Theós Epiphanḗs – Anagénnēsē tōn Seleukidṓn

This is incredible and you have clearly put a massive amount of work in, but I am having trouble following the action. So from what I can read myself to, the wars in Iberia are halted temporarily through a signficant cash payment which Sextus Julius Caesar brings back the army there. There is war in Campania which is put down and across Sicily where the Romans fail in the face of Seleukid intervention (?). I probably missed a ton more, but those seem to be the major strokes. Oh, and Aemilius Scipio Africanus is leading the Roman response, so at least the Romans have a capable leader at hand.

If i understand correctly, most of the economic ties to Sicily which the Roman Consuls have just agreed to free are bound to the Italian clients so they are going to take a major economic hit from this. Could that lead to an early outbreak of the Socii wars?
 
Not sure I'm getting this, so essentially Sicily is going to become an independent, Slave-Free Constitutional Monarchy?


Noooooo sir. Lol. That was on the table, at least insomuch as Scipio Aemilianus was trying to trick Neoptolemus into laying down his arms, but... no cigar. Since I am almost done writing the next update (which has actually been mostly written for a week now), I can clarify here - the Seleucid government, which is always looking for more Greeks to settle within its borders, is going to take the Molossians in Sicily, and any indigenous (extremely Hellenized) people on the island that are not ok with Roman occupation. This means that the Sicels and the Sicanians have an out, while the Elymians, who are tax exempt, are going to be staying. This opens up a LOT of land for Roman speculators, and also for military colonies, but also is going to result in a massive expansion of Hellenism in Judea, which is where the Sicilian migrants will be going.


This is incredible and you have clearly put a massive amount of work in, but I am having trouble following the action. So from what I can read myself to, the wars in Iberia are halted temporarily through a signficant cash payment which Sextus Julius Caesar brings back the army there. There is war in Campania which is put down and across Sicily where the Romans fail in the face of Seleukid intervention (?). I probably missed a ton more, but those seem to be the major strokes. Oh, and Aemilius Scipio Africanus is leading the Roman response, so at least the Romans have a capable leader at hand.

If i understand correctly, most of the economic ties to Sicily which the Roman Consuls have just agreed to free are bound to the Italian clients so they are going to take a major economic hit from this. Could that lead to an early outbreak of the Socii wars?


The Romans have signed a new treaty with the Lusitanians, Belli, and Vettones, but that treaty likely won't last, since the more wars they lose the more powerful the conservative, militaristic aristocratic party is getting in the Senate, and the whole Second Celtiberian War was initially sparked by the fact that the Senate was under the impression that the terms of treaties that they signed with other people continued "at their pleasure". The Romans did NOT fail in the face of Seleucid intervention, but rather staved said intervention off for a more convenient time by agreeing to the exodus of the indigenous peoples of Sicily and the revolting slaves. This of course is not going to be without its social ramifications down the line. For one, it has now been established that slaves can successfully revolt if they have the right connections and play their cards right. For two, a bunch of land that was owned by Sicilian farmers just opened up for sale... who has the money to buy? Naturally, while the government might have promised some veterans' colonies, I think we all can guess that the bulk of this land is going to go to rich patricians and Italian notables who can afford to own land in excess of 500 hectares, even though that is in patent violation of the Licinian Laws, which patricians of the period didn't seem to give much of a shit about. So, might that lead to an early outbreak of the Social War? Maybe, although this next update that should be done by tonight actually isn't about that. Remember that while the Romans didn't lose this war on paper, they did in the court of public opinion, which makes three wars in a row now that they have lost, and veterans are coming home without the spoils of war to show for their years campaigning to bankrupt farms. The promise of land in Sicily that will be snatched up by the patricians is likely to create all the more discontent among the Italians.
 
If TTL's Social War equivalent ends up failing like the OTL, the precedence set by the rebel Sicilians may offer an exit for any Italians tired of Roman domination. They're not as Hellenized as the Sicels or Sicanians but useful source of colonists to reinforce the East.
 
The Reign of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr – 151-180 (162-134)




Following the defeat of the Romans at Mount Bēlos, the Lord of Asíā put off any and all festivities celebrating their triumphs for his campaign against the Jewish mercenaries of Ptolemaîos VIII Euergétēs, which would last from the winter of 153 to the spring of 154 (160-159). Naturally, the knowledge that came as a result of the campaign that the Jews in question had come from Kyrēnaïkḗ and were in the employ of the contested King of Aígyptos caused the campaign to spill over into that country, which ended with the defeat and exile of Ptolemaîos to Rōma and the marriage of Dēmḗtrios and Queen Kleopátra II, bringing Aígyptos under the protection of the Seleukídai until her eldest son, Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr, came of age to rule the country himself. The inhabitants of the city of Yerušalaim welcomed the new Lord of Asíā and named him Sōtḗr, hoping that in so doing, the king would grant them their sovereignty and control of their shrine, which was done. However, the temple had been rendered ritually impure by the cultic practices of the Héllēnes, and therefore was no longer fit for continued use in the minds of many, which caused a break in the Jewish faith, with the Jews of Aígyptos erecting their own temple at Leontópolis (for which they cited the prophecy of Yəšạʻyā́hû), and a second branch departing for Nəhardəʿā, where a new school of Judaism would develop in the decades to come that focused on mysticism rather than literal pilgrimage. This schism allowed the temple to be repurposed as a temple to Zéus Moríā[1], and a massive temple complex, complete with a fort, and a fitting façade, was built over the frame of the old, less-cosmetically pleasing temple. Although the architects employed for the job were merely trying to work around the existing structure, the building that would be colloquially known as Iḗhouas palaíos[2] would in time be one of a few different buildings across the domains of the Seleukídai that would inspire a new kind of syncretic architecture that would blend Oriental and Hellenistic styles[3].


Meanwhile, Yerušalaim was renamed Dēmētriás, and was formally recognized as a Hellenic polis, and was scheduled to be settled with those of the Molossoi that the Romans were able to return. However, the Roman Senate refused to ratify that part of the so-called Treaty of Dáphnē, and also the parts about the partition of Pérgamon and the indemnity. Furthermore, while Aléxandros VI was returned to his kingdom, and the partition of Makedōnía dissolved and the Roman garrisons withdrawn, Roman garrisons did not withdraw from other parts of Hellā́s, such as Ápeiros and Petthalía. At least, not at first. The garrisons that had previously been stationed in Makedōnía were moved to the surrounding client states of Paeonía and Sapaía, but also to Lynkāstís, which was supposed to be a Seleukidian client, so as to surround the Makedṓnes and prevent them from expanding. For the moment, the Seleukídai were content with the status quo, so long as they were free to annex Pergamene lands, which they were warned not to do by Roman embassies, though the Romans took no action in actually preventing them from doing so, although said embassies were successful in guaranteeing the freedom of the city of Pérgamon itself… the time being. The Seleukídai did not move for Rhodian possessions on the mainland of Anatolḗ however, which came as a surprise to the city’s politicians as their proposal of further conflict against Rōma in an attempt to appease the Lord of Asíā had been rather poorly received. Thus, they would operate off of the assumption of neutrality in the coming years while the two powers licked their wounds.


Matters would change however with the Great Sicilian Revolt of 160 (154), which presented an opportunity for the Lord of Asíā to weaken the Romans and sour popular conceptions of them in Hellā́s for their refusal to free the Molossian slaves and pay their indemnity. The agreement that was struck with the Roman consuls at the conference in Kórinthos however, was thought to be beneficial to both parties, as Dēmḗtrios would receive a previously unprecedented number of Hellenic settlers with which to colonize the troublesome region of Ioudaía in a single massive wage, and the Roman Republic would no longer have to contend with indigenous people’s of Sicilia whose loyalties were questionable, thus opening up vast territories that had previously been available to real estate speculation. The terms of course of the Seleukídai for accepting the Molossoi and the indigenous peoples of Sicilia (which involved compensation of slave owners for their property) stipulated that the Roman Republic must first meet a payment of 5,500 talents of silver, which combined the cost of those Molossian slaves not returned and the royalty for their invasion of Syría, as outlined in the Treaty of Dáphnē. The Senate was reluctant to ratify the agreement, though capitulated when nearly the entire country of Hellā́s rose in revolt and cast out the Roman garrisons in what would come to be known as the Hellenic War, which began and ended in the year 166 (148). However, the war did not have the effect of driving Rōma from garrisoning her client states in the area.


As a result of the migration of the Molossoi and their Sicilian allies, a number of Hellenic cities in the region of Ioudaía experienced considerable expansion, including Antiókheia Ptolemaḯs[4], Gádara[5], Pélla[6], Philadélpheia[7], Paneiás[8], Skythópolis, and especially Dēmētriás (Yerušalaim), although a new city would also be founded at the right bank of the Iordánēs River[9] at the head of the Sea of Galīlaía that was called Makhairoûs[10]. The Hellenic deity of the old Jewish temple, which had recently been rededicated to Zéus Moríās, would therefore acquire another epithet as Eleutherōtḗs[11], a patron deity of freedom and the ‘downtrodden’. In Sicilia, large tracts of land became open to purchase by speculators, parts of which were set aside for veterans’ colonies, but the bulk of which was bought up by the wealthy classes of Rōma and Ītalia, who then leased sections of it to veterans whom they contracted to work on their estates.


The seizure of Pergamene lands of course, once again brought the Seleukídai to the shores of the Arkhipélagos and gave them a say in the affairs of Hellā́s, which they were only concerned with insomuch as it provided them with a source for able-bodied young Héllēnes. Following the security of matters in the west, Eukratídēs was allowed to return to his sub-kingdom in the east, where his son had eradicated the last of the Euthydēmídai west of the Paropamisádai[12], which left him content to leave Ménandros I Sōtḗr as the King of Indikḗ so long as he was content to remain such. Eukratídēs’ two sons, Eukratídēs the Younger and Hḗlioklēs, were then married to Euthydemidian princesses; the former to Antímakhē, the daughter of Antímakhos I, and the latter to Khrysógonē, the sister of Ménandros, while Ménandros took Eukratídēs’ daughter, Hellaníkē, so as to formally end hostilities between the two kingdoms[13]. Eukratídēs then divided the kingdom between his two sons, with the elder Eukratídēs ruling Tapuría, Traxianḗ, Sogdianḗ, and Eskhatēnḗ[14], while his eldest son, Hḗlioklēs would rule Baktrianḗ, the Paropamisádai, and Arakhōsía after his father’s death.


The so-called Basileús eis tḗn Anatolḗ, or the King in the East, further requested Hellenic philosophers be brought to the east, as the region was “increasingly infected” by the teachings of an “Indian sophist”, to whose philosophy he knew his rival, Ménandros had succumbed. He then spent the remainder of his tenure in his capital at Alexándreia-toû-Óxou[15], while his son Eukratídēs the Younger campaigned against the Saka in the Iaxártēs Valley, which was conquered in the name of the Lord of Asíā and settled with Paíones from the Tauros Mountains, Phrýges, and Héllēnes, particularly from the cities of Krḗtē, but also from Petthalía over the course of the next decade. During this time, two major invasions of the kingdom were repulsed – the first had been by the Saka, but a second by a people that the Héllēnes of the east called the ‘Koússanoi’[16], who were migrating not from the northeast. The repulsion of this second invasion sparked the interest of the King in the East and his sons, who commissioned adventurers to not only to explore the mountain passes, but to travel beyond them, and ascertain the political situation there. A certain of Alkétas of Kordyēnḗ was the first Héllēn to travel to the valley of the headwaters of the Óxos[17], which was inhabited by a strange people who spoke a language unrelated to the various languages of the Aryans[18], and were happy to accept the rule of the Seleukídai. Not only were these people docile, but they incorporated a particularly striking bright green stone into their elaborate headdresses that they referred to as motarzi[19], which was brought back to Eukratídēs at Alexándreia-toû-Óxou, who recognized it as líthos nephritikós, or jade. The King in the East then commissioned the same Alkétas to discover its source.


This expedition, after cataloguing the mountain passes as shown by their local guides, traveled first to a town called Kásagara[20], which had been known to the Héllēnes of the Iaxártēs during the reign of the Euthydēmídai. The region was apparently in utter political turmoil, with various ethnic groups fighting over it, which Alkétas wrote about in a perplexed manner, mostly because a “great power in the furthest east, beyond the setting of the sun” that he called variously ‘Tastraía/Tastraïkḗ’[21] was very interested in establishing its dominance over it, as jade seemed to be of great value to its people. However, while his lists of the kingdoms of the region are incomplete, he is known to have traveled to the court of the ‘tarkános’[22], the king of a people he referred to as the ‘Khíōnes’[23], who were the sworn enemies of Tastraïkḗ, and also to the court of the ‘Berniā́ssoi’[24], who allegedly held him prisoner for a few years before he and his companions were able to make their escape. Modern scholars tend to doubt the authenticity of Alkétas’ claims as far as his interactions with the courts of the Khíōnes and the Berniā́ssoi are concerned, although his description of the socio-political situation at the time was mirrored to some degree in the documents of the contemporary historians of the Far East.


At the end of his expedition, he penned the Ektóbasis, some of which has been lost to history, but would nonetheless prove to be an influential work on Western perceptions of the Far East and would inspire numerous successive expeditions over the course of the next century. He is also known to have beseeched Eukratídēs to move against the peoples of the region in the interest of controlling the trade of jade. The king was more interested in pursuing political alliances with the various peoples of the area however, and also with sending an embassy to the land of Tastraïkḗ to meet with their ruler. Alkétas however, does not appear to have been commissioned again, the reasons for which are not known, though it would appear that the Ektóbasis was his only literary work, which may suggest that he died shortly after completing it.


This second expedition was led by Páris of Alexandrópolis[25], and departed in the year 169 (145), though Páris and the majority of the members of the expedition never returned. Instead, only one of its junior members, one Telesphóros of Alexandrópolis, returned 11 years later in 179 (135), claiming that the expedition had been first imprisoned, and then robbed, and that the Khíōnes had murdered the other members. This second expedition, was a formal embassy sent to represent the Lord of Asíā whose mission it was not only to contact the so-called ‘Basileús tês Tastraïkês’, but to “ascertain the nature of his kingdom, and give a proper accounting of its military and its inner workings, and to extend the friendship of the Lord of Asíā”. Telesphóros recounted that Páris elected to follow a different route from the one of Alkétas’ Ektóbasis, and therefore did not document the same towns and polities that can be found in Alkétas’ work, traveling along the northern edges of a desert that he named ‘Keinotēnḗ’[26], visiting the towns of ‘Arkíāpā’[27], ‘Koússa’[28], ‘Ouātís’[29], ‘Ārsís’[30], and ‘Kroléina’[31].


According to Telesphóros account, the embassy had been able to proceed through the other cities “unfettered and unmolested”, however it was in the town of Kroléina that they were halted by a certain King ‘Bissasáilēs’[32], and handed over to the Khíōnes of Alkétas’ Ektóbasis, where their gifts and decrees were seized by the tarkános, a man he calls Indrasṓthrēs[33], who was apparently the suzerain of the Tastraíoi. Telesphóros gives a detailed account of the court and politics of the Khíōnes, as well as their military and customs. He also corroborates the claims of suzerainty, writing that the ruler of the Khíōnes received a number of brides from the nobility of Tastraïkḗ as tribute to placate his constant invasions of that country. Finally, he writes about a certain Takránēs[34], an ambassador of Tastraïkḗ who had been enslaved. Most of the other members of the embassy are recorded to have met their deaths either in the various intrigues of the court or attempting to escape. Telesphóros records that at the time that he was able to escape, Páris of Alexandrópolis was still alive, at least to his knowledge, albeit he had been made the slave of a banished nobleman for his intrigues with one of the concubines of the tarkános.


Further west, the decade of the mid-150s (early 150s BCE) for many of the Héllēnes in the cities of Syría, would be characterized by gossip of the palatial intrigues of the various wives of the king and their children. Dēmḗtrios would father three sons by his queen, who came to be known as Nýssa of Babylṓn - Dēmḗtrios, Antíokhos, and Antígonos – and two daughters – Nýssa and Laodíkē. He would also father two sons by Kleopátra II – the twins Séleukos and Neoptólemos. The king also took another wife, controversially, from a notable family of Smýrnē named Dēmoníkē, who was the sister of his general, Aléxandros of Smýrnē[35]. By Dēmoníkē he fathered another son – Aléxandros – and three daughters – Dēmoníkē, Selḗnē, and Androphílē. Between his eleven children and his three wives, ancient playwrights would have more than enough palatial intrigue to write about in the centuries to come, particularly surrounding Queen Nýssa[36], who was later executed for her part in the murders of Kleopátra II and two of her sons – Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr and Séleukos – and the attempted murder of her other sons, Ptolemaîos and Neoptólemos in the year 158 (156). Her execution marked a change in the administration of the empire, with a number of government offices, including provincial governorships, being purged of those members of her private circle. However, it would also mark a change in foreign policy, as the next King of Póntos would be her brother, Mithridátēs V, who would end the alliance struck by his uncle and Antíokhos IV following his ascendance to the throne. Thus, when the Artašesyan[37] rebelled against the sovereignty of the Seleukídai in 165-168 (149-146), King Artavazd proposed the marriage of his daughter, Satenik, to the young King of Póntos, who graciously accepted and entered into an alliance in which he supported the Artašesyan against the Seleukídai.


This war, the so-called Armenian War, while securing independence for Armenía Megálē[38], was unable to do so for Sōphēnḗ or Kommagēnḗ, where both of the local stratēgoí had joined his rebellion and were subsequently deposed and replaced. It was also significant in that the Armenian king, Artavazd, invited the Koússanoi, who had by this time migrated around the Hyrkanian Sea[39] and subjugated a number of the Skýthai in their wake, into the country to aid in his battles against the Seleukídai. In return, they were allowed to settled the region of Ałuank, known to the Héllēnes as Albanía[40]. Thus was established the Kingdom of Kwïpălăk[41], in the valley of the River Kur[42].





Notes



1. The epithet means “Zeus of Moriah”. Many of the cultic practices of Judaism will be continuing for the time being, such as the sacrificial procedure, although they will gradually be Hellenizing as the overwhelming majority Jerusalem’s inhabitants will not be Jewish from here on out.

2. Literally meaning “Old Yahweh”, in reference to the temple’s previous use as the center of the Jewish religion.

3. Remember that the Second Temple did not receive the glorious Hellenistic/Mesopotamian-style façade that we associate with it today until the reign of Herod the Great. Before that, it is thought that the temple was a much more mundane-looking structure, as it was not rebuilt with the money of a king but rather, by the few Jews that returned to Palestine under Persian rule (the archaeological record does not corroborate the Bible in this regard). Still, Herod built his façade over an existing structure, a structure which differed markedly from the typical Hellenistic temple. The new temple will include an expanded roof of the cella so as to allow there to be a single-layered stoa with Ionic columns with diagonal volutes and twisted fluting. The shafts of the columns are constructed from porphyry, while the ionic capitals are of white marble that is painted gold and blue. The rectangular façade of the temple does not permit for a regular Hellenistic-style pediment to be connected to the roof of the cella, and so the roof of the cella is left flat and lined with acroterion-like pinnacles along the cornicing. The new façade is adorned with a broken curved pediment, in the middle of which stands a golden statue of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr dressed in Macedonian fashion, wearing the pointed crown of Hḗlios and the diadema. The façade is made of white marble, as are the pinnacles, which are also painted gold and blue, like the capitals of the columns. The old square entrance is retained but adorned by a seven-layered archway below which is a tympanum that depicts Zéus Mórias seated on the Ark of the Covenant.

4. Ptolemais in Phoenicia, which was later called Acre by the crusaders IOTL.

5. Modern Umm Qais, in the Irbid Governorate, Jordan.

6. An ancient Hellenistic city that was one of the Decapolis in the modern Irbid Governorate, Jordan.

7. Modern Amman, Jordan.

8. Today known as Banias, known to the Romans as Caesarea Philippi, near Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights, modern Syria.

9. The Jordan River.

10. On the same site as the Hasmonean city of Capernaum.

11. The name means “the liberator”.

12. Contemporary native name of the Hindu Kush Mountains.

13. None of these princesses are historical, and their existence is merely inserted for convenience, as there are a lot of holes in the family trees of these dynasties that have room for them.

14. The name of the province that encompasses the modern Fergana and Alay valleys.

15. Alexandria on the Oxus, or modern Ai-Khanoum, in Takhar Province, Afghanistan.

16. A Hellenization of Tocharian kucaññe “Kuchean, from Kucha”. This is indeed a reference to the Kushans, although this name still only refers to a certain tribe of them.

17. The Oxus, or Amu Darya River.

18. These are either a sister-group to or the ancestors of the modern Burusho people of Northern Pakistan, whose language, according to Ilija Čašule, retains extensive traces of contacts with speakers of Paleo-Balkan languages, likely indicative of a long period of bilingualism and cultural exchange between settlers brought to Central Asia during the Hellenistic Period. They are mentioned here as inhabiting the Alay Valley in modern Kyrgyzstan.

19. A bastardization of the Tocharian word for “green”, attested in Tocharian B as motartstse and in Tocharian A as motarci.

20. A Hellenization of contemporary Kāšaɣara. Modern Kashgar, in Xinjiang Province, China.

21. During imperial times in China, the nation was often referred to by the ruling dynasty. Thus, the land would have been referred to as漢朝, which at the time, according to the Baxter-Sagart reconstructions and the evolution of Old Chinese to Middle Chinese, might have been pronounced something like Hnˤans Traw. The forms Tastraía/Tastraïkḗ would be Tocharian translations of the term, which might have come out as Tañstraw-, or something of the like, as the voiceless alveolar nasal might have been rendered a voiceless alveolar plosive.

22. A Hellenization of the possibly Iranian word tarxan, which used as a title of nobility variously among Iranian/Turkic/Mongolic-speaking peoples.

23. A Hellenization of *Hyōna, possibly the native name of the Xiongnu according to H.W. Bailey.

24. A Hellenization of a hypothetical Tocharian ethnonym – Wïrnaśśi – meaning “people of the crow”, based on the hypothesis that the Chinese ethnonym烏孫 (Wūsūn) represents a translation of the tribal name.

25. Alexandria in Arachosia. Modern Kandahar, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

26. Translated as “place of emptiness; empty country”. A Hellenistic name for the Taklamakan Desert.

27. A Hellenization of a hypothetical Tocharian toponym, Ārkwi Āpa “white water”, in reference to the city of Aksu, whose name has the same literal translation today, but is of Turkic origin.

28. A Hellenization of Tocharian Kuca. Modern Kucha, Xinjiang Province, China.

29. A Hellenization of a hypothetical Tocharian toponym, Wïtă “second, other”. The word itself is a reconstructed Proto-Tocharian form based off of Tocharian B wate and Tocharian A wät (in the traditional orthography, which I can’t stand).

30. A Hellenization of Tocharian Ārśi. Modern Karasahr, Xinjiang Province, China.

31. A Hellenization of Tocharian Kroräina. Modern Loulan, Xinjiang Province, China.

32. A Hellenization of Tocharian Wïsaṣṣayïla, meaning “golden gazelle”.

33. A Hellenization of the hypothetical Eastern Iranian name Indrazothrā, which means “offering of Indra”.

34. A Hellenization of the contemporary Old Chinese Ʈaŋ Khran (張騫), which we know today as Zhāng Qiān, the famous Chinese diplomat and adventurer who is thought to have traveled as far as the Levant, although at the time had been imprisoned at the court of the Xiongnu. Here the name has not gone through the same process of bastardization via Tocharian pronunciation because Telephorus had direct contact with Zhang Qian. Thus, the retroflex /ʈ/ has been rendered /t/ instead of /tr/.

35. This is the Alexander Balas that we know from IOTL, however the Seleucid government was not utterly destabilized by the rule of Antiochus V and his vizier, Heracleides, and so he has ended up a loyal servant of the Lord of Asia instead of a rival.

36. Nyssa of Cappadocia as she was known IOTL is known to have murdered her own children IOTL so as to put her most favorite son on the throne. She is one of three wives ITTL, and doesn’t have the same sort of influence at court as she did in Cappadocia IOTL, although she commits the murders that she does to ensure that her son will rule as Lord of Asia instead of one of his other brothers… particularly the sons of Demetrius and Cleopatra, whom she fears represent the best candidates for the Seleucid throne as they could merge Egypt and Anatolia permanently.

37. The Artaxiad Dynasty of Armenia.

38. Greater Armenia.

39. The Caspian Sea.

40. Caucasian Albania.

41. Modern Qabala, in Qabala District, Azerbaijan.

42. Contemporary name of the Kura River in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
 
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Corruption, Changing Alliances, and Consolidation





The 18 years of the reign of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr was not only significant for its scandals of palatial intrigue and the beginnings of contact with the Far East. Indeed, in the Mesógeios Sea, politics had been changed, perhaps irrevocably so, particularly in the Roman Republic, but also in Hellā́s, where the Romans were entirely cast out by a popular uprising of the people there.



In the Republic, the population transfer of the indigenous peoples and the Molossian slaves had established two precedents in the collective conscience of the citizens and subject peoples – that slave revolts could be successful against professional Roman legions, and that the Republic was no longer the unquestioned power of the Mesógeios. The Republic had also lost the war in Sicilia in the court of public opinion, which made four wars in a row that soldiers had had to come home to farms in disrepair with nothing to show for their years on campaign, if they came home at all. Indeed, a number of soldiers never came home, such as the 7,000 men under the command of the former consul, Pūblius Cornelius Scīpiō Aemiliānus Āfricānus, who had died in the Montēs Nebrodes, leaving their wives the responsibility of tending to farms and raising children simultaneously. Certainly, a great number of women were able to remarry and find fathers to stand in for their sons, but a great number of them also continued as widows, and found themselves unable to juggle the task of caring for small children and seeing that the seeds be sewn and crops be harvested. Banditry in the countryside among disaffected young men therefore became increasingly abundant during the late 160s and early 170s, and also organized crime in the cities, particularly in Rōma herself, where many veterans who had sold their farms had gone with their families looking for work. It was thought that the vast tracts of land that had been ceded to the state by the Sikanoi and Sikeloi would present a new opportunity for veteran families, and indeed it did for a great many of them, as at least 20 veterans’ colonies were founded in the interior of the island. However, many others found themselves in exactly the same position that they had been in Ītalia proper, as rich pātriciī and plēbēiī alike ended up buying the overwhelming majority of the new ager pūblicus, despite the fact that most of them were buying properties far in excess of 500 iūgera, which was a patent violation of the Lēx Licinia Sextia, which an increasingly small number of representatives in government seemed to care about. Consequently, a considerable number of veterans, mostly Italians, found themselves working these large estates as wage laborers, though their wages often could only barely sustain them and their families.



The ongoing expansion of the landless masses was beginning to create problem for the Republic, one that became very obvious when envoys of a certain King Abbegei[1] II in Āfrica arrived at the Roman colony of Corduba, complaining of Lusitanian raids on the cities of Tingi[2], Tamuda, and Lix[3]. To put it simply, the number of landowning citizens from which the government could recruit to go to war in Lūsītānia to acquire a new ally that might be used to check the new King Gulussen[4] of the Inumiden, whose loyalties were questionable given the status of his assent to the throne, had dwindled considerably. It was also getting increasingly difficult to recruit among the Italian allies, who generally seemed to see such a war as a fool’s errand and preferred to remain at home and work off the debt that the Senate was still unwilling to pay (having submitted only the royalty and the fee for the Molossian slaves). This would result in the proposal of certain military reforms by ambitious politicians looking to further their careers as patrons of the army and the veterans. These reforms were spearheaded by Scīpiō Aemiliānus, who found an unlikely ally in Appius Claudius Pulcher[5], but also Quintus Caecilius Metellus, and of course his own brother, Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemiliānus. Among the reforms proposed, it would be mandatory that portions of the ager pūblicus be allotted to retiring veterans, who, should they be of Italian origins, would also be granted citizenship after a period of service of 15 years. Citizenship after 15 years was popular in the Senate, but land grants for retiring veterans was rejected, and because Aemilānus and his associates were unwilling to accept a half measure, none of their proposals passed at all. Metellus and Aemiliānus were then sent to Hispānia to deal with the problem of the Lūsītānī, which they were able to do, albeit not in a decisive manner that would ensure that they would no longer be a threat to Roman interests, as they had by now allied with the Vēttōnes and the Belli.





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Following the Treaty of Léptis, the Kǝná’anim of Qart-Ḥadašt found themselves in a renewed position of strength that subsequently influenced the fall of the Roman Republic from the position of hegemon of the Mesógeios. Though no longer the imperialist maritime power that they had been in years past, they now had a powerful ally in the Seleukídai that was committed to ensuring their future as an independent state so as to act as a buffer in the Central Mesógeios between Asíā and Rōma. The Seleukídai provided the Kǝná’anim with a great deal of logistical and financial support, including helping them to reform their military, which would now be a standing, professional army, with infantry troops from the cities that owed allegiance to the government at Qart-Ḥadašt. In return, the government of Asíā removed taxes on certain wares of Kǝna’anite merchants, specifically on agricultural products. Qart-Ḥadašt was further aided militarily following the migration of the indigenous peoples of Sicilia and the Molossian slaves, some thousands of whom accepted contracts as mercenaries, where they were employed to subdue the Igerramen of the southern desert and allowed to found their own city at Bēráneia[6], so named for the Sicilian goddess of the forests.



However, the death of the old king of the Inumiden, Masensen, also spurred in a change in political alliances in the region, as the king’s eldest son, perhaps the most loyal to the Roman Republic, had died in Sicilia during the Reduellātiō Magnus Servōrum, and his younger brother, Gulussen, had been made king. The first factor spurring this change, was the attention the Republic paid to the Lūsītānī after their raids of the Kingdom of Tingi[7], which Gulussen was not so dull as to not be able to see the implications of. Surely, the weakening of the holdings of King Abbegei, with whose father the Romans had only had fleeting political relations, did absolutely nothing whatsoever to weaken Roman interests in Hispānia. So, engaging in such a micro-militaristic effort had to be aimed principally at gaining an ally in Āfrica, and an ally against whom? Masensen, out of all of the Republic’s allies, had certainly been the least sure, having promised aid many times and usually failing to have delivered it. Indeed, it could be said that the only reason that he intervened in Sicilia was to protect his own interests, fearing the implications of the island falling into the hands of the Lord of Asíā, who was now a close ally of the country that he had personally betrayed during his tenure. And now the old opportunist had died, together with his son, perhaps Rōma’s most unapologetic foreign psychophant. Furthermore, the Republic’s defeat of the coalition of the Vēttōnes, Belli, and Lūsītānī was so costly that it had crippled them for the time being. It seemed the peak of the Roman mountain had already been reached, meaning that there was only one way to go – down. The most sensible thing to do in the situation it seemed, was to renounce the legacy of his father and mend fences with Qart-Ḥadašt.





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Perhaps the most significant aspect of the reign of Dēmḗtrios I Nikátōr Sōtḗr, at least for his subjects at the time, was the extensive tour he took of his kingdom. Touring the kingdom to squash unruly vassals was a regular hallmark of Seleukidian monarchs, although it can be said that Dēmḗtrios was indeed the first of them to tour it so thoroughly, and also to travel so far. Indeed, while he never made it to the East, he is known to have toured thoroughly in Syría, Ioudaía, Anatolḗ, and Aígyptos. His tour of the kingdom would begin with a tour of the newly conquered regions of Anatolḗ, from whence he was married to the lady Dēmoníkē of Smýrnē. This portion of his tour began in the year 156 (157) in Kilikía, starting at Issós, where the victory of Aléxandros ho Mégas was commemorated with a grand imperial demonstration and the declaration of a new holiday – Issóeia, to be celebrated on the 5th of Apellaîos[8] of each year. Beginning in the following spring, he then journeyed west along the coast and visited the ancient cities of Tarsos, Zephýrion[9], Olbanópolis[10], and also Seleúkeia-toû-Kalýkadnou[11]. From here, he took the road northwest into the Tauros Mountains, where he was received by the king Zāġéianos of the Paíones there at a mountain stronghold called Honówina[12], who had supported him against the King of Pérgamon. Here, he negotiated the resettlement of the Paionian tribes of the region in the far east, as a proper reward for their loyalty to him, and also as a means of pacifying a people who had historically proved rather problematic for local rulers to keep under control. Continuing to the Pisidian city of Karallía[13] and then to Laodíkeia Katakekauménē[14], he would hold court at this small, and yet historically significant town, where Ariaráthēs V of Kappadokía and his wife Laodíkē V, the sister of the Lord of Asíā attended.



It was at court here in the autumn of the year 156 the queen was reunited with her son, Aléxandros VI, whom she had not seen since he was a child[15]. It was also here that a young and virile Aléxandros is recorded as not only having demonstrated his athletic and academic prowess, but also as having met his future wife, Philōtéra of Lynkāstís, at least in Seleukidian sources. The Makedonian and Hellenic writers place their meeting later, at his own court at Pélla. Still, the reunion of mother and son at Laodíkeia Katakekauménē was historically significant, principally as one of the markers of the end of Roman hegemony in Hellā́s, as it was the Romans, following their victory against Laodíkeia’s husband Perseús, that had separated them, parading the Makedonian king and his sons before the Roman mob as captives.



Laodíkeia was subsequently given leave by her husband to continue the tour of Anatolḗ with her brother and her son, which turned west again to Philomélion[16], and then to Nikópolis, where he sacrificed to the goddess Níkē, and then took a detour to the city of Sýnnada[17], where he is said to have taken part in the local festivities surrounding the city’s founder, Ākā́mās, son of Thēseús. From here he continued into Phrygía, stopping at Aízanoí[18], where he not only took the time to sacrifice to Zéus at the temple there, which he rededicated to Zéus Sabázios, but also dawned Phrygian dress and engaged in Phrygian religious rites surrounding Sabázios and Kybélē, declaring his queen, Nýssa, to be a living embodiment of the goddess, and crowning her with a mural crown. He is said to have dawned the Phrygian dress through to Kotýaion[19], from whence he made his way to Ilion, which was outside the borders of his kingdom, yet nevertheless an important stop on his tour. Here, as Aléxandros ho Mégas had done, he and his companions took off their clothes and raced at the tomb Akhileús. However, he was not anointed with oil here, but rather made sure that his nephew, Aléxandros VI, the King of Makedōnía was, and all of them hung their garlands over the tomb.



It is said that on this voyage, neither king tried to hide their feelings for one another, and remained romantically involved during their stay at Adramýtteion, and at Pérgamon, where Dēmḗtrios received the homage of Áttalos II, and the king was forced to offer his teenage son as a hostage of the entourage, to return with it to Babylṓn. Aléxandros and Dēmḗtrios would part ways at Lésbos, where the royal entourage would spend the entire year of 159 (155). It was also here that Queen Nýssa was again deified at Mytilḗnē, and a new temple was erected in her honor. Though from Mytilḗnē, the Lord of Asíā went to Khíos, and then to the small port town of Kýsos[20], where yet another temple was dedicated to his queen, and the town was refounded as Nyssaía. Ancient writers are not in agreement as to why this was done however, with some speculating that the queen had been jealous of his romance with his young nephew, and it was an act of appeasement, while others seem to believe that it was at Kýsos that the king and the queen fell in love. Whatever the case, Dēmḗtrios took a third wife at Smýrnē, who was the sister of his general, Aléxandros of Smýrnē, with whom it has also been speculated that he had a romantic relationship, although it would later be revealed that Aléxandros and Queen Nýssa had been enamored with one another, and that he had had a hand in the murder of Kleopátra II. Nýssa was again deified at Magnēsía-toû-Sipýlou before a representation of Kybélē that was believed to be as ancient as the city of Ilion[21], where garlands were hung on the statue, and the queen was named Mḗtēr Kybélē Nikēphórē, or the “Victorious Mother Kybélē”, in commemoration of the defeat of Dēmḗtrios’ grandfather, Antíokhos III at Magnēsía, and the victory in the war in Syría, and the queen’s pivotal role in negotiating the alliances that had forced the Romans to sail for Syría and not Anatolḗ.



Next, the king visited the city of Sárdeis, where he is recorded as having addressed the people in the native language of the country[22], made offerings at local temples, and having dedicated the grounds for a new gymnásion. At Ephesos, which was his next stop, the king was hailed as the living manifestation of Apóllōn-Hḗlios, where he dawned a solar crown and was received with great festivities, although the festivities would not match those at Mílētos, where the king ordered that the grandiose temple to Apóllōn-Hḗlios at Dídyma be completed. It is in fact, off of the statements of the oracle at Dídyma that scholars both ancient and modern in part base their speculation that Dēmḗtrios fell in love with his queen, Nýssa, at Kýsos, as she is recorded as having said…



“At Kýsos you will lay a trap for yourself that will cost you what is most dear to you. Perhaps our king is a fool. But at the most ancient city, you made a dynasty that will reign immortal. So, perhaps he is wise indeed.”



Dēmḗtrios is said to have been confused by the oracle, which is also thought to have changed his demeanor with regards to his queen. However, how he interpreted the oracle is entirely up to the speculation of writers both ancient and modern, as none of his future actions as a ruler can be directly attributed to it. He would stay in Mílētos for the remainder of the year, which is where he received the embassy of the rebel Newoptólemos, who later became the árkhōn of Dēmētriás. For now however, beginning at the end of the winter of 161 (153), he traveled by way of the Maíandros River in Karía to the region of Lykía, a sacred region for the cult of Apóllōn, stopping at Telebehi, which the Héllēnes knew as Telmēssós[23], and Pttara, which the Héllēnes knew as Pátara[24]. At both cities he was worshipped as Apóllōn-Hḗlios, but at Pttara he declared his recognition of the Lykian League and the liberty of its people. He then sailed for Pamphylía, one of the most ancient and isolated regions of Hellenic settlement in Anatolḗ, where he visited the cities of Pergā[25], where he ordered the expansion of the ancient temple of Artemis there, and participated in local festivities in her honor. He is also said to have taken a particular interest in the local dialect of Hellenic, which he assigned the historian Kléōn of Lárisa to write a dictionary for, and left him there while he traveled to the port city Sídē, and then sailed for Anemoúrion[26], where he paid homage at the temple of the local god of the wind, and then retired to Dáphnē.



The remainder of the year would be spent in Syría, principally at Dáphnē, though his tour of his domains would later include Phoinḯkē[27], Ioudaía, and especially Aígyptos. In Syría, the king is known to have paid special attention to the city of Ṣawba’[28], where the people received him as Ilāh hag-Gabal, the “god of the mountain”, in human form. The local temple here was expanded, as was the city, which was not settled with Héllēnes, but rather ethnic ‘Ārāmāyē tribespeople who had proven their loyalty to the Lord of Asíā by holding the mountain passes in Syría against the Romans. From here, he is known to have traveled to Phoinḯkē, where records of his activities are generally rather sparse, although it is known that his wife, Kleopátra II was venerated as Ba’alat Gebal at the city of Gebal[29], an event which has been debated by historians for centuries. First and foremost, it can be noted that Ba’alat was the tutelary goddess of the city, and was a sister and consort to ‘Ēl, who, according to local tradition, had gifted her the city of Gebal. At a very early period in history, Aigyptian merchants had equated Ba’alat Gebal with their own goddess Aset, whom the Héllēnes knew as Isis, and had dedicated statues to her in Ba’alat’s temple some centuries earlier[30]. The Hellenic queens of Aígyptos had of course been recognized as living manifestations of Isis since the reign of queen Arsinóē II[31], who herself was worshipped as such at the Hellenic island of Dḗlos during her reign as a ‘guest-goddess’. However, the ancient Phoinikian city of Gebal had been an important port of rest for trade in the Mesógeios for thousands of years, and it was there that, according to one version of the story of Isis, she had retrieved her brother and husband Wesir, whom the Héllēnes knew as Ósiris, from a coffin. The so-called Ba’alat Gebal was also associated with the more widely venerated Phoinikian goddesses Aštart and Atar’atheh, who had already been Hellenized as Astártē and Atárgatis, who themselves were mostly indistinguishable at the time due to widespread syncretism and had been associated by the Héllēnes with Aphrodítē. Syncretizing these goddesses with the rapidly evolving divine cult brought the peoples of Syría, Mesopotamía, and Aígyptos together under what would be recognized as a single religion with various local manifestations and would represent an important step in the evolution of the Seleukidian monarchy.



Scholars however have continued to debate the king’s reasoning behind his veneration of Kleopátra, as he had already venerated his queen, Nýssa during his tour of his Anatolian territories. On one hand, there are those who use the deification of Kleopátra as evidence not only of the beginning of the king’s romance with his Kappadokian queen at Kýsos, but also that the king had interpreted the words of the oracle at Dídyma to mean that Nýssa would betray him. This school of thought further argues that his marriage to Kleopátra was strictly political, and that his veneration of her as a living representation of such goddesses as Isis, Atárgatis, and Astártē, who were all more widely worshipped within his domains than the Phrygian goddess Kybélē, demonstrate that he was replacing Nýssa with Kleopátra as his queen. After all, certain aspects of all of the goddesses in question overlapped, which, according to this school of thought, means that veneration of the queens would have been an exclusive affair, meaning that there was some sort of a serious rift in his relationship with Nýssa around this time that may or may not have been informed by the words of the oracle. This point of view is further strengthened by the statement of the oracle that ‘…at the most ancient city…’, Dēmḗtrios had made a dynasty that would ‘…reign immortal…’. The antiquity of the Aigyptian city of Mémphis was known at the time[32], and it was here that the king had both wedded Kleopátra, the heiress of Aígyptos, but also been crowned parǝḣo’[33]. It is therefore argued that the king had fallen in love with Nýssa at Kýsos, the woman who would eventually betray him, and that he sought to venerate Kleopátra above her, as it was the descendants of his sons by her that would reign as the future Lords of Asíā.






There are problems with this interpretation of events however, namely that Nýssa continued to be worshipped as the living Mḗtēr Kybélē Nikēphórē not only in Anatolḗ, but also in Syría and Mesopotamía. Also, this interpretation superimposes the modern notion of the exclusivity of deities onto antiquity, when worship was not exclusive, and therefore both queens could easily be deified simultaneously. Furthermore, Dēmḗtrios, the 6-year-old son of the king Dēmḗtrios I, had already been crowned as his heir-apparent and co-ruler in the West. However, whether or not Queen Nýssa was actually being replaced with Kleopátra because the king himself took the words of the oracle seriously, it is apparent that she felt this way and took them very seriously indeed. It has been speculated that part of her reasoning was because her son, Dēmḗtrios, did not survive childhood, and may have been born sickly, although contemporary writers do not state this. Although, she was mother to two other healthy sons, both of whom would later inherit the throne as Antíokhos VI Theós Philopátōr and Antígonos I Hiérax.



It is also known that in Phoinḯkē, Dēmḗtrios ordered the reconstruction of the city of Ṣūr, known to the Héllēnes as Týros, as a means of appeasing the local population, whose city had been raised by Aléxandros ho Mégas. The reasons for this are not entirely understood by modern scholars, as it would seem that in Anatolḗ that the king had sought to mimic Aléxandros to some degree, but some believe that it was a gesture to his allies in Qart-Ḥadašt, whose people considered Ṣūr to be their mētrópolis, or mother city. At Ṣīdūn, which the Héllēnes knew as Sidṓn, a gymnásion was built, and Kleopátra II, was deified again, this time as a representation of Astártē. However, continuing into Ioudaía, there was no deification of anyone, and the king is recorded as having sacrificed at the temple of Zéus Morías at Dēmētriás in the Jewish fashion.



The deification of Kleopátra did not stop at Ṣīdūn, and continued on through the tour of her native Aígyptos, where the royal entourage sailed down the Neîlos on pilgrimage to visit the various sites that the goddess had visited to collect the body parts of her dead husband and brother, Ósiris. At Alexándreia however, Kleopátra’s then teenage son, Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr is recorded as having been elevated to the position of high-priest of the cult of Aléxandros ho Mégas, which had been instituted by Ptolemaîos II Philádelphos more than a century earlier. A change in this cult however, was that Dēmḗtrios equated Aléxandros ho Mégas with Hḗraklēs, as the son of Zéus-Hámmōn, which implied that Aléxandros had been a living manifestation of one of the most ancient and perhaps most significant cultural heroes of Hellā́s. This would have important socio-political consequences in the future. Likewise, in the south, Kleopátra was again venerated at Swenet[34] as the protectress of Aígyptos and a patroness of the armed forces there. However, yet another significant aspect of the king’s visit to Aígyptos was the court that he held at Ptolemaḯs Hermaíou, where he received the homage of native notable families, and also the friendship of the Queen of Medewi[35], who was in attendance, and said to be so beautiful that she was named a Nērēḯs by the king. Modern writers speculate as to the nature of their relationship, but no contemporary source implies that it went beyond the ritualized guest-friendship that was the norm of a Seleukidian court.



Following the court at Ptolemaḯs Hermaíou and his pilgrimage down the Neîlos with his second wife, Kleopátra II, the Lord of Asíā is again recorded at Hierópolos Bámbykē[36], where he and his wives sacrificed at the local temples, and he and Kleopátra were deified as Ba’al and Atar’atheh. However, it was at Dáphnē, where the royal entourage was in rest before setting out for the East that the assassination of Kleopátra and her sons took place, and it was through the confession of his third wife, Dēmoníkē, whose brother had been part of the conspiracy, that Queen Nýssa was implicated in the year 164 (150). Contemporary writers record that the king was at first reluctant to believe the evidence implicating his wife, as initial rumors had suggested that Timarkhos and his brother, Herakleídēs had been involved. The queen and her very young son, Séleukos, were poisoned, while her older son, Ptolemaîos IX Eupátōr, was stabbed to death in Aígyptos, where he had taken on the high-priesthood of Aléxandros-Hḗraklēs. The younger Ptolemaîos and Neoptólemos seem to have been meant to be poisoned as well, although history does not record why or how they were not. What is recorded, is that Séleukos, who was naught more than a toddler at the time of his murder, was a favorite son of the Lord of Asíā, who fell into a deep depression after his death, which was furthered by the execution of his wife and the purging of her affiliates at court, some of whom had been close friends of his.



It was at this time that the king started to become increasingly paranoid, and also when the exodus of the Molossian slaves and the indigenous peoples of Sikelía was negotiated, and Newoptólemos and his army were received at Dáphnē with a luxurious military parade that was replicated and expanded at the capital of Babylṓn. The tour of the East was put off at this time for a later date, as relations with the King of Póntos, who had been a brother-in-law to the Lord of Asíā, had begun to deteriorate following his sister’s execution. War did not break out until the following year, when Mithridátēs V allied with the stratēgós of Armenía Megálē, Artavazd, and incited a rebellion in Sōphēnḗ, Kommagēnḗ, Adiabēnḗ, and Kordyēnḗ. The war would mark a bloody 3 years in which the most royal houses of all four regions were purged, either being murdered to the man or sent into exile in the new Kingdom of Armenía. The war might have been a victory for the Seleukídai as well, had it not been for the invitation of the Koússanoi by King Artavazd, who devastated the Lord of Asíā’s new Sikelian troops who had up until then proved extremely useful against the Armenoi and the Pontoi. Still, though these forces suffered enormously against the Koússanoi, at the Battle of Oxidástēs[37], some 15,000 Sikelian and Molossian troops under the command of Alkaîos of Sikelía not only held their own against them, but routed them. This elite army, which was later simply dubbed hoi Síkeloi, or “the Sikelians”, were made the personal security detail of the Lord of Asíā thereafter.





Notes





1. It is not known which king reigned between Bagas and Bocchus II in Mauretania, so I have assumed a second Bagas reigned. The name ‘Bagas’ also seems to be a Romanization of Berber abbegi/abbegei, which is still a common personal name in Tuareg dialects, meaning “jackal”.

2. Contemporary native pronunciation of modern Tangiers, in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Province, Morocco.

3. Contemporary native pronunciation of Lixus, which was an ancient town located north of the modern port of Larache, in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Province, Morocco.

4. Contemporary native pronunciation of Gulussa, who was the second eldest son of King Masinissa of Numidia.

5. Appius Claudius Pulcher and Scipio Aemilianus were staunch political rivals IOTL.

6. Modern Kairouan, in Kairouan Governorate, Tunisia. Apparently this place was heavily wooded at the time of its settlement in 670 AD IOTL, and so it is named for a woodland goddess, whose name is from PIE *ghwḗr “wild, wild animal”.

7. The name ‘Mauretania’ seems to be a loan into Latin from Greek, itself from the word maurós, meaning “dark, black”. Therefore, we will just be referring to the kingdom by its capital city of Tingi ITTL, as funny as the name might sound…

8. The 5th of November, which is at the start of the Seleucid year, remember, as the new year is in autumn.

9. Modern Mersin, in Mersin Province, Turkey.

10. North of modern Silifke, in Mersin Province, Turkey.

11. Modern Silifke, in Mersin Province, Turkey.

12. Just as a reminder, I am positing that the scantily recorded Homonadesians of the Taurus Mountains are descendants of the Paeonians who were deported under Darius I by his general Megabazus during the former’s European campaign in the late 6th century BCE. As another reminder, I am positing that Paeonian is a close relative to Greek and Ancient Macedonian whose dialects went through their own processes of palatalization that were similar to those in Proto-Greek. So, the name of the king here, is derived from PIE from PIE *yeh2g- “to sacrifice”, with a meaning of “pious”. The name of the city however, is actually from a hypothetical Isaurian Wnwinaha – from Old Luwian Wanawinassa, a place name meaning “place of the lady of wine”, a local epithet of a goddess. Hellenized as Honoína, and therefore colloquially referred to by Cilician Greeks as Honáina “she-ass”, or Honainapólis “city of she-asses”. I am also positing that the /m/ alteration, known from Roman records in the name Homona, is from the Old Persian form of the name, Umbīnā, although why Persian /i/ became Greek /o/ is probably due to linguistic bastardization.

13. Modern Beyşehir, in Konya Province, Turkey.

14. Modern Ladik, in Konya Province, Turkey.

15. Alexander, his brother, and his father were taken as hostages after the Third Macedonian War where his father eventually died in the late 160s, before Antiochus IV ITTL was able to secure their return to Macedon.

16. Modern Akşehir, Konya Province, Turkey.

17. Modern Şuhut, in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey.

18. A particularly ancient city that had been Phrygian at least since the onsent of the first millennium BCE. Modern Çavdarhisar, in Kütahya Province, Turkey.

19. Modern Kütahya, in Kütahya Province, Turkey.

20. Modern Çeşme, in Izmir Province, Turkey.

21. The Suratlu Taş carving at modern Manisa, in Manisa Province, Turkey. This carving today has been horrendously damaged, perhaps by deliberate vandalism, and so its affinities cannot be certain. It is however, speculated to be a representation of Cybele, or Kubaba, as the carving has been dated back to the Bronze Age and is believed to be of Hittite origin.

22. The Lydian language, which IOTL is not known in inscriptions dating later than 200 BCE. However, just because the language stopped being recorded in inscriptions, doesn’t mean that it was extinct or even endangered – it may simply have been replaced as the official language of Lydia by this time. Therefore, Demetrius addressing the population in their native language as opposed to Greek, which he likely would have needed some tutoring to have done, would have been an enormous gesture.

23. Modern Fethiye, in Muğla Province, Turkey.

24. Near the small modern town of Gelemiş, Antalya Province, Turkey.

25. Modern Aksu, Antalya Province, Turkey.

26. Modern Anamur, in Mersin Province, Turkey.

27. Contemporary Greek pronunciation of Phoenicia.

28. Modern Homs, Homs Governorate, Syria.

29. Modern Byblos, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon.

30. Beginning between the 10th and the 8th centuries BCE.

31. See the essay ‘The Development and Diffusion of the Cult of Isis in the Hellenistic Period’, by Kelly A. Moss.

32. The city of Memphis was founded in the early 31st century BCE.

33. Contemporary pronunciation of modern pharaoh, in IPA [parəˈʕoʔ].

34. Modern Aswan, in Aswan Governorate, Egypt.

35. The queen in question is Queen Shanakhdakhete of Meroe.

36. Modern Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria.

37. A Hellenization of contemporary Armenian Voskidašt, meaning “golden valley”. The modern Uluova Valley, which encompasses part of Elaziğ Province, Turkey.
 
Hey everyone! I thought it would be courteous to let you guys know what’s happening on my end, so that way you guys aren’t left hanging if I am in fact behind schedule this week.


I have an update mostly written, although I am trying to wrap my head around the Udi language, which was apparently once widely spoken in Caucasian Albania (roughly modern Azerbaijan), so that I can provide some tribal/personal names for the timeline. In case you didn’t follow what was briefly alluded to in the last updates, the Seleucids defeated the Yuezhi in their attempted invasion of Bactria, and so they rode around the Caspian Sea and were invited into Caucasian Albania by the King of Armenia, where they have established a kingdom centered on modern Qabala. I know enough about Tocharian to construct out tribal/personal/theophoric names, but I am a beginner insomuch as Udi, or any Northeast Caucasian language is concerned for that matter. So, it might take me a little while to finish this update.


Furthermore, I am going to Rome tomorrow with my husband for a 10 day vacation, so... that might also slow down the process just a bit. I appreciate your patience though, and if you guys have any feedback to offer, don’t hold back, please! Lol
 
So... the trip to Rome is off... complications of the weather. Or rather, it has been rescheduled for the 30th of this month. But anyways, I finished an update, and... I hope you guys like it!


Again, any feedback would be greatly appreciated ;)





Hellā́s, Anatolḗ, and Kwïpălăk





The Great Hellenic War has been noted by many historians as having created more problems than it solved. It is indeed tempting to think of the nearly two decades of hegemony of the Roman Republic as a time of oppression, although one cannot ignore the peace and prosperity that the peoples of Hellā́s enjoyed during this period when contrasted to the one that came after it. The Roman Republic had of course weakened its forces in Hellā́s during the Reduellātiō Magnus Servōrum, which had presented the perfect opportunity for the various city states and leagues to rise in rebellion against it and expel the Romans from the country altogether, and the Romans cannot be said to have put up much of a fight. Certainly, the war is principally characterized by the Battle of Pýthion, where a combined army of Akhaioí, Petthaloí, Akarnânes, and Āpeirôtai fought a battle that was considered on either side to have been a victory, which continues to be debated among scholars as to who was the actual victor. Certainly, the Héllēnes got exactly what they wanted – a Roman withdrawal. But, at what cost? The Akhaioí, Akarnânes, and Āpeirôtai had freed their slaves and promised land grants to the lower classes in order to bring them to the battlefield. Some of the landless poor did indeed receive land grants for their service, but the freed slaves for the most part did not, which expanded the landless masses considerably and required the creation of standing professional armies that received their salaries from the state, which was quite a novelty given the military history of the country. With their new and properly blooded armed forces, the states of Hellā́s would spend the next decade at least at war with one another, until they found themselves, by and large, under the hegemony of despotic foreign powers once again.



The rush to internal conflict was in fact rather immediate, beginning the year after the Roman withdrawal in 168 (146) with what has been characterized by many, particularly the contemporary historian and politician Polýbios, as a war of vengeance between the Akarnânes and the Aitōloí, the latter of whom were widely perceived among the Héllēnes as partially responsible for the subjugation of the country by the Roman Republic. This war was particularly bloody, and would be drawn out for the next 6 years until 161 (139), when the capital city of Thérmon was finally forced to surrender and the treasures of its temples, particularly the Temple of Apóllōn, were plundered. With the fall of Aitōlía also came the fall of Phōkís, and also the sacred city of Delphoí, which triggered an invasion by an alliance of the Akhaioí and the Āpeirôtai, the two principle theatres of which were in Ambrakía and Boiōtía, the so-called “dancing-ground of Árēs”, where the Héllēnes had now been doing much of their internal bickering for some centuries. To avoid fighting a war on two fronts, the Akarnanian stratāgoí forged an alliance with the Dardanian king, Kláitas[1] II, whose people were disgruntled former allies of the Roman Republic, who invaded Ápeiros in full force, bringing the two “kinslaver” tribes of the Thesprōtoí and the Kháones to heel after yet another drawn out conflict that saw non-Héllēnes yet again ruling over Héllēnes. This theatre of the war was not completed until the year 178 (136), while the conflict between the Akhaioí and the Akarnânes would continue until 184 (130), both powers having fought themselves to a draw, with Boiōtía finally being ceded to the Akarnanian League as per the wishes of the Boiōtoí themselves after the cities of the region were allowed to vote as per what came to be known as the Compromise of 184. However, when the Dárdanai failed to withdraw from Ápeiros despite having been commanded to do so three times over the following two years, the Akarnânes and the Akhaioí formed an alliance to drive them out in the year 186 (128), which they were successful in doing, but it would not be the last that the Héllēnes would be hearing of the Dárdanai.





***************





Following the defeat of the Romans at Mount Bēlos, the borders of Anatolḗ were redrawn to the satisfaction of at least some of the monarchs in the region. Certainly, the Attalídai of Pérgamon had received the shorter end of the stick, having had to cede the bulk of their lands to the Seleukídai, and the Gálatai had had their lands divied up between the Kingdom of Kappadokía and the Kingdom of Póntos. The Gálatai however, would go on to serve as valuable mercenary forces for the Kingdom of Póntos in the Armenian War against the Seleukídai, where a certain Vellaunos was rewarded with the title of King of the Gálatai under Mithridátes V. Other contingents on Galatian mercenaries were hired by the newly founded Kingdom of Haykh[2], where they formed the personal security detail of King Artavazd, and also in the Kingdom of Kwïpălăk, where they were one of the first infantry units that would inspire the armor and tactics of later armies there.



Indeed, the independence of the Kingdom of Haykh was an important moment in the political, but also cultural development of the area. It was the first time that the Haykh[3] would not be vassals or otherwise paying tribute to a larger imperial state since Uvaxštra of Māda had ridden into the ancient city of Tušpa and forced the submission of Rusa IV. Now, not only was the kingdom fully independent, but a member of a political block in the region that included the Kingdom of Póntos, the Kingdom of Kartli, and the Kingdom of Kwïpălăk. To make matters that much more optimistic, the Kingdom of Haykh had strengthened its alliances with dynastic marriages, starting with King Artavazd’s eldest daughter, Satenik, who married Mithridátēs V of Póntos, but continuing with hs younger daughter, Naninĵahi[4], who was married to the King of Kwïpălăk, Ṣwïletïla Cola[5]. These alliances were fruitful not only politically, but economically, putting the road from the East through the Kaúkasos Mountains to the Áxeinos Sea into the hands of four allied monarchs, that from there traded with the Kingdom of Bospóros and the Hellenic cities of Mikrá Skythía, which were under the protection of the Odrysai.



Mithridátēs V’s marriage to the Armenian princess, Satenik, would prove to be fruitful not only in terms of the mutual reciprocity between Haykh and Póntos, but also in terms of reproductive output. His wife bore him five children – Mithridátēs, Sateníkē, Pharnákēs, Roxánē, and Stateira[5]. Furthermore, with Armenía Megálē having broken away from Seleukidian rule to form the Kingdom of Haykh, the Kingdom of Kartli[6] now found itself politically isolated from the regional hegemons that had in the past, recognized their kingship. This was convenient of course for Mithridátēs, who had designs on the region of Kolkheti[7], which he decided to divide with the King of Kartli, Mirvan I, in the interests of not overextending the resources and manpower available to him after his costly war with the Seleukídai. This was of mutual benefit to Mirvan and the continuity of his kingdom, as the Kings of Kartli had been recognized by and allied loosely to the Seleukídai in the past, and continuing this relationship would mean being politically isolated from his immediate neighbors. Therefore, the two monarchs spent the years of 173-176 (141-138) conquering and consolidating the tribes of Kolkheti, although Mithridátēs would find that the Tzani were not as easily subdued as he thought they would have been. His military expenditures in the region might have cost him his ambition of one day ruling Kappadokía, although the price in his mind was worth it, as he was now effectively in control of trade on the Áxeinos Sea.



However, breaking the friendship of his uncle with the Seleukídai would not come without consequences. The union of Nikomḗdēs II of Bithynía and Laodíke VI, the daughter of the so-called Theós Epiphanḗs, or “god manifest”, Antíokhos IV, had produced an especially ambitious heir to the Bithynian throne by the name of Prousías III[8], who would not wear the diadem until after his father’s death in 187 (127), but nonetheless was able to convince his father as a sharp-witted and able-bodied youth, to move against the Kingdom of Póntos and seize its Galatian territories in the year 175 (139) while Mithridátēs was embroiled in his campaigns against the Tzani of Kolkheti. As a cousin-in-law of the Lord of Asíā, Nikomḗdēs would enjoy his support, which was enough to convince the Galatian puppet-king, Vellaunos, to default to the Bithynian side in the conflict. The loss of Galatía would be referred to by the next King of Póntos, Mithridátes VI, as his father’s “shame”, and the region would become the battleground on which he and the later king Prousías III would decide where the future of Anatolḗ would stand in the closing decades of the century.



On the other hand, with the reduction of the Kingdom of Pérgamon to nothing more than a rump-state under the effective control of the Lord of Asíā, dynastic marriages between them and foreign dynasties such as the Odrysai were no longer very appealing… except to the Seleukídai. It would become a matter of policy for Dēmḗtrios I and his successors to breed out the Attalídai dynasty, starting with Áttalos III, who was held hostage at the capital of Babylṓn until his uncle’s death in 176 (138). Áttalos III was forced to marry Bereníkē, the daughter of Antíokhos IV by the late queen, Nýssa of Babylṓn. By her, he would have four children – Philétairos, Strátōn, and Athēnaḯs. Both Philétairos and Strátōn would marry granddaughters of Eukratídēs the Elder, Eurydíkē (daughter of Hḗlioklēs I) and Helénē (daughter of Eukratídēs the Younger), while Athēnaḯs was married to Neoptólemos I of Aígyptos, which made Áttalos III’s successors, while members of the Attalídai in name, effectively a cadet branch of the Seleukídai with in two generations. Sṓthimas[9], the son of King Diégulas of the Odrysai, would therefore not be marrying into the Attalídai family, but instead he would marry one of the daughters of Nikomḗdēs II, one Apámē V, helping to bind the two neighboring kingdoms – who shared a common language and culture – closer together.


For the Kingdom of Kwïpălăk, matters were not as cut and dry. The reigning dynasty came from a people who collectively called themselves the Pïllentaṣṣi[10], whom the Héllēnes called the ‘Koússanoi’, for their claims of descent from the royal family of the ancient city of Kuca. The Pïllentaṣṣi had been a numerous and war-like people, but a civil war had split the various clans following a series of disastrous defeats over the past few decades. First, it had been the Hyōna, whose tarxan had taken their king’s head and used his skull as a drinking cup[11]. Then, it had been the Wïrnaśśi, a portion of whose grazing grounds they had attempted to take for themselves, only to be driven out at great cost to both sides. From there, they had sided with the Saka and attempted to invade the valley of the Iaxártēs, and then the rich country of Baktrianḗ, from whence both groups had been repelled and forced north of the Sea of Khwārazm[12], where they plundered the people the Saka called the Tulweraka [13]. Finally, after plundering the Tulweraka, they moved against the Worsa[14], who put up little resistance relative to the campaigns ahead, and were brought on the campaign into their present locale… which was by no means uninhabited. No, the country had been home to a myriad of different tribes who used the language of the city of Kwïpălăk as their common language, though the languages they spoke amongst themselves were many and diverse. To cement the legitimacy of his rule, Ṣwïletïla Cola had taken the now widowed queen of the city, Balanɋo[15], and officially (although not in his private circles) elevated her above his own wife, Tāpāki[16]. Furthermore, this queen was allowed to retain her dominion over the city and the lands that had previously belonged to it, as the Pïllentaṣṣi, or at least those clans that had made the journey south and across the mountains, simply wished to receive the tribute of the surrounding tribes and maintain their traditional way of life.



However, Queen Balanɋo, went on to stage a guerilla war behind her new husband’s back for the better part of of a decade, managing to slip her orders out to her generals in the countryside even after she had been put under arrest in her palace, which Ṣwïletïla and his other two wives consequently moved into. Her covert rebellion against her husband won her a great amount of popularity in Hellenistic and Aramaean circles, particularly in Mesopotamía and Syría, where there had been a great deal of panic over the possibility of an invasion of the Pïllentaṣṣi, the so-called “pot-headed barbarians of the East”[17] during the Armenian War. She was indeed so popular that her name, or a Hellenized version of it, together with the name of the general that Hellenic historians and playwrights would call her lover and the brother of her dead husband - Ķoȷkala[18] - became popular personal names in later decades. Contemporary sources vary as to the manner of her execution, with Polýbios writing that Ṣwïletïla personally dragged her behind his horse through the streets of Kwïpălăk to make clear the subjugation of the people. Others still suggest that he forced her to commit suicide, while one historian would write that he told her nothing of his knowledge of her continued subversion of his rule before having her poisoned at dinner, standing over her while she choked and saying, “The deer might escape to live another day, but the tiger will always catch him.”



Whatever the circumstances of the queen’s death, it is recorded that the king deified one of his wives as the local moon goddess, who was syncretized with that of his own people, who just so happened to be the most important deity to the Pïllentaṣṣi as well as the people of Kwïpălăk. This goddess would be known locally as Lalaukar-Šipak[19] for a time, albeit she would eventually be syncretized with the Haykh goddess Nane in the decades to come. The recognition of the local deities and their incorporation into state cults did not however soothe the tensions of the tribes of the country, and the reign of Ṣwïletïla Cola would be characterized by continuous campaigns of consolidation in the country.






Notes





1. While it might be tempting to compare this personal name to Greek Kléitos, meaning “famous”, it is actually a cognate to modern Albanian qetë, meaning “jagged rock”, however in the sense of a mountain peak, or something similar.

2. I did fuss a little bit over what endonym to use for the country and the people of Armenia, but it seems to me as though this is the best option.

3. It is also worth noting that the word Haykh means “Armenians” in the plural. I would attach an English suffix -ian for its adjectival use here, but I think Haykhian sounds a little clunky.

4. This is a hypothetical personal name in the contemporary stage of the Armenian, which likely was at least slightly different from Classical Armenian, which is not recorded IOTL until the 5th century. The name includes the theonym of the syncretic Armenian goddess Nane, and also the word inĵahi [indzahi] “gift”, which was represented in Classical Armenian as ǝnjay and Modern Armenian as ǝncay. Both of these words are from PIE *enghǝti, with cognates in Sanskrit aṃhati/aṃhiti “gift”. Thus, I am postulating that at the time in question, the original /t/ might still have been represented by /h/.

5. IOTL, Mithridates V was married to Laodice VI, who ITTL is married to Nicomedes II of Bithynia. I know that the gender of children is determined by the male’s sperm, but how many children and when they are conceived/delivered is determined by the female. So, here we have a different set of children by him, with a similar set of names as IOTL. Thus, ITTL, Mithridates VI is somewhat of a different character – he will still be ambitious, but not as ambitious and scheming as the one we know, having inherited a different set of genes and being the son of a very different mother.

6. Contemporary native name of the Kingdom of Iberia.

7. Contemporary native name of Colchis.

8. IOTL, Nicomedes II’s son was Nicomedes III, but the circumstances of his rise to the throne are different ITTL, and so the son is named for his father, Prusias. That said, it is this Prusias who is the son of Laodice VI, and is somewhat analogous to the OTL Mithridates VI in terms of his ambition and overall character. There will be more on the conflict between him and TTL’s Mithridates VI later.

9. This personal name is recorded in ancient sources as Sothimus, which is almost certainly a Latinization of a native Thracian name. That said, applying the known sound changes from PIE to Thracian, I have constructed the name as being derived from an o-grade of PIE *sētis “seed”, with an extras suffix *-mos, meaning “seeded, sewn”.

10. This is a hypothetical endonym for the Yuezhi based on translation of the Chinese characters, which means “moon people”. Therefore, here we have a name derived from the known Tocharian B word pälle, meaning “full-moon”, and thus “[people] of the full-moon”, for a moon goddess, who may have been especially important to them (we really know nothing at all about pre-Buddhist Tocharian religion).

11. This is in reference to the incident following the defeat of the Yuezhi at the hands of the Xiongnu in which the chanyu, Liaoshang, did exactly this.

12. A name of the Aral Sea.

13. An Iranian pronunciation of Tulwerak, a hypothetical Uralic tribe situated to the north of Caspian Sea whose name literally means “fire blood”. From Proto-Uralic tule “fire” and were “blood”. The latter element is attested in Hungarian as vér, but the former is not attested in Ugric in general.

14. Probable contemporary pronunciation of Aorsi. Meaning “white, shining” in Scytho-Sarmatian, and attested in modern Ossetian as wurs.

15. Meaning “blackberry” in Udi, a word which is etymologically unclear in its modern form, and therefore may or may not have been in use at the time period. The /ɋ/ here stands for an ejective uvular stop [q’].

16. Probable Common Tocharian pronunciation of a word meaning “mirror” in Tocharian A and B.

17. A reference to the head-binding practices of the Yuezhi.

18. I was quite fortunate to find that word-formation in Udi is pretty simple and actually similar to Indo-European. The phonology not so much, but it’s actually not a huge learning curve to wrap your head around how to construct new words in Udi. So, here we have a personal name meaning “having a great house”, or more simply “great/big house”. From Old Udi kala “great” and k’odʑ “house”. As you can see, the /ķ/ represents an ejective velar stop [k’], and the /ȷ/ represents a voiced alveolo-palatal affricate [dʑ].

19. The first part of this theonym is Tocharian, and means “light, illumination”, although the second part is more ancient, and actually refers to a Kassite lunar goddess, the etymology of whose name remains a mystery. It has been hypothesized by some scholars that the ancient Caspians were in fact related to the Kassites, and as we know that in the Bronze Age these people were powerful enough to conquer Mesopotamia, it seems plausible to me that, if the Caspians were in fact relatives of the Kassites that there might have been some level of syncretism of their religion and culture with that of the Caucasian Albanians, given their proximity to each other.
 
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Can you put the English translation of your Greek words in parenthesis next to them? It's getting incredibly annoying to have to check your notes at the bottom of the post every few sentences.
 
Can you put the English translation of your Greek words in parenthesis next to them? It's getting incredibly annoying to have to check your notes at the bottom of the post every few sentences.


Ummm... no? Lol


The majority of Greek terms used in this update were personal and family names and demonyms and toponyms. I could see maybe if I were using a non-English word for a title, office, or object, since that is only done pretty rarely, but... including English translations for every non-English proper noun in the timeline is going to create a LOT of unnecessary clutter in the text. I could see maybe doing it when a new vocabulary term is brought in for the first time perhaps, but... I have seen that done in timelines on here and I always thought it looked a little bit clunky, especially if I were to start doing that with people’s names.


What exactly was it in this update that you were having trouble with?


EDIT: It would be really cool if there were some more features on the website here, perhaps that would allow you to hover your mouse over a term and have a little window pop up with the English translations. I would be perfectly happy to do all of that formatting on here so as to ease the learning curve of the “local color”. Maybe also if you just clicked on the linked citation and it took you to the bottom and you could press the “back” button to take you back to where you were, like on Wikipedia. Unfortunately there is nothing like that on here. Maybe we should put in a petition to the administration? Idk. I get what you’re saying, but this is kind of why I outlined the use of “local color” in the introduction - I want the timeline to appear as authentic as possible, and I also want it to look clean in terms of formatting. Does that make sense?
 
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