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On eastern shores – A Roman Timeline A reboot of Optimus Princeps
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The timelines that I've done (or better: that I've aborted) so far were all centered around ancient Rome. My first one dealt with Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, my second one with the emperor Trajan, my third one with a possible industrialization during the Principate. All of them where abandoned after a certain time, mostly because I started them without knowing where they were going and without having discussed their fundamental premises here on the board.
However, it is an old dream of mine to do a complete TL on my favorite subjects: a surviving Roman Empire. We discussed some major points in these threads and I learned much about both Roman water mills and ancient agriculture. I tried some Points of Divergence, but none of them were fully satisfying, so I returned to my favorite Roman Emperor: Trajan.
Then, I wrote the first 10 posts, to avoid interrupting the story after two weeks like I did previously, therefore I expect that this TL will be longer than the other three.
The long and the short of it: here is the first post. I hope you enjoy it! Enraged controversy as well as constructive criticism are welcome.
Caput Primus: A New Caesar
When the thirteenth Roman Emperor Trajan died on the 8th of August of the year 870 AUC [1], probably nobody believed in a success of the Parthian campaign. Indeed, everything pointed towards a failure of the Roman operations in the east: Because on the one hand, the Jewish population of the east had risen against Rome, on the other hand, the Parthian king Osroes I had come back and expelled the Roman army out of the south of Mesopotamia.
Also Parthamaspates, who had been proclaimed anti-king of Parthia by Trajan in Ctesiphon, had only a few supporters among the Parthians and was soon chased away by the legitimate Great King of Parthia, Osroes. It was a special sign of the Roman weakness that Osroes could do everything of this while having to fight another anti-king in the east of Iran, Vologaeses III.
Nevertheless, Rome had definitely achieved some victories since the beginning of the revolts in 868 AUC [2] – Lusius Quietus, a cruel Moorish prince, suffect consul and governor of Judea, had been able to crush the insurrections in Mesopotamia and Judea by the means of immeasurable terror against inhabitants of other faiths. Therefore, Trajan gained new hope and already planned a new campaign against southern Mesopotamia, when, suddenly, his health declined. He decided to travel back to Rome to settle his succession.
However, before he could put his plan into practice, he died in Selinus, a city on the coast of Asia Minor – though, before is death, Trajan had drawn up his will. For a long time, he struggled with himself to find a successor: Hadrian, the husband of Trajan's grand-niece and a capable administrator, or the newcomer Quietus, hero of the late war and the best soldier of the Roman army comand?
Trajan's environment (Plotina, his wife, and Attianus, Praetorian prefect) supported Hadrian and implored the emperor to adopt the former. Trajan was originally inclined to do so, but he anticipated that the philosopher Hadrian would never pursue his expansionist politics. The Empire now needed a man of war, a strong leader – an emperor who would deploy all available forces to keep Mesopotamia.
Trajan summoned his entire retinue and proclaimed his last will and testament. He adopted Lusius Quietus, who received the title of Caesar. He bequeathed a part of his fortune to Hadrian, but not an ounce of power [3]. Hadrian, though quite frustrated, feared to appear as a threat to the new emperor and promptly returned into private life. He was later heard from as great patron of science, but this is not the subject of this chapter.
The transition of power from the dying Trajan to Quietus was unproblematic. Quietus was admittedly a Moor and the first African on the Palatine, but of royal descent and already member of the Senate. He was very popular with the troops, which is why the legions quickly accepted him as new Augustus. The last step was the election by the Senate and the People's Assembly – the consent of the latter was a matter of form, the approval of the former was gained by the war hawk faction, which was delighted as the reign of the pacifist Hadrian had been avoided [4].
[1] 117 CE
[2] 115 CE
[3] The POD is obvious. In OTL, Hadrian became emperor, maybe even against Trajan'swill.
[4] You are free to object that Lusius Quietus would never had been chosen as successor, since he wasn't of Roman origin. However, take into account that Quietus was executed shortly after Hadrian's accession because, as a possible candidate to the throne, he posed a threat to Hadrian.