Heirs of Heraclius, a no Islam timeline

[Silver01]

Mid 779
The Frankish king went to meet the Roman emperor in Rome, they greeted themselves as friends, Here Constantine saw his daughter, and met his 5-year-old grandson Louis.
They discussed their plans.

So I attack first said the Frankish king
Constantine said: my force will take time to assemble also if they think and if they when you attack first they will send reinforcement to there and I when I attack they will return to face me allowing us to win
It is decided I will attack first said the Frankish king, after their short discussion Charles left with many gifts including gold, slaves, and scribes.

Late 779
Charlemagne steps out with a 30 000 strong army across the Pyrenees Charlemagne led his army to Catalonia. His troops were welcomed in Gironaby
As he moved towards Barcelona, his troops put the city under siege, and the Roman siege engines that were given to him were put to use, the king of Hispania sent his most trusted general to take control of the possibly rebellious city and to prevent the Frankish invasion. While The Berber emperor sent 15 000 reinforcement to Hispania.

The general amastan clashed repeatedly with the Frankish king eventually defeated him, then Charlemagne imprisons him, the people who were loyal to the Berbers and those who wanted independence near and in Barcelona, refused to surrender the city to Charlemagne, claiming that their leader never promised Charlemagne his allegiance. Even so, the governor of Barcelona seems tried to appease Charlemagne by giving him a large tribute of gold, but Charlemagne was not easily satisfied, Still, he took the city for some time, and then he wintered in Barcelona.

spring 780

The Frankish emperor received the news that Constantine attacked with large force this caused the Frankish king to move to Zaragoza the siege dragged over a month, but the Roman siege engines given to the franks cracked the cities walls. Charlemagne kept advancing and met another Berber basque force near Pancorbo, where for 7 days Charlemagne wanted to cross the river but failed, during which the Basques planned their defense in rough fords of rivers and ravines, blocking access with logs, trenches and pits dug with their weapons.

The franks could not get through, finally, the forces took the offensive and tried to cross the river at night but the franks had sealed off the crossing and massacred them, The majority of them died after falling off of the cliffs surrounding the battleground. With the subsequent rains, the Frankish catapults destroyed, the defenses, Now the franks crossed Many leaders and local governors were killed or joined them. But Charlemagne could not push further he overextended his supply lines, he needs it to wait but he was confident that the Berbers would be defeated

 

[Silver01]

Constantine marched with a 50 000 strong army, it had parts from Anatolia, Levant Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt, when Charles attacked , Constantine waited in spring 780 he moved, to avoid problems he would March near the coast , then Constantine arrived at zygra he told his cavalry to stay in the city and he ordered that the horses that had died were to he moved close to the city ,Then Constantine laid siege to the old Roman city of Catabathmus Maior, now called Agadir.

The berber emperor sent a 35 000 strong army under the command of general amastan, one of his best generals ,as the Berber army was coming closer to his position Constantine lifted the siege and sent word to the city of zygra, the berber general had arrived and met he roman force not far from Agadir, he saw that they had no cavalry but he suspected a trap, he waited until the scouts came back and they found corpses of many horses the Berber general though that the long march had killed most of the horses and now he decided to move and he outnumbered the Romans , the difference was not that big 40 000 romans 35 000 Berber he had a significant cavalry advantage, The Berber heavy cavalry was in front while the Berber infantry was in the back alongside Berber light cavalry ,while Constantine just put his men in a defensive line

The berbers were the ones who attacked first and the cavalry charge managed to push the Romans back and killed many, but the shield wall held the line and the Romans began to fight back most notably the tagmata and emperor Constantine , now Constantine ordered his extreme wings to attack ,but amastan had predicted this movement and sent the berber light cavalry who launched their javelins and then intercepted the Romans flanking maneuver, then the Berber infantry was ordered to move to finally win the battle.

Just as they did, it seemed like a sandstorm was coming but this was no Sandstrom, the sound of horses was heard niceforous with the roman heavy cavalry came from the south, They plowed the unprepared Berber infantry, causing a big panic forcing them to flee, either way, half of the Berber cavalry fleed, while the other was slain, with that Nicephorus moved to attack the cavalry.

The Berbers tried to flee, but they were pinned down, Only the extreme flanks managed to escape,The Berbers lost half of their army , With this victory, Constantine took the city of Agadir

 

[Neko Tamo]

You sure you want to use the name Agadir? I googled that first and saw that the OTL town of that name was in far western Morocco, an area I do not think even Berbers control let alone Constantine can invade. Realizing this wasn't right I search for the Roman name and found the town but as I said, confusing.

 

[Silver01]

You sure you want to use the name Agadir? I googled that first and saw that the OTL town of that name was in far western Morocco, an area I do not think even Berbers control let alone Constantine can invade. Realizing this wasn't right I search for the Roman name and found the town but as I said, confusing.

Yeah many cities in the ancient world had the same names there are 2 Cesarias also one in africa other in the Levant there is also Alexandria etc even so it's ok the ot town was not named until the 13th century

 

[Silver01]

The Romans after the victory continued to March But then Constantine got sick he refused to stop until they reached Antipyrgus, which the Romans laid siege to.

Even so, the emperor condition got worst and one eskolatia eyewitness said :
We had defeated the Berber army and marched on Antipyrgus
When tragedy struck.
Basileus got sick and his health began to deteriorate
On the night that we knew our conquest would end him shaking close to a fireplace, and he refused to die but His body was going give up soon
He called for constans, the now 21-year-old he told him to maintain the empire.
Constans promised that he would do his best, he had proven to be a fine governor based on his 6 years taking care of Mesopotamia, the emperor told him, he loved him as a son , and that he would do well,constans then left the tent not long after the emperor died.
With his death, the existential threat to the Berber empire died as well

Constans now constans III told niceforous that the campaign would end here.
He protested by constans said that the Berbers were still strong and with the emperor who was the best tactician now dead it was a too much of risk and they should ask for peace when they had the upper hand, our general agreed most of us accepted this decision, except those few that we're convinced that God himself abandoned us and they even went so far as to join the Berbers, then we began a long march back home.

The Berbers would pay a war indemnity
And surrender the key strategic fort cities of Antipyrgus and Catabathmus Maior.
Reducing the Berber capacity to attack the empire or raid it.

When Charlemagne found out he made peace with the Hispanic berbers but he gained more creating a buffer zone till the erbo river called the Hispanic March .

 

[Silver01]

mediterrenian upon the death of constantine the V and ascention of constans III

 

[Neko Tamo]

The Romans took much less land than I thought. I expected everything up to the "Libyan bend" including the hinterlands but no on both accounts. The loss of the great emperor really hurt them. So much so we might see rebellions and betrayals in the wake of it as the young new emperor is tested.

 

[Silver01]

After the regency of his uncle ended In 746 kurshid took the throne he reestablished peace with the Romans, meeting with Constantine V, his five years the sha did damage control he undid his regent's works of taking power from the nobles, well at least from most of the military reforms he kept some them and wanted to implement the changes to limit the power of those who collected taxes, after his victory against the tang in the Oxus river he assured peace in the east and west, so by 753 when ordered and began constructions on his many public works projects, such bridges, roads, hospitals.

the next year he began to construct a series of forts in the Oxus River to defend against what he considered the inevitable war with the tang, which was busy with the Tibetan empire, still during this time small conflicts did occur via proxy wars, installing, vassals and helping them with men and money. By 759, peace was assured with the tang and the forts, where finished these would be upgraded for the next 4 years. With that settled, he concentrated on his internal affairs making land reforms and a new census to tax the people properly, One project that he wanted to do is the construction of a center of learning.

After the loss of Gondeshapur when Mesopotamia was sold to Constantine IV, the Persians lost their centers of learning as both Ctesiphon and Gondeshapur were now in Roman lands or in the hands of its client kingdom

The other shas more interested in recovery and survival and had neither the funds, the time nor the interest to rebuild a new learning center. So the sha now has more funds and a stable empire left by his grandfather and his father. He began the construction of his center of learning in his capital, It took 4 years to build, but a center of learning need it books and teachers, he wasted money and time to get copies of Greek texts and even Indian texts, By 770 he cut army funds to pay for this, which made them angry but he promised that we would pay them.

But by the next year, emperor Constantine sent a delegation to not have the Persians attack him, the sha agreed, but a friend asked for payment, and Constantine paid him enough to pay troops and acquire more books and especially move mathematicians, scribes, and scientist from the empire to his capital, The next years, he reformed some laws giving religious freedom to the Nestorians Christians in the empire refugees from Rome that the previous has ignored and let the Zoroastrians abuse them. But one religion that he did try to limit the spread of was mazdekisim as it had grown in Mesopotamia, he also considered attacking Oman during the days of chaos they had raided Pars, and later the Dabuyids had kicked them out however he knew taking oman would mean that the Banu Qays would ally with the Romans to kick them out, so he decided not to.

Following the death of Constantine V, kurshid reunited with constants III, and the roman Persian eternal peace continued. For the next years, the sha would build his public works in the empires most important cities, till his death in 786, in that year Dadmihr took the throne he continued his father policy of keeping peace with Rome and the tang and even but cut funds to his father’s public works and spent it more in the army

 

[Silver01]

After the death of the emperor, Charlemagne continued to expand his kingdom in the name of god , he was after all Rome's enforcer and took great pride in being the supervisor of the west, and as Rome's enforcer was it not his duty to expand Christianity its culture to the pagan barbarians?

By 782, Charlemagne with an Austrasian-Saxon army crossed the Elbe into the Obotrite territory. The Slavs were led by their leader Witzin, after reaching the Elbe, he went further and successfully "subjected the Slavs His army also included the Slavic Sorbs and Obotrites, under Witzan the army reached Dragovit, who surrendered, followed by other Slavic magnates and chieftains who submitted to Charlemagne

Charlemagne then accepted the surrender of the Veleti under Dragovit and demanded many hostages. He also demanded permission to send missionaries into this pagan region unmolested. The army marched to the Baltic before turning around and marching to the Rhine, winning much booty with no harassment, the tributary Slavs became loyal allies by 786 the Frankish king had conquered the Moravians Content with this, he began, he concentrated on internal matters.

He was the rightful ruler of the west and he was part roman but he saw himself as more than the military enforcer, How could he be Rome's enforcer in the west many things had changed since Roman Gaul?

Before him, the Frankish king made the economy grow compared to the early 700s, with his predecessors, the development of the Carolingian economy was fueled by the efficient organization and exploitation of labor on large estates, producing a surplus of primarily grain, wine and salt, In turn, inter-regional trade with these commodities and other good in international trade with the Romans facilitated the expansion of towns.

Also, Charlemagne, ever since the peace received a better education after 12 years, learned to speak and write in Latin, and learned to speak and write in Greek, but not fully in writing, still, the king fell in love with learning and wanted to share this love, to meet this modest need that a school grew up within the precincts of the king's palace at Aachen, Charlemagne also ordered the creation of schools in a capitulary known as the Charter of Modern Thought.

he brought Anglo-Saxons and Irish men who had ancient manuscripts. The emperor also sent men from Italy, to help with this endeavor, thanks to these foreigners, who represented the areas where Classical and Christian culture had been maintained in the 6th and 8th centuries by the Romans and Irish, the court became a kind of academy, There the king his heir and his friends discussed various subjects the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and so on. Recognizing the importance of manuscripts in the cultural revival, Charlemagne formed a library that had texts and books copied and recopied, and bade every school to maintain a scriptorium.

The Frankish king made efforts to write better Latin for his center of learning, while he himself worked on his Greek, to his center of learning he ordered to copy and preserve patristic and classical texts and to put to use a form of universal Latin for the courts and the clergy, one he took from the Romans scholars sent , this would become the standard of the Latin used to write later documents

Carolingian architecture is the of North European architecture combined its self with roman architecture, Roman baths, while new cathedrals were built a combination of roman basilicas, the triumphal arches, and the palatine chapels with the northern style, and other buildings were made in this style. It seemed the light of Rome had returned to the old province of Gaul

 

[Silver01]

Constans III was not a great warrior like his predecessor but compensated by like his contemporaries concentrating on internal matters, and improving the situation in his empire, however, it wasn't all peace, especially with two vassals the prince of Armenia and the kingdom of Albania in the time of Constans II, Javanshir had been fighting the Sassanids since late 640s and when Constans II gained caucassian albania as vassal he gave him lands of persian armenia since he had gained some territory , thedore was not pleased but accept it since he expanded his realm tension existed but it was not after the defeat of the khazars that they went to war with the armenians invading and loosing two battles till Constans III put an end o the fighting

the marble of this was seen in his capital city, this was expressed by the North African writer idder in 790, even though this copy was translated into Greek and there is debate if there are interpolations

As I arrived there I saw the walls of the city never had I seen walls these big and formidable in my years of travel not even in Hispania, Carthage or even Rome itself had walls these formidable, I pity the fool who would lay siege to the city, then I walked on a great street, the Mese, This street was seven Roman miles long
I walked past the market and saw that the stories of merchants coming from all over the world were true.

All sorts of merchants come here from the land of Babylon, from the land of Persia, from the land of Egypt, from the Holy land of, and the northern land, from Bulgaria from, Khazaria and the land of the franks and the land of the Berbers.

It is a busy city and merchants come to it from every country by sea or land, and there is none like it in the world except Carthage the great city of the Berbers.
Then I moved through the sixth hill, then to the second senate house.
I saw the riches of the inhabitants.

The Romans are very rich in gold and all kinds of precious stones, and they go clothed in garments of silk and with gold embroidery, they look like princes.

this land is very rich in all clothes and in bread, meat, and wine. Wealth like that of Constantinople is not to be found in the whole world, not even mighty Carthage.

We finally moved to the interior of the city called the Praetorium.


As we continued to walk, near the great church was a statue of Emperor Constantine IV on top of his column with the sword of Heraclius looking down as he was a peacemaker, and on the other hand, he had a globus cruciger, symbolizing that he was an orthodox emperor, and it was built in the east as he took Mesopotamia, which is also why the location was chosen.
On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the Emperor.
Nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus, both built in the time of Severus.
Near the church of Hodegetria was the column of Justinian II, the emperor who defeated the great Arabian army in Babylon and gave the first massive defeat to the Moorish army. He was with the sword of Heraclius and a shield as he defeated Rome's enemies.
At the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empir, it was also expanded with it the statue of Justinian I beside him the other conqueror of Italy Constans II, with him pointing the sword of Heraclius to the west as a symbol of his reconquest of Italy.
In the Forum of the Ox, now called the Forum of Heraclius, it was chosen because it was in the main street, but also here many years ago did he slew that Tyrant. There was the Column of Heracluis presenting his victories over Persia, and on top of it stood Heraclius with his sword and a shield with the letters of Christ, symbolizing his defense of the empire in its darkest hour and the sword that brought Persia to its knees.

He is in the same admiration or even greater than than Constantine I. Some said that only Cesar was his equal making him one of the greatest Romans to ever live.

I was told something that I had already thought of when I saw these statues.
And what the locals and my traveling companions told me they were seen as one of the greatest Dynasties. Some saw them as the second Constantinian Dynasty

Then I entered the imperial palace with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne.

I saw the palace where the council of Constantine IV was held, as I passed I was amazed by the paintings, statues, and decorations of gold, silver and precious stones.
Even golden lions that roared. the main throne room was also a wonderful sight .
We left the city in one week but even so I will never forget the wonders I saw, I as a fairly old man can say I truly now have seen it all.

Idder would die a couple of months later but he died according to his writing happy as he had seen the wonders of the world.
These writings and others show the opulence of the period.

So much so that This period of time would be known to history as the age of the 3 empires where Europe under the Frankish empire, the eastern Roman Empire, and the great Berber empire Europe reached a standard of living and progress not seen since the era of classical Rome.

But all golden ages have an expiration date…… no age last forever

 

[Silver01]

So to you my viewers do You predict the early 9th century will go ?

 

[Neko Tamo]

Uh-oh.

Two thoughts atm. One is that the East-West split still keeps haunting the Empire in the form of the language divide and overcoming that to keep it a unified whole will be a challenge. Either one language will eventually dominate the other or maybe bilingualism will emerge. But something has to happen, keeping such a vast empire without language unity will be hard.

As for what makes the Western World go down the crapper. Provided it is not just mutual wars and internal uprisings. My main guess would be the plague, diseases tend to thrive when the world is interconnected and prosperous. Vikings are coming almost for sure, they were spurned by a combination of environmental factors that I do not think can be butterflied and a desire to avenge Saxony. Some giant horde rising in the east is always a possibility, probably spurned on by the Tang pushing the tribes hard from the east. And for special guesses, some kind of horde or massive tribal invasion but coming from the Slavs or West Africans instead.

 

[Silver01]

In the era of wealth, Constans III visited Charlemagne, to continue the peace they both went on a hunting trip , they went horse riding in the hunting grounds in Frankia the horse for some reason panicked, he fell from his horse and died, rumors spread that the Frankish king had somehow killed the emperor, still, these petty rumors did not affect Roman, Frankish relations, the wife of constans would be regent of her son Heraclius who was barely 2 years old, the Frankish king and the new “ruler” continued their peace, and they agreed at the age of 16 Heraclius would become emperor.

In the Berber empire aderfi II died before in 787 , his son yedder took the throne, he continued his father’s views on the empire he also continued and increased the trade he seemed to be obsessed with ivory, his father during his rule allowed him to get something expensive, wanted live elephants as he seemed to like the animals hearing the stories from the old Carthaginian and classical times , he managed to get 13 sent to him by the Dabuyid sha as gift and having to pay a high price to the roman traders and he also received 20 from Ghana , most assumed they would be used on parades and hunts. By 797 to the north there was another investment Charlemagne had decided to invest in a navy and now it was nearly done , to the Danes this was a violation of the treaty they had , ever since Charlemagne conquered the Saxons , the Danish were weary of the new border between the franks, but their treaty held .

In 793 Charlemagne also heard of a raid in the monastery of lindisfarne in the Anglo-Saxon territory and he was convinced it was the Danes who did this, still with the building of frankish navy the Danes not only saw it as a violation of their treaty, but they were convinced that this expansionist king was going to attack them, so in response the Danes sent 200 ships on to raid frankia , the Danes attacked Frisia, pillaging the countryside, and attacked the Slavs along the Elbe, Charlemagne got furious, the Danes attacked their lands and then attacked his vassals .

He moved to an expedition force to test his enemies, by winter 797 the Franks had plundered southern Denmark, now had knowledge of the terrain and then the Frankish king prepared his army, to conquer Denmark,by winter 798 both side were at war,the Frankish Danish war had begun

 

[Silver01]

Charlemagne's campaign pushed in to Denmark ,at the same time the franks neutralized the Danish navy as their ships where bigger making them Superior to the Danish ones, even so despite his successes, Charlemagne campaign began to bog down, the Danes , despite having a “king” , had no real central authority as many petty kings existed when the franks invaded , whatever authority the king had died ,at this point Denmark had less central authority than the Saxons, so what followed wat followed was series of many minor battles and sieges against each Danish lord that dragged on for years.

The reason why is that Jutland was quite easy to defend, Danevirke was such a successful fortification was because of marshes in the West and Slien in the east, which created a quite short possible invasion corridor, still, the Frankish king took it in 802, after defeating a Danish Noble, by 803 some of the danes submitted, After negotiating with other Danish nobles and obtaining hostages, many nobles converted those who did not were killed, but this peace would not last as the next year the Danes rebelled and they burned the fortress of Danevirke, the fighting continued for the next two years, were some Norwegian lords sent forces to assist the Danes.

But in 806 danish noble men named Harald asked for Charlemagne's help to get the throne of Denmark in return he would convert, help the franks defeat the remaining danish force, put down rebellions and submit to the king, in 807, a new campaign was launched while the franks attacked from the south, Harald got support in the north and they both defeated the various nobles, seeing this the other contenders of the danish king reunited a large army to fight the franks they met near ribe.

little is known about the battle, but the Danes nearly won, but the Frankish king outflanked him and killed the other danish contender to the Danish throne and then caused a route. The next year Harald is proclaimed king of de Denmark. Finally, after 11 years of war, Charlemagne had at least defeated it was not a total victory, Harald got placed as king of Denmark but many nobles fled Jutland, others to the Baltics and some to Norway, Charles though to continue his campaign deeper in to them angered that the Norwegians helped the Danish rebels.

Still, he had no real choice, but he told the king to convert Denmark, the ones who stayed converted some became true converts while others converted in name only, but kept up appearances, most fearing that they would suffer the same as the Saxons , still, the diehard pagans fled to Scania and Zealand, they knew that despite the Frankish navy being strong it was not strong enough to gain total naval Superiority and even then the Frankish king would have to land and secure his advance, Charlemagne Had no neither the time nor the interest for this.

Even though it was not the thing that he wanted, he could not prolong The conflict in Denmark as The new conflict in the roman empire was now his main priority

 

[Neko Tamo]

Hmm do you think that is plausible? Romans were pretty crappy sailors, at least the classical ones. But the Byzantines were not famous seamen either, except when they mounted Greek fire on their ships but doubt they would give that secret to Charlemagne anyway. And on the other hand you have the Norse and we all know how good at sea faring they were.

Anyway curios to see what happens in Rome, probably civil war again.

 

[Silver01]

Hmm do you think that is plausible? Romans were pretty crappy sailors, at least the classical ones. But the Byzantines were not famous seamen either, except when they mounted Greek fire on their ships but doubt they would give that secret to Charlemagne anyway. And on the other hand you have the Norse and we all know how good at sea faring they were.

Anyway curios to see what happens in Rome, probably civil war again.

not only greek fire made them superior to the viking fleats where more tranport ships , in almost all naval battles the vikings lost hard with the andulicians and the byzantiens
the dromos was a superior figthing ship that could smash aside the scandanavian ones the roman Warships were fighting platforms on which soldiers fought battles, which is why the high forecastles while not having greek fire charles has ships with more rowers, marines on board, and even catapults

the norse have the advtange of local terreian and being superior saloirs but charles has the better ship and men on his side ,also the heigth of the dromos makes the northmen assult almost imposible as they would have to climb while being showered with arrows

 

[Silver01]

Peace, for nearly 2 centuries peace has ruled in these lands that saw warfare almost every decade for more than 6 centuries, It had been 200 since the Great War where Heraclius had saved the empire and brought Sassanid Persia to its knees.

200 years where the Roman basileus and the Persian Shahanshah were personal friends. 2 centuries both states supporting each other, of interrupting trade, of no tribute, it was now the land where the sword and cinder did not reach, but like Khosrow and Justinian any peace eternal peace had an exportation date, When Constans died Empress Martina took power, the first 6 years of her rule were good, she continued Constans III works of internal matters and kept the policies that made the empire so rich continuing the works of the heraclian emperor and Constantine V.

She also made peace with the Persians who were ruled by Dadmihr after his father death took the throne at the age of 31, he continued to support aristocracy in certain regard, the dehqan against the aristocracy how ever unlike his father he was not as subtle which made him unpopular to them but he was very popular to the lower classes and the Zoroastrian priest as he gave them privileges and while he gave the tolerated the nestorians he kept the persecution of the Buddhist in the great Khorasan this continued the sassanid persecution of the religion and the persecutions in fact would get worst , due to the connection of the them and the tang .

The sha continued the peace with the romans and these also kept peace with the franks and Berbers, even so Charlemagne did not look her in high esteem and the Berber emperor saw her with intrigue as he saw it as a sign of weakness, but by 802 AD, things had changed; the empress became more paranoid the nobles began to suspect that she would not give power to her son, This suspicion got fueled by the empress’s actions, despite her son now being 10; she refused to give Heraclius any training or any responsibilities but some nobles did give some training.

And he himself Heraclius would read on many subjects, especially on military tactics of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and hearing stories of the last emperors, she then continued the arrest of the nobles, by 804 she had dismissed most of the old guard of Constantine V and constans III generals where dismissed, in 805 the Berber Empire went into the offensive once again but not to conquer but to raid. But this was no ordinary raid, the emperor and his son and heir were the head of a 30 000 force, they defeated a local roman force and continued to push deep into Roman territory, Berber raids calumniated with them Pushing all the way to Alexandria, despite not wanting a siege they said unless the city paid them a large sum, the city paid them and the Berbers left with the treasure of their raids

So they did. The defeat just helped to destroy The Empress's prestige, while the Berber emperor now was sure of the weakness of the roman empire.

The Berber emperor even wrote of this campaign

“How low have the Romans fallen from great emperors to women who can’t compare herself to even to the worst of the Roman emperors, had we done this 40 years ago we would not have returned with loot but with the bodies of the shattered army “

Due to this defeat, the empress purges continued arresting and sometimes killing generals and nobles. She also sent Heraclius to house arrest in the imperial palace, the situation got worse, as Heraclius turned 16, but she refused to give him the throne as he was not ready due to lack of education, but pressure from the 5 patriarchs her senate, the generals and the king of the franks, she began his education.

809
When the Romans knew that would not palace Heraclius on the throne they fully rebelled but interestingly one of the commanders of Mesopotamia invited the Persians to help them in their cause, the Sha considered that the true roman emperor should rule and used this as an excuse that he was merely returning the true emperor to power, also Yazdegerd the king of Mesopotamia had declared that Christianity was now the only legal religion in the kingdom and the persians accused him of persecuting Zoroastrians, the Persians then invaded Mesopotamia. This did not surprise the empress, despite her shortcomings and paranoia she was no brute she had made an alliance with the Tang in secret, and the tang now began to cross the Oxus River And thus peace had been shattered the Roman Persian wars returned and the tragedy that came with them returned.

 

[Lady Visenya]

My craving for maps continues.

Also neat timeline dude.

 

[Silver01]

My craving for maps continues.

Also neat timeline dude.

thanks also i feel for you mate maps make history so much intresting

 

[Silver01]

late 809

As Dadmihr was not a warrior he sent at the head of his army was his son Khosrow at the head of a 35 000 strong army., however true command was under one of his best generals Abraha, the Persians had raided into Roman Mesopotamia and its thematic armies joined the king of Mesopotamia Yazdegerd, but could not push deep into it, Constans II's vision nearly 2 centuries ago seemed to work, as the thematic army severely limited the supply lines of the Persians, and the attacks that they did kill Persians not many but still the Persians could not push deep if the thematic forces continued to harass them.

And in some cases they attacked camps at night, the Persians had to draw out the armies to battle and destroy them, so the Persians did something risky, they began to burn the fields and even destroy the irrigation system and it worked as empress Martina sent a force of 15 000 to join those who joined the loyal forces there, the dabuyid commander Abraha did not want both armies to reunite so they attacked the thematic armies camps, this worked and an army of 18 000 troops from some of the exarch of Mesopotamia, the themes as Yazdegerd and Alexander did not want to fight the Persians as they should wait for the exchart of Mesopotamia and the reinforcements of the empress.

But the other commanders called him a traitor and even a Persian spy due to his actions and even said that reinforcements were not coming as the empress wanted them to die as she had trouble with them, use this war to be her new purge, the strategos did not want their forces to fight each other so he caved in and marched to meet the Persian army, they met near Susa, the Romans had their cavalry in front, one of the commanders in the left alongside a ghassanid contingent sent by the Arab king, the center was held by alexander and the right was held by the Assyrian commander Ezekiel and Yazdegerd, while they had the infantry in the second line, The Persians had a similar formation.

Both armies charged and fought for much of the day, the battle was a stalemate, with the Persian left starting to win against the roman right, with the Persians gaining the upper hand in their right due to their cavalry. Despite winning in this front, general Abrha saw that a stalemate would occur so he redeployed some of his cavalry to his right wing, this maneuver, went unnoticed by Alexander

So he slowly moved more cavalry from that front to the other, after 6 hours of fighting the Persian right now bolstered by their reinforcements the Persians charged, such the impact of the charge that the Ghassanids and roman heavy cavalry fled at first contact, it is still debated if whether or not the Persian charge was enough or it was treason, as some of the commanders did not want to win this battle since it would validate the empress and her right to rule, with the ghassanids and the cataphracts gone. This exposed the right flank of the Roman infantry as well as Alexander in the center.

At this, the Persian cavalry and there were now gaining the left flank of the Byzantine cavalry and even the center, despite their efforts of them to fix the crisis on his right his cataphracts were crushed by the Persians, causing the roman infantry to lose morale and retreat. With his right flank and center killed and fleeing driven off the field of battle, Alexander was forced to retreat in an effort to at least try to reform his line, but the retreat was followed and soon the Byzantines found themselves pressed against the river. Here scrambled to form an angle with whatever remnants and reserves he had left to him in order to brace for the coming massacre, but his quick wits, proved to be the saving grace of the Roman army, as many repeated charges by the Persian cavalry, could not break the roman chain, and resisted for nearly an hour, his men could not hold in such a precarious condition indefinitely.

The Persians not wanting to waste more men, decided to rain arrows on the roman line. The Romans set up a shield wall and endured the hail of arrows for hours, but when night came, the Persians retreated, alexander wasted no time and began to cross the Karkheh river then the Persians came back, but they miscalculated as they returned too late.

Still, the return of the Persians caused a panic, here many fell into the Karkheh and drowned, and others were killed by the Persians, despite the quick thinking preventing a total slaughter of his force alexander knew the situation was bad, casualties were high nearly 8000 just one month later the Persians captured Susa, with help from the local, this defeat was the last straw, the senators, nobles and generals entered the palace to force the empress to give power to Heraclius and empress Martina abdicated. sources tell us that she wept not for herself but for her sons.

She was sure that Heraclius would not make it, and this is why she did not remarry as she feared that if she did and had a son with another noble, Heraclius and her other sons would be killed. she accepted her faith and she thought that she would die, to not disturb the new emperor, but to show mercy, the conspirators deposed her to Rhodes, but Now The young emperor had to deal with a Persian invasion and the scheming of his nobles.