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Religious Revolution during the Peace of the Twelfth Century (L'Uniona Homanus) 1205-1220 (452-467 AD) (L'Uniona Homanus) 1220-1340 (467-587 AD) (L'Uniona Homanus)


The Years Prior[]

The Death of Constantinus II came on a midsummer night when the stewards of the Palatine Palace prepared to wake the Emperor and found him in a peaceful unwakeable state. The Discussions as to the succession of the Emperor were not limited to the Senate, though they were scrambling for any suitable replacement. The People of Rome had long been aware of the difficulty of succession. The former Emperors had all either had sons or brothers or another male relative to leave the Imperial title to; or there were strong and famous Generals from recent wars who would be suitable to start a new dynasty. Because of the Peace of the last century there were no prominent Generals or Military members. The Succession of Emperor Constantinus could not be filled by any member of his family because his only son had died of typhoid fever before he turned four years old. Constantinus II had three brothers, all older than him, but during the last years of the reign of Constantinus I he had killed them all in order to take the throne for himself.


The Interregnum of 1205-1212 (452-459 AD)[]

Western Europe[]

Gallia[]

No period between Emperors had lasted more than five years at any time before the death of Constantinus II. By the year 1212 the interregnum had lasted seven years and the Senate was beginning to lose its grip on power within the Senatorial Provinces, not to mention the military which had taken over in the Imperial areas of Rome. The tensions between the Provinces of Gallia, that is to say the three provinces of Francia, Narbonensis, and Aquitannia, were coming to consist of more than words and rhetoric.

In Aquitannia the government led by the most powerful and devout General of Burdigala (Bordeaux), Amulius Falco Rutilus, who was the younger brother and most influential advisor of the Governor of Aquitannia The Province was becoming more self-centered with the absence of the Emperor for so long. Their belief that they were destined to reclaim their former territories and that the gods supported their dominion over as much as they would endeavour to take.

Areas of Anglian INfluence

Parts of Britannia which had major presence of Angli in their population with the city of Eboracum in the center.

Britannia[]

{C}In the city of Eboracum (York) in Britannia the Community of Anglians was causing controversy on the border between Britannia and Caledonia. The Cimbri in the Jutland Peninsula in Scandinavia drove out the Saxon people and the Angli. The Angli came to Britannia, on invitation, and were allowed to settle in the forest lands around the city of Eboracum. The Saxons moved into Germania, due to migration, and almost started a war with the Province of Scandinavia. This was prevented by the Emperor at the time but the Saxons continued to remain in Germania. The City of Saxonium (Hannover) on the River Lenus (Leine) and started out as a forest surrounded slum town which was a small pittance to the Saxon population, who were considered a nuisance by many of the other aristocrats of Germania. Saxonia, the most powerful Duchy in Germania, became a model to their brothers in Eboracum, who also wanted to establish an equal, if not greater, area for their people as the Saxons had in Germania.

IBerian Ethnic groups

The Split of the Provinces of Hispania with the Cantabri in Light Blue; the Valenci in Red; the Toleti in Purple; The Ibri in Green; The Occitani in Blue; and the Catalani in Orange.

Iberia[]

{C}While Western Europe was facing these problems, the Iberian Peninsula, a usually peaceful place of development, was facing changes which they had no experience in managing. The opportunity presented by the lack of control from the capital, as there were upheavals almost everywhere, left the several different ethnicities in Hispania, primarily, to begin to try and carve out parts of the provinces for their people. The Valenci, the Catalani, the Cantabri the Ibri, the Occitani, and the Taracci began to divide the peninsula. The Valenci, who were descended from the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians were identifying themselves as separate not only from these origins but also from the Romans in Italia.

Being a Coastal area on the Mediterranean like all of the wealthiest parts of the Empire, the Valenci had many concerns in the other groups would not have had. Among these was the fact that more interior areas of the main sea of the Roman Empire like Italia in the center and the Anatolian Provinces and lands of the Levant had much more developed cities and trade that the peninsula on the edge of the Mediterranean. The Valenci were centered on their main trading city of Valencia and that was where the majority of their population and resources were. The mayor of the city would be essentially the office held before they could be the Dux of Valencia for most of the years before any attempts were made to invest in the forested countryside.

Catalani were in a similar situation with the Valenci in their position on the Mediterranean being rather far from most of the trade with the wealthiest provinces. Also like Valencia, they depended on Tingitana, Numidia, Narbonensis, the Western Islands, and Mauretania for most of their exports. Unlike Valenci the Catalani had many more cities and places of industry to access. From Tarragona to Barcino (Barcelona) and Terrassa to Cervera the economy among the Catalani was much more prosperous than their Phoenician neighbors to the south. The Catalani, descendants of Celtic people from Gallia, were much closer to the provinces north of them than they were to the rest of Hispania, they identified not only with the proud modesty of Narbonensis and patriotism of Aquitania but also, particularly among the youth of the country, the call for freedom and peace from Francia.

On the Iber River, the river for which the name of the peninsula comes, was a landlocked group of people known as the Ibri.They lived mostly in forested areas and their numbers made up stock for the military of Roman Hispania which would reside mainly in the big cities like Valencia and Barcelonum. As the power from the Governor, who was usually from a family which immigrated to Hispania from wealthier lands like Italia and Aegyptus, diminished to irrelevance around the time of this Interregnum, and even more so during this period. This gave the Ibri the opportunity they needed to pursue their goals of supremacy on the peninsula. The Iber River was the largest on the peninsula and was able to support ships of war and of trade from the upstart cities and towns along its fertile basin. The immense forests of this land made many ships which were used to take on the task of moving goods either to or from the cities which were tough to find outside of the eastern coastline of Hispania. The Ibri were not a single group defined by a common heritage in moving to this part of the Empire. The Ibri were native to it and remember when the Romans were unknown to their previous rulers. The states of Iberia were separate and in many ways peaceful, but the immigration to the open lands changed that. The few native people moved into the forests and retreated from the society which was beginning to march deeper and deeper into the forests. The Ibri would begin to push back after the Emperor was not there to stop them. But they were still preparing at the time of the death of Constantinus II.

During the Frankish Revolution, where disaster was consuming the formerly large Provinces of Aquitania, left many refugees, especially from the South of Aquitania. The massacre in Burdigala (Bordeaux) and the conflicts made by Narbonensis to be independent like Francia with the support of Emperor Jacobus drove many refugees over the Pyrenees and into the, legendarily, peaceful areas of Hispania. These people were called the Occitani and they established a small area to live in after their exodus from the north. The small cities of Pampaelo (Pamplona), Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), and Osca (Huesca) grew into the havens for the Occitani and when they became connected, because their refugee population was more than the native population, they could defend themselves uniquely. The Industry of Occitania, the name which they decided to give to their land, was the largest among any of the other areas of Hispania. The connection they could get easily to the provinces of Britannia, Francia, Germania, and, if they worked cooperatively with the Catalani who were similar to them ethnically, any of the Mediterranean Provinces was the source of their exporting economy but their resources in coal and wood allowed their cities to become the envy of the Peninsula. The concerns of their culture were however focused on peace and their immigration policies were so strict that there were times when they had shortages of labor that projects were beginning to be halted in many parts of Western Europe. The limited immigration of people into the Occitanian region of Hispania made it difficult for its population to grow, though it did, but it also secured the defense of the Occitani by the Occitani and not from foreign legions.

On the Northwestern coast of Hispania was Cantabria, a mountainous part of land which separated a very diverse group of cultures for a long time until the arrival of the Romans. On the end of Hispania lived the Gallaeci, and on the eastern end of this area lived the formal Cantabri while in between them was the Asturi people. All of these together made up a resource of the Roman military that was essential to its efforts against the Carthaginians during the Punic Wars, these were provinces of mercenaries. Iuliobrigensium (Santander), Campus Stellae (Santiago de Compostela) and Ovidum (Oviedo) were the largest cities in the lands which became Cantabria each belonging to the Cantabri, the Gallaeci, and the Asturi respectively. The Cantabri did not emerge as the most powerful, they were for a long time the least wealthy and most vulnerable, until they gained more monetary resources than their neighbors. The source of gunpowder is sulfur and charcoal both of which were most plentiful in the areas of the Cantabri. Just as the people called the Occitani moved into areas of Hispania, the other refugees from Francia also moved into the trading cities like Iuliobrigensium primarily, this included some Occitani and was due to its proximity to the border of the Pyrenees. This influx of people provided more labor than the native Cantabri could have produced and they also allowed these immigrating people to integrate themselves into the native culture, which was a mercenary culture that focused on money and then led to development. The Hispanian Civil War, a small conflict actually, ended when the Cantabri members of the Hispanian military took the cities of Campus Stellae and Ovidum and brought those areas under their hegemony. The Cantabri became a blanket term for people of this area and the older tribal names faded into obscurity.

The poorest and least developed people of Hispania were the Toleti. They had a single major city, Toletum (Toledo), and any villages around them would not extend to a population of more than a few hundred. The Toleti were natives, not unlike the Ibri the other landlocked part of Hispania, but they were much more unified than the Ibri due to their centralization around this single city. The Tagus river was the main water source for Toletum and their ancient forests filled with high quality wood for ships and furniture was their main source of income and economy. The Navy of Hispania and Rome depended on the ships of Toleto to make the strongest ships for war and for trade. Toleto, though it was marginal in the scheme of Hispania a province which was itself on the edge of Europe, it would be the first area to declare its independence from the Senatorial Province of Hispania.

Eastern and Northern Europe[]

In the Jutland peninsula the Cimbri people had asserted their dominance over the province of Scandinavia and were assured that they were destined for greatness. Rather than embrace the flexible religion of the emperors and Hellenic mythology that was making waves with the Episcopi of the Temples the Cimbri began to turn back to their traditional religions. The worship of Odin did not begin to take a new hold in the Northern Provinces until the Scandinavians began to send their missionaries into the other provinces of the Mare Suebicum and near their borders. The rituals of Scandinavian peoples, including festivals on solstices and equinoxes as well as divination and sacrifices, spread to the similar ethnicities and people of the Northern Provinces.

The People of Prussia were the most effected by the Scandinavians because of their proximity to the peninsula from where most of the business of the provinces originated. The Cimbrians began to function by funding the smaller tribes of the areas around Scandinavia. The areas conquered by Jacobus were at first placed under the administration of strong generals from Rome. They were able to keep the Scandinavians from rebelling for their terms but in the end the fear they placed in them was not a fear of Rome but a fear of those particular people. When they left the Scandinavians, being the most independent minded, filled the Governorship position with one of their own. They began to influence their politics in a more civilized way, not only by placating the hatred many of the native peoples had for their other tribes, which were only temporary under a hegemony, as well as their hatred of the other Europeans who had conquered them, but also by making and building up money and political connections.

They used these connections throughout their neighboring territories to place in their governments people who would be sympathetic to the cause of this group of racketeers, almost always of Cimbri origin. The small tribes of people like the Venedi in Scythia, the Goths in Prussia, the Frisi in Western Germania, and other people of Nordic Origin. The religion of the Cimbri, which they had all but taken over outright, taught that the people of the North were descended from the God Odin, the strongest of any God. This Cimbri were their closest relatives, of course, and the people who were allied with them always seemed to be considered closely related to the gods of their mythology also.

The Scythian Provinces, which was being sucked almost dry of its resources of oil and coal and its people as slaves, The Venedi, the bulk of the population, began to form what they called a Tribal Union in order to make demands to the occupying governor. The Cimbri in Scandinavia supported the Union throughout the negotiations but the Venedi were ultimately rejected by the Governor, who was hoping for possible reinforcements approved by the Senate. The Senate though would not help the Governor when the Venedi turned violent at the end of this interregnum period. The Frisi would take the same actions but on a smaller scale, as they were a marginal tribe, with the mayors of the port cities where they gathered into underground groups, these centered on the larger cities of Amsterdium (Amsterdam), Harolium (Haarlem), and Iagium (The Hague).

The Second War for the North 1213 (460 AD)[]

The Coup of Kiev and the Crucifixion[]

The Military, which had been playing a large role in the Imperial Provinces, began to depend almost totally on their own generals to provide them with pay and leadership without an Emperor. A legendary General named Diocletian existed during the reign of Emperor Decius and began to gather support among the troops with the help of the Scandinavians. It was Diocletian who gave the Scandinavians the idea to influence peoples of close ethnicity by using their northern religion, which he called “degenerate” in private, to influence the military and politics of their neighbors. He intended to use the Scandinavians to overthrow the current Emperor and his possible heirs and establish a new Dynasty with the support of the barbarians. The idea would remain but Diocletian himself would be killed in a battle with the Macromanni people, who were refusing to recognize his power.

The influence of Diocletian made the interference of the Scandinavians, at the expense of the Emperor who was present in their affairs in name only after the Emperor Jacobus, seem more legitimate. The Scandinavians took the end of the seventh year to be their time to initiate their plans, after it had become clear that the Senate stopped trying to find a new Emperor. The Senate, in starting to affirm the new Republic they intended to build, was looking for an enemy in which to punish so as to present the appearance that the Senate was able to control the Military as well as civil society. This would come with the Coup of Chievarum in the year 1212 (459 AD) which was supported by the Cimbrians in Scandinavia who were funding similar groups.

The Venedi began to attack the capital of Scythia, Chievarum (Kiev), in an attempt to take their place as the rulers of their lands and declare a new province of Venedia (some more radical elements proposed establishing a separate country or Kingdom).The military, though it had fallen into some idleness, still remembered their heritage and fought the invaders. they did so for the Senate and People of Rome, as printed in SPQR, which was still popular among the troops. The were able to, with almost ease actually, take the leadership of the Venedi after destroying their amateur revolutionaries. They received orders from the Senate, after holding the leaders under interrogation for some time, to the effect of ordering the public and gruesomely torturous deaths of their so-called captains, marshalls and generals. General Spurius Virginius, General Cnaeus Postumius, and Lieutenant Manlius Atratinus were the most informed, and the most well-known, of the Venedi leaders. They were crucified, the most painful sort of public execution that the Senate would inflict.

The Crucifixion done by the Scythian Military was not ignored by the Cimbri leadership back in Scandinavia. They knew that the Venedi were not a trustworthy people who could handle torture in order to protect their allies. The information gathered from Spurius, Cnaeus, and Manlius about the conspiracy of the Cimbrians was moving back to the Senate where they would likely start a larger war in the North again. The Cimbri chose not to stop these actions but rather to prepare for what was going to happen. In order to gain sympathy from any fence-sitting members of the Cimbrian influence who could rally behind any victory won by the Romans, they used the very brutal act of crucifixion to gain the sympathy from the other tribes with which the Cimbri were allied.

The Cross began to appear on all of the battle flags of the Cimbri. Even their enemies began to adopt them, like the Angles in Britannia who took a red cross and a rose, they chose this symbol to express the similarity which their struggle had with that of the Venedi in Scythia. The Cross began to be a northern symbol and the martyrs for the Cimbrian cause, Spurius, Cnaeus, and Manlius, were also given a special place in the Nordic religion. The Scythia move would only be the first in a grand set of actions that would come out of the North.

The Siege of Amsterdium and The Frisian War[]

In Germania there was a small tribe of people known as the Frisians who were building up for a rebellion against the Government of the province and to gain their independence. The Cimbri had attempted revolutions in the aftermath of the Frankish Revolution. The Frisi, though not a large group, had a distinct culture which they felt ought to be respected as an independent province of Rome. The Germanic people, who had grown from being barbarians from the North with no sense of territory or order into an industrial center of the Empire with thick and distinct lines between the upper and lower class tribes.

The Teutones, Hermunduri, Chauci, and the Batavi made up the highest industrial class and the Saxon immigrants represented the middle class group along with the Chamavi, though they were both moving up and had no association with the lower classes. The Frisi, the Chatti, The Cherusci and the Burgundians made up the lowest and working class of society in Germania. This system had developed over many years but the pillars and foundation were beginning to crumble with the intervention from Scandinavia. The Frisians, being the most involved with the Cimbrian Interventions, made a move in the same vein as the Venedi had in Scythia. They took up a banner with the a cross and began to move into the largest city in what they intended to be the Frisian Province, Amsterdium.

Out of Amsterdium came the first success for the Cimbri, and not one that they believed was going to happen. In the meeting places in Jacobianensis (Copenhagen), the Cimbri were beginning to organize the other small tribes in Germania to split up that part of land. The momentum of the Cimbri was moving quickly, while back in Rome the Senate was facing many challenges before they were able to move into the North of Europe. War had broken out between Narbonensis and Aquitania, two provinces that were very wealthy and prepared to fight for an extended amount of time. The loss of those soldiers as well as the access to the ports of cities like Burdigala (Bordeaux) would mean that the naval troops would have to go further in order to make stops to refill their supplies. Another consequence of the Southern Gallic Wars was the fact that ground troops could not move through Narbonensis out of the more navigable Alps to the West. The loss of time and morale of moving so far would create more problems than solutions so the Romans went for a specifically naval movement from out of the Southern parts of the Empire.

Further problems were happening all across Western Europe and these were draining the possibility that the Romans could overwhelm the Cirmbrian rebels. The war that the Angles had been preparing for was underway, and was even more of a conflict because they had gained Caledonian support and a pact of neutrality from Hibernia, they refused to be involved. Britannia would not be able to help the naval forces either and they would not be able to move into Scandinavia directly before the lower forces could arrive. The leader of the Toleti declared his independence on the 9th of May, 1213 (460 AD) and the Governor in New Carthage, a part of the Valenci territory, moved in response. The Governors army was going to move out with the Italians and the North Africans but were now fighting the most complex and bloody war happening in the Empire. The Six different groups of Hispania were now fighting for control, or some for independence. The death that would be lad out on battlefields in which neither side would advance or retreat would be a testament to the folly of the Iberian Civil War. None would emerge truly victorious, though they were all separate, and all of their cities were devastated by the time the last armistice was declared in 1216 (463 AD). In that time though Rome itself would be changed.

The Red Summer and Autumn of 1213 (460 AD)[]

The other forces of the Empire were coming in on the Cimbrians, waiting for the current Consuls of the Senate to lead armies in from the seas. Many of these went through the Province of Prussia, which was allied with the Cimbri. The Province of Suebia was the same story. This left the small provinces tom move in from central Europe to beat back the advance of the Northerners.

Francia, not fearing the Aquitanians, came in first to quell the uprising, though they had some philosophical sympathies for the Frisians. The Saxons were the biggest player behind the lines of the Cimbrians advance. They had finally gained the upper-hand to destroy the aspirations of any of the Cimbrian leadership which had driven them out of their homeland decades earlier. They took great advantage of their unique position and brought in the smaller regiments from the Provinces of Raetia and Noricum in a combined front which would beat back the Frisi and then come up through the sea. When the Scandinavians took the chance to make a peace with the province of Prutia and Aurelia in order to free up the troop surge that was coming specifically to the Frisian lands, they did not know if their bet would pay off or not. The garrisons in Provinces like the Campus Asius, what few there were, and the ones from Pannonia and Dacia were all but emptied in order to move in and defeat the allies of the Cimbri in Prussia and Suebia.

The Pannonians were poorly trained and the recovery in Scythia was not helping either. The Suebians were slowing down the Scythians by making sure they had not more than a week or so without more Suebians coming into the cities. The Germanian combined forces were advancing into against the Frisians and were beginning to hold onto them. At the same time that this was happening, the provinces of Anglia was well on its way to being created. The Caledonians and the Britannians had been working out a peace behind the scenes of the fighting on the border lands. The City of Eboracum (York) was prepared to be fully invaded by Britannia but with the other actions that they were being called to on the continent the leadership in Londinium were eager for a peace. The sacrifice of the city of Eboracum was a necessary consequence that the Britannians relented to accept. The new provinces came into being in a more peaceful manner than was attempted by the Frisians.

The Suebians had taken Scythia and were keeping their military down while their allies were making their moves. As autumn ended, the seas got harsher and the winds colder and the battles were going to become much fiercer.

The Great Winter of 1213-1214 (460-461 AD)[]

After the Anglians had their lands free the other lower tribes of Germania made their intentions clear. They had started as a fight for the Frisians specifically but they were now each demanding separate provinces. One for the Chatti, the Burgundi were determined to have there acres and the Chamavi had abandoned the Saxons. The Romans moved in their main naval forces after meeting up with not only the Britannians but also the forces from Caledonia and the new province of Anglia. In exchange for agreeing to participate in the battles against the rebellious north the Consul promised that the Senate would make Anglia a Senatorial Province, though without the Emperor distinctions weren’t real anymore. The Caledonians were prepared to deal with terrible winters and their expertise helped to warn the troops coming from the much warmer parts of the Empire. When the Romans moved in to take on the Cimbri they were expecting to see the Germanian military, led by the Saxons, making great strides against the invaders. They saw a partial stalemate that was beginning to crumble before the main reinforcements arrived.

The Scythian Province was taken and it was irretrievable but the Romans were prepared to fight for Germania. The military occupied Scythia did not move in to help the Cimbri, they chose to build up their power in that province, believing that the Cimbri would be able to win without them. The Cimbri lost Iagium (The Hague) in October but they had plenty more men to fight for the rest of Germania. The troops of Prussia moved in during this time to try and attack the Roman advances from Iagium on both sides. The Prussians were not able to take back the city but they held them back while the Cimbri and the forces of the British Isles were taking on each other, along with the Saxons and their regiments from the Noricum and Raetia. the Angles and the Saxons were together again and were moving up along the coast of Europe. When they prepared to cross the Albus (Elbe) River the Crimbri were there to meet them, along with their allies in the Venedi, Suebians and mercenaries. The Romans were successful in Germania and had beaten back any resistance, though many surrendered, and they moved back into the sea to assist the front on the Albus.

The Cimbri were, however, not without their technologies. The use of firearms had been popular since the discovery of gunpowder after the recipe for it was stolen from Sinica. This technology had been improved many times over but the actual people weren’t changing their maneuvers. The large and regularly space armies were the tradition from Rome. Only sieges coming from the sea were unorganized. The Cimbri had no such tradition and were hiding under the first snow storms of November 1213 (460 AD). They wore all white with no identification. these were no longer the petty tribal squabble that they had been leading in other countries. They were entering the territory of the Scandinavians, something they considered almost holy, and were not going to take prisoners. The Cimbri and their trained and similar allies in the Prussians were coming in a straight line downwards, just like the winds. The camps of the Romans were prepared for the harsh climates, as the Caledoni, Britanni, Hiberni, and especially the Angli and Saxons were used to this climate. The main Romans out on sea were hesitating whether or not to move in with them or ahead of them.

Earlier in times before the interregnum of discontent the Romans had made their greatest military discover, which they would spread across the empire The invention of Nitroglycerin (Acidus Magnus or great acid as it is a combination of black powder with sulfuric and nitric acid) made the explosive power of bombs much greater and the landmine was fist used at this time. The Chemistry of the Cimbri was even more impressive when the rifles were equipped with smokeless powder. the production of them was expensive, so much so that they couldn’t export them and the production had only recently been completed.

The army of Scandinavia was preparing to descend on the Germanian camp and the Prussians would move in from the other side, leaving their only retreat either into the sea or back into the Frisian territory. The cowardice of the leaders of the Frisi and the other tribes was not held by the majority of these people who were ready to fight, as they felt that they had not really lost. The first deaths were numerous and many of the soldiery were killed in the beginning of the fray. The Cimbri could not be held back from the camps and they knew that they were going to die in that cold early morning. As the sun rose over the horizon the survivors of the massacre were heading to the mouth of the Albus where they hoped to meet up with the Roman ships. What soldiers did escape from the Cimbri gave word to the Consul of the camouflage of the Cimbri and Prussians. The Romans began to make intricate layers of mines around their new camp just below the mouth of the River. The Frisian people began to move in as they heard of the losses of the Romans northwards. The Frisi, however, would be the main casualties of the mines of the Romans.

By the beginning of 1214 (461 AD) the soldiers were dying of frostbite. The Cimbri were also low on food and the loss of lands due to bombing was going to take a toll on the people back int he homeland. They made their last attempt to take the Romans on near the middle of January and the fatigued military was not able to stop them. The parts of Norther Germania were now under the control of the Cimbri and so were the provinces of Suebia, Prussia, and Scythia. The Romans gained nothing except the technology of smokeless gun powder which was going back to Rome for study. The Cimbri named this their Great winter and spoke about how the God Odin was looking out for them and granted them this victory, though the people were waiting for the reconstruction to resume.

Rome after the Frisian War

The Change after the Frisian War with the areas of Cimbrian influence in green.

The Peace of Harolium 1220 (467 AD)[]

Post-War Rome[]

In the city of Harolium in the year 1220 (467 AD), six years after the end of the war, the Romans and the Cimbri leaders came together to recognize the new Country in the north. The Romans were dealing with the new provinces and the loss of old ones in a different way. The Consul which led the Romans in the North was actually more popular than he expected. He didn’t even lose his place as a Senator when he returned to Syracusa, his home town, in Sicilia. The Roman people were actually almost thankful at not having to handle the least controllable parts of Europe. The earlier attempts to integrate those people into the Roman community were failures and many did not believe the province of Germania was developed enough to be part of the Senate. Now that it was split with almost a third, but the most developed third, gone the Germanians needed to The tribes migrated across the new border. The lower classes moved out of their slums and into the big port cities which were now theirs. The Saxons kept what had been their land since their immigration but now had to build up much more space not only for the new immigrants but also with the new garrisons to defend the border and the new mines and factories to replace the ones which were now controlled by the Cimbri. Troops began to move back to the new borders and the army finally had something to do. Their leadership was feeling almost relieved at the turn of events. In Germania especially the rebuilding was bringing in many new technologies and new necessities. Since they could not move their products out of their ports anymore they were building train tracks to move into the Francian ports. The wealth was still growing in Germania and Rome was still the most prosperous country in Europe.

The War between the Hispanian Tribes had ended in the year 1216 (463 AD) and were all devastated by the conflicts. The Consul from the Frisian War, Sergius Quarto, was elected to the office of Emperor in 1215 (462 AD), though it was a diminished office. Sergius took control of the situation in Southern Gallia and separated the armies of Narbonensis and Aquitania by force. The Emperor moved into Hispania with the same army, as there were no casualties when they interfered with the Southern Gallic War. The Hispanians were forced into peace like the two Gallic provinces but had much more devastation among themselves than either Narbonensis or Aquitania. Their status as a Senatorial Province was downgraded into an Imperial Province and the emperor took a personal interest in their rebuilding.

Catalonia, Valencia, Toletia, Iberia, Occitania, and Cantabria were made into projects of the Emperor who had been a prominent theorist in the island of Sicilia prior to being elected to the Senate. He wanted to effect change throughout the Empire in a way that made his meteoric rise to consul, leader of a great war (though not the victor), and Emperor of the Roman Empire gave him the necessar power to try out his ideas. Before his reign the difference between the Imperial and Senatorial Provinces was that: the former were much freer though they were controlled by the military of the Emperor which was rather hands off and focused on development and integration; whereas the latter had many established customs, traditions, laws, systems, and orders which made their development much more economic than in any other sense because they were already part of the civilized world. The Hispanians were going to develop very differently with the new Emperor leading them into the greatest examples of Imperial power.

The Cimbrian Alliance []

The new Kingdoms of the North were happy with their independence but would do anything to avoid losing it again. With the knowledge and industry that they had the government of all the Kingdoms was prepared to being reconstruction but the Romans, though they had made peace, were not going to allow their possessions to slip away forever and everyone knew that. Preempting the restarting of hostilities between the Romans and the North they decided to come together and create a more powerful country. The men who had become Kings of these areas were all closely associate with the King of Cimbria, the name of what was Scandinavia. They made him their High King, an office higher than any of the others and they made themselves princes and electors which made their people rejoice at the growth and greatness.

Besides the Kingdoms of Frisia, Chattia, Chamavia, Cherussia, Burgundia, Cimbria and Suebia some of these would give way to smaller kingdoms in response to the assistance of the diverse tribes therein. Prussia was split into Semnonia on the western side of the Viadrus (Oder River) which was renamed the Odra by the Cimbri and the remaining part was then split into Langobardia (also know as Lombardia) to the south and Ruggia to the North. On the edge of the Mare Suebicum part of Suebia was declared the land of the Fenni but this could not compare to the changes in the lands of what was Cimbria and Scythia.

The Venedi, though they had been severely reduced during the war, had grown to prominence with their rebirth after the death of their commanders and also gain respect from the other tribes and kingdoms by being related to the new martyrs for the Kingdom. They took the largest part of Scythia but declined to manage the entirety of it. This area kept the name Scythia, though there was talk to name it Venedia. The Venedi decided that it would be more prudent to allow the influx of more people into their particular part of the Kingdom, as they knew many pilgrimages to the cemeteries of the three Venedi martyrs would lead eventually to permanent immigrants. The other parts of Scythia would be much more complex.

With all of the rivers tributing to the mighty Ister (Danube) no kingdom would be truly landlocked. However the most trade connected part of what was Scythia would be named Aestia, after the Aestii merchants. Below them were the Gepadae who would creat what they called the Kingdom of the Vistula, refering of course to their main river which made their western border. At the end of the Scythia territory lived the very hostile people known as the Carpi, the Costoboci and the Roxolani each of which carved out their own Principality, refusing to call themselves Kings due to a complex history. Lastly were the Two sister tribes of the Venedi who used to be counted as part of them in the census of tribes by the Romans and the two major immigrant groups who were seeking to rebel against Rome by joining the opposing army. the Buri and the Quadi were the immigrants from the end Roman lands below Prussia, who weren't able to enter the fractured and strict kingdoms of what was Prussia. They settled between the Tyras (Dniester) and the Hypanis (Souther Bug) Rivers and left the remaining land to the two other tribes which were so anxious for recognition. These last two tribes were the least impressive and least accomplished of the areas which were Scythia. Though they had fought with the Venedi they were native to cowardice and the generals who gave up imformation to Rome about the Cimbrians were actually from either the Bastarnae or Cotini tribes. They sought to redeem their bad reputation, at least the reputation they had in Scythia, by being the msot liberated and liberal of their kingdoms, despite their proximity to the still undeveloped trio of tribes in the bottom of the Alliance.

The fracturing of Scythia and Prussia, and to a smaller extent Suebia, was not to be found in Cimbria. The new King of Cimbria, Æthelred, was doing everything to make sure that his dominion extended to as much as he could have personally and when he was made High King of the Cimbrian Alliance he knew that his rule would extend to all these lands. Be that as it may the Suitones and the Heruli, who the Cimbri had been trying to arradicate like the Angli or Saxons but were finding them much more resiliant, would not be independent from Cimbria. They were moved off of the Jutland Peninsula and on to the Scandinavian where they would rebuild while the Cimbri took what they had. Æthelred held on to Cimbria and many would relent to his rule, given also his fame and power. For the time being the Heruli and Suitones would live on the edge of the Alliance in the lands which were the most thickly forested and the coldest during winter. The Cimbri didn't want them to thrive, they expected them to die. This brutality was kept as quiet as possible and it worked in the end, though not for the Heruli and Suitones.

King Æthelred, who was also a leader during the fight to make these places free from Rome, became the First King of what he called the Cimbrian Alliance. Though the name seemed exclusionary the people of the new country were happy with the arrangement that they made for themselves. The Cimbri, as they discussed privately, were on their way to monopolizing power. The Cimbrian Alliance adopted a flag with a red lion to symbolize their ferociousness and freedom. Above it were three crosses to represent the martyrs of the Venedi generals. Æthelred called the first Council of the Alliance with his princes and other representatives of the Country in the year 1218 (465 AD) to bear witness to his coronation. It was the start of a new age for the north, or at least that was how it was portrayed in the newspapers of the land. Back in Rome, the Cimbri were portrayed as barbarians, just as they always were, and that there was nothing to fear. The High King and the Prince Electors were going to dispel such perceptions.

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