Julian's Empire

June, 363. Julian, the current Roman emperor, has already established himself as a fresh and unique face: he is a pagan philosopher, determined to restore the culture and religion of the classical Roman empire. He is campaigning in Persia (or, as he calls it, Parthia), determined to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. He has just defeated the forces of the Sassanid army at the capital of Ctesiphon. The Persian king, one Shapur II, offers him a peace treaty to prevent further bloodshed. It is here that our Point of Divergence occurs.

In our timeline, Julian rejected the treaty, and instead chooses to advance further into Persia. This decision caused the Roman army to be met with disaster, and within weeks, Julian retreated back into Anatolia. During his trip back, he was killed in a skirmish with Persian forces.

But what if...

Although reluctant, Julian agrees to halt campaigning. His convinces Shapur to cede all of his empire up to the Euphrates River, and the whole land is annexed as the Roman province of Parthia.

Rome is electrified by the news. Never before had Parthia been annexed, and many citizens flock to cradle of civilization, eager to exploit the new fertile land under Roman control.

Immediatly after his campaign on Parthia, Julian goes back to Rome to enact his plans for restoring paganism. First, most of the temples in the Roman Empire which had been turned into churches by his uncle Constantine were re-opened as temples again. Julian proclaims that Roman Paganism, or the Roman Cult, as he calls it, will be turned into the official national religion. Julian believed that the primary reason Christianity came to power was because of a lack of organization and centralized doctrine in the old religions. So, in order to defeat Christianity, he sets out to create a definitive belief system for the empire. To start, he spends large amounts of money restoring the Temple at Delphi, returning statues that had been taken to Constantinople to their original location at the temple. The Edict of Delphi, declared on 4 December 363, mandates that the orcale must be consulted before any major military or political decisions are made.

These reforms are a partial success, and many Christians end up converting to the new Roman Cult. Finally, after several years of gradually reducing the power of the Chruch and restoring more and more temples, Julian hires his long time religious advisor Maximus, as well as several prominent philosophers from Athens, to write a holy book for the Roman Cult.

By 380, the holy book of the Roman Cult, which includes the stories of Ovid, Homer, Hesiod, Virgil and others, plus several new stories and customs, is finished. With the Roman Cult now possessing a definitive doctrine, Christianity gradually declines in favor of the more tolerant and traditional new religion. By 390, only 31% of the Roman population remains Christian, mostly in Constantinople and Jerusalem. By 400, this number would be down to only 19%. By now, most Christians realize that they have lost control of the Empire, and many immigrate to nearby kingdoms and empires, Armenia and Axum in particular.

With his religious reforms coming along smoothly, Julian now focuses on the military problems of the empire-namely, the huge influx of barbarians along the Roman border. Fleeing from a mysterious enemy known as the Huns, thousands of barbarians have arrived at the Rhine and Danube rivers, begging the Romans to let them through.

Julian is unsure what to do about this initially, but he soon discovers a solution. He orders merchants across the empire to cede hundereds of ships to him (causing his popularity to decline among the populace), and appears to allow the barbarians permission to settle in Britannia. The tribes rejoice-unknownlingy falling right into Julian's trap.

On 30 January 371, a massive fleet of some 60,000 barbarians sets off from the coast of Germania, destined for Britannia. Julian now enacts his plan, and, completely betraying his pacifist values, committs arguably the single worst act of genocide in the empire's history up to that point.

On a ship, a small group of about five slaves, setting alight carefully concealed torches, slowly and methodically set fire to the ship. They then jump overboard. Following suit, another group of slaves sets fire to their ship. And another. Soon, the entire fleet of barbarian ships has been set on fire. Trapped in the middle of the sea with no aid, an estimated 58,000 people burn alive on their ships. Of the 2000 that survive, nearly all of them freeze to death in the ice-cold water.

This act of violence shocks Julian's fellow philosophers. Historians have often marked this event, which became known as the Barbarian Massacre, as the beginning of Julian's transformation from a peaceful philosopher to a savage emperor.

Julian, however, does not notice his change in personality, believing himself merely to be protecting Rome’s borders. Neither, it seems, do the Roman people: after he had dealt with the barbarians, he was hailed as a hero, and his popularity soared. In spite of his success, however, his solution proved only to temporarily solve the problem.

In 376, another tribe of barbarians, the Visigoths, begin forcing their way past the Roman border and into the countryside. Between March 376 and February 377, hundreds of border towns are sacked by Visigoth looters, their inhabitants enslaved. To everyone in the empire, the barbarians appear unstoppable.

However, while this looting was ravaging the further parts of the empire, Julian was busy devising a battle plan to combat the barbarians in one massive battle. In January 377, he sends a messenger to the Visigoth king, demanding that they return across the Rhine river or suffer the consequences. The king responds by sending Julian back the messenger’s head. Expecting this, he gathers his army of 55,000 troops to meet the Visigoth forces at their current location in northern Gaul.

On February 19, 377, the two armies clash in the Battle of the Rhine. Although the Visigoths have the advantage in numbers, Julian imitates Alexander and spreads his army out, dispersing the enemy across the battlefield and leaving them easy prey for his archers. The battle proves to be a decisive victory for the Romans: while Julian only lost 2,300 of his troops, an estimated 49,000 Visigoth soldiers are killed in the battle, with the king being captured. After Julian executes him, he throws his body and the bodies of the dead Visigoth troops into the Rhine after stripping them of their valuables, literally dying the river red for several days. The message to the migrating tribes on the other side of the Rhine river is clear: stay out of the empire. For 50 years, the barbarians heed this warning, and only again become a problem when the Huns finally arrive in Europe.

With the barbarians safely taken care of and his domestic reforms slowly but surely coming to fruition, Julian now becomes obsessed with emulating the second century emperor Trajan, determined to conquer new lands for the empire. Unlike Trajan, however, he also wants to ensure that these lands will be secure for future generations. He decides to begin his conquests with Parthia, resolving to finish what he started fourteen years earlier. He spends the next four years debating and refining a plan for invasion with his advisors before he is ready to begin his campaign.

First, he concludes that Armenia and the Caucausian tribes must be subdued to act as a staging area for his assault on Parthia. For the past 20 years, Armenia has been an increasingly irritating thorn in Rome’s side, particularly because it is home to some of the last Christians in the world, who often harass the imperial border.

On October 3, 381, Julian leads an army of some 60,000 troops north out of the Roman province of Parthia, destined for Armenia. The kingdom has no chance against the might of the Roman army. On November 11, the capital is captured; Armenia summarily surrenders. After several brief and pointless battles with the surrounding tribes, the kingdom and all of the land around is subdued by New Years’ Day and annexed as the Roman province of Armenia; this extends the imperial border to the Caucasus Mountains. Showing a glimpse of his former self, Julian declares that all Christians living in the area will be free to stay or leave as they wish, and that he will not persecute them so long as they keep the peace and maintain civic order-terms which the Christians happily agree to.

On January 22, 382, Julian leads his army across the Euphrates River and into Parthia. Thanks to his military genius, the Romans defeat the Parthians in battle after battle, finally capturing the capital of Ctesphion on March 29, causing king Aradashir II to flee across what is left of his shattered empire. After many months of fleeing from the Roman forces, his army is slowly and methodically wiped out, and when he finally reaches the Indus river on November 30, the Romans are waiting for him. The Indians, hearing of Julian’s military might, refuse to grant him asylum; as a result, he signs the Treaty of the Indus on December 2, in which he agrees to cede all of his empire to Rome, effectively bringing an end to Parthia as an independent state. In exchange for this, Julian lets him live, sentencing him to exile on the island of Malta, where he lives the remainder of his live as a peaceful fisherman, dying of natural causes in July 396.

Julian’s conquest of Parthia makes him the most beloved emperor since Augustus, with one Roman senator going so far as to declare him the next Alexander. En route to a triumph being held for him in Rome, Julian stops in the town of Milan, where he meets an odd young man with the unique name of Volesus. The boy is a child prodigy with aspirations to become, as he puts it, a “philosopher general”. After enoying a rhetorical debate with him, Julian takes him under his wing, and after growing close to him over many years, formally names him as his successor on May 3, 397.

After his victory in Parthia, Julian turns his attention to Caledonia. The native tribes, having overrun the abandoned Antonine Wall decades ago, are now harassing Hadrian’s Wall more and more frequently. Deciding that the best solution is the complete annihilation of these tribes, Julian leads an army of some 21,000 troops across the border of Britannia in April 384. Over the next four years, he proceeds to slowly and methodically wipe out the tribes of Caledonia, with the last of them being eliminated by 388. Caledonia is annexed as a Roman province, and Hadrian’s Wall is repurposed to serve as a provincial border.

Julian, by now well into his 50s, begins reverting to his former self, becoming concerned with the intellectual and domestic interests of the empire. Curious about Rome’s new neighbor, he hires the historian Britannicus to travel across India and report what he finds. In 395, Britannicus publishes Observations of India, which mesmerizes the people of Rome with its stories of this land shrouded in mystery.

In the final years before his death, Julian becomes a reclusive introvert, surrounding himself in the literature and philosophy of the ancient world as he did in his youth. In 394, as his last major act as emperor, he orders a massive, seven foot high concrete wall constructed across all of Roman Africa’s border. Stretching from the Nile river to the west African coast, this wall is completed by 400, and puts an end to any threats of Tribal invasion along the African border.

In 398, he orders the construction of the Library of Athens. Though he doesn’t live to see its completion, after it is built, it becomes the intellectual and philosophical capital of the empire, containing virtually every major work from Ancient Greece and Rome. His last act as emperor is to order the construction of the Mausoleum of Julian in 399 on a peaceful and remote island in the Aegean Sea. In 400, he publishes his memoirs, which become the most acclaimed writings of any emperor since Marcus Aurelius. He dies peacefully in his sleep on July 18, 401.

His death is intensely mourned throughout the empire and he is immeadeately deified by the Roman senate. In accordance with his wishes stated in his will, his body is cremated, and he is given a modest state funeral in Rome attended by any who wish to come. His ashes are interred in his masoleum and his 29-year-old adopted son Volesus comes to power without incident.

Volesus (401-444 CE)
Volesus starts his reign by travelling to Parthia. After realizing that Parthia is too large, he divides it into six regions. Mesopotamia includs three by itself: Sumer (southern Mesopotamia), Babylon (central Mesopotatmia) and Assyria (northern Mesopotamia). Inland Persia has Êran (South Persia), Persia (mid-Persia) and Parthia (north and East Persia). He is also more tolerant than Julian- although still a member of the Roman Cult, he gives more freedoms to the other religions.

In 406, he begins his conquests of the Celtic tribes living in Hibernia (Ireland). However, unlike Julian, his campaigns are much more considerate: the Celts are allowed to continue living in the land, and very few are killed. Nonetheless, it is annexed as a Roman province in 408. Volesus settles down to strengthen the Arabian and Germanian frontiers, ordering a large wall to be built at the borders of the provinces of Arabia and Nabatea and to strengthen the small walls on the Germanian frontier.

In 415, Voelsus' 14th year as emperor, the Library of Athens is completed. The new library is then extended by Voelsus, who has a politicy of treating all regions of the Empire equally. The new parts of the library would house Egyptian, Celtic, Nabatean and Persian works of literature and science.

The Huns arrive in the East Germanic plains in 420, scaring most of the tribes left there (Ostrogoths, a few remaning Visigoths, Saxons, Alamanni, Franks and Angles) into forcing their way into the Roman Empire. Like Julian, Volesus attacks them, but unlike Julian, his ways are not so bloody. Instead of massacring the prisoners, he lets most of the tribes settle in unpopulated areas of the Empire, such as Iberia, Caucasic Iberia, parts of Hibernia and Caledonia, Parthia, Assyria, and Sumer, with the conditions that they surrender their weapons. However, instead of recruiting them for war en masse, like many other emperors (which had lead to the de-romanization of the Roman army), he recruits very few soldiers from the "barbarian cities". The only tribe not permitted to settle in the empire are the Visigoths, who are given several ships and forced to sail beyond the Atlantic coast.

Voelsus also reforms the Roman army, de-barbarizing it and returning it to the basic principles of Marius. He adds several improvements of his own and borrows ideas from the Celt, Germanic and Persian armies.

Realizing it is only a matter of time before the Huns and the Romans clash in open conflict, Volesus spends much of his reign strengthening the empire internally in preparation for the coming war. To start, he develops the simple but ingenious beacon defense system for the empire’s northern borders. Throughout the length of the Rhine and Danube rivers, large watchtowers with giant torches on top of them are constructed every three miles. This way, if the Roman Empire is invaded, a watchman at one of the towers can set his torch alight, and the watchman at the next tower will follow suit. This process repeats itself until all of the torches are set ablaze, providing an effective warning system against a foreign invasion.

Volesus also believes that communication inside the empire is crucial as well. Between 409 and 435, the Imperial Road is constructed. Modeled after the famous Royal Road of the ancient Persian Empire, the road stretches from the Indus River (Rome’s eastern border) to the west African and Atlantic coasts. It is seven feet wide and contains smaller sub-roads, which are used by civilians and traders.

In terms of imperial administration, Volesus makes the important decision of beginning the gradual reunification of the empire. Ever since Julian removed Christianity from the empire, the East and the West have slowly but surely become more and more alike, and by the end of Julian's reign, any assertations of autonomy from either side had all but vanished. In 407, he begins unifying positions and posts in the empire that had previously been divided into two for the east and west. By 439, imperial administration has been repurposed to include all of the empire.

Domestically, Volesus makes an important realization: the Roman people are disillusioned. With the Hun war still several decades off and a lack of civil wars to rip the empire apart, the people are becoming increasingly bored and apathetic. Volesus believes emphasizing three aspects of Roman live can solve this: religion, education, and innovation. For the first one, he orders the construction of hundreds of new temples in the empire’s more recently acquired territories. He also encourages more people to join the mystery cults of the Roman Empire, which have been slowly gaining more power. For the second one, he constructs many new schools throughout the empire, having in mind the ambitious goal of making education available for all Roman citizens. While he never accomplishes this, he does make a positive impact on Roman education, with the percentage of illiterate Roman citizens dropping from 81% to 70% by the end of his reign.

Finally, he builds what are often considered his greatest achievements: the universities. 21 major universities are constructed throughout the empire during his reign, located at Londonium, Parisium, Milan, Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Ctesiphon. Designed to be a haven for the intellectuals of the empire, these universities house innovative experiments and daring new ideas. Within a century of Volesus’ death, many major inventions and discoveries are made at these universities.

As for the man himself, Volesus is an Epicurean, devoted to the finer things in life. Because of his admiration for the writings of Epicurus, he spends many of his off days in the Library of Athens. He also loves food, and is affectionately nicknamed “the fat man” by the Roman people. Despite his luxurious lifestyle, he is careful never to spend to the point that it affects the Roman economy negatively.

He stays happily married throughout his life, having three children in 399, 401, and 404 respectively. The Roman court is constantly filled with gossip about him and his wife Medea, whom Volesus once refers to as “the greatest woman that ever drew breath”. He is openly affectionate towards her and his children, leading to some accusations of living an “effeminate” lifestyle, accusations which he dismisses without any interest.

The final years of his life are tragic. On October 24, 443, his wife and youngest child are killed in a terrible accident in southern Gaul. This sends Volesus into a depression, causing him to drown his miseries in wine and food for the rest of his life. Just a month before his death, recognizing the need for a war-time emperor, he appoints his military advisor Narcissus as his successor. On September 11, 444, he bad habits finally catch up to him, and he dies of a massive heart attack. He is given an elaborate funeral, with a 12-foot-high statue of him constructed in Rome to mourn his passing. After his funeral, his ashes are interred in Julian’s mausoleum, the last remains laid to rest there. With the empire well prepared for the coming war, Narcissus is determined to lead Rome to victory.



Narcissus (444-451 CE)
From the get-go, Narcissus makes it clear that he is a general first and a politician second. Dreaming of acquiring more territory for Rome than any military leader since Julius Caesar, he makes some last minute adjustments to the Roman army. First, he creates three new legions and puts them under his personal command, carefully avoiding recruiting more then a few hundred troops from areas of the empire that are home to barbarian immigrants. After this, he makes some minor repairs to neglected areas of the Imperial Road, the closest he ever gets to making any domestic improvements. For the next few months, Rome holds its breath, waiting to see which side will strike first.

As it turns out, the Huns ending up launching the first strike, crossing the Danube river and sacking several Roman fortresses on December 30, 444 under their leader Attila. This launches the Hun-Roman wars, which last until 451.

Earlier that year, Attila had united the last of the Hun tribes, and spent several months preparing and unifying his army. At the start of the war, he has command of 98,000 Hun soldiers, with an additional 11,000 troops from conquered tribes. Attila dreamed of uniting the whole known world under the Hun banner, and decided the Roman Empire would serve as an excellent first target.

However, Attila underestimates the formidability of Rome’s army. Ever since the reforms of Volesus, the Roman Empire has had one of the finest militaries in the world, and, due to wise recruiting methods, consists of incorruptible soldiers with a strong sense of patriotism. While Attila’s army is larger, it is disorganized, consisting mostly of apathetic and lazy soldiers who are in the army primarily for loot and women. Realizing the advantages in this, Narcissus decides to slowly weaken Attila’s army before attacking it head on. After several brief skirmishes that push the Hun army across the Danube once again, he stations his army at the river and orders them not to cross it. He then begins a series of spy missions that last until October 445. Designed to agitate and demoralize Attila’s army, these missions primarily focus on sabotaging food supplies and murdering popular officers. The plan works: soon, Attila’s army becomes restless and impatient, and on October 10, some 2,900 Hun soldiers abandon the army, crossing the Danube without weapons and asking to settle in Roman territory. Narcissus grants their request, and allows them to relocate to unpopulated regions of Caledonia (he is careful to keep the Huns dispersed in order to avoid a rebellion).

Finally, on October 19, Attila leads his army across the river and clashes with the Romans at the decisive Battle of the Danube. The battle rages on for five days until Attila retreats back across the river on October 24. The total number of casualties is 5,100 for the Romans and a staggering 44,000 for the Huns. With his army virtually cut in half in less than a week, Attila retreats back into the Hunnic mainland. Incorrectly believing that he has won the war, Narcissus triumphantly enters Constantinople on November 2. He has the Danube Memorial built near the center of the city. It includes a huge statue of Narcissus at its center, and, rather gruesomely, a pool that is 20 feet deep and has the bodies of the Hun soldiers killed in the battle weighed down at the bottom. Due to complains from local residents, the pool is removed in 447 and the bodies are buried under a concrete base.

For the next three years, Attila focuses on training and disciplining his army. Borrowing ideas from various lands outside of his empire, he creates and efficient and loyal troop base by 448. Finally, he sends an embassy to Narcissus, demanding he bring his best troops to the Hun region of Bospori for a battle. Expecting an easy victory, he leads a mere 4,000 troops across the Black Sea, arriving in Bospori on December 20. What follows is easily the worst defeat of Narcissus’ reign. Unaware of the strength of the newly-reformed Hun army, the Roman troops are slaughtered in the battle. Narcissus and the surviving 700 troops barely escape with their lives.

Angered by this defeat and determined to avenge his fallen soldiers, he spends three months gathering a massive army, recalling legions from every non-border province in the empire. On February 5, 449, he crosses the Rhine river in northern Gaul with 105,000 troops. Over the next year, he proceeds to wreak havoc on the Hunnic Empire, destroying hundreds of tribal villages and setting fire to countless Germanian forests. This earns him the nickname “The Roman Butcher” from the Huns. By January 450, he has virtually wiped out half of Attila’s empire, angering the Hunnic Ruler greatly. Still, throughout all of this, Attila refuses to directly accompany any of his troops into combat or assist the decaying regions, correctly believing that sending small amounts of his troops to face the Romans will exhaust their army over time. Finally, believing the Roman army is weak enough to directly assault, he prepares to face the Romans in a massive battle at the very heart of his empire. However, before he can do this, the Romans mysteriously retreat back into their own territory. Although the Huns do not know why they did this, Narcissus makes this decision because of rebellions that have sprung up throughout the empire in the absence of a strong military presence. These rebellions have become an increasingly high threat to Roman stability. He spends the next year battling various militias and traitorous governors. Under ordinary circumstances, the Huns would have used this opportunity to attack the Roman Empire. However, the Roman raids left the empire in shambles, and Attila wisely uses this one-year period of grace to rebuild devastated areas of his empire and strength his army.

In February 451, Narcissus sends a messenger to Attila, announcing that he is ready to end the war once and for all. Attila and Narcissus lead their respective armies toward the agreed upon meeting location at the center of Attila’s empire (the latter uses his army to destroy and loot whatever towns he comes across along the way). On March 21, 351, the two armies finally meet in what is arguably the most massive and important battle of the 5th century. Over the next two weeks, both armies attack each other day in and day out, with their engagements always ending in a stalemate. Finally, on April 3, a lucky shot from a Roman archer pierces Attila’s throat, killing him instantly. Without their leader, the Huns easily fall to their enemies. This battle is often used by historians to mark the end of the Hunnic Empire. After Attila’s death, a series of internal conflicts rip the empire apart, ensuring that the Huns will no longer be a threat to Roman security.

Although the battle is a huge victory for the Romans, it also devastating for the Roman army: 61,000 troops perish in the battle, with another 23,000 wounded. Recognizing that Rome’s northern neighbors now pose no real threat to national security, Narcissus leaves northern Europe to its fate, choosing not to annex large amounts of territory due to the staggering military losses. Rome does, however, take control of all of Germania up to the Elbe River and the former Bosporian Kingdom, annexing both lands as the provinces of Germania Superior and Bosporia respectively.

Realizing that he is not fit to be a peace-time ruler, Narcissus voluntarily retires as emperor, the first to do so since Diocleatian. He lives a full life, dying in his villa in the Macedonian countryside on August 31, 482. He leaves his general and trusted friend Lucius Aurelianus the task of rebuilding and strengthening the empire.



Lucius Aurelianus (451-486 CE)
Lucius Aurelianus begins his reign by starting a plethora of educational improvements. He places a goal of reduction of the illiteracy rate by 10% over ten years. He builds several new schools, notably in Rome, Mediolandum, Londinium, Constantinople, Athens, Thebes, Alexandria, and Persepolis. By 455 CE, the illiteracy rate has dropped from 71% to 60%, an extremely impressive achievement in the 5th century. Basic education is greatly improved and made available. Advanced education levels are created, but it is only available for the rich.

Lucius Aurelianus' next reforms are administrative. Travelling to Athens, he decides that it is too important a city to be just a secondary city on Achæa. He divides the province of Achæa into the provinces of Attica and Achæa itself. Next, he decides the old Persian city of Ctesiphon cannot be a capital city, and starts the first plans to re-build the now ruined city of Babylon as the new capital of the Province of Babylon. It takes almost two hundred years to finish the city, but when it is finished, it is the greatest city in all of Parthia. Finnaly, he divides the province of Arabia into Nabatea, Arabia and Sinai in 470 CE.

Lucius Aurelianus turns his attention to consolidating the Roman frontiers. He builds a great wall at the Arabic border, another one at the Germanic frontier and a last, weaker one at the North Persian one. He builds a great infrastructure of roads and resting buildings accross the Empire, to help the troops get across the empire in a quicker way and to arrive to the front stronger and better rested.

Lucius Aurelianus then moves his interests towards religion. Due to a civil war in Nubia, many Christians are immigrating back into the province of Aegyptus. The emperor, however, is extremely hostile towards Abrahamic religions. He had already forced most Jews to migrate to the already sprawling Jew center in Arabia, and he had proclaimed an issue reading "no Abrahamic religion, be it Christianity or Judaism, may exist within the Roman borders". In 482 CE, Lucius Aurelianus takes most of the Roman army south into the Aegyptus border and attacks the Christian mass in the Slaughter of Abu Simbel. Twenty thousand Christians are killed directly in the massacre, while some of the survivors are killed later, taken to the circus to be eaten by lions or crucified.

This brutal act of intolerance sparks an uproar within the Roman Empire, causing tens of thousands of Roman citizens to abandon the Roman cult to the more tolerant and rather similar Greek Cult, the newly reformed Egyptian Cult, or the mysterious Zoroastrianism.

Lucius Aurelianus then retires from public view. He marries with a young Persian woman but they have no children. He slowly starts relinquishing his powers, becoming mostly a public figurehead.

In 485, Lucius Aurelianus starts to feel his forces faltering. He decides it's time to elect his successor, and starts traveling through the Roman cities searching for somebody to be a good heir. He travels through several cities, most notably Antioch, Athens, Rome, Mediolandum, Londinium, Carthago, Ctesiphon and Persepolis. He finally chooses a young adult found within the bazaar of Ctesiphon, named Shapur. He notices Shapur is an intelligent, strong and smart man, able, he guesses, to govern the empire effectively. He names Shapur as his heir.

The next year sees Lucius Aurelianus going out less and less. He gradually becomes weaker and weaker and dies in his sleep of an unknown illness (possibly cancer) on August 6, 486.

The reign of Lucius Aurelianus was, for the most part, dull and unremarkable. The Roman people expect little from his successor.

Shapur (486-515 CE)
22 years old and dazzlingly handsome, Shapur is young, energetic, and determined to change the empire for the better. Although there is a brief scandal regarding Shapur’s Persian ethnicity and his name (the same as the king who was reigning when Julian invaded Parthia), it dies down within a few weeks. As Parthia has been part of the empire for over a century now, nobody is still alive to remember Julian’s conquests, and the Parthians themselves have gradually become Romanized over the last century.

Shapur begins with the Roman army. It has been 35 years since Attila drew his last breath, and, aside from a few minor skirmishes along the northern European border, the legions haven’t fought an opponent in decades. Believing that a lack of combat has made the Roman army weak, Shapur decides to make use of the province of Germania. Since the partial annexation of Germania in 451, it has been largely ignored, and, aside from a few trading outposts and government towns, remains largely barbarian. Deciding to take advantage of this untapped land, he orders the construction of a new military and political capital for Germania in 487. Upon its completion in 488, he orders the construction of a revolutionary new training facility in the city. Named the Academia Augustua, this facility teaches the Romans a new technique: guerilla warfare. Taking advantage of the lush forests surrounding the city, the academy regularly instructs troops in the art of sabotage and hit-and-run combat.

In 490, Shapur decides to test these new reforms. Desiring to increase Rome’s territorial holdings in Europe, he orders the creation of a legion of 5,000 troops called the Furtim. This new legion is trained entirely in the new military academy, and is designed to determine just how effective a legion based entirely on stealth warfare is.

In March 491, this legion crosses the Elbe river, with the goal of conquering all of Germania up to the Vistula River. The newly trained troops fare well: within two years, all of the territory is conquered, and throughout this time, the unit only suffers 119 casualties. Shapur attributes their success to their low rations, which forced them to steal from local towns. This tactic was risky, but it worked: not only has a large portion of Germania been annexed, but the whole northern region is too weak from the raids by the Furtim to rebel. In order to keep the frontier secure, Shapur orders the construction of a five feet concrete wall that stretches from the southern end of the Vistula to the northern Danube. He posts two legions to guard this wall, and implies he will start no campaigns to the east.

With nearly all of western Europe now under Roman control, Shapur is anxious to continue with his military success. He chooses to target the one area of western Europe still not under Roman control: the land to the north of Germania, which the Romans refer to as Cimbria. In January 494, the Furtim begin their gradual conquest of the land, and the last native tribes are eliminated or subdued by the spring of 396. Cimbria is annexed as a Roman province, and Shapur announces he will seek no further territory for the empire, deciding to permanently station the Furtim at Cimbria.

Greatly impressed with the Furtim and their barbarian war tactics, Shapur decides to construct academies throughout the empire in order to make training easier. He deliberately builds them in out of the way and obscure locations so that the troops will get used to the isolation that might be encountered in the event of a campaign. After these new academies are completed, Shapur orders all legions to spend a month training at them. In addition to all this, he orders the expansion of the Imperial Road to Cimbria and northern Gemania in 503; this expansion is completed by 505.

Though his military achievements were impressive, Shapur’s reign is best remembered for the huge technological innovations that took place during it. At a university in Milian in 499, a young scientist writes a treatise that lays out the first plausible theory of flight. Although gliders would not become standard means of Roman transportation until more then a century later, this date is often seen as the birth of flight in the Roman Empire.

The most famous man of Shapur’s reign is Gaius Claudius, a doctor and personal physician to Shapur who heavily influences his decisions. In 498, he publishes the 11-volume treatise On Health, which argues that people must live in a clean environment and bathe regularly to stay healthy. Impressed by his argument, Shapur searches for a way to eliminate the garbage in Rome’s streets. Finally, in 500, he orders that a garbage dump be constructed on a remote island off the coast of Italia. This island, he declares, will become the dumping spot for all the trash of Rome. Three ships are built specifically for this purpose, and every two months, slaves patrol the Roman streets, gathering up trash and loading them on to the barge. Once the trash arrives at the island, the majority of it is burned in a massive fire pit at the center. This concept would be expanded to other cities and islands over the years, and by the end of Shapur’s reign, so-called “trash islands” exist for the cities of Constantinople, Antioch, Carthage, Londonium, Jerusalem, Caesaria (the new provincial capital of Germania) Alexandria, Ctesphion and the still under construction Babylon. In the case of the latter two, the garbage is transported to a designated area in the desert about 2 miles across.

As for the public baths, Shapur orders 50 of them to be constructed throughout Rome, and cities throughout the empire follow suit. Within 30 years, public baths are available in every major city, and by 600, nearly every city in the empire has at least two of them.

During his reign, Shapur makes it his business to improve the standard of living for the poorer people of the empire, earning him the nickname “The Emperor of the People”. Throughout his reign, Shapur travels to nearly all of the provinces, listening to the plights of average citizens with genuine compassion. In order to help these people, he declares the Edict of Londonium during his visit to Britannia in April 501. This edict states that any citizen, patrician or plebian, is capable of rising to prominence militarily, politically, and economically. Men, he declares, are not to be judged by their social status, but by their merits. Although this act offends the aristocracy, the lower-class citizens of the empire hail Shapur as a hero. In addition, he lowers the taxes of working class Roman citizens, reasoning that the empire is in no dire need of money.

Throughout his life, Shapur never marries, which, considering his Persian heritage, makes him a very unique emperor. Nonetheless, he is a very friendly and approachable man. Once, while Shapur was touring Antioch, it is said that a merchant spilled wine on his tunic. While the merchant was stammering an apology, Shapur began laughing, and is said to have cried “a hilarious mishap if there ever was one”! He accepted the man’s apology and allowed him to continue his day.

Although he never has children, Shapur is just beginning to consider adopting his heir when a scandal breaks out. A rumor is circulated throughout the empire that Shapur is planning on giving the senate his powers after his death, effectively restoring the republic. Although Shapur denies this, he does secretly consider the option. At this point in Roman history, the republic is well and truly dead, and the senate, despite being powerless, is determined not to have it restored. Prominent Roman senator Julius Mereanus decides that Shapur cannot be allowed to bring back the republic. On April 22, 515, he stabs Shapur to death as he is leaving the senate building. After Shapur is dead, he declares himself emperor. This ignites a series of chaotic civil wars that last until 519.



The Roman Civil Wars (515-519 CE)
As there has been no issue regarding imperial succesion in well over a century, the Romans are initially at a loss as to how to react to this assassination. However, prominent generals and aristocrats soon take advantage of the situation in an effort to create power for themselves.

Kingdom of Gaul
Although Mereanus' authority is respected in Hispania and Italia, nearly all other parts of the empire have influential people of their own who are determinted to mold the empire into their own image. Without the peaceful transition that comes with adoption, the occasion is ripe with opportunity to challenge Roman authority.

The first to take advantage of this opportunity is Tiberius Calvinus, a popular and influential Gallic patrician. Calvinus is descended from the ancient Gallic tribes who lived in the area before the conquest of the land by Julius Caesar. Calvinus has a goal of restoring the independence of Gaul and, by extension, the parts of Germania that Rome has conquered. After negotiating with provincial governors for several months (who agree to join his brekaway state if he agrees to appoint them to positions of power), he declares the independent Kingdom of Gaul on July 1, 515. This breakaway state includes all of Roman Gaul, all of the annexed Germanian lands, and several other parts of the empire. On July 9, he is crowned King Calvinus I in an elaborate ceremony. In his inagural speech, he states his desire to restore the culture of ancient Gaul and Germania, but also to accept Roman customs and influences that have had a positive impact on the region.

Greece
The next new state is formed by the influential Constantinople politician Menelaus. As his name suggests, he is Greek, and is extremely proud of his culture and heritage. As a young man, he had dreamed of restoring the glory of Classical Greece, and Shapur's death gives him an excellent opportunity to do so. On August 5, he leads an army of five legions out of Constantinople and marches on mainland Greece. Most of the Grecian towns are defenseless against him, and the generals and provincial governors he encounters on the way are mostly willing to join his cause. Those that aren't are executed. By September 1, he has control of all of the empire up to the border with Anatolia in the east, and all of mainland Greece to the west. On Septmber 10, he declares Greece an independent state. He declares Athens the capital of the new state, and immeadeately begins decorating it in splendor, restoring and revitalizing old and neglected areas of the city. Menelaus has earned the admirations of historians everywhere due to his massive expansion of the Library of Athens. Thanks to his deligent work in preserving the literature of ancient Greece, the amount of texts that survive from the ancient world is roughly 150% more then in the OTL.

Britannia
Because of their geographic isolation, Rome's northern island provinces are essentially impossible to control during this tumultous period. Spurius, the governor of Britannia, despises Mereanus, and refuses to recognize his status as emperor. At the same, however, he also wants to preserve Roman rule in his province. On August 2, he has the military governors of Caledonia and Hibernia assassinated, and claims power for himself. Because he has been an efficient and effective governor of Britannia, the citizens of the latter two provinces choose not to revolt against him. He gathers his legions together, and addresses them on August 8, declaring Britannia, Caledonia, and Hibernia to be independent from the rest of the Roman Empire. In addition, he announces all three provinces will be combined as Britannia.

Carthage
Atellus is the provincial governor of Mauretania at the time of Shapur's death. He is descended from the ancient citizens of Carthage, and has a love for the sea. He dreams of creating a neo-Carthaginian civilization based on seafaring and trade. Although he grudgingly submits to Mereanus' rule for the first few months, his patience wears thin, and on October 3, he sends a messenger to Mereanus, declaring that the land he controls is no longer part of the Empire. He creates his new state of Carthage out of his own province and much of the Africa province, assassinating the governor of the latter. He sets to work building his newly created state.

Egypt
Although Deredocus is an ethnic Greek, he wants nothing to do with the newly formed state. Instead, he embraces his adopted home of Aegyptus. At the time of Shapur's death, he is a popular legionary general. On November 3, he has his troops rush the governor's palace. The governor is brought out and publicly beheaded, and Deredocus declares himself the leader of an independent Egypt. Unlike the other governors, he does not wish to restore classical Egyptian civilization. Instead, he merely wants autonomy from the Roman Empire, and does little in the way of domestic improvement.

Parthia and Anatolia
Through all this, the rest of the empire (Namely, Anatolia and Parthia) are essentially thrown into chaos. Military governors and generals are vying for power with each other, and thousands of civilians are executed by despot governments that change every week. In short, these areas of the Roman Empire are in complete anarchy.

The splinter states have been established, and each one of them waits to see who will make the first move. The world holds its breath.