Update 3 – 611-615
“‘Death or Freedom’ should be on our gravestone.”
-Die Toten Hosen, Bonnie und Clyde
International Events
The Winnili appear to have halted their advance in the north for now, though the east is a different matter (see below). In particular, they appear to be cultivating a decent relationship with the Rygians, despite the presence of many Silenga refugees (and Ammatas himself) on the island.
In an apparent sign that the Iberian-Panorman alliance is going down the drain, the drechton – or rather, polemadokos – of Iberia reinstated trade dues in the coastal Hellenic poleis. Admittedly, they are not nearly as high as they had been, but diplomatically, the move was very embarrassing to the Panormans.
(-1 Panorman Prestige, -1 Sikeliot Merchantry Confidence, +175 talents to Iberian income)
The Italian war seems to have finally wound down, with the Panormans and Chaonians recognizing their inability to destroy the Aorsi but, having thwarted the Aorsi in their own goals, have managed to force the Aorsi to accept a relatively low level of tribute.
(+2 Aorsi Prestige, -1 Panorman Prestige, -1 Chaonian Prestige, +1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Panormos), +1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Chaonia))
Representatives from Aigyptos, Panormos, and Makedonia came together at Syrakousai in 611 to formally announce an alliance directed at the Perseid Empire. The boule’s initial suspicion of the program was papered over with a thousand silver Aigyptian talents and (less important) the promise of a total elimination of trade barriers in Makedonia. After being assured by the new polemarchos, Philippikos Mystakon, that this would be a risk-free profit-making enterprise, grudging consent was gained.
This rapidly turned into a sense of angry betrayal in 614 when Sophidosios of Aigyptos ordered a massive tariff increase on Panorman goods, wiping out the fortunes of the few merchant bouleutai with Aigyptian interests and turning them, too, against the plan. (Ironically, the tariff decreased Aigyptian revenues if anything and wiped out the benefits assumed to accrue from Aigyptos’ infrastructural development of a decade prior.) Renewed calls have been issued for the abolition of the polemarchos position and an end to the war with the Perseids, and this time it would appear as though the polemarchos can’t politically escape.
(+2/-2 Panorman Prestige, -1 Makedonian Prestige, +/-1 Sikeliot Merchantry Confidence, -2 Paralioi Confidence, -10 talents from Aigyptian income)
In response to the rather large coalition assembled against him, the wily Andronikos I constructed his own during 611 with a series of bilateral agreements with his enemies’ enemies. He lured the Mysians into a formal agreement with him against his northern enemies in that year by the Treaty of Pergamon; he then backed out of his Pisidian war a few months later (after the Mysians found themselves entangled in naval war with the Makedonians) by the Peace of Apameia. Gersem of Aksum was induced to fight Aigyptos, and Admetos of Chaonia sent representatives to Naupaktos, where they agreed with Perseid negotiators to enter the war against Makedonia. And in exchange for a promise of non-intervention and pilgrimage rights into conquered Attika, Andronikos recognized Eupator V (see below) as basileus Pontou. This rather neatly unhinged the Syrakousai allies’ overall plan (see below) and won the Perseids at least another five years of breathing space.
(+1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Mysian Prestige, +1 Bosporan Prestige)
A collection of stories and Sophist wisdom, al-Kitaab as-Siraar, has begun to circulate widely among the Sophist tribes of Arabia and in Alodia. Its author is reputed to be the recently deceased North African Sophist sage ‘Amr ibn Ghassan. Unlike any of the other Sophist texts in wide use, it has been written in the Arabic script. It contains many of the – contrary to established teachings in the oikoumene – sayings of ‘Amr, as well as millenarian prophecies of the return of the great king Dhu al-Qarnayn, the Great Horned One, who will purify the Sophist faith and return it to its ancient beginnings as the worship of Athyna. In particular, Abu Sufyan, the Qurayshi governor of Makkah, has cracked down on the spread of this book and the religious teachings associated with it.
(-1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Qurayshi Strength)
For much of the year 611, Arkah Haroutyoun played off Seleukid and Areian representatives against each other, promising both that he would intervene on their side, while he assembled his army and got the Antes off of his back in the north. Only in 612 did he make clear that he would side with Areia, in so doing shifting the momentum of the war (see below).
(-1 Seleukid Prestige)
Attempting to capitalize on his monopoly of Perseid trade routes east, the Seleukid king decided to massively raise tariffs on Perseid goods. This had the desired short-term effect of raising some money, though after awhile it wasn’t that useful (see below) and had the damaging effect of destroying what was left of support for a Perseid intervention to save the Seleukids.
(-1 Imperial Bureaucracy Confidence (Perseids), +1350 talents to Seleukid treasury)
After the rather untimely death of the Areian basileus Arkadios, his successor Platon II quickly extricated himself from his war with the Mazsakata by paying them tribute; he then sent his sister Arsinoe to marry the Baktrian basileus and cede him all the lands conquered in the recent war. This cession, which included some of Areia’s most valuable territory (including Old Areia, the nominal heartland of the kingdom), outraged some, but the strategic benefits it conferred were much larger, and people generally recognized the parlous position of an Areia trapped in a three-front war.
(+2 Mazsakata Prestige, -3 Areian Prestige, +2 Baktrian Prestige, -1 Parthyaian Confidence, -2 Parthyaian Strength, +1 Hellenes Confidence (Baktria))
Patalan merchants have been granted duty-free access to Harmozeia, and with that massive advantage began to insinuate themselves into the south Areian market…that is, until 612, when the fire-ships of the Hellenoarabic poleis started up their commerce-raiding again, fueled both by Seleukid silver and by general outrage at their replacement by Patalan merchants in the Gulf carry trade. Patalan gains from trade have been more or less negligible due to the raiding, which the Areians are powerless to suppress yet again due to the minor problem of being outnumbered.
(-1 Areian Prestige, -4 Patalan ships)
Having decided that there was little else to be gained from the resurgent Wu, and increasingly afraid of the Liang, Sui Wen of Yang adeptly switched sides by the Peace of Wuhan at the end of the year 610, promising to attack the Liang in exchange for several border adjustments and a significant indemnity. He then sent that indemnity west to the Houqin to induce them to withdraw, in the process establishing a diplomatic basis for claiming precedence over the Houqin.
(+2 Yang Prestige)
Domestic Events
War exhaustion and associated economic hardships continue to afflict several states, especially the Makedonians, Perseids, Seleukids, Areians, and Wu.
(+varying degrees of economic, military, and political problems in all warring states, especially those mentioned above)
Dryhten Aethelric has been acting rather kingly over the last decade, and these years are no exception: he has ordered the assembly of ‘the Dooms of Aethelric’, a comprehensive (as far as Rygia goes, anyway) code of laws. In addition, to account for the recent movements of peoples within his state, he has ordered that the 609 hidage be extended to the western part of his kingdom.
(+1 Rygian Prestige, +5 talents to Rygian income)
Zanvar of the Aorsi has ordered the reconstruction of Patikapatta, now that the war is over. Substantial funds were disbursed for the project, and the rebuilt town is beginning to get back to normal. Much of the agricultural devastation wrought by the invading armies of the Chaonians and Panormans is being overcome as well.
(+1 Aorsi Prestige, +70 talents to Aorsi income)
As the Aorsi war has died down, the Panorman boule has decided to appropriate lands from the chora of Stoma and sell them off. Unsurprisingly, this pissed off the squatters who had already tried to claim those lands through various means. The overwhelming majority of the land ended up being purchased by major magnates from Sicily, whose personal fortunes hadn’t suffered from the Aorsi invasion, and whose absenteeism already rankled in Megale Hellas. Ramped-up state spending on infrastructure with the proceeds from these dubiously gotten gains did little to salve the wound. With several corruption scandals in the administration of the Aphrikan public lands recently, calls are being ramped up for some kind of reform there as well. Currently the most popular proposals involve settling klerouchoi on the plots, dividing the plots among the peasants that already work them in exchange for military service or increased taxes, or selling the lands to Sicilian magnates.
(150 talents to Panorman infrastructure investment, -1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence, +1 Sikeliot Gentry Confidence, +1 Sikeliot Gentry Strength, +/-1 Aphrikan Confidence)
Chaonia’s literary tradition is improving with the completion of the historical work Chronographia, written by the retired general Menandros Aktios. It’s somewhat out of touch with current political sensibilities, though those change so rapidly that it’s probably not that much of a problem.
(+1 Chaonian Prestige)
Basileus Amyntas has decided to capitalize on the growing tradition of Sophist osioi by constructing a small shrine to Zoe, a local martyr, near Thebai. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
The Qurayshi rebellion has been rather rapidly nipped in the bud by negusa nagast Gersem, who essentially promised the Arabs more or less full autonomy and the ability to select their own governor. This led to the predictable seizure of gubernatorial power by Abu Sufyan and a rapid purge of his rivals in Makkah. What Gersem apparently didn’t expect was that the former governor of Teiman, having spent the last few years quietly embezzling money, would promptly – that is, in 611 – rebel in outrage at the monarch’s arbitrary exercise of his power (see below).
(-1 Aksumite Prestige, -Banu Quraysh, +Qataban, +Qurayshi (Aksum), -Sab’yn (Aksum), -45 talents from Aksumite income)
Something of a revival of Karmano-Gedrosian regionalism has been observed in Areia, emphasized by the loss of control over the main arteries of transportation to the region from the Areian capital and, more than anything else, the long war.
(+Karmania (Areia))
Sentiment is rising in Baktria for a proper reorganization of the recently-conquered lands taken from Areia. The region, naturally fertile, is mostly fallow due in part to Areia’s scorched-earth policies under Arkadios in the last war, and to Baktria’s failure to distribute territories among its military colonists. What enrages many people is that basileus Diodotos, instead of providing agricultural relief, spent a vast sum on his son’s wedding to the Areian princess Arsinoe, tripling the amount that even the late debauched Arkadios wasted on his own royal wedding several years ago.
(-2 Royal Bureaucracy Confidence, -1 Katoikiai Confidence)
In 612, the then-archon of Patalene, Antialkidas, proposed a plan to give state money to slaves. This was quickly shot down by basically every major Patalan political figure.
(-1 Antipatreian Confidence, -1 Oraian Confidence)
The qagan of the Tantan has, to the consternation of most of his hordesmen, elected to raid in the west this year. This was a proposal rather out of left field, as it alienated the Tiele and Jiankun of the eastern territories, and it neglected to take advantage of the distraction of the Houqin, but at least it netted some loot (see below) and made the Xazarlar happy.
(-25,000 Tantan levy cavalry)
(-1 Tiele Yabghu Confidence, -2 Jiankun Yabghu Confidence, +1 Xazarlar Yabghu Confidence)
Buddhism is beginning to grow noticeably more popular in Wu, Jin, and Yamato.
Military Events
In 614, yet another Brythonic revolt kicked off in western Rygian territory as the Silenga from the Continent were settled in the west. The harsh response to this provoked – finally – a Cambrian response, as the Council (with some dissension) induced its members to go to war against Rygia. Though operations have not really begun, as both sides need time to call up levies, some border fighting has ensued, chiefly around the Rygian village of Boreshill. Within Cambria itself, Powys attempted to oppose the council’s decision militarily, but Ceredigian warriors scattered the Powysians near Muallt in the spring of 615. Some of the Powysians managed to escape to Rygia, though.
(+23,000 Cambrian levy infantry, +22,000 Rygian levy infantry)
(-Powys (Cambria), -Brythonic Natives (Rygia), +1 Dyfnaint Confidence, +1 Rygi Confidence, +2 Silenga Strength, +10 talents to Cambrian treasury, -50 Cambrian infantry, -230 Cambrian levy infantry, -40 Rygian infantry, -110 Rygian levy infantry)
Iberia’s policy for the war centered on consolidating control of western Walhia to ensure that they could not be evicted – a sound if limited policy. Further advances would be geographically difficult, anyway, polemadokos Gerold reasoned. However, his policy of raiding Walhia to preclude any Walhic offensive ended up being off the mark – for Wiolant, too, had decided to sit on the defensive, and rely on ambushes and traps to wipe out attacking forces. The Iberians waltzed straight into one of these traps on the Liga River in 612, though they managed to extricate themselves from it without suffering too many losses. What really unhinged Iberian plans, though, was the redirection of Aorsi horsemen west after the end of the Italian war. Under the command of Sangiban, Sannic cavalry rode along the northern Iberian coastline, doing their usual rape-and-pillage acts, and notably sacking Massalia in 613. Though they never really managed to link up with the Walhic army, they ran riot within Iberian territory itself and forced the Iberians to split off a large portion of their army to keep them in check. Due to the reconstruction of Silakoufstat, the Iberians’ numerical inferiority to the Walhic army didn’t end up counting for a whole lot, but they did lose conquered territory before 615.
(+10,000 Walhic levy infantry, +5,000 Iberian levy infantry)
(-1 Iberian Prestige, +1 Aorsi Prestige, +1 Yazyga Confidence, -1 Aulerci Natives Confidence, +1 Silenga Strength, -2 Atmona Bastarna Strength, -2 Hatta Marcher-Lords Strength, -1 Hatta Assembly Confidence, +1 Sannic Aursa Strength, -15 talents from Walhic income, -35 talents from Iberian income, +10 talents to Iberian treasury, +90 talents to Aorsi treasury, -1,250 Walhic infantry, -4,600 Walhic levy infantry, -50 Walhic cavalry, -1,700 Iberian infantry, -5,350 Iberian levy infantry, -270 Iberian cavalry, -1,800 Aorsi levy cavalry)
Aorsi cavalry were busy elsewhere, too – to the north. The long and arduous route through the Alps was deemed ‘worth it’ to try to snag some loot from the Burgunda and perhaps forestall their apparently dangerous advance. In 612 the Burgunda drive on Windelicoppidos was blunted by the Aorsi from across the mountains, though their numbers were badly depleted by a harsh transit. Through 613 and 614, the Aorsi performed sterling service against the Burgunda, at least in more open terrain. As the Burgunda fell back towards the east, though, the increasingly rough terrain allowed them to score some ambush victories of their own against the Aorsi, while the poor plunder that was available didn’t exactly light the Aorsi hordesmen on fire. After the passes south opened up in the spring of 615, the Aorsi left, and the Burgunda quickly resumed their offensive against a Windelician state that was on its last legs. Windelicoppidos itself was conquered that fall, and soon the surrounding states raced to gobble what they could.
(-Windelicia, +various nightmarishly complicated stat reshuffling for Winnili, Walhia, Burgunda, and Aorsi)
In connection with the ever-widening war to the east (see below), Panormos and Chaonia suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a war almost immediately after a mutual alliance against the Aorsi had just ended. Many Panormans were bitter about the Chaonian failure to support them adequately against the Aorsi, so little love was lost between the two. Military operations began in 612, when the large Panorman army in Kampania, under the command of Niketas Katanes, marched through the Apennines and attacked the much smaller Chaonian army of Herakles Boiannes at…Boianon. Following up this rather decisive victory over the Chaonians, the battle-hardened Panorman troops scattered a large force of levies at Kanousion the following year, methodically conquering outposts from the Chaonians. Only Barion and Hydros in Apoulia held out by the end of 615, due in large part to Panorman overwhelming force.
(+15,000 Chaonian levy infantry)
(+2 Panorman Prestige, -2 Chaonian Prestige, -3 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Chaonia), -1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Strength (Chaonia), -3,400 talents from Chaonian income, +200 talents to Panorman treasury, -3,750 Panorman infantry, -150 Panorman cavalry, -1,150 Chaonian infantry, -12,400 Chaonian levy infantry)
Chaonia’s entry into the war and the abandonment of the original allied war plan in a way helped to save Makedonia. It meant that Archelaos (and later, his son Leon) had the germ of an army left with which to oppose the Chaonian offensive into Dolopia and Ainis in late 611. The outnumbered Makedonians initially were able to hold their ground, warding off the Chaonian general Neoptolemos Dodonaios in an inconclusive battle on the Spercheios River before winter set in. With the way to Attika surely blocked, the Chaonian army tried to break out to the north, to Thessalia, in the following spring. It ended up being more or less a race to the Tempe vale, which the Makedonians could not abandon without abandoning Pella in the process. But the Mak general Herakleios Simokattes did win the race, and blocked the way north. In the south, what had originally been inconclusive operations between Patroklos Bardanes’ Makedonian army and the Perseid defenders of Attika under the command of Nikephoros Anaktorios finally began moving again, as Bardanes was forced to abandon Attika and Boiotia, lest he be cut off and surrounded by the Chaonians. So he pulled back to Thermopylai, with the Perseids cautiously pursuing. Both sides managed to hold on to this equilibrium for the next few years, as both of Dodonaios’ attacks into Orestis and Tymphaia to circumvent Tempe were blunted. But in 615, following a remarkable campaign of maneuver in Phthiotis, the Perseid army managed to get through Thermopylai and link up with the Chaonians. The united army, despite some issues of cohesion and dissension, managed to defeat Patroklos Bardanes’ smaller force at the Battle of Thaumakoi in October of 615. By the end of that year, Makedonian possessions south of the Peneios were in serious danger, though the Demetrias-Pagasai metropolis had not yet come under siege.
In the north, what had originally promised to be a devastating Ruxsalannoi assault was turned into a series of desultory raids in Thraikia, as a brushfire war between the Ruxsalannoi and the Goths picked up north of the Danube. The Makedonian forces posted to Thraikia easily warded these off for the time being.
(+15,000 Chaonian levy infantry, +5,000 Makedonian levy infantry)
(+1 Chaonian Prestige, +1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Makedonian Prestige, -Boiotia (Makedonia), -1 Army Assembly Confidence (Makedonia), +1 Thraikian Poleis Confidence, -900 talents from Makedonian income, +50 talents to Chaonian treasury, +20 talents to Perseid treasury, -2,300 Chaonian infantry, -8,300 Chaonian levy infantry, -350 Chaonian cavalry, -400 Gothic infantry, -900 Gothic cavalry, -600 Ruxsalannoi infantry, -1,150 Ruxsalannoi cavalry, -6,700 Makedonian infantry, -11,350 Makedonian levy infantry, -2,650 Makedonian cavalry, -1,250 Makedonian levy cavalry, -1,950 Perseid infantry, -700 Perseid cavalry, -4,600 Perseid levy infantry)
The Goths have proven themselves worthy of fear elsewhere, too. Ariaric thiudans, having exhausted his nearby options, ordered a series of raids on Bosporan Olbia, in the process wiping out a small Bosporan militia force raised to defend the city. With Bosporan attention apparently to the south (see below), the Antes joined in, led by murunda Zeriuranis, successor of the late Boz. Badly outnumbered, most Bosporan troops pulled back to defend the Tauric Isthmus. In 613, Tanais was sacked by the Antes, and the Goths followed it up with sacks at Tyras and Borysthenes the next year. With the king away in Pontos supervising his new conquests, confidence has dropped like a rock, and there are rumors of a palace coup brewing to replace Eupator with a basileus who actually gives a damn about his country.
(+12,000 Bosporan levy infantry, +7,500 Bosporan levy cavalry)
(+1 Gothic Prestige, -1 Bosporan Prestige, -2 Olbian Confidence, -1 Olbian Strength, -1 Gorgipeia Confidence, -2 Gorgipeia Strength, -1 Skythoi Confidence, -2 Skythoi Strength, -480 talents from Bosporan income, +100 talents to Gothic treasury, +60 talents to Antes treasury, -1,300 Gothic infantry, -2,100 Gothic cavalry, -900 Bosporan infantry, -2,400 Bosporan levy infantry, -1,550 Bosporan cavalry, -2,450 Bosporan levy cavalry, -970 Antes cavalry)
“‘Death or Freedom’ should be on our gravestone.”
-Die Toten Hosen, Bonnie und Clyde
International Events
The Winnili appear to have halted their advance in the north for now, though the east is a different matter (see below). In particular, they appear to be cultivating a decent relationship with the Rygians, despite the presence of many Silenga refugees (and Ammatas himself) on the island.
In an apparent sign that the Iberian-Panorman alliance is going down the drain, the drechton – or rather, polemadokos – of Iberia reinstated trade dues in the coastal Hellenic poleis. Admittedly, they are not nearly as high as they had been, but diplomatically, the move was very embarrassing to the Panormans.
(-1 Panorman Prestige, -1 Sikeliot Merchantry Confidence, +175 talents to Iberian income)
The Italian war seems to have finally wound down, with the Panormans and Chaonians recognizing their inability to destroy the Aorsi but, having thwarted the Aorsi in their own goals, have managed to force the Aorsi to accept a relatively low level of tribute.
(+2 Aorsi Prestige, -1 Panorman Prestige, -1 Chaonian Prestige, +1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Panormos), +1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Chaonia))
Representatives from Aigyptos, Panormos, and Makedonia came together at Syrakousai in 611 to formally announce an alliance directed at the Perseid Empire. The boule’s initial suspicion of the program was papered over with a thousand silver Aigyptian talents and (less important) the promise of a total elimination of trade barriers in Makedonia. After being assured by the new polemarchos, Philippikos Mystakon, that this would be a risk-free profit-making enterprise, grudging consent was gained.
This rapidly turned into a sense of angry betrayal in 614 when Sophidosios of Aigyptos ordered a massive tariff increase on Panorman goods, wiping out the fortunes of the few merchant bouleutai with Aigyptian interests and turning them, too, against the plan. (Ironically, the tariff decreased Aigyptian revenues if anything and wiped out the benefits assumed to accrue from Aigyptos’ infrastructural development of a decade prior.) Renewed calls have been issued for the abolition of the polemarchos position and an end to the war with the Perseids, and this time it would appear as though the polemarchos can’t politically escape.
(+2/-2 Panorman Prestige, -1 Makedonian Prestige, +/-1 Sikeliot Merchantry Confidence, -2 Paralioi Confidence, -10 talents from Aigyptian income)
In response to the rather large coalition assembled against him, the wily Andronikos I constructed his own during 611 with a series of bilateral agreements with his enemies’ enemies. He lured the Mysians into a formal agreement with him against his northern enemies in that year by the Treaty of Pergamon; he then backed out of his Pisidian war a few months later (after the Mysians found themselves entangled in naval war with the Makedonians) by the Peace of Apameia. Gersem of Aksum was induced to fight Aigyptos, and Admetos of Chaonia sent representatives to Naupaktos, where they agreed with Perseid negotiators to enter the war against Makedonia. And in exchange for a promise of non-intervention and pilgrimage rights into conquered Attika, Andronikos recognized Eupator V (see below) as basileus Pontou. This rather neatly unhinged the Syrakousai allies’ overall plan (see below) and won the Perseids at least another five years of breathing space.
(+1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Mysian Prestige, +1 Bosporan Prestige)
A collection of stories and Sophist wisdom, al-Kitaab as-Siraar, has begun to circulate widely among the Sophist tribes of Arabia and in Alodia. Its author is reputed to be the recently deceased North African Sophist sage ‘Amr ibn Ghassan. Unlike any of the other Sophist texts in wide use, it has been written in the Arabic script. It contains many of the – contrary to established teachings in the oikoumene – sayings of ‘Amr, as well as millenarian prophecies of the return of the great king Dhu al-Qarnayn, the Great Horned One, who will purify the Sophist faith and return it to its ancient beginnings as the worship of Athyna. In particular, Abu Sufyan, the Qurayshi governor of Makkah, has cracked down on the spread of this book and the religious teachings associated with it.
(-1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Qurayshi Strength)
For much of the year 611, Arkah Haroutyoun played off Seleukid and Areian representatives against each other, promising both that he would intervene on their side, while he assembled his army and got the Antes off of his back in the north. Only in 612 did he make clear that he would side with Areia, in so doing shifting the momentum of the war (see below).
(-1 Seleukid Prestige)
Attempting to capitalize on his monopoly of Perseid trade routes east, the Seleukid king decided to massively raise tariffs on Perseid goods. This had the desired short-term effect of raising some money, though after awhile it wasn’t that useful (see below) and had the damaging effect of destroying what was left of support for a Perseid intervention to save the Seleukids.
(-1 Imperial Bureaucracy Confidence (Perseids), +1350 talents to Seleukid treasury)
After the rather untimely death of the Areian basileus Arkadios, his successor Platon II quickly extricated himself from his war with the Mazsakata by paying them tribute; he then sent his sister Arsinoe to marry the Baktrian basileus and cede him all the lands conquered in the recent war. This cession, which included some of Areia’s most valuable territory (including Old Areia, the nominal heartland of the kingdom), outraged some, but the strategic benefits it conferred were much larger, and people generally recognized the parlous position of an Areia trapped in a three-front war.
(+2 Mazsakata Prestige, -3 Areian Prestige, +2 Baktrian Prestige, -1 Parthyaian Confidence, -2 Parthyaian Strength, +1 Hellenes Confidence (Baktria))
Patalan merchants have been granted duty-free access to Harmozeia, and with that massive advantage began to insinuate themselves into the south Areian market…that is, until 612, when the fire-ships of the Hellenoarabic poleis started up their commerce-raiding again, fueled both by Seleukid silver and by general outrage at their replacement by Patalan merchants in the Gulf carry trade. Patalan gains from trade have been more or less negligible due to the raiding, which the Areians are powerless to suppress yet again due to the minor problem of being outnumbered.
(-1 Areian Prestige, -4 Patalan ships)
Having decided that there was little else to be gained from the resurgent Wu, and increasingly afraid of the Liang, Sui Wen of Yang adeptly switched sides by the Peace of Wuhan at the end of the year 610, promising to attack the Liang in exchange for several border adjustments and a significant indemnity. He then sent that indemnity west to the Houqin to induce them to withdraw, in the process establishing a diplomatic basis for claiming precedence over the Houqin.
(+2 Yang Prestige)
Domestic Events
War exhaustion and associated economic hardships continue to afflict several states, especially the Makedonians, Perseids, Seleukids, Areians, and Wu.
(+varying degrees of economic, military, and political problems in all warring states, especially those mentioned above)
Dryhten Aethelric has been acting rather kingly over the last decade, and these years are no exception: he has ordered the assembly of ‘the Dooms of Aethelric’, a comprehensive (as far as Rygia goes, anyway) code of laws. In addition, to account for the recent movements of peoples within his state, he has ordered that the 609 hidage be extended to the western part of his kingdom.
(+1 Rygian Prestige, +5 talents to Rygian income)
Zanvar of the Aorsi has ordered the reconstruction of Patikapatta, now that the war is over. Substantial funds were disbursed for the project, and the rebuilt town is beginning to get back to normal. Much of the agricultural devastation wrought by the invading armies of the Chaonians and Panormans is being overcome as well.
(+1 Aorsi Prestige, +70 talents to Aorsi income)
As the Aorsi war has died down, the Panorman boule has decided to appropriate lands from the chora of Stoma and sell them off. Unsurprisingly, this pissed off the squatters who had already tried to claim those lands through various means. The overwhelming majority of the land ended up being purchased by major magnates from Sicily, whose personal fortunes hadn’t suffered from the Aorsi invasion, and whose absenteeism already rankled in Megale Hellas. Ramped-up state spending on infrastructure with the proceeds from these dubiously gotten gains did little to salve the wound. With several corruption scandals in the administration of the Aphrikan public lands recently, calls are being ramped up for some kind of reform there as well. Currently the most popular proposals involve settling klerouchoi on the plots, dividing the plots among the peasants that already work them in exchange for military service or increased taxes, or selling the lands to Sicilian magnates.
(150 talents to Panorman infrastructure investment, -1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence, +1 Sikeliot Gentry Confidence, +1 Sikeliot Gentry Strength, +/-1 Aphrikan Confidence)
Chaonia’s literary tradition is improving with the completion of the historical work Chronographia, written by the retired general Menandros Aktios. It’s somewhat out of touch with current political sensibilities, though those change so rapidly that it’s probably not that much of a problem.
(+1 Chaonian Prestige)
Basileus Amyntas has decided to capitalize on the growing tradition of Sophist osioi by constructing a small shrine to Zoe, a local martyr, near Thebai. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
The Qurayshi rebellion has been rather rapidly nipped in the bud by negusa nagast Gersem, who essentially promised the Arabs more or less full autonomy and the ability to select their own governor. This led to the predictable seizure of gubernatorial power by Abu Sufyan and a rapid purge of his rivals in Makkah. What Gersem apparently didn’t expect was that the former governor of Teiman, having spent the last few years quietly embezzling money, would promptly – that is, in 611 – rebel in outrage at the monarch’s arbitrary exercise of his power (see below).
(-1 Aksumite Prestige, -Banu Quraysh, +Qataban, +Qurayshi (Aksum), -Sab’yn (Aksum), -45 talents from Aksumite income)
Something of a revival of Karmano-Gedrosian regionalism has been observed in Areia, emphasized by the loss of control over the main arteries of transportation to the region from the Areian capital and, more than anything else, the long war.
(+Karmania (Areia))
Sentiment is rising in Baktria for a proper reorganization of the recently-conquered lands taken from Areia. The region, naturally fertile, is mostly fallow due in part to Areia’s scorched-earth policies under Arkadios in the last war, and to Baktria’s failure to distribute territories among its military colonists. What enrages many people is that basileus Diodotos, instead of providing agricultural relief, spent a vast sum on his son’s wedding to the Areian princess Arsinoe, tripling the amount that even the late debauched Arkadios wasted on his own royal wedding several years ago.
(-2 Royal Bureaucracy Confidence, -1 Katoikiai Confidence)
In 612, the then-archon of Patalene, Antialkidas, proposed a plan to give state money to slaves. This was quickly shot down by basically every major Patalan political figure.
(-1 Antipatreian Confidence, -1 Oraian Confidence)
The qagan of the Tantan has, to the consternation of most of his hordesmen, elected to raid in the west this year. This was a proposal rather out of left field, as it alienated the Tiele and Jiankun of the eastern territories, and it neglected to take advantage of the distraction of the Houqin, but at least it netted some loot (see below) and made the Xazarlar happy.
(-25,000 Tantan levy cavalry)
(-1 Tiele Yabghu Confidence, -2 Jiankun Yabghu Confidence, +1 Xazarlar Yabghu Confidence)
Buddhism is beginning to grow noticeably more popular in Wu, Jin, and Yamato.
Military Events
In 614, yet another Brythonic revolt kicked off in western Rygian territory as the Silenga from the Continent were settled in the west. The harsh response to this provoked – finally – a Cambrian response, as the Council (with some dissension) induced its members to go to war against Rygia. Though operations have not really begun, as both sides need time to call up levies, some border fighting has ensued, chiefly around the Rygian village of Boreshill. Within Cambria itself, Powys attempted to oppose the council’s decision militarily, but Ceredigian warriors scattered the Powysians near Muallt in the spring of 615. Some of the Powysians managed to escape to Rygia, though.
(+23,000 Cambrian levy infantry, +22,000 Rygian levy infantry)
(-Powys (Cambria), -Brythonic Natives (Rygia), +1 Dyfnaint Confidence, +1 Rygi Confidence, +2 Silenga Strength, +10 talents to Cambrian treasury, -50 Cambrian infantry, -230 Cambrian levy infantry, -40 Rygian infantry, -110 Rygian levy infantry)
Iberia’s policy for the war centered on consolidating control of western Walhia to ensure that they could not be evicted – a sound if limited policy. Further advances would be geographically difficult, anyway, polemadokos Gerold reasoned. However, his policy of raiding Walhia to preclude any Walhic offensive ended up being off the mark – for Wiolant, too, had decided to sit on the defensive, and rely on ambushes and traps to wipe out attacking forces. The Iberians waltzed straight into one of these traps on the Liga River in 612, though they managed to extricate themselves from it without suffering too many losses. What really unhinged Iberian plans, though, was the redirection of Aorsi horsemen west after the end of the Italian war. Under the command of Sangiban, Sannic cavalry rode along the northern Iberian coastline, doing their usual rape-and-pillage acts, and notably sacking Massalia in 613. Though they never really managed to link up with the Walhic army, they ran riot within Iberian territory itself and forced the Iberians to split off a large portion of their army to keep them in check. Due to the reconstruction of Silakoufstat, the Iberians’ numerical inferiority to the Walhic army didn’t end up counting for a whole lot, but they did lose conquered territory before 615.
(+10,000 Walhic levy infantry, +5,000 Iberian levy infantry)
(-1 Iberian Prestige, +1 Aorsi Prestige, +1 Yazyga Confidence, -1 Aulerci Natives Confidence, +1 Silenga Strength, -2 Atmona Bastarna Strength, -2 Hatta Marcher-Lords Strength, -1 Hatta Assembly Confidence, +1 Sannic Aursa Strength, -15 talents from Walhic income, -35 talents from Iberian income, +10 talents to Iberian treasury, +90 talents to Aorsi treasury, -1,250 Walhic infantry, -4,600 Walhic levy infantry, -50 Walhic cavalry, -1,700 Iberian infantry, -5,350 Iberian levy infantry, -270 Iberian cavalry, -1,800 Aorsi levy cavalry)
Aorsi cavalry were busy elsewhere, too – to the north. The long and arduous route through the Alps was deemed ‘worth it’ to try to snag some loot from the Burgunda and perhaps forestall their apparently dangerous advance. In 612 the Burgunda drive on Windelicoppidos was blunted by the Aorsi from across the mountains, though their numbers were badly depleted by a harsh transit. Through 613 and 614, the Aorsi performed sterling service against the Burgunda, at least in more open terrain. As the Burgunda fell back towards the east, though, the increasingly rough terrain allowed them to score some ambush victories of their own against the Aorsi, while the poor plunder that was available didn’t exactly light the Aorsi hordesmen on fire. After the passes south opened up in the spring of 615, the Aorsi left, and the Burgunda quickly resumed their offensive against a Windelician state that was on its last legs. Windelicoppidos itself was conquered that fall, and soon the surrounding states raced to gobble what they could.
(-Windelicia, +various nightmarishly complicated stat reshuffling for Winnili, Walhia, Burgunda, and Aorsi)
In connection with the ever-widening war to the east (see below), Panormos and Chaonia suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a war almost immediately after a mutual alliance against the Aorsi had just ended. Many Panormans were bitter about the Chaonian failure to support them adequately against the Aorsi, so little love was lost between the two. Military operations began in 612, when the large Panorman army in Kampania, under the command of Niketas Katanes, marched through the Apennines and attacked the much smaller Chaonian army of Herakles Boiannes at…Boianon. Following up this rather decisive victory over the Chaonians, the battle-hardened Panorman troops scattered a large force of levies at Kanousion the following year, methodically conquering outposts from the Chaonians. Only Barion and Hydros in Apoulia held out by the end of 615, due in large part to Panorman overwhelming force.
(+15,000 Chaonian levy infantry)
(+2 Panorman Prestige, -2 Chaonian Prestige, -3 Megale Hellenic Poleis Confidence (Chaonia), -1 Megale Hellenic Poleis Strength (Chaonia), -3,400 talents from Chaonian income, +200 talents to Panorman treasury, -3,750 Panorman infantry, -150 Panorman cavalry, -1,150 Chaonian infantry, -12,400 Chaonian levy infantry)
Chaonia’s entry into the war and the abandonment of the original allied war plan in a way helped to save Makedonia. It meant that Archelaos (and later, his son Leon) had the germ of an army left with which to oppose the Chaonian offensive into Dolopia and Ainis in late 611. The outnumbered Makedonians initially were able to hold their ground, warding off the Chaonian general Neoptolemos Dodonaios in an inconclusive battle on the Spercheios River before winter set in. With the way to Attika surely blocked, the Chaonian army tried to break out to the north, to Thessalia, in the following spring. It ended up being more or less a race to the Tempe vale, which the Makedonians could not abandon without abandoning Pella in the process. But the Mak general Herakleios Simokattes did win the race, and blocked the way north. In the south, what had originally been inconclusive operations between Patroklos Bardanes’ Makedonian army and the Perseid defenders of Attika under the command of Nikephoros Anaktorios finally began moving again, as Bardanes was forced to abandon Attika and Boiotia, lest he be cut off and surrounded by the Chaonians. So he pulled back to Thermopylai, with the Perseids cautiously pursuing. Both sides managed to hold on to this equilibrium for the next few years, as both of Dodonaios’ attacks into Orestis and Tymphaia to circumvent Tempe were blunted. But in 615, following a remarkable campaign of maneuver in Phthiotis, the Perseid army managed to get through Thermopylai and link up with the Chaonians. The united army, despite some issues of cohesion and dissension, managed to defeat Patroklos Bardanes’ smaller force at the Battle of Thaumakoi in October of 615. By the end of that year, Makedonian possessions south of the Peneios were in serious danger, though the Demetrias-Pagasai metropolis had not yet come under siege.
In the north, what had originally promised to be a devastating Ruxsalannoi assault was turned into a series of desultory raids in Thraikia, as a brushfire war between the Ruxsalannoi and the Goths picked up north of the Danube. The Makedonian forces posted to Thraikia easily warded these off for the time being.
(+15,000 Chaonian levy infantry, +5,000 Makedonian levy infantry)
(+1 Chaonian Prestige, +1 Perseid Prestige, -1 Makedonian Prestige, -Boiotia (Makedonia), -1 Army Assembly Confidence (Makedonia), +1 Thraikian Poleis Confidence, -900 talents from Makedonian income, +50 talents to Chaonian treasury, +20 talents to Perseid treasury, -2,300 Chaonian infantry, -8,300 Chaonian levy infantry, -350 Chaonian cavalry, -400 Gothic infantry, -900 Gothic cavalry, -600 Ruxsalannoi infantry, -1,150 Ruxsalannoi cavalry, -6,700 Makedonian infantry, -11,350 Makedonian levy infantry, -2,650 Makedonian cavalry, -1,250 Makedonian levy cavalry, -1,950 Perseid infantry, -700 Perseid cavalry, -4,600 Perseid levy infantry)
The Goths have proven themselves worthy of fear elsewhere, too. Ariaric thiudans, having exhausted his nearby options, ordered a series of raids on Bosporan Olbia, in the process wiping out a small Bosporan militia force raised to defend the city. With Bosporan attention apparently to the south (see below), the Antes joined in, led by murunda Zeriuranis, successor of the late Boz. Badly outnumbered, most Bosporan troops pulled back to defend the Tauric Isthmus. In 613, Tanais was sacked by the Antes, and the Goths followed it up with sacks at Tyras and Borysthenes the next year. With the king away in Pontos supervising his new conquests, confidence has dropped like a rock, and there are rumors of a palace coup brewing to replace Eupator with a basileus who actually gives a damn about his country.
(+12,000 Bosporan levy infantry, +7,500 Bosporan levy cavalry)
(+1 Gothic Prestige, -1 Bosporan Prestige, -2 Olbian Confidence, -1 Olbian Strength, -1 Gorgipeia Confidence, -2 Gorgipeia Strength, -1 Skythoi Confidence, -2 Skythoi Strength, -480 talents from Bosporan income, +100 talents to Gothic treasury, +60 talents to Antes treasury, -1,300 Gothic infantry, -2,100 Gothic cavalry, -900 Bosporan infantry, -2,400 Bosporan levy infantry, -1,550 Bosporan cavalry, -2,450 Bosporan levy cavalry, -970 Antes cavalry)
wow, I can’t say ‘balance of power’ with a straight face, I’m sorry – in China, Zhao Wenming dispatched a sizable expeditionary force southwards instead, to Funan, which was in the throes of yet another civil war in the midst of Thai invasions. Commanded by Anguo Mo, the expedition, which arrived in 612, duly sponsored the weaker side in the civil war, led by one Kaudinya. After delivering the increasingly weak central government a deadly blow at the Battle of Vyadhapura the following year, Anguo Mo besieged Óc Eo itself, capturing it in early 615. Much of the work in pacifying Funanese territory remains to be done, but with the imposition of Kaudinya as the puppet ruler of Funan, it will mostly not have to be done by Nanyue troops. In the meantime, more territories spun off or were conquered by the Thai.
