After Actium: Two Caesars Are Not Enough
- Thread starter Velasco
- Start date
Any one else who would be interested too?
Would the e-book require money to get? Also, would the timeline still be up here if you made an e-book, or would you take it down?
Yes, I'd charge something for it, and yes, because the timeline would be but a draft of the e-book (or e-books), since there will be divergences, characters taken out, things maximized, things pushed to the background, etc.
Bactria Resurgent
A Recap: Part I
A Recap: Part I
The life and career of Cleopatra Nea Isis was a thing of wonder and comment even to contemporary authors. Her sojourn in Parthia, her progress even further east and her subsequent return west allowed the friendly and the impressed to paint her as a conqueror in Alexander's mould - even the proudest Romans could admit through gritted teeth it was not every queen who received the worship of men from Hispania to deepest, darkest India.
Her greatest contribution to the East had been her alliance (23BC) with the chieftain Sapadbizes, who she admitted into Bactria and had crowned as her consort and king. It was an act of rebellion against the Parthian King of Kings - but as no one could quite decide who was the rightful King of Kings at that time, retribution did not follow. From Bactria Sapadbizes made peace with Azes I, who ruled parts of Arachosia and the Punjab, and claimed imperial dignity as Megas Basileus. Neigbouring kings (Hermaeus II of Kapisi and Strato II Soter, ruler of the eastern Punjab) accepted the authority of Bactria soon enough, and his brother Pseigacharis was torn down and slain after a successful campaign into Sogdiana (22-21 BC).
Cleopatra in the meantime moved her court to Alexandria Paraopamisia and from there to Taxila. The glory and splendour of this court was fated to become a thing of legend, with Sapadbizes attended by four kings (Azes, Strato, Hermaeus and Vijayamitra of Indike Leuke) and Cleopatra by their queens and the numerous harem Sapadbizes had brought back from Sogdiana. Sapadbizes vigorously asserted his imperial dominion in the region, stretching his realm from Transoxania south towards the Indus and Jhelum rivers in the south-east and the very fringes of Parthian royal authority beyond Arachosia in the west. Cleopatra's influence saw Greek adopted as the lingua franca of this fledgling empire and the power of the local Indo-Greek kinglings weakened in favour of a centralized royal administration flowing from and to her throne.
Ambition, however, was always Cleopatra's greatest strength and most severe flaw: Taxila was not enough, and at her bidding her husband's sights soon turned west. She wished to seat her son Alexander Helios on the throne of Parthia and formulated (19BC) an alliance with Darius of Media Atropatene, who was similarly prone to playing king-maker on Parthia's western flank. Conversely it was the successes of their greatest rival, the pretender Artabanus, that left him vulnerable to the aggressions coming from the East: his annexation of Persis (whose king Vahshir he had slain) and his protracted pursuit of the former king (Phraates IV, also slain) exhausted his resources and made the Dahae clans more susceptible to defection, which they indeed did when Alexander Helios appeared in Parthia. Alexander and Sapadbizes extracted land and tribute from Artabanus, until at length he was sandwiched (map) between Alexander's Perso-Parthian principality and the equally threatening potency of Darius, ruler then of an enlarged Armenia including Sophene, Media Atropatene and parts of Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. Two years later Artabanus was crushed under the combined weight of the Scythian-Bactrian alliance in the east and the arrival on the scene of the Emperor Caesarion with his legions.
It was from this campaign that Cleopatra derived her greatest claim to fame and praise from contemporaries. She had sent an embassy to Caesarion upon learning of his presence in northern Mesopotamia and forced him into an alliance with his brother Alexander Helios - who ultimately failed to fulfil what was asked of him and thus jeopardized the alliance. Cleopatra thus appeared in Media at the head of an army of some 80,000 men: Parthians, Scythians, Greco-Bactrians, Indo-Greeks, Indians, Yuezhi and Sogdians and Tocharians and others besides. With this force she oversaw the capture of Hecantompylos, Apamea and Rhagae, where King Artabanus and his court surrendered to her power. By her prompt action she spared the legions of Rome from certain defeat at Bagistana and became the first woman to be hailed by the soldiers of Rome as Imperatrix.
The ensuing Pact of Babylon (14BC) saw the east divided between her two eldest son. Cleopatra would successfully claim Egypt and accompany Caesarion westward, never returning east: her husband Sapadbizes would join them at Rhagae and entrust Alexander Helios with the government of his realm during his absence[1]. At Antioch they were worshipped as living gods and in Rome Sapadbizes witnessed the glory of Caesarion's quintuple triumph and all the celebrations which enshrined the ratification of the Second Settlement (13BC). Sapadbizes followed Caesarion's court to Mediolanum and participated in his Raetian campaign, only setting out for home two years later (11BC).
Predictably, his faith in Alexander Helios had been remarkably misplaced. Several border territories had been stolen outright and Alexander had gone to great lengths to have Sapadbizes' young daughter and co-ruler, Cleopatra Thais, sent to him, with a view to uniting the two realms outright. It was only Alexander's infamous lethargy which prevented him from taking further action - and to his eternal shame, he abandoned court and throne to steal away to Arabia, rather than face the arriving Sapadbizes, who had successfully usurped the allegiance of the Dahae clans. The rest of Alexander Helios' turbulent career is recorded elsewhere, but suffice to say Sapadbizes made it home in safety and spent the next years subduing such dissent and disruption as his absence had allowed take root. These years saw a proliferation in royal building projects and a revival of Greek culture and religion - from processions and mystery cults to gymnasiums and athletic competitions, Sapadbizes eagerly (re-)introduced into his kingdom such western practices as he deemed of interest or expedience.
His power was secure enough for a second departure (9-8BC): this time to Arabia, for a joint campaign agreed to several years prior with Caesarion. The oasis of Gerrha, the wayward satrapy of Mezene (Maecene) and the kingdoms of the Cottabani and Hadramut all fell to the combined might of the Romans and Bactrians. Sapadbizes retained the ports of Kane and Moscha Limen in Hadramut, the port of Omana in the Persian Gulf and the south-eastern coast of Arabia, known to the Romans as Arabia Bactriana (“Bactrian Arabia”). It would mark the last time Sapadbizes saw Cleopatra before her death. The importance of this campaign, however, was not in the exercise of any feigned brotherhood or collaboration between Sapadbizes and his wife's family. Rather, the joint subjugation of the Arabian peninsula marked the opening of a direct and steady avenue of commerce and exchange between the two great empires of the age: Rome in the west and Bactria in the east. The turbulent politics and greedy kinglets in Parthia and Persia could pose no obstacle, nor would goods have to pass piecemeal from Cleopatris (a port on the Caspian sea) across to Albania and Asia Minor: trade could now flow between Bactrian India and the Roman East unimpeded and unfettered.
Sapadbizes Neos Dionysus
Notes:
[1] This act had the unfortunate effect of cementing the independence of Alexandrian Perso-Parthia, which might otherwise have remained a satellite of Sapadbizes' own Indo-Greco-Bactrian empire.
Her greatest contribution to the East had been her alliance (23BC) with the chieftain Sapadbizes, who she admitted into Bactria and had crowned as her consort and king. It was an act of rebellion against the Parthian King of Kings - but as no one could quite decide who was the rightful King of Kings at that time, retribution did not follow. From Bactria Sapadbizes made peace with Azes I, who ruled parts of Arachosia and the Punjab, and claimed imperial dignity as Megas Basileus. Neigbouring kings (Hermaeus II of Kapisi and Strato II Soter, ruler of the eastern Punjab) accepted the authority of Bactria soon enough, and his brother Pseigacharis was torn down and slain after a successful campaign into Sogdiana (22-21 BC).
Cleopatra in the meantime moved her court to Alexandria Paraopamisia and from there to Taxila. The glory and splendour of this court was fated to become a thing of legend, with Sapadbizes attended by four kings (Azes, Strato, Hermaeus and Vijayamitra of Indike Leuke) and Cleopatra by their queens and the numerous harem Sapadbizes had brought back from Sogdiana. Sapadbizes vigorously asserted his imperial dominion in the region, stretching his realm from Transoxania south towards the Indus and Jhelum rivers in the south-east and the very fringes of Parthian royal authority beyond Arachosia in the west. Cleopatra's influence saw Greek adopted as the lingua franca of this fledgling empire and the power of the local Indo-Greek kinglings weakened in favour of a centralized royal administration flowing from and to her throne.
Ambition, however, was always Cleopatra's greatest strength and most severe flaw: Taxila was not enough, and at her bidding her husband's sights soon turned west. She wished to seat her son Alexander Helios on the throne of Parthia and formulated (19BC) an alliance with Darius of Media Atropatene, who was similarly prone to playing king-maker on Parthia's western flank. Conversely it was the successes of their greatest rival, the pretender Artabanus, that left him vulnerable to the aggressions coming from the East: his annexation of Persis (whose king Vahshir he had slain) and his protracted pursuit of the former king (Phraates IV, also slain) exhausted his resources and made the Dahae clans more susceptible to defection, which they indeed did when Alexander Helios appeared in Parthia. Alexander and Sapadbizes extracted land and tribute from Artabanus, until at length he was sandwiched (map) between Alexander's Perso-Parthian principality and the equally threatening potency of Darius, ruler then of an enlarged Armenia including Sophene, Media Atropatene and parts of Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. Two years later Artabanus was crushed under the combined weight of the Scythian-Bactrian alliance in the east and the arrival on the scene of the Emperor Caesarion with his legions.
It was from this campaign that Cleopatra derived her greatest claim to fame and praise from contemporaries. She had sent an embassy to Caesarion upon learning of his presence in northern Mesopotamia and forced him into an alliance with his brother Alexander Helios - who ultimately failed to fulfil what was asked of him and thus jeopardized the alliance. Cleopatra thus appeared in Media at the head of an army of some 80,000 men: Parthians, Scythians, Greco-Bactrians, Indo-Greeks, Indians, Yuezhi and Sogdians and Tocharians and others besides. With this force she oversaw the capture of Hecantompylos, Apamea and Rhagae, where King Artabanus and his court surrendered to her power. By her prompt action she spared the legions of Rome from certain defeat at Bagistana and became the first woman to be hailed by the soldiers of Rome as Imperatrix.
The ensuing Pact of Babylon (14BC) saw the east divided between her two eldest son. Cleopatra would successfully claim Egypt and accompany Caesarion westward, never returning east: her husband Sapadbizes would join them at Rhagae and entrust Alexander Helios with the government of his realm during his absence[1]. At Antioch they were worshipped as living gods and in Rome Sapadbizes witnessed the glory of Caesarion's quintuple triumph and all the celebrations which enshrined the ratification of the Second Settlement (13BC). Sapadbizes followed Caesarion's court to Mediolanum and participated in his Raetian campaign, only setting out for home two years later (11BC).
Predictably, his faith in Alexander Helios had been remarkably misplaced. Several border territories had been stolen outright and Alexander had gone to great lengths to have Sapadbizes' young daughter and co-ruler, Cleopatra Thais, sent to him, with a view to uniting the two realms outright. It was only Alexander's infamous lethargy which prevented him from taking further action - and to his eternal shame, he abandoned court and throne to steal away to Arabia, rather than face the arriving Sapadbizes, who had successfully usurped the allegiance of the Dahae clans. The rest of Alexander Helios' turbulent career is recorded elsewhere, but suffice to say Sapadbizes made it home in safety and spent the next years subduing such dissent and disruption as his absence had allowed take root. These years saw a proliferation in royal building projects and a revival of Greek culture and religion - from processions and mystery cults to gymnasiums and athletic competitions, Sapadbizes eagerly (re-)introduced into his kingdom such western practices as he deemed of interest or expedience.
His power was secure enough for a second departure (9-8BC): this time to Arabia, for a joint campaign agreed to several years prior with Caesarion. The oasis of Gerrha, the wayward satrapy of Mezene (Maecene) and the kingdoms of the Cottabani and Hadramut all fell to the combined might of the Romans and Bactrians. Sapadbizes retained the ports of Kane and Moscha Limen in Hadramut, the port of Omana in the Persian Gulf and the south-eastern coast of Arabia, known to the Romans as Arabia Bactriana (“Bactrian Arabia”). It would mark the last time Sapadbizes saw Cleopatra before her death. The importance of this campaign, however, was not in the exercise of any feigned brotherhood or collaboration between Sapadbizes and his wife's family. Rather, the joint subjugation of the Arabian peninsula marked the opening of a direct and steady avenue of commerce and exchange between the two great empires of the age: Rome in the west and Bactria in the east. The turbulent politics and greedy kinglets in Parthia and Persia could pose no obstacle, nor would goods have to pass piecemeal from Cleopatris (a port on the Caspian sea) across to Albania and Asia Minor: trade could now flow between Bactrian India and the Roman East unimpeded and unfettered.
Sapadbizes Neos Dionysus
Notes:
[1] This act had the unfortunate effect of cementing the independence of Alexandrian Perso-Parthia, which might otherwise have remained a satellite of Sapadbizes' own Indo-Greco-Bactrian empire.
