400-499 (Abrittus)

Due to Rome´s defensive doctrine and friendly relations with the Sassanids, this is a century of relative peace, stability, innovations and increasing living standards in the Mediterranean space.

While the development of the slave-free Roman economy outpaces both their Celtic and Sassanid neighbours, the latter two are also at the height of their imperial glory.

The Celtic Empire conquers the entire British Isles and brings forth an empiricist philosophy which contributes greatly to the early development of modern sciences. Towards the end of the century, the Celtic Empire is indebted to its own citizens and has debased its currency greatly, though.

The Sassanid Empire controls Persia and the Gulf and all the Indo-Aryan lands formerly controlled by the Kushana and Shaka as well as Bactria, Sogdia and more of the Central Asian steppe beyond as well as the steppe between the Caspic Sea and the Aral Sea. In trade as well as in cultural exchange, the Sassanid Empire profits heavily from its intensified contacts to China, India and the Roman Empire. Scientific, theological and cultural innovations are created here. The latest among them, social revolutionary Mazdakism, shakes the foundation of the empire towards the end of the century.

400s
Sassanid / Roman Empire: Indian cotton carding bows come into use across the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

401
Celtic Empire: Caledonians and other Picts cross Antony's wall and raid Northern Britannia. Caesar Spurious Cumbricus sends a massive army to the North.

402
Celtic Empire: After the last battles in the highlands and on several islands close to the shore, the entire larger British Isle is under control of the Celtic Empire. Clan chiefs are held as hostages or enslaved and several garrisons stationed in the low- and highlands.

403
After repeated raids and acts of piracy, the Roman Senate decides to secure its emporium in Mosylon (in OTL Somalia, which is an important commercial centre and port town for Roman-Indian trade, with a strong naval presence. The Optimates-dominated Senate follows a doctrine elaborated by the Academia Martiana, which defines the protection of the republic's most vital economic interests as acts of "defense", too. The "Aulian Doctrine", named after the academy's most outspoken professor, marks the definite end of the young republic's ultra-defensive foreign policy and the beginning of a new imperial strategy, aimed not at enlarging imperial territory, plundering foreign cities, exacting tributes from vassals or capturing slaves, but at safeguarding good business of Rome's quickly developing enterprises, i.e. access to resources, safe and affordable transport routes and access to outlet markets.

404
Sassanid Empire (India): At the University of Barygaza, mathematicians in the Devangari tradition come up with the idea of a number "zero".

405
Sassanid Empire: The second Sassanid university with Sogdian as official language opens in Bukhara.

406
Celtic Empire: The two new provinces Caledonia and Pictandia become a part of the Empire, its inhabitants become Celtic citizens.

409
Tamilakam: Ostrogothic sea merchants establish close connections with Cochin, the Cheran town with a large Jewish community. Dependences will be created here, and Cochin will serve as the Ostrogothic main base for the pepper and pearl trade with Muchiri, Korkai, and Kaveripattinam.

410s
Roman Empire: The technique of blowing glass over oil lamps is greatly improved in the Cyrenaic and Egyptian civitates.

410
Franconia: High King Lothar I dies. The Celtic Caesar, the Roman Emperor and many Germanic kings attend his funeral in Bonn, where many stone buildings are erected which would house the organs of the Frankish confederal institutions and administration.

He is succeeded by his son, Lothar II, who soon starts a program of building Roman-style roads and aquaeducts.

412
Roman Empire: At a Syrian Academia Vulcania in Damascus, the first vertical windmill is planned. A first  improved version is installed six years later near Caesarea.

413
The small town and market place of Peresechen on the river Hierasus (OTL Siret) is mentioned for the first time. Romans from Dacia trade with members of several Slavic tribes.

414
Saxony / Frisia: Angrivarian Saxons invade the largest Frisian town, Dorestad, where more than 25,000 people live from trade with the Celtic, and to a lesser extent also Roman, Empire. They demand high tribute payments for the city's "protection".

415
Aksum / Nobatia: Under pressure from Nobatian bishops, who fear a Simonist rebellion in Nobatia, King Silko officially accepts Aksumite suzerainty.

The plan did not work out quite the way the miaphysitic bishops had hoped, though. Aksum stationed troops in Nobatia and secured its new sub-kingdom / province, but in the same year, Emperor Eon guaranteed freedom of religion to all his subjects, although he continued to sponsor exclusively the state church of Aksum - a move with which he aimed to alleviate tensions in Southern Makuria, where animinist nomad populations opposed Christianisation. Thus, Simonists were tolerated in Nobatia as well. Since education at a school of the Church of Aksum was the ticket into leading administrative positions, though, Aksumite miaphysitism remained dominant in Nobatia, though.

416
Celtic Empire: Anaraudus, professor of philosophy at the University of Lutetia, publishes his main work, "De organis scientiae", in which he rejects the "transcendental speculations" of (Neo-)Platonism as well as the New Academic School of Skepticism, and defines standards for an empirical quest for truth. His philosophy quickly becomes the dominant paradigm at Celtic universities, helped along also by leading politicians who see a chance for identity building - which is ironic because historians of science attribute Anaraudus' empiricism to the mechanical revolution in the Roman Empire...

Franconia / Saxony: Saxons attack the Salian kingdoms and extort tribute.

417
Gupta India: Kumaragupta I calls together an assembly of learned men and begins the codification of a vast body of hitherto merely traditional laws, aimed at stabilising his Empire even after his death and setting a clear frame for both his administration and his various small vassals, whom he has granted far-reaching local autonomy, which the body of common law is supposed to contain and frame.

418
Gupta India: Kumaragupta I founds the University of Nalanda, which would become India's greatest centre of Buddhism and science.

Saxony: At the annual Thing in Marklo, the fatalistic thesis that the Asen (AEsir) have either lost their power, or their interest in humanity, is voiced.

419
The small town / marketplace of Homia (OTL Homel) is mentioned for the first time in a contract in which local Mordwinian fur traders guarantee to sell their goods exclusively to the Ostrogothic merchant syndicate of the Atarkbaktoi (=the fearless). The document also mentions Slavic farmers inhabiting the lands in the immediate South-Western proximity of Homia.

420
Roman Empire: Researchers at an Academia Cerealia in Thagaste (Africa Carthagensis) invent a mechanical cotton carding machine.

421
Roman Empire / Sheba: Rome's naval presence in Aden is increased to secure Roman-Indian trade. The Roman presence is not extremely popular with Sabaeans, but it strengthens the local economy and the importance of one of Sheba's largest port towns.

422
Franconia / Alemannia: Led by Ripuarian kings, the Franks defeat Alemannic clans between the Moenus and the Neckar and expand their rule Eastward onto these lands, too.

423
Persian Empire: The largest university of the Sassanid Empire in Gundishapur opens a mathematics department, where many scholars from India work. They introduce the Devanagari numerical system to the West of the Sassanid Empire.

424
Franconia / Alemannia: An Alemannic alliance led by warriors from Alemannia's largest Northern town, Lopoden / Lopodunum (OTL Ladenburg), tries to push the Franks back North. In a battle near Heppenheim, the Frankish cavalry and infantry prevail. The Franks lay siege on Lopoden. Before the city falls, many Alemanni manage to flee Southwards across the Neckar. Lopoden is made into a Frankish fort.

426
Roman Empire: The first alcohol still is operated in Sicily. Licinus, a landowner, sells brandy made from wine in Syracuse.

427
Celtic Empire: After Scotian attacks on Pictandia, Caesar Marcus Vasco commands the largest invasion fleet in the history of the Celtic Empire into the Hibernian Sea and conquers Scotia (the North-Eastern tip of the island called Ireland in OTL).

Sassanid Empire: Balkh is the second university to open a mathematics department. It will be followed by more than ten universities in the next five years.

428
Gupta India: At the University of Nalanda, a department for Natural Philosophy opens. Its first Dean is from the University of Barygaza in the Sassanid Empire.

Franconia: Ripuarian Franks subdue scattered groups of Hermunduri who had settled south of the hills. To control the land along the Eastern Moenus, castles are built in Virtburg (OTL Würzburg) and Babenberg (OTL Bamberg).

High King Lothar II bans Christian churches in the lands of the confederacy, after Christian priests among the subdued Alemanni had preached against the campaign in the East.

429
Celtic Empire: Having consolidated control of Scotia, Marcus Vasco decides to ride the wave of Celtic nationalism and conquer the rest of the island, too. He forges an alliance with the Ulaid of Emain Macha against the Gael of Tara, who were the most powerful overkings in Hibernia, and prepares a joint campaign.

430
Celtic Empire: Celtic legions and the Ulaid defeat the Gael in open battle, assume control over all other kingdoms in Hibernia and lay siege on Tara.

431
Celtic Empire: Tara falls. Celtic Caesar Marcus Vasco and Ulaid High King Brian divide the island among themselves, with the entire South falling to the Celtic Empire.

Roman Empire: The teachings of Nestor, one of the most renowned theologians at the influential School of Edessa, are declared heresies on the Catholic Council of Ephesus. Nestor and his followers are expelled from their school. They found a new sect (Nestorianism). Because Nestorians use the Aramaic language as liturgical language, they soon gain great popularity among the Syrian population. Catholicism becomes marginalised in Eastern Syria, where fifty years later, it only comes third among the Christian churches after Nestorianism and Simonism.

432
Sassanid Empire: In the Northern satrapies of the Sassanid Empire, the economical Chinese method of papermaking is adapted to environments without mulberry trees and bamboos, using other wood leftovers instead. Its first use among wealthier Sogdians, Gandharans and Bactrians is - imitating Chinese practices - as toilet paper.

433
Celtic Empire: Scotia and Hibernia become provinces of the Celtic Empire. Arabia / Sassanid Empire: Supported by Sheba, which seeks to gain control over the Strait of Hormuz, the South-Eastern arabian tribe of the Azd revolts against Sassanid leadership. The Sassanids unleash their Arabian allies, the Lakhmids, whose mounted archers defeat the revolting Azd. Some rebels flee into remote mountain regions.

434
Roman Empire: To aid trade and the dissemination of inventions, the Senate decides to expand the "cursus publicus" (the Roman postal system) and open it for the use by private persons. Post offices are opened in cities and towns across the empire. Retired professional soldiers are employed in these post offices, on the post ships and as post riders.

Arabia: The Jafnids, led by the Jewish king Jabalah III ibn al Nu´man, seize the opportunity and attack and plunder al-Hira, the capital of the Lakhmids. Jabalah dies in the battle for al-Hira, though. While still in al-Hira, his three sons each attempt to mobilise support for their claim to leadership.

435
St Kinnon founds the Celtic Church; a pelagianist brand of Christianity.

436
Celtic Empire: The largest fleet of Angles and Saxons so far manages to break through Celtic defense lines and plunders and devastates Batavia and Britannia.

437
Arabia: In return for Lakhmid support in the war against the Hepthalites, the Sassanid shah Bahram V. lends military support for the reconquest of al-Hira.

Celtic Empire / Saxony: The Celtic Caesar Lucius Scoticus launches a comprehensive punitive campaign against the Angles and Saxons. His alliances includes the Frankish Confederacy and the Frisians, who seek to escape from Saxon threats and demands for tribute.

Frankish and Celtic cavalries, who have learned a lot from their encounters with the Huns and adapted Roman strategies developed during and after the Hun Wars, defeat the Saxons first at Ulft, then at Eresburg, where a holy tree of the Saxons, the Irminsul, is felled. The defeat and the desecration of their sacred place throws Saxon society into a long cultural and political crisis.

At the same time, the Celtic navy, aided by a handful of Frisians, sails up the rivers Weser and Elbe and burns down major Saxon settlements. When the infantry and cavalry join them, they march Northwards and conquer Anglia. Two more battles at Marklo and at the Egða are lost by the Saxons and Anglons respectively. Before winter comes, two thirds of the Saxon territory and all of Anglia are brought under Celtic control, with some parts of Saxony (Westphalia) annexed by Franks.

438
Arabia: Lakhmids defeat the internally divided Jafnids and conquer them.

Celtic Empire / Saxony / Anglia: Lucius Scoticus (who can also call himself Saxonicus maximus and Anglicus maximus now) decides to make Anglia an imperial Celtic province, while letting Saxony survive as a vassal state. Celtic troops remain stationed across Western and Central Saxony and erect a dozen castra and naval bases, among them Castra Martellis, which would in later centuries become Hammaburg / Hamburg, the capital of an independent Saxon kingdom.

439
Persian Empire: Positional notation with Devangari numerals and the number zero, which allows elegant calculations, is accepted at all new mathematical faculties across the empire.

Saxony: This year's Althing at Marklo marks the lowest point in Saxon history so far. More than half of Saxony's ethelinga are held as hostages in the Celtic Empire, while the rest is forced to nominate a permanent king, who must also be palatable to the Celtic Caesar and Senate.

In this sombre mood, a new religious movement, which has found followers among the simple Saxon peasants, makes its appearance at the Althing, too: They believe that a new age (the "third age" in the Germanic mythology, hence the later label "Third Age interpretation") ruled by the Vanir, instead of the AEsir, has begun.

440s
 The Saxon schism between those who believe that the AEsir have merely chosen to be silent (which would later come to be called "Odinists") and the followers of the "Third Age Interpretation" deepens. Among the ethelinga, the former prevail, and some Third Age ethelinga are ousted.

 The religious schism reaches the courts of Frankish kings, too.

440
Gupta India: An ample project of infrastructural improvement (canals, roads, border and town fortifications) is finished by Kumaragupta's administration.

441
Celtic Empire / Ulster: Brian, High King in Eamain Macha, dies. Quarrels break out among his sons, who mobilise different petty kings into a war of succession.

442
Roman Empire: In the process of the extension and modernisation of the dams and mills at Leptis Magna, the first water powered cotton carding machines are built and used.

Celtic Empire: Celtic legions intervene in the war of Ulain succession. They install Mahon as High King. Emain Macha becomes tributary to the Celtic Empire.

443
A document written in the civitas of Porolissum attests to the new boom of trade and interaction of the Roman civitates of this region with people living in the wood steppes North of Roman Dacia after the fall of the Gothic Empire. Along the rivers Hierasus, Pyretus and Tyras (OTL Siret, Prut and Dniester), towns seem to have formed where predominantly Slavic inhabitants (peasants and some craftsmen) live together with traders and a few priests, scribes, craftsmen, guards and teachers from the Roman civitates. It lists the following towns and marketplaces with their Latin and indigenous names:

Vadum Hierasi, apud Costobocos: Neted (OTL Pascani);

Vallis Nigra, apud Slovenos: Berehomet;

Siniacum, apud Slovenos: Zyniec (OTL Storozhynets);

Tyraspolis (OTL Tiraspol);

Tigina, apud Slovenos: Tyagyana (OTL Bender);

Forum Nigrum, apud Slovenos: Cernovic.

444
Persian Empire: Shah Yazdegerd II order the construction of canals and irrigation systems to make the Central Asian steppe which his troops now firmly control fit for agricultural use, to provide cheap grain for the growing population of his blossoming empire.

445
China / Shanshan / Sassanid Empire: The Tarim Basin kingdom of Shanshan is attacked by the Northern Wei under Emperor Taiwu. Sogdian merchants, who are active in this region and exerted a great influence on the King Zhenda of Shanshan and his advisors, are afraid of losing influence. They alert the strong and wealthy Sogdian cities in Sassanid territories farther West. An ad hoc council of Sogdian leaders decides to hire military help from the Turkic Chubans, who agree to the plan. The Chuban assist in the defense of Shanshan. They can postpone Shanshan's defeat long enough for news of Gai Wu's rebellion to reach Emperor Taiwu, who abandons the campaign and withdraws from the Tarim Basin. Sogdian influence, and specifically the influence of Sassanid Sogdians and their Turkic allies, over the Tarim Basin is consolidated.

446
In OTL Southern Somalia, war breaks out between the city states of Barawa (dominated by Sabaean and Persian merchants) and Merca (ruled by local Biyomaal). Neither side wins, but both cities suffer and draw the consequences: Barawa sends tribute to the King of Sheba to obtain military protection, while the Biyomaal ally themselves with the Rahaweyn of the hinterland plains and the Oromo in the mountains.

447
Arabia: With military support from Rome, the Jewish Jafnids manage to shake off Lakhmid rule again.

448
Persian Empire (India): In Punavadi, the first Vishnuist Hindu temple, in which Jesus Christ is portrayed as one of Vishnu's reincarnations, is erected at the request of its donor, a Brahmin magnate who had spent several years among Christians in the Westernmost Sassanid satrapy of Mesopotamia and married a Christian wife.

449
Persian Empire: Sassanid shah Yazdegerd II orders the implementation of a mail system analogous to the Roman cursus publicus in the Sassanid Empire, too.

450s
The empiricist philosophy of Anaraudus and his eleves have become an important philosophical paradigm at Roman and Sassanid universities, too, where they are referred to as "Celtic philosophy".

450
Persian Empire: Sokotra is conquered by the Sassanids. In response, Saba forges a formal alliance with its fellow Christian kingdoms of Aksum, Armenia, Lasikia and Iberia because Rome does not want to imply itself against the Sassanids.

451
Arabia: After the Nabateans managed to convert a Quraish clan to Simonism, social conflict erupts in Mecca.

Roman Empire: In a Roman Christian council at Chalcedon, Christ's dual nature (entirely human and entirely divine in one person) is declared as common ground. Monophysitism, which is prevalent in Saba and Aksum, but only embraced by a tiny minority of Roman Christians, is declared a heresy.

452
The port town of Kismayu, ruled by local Bantu, but apparently frequented by Sheban, Sassanid, Indian and Ostrogothic merchants, appears for the first time on a Roman map (Greek name: Kismayon).

Celtic Empire: As the Celtic imperial treasury becomes emptier and emptier, higher tributes are demanded from the Ulster vassal. Mahon refuses to pay such high tributes. Caesar Titus Aquitanus moves six legions into Ulster. Emain Macha falls. The treasure of the Ulain kings is confiscated, their land comes under direct Celtic control.

453
Severely weakened Saxon troops (mostly Eastphalians, whose territory has not been occupied by Celts) become involved in a military conflict with the Chatti. The Chatti associate themselves with the Franks. Franks and Chatti defeat the Saxons, who must withdraw behind the Werra and pay tribute. The Chatti become full members of the Frankish Confederacy.

454
Arabia: The Simonists are defeated among the Quraish.

Roman Empire: In large, wealthy South-Eastern civitates like Antiochia and Alexandria, the production and use of "Persian" toilet paper becomes widespread.

455
Celtic Empire: The Celtic Empire gets its own mail system, too.

India: The faltering alliance between Gupta and Vakataka breaks apart as Vakataka backs an attack of the Pushayamitras against the Guptas. Kumaragupta I is killed in the battle. His son Skandragupta defeats the Pushayamitras.

456
Arabia: The Quraish attack the Nabateans. After the battle, the Nabateans must assure to abstain from further proselytising among the Quraish.

457
Roman Empire: The extremely wealthy Augustini family, who operates many mills and buys larger and larger amounts of cotton from the Imaziyen, who in turn buy it mostly from the Mandinke in the Wagadu kingdom, awards a great sum of money to Iulianus, an engineer from Carthage's Academia Vulcania, who has invented a mechanical spinning device that can be integrated into the company's mechanical system powered by the Leptis Magna dam. The first spinning machine is used in the same year.

India: Skandragupta I attacks and defeats Vakataka in the battle of Nasika. Vakataka becomes tributary to the Gupta Empire.

458
Franconia: The religious schism between the Third Age interpretation and the interpretation of dei absconditi has taken on dimensions of a social conflict in Franconia, too: Peasants and servants embrace the Third Age interpretation and challenge the rule of a warrior class, who derives their legitimacy in part from the (belligerent) Æsirs' dominance over the (more earth-bound) Vanir. To stabilise social hierarchies, High King Lothar III seeks to decree the dei absconditi variety by ordering all ancient revelatory stories and myths to be written down, by declaring all temples and sacred places royal property and by appointing all priests directly. The variety of Germanic cult favoured by Lothar and Frankish and Saxon aristocrats will later be labelled "Odinism". It inspires an autochtone school of poetry and philosophy, but never catches on with the populace.

Tamilakam: Wealthy members of the Sabaean merchant community build the first Christian church in Muchiri, Chera´s most cosmopolitan coast town.

459
Roman Empire: After the Augustini have installed twelve more water powered spinning machines, their devices are destroyed by infuriated Simonist workers, whose jobs in the rising cotton textile industry were lost. The wild strike is finally ended at the intervention of the African Conventum. The Augustini are compensated and order new machinery.

460
Roman Empire: At a naval Academia Martiana in Alexandria, a functional flamethrower with pumps and large containers of oleum petrae is developed.

Gupta India: A horse-trader is harassed by a local tax magistrate upon attempting to approach Kannauj. His protests lead to the death of his horses, his wife and his assistant. The horse-trader seeks justice, but finds none, since the local magistrate is a member of the highly influential Maukhari clan. He ultimately appeals to Skandragupta. Skandragupta, who fears that the Maukhari might create similar problems like the Pushyamitras a few years ago, judges the local magistrate merely to restitute the killed horses, considering the rest the horse-trader's own fault because he had put up inadmissible resistance against the magistrate's order. The judgement creates outrage among the merchant communities of the Gangetic plain, whose wealth and social power have grown beyond measure. The horse-breeders' and traders' shreni (guild), many members of which are trained in the martial arts and belong to secret societies, decides to arm themselves (to accompany their members in armed convoys) in reaction to the judgement. It is the first time that a socio-economic institution like a shreni assumes such political and military autonomy.

461
An Ostrogothic demarche for the inclusion of their trading outpost / colony Chrysosydor (OTL Volgograd), from which they conduct trade on the Ra (OTL Volga) with the Mari and which guards the passage from the Tanais to the Ra, an important Ostrogothic shortcut for trade with the Northern Sassanid Empire, into the margo fails. The Senate refuses to stretch the margo's reaches to the Ra, continuing the policy of several consuls who have refused to let the Classis Romana sail on the Ra - partly because the ships are needed elsewhere more urgently (the Romans trade with the Sassanids through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean mostly), partly because they do not wish to irate their powerful Sassanid neighbours and partners.

462
Celtic Empire: The first post mill is built in Batavia.

463
Celtic Empire: The conquered Ulster territories are integrated into the province of Scotia, its inhabitants are granted Celtic citizenship.

Sassanid Empire: In contrast to OTL, the Hephtalites, who have become fully integrated, loyal subjects of the Shahanshah, nor the Awars cause any trouble in Transoxania. All is quiet in the Northern Caucasus, too, where the Sassanid Empire has established close links with the remaining Alani, Cercetians and others, offering local elites education in the cultivated cities of the empire and lending support against the increasingly powerful Christian kingdoms of the Central and Western Caucasus (Lasika, Iberia).

464
Celtic Empire: In the empire's largest city, Lugdunum, plebeian protesters backed by the collegia of less wealthy, but numerous professions (tailors, blacksmiths, fishermen) overthrow the decurional communal constitution and install a Comitium Civitatis after the model of Roman towns.

465
Gupta India: After several other shreni have followed the horse-traders' example and armed themselves openly to protect their members within and between cities, and after the shreni of several towns have negotiated with each other to accept this and not consider it aggressive, and Skandagupta has not found an adequate answer to this quickly growing trend, the philosopher Vyasatahana declares that Skandagupta is not a "Chaktravartin", an ideal ruler of the world. Perhaps the most surprising circumstance is that Vyasatahana, himself a Brahmin, does not use Vedic comparisons or even comparisons to earlier Gupta rulers to discredit Skandagupta, but Ashoka, the great Buddhist ruler of the ancient Maurya Empire. His work finds a great echo among learned Indians of Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist creeds.

466
Roman Empire: The first experimental flamethrowers are installed on Roman war ships in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

467
Following a persecution in Sheba, a large group of Manichaeists flees to the Aksumite colony of Kismayu. The city council of the Christian Kismayu accepts them against the payment of a "Mani tax".

468
Sabaean colonists found the city of Bar ul-Zandj on an island (OTL Zanzibar) just opposite a large Bantu village on the continent's shore.

469
Celtic Empire: The second largest city in the empire, Tarraco, follows the example of Lugdunum and is governed by a Comitium Civitatis, too, now.

470s
Roman Empire: The Augustini of Leptis Magna have become the wealthiest family in the entire empire. Cotton trade with Africa has increased at the factor 50 over the last 50 years. Africa becomes a wealthy province. New textile mills open up in other provinces, too, now.

Celtic Empire: A dozen monasteries of the Celtic Church have sprung up across Ireland, Britain and Spain. They attract the educated, who would previously have called themselves "druids", but are dissatisfied with the scientific, anti-metaphysical trend of "Celtic philosophy" druidism at the universities.

470
India: Skandagupta's successor, Purugupta, had commissioned the scholars of Nalanda with a rejoinder against Vyasatahana's Gupta criticism. Bhaskara, the greatest political philosopher of Nalanda, publishes a political history (the first in Sanskrit which not only takes rulers of Bharata (India) into account, but also e.g. the Sassanid shahanshah Shapur and the Roman Emperor Traianus), in which he ridicules popular faith in monarchs (as embodied in the Chakravartin idea) and stresses the failures and crimes of all great historical figures.

471
Roman Empire: Still experimental fire pumps are installed on river vessels patrolling the Borysthenes and the Tanais. They increasingly also accompany Ostrogothic merchant ships sailing to the Northern woodlands.

473
India: Purugupta employs generals from the Pallava (former vassals of Vakataka and after Vakataka's submission to Gupta, now formally Gupta vassals) who defeat another former Vakataka ally, Kadamba, in the battle of Banavasi. Kadamba formally becomes a vassal of the Gupta, too, but is practically controlled by the Pallava.

474
India: Bhadravarma of Kamarupa expels the Gupta magistrates from his kingdom. Purugupta rides against him and is killed in a battle, which overall does not go well for Kamarupa, either. Purugupta's successor, Kumaragupta II. becomes overlord over Kamarupa again, but does not fully restore Gupta administration in the North-East.

475
Imaziyen / Wagadu: Gwafa, a Simonist missionary, preaches the Amazigh Simonist brand of Christianity to the Mandinke in cities across the Wagadu Empire. He is imprisoned and staked at the order of Wagadu's Divine King. Back home, he is declared a martyr and a saint.

477
Roman Empire: Slavs attempt to cross the Limes Dacicus, but are thrown back.

478
Persian Empire: The Zoroastrian priest Mazdak Jr. begins to proclaim his ideas about the evil nature of private property, the divinity of communal work, the superfluousness of an institutionalised clergy, the evil dark of  patriarchal monogamy which suppresses love, and the virtuousness of joy, especially shared joy. Falling on fertile ground in a well-off society, where the aristocracy has acquired incredible amounts of wealth, Mazdakism gains much more followers than in OTL and will become one of the world's most influential religions / social philosophies.

479
Gupta Empire: In the wealthy cities and among their self-confident socio-economic institutions, the ideas of Bhaskara have fallen on fertile ground. The movement of "Gana Sangha" (republic of equals) finds followers across Northern and North-Eastern India.

480s
Miaphysicist Christians, who find themselves marginalised within their communities in the Roman Empire, emigrate to Aksum, where they found nine monasteries and become known as the "Nine Saints". They bring the monastic tradition of Christianity, which had previously blossomed mostly in the Celtic realm, to Aksumite Africa, and intensify the Christian cultural influence on the rural population.

480
Franconia / Alemannia: High King Lothar IV. leads another Frankish invasion into the remaining Alemannic territory south of the Neckar. The Alemannic towns have been heavily fortified in the meantime and have formed a stable alliance with a standing mercenary force. This time, Frankish victories are not so resounding and conclusive, and Alemannic guerrilla warfare throws back Frankish attempts at establishing control several times. A seven-year-long war begins.

Sassanid Empire: Among the new urban elites in the Persian heartland, the idea of vegetarianism, imported from India, finds more and more followers - not only among Manichaeists and Jainists.

Kalabhra India: Achchutavikantra, a Buddhist who as a youth had studied in Gandhara and Barygaza, becomes Emperor of Kalabhra.

481
Celtic Empire / Norway: Increased Celtic trade with Norwegian coastal settlements has sparked a ship-building innovation: Norse ship-builders at Sørstad (OTL Kristianstad) design and build longboats with sails (earlier than in OTL).

The Ostrogothic trading outpost of Perm is plundered and burned down by Bulgars and Komi.

Kalabhra India: Achchutavikantra rides of a wave of support from the poor peasantry as he revitalises the early Kalabhra populist policy against brahmadeyas, expropriating much of this land and distributing it among landless peasants, while subjecting the land to taxation once again.

482
Celtic Empire: The bridge of the Bracchium Truculi (OTL Firth of Tay) is finished. It is the longest bridge in the entire world, and the ultimate symbol of a massive and very expensive program of upgrading the infrastructure of the new Celtic provinces of Caledonia, Pictandia, Scotia and Hibernia and integrating them into the economy of the Celtic Empire. Fueled by Celtic nationalism (which in turn is fueled by an inferiority complex vis-a-vis the Roman neighbour, whose economic development outpaces that of the Celts), the new provinces, inhabited by Celts, are treated extremely well. Its professional elites are integrated into Celtic collegia, universities are founded in Eblana (OTL Dublin) and Lothiana (OTL Edinburgh), where the sons of druids not only learned Latin, empiricist natural philosophy etc., but were also allowed to research into their own language and history. Roads and ports were brought up to the imperial standard and cities fortified against Scandinavian pirates. Celtic self-esteem is at a peak but all of this came at a price... the new provinces don't bring a lot of venues and taxes in return, and the Celtic state treasury is not only completely empty, it is also indebted to its citizens, and its currency is so seriously debased that Celtic merchants who trade e.g. with the Franks or the Alemanni have to use Roman denarii instead.

Gupta India: A large group of republicans is expelled from the capital Pataliputra. After long journeys, most of them reach Kapilavastu, which has become a city republic roughly following the neo-gana sangha model.

483
Persian Empire: Mazdak and his followers close several Zoroastric temples and convert them into public spaces where - at least according to opponents - wild orgies are celebrated. But the Mazdakists also begin to call for the empire-wide abolition of private property and the dissolution of the army.

484
Sassanid Empire / Kalabhra India: Achchutavikranta and the Sassanid shahanshah Balash sign a treaty of military, political and commercial cooperation. For the Sassanids, it's aimed at consolidating their economic dominance in India. For the Kalabhra, it's aimed against the Gupta and Pallava menaces in the North and against insurgent Chera and Pandya aristocrats.

485
Ostrogoths: One hundred years after its establishment, the Ostrogothic citizens of Rome's first margo "Tarusi te Bosporos Kimmerikos" decide in a narrow referendum against joining the Roman Republic. Their cities, which stretch along the Borysthenes and Tanais far up North, where their syndicates buy furs and horses from the Ugro-Finns and sell them iron tools, sophisticated glassware and alcohol, to the Isle of Tauris, whose port towns like Chersonesos have been rebuilt in grand style, and its citizens are wealthy. Their trading networks span across most of the known world. Young men and women alike enjoy good education, many speak not only Greek, but also Hebrew, the sacral language of their Judaist faith, which has taken deep roots among the Taureans and brought cultural unity to the people of various descents. The Ostrogoths are protected by the Roman military presence, which also offers good business and job opportunities, and they feel no need to subject themselves to the general draft for the Roman Republican army. Their comparatively low levels of taxation are also something they don't wish to give up for becoming full members of the Republic. Thus, the status quo continues.

Gupta India: Budhagupta has lost control over his empire's major cities, as almost a dozen "gana sangha" follow their own rules and keep their own taxes and shreni co-operate across towns to set and enforce economic rules. In the countryside, things do not look much brighter, with imperial tax collectors being generally considered corrupt, and local dynasties in many parts of the empire merely paying verbal tribute to Budhagupta, but building up their own kshatriya divisions. Budhagupta decides to attack the presumably weaker enemy first: He promises the formalisation of maximum autonomy and manages to complement his imperial with Kamarupa and Pallava vassal armies, and lays siege to several gana sanghas in the Ganges valley.

486
India: Achchutavikranta sends ships full of troops to support the gana sanghas. While the large city of Kannauj falls, several smaller cities are successfully defended. Then, the republicans gain the upper hand in the large coast town of Sisupalgarh. In the battle for this city, Budhagupta is killed.

487
Franconia / Alemannia: The Frankish-Alemannic War ends with the treaty of Augusta Vindelicorum (signed on neutral Roman territory). The Alemannic towns of Friburg, Offenburg, Basel, Singen and Rottwil remain free and keep decent amounts of territory surrounding them under their control; the rest is divided among. Another 24 Alemannic towns must join the Frankish Confederacy, but do so as separate confederal subjects and retain fiscal autonomy. The rest - mostly small settlements and forts - is divided among three Frankish kingdoms.

Persian Empire: Mazdakism is declared a heresy by the Mobadan Mobad Kartir. Mazdakist herbads are removed from temple service.

Gupta India: Budhagupta´s successor, Balasimhagupta, formalises the de facto independence of the Pallava and the Kamarupa, but also ends his campaign against the gana sanghas and guarantees far-reaching urban self-government and the right of towns, shreni, religious and other associations to co-operate on their own terms, if these terms are made public and laid down in the Gupta archives, and to bear arms for individual or collective self-defense. The imperial level is extremely weakened, but peace is restored to Northern India for the next decades.

488
Roman Empire: The guild of mechanical engineers establishes itself empire-wide and employs a legate in Rome whose job is to "inform" (i.e.: influence) the Senate in the interests of the guild. Thus, the first modern industrial lobbying is institutionalised.

Funan: Advised by Indian counsellors, Kaundinya Jayavarman starts his reforms of the Funan kingdom. Slavery is abolished, the use of Sanskrit is greatly promoted across the entire sphere of influence, and the dependence on Indo-Chinese trade is reduced by extending the fields for the cultivation of rice and the use of several new, more productive varieties - an agricultural reform comparable to the introduction of the three-field crop rotation in Europe, which contributes greatly to Funan's survival in contrast to OTL. Óc Eo continues to be the most thriving port town in the region, where the new Western trades establish themselves for the first time, while both great Buddhist schools and Hinduist temples are built in the capital Vyādhapura.

Gupta India: In Nalanda, Persian-style paper is increasingly used for minor academic purposes (like student scripts during lectures, or written exams), while more durable writing materials continue to be used for books and important treatises.

489
The Bantu port town of Mombasa is mentioned for the first time on a Roman map.

Celtic Empire / Norway: In spite of the emptiness of the imperial treasury, the Celtic navy purchases and commands hundreds of long-boats with sails from the Sørstad shipyards. After the Celts have secured control over the North Sea, there are plans to expand Celtic dominance into the Baltic Sea, but so far, heavy Celtic battleships have turned out to be useless and an easy prey in the shallow waters of the Kattegat, where pirates and other enemies of the Celts inhabit the so far unchartered archipelago. The new Sørstad longboats are meant to make a difference here.

They do make a difference in Sørstad itself, where this business deal turns a few dozen craftsmen / fishermen into an extremely wealthy group of people who start to use their versatile boats and their huge amounts of capital to establish a close-knit autochtone trading network. The Sørstaders stick up for one another; they manage to keep their innovation a secret for another decade, and they maintain their close contact even as they begin to swarm out across the Baltic Sea.

490s
Celtic Empire: In the majority of cities and half the oppida, the republican movement has succeeded with its grassroots strategy of democratising communal administration, wrestling the power from a few oligarchs (decuriones) and installing Comitia Civitatum. On the empire-wide level, the military successes of the caesars and the long era of inner peace have kept structural criticism at bay.

490
Persian Empire: Kavadh I becomes shahanshah of the Sassanid Empire. He turns out to be a great supporter of Mazdak.

India / Sri Vijaya: Buddhist monks and other scholars from Nalanda found a monastery and school in Palembang, an ascending port town which profits greatly from India's increased economic output and the intensification of trade with all of India, the Sassanid Empire, Swahili colonies and even Europe.

So far, Palembang is still tributary to the Kings of Funan, but the Nalandans have brought the idea of  "gana sangha" with them ...

491
Baiuvaria: The first guild (gaffers) in the Germanic world is founded in Linza (vis-a-vis the Roman city of Lentia across the Danube, with which the Baiuvarians trade a lot).

492
Persian Empire: Kavadh I rehabilitates Mazdakist herbads and closes more Zoroastric fire temples.

493
Persian Empire: The first smock mill is built in India near Barygala.

Shah Kavadh I abolishes slavery in the entire Sassanid Empire and starts welfare programs to feed and house the poor, which are implemented in many provinces. His Mazdakist measures swell the ranks of this social and religious movement even further.

494
Persian Empire: Shah Kavadh I declares women and men equal in rights.

Tamilakam / India: Achchutavikranta, who has gathered intelligence about an impending Pallava conspiracy with the coast kingdoms to overthrow him, anticipates the attack and sends his armies against the Pallava. They succeed, but only after a long and very bloody battle. In the aftermath, Achchutavikranta plunders Kanchipuram and burns the city to the ground. The Pallava dynasty is extinct. Narasimhagupta has stood by and not raised a finger to protect his vassal - some say because he was satisfied with having his Southern rival dealt with once and for all.

495
Persian Empire: Shah Kavadh I prepares a land and a military reform, which would legally abolish the aristocracy, empower the landless peasantry and replace the knight-army with a yeomen self-defense force. Resistance forms. A first attempted assassination fails.

Roman Empire: Italian natural philosophers in the Celtic empiricist tradition discover a variety of highly inflammable liquids that can be gained by distilling petra oleum.

496
Persian Empire: A conspiracy of aristocrats and the clergy against shah Kavadh I, Mazdak and their followers begins. As the first Mazdakist communities are attacked and their members killed, Kavadh I and Mazdak flee from Ctesiphon into the Arab desert and find asylum among Nabatean Simonists.

Djamasp becomes the new shahanshah. He restores the Zoroastrian clergy and abandons Kavadh's reform plans, but also stops the violence against the Mazdakists.

Gupta India: Narasimhagupta replaces a large number of local magistrates in a popular campaign against corruption.

497
Burgundy: The Burgundian yeomen army defeats Slavic tribes who entered their territories.

Roman Empire (Syria): A Nestorian-led majority in the Comitia Civitatis of the Syrian city of Edessa decides to convert the abandoned parts of the once glorious Catholic School, which never recovered from the loss of the Nestor and his followers, into a new general University of Edessa, where subjects from mathematics to law and from medicine to natural philosophy would be taught (for the first time in Roman history) in the Aramaic language.

498
Persian Empire: Shah Djamasp passes a progressive tax reform, easing the burden on the peasantry and demanding a greater contribution from the wealthy elites.

Even though moderate reforms are begun, Mazdakist gatherings become greater and greater; they demand the return of Kavadh and Mazdak and all-out social reform. Violence returns. Urban craftsmen and tradesmen in the heartland are divided between supporters and opponents of Mazdakist thought and plans.

Following disagreements with the Simonists, Mazdak and Kavadh move into the Roman province of Syria Paleastina, where they find refuge among a Jewish community of Essenes.

499
Roman Empire: Gaffers in the Roman Empire found an empire-wide guild, too.

Pot stills are used in all provinces of the empire now. Apart from wine, fermented barley concoctions are also used for burning spirits. The overall consumption of hard drinks has skyrocketed in the Roman Empire, and business-minded Ostrogothic and Roman merchants sell the stuff to the Celts, the Germans, the Persians, the Arabs and the Aksumite Africans, too.

Persians have copied the glass production techniques and produce their own stills and their own alcohol, too. Salvador79 (talk) 17:13, March 5, 2014 (UTC)

Abrittus