@HanEmpire: Well, the Dukes of Verona and Mantua and Ferrara and Parma, for that matter, aren’t in Tuscany now, are they? So why should they care?
Exactly. At most there are some regional identities.
@ImperatorAlexander: The Lombards borrowed the idiot ball the OTL Byzantines were holding: Enemies are at the gates, meaning this is the perfect time to have a big fight over who gets to be captain of this sinking ship!
Just a few Roman tagmata, in conjunction with the Sicilian army, would make a huge difference to the war effort here. Sicily’s been heavily supported thus far, but primarily by the Roman navy.
@Antony444: Lombardy’s in for some interesting times. There’s the about-to-commence civil war, there are the Romans and Sicilians with their interests, and the Accord obviously has its eyes on Italy as well.
@RogueTraderEnthusiast: I don’t think a confederacy would be able to hold together. The Lombard kingdom is a clutch of regions, some with significant autonomy and all with their own identities and no attachment to an ‘Italy’. They’ve held together because Milan has been strong enough to keep them together and also lucrative enough to convince regional elites that it’s worthwhile to stay in the system. Without that strong/wealthy center, the regions don’t have much incentive to stick together save for defense. And isn’t it more fun to ally with the big boy far away and go beat up your neighbor and take his stuff, rather than team up with your neighbor and fight the big boy?
The Barbary corsairs are still a big concern at this point. The alt-Barbarossa is dead, but they’re still a menace and Sicily suffered badly from their attention.
@Duke of Nova Scotia: He could, although he’s a bit too competent for Constantinople’s liking.
Yup. Demetrios has no real reason to back one side over the other at the moment, so it comes down to ‘what can you offer me?’
It’s a balancing act with Lombardy. There are the northern Italians themselves, there’s the Accord, and also the matter of Sicily. If Lombardy is weakened too much, Sicily might decide that it doesn’t need to stay a Roman Despotate and could make a play for independence. Think Rhomania=Great Britain, Sicily=13 Colonies, Lombardy=New France (Canada).
The White Palace is built on the old acropolis, where the OTL Topkapi Palace is.
Sir Omega answered your question regarding the raiding party. It’d be like the Romans sending a squadron to the Channel. Yes, it could cause a lot of damage, but odds are it gets quickly annihilated by vastly superior defenders before it can do anything.
@Evilprodigy: I do understand. Recent history has more sources, more people, more relevance. It’s a pet peeve of mine, nothing more. Personally, I start losing interest in history post 1945.
I wanted those regions to be given a marker of some kind since I wanted them delineated. I wanted to show the trans-Aras territory that has been changing hands, and I wanted to show the Polish conquests and Scandinavian losses.
@Shard: I get that; I just enjoy pre-1900 more than post, which is why I find the disparity in libraries/bookstores so annoying.
@JSC: The Italian updates are interesting, because unlike the Balkan and eastern fronts, I don’t have a set plan that I’m following. They’re much more free-form, which is fun, although I wouldn’t recommend writing a whole TL like that. It helps that this is a tertiary theater as far as the war goes.
Yeah, Rhomania isn’t keen on conquering and absorbing a whole bunch of Catholics. Based on Syria and the early Roman rule in Apulia, this is a situation that could get ugly really fast. Direct annexations would likely be limited to a Livorno or two, with territory going to Sicily or to new Despotates/vassals. There are still d’Estes and Montefeltros in Rhomania, so they could get their pre-ToT lands back (Romagna and Urbino). And now I love the idea of the Romans imposing a Medici Despot of Tuscany.
@Curtain Jerker: Glad you liked it. I’m really enjoying writing the naval combat. The sea battles of the Age of Sail was what got preteen me interested in history that wasn’t WW1 or WW2.
Yeah, the whole war has been really bad on Demetrios III’s health. He would’ve lived a lot longer if he’d never been Emperor or never had this war.
The Romans wouldn’t be able to support that many in the east at the same time. An army in Mesopotamia and an army in Syria would be competing for the same sources of provisions, draft animals, carts, etc. Depots would help a lot, but we’re looking at more like 90,000 in Mesopotamia and 20,000 in Syria. Georgia, for their part, can pitch in with another 30-40,000. Also if the Ottoman army isn’t in interior Syria, sending 90,000 men at it would be like using an elephant to crush an egg.
@Roland Traveler: I feel sorry for Cesare. He’s weak, which is bad but not a crime, forced into a war he didn’t really want, can’t get out of it when losing, and now all this.
@altwere: None of the Italian grandees are good at introspection, or humility.
The broken in spirit are easily beaten into submission. Wondering how cities with communes will change if they come under Roman administration, given Rhomania's distrust of democracy?
Maybe D3 can see the benefits of an Avignon following Despot until any unrest dies down?
The civil war certainly opens up many interesting possibilities. Lombardy will be joining the ranks of Hungary as humbled states after the war, assuming they still exist or don't tear themselves apart before that.
Rhomania might tolerate communes in small states; they’re much less picky when it comes to vassal states. But for the bigger ones, they’d appoint or find some single leader to be in charge. It’s easier to work with one guy than a committee, and if need be, only one throat to cut.
The ideal leader of a Roman despotate or vassal in Italy would be a member of a major family, with a local power base that can help solidify their rule, but still insecure enough that they’ll stay loyal to Rhomania since the Empire will back them up against local challenges. Back in the days of Andreas Niketas, all the Italian vassals were ruled by local notables, and several stayed loyal with the d’Estes and Montefeltros going into exile in Rhomania, where they’ve loyally served to this day; aside from Andreas d’Este in Venetia, there was a Montefeltro Katepano of Taprobane in the late 1500s.
Since Egyptian/Ethiopian gains aren’t official yet, they’re not shown. The Southern Anizzah were conquered by the Howeitat in the late 1620s; there was a small bit about that in the early Syrian-war updates. That West Africa sub-Saharan spot are the Marinid domains south of the desert, centered on Timbuktu.
Darfur is an independent neutral state (former Ethiopian vassal). Najd and Hadramut are both neutral, although there were volunteers that were part of the Arab raiding parties serving as Ottoman auxiliaries. Yemen is an independent state, but a de-facto Ottoman satellite, which is why the Ethiopians went at it without question once hostilities started.
@Cryostorm: Pre-battle analysis is not a Lombard strong suit.
Yeah, on a map the Ottomans look like they got a better deal than they did. Which is why I went and pointed out all the issues first and then posted the border-change map. Mosul is going to be #1 priority for the Romans once the truce expires.
Damascus is going to be hurt bad by this. There’s a customs barrier between it and the coastal ports that wasn’t there before, and Damascene merchants don’t have access to the capital that could be provided by loans from the Imperial Bank any longer. Trading with Mesopotamia via the Palmyra caravan track, instead of the Mesopotamia road network, also does not help.
@Donald Reaver: The Spanish just took it from the Andalusi.
That’s one of the hidden goals of the TL, have southern Italy & Sicily do better than IOTL. I also want to make the Mediterranean basin, in general, do better in relation to northern/western Europe.
@Ain: They’re based primarily out of Minorca, which is now their Rhodes/Malta ITTL. They focus mainly on combating the Barbary corsairs, although they’ll certainly indulge in some piracy themselves.
@Babyrage: If Verona and Parma go straight at each other, they’ll clash before they get news of Thessaloniki. (The battle at Thessaloniki is four days after Parma starts marching north, plus I’d add at least a week for the news to travel.) If there’s more parrying beforehand though, news may get to northern Italy before they fight.
They really can’t do much now. Their focus is on killing each other.
@Lascaris: Yup. That’s their number one concern right now. Nothing else matters, unless it is some way enhances their chances at number one concern.
@The Wandering Reader: Yeah, somebody caught that! I was wondering if anyone would. There’s one more like that in the update.
Roman approval/backing is going to be crucial for this fight, and Demetrios will get something out of it.
@nlucasm: Demetrios III wouldn’t abdicate right away. He does have reform plans that’ve been on the back burner for years that he wants to implement, and those will take time. Although he’s not the type to cling stubbornly to power till his dying breath.
Rome and the Papacy is complicated. At this point, the city of Rome isn’t big enough for the Basileus and the Pope. And that is an issue.
An expanded Roman Italy would be divided up into a few different vassals. A Despotate with at least a third of the Roman Imperial heartland’s population would start getting ideas about going its own way.
@Arrix85: I agree, with some of the smaller Italian states then drifting into the orbit of the bigger powers around them like Arles and Spain and Rhomania.
Scythia was always smaller than the other Russian states, although it ended up being smaller on the map in comparison than I expected.
@TheCataphract: The war ending will do a lot to help. He was doing a lot better in the time between the Allied retreat from Ruse and the Twelve Days.
@Israel_Dan the Man: Glad you like it. There isn’t a complete list of all nations, but here’s the ones recently mentioned.
Rhomania: 18 million (6.5 million more in the Despotates)
Lombardy: 7.5 million
Spain: 7 million (does not include Al-Andalus)
Arles: 5.75 million
Vlachia: 1.75 million
Great Pronsk: 8 million
Holy Roman Empire: 26 million
Triple Monarchy: 22.5 million
Hungary: 3.5 million
Poland: 4.5 million
Ottoman Empire: 14 million
Lotharingia: 4 million (I said 3 million in an earlier update, but based on further research I’m upping it.)
@floppy_seal99: Agreed. It looks like a poor deal on a map, but on the ground it’s better for the Romans.
The Marinids mauled Carthage while the Romans were dealing with the Great Uprising and Eternal War.
@Archangel: Grabbing northern Mesopotamia up to and including Mosul is what Demetrios considers ‘minimum necessary gains’. He’s not interested in conquering Mesopotamia as a whole, as there’s no point in destroying the Muslim population in Syria to then acquire a new one. But he wants security for Anatolia and Syria.
@catconqueror: Amirales took the forward border Ottoman fortresses, and those are being held by the Romans under the terms of the truce. The big one, Mosul, is still Ottoman though. But after Mosul, there’s much less in the way of defenses save at the bigger cities themselves.
@Sphenodon: Yeah, Syria’s a complete mess. It’s going to be a long time before it’s in good shape again.
I vaguely remember making a throwaway line that TTL Timur did kill a lot of the Assyrian Christians he encountered in his conquests, so that much is similar to OTL.
A lot of the Roman loyalists evacuated from interior Syria are going to end up settled in northern Mesopotamia, partly as compensation for their lost land they’re not getting back soon because of the truce, and also to emplace an anti-Ottoman populace in these new lands Rhomania intends to keep. So northern Iraq ITTL is going to have Alawite, Druze and Ismaili populations.
Kurds are similar to OTL. There are large populations in both the Roman and Ottoman Empires, used by both as border settlers, raiders, and soldiers.
@Komnenos002: A lot of Vlachia’s territories are recent conquests from the Mohacs War. It’s in a good position as you said. Rhomania has its back, and the Empire is a real good trading partner for Vlachia. Constantinople has huge demand for Vlach timber, grain, and animal products.
@SirOmega: Vlachia got clobbered really hard during the Time of Troubles; it got pummeled by a joint Hungarian-Polish invasion while the Romans couldn’t help. Then the Romans, in a bid to rebuild their own population, sucked up a lot of the Vlachs as settlers. So that substantially lowered the population, so future growth was small because of the small principle. Now though after a few generations to build back up and Rhomania now longer tempting people away, Vlachia’s in a position to take off.
@JohnSmith: Scythia at this point is a Roman vassal in all but name. But there’s a matter of pride involved by keeping it ‘all but name’, and the Romans aren’t going to ask. People resent being forcibly subjugated, especially by someone who was supposed to be a friend.