Constantinople Victorious

Clibanarius

Banned
It was the year 638 AD

The sun beat on the Roman soldier below as they seperated their dead from the Mohammedeans.

Emperor Constantine Alexander I slouched in his saddle and surveyed the carnage below. He had to divert his troops from the conquest of the Sassanians to deal with the new threat and while the enemy had been killed to the last man. They were still out there.

The Imperator smiled as he considered his next move and made a note to send a prayer of thanks when he was alone.

The romans would triumph, for they had God on their side.

Later that night the Emperor detached some of his best men to scout out the far east of the Sassanian empire and beyond.

Tiberius Maxiumus paused to get his breath as he glanced back at the column of exhausted soldiers. It had been five years of constant running and scouting until the reached the borders of southren china and the ocean. And another three years to come home. He could see the sun glimmering on the Hagia Sophia and he smiled.

646 AD

The Imperator and his underlings listened intently as Tiberius told them of his units travels and discoveries.

"It will be another three years before the sassanians can fully recover, we did our work very well coming to back to meet the Arabs."

The emperor pointed to the map, the romans had taken every inch of arabia. "This will be a staging point, as well as the garrison troops we have over 80,000 men gathered in northren arabia for the invasion of the sassanians. And another 50,000 here in asia minor. We send our weakest force in first, which is by far stronger than most of the sassanians have at hand. While their occupied with an attack they're expecting. The troops in arabia will attack."

"But, I have another 70,000 men in egypt who will sail to southren persia and land there, they won't meet the other armies but will head directly north to break the persians backs. I will direct the 80,000 we have stationed in northren asia minor, they will move north across the steppes gathering what auxilaries they can and then strike the sassanians."

He turned to Tiberius, "And you will be going back to the eastern sea and leading the troops the chinese have place under your command."

In return for acsess to the sassanian elephant and horse breeding grounds and a large amount of gold (Half of which had been delievered by Tiberius' expedition and half of of which would be paid on completion of the conquest) the chinese had raised an army of 200,000 men to roman standards and placed it under Tiberius' command.

"Once the roman forces meet at the sassanian capital we will press on until we meet with the egyptian force. Their we will rest and then press on to meet with Tiberius."

The Emperor had simplified the army, Heavy Cavalry would be the dominant arm all the others would be subjegated to it and used as agressive heavy cavalry support. The Emperor had then made them into Marines. Able to fight on land and on and from the sea. He had just finished converting the whole of the roman infantry into Marines and re-arming and equipping them. New laws had been passed. Rape would be punished with death as would looting, conscription had been outlawed as well. If you wanted something from civilians you had to buy it. He'd made sure that the lower ranking officers had flexibility of decision as well as ordering a training college built in the city.

Now for the church and the noblility. The church itself simply needed to be re-ordered by the law and the more power-hungry leaders quietly removed. They would obey after all the emperor controlled the army.
Constantine sat down at his desk and began drafting and order, one that would strip the nobles of all political power and influence.

He frowned for a moment, and then drafted another that would outlaw eunuchs and the making of them.

The Persians fought with gallantry against the first 50,000 or the 1st Marine Force as they were known. But they fought in vain. The forces wheeled and clashed but finally they were surrounded by the roman troops and decimated before they finally surrendered.

On the sea the 2nd Marine Force landed on the shores of southren persia virtually unnopposed. The 70,000 Marines formed up and moved out in record time heading north.

King Khosrau IV bit back a curse as he read the news of the 70,000 marines that for all intents and purposes broken the back of his empire. He looked up to a messenger rush in. The boys clothes were torn and dusty, as well as covered in dried blood.

The King read the two messages and his heart sank.

80,000 Roman Marines from arabia and the only army between his capital and the first 50,000 was destroyed.

He called his subordinates togther and swiftly gave orders.

"Muster every man we can and have them ready to meet the first two roman assaults, have everyone who can't fight moved from the city. He turned to Suhavad his son. "You must muster every soldier you can find east of here and move to counter the 70,000, you have a way with words boy, turn the peoples hearts against them. If you can't fight them head on, fight them as guerillas. Now go."

The Emperor contemplated the reports, the nobles had been outraged and so had the church but they didn't move against him, he still had several thousand marines stationed all over the empire, an organized and disiplined unit of spies and his ace in the hole. Constantine had formed a unit of 10,000 men. Each of them had been trained as elite soldiers, as cataphracts they could fight with missile weapons, and on foot if need be. They had been trained to master every type of known warcraft including guerilla warfare.

He smiled as he read the report of his spies work on Heron of Alexandria's experiments, every one of them had been successfully duplicated and now they working on other applications. The Emperor had plans for the empire.

He took three of the 10,000 with him and walked down to his laboratories, here his spies and most talented men worked without ceasing on new inventions. They had accsess to every text relevant to their studies and every technological device known to mankind.

He turned to Basil the chief of the department and raised an eyebrow.

The skinny inventor coughed. "Augustus we have made great strides, there are several substances that we know that are actually lighter than air. One in particular- Well you should see for yourself."

Basil led Constantine and his men through the laboratory to a balconey and despite himself the emperor couldn't hide a smile.

Far below Basil's underlings worked over a small reed boat, the kind one might see every day on the Nile, except for the ropes attached to the ungangly cloth bag. The bag had been wrapped with more rope and hung above the boat on its own defying gravity.

The workers stepped back and lifted the weight from the reed boat, which lifted off the ground held only by a singled rope.

"Of course we still have no way to propel it and it can't carry anything much heavier than a child. But I've been working on that and I think eventually we could put something the size of a Dromon in the air." Said Basil.

"How high?" Constanine didn't take his eyes of the air-boat.

"As high as we could."

Suhvahad read the reports and swore softly, whoever commanded these romans was no fool. The people had nothing against them as long as they were left alone. And the romans moved like a storm. They had captured several elephants and were using them to increase the pace of their army. They had put several horses to each supply wagon and had several more solely for carrying troops. And there were 70,000 of them.

He'd barely managed to muster 18,000 men and they were spread out across the front. While he'd ordered his nobles to lend some of their horses for the purposes of speeding up their supplies and pulling troop wagons. They simply didn't have enough. His supply wagons varied in size and weight while the roman's were standardized. He tried to ignore the headached and the fact that his hairline had noticeably receded in the past few weeks.

He considered the map of the empire placed before him and tried to think like the roman commander. The few reports he'd found told him that the roman commander was young, very young, but his conduct was beyond reproach. Sahvahad felt a certain amount of respect for the Valentinian. The Sea Wolf as his troops called him. But why was he continuing north? The roman could have just moved west to roll up the sassanians and broken their backs just as easily. The roman position right now reminded him of a two sided anvil.

Sahvahad froze. He'd heard reports of some romans traveling through the countryside. If these 70,000 romans were an anvil then there had to be a hammer. He glanced at the eastern frontier of the sassanian empire and bit back a curse. He frantically dug through the piles of papers on his desks and scanned the old reports. Of course the roman travelers would have time and numbers to carry enough gold to raise an army, and time to train them into an army he wouldn't care to face.

He hurriedly gave orders for messengers to hurry to the east before the roman officers completely cut the empire in half. His brother had to know what was happening.

He ran hand through his hair and gave orders to gather his army. They had to attack now while the anvil was still soft.
 

Clibanarius

Banned
638-641 AD

The conquest of Arabia.

The emperor of rome and his officers surveyed the maps, they had gathered from Axum and from sources inside the sassanian empire. Each one detailed arabia.

The emperor glanced up. "Gentlemen, you know why we are gathered here. These Mohammedeans will not accept defeat, they are a threat. Both to us and then persians, they have their eyes set on Axum as well. I dread to think of what might happen if they gained access to the mediterranean and what used to be the western half of the empire.

"Furthermore, the conquest of this land will prove to an invaluable asset. I have plans gentlemen. In which this land will figure promiently."

The next day the emperor surveyed the royal fleet as it maneuevered through the golden horn. He watched as three of the new ships moved as close as they could to shore and debarked the troops. Heavily armoured cavarlymen rode through the surf and onto the beach as the slower infantry waded up and formed a shield-wall in support.

These Marines were just the beginning as were the assault dromons.
On the other side of the horn 15,000 former Cataphracts drilled to become Marine Horse.

He turned as one of his Schola escorted a small bald man up the stairs.
"Ah Basil, it is an honor."
"I am the one who is honored Augustus."
The emperor made a motion to stop the man from bowing. "As you can see I've been rather busy. I also know you've been busy, you've studied every text on invention and technology in the known world. And I'm offering to let you put those theories to the test."

Basil smiled. His dream had come true. He made a note to thank the Lord later for his endless blessings.

Meanwhile Tiberius watched from a hill behind his men as the arabs and romans exchanged fire. The archery duel had lasted throughout the morning.

But the arabs hadn't planned on the cataphracts shooting back. And while the arab horse archer's couldn't harm the cataphracts and their horses, the cataphracts decimated their lightly armoured ranks.

1,000 roman horse archers charged the arab cavalry from their position on the roman left flank. The arabs thought the romans had lost disipline, their commander never saw the cataphracts riding behind the roman horse archers Titus had used as bait.

They were taken by surprise and killed to the last man. The victorious roman cataphracts swept on to hit the exposed flank and rear of the arab infantry as the roman horse archers led the arab heavy cavalry on the arab right on a merry chase.

Titus grinned wolfishly as the arab commander ordered his reserve and all the horse archers on the arab right to the arab left. Leaving only one unit of arab heavy cavalry on the arab right.

Titus ordered his cavalry on his left flank (the arabs right) to engage the lone arab heavy cavalry unit. He then ordered the dismounted cataphracts among his infantry to mount up and move in support of the roman attack on the arab right.

Titus then ordered the three reserve units of cataphracts to move through the gap created in the roman infantry line when he gave the command for the infantry to open ranks.

They did firing at a gallop while the infantry added their own fire to support the charge. Meanwhile the roman advanced at double to engage the arab infantry in support of the cavalry.
The noise from the clash was tremendous as infantry and cavalry crashed together in struggling waves of steel. Finally the cavalry broke through and charged the arab cavalry reserve.

The arab infantry was unprepared for the roman infantry assault. The roman center and flanks were refused with two units advanced so that the already devasted arab infantry was hit by two oblique approaches.

The roman cavalry reserve had killed the arab general and his officers and swept the arab reserve from the field. The roman reserve cavalry then turned after cutting down the last arab cavalryman from that unit and fell on the arab infantry reserve.

The roman attack on the arab right hung in the balance until the arabs unable to match the roman cataphracts superior skills and gear fled and were hacked down. The roman cavalry units then fell on the flank of the battered but still stubborn arab infantry. Taken by two oblique attacks, and two units of roman cavalry on each flank as well as the gaping hole the roman reserve cavalry had punched through their center. The arab infantry began to crumble. Until the roman reserve cavalry returned from butchering the arab infantry reserve and shattered their resistance.

Every last arab had died and only 80 roman soldiers had died in the battle.

Thus the last arab army between Titus and his men was destroyed.

The next four years were filled with sporadic skirmishes but with the grace of God, the romans were in power and with more and more monks and roman diplomats flooding the country and more and more arabs becoming christians every day, the land was pacified and romanized. And thus it became the stepping stone of the empire.

BTW comments and critique are always appreciated.
 
638-641 AD

The conquest of Arabia.

The emperor of rome and his officers surveyed the maps, they had gathered from Axum and from sources inside the sassanian empire. Each one detailed arabia.

The emperor glanced up. "Gentlemen, you know why we are gathered here. These Mohammedeans will not accept defeat, they are a threat. Both to us and then persians, they have their eyes set on Axum as well. I dread to think of what might happen if they gained access to the mediterranean and what used to be the western half of the empire.

"Furthermore, the conquest of this land will prove to an invaluable
asset. I have plans gentlemen. In which this land will figure promiently."

The next day the emperor surveyed the royal fleet as it maneuevered through the golden horn. He watched as three of the new ships moved as close as they could to shore and debarked the troops. Heavily armoured cavarlymen rode through the surf and onto the beach as the slower infantry waded up and formed a shield-wall in support.

These Marines were just the beginning as were the assault dromons.
On the other side of the horn 15,000 former Cataphracts drilled to become Marine Horse.

He turned as one of his Schola escorted a small bald man up the stairs.
"Ah Basil, it is an honor."
"I am the one who is honored Augustus."
The emperor made a motion to stop the man from bowing. "As you can see I've been rather busy. I also know you've been busy, you've studied every text on invention and technology in the known world. And I'm offering to let you put those theories to the test.

Basil smiled. His dream had come true. He made a note to thank the Lord later for his endless blessings.

Meanwhile Tiberius watched from a hill behind his men as the arabs and romans exchanged fire. The archery duel had lasted throughout the morning.

But the arabs hadn't planned on the cataphracts shooting back. And while the
arab horse archer's couldn't harm the cataphracts and their horses, the cataphracts decimated their lightly armoured ranks.

1,000 roman horse archers charged the arab cavalry from their position on the roman left flank. The arabs thought the romans had lost disipline, their commander never saw the cataphracts riding behind the roman horse archers Titus had used as bait.

They were taken by surprise and killed to the last man. The victorious roman cataphracts swept on to hit the exposed flank and rear of the arab infantry as the roman horse archers led the arab heavy cavalry on the arab right on a merry chase.

Titus grinned wolfishly as the arab commander ordered his reserve and all the horse archers on the arab right to the arab left. Leaving only one unit of arab heavy cavalry on the arab right.

Titus ordered his cavalry on his left flank (the arabs right) to engage the lone
arab heavy cavalry unit. He then ordered the dismounted cataphracts among his infantry to mount up and move in support of the roman attack on the arab right.

Titus then ordered the three reserve units of cataphracts to move through the gap created in the roman infantry line when he gave the command for the infantry to open ranks.

They did firing at a gallop while the infantry added their own fire to support the charge. Meanwhile the roman advanced at double to engage the arab infantry in support of the cavalry.
The noise from the clash was tremendous as infantry and cavalry crashed together in struggling waves of steel. Finally the cavalry broke through and charged the arab cavalry reserve.

The arab infantry was unprepared for the roman infantry assault. The roman center and flanks were refused with two units advanced so that the already devasted arab infantry was hit by two oblique approaches.

The roman cavalry reserve had killed the arab general and his officers and swept the arab reserve from the field. The roman reserve cavalry then turned after cutting down the last arab cavalryman from that unit and fell on the arab infantry reserve

The roman attack on the arab right hung in the balance until the arabs unable to match the roman cataphracts superior skills and gear fled and were hacked down. The roman cavalry units then fell on the flank of the battered but still stubborn arab infantry. Taken by two oblique attacks, and two units of roman cavalry on each flank as well as the gaping hole the roman reserve cavalry had punched through their center. The arab infantry began to crumble. Until the
roman reserve cavalry returned from butchering the arab infantry reserve and shattered their resistance.

Every last arab had died and only 80 roman soldiers had died in the battle.

Thus the last arab army between Titus and his men was destroyed.

The next four years were filled with sporadic skirmishes but with the grace of God, the romans were in power and with more and more monks and roman diplomats flooding the country and more and more arabs becoming christians every day, the land was pacified and romanized. And thus it became the stepping stone of the empire.

BTW comments and critique are always appreciated.

Bloody ell Monsieur you've made a smart roman empire:eek: no way 0__0 Ill be watching this TL closely Monsieur *_* Youve just butterflied away Mohhamid, he still excists right o_0:
 

Clibanarius

Banned
649 AD.

Sahvahad led the survivors of his battered army back west. If he'd gotten wind of the report earlier. Then his men could have ridden down into the surf and slaughtered the romans as they waded ashore.

His only hope know was the delay the romans. They couldn't sustain an army this big forever much less the others that had attacked the persians from the west and north. Eventually they would have to halt to let their men rest. His efforts at raising guerilla's hadn't gone as well as he hoped. The peasants liked the wealth the romans were bringing with them.

In short they were losing. He had managed to bloody their roman noses a little but he knew it was nothing, a few hundred dead was nothing to 70,000 roman marines and they achieved their objective of breaking the persians backs.

His brother had sent him a message that 100,000 chinese soldiers under roman command and in roman style gear had come swarming from the east. His brother had also mentioned that he failed to stop the 70,000 roman marines and that he was trapped.

Sahvahad dismounted to let horse when the messenger came riding up.

He already knew what he was going to say.

"My Prince the romans have stormed the capital and captured the entire royal famil. His highness," the messenger handed him a rolled up scroll, "has ordered you, your brother and every soldier to surrender and hand over their weapons to the roman army."

Sahvahad sighed, he knew defeat was only a matter of time and he thanked God that his family was safe.

So Sahvahad took the scroll and passed the order along to his men.

By then the romans had secured western persia and were marching to meet the eastern force. Which happened six months later.

Tiberius was glad to see his fellow romans, he dismounted and walked to the tent where the emperor and his officers were planning the modernization. Tiberius paused as he saw what looked like a Dromon . . . floating in the air.

He tore his eyes way so see the emperor smiling. "It came to late in the war to take part in any battles, but it's certainly useful in speeding things up."

"I . . . could see why, Augustus."

The emperor's smile widened. "Did you bring the books?"

Tiberius nodded and passed them over, the emperor had been informed by his spy agency that the chinese possessed several books on technology and so Tiberius had been given a large sum of money to secure those books along with chinese auxilaries.

"Well Basileus should find these useful."

"I had them translated into latin as well as greek sir."

The emperor's smile grew even wider. "Excellent! Now," he pointed to the map. "It's time to reclaim what is ours, the west has been left to rot away after Justinian died but I think it's time to reclaim it. The Axumites have promised us 200,000 Soldiers and a fourth of their navy in return for prototypes and books of our new technology and a large sum of eastern gold of course."

Tiberius nodded politely, the chinese troops had already left for their homeland and the shipyards on the eastern coast were finally up and running. Truth be told he wanted to just get some sleep and go home. So the emperors next words were a God-send. "We'll modernize and prepare the army and rest up for about five years. Then we'll move."

Tiberius couldn't keep a smile from breaking out. "Yes sir!"

"Excellent my old friend, now to other matters, we plan to build smaller Air-Dromons and use these to carry our marines on the field, meanwhile I need a name for your unit besides The Ten Thousand."

". . . Rangers?"

"Excellent! Rangers it is."

Tiberius frowned at the map. "Sir, is there. . .?"

"A canal between the sinai peninsula and egypt? Why yes there is. And if you'll look at arabia, you'll see I had that Dam in Marib rebuilt, it's about twice the height it was when we got there and with twice the waterworks, the whole province is well-irrigated and we're improving and adding to what the persians did."

One of the officers spoke up. "Sir, about the Persians?"

The emperor smiled. "Most of their cavalry and former nobles will be accompanying us when we re-take the west."

Tiberius sat through the rest of the briefing without saying and word until he walked out with the emperor and two other Rangers. "How far will you expand sir?"

The emperor smiled. "Why we'll re-take all of it and then some."

Comments? Critique?

What did you like and not like? Thanks guys. :)
 
How about moving this to the ASB forum.

-air-dromons...hydrogen nor helium is easy to produce and even harder to store.
-excessive use of marines, which before the mid-20th century are nothing more than normal infantry who know how a ship looks like on the inside and don't get seasick. (you not an American USMC fan boy by any chance?)
-crippling the power of both nobility and the Church without any revolution attempt.
-200 000 Chinese mercenaries:eek: (or 100 000, seems to change between your first and third post)
-Axum having 200 000 spare soldiers

all have an ASBish flavour to them.
"Excellent my old friend, now to other matters, we plan to build smaller Air-Dromons and use these to carry our marines on the field, meanwhile I need a name for your unit besides The Ten Thousand."

". . . Rangers?"

"Excellent! Rangers it is."
If those are the elite cataphracts you mentioned (who would suck in guerilla warfare, that's for light forces, not heavy cavalry) Ranger would be an awful name as it is only suited to something light or territorial. (not to mention it's use is limited to Anglo-Saxon countries only)
I suggest you use something like Athanatoi, meaning Immortals, that would be an easy choice as they number 10 000, just like the Persian example used to. 10 000 seems a bit much as well, unless they replace all other guard cavalry units.
 

Clibanarius

Banned
Okay.

I know that's true about pre-modern marines and that's what I'm using them as. (While I admire the USMC I'm not a fan-boy ;))

I didn't mean to change the numbers I'll edit that.

Okay Athanatoi it is, thanks! :)

As for them being cataphracts that what they fight as on the field. Off the field they use whatever gear is appropriate.

As for crippling the church Heraclius actually did that and got away with it.

What would you suggest for the Air-Dromons?
 
Still doesn't make sense to call all infantry that, just sounds wrong in pre 20th century history.

The point with the cataphracts was that it would be a bit difficult to train them adequately in both roles, as well as a waste of their talents. There are plenty of "normal" uses for 10 000 elite heavy cavalry! For real guerrillas you'd want border troops, semi-professional militia's and other light(ish) troops that make a habit of skirmishing and ambushing as a way of living. Your cataphracts just have a "special forces" flavour to them.

Good to hear that at least some rulers managed to keep the Church on a leash:p

As for the air-dromons, eh, just keep them and repost in ASB forum? They are pretty much impossible to build in that age, making this too asb-ish for this forum IMHO. But being ASB doesn't make something a bad story, just unsuited to this particular forum filled with nitpickers.(like me:D)

With the air-dromons you seem to be heading on a steam-punk route, only before the age of steam, which makes it an, eh...iron-punk? sail-punk? Anyway, whatever it's called it can be quite good if you turn off your realism-meter.:cool:
 
Still doesn't make sense to call all infantry that, just sounds wrong in pre 20th century history.

The point with the cataphracts was that it would be a bit difficult to train them adequately in both roles, as well as a waste of their talents. There are plenty of "normal" uses for 10 000 elite heavy cavalry! For real guerrillas you'd want border troops, semi-professional militia's and other light(ish) troops that make a habit of skirmishing and ambushing as a way of living. Your cataphracts just have a "special forces" flavour to them.

Good to hear that at least some rulers managed to keep the Church on a leash:p

As for the air-dromons, eh, just keep them and repost in ASB forum? They are pretty much impossible to build in that age, making this too asb-ish for this forum IMHO. But being ASB doesn't make something a bad story, just unsuited to this particular forum filled with nitpickers.(like me:D)

With the air-dromons you seem to be heading on a steam-punk route, only before the age of steam, which makes it an, eh...iron-punk? sail-punk? Anyway, whatever it's called it can be quite good if you turn off your realism-meter.:cool:

Seconded on the air-dromons. Of course, there are the Nazca lines, which could have been made through the use of hot air balloons. The Nazca
MAY (please, I emphasise MAY, there's no proof and only some idle speculation on the behalf of some rather sensationalist academics) have used captured gas given off from natural vents to float people or small baskets above the ground (not very high probably, but high enough) and then have them guide the consturction work.

This therefore could be conceivable, although I don't think there are many natural gas geysers, and certainly not enough to make them any strategic use. Maybe an idle curiousity for the rich and bored. Furthermore, they wouldn't be nearly big enough or strong enough to hold heavily armoured horsemen or indeed any number of people besides about one man, and that's pushing it. Remember: hot air balloons only became anywhere near safe in the late 19th century and even then they weren't used to transport people, and zeppelins required enormous amounts of technical expertise which the Romans couldn't have dreamed of.

So, yeah, ASB forum seems a likely end to this. Sorry, but it's just too much.
 
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