3rd century AD (Vae victis!)

Growth of Christianity

Following the war of Christian expansion, Christian royal families dominated the near east, as well as Carthage. However, while the upper classes were almost exclusively Christian, the same could not be said for everyone else. Outside Egypt, it's estimated as little as 10% of the populace considered themselves Christians, a theory supported by the annoyed writings of the various Christian rulers. By 220 AD, it became necessary to further Christianize the populations of the Christian states, so the leaders could maintain legitimacy. This was largely started by Cyrus the Priest, current king of Parthian Empire. His populace had been particularly icy to Christianity, and as much as half of his people viewed him as illegitimate, and many, many more rejected Christianity, if not him along with it.. In order to rectify this, he began a movement to convert his populace, bringing more legitimacy to himself and his fellow rulers in the process.

The first step of this project was simply sending out hundreds of nomadic priests across his Empire. Cyrus hoped these Priest would aid the conversion effort, and his Epithet comes from popular stories of him serving as one himself. It was quickly realized by Cyrus and the court that priests alone could not achieve the amount of conversation they wanted. This lead to other efforts tasking precedent. The main efforts where the creation of boarding houses run by clergy for the poor, as well as building churches in general. In fact, the rapid construction of Churches across Persia at this time is thought to be responsible for the radically hierarchical system for the clergy familiar to modern Christians. These efforts began to convert the populace, and even after Cyrus' death, they continued, slowly converting a vast majority of the Persian population to Christianity.

The other Christian nations, notably Cappadocia and Armenia, quickly caught on to this, and instituted similar policies. These actions may have even prevented civil war in Armenia, whichever as apparently on the brink of it before Cyrus' reforms came. Cappadocia also benefited hugely, and Christianity was solidified in the nation. However, while Cappadocia, Armenia, and Persia all solidified Christianity as a major institution of their nations, Galatia had utterly failed to do the same. Despite Salhad, the king of Galatia, trying to implement reforms, he did little more than Blunder, and lost much of his support. Ultimately, the populace quickly rejected them wholesale, leaving only the royalty as Christian. This would immediately cause problems with Cappadocia, and is probably the main cause of the Anatolian Unification war.

The Return of Alexandria

Following the successful Christianization of Carthage, relations dramatically improved between Carthage and Egypt. In addition to increased trade, several royal marriages ensued. As relations increased, the current king of Carthage, Haser I came under pressure to return Alexandria to Egypt. For almost 5 years he held out, but in 234 AD Ptolemy XXI came to power in Egypt. The new king was surprisingly icy to Carthage, and demanded Haser return Alexandria immediately. Here, Haser made a huge mistake in taking Ptolemy's "request" lightly. Instead of fulfilling the demand, he apparently sent an envoy to invite the Egyptian king to discuss terms. Ptolemy promptly had the envy killed. The second envoy Haser sent met a simelar fate, though this time, to get the point across, their heads were sent back to Carthage.

Haser, upon receiving the news (and the severed heads), was shocked, and tried to confirm that this was an intentional action by Ptolemy. After he confirmed this, he began to assess his situation. Carthage probably couldn't beat Egypt in a war, or even successfully defend Alexandria. Much had changed since the war almost 200 years ago, and Egypt could probably even beat Carthage at sea. Again, Haser took probably the worst path he could have - gathering a group of perhaps 200 troops, he sailed to Alexandria personally. Once there, he invited Ptolemy to visit and negotiate terms. Characteristically, Ptolemy outwitted Haser sneaking 500 of his troops into Alexandria, disguised as merchants. When the two kings met, Ptolemy's troops got the upper hand, killing most of Haser's troops and taking him hostage. Haser immediately agreed to give the city back, though his plea were ignored. Ptolemy knew that anything the king said would be illegitimate at this point.

Ptolemy, now with Haser under his thumb, offered to return the Carthaginian king - if Alexandria would be returned to the possession of Egypt. With little choice, Carthage gave up the valuable port in exchange for their king. Despite their sacrifice, the now hated king was quickly disposed of by the court, along with his immediate family. The new King, Haser II, basically groveled to Egypt to re-establish relations between the two nations. Despite the grovling, Haser II would prove more competent than his predecessor, and regained glory for Carthage in the Second Mediterranean War. Ptolemy, on the other had, saw his popularity skyrocket immediately, and he became a much more powerful monarch. In fact, because of this, he set a precedent for Monarchs with near unilateral control over Egypt, notably followed by Ptolemy XXV and Ptolemy the Crusader.

The Second Mediterranean War

After Haser II rose to power, Etrusca decided to increase pressure on Iberia. Even after Hacor II's retaliation in the colony, Etruscan influence had never really left the region. Taking advantage of what he thought was a weak king, Amigor, king of Etrusca, restarted his nation's trading operations in 236. In addition, Etruscan troops landed in the north of the colony, and set up a fort there. Haser II, upon learning of this invasion, Immediately deployed troops as a response. Within four days, Carthegian troops began to gather in the southern most region of Iberia. Meanwhile, Carthaginian ships began to crawl up the coast, on a mission to intercept Etruscan trade missions. In response to this, Etruscan deployed even more troops, along with a large portion of their navy. While this did shore up Etruscan defenses, it did nothing to save the trade ships, and within months Etruscan trade had once again ground to a halt.

Wanting to achieve dominance on the coast, the Carthaginian ships tried to engage the Etruscans as soon as possible. Shockingly, the battle at sea wasn't a route, and the Etruscans were able to hold there own, and even push back the Carthaginians in some places. This prevented Carthage from gaining their traditional advantage of sea dominance, which in turn would make the land battle harder. So, while the battle at sea continued, Haser II began to move his troops to the north, where a vast majority of the Etruscan army was located. Amigor, in reaction, entrenched his troops in various forts and villages. When the Carthaginian army arrived, they found themselves in an uphill battle, often having to destroy multiple forts just to take a few miles of ground. As the fighting wore on over the year, it looked like the Etruscan could come away with Northern Iberia.

However, despite the deadlock, Haser II had one last trick up his sleeve. Recently, Iberia had been expanded to the point were it bordered the Southern reaches of the Keltoic Empire - an Empire Etrusca had never had good relations with. So, in 239, Haser II sent an envoy to Nouio, where various diplomats requested help from Estrak, the sitting Emperor. Without a second thought, Estrak sent his army south, attacking the northern reaches of Etruscan held Iberia. The Etruscans, now sandwiched between two enemies and slowly loosing the battle at sea, had no choice. Slowly, their emplacements began to fall to abandonment, and those that didn't were destroyed by the Carthaginians or the Keltoi. In 241, the Etruscans had left Iberia entirely, and by the end of the same year, a treaty was signed so they would never attempt expansion their again.

The First Missionaries of Wodanismos

As the religion of Wodanismos began to grow in Germania, it rapidly grew enough to begin expansion across the rest of Europe. The earliest records of missionaries are from 241, when a group of missionaries arrived to help the poor of Parisi and Nouio. During their stay in the Keltoic empire, they collected donations and preached to the populous, gaining a limited following before returning home to Germania. Soon afterwards, another group of missionaries arrived, this time expanding their reach to Locudula, as well as parts of Celturca and Kelsart. These missionaries continued to skyrocket in popularity, and by 245, Wodanismos had solidly embedded itself in Keltoic society. Over time, the missionaries began to go even further south, arriving in the Senone Republic and Southern Keltoia.

Meanwhile, in Germania Wodanismos continued to be the centralizing influence it had been since its inception in the 2nd century. While most record are unclear, it seems that by this point, small kingdoms had popped up across the region, many with at least some influence on their citizens lives. While most of them were little more than a collection of towns with a Wodanist temple, the centralization of the region was a testament to the rapid growth of the religion. In addition, Wodanismos continued to stimulate trade, its temples often serving as a focal point of trade in any given region. In fact, trade is largely the way the religion and its missionaries were able to make it to the Senone, and later, to the Etruscans.

In 255, Wodanist missionaries reached perhaps the most obvious place they could have - Carthaginian Iberia. After their rejection of Carthage's Christianity, they found Wodanismos to be somewhat of a relief. Why they accepted this religion and not Christianity is lost to history, but whatever the case was, Wodanismos spread across Iberia like nowhere else. Within only a few years, several temples had popped up in northern Iberia, along with a lot of converts across the entire territory. While this obviously worried the government of Carthage, they decided it was fruitless to prevent the spread. Because of the spread of Wodanismos into Iberia and Etrusca, by 270 Wodanismos had spread across most of Europe, and it was slowly solidifying its position.

Anatolian Unification War

After Cyrus' spread of Christianity in Armenia, Cappadocia, and Persia, Galatia was mostly left out of this transformation. While Cappadocia vowed to help Christianity expand its influence, this was a costly venture, even with the help of Persia and Egypt. Meanwhile, as the royals in Galtia resorted to increasingly crud measures to enforce Christianity, the Galatians became more and more bemused with their leadership. By 258, this lead to riots and small rebellions, which Cappadocica could do little to curb. In 160, it was probably fair to say that Galatia had fallen into civil war over the issue. While Cappadocian troops were certainly present, they could do little to stop a popular uprising. In 263, the king of Galatia had been deposed of, replaced by a man by the name of Requili. The new leader, to the delight of his people, immediately declared his intolerance of Christianity, and began to raise an army.

Cappadocia, with its most loyal ally essentially destroyed, fell into a state of panic. While the new Galatians hardly posed a serious threat to Cappadocia - they were still trying to smooth out their system and tie up lose ends - the mere fact that the previous government was disposed of threatened their position in a serious way. So, instead of letting Requili consolidate his rule, Sevtara and Elcer, the king of Cappadocia and the former general of the Galtians respectivly, decided to strike first by deploying perhaps 35,000 troops. Striking first in the more central region of Galatia, the initial attack was meant to separate the relatively untouched northern regions with with the Requili aligned south. Despite Requili trying to rally his troops to respond, they seemed far more interested in purging the last vestiges of the Christian monarchy than actually defending their nation. As a result, Central and North Galatia fell within months, and by early 265, Sevtara had a huge upper hand.

At this point, Requili and his army actually began a concentrated effort to respond. To start with, he had his lieutenants move an army northwards to counter the Cappadocian army falling into their position. As those two armies began to clash in the north, Requili himself began to move his own army east ward to the Cappadocian border. By mid 265, the Galatian armies had been forced back and spread out, essentially forming one long line a few miles inside of their border. While this was a good strategy for defense, it was also a recipe for high casualties, and as the Cappdocians hurled troops at the barrier, resolve began to weaken. Finally, in the first month of 266, the line fell completely, letting the armies of Elcer tear across central Anatolia. Within months, Requili's kingdom was annihilated, and Sevtara declared the king of a partially unified Anatolia.