Res Novae Romanae: A Revolution of the Third Century TL

[Salvador79]

[FONT=&quot]Cont. of ch. 32 from Eduardu Ilobatidu: The Rise and Fall of the Principate. Londiniu: Seletini, 2429 AUC, pp. 58[FONT=&quot]9[/FONT].[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]An Alliance in Alexandria[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]A whole month before Herennius[FONT=&quot]` death in the [FONT=&quot]hills of [FONT=&quot]Africa, [FONT=&quot]a[FONT=&quot]nother [FONT=&quot]event would prove [FONT=&quot]to be not only a nail in the coffin of [FONT=&quot]his imperial rule, but also changing the Mediterranean world.

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]After[FONT=&quot] Alexandria`s[FONT=&quot] boule had been t[FONT=&quot]aken over by the Good Citizens, and the [FONT=&quot]unruly metropolis had entered[FONT=&quot] an alliance with the Bucolic rebels, [FONT=&quot]Egypt`s governor[FONT=&quot],[/FONT] [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]Titus Magnus Crescinianus, attempted to gather the Legio II Traiana fortis and march against Alexandria, the new heart of the rebellious alliance.

The legion would have faced a tough task, being outnumbered by far. Even if they succeeded, they would have to wade through a sea of blood. This was the moment for the Good Citizens within the legion to stand up. They were surprisingly numerous. The army, and especially its academy, had long been a secret stronghold of critical thinkers, and many of them flocked to the agenda of the Good Citizens now. They managed to convince their brothers not to raise their swords against their Egyptian fellow men, women and children, and kill Crescinianus and his guard instead.

A group of conspirators had, at once, become commanders of the strongest Roman military presence between Leptis Magna and Syria. Some of the legion`s former commanding officers, the most prominent among them the military tribune Lucretius Appianus, switched their allegiance, and helped the new leadership in formulating coherent strategies.

The Legio II Traiana fortis offered its service to the free city of Alexandria and its alliance with the rebellious Egyptian peasantry. With members of the Good Citizens on both sides, negotiations not only went quickly, but also paid great attention to the creation of new, formalised structures. Rebels from all 40 nomes of Egypt, representatives from Alexandria, and military emissaries had to negotiate a modus conciliandi. A new political entity began to emerge.

On the other hand, experienced officers and strategists like Appianus pressed for quick action. Egypt could not withstand an all-out attack by Rome all by itself. Thus, the new alliance reached out to include new partners.

 

[Salvador79]

[FONT=&quot]Cont. of ch. 32 from Eduardu Ilobatidu: The Rise and Fall of the Principate. Londiniu: Seletini, 2429 AUC, pp. 5[FONT=&quot]90f.:[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
After the Traiana fortis had changed sides, the Classis Alexandrina, which had already conspicuously abstained from intervention against the Bucolic rebels, followed suit. Experienced army and navy commanders both insisted that time must be used for a build-up because attack would be the only viable defense of the Revolution.
But they were unable to swing the opinions of either the rebellious peasants, or the political (and in some cases also religious) zealots in Alexandria, who wanted to consolidate revolutionary structures in Egypt first. A compromise was struck:
· Emissary groups (representing all major factions) would be sent to both Greek, Jewish, Samaritan and other towns in Syria Palaestina and Cyrenaica, to Palmyra, and to the tribes of the Blemmyes and Nasamones. The military leaders were interested in forging an offensive or defensive alliance, or at least concluding a treaty of non-aggression; the more politically minded hoped for the accession of new communities to their new socio-economic and political model; the religious zealots of various brands each hoped to find new proselytes. What they all hoped for, though, was to convince as many players as possible to secede from the Roman Empire;
· In the meantime, the rebel councils would ensure provisioning and payment of the troops from the reserves they had captured, while the soldiers would help the rebellious peasants and the urban Good Citizens to consolidate their control over all farms, agricultural compounds, villages and towns, and put down counter-rebellions by former landowners and their bucelarii militia.
Both gave themselves three months to accomplish their goals, so that in the next spring, economic production could resume in full force under complete control of the Revolutionaries, and with new and great quantities of grain, oil, vegetables and meats being available, the build-up of a larger army for the defense of the Revolution could be begun.

From tetrarchy to monarchy
While still in Ctesiphon, the victorious soldiers who had been led by the tetrarchy of generals, proclaimed the most charismatic among their four leaders, Odoenathus of Palmyra, as new Emperor. Odoenathus is reported to have been extremely reluctant in accepting this position, but, like many others before him, had no choice, and neither had the other three tetrarchs, who could only play along.

When they retreated across the Euphrates onto traditionally Roman territory, Odoenathus let his large army spread into several garrisons in various Syrian towns. Herennius was still alive at this point in time, but to Odoenathus` knowledge, he was also busy in Africa. Odoenathus not only wanted to let the soldiers rest and replenish resources without having to loot. He also felt it was most appropriate to stay in his home region in the East as long as he could, giving the people who entrusted him with leadership the feeling of safety for which they had rallied behind him.

 

[Salvador79]

(I edited my last post since, upon second thought, I don`t think the Praetorians would have minded Odoenathus` elevation.)

 

[Salvador79]

A strange encounter

The envoys sent from Alexandria to the West and the South returned after a month already, with different results. In the towns on the Cyrenaic coast, they had made no headway. No rebellion anywhere, the Christians, Jews, coloni and slaves kept their heads low, and the boule remained firmly in the hands of landowning and sea-trading oligarchs loyal to Rome and disinterested, to say the least, in allying with rogue peasants, shepherds, revolting slaves, and religious zealots. The mission to the Blemmyes and the Nasamones, on the other hand, had been overwhelmingly successful, and some of the leaders of the two tribes accompanied the envoys back to Alexandria, where a common offensive against the stubborn Cyrenaic poleis was plotted.

The envoy sent to the East had incomparatively more responsibility to bear. In Emmaus Nicopolis, they met with Simon the Theleptian, who had over 10,000 followers in (rustic) arms who saw in him the Messiah and who had overthrown the social order in various Judean civitates. Simon was a willing ally and promised participation in a common campaign, which would open the path for him to install his egalitarian Jewish theocracy.
In Caesarea Maritima, the provincial administration had broken down and there was fighting between factions in the streets. Alexandria`s ambassadors forged alliances with some of the groups (not only a Jewish group sympathising with Simon, but also a Greek-speaking band of paupers, escaped slaves and other illustrous figures) , promising to help them achieve control over the others if they participated in the common anti-imperial effort.
Against the protests of their Jewish members and without their participation, the envoys also headed North to Sebaste, where they talked with Eleazar, newly crowned Samaritan King and nephew of High Priest Akaron. Eleazar saw the chance to achieve lasting independence from Rome and joined the alliance, too, becoming the first monarchic member in a confederacy of revolutionary commoners after having received guarantees that his Samaritan yeomen subjects would not have their lands taken away and administered by people from Egypt.
With these allies, roughly half of the Syria Palaestina had vowed to fight on the Alexandrinian side.
The envoys were about to ride back to Alexandria, attempting to find more potential associates among small towns and rural communities on their way back, when they heard the news of Odoenathus` victory over the Sasanians and his elevation to the position of Roman Emperor by his troops.

Hope, fear, and confusion must have befallen these novice diplomats of an unprecented polity at the same time. With five victorious legions, Odoenathus could crush them. The only chance to prevent this was to ride to Palmyra as soon as possible. But this option, too, was so dangerous that it was decided that one half of the group would ride back to Alexandria with the news of what they had achieved, while only the other would dare encounter the King of Palmyra, declared Roman Emperor.

We do not know how this unprecented encounter really took place; there are various sources on the matter who claim to be from eye-witnesses, but they are highly contradictory. The meeting must have been so out of the ordinary for all parties involved that, even after the fact, it was difficult to interpret. Thus, we can only reconstruct this historical encounter in Palmyra from the events which followed and which are better documented:

• Social war flared up with much greater intensity over the next 5-6 months not just across the entire Levante, but also throughout much of the Asian coast, only to die down very fast afterwards, with the region from Traianopolis to the Tigris having become a checkerboard of civitates who swore allegiance to Odoenathus of Palmyra and those who sided with the revolution whose centre was still in Alexandria. The most important victory for the latter was Antiochia on the Orontes, a large town which became the second most important stronghold of the revolutionary alliance after it had been overwhelmed by an alliance of Agonistic Christians, Messianistic Jews, an impoversihed urban mob, slaves and landless peasants, who required massive intervention from Alexandria in organising public life in the large city and not turn against each other. The social war was ended with the contribution of troops from both sides marching into different civitates without confronting each other. We can conclude, thus, that some sort of agreement must have been reached with regards to a division of power spheres preserving the status quo at a specific point in time.
• Even throughout the following years, both sides did not attack each other, but Odoenathus also didn`t support the revolutionary confederacy in its War of Independence against Rome. Also, Odoenathus issued coins in the very same year declaring him "King of Kings and Arbiter of Poleis in Syria, Assyria, Asia and Armenia" - thus laying no claim to power in Rome. It is unclear whether the meeting with the Alexandrinian envoy had anything to do with it, but afterwards, Odoenathus became the first usurper who satisfied himself with a piece of the Empire instead of the whole, who stabilised his rule in the East and restructured the military and the administration in the territories controlled by him. Mutually assured non-aggression and even non-interference is likely to have been one of the outcomes of the negotiations between the egalitarian rebels and the aristocratic usurper.

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

This is quite good. Keep at it!

 

[Salvador79]

Thanks for the positive feedback, Zireal and Cuauhtemoc!
Here comes a new update...

The laboratory for a new society

Across Egypt and its capital, the new forces consolidated their control and imposed new social and political structures throughout 1007 and 1008 AUC.

In the countryside, peasant collectives had taken over the large estates. The former owners had mostly suffered the same fate as imperial administrators, bureaucrats and tax farmers: those who had not fled fast enough had mostly been killed. A handful declared themselves supporters of the rebels. (The wealthy large Egypt-based trading dynasties would mostly come from this background: bereft of their land property, they put their excellent connections to good use and began to coordinate and control the new privately organised export of agricultural products from Egypt to the rest of the Roman world.) Armed "shepherds" patrolled the countryside and cemented revolutionary control there and provided a bit of public safety, or at least making sure that nobody else robbed or harassed the people.

In the smaller towns, peace returned after most of the armed gangs of runaway slaves and other angry young men, who had chased away or killed the old pro-Roman elites, had incorporated themselves into the new revolutionary army and were trained somewhere up North in the Nile Delta. The vacuum left behind by the municipal administrations, which, formerly run by decurional elites, had all but disappeared, was often filled by Christian communities. Their ekklesiai were attended by a growing number of people who were not necessarily believers, since more and more folk in the small towns depended on these communities` charities. They began to set up vigils to restore a bit of safety. Their isonomic structure – open assemblies decided over the matters which concerned them, divided the jobs that had to be done among themselves and elected remunerated servants of the community for what couldn`t be done by voluntary laymen – were a major source of inspiration for the new political system that had to be built. But the growing influence of Christian communities most often did not result in coercion or disadvantages aimed at followers of other cults yet. Priests of local Egyptian deities played an important role in providing ideological support for the new order, even knitting an inter-regional web of “Kemetist Resurrection”, while rotating lay priests assisted them voluntarily back home.

In Alexandria, things were not so calm. The city`s former elites, joined by landowners and magistrates who had fled from the countryside, did not dare topple the rule of their social opponents, who had the support of both bucoli and legionaries. The old Alexandrian elites confirmed their cliché of being unruly, but cowardly when push came to shove. Their influence on public opinion was significant. It resulted in incessant criticism of the administration organized by the new powers, and in widely articulated fear of the impending imperial attack, and muttered preferences of joining Odaenathus` side.

To counter these influences, the Good Citizens began a propaganda offensive. The Museion had already enjoyed an unprecented rejuvenation: people were debating in its halls, ambulatories and gardens like they never had before. Leading philosophers of the Good Citizens like Eugenios took this one step further and began holding public debates on more central public places. Including the large non-academic population into the political discussions was their only chance of withstanding the wave of conservative doubt, and they seized it. Throughout the winter of 1007/8, Alexandria had something akin to a permanent ekklesia, where everything from military alliances to bread prices, from structural reforms to punishments for petty thieves was discussed. When the military leaders of the revolution decided that naval and army buildup would have to begin, and that Alexandria needed additional fortifications, they had to come here and win the support of the common people.

They succeeded, though, and in the early months of 1008, as the phalanx of external allies began to form, so did the concerted effort of thousands of Alexandrinians in building additional walls and towers and increasing the height of existing ones.

The informal ekklesia of Alexandria also decided to outlaw slavery, and the boule dominated by the Good Citizens immediately concurred. Bruchion, the rich quarter of the city, was on the barricades, but they stood no chance in obstructing the implementation of the new law. Conservatives argued in the debates that unemployed liberti would roam the streets and commit crimes to make a living, but this wouldn`t come to pass because the build-up of the revolutionary army and navy absorbed most of the manpower freed by the universal emancipation.

 

[Salvador79]

OK, revolutionaries, brace, for the empire is sure to strike back...
It may take a few days though before I`ll finish the next installment.

 

[Salvador79]

Preparing for war

The Alexandria-based alliance - for it is too early to speak of the Confoederatio Civitatum Liberarum at this moment yet - underwent an incredible mobilisation in preparation of their defense.

The professional former legionaries trained militia units of Egyptian peasants, shepherds and former slaves, of small Jewish and Samaritan farmers, and of former Cilician bandits alike.

A part of the Alexandrinian navy set sail for Cyprus, where they defeated the small military contingent of the proconsul and concluded a treaty with the island`s civitates, which would no longer have to pay tribute to anyone if they provided the raw materials and manpower required to double the alliance`s naval force.

In the meantime, the Libyan allies attacked the coastal towns of Cyrenaica, as agreed upon beforehand. The Blemmyes overran the town of Paliurus, which they turned into the capital of their expanding coastal realm, which stretched mostly Eastwards from the Paliurus river. The Nasamones overwhelmed Ptolemais and established their rule in the Western Cyrenaica, which became uncontested after a successful siege of Cyrene, a mere shell of its old glory after the Jewish rebellion more than a century earlier.

As news of these developments reached Rome, panic reigned. The two legions stationed in Africa were ordered to march Eastwards. The fleet in Misenum was sent to support them and set sails for Alexandria, where they were meant to strike at the heart of the infamous rebellion. The Ravenna fleet sailed to the Illyrian coast, where they were meant to take the Danube legions on board and ship them to Egypt and the Levante as well.

But the Danube legions never began marching. Up North in Dacia, Publius Cassius Regalianus, who had just conducted a successful punitive campaign against Goths and Gepids, understood full well what the orders from Rome meant. He was not merely to shift the Dacian and Moesian legions temporarily, lead them into a battle and then victoriously return to his province. If that were the intention, then why would the limitanei be moved, too? No, the Senators obviously intended to abandon Dacia. His Dacia. But that wouldn`t happen. He gathered his senior officers and discussed, and only a few days later, the history of the Roman principate had another usurper: Publius Cassius Regalianus, Imperator in Porolissum.

 

[Salvador79]

OK, next post will finally bring us the big showdown.
Any comments, plausibility issues etc. so far?

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

Things are beginning to heat up. May the Alexandrian-based alliance prove victorious in their endeavors!

 

[Salvador79]

Ninth Installment - The War of Independence

I thought I´d change the alternate source; this alternate historian will actually even deliver some maps later on ;-)

from Iacomu Parrokianu: Land and Freedom. The Confederal Republic`s War of Independence. Athene: Academia Nova, 2741 AUC, pp. 17-20:

The Empire Strikes Back
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Aemilian had left only a few detachments behind to secure what three legions had gained at a great price in Africa, and marched with the bulk of the Legio I Flavia Minerva, [FONT=&quot]the Legio II Augusta and the [FONT=&quot]Legio [/FONT]XXII Primigenia [FONT=&quot]Eastwards along [FONT=&quot]the Mediterranean coast. They left L[FONT=&quot]eptis Magna in [FONT=&quot]late April[FONT=&quot].
[FONT=&quot]The[FONT=&quot]y reached [FONT=&quot]Berenice Euesperides, the Western outpost of Nasamonic control, in late [FONT=&quot]May[FONT=&quot]. The [FONT=&quot]Nasamones had improvised some fortifications, but they were unable to withstand [FONT=&quot]Roman sieg[FONT=&quot]ecraft[FONT=&quot], and the town fell after only two days. Ae[FONT=&quot]milian spared much of[FONT=&quot] the population, but killed ev[FONT=&quot]eryone who lo[FONT=&quot]oked even faintly like a [FONT=&quot]desert-dweller.
[FONT=&quot]The pattern repeated itself in [FONT=&quot]Ar[FONT=&quot]sinoe, [FONT=&quot]Ptol[FONT=&quot]emais, Apollonia and Cyrene. At the end of June, [FONT=&quot]Nasamonic control over the Cyrenaica had collapsed. A few thousand[FONT=&quot] Nasamones, who had [FONT=&quot]exercised control over these towns for only a few months, had died, while Roman losses were limited to a few hundred.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]In the Marmarica, the Blemmyes fled[FONT=&quot] Eastwards to avoid the fate of the[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] Nasamones. [FONT=&quot]No[FONT=&quot]w, nothing stood between Aemilianus` legions and [FONT=&quot]Egypt. He wasted no time [FONT=&quot]with levying auxiliaries among the Greek townspeople[FONT=&quot], and marched [FONT=&quot]his legions straight on[FONT=&quot] Eastwards through the burning Libyan sun of July, stopping [FONT=&quot]at [FONT=&quot]the towns only to refill [FONT=&quot]reserves.

[FONT=&quot]The [FONT=&quot]navy of the rebels suffered a similar fate. The Classis[FONT=&quot] Misenica[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=&quot]crossed the Mediterranean unimpeded, as [FONT=&quot]t[FONT=&quot]he larger part of the rebel navy was still assembled - or being assembled - in Cyprus. The [FONT=&quot]remaining Classis Alexandrina [FONT=&quot]attempted to defend [FONT=&quot]the coast of Egypt, where they expected the enemy to strike. Their anticipations proved correct[FONT=&quot], but their defensive [FONT=&quot]fight[FONT=&quot] failed nonetheless. The rebels were outnumbered at least by three to on[FONT=&quot]e. The imperial navy broke through the defensive cordon an[FONT=&quot]d[FONT=&quot] did not even bother[FONT=&quot] with [FONT=&quot]a th[FONT=&quot]oro[FONT=&quot]ugh destruction of the rebel[FONT=&quot]s` [FONT=&quot]vessels, heading straight for Plinthine, a few miles West of Alexandria, where they landed, [FONT=&quot]three weeks before Aemilianus` arrival, [/FONT]and [FONT=&quot]dis[FONT=&quot]embarked their troops[FONT=&quot] and extensive baggage into [FONT=&quot]a[FONT=&quot]n easily[FONT=&quot] controlled defensive perimeter[FONT=&quot], digging themselves in and c[FONT=&quot]utting off Alexandria`s [FONT=&quot]overland supply over the Plinthine [FONT=&quot]Isthmus [/FONT]from the West.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]To be continued, hopefully on Friday[FONT=&quot], at the latest [FONT=&quot]on Monday.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Salvador79]

While waiting for Aemilian's arrival, members of the classis Misenensis were dispatched throughout the Western Delta, mostly to gather intelligence. This was always a risky job, and the situation here proved no different. What those who returned had to say disquieted Venerian, the admiral of the Misenensis. Townfolk and villagers alike were highly uncooperative and hostile. The whole province seemed under greaat tension. Only sailors of Egyptian background, who could communicate without recourse to Latin and Greek, found open ears at all. Alexandria looked well-fortified. There were frequent patrols on the Nile. And, worst of all, the Classsis Ravennatis had not arrived yet.
The immediate situation in Plinthine was not ideal, either. One night, two weeks into their stationing, intruders managed to set five battleships on fire, three of which could not be rescued.

Aemilian's legions arrived, and still no sign of the Ravennatis. Venerian grew impatient. Every day the rebels had at their disposal meant more fanatic Egyptians with more spathae, more sophisticated defenses of Alexandria, and lower morale.

When the Ravennatis finally arrived, on board bad news about Regalianus' usurpation instead of several legions, the commanders of the empire's land and sea forces decided to go ahead with the siege of Alexandria as planned: one army would march around Lake Mareotis and attack from the East, while the other would march across the isthmus and assault the rebel's capital from the West.

 

[Salvador79]

The Battle of Alexandria​

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The assault on Alexandria from the West and the East was accompanied by a sea blockade, with ships of both imperial fleets forming a cordon from Plinthine to Nicopolis.

The rebel capital was subjected to the entire array of Roman siege warfare: battering rams, burning bituminous substances being catapulted across the walls, siege turms, fires, tunnels. Initially, they caused serious damage, as the efforts of the well-trained army units were concentrated on holding the outer walls and fending off the various attempts at storming the town. Putting out fires and repairing damaged sections of the walls fell into the hands of civil volunteers, of which there were many tens of thousands, but who lacked any organisation.

But after a few days, this began to change. Volunteer groups had begun to form democratic but tight organisational structures, and the fact that their city had not yet fallen strengthened their morale. Fire extinction was organised meticulously now, and so were nightly repair works.
Alexandria held out.

Eight days into the siege, the fate began to turn against the attackers. Behind the Eastern section of the imperial army, the allied rebel forces had begun to assemble. Their training was imperfect, and so was their equipment. But they were many: between 40,000 and 50,000 Egyptian infantrymen, accompanied by another 10,000 to 20,000 from Judaea, Samaria and the Gallilee, plus Roman and Blemmye cavalry. And they were determined to fight and risk their lives for their freedom.
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[FONT=&quot]The imperial army, on the other hand, was much smaller than planned; the contingent which attacked Alexandria from the East only comprised 8,000 to 12,000 soldiers; together with the Western army commanded by Petronius, they made up little more than 20,000. They were well-trained and well-equipped.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]The rebel army began its offensive against the Eastern contingent of the imperial army in the late morning of August 23rd, 1008 AUC. Storming the outer perimeter, which was intended to protect the assailants from such attacks from the back, claimed countless lives, but ultimately, the rebel masses broke through the defenses, separating those legionaries, auxiliaries and naval soldiers who had been deployed to the city`s walls in order to assault them, from their reserves, who were trapped in their improvised castrum.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]The imperial contingents in greater proximity of the walls shielded themselves in and put up fierce resistance, desperate for their lives. Soon, they were supplemented by Petronius` troops. Petronius` cavalry collided with the rebels´ Western cavalry wing, who managed to hold both Roman infantry centres separated for quite some time. The longer the battle continued, the more the rebels´ numerical superiority began to show. Neither section of the imperial army managed to break through the rebel lines, and by late afternoon, more than half of the imperial soldiers had died. Even more rebels had died, but there were seemingly endless reserves of fresh forces, and they were able to maintain the few formations and movements they had been able to pick up mostly over the last few months, which the outnumbered Roman contingents were increasingly unable to do. When the first imperial contingent – the Eastern assailants – finally lost its structure, was dispersed and ultimately annihilated, its field signs captured by the victors, the morale of the rebels, which had been put to a terrible test, was uplifted once again. Now, the centre of Petronius` force came under attack. But it held out, and the fights sapped the strengths of all sides involved, especially since both imperial and rebel cavalry had already been sacrificed, and the exhausting swordfights had continued for far too long already. Perhaps it was the arrival of Idumean cavalry from Elusa, who brought about the final victory of the rebels, charging into and breaking open the battle lines of Petronius` infantry. Chaos and panic broke out among the imperial troops. The rebels were too undisciplined to leave a path for the panicking legionaries to escape so they could slaughter them easily upon retreat. As a result, even these last victorious fights cost the lives of yet more rebels, until less than a thousand imperial soldiers were left, who managed to fight their way out of the encirclement and, led by Petronius, fled Westwards across the Plinthine Isthmus towards their camp and their ships, pursued by the arrows of Elusian riders and even by archers shooting from boats on Lake Mareotis.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Before the sun set on 40,000 – some say even 50,000 – dead bodies, the rebels led the rest of Aemilianus` army, including the general himself, into captivity in the city`s catacombs. They had been trapped in their camp, and given themselves in when they saw that the battle had been won by the rebels.[/FONT]
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The Aftermath of the Rebel Victory​

[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]Some sources state that officers of the rebel army and members of the Good Citizen-controlled boule had wanted to hold their prisoners – among them many important and influential men of equestrian rank - as hostages, to create a better bargaining position in negotiations with Rome. But the masses of exhausted, exhilarated, and enraged rebel fighters, and the city`s population quite generally, would have none of that. “Crucify the devils!” the mob shouted. The assembled leaders of the revolution must have been aware that this was a pivotal moment, and that their treatment of the prisoners would define the nature of their emerging polity. Nepos, newly elected Bishop of Alexandria`s Christian community, finally gave a speech in which he presented a solution which found unanimous support. There were, he argued, poor devils among the legionaries, people like them, who had enlisted to escape the hunger, but also guilty leaders. The people should judge each person`s guilt individually. The public trials would be conducted in the stadium, and those found innocent could leave, or even enlist in the people`s army, while those found guilty should not be crucified – a method of execution which Nepos, as a Christian, found unacceptable and which he denounced as the symbol of imperial Roman rule, which had to be overcome –, but suffer the damnatio ad bestias. Especially the latter met with loud cheers. And so it came to pass that almost 3,000 captives were put on trial in Alexandria`s colosseum; a trial whose written records are still available today. We know, therefore, that the trials were led by a collegium consisting of representatives from various Egyptian cities, from Caesarea, Idumea, from Simon`s Judaea, from Sebaste, from Antiochia and Tarsus, but the verdicts were given by juries of thirteen people drawn by lot from among more than 5,000 civilian volunteers. Each jury passed thirteen verdicts, after which it was replaced by another one. Most cases were debated in less than ten minutes, while that of Aemilianus took more than three hours. 2,728 prisoners were acquitted, while 264 were sentenced to death, among them Aemilianus himself, the entire corps of officers down to the centurions and a few more unlucky soldiers. The games took place a whole month after the trials because it took a lot of time to procure the necessary beasts and restore the city´s infrastructure so it could hold such n event once again.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]With the dearly paid victory over the Roman Empire, the atmosphere in Alexandria had changed even among the former elites. Those who did not join in the general enthusiasm and engagement for the new people`s res publica shut up or left Egypt.
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[FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]The triumphant rebel alliance had their hands full with other, more important business, too. Negotiations were begun with the Agonists, who had hidden in their strongholds in the African and Numidian mountains, and in November 1008, joined forces of the Alexandrinians and their new Agonistic allies took back the agricultural complexes, towns and cities of Africa, eliminating the last outposts of Marius Severinus` terror regime, where they were welcomed as liberators now. Leptis Magna and the towns of the Cyrenaica and Marmarica submitted, too, now.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The rebels had captured more than two thirds of the fleets formerly stationed in Misenum and Ravenna. Together with the remnants of the Alexandrinian fleet and the new Cypriotic fleet, they had become the no. 1 naval force in the Mediterranean. Seizing on this power, they managed to incite a slave rebellion in Sicily and helped transform the island into a federation of civitates shaped after the new African and Egyptian model. Crete, Malta, Rhodes and various smaller islands in the Aegean joined the new sea power, too, often for fear that if they didn`t join voluntarily, they`d experience the same sort of regime change that had occurred in Sicily.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Beside growing in size and strength, the rebels managed to build a new administrative structure, reemploying bureaucrats who had sided with the Good Citizens or other factions sympathetic with the rebellion, and replacing those persons and practices which were found no longer compatible with the rule of the people. Vigilia ensured public safety in the alliance`s towns and on its roads and rivers. Customs payments from the resurging trade provided revenues for public works and the build-up.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The alliance was a new state in all but its name now – and with the Council of Alexandria in 1009, this would change, too.

[FONT=&quot]Tab[FONT=&quot]le below: Map of the political s[FONT=&quot]ituation in 1009 AUC

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] [/FONT]

 

[Salvador79]

Tenth Installment - The Birth of Isonomic Democracy (part 1)

[FONT=&quot]from: Victor Honoramonte: "The Confoederatio as the Origin of Modern Democracy." In: Historia Antiqua (39), 2703 AUC, pp. 37ff.:

[/FONT]

Three Assemblies Compared:
the Senate in Rome,
the congress of envoys invited by Odaenathus of Palmyra,
and the First Council of the Confederacy in Alexandria​

The second decade in the second millennium after the foundation of the Eternal City is generally regarded as the birth – or, as some have put it: the rebirth – of modern, i.e. isonomic, democracy. This assessment is correct. Yet, the very same decade also saw the first beginnings of two very different political systems, which would compete with isonomic democracy for hegemony over the next centuries.

To explain how isonomic democracy evolved, and how it simultaneously sparked systemic changes among its neighbours, we shall take a look at three different assemblies of 1009. We shall compare the First Council of the Confederacy of Free Citizenries with the Palmyrene congress of envoys invited by the King of Kings Odaenathus, and with the time-honoured Senate in Rome, which entered one of the last years of its existence.

Empty Seats in the Curia Iulia

In Rome, the Senate was not only losing more and more of its functions – this development had three centuries earlier -, but also more and more of its members. The revolution or revolutions in Africa, Egypt and the Levante had actually killed only few senators, but especially in Africa, the livelihood of many influential families – land – had been seized by others. In Sicily, this drama had repeated itself on an even larger scale. More and more senators left Rome in order to look after their estates, and to save what could be saved. Both those who had left the Eternal City and those who remained were very conscious of the fact that a war between different classes had begun. Laws and offices, emperors and barbarians were no longer their main concern – when the very social system they embodied and lived off was at stake throughout much of the known world. Revolts had begun to flare up in Southern Italy, in Hispania, in Gaul and in Achaea.

The dismemberment of the Roman Empire was foreshadowed by these senatorial flights. Instead of struggling for a common strategy and concerted actions, each of the large landowning families began to build up their own private army of Bucelarii and to increase the protections and even fortifications of their villae.

Those who remained in Rome and continued attending the meetings were at a loss for political initiative, either. It was clear that Regalianus, who commanded the majority of the Empire`s remaining armed forces, would soon assume full control: he had no competitor, and he would not be able to sustain the large armies under his command without money from other parts of the Empire. Most senators despised him for betraying the common effort and dooming the attack on Alexandria to epic failure. Yet, nobody stood up to stop this development.

The Roman Senate in 1009, thus, exemplifies the loss of the Empire`s center and the degree to which the senatorial class had given up on the broader res publica.

Old Elites on New Paths in Palmyra

While an old state was falling apart in Rome, a new one emerged at the former`s Eastern fringe. Odaenathus, the triumphator of Ctesiphon, had kept his neutrality during the war between imperial and rebel forces in Africa and Egypt and silently gathered impressive number of cities, tribes and kingdoms on his side.

In 1009, envoys from the poleis of Tyre, Canatha, Dion, Raphana, Gadara and Gerasa, from the Arabic tribes of the Tanukh and the Banu Ghassan, local nobles from Galatia, Cappadocia and Pontus, and from the Kings of Armenia, Osrhoene and Adiabene met in Palmyra at the invitation of Odaenathus, to discuss an alliance and common policies vis-à-vis the threats by various rebellious groups and of course by their powerful Eastern neighbor, the Sasanian shah Shapur, who had been defeated, but not crushed and could safely be assumed to gather his forces for a new attack in order to regain control over his Western satrapies.

The envoys elected – or confirmed, as some say – Odaenathus as their King of Kings, and in exchange, Odaenathus confirmed the continuation of the laws and privileges of his new vassals which had mostly been shaped by Roman influence, but had always maintained prior traditions, too, to a certain degree, and vowed to protect them. Taxation, currency and customs issues were settled. Different roles, functions and sources of income for the centralized army, which was to be based primarily in Assyria, and for the various subordinate forces were laid down. The congress took less than a week to settle all these matters smoothly. The subject populations had not been asked, and most of them would not be informed about the specific outcomes, either, if they did not make themselves felt in their everyday lives. Trade flows began to slowly reorient themselves, and Odaenathus proceeded to build up a heavy cavalry-based army for the defense of Mesopotamia against Shapur. His Empire was a barrier preventing the East- and Northward spread of the revolution for several decades. Yet, Odaenathus never took up arms against the rebel confederacy, and his battle against Regalianus a few years on would only come to pass on Regalianus` initiative. The congress of 1009 would not be repeated – it didn´t have to. Odaenathus reigned supreme, but he respected the autonomy of his vassals, and on the decentralized level, kings, sheikhs and boulai continued to govern their own affairs the same way they used to do for centuries. When Odaenathus died in 1030, his son Herodias succeeded him. Odaenathus` vassals paid him homage, and Herodias confirmed their relationship, just like he continued Odaenathus` policies.

In Palmyra, a new path was taken – out of the sovereignty of Rome and the shahanshah –, but it was taken by the old elites, and so the new Palmyrene state showed a great degree of political, social, economic and cultural continuity.

To be continued with “Strenuous Negotiations for an entirely newly founded res publica in Alexandria”

 

[Yanez de Gomera]

Well, looks like Alexandria dodged a bullet thanks to Regalianus. Now the rebels control most of the grain supplies for Rome and Italy, if they choose to withhold them they can quickly cause revolution to explode in Rome herself!

[the map in post n°33 is a bit too wide, it makes the text somewhat difficult to read]

Your idea is extremely innovative and creative, I think it deserves more attention than what it got until now, so keep up writing good updates!

I am very curious at how the militant christianity will evolve, and what will its relationship with the pagans be.

 

[Salvador79]

Thanks a lot for your appreciation, Yanez!
I'll resize the image tomorrow, thanks for the info.

Rome is sure to face some chaos, even if it is only due to rising prices caused by the devastations of the conflict especially in Africa, and because grain must be bought on the free market, if you forgive the anachronistic wording, now.

Relations between the Agonistici and their pagan and Jewish allies are bound to be sensitive, too. Right now, the religiously open but secular/platonic ideology of the Good Citizens and the imperial threat keeps them united, and a lot of Libyan desert lies between their respective strongholds.
Also, both Agonisticism and other Novatianist schools and Simon's Jewish movement are chiliastic/apocalyptical. Let's see how they react when the apocalypse/the land where milk and honey flow both fail to materialise...

 

[Salvador79]

Strenuous Negociations for an Entirely Newly Founded Res Publica in Alexandria

The First Council of Alexandria, which legally founded the Confederacy of Free Citizenries, was wholly different from both the Roman Senate and the congress at Palmyra. A different sort of people met there with different aims, creating something new and unprecedented. No wonder that it did not proceed as smoothly and fast as the meeting in Palmyra, nor relied on established routines like the Senate in Rome. It lasted almost two months - and although many questions were left open after these months, given the circumstances, it is almost a wonder that so much had been achieved.

The slate was blank. Virtually everything had to be created as a product of negociation. When the councillors met in Alexandria in March 1009, one of the biggest problems had already been resolved: that there would be a council in the first place, and where and when it would take place. We have no knowledge of when and how this agreement had been reached - there is only the popular myth about it, which may contain a grain of truth, but certainly not more. (For those who are not acquainted with it: According to the myth, the various victorious groups from the Battle of Alexandria, i.e. the city´s defenders, the bucolic peasant armies of Egypt, their Jewish, Idumean and Samaritan allies, wanted to swear eternal peace and an unbreakable alliance to each other, but the philosopher Eugenios asked them: "Who swears this oath? And who shall keep it?" Upon this question, they realised that they were only individual humans or gatherings of them, and that if_they_swore an oath to each other, people who were not present (or not even born yet) would not be bound by the oath. They spoke for groups which might not exist in the same form in future times. Thus, they resolved to each build their own lasting res publica, which should give them the mandate to swear the oath in the name of their respective res publica, which would outlast their individual lives and bind everyone who belonged to it.)

The representatives who arrived in Alexandria were a wild mixture: the rural nomes of Egypt had sent mostly charismatic peasants, who had been military leaders of the revolt, with a few Kemetist priests and a Christian bishop thrown in. The Alexandrian ekklesia had delegated a very large group, in which all relevant factions, from the Good Citizens over the various Jewish and Christian sects, various collegia of craftsmen, a few middle-rank officers from the legion and the navy, and some independent people of educated backgrounds, were represented. For Africa, Agonistic presbyters attended. The poleis of the Cyrenaica, Marmarica, Crete and Cyprus had sent well-educated members of the old decurional elites, who sat beside former slaves, who had led their successful revolts in Sicily, Cilicia and Caesarea Maritima. Jewish zealots, among them the alleged Messiah Simon himself, met in the same amphitheatre with clerical emissaries from the King of Samaria.

Each consensus found by this heterogeneous assembly was therefore anything but a matter of course.

What would be the new official language? The only language everyone was able to speak more or less fluently was Koiné Greek, and so Koiné became the language in which the discussions of the Council were conducted. But that did not mean that it became the official language all across the new political entity. Each constituent unit of the new confederacy retained the right to set its laws and issue its documents in whatever language it saw fit - and the "Symphonesis" (or "Foedus" in Latin) that they all agreed upon in early May was carved into marble not only in Koiné Greek, but also in Latin, Neo-Punic, Neo-Demotic, and Aramaic.

Who were the constituent units who swore this oath and agreed on the founding principles laid down in the Symphonesis? Even with a lot of preliminary informal negociations which had already tended in the direction of the territorial principle introduced by the Romans, there were still supporters - especially among the religious sects - of the personal group principle. The principle of territorial constituent members prevailed for various practical reasons after lengthy discussions: the foedus would be concluded by territorially defined poleis (or, in Latin, civitates) - and this decision was followed by more lengthy haggling about the exact borders between each civitas and its neighbours. In the cases of Egypt, Marmarica, Cyrenaica, Africa and Mauritania, civitates introduced by the Romans or old Egyptian nomes were most often simply continued. In the Levante, where Jews and Samaritans had carved out new states cutting across boundaries of provincial civitates, things were more difficult, and so most of the haggling here was done between Simon`s followers and the delegates sent by the Samaritan King Eleazar.

Once a map of all civitates was drawn and agreed upon, a handful of philosophically versed people from Alexandria proposed that further decisions were taken by two-thirds majorities instead of by consensus, to shorten discussions and reach the necessary agreements before the Roman Empire would have gathered enough forces for another assault on them. After a few days, this idea was agreed upon, but it begged the question of weighting votes. After all, the city of Alexandria, counting some 500,000 people, was represented by more than 200 people, while Cydonia on Crete, counting over 50,000 people, had sent only one delegate. More lengthy discussions ensued, at the end of which it was agreed that one vote should correspond for every 1,000 male adult inhabitants of the civitas as per the last imperial Roman census, documents of which were available in Alexandria. (The Cydonian, thus, heaped 15 votes on himself, while the Alexandrians had to introduce a rotation among themselves.)

From then on, things proceeded a little quicker, but not much. It stll took over a month to reach the following agreements, with which the first democratic federal state in the history of humankind was constituted:

• A Council should be held each year. It should be hosted by a different civitas each year, rotating alphabetically down the Koiné Greek list of member civitates;
• In case of emergency (i.e. war), an Emergency Council should be convened in Alexandria by the Vicarii.
• The Council would elect thirteen Vicarii, who would conduct the public affairs constituted by decisions of a Council between its assemblies. The thirteen Vicarii were, in modern terms, the confederal government and supreme military command, with a one year term of office.
• Common public tasks carried out by the administration headed by the Vicarii were, for the time being, only the following: conducting diplomacy and keeping contacts with foreign powers following the rough guidelines set each year by the Council; collecting customs as set by the Council; overseeing the federal Academia on the Museion in Alexandria and appointing its Rector; overseeing the federal Navy in times of peace and mobilising it and the vigilia of the civitates in case of an impending attack; calling for emergency Councils which could declare war or sign peace treaties.
• The federation (koinon) would only have a common navy; all armed land forces would be maintained by the member civitates; in case of war, these vigilia of the member civitates would choose a supreme command from among themselves.
• The koinon would only levy customs. No polis/civitas would levy any customs. All other forms of taxation, mostly on land and/or agricultural produce, would be decided upon and collected by each civitas, if at all. (This was important to the newly empowered peasantry: In their local assemblies, they would have a chance to vote down any attempts to squeeze the product of their labour out of them, whilst they feared that a confederal majority in some faraway place might see things differently. It would prove rather unpractically for the new state`s development, though.)
• The civitates swore each other eternal peace and mutual assistance in any threat.
• Each civitas could rule itself by whatever laws it chose to gave itself, unless they violated the agreements of the foedus, and judge its citizens the way it saw fit. (This was not something any group had wanted. On the contrary, each group - from the Good Citizens to the Agonists - had attempted to impose the principles they considered central as common law, but their views were too different and incompatible with each other, and neither had found anything resembling even a simple majority. Thus, territorial legal autonomy was failure enshrined into constitutional law. It should prove one of the better foundations of the koinon in the long run, though.)
• A citizen of one civitas would automatically enjoy the rights of citizen in any other member civitas, should he choose to live there.
• New civitates could join if they agreed on everything the symphonesis/foedus contained and if the Council agreed to their admission.
• The Vicarii would settle disputes between civitates. They would report such incidents to the next Council, which could nullify or modify such settlements of the preceding annual period, and/or find new solutions to them.

The Council also decided that each civitas should engage in further preparations against an impending attack from either Rome or Palmyra.

Many questions were left unanswered and would haunt the Confederacy over the next years and decades, and some of the agreements reached were less than ideal - but, it must be repeated, what was achieved in Alexandria in the spring of 1009 was admirable, considering the novelty of the situation and the heterogeneity of the assembly.

 

[Salvador79]

Twelfth Installment - The Reign of Regalianus

[FONT=&quot]From [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Iacomu Parrokianu: Land and Freedom. The Confederal Republic`s War of Independence. Athene: Academia Nova, 2741 AUC, pp. 21f.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]:[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Regalianus[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Upon the defeat of Aemilianus` army and Venerianus` navy, almost all remaining armed forces of the Empire, except for small contingents along the Rhine, were concentrated in the Danube region. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They were under the command of Regalianus, the Emperor in Porolissum. But Regalianus could not afford to stay in Porolissum; maintaining an armed force of such size required revenues that exceeded what could be squeezed out of Moesia, Pannonia and Dacia.

Nobody could stop his march on Rome, and Regalianus knew that. He was the last usurping emperor who marched on Rome - and he met with little to no resistance.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But whilst he found no resistance in Rome and other parts of the empire, he also found no support and loyalty, either. Senators gave him the cold shoulder and continued minding their private businesses, and ordinary Romans did not greet him enthusiastically either. He was widely blamed for the empire`s failure to regain Egypt. The loss of control over Egypt, Africa, Sicily and the Levante meant drastically increasing prices for grain, vegetables and olive oil. For Regalianus, it also meant dramatically lower imperial revenues. The loss of Egypt and the other provinces was not the only reason for his sinking revenues. Wealthy landowners from all over Italy, Illyrium, Hispania and Gaul had also begun withholding tax payments and putting all the ressources available to them into securing their power and the safety of their estates. Regalianus was not able to buy popularity among the plebs urbana with games. He was not even able to maintain decent annona handouts to the hungry masses. Unrest was brooding in Rome, too. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]He had to do something. On his side, he had five loyal legions. Regalianus had been a popular governor, respected by the troops he commanded and even beloved by his fellow Dacians, whose issues he had managed with great tenacity, dedication and equity, showing not even the slightest hint of corruption. The fact that things were looking so very differently in Rome may have contributed to his later policies. Also on his side were the remaining imperial bureaucrats, scribes, messengers etc. who depended on an emperor to pay them.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But what could he do? The rebels had obtained, for the moment, such naval dominance that another invasion of Africa or Egypt was doomed to fail. Regalianus did not have the time to build up a new fleet. Unrest had spread all over the Italian countryside.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Regalianus marched South across Italy first. His critics said that he waited for rebels to exhaust and defeat local troops and the Bucelarii of senators and other landowners first, marching in only then to crush the rebellion. Whether this is true or not remains unclear – but we know for facts what Regalianus did after many of his local victories: often, he did not restore the land to its former owners, or their heirs, but “impounded” it for unpaid tax debts and entrusted his close allies, his “comites” with it instead. Regalianus also began a further decentralization of the remaining administration by awarding his comites powers as overseers of the administration in a certain region in exchange for the land grant.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]While he had secured the revenues, powerbase and support of his most loyal followers this way, he had not extinguished the fire of social unrest in the slightest. Some parts of Italy were pacified, but new revolts, helped along by missionaries and agents of the Confederacy of Free Citizenries, flared up in Asia Minor. What was worse: local elites no longer appealed to Regalianus for help, but to Odaenathus! The Palmyrene ruler slowly came to control the largest part of Anatolia, with the rest either aflame or having sided with Alexandria.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Regalianus began his Anatolian campaign (which was meant to continue Southwards to the Levante and further towards Egypt, once Anatolia was secured again) in April 1010. The confederate navy, alerted too late by their Nicaian allies, failed to stop his strong legions from crossing the Bosphorus. Regalianus swept Eastwards, then Southwards through Anatolia, collecting tributes and submissions from towns which had previously sided with Odaenathus, and punishing towns and regions where the rebels had prevailed. Odaenathus marched against him through Cappadocia and engaged Regalianus` troops on various fronts, fighting them to a standstill throughout Galatia, Phrygia and Lydia in June and July. Entrenched warfare had already exhausted the reserves of the legions and the surrounding regions and claimed the lives of too many soldiers on both sides when Odaenathus` and Regalianus` main armies finally met in the battle of Ancyra.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It was a short event. Before the infantries of both sides had even made contact, a large piece of white cloth was raised from where the commanders of Regalianus´ armies were. Odaenathus stopped his advance. It turned out that Regalianus had been literally stabbed in the back by one of his comites, one of those people Regalianus had put his blind trust in. The comes who had managed to sway the opinions of Regalianus` other comites and gathered support for peace negotiations without the widely unpopular emperor was a man of modest upbringing, to say the least. He went by the name of Marcus Aurelius Claudius.[/FONT]

 

[guinazacity]

Wow, this is getting better every update

I feel bad for not commenting on this tl earler though.

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

I apologize for my lack of comments myself but I assure you that you're doing a superb job so far. It's very innovative to see this Confederal Republic's set up, especially for this time period, and I look forward to see how it lasts in a world full of kings and emperors.