The Scorpion's Sting (reboot of "The Scorpion Bite")

[galileo-034]

I almost forgot to point again that you could have Bulgars hired as auxiliaries by the Imperial army to remedy lack of soldiers.

 

[fi11222]

I almost forgot to point again that you could have Bulgars hired as auxiliaries by the Imperial army to remedy lack of soldiers.

Indeed, but for that you need money. And with the revenues of the East no longer available, this approach will be hard to implement.

Regarding Armenia and Persia in the VIth-VIIth century, The latter fell much more as a result of internal disunity rather than external conquest. The Sassanid Empire nearly fell first with the Mazdakite business at the time of Kavadh and later at the time of the Bahram Chobin affair. Eventually, it is the overextension brought on by Khosrow II's military advendures that doomed it and the Arabs were just the lucky guys who were there to pick up the pieces. In this TL, the date of the Sassanid fall is just advanced by 50 years and the lucky winners are the Armenians instead of the Arabs.

By the way, it seems to me that the Armenians were much better suited to that role than the Arabs were. They had been part of the Persian cultural sphere for at least 1000 years and their Nakharar noble families had a lot of ties, including by marriage, to the Persian so-called "7 Parthian clans". The dynasty which ruled Armenia untile the end of the IVth century was a junior branch of the Arsacid dynasty which had ruled Persia in Parthian times. In the VIth century, all Armenian nobles had Arsacid blood in their veins and this fact was recognized and appreciated on the Persian side.

In any case, in this TL, it is not really "the Armenians" who rule Persia but a group of Armenian noble houses (Siunian, Bagratids, ...) federated under the Mamikonian banner. They control Persia through a mixed coalition of Arabs, Avars and some Persian nobles who rallied to their cause. Persia was always very much a feudal society where bonds of loyalty between noble houses count more than anything else. In such a context, an Armenian lineage who knows how the Persian feudal network of allegiances operates has little trouble taking control of it all. Also, there is the religious factor. Zoroastrianism was the legitimizing backbone of the Sassanid's claim to rightful rule. But by the VIth century, official Zoroastrianism was losing popular support in the face of newer religious movements like Christianity and Manichaeism. The Armenians, for their part, had converted to Christianity for a long time already and their legitimacy was therefore boosted automatically by the expansive energy of the new religion. In other words, The Armenians were culturally Persian and were riding the wave of a successful religious popular movement. What better people to inherit Persia?

In our TL, the reason this did not happen was a series of adverse circumstances which crippled Armenia. First, it revolted too soon, in the 570s, right in the middle of the successful reign of Khosrow I, and were thus mercilessly crushed. Then, in the 590s, at the time of Maurice, Armenia was cut in two as a result of the deal cut between the ERE and Khosrow II and this precipitated a grave religious crisis within the Armenian Church (which only became overtly anti-chalcedonian at that time). This series of blows made Armenia too weak to attempt anything when the chance came in the 630s to pick up the spoils of the crumbling Sassanid house. The Arabs, for their part, did not miss their chance.

 

[fi11222]

Chrisorhine's last stand

In 655 AD, Khosrow, at 88, is a very old man. He is nearly blind and cannot read nor write anymore. For the past twenty years, he has been staying at a monastery in Bamiyan, which he helped found in the 630s. At the moment, he is dictating to a young Sogdian monk one of the last chapters of a large treatise he has been working on intermittently since his days in Bahrein: On Heresy. Khosrow's cell is a small man-made cavern located about 100 feet above the bottom of the cliff which runs along the valley of Bamiyan. To reach it, one has to walk up shaky wooden stairs and catwalks connecting hundreds of similar openings in the cliff face. Originally, these caves were inhabited by Buddhist monks. However, since the early VIIth century, an ever increasing number have been converted for use by Christian hermits and monks. In 612, the Buddhist Perso-Hephtalite king of Bamiyan was to become the son in law of the Christian king of Balkh. Of course, before he could marry the Bactrian princess, he had to convert to Christianity, which remained the religion of his successors thereafter. As a result the flow of royal patronage which kept the Buddhist monasteries prosperous dried up and was diverted to Christian communities. Over forty years later there are now more than 2000 Christian monks in Bamyian, and only a few hundred Buddhists are left.

On Heresy begins thus:

The doctrine of our Savior is exceedingly simple: put your trust in the cross—all of it—and you will be saved.

What is not simple, however, is the mass of doctrines that oppose the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Heresy is the general name of such doctrines. Alas there is more than one kind of it. Indeed Heresy varies in infinitely many ways, in order to multiply the occasions of fall for the mass of lost men. There is, however, a common thread which runs through this endlessly changeable thicket: pride. The cross is the death of man's pride, the great bonfire of all worldly glory. Hence, Heresy has always one starting point: man's desire to preserve his pride, to protect his vain glory from the saving—but to fallen man, frightening—power of the cross.

Knowing that it stems from pride is enough to understand the cause of heresy, but not always to recognize it in practice. Heresy has become increasingly adept at hiding itself among the most innocent and most apparently orthodox species of teaching. And thus, ever since our father Irenaeus completed his immortal work at the time of the still pagan Emperor Severus, orthodox teachers have toiled to identify and expose the multifarious manifestations of the Devil's poisonous words. This work is never done since the Devil will never cease to lay new snares in the path of the Lord's sheep. The pages thereafter are my own feeble efforts to present whatever wisdom about this matter the Lord has seen fit to endow me. Like Jonas, I have been tossed to and fro, on the raging seas and through deserts dry as bone, from one end of God's creation to the other. In my travels I have met more heretics than I care to remember. But however much it pains me to recall all this fatal nonsense to mind, it is my God-ordained duty to commit as much as I can to writing, so that maybe one of my little brothers[1] may avoid some of the sharpest rocks that have been placed on the road by the enemy to cut his feet and make him stumble.​

Khosrow then begins his inventory of heresies with a description of the Indic religions which are the main competitors of Christianity in the eastern dependencies of the kingdom of Saint Thomas. This is what he has to say about Hinduism:

Most men in these parts are heathens in a way which seems to have little changed since the days of Babylon the great, mother of harlots[2]. Indeed some even worship the Harlot herself, which they call Dargama[3]. The idols they worship are beyond number yet not everyone among the people here can serve as priest. Only men born among the tribe of Brāghmen can do so, and these are so obsessed by laws of so-called purity that it seems God has seen fit to pervert the levites among one of Israel's lost tribes to turn them into pagan sacrificers. Some of these Brāghmen priests fancy themselves as deep philosophers and write books they claim have been inspired to them by their gods and in which they pretend to imitate the indifference to the world that only the Cross of Christ can truly grant to man. Yet one can quite easily see through their babble as their words betray them often and in a very plain manner. For exemple, in one of those tractates which they hold in high esteem, and which they call "the teachings of Kirish to Irjun"[4], the teacher says this to his pupil, who is a great warrior:

... if you will not fight this righteous battle, then you will have abandoned your own duty and your fame, and you will incur sin. All beings, too, will tell of your everlasting infamy; and to one who has been honored, infamy is (a) greater (evil) than death. (Warriors who are) masters of great chariots will think that you abstained from the battle through fear, and having been highly thought of by them, you will fall down to littleness. Your enemies, too, decrying your power, will speak much about you that should not be spoken. And what, indeed, more lamentable than that?[5]
​

Irjun was ready to renounce fighting because it would force him to harm his kin. And what does the so-called divine Kirish tell him in reply? You must fight lest you lose your glory in this world! Fight because of your pride! Did the devil speak ever so plainly? I think not. Except perhaps when he deceitfully promised to our Lord "all the kingdoms of the world and their glory"[6]
​

On the left: Inanna with lion, crown/helmet, ornaments and weapons (Sumerian Cylinder seal impression). On the left, Durga, with nearly-identical attributes (modern Hindu devotional poster)
​

After dealing with Hinudism, Khosrow tackles Buddhism:

The worse heretics in these parts are the disciples of Boddo. They claim, like the Brāghmen philosophers, to have no other aim but to free man from the false allure of the world. They make great boasts about their abilities to offer their fellow men what our Lord gave us when he said "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."[7] Yet these boasts are empty as is always the case when one claims he can conquer the Devil without entering the Kingdom through the only gate there is[8]. In essence they say that that man can be freed from the snares of the Devil without having to submit to—or having to put one's trust in—any other power. Not gods, not even oneself and not God obviously, which they have never heard of. In essence, they claim to perform a sort of magic trick in which the human soul can, so to speak, levitate in empty space without support from any source of power. But this promise is as empty as their imaginary paradise and this is apparent in the way they speak about their own teachers. These are supposed to be entirely free of the cares of this world and yet they bow down to them as if they were gods. In one of their treatises which is very famous around these parts because it relates a dialogue, which supposedly took place between one of their holy men and a Greek King of Bactria called Meander—which they call Milinda—, this is how they introduce the so-called holy man:

Sakka, the king of the gods, beheld those brethren of the Order as they were coming from afar. And at the sight of them he went up to the venerable Assagutta, and bowed down before him, and stood reverently aside. And so standing he said to him: 'Great, reverend Sir, is the company of the brethren that has come. What is it that they want? I am at the service of the Order. What can I do for you?'[9]
​

The "Brethren of the Order" are actually themselves. This is how they call the congregation of the disciples of Boddo and this Assagutta is one of their chief doctors. So, if they are to be believed, the king of the gods himself bows down before them and begs to be given some errand to perform by them. Not only are they still just as pagan as the rest of the Indians but they fancy themselves as superior to their own gods! Can one imagine a more brazen utterance of pride?

Indeed, their actual not hard to discover and is worldly as can be. They pretend to sustain their soul without support from any form of power and yet their source of support in this world is plain for all to see. They are beggars. Instead of working with their hands, they trick their own laity into feeding them by making them believe they are gods. What a profitable trade! What a gross swindle!
​

The rest of On Heresy deals mainly with Manichaeism, with its many currents, as well as with a number of specifically Iranian syncretistic movements. Finally, he addresses Monophysitism and the new life which has just been breathed into it by the recent triumph of Muawiya:

The doctrine of the single nature, just as the doctrine of the wholly separate natures, is nothing but a subtle ploy to weaken the cross of our Lord. Unlike the outrageous boasts of the Brāghmen or of the disciples of Boddo, this error is much more carefully concealed.

Both pretend to have nothing but the honor due to God as their paramount aim, but in fact both destroy the instrument of our salvation. Those who separate the natures pretend that it would be unseemly to mix the divine hypostasis with the gross flesh of man (they call their enemies patripassianists). But in so doing, they slide back towards adoptionism, which sullied the doctrine of Antiochene preachers at the time of Paul of Samosata. And what is adoptionism if not the veiled leaven of the Pahrisees?[10] If Christ's human nature is wholly separate from the divine, then it becomes almost optional. And we are then but a very small step from declaring that the divine Logos was poured into the man Jesus, at his baptism or some other time. And why was it poured into that particular man? Because of the blamelessness of his life and the purity of his actions of course! Like the Pelagians, and indeed the Pharisees, we are back with the idea that man can make himself perfect by his own power.

Those who mix the natures into a single one start in the opposite direction but eventually reach the same point, by way of docetism. If the two natures are mixed then the divine cannot but have the upper hand. And thus Jesus Christ is essentially a divine being masquerading as a man. As such, he cannot be harmed and the cross is a sham. But if this is the case then one of two things must be true. Either the cross was unnecessary because sin never existed and we can thus live as depraved letches without consequences or, if we are still being admonished to avoid sin, it must be that the power to do so comes from another source, namely man's own power. Do Monophysite bishops and monks make a show of attending brothels and taverns? Not at all. Then it must be that they are at heart exactly the same as the adoptionists they pretend to revile. They are followers of the Pharisees in disguise.

The only remaining difference between the Nestorians and the Monophysites lies in the kind of human efforts in which they place their equally mistaken hopes. While the former trusts in military-like discipline, the latter is a believer in magic. The Monophysite priest thinks of the cross only as a mystical act, which he can replicate himself through the ceremony of the Eucharist. In so doing, he turns the Holy Rite into a form of theurgy, a sorcerer's trick of which he is fortunate enough, or so he thinks, to know the secret.

Where this lands those who are lead astray down that path has been made plain by the accursed Muawiya. This man had the audacity not only to usurp the diadem but to have it placed on his head in Jerusalem. In so doing, he is granting the Jews their wish when they shouted: “Not this man, but Barabbas!”[11] As always, the Pharisee and the Zealot walk hand in hand. Instead of a crucified Messiah, the crowd desires a conquering Anti-Messiah, the very Antichrist. If man can be virtuous of his own accord, then why not have a virtuous ruler, even one ordained by God? Such is their miserable reasoning. Blinded by their own pride, which makes them oblivious to the total depravity of man, they throw themselves at the feet of a man who, not being a son of Truth cannot be but a son of the Lie, a servant of the Devil, a depraved monster.

But great is the mercy of God and this is no doubt a lesson man needs at this juncture, so that he may come back, chastised back into his senses, to the saving grace of the Holy Cross.
​

[1] 1 Cor 8.
[2] Rev. 17:5
[3] Durga Maa.
[4] The Bhagavad Gita
[5] Bhagavag Gita Ch. II
[6] Matt 4:8
[7] John 8:32
[8] John 10:9
[9] Milindapanha Bk. 1:29
[10] Matt 16:6
[11] John 18:40

 

[Zulfurium]

I really enjoy this story, so I hope you keep it up.

The exploration of early christianity is incredibly fascinating and something that I sadly do not know all that much about, so hearing about it here is a great experience.

 

[fi11222]

I really enjoy this story, so I hope you keep it up.

Hey, norse barbarian. Glad you like it.

In Europe, we tend to imagine Christianity to have been always the same and it is true that by the time it reached your ancestors (I assume you are a native of this Thule neighborhood you now inhabit) it was pretty much stabilized and standardized. The goal here is to investigate an alternate scenario in which both an Islam-like Christian heresy (which is what Islam truly is) and a mainstream form of "Orthodox" Christianity evolve along entirely different lines.

 

[fi11222]

The Emperor of Jerusalem

In the summer of 654 AD, the ERE has three emperors. In Serdica, Timostratus is still waiting to see how events will develop. In Constantinople, Constans II has just learned of the developments in Jerusalem and he is in a state of sheer panic. But there is nothing he can do since he has few troops at his disposal besides his own body guard and the garrison of the City. Muawiyah, for his part, is on his way to Emesa, where he is set to meet with the sheikhs of the major Arab tribes in the Roman sphere of influence and beyond.

Muawiyah's coup has been well planned and flawlessly executed. While he was raising an army in northern Syria during the latter half of 653, the politically savvy son of a merchant had sent feelers through his extensive network of contacts to gauge the potential support for a Monophysite-leaning regime change. Not surprisingly, the feedback from most of the Syriac-speaking land-owning and mercantile elite had been overwhelmingly positive. Needless to say he had also been assured by the now nearly independent Jacobite Church hierarchy of their full backing. When victory at Damascus had been assured, he had sent word to his supporters to join him in Jerusalem as fast as they could so that his imperial claim could be staked before the Chalcedonian church hierarchy and the civil bureaucracy could regain their footing. He also got a little bit of extra help from the calendar as his arrival in the Holy City had just coincided with the date of Easter, lending a significant aura of religious solemnity to his assumption of the purple.

While on his way to Emesa, Muawiyah has sent troop detachments to the major cities of Palestine in order to install Monophysite bishops and set up an administration loyal to himself. In the rest of Syria, many cities have not even waited for him to send troops. Mobs have taken to the streets, lynched Chalcedonian clergy and imperial bureaucrats alike and installed Monophysite holy men as bishops. Those Chalcedonian churchmen who have managed to flee are now gathered in Antioch where a small garrison loyal to Constantinople makes them feel somewhat safe.

When Muawiyah reaches Emesa, he is greeted by cheering crowds miles before the city gates. Here also, the Chalcedonian bishop has fled and has been replaced by a Monophysite monk who greets the new Emperor at the first milestone. For his meeting with the Arabic tribal leaders, Muawiyah has decided to emphasize his own Arabic heritage. He has set up a magnificent tent in a garden outside the city, where he greets the sheikhs according to the tradition of the majlis. He is dressed in Arabic-styled robes and is surrounded by his relatives from the Banu Kalb tribe. As each sheikh enters the tent, he is greeted with a kiss of peace and Muawiyah personally seats him on cushions arranged in a semi-circle on the carpet-covered floor. All the sheikhs from the Roman affiliated tribes, except the Banu Salih, have come. But they are not alone. Many sheiks from tribes traditionally affiliated with the Lakhmids of Al-Hirah are present as well. Since Pars has been turned into a duchy within the kingdom of Saint Thomas, there are much less opportunities for Arab expansion to the east the before and Muawiyah has let it be known that he was about to make a worthwhile offer to all those who would come to him in Emesa. The offer is straightforward: "Help me consolidate my throne and you will become the new nobility of the Empire". It is indeed an offer that can hardly be refused and the political phase of the majlis soon concludes in unanimous approval. The rest of the gathering is devoted to refreshments, dances and poetry contests in which Muawiyah himself participates with distinction .

After Emesa, Muawiyah heads with his army, now over 40 000 strong, towards Antioch. When he arrives, he finds the gates locked and the walls manned. Unwilling to spill blood, he has the following proclamation read by heralds posted before each gate:

Citizens of Antioch,
I am Gerodynamos[1], Emperor of the Romans by the grace of God,
victorious in battle over the servant of Satan Moshe Al-ḥajara by heavenly decree,
crowned and anointed in Jerusalem as the protector of men.
For too long, the body of the Church has been rent asunder by the obstinacy of bigoted Emperors and churchmen.
It is not my will to continue in this folly but rather to grant every faithful believer in our savior Jesus Christ the protection he needs to pray and worship in peace regardless of what his intimate conviction is about the second person of the Trinity.
Open the gates and no harm will come to you.
​

Of course, Muawiyah has no intention to extend this policy of toleration to everyone. He just wishes to signal his intention not to embark on wholesale pogroms against the Chalcedonian population. Soon, the declaration has the desired effect. Riots erupt all over the city and the garrison is quickly overwhelmed. Several gates are opened and the besieging troops pour in. Of course, there is no looting or loss of life as such behavior has been strictly forbidden. By this point, Muawiyah's control over his army is absolute due to his personal aura, his skillful use of tribal loyalties and his abundance of funds. Many stories are starting to circulate about him. Some say that the True Cross has been brought to him by angels at the battle of Damascus. Others claim that his mother received the visitation of an emissary of Heaven nine months before his birth. Besides these popular legends, an official propaganda is also being broadcast far and wide. Its central theme is the heavenly mandate to rule given to Emperor Gerodynamos by the miraculous circumstances of his rise to power. In support of this theme, mosaics and paintings are being commissioned in Churches and public buildings all over the territory Muawiyah controls.

Muawiyah's imperial propaganda​

Once he is master of Antioch, Muawiyah has the top Chalcedonian clergy arrested, including the patriarch of the city and the former patriarch of Jerusalem who had taken refuge north before the arrival of Moshe Al-ḥajara. He has them tonsured and sent to a monastery on the island of Iotabe in the gulf of Aqaba. Once he has made the necessary ecclesiastical and civil appointments to set up a new administration loyal to him, he departs from Antioch and heads north with his army.

Despite the religious angle he is playing, Muawiyah remains the cool-headed realist that he was when he roamed northern Syria with his gang of ruffians collecting taxes and rent. Of course, he is not an unbeliever. Everyone believes in God. But to him, God is power and those who serve Him best are those who wield power most effectively. From then on, Muawiyah's plan is a simple one. He will embark with his army on a tour of Anatolia where he will expropriate and kill the biggest landowners in order to distribute their land to the Arab sheikhs who have sworn loyalty to him. In contrast to Syria, where he has scrupulously avoided bloodshed, he has no interest in showing mercy to Greek lands in the north where he knows that no one will have any reason, religious or otherwise, to pledge allegiance to him willingly. He is determined to leave the Chalcedonian church alone in order to avoid popular unrest but intends to be otherwise ruthless in establishing political control. Beyond Anatolia, he has no plans of conquest for the moment. He lacks a sufficiently powerful navy to challenge the fortifications of Constantinople and he has no intention to take on the responsibility of the Danubian defenses anyway. In the spring of 655 AD, as he reaches Nicomedia with the bulk of his army, he sends a message to Timostratus in which he calls him "my dearest brother" and lets him know that he has no claim on any land beyond the straits and that he leaves the matter of Constans II to him. Upon receiving the message, Timostratus, who was expecting something of this kind, dispatches a cavalry detachment to Constantinople with an offer to spare the last of the Heraclids' life in exchange for abdication and exile. As usual, the former Emperor's nose is cut and he is shipped away to a monastery on the Balearic islands.

By the end of 655, Muawiyah is back in Jerusalem. While he was journeying back, a small army of Arabic cavalry led by one of his Banu Kalb nephews has taken control of Egypt on his behalf. There too, the top clergy has been replaced by Monophysite churchmen and the major Chalcedonian landowners have been expropriated to make room for his Arabic feudatories. Egypt and Syria are peaceful. Anatolia is under the tight control of the Arab warlords who have been granted new domains there and who are in the process of subdividing them to their own followers. In Illyricum, Timostratus seems satisfied as he is now the undisputed master of Constantinople, the Balkans, Greece, Italy and Africa. In Anudagshahr, king Hamazasp has died in 653 and been replaced by his grandson Shushanik. Neither him nor the court is too happy with the developments in the ERE. Having a Monophysite neighbor to the west is not a comfortable situation. However, Muawiyah has made every effort to appease Thomasian apprehension and it has been agreed that the customary Thomasian tribute will now be paid to Jerusalem instead of Constantinople.

For the remainder of his reign, which will last until 680, Muawiyah will rarely leave the Holy city. He devotes his spare time to hunting (like all Arabs, he is particularly fond of falcon hunting in the desert), to poetry and, of course, to the company of women. But his life is not all leisure. He keeps a close eye on the administration of the Empire and devotes the best part of his energies to the embellishment of Jerusalem. During his reign, the city becomes a true imperial capital, adorned with magnificent palaces and churches surrounded by lush gardens. The population increases to over 250 000 by the end of the reign; a figure made possible by the water supply system started under Heraclius II and vastly expanded under Muawiyah. As years go by, an increasingly elaborate ritual develops around the person of the Emperor. Here, there is no talk of "Persian Marriages" but it goes without saying that the imperial palace includes a vast harem, guarded by numerous eunuchs. Throughout the year, the liturgical calendar of the Church becomes intertwined with a myriad of imperial ceremonies in which the court, the army and the people are called upon to pay their respects to the ruler according to an elaborate protocol. Eventually, Saint Chosroes Chrysorine was proven wrong. Muawiyah was not the Antichrist after all. However, by the end of his reign, the Emperor of Jerusalem has become, in all but name, a god.

ERE and Empire of Jerusalem at Muawiyah's death​

[1] Translation in Greek of one possible meaning of "Muawiyah". γεροδύναμος means "strong arm"

 

[Zulfurium]

I would think that the loss of Egyptian grain would be utterly crippling to Constantinople. How does the loss of half the empire impact people in the ERE?

 

[fi11222]

The New Spartans

In the 660s and 670s AD, the situation of the Eastern Roman troops defending the Danubian border is steadily deteriorating. There are no longer any revenues coming to Constantinople from the East to pay them so at first Timostratus has to cut their salary and then experiment with ad-hoc measures like military-agricultural colonies which provide the soldiers directly with payment in kind. None of this proves sufficient to foot the huge bill of a fully manned line of fortifications a thousand miles long. Inevitably, both the number of troops and their quality dwindle. Consequently, raids from the North of the Danube increase. Each year, more Slavs, Bulgars and Avars pour over the border in the summer and advance further, devastating ever larger areas. Some are even starting to settle in depopulated areas toward the end of the 670s AD. In Constantinople, the situation is just as dire. In the early 660s, the urban population has been swelled by waves of Anatolian refugees fleeing the exactions of Muawiyah's Arab warlords. But the city is utterly incapable to feed them as the supply of grain from Egypt has been cut. Famine and pestilence ensue. Bread riots are endemic. In 662, one such disturbance results in a massive fire which engulfs more than half of the built-up area. Eventually, Constantinople suffers a massive population drop and in the early 670s the city has less than 25% as many inhabitants as it had 20 years previously.

In the late 670s, the actual control of the ERE over most of the Balkans and Greece is reduced to a few cities like Sirmium and Serdica, together with a string of coastal enclaves at Thessalonica, Athens, Dyrrachium, Salona, Corinth, etc. In the countryside, people are left to fend for themselves. Some peasant communities attempt to organize defensively against barbarian raids but they are no match for the hardened warriors of the still pagan peoples from beyond the Danube. Some local initiatives, however, fare better than others. In 676 AD, the local commander of a small castrum on the border decides he has had enough of no pay and intermittent deliveries of cabbage. The man, named Leontios, deserts with his whole unit and starts moving south in search of a better life. Most of the soldiers, including their commander, are of Isaurian stock so there is little prospect for them of returning home. At first, they live from brigandage, not very differently from the various barbarian bands roaming the region. Eventually they reach the Rila mountains in the vicinity of Germae. There, one night, Leontios experiences a profound mystical conversion, brought on by a dream. In the morning, he gathers his soldier, no more than 150 in all, and starts to harangue them. He tells them that behaving like pagan raiders is no life for Christians and that God has revealed to him a new path for them. They are to become monks, but soldier-monks, bound together as much by prayer as by military discipline and battle. Most soldiers present are transfixed by the speech, fall to their knees and swear loyalty to "Abbot Leontios".

After a few years of trial and error, the community stabilizes around an organizational model which will earn it the nickname of "Spartan Monks". Officially, there are only two categories of men among the followers of Abbot Leontios: soldiers (στρατιῶται stratiōtai) and slaves (δοῦλοι douloi). The latter are initially composed mostly of youth captured during raids from Slavic settlements. Eventually, with the fame of the "Spartan Monks" spreading far and wide, a number of formerly free peasants beg to be accepted as slaves by the community. The role of slaves is to till the land and work as craftsmen. They are married and their children are born slaves. Among the stratiōtai, there are in reality two categories, though this subdivision is a secret, fiercely guarded from the outside world. The rank and file are called "brothers" (ἀδελφοί adelphoi) while the officers are called the "handsome ones" (καλοὶ kaloi), though this name is never to be used outside of the fort where the soldiers live and indeed as little as possible. The latter category of members are initiates of the inner teachings and ritual practices which form the true bond of the community. Outwardly, Spartan Monks are impeccably orthodox. There is a church besides the fort where mass is celebrated daily for the benefit of the slaves and of the junior brothers. Seven times a day, Psalms are sung there as well, as in any other monastery.

New military recruits are obtained by kidnapping, just like slaves, but are generally captured at a younger age. They are raised in the fort where the soldiers live and, if they show promise, are inducted as novices at fourteen years of age. Those who do not make the cut join the slave workforce. The noviciate is an extremely harsh four-year long military-style training program during which young monks learn to fight bare-hand as well as with various weapons, both on foot or on horseback. Around 5% of the novices die before they complete training. Those who make it are inducted as full brothers after a ceremony held between Christmas and New Year during which the newly ordained soldier monks spend the night naked lying face down on the pavement of the Church, soaked in the water of their "warrior's baptism".

After ten years of service as a brother, one becomes eligible to be inducted among the "handsome ones". But this is not automatic and many never make it. The secret induction ceremony, only ever held for one candidate at a time is centered around a homosexual hieros-gamos conducted between the Abbot and the initiate. Among Spartan Monks, heterosexual sex is punishable by death, but the inner doctrine of the community promotes sex between men as a key ritual bonding the elect to the divine. In theory, this is only supposed to happen between the handsome ones. But in practice, "Father-Son" relationships between an elect and a junior brother are tolerated. Homosexual intercourse was always a part of Roman army life, especially in the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Empire. It became a central element of the inner doctrine of Abbot Leontios' brotherhood shortly after its founding, when a small number of soldiers from Bythinia joined the group. These men belonged to a heretical sect local to their province, which combined elements of Valentinianism and Hermetism with the remnants of the cult of Antinous which had been established in the IInd century AD by Hadrian in the native province of his favorite. This Bythinian religious heritage has shaped the esoteric doctrine of the order.

The whole subculture of the Spartan Monks is based around the love of danger and this is why heretic doctrine and forbidden sex are such a central element in it. Male seduction is a constant presence in the relationship between brothers. But it must be resisted with stone faced impassibility and of course never acknowledged publicly. Those who cannot take it and display too much attachment to a single partner or some other form of perceived "neediness" are mercilessly bullied and subjected to various forms of hazing, sometimes resulting in death. These deaths are called "being rejected by the sons of God" and are the worst possible shame that can befall a brother. Both ordinary brothers and the handsome ones train on a daily basis and participate in battle. The elderly are not cared for. Once a soldier cannot mount a horse or handle a weapon anymore, he is expected to become a "hermit" which means in practice that he will retire in the forest to die within a few weeks or months. After the death of Leontios in 687 AD, a new abbot is elected among the "handsome ones". The authority of the abbot is absolute until he becomes a "hermit" himself and is replaced in a new election.

Monastery of Saint-George, church, and surrounding region.​

The initial community founded by Leontios is located in a valley high up in the Rila Mountains. During the 680s and 90s, other monasteries are created on the same model in the nearby valleys. Each has its church, its fort and two or three attached slave villages. The abbots of the daughter communities keep a strict relation of subservience to the chief abbot of the head monastery known internally as the "house of handsomeness" and officially as "Saint George Monastery". At the end of the VIIth century, the order numbers around 2000 soldier monks. As a result, the whole area of the Rila Mountains and of the city of Germae has become an island of peace and order within an ever bleaker and more chaotic Balkan region. In 697 AD, the bishop of Germae writes to Pope Sergius:

As your Holiness knows all too well, the patriarchal see of Constantinople has been vacant for the past three years and this is why I seek your benevolent counsel in the matter of the order of Saint George. As your Holiness may have learned from my brother the bishop of Pautalia, no one in our environs has enough words of praise for the godly works performed by the brothers of Abbot Leontios, of blessed memory. Everywhere, fields are tilled again, pagans are baptised and threatening hordes are kept at bay. In my own city of Germaneia, we have not have had to endure the swords of the heathens for over five years. The fame of the brothers of Saint George seem to keep them away from our neighborhood, so fearful are they to meet them in battle. In a noteworthy encounter, two years ago, a detachment of 500 mounted monks met a group of over 3000 heathen raiders in the plain to the north-east of our city. The monks were so disciplined and battle-hardened that the barbarians were never able to break the order of their formation, no matter how hard they tried. 1500 Bulgar and Slav warriors were killed on the spot and the rest fled.

The piety of the monks of Leontios is no less apparent than their bravery. I attended mass in their mother Church myself and can testify that they sing psalms like the angels of heaven. All of their slaves are baptized and the little ones born to them are properly raised in the faith. The most gifted among them are taught to read an write while many others are apprenticed in useful crafts. I have heard that some persons ask why there are only slaves tilling the land of the order's monasteries and I put this question myself to the Abbot of Saint George. His answer was this: "We are all slaves of Christ. And, our Lord taught us that our 'yes' must be 'yes' and our 'no' must be 'no'. A slave is someone who says 'yes' in everything he does. Besides, it is the meek who will inherit the Earth and in that regard, the souls of our slaves are safer than even our own." After hearing about the mighty works performed by the monks in my diocese, and seeing for myself the orderliness of their villages and forts, I can only concur with the words of the Abbot.

It is therefore with my most devoted support that I forward to your Holiness the request of the Order of Saint George for the granting of a letter of approval from your Holiness, to the effect that you bless their endeavors and request all bishops in the provinces of Dalmatia, Panonnia and Moesia to welcome their efforts in creating more communities in their respective bishoprics.
​

The pope duly grants his approval and the order of Saint George begins its expansion which will eventually lead it to dominate the region in the next century.

 

[fi11222]

The VIIIth century (I)

The Empire of Jerusalem

Upon the death of Muawiyah, a succession crisis grips the Empire of Jerusalem. While he lived, the founder of the Empire mistrusted his sons and used every trick in the book to sow the seeds of envy and hatred between them. No formal order of succession was decided upon and all the potential claimants were given titles and regional commands in roughly equal measure so that none of them could emerge as the strongest. When Muawiyah dies in 680, the strongest contenders for the throne are:

• Yasidos, eldest son of Muawiyah and governor of Anatolia.
• Marbanos, younger son of Muawiya by his Banu Kalb wife and governor of Egypt
• Eusebios, son of Muawiyah by his chief concubine Aisha (an Alid princess) governor of Phoinike (Lebanon) and commander of the fleet.
  
• Harithos, son of Muawiyah by another concubine and chief commander of the army, headquartered in Edessa.

The war of succession lasts for three years. At first, Yasidos has the upper hand, supported as he is by the Anatolian Arab warlords. Eventually, an alliance of Harithos and Marbanos, brokered by the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch manages to defeat the army of Yasidos at Mopsuestia in Cilicia and kill him. Harithos and Marbanos, unable to trust each other, come to blows immediately after their joint victory. Two weeks after the battle of Mopsuestia, Harithos is found dead in his tent, bitten by a spotted night adder (a snake not native of the region). Eusebios, who was biding his time in his stronghold of Tyre makes a dash to Damascus, where he is acclaimed by a large body of troops formerly loyal to Harithos. Marbanos beats a hasty retreat to his Egyptian fiefdom and within a week, the patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem have declared for Eusebios. It will take the latter another year to finally dislodge Marbanos from his upper-Egyptian redoubt. In 683, Eusebios is crowned emperor in Jerusalem by the patriarch of the city, assisted by his two colleagues of Antioch and Alexandria.

Like his father, Eusebios favors elaborate court ritual. At his coronation, no less than 1500 dignitaries are assembled in the throne hall in Jerusalem to perform proskynesis in front of the newly crowned Emperor. Militarily and diplomatically, however, Eusebios is a cautious man. Contrary to his father, he knows how ships can be used to project power. During his reign, the navy of the Empire of Jerusalem takes control of Crete, Sardinia and the Balearic islands. But his crowning achievement is his conquest of Yemen in 692. By this point, Jerusalem is in a position to control the flow of East-West trade from India and further east to the Mediterranean. Most of it is soon diverted to the Red Sea-Alexandria route which is now secured by the Jerusalemite navy. This is a severe blow to the kingdom of Saint Thomas which used to derive a significant part of its revenue from the now severely diminished Silk Road and Persian Gulf trade. After Eusebios, who dies in 702, the Emperors of Jerusalem in the VIIIth century are:

• Gerodunamos II (702-708), son of Eusebios
• Simeon (708-727), son of Gerodunamos.
• Eusebios II (727-729), son of Simeon
• Jesus (729-740), a cousin of Eusebios II who usurped the throne.
• Jesus II (740-744), son of Jesus
• Jesus III (744-772), son of Jesus II. Conquers Africa and Sicily.
• Jesus IV (772-793), son of Jesus III.

 

[fi11222]

The VIIIth century (II)

​

The Kingdom of Saint Thomas

The second half of the VIIth century has been a period of peace in Thomasiene. After Hamazasp (reigned 627-653), the throne of Anudagshahr is occupied by this son Mamak II (653-671) and his grandson Vasak (671-698). During this period, the church sinks ever deeper roots into Thomasian society. Everywhere, monasteries are created and churches built, in the distinctive Perso-Armenian style. At the end of the VIIth century, most of the nobles of all ranks have converted to Christianity, as well as the city-dwelling population. In the countryside, pockets of Zoroastrianism remain but an increasing number of peasants, especially those living on monastic lands, are in the process of converting to the new religion.

In 698 AD, Vard, the son of Vasak, ascends the throne in Anudagshahr. In Thomasian annals, he will be remembered as "Saint Vard the pious" because of his deep Faith and the key religious developments which take place during his reign. Since the establishment of the Empire of Jerusalem, a steady flow of Chalcedonian clerics and monks, fleeing Monophysite persecution, have been emigrating east. In 702, a synod is convened in Yazd (a city located roughly at the center of the realm), in order to take stock of the religious developments which have occurred in the past century. King Vard, who insisted that the synod be held at a location conveniently located for the highest possible number of bishops instead of near the capital, makes the trip riding an ass instead of a horse, as a sign of humility. "I am no more than a doorkeeper at the synod", he says. Originally convened as nothing more than a regional synod, the gathering in Yazd will hereafter be called "the council of Yazd" in Thomasian annals because of the far-reaching nature of the cannons ratified by the 380 bishops gathered there. These include:

• The renewed endorsement of Chalcedon and Nisibis, and consequent condemnation of Monophysite christology.
• The adoption of Pahlavi as a liturgical language alongside Syriac.
• The Canonization of Chosroes Chrysorhine and his proclamation as "Chief Doctor of the Church"
• The anathematisation of the title "Theotokos" formerly granted to the Virgin Mary and its replacement with "Christotokos".
• The adoption of a series of measure forbidding all representation in human form of the person of Christ as well as his mother and all saints and martyrs.

These iconoclastic measures are not as radical as it may seem, given the Thomasian context. In areas of cultural Persian influence, there has always been a reluctance to represent the divine. Furthermore, the extremely iconodule orientation of the Monophysite Imperial Church has thoroughly disgusted most of the refugee Chalcedonian churchmen who fled persecutions within the borders of the Empire of Jerusalem during the previous decades.

Finally, at the end of the Synod, Mershapuh, the bishop of Bamiyan and a former pupil of Saint Chorsroes, proposes a military expedition to extinguish the moribund Suren state in Sakastan once and for all. The king agrees and the army starts its southbound advance from Herat in the spring of 703. Suren forces are quickly beaten and the few remaining scions of the more than 1000 year old Parthian clan are executed after refusing baptism. The sancturary of mount Khajeh, the only Zoroastrian fire temple still in operation, is razed to the ground. Most of Sakastan is annexed to the kingdom of Saint Thomas as a new duchy but a few eastern cities are given to vassal kingdoms. Ganzak goes to Bamiyan and Qandahar to Kapisa.

The rest of the VIIIth century is mostly uneventful in Thomasiene. After the annexation of Yemen by Eusebios in 692, the kingdom sees its trade-derived tax revenues fall drastically and is thus increasingly unable to pay the tribute it owes to the Empire of Jerusalem. This leads to a number of border wars in northern Mesopotamia and Syria which fall into the familiar indecisive pattern of the IVth to VIth century Romano-Persian wars. Neither side is strong enough to be beaten by the other. The Thomasian army is tough and constantly kept at a high standard of battle readiness by the never-ending fights against the steppe people of central Asia. But the Jerusalem Empire is rich. So rich that it can buy as many mercenaries as it wants. The result is stalemate.

Within the kingdom of Saint Thomas, the spread of Christianity continues. From the 730s onward, the Church, helped by the secular arm of the king, adopts a stronger policy against heresy. Many Mazdakites, Manichaeans and various Gnostics are burned at the stake of flee into exile. By the end of the VIIIth century Thomasian society is thoroughly Christianized. Throughout the realm and its eastern satellites, many centers of pilgrimage develop and gain in popularity. The 750s see the appearance of the specifically Thomasian practice of the so called "brick pilgrimage", in which each pilgrim is encouraged to buy a baked clay brick in his city of departure and carry it to the remote monastic site of his destination. There, the brick, engraved with the name of the donor is used to build up or repair the local church. To the north of the Caucasus, the Christian Khazar Empire is firmly in Anudagshar's orbit and protects its northern flank. Whatever trade remains along the silk road is routed through the Khazars, in order to bypass the Jerusalem Empire.

 

[Derekc2]

Oh, it looks like we are entering new ground.

So you say that The Thomasian kingdom is thoroughly Christianized society wise, what does this mean for the native faith of Zoroastrianism, it's obviously a minority faith but how much has it been able to hold on as the faith of the Persian people, since I doubt literally everyone has converted to the faith yet, and what impact has it's legacy left upon the folk traditions of the Persian peasentry?

 

[fi11222]

The VIIIth century (III)

​

The Eastern Roman Empire

In the early VIIIth century, the ERE has lost all control on the Balkans, Greece and most of Italy. In Constantinople, rival usurpers replace each other at such a feverish pace that no one bothers to take note of their names anymore. The patriarchal see is only intermittently occupied and has close to no influence left on any of its erstwhile suffragan bishops. Most of these now look to the bishop of Rome for guidance. The latter has never had more clout in religious matters but its secular position is dismal. The limes at the northern end of the Italian peninsula has long been breached and the Lombards are back with a vengeance. They control all the major Italian cities with the exception of Ravenna, Brundisium, Neapolis and a 50 mile wide stretch of land around Rome, between Praeneste and Cosa. The imperial administration persists in these enclaves, as well as in a number of coastal towns in Greece, but each urban center is now independent in all but name.

The order of Saint George, for its part, continues its rapid expansion in the Danube Valley. The Spartan Monks have nothing but scorn for "civilians" (anyone not a slave or a member of the order), which mostly includes the urban populations and the fast dwindling category of the imperial bureaucrats. As a result, the order makes no effort to defend the Empire or Constantinople, which barbarian raiders continue to attack at will. The protection of the order extends only to their slave population and to a few urban centers which are small enough and close enough to communities of the order to be entirely under its control. When any of these is threatened, the response of the Spartan Monks is swift and fierce. Alerted by a system of fire towers, the army of the order can muster in less than a week at any point of its territory. Each time this fearful force has met with opposition in the field, be it from Slavs, Bulgars or Avars, the latter have been wiped out almost to the last man. Soon, the barbarians have learned their lessons and avoid pitch battles, preferring small scale infiltration raids and settlement expeditions to the lands far south of the Danube where the order has no presence.

Due to their scorn for city-dwellers, which they call probatōn (προβάτων, "sheep"), the order's policy does not focus on cities, as was the immemorial practice of the Roman Empire, but on the implantation of self-sufficient agrarian communities centered around a monastery-fortress, which is generally referred to as a castrum, the old Roman term for a border fort, although the official term within the order is lavra (Λαύρα, "monastery"). By 750 AD, more than 500 such communities exist, from the delta of the Danube to Vindobona. Most are set up away from the rivers, in easily defensible mountainous or forrested environments, which the slaves of the order quicly clear up and put under cultivation.

As the order expands in the upper Danube valley, it comes into contact with the Franks of the Merovingian and then the Carolingian kingdoms. At first, the relationship is peaceful and a common border is fixed by treaty at Lauriacum, some fifty miles east of Vindobona, the easternmost bishopric controlled by the order of Saint George. But the situation soon deteriorates as the restless and independent-minded Bavarian lords of the upper Danube are poorly controlled by the monarchs in Aachen. After a few border clashes get out of hand, a 10 000 strong army of the order is assembled and wipes out the forces of the Agilolfing duke of Bavaria Tassilo III near Lentia (Linz) in 765 AD. The following year, a Frankish punitive expedition led by Charles, the son and putative heir of king Pepin the Short, meets with the Spartan Monks in a pitched battle a few miles east east of Vindobona. The Frankish host is annihilated and Charles killed. After a short period of instability, Carloman, Pepin's younger son, ascends the Frankish throne and signs a new treaty with the order of Saint George, ceding them the valley of the Danube up to the Inn.

By the end of the VIIIth century, the Spartan Monks control more than 1200 miles along the Danube as well as large stretches of the Pannonian plain on both sides of the river. They have also set up many communities along the southern Carpathians. As the order expands, its governing structure becomes more centralized. A coucil called the boulē (βουλή) gathers bi-annually in Sirmium to take major decisions and elect the katepánō (κατεπάνω, lit. "[the one] placed at the top"), the chief military leader of the order's army when on campaign. The members of the boulē are the dux, the commanders of the themata (θέματα), the regional subdivisions of the order. In most cases, the dux also tend to be elected as bishops of the main towns in their jurisdictions as the authority of the order becomes absolute in the areas it controls. Increasingly at peace, as few barbarians are now willing to test its might in battle, the order has more and more trouble finding an outlet for the martial energies of its troops. To remedy the problem, large "jousts"—in fact, ritualized pitched battles— are organized in which the army of two neighbouring themata slug it out from sunset to sundown, with the goal of bringing a banner into the oponent's camp. During such engagements, any side which does not end the day with at least 10 dead and twice as many wounded is considered deeply dishonored.

As heretics are increasingly fleeing persecutions in Thomasiene, some find refuge with the order. Those who find favor with the boulē are grouped in a few secret fortresses up in the Carpathian mountains. They have the status of slaves but are given a measure of comfort and are tasked with developing the inner theology and rituals of the order. Their children have a higher than average chance of becoming brothers, although they are subject to the same rigorous training and discipline as any other recruit. Those heretic refugees who are not considered worthy to become "learned slaves" are integrated into the general slave population and rebaptized as "orthodox" Christians. By and large, the secrecy about the Spartan Monks' esoteric inner doctrine is maintained in the VIIIth century as a result of the remoteness of their territory and also because of the fear they inspire in all those who know them. Nobody wants to find out what happens to those who betray the order of Saint George.

The political situation in 790 AD.​

 

[fi11222]

Oh, it looks like we are entering new ground.

What do you mean by "New ground" exactly ?

So you say that The Thomasian kingdom is thoroughly Christianized society wise, what does this mean for the native faith of Zoroastrianism, it's obviously a minority faith but how much has it been able to hold on as the faith of the Persian people, since I doubt literally everyone has converted to the faith yet, and what impact has it's legacy left upon the folk traditions of the Persian peasentry?

By the end of the VIIIth century, 90% of the nobility (of all ranks) and of the urban population is Christian.
In the countryside, 50% of the peasantry (roughly those working monastic land) are nominally Christian, although most retain many "superstitions" of their Zoroastrian past.

No institutional form of Zoroastrianism survive. All Zoroastrian fire temples are closed as well as the schools. Those peasants who remain Zoroastrian have to rely on father to son transmission to pass on the lore of the faith and to ordain new mobads.

 

[Derekc2]

What do you mean by "New ground" exactly ?.

I mean that it seems we are starting to enter the part of the timeline you were not able to reach in it's initial form, which is something I'm excited about.

By the end of the VIIIth century, 90% of the nobility (of all ranks) and of the urban population is Christian.
In the countryside, 50% of the peasantry (roughly those working monastic land) are nominally Christian, although most retain many "superstitions" of their Zoroastrian past.

No institutional form of Zoroastrianism survive. All Zoroastrian fire temples are closed as well as the schools. Those peasants who remain Zoroastrian have to rely on father to son transmission to pass on the lore of the faith and to ordain new mobads.

So it seems that Zoroastrianism has become a faith of the peasantry and a 'folk religion' and is on the way down. Sad to see that though in a society rule by Christian rulers it was likely inevitable.

 

[fi11222]

So it seems that Zoroastrianism has become a faith of the peasantry and a 'folk religion' and is on the way down. Sad to see that though in a society rule by Christian rulers it was likely inevitable.

Yes. And indeed it is basically the same thing which happened IOTL. Zoroastrianism had been too much appropriated by the Sassanid as their official religion to be able to survive their demise for very long. Besides, Zoroastrian was a "national" religion (the religion of the Iranians) and was therefore hard put competing against any "universal" religion. Zoroastrianism was a contemporary of Judaism rather than Christianity. It was Manichaeism which was, in some ways, its offshoot and the real competitor in the new arena of "world religions".

 

[fi11222]

Christianity in China

In 631 AD, a young monk named Peter (Πέτρος Petros, in Greek) had joined the monastery of Saint Chosroes Chrysorhine in Bamiyan. With a few friends, he had made the long journey through the Iranian plateau on foot from his native city of Al-Hira in Mesopotamia, attracted by the reputation of Saint Chosroes and the prospect of a life closer to God, high up in the mountains at the end of the world. Peter was from a noble family of Arabic descent, closely associated by marriage to the Alids and the Lakhmids. Known as a fiery preacher even before his arrival at Bamiyan, he was known among his companions by a number of nicknames like Hāṣiban (حَاصِبًا "storm of stones" in Arabic) or Al-Eben (from the word אֶ֥בֶן ’e·ḇen, "stone" in Hebrew), all puns on his name.

In 635 AD, Peter, now 34 years old, is given the leadership of a mission to China sent by Saint Chorsroes Chrysorhine, with the blessing of the patriarchate in Anudgashar, in order to support the burgeoning Christian communities in the recently established Tang Empire, and providing them with theological and organizational guidance. Not unlike the mission of Augustine to Britain sent by pope Gregory nearly 40 years prior, the party of Peter the Arab numbers around 40 monks and numerous mules and yaks loaded with manuscripts.

There have been Christians in China for several centuries before Peter's mission but they were never more than a few groups of traders, mostly of Sogdian or Kuchean origin, without much formal organization. But in the early VIIth century, with the establishment of the Tang Dynasty and the safety it provides to the trade routes of the Taklamakan, the number of Chinese Christians is rising fast. Peter's party leaves Bamiyan in the spring of 635, when the snows of the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas are starting to thaw. After a short stop in Kashgar, they reach Kucha in August. The city, one of the biggest stopovers on the Silk Road, has a significant Christian population. Since a bishop has been elected there for the first time a decade before, Kucha is the easternmost diocese of the Church of the East at the time. Peter decides to stay there until next spring in order to start learning some rudiments of Chinese (the kingdom of Kucha is a Tang vassal) and trade some of his manuscripts written in Syriac and Pahlavi for others in Sogdian, Kuchean and Chinese. In particular, he obtains several copies of the Sutra of Hearing the Messiah, a Christian apologetic and instructional manual composed in Chinese by Kutchean monks a few years prior.

Having left Kucha in the spring of 636 AD, Peter the Arab's party arrives in Chang'an, the Tang capital, in September of that year. The city is a bustling metropolis of several hundred thousand inhabitants, just as large and full of varied people as Anudagshahr, Alexandria or Constantinople. Soon after his arrival, Peter manages to obtain an audience with Wei Zheng, the old chancellor of Emperor Taizong, thanks to letters of introduction he obtained from the king of Kucha through the bishop of that city. In 636, Wei has been kept from full participation in government business due to an eye illness and he is therefore happy at the prospect of the distraction that the visit of this traveler from far away "Da Qin" promises to offer. He listens benevolently to Peter's depiction of the Christian Faith, which the envoy of Saint Chosroes, following the advice given him by Kuchean monks knowledgeable of Chinese ways, is careful to present as a form of "wisdom" offering a way to immortality. Wei Zheng's curiosity is piqued when he notes a number of similarities with Daoist teachings, especially when Peter uses the term "Zhenren" to describe the souls of the blessed in Heaven. Wei arranges for a building located in one of the foreigner's wards to be rented out to Peter's party and also decides to convene a debate between Peter and a number of famous Daoist masters. For a nearly blind old man alone in his magnificent garden he can no longer enjoy, there is no better way to relieve boredom than to hear learned men discuss elevated topics, he reasons. This debate, followed by a number of others held at Wei's Chang'an suburban villa until the spring of 637, will not of course result in any conversions. But they are the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between some currents of the Daoist establishment and the budding Chinese Christian church.

From 636 to the 640s, the church of Chang'an, organized by Peter, grows steadily. At first composed mostly of traders of Sogdian, Kuchean or Persian origin, the Faith starts to attract some Tujue, Khitan and even Chinese converts. After the building in the inner city proves too small for the expanding congregation, a plot of land is bought on the outskirts of town with money donated by the faithful. There, a small monastery is built in 642 and a pagoda erected after the Chinese custom. In 645, Peter, now 44, is elected bishop of Chang'an, to oversee the increasing number of parishes which are being created around the Chinese capital. Wei Zheng had died in 643 but before that time, he had introduced Peter to Ashina Simo, an Eastern Tujue prince of whom Wei was the main political backer at the Tang court. In 645, Simo, back in Chang'an for good after Taizong's failed expedition to Gogureyo, becomes the main patron of the Christian Chinese church. After being baptized on his deathbed in 653, Simo bequeaths a significant fraction of his estate to the church. With the money, Peter is able to open several orphanages, a hospital and a cathedral school.

Through Simo, Peter has also been introduced to a number of high officials, among whom Zhangsun Wuji is by far the most prominent. In 655, after Zhangsun's position at court is made precarious because of his opposition to Emperor Gaozong's promotion of his concubine Wu to the position of Empress, the chancellor becomes a more overt supporter of the church, although more as a "fellow traveller" rather than a full convert. Zhangsun resumes the practice of hosting debates between Christian theologians and Daoist masters started by Wei Zheng in 636. By 655, bishop Peter has been joined by several other former pupils from Saint Chorsroes as well as a number of Kuchean monks skilled in the Chinese language who will all attend these debates. From 655 to Zhangsun's final exile and death in 659 one session is held at least once a month at the chancellor's mansion. Their transcripts, know hereafter as "the 99 dialogues at Zhangsun's" will become a cornerstone of Chinese Christian learning.

One of these dialogues runs like this. First, as was the rule, Zhangsun asks the question which serve as a starting point for the debate:

Zhangsun : My friends, how are we to call the Supreme Power in a way that is proper and just ?

A Kuchean monk : "In our Sutra of Hearing the Messiah, we call him 天尊 (tiānzūn; literally: 'Celestial Venerable')"​

A Daoist Master : "Could we not simply equate him with 上帝 (Shangdi), to whom men of old addressed their pleas for oracles ?"

Second Daoist Master : "That will not do! Shangdi only rules while the Supreme Power also creates."

First Daoist Master : "Maybe the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi 黄帝), then ?"

Third Doist Master : "I disagree. The Yellow Emperor and Shangdi are one and the same anyway."

First Daoist Master : "How so ?"

Third Daoist Master : "Men first added the character 皇 (huang, 'Lord') to the name of Shangdi in order to show more filial respect. And then it became usual to shorten 皇上帝 (Huang Shangdi) into just 皇帝 (Huangdi). But then some master realized that this would not do because 皇 was also a title borne by men of rank, and therefore taboo. So he substituted 黄 (huang, 'yellow') for 皇 (huang, 'Lord') and people call Shangdi by the name of Yellow Emperor to this day without even knowing the reason."​

First Daoist Master : "Shall we call the Supreme Power by the name of 元始天尊 (Yuanshi Tianzun)? The first of the Pure Ones was a creator, is it not ?"​

Second Daoist Master : "Yes, this is better. But still, Yuanshi Tianzun is only a third of three. Should not the Supreme Power be a whole instead of a fraction ?"

Peter the Arab : "I see there is another Trinity here."

Third Daoist Master, addressing the young Kuchean monk who spoke first : "It seems that your choice of 天尊 (tiānzūn) was not that bad actually. It is what comes closest to a statement of the undivided effective force behind the world."
​

In 669 AD. Peter the Arab, bishop of Chang'an, dies surrounded by the three bishops he ordained in the early 660s to head the newly dioceses of Luoyang, Chengdu and Louguan, and all the clergy and monks of Chang'an. A few decades later, with the assent of the patriarcate in Anudagshahr, he will be canonized as "Saint Aluopen", the Chinese transliteration of one of his many nicknames (no one know exactly which one), and this is how he will be remembered in Chinese Christian tradition thereafter. During the reign of Wu Zeitan, the church will have to keep a low profile as the Empress is a staunch Buddhist. Nevertheless, the Chinese church continues to grow at a healthy pace and counts several hundred thousand faithful at the turn of the VIIIth century.

 

[fi11222]

Krypteia

In the late XIIIth century, the Carolingian[1] realm is in shambles. Carloman is proving to be an exceedingly ineffectual ruler and the papacy has quickly given up on its plans to position the descendants of Pepin the Short as a new "Roman" dynasty. Soon, the centrifugal forces of nepotism and dynastic politics by local grandees are tearing the realm apart. By 800, the centralizing efforts of the Pippinids have been entirely reversed. Austrasia has split into three regional entities. Neustria, Swabia, Burgundy and Aquitania have become independent kingdoms.

As a result of the anarchy and incessant squabbles that rage in the Frankish lands, the order of Saint George is being sucked in by the power vacuum. This area, however, is different from those the Spartan Monks have colonized so far. Instead of the pagan Slavs, Avars and Bulgars the Spartan Monks have had to deal with until now, the Germanic populations of southern Germany are already Christianized. Therefore, the order adapts. Instead of simply kidnapping youths as recruits or slaves, the new policy adopted by the boulē is now to try and co-opt the Frankish nobility into the order's organization. It has long been a custom among Germanic peoples to sent boys away from home at 10 or 12 years of age to reside with an uncle or other relative in order to learn combat and manners. The order of Saint George leverages this custom by creating dedicated "youth houses", attached to monasteries, where young boys receive training and indoctrination in the order's worldview. Initially, the youngsters are delivered to these houses as hostages according to the terms of treaties signed with the local nobility to guarantee peaceful coexistence. Eventually, the custom of sending one's boys to a monastery of Spartan Monks becomes a coveted honor. Indeed, when a young noble, who has been trained at a "youth house" since the age of 12, reaches 16 he is offered a choice: either stay with the order as a recruit, if he is deemed worthy, or go back to his family. As a rule, elder sons go back to inherit their father's holdings while the younger ones generally elect to stay. As a result, family bonds tend to be created between the order's monasteries and the nobility in their vicinity. When war threatens, warriors from the nobility are called up to fight alongside their brothers, with whom they have been trained. And war often happens in IXth century Germany, either as a result of local feuds between Christians or of raids by still pagan Sorbs or Saxons.

During the first half of the IXth century, the order of Saint George expands westward at a rapid pace. In the 830s, it reaches the Rhine and 20 years later the mouth of that river on the North Sea. This rapid expansion is made easier by the fact that the Spartan Monks, on a semi-conscious level, are breathing new life in some very old Indo-European customs. The "youth houses" in particular are similar in principle to the Spartan Krypteia, which was itself a variation on the old Indo-European männerbund. The Germanic nobility, which always had mixed feelings about the Romano-Christian customs promoted by the Frankish monarchs, is enthusiastic about this new development. Quickly, the ideal of any noble non-member of the order is to become "as tough as a Spartan Monk". It is a tall order, but some manage to reach that goal and all are irresistibly drawn to it.

By the end of the 850s, the Papacy is starting to realize that something fishy is going on to its north. For centuries, the attention of the chruchmen in Rome has been focused on the Christological disputes which continue to tear Christianity apart, especially since the Monophysite faction has been provided with a state backer when Muawiyah took power in Syria and created the Jerusalem Empire two centuries before. Since the ERE's power crumbled in Italy for good at the end of the VIIth century, Rome has been a religious paradise of sorts, despite appearances to the contrary. It is true that the city is in ruins and the population consists of barely 15 000 souls huddling in a small corner of the former circuit walls near the north-western bend in the Tiber just opposite of the old basilica of Saint Peter. But there is peace since there is nothing left to steal in Rome. More importantly, the old glory of Rome is dead and buried without any hope of resurrection. So there is no temptation anymore, no career to pursue, no lies to tell in order to please influential men. More than half the population of Rome are monks and nuns. They cultivate the land where palaces once stood and lead cows and goats to pasture among broken columns. The fruit of their labor is amply sufficient to feed everyone, including the poor, the elderly and the lame. As a result, everyone is in good health and there has been no pestilence since the great plagues of the VIth century. In their spare time, people gather in the many churches, monks and laymen alike, to sing praises to the Lord. Most buildings are in an advanced state of disrepair but there are always more than enough left standing. Rome has become the best approximation there is to Augustine's city of God.

Before 800, some odd reports about the order of Saint George had reached Rome every now and then. But they were few and inconclusive. Now that the Spartan Monks are becoming ever more deeply embedded into Germanic society, they have a much harder time maintaining the secrecy surrounding their inner doctrine. In the 840s and 50s, a steady trickle of deserters reach Rome, some of them from reputable families with ties to the top church leadership. They all tell basically the same story. Finally, in 858 AD., the freshly elected pope Nicholas decides that something has to be done to address the rumors. He convenes a Synod of Frankish and Italian bishops and summons the katepánō of the order to appear before it in the spring. That year, the chief military leader of the order is one Samuel, a middle-aged man of Bulgar origin. When the members of the boulē read the letter from Rome, they understand that the time of secrecy is over. Whether the order accepts the papal summons or rejects it, it will be at war with the whole of Christendom and it will be a fight to the death. So, with characteristic aggressiveness, they decide to go on the offensive. All the troops of the order, but not the Germanic auxiliaries, are gathered at Vindobona. Before the 60 000 assembled soldiers, the katepánō Samuel, accustomed as are all military leaders of the order to motivate the troops, delivers a rousing speech. After summarizing the history of the order and praising its recent successes, he concludes:

Brothers, the time is ripe to bring light to the World.
What is hidden will be made known[2], as the bringer of Truth said.
The puny servants of the ignorant creator[3] think they can insult us.
We will show them that the Father above the Aeons[4] is not to be trifled with.
Let us break the bars of the cage fashioned by Yaldabaoth.
Let us bring out the spark of light from on high in each one of us and let it illuminate the world.
On to Rome brothers! On to Rome!​

Only the initiated fully understand what all this means. However, enough of the order's doctrine has filtered down among the rank and file to make them able to get the message clearly enough. They all let out a thunderous roar of approval.

As soon as the news of the order's mobilization reach the papacy, there is panic in Rome. Pope Nicholas sends a flurry of letters to all the monarchs of northern Italy, Gaul and Spain, begging them for help. Soon enough, a coalition is being formed and an army is due to assemble in Arelate, the seat of the papal legate for Gaul, in early september. But this is not nearly fast enough for the lightning speed of the Spartan Soldiers' army. By the end of July, it has already crossed the Alps and crushed a hastily assembled Lombard army in the Po valley near Ravenna. Three weeks later it is at the Milvian Bridge, two miles north of Rome. There, it meets a delegation of bishops sent by Pope Nicholas. Katepánō Samuel has few words for them: "You are serving the wrong god", he says. And he has all of them beheaded. The following morning, the troops of the order of Saint George have taken stations all around the walls, that the few defenders are unable to fully man. At the sound of the trumpet, they attack, scale the walls in multiple places and open the gates. As the Spartan Monks pour in, the terrified inhabitants are stunned at their discipline. There is no looting, no burning, no rape. Following the orders given to them before the assault, the soldiers gather all the citizens they can catch in the wide empty space that was once the Circus Maximus. Upon arrival at the assembly area, clerics and monks are separated from the lay people. Then, in front of the horrified and bewildered eyes of the latter, the former are all slaughtered. More than 7000 thousand priests, nuns and monks, including pope Nicholas and all the bishops assembled for the synod, die that day.

Then, the Katepánō Samuel addresses the crowd:

Christians, men and women, you have been abused.
The god preached to you until now is not the true one.
There are three categories of men.
First are the Pneumatics, who know the Truth.
Then there are the Psychics who have heard of salvation but whose knowledge is imperfect.
Then there are the Hylics, sold onto demons, destined to the fire.

Most of you are Psychics. You have been told of salvation through Christ but you do not know what this truly means. You are not now prepared to be told the Truth. But believe. Believe in the protection of the Pneumatics and you may be saved. Those who want to stay here will be our slaves. As you know, we treat our slaves well. Those who want to leave can. Those who do will spread the news of the final revelation of Truth to the wider world. Those who want to leave move to the western end of the arena toward the river, those who want to stay move to the other end.​

A deep silence follows. Not a soul moves or even dare lift their eyes. Then there is a slight scuffle and people start moving to the two ends of the open ground. Most elect to stay. But around 500, mostly able bodied young men, choose to leave, although many of them are half certain all this is a trick and that they will be executed too. But it is not a trick. The order of Saint George needs people to spread the message far and wide. And the message is simple: submit or perish.

Then, Katepánō Samuel proceeds to organize the city according to the familiar pattern. Some of the bigger and better buildings are allocated to the Spartan Monks as barracks. Not all of them, by far, can stay within the city so they are sent to encamp to the north along the Via Flaminia and to the south along the Via Appia. The inhabitants who chose to stay are spread inside and outside the walls in small "villages" made of hastily built mud and thatch huts. They are given livestock and farm implements seized from the surrounding region and put to work in the fields. It is the right time as the harvest is ripe. All major churches are torn down and put to the torch. But small ones are kept for the slaves use. The two largest building still in a reasonable condition, the baths of Diocletian and those of Caracalla, are converted into places of worship for the handsome ones. One is dedicated to Aion, the other to Barbelo.

On the left, relief of Aion, recovered from a Mithraeum, displayed in the baths of Diocletian. On the right, a statue of Artemis Ephesiana used to represent Barbelo in the baths of Caracalla.​

A few weeks later, upon the opening of the new temples of Aion and Barbelo, the rank and file of the order is gathered in fields outside the city, grouped together in units of 5000 men, in order to be instructed by their officers on the new order of things.

The Katepánō himself delivers the address to the first division, made up of the most illustrious troops and soon to be renamed "Legio I":

Brothers, the time of secrecy, the time of hunkering down in forests has ended.
The Father from above the Aeons has given us victory over the servants of the ignorant god.
From now on Rome lives again as a beacon of light.
The light we are predestined to bring to the four corners of the world.
In time, you will be instructed in the gnosis, as far as allowed by the bringer of salvation.
The ultimate secret still has to be kept for the initiates only.
But you will be instructed in all the teachings you need in order to bring back the spark that inhabits your souls through the gates of the seven Aeons and onto the Father above them.
The world has been given into our hands not to be enjoyed as there is nothing to enjoy in the failed creation of the misshapen child of Sophia.
It has been given into our hands to be redeemed; to be illuminated and brought back to the Savior.​

What this last sentence actually means remains to be seen.

[1] It should properly be called the Pippinind realm as Charlemagne never ascends the throne in this TL, but the term "Caroligian" is kept here for the sake of clarity.
[2] Luke 8:17
[3] The Demiurge.
[4] The Gnostic supreme being, superior to the Demiurge and unknown to him.

 

[Spartacus1224]

This timeline is awesome. I could have not even imagined a crazed and fanatical order of gnostic spartan warrior monks "rebirthing" Rome when I first began reading this. Thank you for the regular updates as well. Looking forward to the next update. A question though, besides the empire of Alexandria, is there any meaningful remnant of the eastern empire left, even just inside Constantinople itself? Or is it all truly dead?

 

[dakkafex]

Holy shit. Hooooooly shit. I did not see the Gnostic reveal coming, even though (looking back over it now) the hints were all there. Awesome work, I don't think I've quite read anything quite like it on this site before.

Also, good work with the maps so far, they've been good quality and very helpful with keeping track of things.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

I think the monks are going to burn themselves out. They're expanding too far, too fast and their rural, agrarian focus has robbed them of any needed government structure to effectively hold all that territory. Eventually troops will be stretched too thin, and other factions will start to adapt to their military tactics.

Oh, and the Magyars are coming soon.