300-399 (Abrittus)

301
Imaziyen: Prevented from raiding Rome`s African provinces by the fortified Limes Africanus, the Garamants have become peaceful traders for Rome, and expand at the cost of other Berber kingdoms. This is the year in which Tafilalt, their strongest and last enemy in the West, finally falls under Garamant control.

303
Gaul: Sparked by the introduction of a Wine Excise which threatened the local economy, protesters in Gallia Narbonnensis demand a democratisation of political procedures in Gaul after the Roman example. An unauthorised provincial Comitia forms and organises the resistance. Gaul´s emperor Constantius sends a legion to quash the rebellion. The Narbonnensis Comitia appeals to Rome for help. The Senate hesitates.

Roman Empire: Constantine becomes Rome´s first Christian emperor. Although without much factual power, he throws in all his charisma to sway public opinion to support the republican movement in Narbonnensis (in which trinitarian apostolic = Roman Catholic Christians play a vital role) at least infrastructurally.

304
Gaul / Roman Empire: After imperial troops committed a bloodbath among republicans in Narbo, Roman public opinion finally favours an intervention, which at first aims only at defending Antipolis, which is under siege. As Constantius declares war on Rome, more legions are sent.

Rome quickly manages to conquer the eastern half of Gallia Narbonnensis. After a decisive battle near Tarasco, Roman legions cross the Rhodanus river and occupy the Western part of the province, too.

Celtic reinforcements are sent in from the North. After a battle at Segodunum ends inconclusively, both sides dig in. In autumn, Constantius and Constantine sign a peace treaty. Gallia Narbonnensis becomes a Roman province with a democratic Comitia, but it becomes Rome`s first demilitarised province. The general draft does not apply to Narbonnensian Celts and no legions are to be stationed or even moved there.

305
Persia / India: Shah Narseh I. defeats an alliance of Western Satraps in a series of battles and makes them tributary vassals of the Sassanid Empire.

306
Persia: Persian scholars who came into contact with the Confucian philosophy in China establish the first faculty of political philosophy at the University of Taxila in the Sassanid satrapy of Gandhara.

309
Gaul: Seeking to foster a separate Celtic identity and to redefine the empire as not being a mere breakaway from Rome, Constantius lays down rules for a new state cult and mints new coins. The latter show the emperor`s face on one side, and a Celtic symbol together with the words "Imperium Galliarum" (no longer: Imperium Romanum Galliarum) on the other. While religious freedom is still granted to everyone, the new Celtic state cult renames deities in accordance with Celtic mythology and switches the festive calendar to the eight Celtic festive days plus New Year`s Eve, which is the only common festivity with the Roman Empire now.

311
Saba / Persia: After Saba has conquered the entire southern half of the Arabian peninsula, conflicts with the Sassanid empire over who controls the Strait of Hormuz erupt. Beginning of the first Saban-Persian war.

312
Saba / Persia: The first Saban-Persian war ends with the Sassanids defeated, having been unable to use their superior ground forces, losing several naval battles. Although the treaty asserts Saban control over the Strait of Hormuz and imposes limits on the Persian navy, shah Narseh I. starts a secret naval build-up.

313
Celtic Empire: To protect the "property" of Celtic slave owners, Constantius violates the contract with Rome and begins the erection of a wooden limes between the Roman province of Narbonennsis and the Celtic Empire, guarded by limitanei, who see to it that no escpaed slaves can flee to the Roman Empire and freedom. Rome protests, but does not care enough to wage another war against its neighbour.

314
Persia: The windmill is invented in Northern Eran. In less than ten years, the innovation will have spread across the Empire to India and Mesopotamia, facilitating grain procession.

315
Armenia becomes a Christian kingdom, as King Trdat III. converts to trinitarian Christianity. Gregor the Illuminator becomes arch-bishop and head of the new national church.

316
Gaul: The biggest Anglic / Saxon raid / invasion so far devastates Britannia`s East Coast and takes weeks to drive back.

319
Persia / India: The Western Satrapies are fully incorporated into the Sassanid Empire, which now covers OTL Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madya Pradesh, too.

320
The three-field crop rotation has become standard across Europe. After grain prices had initially dropped, increasing population levels have restored the balance.

Relatively stable trade relations between the Alemanni and the Celtic and Roman Empires have grown; the Alemanni sell grain and furs and buy wine and glass. Alemannic villages in the Rhine valley, close to the Celtic border, have grown into the first indigenous Germanic towns, and syncretic religious practices blending Germanic paganism with Christian elements have been observed.

323
Roman Empire: For the first time, an arch-gravity dam is built not only for irrigation, but also in combination with two large watermills in Leptis Magna (Cyrene).

Many peregrini from among the Garamants work in this large project. Among the workers, they come into contact with Simonist Christianity.

Persia: Shah Narseh I. dies. His young grandchild Shapur II. inherits the throne.

324
Gaul / Franconia / Saxony: After Saxons have repeatedly raided Britannia and also regained control over northern Westphalia, four Frankish kings and the Celts form a temporal alliance against the Saxons. The Saxons manage to escape any decisive confrontation in battle, but many villages are burnt. The Celtic Navy sets up military camps at the Saxon North Sea shore. Frankish control over Westphalia is restored.

327
Roman Empire: An attempted Markomannic invasion of Pannonia shatters at the Danube Limes.

329
Persia: Young shah Shapur II. decides to shake off the tutelage of several not-always-well-meaning aristocrats around him, and orders the erection of a Confucian-style administration for his empire, de facto robbing the aristocracy of much of their political (but not economic) power.

330
Gaul / Saxony: Saxons burn down several Celtic coast camps.

331
Persia: Shapur II.`s administrative reforms are implemented, with the exception of the armed forces, which still remain under aristocratic control. Over the next decade, a (more or less) functioning bureaucracy with civil servants selected through admission exams runs public services, tax collection, infrastructure, and matters of economic regulation from Bactria to the Indian Ocean and from the Euphrates to the Yamuna. Even jurisdiction is wrestled from the hands of the Zoroastric priests and laid into the hands of civil servant judges, who must have completed thorough studies of the law and moral philosophy.

332
Persia / Saba / Aksum: Shaipur II. declares war against Saba. The secret fleet planned  by his grandfather defeats the Saban navy in several battles. Saba asks its Christian neighbour (and long-time rival) Aksum for help. Aksum, fearing they would be next on Shaipur`s list, allies with Saba. Together, Aksum and Saba manage to defeat the Persian navy.

334
Persia / India: The first Sassanid university in OTL India is founded in the booming port town of Barygaza, which has become a large city and a wealthy commercial centre, where Indian spices, cloth, cotton and medicinal plants are traded for wine, glass, and petra oleum from Persia`s heartland and Western provinces as well as from Roman Europe, and where the crafts blossom, Western and Indian techniques fertilising each other. The University of Barygaza is mostly necessary for the education of future civil servants - as such, it offers a unique opportunity for upward social mobility for the sons of Indians from different castes and corroborates the support for Sassanid rule. On the other hand, it also becomes a centre of Zoroastrism in India. Especially old Hinduist rural elites view all of this with great skepticism.

335
Roman Empire: A fleet of Ostrogoth boatsmen raids Sinope.

336
Iberia: Mirian converts himself and his little Caucasian kingdom to Trinitarian Christianity. Like in Armenia, his state church is autocephalous.

337
Markomanni and Alemanni confront each other; the battle ends inconclusively.

339
Gaul: After the camps on the Saxon coast have finally fallen, Anglians, Saxons and Jutes start new raids at the Britannic and even the Batavian coast.

340
Roman Empire: Among Christians, the schism between Arianists and Trinitarians breaks out.

341
Persia: Xionite nomads invade the Sassanid empire. They plunder Bactria and leave before Shapur II.´s troops manage to confront them.

342
Persia: Shapur II. orders strong and quick cavalry units (drawn from Arabia, Eran and India alike) to the North to protect Turan`s border against Xionite or similar attacks.

343
Roman Empire: The Arianist bishop Wulfila manages to convert the Visigothic judge-king Aorich to Christianity. Aorich supports Wulfila`s missionary activities.

Gaul: Picts attack Britannia. Their invasion is stopped at Isurium Brigantum.

348
Roman Empire: Wulfila has managed not only to convert most Visigoths to Arianist Christianity, but also to spread the script he himself had developed among the Terwingian Visigoth nobles. Dozens of copies of his Gothic translation of the Holy Writ are crafted.

350
Aksum: King Ezana intervenes in internal disputes of his northern neighbour and ends up annexing Kush. With Kush becoming a part of Aksum, Aksum now shares a border with the Roman empire (Egypt).

351
Persia: Another Xionite attack. This time, the Sassanids manage to confront and annihilate the invading nomadic riders, although the entire Sassanid cavalry must be deployed to Turan for this purpose.

Persia / Arabia / Saba: With Sassanid troops bound in defensive battles against the Xionites, Saba conquers the Gulf Coast.

353
Gaul: A system of fortifications protects Britannia`s Eastern shore and Batavian settlements near the Channel.

355
Roman Empire: In a conference on military challenges for the empire held at the Academia Martiana, the thesis of the most dangerous threat being nomadic barbarians from the Asian steppe is discussed in an extremely controversial manner. The proponents of the "Hun Thesis" argue with the fate of the their Sassanid neighbour and call for a surge in cavalry buildup and cooperation with Persia. The opponents of the thesis argue that the fortified limites will hold and that Rome should rather build up and modernise its classis (navy) to be able to secure Roman-Indian trade, as they see the Sassanids more as an enemy, not a partner. In the following years, the A.M., the military leadership and even Consuls and the Senate are deeply influenced by this heated debate - actual military policies reflect a bit of both approaches.

357
Persia / Arabia / Saba: The Persian cavalry, helped by Lakhmid allies, wipes Saban presence off the Gulf Coast.

360
Persia / India: Aided by revolting Shaka Kshatriyas from the Easternmost satrapies of the Sassanid Empire, Samudragupta`s soldiers march into Sassanid territory and try to incorporate it into his kingdom. The Sassanids manage to defeat the Gupta army at Ujjain.

Insurgent kshatriyas and anti-Sassanid brahmans who supported them are led into the Persian heartland and into slavery. Especially the later contribute greatly to the dissemination of Hinduist culture and philosophy in the Middle East, in spite of their low social position there.

363
Roman Empire: Further Ostrogoth raids on the Bithynian and Cappadocian coast.

365
Roman Empire / Gaul: Customs disputes lead to Celts and Romans both stopping each other`s ships at the Strait of Gibraltar. The Western Mediterranean draws breath as a war between the two empires seems inevitable. But after two weeks, the Gibraltar crisis is settled in negotiations between Valentinian and Indutiomarus IV. A joint customs committee is established and revenues are split equally.

366
Persia / India: Shaipur II. realises he must foster local Indian religions as well to enhance Sassanid acceptance. At the (now three) Sassanid universities in the Indian world (at Debul, Kabura and Barygala), Buddhism is promoted, too, now. Over the next decade, the last in Shaipur`s reign, several Hindu temples for the veneration of Kali (a goddess popular with the vast majority of the Indian Hinduist population and not with the anti-Sassanid Brahman elite) are erected, too. Sassanid influence begins to shape Hinduism and bring forth its own varieties of it.

368
Roman Empire: Experimental fire pumps (Greek fire) developed by the Academia Martiana and aimed at protecting Roman ships on the Black Sea against Ostrogothic and Alanic pirates are installed on Roman ships.

370
Imaziyen: The Berbers, from Tifilalt over Ouargla to Garama, have become Simonist Christians. Their kings and queens have abdicated and have (more or less voluntarily) become commoners. Private property is overcome in the oases. Dissenters mostly emigrate to Rome`s African provinces.

374
Huns subdue the Alani.

375
Huns (and some Alani) attack and defeat the Ostrogoths.

Roman Empire: A first wave of refugees, fleeing from the devastation brought about by the Huns, hits the empire`s Danube border. Imperial troops fend off any attempts at invading Roman territory. A disheveled Greutung "king" Amalaric seeks asylum for himself and the masses of refugees. The Moesian Comitia and the Senate refuse, the latter only by a small margin.

376
Roman Empire: Famine and diseases haunt the refugee camps north of the Danube. Christian groups organise the deliverance of at least some grain.

In Rome, the supporters of the Hun Thesis triumph, but as a result of the differences of opinions, only some legions are trained for combat against the Huns. Mobilisation and preparation are pushed feverishly.

377
Roman Empire: Huns penetrate the Roman empire for the first time, plundering towns, villages and gold mines in Dacia. Imperial forces confront them at Porolissum and manage to push them back temporarily.

Realising the strategic flexibility and the great number of skillful archers among the Hunnic riders, the Senate and the provincial governor decide to evacuate Dacia`s (Visigothic, Roman and Dacian) inhabitants and riches and move them across the Danube. The long march across the Danube takes five months, in which five legions must repeatedly engage Hunnic hordes in heavy battles at Apulum, Tibiscum and Acidava.

378
Roman Empire: The retreat across the Danube is successfully accomplished, although at the expense of several hundred civilian casualties of the marches during winter times.

One of the most gruesome atrocities of the Hunnic war is committed when the Huns reach the refugee camps of non-Roman Dacia and force refugees to advance across the Danube briges as human shields. The Roman defenders are compelled to slay thousands of unarmed civilians. But the Danube Limes still holds...

379
After the Huns found little left that was of any use to them in the abandoned province of Dacia, they move further West and subdue the Iazyges. Together with many Iazyges, they attack the Vandals.

Roman Empire: Vandal refugees seek asylum in the empire. In a new vote, the Senate decides to grant asylum to unarmed women and children, both in Pannonia (Vandals, later Marcomanni) and in Dacia (where most surviving refugees had already returned from the squalour of the camps to the deserted plains which the Huns had left behind, though).

380
The Huns subdue the Marcomanni. After the Vandal example, many women and children flee into the empire, swelling the ranks of the "asylum germanii", who start to become an important social factor in the border provinces.

The Burgundians confront the Huns and are devastatingly defeated. They retreat into OTL Bohemia.

Roman Empire: Military engineers manage to copy the Huns` composite crossbows. Mass production and training of both cavalry and infantry is started.

Gaul: Saxon attempts at raiding Britannian coastal towns fail due to the new fortifications.

381
Roman Empire: A Hunnic attempt to cross the Danube in Pannonia fails; heavy losses on both sides.

The Huns subdue the Alemanni, but not after the latter had put up great resistance and had to pay dearly. Now, Alemmani attack the border of Rome´s Vindelican province as Hunnic vassals, again suffering heavy losses.

382
Roman Empire / Gaul: After several failed attempts, the Huns (and their vassals) finally break into Vindelicia and approach the Alps. There, they divide; one group tries to advance through the Alps, while the other moves westward until they reach Celtic fortifications of the Rhine. Rome and Gaul quickly forge an alliance and prepare to throw all their combined military might against the Huns.

383
In the midst of winter, different Hunnic subdivisions ravaging through different valleys north of the Alps are encircled and engaged in battles by a total number of 160,000 Roman and Celtic soldiers. Four out of five Hunnic groups are thoroughly defeated, with tens of thousands killed and about an equal number captivated. A fifth Hunnic group flees to the North and enters Frankish territory. In long, drawn-out fights, the Franks manage to defeat the weakened rests of the Hunnic invasion army.

Roman Empire: The Hunnic danger is eliminated. Rome celebrates its triumph and the successful defense of its Danube border. 16,000 Hunnic prisoners of war are under Roman control. As slavery is outlawed in the empire, the Senate decides to sell the prisoners to the Celts.

With things going so well militarily, Roman and Celtic army leaders argue for "rooting out the problem", i.e. a retaliative attack on the Hunnic settlement nuclei in the steppe beyond the Volga.

Against fierce opposition from Christian, Jewish, gnostic and other pacifistic groups, the joint Hun Campaign is decided to start in the following year. Meanwhile, the first asylum germanii return to their devastated homelands and (dead or alive) husbands and fathers.

384
The Hun Campaign, in which two Germanic kingdoms (Franks and Burgunds) and mercenaries from the devastated tribes of the Alemanni, Markomanni and Vandals, and even the army of the Sassanid empire joins, becomes the largest genocide in history. In a sustained, successful military campaign, which later turns into an armed enslavement campaign, 125,000 Huns and other nomadic people (Sabirs, Onogurs, Sagurs and Bulgars in the pontic steppes, Xionites, Kidarites and Hephtalites in Transoxania) are killed in warfare and another 30,000 die on the long marches towards their destinations. Over 200,000 people are captivated and enslaved. The entire steppe from the Danube to the Volga is depopulated. Only people close to the Danube and the Western shore of the Black Sea had a chance to escape genocide or slavery, which they often managed by declaring themselves as Ostrogothic refugees. (Since the fate of the refugees had been a particularly dark spot on Roman public conscience, enslaving them was completely out of the question. Until their fate would be decided in one of the first "international conferences", they are deported and taken care of on the island of Tauris, which had also been depopulated first.

Roman Empire: Selling another 60,000 slaves to the Sassanids and Celts (and a few to the Franks), the Roman legions reap 180 million Sesterces. Heated disputes over who gets the 180 million are settled by the decision to found new academiae martianae (and some non-military universities with the new Roman focus on applied sciences, too) and endow each with 10,000,000 sesterces as foundation asset. This is the birth of the public credit system which would develop over the next centuries in the Roman Empire, where public institutions, often universities, provide loans for projects which they consider "deserving" of financial support, and where the interests of these loans swell the purses of these public institutions even further, giving them ever more socio-economic power.

Reports from the steppe battlefields divide the society into enragé pacifists and hawks, who have found new pride for their empire.

Persia: After killing or enslaving the Xionites, Kidarites and many Hephtalites, the Sassanid Empire consolidates its control over Transoxania, moving settlers there and garrisoning armies there to control the tens of thousands of slaves as well as the trade route with China.

385
Tauris: During spring, a great international conference that would decide the fate of the swept-up people from the steppe, who for strategic reasons all called themselves "gothoi anatoli" (Ostrogoths) now, was held in Rome, with representatives from Gaul, the Sassanid empire, the Frankish kingdoms and the deportees. While Celts, Franks and Sassanids wanted the deportees either enslaved or at least brought under the control of an empire, as they considered any people in the steppe too great a danger now, the Roman senate, under pressure from public opinion, opted for an independent Ostrogothic state. In addition, the other powers couldn`t agree where to bring them to.

In one of the most extravagant, yet surprisingly successful and influential, strategic moves in history, representatives of the deportees declared that their people had coverted to Tannait Judaism (a Jewish group that was known to Romans and Sassanids as deeply pacifistic and was renowned to be "among themselves", but very cooperative).

This swayed the opinion on the conference, as the gothoi anatoli would not be considered a danger anymore - if the representatives had really told the truth...

A diplomatic mission was sent to Tauris; luckily for the deportees, a ship with messengers arrived in Tauris before them. It did not take much persuasion to convert the destitute people, who didn´t even share a language, to Judaism. The diplomats saw what they were supposed to see and returned to Rome.

In early June, all parties signed a contract:

The "gothoi anatoli" were given their own state, which was to be confined to the island of Tauris. They would not be allowed any horses or weapons. This would be supervised by ambassadors from all contract parties, who would be exchanged annually. The Roman Empire would guarantee their safety and defense from attacks.

Germania: With almost all Germanic refugees returned to their homelands, Germania is thoroughly reshaped and the influence of Roman civilization makes itself felt.

Only among the Franks, the social model with warrior kings at the top is considered a success. The Frankish Confederacy, enriched by slaves, would later expand across central Germany and deep into formerly Alemannic lands, all along the Celts´ north-eastern border.

Returning asylum germanii meet scattered rests of their Alemannic, Markomannic and Vandal clans. As a result of what had happened to them, they fortify their dwellings heavily, thus creating a multitude of middle-size, small and miniature "city states" north of the Danube and Rhine.

The Burgunds isolate themselves in Bohemia and participate very little in the developments of the next century.

Visigoths and their fellow provincial citizens return to Dacia.

397
Persia / India: Chandragupta`s daughter marries a Vakatakan prince. The Gupta-Vakataka alliance is much closer than in OTL because it is seen as vital in the defense against Sassanid expansion. It also facilitates the proliferation of the innovations which Chandragupta had learned from his powerful and wealthy Sassanid neighbour further to the South - from windmills over universities and academies to efficient administration and diversified military forces.

399
Roman Empire: By the end of the century, the use of waterpower to replace the force of oxen and human slaves has become so frequent that the total power of watermills installed across the Roman Empire has grown by the factor 320 as compared to the beginning of the century.

This required the building of many smaller and larger dams, which in turn made expropriations and relocations necessary. Where such processes were not undertaken in cooperation with local elites, protest groups have begun to form.

On the other hand, increased use of waterpower and higher productivity have made many jobs superfluous - and created highly skilled ones instead, needed for the construction, maintenance and operation of the dams, millwheels, turbines, sawmills, grain mills, hammers etc.

These workers need training. Provinces often reward innovators by hiring them as professors. Since the 360s, these gather in Academiae of applied sciences. Some of these academies were endowed with the Hun Money and have risen above the others to empire-wide excellence.

Salvador79 (talk) 09:52, March 3, 2014 (UTC)

Abrittus