Roma Renovata est: A Roman TL

The Fate of Geiseric's Other Sons

  • They are captured by Majorian

    Votes: 203 68.8%
  • They escape to the Vandal occupied islands

    Votes: 92 31.2%

  • Total voters
    295
I assume the Romans had the numerical advantage here since the Vandal armies are split up. But yeah, some numbers would be nice, if they were available, of course. Ancient history sources can be really useless sometimes...

So am I.

I do to, well generally with late empire you have to make informed decisions, i would put Majorians total number at close to 20k myself, and the Vandals total forces close to 30k as when they invaded afriva they had roughly 16k fighting men, giving them time to produce soldiers and depending on conscripts of the natives, they had also only a few years earlier lost something like 5k men in italia to Majorian.
 
I do to, well generally with late empire you have to make informed decisions, i would put Majorians total number at close to 20k myself, and the Vandals total forces close to 30k as when they invaded afriva they had roughly 16k fighting men, giving them time to produce soldiers and depending on conscripts of the natives, they had also only a few years earlier lost something like 5k men in italia to Majorian.
That's definitely a good point, I'll try and produce a number along those lines, although keep in mind not all of the army was fighting at Hippo Regius.
 
04: The March Continues
A/N: Hello all, here is another chapter of Roma Renovata est. This time dealing with the aftermath of the battle last chapter. I will be taking a break after finishing the Vandalic War in order to prevent burnout of this series. I might also be starting another timeline, so look out for any announcements on that. With that out of the way, enjoy the newest chapter.

The March Continues

The Battle of Hippo Regius had ended, Huneric, the Vandal Prince was dead. The army he commanded were dead or imprisoned, with only 1,000 of the original army managing to escape from the field intact. Almost 10,000 lives gone, just like that, another 4,000 captured by the Romans

This wasn't to say that Majorian and his army got off easy either. Of the 19,000 who fought for Majorian at Hippo Regius, 5,000 lost their lives to the Vandal forces. But Majorian had managed to come out still alive, Huneric hadn't, and that was the deciding factor.

After the battle, Hippo Regius completely surrendered to Majorian. In response, Majorian gave all citizens clemency; in his mind, he hadn't come to conquer, he had come to liberate. This went over well with the people of Hippo Regius, especially those of more Roman origin. The had come to see Majorian as a savior, the one destined to save them from the grasp of the Vandals. Many other cities near Hippo Regius felt the same.

A few days after the battle, Geiseric would recieve the news of what had happened at Hippo Regius. After reading the letter, Geiseric was strucken with absolute grief and despair. His son, his successor, was dead, killed in the midst of battle. Geiseric knew that was always a possibility, but he had always pushed it into the back of his mind. Not that nightmare had become cruel reality. 14,000 men, gone in one day, with another 1,000 missing. He had only 15,000 men left for the 10,000 at sea had not yet returned. He wished only that he had had more time to prepare. In his despiration to get as large an army as possible, he conscripted as many able-bodied men as he could, raising his standing army to roughly 40,000. Many of these soldiers were new recruits as a result though, they had yet to be disiplined in combat properly. Geiseric sat in his chair, thinking on the matter, his mind starting to crack under the torent of thoughts and emotions that had hit him all at once. He came to the conclusion that this lack of disipline was what have caused the failure at Hippo Regius. It needed to be corrected. He needed to make sure that the army could hold the line until the fleet returned. "It is still possible to win." Geiseric thought to himself.

It was then that he had recieved another letter a few hours after the first. It made clear two things. 1. The Berbers had begun launching minor raids on Vandal Kingdom's borders, 2. Minor unrest had taken root in many cities across the kingdom. Both of these shared a big similarity; they were only small issues at the moment, but could very easily spiral out of control, if not handled correctly. The Vandal King was apoplectic, screaming to the heavens, asking what he had done to deserve such a fate.

After this momentary break in his sanity, he composed himself. He would have to create a plan for what he was to do next. He was going tp do whatever needed to save his life and he Kingdom, as he felt the God he worshipped so fervently abandon him to his fate.

A/N: That is Chapter 4 done! We are beginning to see the pressure of the Roman threat beginning to tear at his mind. What is going to happen to Geiseric and Majorian. Stick around to find out. Let me know of any improvements I could make. See you next Chapter!
 
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The casualties for the Romans seems believable but the massacre of the vandals seems unrealistic to the say the least. He didn’t massacre the Burgundians, Visigoths, or Suebi. Would’ve been better to resettle them throughout the Empire at a later date so they could serve in his armies.
 
The casualties for the Romans seems believable but the massacre of the vandals seems unrealistic to the say the least. He didn’t massacre the Burgundians, Visigoths, or Suebi. Would’ve been better to resettle them throughout the Empire at a later date so they could serve in his armies.
Yeah, although keep in mind not all of them were killed, they was killed AND captured. If I had to make a rough estimate for right now, I'd say 10,000 were killed in the fighting, and around 4000-4500 were captured by Majorians forces, although that could have been made more clear. I will have plans for the ones spared in the future. I'll probably edit some things in the chapter to be safe though.

Also keep in mind the history. The Suebi and Burgundians, whilst a problem, never sacked Rome like the Vandals had. The Visigoths had sacked Rome, but it had been 5 decades by that point, compared to 5 years for the Vandals. On top of that, The Vandal sack did more damage to Rome than the Visigothic one. Because of this, I feel that Majorian would be harsher on the Vandals than he had been on the other Germanic tribes. That being said, I absolutely understand where you are coming from, and agree for the most part.
 
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Yeah, although keep in mind not all of them were killed, they was killed AND captured. If I had to make a rough estimate for right now, I'd say 10,000 were killed in the fighting, and around 4000-4500 were captured by Majorians forces, although that could have been made more clear. I will have plans for the ones spared in the future. I'll probably edit some things in the chapter to be safe though.
Ok. Still seems a bit high for how many were killed.
 
Ok. Still seems a bit high for how many were killed.
High, perhaps, but certainly not impossible. The bulk of those deaths would have been in the second half of the battle, when the tides had begun to turn. Remember, Majorian still had numerical advantage at Hippo Regius, 19,000 (after taking away the 30 ships still at sea) to 15,000, not huge, but still a noticable difference. Also remember that Majorian, is on the clock, he has to gather support and get to Carthage before the Vandal Fleet gets back, or Majorian and his army run the risk of being outnumbered. He needs to win and win decisively. He cannot afford to have a long drawn out siege. I understand where you are coming from, however I personally feel it is roughly correct on this occasion. You opinion is very valid, but considering circustances, I think that casualties would be quite high for the Vandals.
 
05: Things Back Home
A/N: Hello again, time for another chapter. This time however, the focus is going to be on those back at Europe, mainly the Western and Eastern Empires. For the next couple of chapters, I'll be focusing on events outside of North Africa, but still relatimg to that conflict. Now then, on with the chapter.

Things Back Home

Whilst Majorian and his army continued waging war in North Africa, many others reacted to the news.

Aegidius, Magister Militum per Gallias had recently recieved the news of Majorian successfully landing in North Africa, as well as the subsequent Battle of Hippo Regius. He was overjoyed to find that Majorian had been so far successful. Aegidius was one of Majorian's most loyal commanders. He had been a soldier alongside Majorian, back when Aetius was Magister Militum of a young Valentinian III. This news was also intersperced with news of a more negative subject. The Franks and Burgundians had been stirring up trouble for the inhabitants near the border. This would not do, he began preparations to go out to meet with the Franks and Burgundians. Even with Majorian's restoration of imperial territory, Rome's future remained of unsteady ground, especially without it's breadbasket. But he had faith that Majorian would succeed in this newest campaign. As he set out with his army, he began to wonder about the others like Marcellinus and Nepotianus.

Meanwhile, both Marcellinus in Illyricum and Nepotianus in Hispania reacted with similar joy at the news of Majorian's victory. They had always hoped that Africa could be recovered; that dream now looked more and more like reality with each day. What separated them from their compatriot Aegidius was a question, "Why aren't I alongside him?". Both men would come to the same conclusion, even hundreds of miles apart. Rome needed protectors. They NEEDED to be in the Empire to protect it at its most exposed, whether Ostrogothic or Visigothic, Rome needed leaders to champion it. Still, neither could help feeling left out, but they knew they would get their chance.

Back in Italia, things were very different... the senate grumbled over the situation. The Emperor was trying to stop them from getting their money, the very thought of not being able to get their ways after so long of dodging the consequences. The very thought of their current Emperor boiled their blood. But as Majorian had not yet failed, they had not yet gained the excuse needed to remove him from the throne.

There was however one man even angrier...

As he sat in the imperial palace in Ravenna Flavius Ricimer sat alone, drinking any booze he could get his hands on. On the outside he appeared calm, but inside he was nothing but pure rage. He was cursing everyone, the senators for being so weak-willed, the other conspirators for being to incompetent to lit up a few boats, the Vandals for being too cowardly to confront the Romans directly. By the one he cursed most was his "friend", Majorian. Majorian was supposed to be his puppet, a means of controlling the empire. But as time went on, it became clearer and clearer that Majorian would not be a puppet. Ricimer had tried to get Majorian deposed, then replaced by a true puppet, someone like Libius Severus would have suited the plan just fine, but it had failed, THE PLAN HAD FAILED!

Ricimer took another mouthful of alcohol, collecting his thoughts in the meantime. Now, all he could do was wait. If Majorian failed, he could have Majorian deposed and disposed of. But in Majorian succeeded in his mission, his power and popularity would only grow further, and the small sliver of control he held over his former comrade would begin fading. Either way, in his drunken stupor, the decision was out of his hands. But he made a promise to himself; he would gain control over Rome, no matter the cost.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Empire, Emperor Leo contempated on his decision. He had been sent a request by Majorian, a week before the Campaign began, asking to send ships out to fight the Vandals. He had chosen to send 100 ships to help in Majorian's campaign. It was better to have Romans controlling those lands than Barbarians, Arians at that. As he sat, thinking over his recent decisions, Aspar approached the Eastern Emperors, informing him of some issues, sone dealings with invaders. Aspar asked him to deal with the issues at hand, for the Empire's safety. Leo agreed, heading to deal with it. Regardless of his decision, the ultimate fate of the West layed in Majorian's hands, not his. It would be up to Majorian to lead that side of the empire, for better or worse.

A/N: Chapter 5 is done! I hope everyone enjoyed! Next Chapter will be about those at sea, what is going on there while Majorian and his army are campaigning. Let me know if there is any thing I could improve for next time. See you next Chapter!
 
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I thought there was only one Nepotianus, the brother in law of Marcellinus and father of Julius Nepos.

I wonder what Ricimer will do. Will he attempt a coup/assassination/civil war against Majorian? Or maybe see that Majorian is top popular and that it’s too risky to go against him?

Also I imagine that Majorian will be marrying one of Valentinian’s daughters after taking Carthage to further legitim
 
I thought there was only one Nepotianus, the brother in law of Marcellinus and father of Julius Nepos.

I wonder what Ricimer will do. Will he attempt a coup/assassination/civil war against Majorian? Or maybe see that Majorian is top popular and that it’s too risky to go against him?

Also I imagine that Majorian will be marrying one of Valentinian’s daughters after taking Carthage to further legitim
Oh shoot! Thanks for spotting that mistake, it is supposed to be Nepotianus and Marcellinus, it had now been corrected, sorry for the confusion.

I most certainly have plans for Ricimer. Trust me, he won't be just laying down and accepting it.

As for the third point, that is one of the things I am planning to cover post Vandalic War, although I'm still trying to decide which one I should go with for this TL.
 
06: Back at Sea
A/N:Hello again, dear readers! After a small break, I'm back with another chapter. This time, we'll be checking on those out of the sea. I hope everyone enjoys the latest chapter.

Back at Sea

Whilst Majorian and Geiseric waged war on land, the Roman fleet of roughly 2,000 and the Vandal fleet of roughly 10,000 played cat and mouse. The Vandals had been trying to keep the Roman fleet off their trail. They were more concerned about trying to get back to Carthage than dealing with the small fleet, but they knew this fleet needed to be kept away. Because of this, they had tried to send out a small portion of the army to stall the fleet, but the fleet had been clever. They had taken advantage of their more densely packed boats in order to ambush and take over the some of the Vandals boats, giving them even more firepower to harass the Vandal fleet.

The days and weeks dragged on, and they were beginning to be starved out by the Roman fleet. The Vandals had hoped that with the denser size of the Roman army compared to their boats would deplete their resources first, but Majorian had been smart, about it. He had put extra stock into the boats, especially these raiding boats. Because of Majorian's decision, combined with gaining control of some of the Vandal ships, it was the Vandals who would starve first.

A Vandal commander named Gunthur had had enough of the Romans raids, and so began preparing to use the full remaining Vandal army to destroy the fleet. It wasn't ideal, as it would delay the effort to get back to Carthage, but at this point it was better than the alternative.

He ordered his fleet to wait, let the Romans come to them. After several long minutes, the fleet came towards the rear of the Vandals. Once they had gotten in range, Gunthur ordered the fleet to turn and advance. The Vandal fleet crashed into the Roman front, destroying 11 ships in the chaos. They were however, too slow to react to most of the other ships, which were able to retreat. Of the 65 ships the Romans had ( 27 ships from before departing, 38 captured Vandal ships, 13 were lost in total (11 in first attack, 2 more shot down in retreat). This in turn, cost 350 lives of the Roman fleet. The initial attack had been a success for the Vandals. Gunthur ordered the fleet to persue the Romans; he was going to make sure the problem was eliminated. The Vandals could taste victory over the pest that had plagued them.

It was at this moment, when the Romans seemed helpless, that the Eastern Roman fleet had arrived. They crashed into the Vandal fleet right side, taking them by surprise. Hearing the commotion, most the the Western Roman fleet turned back, although a few continued to retreat.

A battle had broken out, one that the Vandals had swam right into. Gunthur cursed himself, he had been overzealous, now his army was faced with a devastating ambush and it was his fault. He led the charge against the Romans. The battle turned to chaos as Vandal and Roman ships crashed into each other. Gunthur concentrated a portion of the army on attacking the Western Romans. Fortunately for him, it was successful, the size of the fleet combined with the chaos on the battle broke the Western Romans, they quickly retreated, with the group in hot persuit.

The 8,000 remaining Vandals battled against 7,000 Eastern Romans, the fighting was fierce on both sides; Eastern Romans boarded several vandal ships, meanwhile many of the Vandal ships blasted the Eastern Romans at a distance.

After more than an hour of intense fighting, the tables finally turned in the Vandals favour when the group of ships sent to battle the Western Romans came charging into the Eastern Roman fleet. But the Eastern Roman held strong intending to cause as much damage as possible. After another hour of intense fighting, the Eastern Romans finally routed. The Vandals had won.

But they had been too damaged to continue persuing the Eastern Romans. Of the 9,700 Vandals at the battle, 4,000 were killed, another 2,000 were severly injured. The Eastern Romans lost 3,700 of their soldiers, whilst the Western ones lost 1,000. It had been a Vandalic victory, but in the grand scheme of events, it was a hollow one.

Following the battle, Gunthur ordered the Vandals to sail to Sardinia. He knew it would delay efforts to get to Carthage even further, but there was no other choice. His men were starving, injured and exhausted, they were in no condition to fight against the Roman army in North Africa. If they could get to Sardinia they could have more time to recover, as well as stock up on fresh supplies. Gunthur and the rest of the Vandal fleet only hoped that the capital could hold out long enough.

A/N: And that is Chapter 6 done, next part we will return back to Majorian and his escapades in North Africa. Thank you for reading, and let me know of anything I can improve, especially when it comes to sea warfare, since I don't know much about naval warfare in Late Antiquity. See you next Chapter!
 
Goodness gracious, not only I thought the numerical imbalance was less severe, I thought it was the other way.
These are fleets currently at sea, whilst Majorian is campaigning on the land.

If the full army was there then the Romans would indeed outnumber the Vandal fleet 2:1. However, this is the small part that kept heading to Carthage as a distraction (remember Ch2). It's only roughly 1/10 of the full army size.
 
07: Journey to Carthage
A/N:Hello all! Here is Chapter 7 of Roma Renovata est. Now, we go back to North Africa, as Majorian and his army make their way closer to Carthage. The Romans and Vandals have already fought in fierce battle, at both land and sea. The decisive battle for Carthage is approaching, starting now. I hope everyone enjoys this latest chapter.

Journey to Carthage

Majorian had just recieved news of the battle at sea. Whilst it had been a defeat for the Romans, its results proved overall positive. It had delayed their efforts to get back to Carthage. Between the time recovering an sailing to Carthage, it would be roughly 2 weeks mimimum for them to arrive.

As a result, Majorian changed plans, as he now had time to more thourougly prepare for the final assault on Carthage. He started by setting out to several cities in order to gain support from the people, as well as bolster the Roman army. Many cities would give in at once, other would put up more resistance, met with brief sieges until they gave up. He was merciful to all citizens that accepted him, whether Roman or Vandal, though still favoured Roman citizens. This soft, merciful approach proved effective,as it had done in the past.

More and more, the people of North Africa turned to Majorian as their hero, minor quarrelling turned to vocal displeasure, vocal displeasure turned to brawls in the street, and finally these brawls turned into full-on rioting. Town after town turned on Geiseric and the Vandal Regime. Roman Africans saw Majorian as their savior, even many Vandals began to prefer Majorian over Geiseric. Majorian had given the Vandals clemency for the most part, despite having every reason to destroy them. Meanwhile, Geiseric had essentially abandoned them to the Roman forces, hoarding most of the soldiers into Carthage, leaving only small Garrisons behind.

The rioting spread throughout North Africa like wildfire. Many of the garrisons were overrun by angry mobs, many more joined the mobs in their anger towards the Vandal kings. Support was turning decisively in Majorians favour.

At the same time, Majorian and the Romanized Berbers were also having discussions, formulating a partnership. The small raids turning to full scale invasions of the border, though not as direct attacks on towns and cities, for Majorian asked that they be spared. Instead they attacked the countryside, raiding much if the Vandals gold and crops. Some of these were funneled to Majorian to supply his men, most was kept by the Berbers. The Berbers also agreed to send over 20,000 men to attack Carthage alongside the Romans.

Back in Carthage, Geiserics mental state further deteriorated. Most of the people of his kingdom were in open rebellion, confirmation of the Berbers support for Majorian came in, and his backup would be at least 2 weeks away. Geiseric became more and more paranoid of those around him. He became paranoid of his citizens, fearing they would come marching in at anytime to kill him. He had also become paranoid of those in his court, worried that they would use this desention to try and usurp power for themselves, or worse, use his head a way of getting into Majorians good graces. Most of all, he had grown fearful of Majorian and the Romans, constantly having nightmares of his sons death, and of Majorian bursting into Carthage like a mighty hurricane blowing through paper. This insomnia would only fuel his bouts of insanity. These emotion led to Geiserics increasing reclusivity. When the wars started, Geiseric refused to leave the capital, but had otherwise remained strong. As the weeks dragged on however, Geiseric began refusing to leave his palace. Now he refused to exit his own room, having food and water given to him through a small gap.

His bouts of insanity were only alleviated by news of the survivors of Hippo Regius gathering near Thuburbo Maius, in order to try and ambush Majorian. Geiseric, in one last desperate act to keep Majorian out of Carthage, to try a salvage the situation, sent out 5,000 soldiers to bolster the ranks. Geiseric knew that if this was successful, he could criple Majorians forces and hopefully force a peace. But he knew, this may be his last chance.

A/N: And that is Chapter 7, we are beginning the final phase of the Vandalic War in North Africa. It should come to an end within the next 3-4 chapters. Probably going to be taking a small break afterwards. Then I'll cover the rest of the Vandalic war on the islands (Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily). But after the Vandalic War we will get back to Italy proper, and see how issues unfold from there. You don't want to miss it! Let me know of anything that could be improved going forward! See you next chapter!
 
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