Chapter 85:
Of Sickness, Sorrow and Greatness
Image of relief taken from Amalingian royal mortuary attached to the Holy Family Basilica. Scholars believe it belongs to Prince Theodebert on his death bed. King Thorismund is seen standing while a woman – likely Theodebert’s mother Queen Mahtihildz - sits near by
“And, in the year of our lord, six hundred eighty nine, a great pestilence came upon the people of Ravenna. The sickness rose from the marsh and soon spread amongst the people of the city. The Imperial family was not spared, and soon great mourning gripped the hearts of all in Ravenna.” – The Ravenna Chronicle, 689.
“The Calm Before the Storm: Crisis and Tranquility During the Reign of Thorismund II” Journal of Restoration Era Studies. Volume XXXXVIII Issue 1 (2005)
By: Dr. Harold Smith
Despite the dramatic events which lead to his rise to the purple in the year 683, the reign of Thorismund II has traditionally been overlooked by serious scholarship on Restoration Era Europe. Traditionally damned as the last of the “Do-Nothing” Emperors of the 7th century, he is best known merely as the father of Theodoric II the Fair or, as he has come to be known since the Age of Yearning, the Great. Although it would be impossible to overstate the importance of his son on the subsequent history of the Empire and the Gothic people, it would be unwise to dismiss Thorismund II as merely the sire of his more famous protégé. Indeed, without the attempted reforms which Thorismund instituted within the Empire, as well as the extended period of peace he inaugurated, it would have been impossible for his heir to have attained the Icarusian heights he later reached.
Thorismund first entered Gothic history with his arrival in Ravenna during the waning days of the reign of Amalamir II – known to posterity as “the Foolish.” His struggles against the raiding party of Sigbert, King of the Franks, had forced his withdrawl from his lands in Burgundy to seek the the aid of the Emperor. Although Amalamir was initially receptive to his distant cousin, it soon became obvious that he was unable or unwilling to lend substantial support – a fact which underlined the Emperor’s inability to secure the borders of the Empire. The death of Thorismund’s third wife in childbirth, while being held as a captive of the Frankish King, galvanized opposition to Amalmir’s weak reign and would see the upstart named Emperor by an angry mob which stormed the imperial palace. Finding the Emperor dead, seemingly by his own hand, Thorismund was declared the ruler of the Empire by the acclaim of the of the mob as well as the assorted noblemen then in the capitol.
Despite the questionable manner in which he attained the throne, Thorismund would remain popular with not only the people, but also his nobles, throughout the length of his eleven year reign. Although he wasn’t afraid to use violence to bring peace to the realm, as shown by his execution of the anti-Pratorian Prefect Sextus as well as his sporadic campaigns against the Franks, Thorismund preferred to negotiate and build a coalition of allies within the realm. This can be seen in early 684 when working with those Senators who wished to deny him the Imperial crown, when he met with key leaders of the opposition and, if Sigisbairht the Frodgibands is to be believed, won them over with words alone. Although it shouldbe noted that the assassination of Athaneric a mere five years earlier had made the Senate politically vulnerable, and the opposition Thorismund faced would have been considerably less than faced by some of his immediate predecessors.
Having already won martial glory, and having paid the price for it with the death of his wife and unborn son, Thorismund proved to be far more concerned with administrative details and reforms than many previous Emperors. Hardly a pacifist, as witnessed by the three campaigns he conducted against the Franks, he still seems to have determined the the Empire and its finances were in no condition to conduct a major offensive campaign. And so he turned towards a number of policies which were meant to generate income, building a nest egg and funneling moneys into the army to prepare it for use by future Emperors.
The biggest financial issue faced by the Emperor was the general poverty of his own household. For generations now, one of the chief struggles of any Emperor was the liquidity of his own finances – the need to grant lands to followers, as well the tradition which emerged during the Kunis Wars of granting lands and titles to all Amaling princes, had greatly depleted the Emperor’s personal lands. Although many of these land grants had initially not been in perpetuity, reverting to the Emperor upon the death of the grantee, the Fourth Punic War and the previously mentioned Kunis Wars had changed this. During the course of the 7th century, we see more land grants being made hereditary – though this was needed to keep the loyalty of the imperial dynasty, as well as the nobility, the effect was to increasingly deplete the personal holdings of the Emperor. Making matters even worse, the 7th century had seen the Empire increasingly hemmed in by neighboring states, making expansion and the acquisition of new lands difficult. Though the Goths would continue to raid some neighbors to accrue wealth – Gothic-Frankish relations had descended into a series of raids and counter raids by this point – not enough was gained to truly solve the problem. [FN1] And even these raids grew less frequent as Gaelic rauthering raiders showed the weakness of the imperial defenses.
Luckily for Thorismund, his ascension saw him acquiring the imperial fiefdoms to which he added his prior Burgundian lands – though he was forced to grant lands in Fruili to his adopted son Athanagild in 687. [FN2] This was essential in helping to fund the early stages of his initial reforms, as well as the three punitive raids against the Franks. However, the early years of his reign would still be marked by the financial insecurities which had also plagued his immediate predecessors. The coffers would be so weakened, especially as the dreadful raids into Jaille badly undercut expected revenue from these lands, that Thorismund was forced to travel to Rome and personally request an increase in taxes from the Roman Senate. This was granted after some debate, with the Emperor forced to agree to a number of appointments by the Senate as well as some minor adjustments to the borders of regions under Senatorial control.
These tense negotiations were an unusual, but necessary, incident during the reign of an Emperor who largely enjoyed good relations with the Roman Senate. It seems likely that they convinced Thorismund that he should not push his luck – the fate of Athaneric would have been on the minds of all involved – and would need to seek income from other venues. Though he would also move to increase the tax on the Valachs within the Gothic regions of the Empire, Thorismund would largely move away from increasing the taxes on his subjects – many would have difficulty paying due to the ill-events of the past several years in any case, and the chance of undermining his own popularity and authority was too great.
Turning away from increasing the taxation of his subjects, Thorismund would invest in a number of reforms. First of these was an overhauling of the imperial beaurocracy. Since the reign of Theodebert II, the beaurocracy had gone into decline – its posts often being handed out not to the most capable of candidates, but instead to the second and third sons of noble families hoping to secure an income. Usually after a donation to the imperial coffers. Making matters worse, the Fourth Punic War and Kunis Wars had witnessed the erosion of the Imperial system in Jaille and, to a lesser extent, Spania – meaning that it was only fully functioning within the Gothic lands as well as Senatorial Italy. As posts were not handed out by merit, or even necessarily need, the system became bloated over the course of the 7th century.
Thorismund sought to overhaul the system. Accepting for the time being, that the infrastructure had deteriorated outside of Italy and Gothia, the Emperor began to cut down on the bloat, dismissing unnecessary aapointments and setting new rules to make sure that future appointees would be competent. This would pay off in time, as the Empire’s finances began to climb out of the defict that they had been in – leaving a substantial war chest at the time of Thorismund’s death in 695.
The Emperor’s next reform was to attempt to increase trade, particularly within the cities of Ravenna as well as Oderzo and the growing port of Venice, hoping to strengthen the Gothic cities’ commercial ties with the Rhomanians. [FN3] These efforts would prove fruitful, and would lead to an increase in trade connections that would survive until the years of the Ruination and recover again after the end of that series of conflicts. Since trade goods faced taxation on entry, thereby circumventing the custom of not taxing Goths, this increase in trade had an immediate and noticeable impact on the Empire’s finances as well as on the capital city of Ravenna.
Of course, the increase in trade would have one unfortunate side effect which was soon to plunge the Imperial Family into despair …
“The Emergence of Malaria in the Northeast Gothreik during the Restoration Era,”
The Journal of Medical History vol. XXXXVIIII (2004)
By: Dr. Goiswintha Hundsmeister
…
The first recorded instance of what is thought to be endemic malaria in the west-central region of Italy occurred in the city of Graviscae, as recounted by the Cato the Elder. It seems likely that the spread of malaria to the region occurred roughly during the third and second centuries BCE. The malaria in Graciscae, as well as the mosquitos which carried it, most likely reached the community by sea – either from Sardinia or North Africa where it had already been present for centuries. Whenever, or however, the establishment of the disease occurred, however, it quickly became closely associated with the city of Rome itself, gaining the names “Roman Fever” and “The Roman Disease.”
During the Classical Era, the connection between malaria and mosquitoes had been well documented. However, by the Restoration Era, a growing consensus was that malaria was transmitted by bad air coming from the marshes and bogs which surrounded the city of Rome and many of its neighbors. These swamps had long been an issue, a no less figure that Julius Caesar himself had once planned to drain them and convert the marshes into viable farmland. The plan died with his assassination and would take over a millennium and a half for the the Pontine Marshes to be finally drained.
…
What is fascinating, however, is that despite the prevalence of Malaria in the city of Rome itself, it would take centuries for the disease to reach the northeastern corners of the Italian peninsula. The first known outbreak in the Gothic capitol of Ravenna, for instance, would not occur the year 698 – despite the fact that, much like Rome, Ravenna was surrounded by marshlands which were the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Even more intriguing, when genetic testing was conducted many centuries later, it was found that the malaria strain common in the region was the same found in the Eastern Mediterranean and not that found further South in Rome. This gives credance to the popular legend that malaria had arrived in Ravenna on a ship from the Rhomanian lands to the East … [FN4]
“The Calm Before the Storm: Crisis and Tranquility During the Reign of Thorismund II” Journal of Restoration Era Studies. Volume XXXXVIII Issue 1 (2005)
By: Dr. Harold Smith
…
The pestilence of the Summer of 689 would prove to be the greatest crisis to face Thorismund II during his reign. Although the disease was quickly identified as the “Roman Fever” – today known as malaria – treatments were spotty at best and whatever edical resources were available were soon overburdened by the sheer agnitude of the outbreak. Wealthy Goths soon began to flee the city for landed estates in the healthier countryside, but the poor of the city had nowhere to go and so were forced to remain. The Emperor was urged to flee as well, but initially refused, not wanting to be seen leaving his people to suffer from the contagion while he sought safety. According to Sigisbaihrt the Frothiband, Thorismund did eventually accept sending his wives and children to Burgundy, but by the time the decision was made, it was too late and the dread pathogen had already made itself felt within the imperial household.
The first to catch the illness was Thorismund’s eldest son and heir, Theodebert. Later artistic depictions would cast Theodebert as a child, but in reality he was an adult, likely in his mid-20s The prince had been groomed by his Father since assuming the emperorship and the Ga-run had officially voted him as co-emperor just a year earlier. Church bells cried out for the young man, and despite the efforts of the city government to establish an quarantine, masses were held for Theodebert’s eventual recovery. Sadly, it was not to be – the prince passed away some days later while his Father and Queen Mahtihildz looked on in sorrow.
He would not be the last. Mahtihildz, the Emperor’s first wife, would soon contract the illness and pass away – her death taking, we are told, less than twenty four hours from the passing of her eldest son. Fearing for the lives of the children, Queen Theodosia would claim that the illness stemmed from the Emperor’s greed and his raising of taxes – she ordered the imperial tax rolls to be bought into the palace and burnt, with family and courtiers walking through the smoke to purify themselves. It did little good and soon even the Emperor himself fell ill in early August and lingering on death’s door until his fever broke roughly a week later.
He awoke from his fever to the crushing loss of much of his family. Of his four wives, three had been felled by the illness – only Theodosia, the sister of his predecessor, was left. Thorismund had once possessed an expansion family with seven children – now he had only three left. In addition to the lose of Theodebert, he had also lost Ermenberga, his young daughter who had been a particular favorite of his.
Grief stricken, the usually spend-thirft Emperor, ordered the construction of the Bascilica of the Holy Family, which stands to this day, as a monument to his lost loved ones. Thorismund did not live to see its completion, though he did oversee the transferring of the bodies of his wives and children to it – laying them under the new altar. Though previously, Gothic Emperors had been laid to rest within the catacombs of the Hagia Anastasis, Thorismund requested that upon his death he be placed next to his beloved family – thus beginning a tradition which would be joined by Theodoric II and many other members of the gothic royalty until the collapse of the Empire.
The Emperor’s grief was matched by the citizens of the city of Ravenna, which is said to have lost between 5-10 percent of it’s population during the malaria outbreak. Malaria would continue to be an issue which would curse the imperial capital for centuries to come, but rarely would outbreaks be so devastating – save for one at the height of the Ruintation but a few decades later. Although Queen Theodosia blamed the outbreak upon her husband’s greed in pushing for higher taxes, this does not appear to be a theory that was entertained by many of the city’s residents. Indeed, the devastation of his loss and his refusal to hide the grief which plagued him, convinced him that he was one of their own. Though Thorismund would gain the epitath “The Sorrowful,” this was given not as an offense, but rather a badge of honor – showing the deep respect the people had for him due to his losses, and their understanding that he was a fellow traveler on that dark road as well. Eventually, long after his death, the Arian Church would codify Thorismund as the patron saint of grieving, and his cult remains popular to this very day.
The malaria outbreak had shaken the capitol city and the imperial faily to its foundations. Whereas, the deeply loved and respected Theodebert had been his father’s heir prior to the outbreak, the weight of that role now fell upon young Theodoric. Only eleven years old at the time of the outbreak, he had lost two older brothers, his Mother and witnessed the long illness of his father. He himself had come down ill, but only briefly – a fact which filled him with guilt, according to his biography Witteric – and made a full recovery. Contemporary descriptions state that he bore an uncanny resemblance to his eldest brother, as well as his father, and the people of the city used to call him “Little Theodebert” as a result. His survival not only made him the heir apparent, but also the object of near religious devotion by the citizenry of Ravenna. Witteric states that, “Rather than allow his survival and adoration to fill him with pride, it instead made him humble – he knew not why he had been allowed to survive, but he felt that God had spared him for some purpose. Still, he also understood that the Good Lord could take his life in a moment, as he had done to far more deserving men than him. And so he vowed to not fear death, bur rather to live his life as best he could, in service of the Empire, the People and the Church.”
…
Thorismund never fully recovered from the death of much of his family. Already in his later 50s when the malaria outbreak began, the disease broke his health. Though he recovered, we are told that he plagued by maladies for the remaining six years of his life. More and more, he turned his attention to those who would follow him – he built up the imperial finances so that future emperors would be able to protect and expand the realm, and took to the training of his son Theodoric personally. The Emperor and his heir appear to have enjoyed a strong relationship, though it was tainted by the sorrow which united them – that of an old man who had survived his own children, and a child who had witnessed the death of his elders. His one vanity was the construction of the Church of the Holy Family to which he would dedicate himself during every spare moment – his love of the Church would be passed onto his son, and Theodoric would spend much of his own life embellishing it and bringing the construction to completion.
Thorismund would die in the year 695. Despite the tragedy which consumed the second half of his reign, he left the Empire in a far stronger economic and military situation than he had found it. He also gave care of the realm to a 17 year old son who he had personally trained and raised in the arts of statesmanship and rule. That son would soon overshadow his Father – but the triumphs and tragedies of Theodoric the Fair would not have been possible without the effots of his sorrowful father. [FN5]
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[FN1] ‘Descended.’ For long-time readers, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Gothic-Franklish relations can just be seen as a prolonged Blood Feud which began a century and a half earlier with the killing of Clovis in battle by Theodemir the Great. Although the currentl ruling dynasty of the Franks are not Merovings (that family is quite extinct), the two peoples could not be said to have ever really enjoyed friendly relations. When the Gothic Empire is strong, it can effestively vassalize the Frankreich, but the second it shows even the smallest weakness, the Franks throw off the yoke and revert to a level of hostile independence. And yes, this isn’t going to change for the better any time soon – in fact, it’s about to get worse.
[FN2] Athanagild is Amalamir II’s son. Thorismund adopted him and married his Mother upon the death of Amalamir, to help smooth over any negative feelings of his oddly successful, yet unintended, coup. Because of this – and because Thorismund II is actually a pretty good sort – he grants his adopted son land when the boy reaches maturity.
[FN3] Thanks to the lack of the devastating Gothic Wars and the Lobardo invasion, Ordezo is not destroyed time and time again. However, Venice is beginning to grow as the ‘marsh dwellers’ consolidate their communities – and it will eventually come to dwarf the older Roman community in influence. Though this is sometime in the future.
[FN4] This is largely as in OTL, believe it or not – Malaria did not spread to Ravenna and Venetia until the early medieval period, and when it did arrive, it appears to have come by trade from the East – the malaria strains present in the region, until its irradication, was the same strain as present in the Levant and Greecce, and not the strain present in Rome. Before I started this chapter, I would have had no idea about this – it’s amazing the things you learn while working on a timeline!
[FN5] And we are BACK! For a long time I struggled with how to tell the story of Thorismund II – he was a man who came to the throne almost by chance and who I saw as someone who would always be eclipsed by his more famous son. But then I realized that that was kind of the point – whatever is set to happen to Theodoric could never have come to pass after the chaos of the last few Emperors without a steady hand preceeding him. Sadly, since I had already hinted at the illness, I also had to put the poor man and his family through the ringer – the outbreak was always going to be central to his tale. In any case, I hope I crafted a reasonable and realistic man in Thorismund, while hinting at some of the deeds of his son; setting the stage for the wild wide that is ahead of us. Because a number of things I’ve been foreshadowing since the very beginning are going to start coming into play, and I really really hope I’ve done a good enough job describing the state of the Empire and its neighbors to set the stage for what is to come.
Hope everyone enjoyed this, and sorry for it being a few days later than I had thought. It was an absolutely trainwreck of a week over here, unfortunately (though, luckily, writing this helped me blow off some steam, so that is good). I know there were a few posts made before I updated this and I apologize for not getting around to answering them yet. I will be doing so over the next day or two. As always, though, any questions, comments, rants or the like are always welcome - and thank you, once again, for sticking with me during that unplanned 1.5 year absence!
