Chapter 1: Earth’s Funeral Dirge
Wars of Heaven
Chapter 2: Mouth of Sheol
From the beginning, there have been there have been those “with itching ears” who gather to themselves those who would tell all sorts of gossip. Knowing this, you sent me to the East, to determine for myself what is gossip and what is truth, and discovering it, to report back to you. Having been in the region now for three months, I have diligently investigated these matters and now report to you only that which I have seen with my own eyes.
I have found the East shattered by long-standing feuds, which have been subsisting between its peoples, and which now are tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord, “woven from the top throughout.” I have found the foxes destroying the vineyard of Christ, so that among the broken cisterns that hold no water it is hard to discover “the sealed fountain” and “the garden enclosed.” In the fruitful soil of Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, it bears fruit as a hundredfold, but here the seed corn is chocekd in the furrows and nothing grows but darnel or oats. In the West the Sun of Righteousness is even now rising; in the East, Lucifer, who fell from heaven, has once more set his throne above the stars.
Everywhere I turn my eyes towards, there the children of God are suffering, experiencing “mockings and scourgings, yes chains and imprisonment.” “The are stoned, they are sawn in two, they are tempted, they are put to death with the sword, they go about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated.” For in the East the Augustus goes about “like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
For none are spared, neither on account of age, nor sex, nor station, nor dignity. I myself saw this as I sojourned in Alexandria. There, the most blessed pope Timothy, who was beloved of all, not only for his love of the truth, but for his upstanding character, and his care for the widows and orphans, was accosted by the soldiers of the Devil. (Now these soldiers claim to be Roman, but are barbarians, having neither culture nor fear for God). And there, while he was comforting his flock before the altar of God, he was seized, and dragged away. At the sight of this, that such an elderly and venerable man treated so roughly, the people arose with one mind, and attacked the soldiers, seeking to free him. But Timothy, sought to calm the crowd, reminding them that even Christ suffered, and so, if they loved him, they would let him suffer as well, and so to “fill that which was lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” But the people did not heed these words, such was the righteous anger they felt, and raised such a tumult that the soldiers feared for their lives. And now they have hid pope Timothy, so that no one knows whether he is alive or dead. And in his place they have installed Decius, a blasphemer and hater of God. On account of this every day there are riots in the streets.
Now of this and many other things I have much to tell you, which I shall quickly do if the Lord grants me to safety in my journey so that I may speedily see you.
-Letter from Jerome to Pope Damasus, 383 CE
Ever so slowly, the number of men claiming the title of “Augustus” was being whittled down. In the west, Magnus Maximus and Ennodius had defeated Merobaudes and Valentinian II, while in the east, Richomeres had killed Ammanius, uniting the east under his rule. Meanwhile, another claimant to the title, Frigeridus, had renounced his claim, in return being made Caesar of Illyria and Pannonia and granted protection by Ennodius. One would think that this would be enough to cause peace to descend upon the war-torn Empire, but, of course, one would be wrong.
It is easy to blame the failure of peace on religion, for the various sides were quick to justify their actions by appealing to the conveniently silent Divine. But of course, as is often the case, the easy answer is usually the wrong answer, or at the very least an insufficient answer. That is not to say that religion did not play a part. In the east, Richomeres moved to consolidate his recently won Empire by removing homoousion supporting bishops and replacing them with his own bishops from the homoiousion party. In several places, this policy provoked severe riots, most notably in Alexandria. This religious policy also caused friction with the homoousion supporting West, friction which was only inflamed by the verbal and written attacks against the homoiousions by talented theologians such as Ambrose of Milan and Jerome.
There were, as was said, other factors to the lack of peace. In the east, Richomeres courted with disaster by inviting over Germanic tribes to bolster the Roman armies decimated by recent wars. While these tribes, most notably the Goths, gave him his victories, they also proved a liability. In their newly established kingdoms in Macedonia and Achaia, the Goths gave only lip-service to their oaths of loyalty to Richomeres, doing what they wished as often as what Richomeres wished. In addition, the West, specifically Ennodius, had legitimatized and given protection to Richomeres’ rival Frigeridus, leading Richomeres to believe that they would eventually declare Frigeridus the rightful Eastern Augustus. Lastly, there were the personal pride and ambition of everyone involved, for the previous wars had quickly weeded out anyone who was not willing to do anything to attain and keep the royal purple.
Thus it seemed inevitable that the Empire would be again torn asunder, and, as is usually the case, what seemed inevitable proved to be inevitable. Using the persecution as his pretext, Ennodius launched an invasion of the East. This attack took two prongs. The first was an invasion led by Frigeridus from Pannonia into Richomeres’ European realms. This attack was proclaimed to be the liberation of Roman lands from the barbaric rule of the Goths and their weak puppet Richomeres. This front, however, would prove to be diversionary to the main theatre of Egypt. There, Ennodius personally led an army to “liberate” Egypt, especially Alexandria, and cut off Richomeres’ from the riches of Asia. Facing him was Richomeres’ son Theudemeres while Richomeres faced off against his old rival Frigeridus.
In the north, things went badly for the Westerners. Despite all the talk of “liberating” the East from the barbarians, Frigeridus’ own army was comprised mostly of Alans. Meanwhile, Richomeres’ army depended upon his Gothic allies which had given him victory so many times before. These two armies met near their old stomping grounds at Marcianopolis. Though the battle ended in a bloody draw, during the course of the battle, Frigeridus was killed. Leaderless, his army turned from an army into raiders, wandering around the burnt over territory of Moesia in search of loot. Judging these remnants as little threat, Richomeres took the bulk of the army south to meet the threat to Asia, leaving his nephew Arbogastes in charge of hunting down the remaining Alans.
Richomeres had good reason to hurry south. In Egypt, the advancing Ennodius was greeted as a liberator. Facing an army before him and revolt behind his lines, Theudemeres abandoned Alexandria, slowly retreating northward. In Alexandria, Ennodius moved rapidly to consolidate his position, deposing the “Pretender Pope” Decius and elevating a favorite of the Roman pope, his secretary Jerome, to the position. Jerome moved with rapidness, using the repressed fanaticism of his Alexandrian supporters to “cleanse,” sometimes forcibly, the various churches of Alexandria and reclaim them for orthodoxy.
Meanwhile, Ennodius managed to force a battle upon Theudemeres at Pelusium. Ennodius placed his undependable Egyptian levies on his left against the equally undependable Asiatic levies of his opponent, while his centre was occupied by the veterans legions of his own wars. Finally, on his right, he stationed his Numidian cavalry, reinforced by Arabic mercenaries which faced Theudemeres’ own Gothic cavalry. In the battle, the Gothic cavalry scattered the opposing cavalry, while Ennodius centre was victorious over their opposites. Ennodius' troops, however, proved more disciplined as the Goths immediately went to sack Ennodius' camp, while his own centre moved to help his left, routing that group as well. The Goths, finding themselves abandoned by the rest of the army, retreated, Ennodius, respecting the still formidable power represented by the Goths, refusing to pursue them. During the retreat, however, it was discovered that Theudemeres was missing, presumably being killed when his center collapsed.
Despite this, the entirety of the East did not fall immediately to Ennodius. One reason for this is that outside of Egypt, the homoiousion party reigned supreme in the East. Without the popular support he enjoyed in Egypt, Ennodius found it slow going against the heavily fortified cities of the East, as the homoiousion party rallied support against Ennodius, turning what Ennodius had planned on being a liberation of like-minded Romans into a war of conquest against a culturally different foe. In this task of conquest Ennodius faced the remnants of Theudemeres’ army, which was eventually reinforced by an army led by Richomeres himself.
What followed in the south was a stalemate. Both Emperors knew that they risked their lives and their Empires in a direct battle. Also, neither one of them had great confidence in their ability to win a battle, Richomeres because he was forced to rely so heavily on suspect troops, and Ennodius because he feared Richomeres’ reputation as a general. Thus, with neither one facing either problems at home, or supply problems which would cause them to act, they settled down to a stalemate. This stalemate was broken, not in the south, but in the north, by Richomeres’ nephew and now recognized heir, Arbogastes. By promising the raiding Alans large tracts of land in Pannonia, Arbogastes managed to convince the leaderless Alans to fight with him. With these troops, as well as his original troops, Arbogastes marched northward, invading the vulnerable West. Easily breaking through the West’s weakened defenses, Arbogastes seemed poised to march into Italy itself. This threat caused Ennodius to return with most of his army to Italy, leaving the defense of Egypt to his son, Julius.
Richomeres took this opportunity to launch a renewed attack on Egypt, smashing the weakened army facing him, killing Julius in the process. Jerome, the Patriarch of Alexandria, took over overseeing the defenses of Egypt, but as Richomeres approached Alexandria, resistance seemed futile, though Jerome refused all council to flee the city. Taking matters into their own hands, some of Jerome’s followers kidnapped the stubborn prelate, depositing him in the relative safety of the monks of the Egyptian desert. When Richomeres finally fought his way into Alexandria, he went on a rampage, making a river from the blood of all those he suspected of treason or who were labeled as leaders of the homoousion party.
But while all homoiousions rejoiced at this as a sign of God’s favor, it appeared as if God decided to rain down both blessings and cursings. For news further West looked increasingly grim. The other Western Augustus, Magnus Maximus, a firm persecutor of those he deemed “heretics” in his own lands, decided that he couldn’t risk the prospect of heretics prospering outside of his lands either. Thus, he declared war on Richomeres, enforcing his declaration with a large army. Arbogastes, finding himself facing not one, but two armies, was forced slowly backwards, losing the lands he had so recently gained. Meanwhile, the reconquest of Egypt was tying down large numbers of Richomeres’ troops, so that he could not afford to spare any to help his nephew.
As it so happened, Arbogastes received something almost as good as fresh legions, the attentions of Lady Luck. Perhaps because of personal jealousy, or some other reason, Magnus Maximus and Ennodius refused to cooperate with each other, though each maintained an army on the field against Arbogastes. Eventually, the gap between the two armies became wide enough for Arbogastes to attempt to use his interior lines to defeat first one enemy, before then turning on the other. The first one to receive his attack was Magnus Maximus, whose military reputation earned through the wars against Merobaudes proved to be greater than his actual skill. The rapid march of Arbogastes’ cavalry caught Magnus of guard. Despite that, however, the best of Magnus’ troops, led by his brother Marcellinus, fought a sharp action in an attempt to buy the rest of the army time to ready itself. However, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Marcellinus’ delaying action failed, and the rest of the army, seeing their best troops scattered, themselves took to flight. In the retreat, Magnus was captured by Arbogastes’ fast moving cavalry, and put to death by the victorious general. Magnus’ son, Victor, proved to have little stomach for the fight and led the remnants of the shattered army back to his slice of the Empire.
This action left only Ennodius opposing Arbogastes. Ennodius, fearing that he would be caught of guard like Magnus was, immediately stopped and fortified his position. Arbogastes, however, in a series of forced marches managed to get behind Ennodius, coming between Ennodius’ army and Italy. Realizing that cut off from his territory, he now had to fight, Ennodius marched out to do battle. However, every step of his march, his army came under harassing attacks by the fast moving cavalry of his enemy, so that by the time the two main armies actually met, Ennodius’ army was low on morale and sapped of its strength. A quick charge by Arbogastes’ personal guard of loyal Franks broke the wavering soldiers, while the Alans and Goths pursued the fleeing enemy until dark.
Victorious in battle, with the enemy reeling, Arbogastes marched into Rome. However, instead of conquering it in the name of his uncle, he did something entirely unexpected, he made himself Augustus of the West.
