From Exile to Triumph: a Western Roman Timeline
- Thread starter Flavius Iulius Nepos
- Start date
A sound strategy, let the Goths fight and bleed and let the Roman landowners pay the their tax with gold rather than men. Unfortunately being unable to properly supervise the situation led him to the catastrophe of Adrianople.
There won’t be any Alexander-like figure in this timeline, or at least not a Roman one…
Anyway we will have the chance to see more of Theodosius III later on.
Glad you like it. The beginning might be a little dull but I’m constantly trying to change and improve the timeline and the way I narrate it.
Well thank you, if you really like late Roman timelines you should read “The Mauricians: A Medieval Roman novel”.
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Finally got to read all the timeline up to here and god it was a fun read i need to say
(Looking forward to serena and valens plot especially) hope you update this soon
(Looking forward to serena and valens plot especially) hope you update this soon
Thank you, it’s nice to hear that you think so!
They will have their fair degree of spotlights, especially Valens who can be considered one of the driving characters of this generation. Serena is just a supporting character but she’s going to have anyway her chance to influence the life of Valens and indirectly the history of the empire. But after the next update it’s going to be Belisarius’s time to shine.
I may occasionally delay an update of two for any possible reason but I’m going to bring at least the first part of this story ( not sure about the two sequels yet) to its ending, in a year or two. I'll try my best to update it as soon as possible.
Man sounds like this is gonna be a long timeline thanks for all the good work, ome of these days im going to have to finish my re read of it love the tl
Quite long but there is no rush.
Here is an updated version of the previous one
Chapter L: The battle of Naissus
Chapter L
War was not going well for the Thracian Goths. At first the lack on any serious threat allowed them to plunder the Balkans unpunished. Terror and horror had gripped the heart of the Romans as the Goths were not only fighting for loot but also to repay the blood the Romans had shed at Constantinople. Few could consider themselves safe from the wrath of the enemy and even in the capital itself the populace’ fear had to be violently quelled. Later on the situation improved as more experienced commanders took over the command of the war, among them Mundus and Chilbudius. Quickly however the most senior officer rose above all the others and thus now Magister Militum Sittas, at the head of the imperial army, was finally ready to eject once and for all any possible threat to the heart of the empire. However things were not so easy, as Gothic raids against the people of Macedonia and Greece or the sack of Phillippopolis proved, while the emperor was wary of giving Sittas more men for his army. As the brother-in-law of his predecessor it would have been dangerous to give in to his request for more reinforces. Furthermore it would have been even more dangerous to strip the Eastern armies of more troops despite the reigning peace between the East and Persia.
The fact was that with such a dangerous foe at the gate and many competent officer killed during the Nika riot, Hypatius didn’t have much of a choice, especially since his short reign didn’t allow him to find new valuable and loyal replacements to promote quickly enough. Given the situation and the context of his rise to the throne he was already lucky enough to be able to count on the civilian administration of the empire and the men who composed the core of the his new imperial court. Under their advice, surveillance around Iustinianus and Theodora was further tightened while Sittas’s request for more men was dodge by starting (or resuming) diplomatic contacts with the people beyond the Danube. As soon as large amount of gold started flowing beyond the Danube an equally large number of men started pouring into the empire, attacking Gothic detachments and settlements. Most of them were Huns, Bulgars ans Slavs. And so, without wasting any more Roman lives, the Goths started to feel the pressure of the mighty East and crumble under the weight it.
Empire of the West
After the battle of Sopianae Amalaric was left sole and indisputable master of the Goths, undying thorn of Theodosius and terror of whose who could not defend themselves. The remainder of the year was spent by him scoring victory after victory against his mortal enemy’s allies, until the Gepids were left with no choice but retreat their support to the Roman cause. Before the end of the year he even came close to taking Sirmium a second time before being forced to retreat by Valens’s soldiers and the incoming winter. Truth was that despite his great successes and recent victories, the war had been going for too long. His men were finally realizing they had been fighting and dying just for the ambitious of one man, a man whose dream lied in distant Hispania. Nothing that was there couldn’t be found closer to their homes, a realization that soon made their determination wavering, sapping their will to fight. That same realization took over Amalaric’s mind, knowing his men so well, since he had spent more time as a soldier among soldiers than as a king. It was just a matter of time.
539
Once again, at the beginning of the new year, the Goths showed up at the gate of Sirmium, ready to cut off the Romans from the rest of the world and the Romans themselves into pieces. Only that after a few days the Goths lifted the siege and started to leave the city behind them. At first puzzled by this sudden turn of events, since his city would have been an easy target for Amalaric, Anthemius Valens came to the conclusion that the Goths were looking for easier loot in the East, while the main forces were busy dealing with Theodoricus. Than came the realization: Amalaric was looking not for an easy prey while the guardian was fighting the wolf, he was looking for wolf himself, his only chance to turn the war to his favour again and together, as allies, turn on the empire. This terrible prospective didn’t left him with much time to come with a better plan but prepare his cavalry for the chase. Though he could not expect to stop Amalaric with only 3000 men with him, he still had to do something to at least prevent what could possible turn out into a disaster. For that reason he sent ahead some men with a message for the Magister Militum Praesentalis of the East, telling him the details of this new threat. Unfortunately there was no telling if the message would reach Sittas in time, since no one among his men knew his exact location, or whether or not the Eastern general would be able to act before it was to late.
During the following days Anthemius Valens carefully tailed the Goths through Dacian territory while these were busy plundering the countryside on their way to Theodoricus's army. And while they were aware of the Romans following them, they also knew that no danger could come from such small contingent. A contingent that only grew by the hundreds as additional men from the Eastern garrisons joined the safety offered by Valens’s men while fleeing the new threat. Then one day, while marching near Naissus, a new army appeared on the horizon, signaling Valens’s failure to prevent the 2 Goths from joining their armies. And no sign of a reply came from Sittas. This until one of his men reported to him that the incoming army had familiar banners: the images of Hypatius, Christ and the Chi Rho, to Valens’s relief, were all there heralding that Rome was here that day to end this threat once and for all.
As soon as Valens joined the eastern army he was informed that even though his couriers had struggled finding the main army, no time was wasted as Sittas was already chasing Theodoricus's army since the beginning of the year, though he didn’t know that a second army was coming for him. Once informed by Valens’s men of the recent development of events, he engineered a way for his army to block Theodoricus' path. Being unwilling to give battle before joining Amalaric’s Goths, Theodoricus took a longer road knowing that in a matter of days he would have been able to easily crush Sittas. Unbeknownst to him was that Sittas was well aware of his plan and no longer marching to a certain trap, he proceeded against the second army. Only when it was too late he found out that his head start over the Romans was due to the Romans no longer being behind him.
That day battle took place between the Romans and the Pannonian Goths, one of the greatest battle since the days of Aetius and Valentinuanus as both armies numbered more than 20000 soldiers each. Only the battle between the East and Persia could compare to the magnitude of this final fight between the Romans and Amalaric. Given his young age and lower rank, Valens had to cede supreme command to the Magister Militum of the East, though he was allowed to retain the command over the cavalry on the right flank, including most of his men. Once the battle began, like his father before him, Valens valiantly charged against Amalaric’s alleged position, in order to literally cut the head of the rebellion. Unfortunately for him God was not generous enough to grant him his duel with his hated enemy. Or maybe he was sparring him for something even greater. What really mattered was that for the entire day the two armies fought bitterly to no end, without sparring each other anything. Young Valens was no exception, surrounded on all almost all sides by the enemy, close to his men with his Bucellari even closer to him.
Then the battle slowly devolved into a massacre as the Goths started to slowly lose their resolve and even flee while a man from Sittas reported to him about the death of Amalaric, a news that provoked mixed feelings inside him. The relief caused by the awareness that the man responsible for his father’s death had died was contrasted by the bitterness of knowing that he had not caused it, that he didn’t completely avenge his father that day and he didn’t even have the chance to witness the man’s fall. At the end of the battle he would order his men to find Amalaric’s body and bring it back to him. He would even vainly try to use the prisoners in order to identify the fallen king and so exact his revenge. But death doesn’t make distinctions and among such annihilation it was nearly impossible to distinguish the noble from the lowly soldier. That day almost all the men able to fight and the nobility of the Gothic people were drowned on their on blood. Their final demise came at two days of march from Theodoricus's army.
Note
That’s it, finally the end of the Gothic war, at least in the West. This update is a bit longer than usual but I’d already promised to end the war with this last Chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
Also 50th update, Hurrah!
War was not going well for the Thracian Goths. At first the lack on any serious threat allowed them to plunder the Balkans unpunished. Terror and horror had gripped the heart of the Romans as the Goths were not only fighting for loot but also to repay the blood the Romans had shed at Constantinople. Few could consider themselves safe from the wrath of the enemy and even in the capital itself the populace’ fear had to be violently quelled. Later on the situation improved as more experienced commanders took over the command of the war, among them Mundus and Chilbudius. Quickly however the most senior officer rose above all the others and thus now Magister Militum Sittas, at the head of the imperial army, was finally ready to eject once and for all any possible threat to the heart of the empire. However things were not so easy, as Gothic raids against the people of Macedonia and Greece or the sack of Phillippopolis proved, while the emperor was wary of giving Sittas more men for his army. As the brother-in-law of his predecessor it would have been dangerous to give in to his request for more reinforces. Furthermore it would have been even more dangerous to strip the Eastern armies of more troops despite the reigning peace between the East and Persia.
The fact was that with such a dangerous foe at the gate and many competent officer killed during the Nika riot, Hypatius didn’t have much of a choice, especially since his short reign didn’t allow him to find new valuable and loyal replacements to promote quickly enough. Given the situation and the context of his rise to the throne he was already lucky enough to be able to count on the civilian administration of the empire and the men who composed the core of the his new imperial court. Under their advice, surveillance around Iustinianus and Theodora was further tightened while Sittas’s request for more men was dodge by starting (or resuming) diplomatic contacts with the people beyond the Danube. As soon as large amount of gold started flowing beyond the Danube an equally large number of men started pouring into the empire, attacking Gothic detachments and settlements. Most of them were Huns, Bulgars ans Slavs. And so, without wasting any more Roman lives, the Goths started to feel the pressure of the mighty East and crumble under the weight it.
Empire of the West
After the battle of Sopianae Amalaric was left sole and indisputable master of the Goths, undying thorn of Theodosius and terror of whose who could not defend themselves. The remainder of the year was spent by him scoring victory after victory against his mortal enemy’s allies, until the Gepids were left with no choice but retreat their support to the Roman cause. Before the end of the year he even came close to taking Sirmium a second time before being forced to retreat by Valens’s soldiers and the incoming winter. Truth was that despite his great successes and recent victories, the war had been going for too long. His men were finally realizing they had been fighting and dying just for the ambitious of one man, a man whose dream lied in distant Hispania. Nothing that was there couldn’t be found closer to their homes, a realization that soon made their determination wavering, sapping their will to fight. That same realization took over Amalaric’s mind, knowing his men so well, since he had spent more time as a soldier among soldiers than as a king. It was just a matter of time.
539
Once again, at the beginning of the new year, the Goths showed up at the gate of Sirmium, ready to cut off the Romans from the rest of the world and the Romans themselves into pieces. Only that after a few days the Goths lifted the siege and started to leave the city behind them. At first puzzled by this sudden turn of events, since his city would have been an easy target for Amalaric, Anthemius Valens came to the conclusion that the Goths were looking for easier loot in the East, while the main forces were busy dealing with Theodoricus. Than came the realization: Amalaric was looking not for an easy prey while the guardian was fighting the wolf, he was looking for wolf himself, his only chance to turn the war to his favour again and together, as allies, turn on the empire. This terrible prospective didn’t left him with much time to come with a better plan but prepare his cavalry for the chase. Though he could not expect to stop Amalaric with only 3000 men with him, he still had to do something to at least prevent what could possible turn out into a disaster. For that reason he sent ahead some men with a message for the Magister Militum Praesentalis of the East, telling him the details of this new threat. Unfortunately there was no telling if the message would reach Sittas in time, since no one among his men knew his exact location, or whether or not the Eastern general would be able to act before it was to late.
During the following days Anthemius Valens carefully tailed the Goths through Dacian territory while these were busy plundering the countryside on their way to Theodoricus's army. And while they were aware of the Romans following them, they also knew that no danger could come from such small contingent. A contingent that only grew by the hundreds as additional men from the Eastern garrisons joined the safety offered by Valens’s men while fleeing the new threat. Then one day, while marching near Naissus, a new army appeared on the horizon, signaling Valens’s failure to prevent the 2 Goths from joining their armies. And no sign of a reply came from Sittas. This until one of his men reported to him that the incoming army had familiar banners: the images of Hypatius, Christ and the Chi Rho, to Valens’s relief, were all there heralding that Rome was here that day to end this threat once and for all.
As soon as Valens joined the eastern army he was informed that even though his couriers had struggled finding the main army, no time was wasted as Sittas was already chasing Theodoricus's army since the beginning of the year, though he didn’t know that a second army was coming for him. Once informed by Valens’s men of the recent development of events, he engineered a way for his army to block Theodoricus' path. Being unwilling to give battle before joining Amalaric’s Goths, Theodoricus took a longer road knowing that in a matter of days he would have been able to easily crush Sittas. Unbeknownst to him was that Sittas was well aware of his plan and no longer marching to a certain trap, he proceeded against the second army. Only when it was too late he found out that his head start over the Romans was due to the Romans no longer being behind him.
That day battle took place between the Romans and the Pannonian Goths, one of the greatest battle since the days of Aetius and Valentinuanus as both armies numbered more than 20000 soldiers each. Only the battle between the East and Persia could compare to the magnitude of this final fight between the Romans and Amalaric. Given his young age and lower rank, Valens had to cede supreme command to the Magister Militum of the East, though he was allowed to retain the command over the cavalry on the right flank, including most of his men. Once the battle began, like his father before him, Valens valiantly charged against Amalaric’s alleged position, in order to literally cut the head of the rebellion. Unfortunately for him God was not generous enough to grant him his duel with his hated enemy. Or maybe he was sparring him for something even greater. What really mattered was that for the entire day the two armies fought bitterly to no end, without sparring each other anything. Young Valens was no exception, surrounded on all almost all sides by the enemy, close to his men with his Bucellari even closer to him.
Then the battle slowly devolved into a massacre as the Goths started to slowly lose their resolve and even flee while a man from Sittas reported to him about the death of Amalaric, a news that provoked mixed feelings inside him. The relief caused by the awareness that the man responsible for his father’s death had died was contrasted by the bitterness of knowing that he had not caused it, that he didn’t completely avenge his father that day and he didn’t even have the chance to witness the man’s fall. At the end of the battle he would order his men to find Amalaric’s body and bring it back to him. He would even vainly try to use the prisoners in order to identify the fallen king and so exact his revenge. But death doesn’t make distinctions and among such annihilation it was nearly impossible to distinguish the noble from the lowly soldier. That day almost all the men able to fight and the nobility of the Gothic people were drowned on their on blood. Their final demise came at two days of march from Theodoricus's army.
Note
That’s it, finally the end of the Gothic war, at least in the West. This update is a bit longer than usual but I’d already promised to end the war with this last Chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
Also 50th update, Hurrah!
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Finally the Gothic threat was done, hurray for the Roman victory in the West as in the East! Dalmatia and Moesia took quite the toll but at least issues from the Danube won't come for a while.
I wonder now what fate awaits Gothic Pannonia... mercy and submission or annihilation and oblivion?
And hurray for the 50th post, too!
I wonder now what fate awaits Gothic Pannonia... mercy and submission or annihilation and oblivion?
And hurray for the 50th post, too!
The longobards sweep in and take over the area with little to no opposition
But how will the lombards and goths influence the language, will Pannonia become Germanic-speaking?
Technically it should. Without such linguistic support, vernacular (here we would say "vulgar") Latin shouldn't stray excessively from original but still some pronunciation differences (I am thinking about all of Hiatuses and dipthongs: medieval commoner west Romans would say Caesar or Cesar?) should still prevail due to growing illiteracy rates across Western Europe. And Italy shouldn't be an exception.
And, as long no other migrations should settle in the region, Pannonia (Roman Kingdom of Longobardia?) is going to become a German derivate speaking region. Which would make me wonder how much of this will spill towards Raetia.
BTW I was wondering how the Gepids will react over all those incursions on Dacia. This is a region which would be interesting to watch more closely.
Thank you. You already know what’s next: betrayals, civil wars, people rising one day and falling the other, you know usual roman stuff.
Don’t count on it. The empire bought some time here but new threats are coming. Peace won’t last long.
The people involved in the reorganization of Pannonia are going to be pragmatic. More of this on the next update.
Something like this might happen, maybe somewhere else…
Well of all the provinces reconquered by the West, Pannonia is going to be the more influenced by the invaders’ culture, thanks to the depopulation of the last century. Nothing stops the Romans from once again Romanizing this part of the empire with the help of local Pannonians, but we will see the permanence of Gothic elements such as names, identity, a warriorlike attitude appreciate by the army etc.
(By the way why did you write part of the text using the white color?)
The events of the last update took in place in “Serbian” Dacia. Nothing that would concern the Gepids settled in “Romanian” Dacia. But as I’ve already promised we will have a look at the region soon, once the Avars come knocking.
We still have Theodoricus and Alaric’s Goths. The Gepids also should count as “Goths”.
The next updates will see the return of the main characters to Italy and their first interactions with the new emperor. So yeah, time for intrigue again.
Well thank you. You re right, (Western) Rome is far from being safe as events in Africa will soon prove. The empire is far from being the killing machine it used to be. Let’s not forget that out Western empire is just slightly bigger than OTL Ostrogothic kingdom, basically Italy, Dalmatia, Carthago and Southern Gaul. Put in this way you can see that the complete restoration of the empire will take lots of time and resources (if it ever happens).
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Oh well this is usually to not spoil potential/possible developments...
This means there's a high chance of restoration of Roman control over parts of Gaul, coastal Northern Africa and parts of Hispania.
I see!
It’s possible but it won’t happen all at once. And while Rome might make new gains at the expense of the western barbarian kingdoms it may also lose something else to new threats. By the way Rome already controls bits of Gaul (the southern coast), Africa (Carthago and surroundings) and Spain (Septem was considered part of Hispania, also I’m toying with the idea of the Romans briefly acquiring a couple of settlement in southern Hispania as a consequence of Agila's death), so what you are asking is already true.