you can only deny our proclamation of you so many times. We have named you Augustus twice now! You said it yourself our only real foes left are the Franks and the Alemani. Once they are dealt with, we will name you emperor again, well sir, we only have so much patience, one of us may well misplace our sword."
The threat was very clear. He had cowed his men and rejected his naming as Augustus, however once the Empire was restored his men would do so again, and there would be no denying them. Even as he ordered the men who had threatened him to be executed for insubordination and threatening an officer, their ringleader yelled. "Dont worry sir, we arent the only ones, we are just the messengers!"
For the Caesar Constantinus, the reality set in, he needed a way to make sure his men could not name him emperor again, he would not march on his brother in Rome no matter what his soldiers demanded.....
wonderful chapter as always and a keen reminder that not all battles are waged against enemies.
A decimation is going to be needed to reconstitute the integrity of this army. Or remove the ringleaders fast before it gets too late.
Absolutely and sometimes the enemies within are far more dangerous than those on the outside.
The only thing with Decimation is that it requires the troops to be willing to follow suit instead of forming into a mutiny, as the troops have shown they love and are willing to follow Constantinus, but whether they would follow that order is hard to say.
As for Wittling down the army or replacing them this also requires the ability for the army to be replaced. Or the troops to be recruited to be able to lose these ones. While the West has been able to recruit soldiers to fill their armies decently the ability to rapidly recruit another 10-25 thousand to replace these men may not be there, as well if it came to a battle to take these men out they are some of the most veteran troops in the roman army at this point.
While taking out ringleaders is a good idea, another idea would be to try and seperate out the army by sending various units to other frontiers and replacing them with other Veteran units in Gaul, however even doing this the remaining units may still be influenced into trying to proclaim Constantinus by any of the older gallic units.
Perhaps the best course of action is to have Constantinus go to Africa and become governor there, and having the third brother take charge in Gaul
Its definitely a possibility however with Constantinus warlike attitude how he would fare in that position is hard to say
So the troops are keen on forcing a civil war for their own gain... Constantine has very few options here...
I can't help but notice that many younger Romans started to bear the Praenomnina (the traditional Roman given names) like most old Romans back before the 4th AD (despite still those cliches like "Lucius", "Marcus", "Gaius" etc). Does it indicate something?
Btw it seems like "Procopius" has sort of become a Nomen for the imperial dynasty of the ERE.
Btw it seems like "Procopius" has sort of become a Nomen for the imperial dynasty of the ERE.
Definitely limited options, he cant take to extreme an options either as the army could just simply mutiny on him.
It doesnt really indicate to much, those praenomnina were still in use just that more and more people were going by the praenomnina Flavius, for the most part i decided to do it because if names were used repetitively in some cases it would be easier for everyone to know who im talking about, and in some cases the there may come some characters of the same and similar names and i didnt want that to be mistaken either. As well the use of Flavius really came around during the 4th century by alot of the germanic tribes brought into the empire. With the influence of the Majorian dynasty i am going to be introducing more characters later on using the instead of Flavius, the name of Julius or Valerius.
Maybe he could just work it out that his brother name him co-Augustus like Gratian and Valentinian II? Theodosius can rule in Rome while he makes his capitol Augusta Treverorum to watch the Rhine
I like him too, he’s Sonny Corleone if he was born second with Gallus being Michael with the Emperor Fredo. However at this point with that tension I’d rather he die in battle and be the ‘Martyr of Rome’ so Gallus can do the necessary political work that stabilizes the empire and quells a civil war.
I like that analogy! It does kinda work thats for sure haha
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