Frustrated Progressive: Let's just say that Demetrios sees no reason why Iskandar should be left alone.
ImperatorAlexander: Mesopotamia and northern Persia (Mazandaran and Gilan especially) have a pretty well built up road network and Iskandar built some high-quality military highways on his march to Samarkand. The rest of the empire, not so much, although the trade routes that made Kabul an important trade center in the early modern age are running strong. The Punjab is becoming an important economic boon to the Persians.
Iskandar is not consciously based on any OTL figure.
1621 continued: The battle of Volos being a ‘gigantic diplomatic mess’ is something of an understatement. In the aftermath sixteen Triune merchants are murdered by lynch mobs and one ship fired in the harbor of Attaleia. The Roman government makes practically no effort to safeguard said merchants as “such efforts are impracticable considering the reprehensible conduct of their countrymen which has aroused the just ire of an injured people.”
However Constantinople is willing to treat the whole affair as if the handiwork of an unusually large array of unusually uniformly Triune pirates. War with the United Kingdoms is not an ideal proposition. The only way to ensure a practical blow against the United Kingdoms, considering the lack of Roman maritime activity beyond Sardinia/Tabarka, would be to send men, money, and materials to Arles.
That is not a feasible option. Iskandar has been quite busy, forging alliances with Afghan chieftains and Rajput clans both to patrol his Indian frontiers and to serve in a western campaign. Also an administrative restructuring creates two more Khassa, the crown provinces that organize the recruitment and maintenance of the Qizilbash infantry. Money to fund these come from the carpet and cotton textile exports of the Punjab, whose markets have found eager buyers in the form of Dutch and Triune merchants.
The presence of the latter in the Indus delta explains Henri’s presence in Volos; he was leading a diplomatic mission to the Shahanshah. Demetrios Sideros speculates, not unreasonably, that the humiliation of being his younger brother’s ambassador had caused Henri to choose a more ‘dramatic’ activity. This adds another impetus in the White Palace to focus on the Ottomans; perhaps the Triunes can be hurt more effectively there. The grant of 400,000 hyperpyra to the Ethiopian navy though has absolutely nothing to do with this but is merely a gesture of goodwill between allies, of course.
Many on the streets though of both the Roman Empire and the United Kingdoms clamor for war, the temper of the Romans little improved by the proclamations of the Triune newspapers. “The treacherous Greeks, impeding our God-given right to dominion over all the seas, did attempt to hamper our just sailors and revered Prince Henri in their noble battle against the Arletians. Our sailors succeeded despite this perfidy. The Greeks, having forfeited their goods by their base actions, then fought our men when they tried to claim their rightful rewards. Already exhausted by their previous battle and outnumbered a hundred to one, our brave lads were finally overcome but not before striking down and sending to hell a thousand of the loathsome heretics.” Such is the account of the battle of Volos according to the King’s Harbor Herald.
Emperor Arthur II is much less sympathetic to the jingoistic cries of his people. On a personal level he is rather glad to be rid of his overbearing and annoying bastard half-brother. That had been the point of sending him on the expedition in the first place although he had not counted on such a ‘permanent’ removal. Both governments recognize that war between them would be pointless as neither is in a position to do credible damage. As a face-saving exercise for both parties, the Roman government sells the captive Triunes to Mouley Ismail, the Marinid Sultan, although an astute observer notes that the Sultan pays four times the market rate. He then turns around and repatriates them to the Triple Monarchy and is quietly reimbursed. Thus King’s Harbor gets their people back without paying the Romans whilst the Romans don’t just release their prisoners.
Much less to the White Palace’s liking is news that Henri was not the only diplomatic expedition sent to the Persian court. Another, going by sea around the Cape of Storms, reaches Iskandar. A treaty of friendship is signed late in October, in which the Triunes get several trading concessions and in return agree to provide naval ‘assistance and expertise’ when called upon.
Although the exchange via the Marinids has officially closed the ‘Volos affair’, the Romans aren’t prepared to let matters rest there, especially after the Triune-Ottoman treaty. In December Demetrios II issues the Ordinance on the Armaments of Merchant Vessels. For two hundred years, ever since heavy cannons were mounted on ships, the Roman government has taken an interest in the armament of merchant vessels but for the most part has restricted itself to levying a ‘cannon tax’ (an invention of Theodoros IV).
The cannon tax remains but now restrictions are placed on how many cannons a merchant vessel can carry (cannons are defined by gunpowder weapons throwing a three-pound shot or heavier) as well as firearms (gunpowder weapons throwing a smaller than three-pound shot). For vessels registered in the Empire proper, plus Sicily, Egypt, Carthage, and Dalmatia, the cannon tax is one hyperpyra per five-pound of shot (so a 15-pounder culverin owes 3 hyperpyra, a fifty-pounder elephant 10 hyperpyra, with the rates rounded up) per gun, owed at the first ‘trade action’ of every calendar year in an Imperial port. The weapons limit is ten cannons and thirty firearms for every one hundred tons burthen. Exemption certificates are available for purchase for merchants who sell armaments.
The rates applied to foreign vessels make a clear hierarchy of which nations are most favored by the White Palace. Georgians, Vlachs, and Scythians get the most favorable conditions, followed by Arletians, Castilian-Portuguese, and Andalusi. At the bottom are the Dutch (mercantile relations have been declining steadily) and the Triunes unsurprisingly are dead-last, paying six hyperpyra per five-pound of shot and a weapons limit of two guns and five firearms per hundred-ton burthen. Demetrios Sideros points out that a side-effect of this is that Triune vessels trading in Rhomania will run more lightly armed than others, a fact sure to not go unnoticed by Barbary corsairs.
The war between the Triple Monarchy and Arles which was the supposed spark of the whole affair turns out to be a minor one. In the Caribbean, Arles is clearly in control of all Greater Antillia (Cuba) and Lesser Antillia (Hispaniola) but the lesser islands are in a free-for-all. In the Windward and Leeward Islands sugar plantations under the control of the Triple Monarchy, Castile-Portugal, Lotharingia, the Holy Roman Empire, the Empire of All the North, and even one by Prussia have all appeared. But the establishment of Port Royal on Jamaica by Triune pirates drew the governor of Greater Antillia’s ire and things escalated. The war, which saw a few engagements on the high seas and a few skirmishes on the European frontier, quickly dies down with the Arletian acceptance of the new Triune colony. For once in Europe nobody seems to want a war.
Although proposals for a Roman colony in the Caribbean to cash in on the cocoa market have been aired in Constantinople, the White Palace has no time for any antics in the far west. The truce is about to expire with Persia and Emperor Demetrios is determined to set right the concessions made by the original accord. Iskandar is willing to make an outright peace treaty and forego any more payments but insists on retaining the trans-Aras territories taken from Georgia, which were after all originally Ottoman territories before the Georgians seized them from Timur II.
* * *
The Sweet Waters of Asia, October 2, 1621:
Demetrios Sideros inhaled deeply, breathing in the strong scent of fruit and flowers. Constantinople he did not care for, but here was another matter. He sat down on the bench, his favorite spot in the whole park. It sat on the crest of a hill on the far southern end, shaded by a latticework intertwined with purple flower bearing plants.
The Imperial gardens here started back in the days of Ioannes IV Laskaris but most of the agricultural masterpiece was the handiwork of Konstantinos and Ioanna, the two eldest children of the Princess Alexeia. Massive orchards intermixed with herbal gardens covered much of the land, but there were duck and fish ponds combined with rice paddies as well. Vegetable ‘patches’, some the size of a couple of battle-line ships, supported by stones were common features as well. The poultry farm would have had Ioannes III Vatatzes green with envy and the size of some of the pigs raised here was incredible.
To the north Constantinople gleamed on the other side of the Bosporus, the sunlight dazzling off the walls of the White Palace and the dome of Hagia Sophia. Skoutarion and Chalcedon to the south, both on this side of the waters, also gleamed. As usual the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara were full of ships, mostly small, but three Pontic grain-haulers were lumbering around one of the Princes’ Islands heading for the Golden Horn. From the Black Sea a fregata was flying down the water, her sails full of a stiff breeze from the north.
He heard the crunch of feet on the path, approaching from opposite the direction he had come. Turning in annoyance, he immediately stood and bowed when he saw who it was. “Your Imperial Majesty,” he said, looking at the ground.
“Rise, Eparch,” she said. Demetrios stood up and looked at his grandmother, Empress Helena the Elder. Confined mostly to a wheelchair now, she no longer was the statuesque beauty of the 1550s. Her hair was now a gleaming regal silver, her skin heavily wrinkled. Her arms trembled and her voice was often reedy. She looked up at the attendant who was pushing her wheelchair and gestured at him to move her forward a bit more. Now she was next to the bench, ideally situated to partake in the panorama. Her guards fanned out, taking up sentry posts.
She looked out over the panorama. “I see you have similar taste to mine,” she said. “This too is my favorite spot.”
Demetrios nodded, uncertain of what to say in reply. From down the hill came loud voices though. At the base of the hill Odysseus scrambled over a hedge lining the path, pausing to catch his breath, then squawked in surprise when the Kaisar bounded over the shrubbery. “You can’t escape me!” he cackled.
“Never!” Odysseus shouted, bounding down the path.
Andreas chased after him. He had Athena on his shoulders who giggled loudly and shouted “Faster, faster!”
Demetrios grinned and glanced over at the Empress. She too had a large smile on her face. She looked at him then, her smile fading. “When I was his age, a Persian army was encamped here. Bayezid had his red pavilion posted on this very hill; you didn’t need a dalnovzor to see it from the White Palace.”
“But the Empire endured, your Majesty. That is what matters.”
“Yes, but it was far closer than I would like to admit.” From the shouts, which were somewhat indistinct, it sounded like Andreas had indeed caught Odysseus. “I will not have another Time of Troubles. Promise you’ll look after him for me.”
“Of course, your majesty.”
“I executed my firstborn son to prevent another Time of Troubles, because the concept of Romans fighting Romans, of using military power to vault oneself to the throne, had to die. The aftermath of Manzikert, the Fourth Crusade, the War of the Five Emperors, the Time of Troubles, the greatest damage to the Empire has been caused from within. I would have it end. I will be counting on you to see that it does.”
Demetrios swallowed. “I will do my best, your majesty.”
“I believe, grandson, that it will be enough.”