Imperator Germanorum: The Legacy of Arminius
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
I'm liking the cultural updates. While Germania/Teutoburg is taking in a lot of influences from its neighbor Rome, it still retains a unique cultural tradition and religion.
As for the Zikanid Empire, will they present themselves as the continuation of the Parthian Empire or more like a rebirth of the Achaemenids like what happened with the Sassanid Empire?
As for the Zikanid Empire, will they present themselves as the continuation of the Parthian Empire or more like a rebirth of the Achaemenids like what happened with the Sassanid Empire?
indeed much like rome itself!
It will draw upon the Achaemenids like the Sassanids.
More formidable threats from both Germania and Persia? Looks like the Crisis of the Third Century might start early...
Wonder if we'll see a breakaway Palmyrene Empire supported by Persia during this alternate crisis?
Chapter 8: The Educator and the Starting of a Crisis.
Chapter 8: The Educator and the Starting of a Crisis.
***
“The Roman Government has become wary and prone to self-inflicted harm after the defeats in 807 AVC all the way up to 826 AVC. The political situation is volatile. The Roman Republic and Empire is in clear decline. However, the question remains. Who will be its successor?” – Menes of Egypt
***
From The Legacy of Arminius: The Kings of the Cherusci
Agilmar, First of His Name, was very much a king of peacetime, despite his earlier martial prowess, though in the unconventional sense. He was more content to rule as a peaceful king, rather than the typically exaggerated warrior kings of old. He was exceptionally gifted in the area of economics and administration. Though he had led the Cherusci and other tribes to victory against the Romans, his military administrative skills were nigh horrible, and he left that to the experienced commanders to take care of. Instead, he focused on economics and administration as his perfect hobby as High King.
a Roman depiction of Fulka under Agilmar I's reign.
In 626 AVC, he forced a law through the Thing which expanded the city of Fulka, allowing greater expansion of society and peoples inside the city and the creation of new sectors in the city; such as the Latin square where the remainder Latin populace who had stayed behind after the Romans had left were allowed to stay. The Latins who stayed behind in the Kingdom of the Teutoburg were by all honesties, hated, and vilified by many, however Agilmar I saw their use. The Latins were extremely literate and learned, and he enrolled the ones who had stayed to his court to increase his growing campaign of writing and literacy to take precedence in the administration of the kingdom. In fact, he was also so pro-Latin in terms of day to day life, that when his sister Alba was widowed after the war due to her husband’s death, he asked his sister to marry one Magnus Lucius Aurelius. Magnus had been the son of a Roman general posted in Fulka in 823 AVC, however had turned against his homeland after witnessing their brutality in Germania. Magnus Lucius Aurelius had quickly become Agilmar I’s best spy in Fulka during the 2nd Cherusci War, and after the war had ended, he became the Chief Magistrate of the town of Snaiwahtaz, on the appointment of the Thing. Alba agreed to remarry to Magnus and their wedding is said to have taken place in a fabulous manner. Agilmar I intended to use the wedding as a sign of Germanic-Latin solidarity, as the Roman occupation had left behind a sizeable Latin minority, which is estimated to have been around 2 to 3 percent of the total population of the Kingdom back then.
A portrait of Magnus Lucius Aurelius
Agilmar I wasn’t over either. In 827 AVC, he officially ended the process of integrating all of the clan’s and tribal Things into one big Thing that he proclaimed to be the Allthing, or the Assembly of All. It contained the freemen of all of the tribes that had submitted to the Cherusci King, and was a massive assembly so much so that a Roman observer called it as big as the Senate itself. Agilmar I also started the construction of a permanent building in Fulka which would become known as the Allthing Building and after its completion in 829 AVC, almost every single Allthing meeting would take place within that building.
The construction of the Allthing.
Agilmar I during the creation of the Allthing wrote down the ‘Codes of Kingly Conduct’ for all future Kings regarding the Kingdom of Teutoburg and any successor state, with the vast approval from the Allthing and its members. With their aid, and the aid of his mother Rhamis and his wife Cunigund, Agilmar I wrote down the following protocols:-
But perhaps, like his father before him, the greatest achievement of Agilmar I was in regards to his stance towards education. Unlike the Romans and the Greeks, who took upon an informal, familial system of education in the early Republic and a tuition based system during the late Republic and the Empire, the system that Agilmar I adopted, called today as the Agilmarian System, was a state sponsored educational system, for the elite and freemen of society.
In late 627 AVC, we have evidence that the first Teutoburg school opened in Fulka, a small school with the capacity to serve only 60 students alongside 6 teachers and tutors. Fulko, the Germanic historian remembers this school being named as Skulo which meant group of people in Proto-Germanic. The Skulo thus became the first Germanic school of studying. Agilmar I’s reign would not see the state sponsored system of education go far beyond the first Skulo however the precedent it set was one that would set the society apart from Roman one for centuries to come.
A statue of a Teutoburg Noblewoman studying.
The tiers of early Teutoburg education was based upon five subjects – Morality and Ethics, Philosophy, War, Money and Rhetoric. Despite its name Morality and Ethics was not confined only to moral teachings and ethical behavior, but seems to have extended to such familial management, state appropriation, etc. However despite that, the vast majority of the subject was interred around the subject of ethics. The major giveaways of the morality education was that it stressed the free nature of Germanic society and that elders were supposed to be respected and in contrast to some Roman traditions, the opinions of all people, even children and women were to be taken seriously. In this subject, Agilmar I took a clear inspiration from Rome when the idea of Pietas, or the devotion to duty, or known in Proto-Germanic as Pietisar, was instilled as a major focus of the subject.
Philosophy was also taught by the Germanic and hired Latin tutors regarding a broad spectrum of philosophical thought. The range is wide that we cannot pinpoint a singular philosophical identity or focus, however the main goal of the philosophical class that Agilmar I created seems to have been focused around the idea of making the children who studied in these Skulos to become fundamentally analytical and independent in thought. Making them analytical and more focused and sharp would ensure competence according to Agilmar I and such was pursued. The subject of War really needs to no explanation. It was the study and training of the martial ability of a student. Famous generals from Teutoburg would be proficient students of this subject. Money was taught as an early economic subject to students. The barter system, the value of major trading goods, the value of major precious metals, agriculture and taxation were all topics covered in this subject. Rhetoric was also a subject taken from Rome, as an inspiration and was taught to students to increase their power of persuasion, grammar and logic. This was stressed for aspiring diplomats within the Kingdom.
A stone relief depicting the early Skulo in Fulka.
Whilst even by the fall of the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of the Teutoburg would not be even near as literate as the Romans, and education would be completely centered around Fulka, the precedent that he set would continue to reverberate in Germanic society for years to come.
***
From The Crisis of the 9th Century [1]
Vespasian’s rule was immediately extremely shaky. He was a man with wit and was extremely amiable, however he wasn’t popular at all. He was an unexpected ruler, and had no real backing other than his one legion. Senators and Writers certainly didn’t favor the man. His policy of ceding the lands back to the Cherusci had also been unpopular and dented his image even further.
Emperor Vespasian.
Regardless, he conducted a massive propaganda campaign throughout the Roman Empire. Stories of a supernatural emperor who was destined to rule circulated in the empire, and nearly one third of all coins minted in Rome during his time celebrated military victory or peace. Construction projects bore Vespasian’s praises and condemnations of previous emperors. A temple of peace was made in his honor as well. He approved all histories written under his reign ensuring that biases against him were removed. He also gave financial rewards to writers, encouraging to write favorably towards him. Those who spoke out against Vespasian were punished. A number of stoic philosophers were accused of corruption students with inappropriate teachings and were expelled from Rome due to their pointing out of Vespasian’s own flaws during a teaching session. Several Pro-Republican authors such as Helvidius Priscus were put to death as well. Numerous other philosophers and writers had their works seized, destroyed and denounced for being too critical of Vespasian’s reign.
Other than these, little is known about Vespasian’s rule other than the fact that a small financial reform was being undertaken in Rome.
However what is known, is the seed of conflict that was brewing in Egypt. Ever since the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, the Roman Province of Egypt had been largely peaceful, however every now and then, intermittent civil strife had broken out between the Greeks and Jews and Ethnic Egyptians of the province. During the reign of Claudius, the ethnic strife had reached such levels that the people of Alexandria sent a petition to Rome asking Emperor Claudius to give them permission to let them establish a regional senate for Egypt, to peacefully attempt to quell the unrest between the three major ethnicities of Egypt. Claudius denied this request. As the situation for Rome deteriorated after the aftermath of the Last Roman-Parthian War in the east, the situation in Roman Egypt became more precipitous and unrest spread throughout Roman Anatolia, Syria and Egypt. The Egyptians were divided among the Jews and Ethnic Egyptians who were against the Romans due to their suppression of the Jews, and their attack on Egyptian culture. The Greeks of Egypt, who bore many resemblances to the Romans in culture and religion supported the Roman Empire, and intermittent violence, soon erupted into full scale ethnic warfare in Egypt during Vespasian’s reign.
The Oasis of Siwa.
In 829 AVC, Vespasian left Rome to visit Egypt after the Roman Governor of Egypt, Gaius Valerius Paulinus asked the emperor to come to Egypt as the situation in Egypt had turned increasingly dangerous. The ethnic strife and pro and anti-Roman split had turned the populace against one another. The southern frontier against the Kushites was starting to degrade, as Queen Amanikhatashan of the Kushites launched raids every now and then, and the economic strain that Rome was going through was particularly felt in Egypt, which flared tensions even more. Vespasian was however put off in Alexandria by the pro-Republican Greeks and the venerating attitude many Jews and Egyptians had to the previous dynasties of Egypt, and instead of resolving the situation, he tried another propaganda coup, and named himself as Pharaoh as well by bribing the chief priests at the Siwa Oasis. This declaration wasn’t taken seriously after the traditional method of divine election of spitting and trampling an old and blind man thereby miraculously healing him was not undertaken in the flurry of Vespasian’s visit to Egypt. He left without solving anything and his actions in Siwa simply made the population even more fractious.
In 830 AVC, Vespasian died, and was succeeded by his son, Titus. He was immediately challenged with what became known as the Crisis of the 8th Century. In Roman Britain, a general named as Agricola had grown angry at Vespasian’s complacency with the Germanic barbarians and instead showed himself as a tough and extremely martial ruler, succeeding in making his legions declare him Emperor. Similarly in Hispania, a man by the name of Augustus Maximus Cato rebelled with the support of the local legions, naming himself as a son of the deposed and late emperor Nero. Finally in Egypt itself, a powerful ethnic Egyptian noble named Menes rebelled against the Roman government and empire entirely seeking a newly independent Egypt, its destiny away from Rome.
The three pretenders - Agricola, Maximus, Menes.
These developments provoked other actors to act against Rome as well. Both the Zikanid Empire and the Kingdom of Teutoburg saw this crisis as a great opportunity for themselves to gain more land and wealth as well as loot from the Romans if they could exploit the crisis properly.
The Crisis of the 8th Century had started in earnest.
***
---
[1] – Takes place in the 800 AVCs…..without the CE calendar system the roman calendar remains the widely used one.
***
“The Roman Government has become wary and prone to self-inflicted harm after the defeats in 807 AVC all the way up to 826 AVC. The political situation is volatile. The Roman Republic and Empire is in clear decline. However, the question remains. Who will be its successor?” – Menes of Egypt
***
From The Legacy of Arminius: The Kings of the Cherusci
Agilmar, First of His Name, was very much a king of peacetime, despite his earlier martial prowess, though in the unconventional sense. He was more content to rule as a peaceful king, rather than the typically exaggerated warrior kings of old. He was exceptionally gifted in the area of economics and administration. Though he had led the Cherusci and other tribes to victory against the Romans, his military administrative skills were nigh horrible, and he left that to the experienced commanders to take care of. Instead, he focused on economics and administration as his perfect hobby as High King.
a Roman depiction of Fulka under Agilmar I's reign.
In 626 AVC, he forced a law through the Thing which expanded the city of Fulka, allowing greater expansion of society and peoples inside the city and the creation of new sectors in the city; such as the Latin square where the remainder Latin populace who had stayed behind after the Romans had left were allowed to stay. The Latins who stayed behind in the Kingdom of the Teutoburg were by all honesties, hated, and vilified by many, however Agilmar I saw their use. The Latins were extremely literate and learned, and he enrolled the ones who had stayed to his court to increase his growing campaign of writing and literacy to take precedence in the administration of the kingdom. In fact, he was also so pro-Latin in terms of day to day life, that when his sister Alba was widowed after the war due to her husband’s death, he asked his sister to marry one Magnus Lucius Aurelius. Magnus had been the son of a Roman general posted in Fulka in 823 AVC, however had turned against his homeland after witnessing their brutality in Germania. Magnus Lucius Aurelius had quickly become Agilmar I’s best spy in Fulka during the 2nd Cherusci War, and after the war had ended, he became the Chief Magistrate of the town of Snaiwahtaz, on the appointment of the Thing. Alba agreed to remarry to Magnus and their wedding is said to have taken place in a fabulous manner. Agilmar I intended to use the wedding as a sign of Germanic-Latin solidarity, as the Roman occupation had left behind a sizeable Latin minority, which is estimated to have been around 2 to 3 percent of the total population of the Kingdom back then.
A portrait of Magnus Lucius Aurelius
Agilmar I wasn’t over either. In 827 AVC, he officially ended the process of integrating all of the clan’s and tribal Things into one big Thing that he proclaimed to be the Allthing, or the Assembly of All. It contained the freemen of all of the tribes that had submitted to the Cherusci King, and was a massive assembly so much so that a Roman observer called it as big as the Senate itself. Agilmar I also started the construction of a permanent building in Fulka which would become known as the Allthing Building and after its completion in 829 AVC, almost every single Allthing meeting would take place within that building.
The construction of the Allthing.
Agilmar I during the creation of the Allthing wrote down the ‘Codes of Kingly Conduct’ for all future Kings regarding the Kingdom of Teutoburg and any successor state, with the vast approval from the Allthing and its members. With their aid, and the aid of his mother Rhamis and his wife Cunigund, Agilmar I wrote down the following protocols:-
- The High King will be of the line of the Arminius, however the Allthing will have the power to choose the successor, as long as the blood in the veins as of Arminius.
- The role of the High King is so serve as a judge during popular assemblies, to serve as a priest during religious festivities, and to serve as a military leader during wars. These were to be the basic cornerstone of the Kingdom.
- To Rule by Popular Will of the Allthing and the Peoples.
But perhaps, like his father before him, the greatest achievement of Agilmar I was in regards to his stance towards education. Unlike the Romans and the Greeks, who took upon an informal, familial system of education in the early Republic and a tuition based system during the late Republic and the Empire, the system that Agilmar I adopted, called today as the Agilmarian System, was a state sponsored educational system, for the elite and freemen of society.
In late 627 AVC, we have evidence that the first Teutoburg school opened in Fulka, a small school with the capacity to serve only 60 students alongside 6 teachers and tutors. Fulko, the Germanic historian remembers this school being named as Skulo which meant group of people in Proto-Germanic. The Skulo thus became the first Germanic school of studying. Agilmar I’s reign would not see the state sponsored system of education go far beyond the first Skulo however the precedent it set was one that would set the society apart from Roman one for centuries to come.
A statue of a Teutoburg Noblewoman studying.
The tiers of early Teutoburg education was based upon five subjects – Morality and Ethics, Philosophy, War, Money and Rhetoric. Despite its name Morality and Ethics was not confined only to moral teachings and ethical behavior, but seems to have extended to such familial management, state appropriation, etc. However despite that, the vast majority of the subject was interred around the subject of ethics. The major giveaways of the morality education was that it stressed the free nature of Germanic society and that elders were supposed to be respected and in contrast to some Roman traditions, the opinions of all people, even children and women were to be taken seriously. In this subject, Agilmar I took a clear inspiration from Rome when the idea of Pietas, or the devotion to duty, or known in Proto-Germanic as Pietisar, was instilled as a major focus of the subject.
Philosophy was also taught by the Germanic and hired Latin tutors regarding a broad spectrum of philosophical thought. The range is wide that we cannot pinpoint a singular philosophical identity or focus, however the main goal of the philosophical class that Agilmar I created seems to have been focused around the idea of making the children who studied in these Skulos to become fundamentally analytical and independent in thought. Making them analytical and more focused and sharp would ensure competence according to Agilmar I and such was pursued. The subject of War really needs to no explanation. It was the study and training of the martial ability of a student. Famous generals from Teutoburg would be proficient students of this subject. Money was taught as an early economic subject to students. The barter system, the value of major trading goods, the value of major precious metals, agriculture and taxation were all topics covered in this subject. Rhetoric was also a subject taken from Rome, as an inspiration and was taught to students to increase their power of persuasion, grammar and logic. This was stressed for aspiring diplomats within the Kingdom.
A stone relief depicting the early Skulo in Fulka.
Whilst even by the fall of the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of the Teutoburg would not be even near as literate as the Romans, and education would be completely centered around Fulka, the precedent that he set would continue to reverberate in Germanic society for years to come.
***
From The Crisis of the 9th Century [1]
Vespasian’s rule was immediately extremely shaky. He was a man with wit and was extremely amiable, however he wasn’t popular at all. He was an unexpected ruler, and had no real backing other than his one legion. Senators and Writers certainly didn’t favor the man. His policy of ceding the lands back to the Cherusci had also been unpopular and dented his image even further.
Emperor Vespasian.
Regardless, he conducted a massive propaganda campaign throughout the Roman Empire. Stories of a supernatural emperor who was destined to rule circulated in the empire, and nearly one third of all coins minted in Rome during his time celebrated military victory or peace. Construction projects bore Vespasian’s praises and condemnations of previous emperors. A temple of peace was made in his honor as well. He approved all histories written under his reign ensuring that biases against him were removed. He also gave financial rewards to writers, encouraging to write favorably towards him. Those who spoke out against Vespasian were punished. A number of stoic philosophers were accused of corruption students with inappropriate teachings and were expelled from Rome due to their pointing out of Vespasian’s own flaws during a teaching session. Several Pro-Republican authors such as Helvidius Priscus were put to death as well. Numerous other philosophers and writers had their works seized, destroyed and denounced for being too critical of Vespasian’s reign.
Other than these, little is known about Vespasian’s rule other than the fact that a small financial reform was being undertaken in Rome.
However what is known, is the seed of conflict that was brewing in Egypt. Ever since the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, the Roman Province of Egypt had been largely peaceful, however every now and then, intermittent civil strife had broken out between the Greeks and Jews and Ethnic Egyptians of the province. During the reign of Claudius, the ethnic strife had reached such levels that the people of Alexandria sent a petition to Rome asking Emperor Claudius to give them permission to let them establish a regional senate for Egypt, to peacefully attempt to quell the unrest between the three major ethnicities of Egypt. Claudius denied this request. As the situation for Rome deteriorated after the aftermath of the Last Roman-Parthian War in the east, the situation in Roman Egypt became more precipitous and unrest spread throughout Roman Anatolia, Syria and Egypt. The Egyptians were divided among the Jews and Ethnic Egyptians who were against the Romans due to their suppression of the Jews, and their attack on Egyptian culture. The Greeks of Egypt, who bore many resemblances to the Romans in culture and religion supported the Roman Empire, and intermittent violence, soon erupted into full scale ethnic warfare in Egypt during Vespasian’s reign.
The Oasis of Siwa.
In 829 AVC, Vespasian left Rome to visit Egypt after the Roman Governor of Egypt, Gaius Valerius Paulinus asked the emperor to come to Egypt as the situation in Egypt had turned increasingly dangerous. The ethnic strife and pro and anti-Roman split had turned the populace against one another. The southern frontier against the Kushites was starting to degrade, as Queen Amanikhatashan of the Kushites launched raids every now and then, and the economic strain that Rome was going through was particularly felt in Egypt, which flared tensions even more. Vespasian was however put off in Alexandria by the pro-Republican Greeks and the venerating attitude many Jews and Egyptians had to the previous dynasties of Egypt, and instead of resolving the situation, he tried another propaganda coup, and named himself as Pharaoh as well by bribing the chief priests at the Siwa Oasis. This declaration wasn’t taken seriously after the traditional method of divine election of spitting and trampling an old and blind man thereby miraculously healing him was not undertaken in the flurry of Vespasian’s visit to Egypt. He left without solving anything and his actions in Siwa simply made the population even more fractious.
In 830 AVC, Vespasian died, and was succeeded by his son, Titus. He was immediately challenged with what became known as the Crisis of the 8th Century. In Roman Britain, a general named as Agricola had grown angry at Vespasian’s complacency with the Germanic barbarians and instead showed himself as a tough and extremely martial ruler, succeeding in making his legions declare him Emperor. Similarly in Hispania, a man by the name of Augustus Maximus Cato rebelled with the support of the local legions, naming himself as a son of the deposed and late emperor Nero. Finally in Egypt itself, a powerful ethnic Egyptian noble named Menes rebelled against the Roman government and empire entirely seeking a newly independent Egypt, its destiny away from Rome.
The three pretenders - Agricola, Maximus, Menes.
These developments provoked other actors to act against Rome as well. Both the Zikanid Empire and the Kingdom of Teutoburg saw this crisis as a great opportunity for themselves to gain more land and wealth as well as loot from the Romans if they could exploit the crisis properly.
The Crisis of the 8th Century had started in earnest.
***
---
[1] – Takes place in the 800 AVCs…..without the CE calendar system the roman calendar remains the widely used one.
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All that's missing is a plague.
But in all seriousness, I enjoyed this chapter.
But in all seriousness, I enjoyed this chapter.
I think you mean 9th century since there shouldn't be a 0th century, but still pretty good, I like the dives into more culture related reforms.
So far Germania is poised to capitalize heavily on this crisis. While they won't be coming out with hordes of tribesmen, the more organized Agaz and other auxiliares could pose a much greater threat to the Roman Legions that are trying to hold the Rhine. Germania Inferior could fall very quickly in this case, leaving Gaul wide open.
In the back of my mind I knew something was going to happen in Britannia (either a barbarian invasion or a rogue Roman general declaring independence) but I forgot to post. Seems that I was partially right when Agricola rebelled against the Emperor, but it's possible that he could retreat to Britannia and hunker down against the loyalists if he fails to usurp the Emperor. All for an independent Romano-Briton state I guess.
Egypt is an interesting case because of the ethnic conflict between the Greeks and the native Egyptians. Menes could be very very anti-Greek as the Greeks are all pro-Roman and loyalist. If so, then it's probably his goal to either subjugate the Greeks under the Egyptians or eject them out of the state. I guess we'll have to see how he will react to the ethnic conflict, assuming he ever gets to become Pharaoh.
In the back of my mind I knew something was going to happen in Britannia (either a barbarian invasion or a rogue Roman general declaring independence) but I forgot to post. Seems that I was partially right when Agricola rebelled against the Emperor, but it's possible that he could retreat to Britannia and hunker down against the loyalists if he fails to usurp the Emperor. All for an independent Romano-Briton state I guess.
Egypt is an interesting case because of the ethnic conflict between the Greeks and the native Egyptians. Menes could be very very anti-Greek as the Greeks are all pro-Roman and loyalist. If so, then it's probably his goal to either subjugate the Greeks under the Egyptians or eject them out of the state. I guess we'll have to see how he will react to the ethnic conflict, assuming he ever gets to become Pharaoh.
thanks! A plague will not be happening for some time though
thanks!
this time some serious land conquests are to be made.....the provinces of inferior and superior are up for grabs!
if he does fail against titus, then he might just stay in Britain and do his own thing!
Oh Menes will be very anti-greek. His power base is extremely anti-greek so by default he is too
I wonder what a native-run Egypt would look like here? Would they try to make hieroglyphs the main script of Egypt once more or they would be pragmatic enough to keep the Greek-influenced script?
They'd probably revert to Demotic scripts for everyday use instead of using Greek if they really want to excise Greek influence.
Speaking of which, any chance that the Jews in Palestine/Judea might rise up during this period?
they have just been subjugated, so for the moment no. However if things go south for rome they might