452-485 CE (Superpowers)

''The election of Draconius signaled the end of the great Antonine dynasty of emperors. Extinctions of an imperial line were rare in Roman history, this being only the second to fall, and precedent for selecting a successor did not exist when the infamous Julio-Claudians died with Nero. That first succession of dynasties resulted in a civil war which threatened the stability of the country. By the foresight of a 4th century emperor, clear laws were laid down to guide the process of selecting a new ruler by democratic choice of the Senate.''

Gaius Julius Draconius, the man
At first glance, Draco seemed an odd choice for emperor. He was an ambitious and young senator with, as some protested, a terribly short temper. As a senator, he was known to be completely intolerant of mistakes on the part of his servants, firing them for even the slightest transgressions. There was no doubt that this would get magnified if the man were elected Caesar.

Yet these were precisely the reasons for his election. Draco had legendary competence as governor of Achaia and later as a senator in Rome. Before his governorship, the province was a cesspool of corruption, bribery and extortion running rampant through all the ranks of the provincial government. He purified its offices of their corrupt officials and established a strict system for monitoring finances. Within four years, Achaia was a model for the rest of the Imperium. His reputation made him one of the youngest ever elected Consuls of Italy. When he held this highest of offices, he reorganized trade routes to significantly reduce crop spoilage and planned festivals that gave him a name which deeply penetrated the Italian society of his day.

Upon receiving tha laurel crown of Caesar, Draco was quite clear on what kind of government he would run. His opening speech talked of purging the corruption in the Eternal City, with several notorious senators named to warn them to change their ways. These were mostly people who had opposed his election (which was done without him present since votes in the Senate are not anonymous) and had been opposed for fear of such political purification.

Draco also distanced himself from his benefactors. He made it clear that, as honest senators, they did not elect him to gain favor but to have a competent emperor. For this, he owed them nothing and, if anything, "you men of Rome have placed the burden of Atlas itself on my shoulders. What sane man could be grateful for this?"

Securing Magna Germania
Foremost among the issues facing Rome was continuing the conquest of Magna Germania. The last emperor had died supporting it and a great man, Caesar Scipio, strongly wanted to see it become a reality. Draco would not dishonor his predecessor's wishes and, with four legions and 320,000 conscripts still beyond the limites of the empire, he would not stop the invasion until Rome had a stable border to its north.

With this goal, the armies of Rome advanced for another two and a half years, wiping out 110,000 of the Germans who were left behind in the great migration. All units were given strict orders to halt at the Vistillus (Vistula River) and equipped with a geographer to determine when this happened. The last legion reached its target, the mouth of the Vistillus into the Mare Suebicum (Baltic Sea), on the kalends of August 454. Each unit fortified itself into its designated location, establishing long-term camps while lead commanding officers assembled at a major delta of the Vistillus to receive orders from the emperor's envoy (legatus).

The envoy relaid that, while the emperor was pleased to locate the new Limes Germanicus on a natural barrier such as the Vistillus, the river would not suffice against a concerted force and there was a gap from the river itself to the Vallum Alutanum along the Tisia River. Remedying this enormous defect in the empire's defenses would require a massive construction project during which Greater Germany would be vulnerable to the Huns should they renege on the Treaty of Vindobona. For this reason, the army of conscripts would sweep back through Germany to dispose of more native tribes, the four legions would remain to defend the border before a construction team is escorted to the river, by another two legions, to begin building a wall. As he was speaking, two more legions were crossing the Rhine to occupy Germany. The war was officially over and Rome had grown immensely.

Construction on the Vallum Vistillum began in March of the following year. Using the river as a moat, teams of contractors began at eleven different points of its length. The wall they built was 1,056 km long from the Suebicum to the end of a southern tributary that splits east from the Vistillus. Its thickness at the base was 6.4 m while the ramparts lay 18.5 m off the ground. From its base, the wall slopes does not slope upward, which is unusual for Roman walls of this period. A sloped design mitigates damage from ranged siege weapons. Since the Germans outside the walls lacked siege equipment, the peculiarity of this particular vallum was sensible.

For active defense, guard towers lay every 0.74 km along the wall. Each was stocked with five polybolos, a semi-automatic arrow cannon and manned with twenty auxiliaries. Roughly every 148 km stood a castrum (fort). When the wall was completed in 473, seven legions patrolled its length. These were individually allocated one fort as their new permanent base of operations. As the new limes against the barbaric world, the Vallum Vistillum became a focal point of Rome's national defense, overshadowed only by the Limes Arabicus.

A single Germanic Fortress along the wall was the product of cutting edge classical engineering. Earthenworks raised the perimeter three meters above the ground outside so that the base was 18 m of heavy soil. The surrounding wall itself formed a hexagon attached to the Vallum Vistillum at two vertices. It simply bristled with polybolos and ballistae. Everything within the perimeter was part of a wood and stone superstructure that featured no internal courtyards or open air spaces, giving the ~7 meter thick walls incredible structural support. A force that dared to challenge such an imposing construction would be met with the response of a legion of 5,200 professional soldiers and 300 archers. An assault of this sort would be suicide for any tribal army.

However, it would be rare for all legionaries to be simultaneously present inside the fort. Constant patrols of the 1,056 km wall were required at all times of day and, to allow time to prepare defenses before an attack, hundreds of soldiers were patrolling the forests, hills and fields beyond the wall. This had the secondary advantage of keeping the troops constantly occupied, as one legionary might find himself exploring 20 km of new woodlands every time he set out for a day's patrol.

With 954,000 square kilometers of new land, the Senate was obliged to concoct a strategy for settlement. But who are we kidding, this is hardly a challenge. Greater Germany was an unspoiled region resplendent with wildlife and beautiful green forests. Such a rich source of timber had not been found in centuries. Greater Germany could only become an industrial heartland for the Imperium. Ten years into the construction of the wall, a program was instituted by Draco to funnel money into the mining, smithing or woodworking operations of literally any citizen who requested work in the new territory. Total migration of citizens into Magna Germania had reached 500,000 by the time Draco died. Immigrants were spread among small trading posts throughout the region.

As a measure to politically integrate the new territory, the provinces of Germania Superior and Inferior were extended the width of Greater Germany, Raetia was handed part of Germania Superior and the new province of Gothia was founded around the gap between the Vistillum and Alutanum defenses. Three legions were allocated to this final province, mitigating the risk posed by such a large hole in the Roman limites.

Overall, the decision by Draco to build defenses along the new border was disgustingly expensive. One might already be imagining the difficulty in transporting and acquiring materials in as remote an area as the German frontier, over 600 kilometers from the nearest Roman quarries. Timber was obviously procured locally and barely contributed to the 680 million Dn (~USD18.36 billion) budget but stone needed to come either from the southern provinces or from nascent quarrying operations operated directly by the Senate. This ranks the Vallum Vistillum as one of the single most expensive building projects in ancient history.

The minor border with Cimbria (Denmark) was merely barred by an unmanned stone wall and wooden ramparts along its length, with numerous small forts for 60,000 auxiliaries dotting the local area. Heruli and Teutones tribes were known to inhabit the peninsula and surrounding islands but were treated as negligible threats by the Senate.

Melita
Draco took a fervent interest in Scipio's program to develop the island of Melita into an urban sprawl and hub of Mediterranean commerce. Several miles south of the Porta Neptuna, he founded the Melitum Forum around which several key structures were built. First, the Cathedral of St. John was made to be the religious center of the island and, with its completion, allowed the Catholic Church to appoint an archepiskopos (archbishop) to the growing city. Second, the Curia Collegia Bancanae (Assembly of the Guild of Bankers) was founded and membership offered to the heads of all the major banking guilds throughout the Imperium. Its purpose was not only to encourage more banks to base themselves in Melita, improving its capacity as a center of commerce, but also to centralize the activity of all Roman bancae through a forum for discussion.

Great personal effort was made by Draco to provide Melita with the necessities of Roman urbes. Galenariae (hospitals) popped up around the main island. One particular hospital, the Magna Galenaria Medietas (MGM) was constructed west of the Porta Neptuna starting in 458. Equipped with a library and medical academy, it was structurally and functionally based on the Academia Medica Galena in Hierosolyma. A year later, contractors were ordered to work on a sewer system, the Cloaca Insulana, mirroring the cloaca maxima in Rome. These were the first sewers outside Italy. Ten kilometers of tunnels were built to transport Melita's waste into the sea.

Putting aside his other civic works in Melita, totalling 90 million Dn over his reign, Draco's greatest contribution to the reputation of the islands was designating them provincia in 467 CE. The emperor personally placed the final stone into the side of Melita's Palatia Provincia, home of the province's propraetor (governor).

Collapse of the Hunnic Empire
After a long migration from Greater Germany to the East, the Germans, under their Hunnic rulers, settled down in a region 1,530 km from the new borders of Rome. Their journey had taken them slowly from the Vistula to the Borysthenes and beyond. When one winter in 475-476 nearly resulted in famine, King Ilek declared that the former people of Germany would go no farther. For the last 29 years, the Germans had travelled from their homeland, driven by fear of the legions - who were, according to rumor, not far behind - and official declarations from the king that Rome's treaty demanded that "their proper home be no closer than a thousand miles (1480 km) from the great Vistillus". Having fulfilled their promise, the German people were now free.

Free, that is, to serve their Hunnic masters. There was the need, in this unknown land, for people to collaborate as tribes - like they always did - and as tribes of tribes. Knoths Knodais (megatribes) were the standard political sub-unit during the migrationary period, uniting diverse peoples according to shared language, customs and religions. Major knoths knodais of the Hunnic Empire were Lombardi, Wesigothi, Saxones, Roxolani, Marcomanni, Iazyges, Quadi, Frisii, Anglii, Franci, Suebi, Burgundi, Sarmatae and Vandilii. Altogether, the megatribes constituted 94% of the empire's population, or about ten million people.

While assisting the Germanic peoples in assembling into megatribes was necessary to even conceive of an organized mass migration, it also focused the interests of the Germans as a whole. It was clear that servitude to steppe people from the Orient did not fall under their preferences.

In a clandestine meeting, tribal chiefs selected by each megatribe made a concerted decision to overthrow the Huns. Before this decision was reached, the Germans had spread over 780,000 square kilometers of territory, returned to the practice of agriculture and established thousands of small settlements. Some of the larger towns, which were governed by Hunnic Kenturio, were the focal point of the Germanic uprising. By 485, all the settlements were under Germanic control and King Ilek had met his fate on the chopping block.

With this successful rebellion, the tribal leaders declared themselves individually free. During the assembly, many of the leaders discussed retaining the unity brought over the Germans by the Huns. Advantages of a political union would be easier commerce between settlements, stability among the tribes, and defense in the event that another powerful force like the Huns entered their new home. Indeed, there was talk of some Khanlig Chianbei, an empire that stretched for a thousand miles, among the Huns. In the end, fear of a greater power and hope for internal stability convinced the leaders to elect a single king to lead a united federation.

What resulted from this assembly was the declaration of the United Federation of Francia, Sarmatia, Anglia, Lombardia, Burgundia, Suebia, and the Huns. Involved in such a declaration was the creation of a national Concile Germanic (German Council) and the naming of a Reiks Germanic (German King) that could only be elected by deliberation of this council. Clovis of Francia was elected in 487 through this first assembly.

Saints and Iconography
Draco had a reputation,in addition to his short temper, for going to extremes over minor issues. One prominent case of this was a debate he had with a close friend in 456 over the question of whether or not it was heretical to pray before statues in the name of God or the saints. Unable to reach an agreement, the emperor opted to settling the debate as best as a man of his stature could. Next afternoon, the Third Council of Jerusalem was called with the demand for all major bishops in the Catholic community.

Evolution of the discussion quickly took the question of venerating idols of the venerable into the territory of intercession of the saints through prayer and the nature and origin of modern miracles. The council's result was a strict guide for the Pontifex Maximus to canonize saints (i.e. recognize that a person had certainly gone to Heaven after death) and the institution of the Sanctum Officium (Office of Saints) for verifying miracles with what passed for rigorous methods at the time.

It was decreed by the council that statues of saints were not permitted in places of worship and only the crucifix, lamb of God and holy spirit were allowed statues. Mosaics and paintings of other figures were deemed acceptable but the aureole (halo) could only be displayed on members of the Holy Trinity; angels, saints and other holy figures could not receive this iconographic honor. An aureole was taken to represent the logos or divine nature of Christ and God, so would not be appropriate for any other figure in art.

Prayer toward a saint was officially recognized as a religiously potent action, wherein the requested saint is supposed to intercede between the praying faithful and God. With this final issue decided, the Third Council was brought to a close on Easter 457 to the satisfaction of the clergy and emperor.

Persia
Facing many military challenges over the course of his reign, Draco handled the defense of the Imperium with a surprisingly calm demeanor. Only when his generals questioned orders was he infuriated. After affirming the expulsion of the Huns and consolidating its new territory, Rome's next issue was Sassanid Persia. Since the pacification of the oriental giant by Constantine, Romano-Persian relations had varied from lukewarm to sufficient to form an alliance. Now, after over a century of peace, the Sassanids had regrown their armies and emboldened themselves toward once again defying Rome.

With the intention of forcing Rome out of Armenia and Mesopotamia, Persia invaded in 461 CE with 190,000 raised soldiers and 21,000 daylamite heavy infantry. With only four legions, Roman Mesopotamia was ill-equipped to defend against the might of the entire Persian Empire. At the Battle of Nisibis (461), one legion was annihilated by Persia, fighting till the last building was taken. Over three-quarters of the city was burned to the ground.

Rome had very little choice in the matter of dealing with this invasion. Seven legions were necessary to the garrison in Greater Germany. Therefore, two were taken from Mauretania, three from Nubia, two from Syria, two from Egypt, and two from across Greece. These eleven legions joined the remaining two in Antioch, as a third sacrificed itself in the defense of Edessa to delay the Persian war machine another week. The rapidly appointed legate Marcus Symphronius Proelius, commander of 13 legions (67,600 legionaries), 92,000 auxiliaries and 32,000 sagittae led one of Rome's largest armies into Armenia to intercept Shah Namor II before he took the provincial capital of Noaracagac.

But take the city they did and unlike the other captured cities, this was taken without bloodshed or structural damage to the city walls (of the finest Roman construction from the 4th century). Thus Rome was hurt by the old Machiavellian principle of building fortresses. This placed the Imperium in a dilemma: either take the city by force at great loss of soldiers or starve the defenders at the loss of the city's residents. Neither consequence was desirable but one had to be accepted.

Ultimately, Rome grabbed the dilemma by the left horn, hitting the city at its weakest point through a concerted strike with an emperor's complement of onagers, siege rams and ballistae. Fire returned by Persian catapults behind the walls destroyed all these weapons save one lone battering ram. This piece of machinery had made it through the hail of stone, flanked by three legions. Another battering ram had approached the city on its opposite side an hour earlier, in the hopes of diverting enemy siege weapons and archers from the intended target. The ploy worked beautifully as about a quarter of Persian arms were on the wrong side when the battle came to a close.

The Roman victory at Noacaragac turned the tide of war in Rome's favor.

With the main arm of the Persian military defeated, Rome diverted eight of its assembled legions east into Persia itself while the remaining four moved to retake Mesopotamia. Although the Shah managed to flee the Battle of Noaracagac and was with his auxiliary forces by the end of 463, Rome had the war in the palm of her hands. Over the last two centuries, Persia's relative strength had fallen as Roman power grew. The time had long since passed that Rome completely eclipsed the oriental lion. The capture of Ctesiphon in 465 was the tolling of the bell for any uncertainty, from Rome or Persia, in this geopolitical fact.

Rome had asserted her dominance on an international level, but at great cost. The manpower of five legions was lost in the war and it took a decade to replenish these ranks without tyrannical measures. However, Rome was safe, without doubt, for the first time in history. Its land borders were barred by practically impenetrable walls while its coastal borders were patrolled by extensive fleets of decaremes and triremes. Trade with foreigners brought in more goods than left the empire. Natural resources were plentiful, supplied by specialized industries within the diverse provinces of the Imperium. Upon Draco's funeral, all neighbouring states and peoples recognized the impossibility of combatting Rome. Who could argue that trade was not more lucrative?

Statistics for the Roman Empire of 485 AD
Population: 95 million (23.2% of humans)

Area: 7,113,000 km ²

GDP: 35 billion denarii (~USD945 billion)

Treasury: 150 million denarii (~USD4.050 billion)

Government revenue: 890 million denarii (~USD9.450 billion)

Military spending: 520 million denarii (58.4% of revenue or 1.5% of GDP)

Size of the Legions: 166,400 legionaries (32 legions), 320,000 auxiliaries and 15,000 praetorian guards

Legislature: 900 senators

State religion: 88% of citizens and 71% of free residents

Maya Conglomerate
By 452, the Conglomerate enclosed 276 member cities and over one million km ²  of territory. Small by Eurasian standards, this dwarfed any other state on its own continent. Unfortunately for Mayan jingoists, all city-states of the Maya had joined the kingdom. Not a single one remained to be conquered or admitted. Let there be no mistake, the Maya were developing a sense of racial entitlement from the glory of their nation. No other people had aqueducts, collectivized farming or intercity roads like the Maya had, and trade with foreigners continually re-inforced this knowledge in public awareness. The gods favored the Maya and that meant they had no use for any of the other inhabitants of the Earth except as tools.

Mayapan, for his part, did not share this sentiment but recognized the impossibility of integrating non-Maya people into his society. Teotihuacan had shown this all too clearly when he made the mistake of encouraging the immigration of his people into the formerly mixed-ethnic city. Many Totonac and Nahua were driven from their homes and the majority of the population was already Maya only a year later. With this lesson, he did not see how he could smoothly add other Mesoamerican territory to his kingdom. In 453 he settled on a policy of national racial segregation to restrain ethnic tensions. The Maya would live in their proper city-states and the other Mesoamericans, for whom there was no all-encompassing contemporary name, would live in theirs. Intersettlement would be decried by law and that would be the end of the issue. With this firmly established, he ordered the armies of the Maya to begin the conquest of Mesoamerica both to enlarge the power of the Conglomerate and to bring its borders to the capital of Teotihuacan.

Some cities went peacefully others not so much. The Hñähñú fought untill their last cities fell in 455 and the Ne'ivi Davi gave themselves up over only four years. As Mayapan commanded 570,000 able-bodied men there was no risk of defeat, even though his forces were spread throughout the region. In these battles, a new kind of warfare was developed, unseen in these lands. War was now a matter of statecraft and economic growth, not ceremonial as it was before the rise of the Maya. Every conquered city was required to offer a small tribute to the capital, only one person each every twenty days, and only the largest cities were forced into this sort of oppression. This ensured a steady supply of ritual sacrifices for the temples in Teotihuacan. Only the Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon were permitted to engage in human sacrifices after a decree from the Kuhul Ajaw in 457.

Indeed, this was one of the last political and religious actions of Mayapan. A month later he died in his palace in Teotihuacan, bequeathing his kingdom to whichever of his sons the Maya nobility chose as his successor. Their decision was his eldest son, Ch'anqua.

This development followed the strict code of succession that Mayapan had legislated. Written in stone, this law made every male heir of a reigning Kuhul Ajaw eligible for the throne. The ruling council of the Maya would then elect one of them as the next Federal King. Since no one man was guaranteed this divine office, the likelihood of a reigning king being assassinated so that one son could take power was almost nothing. Furthermore, Mayapan had informed the people that only his blood could produce a man worthy of ruling the Conglomerate under the gods so for someone outside his nascent dynasty to try taking power was suicide. As another measure, he set a precedent for his heirs to take many wives and produce an absolute plethora of children, himself having over fifty sons by the time he died. The importance of this will be momentarily clear.

Grand Maya Council
For the election of a new king, among other functions, the Grand Maya Council (GMC) was formed in 451. This assembly was comprised of the ajaw of all the Maya city-states which were legally recognized by Teotihuacan. They met infrequently to discuss issues within their respective states then bring their consensus before the Kuhul Ajaw who could take legislative, judicial, military or executive action to resolve their problems. Mayapan ensured that their internally agreed propositions, determined by support by two-thirds of the ajaw, were binding for any Federal King, to refuse would be a heretical act and could even force his abdication. Only the Twenty Laws of Conglomeration could not be violated or superceded by a request.

A supplementary function of this council was the election of federal kings. The regulation for their decision was quite clear that it be based solely on merit and bloodline. Only the most capable son of the last Kuhul Ajaw could be elected the next king. Most of Mayapan's sons were running their own estates throughout the kingdom, none permitted to live in Teotihuacan after age 18, another precedent Mayapan set for his descendants. By placing possible heirs in positions of control, they could be tested for leadership qualitites, and by giving them these estates, they would be unable to kill one another or their father if the desire happened to appear. The sheer number of sons that a Kuhul Ajaw was expected to produce ensured that at least one would grow up proficient in political governance or with obvious intellect. Those who would needlessly beat their servants, frivoulously spend the periodic stipend provided by their father or show other clear signs of ineptitude were sure not to be chosen when the GMC assembled to elect their next king.

Zapotec Conquest
All of Mayapan's efforts to secure the persistence of his Conglomerate paid off. Ch'anqua had a knack for the organization of troops across the country. His five year long war with the Zapotec civilization, from 457 to 462, saw the assimilation of that culture into the Conglomerate and the loss of few soldiers. Similar wars with the Olmec and remaining Nahua settlements further flaunted his military prowess.

The Zapotecs were defeated at the Battle of Monte Alban, their 22,000 warriors practically impotent against the 17,000 Maya threatening their last stronghold. Fireworks were used to distract and awe the Zapotecs before a volley of arrows could be unleashed by archers approaching from behind. Mayan archers were equipped with a composite bow designed by Mayapan in 446. While taking days of work and months of drying to make a single one, composite bows are more portable than self bows (of wood) and deliver greater energy into each shot.

All Zapotecs living in major cities were forced to relocate to the cities of Monte Alban and Mitla ostensibly as the price of opposing Mayan expansion. Ch'anqua's intent was to make this restless people less spread so that they could be pacified in two fell swoops, rather than engagements in every city, should they rebel. The possibility of rebellion by the other Mesoamericans was very much in the minds of the Maya nobility and their Federal King.

Maya Military
The armies of the Conglomerate comprised a total of 500,000 men by 485. Ch'anqua reorganized his fathers disparate forces into a structured army. The essence of his system was a battalion of 2,000 soldiers. This homogeneous unit not only saw no variation across the Conglomerate but equipped every soldier in an identical manner. Only generals, commanders of a battalion, and officers, commanders of a company, received weapons and uniforms that distinguished them from the classic soldier.

Key to the operation of this military machine was a system of voluntary service and unprofessional armies. Citizens of the Conglomerate were not forced to join the army but had the incentive of high wages to attract them. A soldier could expect a large enough salary to afford twice what the average farmer could. The state did not field a standing army of career soldiers. Whenever there was need for troops, the government sent public servants out to the various conglomerated city-states as recruiting officers. Each had a strict quota to meet, apportioned according to the projected total size of the army.

New recruits received between a month to a year of training, depending on the urgency of raising that army, and were immediately equipped with stocked weapons once deemed fit for service.

The standard armament of the Maya soldier combined melee capabilities with the potential for ranged combat. All soldiers received a 0.68 meter short sword of wood with an obsidian edge. This is sharpened to the point of being able to decapitate a man in one swing. Soldiers were also equipped with an array of obsidian knives, some receiving training in how to throw knives as projectiles. The majority of military training is devoted to archery. Each soldier was equipped with a compact composite bow for ranged combat.

For the time being, there was a constant demand for armies and all the troops raised by 585 would continue to be replaced as they completed their five-year terms of service so that the armies fluctuated between 400,000 and 500,000 strong for the next few decades.

Ch'anqua started the first southward expansion of the Conglomerate. Since a history trade was nearly non-existent in this direction, the Maya were indiscriminately brutal in their conquest. No tribe that encountered the Maya survived. This mission of sorts would be ongoing for the next few centuries as the Maya only properly expanded their territory and made war with tribes in the south when they sought to alleviate the demand for sacrifices from previously conquered Mesoamerican cities.