The Three Explosions: A Late Antiquity/Western Roman Timeline

Before we begin I would like to lay out a disclosure for this timeline. First and foremost I intend it to redefine typical Dark Age timelines, well perhaps not redefine but rather provide a radically new approach to cleanse your palate. That being said I do intend for this timeline to retain strong levels of plausibility and the events described within should remain within the bounds of realism. If though they might make you wonder and question.

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Part One: John the Pig

September 7th 476 would mark a turning point for the fortunes of the Western Roman Empire and in effect, if one would to look at the minute details of the preceding days mark a rebirth of that ancient state. The Scirian generalissimo Oadecer would be assassinated by a Rugian companion who then manage to escape and flee to the Balkans. Incidentally his withdrawal to the East lends credence to the assassination being a job paid for by the Eastern Emperor. Whether there is any truth to that accusation is up to debate as the following events hardly proved to fall in Xeno's favor.

The exact nature of the assassination aside the aftermath would prove to be as bloody as any failed coup attempt could be. A brief civil war erupted outside of Ravenna amongst Oadecer's former army, spurred by ethnic strife and the assassination of the erstwhile leader. Without the competency and charisma of Oadecer this ramshackle collection of Scirians, Rugians and other Germanics, not to mention the considerable Italian component, collapsed. Ravenna was sacked by rampaging Rugians and the deposed boy-Emperor Romulus Augustulus murdered.

The succeeding chaos is poorly documented and lasts for a few weeks until a little known soldier by the name of Iohannes manages to acquire control over a decent chunk of the Roman and foederati forces formerly under Oadecer's command. Iohannes heralded from Latium and was born a peasant shepherd outside the walls of the Eternal City itself. As a teenager he was drafted into the Imperial army, forming a part of the necessary Italic veneer to the legions, and apparently crawled his way up the ranks with some skill and ruthlessness. The latter which he excelled in and as the leader of the ragtag gang that called itself the Western Roman army he could not have survived otherwise.

As commander he pompously proclaimed himself Magister Militum and promptly marched his army to the Senate. Under the threat of death, a fate which would befall nearly half of the stately aristocrats anyways, Iohannes had the Senate revoke its earlier decision and crown him as the Emperor of the West. The hapless Pope was dragged from Rome to legitimize his ascension to the purple with some religiosity. In reality the manner by which the Latin peasant proclaimed himself Emperor betrayed his lowly upbringing and clumsy illiteracy, indeed his immediate actions as Augustus made the Italian elite miss the previous series of barbarian generalissimos. It's always fellow countrymen who make the worst tyrants.

As Emperor Iohannes was beset on all sides by extreme difficulty, an Eastern supported pretender in Dalmatia, questionable troop loyalty, opposition from the Italian elite and barbarian threats just past the Alps. Fortunately for Rome he would mark the beginning of his reign with action, actions that quickly earned him the derisive nickname "Porcus" (hence John the Pig). He himself referred to be known as Iohannes Latinus, and consequently he is known as the founder of the Latinian dynasty. Killing two birds with one stone Iohannes would, within the first months of his rein, start the so called "Latter Proscriptions". Perhaps the most decisive and monumental decision of his rule.

Much like their ancient forebears these proscriptions were intended to raise money and eliminate threats to a dictatorship, perceived and real. Iohannes for his part attack the Italian aristocratic elite and killed half of the Senatorial/patrician class, taking over estates and wealth in the process. In turn he replaced these men with goons from his army, practically overnight diminishing the overall status and prestige of the Senate as Italian and Germanic soldiers were shot up as Senators. To ensure their loyalty, for now, the Emperor would reward them with estates throughout Italy and entitled them as "Comites". The Scirians, now becoming a general term for the Germanic foederati living directly in Italy, were given lands in the Po River valley to settle. The region would henceforth be known as Sciria.

Now the repercussions and fallout of the Latter Proscriptions can not be overstated, it gave birth to a highly feudal system in Italy proper and sparked the Eastern Emperor's desire to support Nepos in his bid to overthrow Iohannes. In sum total this first year of Iohannes reign can be said to have reverted Italy back to an almost pre-Imperial stage, gradually de-urbanizing the province as the elite took to their estates. In due time his "reforms (if one were to paint the proscriptions in the rosiest of light) would also reignite a martial ethos, drawn from the feudal estates of the new comite aristocracy.

Of course resistance to the Latter Proscriptions were strong and a number of minor revolts and insurrections did occur, worst of which being a mutiny by a garrison on the Adriatic which allowed Julian Nepos to land with an army in July 477. The army that would light the peninsula on fire.
 
Reading with great joy. I'm also writing one (at moment secretly) AH about late antiquity and I'm almost fascinated about everything's on those lines.

Go on!
 
Reading with great joy. I'm also writing one (at moment secretly) AH about late antiquity and I'm almost fascinated about everything's on those lines.

Go on!

A comment yay!

Anyways thanks! I'm glad you like the start.
 
I guess the sudden death of Nepos is the third explosion?

That's actually in reference to future events, I don't want to spoil some ideas I have unfortunately. Though in the political sense something along those lines can also be derived from the title :p
 
Piudareiks, Nepos, Aiwareiks, Zeno. It's a big "to kill" list. And a awesome one too.

Edit: don't forget all those damn franks.
 
Part 2: The War of the Pretender

Julius Nepos' claim to legitimacy was quite strong when he set sail from Dalmatia. As a deposed former Emperor he saw Iohannes as nothing more than a peasant upstart and so did many Romans across Italy and the East. The Eastern Emperor fully supported him and indeed provided him with a small army. Finally the so called Exile Senate had coalesced around Nepos in Ragusa, a collection of aristocrats from Italy who had managed to flee the Latter Proscriptions. The fact that he was a serious threat to Iohannes can be seen by the mutiny of the Anconan garrison when the small fleet of Nepos arrived, the vital Adriatic port would welcome him with open arms. So began the Italic War, if you are a Greek, otherwise as it is known by future West Romans, the War of the Pretender.

The exact size and composition of the army of Nepos is uncertain, estimates range from 2,000 to 10,000. What we do know is that it had a fair sized component of Ostrogoths, placed within the army by Xeno to rid himself of some of the more troublesome barbarians and drawn mostly from the Ostrogothic settlements in Epirus. Nepos also had a regiment of Hunnic mercanaries, a decision that would quickly come to haunt him in the coming war. Undoubtedly included among them were Dalmatian conscripts. All told it was by no means a massive force that crossed the Adriatic in 477 AD but given the nature of Roman military in this era, particularly in the West, it was hardly a negligible threat.

As Nepos consolidated his logistical position in Ancona Iohannes had trouble putting together a sufficient force in time to confront the pretender right there. This delay would prove costly as Nepos used this extra time to strike north towards Ravenna. Without enough men to resist and not willing to endure a potentially disastrous siege Iohannes retreated from the capital towards the Po River, where he had strong support from the Scirian population settled there. Nepos entered Ravenna to much fanfare, congratulated the citizens on getting rid of the little boy pretender (Romulus Augustulus) and gave them tax free status within his new empire. Needless to say Nepos quickly became popular.

The fall of Ravenna had a major impact on the war and nearly awarded Nepos and early victory. Contingents sent south along the Adriatic coast found towns willing to accept Nepos as their new Emperor, the urban centers of Magna Graecia in particular were enthusiastic about Nepos' victory. Most of the cities of that rich region would switch sides to Nepos, earning them the eternal ire of Iohannes. However this slew of good news relaxed Nepos and put down his guard and when his Huns were blamed for ransacking Pescara on their way south the Italian population quickly began to favor a different contender.

Over the course the winter of 477-478 Nepos nonetheless strengthened his grip over the third of Italy he controlled but was forced to increasingly rely on his Ostrogothic troops to maintain that control. During this time Iohannes finally put together his army, tardiness no doubt in part due to the damage the Latter Proscriptions inflicted on Roman bureaucracy, a force of Italians and Scirians hardly reminiscent of a Roman legion. Still it called itself one. Despite a mild winter little fighting occurred between the two Emperors until March.

In early March Iohannes marched down from the Po River valley and attacked Ravenna. Not adequately prepared for this, failing to gather intelligence, Nepos was caught with his pants down. Ravenna was besieged with most of his army trapped inside. The bitter Siege of Ravenna lasted for nearly 5 months and came to a premature end when the gates were opened by a group of bribed Germanic soldiers. The ensuing battle within the city was a ruthless affair and killed Nepos alongside most of his army. A vengeful and hungry Roman army ravaged Ravenna and a fire caused by the sack nearly burnt the city to the ground, at any rate much of it was destroyed and it fell out of use entirely as an Imperial capital.

From there Iohannes pressed forward along the Adriatic coast and retook Ancona, slaughtering anyone even tangibly related to the mutineers. Most of the cities that had willingly supported Nepos now gladly threw their support to Iohannes again. Indeed so eager were the Magna Graecia cities to convince John the Pig of their loyalty that they cobbled together a fleet for the Emperor to cross towards Dalmatia. The Sack of Ravenna, while brutal, in hindsight looks like a masterstroke by Iohannes as it ensured he would not have to campaign down the length of Italy to secure his domain.

Thus with a fleet waiting for him Iohannes prepared for an assault on Dalmatia, a province that was now ostensibly in Eastern hands through the aggressive Ostrogoths. Much of the rest of 478 was spent consolidating Italy once again, the fleet would not sail to Dalmatia until late in March 479. So began the bloody but ultimately successful Dalmatian campaign. Iohannes, always personally leading the army, quickly took Ragusa by a costly combined naval and land assault. From there the Western Emperor aggressively pursued his claims over Dalmatia, defeating half hearted Ostrogothic attempts to hold the province in a series of pitched battles in the rough highlands of the province. The Goths were finally thrown out in October, Iohannes and Theodoric would sign an eternal peace before December. Xeno would follow suit soon after and recognized the Italian upstart as his equal in the West.

Why Theodoric failed to press the war in Dalmatia is up to considerable debate, most likely it was due to his new and as yet unstable kingship over the Ostrogoths, as there is no debate about the eagerness or capability of Theodoric in the next war with the Romans. As to Iohannes, he would spend most of the next year in securing the borders of Noricum, repelling a series of Heruli raids into the province and giving the province a sense of ephemeral stability not seen for nearly a century. Of course given the bullheaded nature of the Emperor he personally lead a number of counter-raids against the neighboring Heruli and Lombard villages, pursuing these activities with all the relish of a traditional barbarian warlord. The fragmented nature of these two tribes at the time is proven by their failure to prevent these Roman attacks or respond to then in any meaningful fashion.

The battles fought by the Western Roman army in these years hardened it and gave it invaluable experience for the decades of intensive wars to come.
 
Part 3: The Rise of Marcian

The loss of Nepos and his army (as well as the gold funneled towards his disastrous bid for the Western Roman Empire) shook Emperor Zeno considerably. His credibility in Constantinople collapsed, especially after Emperor Iohannes invaded Dalmatia in 479, a province that was by now technically under de jure Eastern control. Matters further deteriorated for Zeno due to his ill conceived attempts to weaken the Ostrogoths internal unity by secretly supporting the various opponents of the young new Ostrogothic King. These attempts did nothing besides sour relations with his official allies and ruined any chance of success against the Western usurper marching through Dalmatia.

When peace was eventually signed Emperor Zeno conceded to the usurper, thereby embarrassingly recognizing him as an equal. With the peace the people of Constantinople solidified their dismay at the Isaurian Emperor and enthusiastically supported Marcian's coup in April of 480 AD. The coup itself occurred with relatively little bloodshed and was aided immensely by popular support, when General Ilus attempt to rescue Zeno the mob attacked his soldiers from the rooftops and indeed killed Ilus himself. Emperor Zeno and his family were slaughtered by the supporters of Marcian in the Imperial Palace.

Marcian was a man with bold imperial pedigree descended from two former emperors from the East and West. Legitimacy was not an issue. His usurpation of the Eastern imperial throne however could not have been accomplished without the aid of barbarian units, this time a motley collection of Goths, Herulians and Gepids. The last of which would quickly become a key to Marcian's rule, mostly as a check to Ostrogothic power north of the Danubr as Marcian continued his predecessor's policy of playing them against the Western Emperor. Though it should be mentioned that at this point he too accepted Iohannes as the rightful ruler of the West, goading the Goths to attack Italy seemed to have been intended to prevent then from causing trouble in his Balkan territories.

In truth Marcian's rise came on the grounds that he was Roman, not an Isaurian or some other barbarian unpalatable to the public of Constantinople. This immediately would have created tension with the powerful Isaurians in the imperial army but the brutal manner with which the public of the capital dealt with the remaining Isaurians in Costantinople ensured that Marcian began his reign with a deadly hotspot of unrest in Asia Minor. Unrest that in short order would boil over into rebellion.
 
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