Hadrian's Consolidation

Hecatee

Donor
Syria, autumn 117 CE

As tired as Publius Aelius Hadrianus Buccellanus might be, he knows his day is far from over. He has just finished a tense meeting with his concilium, during which the fate of Lusius Quietus, the untrustworthy legate of Judea, has been sealed. With the orders sent earlier to Publius Aclius Attianus, the præfectus prætorio, Hadrianus is confident that his rule will not be challenged in the immediate future, which only leaves the question of what to do for the long term destiny of the imperium.

For now peace had been restored in the East. The Parthian had been severly beaten, their armies shattered, numerous cities taken and plundered. The Jewish revolts in Judea and in various other cities of the empire have been crushed, with many of those blasphemous deniers of the gods killed by the legions or the regional authorities.

But peace is always fragile. The conquest of Dacia is still fresh, and there are other areas at risk from a barbarian invasion. Britannia, of course, is still partly free. Germania, as always, is a threat. Plenty of parts of the Danubian border are wide open to raids and even outright invasion, as he well knows since he did survey them in the name of the late imperator Trajanus.

Augustus, be he blessed in his eternal glory, had said that the Empire’s borders where to be secured, conquest to be shunned. Well, that had not been the vision of Trajanus, conqueror of Dacia and of Parthia… But would it be his policy ? He had already ordered a withdrawal from many part of the newly conquered territories, to insecure with their rear in full revolt. But should he do more ? Fortify what he could, abandon what he could not hold ?

A cup of wine in his hand, the emperor lost himself in his thoughts before finally falling asleep from the wine and the exhaustion, but not without taking some decisions first…
 

Hecatee

Donor
Oescus, Danubian border, autumn 117 CE

Publius Aelius Hadrianus seats enthroned in all the imperial glory, the commanders of the Danubian armies seated around him. The praetorium is a huge wooden building first constructed to hosts the headquarter of Hadrian’s predecessor, Trajanus, during his second dacian war.

Here Hadrianus has been a general amongst many, but he is now the absolute ruler of the Empire. Many roads lay in front of him, and only he will make the decision on which one to take.

In front of the assembled generals, a large map of the empire stood up, small flags and colours showing the extent of the empire and its various forces with an estimation of their respective strengths. A huge concentration of force was still present in the east, leaving the Rhine dangerously under guarded. In some places the borders where on riverlines, as on the Rhine, but much too often they were not. Dacia was exposed to the Roxolani and to the Iazyges, and there was a huge gap between the Rhine and Danube garrisons where barbarian pressure could splinter the roman defenses.
The emperor rose from his throne and felt all eyes looking at him. Walking slowly, he approached the huge map, his purple mantle falling on his shoulders the only noise to be heard. He showed them.

Two large scale offensives, both in the Danubian area, using forces freed by the end of the campaign in the east. Four enemies they knew well, two of them who had been diminished by the recent wars of Trajanus. The Roxolani and the Daci would be attacked from across the Danube , from the east, and pushed toward the north and the tribe of the Carpi, where they would be all pushed to the other side of the river Porata.

The Legio I Italica and XI Claudia would sparhead the attack with some detachments from the XV Apollinaris and the XII Fulminata brought from Cappadocia. The legio V Macedonica would serve as anchor for this movement while the XIII Gemina would protect the eastern side of the lands taken by Trajanus.

At the same time, on the other side of Dacia, XIV Gemina from Carnuntum, the II Adiutrix from Aquincum and the IV Flavia Felix would attack across the Danube from the west and the south, the VII Claudia protecting Dacia on the western side, the forces crushing the Iasyges to push them toward the mountains held by the Osi and the Cotini.

The Quadi and the Marcomani had been quite enough those last few years to so diminish the forces protecting Noricum and Pannonia. It was a gambit, but a reasonable enough one.

Hadrianus himself would lead the Iazyges offensive, knowing the land well from a previous mission in the area. Those two operations would significantly diminish the total length of the border, with mountains and rivers to shore up the future defenses.

Two or three years of campaigning would probably see the border put on the Porata of even the Tyras, giving numerous lines of defense against future raids from the steppe peoples.

His generals agreed. It was a sound plan, and would bring good agricultural land in the hands of the Empire, lands which would provide them with nice new estates.

And in three or four years they would be able to turn their sight back toward the east and Parthia with seasoned soldiers at their back. Yes, they liked the plan they were seeing.
 
Interesting...this will surely ease the pressure put on Hadrian for withdrawing from Mesopotamia t hat caused him to become unpopular from the get go. I'll be keeping an eye on this, good start.
 

Hecatee

Donor
Thanks. It's one of his goals. IRL Hadrian had to campaign in the area a bit before going to Rome and then on his Grand Tour of the Empire. From very early on he decided he wanted to strenghten the borders, but did it mostly by going backward, leaving territory behind.

This did indeed cost him some support, but the worst was what he took for having 4 of the best officers of Trajanus killed before they could become a threat : here he shows himself to be somewhat stronger militarily, thus regaining some goodwill.

He'll go forward in this selected area and probably later in another one to shorten the defenses and shore them up on more natural features of the ground, with the Danube serving as a secondary defense line.

My idea is to have a forward defense in those reorganized areas assumed by auxiliaries and a secondary line held by legions, a bit of a precursor to the latter limitanei but also something somewhat similar to what he did in England with the Wall (built by the legions, held by the auxiliaries with the legions behind in their own fortress).

I do have some time constraints since the Parthian will re-awaken in less than five years, but I think achieving a border on the Prut and Tisza rivers for this period is a possibility because :

1) Dacian tribes are still in disarey less than 5 years after the second dacian war
2) while the roxolani allied with Rome in the second dacian war, they did loose badly during the first some 15 years ago and are thus not yet back to full power
3) the Carpi seem to have been just moving in at the time, so no real strongholds to defeat and no expert knowledge of the land
4) the Iasyges, while powerfull (Trajan did not want to fight them during the dacian wars and sent Hadrianus to negociate with them) are not that powerfull and left more vulnerable by the fact they are encircled on 3 sides now that Dacia is roman

I hope I'll be able to keep you interested :)
 
Consider that the Iazyges were a large enough threat to Roman frontiers that Marcus Aurelius' original goal in his war against them was outright genocide (for such a renowned philosopher, Marcus Aurelius seems to have been fond of genocide as a military tool).
 
Intriguing. With Hadrian adopting a strategy of advancing up to defensible borders rather than withdrawing towards them, might we see Hadrian's Wall ITTL in the location of the Antonine Wall IOTL?
 

Hecatee

Donor
@Altwere : thanks

@DominusNovus : Indeed, but that's about 40 years later, about two to three warrior generations later of relative peace during which they grew under protection from Rome. It seems Trajanus had wanted them to become part of the Empire and that it was only Hadrianus' decision not to extand the Empire anymore that allowed them a status of client kingdom. Here, with this new policy, he strikes at them and fight a force that is probably one third smaller than it was in the time of Marcus Aurelius, and also much less consolidated as the local chiefs had less gold from trade and gifts of the Empire to trade around to build their networks. Actually, the earlier you fight the Barbarian, the less cohesion amongst them you find, and the less overpopulation you meet, plus if you fight in their lands they have to take their families into account, all elements that make Rome stronger.

@Shapur2 : I've not decided yet. I have two options, depending on wheter I have Hadrian make his Grand Tour or not. If I do, then he'll go on the terrain in Britannia and take better informed decisions. Else he'll leave more freedom to his local commanders. Since the enlarge Dacian border will be somewhat troublesome and since Hadrian will be closer to the East when new trouble will arise with Parthia, I might also decide to leave him east of Rome to try settling all this issues. Indeed I see the new territories needing a second war, similar to what Trajan faced in Dacia, but for other reasons (obviously Hadrian would learn from Trajan's experience).
 

Hecatee

Donor
Apulum, Dacia, Spring 118 CE

Caius Cassius Voltinius looked at the agitation in front of the door of his praetorium tent. His legion, the XIII Gemina, had been cut in two units : one had been left in the base of Apulum, along with an unit of auxiliaries, while two third of his forces and two cohorts of auxiliaries had moved south toward Romula Malva where they had set a temporary camp. Their task was simple, as they were to guard a river against any barbarian that would be pushed in front of them by the men of the I Italica coming across the Danube at Novae.

They would then go north toward the mountains where they would prevent enemy incursions, pushing them toward the forces of the reinforced XI Claudia and of the V Macedonica which would try to trap them as the cork on an amphora or the anvil where the hammer would be the combined forces of the I Italica and the XI Claudia. Simple and efficient, if the Roxolani cavalry was prevented to unite and destroy a legion in the plains…

Yet Voltinius was confident. The memory of their crushing defeat at the hands of Trajanus left the barbarian fearful of the power of the legions, and many would flee rather than suffer the wrath of the legions. Grain had been brought from Egypt and Africa to granaries of the bases at Novae, Durostorum and Troesmis through the ports of Odessus, Tomis and Istrus, ensuring a good provisioning of the forces of the eastern offensive.

On the other hand the plan to simultaneously attack on the western side of the province to beat the Iazyges seemed a bit risky to the veteran legion commander. Of course large forces were brought to bear against the enemy, and the land was rather suitable for the kind of operations planned by the emperor, but was it not tempting the Gods than to ask for two victorious major campaigns at the same time in such a small area ?

He was sure that wheat and oat had been brought in large quantities to the fortress of Viminacium, Singidunum and Aquincum, and that logistics would not be an issue, but would the forces deployed to defend Sarmizegetusa, Napoca and Porolissum be enough to serve as anvil for the western hammer ? He hoped he would not have to turn his forces in a hurry toward this area…

As a soldier led his men toward the parade ground for some exercises, Voltinius shrugged and turned his attention to the state of his forces. This century was not full strength, he would have to check on the day’s sick list…
 

Hecatee

Donor
Somewhere between Aquincum and Porolissum, near the Tisia river, late spring 118 CE

The campaign was going well and the emperor was pleased. Hadrianus was on his warhorse, relishing the good feeling that riding a powerful animal in company of a troop of mounted veterans always gave him.

The season had started in late march by the building of a large bridge across the Danuvius, actually two bridges to and from a small island in the middle of the river which allowed for much less efforts than initially planned for this step of the expedition.

He was followed by about twenty thousand men, mostly forces from legio XIV Gemina from Carnuntum and II Adiutrix from Aquincum itself and a large amount of auxiliaries coming from as far as Gaul and Britannia, recalled during the winter.

A force of about ten thousand more infantrymen was coming from the south, starting near the panonian capital of Sirmium and the bases at Singidunum in two collums ravaging the lands between the Danuvius and the Tisia, funneling the barbarians toward his force while being supported by the Danubian fleet.

Barbarian villages burned, women and children were killed or sold into slavery, and nowhere the men of fighting age were given the opportunity to regroup.
Still, the Iazyges made up a powerful tribe, and he must not underestimate them. He suspected that many of their warriors would be able to retreat behind the Tisia, on the Dacian side of the river, and might try to launch an attack against Porolissum or another of the recently founded cities of the province…

A dispatch bearer appeared and went for one of his aide. Probably something about a village destroyed, or a site found for the night’s camp… The area was far less densely wooded than the northern Germania, a good thing too if his plan was to succeed and if he were not to succumb to the kind of trap that had killed le legatus Varus in the time of the divine Augustus.

Hadrianus idly wondered for the umpteenth time whether he had made a good decision to attack across the Danuvius instead of launching his forces from Dacia toward the anvil that the river would have been. It had been a hotly debated question in the previous year, when the plans had been drawn, and he knew many officers were still uneasy about it.

Yet Hadrianus found it the best way to proceed, Dacia not being strong enough yet to support so many legions at once. Besides, the new province being ravaged would not really be a major loss, and the area, settled as it was with recently retired veterans and guarded by two legions and various auxiliaries, would prove to be a hard nut to crack for the Barbarians…
 
Interesting approach. However, do not overestimate the shortening of the border. Even a border at the Elbe, including Bohemia and then following the Carpatian Mountains is actually not that much shorter, than Rhine-Danube without Dacia.

And external conflicts and borders are just one part of the problem.

However, I am eagerly waiting for the next part of your story.
 

Hecatee

Donor
Well at the beginning of the reign of Hadrian the Danubian border west of Dacia went from Aquincum (modern day Budapest) to the south for about 300km until near Sirmium, then east for about 200km before going north to Porolissum which was about the same latitude as Aquincum, thus some 800km of border, two third of which were on the Danube.

The goal of Hadrian is to take most of the land south of the Carpathian mountains (the Hungarian plain), giving a border of only some 300km largely using the Tisia river to shore it up. Moving the border east of Dacia up to the Porata river (and thus north of the eastern Carpathian mountains) would not shorten the border but would give up to three main rivers to protect Thracia.

Two of them are also protecting the large and very fertile Danubian plain which would help a lot in giving grain for the local garrisons and providing strategic depth in case of a cavalry breakthrough, something not available to a commander looking to defend from south of the Danube.

Also the Romans knew that there was gold to be found in the Carpathian, so that would be another incentive.

To really shorten the border, you'd have to go up the Vistulla in the north and the Tyras in the south, but that could certainly not be done in a single rule, not even in two or three. Still, Rome does enjoy it's most prospere period at this time and has good emperors at the helm with the rule of choosing the best man instead of having a son inherit the throne helping a lot in that regard.

Also the campaign will cause troubles for various tribes which do not yet have the cohesion they would have in the time of Marcus Aurelius, for example the nearby Quadi and Marcomani, with effects that could ripple out up to the Rhine, which could lead to earlier campaigns there resulting into an earlier consolidation of the surviving Germanic tribes around the Suebi. So this move could actually bring earlier the IRL late 2nd and 3rd century barbarian wars but with a much stronger empire.

But this is still undetermined in the present story, for I've not yet gone so far in my reflexions and researchs :)
 
Consider that the Iazyges were a large enough threat to Roman frontiers that Marcus Aurelius' original goal in his war against them was outright genocide (for such a renowned philosopher, Marcus Aurelius seems to have been fond of genocide as a military tool).

Wasn't that only after they reneged on two peace treaties? I'd be fed up too at that point in Marcus' situation.
 
To really shorten the border, you'd have to go up the Vistulla in the north and the Tyras in the south, but that could certainly not be done in a single rule, not even in two or three. Still, Rome does enjoy it's most prospere period at this time and has good emperors at the helm with the rule of choosing the best man instead of having a son inherit the throne helping a lot in that regard.

I fully agree, that Vistula-Tyros is the shortest possible border, and it is not doable in one step. Heck even not in one century. If possible at all. However, starting to round off the border around Dacia in a first step, makes a lot of sense. I also agree, that the romans must conquer Germania as long as the romans are strong and the germans are rather weak. The more interesting question is, how to keep the roman empire strong?

One of hundred reasons for the decline might have been, that there was never a rule to choose the best man, instead of a son inherits the throne. This just happened luckily by accident from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius.
 

Hecatee

Donor
On the bank of the Tisia, early spring 118 CE

The two forces were deployed face to face, between their two camps. On a rather narrow plain flanked by forests on one side and the river Tisia on the other, closed by the camps of the two armies, nearly eighty thousand armed men faced each other. On the roman side, three legions stood under their eagles, flanked by various auxiliary units.

In front, the Barbarian seemed to be three times as numerous as the Romans, at least forty thousand warriors, mostly warriors on foot armed with long spears, swords and shields or hunting bows. Behind them, on the walls of the makeshift camp made of chariots and barrels, many women and children looked at their menfolk. They knew it was all or nothing: the river was too wide to cross easily, and they were no boats available. Beside the Romans had put cavalry and a small infantry detachment on the other bank of the river, ready to kill anyone who’d try to escape.

It had taken some three months, but the legions had cornered a large party of Iazyges before they could escape to the northern mountains. Hadrian’s forces had closed the way and pushed people toward the south were two columns supported by part of the Danubian fleet were coming.

Finally the various forces had met. A night march had let the Romans regroup, the southern force coming to the Emperor’s camp. A complex, tricky manoeuver, but a successful one that could only succeed thanks to the complete dominance of the Tisia river by the fleet.
A tower had been built on the field of war, on which hung the imperial standard. Hadrianus wanted his men to see him, but he also wanted to keep some control on the battle. About two third of the Iazyges people was trapped and the day’s battle would decide their fate.

The Romans had arrived before the Iazyges, and the site was the one that best suited them in a four days of march radius. They had planted some traps on their flank to prevent an attack from outside the woods, and artillery had been carefully sited to help soften any barbarian charge in the front. The men were confident, after a rather easy walk into enemy territory.

The Iazyges had been completely surprised by the offensive, which had begun quite early in the year despite the rivers still being inflated by water from the melted snow. Boat bridges had been built in sections and quickly launched across the river, benefiting from experience on the rivers of Mesopotamia and Dacia in the previous years.

Loot had been plentiful, with many new slaves being captured and many golden ornaments found in the huts or on the bodies of fallen warriors. But now the time to pay for it all had come, and it would be settled in blood. Still, the favorable terrain and the roman discipline of the veteran forces would be more than able to cope with the undisciplined barbarian onslaught, or so hoped every roman soldier that day.

Silence reigned in the roman lines, except for the occasional bark of a centurion berating one of his men. The almost total lack of cavalry in this battle meant that no horses were neighing nervously, and most men simply waited for the battle to begin. The priests had made their sacrifices, auspices were deemed favorable. The Emperor himself was with them, which meant he might see and recompense brave deeds. His sight alone gave strength to his men.

On the other side of the field was a large body of men. Thousands upon thousands of warriors milled around, loosely grouped around their war leaders. Some men carried armor, brilliant chainmail and golden helmets decorated with strange devices in the shape of animals or with brilliant feathers, but most only wore a tunic and long pants.

The noblest warriors did also have golden armlets that would do fine as trophies for those who would slay them. Many carried a shield, either a small round piece of wood with a central metallic umbos or a larger whicker shield. Few carried shields made in the Gallic fashion. Tall spears and long swords where the weapons of choice of those men.
While the Romans were mostly silent, the Iazyges were rather noisy, loudly calling names at their enemies. Sometimes some men would go out of the crowd and call out for a duel, never answered by the legionaries. One man, braver or more insane than the other, approached the Romans before being speared by a ballista bolt than went through him and fell a few paces before the barbarian lines. First blood had been shed.

The barbarian answered by dressing their lines while beginning their war chant, hitting their shields with their blades. It was not the baryttus of the northern Germans, but it was similar. Behind them the women and the children took on the cry, adding their voice to the waves of sound that traveled the field toward the legions.

There it was met by the prayers of the soldiers, and then the hymn to Apollo was sung. The deep voices of the legionaries took the chant in Latin, each man with his own accent bearing witness to the size of the Empire. From Gaul as well as from Syria, from Mauretania as well as from Italy, from Achaia as well as from Egypt, they had come on this Danubian field of this day to fight for a city most had never seen, in the name of an Emperor which few had ever seen before this campaign.

The Barbarians began to advance toward the Romans, still chanting. Suddenly the noise of many cords suddenly released sounded in the back of the soldiers, followed by the sound of large projectiles rushing toward the enemy lines.

Ballistae shot their bolts which impaled many men at once, larger round shots falling from the sky and rolling on the ground, breaking bones and making men howl with pain. Still the great mass of the enemy kept coming, like a beast whose wounds would close as soon as they appeared.

Legionaries readied their heavy pilum, the throwing spear designed to break the shield formations of the enemies that was their trademark as much as their heavy lorica segmentata. Auxiliaries made sure their chainmail was falling correctly on their shoulders, checked their swords in their scabbard, prayed one last time to their native gods

Taking a few steps to get more throwing power, the legionaries hurled their spears toward the enemy, unsheathing their blades while the dark cloud of iron and wood fell on the Iazyges, sowing death deep in their formation. Still they came, pushed forward by mass as much as by will. The legionaries kept going, their line an impeccable front of heavy shields and metal helmets, the points of their gladius visible in the gaps between the scutum of the men.

A huge noise resonated in the field when the two armies connected. Arrows flew above the first lines of each side, falling down onto the soldiers waiting to get into the meat grinder that was called battle. Men fell to the ground, some slain outright, others still screaming while their comrade in arms walked upon them or their enemies stabbed them so that they may not do any harm any longer.

In the tower where Hadrianus watched the fight, the tension was palpable. The officers of the high command were happy to see that the roman line had held to the shock. Not it was to be seen if they might last long enough to put the enemy in flight. Still, orders had to be sent. Flags from the top of the tower communicated them to the other side of the river, where a horseman saw them and began to run his horse toward the south. The trap was now sprung…

For Hadrianus had planned well and chosen his terrain while knowing that he had no room to deploy his cavalry in the normal way. For this reason he’d used his fleet to carry a part of it on a small island in the middle of the river, and he had now given the order that they cross again and fall on the back of the Barbarians, a party of auxiliaries following to secure the enemy camp while everyone was watching for the main action. Grinning somberly, the emperor kept watching the action in front of him. His infantrymen only had to hold for three hours…
 
Im pretty sure that cork to plug bottles is 'recent', and that amphora were plugged in some other fashion. And then sealed with pitch or wax. Pine pitch in Greece, hence retsina...
 

Hecatee

Donor
Well some amphora (I think on Thasos amongst other) were found with cork or wood plugs then pasted over with some kind of plaster (or, less frequently wax) into which a seal was inscribed to guarantee the content. The pitch and wax were more often used to coat the inside of the vase to make sure the amphorae would not leak during the long period of storage.

The cork then fell out of use later on, only to be rediscovered in the 18th century.

I'll have today's update in a few minute
 

Hecatee

Donor
On the bank of the Tisia, early spring 118 CE

Seven days had passed since the large battle that had seen the destruction of any coherent Iazyge defense had been won. All around the imperial tent wounded soldiers walked in order to carry some duty or just for the pleasure of walking and being alive.

While not so many Romans had been killed, only some four hundred men, the wounded were numerous, hundreds of men having lost limbs or been severely hurt in another way : eyes gouged by the iron of a spear, face cut by swords’ points, bones broken by the pressure of the bodies of the warriors behind and in front of them…

Still, they were much better off than their enemies. Thousands of their best warriors had died in the front line, unable to pierce the wall of wood and steel and flesh of the legions, unable to overwhelm the Romans despite the large numerical advantage they held.

The narrowness of the plain had constricted them, hampering their moves and limiting the number of arms they could bear against the legionaries and their auxiliaries, and the Romans’ discipline and almost mechanical way of killing had meant they could keep fighting much longer than the Barbarian. At one point they had even made a retreat of half a hundred paces in order for fresher men to take place on the front line, breaking contact for a few seconds before the stunned barbarians could react.

And then the cavalry had come. Not many men attacked the barbarians from their back, only about a thousand horsemen, but they were enough. They had spread enormous fear in the heart of their enemies who began to flee under the despairing calls of their women and children already being taken captive by a force of auxiliaries that had crossed the river with the horsemen.

Hadrianus had been remembered of the divine Caesar’s description of the final defeat of the Helvetii. Here too he’d captured a very large crowd making a full people, with many of their warriors killed or taken captive. But, unlike his predecessor, he did not intend to set them free and to give them a new land. The proceedings of the sale of the whole lot as slaves would greatly improve the Empire’s finances as well as his own. Or at least such had been his initial thinking…

It had been one of his subordinate who had come with the innovative idea: why sell them all to others who would get rich from their labor when he could as well settle them on imperial lands currently unoccupied where they would be able to build cities and pay taxes forever, taxes that would go to the treasure instead of into the fortunes of the senators.

Also they could be settled in distant places where they would cause no troubles and serve the empire, especially if they were to be isolated from their free brethren. Had not the divine Caesar done something somewhat similar when he had ordered the Helvetii back to their abandoned lands where they had served as deterrent to Germanic raids on northern Italia ?

The debate following this novel idea had been fierce, to say the least. Yet a solution had finally been found, with all the captive without consort and all the couples without children being sold into slavery, the rest, being mostly the younger couples, to be split into about a hundred groups of some twenty families that would be sent to Syria, Mauretania and Britannia where each group would found a village to work the land and later to provide recruits for the local auxiliary forces.

Those lands had all known recent unrest and could benefit from peoples that would be grateful for the opportunity not to end up in slavery… while also being loyal out of fear of being killed because they’d be the stranger taking good lands from the locals.

Now that this issue had been resolved the emperor had also to plan his next move. He had not expected such a swift and crushing victory on his enemies in the west. He could probably begin the real work of settling the area with roads and fortresses as well as plan for more civilian settlements. But should he set the territories into a new province or simply add it to either Moesia or Dacia ?
 
This is a very interesting timeline, I don't know much about Roman History after Claudius but this seems like an interesting POD ;).

If you wouldn't mind however, I would appreciate it if you could provide a map of the Empire - I have only the vaguest idea where the area he's just conquered is. Thanks :).
 
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