PART 4 (AD 497 to AD 500)
AD 497
Western Roman Empire
Romulus Augustus begins taking a more active role in government, far more than his courtiers ever expected. Throughout his reign he has essentially been a figurehead for the Imperial Court, its members governing the Empire through the Emperor. A byproduct of this arrangement is the period of peace and stability that Italy has experienced after a century of decline and upheaval. Nevertheless, the Emperor is confidant in his ability to make meaningful administrative decisions for the betterment of the Empire.
Intrigued by the domestic policies of Emperor
Majorian, Romulus chooses to continue the work left unfinished by one of his more able predecessors. He issues reforms to combat administrative corruption, financial abuse and inflation. He organizes a committee of legal experts to improve on the success of the
Codex Theodosianus, intending to complete the codification of over a thousand years of Roman law.
Regarding the non-Roman population of Italy, Romulus grants Roman citizenship to the children of the various Germanic peoples (ex:
Scirii,
Heruli, and
Rugii) who were settled in Italy. Compared to their parents, these first generation “Germanic Italians” are Romanized to the extent that they speak Latin and generally live as Romans, with some following Nicene Christianity instead of Arianism. Although the traditional senatorial aristocracy balk at this action, Romulus believes it is a natural step in the generational work of assimilating the Western Empire’s non-Roman peoples.
Romulus reignites
sacred fire of Vesta, the sacred eternal flame of the city of Rome. The fire had been extinguished when Emperor
Theodosius I declared the universal end of all pagan rites in the Roman Empire. Romulus decides to reinstitute it in hopes of promoting civic pride in the Roman identity, although he is also careful to reframe it in a Christian context. The
Temple of Vesta is reopened as the
Church of St. Mary Magdalene, and the fire is relit by the Emperor himself. While his critics grumble, scholars take note of this move with amazement while the average citizens are happy to celebrate with the free food and entertainment that the Emperor provides on this occasion.
Vandalic Kingdom
King
Thrasamund, the brother and successor King
Gunthamund, dies under suspicious circumstances barely a year into his reign as ruler of the
Vandalic kingdom. His death is eventually blamed on Berber assassins, but the real culprit is the Roman princess
Serena. Though she is outwardly a paradigm of piety and virtue, she is in fact extremely ambitious, covets the absolute power of kings and emperors, and desires above all to see her son
Valentinian accede the Vandal throne (and possibly even the Roman throne in Ravenna).
Serena played a long game by spending years assimilating herself into the Vandal court, progressing from a Roman outsider to the beloved wife of a Vandal prince. Her status as a Roman princess born to the purple, combined with her husband’s Theodosian lineage, served to inflate Serena’s sense of greatness and destiny.
Over the years Serena became a favorite of King Gunthamund, as well as his brother Thrasamund. She even had an affair with the latter, and she is uncertain if her daughter
Thermantia was sired by her lover or her actual husband. Regardless, this affair brought her close enough to poison Gunthamund in order to promote
Hilderic’s interests, and therefore, her son’s as well.
Hilderic is crowned
king of the Vandals and Alans, with Serena serving as his queen consort. At her request, the new king commissions statues of himself and his queen to be placed in the royal palace of Carthage. The Vandals, who have been minting their own coinage for some time, begin making new coins bearing the images of Hilderic and Serena.
Restoration of Roman Gaul
After three years of conflict with Clovis, Syagrius and his Burgundian allies seize control of northern Gaul from the Franks, achieving a decisive victory at the
Second Battle of Soissons. Although Clovis and the remains of his army escape to the safety of Salian Frankish territory, Syagrius officially reclaims most of his former domain on behalf of the Western Roman Empire.
Clovis’ defeat encourages the independent Ripuarian Franks to attack their Salian kinsmen. As a result, Clovis agrees to a ceasefire with Syagrius in order to deal with the Ripuarian Franks who are joined by the Alamanni.
Syagrius holds a Roman-style triumph in Soissons where his soldiers suddenly proclaim him
Augustus, in effect declaring him Emperor in opposition to Romulus Augustus. Although Syagrius styled himself as the Dux of Gaul, his recent achievements (marrying Clotilde, forging an alliance with Chilperic II, and returning to power in Gaul) spur him to accept the Imperial diadem.
AD 498
Imperial Family
Romulus Augustus and his son, Joannes, both fall ill. While the Emperor makes a full recovery, his heir succumbs to disease and dies at the age of sixteen, only weeks before his expected elevation to the status of junior Augustus (his father being the senior Augustus in the West). Gordian, the sole remaining son of Romulus and Amalaberge, is swiftly proclaimed Augustus as a result of his brother’s death, becoming Emperor
Gordian IV (in historiography).
Wisimar, son of Hilderic and Serena, is born in
Hippo Regius. He bears a Vandal name, unlike his older brother Valentinian, to honor his Vandal heritage.
Paulus, the uncle of Romulus Augustus who escaped from his prison on Capri, is discovered hiding in Sardinia which is under Vandal occupation. He beseeches his great-niece, Serena, now the queen of the Vandals, to give him sanctuary in Carthage. He is brought to the Vandalic capital, only to be locked in the royal dungeon.
Roman Gaul
Syagrius also falls ill and almost dies. He barely recovers due to his old age, and his survival is not expected to last long. Although his claim to the title of Augustus remains unrecognized by either Ravenna or Constantinople, he appoints
Aurelianus, his chief advisor since before the
First Battle of Soissons, as his Caesar or junior colleague.
Eastern Europe
Theodoric leads the Ostrogoths (reinforced by Thracian Goths, Bulgars and even defecting Roman soldiers) to victory against an army led by John the Scythian in the
Battle of Traianopolis. He proceeds to ravage the Thracian countryside, massacring peasants, stealing livestock, enslaving women and children, and burning settlements until the Eastern Court acquiesces to his conditions for peace.
Leontius grudgingly agrees to Theodoric’s terms to avoid fighting a war on two fronts, paying a considerable bribe for peace and recognizing the Ostrogothic king as viceroy of the dioceses Daciae and Macedonia. Theodoric, in turn, withdraws from Thracia. The Ostrogoths are officially reinstated as Foederati of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the regions effectively ceded to them become the core of a
de facto independent
Ostrogothic kingdom.
AD 499
Western Europe
The Vandalic Kingdom recalls its forces from
Sicily, as well as
Sardinia and
Corsica to a lesser degree, in order to defend its African borders from the Berbers who have been fighting the Vandals for years. Under Serena’s influence, Hilderic
cedes Sicily back to the Western Roman Empire in exchange for several thousand
Herulian Foederati. These Germanic mercenaries transfer to Africa to fight alongside the Vandals with the understanding that they will be permanently settled in the kingdom.
With Syagrius bedridden and near death, de facto control of the government in Soissons defaults to Aurelianus and Clotilde. Nevertheless, they pursue Syagrius’ plans to restore more of Gaul under Roman control despite the current political crisis with the Western Court of Ravenna. Shortly after the victory over Clovis in AD 497, Syagrius’ army has made advances into Visigothic Gaul, retaking
Bourges and reaching as far as
Clermont with the help of Clotilde’s Burgundian kinsmen.
Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, negotiates a peace treaty with the Roman emissaries of Syagrius’ domain. Syagrius and Aurelianus agree to peace with the Visigoths due to Clovis’ invasion of the lower Rhineland, driving the
Alamanni out of the region. This expansion of the Frankish kingdom, combined with the suppression of the
Ripuarian Franks, re-strengthens the
Salian Franks’ position under Clovis, which the Gallo-Romans and the Burgundians see as a threat.
Eastern Europe
Flavius Illus takes command of the army in the East as
magister militum per Orientum. Outwardly it is a promotion, but it is also seen as an "exile" from the Eastern Court. Illus has grown too powerful in his capacity as Leontius' chief commander, to the point where Leontius feels that he must either kill him or "reward" him with a post worthy of his service. Under the advice of his closest counselors, he chooses the latter so as to not make enemies out of Illus' supporters, in particular the soldiers who serve under his command. He accepts this assignment as an opportunity to secure the loyalty of one of the Empire's strongest armies, as well as to purge the Oriens of the Miaphysite heretics and supporters of the Henotikon.
AD 500
WEST
Romulus Augustus falls ill again, and is confined to the
Palace of Honorius in Ravenna for his recovery. Although he does recover, he remains locked in his chambers by the Herulian guards stationed throughout his palace on the orders of his wife, Empress
Amalaberge. She had poisoned him before in AD 498, not enough to kill Romulus but to incapacitate him and limit his growing independence. Her plan backfired as her son
Joannes was accidentally poisoned as well, resulting in his unplanned death.
Romulus officially remains Emperor, but cannot leave his own palace. His son Gordian IV is promoted in his stead, being allowed to address the Imperial Court in Ravenna and the Senate of Rome, but is very much under his mother’s influence.
Clovis achieves a decisive victory against the Alamanni, who are consequently forced to become a vassal state of the
Frankish kingdom. Now effectively sharing a border with Roman Italy, Clovis entreats the Ravenna court to an alliance, arguing that they have a common foe in Syagrius and Chilperic II. Amalaberge, acting "on behalf" of her husband and son, Romulus Augustus and Gordian IV, agrees to a treaty with Clovis, eager to use the Salian Franks as a countermeasure to the threat posed on the Italian northern border by Franks, Burgundians and rebellious Romans in Gaul.
Victorina, the youngest daughter of Romulus and Amalaberge, is sent to
Trier, the current Frankish seat of power in
Austrasia, where she marries Clovis to cement the new relationship between the king of the Franks and the legitimate Roman government in the West.
Eudocia Perpetua, daughter of Hilderic and Serena, is born in Carthage. She shares her names with her paternal grandmother, Roman princess
Eudocia, and
Saint Perpetua (
Vibia Perpetua) who was martyred in the 3rd century AD.
Eraric, second-born son of
Frideric and
Helena, is born in
Salzburg. His grandfather
Feletheus dies within a few weeks of the Rugian-Roman prince’s birth, allowing his father to accede the throne as
Fridericus Rex (
Frederick I of Rugiland).
Syagrius dies from his infirmities brought on by old age. He is succeeded by
Aurelian II (
Aurelianus).
Clotilde takes a vow of chastity ostensibly to honor her late husband. Regardless, in this state she is able to maintain control over her own estates rather than seeing it transferred to the control of a new husband. She also wields enormous influence as a Burgundian princess and (disputed) former Roman empress. As such, she effectively controls the Gallo-Roman domain as Aurelian’s
de facto co-ruler.
Visigothic Civil War
The Visigoths break the treaty with the Gallo-Romans on the grounds that it died with Syagrius. However, their efforts to recapture the cities they lost ends in disaster; Alaric II is killed in battle near Clermont, resulting in a power struggle over his throne.
As Alaric II dies without a legitimate heir, his illegitimate son
Gesalec is elected king of the Visigoths. Despite his illegitimacy, support for his rule proves strong with the Visigoths who wish to see the
bloodline of Alaric I continue, notwithstanding its end in the legitimate line. Gesalec also has the support of the Gallo-Roman nobility due to his father’s leniency towards the Catholic population.
Anianus, a Gallo-Roman nobleman who served as Alaric’s referendary, becomes one of Gesalec’s closest advisors.
However, Hispania’s Visigothic nobility rejects Gesalec due to his illegitimacy and general disillusionment with the recent territorial losses in Gaul. They are led by the so-called
Theodoric III, a nobleman who renames himself after
Theodoric I despite grabbing power on the basis that the
Balt dynasty has officially ended.
With Gesalec in
Toulouse and Theodoric III in
Toledo, the Visigothic kingdom falls into a state of civil war dividing the realm between Hispania and Gaul.
EAST
Theodoric begins styling himself king or
basileus of Macedon (Latin:
Macedoniae Rex) in addition to his title
king of the Ostrogoths (
Gothorum Rex), clearly attempting to create a connection between Macedonia’s ancient heritage embodied by its native Greco-Roman population, and the Ostrogothic migrants they now share the land with. Theodoric holds
Alexander the Great in high regard, and seeks to promote himself as the great conqueror’s spiritual successor.
Emperor Leontius dies through palace treachery. His death is blamed on Miaphysites, which creates a mob that lynches the non-Orthodox communities of Constantinople. His widow,
Ariadne seeks to influence the accession of the next Emperor; having grown to favor,
Anastasius, a palace official that she has known since Zeno's reign, she rallies her supporters to back his candidacy. Anastasius'
Illyrian background is arguably more acceptable to the senatorial aristocracy than that of his predecessors, the
Syrian Leontius and the
Isuarians Longinus and Zeno. Ariadne also intends to bring Anastasius into the
House of Leo by marrying him.
