Gloria Romanorum: A Roman Timeline

Romulus Augustus

In 2013 I started a timeline called “The Reign of Romulus Augustus” which ultimately got more attention than I ever thought it would. It was a worthwhile experience for me as a writer and storyteller, but the best part of it was definitely the feedback that I got, both from regular commenters and even those who chimed in a few. I read every response, all of which had some influence on how I developed my first timeline. The Turtledove Award for the 2014 Best New Medieval Timeline was as much appreciated as it was unexpected on my part, so again thank you to those who voted for my alternate timeline.

However, like any writer I couldn’t help but look back and think about what I would have done differently. So after a much needed hiatus, I’ve decided to begin a new timeline that is set in the same historical period but will play out much differently than the last one for obvious reasons. One of the reasons why I’ve chosen this particular period again is that I did so much research on the 5th century AD—I learned so much more about the late empire because of the work I did on my first timeline—that in all honesty I’m not ready to move on from it yet. But as with that timeline, I don’t really have any high expectations for this timeline. If some of you like or even enjoy how this alternate history plays out, then that’s more than good enough for me.

As you’ll see in the summary below, I do not intend to take this timeline all the way up to the modern age like I previously intended with my first ATL. Don’t get me wrong; I’m flattered that some people wanted to see that timeline go on as long as possible, but truth is I was just mentally exhausted by the overall experience to the point where, in all honesty, it just wasn’t fun anymore. But I came back to at least finish Romulus Augustus’ reign, both because I said I would and I didn’t want to leave that timeline unfinished. I know I said that I would add an epilogue, but—as far as the title itself—I now consider it complete.

This timeline will hopefully achieve what I wanted to do with the first one, which is to focus on an alternate history centered around a dynasty with Romulus Augustus as its founder. This technically did happen in my first timeline, but not in the way I originally intended due to several reasons, one being that I just got so caught up in Romulus’ reign to the point to the point where it was almost all about him. Thus, I never got to really focus on the dynasty (i.e. his successors), and by the time I got to that part I was too tired to continue with that timeline. Like before, this timeline will begin shortly after Romulus’ OTL accession, but its conclusion be the end of his dynasty, not his reign. I also want to keep the focus on the Western Empire as much as possible, so references to any other power (and how this ATL affects them) will have to be in some direct relation to the west one way or another.

As stated above, the first post on this thread includes a summary of the entire timeline. Its purpose is to give you a basic idea of what to expect, with subsequent updates serving to illustrate how this timeline plays out with varying levels of detail. The next update will feature the POD event and therefore serve as the “official” start of this timeline.


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Dominus Noster Romulus Augustus Pius Felix Augustus
(Our Lord Romulus Augustus, the Pious and Blessed Emperor)​

GLORIA ROMANORVM
A Roman Timeline​


Summary​


The term Gloria Romanorum (Glory of the Romans) is used to describe the era of the dynasty of Romulus Augustus and his successors—Anthemius II, Valentinian IV, Cosmas, and Damian—who ruled the empire of the Romans in the West. Their combined reign began with the dynasty’s formation under Romulus during the late fifth century and ended with the death of his descendant, Damian in the sixth century Anno Domini.

The term was coined around the time of the 9th century AD in retrospect of the western Romans' resurgent power following the near total collapse of the empire in the West. However, this period in Roman history was for the most part anything but glorious. Rome had been reduced to a shadow of her former greatness, vastly diminished in dominion and fighting not for glory but for survival. The dynasty that presided over the West was a house divided and in constant peril. To some extent the eastern Romans regarded their western countrymen as a tributary people; had they not been inconvenienced by dilemmas relating to the Ostrogoths in Europe or the Sassanians on the eastern frontier, Constantinople would have almost certainly removed Romulus by force for it begrudged the dynasty that began with a usurper’s rise to power. In addition to the gradually increasing separation between the two sides of the empire along a cultural and linguistic boundary, the constant fear of an eastern invasion pushed the western Romans into a closer relationship with the Germanic kingdoms that occupied lands once held by the empire, resulting in what the East eventually regarded as the “barbarization” of the West.

The joint-reign of Cosmas and Damian—twin brothers, named in honor of two Christian saints, who were also twins—is considered the high point in the dynasty’s history, ironically so since the latter was the last emperor to follow in the direct line that began with Romulus Augustus. Their accession came about after the turbulent start under Romulus, and the civil wars fought between Anthemius II and Valentinian IV. Though not without faults of their own, their combined rule was vital to the survival of Roman civilization in the West; and although the state they left behind was technically a remnant of the “old empire,” the legacy of Cosmas and Damian—and by extension, their ancestor Romulus Augustus—ensured that the western Romans would endure for centuries, preserving the legacy of Rome for many generations to come.


Introduction: AD 475
The Young Emperor
(Pre-POD)​


On October 31, AD 475, Orestes elevated his adolescent son, Romulus Augustus to the throne of the western empire of the Romans, now reduced to Italy and several holdouts dispersed in Africa, Dalmatia, and Gaul. For all intents and purposes Romulus was emperor in name only. His father became the power behind the throne as both magister militum (master of soldiers) and regent in effect, having secured control of the government in Ravenna by overthrowing Julius Nepos, an emperor appointed to govern the West by the eastern court of Constantinople. In failing to capture or kill Nepos, however, Orestes’ regime was forced to contend with the deposed emperor who established a government-in-exile in the city of Salona, Dalmatia. The fact that Nepos was a member of the House of Leo, the ruling dynasty of the Romans in the east, worsened the already strained relationship between the empire’s two capitals.

Yet for all the obstacles that prevented the new government from achieving political legitimacy and domestic stability, Orestes moved to secure his new role as the de facto leader of the western Romans, minting new solidi—bearing Romulus’ image, name and titles—in an attempt to foster public support for his son’s reign through propaganda, as well as to reward the foederati who supported the coup against Nepos. At this time, the foederati—federate soldiers of various "barbarian" nations, employed as a mercenary force by the Roman state—constituted the majority of the Roman army in Italy. Maintaining their loyalty was crucial to the new government and by extension, the western empire of the Romans, or at least what was left of it.

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Notes
  • At first, I decided to not use the term Gloria Romanorum as the title of this timeline because, as I outlined the events it is turning out to be a very dark scenario, in contrast to what the term implies. However, I can easily see the Romans using political propaganda to emphasize this time period’s highlights while downplaying the severity of the western empire’s overall situation, which was that it came very close to the deposition of Romulus Augustus and the rise of a barbarian king in Italy, which for all intents and purposes would have ended what had become a virtual “fiction” of a still functioning western empire.
  • I was going to use the term Renovatio Imperii, which in the OTL refers to Justinian’s project to “restore the empire” to its former glory by regaining control of the West. However, I realized that this may confuse some people and lead them to think that this is a Justinian-based story.
 
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Bmao

Great to see you back Romulus Augustus!! I'm really looking forward toward seeing how the dynasty plays out.

I also think that the term 'Gloria Romanorum' is actually appropriate in that context, particularly because of the fact that the Western Roman Empire was perceived to be on the brink of complete destruction, and thus, the efforts of the Romulus dynasty are seen as all the greater.

Its likely that there is going to be 'barbarization' of the Empire in any case, particularly if the Franks remain strong and that their cultural influence seeps into Rome by osmosis.

I'm not surprised to hear that Anthemius and Valentinian ended up going to war; they've always been very diametrically opposed personality wise, and I can't expect Olybrius ended up ruling Rome for long in any case given his partying King Robert Baratheon-esque ways.
 

Thothian

Banned
I think Majorian was the last chance (and still a hell of a long shot at that) to accomplish some kind of survival of the Western Empire. Maybe you will convince me otherwise.
 

Bmao

The Reign of Romulus Augustus does explain this, though it would require that Romulus Augustulus ends up being a Caesar Augustus/Constantine caliber of Roman Emperor; someone with near legendary capability, not to mention a bit of luck. Its definitely worth reading.
 

Romulus Augustus

Part 1: AD 476
The Battle of Ravenna
(POD)​



Betrayed by the foederati, the remnants of the Roman army in Italy gathered to defend the emperor Romulus Augustus and the capital, Ravenna, from the barbarian assault. If defeated, Roman rule would come to an ignominious end in Italy.​

On September 2, approximately nine months after the accession of Romulus Augustus, the new emperor was confronted with the first and greatest threat to his reign. The Heruli, a foederatus tribe of the western empire of the Romans, ironically rebelled against the rebellion they helped put into power. After years of being billeted on Italian soil, the barbarian mercenaries—having grown envious of the Germanic kingdoms that arose in the vacuum of Roman power in Western Europe and Northern Africa—demanded that a third of all Italy be divided amongst themselves as recompense for their service. It was Orestes, father of the boy-emperor, magister militum and regent in effect, who allegedly promised this reward to the foederati in exchange for their support against Romulus’ predecessor, Julius Nepos. However, when pressed for a third of the Romans’ ancestral homeland he refused, an act which precipitated yet another rebellion against the state. This time, the insurrectionists were led by one of their own; an officer of barbarian descent named Odoacer. The foederati from garrisons across the Italian peninsula flocked to his banner and marched on Ravenna, the Roman capital in the West.

Although Orestes eluded capture and certain death at Ticinum, the crisis was not over. The magister militum mustered a loyalist force for the defense of Ravenna, but the combined strength of the Heruli, Sciri and Torcilingi gave the foederati a comfortable advantage against the Romans, though possibly to the point of overconfidence. Ravenna had served as the western capital since AD 402 due to its naturally defensible location. Even so, the heavily depleted Roman garrison was faced with an uphill battle not unlike that of David and Goliath. Odoacer wasted no time with a prolonged siege and opted for a direct assault, resulting in a conflict that was certain to spell the doom of Roman rule in Italy by the battle’s end. Within hours the Romans retreated from the walled perimeter as the foederati pushed deeper into the now partially-overrun city. Filled with an overwhelming sense of inevitable victory, Odoacer entered the fray—accompanied by a contingent of his most loyal bodyguards, of course—and fought alongside his men, impressing those who would hail him Rex Italiae (King of Italy). Orestes attempted the same tactic, hoping to inspire his own soldiers with a show of bravery, and soon died in battle. It was later rumored that the magister militum was killed in single combat against his one-time ally and rival Odoacer.

With the death of Orestes, Ravenna and Italy were certain to fall under the rule of the barbarians with Odoacer as their king. As the last of the Roman defenders stood their ground against the Germanic onslaught, the would-be king did not see the stray arrow that fired through the air and found its way into Odoacer’s neck, entering in one side and partially exiting through the other. While it took a little time for word of one man’s death to spread through the rest of the foederati, it did so in time to save the Romans, who fought back with renewed determination as news of Odoacer’s fall spread among their own ranks. To the astonishment of the Romans themselves, the now leaderless foederati withdrew from the city, but not from the area as those who remained gathered on the outskirts of Ravenna believing that a second attack would commence once order was restored under a new leader. However, unlike Odoacer’s smooth ascent to leadership, the remnants of the insurrection descended into a state of infighting between the various tribesmen who composed the overall mercenary force.

Meanwhile, the Romans gained a much needed interval. In the wake of Orestes' death, command of Ravenna’s remaining forces defaulted to the late magister militum’s brother, Paulus. Though he recognized the great fortune of Odoacer’s death, he was also convinced that further resistance was futile, if not suicidal. Even if the disparate factions of the foederati completely broke apart in this succession quarrel, there was the very real possibility that even one of those tribes could still defeat the Romans. The odds were heavily against them from the start of the battle; and although they won the first round the battle left them with even less troops than what they started out with. As the fighting within the foederatus camp began to die down, leaving the enemy somewhat decimated but still a force capable of taking an all but fallen city, the new de facto leader of the Romans dispatched messengers to the mercenaries’ officers in the hope that his gamble would pay off.

The message that Paulus’ emissaries carried was the offer of a ceasefire and ultimately some degree of reconciliation. Apologies were a mere formality, however. Unlike Orestes, Paulus opted to give the barbarians what they wanted in the first place: land, in Italy. Fortunately for the Romans, the post-battle circumstances compelled the surviving foederatus officers to rethink their initial intention to take everything by force. By then the Torcilingi had broken off, retreating northward while sacking several settlements unfortunate enough to be caught in their path of destruction. A fraction of the Sciri deserted the cause as well, leaving the remainder of that tribe effectively dominated by the Heruli who now composed the strongest force in the foederati. After considering the new option presented to them—and taking into account Odoacer’s death and the depletion of their forces through battle attrition and infighting—the foederati accepted the deal, which Paulus was able to amend by ceding control of northern Italy to the foederati, whereas the initial request was for a third of Italy in general.

Hence, the Romans would effectively relinquish control of Italia Annonaria—an imperial diocese already reduced in territory by this time—to the foederati. This also meant surrendering Ravenna to barbarian occupation. In return, the city’s new masters granted the Romans safe passage to the south where they still controlled most of Italia Suburbicaria. For the most part, the Romans accepted Paulus’ decision with little complaint. In the Battle of Ravenna, the hope for a Roman victory almost seemed like wishful thinking, especially as the end drew near. Their perseverance and the outcome of Odoacer’s sudden death saved them, and virtually none of the survivors wished to test their fortune any further. They could safely march out of Ravenna with their heads held high, a far better outcome than the one that could have seen their heads planted on spikes to celebrate what almost was Odoacer’s triumph. As a result, Paulus and his nephew led a Roman exodus—consisting of soldiers, officials, and the civilians who chose to continue living under Roman authority—to the south, leaving the Heruli and Sciri to divide the north among themselves. As to how they would accomplish this, Paulus hoped that it would be more through bloodshed than cooperation, but only time would tell.


Although Italia Annonaria was effectively controlled by the Germanic federate groups of northern Italy, the region remained nominally part of the empire of the Romans.​

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Notes
  • OTL Orestes was captured and killed in Ticinum (modern Pavia). I’m not sure why he was in that city instead of Ravenna at the time of the mutiny, especially given its defensive position but for the purpose of TTL the POD from the OTL is that Orestes was in the capital, but still gets killed.
  • Based on what little we know about the OTL fall of Ravenna, Odoacer’s victory was virtually a sure thing. However, as far as I’m aware there aren’t any sources confirming the exact strength of either side, only the inference that the Romans were basically screwed by the time the foederati reached Ravenna. For the purpose of TTL and lacking more clear details on the OTL history of this event, I believe it’s reasonable to surmise that the Romans had at the very least a “fighting chance”— implausible, but not necessarily impossible to reach a result that doesn’t turn out to be either an outright Roman victory or the final nail in the Western Empire’s coffin.
  • Killing off Odoacer with a stray arrow does feel a little convenient, but stranger things have happened in real history so I feel it’s plausible enough to happen. Plus, that’s just life; even great leaders can die in some of the most anti-climactic ways.
  • Nevertheless, I did not want this to be a Roman victory per se, given how much the odds were against them, as implied by OTL history. Therefore I would regard this alternate outcome as a short-term defeat (i.e. losing Ravenna and all of Italia Annonaria in effect) but a long-term triumph, given the effect of its original outcome.
  • For the time being I plan on updating the timeline once every 24 hours. I can guarantee this for the next several days, more or less. As I have no intention of spending another few years on TTL like I did with the first one, I’ll try to maintain this schedule although I may also take short breaks whenever I deem it necessary.
 
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Bmao

I'm not at all sure whether the Roman state could survive both Orestes and Odeacer being killed. Paulus would be magister militum under this scenario, and by retreating from Ravenna, the capital of Rome, back to Rome, wouldn't that also potentially discredit Paulus politically not to mention endanger Romulus as well? The perception would be that Rome was once again retreating from the barbarians, and especially the case when Odoacer has been killed.

I'm worried that this would just further the political panic in Rome and that the knives are going to come out to try and kill Paulus and Romulus. In the Original TL, when Orestes managed to come to a deal with Odoacer, at least he had the loyalty of the foederati on his side.

I'm also worried about how the Eastern Roman Empire would perceive this show of weakness, and might decide to just attack to finish off the west and end the fiction of two equal halves of the Roman Empire.
 

Romulus Augustus

Bmao: Those are all valid concerns, to be sure. I’m glad you made such conclusions as my goal so far has been to emphasize just how dire the situation in the West really is. Even if the deposition of Romulus Augustus and subsequent rise of Odoacer had been avoided, I’m certain that the West would still essentially be fighting for its life in any alternate scenario at this point in history.

Given the speed and number of emperors who were made and unmade between the death of Valentinian III and the accession of Romulus Augustus, it’s likely that the knives of conspirators and assassins would be coming for Paulus and/or Romulus regardless of the outcome of the Battle of Ravenna. Even Majorian, whom others understandably rate as one of the more effective western emperors, was not immune to this trend. For all his success, this is the same man whose magister militum had his own emperor arrested and deposed, then beaten and tortured, and finally executed by beheading.

It shows that even a strong, efficient leader can fall victim to such an ignominious end. By contrast, emperors who are remembered less fondly, such as Honorius and Valentinian III, held the throne for decades, though admittedly not really because of anything they personally did but what they did have were efficient ministers (i.e. Stilicho and Flavius Aetius, neither of whom were perfect, yet still good enough to keep their emperors in power while they lived).

Above all, I believe Romulus needs time to come into his own reign as an actual emperor rather than a mere figurehead. One of the ways to make this happen is for him to have an effective regent (like what Honorius and Valentinian III had in Stilicho and Aetius, respectively), which could be Paulus or any number of political and military officials who may try to rule through the emperor either by allying with Paulus or taking his place. Overall, this is a very unstable time period but I think it will be interesting to navigate through it once again, but in a different way this time.

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Part 2: AD 477
Rome Shelters the Emperor​


With the loss of Italia Annonaria, including Ravenna, the eternal city of Rome became an imperial capital once more. But after two sackings in one century, as well as the loss of an empire’s worth of resources that once sustained a city of over a million inhabitants, Rome reflected the empire it once ruled. By now it was a shadow of a bygone era; its glory and grandeur a memory of more stable times. For all intents and purposes, the future belonged to her successor in the East. The torch of Roman civilization had passed from the so-called “Old Rome” to Constantinople; founded on the site of Byzantium by Constantine the Great, she was the largest and wealthiest city in all of Europe, and therefore a New Rome for a new era in Roman history. In spite of Constantinople’s ascent, the legacy of Rome—not “Rome the empire,” but rather “Rome the city”—was still very much alive in the hearts and minds of her people, allowing the city to retain much of her prestige as a center of Roman culture, history and faith.

Rome was also not completely devoid of political clout either, for the ancient Roman Senate continued to exist in the city that gave birth to an empire. Like both, the former ruling body had been reduced to a shadow of its former self, but even in its diminished state the senatorial aristocracy was for various reasons a valuable resource that emperors continued to utilize long after the era of the old republic. Despite what Rome lost in political status, she began to regain in spiritual power as the apostolic seat of the Pope (Bishop of Rome), a position of considerable influence—even in the early Catholic Church—that ultimately traced its origins back to the Apostle Saint Peter. Although Rome was no where near as defendable as her successors in both the West and East, the eternal city was a natural site for the new capital given the circumstances which included the loss of Ravenna. Using the troops that remained under his command, Paulus had moved to secure Rome as a seat of government once more.

The aristocracy had long been a source from which conspiracies and assassination schemes were hatched, usually at the emperor’s expense, but by and large the Senate had long since fallen into the habit of doing what they were told, especially when the demands came from a man with soldiers at his command. As a result, the senators felt obliged to “support” Paulus—despite the misgivings of some who still preferred Julius Nepos—whom they conferred the titles of patrician and magister militum, effectively appointing the emperor’s uncle as the new regent of the West. Paulus went a step further by having himself appointed to the ceremonial post of consul, in the hope of consolidating his power with every available source of prestige that could help him accomplish this task.

Naturally, the eastern court of Constantinople refused to recognize any of these honors that Paulus acquired for himself, but stopped short of overthrowing the western insurgents through the use of force due to various inconveniences that continued to vex the eastern government. Zeno, the reigning emperor in the East, only recently regained the throne from his wife’s uncle, the usurper Basiliscus. In addition, the East had its own dilemma with certain foederati. Two warlords, Theodoric the Amal and Theodoric Strabo, were in a position to potentially threaten the security of Constantinople. Although the two Theodorics despised one another and bitterly feuded over the leadership of the Ostrogoths—a foederatus of the eastern empire—their meddling in imperial politics and proximity to the capital made them too great a threat to ignore or divert resources to the West. As such, Nepos could gain nothing more from his eastern kin except continued recognition for his legal status as the one true emperor in the West, which meant almost nothing without the means to enforce said status. For the time being at least, Rome and the Salona-based government-in-exile grudgingly co-existed in an unofficial détente.

Though brief, the conflict between Orestes and Odoacer served to diminish the stability and security of Italy. In rebelling against the state, much of the Italian-based foederati had flocked to Odoacer’s banner, and diminished the local garrisons across the peninsula in the process. The overall crime rate soured, with various acts of civil disobedience becoming more commonplace throughout both Italian dioceses. Paulus attempted to curb the growing crisis by conscripting both citizens and foreigners as a means of replenishing the garrison forces, but this was merely a “patch up” tactic. The presence of new troops reestablished a sense of order only to an extent, and in concentrating on the urban areas much of the countryside became increasingly plagued by bandits and raiders, making travel between locations all the more perilous. Communication was equally difficult during such trying times, causing multiple Roman settlements to become cut off and—for all they knew—abandoned by the capital. Therefore, some of these cities and towns began looking to their own defenses as the Romano-Britons had done almost a century earlier when the legions of Britannia were recalled to the mainland under the reign of Honorius. The effect of Rome’s inability to adequately protect its fellow Italian cities directly weakened the central government’s already diminished authority, and somewhat reversed the gradual centralization of the Roman state; a process born under the Principate period and culminated in the dawn of the Dominate era.

Fortunately for the western Romans, their Germanic neighbors to the north were distracted by calamities of their own. Relations between the Heruli and Sciri disintegrated following a slew of conspiracies and assassinations between rival claimants who sought to gain the position and power that Odoacer briefly wielded prior to his untimely death. Adding to their troubles, the kingdom of the Rugii sought to take advantage of the situation in Italy by expanding into Noricum, effectively separating that region from the rest of the diocese and forcing the ex-foederati to fight an external war while still locked in an internal crisis. As more of northern Italy became affected by these wars, a growing number of Romans abandoned their homes en masse for the perceived safety of the peninsula’s southern region. At first, the Romans allowed their countrymen to pass into the southern diocese without opposition. As the number of refugees increased, however, even the somewhat depopulated cities of the south began to experience the pitfalls of becoming a refugee city, especially now with the loss of Africa’s resources which had proved vital in sustaining the populations of both Rome and Italy.

The rise of homeless refugees in Italia Suburbicaria only added to Rome’s problems, placing Paulus in the awkward position of barring more northerners from gaining entry to the south. However, in lacking the sufficient resources and manpower his attempts to control the border were largely ineffective. The senatorial aristocracy provided the poor with work in an effort to curb rioting, but overall it was increasingly apparent that Italy—the ancestral homeland of the Romans—was sinking into an abyss. Such perceptions damaged the fragile regime, exacerbating the security and stability of the Romans. Through it all, the Romans saw less and less of their de jure sovereign, Romulus Augustus. This was intentional on his uncle’s part; Paulus believed that it would do the people little good to see their “boy-emperor,” and even feared that the mere sight of a young and hapless leader would only encourage further acts of rebellion in addition to the plots that would undoubtedly form in response to his handling of the situation so far.

Nevertheless, by now Romulus held the title of Augustus for over a year. At this point that was something of a minor accomplishment in its own right, even if he had done nothing to earn it on his own. As the question of security became more uncertain, Paulus sent his nephew to the Castellum Lucullanum for his own safety. Originally a villa built in the 1st century BC and later fortified by Valentinian III, this seaside castle was a secure location where Romulus could be protected by a contingent of loyal soldiers while the magister militum ruled in Rome on the emperor’s behalf. But securing the emperor’s safety was only part of the solution; the rest depended on Paulus’ ability to survive the assassination attempts that would eventually be made on his own life.
 
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Valin Arcadius

Valin Arcadius

I like how well you illustrate just how dire the situation is for the Western Empire, one thing that kind of irked me about the previous version was how easily Orestes seemed to get the foederati under control. In this case you have done a remarkable job of illustrating that even with the concessions to the foederati the situation is still a titanic powder keg waiting to explode. Looking forward to seeing how well Paulus can doge throwing knives as well as how he plans to ease the growing tension.
 

Romulus Augustus

Valin Arcadius: Thank you very much! Looking back, I realize that I should have spent more time detailing the relationship between Orestes and the foederati. But the nice thing about starting over is that I can address the areas I was weak on in order to make what will hopefully turn out to be a better story.

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Part 3: AD 478
Consolidation of Power​


Over the next year, Magister Militum Paulus consolidated his de facto status as the power behind the throne of his nephew, Romulus Augustus, and thereby made himself regent in effect of the western empire of the Romans, like his late brother, Orestes had done before him. This was accomplished, more or less, by forging key alliances between himself and influential members of the Roman Senate, particularly Basilius, Decius, Venantius, and Manlius Boethius. Under the magister militum’s patronage, all four politicians would each hold the consulship in turn. In addition, Decius was appointed as praefectus urbi ("urban prefect") while his contemporaries, Venantius and Boethius became financial ministers—comes sacrarum largitionum (count of the sacred largesses) and comes rerum privatarum (count of the private fortune), respectively—in the imperial court.

By aligning himself with the noblemen of Roman society, Paulus hoped to keep a potential threat to his power in check. A fraction of the Senate already loathed him for his actions at the Battle of Ravenna. Paulus had tried to frame the outcome as a victory for the Romans, and further claimed that the foederati only “protected” Italia Annonaria as a security force on behalf of Rome, which he had restored as an imperial capital. His attempt at propaganda did little to alter the thinly-veiled disdain that some within the nobility came to harbor for him. Few believed that northern Italy was still part of the empire; in any case, the ambition of others all but guaranteed that someone would challenge him sooner or later, openly or in secret.

Fortunately for Paulus, those with less patience were careless in their scheming, enabling the magister militum to arrest and ultimately execute several would-be assassins on the ground of conspiracy to commit treason. Such people did not concern Paulus as much as those who had the patience to play a longer game. They were the ones who usually appeared the most loyal and supportive, swearing oaths of allegiance to the man in charge while discreetly planning his demise. While there were a number of senators who wanted Paulus removed from office, they were also divided on what the outcome should be. Some noblemen naturally took it into their heads that one of their own—a Roman, born of the Italian aristocracy—should be emperor, while others observed that Romulus had proven to be most useful as a powerless figurehead. One thing most of these conspirators could agree on was the virtue of patience. Paulus had bought himself some amount of “good will” from the Romans in spite of the loss of the northern Italian diocese, having maintained imperial control over Rome and Italia Suburbicaria. Nevertheless, the more crafty lot among his secret enemies chose to bide their time and were on the lookout for the first sign of weakness.

Having managed to stay in power so far, Paulus also turned his attention to the well-being of his nephew, the emperor who still resided in Castellum Lucullanum for his own safety. By now it was arguably a constitutional theory that the emperor was the supreme source of imperial power from which all authority flowed. The reality of Roman politics was that the magister militum ruled the western empire through the emperor. It was a necessity to plant a figurehead on the imperial throne while the regent occupied a post of practical authority. Nevertheless, Paulus became increasingly hopeful for the future insofar as he believed that Romulus could eventually become a good emperor, provided he lived long enough.

At the very least, an emperor who ruled for more than a few years could theoretically bring some degree of stability back to the West. For all the faults found in the likes of Honorius, Arcadius or Valentinian III, life under their reigns was arguably preferable to the disaster that unrolled in the wake of Valentinian’s death after which emperors were made and unmade at an alarming rate. For his nephew’s sake, as well as his own, Paulus was determined to ensure that Romulus would rise to the occasion unlike several emperors who preceded him. To this end, he appointed Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus as the emperor’s private tutor. A scion of the Symmachi, one of the richest and most influential senatorial families in Rome, Symmachus was an historian and patron of secular learning. Though his family was among the aristocracy that continued to adhere to the old pagan tradition, despite the rise of Christianity as the state religion of the empire, Symmachus himself was a devout Catholic Christian.

His knowledge and religion, as well as his loyalty to the state made him an ideal ally and mentor for the young emperor. Additionally, Symmachus’ aristocratic heritage was seen as a valuable asset to the new regime, and could potentially strengthen its claim to legitimacy in the absence of official recognition by the eastern court in Constantinople. Therefore, Paulus began to contemplate the possibility of arranging a marriage between one of Symmachus’ daughters—Rusticana, Galla and Proba—and the emperor. An alliance with the Symmachi would also strengthen the position of Paulus’ own house; though they were a family of aristocratic blood, their roots were imbedded in Pannonia, a land now lost to the western empire. Binding the new dynasty’s first emperor to a daughter of Symmachus could do much to secure the loyalty of the Italian nobility.

In foreign affairs, Paulus turned his attention to the eastern empire of the Romans where a second revolt threatened to unseat Zeno who only recently regained his throne. Despite his restoration to power, Zeno’s position remained insecure due to his Isaurian heritage and heretical views which contrasted with the blood and beliefs of his Roman subjects in Constantinople, who would prefer to see one of their own on the throne. Hence, by popular acclaim—by popular uprising—Marcian was proclaimed emperor (in opposition to Zeno) by the rebels for whom he was the obvious choice. He was the son of an emperor, Anthemius sovereign of the West (AD 467–472), but more importantly his wife, Leontia was the daughter of Leo I sovereign of the East (AD 457–474) and founder of the House of Leo. His claim was further strengthened by Leontia’s status as a porphyrogenita (“born to the purple”). Unlike her sister Ariadne, Zeno's empress-consort who was born when Leo was a private person serving in the household of Aspar, Leontia had the distinction of being born after her father’s accession to the throne.

Paulus was intrigued by the rebellion in the East, but could not directly intervene in the conflict due to the West’s near-crippled state. Nevertheless, he prepared himself for the possibility of a successful regime change by corresponding with Marcian, implying through a series of exchanged letters that Rome would recognize his status as emperor of the Romans in the East. Such an offer was purely symbolic; there was nothing of practical value that the West could afford to part with at this time, but he expected Marcian would take gesture in good faith, from one rebel to another. At the very least, the magister militum hoped to eventually convince him to play the role of mediator between Rome and Salona where Julius Nepos continued to dwell in exile. Again, however, all of these hopes rested on the success of Marcian’s rebellion.

In addition, new developments closer to home caught Paulus’ attention. Encouraged by the chaos that continued to ravage northern Italy, a result of the breakdown in unity between the Heruli and other Germanic tribes composing the former Italian foederati, Julius Nepos moved to reclaim the capital of Ravenna and restore imperial sovereignty to the northern half of the Roman heartland. To Paulus’ surprise, Nepos sent a message to Rome offering reconciliation between himself and the government founded by Orestes. The magister militum suspected that it was merely out of necessity; the emperor-in-exile wanted to put down the former foederati before possibly confronting the Romans loyal to Romulus Augustus.

Nevertheless, Nepos’ offer to recognize Romulus as his co-emperor in the West was the first opportunity to gain recognition for the young sovereign since his accession to the throne. After considering his options, Paulus agreed to an alliance with Nepos, and both parties began mustering forces to reclaim the north of Italy from the barbarian interlopers in a pincer attack. Moreover, it was an opportunity to improve his reputation in the eyes of the senatorial aristocracy, whose members continued to harbor a poor opinion of his leadership due to the fall of Ravenna and the ongoing instability in the southern diocese.
 
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Orisha91

Very cool.
Looks like Paulus has a much kinder fate this time around.

And Nepos coming back with a vengeance is interesting.
 

Romulus Augustus

Part 4: AD 479
The Deceiver​


The revolt of Marcian ended in disaster. He had been so close to overthrowing the hated Isaurian-born emperor Zeno; but having inherited his father’s indolent disposition, the would-be sovereign of the East failed to seize a golden opportunity while his enemy’s supporters undermined and ultimately defeated the rebellion. It was Illus, Zeno’s general and the magister officiorum, who brought an army of Isaurian reinforcements from Chalcedon to Constantinople in order to save his emperor. His use of bribery also proved so successful with the insurgent troops that, by morning Marcian found himself forsaken by his own followers. Fearing for his life, as well as the lives of his wife, Leontia and their newborn son, Anthemius, so named in honor of his father’s father, the rebel-turned-fugitive sought to escape into hiding with his family. Remembering his amicable correspondence with Paulus, magister militum of the West, Marcian hoped to gain political asylum on the side of Italy still ruled by the Romans. His brothers, Procopius and Romulus (not to be confused with the western emperor of the same name) decided to remain in the East in the hopes of continuing the rebellion, but were captured by loyalists of Zeno in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Aided by a handful of loyal retainers and bodyguards, Marcian fled with his wife and child to the Italian peninsula by sea while disguised as a family of commoners.

A messenger was sent ahead of them to inform Paulus of their imminent arrival. The de facto leader of the West agreed to give them sanctuary so that Marcian could be safe until the time was right to challenge Zeno once more. In truth, he intended to capture the fallen rebel and send him back to Constantinople in chains, but on the condition that the eastern court recognize the legitimacy of Romulus Augustus as emperor of the Romans in the West. He expected that this assistance, combined with his newly-formed alliance with Julius Nepos, would convince the East to grant his request. However, as he would soon lead his army against the Heruli and their allies from the south, while Nepos’ forces began their attack in the north, Paulus was unable to “greet” the fugitives in person. Hence, he sent Romulus in his stead, thinking that Zeno would be a little more impressed if the boy-emperor was the one who captured Marcian and his family. Romulus, who was informed of the plan, was sent to meet them at the harbor of Brundisium, under the protection of a contingent of the elite Scholae Palatinae. Upon their arrival, the exiles were to be escorted to the Castellum Lucullanum where they and their entourage would be wined and dined, and then locked away in a dungeon until Zeno agreed to Paulus’ conditions.

As planned, Romulus Augustus received Marcian, Leontia, and young Anthemius in person. The emperor, his retinue and bodyguards played their parts well throughout the day, creating an atmosphere of sympathy, safety and trust. In gratitude, Marcian vowed to recognize Romulus’ claim as soon as he was able to defeat the “pretender” Zeno. Romulus brought the family to the castellum and led them on a tour presenting the impressive fortifications that Valentinian III built into the villa during his own reign. At dinner, they drank and feasted to their heart’s content. Even Marcian’s servants and guards participated at the insistence of the emperor’s staff, an offer they accepted after enduring a sea voyage with few supplies to sustain them. When the time came to reveal their true intentions, Romulus took a spatha from one of his guardsmen and stabbed Marcian through the stomach; an expression of utter pain and bewilderment contorting his face as Leontia’s scream echoed through the banquet hall. Marcian fell to the floor, unable to stem the flow of blood from his wound and, in his helpless state, was hacked to death by frenzied strikes inflicted upon him by the emperor. Before Marcian’s companions could overcome their sudden shock—their reaction time slowed by their inebriated condition—the emperor’s bodyguards turned their weapons on the other guests and transformed the act of a single kill into a blood-soaked massacre.

Following this bloodbath, Romulus forced Leontia to marry him and used the life of her newborn son as leverage to coerce her compliance. He would permit the infant Anthemius to live in the imperial household as his stepson, and even as an heir presumptive until Leontia provided Romulus with a true son of his own. The princess who nearly became empress of the Romans in the East would now gain the title that was her birthright, but it would be in the West as consort to the man who killed her husband before her own eyes. Rumors would inevitably form and spread regarding the emperor’s motives in the weeks and months that followed, with some suggesting lust or madness as the cause. Others believed he sought to win Zeno’s approval by killing his enemy, and merely claimed Leontia as his prize. Romulus never did reveal his reasons for taking Marcian’s life and then his wife, and was content to let others wonder for the rest of their lives.

By the time Paulus learned of what transpired in the Castellum Lucullanum, it was far too late to act. His nephew wedded the widowed Leontia in a rushed ceremony; the marriage was performed in a church and nothing short of an annulment could end it. The fact that Romulus went to such lengths to take Leontia for himself was a clear indication that he would not willingly allow this marriage to be annulled. Paulus was infuriated; the emperor had single-handedly ruined his plans with regard to Marcian. He also anticipated that the eastern court would be livid. Although Zeno was personally quite pleased to be rid of a major rival for the throne, the fact remained that a member of the House of Leo—and an emperor’s son, no less—had been butchered in the West with no regard to his station. Adding insult to injury, the royal-born daughter of Leo I had been taken and violated in effect by a usurper who came to power by overthrowing another member of the East’s ruling dynasty. Paulus had hoped to mend the situation between the two Roman courts, but now feared that Constantinople would only ever see his family as a nest of vipers and treacherous insurgents, slighting the House of Leo at every turn.

Paulus’ new dilemma was not limited to Romulus’ butchery; the magister militum’s army failed to invade northern Italy in time. His ability to train and supply a fresh army was even more limited than he realized due to the drastically reduced capabilities of the West. As well, Nepos misjudged the situation in the north, believing that its Germanic occupants, weakened by infighting, would fail to offer effective resistance. In fact, his return was the one thing that restored a measure of unity between the Germanic peoples of Italia Annonaria, resulting in a new confederation of Heruli, Sciri and others. Without Paulus’ aid, Nepos’ army was ultimately defeated and forced to retreat to Dalmatia. Nepos tried to save this short-lived campaign, unable to accept the possibility of a longer exile, but was betrayed and murdered by his own bodyguards. The exact cause was uncertain, but as usual opinions soon formed and became set in stone through the dissemination of hearsay. According to some of the gossip, the soldiers who killed Nepos had been bribed by one of his generals, Ovida, who subsequently returned to Salona and seized control of Dalmatia in the wake of his emperor’s violent death. Another source claimed that the former emperor-turned-bishop of Salona, Glycerius had a hand in manipulating the men who betrayed Nepos. Worst of all, the death of Nepos was marked against Paulus’ name, leading others to believe that he abandoned Nepos’s army to the slaughter by intentionally holding back his army. Such rumors would undoubtedly find their way to Constantinople, where the eastern court was almost certain to blame him for the death of another member of the House of Leo.

Having lost his ally and the chance to neutralize the Germanic presence in northern Italy, Paulus was forced to sue for peace again. Diplomacy managed to re-stabilize relations between the Romans and the Germanic barbarians of northern Italy, but the West’s relationship with the East was arguably worse than ever. To Constantinople, Nepos’ death was yet another betrayal in a succession of betrayals by the House of Romulus Augustus. The one silver-lining in this entire debacle was that, with Nepos dead there was no longer a “legitimate” western emperor to stand between Romulus and political recognition for his claim to the throne. However, the deaths of Marcian and Nepos, as well as Romulus’ “conquest” of Leontia, made Paulus fearful for the future—particularly, his own future.


The Rape of Leontia Porphyrogenita
By Sergio Borromeus, 15th century AD​

* * * * *​
Notes
  • As far as I know, Marcian and Leontia did not have children in the OTL. However, this does not necessarily confirm that they were unable to have children together, especially given the lack of more detailed accounts on their lives. One of the butterfly effects of TTL is that Leontia does give birth to a child of Marcian, roughly three years after the POD.
 
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Bmao

Damn Romulus, you evil little bugger. He's got to be what... 17 at this point, and then committing this level of treachery? The thing I liked about the Romulus of the other TL was that he was just as evil as this one, but he always managed to give a portrayal of virtue, which so far doesn't seem to be the case here. Now, the entire Roman political establishment has clear evidence that their emperor can't exactly be trusted at his words, and that others will soon plot to take him down, especially his wife Leontia who might want revenge.
 
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