500-599 (Abrittus)

501
Roman Empire: Rinaldus, professor of philosophy at the University of Mediolanum, publishes his "Meditationes", in which he sharply condemns the epistemological self-confidence and philosophical lopsidedness of the empiricist method of Anaraudus, which had become dominant at both Celtic and Roman universities. The "Meditationes" have recourse to the 4th century philosopher Aurelius Augustinus and are considered to be the foundational moment of Roman Rationalism. The opposition of "Celtic" empiricism and "Roman" rationalism will dominate the philosophical debate of this century, with representatives of both schools equally present in both empires.

502
Pannonia Germanica: A dozen well-fortified towns in non-Roman (Transdanubian) Pannonia, led by the largest towns of Partischken / Partiscum (OTL Szeged), Mortzens / Morisena (OTL Cenad), Tissenbaurg / Castra Tisiae, Gombs / Gombos and Konterflorenz / Burgus Contra Florentiam, forms the Pannonian Alliance. It is aimed both at dealing with the influx of Slavic-speaking farmers searching for arable land, and at negotiating better terms of trade with Roman civitates like Brigetio (OTL Komarom), Aquincum (OTL Budapest) or Singidunum (OTL Belgrade).

503
Wagadu Empire: Simonist Christianity has found a considerable amount of followers among the Mandinke, especially among lower social strata like indentured servants. Persecutions by the Divine King's entourage cause a civil war, which lasts two years and devastates a great amount of the Wagadu Empire.

504
Sassanid Empire: Civil unrest and Mazdakist mass protests continue as regional warlords continue the persecution of Mazdakists. The situations slides out of Djamasp's hands.

505
Sassanid Empire: Djamasp is dethroned and blinded by a group of aristocratic conspirators. Hormizd is the new shahanshah.

Wagadu Empire: With help from the Simonist Amazigh communities of Djanet and Amanrasset, Simonists win the civil war among the Mandinke. The Ghana (divine king) and his court are slain, and with a great mass, Simonist Mandinke celebrate the establishment of their Communist theocracy and the communion with the Imazigh of the North.

506
Roman Empire: A federalist majority in the Senate lends the Republican Censors authority to establish a much more precise census, containing a vast number of new categories of information. Many cities protest against this measure, as they see their autonomy curbed. After two and a half centuries, an empire-wide censorial administration is re-built, with well-qualified clerks. This decision speeds up both the Roman Republic's transition to a territorial democracy and the use of the Devangari numerals in Europe and the Mediterranean.

Sassanid Empire: Hormizd II officially rekindles the persecution of Mazdakism. By the end of the year, over 30,000 (often well-educated) Mazdakist Persians have fled from the empire into Armenia, Saba and the Roman Republic. Another 15,000 Mazdakists from the Northern and Eastern satrapies have fled to the Turks, to Wei China and to Gupta India.

Mandinke: A group of dissenters, who do not subscribe either to Christianity, or to the new social rules which collectivise all property, leaves the rest of the Mandinke and migrates down the river Senegal by boats.

507
Sassanid Empire: In spite of brutal oppression, the Mazdakist movement appears inextinctable. Diplomatic trouble with the Chendra dynasty in India keeps Hormizd busy, though, and brings a pause in this civil war.

A group of Mazdakist refugees, who had left Persia last year but not found asylum in any of the Eastern African coast towns, lands in Northern Madagascar, where they found the first society based on Mazdkaist principles.

508
Mandinke: The non-Simonist Mandinke establish their new central settlement in Sere Kounda, at the mouth of the Senegal River.

509
Sassanid Empire: A new peasant rebellion, led by the charismatic Mazdakist Pakur, shakes Western and Northern Persia. Hormizd sends ever new armies against the insurgents. The costs of war and its detrimental effect on commerce have emptied the royal coffers.

510
Sassanid Empire: Hormizd II decrees a head tax to finance the civil war against insurgent peasants, Mazdakists and, of lately, also rebellious slaves (mostly of Arabian, Turkic and Indian backgrounds). The dehqans are charged with collecting it in the countryside, while the regional shahs collect the rest in the cities. Factually, only the latter have a chance to execute this order because they can back it with military power.

511
Sassanid Empire: The civil war continues; no side appears victorious. Commercial and professional urban circles, which had been divided between pro- and anti-Mazdakists, become increasingly opposed to Hormizd's war and tax regime.

Roman Empire: In the Syrian civitas of Dura Europos, a chemist / distiller discovers several useful products of a destillation of petra oleum. The interest of the collegium of the apothecaries is limited, but the provincial Academia Martiana in Halabiya is more interested.

Imaziyen: News of the conversion of the Mandinke and the social revolutionary movement of the Mazdakists among the Zoroastrians create an atmosphere of enthusiasm among the Simonist Garamants and other Imaziyen. Proselytising among the people South of the Sahara resurges with fresh zeal.

512
Sassanid Empire: In a common declaration (the "declaration of Samarkand"), the mayors and petty kings of nine Sogdian cities refuse to send the required amounts of tax money and demand to have a say in fiscal legislation. Hormizd must interrupt the persecution of the insurgents in Persia and send troops to the North.

513
Sassanid Empire: Hormizd II is defeated in Sogdia by the Turkish Chigils, who had been hired by the Sogdians. Back home in Persia, a coalition of moderate and Mazdakist townsmen and insurgent peasants has gained control over Sapahan (OTL Isfahan).

514
Scandinavia: Wealthy and powerful guilds from Sørstad found a sister town / colony named Älvsborg in the land of the Geats.

Roman Empire / Pannonia Transdanubensis: The towns allied in the Pannonian Federation officially commence negotiations with the Roman Consuls Titus Veledus and Remus Sabinus with the aim of becoming a Roman margo-like Tauris.

515
Roman Empire: Much more powerful, light and portable fire pumps / flame throwers are developed in Halabiya, using lighter substances distilled from petra oleum. Because neither the surrounding civitates, nor the MCM want to buy them yet, the academy's workshops sell them to Mazdakist rebels who want to use them in their civil war against Hormizd.

Margo negotiations with the Pannonian towns become protracted because Titus and Remus insist on including the newly arrived and politically marginalised Slavic peasant population in the negotiations ("Rome doesn't need a peasant rebellion in its realm."), to which they towns are opposed.

516
Roman Empire: The influential and reformist Censor Theophrastes Lykios institutionalises the hitherto chaotic structures of co-operation between the aedilian infrastructural administration and private construction companies by drafting a legal construction, which would in modern terms be labelled a "private public partnership", which could itself, as a form of trust, borrow money from the Republican Treasury at fixed, low interest rates and lend it to third parties at free interest rates (up to the legal limit of 5 %).

517
Sassanid Empire: The civil war, which has cost almost half a million lives so far, does not go well for the old establishment - and the new weapon used by the rebels in the West has contributed to this. Hormizd II is dethroned and sent into exile on Sokotra. The warlords choose Balash II as the next shahanshah.

518
Sassanid Empire: In an attempt to reassure Sassanid society of its cultural foundation - and to secure the clergy's support for the ancient regime -, Balash takes several measures that strengthen the role of orthodox Zoroastrianism in public life across the entire empire. Dissenters are marginalised, no new temples, churches, stupas, monasteries, synagogues etc. of other confessions may be built, and non-Zoroastrians (Mazdakists officially belong in that category, too, now) must pay a higher head tax.

Roman Empire / Pannonia Transdanubensis: The chiefs of eight Slavic clans finally join in the margo negotiations. Their main interest is the recognition of their land rights.

519
Svearike: Visbur unites several petty kingdoms of the Svear. Capital of the new united kingdom of the Svear is Uppsala; its most important religious centre is Helgö, and its most important trading port and hub of crafts development is Birka.

520
Sassanid Empire / India: Balash's policy backfires badly. After wild protests by Hinduists across the Sassanid satrapies in India, Vasishka III, the Kushanshah, and Peroz VIII, the Shakanshah, ceremoniously (and opportunistically) place themselves in the front row of these movements. In a common statement, they demand from Chosrau to exempt their satrapies from implementing the Zoroastrianist policies. When Balash refuses, they declare that their satrapies are no longer ruled by Balash, but that they shall rule themselves. Vasishka and Peroz reign over the breakaway empire in a dual monarchy.

521
Roman Empire / Germania: Negotiations between the Pannonian Federation and the two Consuls of Rome are concluded successfully and a treaty is signed. The Pannonian Federation is to become Rome´s second  margo with the designated official name "Rei Publicae Romanae Margo Foederationis Pannonicae".

Sassanid Empire: Influential groups of Jews and Christians in the Mesopotamiam West of the Empire join the anti-shahanshah side. Only two months later, the revolution suffers a severe psychological blow as news of Kavadh's assassination by Sassanid spies reach the Sassanid Empire.

522
Roman Empire / Pannonia: The Senate ratifies the margo treaty with transdanubian Pannonia. So far, only economic regulations have been harmonised, and the movement of persons and goods is to become free between the Republic and its margo. The margo does not yet pay taxes to the Republican budget and does not enjoy military assistance or infrastructural aid.

In the new margo, Germanic- and Slavic-speaking farmers produce cereals, dairies and meat, which they export to a great extent across the Danube, while in the small towns, craftsmen of mostly Germanic origin try to adapt to the frequent innovations they observe in the products which Roman merchants sell. The federal level of the margo is rather weak. Local administration is structured after the Roman model. Social inequality and segregation also show Roman influences: they are based on the sole use of the "Vandal" language in town councils and administration - much like participation on the other side of the Danube depends on fluency in Latin, which many of the immigrants from Germanic Pannonia have to master without the necessary means of paying for a formal education. "Vandal" is, in fact, a blend of different Eastern Germanic languages (Gepidic, Vandalic, Quadic, Gothic and others) with heavy Latin influences, which the Slavic peasants often do not master very well. It is difficult to say which process is faster: that of Vandal standardisation or that of its Latinisation.

Sassanid Empire / Kushana-Shakastan: Balash's attempt to coerce Kushana-Shakastan back under his overlordship fails. The armies of Vasishka and Peroz even march on Persian territory. Only with great efforts and a lot of luck can the army under Balash's command stop the Kushan-Shakan advance at Dosdab. Balash signs a peace treaty and cedes the Sassanids' Indian possessions. The only Indians left under Sassanid rule now are the soldiers of Indian descent who, very loyal to the Sassanids, fight to maintain control over Bactria and Sogdia.

523
Celtic Empire / Denmark: Because the Celtic merchant fleet is still an easy prey for pirates in the Kattegat, Caesar Antonius decides to start a campaign aimed at conquering the Danish isles in 523. New divisions of the Celtic Navy, equipped with the new fast longboats, sail into the Kattegat. Everything looks good at first, with some islets easily conquered. But when the Celts encounter the main body of a Danish fleet under the command of Horik, a small king in Lejre, they must learn that having longboats does not yet make one a skillful Viking sea warrior. The Celtic naval detachment is nearly destroyed - and the first part of the legend of heroic Danish resistance is created.

524
Roman Empire: The command of the Roman classis sees the advantages of the new fire pumps developed in Syria. A large order is placed to equip many ships with the new weapon.

525
Ostrogoths are the first to copy and use the Sørstad ship design of longboats with sails in the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

Venedia: Sørstaders found the sister town / colony of Vineta in a land sparsely inhabited by Venedian tribes, intensifying their trade relations with Ranians and other Liutician tribes.

Sassanid Empire: In Choresmia, Mazdakists have prevailed over the Afraghids, who had been vassals of the Sassanids. They invite Kavadh's eldest son, Kavus, to become their shah, to protect and respect the rules and egalitarian principles of Mazdakism. Kavus marks the beginning of the (lesser, but more orthodox) dynastic line of Mazdakites (the greater, but more moderate one would emerge victorious in Persia later, founded by Chosrau I).

Alemannia: The towns of the Alemannic Federation decide they want to profit from the same privileges as the Transdanubian Pannonians. With the Alemanni having secured their towns and countryside with hundreds of burgi against Frankish attacks and Alemannic towns like Friburg being stably governed by guild-dominated city councils, who manage to keep peace and order in the rural countryside, too, which is also inhabited mostly by Alemannic-speaking people, Rome views the adherence process favourably and begins a fast-lane negotiation process.

526
Roman Empire: An earthquake kills approximately 100,000 people in Cilicia and its largest city of Antiochia.

527
Sassanid Empire / Choresmia: Balash's army, which numbers not even a quarter of the soldiers Sassanid shahanshahs could command half a century earlier, lays siege to Choresmia's oasis fortresses, and reconquers Choresmia, committing a bloodbath among the Mazdakist population. Only three months later, a fresh insurgency overthrows the occupation forces, though. Kavus returns from his hideout.

Balash is forced to raise the head tax for non-Zoroastrians once again.

528
Sassanid Empire: The town councils of Bukhara, Samarqand, Kesh, Tashkent, Andijan, Pandjakent, Parshvab and Talas openly cease any payments to Balash and declare not to apply the laws against non-Zoroastrian faiths, which have hampered trade along the Silk Road, which is conducted by merchants of all sorts of religious backgrounds (a majority of them Buddhists), greatly. (The Sogdians do not know that commerce on the Silk Road - the one main source of their wealth -  is also disadvantaged by widespread peasant rebellions in Northern China.) To strengthen their position, they form an institutionalised alliance (the "Sogdian Federation") and pledge allegiance to Kushana-Shakastan.

Roman Empire / Alemannia: The Alemannic Federation becomes Rome's third margo, with the official name "Rei Publicae Romanae Margo Foederationis Alemannae".

529
Roman Empire: The Comitium of the Civitas of Sirmium is the first among hundreds of cities, which would join the campaign later, to decree that taverns must not serve more than a sextarius of wine or a triens of brandy per customer per day in order to reduce alcohol-related violence.

530
Roman Empire: The mechanical loom, powered by water, is invented in Pamphylia.

531
Sassanid Empire: Balash comes under attack from another front: An alliance of Roman border civitates, Taghlib Arabs and troops from Armenia and the Kingdom of Saba marches into Sassanid territory. Their declared aim is to defend the Christians, who have been severely persecuted since the involvement of some Christian groups in the civil war on the side of the revolution. There are rumours, though, that the Roman Republic supports the coalition this time because it is interested in gaining access to the petroleum seep sites of Mesopotamia - with fire pumps becoming more and more important for the Roman navy, the importance of petra oleum increases.

Confronted with so many defeats and military failures, the warlords conspire against Balash. He hears of their plans, though, and flees with a handful of loyal supporters into Oxania, where he has loyal supporters among his troops.

532
Persia: While Balash completely changes his policies after his retreat into Oxania, abandoning the high head tax as well as the persecution of non-Zoroastrians, and concentrates entirely on increasing his control over the Silk Road, competing shahs contend for power in Persia. And of course the Mazdakists triumph at Balash's demise, too, taking to the streets in ever greater numbers, showing that their faith and value system cannot be crushed by force.

Mesopotamia is "liberated" and controlled by the Christian coalition.

Saba annexes the Sassanid possessions on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf.

533
Roman Empire: A gaffer from Memphis blows the first battery of test tubes for the Faculty of Natural Philosophy at the University of Alexandria.

Hausa: A Simonist revolution overthrows the petty king of Kano and turns the city-state into a Communist theocracy.

535
Kushana-Shakastan: Overtly Hinduist policies lead to the secession of the mostly Buddhist satrapies of Gandhara and Taxila and the Silk Road cities of Shrinagari and Gilgit from Kushana-Shakastan. The secessionists are united under the military leadership of the Kabul Shahi.

536
Kushana-Shakastan: A military attempt to coerce the economically important Buddhist North back into the union fails in the mountainous terrain.

The Sogdian Federation breaks its alliance with Kushana-Shakastan, which can no longer assist them anyway since their access routes traverse the secessionist territories, and allies itself with the Kabul Shahi and sends Chigil Turkish cavalry to assist in the defense against Kushana-Shakastan.

537
Sørstaders found the sister town / colony of Grobiņa in Courland in order to trade with the Baltic tribes.

Sogdia: After the Kushan-Shakas withdrew, Balash's ultra-loyal Oxanian troops seize the opportunity of the perceived Sogdian lack of defense and lay siege to the secessionist Sogdian cities. They conquer Bukhara in the West of Sogdia, but before they reach Samarqand, the Kabul Shahi return the favour and, together with Chigil cavalry, defeat Balash's Oxanian troops.

The bubonic plague breaks out in Bactria and Alania at the same time.

Hausa / Banza: A seven-year-long war breaks out between the cities of Kano, Katsina, Gobir, Zamfara and Kebbi, led by the Simonist city of Kano, and the cities of Daura, Zazzau, Rano and Biram, led by Daura.

538
Celtic Empire: Caesar Titus Hibernicus attempts to establish a centralised census and fiscal administration after the Roman model. An empty state treasury and high expenses make an efficient levying of the ever-increasing taxes a strict necessity.

Large Celtic cities, and even smaller oppida, which have democratised itself over the past centuries and assimilated themselves to the Roman civitates, oppose the plans, which would bereave them of their fiscal autonomy and economic independence.

Sogdia: With trade still not going well at all and the plague haunting their cities, the Sogdian cities are hard pressed to repay the service of the Chigils.

The bubonic plague reaches the crumbling Sassanid Empire, the entire Silk Road, the Ostrogoths and the rest of the Caucasus.

539
Persia: A revolutionary coalition of moderate Mazdakists, Christians, Jews, Manichaeists, revolting peasants, and representatives of urban guilds overthrows the ancient regime finally by gaining control over the cities of Ctesiphon, Gundishapur and Sapahan and declaring Chosrau, Kavadh's favourite son, as the first Mazdakite Shah of Eran. The renaming of the old dynasty into a new one symbolises both the reference to continuity and the factually drastic increase of influence of the Mazdakist movement in the new polity.

Sogdian ambassadors prepare an alliance with a different Turkish tribe after the Chigils have turned sour - the Ashina, led by a charismatic person named Bumin.

Celtic Empire: Londinium and Tarraco refuse the caesarial censorial magistrates access to their fiscal databases. City guards follow the censorial quaestors everywhere to make sure they do not violate the property of Londinian and Tarraconian citizens.

The bubonic plague reaches Kushana-Shakastan, China and the Roman Empire.

540
Roman Empire: The medical faculties at Alexandria and Salamis try new ailments (plant extracts gained through alcohol) in controlled experiments with large groups against the bubonic plague. No success so far. Persia: The new Mazdakite Eran pacifies and consolidates itself, in spite of the additional chaos brought by the epidemic. Slavery is outlawed, a land reform condones the expropriation of the landowning aristocracy by peasant collectives, and a federal council is  elected which must consent to any taxation and declaration of war or peace.

Eranshahr occupies only a quarter of the former Sassanid imperial territory now; its territories roughly correspond to OTL Iran, OTL Azerbaijan and Eastern OTL Iraq.

The bubonic plague spreads across India and Northern and Western Europe as well as Eastern Africa. Caesar Titus Hibernicus abandons his censorial plans for the time being.

541
Celtic Empire: Based on reports by spies, Celtic military engineers manage to copy the modern fire pumps which the Roman navy has installed on all its ships now.

Hausa / Banza: In the Hausa and Banza war, the city of Zazzau is completely destroyed and burns to the ground. Surviving slaves join the Simonist side, which is also supported by Garamants and Mandinke.

542
Kushana-Shakastan: Kushanshah Vasishka VIII dies, like so many of his subjects, of the bubonic plague. Vasishka's succession becomes a political crisis. Among the Kushan nobles,  Vasishka's son Kanishka finds the greatest support, but he is unpopular in Shakastan because of his strong ties with the orthodox Zoroastrian clergy. After Kanishka VII becomes Kushanshah, the Shaka satrapies do not acknowledge his co-suzerainty and declare Peroz their only leader and king.The union has fallen apart.

543
Hausa, Banza et al.: Kororafa, Nupe, Gwari and Yauri also join Kano's side in the civil war.

Persia / Saba / Armenia: The Mazdakite State attempts to reach out to his neighbours to repair diplomatic ties, which is of vital importance to the new state, which, following the egalitarian and pacifistic Mazdakist maximes, has abolished the entire professional army which had been based on the aristocracy, and kept only an untrained and not heavily armed self-defense system of peasant militias and city guards to protect its homeland. It could not have withstood an attack from any major force.

This policy doesn't go too well, though. A peace treaty is signed with Saba, in which Eranshahr cedes all possessions on the Arabian Peninsula to Saba. This buys Eranshahr peace with Saba and their allies, the Taghlib, but alienates their own long-standing allies, the Lakhmids, and prevents Persia from becoming a sea power. In the West, relations with Armenia are souring because Mazdakist influences are about to destabilise this country.

544
Hausa, Banza et al.: Kano's side wins the war, after Katsina and Daura have suffered great destruction, too. Another great communion in celebration of the victory is held, in which emissaries from Garama and Koumbi Saleh greet the newcomers to the large family of Simonists. Kano is to become the spiritual centre of Simonism among the Hausa, Banza, Jukun and Nupe, but each city shall be a free, democratically self-governed commune.

545
Celtic Empire: The Celtic Navy has endowed both its large battleships and its quick longboats to a great extent with fire pumps. With the Celtic coins already so debased that foreign merchants no longer accept them, tougher taxation being prevented by obstructive municipal administrations, much of the Caesarian properties already sold off and the remaining few being squeezed out to the point of rupture, Caesar Marius Aquilensis is forced to finance this build-up by indebting his government, issuing IOUs to the craft collegia which build his ships. He hopes to pay them off with the spoils of a victorious war against the Danes, whose acts of piracy hinder Celtic Kattegat trade considerably.

546
The Ashina Bumin Khagan relies on Sogdian intelligence in his successful campaign against the Tiele and the Uyghurs. Sogdian counsellors also advise him to dare to shake off the Rouran yoke after the Ana-kuei's arrogant treatment of Bumin.

The bubonic plague epidemic ebbs off. It has killed seventeen million people worldwide. The medical faculty of the University of Alexandria offers an incredible sum of its foundation endowment money for the first scientist to come up with a cure for the bubonic plague. Standardised procedures and criteria for determining a successful and acceptable cure are formulated - the first of their kind worldwide.

547
Armenia: Immigrants from Persia, who have brought Mazdakism with them into the trinitarian Christian society of Armenia, have fuelled the development of a new Christian sect resp. church: Paulicianism.

548
In Kano, Karbagari, the only daughter of a formerly wealthy merchant, translates the Holy Bible from Amazigh into Hausa. She also founds the first Christian school among the Hausa.

549
Celtic Empire / Denmark: Caesar Marius Aquilensis starts another attempt at invading Denmark in 549. With the treasury less than empty, though, only a limited number of sailors and soldiers can be deployed. The Danes, led by a small king Ragnar in Gudme, cleverly manage to escape a direct confrontation in battle for several months. When the Celts have finally encircled them and the final battle is fought on the Isle of Fyn, the number of Celtic soldiers and the lack of co-ordination between Celtic legions and Saxon auxiliaries prove inferior to the fierce and desperate resistance of the Danish fighters. After this defeat, the Celts no longer undertake any attempts at expanding their empire for a long while. The Danish victory contributes the second part of the legend of heroic Danish resistance.

550
Funan / Chenla: Bhavavarman, prince in Funan's vassal principality of Isanapura, objects to Rudravarman's claim to the Funanese throne. He marches with an army of Northerners on Vyadhapura and destroys much of the city. The Funanese court escapes to Oc Èo.

Lasika: PONTOS, the largest private-public construction trust in the Roman Empire, begins the construction of a dam (for several mills as well as flood protection purposes) in the Enguri River in Lasika. The dam is designed to be owned and reap profit by PONTOS directly - perhaps the first example of a multi-national corporation in the domain of civil construction.

551
Celtic Empire: To repay his debts, Caesar Marius Aquilensis attempts to raise the amount of tax money demanded from the towns and provinces once again. This meets with the stiff resistance especially from the democratically self-governed civitates. The folllowing argument of the Celtic political philosopher Callatus finds many supporters: The Celtic farmers, craftsmen and merchants have lent the Caesar money - if the Caesar demands higher taxes from the farmers, craftsmen and merchants now, he is not repaying his debts at all. With one hand, the Caesar steals a gold coin from the left pocket of those who are productive, and while he puts the gold pocket back into the right pocket, he claims that he has paid his debt.

A growing group of (liberal, proto-bourgeois) "Callatians" demands "No taxation without representation", i.e. that all taxation laws must be passed by elected representatives of the taxed.

In Celtic universities and their departments of philosophy, such economic and political debates inspire new theory-building beyond the natural sciences and the continuation of Greek traditions.

Funan / Chenla: From Oc Èo Rudravarman gathers a strong army, which reconquers the region around the ruins of Vyadhapura, then marches Northwards. In a battle near Tonle Sap Lake, Rudravarman prevails over Bhavavarman, whom he beheads, along with twelve of his army leaders. He marches into a defenseless Isanapura, bearing the heads of the defeated on sticks.

552
Turks under the leadership of the Ashina clan overthrow the Rouran and found the Göktürk Empire. Being excellent blacksmiths, the Ashina forge a powerful nomad empire which employs the latest weaponry, as it has been developed in the internal wars between the Tuoba/Chinese dynasties.

Funan: Rudravarman creates his loyal follower Brahmadatta prince of Isanapura. The Funanese court remains in Oc Èo, at least until Vyadhapura is rebuilt.

553
Biram / Kanem: A small army is sent by Fune, divine king of Kanem, to punish Biram for no longer sending slaves, as was customary, to the stronger neighbor. Biram is mostly destroyed, before an allied army from all Simonist Hausa and Banza city-states manages to repel the invaders.

554
The city-states of the Sogdian Federation voluntarily accept the suzerainty of the Göktürk Empire. The Göktürk leadership is heavily influenced by Sogdian ideas and interests. A commemorative stele for the Turkish emancipation from and victory over the Rouran is written in Sogdian.

Armenia: A mob of Paulicians, led by the new church's founder, Silvanus, destroy icons, paintings and murals, which depict saints, angels or Jesus, in Paytakaran.

Lasika: The Enguri Dam is finished.

555
Pirates from Sjoranike (or Svearike) raid Grobiņa.

India: Poets (often of mixed or uncertain origin), who sing about their personal devotion to Shiva, Vishnu or some other deity in the tongues of the ordinary people of Western and Southwestern India, become all the rage. They attract large masses of spectators / followers. The movement is labelled "Bhakti", after its emphasis on personal love to a god instead of the performance of vedic rituals by Brahmins.

Tauris: The reserve funds of the mutual insurance club of the wealthiest Ostrogothic merchant syndicate, the Atarbaktoi, are esteemed by a professor of political philosophy from Massilia to be larger than the entire Celtic imperial state budget of this year.

556
The Göktürks led by their Western yabghu defeat the Oxanian troops, overrun Bactria and finish the last remnants of the Sassanid Empire for ever. Balash is killed in Merw. The Silk Road cities from Merw to Balkh ironically regain greater independence by submitting to the new Göktürk overlords.

557
Ostrogothic sea merchants in the new longboats discover Sere Kounda and establish trade relations (buying primarily cotton for the Roman textile manufactures) with the non-Simonist Mandinke, who have come to call themselves "Horon" (=the free).

558
Celtic Empire: Quintus Alabaster, a professor of philosophy at the university of Londinium and follower of Callatus, publishes a comparative economic history of the Celtic and the Roman Empires, in which he explains Roman economic advances and greater economic power with the abolition of slavery in the Roman Republic. The book fuels a heated controversy about the abolition of slavery in the Celtic Empire and influences the Callatians' pro-abolitionist stance.

559
Kashgar, Kucha, Karanshahr and Turfan accept Göktürk suzerainty. The Western yabghu consolidates Göktürk control up to the Caspian Sea. Choresmia's Mazdakite dynasty accepts the Göktürk suzerainty, too. The entire East-West-line of the Silk Road up to Gansu is under Göktürk control.

This is the moment of perfect synthesis between the city states of Silk Road merchants (shahristans) and the Göktürk nomad warriors: the latter protect the safety of the towns and trade routes of the former, while the former provide them with education (e.g. teaching them how to write about their glorious deeds), food in the winter and luxurious objects for the glorious winners who have gained control of Central Asia.

560
Roman Empire: Mykerinos, a gaffer / optician from Oxyrynchos, becomes rich by selling small, reliable and relatively affordable magnifying glasses.

Göktürk Empire: After Kyrgyz had attacked and raided Silk Road towns and caravanserais at the feet of the Tian Shan, the Göktürks subdue the Kyrgyz. Like the Magyars four years later for the Western part of the Göktürk Empire, the Kyrgyz at the Yenissei become the most important providers of horses for the central and Eastern parts of the Göktürk Empire.

Roman spies report to the Senate from their investigations, inspired by the observations of Roman merchants, about the rising military power of the Göktürk Khaganate, which now controls a territory larger than that of the Roman Republic. A militarist faction in the Senate - and the senators of the Taurean margo, who do not have a voting right on these matters, though - supports a cavalry build-up and troop movements into the pontic steppe, and the fiercest hawks even plan a preemptive strike. But they are a minority; the Senate is dominated by commerce-minded and relatively pacifistic factions, who oppose a large-scale draft and an increase in taxation for the war and the build-up.

561
Celtic Empire: Caesar Marius Aquilensis sends troops to Tarraco to force the city to comply with his fiscal demands. The population revolts. Demonstrations in other Celtic towns aimed against the unpopular Marius and his fiscal policies.

562
Celtic Empire: 32 Celtic civitates cease their tax payments to the government in Lutetia and close their gates for imperial magistrates, factually declaring their independence. Provincial legates and proconsuls who have stationed troops outside Celtic Imperial territory - mostly in Saxony - withdraw a large part of these troops and demobilise many centurions due to a lack of financial resources.

563
Celtic Empire: Marius Aquilensis is assassinated in Lutetia. The Senate nominates Tullius Pulcher, of Roman senatorial descent, as the new Caesar. Plebeian protesters demand to declare the popular (non-aristocratic) mayor (nominally a tribunus) of Londinium, Artus Pistorius, a leader of the Callatian movement, as new Caesar. The withdrawal from Saxony continues.

564
Celtic Empire: The empire is on the verge of civil war, aggravated by slave revolts in Anglia and Raetia, when the senatorial and equestrian elite finally gives in. Tullius Pulcher and Artus Pistorius co-govern as Consuls with equal rights and a term of three years, in which an institutional compromise must be found for the Empire and its financial situation.

Göktürk Empire: Yabgu Istämi integrates the Magyars as the first Ugro-Finnic people into the federation. They provide a great source of horses, which are constantly needed in the huge nomadic federation and empire. The Magyars, in turn, gain access to Roman alcohol and cheap cloth, luxurious Chinese silk, Sogdian carpets, Arabian pearls and all the other wonderful things traded around the Göktürk-controlled Silk Road.

565
Celtic Empire: The consuls Tullius Pulcher and Artus Pistorius abolish slavery in the Celtic Empire - a major political aim of Pistorius, a convinced Callatian, and backed by many collegia.

Roman Empire: Medical scientists from the University of Porolissum, who try to obtain the prize offered by the U. of Alexandria's medical department, conduct a large-scale medical experiment on people infected with the bubonic plague (mostly Slavic farmers from remote villages north of Dacia). Attempting to excel at meeting the procedural expectations, they treat half the probands with a substance extracted from heather via alcohol, and the other half of the probands with a mixture of garum and wine of equal colour, thereby introducing the control group procedure.

The experiments yields no conclusive evidence for any effects of the heather extract. After news of the whole test and its design reach the Slavic villages, a small-scale civil unrest arises, in which the semi-Romanised town of Siniacum was attacked and set on fire before military assistance from Samus (in the Roman civitas of Porolissum) reaches the town and defeats the rabble-rousers.

566
Celtic Empire: Under the transitionary consulate of Tullius Pulcher and Artus Pistorius, the Celtic Empire's first written constitution is drafted. It imitates many concepts and ideas of the Roman Republic's constitution - but in contrast to Rome, the Celts keep the provinces and provincial administration, whose heads are selected by the imperial Senate and Magistrates. In the Celtic military, there is no soldiers' democracy as in Rome, and the Celtic armed forces do not enjoy the same amount of self-government as in the Roman Republic. Also, the Celtic civitates are not allowed to employ heavily armed city guards. The constitution abolishes many aristocratic provisions in political, communal, economic, juridical and military matters, and it replaces the Caesarial administration and absolute rule with a system of checks and balances between different magistrates and the Senate, but it does not compel the civitates, which now formally become the constituent elements of the Empire like in Rome, to take their decisions in general assemblies like the Roman Comitia Civitatum. The Celtic constitution is much more explicit than the older Roman constitution on matters of taxation, a non-political administration of the mint, and economic liberties, due to the strong Callatian influence.

The constitution will stabilise the Celtic Empire in the long run, but leaves its new magistrates with very little funds to begin governing with. It leaves the patchwork of political structures of the level of the civitates untouched: everything from earls in Caledonian civitates over a property-based election system in Divodurum to a Roman comitium-style democracy in Clunia exists.

India: Vishnugupta and Devasena II (of Vakataka) ally themselves against Peroz IX. Fortune in battle sometimes favours one side, sometimes the other.

Göktürk Empire / Persia: Göktürks invade the North of Eranshahr and raid cities and rural reserves. The Mazdakite Shah Chosrau renews its alliance with the Lakhmids to have a cavalry available for the defense of their Northern border.

567
Celtic Empire: The first Senate with representatives from the Celtic civitates according to the new constitution relieves Tullius Pulcher and Artus Pistorius and elects Robertus Quintus, senator from Burdigala, and Victorinus Quintus, senator from Corduba, as new consuls, along with twelve new imperial praetors, three censors (with different tasks) and a great number of aedils.

Robertus and Victorinus attempt to give some structure to the thinning out of Celtic troops in Saxony, regrouping the troops and concentrating them in castra deemed vital. Both present detailed plans a resurge in the 570s and 580s, if the Senate manages to pass tax laws that provide the necessary funds.

India: Not having made any significant military progress, Vishnugupta and Devasena II retreat. Shakastan remains independent.

Arabia: The Lakhmids demand Persian material assistance for an attack on the Taghlib to gain control over the Mesopotamian petroleum seep sites. With Chosrau's support and consent, the Lakhmids begin a five-year war against the Taghlib.

568
The divine kingdom of Kanem falls. Simonist Hausa refugees and the Imaziyen have increased their proselytising (and instigating) campaign among the Tubu, who guard Kanem´s sanctuary, Mune - with success. Simonist Tubu rise up against Duguwa rule. Convinced by eloquent Garamants, they declare Mune to be the sacred Israeli ark of the covenant, whose power must only be wielded by God's chosen people, i.e. now the Christians, and not the Duguwa "divine" kings. They find ample support among different oppressed tribes and groups in Kanem. With help from the Garamants and the Hausa, the revolution succeeds and the Duguwa and Sefuwa nobility are driven out of the country. In a great assembly / Simonist Christian mass, the Tubu and other Imaziyen swear oaths of peace, co-operation and piety (the mythical foundation of the Ljama'a). Mune will become an important Christian sanctuary of the unified Imaziyen.

Göktürk Empire: The Mari become the second Ugro-Finnic people under the overlordship of the Göktürks. Extending their sphere of influence over them, the Göktürk Empire reaches the shores of the Volga.

569
With the end of the monarchy, Kanem falls apart. In the Southwest, the Sao cities declare their independence; they do not wish to belong to the new Simonist union. In the Southeast, the chiefdoms of Mandara, Kotoko and Bagirmi pursue their lifestyles, which are different from that of the desert dwellers, without further interference (especially without having to deliver slaves to Kanem).

Göktürk Empire / Persia / Saba: Another Göktürk incursion into Persian territory. With the Lakhmids bound in warfare against the Taghlib, Chosrau must appeal to Persia's former nemesis, Saba, for help. Saba sends cavalry, which manages to confront a Göktürk horde and defeat them. After they are repaid by Chosrau, the Saban generals do not withdraw completely to the Arabian Peninsula, though. Instead, they encircle al-Hira, which fights a war against Saba's Taghlib allies.

570s
The new Celtic Senate repeatedly repeals tax laws without consenting to new ones. The new censor for the mint keeps a keen eye on the currency's value. As a result, the Empire and its provinces must live on very slim budgets (while some civitates manage to obtain decent funding).

While the Roman Republic engages in great infrastructural measures, improving its roads, aquaeducts, bridges, ports, lighthouses and canals, none of this happens in the Celtic lands if it cannot be afforded by a local civitas, and the infrastructure begins to decay. The consuls are continuously forced to cut back on the armed forces - not a single legion is stationed in the entire Hispanian Peninsula anymore, for example. Public poverty goes hand in hand with private wealth: Rich landowners and businessmen have absorbed the shock of the abolition of slavery mostly well, and begin to build representative villas and palaces. Private exploring and colonising missions are begun.

570
Roman Empire / Göktürk Empire: Roman ambassadors obtain a guarantee from Yabghu Istämi that the Göktürks will not cross the Volga.

571
Arabia: Saba achieves military successes against the Lakhmids. They also manage to include Musel Mamikonian, first magistrate of Armenia, in their alliance.

572
Arabia: Al-Hira falls. The Lakhmids are defeated, dispersed or integrated into other tribes. The land they formerly controlled is now jointly held by Saban troops, who build new fortresses, and the Taghlib. Saba controls the entire North, East and South of the Arabian Peninsula as well as neighbouring Mesopotamia now.

Göktürk Empire: Muqhan Qaghan dies. He is succeeded by his son, Taspar Qaghan, who breaks the alliance with Zhou China.

573
Roman Empire / Saba: The Senate declares a state monopoly on petroleum and designates a Republican Quaestor with the task of securing and improving production, processing, transport and the provision of the Classis Romana with fuel for their fire pumps, as well as with conducting foreign trade especially with Saba, which now controls the seep sites in Mesopotamia.

575
Kushana: Kushanshah Kanishka VII dies. Rai Sahiras, backed by a powerful clan and supported by the Hinduist population, fights a short war for succession against Kanishka's son, Shapur IV, then establishes the separate Principate of Sindh in the East, while Shapur reigns over the predominantly Balochi-speaking relics of Kushana in the West. Shapur's dominion will soon be called Balochistan.

Göktürk Empire: Yabghu Istämi dies. He is succeeded by his son, Tardu, who does not feel bound by his father's promise vis-a-vis the Roman Empire.

576
30-40 Celtic explorers in longboats, led by the magnate Licinius Cicero, discover the Insulae Petraeae (OTL Faroe). Licinius claims the southernmost island (OTL Suðuroy). A settlement is built.

India: Shakanshah Peroz IX. dies without an heir. A year of conflict among the satraps, in which several claimants are killed.

577
India: Rudraman V emerges victorious from the strife among the satraps and ascends the throne in Ujjain. Beginning with his reign, the former satrapies - many of them headless - come to be called "the Chastana Empire".

Göktürk Empire: The Göktürks raid and plunder the Ostrogoths' inofficial colony Chrysosydor (OTL Volgograd).

Tauris / Roman Empire: The Ostrogothic marginal Senators demand an immediate reaction to the Göktürk violation of the agreement not to cross the Volga. They do not have voting rights on this matter, though, because Tauris does not participate in the common republican military policy. There is no majority in the Senate for a counterattack. The Consulate decides for a moderate move of cavalry units and ships into the pontic space.

578
 Tauris: The Pangothikon (the supreme legislature of the Taurean margo), unsettled by Rome's lame response to the rise of the Göktürks and their attack on Chrysosydor, and frustrated by the futility of its demarches for a common Roman preparation, decides to build up its armed forces, which have been minimal over the past two centuries. Weaponry is bought from Persia, where the demilitarisation after the transition from the Sassanid Empire to the Mazdakite State has caused prices for armoury, swords, crossbows etc. to drop considerably.

580s
A decade marked by war - the Saxon war for independence from the Celtic Empire, the Göktürk Civil War and the unification of China under the rule of Sui. Also, conflict begins to brew in the Caucasus.

Deep-reaching social and political changes occur especially in China, where, like in OTL, Emperor Wen of Sui reforms the penal code, prepares the administration for a great census, installs the three cabinets and six departments, and has granaries and canals built, but also commits a bloodbath among the princes of Zhou, which is the first among several important circumstances leading to the  complete marginalisation of the aristocracy in China over the next decades.

580
Armenia: Varaz Vzur leads the Paulician faction among the Armenians into victory over the traditionalists led by Musel Mamikonian.

 Ostrogoths: Tauris helps with the fortification of its inofficial colony of Chrysosydor. At the request of Chrysosydor's ekklesia, who has helped considerably with the procurement of cheap, formerly Sassanid second-hand weaponry, Taurean officers instruct the city guards of Chrysosydor.

581
China: Yang Jian becomes emperor and founds the Sui Dynasty. He will be remembered as Emperor Wen of Sui. He restructures his Empire with only subordinate units (states and counties) and his administration (abolishing the nine-rank system).

Göktürk Empire: Taspar Khaghan dies. The empire falls apart into three pieces, with the West (even more powerful than in OTL) ruled by Tardu, the North (predominantly Kyrgyz) ruled by Apa, and the East (religiously most important) ruled by Ishbara Khaghan.

Armenia: The constitution of the Armenian Church is overthrown. All parish priests and bishops are to be elected by the faithful of the parishes. Any other creed than Paulician Christianity is outlawed. Heresy becomes punishable by death. Thousands of paintings, murals, and icons are destroyed. Likewise, the division of power between a legislature, magistrates and judges in the political domain is overthrown and replaced by local assemblies, regional councils and a national council with quasi-unlimited powers.

582
Western Göktürk Empire:  Tardush Khaghan reorganises his khaghanate, dividing the huge territory, which stretches from the Terek River in the Northern Caucasus to the Tienshan, into ten commanderies ("shads"), the most important among them led by his close relatives, while e.g. the steppe around the Aral Sea is given to shads from the Nushipi tribe. (As in OTL, this division is the reason why this nomadic confederacy is often referred to as On-Oq, "ten arrows".)

Tamgan, Tardush's brother and commander of the Westernmost shad of the Empire, works out a systematic plan for consolidating Duolo / Göktürk control over the sparsely populated, but very lucrative because strategically very important Northern slopes of the Caucasus and the plains immediately to its North. He gathers cavalry both from the upper reaches of the Volga and from near the Terek for an attack on the newly fortified Chrysosydor, aimed at gaining control over the Tanais-Ra passage.

Roman Empire: Chemical researchers at the University of Alexandria discover a method to gain sulfuric acid from alaun.

583
Northern Caucasus: After he has established friendly relations with the Alani and the Nakh in the Northern Caucasus, Tamgan leads the assault on Chrysosydor in May. The fortress is besieged for several months during summer. The Ostrogoths launch a last political demarche for a Roman intervention. Rome only increases its naval presence on the Tanais and secures Castra Luhana and Kallipolis with fresh forces. In July, the Ostrogothic army attacks Tamgan's Turks to relieve the defenders of Chrysosydor, but they are repelled and must withdraw. Chrysosydor finally falls in September. It temporarily becomes Tamgan Shad's seat, from where he controls the Tanais-Ra passage with a sizable number of warriors. Tamgan wants to keep the mainly Ostrogothic crafstmen and traders of Chrysosydor in the city (and tax them) - similar to the co-operation with Silk Road cities -, but almost a third of them has left the town by the end of the year already, either taking to sea trade on Taurean ships, or establishing their workshops in the safer and more civilised civitates of the Roman Republic.

China: Emperor Wen sends an army under the leadership of his brother Yang Shuang against the Eastern Göktürk Khaghanate and against the remainder of Northern Qi. Ishbara Khaghan is soundly defeated and the Eastern Göktürk Khaghanate thrown deeper into political and military crisis, while Sui annexes the last part of Northern Qi.

The reformed Kaihuang Legal Codex is produced.

Roman Empire: A member of Pergamon's large glassmaker guild (comprising gaffers and opticians, too), whose name is lost to history, constructs the first monocles (at first, only with convex lenses for the long-sighted, since the market of reading / working aids for the short-sighted is dominated by Egyptian looking glasses).

Roman Empire / Saba: The Queen of Saba's royal marine invites the Classis Romana into the Persian Gulf and allows them to build a naval base in OTL Bahrain. Queen Asmera's covert intention is for Saba's navy to acquire the Roman know-how of fire pumps.

584
Saxony / Celtic Empire: Widukind, handpicked and educated by the Celts for his role as monarch of the weak, dependent Saxon kingdom, turns against the occupants. Unobserved by the few remaining Saxon troops, he has used the past years to train an army of frilinga - the Saxon ethelinga have mostly accomodated themselves with Celtic overlordship. Now he starts a successful war: all over central and Eastern Saxony, his loyal followers strike on the same day (spring equinox), killing Saxon-friendly ethelinga in their badly guarded landhouses and taking control of Saxon towns. While the Celtic Senate still discusses who could be able to conduct a proxy war for them against Widukind now, Widukind`s army destroys under-manned Celtic outposts and secures strategically important points all across central Saxony. The fortifications of towns are improved.

China: The Guangtong Canal is built, connecting Daxing / Chang'an with the Tongguan Pass.

Göktürk Empire: Ishbara Khaghan attacks Apa's Khaghanate in the North. Apa allies himself with Tardush. It takes months for their large army to gather from all across the Asian steppe, though - time in which the Northern regions are raided by Ishbara´s warriors.

Ostrogoths: When the Ostrogoths notice Tamgan Shad's departure with most of his warriors to the East, they send troops to the Tanais-Ra passage and build a number of fortified camps there.

585
Saxony: A small anti-Widukind faction, heavily supported and directed by the Celts, holds out in several places across Northern Saxony; officially, they follow the orders of the ethelinga`s Thing in Marklo.

Widukind prepares the second stage of Saxony`s liberation. Modern longboats are procured from the Svear or the Danes. In May, Castra Martelli, the last and very important, powerful Celtic stronghold, fortress and naval base on the Elbe, is attacked from land and sea. After five days of ceaseless battle, the Saxons prevail.

Widukind moves his court to Hammaburg, as the Saxons call Castra Martelli (OTL Hamburg). He defeats his last opponents by marching with his frilinga army on Marklo, where he and his men slaughter the remaining anti-Widukind ethelinga.

Göktürks: The allied forces of Tardush and Apa defeat Ishbara - first his expeditionary corps, which held Apa Khaghan´s relatives hostage near the upper Yenissei River, then the main body of Ishbara`s army in a battle in Dzungaria. Ishbara is killed in battle. His cousin claims his succession already on the battlefield, becoming Baga Khaghan of the Eastern Göktürk Khaghanate without the consent of a Kurultay. He leads the fleeing Eastern Göktürks onto Tuyuhun territory and asks Emperor Wen of Sui for protection.

China: As a lesson from last year`s famine in Guangzhong, Emperor Wen orders the construction of reserve state granaries (filled by taxes paid by peasants in kind).

Economy and Technology:

 * The development of credit systems has reached a critical point both in the Roman Empire (where public institutions like the academies, temples, infrastructural agencies or even the Cura Annonae have been the main lenders, but the owners of profitable textile manufacturers begin to participate in the game, too) and in India and China (where Buddhist monasteries are the main lenders). Not only occasional debt crises create unrest, but also the enormous power of the lending institutions (crossing imperial borders, etc.) harbors potential for conflicts. Christians increasingly stress their anti-interest position, which varies from violent Simonist action to the establishment of interest-free mutual credit systems sponsored/backed by the Roman Catholic Church (and which were, to a great extent, inspired by the mutual credit networks of the Jewish Ostrogothic sea merchants).

Philosophy/science:

 * their colleagues in Lugdunum use sulfuric acid to gain acidum salis petrae.

Nations of Europe:

 * Celtic Empire / Scandinavia: The Sørstaders formed secret societies of commercial and crafts elites, where knowledge was passed on, exclusive commercial relations and privileges were established and mutual assistance and common action were organised.
 * Celtic Empire / Saxony:  A half hearted Celtic attempt to restore control over the central German rivers in 587 is abandoned without success.
 * Ostrogothic war against Göktürks, Ostrogothic defeat and occupation of Tauris (move from 600-699 here?), treasury and headquarters moved to Malta or Cyprus; many Ostrogoths in boats in search of new land: Eastern Africa / the Horon; building of lighthouse in Glossa Ygra (Cabo Verde); colonists on Canary Islands (Insulae Fortunatae), Nesoi Hesperidoi (Capverdes), Madeira (Atlantis) and the Nesoi Porphyroi (Azores).
 * Scandinavia: The Svear kings also establish close political ties with the kings of Saxony, and Swedish religious concepts as well as the runic alphabet are adopted in Saxony.

Nations of Asia:

 * Emperor Wen receives ambassadors from important non-tributary states like the Chastana Empire, the Kabul Shahi, and the Yamato Kingdom, and sends out a diplomatic mission on a Westward journey to Rome.
 * Langkasuka and Kedah gain independence and Palembang on Sumatra takes over the leading role in protecting Indochinese trade from Cham and other pirates. (move into 600-699?)

Salvador79 (talk) 15:05, March 6, 2014 (UTC)

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