A powerful Welsh tribe, they resisted the initial Roman invasion, held out until after 100 AD and even defeated a Roman force in pitched battle-something not even Arminius or Viratherus could ever do.
All of this for me, but also add Palmyra for me and Zenobias rise and fall.
Oh, nearly forgot the Greek Bosporan kingdoms (Tanais, Olbia, Pancepetium) and the weird clash of Greece vs steppe peoples that was the bread basket of Greece. Even more remarkable is that remnants of this lasted until...
The Vinca are just wonderfully fascinating to know about. A relatively peaceful matriarchal and advanced metal working trade people? Part of me wonders if Horizon zero dawn was like them (minus weird dinosaurs of course.)
Not obscure, but the Greek kingdom of Bactria is my more obscure...
I'm sorry, that is a whitewash. Lee was an infamous slave owner, known even for the times for his cruelty and splitting up slave families. And his writings are full of highly racist views that could be summed up as; "slavery is good for them, so long as they live with white people, they must be...
Hi there! I'm glad to say you enjoyed my TL! We always need more pre-historic/dinosaur TL's on this forum.
I wrote that TL when I was a rash, arrogant teen and while i'm happy with how much of it turned out, I still think I went to fast, and not enough research. Always pay attention to advice...
Peter Heather is rather critical of the idea that the East was somehow intrinsically better. He makes it very clear that it took a series of disastrous events with poor timing to bring down the west. More modernist (revisionist) historians of late antiquity have also criticized the "East better"...
I've heard this theory sent around a lot, and I simply don't buy it, and neither do many other other historians. The danube region was raided multiple times, with Thrace utterly devastated several times by goths and Huns between 375-460. In the East, I've actually lost count of how many times...
Absolutely. The west just got extremely poor luck, it was not that structurally or militarily different from the East. No Adrianople, then likely no war between east and west, more stability within the West itself, less major barbarian invasions. There is thus a very good case that the West can...
Having read up on some Adrian goldsworthy, I too am rapidly coming to a similar conclusion actually. If Adrianople is indeed the long term turning point, the short term was Constantius and Magnus Maximus revolt. Structurally West and Eat were similar (though East could raise more money) yet the...
My argument rests largely on my reading from Peter Heather, one of the main historians on this period (with his book literally focusing on the hundred years between Adrianople and the deposition of Augusteles.) He makes it very clear why Adrianople was decisive. You are utterly right that short...
That is a very good argument Desertfox, and you're right to point out just how unlucky the WRE was to have such a spectacularly bad chain of events. The Wests fall was not inevitable in the 5th century. HOWEVER..
I really do think that Adrianople was the turning point, for the reasons i've...
That's actually the point I was making actually. Frigidaus was only bad because of Theodosious death and division soon after. I would argue that the reason relations broke down so quickly was in a large part down to the loss of strategic vision due to Adrianople, with the East letting the West...
He asks because He (and I) have never ever heard Fridaus river of all battles given as the turning point. Many of the losses were Gothic mercenaries anyway.
If you want to give an alternative turning point to Adrianople, than Stilicho's execution and Romes sacking would be it (though even...
Exactly. If anything, Frigidaus was a good thing the empire, as it temporarily restored a united front against further barbarian expansion. The west by itself simply lacked manpower to stop the goths (and later Vandals, franks and Suaves) once they settled within their borders.