285. This is the Military Anarchy. The age of the Empire at war. For two hundred years, Rome ruled the world, building great splendors and spreading civilization to the ends of the earth but now the Emperor is gone and his commanders fight over the remainders. Aurelian, once hoped by many to be Caesar reborn, was killed defending Moesia from the Gothic king Cannabaudes in the 270s. The Palmyran Queen Zenobia, following in the footsteps of her predecessor and ancestor Cleopatra, has seized control of Egypt and made herself master of the eastern Mediterranean. Germanic tribes run rampant through Europe. The west is ruled by Gallic emperor Tetricus yet his reign is too plagued by the fragmentation of power by localized authority and barbarians at the gate. Among them are the robber duo Pomponius and Amandus. Glorified bandits from obscure origins, they are deemed enemies of the state due to their plundering of the countryside and with many casualties, are forced to flee to Arvernia after a major defeat against the Gallic army where they imprisoned and executed the provincial elites, or at least not willing to house and pay tribute to the duo's bagaudae army.
Dux Arvernis
Pomponius (285 - 290) [1]
Amandus (290 - 318) [2]
Camulus (318 - 344) [3]
Pomponius II (344 - 356) [4]
Segomarus (356 - 393) [5]
Aridius (393 - 424) [6]
Cornelian (424 - 451) [7]
[1] Pomponius' reign was marked by establishing some sort of government that would efficiently fatten the pockets of Arvernia's new rulers and their bandit army while not completely destroying what made the region rich in the first place. An accord was made where the administrative class, provided that they swear loyalty to Pomponius and Amandus, would be the ones in charge. Further attempts by Tetricus I and his son Tetricus II to reconquer Arvernia would end in failure that the latter resolves to make use of the bandits and formalized an alliance, entrusting Pomponius with that region as its dux provided that they continue paying taxes to Trier. Pomponius ended up marrying the beautiful widow of a prominent Arverni senator that he executed for insulting his mother.
[2] In theory Amandus and Pomponius were equals but the truth was more complicated. While Pomponius started the rebellion, it was Amandus who did much of the leg-work, transforming the bagaudae into a semi-professional force that could match Tetricus' barbarized hordes on an open plain battle. Yet it was Pomponius who received the credit, seen as the de facto ruler by the elites that he helped crush and officialized by the Gallic Emperor himself. Amandus did not mind; he was to be made Pomponius' successor and would receive all the title and glory that would come with it. Or at least that was before the birth of Pomponius' son Camulus in 289. So he did what anyone would do: murder Pomponius and his wife in their sleep and force his former friend's acolytes to exile.
[3] Camulus spends his first years as an exile in Queen Mother Zenobia's court in Alexandria. Mentored by her grandson, the Emperor Julius Antiochus II, he was educated in the literary classics and fashioned into a model warrior. He was crucial in Julius Antiochus' war against Persia, even saving the Emperor's life from being speared to death by a Sassanid cataphract at the battle of Ctesiphon. His story would've ended there if not for a vision he received from his namesake Camulus, the Gallic god of war, commanding him to return home and seize the throne from his father's murderer. So he did what he was told and returned to Arvernia. He rounded up an army and defeated Amandus. While Amandus' followers were spared without harm, the same could not be said for Amandus himself who was castrated. In true eastern fashion, he would become an eunuch and serve Camulus as one of his chief advisors. He would marry Amandus' daughter Elantia and sire many children. His reign would otherwise be peaceful.
[4] Pomponius II had much to live up to being Camulus' eldest son and named after his grandfather, the founder of post-Roman Arvernia. Despite the younger Pomponius being mentored by his father and his council of advisers, there were some who held their doubts about the young prince, especially since he like his mother was a Christian. So he did the antiquarian equivalent of a WASP trust fund baby with a lot to prove: he assumed command and went to war. Towns and cities that refused to surrender and convert to the growing Christian religion were put to the sword and its inhabitants sold to slavery. His conquests and the religious aspect of the war made him enemy number one to Gallic emperor Marius Augustus, a fervent worshipper of Mithras. At the battle of Chalons, Pomponius' smaller army outmaneuvered and wiped out Marius' army. Marius was imprisoned and it seemed that the Christian had destined Pomponius for greater things. Yet it was not meant to be. Before Pomponius would march his army to capture Trier and crown himself Emperor, his younger brother Segomarus, conspiring with the imprisoned emperor Marius, assassinated him and became the new dux.
[5] Segomarus may have been opposed to his brother's Christian faith but he was not opposed to Arvernian expansionism. He released Marius Augustus on the stipulation that the emperor sanctioned his late brother's conquests and demanded that on top of dux, he would be made magister militum. He spent the remainder of his reign subjugating the barbarian tribes that have been settling down in the Gallic empire for the past century and building new settlements along the Rhine frontier, manned with a reformed and modernized Gallic imperial army. He would be succeeded by his grandson Aridius.
[6] Aridius was praised by both historians and contemporaries for his good administration and counseling Gallic emperor Martius. His political enemies, particularly among the Sygarians, attempted to turn the Emperor against him and despite repeated attempts, their plots were foiled. Aridius remained on good terms with the imperial family until 412 when he sought retirement and returned to Arvernia where he expanded the ducal palace and refurbished the temple to Mars.
[7] Cornelian began his reign as a witness to the Hunnic invasions of Europe. Cornelian is best known for his coordinating a military coalition between the Gallic Empire, the Roman Senate and the semi-civilized barbarian kings in Moesia and Greece against the steppe horde. It was ultimately futile as the Hunnic king Rugila thought ahead, sending his scouts to pick apart the different armies one by one, ultimately destroying the remnants led by Duke Cornelian and Emperor Julian at the battle of Aquincum. Thus ended the age of classical antiquity and began the rule of Europe's first khagans.