Imperial Civil War (Superpowers)

The Imperial Civil War (1011-1066) was long series of wars and small conflicts which literally tore the Imperium Romanum in two. Emerging out of a rebellion of the army in Harbonensis (Spain), the Civil War grew into something more when the revolutionaries fled to Brittania and took over political control of the islands in 1011. This was the last straw in the failing confidence of the Roman people in their government and the Senate in their Emperor and so was the spark for the assassination of Emperor Julianus by the Patricians on August 1, 1012.

Following the Emperor's murder the remaining imperial family managed to flee to Constantinople and claim the city as the successor capital of the Imperial Line. Meanwhile the Senators had now declared the Second Roman Republic and gained the confidence of the people by declaring their liberation from the Emperor and by secretly bullying the Pope into supporting them. There were now two separate nations claiming to be the legitimate successor of the First Roman Empire and with no other countries they really needed validation from, and both sides worrying about revealing their present weakness to foreigners, the only way for either side to take the rightful place of successor was to defeat their enemy.

Fighting began in 1015, once the Second Empire had consolidated its forces and made an attack on the Pannonian border. Until 1022 vicious fighting tore Central Europe apart in bloody battles over the control of major cities in the region. By that year the border between the Eastern Empire and Western Republic stabilized somewhat and no single side ever managed to move it more than a few hundred kilometers in any direction.

The Imperial Civil War is widely regarded as one of the few wars of the Imperial Period where it can be said that the Romans conclusively lost, the only other possible example being the Succession War of 68-69. The war's end by the usurpation of the Imperial Throne by Pope Aegranus brought the entire nation permanently back together and strengthened the role of the Emperor in the government. Furthermore, the fear of inciting another similar rebellion was one of the primary causes for the creation of the Roman Constitution and new bicameral legislature.