Wars of the Romans: An Alternate Timeline

[Romulus Augustus]

Amalaberge's Legacy
The Daughters of Romulus Augustus

SERENA
Queen of the Vandals and Alans​

Despite her rank as a Vandal queen, Serena wears the trappings of a Roman empress. Though the Vandals retain their own distinct cultural identity separate from their Roman neighbors, they have become increasingly Romanized over the last generation. Serena, a Roman princess born in Italy, is deeply imbued with the old Roman culture. She is as intelligent as she is ruthless, and is well known as an intellectual for her extensive knowledge and reading. In addition to her native Latin and Greek, Serena has learned to understand and speak in the Vandal language. However, she is also impulsive and prone to acting rashly when faced with new obstacles in her path to greater power. She has little respect for her husband, King Hilderic, despite his Imperial pedigree as a Theodosian heir, whom she views as weak-willed and lazy. As the firstborn daughter and oldest surviving child of Romulus Augustus, Serena views herself as “first among equals” when it comes to her younger sisters and even her brother, Emperor Gordian IV.

• Full name: Aelia Amalia Serena Augusta Porphyrogenita
  • Aelia is an attempt at forming a union between Romulus Augustus’ family and the more established Imperial House of Theodosius (i.e. Aelia Flaccilla, Aelia Eudoxia, and Aelia Pulcheria). The name also emphasizes Serena’s slight connection to the House of Leo via her maternal grandfather’s link to Emperor Basiliscus, brother of Empress Verina (wife of Emperor Leo I).
  • Amalia is the Latinized version of the name of Serena’s mother, Amalaberge, who also bore this name in her capacity as a Roman empress.
  • Serena, the name by which she is commonly known, was borne by an adopted niece of Theodosius the Great as well as an obscure early saint.
  • Augusta is a Roman Imperial honorific given to Roman empresses and honored women of the Imperial family. Serena bears this title with all the pride of an empress despite not actually being one. It is the name by which she prefers to be called, publicly and privately, despite Serena being the one she is actually best known by.
  • Porphyrogenita “Born to the Purple” is a title that Serena adopted to highlight her birth as the daughter of a Roman emperor. Though none dare say this to her face, her critics note that her father was not recognized by Constantinople as a legitimate emperor until Serena was eighteen.
• Born: November 6, AD 478; Ravenna, Roman Empire (West); daughter of Romulus Augustus and Amalaberge. Serena shares the same birthday as Agrippina the Younger, who was a Roman empress under Emperor Claudius and the mother of his adopted son, Emperor Nero.
• Spouse: Hilderic, king of the Vandals and Alans. Paternal lineage: grandson of Gaiseric. Maternal lineage: grandson of Valentinian III, great-grandson of Theodosius II, great-great-great-grandson of Theodosius I, and direct descendant of Valentinian I through Theodosius II and Valentinian III.
• Issue: Valentinian, Thermantia, Wisimar, and Eudocia Purpetua
• Aim: To make her firstborn son, Valentinian, a Roman emperor; to ensure that the Vandal throne remains under her family’s control under either of her sons after Hilderic dies; to convert the Vandal Kingdom from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity; to eliminate her enemies by any means possible.

HELENA
Queen of the Rugians (formerly)​

The middle daughter of her parents, Helena became a queen when her husband Fridericus I acceded the throne of the Rugian Kingdom. During that time she was equal in rank to her sisters, Queen Serena of the Vandals and Alans, and Queen Victorina of the Franks. Her husband’s death effectively demoted Helena, who, like Victorina, clings to power as the mother of the new king. The Rugian Kingdom pales in power, might and wealth compared to Victorina’s Roman Gaul and the Frankish petty kingdoms, and Serena’s African kingdom of Vandals and Alans. As a result, Helena is deeply insecure and jealous of her sisters, and will do anything to close the gap between them and herself.

• Full name: Aelia Verina Helena Augusta Porphyrogenita
  • Aelia, for the same reasons as Helena’s sisters, Serena and Victorina.
  • Verina is the name of Helena’s distant relative, Empress Verina, who was the sister of Emperor Basiliscus, who was said to be a brother of Flavius Armatus, who was said to be the brother of Helena’s uncle and father, Onoulphus and Odoacer, respectively.
  • Helena, the name by which she is most commonly identified with, was famously borne by the Christian mother of Constantine the Great. Helena is therefore named as such to portray her family as a Roman and Christian household.
  • Augusta is an Imperial honorific that Helena, like her sisters, feels entitled to by virtue of her birth as the daughter of a Roman emperor.
  • Porphyrogenita, because she was also “born to the purple” like her siblings, although all of them were born before Romulus Augustus was “legitimized” by the Imperial Court in Constantinople.
• Born: October 21, AD 480; Ravenna, Roman Empire (West).
• Spouse: Fridericus I (Frideric), king of the Rugians, son of King Feletheus, deceased.
• Issue: Fridericus II, Eraric, and Theuvanus
• Aim: To surpass her sisters’ achievements; to dominate the Rugian court through the new king, her first-born son; to establish and maintain an alliance between the Rugians and Lombards through royal marriage; to expand the territory of the Rugian Kingdom; to regain her son, King Fridericus II, by paying a ransom to his Ostrogoth captor, King Theodoric the Amal.

VICTORINA
Queen of the Franks (formerly)​

Since the death of her husband, Clovis I, and the accession of her son, Constantine IV, Victorina has held onto power by virtue of her intelligence, cunning, influence and the fact that all of her sons are still in their minorities. She openly rules beside Constantine IV in court as if she was his co-monarch, much to the young emperor’s embarrassment. The time when he is old enough to rule in his own right is drawing closer, but that has done nothing to loosen Victorina’s grip on power. She is driven by ambition, but also a sense of destiny arguably to a greater degree than her sisters, for Victorina may share with them the distinction of being the sister of an emperor (i.e. Gordian IV) as well as the daughter of the emperor and empress who founded the dynasty to which she belongs, but unlike Serena and Helena, Victorina is the mother of a Roman emperor (i.e. Constantine IV). She is also the mother of two Frankish kings and her daughter will be the wife of the next Burgundian king. In Victorina's mind, she has no equal.

• Full name: Julia Constantia Victorina Augusta Porphyrogenita
  • Julia is the female version of the nomen of Julius Nepos, the Roman emperor who died trying to reclaim the Imperial throne from Romulus Augustus shortly before Victorina was born. After her birth, Victorina was given the name “Julia” ostensibly to honor the late Julius Nepos and his family, despite their conflict over Imperial power. However, some people believe the family’s actual motive was spite, insulting Nepos by giving his name to a newborn girl whose grandfather betrayed him.
  • Constantia, as part of the Imperial family’s attempt at union with the Constantinian dynasty. Although Romulus Augustus hails from the Pannonian aristocracy and Amalaberge’s distant relation to the Leonid dynasty, the Western Roman Empire’s new ruling family was comparably unimpressive in pedigree at the time of Victorina’s birth, a fact that the family has gone to great lengths to hide or bury under their recent achievements.
  • Victorina, the name she is most commonly identified with, was inspired by the victory achieved by her uncle, Magister Militum Thela (leading on behalf of Romulus Augustus) over Julius Nepos in the Battle of Mutina. Her primary name is therefore akin to an agnomen; a victory title given to celebrate a great Roman triumph. It is the name that Victorina favors most, even above her Imperial titles Augusta and Porphyrogenita.
  • Augusta, because she too knows that it is as much her birthright as it is for her older sisters. In more recent years, Victorina has grown to believe that she has an even greater claim to the Imperial honorific than either Serena or Helena because unlike them, she is the mother an actual Roman emperor, Constantine IV. This achievement has only emboldened her while inflaming her sisters’ jealousy, particularly Serena who desires more than ever to be remembered as an emperor’s mother.
  • Porphyrogenita, because if Serena or Helena must remind the world about their status as “born to the purple” then so must their little sister. Like them, Victorina was born before her father was recognized as a lawful emperor by Consantinople. However, Victorina would stress that as the youngest of her father’s three daughters, she is in fact the closest to the year Romulus Augustus was “legitimized” and therefore more deserving of this title than both Serena and Helena. Regardless, she was considered the daughter of a usurper for the first eleven years of her life.
• Born: April 27, AD 485; Mediolanum, Roman Empire (West). Shortly before Victorina’s birth, her parents made an official visit to Mediolanum, a former Imperial capital, to celebrate their victory over Julius Nepos. They were under heavy guard, however, as the city had been sacked (“liberated,” according to Imperial propaganda) by Thela’s troops as a reward for their victory and an incentive for their continued loyalty. Victorina was born during her parents’ short stay in the Imperial Palace of Mediolanum, where Constatine I and Licinius issued the Edictum Mediolanense.
• Spouse: Clovis I, king of the Franks, son of Childeric I, deceased.
• Offspring: (by Clovis I) Constantine IV, co-emperor of the Western Roman Empire; Basina, Romano-Frankish princess; Merovech II, king of the Ripuarian Franks; Clovis II, king of the Salian Franks; (by Gesalec) Alaric, a bastard son of mixed Roman and Visigoth heritage
• Aim: To dominate Roman Gaul through her firstborn son, Emperor Constantine IV; to maintain control over the Frankish petty kingdoms through her younger sons, King Merovech II and King Clovis II; to gain greater influence over the Burgundian Kingdom by marrying her daughter Basina to Sigeric, son of King Sigismund and Queen Chroma; to install her bastard son Alaric on the throne of the Visigoth Kingdom; to make Constantine IV the sole emperor of the Western Roman Empire at the expense of her brother, Gordian IV and any heirs he may sire.

 

[Romulus Augustus]

PART 9 (AD 517 / 1270 AUC)​

Events

• Count Justin removes the Scholae Palatinae from the magister officiorum’s command by placing the entire regiment under his authority, which he accomplishes through his newfound influence as one of Emperor Theodosius III’s regents. The Scholae were scattered across Thracia and Bithynia until Justin gathers them all in Constantinople ostensibly to increase security in the eastern capital and the Imperial Palace. Though they technically remain a separate force, under Justin the Scholae will become an extension of the Excubitores, the elite Imperial guard that Justin commands as their count. Furthermore, he plans to concentrate both the Scholae Palatinae and the Excubitores in a centralized barracks located Sycae, a suburb of Constantinople, separated from the main city by the Golden Horn.
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• Justin and Petrus Sabbatius cement their position in the regency of Emperor Theodosius III by assassinating potential opponents. As supporters of the orthodoxy of Chalcedonian Christianity, they also take the opportunity to purge the political hierarchy of the remaining anti-Chalcedonian officials, a process begun by Theodosius III’s grandfather, the late Emperor Olybrius. Justin himself has little knowledge of statecraft; being a career soldier, he concentrates on his plans for controlling the security of Constantinople while his nephew, Sabbatius, fills the Imperial Court with trusted supporters.
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• Vitalian returns to Constantinople after receiving word of the “Justinian faction’s” power grab in his absence. He brings with him half his army, ostensibly to shore up the security of the capital and Thracia, but in reality his soldiers are a counterbalance to Justin’s Imperial guards. The rest of the army remains under orders to crush the revolt led by Monophysite heretic Marinus. Justin and Sabbatius’ remaining opponents rally to Vitalian for protection, dividing the Imperial Court between the “Justinians” and the “Vitalians.” Both sides court Anicia Juliana, Theodosius III’s great-grandmother, wishing to gain her support.
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• An envoy from the Vandal Kingdom arrives in Ravenna, sent under the personal orders of Queen Serena to petition her brother, Emperor Gordan IV, to recognize her son, his nephew Valentinian as his co-Augustus in the Western Roman Empire. Gordian IV swiftly rejects his sister’s entreaty, noting that he already has a co-Emperor in Gaul as well as one in the Eastern Roman Empire. As both halves of the Roman Empire were forced to recognize the Vandal Kingdom’s independence due in no small part to the actions of King Gaiseric, the Vandals in Africa are not even seen to be under nominal Roman suzerainty.
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• Having rejected Serena’s attempts to make her son an Emperor, Gordian IV promotes his newborn son, Gordian, to the rank of Caesar. By this action he signals his intent to see Imperial power in Italy inherited by his progeny, effectively cutting Serena's bloodline off from the Imperial succession. Serena will not stand for this; she vows that her son and his descendants will rule the Western Empire. However, King Hilderic intervenes this time, refusing to allow his wife to start a war between the Romans and the Vandals.
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• King Fridericus II is killed while still in captivity at the Ostrogoth court in Naissus, though not with the consent of King Theodoric the Amal. The Rugian king was found in bed with a married Gothic noblewoman, whose enraged husband attacked and disemboweled the Rugian king. This incident costs Theodoric the leverage he sought by using Fridericus II as a detergence against further conflict with the Rugians and Lombards.
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• Helena and the Rugian Kingdom swear vengeance against Theodoric and the Ostrogoth Kingdom. Having died without issue, save for several illegitimate offspring sired by the late king’s various mistresses, the Rugian throne is inherited by Fridericus II’s younger brother, Eraric. Because Eraric is already married to the Thuringian princess Ingunda, he cannot marry his late brother’s intended bride Wisigard (daughter of King Wacho). After Eraric refuses to petition for an annulment in order to marry the Lombard princess, Helena betroths her youngest son, Thuevanus to Wisigard in hopes of preserving the alliance with the Lombards.
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• Over the last couple decades, the Gallo-Roman aristocracy has gradually risen in power, both within the restored region of Roman Gaul and the Burgundian Kingdom, which has been the sole-remaining independent Germanic kingdom in Gaul ever since the Visigoth Kingdom receded to Hispania and the Frankish petty kingdoms to the Empire’s Germania provinces. Gallo-Roman nobles maintain their hegemony in the Imperial Court of Paris, capital of Emperor Constantine IV. In the Burgundian royal court they comprise the Roman faction that is critical to ensuring the Roman population’s continued allegiance to King Sigismund.
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  • Senator Tonantius Ferreolus, a powerful Gallo-Roman senator from Narbo, is appointed consul for the Western Roman Empire. Though the title is purely ceremonial, it represents the Western Empire’s desire to maintain close relations with their Gallo-Roman countrymen, who retain their Roman identity while living under a Germanic authority in Burgundia or a separate Imperial Court in Roman Gaul.
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  • Senator Ferreolus, son of Tonantius Ferreolus, joins the ranks of the royal comites, becoming one of King Sigismund’s companions. His official title is Comes Thesaurorum: the Count who commands the officials of the Treasury.
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  • Senator Florentinus, a Gallo-Roman nobleman born circa AD 480, is appointed Comes Notariorum: the Count in charge of the Chancery.
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  • Bishop Appolinaris of Valentia is appointed to head a congregation to investigate and combat moral impropriety within the Burgundian court. The bishop is openly critical of the court’s atmosphere, in particular the sycophantry, money grubbing, jockeying for power, and especially the licentiousness. The incident of a courtier living in open incest greatly troubled the bishop, who troubled the king, in turn, demanding the official’s removal and refusing to back down despite the king’s threats of exile. Fortunately for Appolinaris, he is strongly supported by Queen Chroma and her powerful sister, Clotilde, both of whom convince Sigismund to acquiesce to the bishop’s crusade for moral reform. Appolinaris is by no means a favorite of Sigismund, but his appointment is evident of the Gallo-Roman clergy’s increasing influence both within a secular court and the universal church.
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• An ecumenical council is convened in Epaone, a city in the Burgundian Kingdom. The Council of Epaone is the third council of Gallo-Roman bishops. Unlike the previous two, however, Chalcedonian representatives from Roman Italy, Visigoth Hispania, and even Vandal Africa attend the council to take part in the ecumenical process that is intended to affect the western churches of the universal Church. Bishop Apollinaris presides over the council, which he is keen to have adopt his moral reforms. They enact legislation or edicts that include but are not limited to:
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  • Canon 12: Forbids bishops from alienating ecclesiastical property without the permission of their metropolitan.
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  • Canon 15: Prohibits attendance at Jewish banquets prohibited.
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  • Canon 16: allow baptized heretics to be admitted to the Church by a rite of unction (already in effect in the Eastern Roman Empire, gradually adopted in the Western Roman Empire including former territories).
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  • Canon 26: Forbids the consecration of any but stone Altars with chrism (a mixture of oil and spice). Henceforth, all wooden altars shall be replaced by consecrated stone altars across the Catholic Church.
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  • Canon 29: reduces to two years the penance that apostates shall undergo on their return to the Church, but obliges them to fast one day in three during those two years, to come to church and take their place at the penitents’ door, and to leave with the catechumens. Any who object to the new arrangement shall observe the much longer ancient penance.
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  • As president of the council, Bishop Apollinaris enacts strong legislation targeting both the clergy and the laity to correct abuses and reform morals.

Births

• Theodoric, son of Gesalec and Eudocia Perpetua, is born in Toletum. He is the first legitimate-born heir of the Balt Dynasty since Alaric II. However, his birth threatens the interests of his great-aunt Victorina, who bore Gesalec’s bastard son Alaric. Victorina had hopes of grooming her son by Gesalec, despite Alaric’s illegitimacy, for the Visigoth throne.

The Imperial Court of Constantinople in the Reign of Our Lord, the Pious and Blessed Emperor Theodosius III
1 to 7 (Left to Right):
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(1) Excubitores (Imperial Guard)
(2) Petrus Sabbatius, the curopalates ("the one in charge of the palace")
(3) Flavius Justinus, the comes excubitorum ("count of the excubitors")
(4) Flavius Vitalianus, the magister militum per Orientum ("master of soldiers in the East")
(5) Macedonius II, the Patriarch of Constantinople
(6) Ioannes Cappadox, presbyter and chancellor of the Church of Constantinople
(7) Epiphanius, cleric in charge of the catechumens at Constantinople

 

[Romulus Augustus]

PART 10-A (AD 518 – AD 521)​

Gothic War

• Despite the opposition of Vitalian’s faction in the Imperial Court, Justin manages to appoint one of his supporters, Godilas, to the post of magister militum per Thracias. With this new rank he receives the commission to lead an Imperial army against the Ostrogoth Kingdom that is still engaged in multiple wars against the Rugian Kingdom, the Lombard Kingdom and the Gepid Kingdom. The Roman expedition when Godilas’ army marches into the eastern Diocese of Dacia, where they find the native Roman population well disposed toward the Empire. The major city of Serdica was quickly captured by Roman forces, followed by nearby settlements such as Germae and Pautilia.
• The city of Scupi is destroyed not by Romans or Ostrogoths, but rather an earthquake that utterly devastates the city. The Empire turns the situation into a propaganda victory by dispensing money from the treasury to the survivors.
• King Theodoric the Amal sends an envoy to Godilas, hoping to turn him through bribery and by appealing to their shared Gothic heritage, but Godilas is steadfast in his loyalty to the Empire.
• In March AD 519 Godilas overran the diocese and captured the Ostrogoth capital, Naissus, only to be driven back by a large Gothic army led by Theodoric, returning from his campaign in Dalmatia. The victory is not without cost, however. The battle to retake Theodoric’s capital left the city’s fortifications in a ruined state, a problem compounded by the population’s pro-Roman and pro-Chalcedonian stance. Theodoric is forced to retreat to Doclea, while the Roman army speedily retakes the city and repairs its walls.
• Theodoric’s westward retreat encourages Constantinople to continue supporting the war effort. Over the next year the Romans maintain their offense strategy, pushing to reclaim the diocese in its entirety. Godilas achieves several victories in the province of Dardania, where the Romans occupy the cities Scupi, Taurisium and Ulpiana. At the same time, detachments of the main army occupied Dacia ripensis and most of Moesia I.
• After the fall of Scodra, the Roman army marches on Doclea where Theodoric has taken refuge. The city is well fortified and supplied, causing the Roman siege to last for almost a year. Despite his reputation on the battlefield, Theodoric does not have the men to confidently face the Romans in open field, thus he chooses to prolong the siege by keeping his army behind the city walls. There are sallies, minor engagements and even a few large actions but the arrival of Gothic reinforcements from Dalmatia forces Godilas to end the siege.
• Theodoric prepares to launch a counterattack against the Romans by the early spring of AD 521. Recent developments threaten to turn the tide in the Ostrogoths' favor.
  • The Roman army experienced dissension in the ranks during the months-long Siege of Doclea, with Godilas and his fellow generals disagreeing on strategy.
  • Although the Roman population welcomed the Imperial soldiers who liberated them from the Ostrogoths, the restored Imperial bureaucracy becomes immensely unpopular with its large fiscal demands.
  • Public support for the Empire’s return is further undermined by the diocese’s Imperial garrison. Military discipline gave way to corruption and greed, as officers allowed their soldiers to plunder the lands that they had just liberated, and abuse the people who were their fellow Romans.
  • In addition, the civil war in the Diocese of the East prevents the Empire from committing more of its might to the campaign against the Ostrogoths, which provides Theodoric’s army the time they need to recover.
• Before embarking on his campaign to reclaim the lost lands of his kingdom, Theodoric hosts a feast to celebrate his marriage to Helena, former queen of the Rugian Kingdom and mother of King Eraric. The Rugians and Lombards went to war against the Ostrogoths for the accidental death of King Fridericus II, which gave the Romans the advantage of fighting the Ostrogoths while they were forced to fight on multiple fronts. Theodoric finally succeeded in appealing to the ambitious queen-mother’s lust for power as well as the jealousy she harbors for her more powerful sisters, Serena and Victorina.
• Theodoric’s own reasons are motivated by practical reasons; he needs to end his conflict with the Rugians and Lombards in order to concentrate his forces against the Romans. This objective proved considerably difficult to achieve due to Fridericus II’s accidental death, which forces Theodoric to take the more permanent action of binding himself to Helena, who brings to the table not only the Rugians and Lombards, but the Western Roman Empire though herself as the sister of Emperor Gordian IV. There is also the fact that she is the great-aunt of Emperor Theodosius III, which could be of use to Theodoric if his conflict with the Romans is resolved through diplomacy.
• Ultimately, ambition drives Helena to marry the man who captured and inadvertently killed her firstborn son; as Theodoric’s wife Helena becomes queen of the Ostrogoths. Combined with the Rugians, Helena believes that this new alliance will have the power to dominate the Lombards and Gepids, creating an empire to rival that of even her native Roman homeland. She uses her considerable influence at court to pressure Eraric into a peace treaty with the Ostrogoths and travels to Doclea to become Theodoric’s wife.
• Following the ceremony and celebration, Helena consummates the marriage with Theodoric but in the heat of a passionate moment she accidentally causes her new husband, who is in his late sixties, to die of a massive stroke. Theodoric the Amal, king of the Ostrogoths and bane of the Romans, is dead in AD 521.

Helena and the Death of Her Dream of Empire

THE EMPIRE THAT NEVER WAS
Helena envisioned her marriage with Theodoric the Amal as a stepping stone to the rise of a "Gothic empire" that would rule over Dacia, Dalmatia, Pannonia, and the Gepid Kingdom. That dream dies with Theodoric on Helena's wedding night.​