A/N: Alright, here is my promised rewrite of my original Ethiopia TL, and this time it will take place in the 5th century AD, some years before the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Decline of the Western Roman Empire
The year 476 AD, a year that marked great misfortune and terror throughout the Eastern Roman Empire as the Western one fell to Odoacer and the Heruli tribe. Orestes, former secretary of Attila and the one who enthroned his teenage son as Western Emperor, had been cut down by Odoacer.
The teenage Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate by Odoacer as he proclaimed the formation of his Kingdom that ruled much of Italy, once the seat of power of the Roman Empire.
Other Roman States that still held some measure of power prompted themselves up as rump states, unwilling to submit to barbarian rule and held dreams of maintaining the last vestiges of Roman civilisation in the West.
The Kingdom of Dalmatia was one such rump state, directly bordering Odoacer’s Kingdom and ruled by self-proclaimed Emperor Julius Nepos. It was a small state, however, and many others predicted it would fall to Odoacer’s might.
When the Eastern Emperor Zeno received the Imperial Seal of the West, he was crestfallen, and wept for the fall of the Western Empire. He was, however, quick to plead Odoacer for the clemency of any Roman citizens who refused to submit to his rule. He accepted, but on the condition they be exiled entirely from Europe and any Roman territory.
Dismayed, Zeno desperately looked for anyone willing to accept the refugee Romans, but was careful not to have them subject to slavery. Sadly, many of the Kingdoms to the East would only accept them as slaves.
Then he was left with only one option: Abyssinia.
A fabled Christian Kingdom in East Africa, it was by far the only option Zeno was left with, and he tentatively sent an emissary to the Abyssinian King, praying that his terms for granting the refugees asylum were favourable.
And the answer was a yes.
Zeno could not have been more thankful; with the refugees’ asylum secured, said refugees were then escorted by sea to the lands of Abyssinia, where they made landfall at the province of Massawa.
As the Roman refugees intermarried with the local Abyssinians, Roman culture would come to influence Abyssinian culture for centuries, and new ideas would take root in their mindset as well; where Abyssinians were fine with mere feudalism, the Romans would introduce the ideas of racial unity and Imperialism.
Such ideas, whilst initially dismissed by the entrenched elite, were beginning to gain increased traction among the disillusioned and some of the masses, those who were enamoured with the notion of true unity.
One man, a Jewish prince of Axum named Teodros Menasse Kassa, wished to take advantage of such ideas for the benefit of the Beta Israel community. For centuries now, the Jews had always been persecuted and discriminated against by Christian and Muslim alike, and he wished to make them a dominant power.
And it was in Axum that he would foster his ambitions and realise them, one step at a time.
IIOII
Changing of Succession Laws:
It is important to note that Abyssinian Kingdoms and Duchies favoured a gavelkind type of succession, for it was common for sons of the various fief lords in Abyssinia to feud with each other for complete control of a parent’s titles upon his passing.
A gavelkind succession basically meant that a father’s titles would be equally distributed between his sons, dividing up his fiefdom into smaller ones and limiting their power as a result. Though this limited their power, it also effectively limited any ruler’s actual control. Any goals of achieving complete unity and control for generations after would be threatened by such a law.
The Jewish Prince Teodros Kassa, at that time, learned of its weakness from his Roman wife Septimia Iusta, a former prominent noblewoman whose family fell on hard times. A shrewd politician by nature, she was quick to enlighten him on the benefits of primogeniture succession, where his oldest child would inherit all his titles and lands.
His younger children would dislike being unable to inherit any titles, but such concentration of power was important, not merely for the Jews of Abyssinia but the Kingdom as a whole.
“Once I would have been content with dividing my fiefs between my children, now I must favour the oldest and risk incurring the ill-will of my younger children.”
Such were his words as he announce the changing of succession laws in his fiefdom of Axum, which applied to his family.
Perhaps it was fortunate for now that the Kingdom practiced gavelkind succession, so that he could slowly build his power base where the others’ waned.
“Sooner or later, however,” He said at the time, “There will come a time when the King and Princes of Abyssinia will feel threatened by the growing power of Axum, and will unite to cut it down to size.”
Centralising authority:
Where most other nobles in Abyssinia were fine with decentralized rule, Teodros was enlightened of the benefits of centralised authority by Septimia, yet to immediately centralise power to a high degree so soon would undoubtedly provoke unneeded opposition from the nobility.
At first, it was a low degree of centralisation, mostly regarding the implementation of new laws and policies and reformation of the bureaucracy. The changes were small and unnoticeable at first, but this paved the groundwork for further centralisation of authority.
“In all honesty, I’m bewildered at how the Abyssinian princes have lasted so long with such decentralised authority,” Septimia remarked, “Even some of the barbarian tribes of Europa and the desert tribes seem more centralised than our hosts here.”
Rather than be offended at his wife’s words, however, Teodros seriously considered them, knowing a lesson or two could be learned from the Europeans.
Spread of Knowledge:
One of the greatest impacts the Roman immigrants had on Abyssinian society was the knowledge they brought with them. From advanced agricultural practices to construction techniques, new methods of paving roads and shipbuilding techniques, their impact was as noticeable as mountains shifting.
This brought both a cultural and societal shift, one that was irreversible and riding a tidal wave of momentum.
The Decline of the Western Roman Empire
The year 476 AD, a year that marked great misfortune and terror throughout the Eastern Roman Empire as the Western one fell to Odoacer and the Heruli tribe. Orestes, former secretary of Attila and the one who enthroned his teenage son as Western Emperor, had been cut down by Odoacer.
The teenage Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate by Odoacer as he proclaimed the formation of his Kingdom that ruled much of Italy, once the seat of power of the Roman Empire.
Other Roman States that still held some measure of power prompted themselves up as rump states, unwilling to submit to barbarian rule and held dreams of maintaining the last vestiges of Roman civilisation in the West.
The Kingdom of Dalmatia was one such rump state, directly bordering Odoacer’s Kingdom and ruled by self-proclaimed Emperor Julius Nepos. It was a small state, however, and many others predicted it would fall to Odoacer’s might.
When the Eastern Emperor Zeno received the Imperial Seal of the West, he was crestfallen, and wept for the fall of the Western Empire. He was, however, quick to plead Odoacer for the clemency of any Roman citizens who refused to submit to his rule. He accepted, but on the condition they be exiled entirely from Europe and any Roman territory.
Dismayed, Zeno desperately looked for anyone willing to accept the refugee Romans, but was careful not to have them subject to slavery. Sadly, many of the Kingdoms to the East would only accept them as slaves.
Then he was left with only one option: Abyssinia.
A fabled Christian Kingdom in East Africa, it was by far the only option Zeno was left with, and he tentatively sent an emissary to the Abyssinian King, praying that his terms for granting the refugees asylum were favourable.
And the answer was a yes.
Zeno could not have been more thankful; with the refugees’ asylum secured, said refugees were then escorted by sea to the lands of Abyssinia, where they made landfall at the province of Massawa.
As the Roman refugees intermarried with the local Abyssinians, Roman culture would come to influence Abyssinian culture for centuries, and new ideas would take root in their mindset as well; where Abyssinians were fine with mere feudalism, the Romans would introduce the ideas of racial unity and Imperialism.
Such ideas, whilst initially dismissed by the entrenched elite, were beginning to gain increased traction among the disillusioned and some of the masses, those who were enamoured with the notion of true unity.
One man, a Jewish prince of Axum named Teodros Menasse Kassa, wished to take advantage of such ideas for the benefit of the Beta Israel community. For centuries now, the Jews had always been persecuted and discriminated against by Christian and Muslim alike, and he wished to make them a dominant power.
And it was in Axum that he would foster his ambitions and realise them, one step at a time.
IIOII
Changing of Succession Laws:
It is important to note that Abyssinian Kingdoms and Duchies favoured a gavelkind type of succession, for it was common for sons of the various fief lords in Abyssinia to feud with each other for complete control of a parent’s titles upon his passing.
A gavelkind succession basically meant that a father’s titles would be equally distributed between his sons, dividing up his fiefdom into smaller ones and limiting their power as a result. Though this limited their power, it also effectively limited any ruler’s actual control. Any goals of achieving complete unity and control for generations after would be threatened by such a law.
The Jewish Prince Teodros Kassa, at that time, learned of its weakness from his Roman wife Septimia Iusta, a former prominent noblewoman whose family fell on hard times. A shrewd politician by nature, she was quick to enlighten him on the benefits of primogeniture succession, where his oldest child would inherit all his titles and lands.
His younger children would dislike being unable to inherit any titles, but such concentration of power was important, not merely for the Jews of Abyssinia but the Kingdom as a whole.
“Once I would have been content with dividing my fiefs between my children, now I must favour the oldest and risk incurring the ill-will of my younger children.”
Such were his words as he announce the changing of succession laws in his fiefdom of Axum, which applied to his family.
Perhaps it was fortunate for now that the Kingdom practiced gavelkind succession, so that he could slowly build his power base where the others’ waned.
“Sooner or later, however,” He said at the time, “There will come a time when the King and Princes of Abyssinia will feel threatened by the growing power of Axum, and will unite to cut it down to size.”
Centralising authority:
Where most other nobles in Abyssinia were fine with decentralized rule, Teodros was enlightened of the benefits of centralised authority by Septimia, yet to immediately centralise power to a high degree so soon would undoubtedly provoke unneeded opposition from the nobility.
At first, it was a low degree of centralisation, mostly regarding the implementation of new laws and policies and reformation of the bureaucracy. The changes were small and unnoticeable at first, but this paved the groundwork for further centralisation of authority.
“In all honesty, I’m bewildered at how the Abyssinian princes have lasted so long with such decentralised authority,” Septimia remarked, “Even some of the barbarian tribes of Europa and the desert tribes seem more centralised than our hosts here.”
Rather than be offended at his wife’s words, however, Teodros seriously considered them, knowing a lesson or two could be learned from the Europeans.
Spread of Knowledge:
One of the greatest impacts the Roman immigrants had on Abyssinian society was the knowledge they brought with them. From advanced agricultural practices to construction techniques, new methods of paving roads and shipbuilding techniques, their impact was as noticeable as mountains shifting.
This brought both a cultural and societal shift, one that was irreversible and riding a tidal wave of momentum.
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