500-599 (Abrittus)

The 6th century CE is often considered a part of the "dark ages" in OTL, when statehood, complex economies, trade networks, educational tradition and much more nearly collapse in Europe (and in the lands between Indus and Ganges, too) in the aftermath of the breakdown of the Roman (and Gupta) Empires caused by mass migrations.

In this timeline, it is turbulent century, too, but one in which the economic, social, political and scientific progress continue and begin to disrupt established power structures.

Rome's two neighbours - the Celtic Empire in the West, and the Sassanid Empire in the East - both undergo massive transformations caused by social movements and state crises. While the Sassanid Empire breaks apart in a long civil war, caused by the rise of the Mazdakist movement, and a dozen successor states take different paths of development, the Celtic Empire faces state bankruptcy and self-confident liberal townsmen, and is reformed into a moderate version of the Roman Republic.

Rome's powerful economy draws on more and more foreign resources and floods foreign markets with its competitive products.

Neither of the states of the world has found a solution against the bubonic plague, though, which kills about a quarter of Europe's and Asia's population throughout the century.

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.

Tamilakam: The Chera, Ay, Pandya and Chola kings ally themselves and appeal to Moggallana, the King of Anuradhapura (OTL Sri Lanka), to assist them with troops. Together, they begin a two-year war against the Kalabhra.

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
Tamilakam: The Chera-Ay-Pandya-Chola-Anuradhapura alliance defeats the Kalabhra. Madurai, Urayur and Korura are conquered. Moggallana`s auxiliary troops are paid with gold and pearls from the plundered treasuries of the Kalabhra and with a great amount of valuable textiles manufactured in the coast towns. The coastal dynasties move their courts back to their old capitals over the next years. Instead of securing all the roads with their armies - which, they fear, might lead to a quick disintegration of their alliance and a reversal to the ancient quarrelling -, they allow their nikamams (guilds) to traverse the land heavily armed. This is the beginning of more than half a century of peace and prosperity in Tamilakam / OTL Southern India.

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.

Western and Southern India: Ships full of Mazdakist refugees arrive in Indian port towns beyond the reach of the Sassanid rule. The Chera king Chengkuttuvan, who had broken the traditional ties with the Sassanid Empire after the latter's support for the Kalabhras and turned towards Saba and the Roman Republic, offers many of them asylum at Korura and enables their employment in the Keralan agriculture as well as in arts and crafts. The Mazdakists are free to practice their communalism and talk about it to the native population, but they must also work for the royal administration.

Other Mazdakist refugees arrive in Korkai, where the Pandyan king accepts them, too.

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.

510s
In Europe and the Middle East, prices for cotton rise dramatically since the Simonist Wagadu no longer export great quantities of cotton at low prices. While fully mechanised Roman textile mills react with the development of new machinery which cuts production costs even further to restore profits, Celtic textile manufacturing, which is losing market shares against its Roman competitors anyway, is forced to convert to Frisian wool and other raw materials.

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.

Franconia: High King Lothar V. dies without an heir. Under the last Lothar, central administration has become ineffective, the bureaucracy and judges are deemed corrupt, and local kings prevent tax collections and resume judicial and fiscal authority. The Lothars were Ripuarians; so, in order to weaken the position of High King further, Salian kings manage to install Ucomer (from the small kingdom of the Chatti) as High King.

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, Buddhists, Jainists and others 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 (former) slaves and 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
Franconia: A slave revolt broke out in the land of the Salian Franks. Thee Salian Frankish kings call for confederal help, but High King Ucomer declines. (He is Chattish, and the Chatti hold no slaves.)

The slave revolt is ultimately suppressed with great losses on both sides. A good part of the Salian nobility is killed in the fights.

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: Inspired by the success and power of the Indian gana sanghas (and maybe the Roman civitates, too), 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.

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

533
Sassanid Empire / Kushana-Shakastan: Shapur III., shahanshah for only nine months, temporarily prevails over his rivals. He interrupts the religious persecutions and gathers an army and a fleet, attacking Kushana by land and sea. After his defeat, he is killed by people from his immediate surrounding, and the game for the throne is open again.

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.

534
Baiuvaria: More than fifty small and middle-sized Germanic towns to the immediate North of Roman Vindelicia and Noricum, in which people of Markomannic, Langobardian, Lugians and a handful of other Germanic tribal backgrounds, who had fought with and against each other for centuries, forge a confederacy ("Foederatio Baiuvarensis") and settle their linguistic disputes by establishing Latin as the lingua franca in inter-town communication, in order to be able to enjoy the same freedom of commerce and movement within the Roman Republic that their Pannonian and Alemannic neighbours already enjoy. Negotiations with the Roman Consulate begin.

535
Kushana-Shakastan: A large group of mainly Buddhist trade route cities in the North (the best-known among them Gandhara, Taxila, Varnu, Jaguda, Shrinagari and Gilgit), discontented with continuously high taxes, general drafts, widespread unsafety and crime, secede from Kushana-Shakastan. They become known as the "Shaihr Jaari" (Dogari for "city alliance"). They organise their defense by employing kshatriyas, whose leaders are the Kabul Shahi.

The division of labour between the Shaihr Jaari republics and the Kabul Shahi kshatriyas heralds a new age of Indian political and military structures. Recent economic, social, cultural and political developments have challenged the domination of warring imperial states, who had monopolised military power and centralised the fostering of religions for more than half a millennium and allotted towns and villages, religious communities and economic guilds a limited autonomy in regulating their own affairs. The era of imperial dynasties is not yet over, as the rise of the Chalukya and the Pandya later in this century show - but the social powers beyond the imperial dynasties are growing more and more powerful everyday. In the extreme North-West of the Indian sphere, the emerging new model, in which the roles are practically reversed, can be observed:

Here, the cities have become independent republics, firmly allied with each other under external pressure (empires in the South, Turks in the North). To strengthen their defensive power, they pay experienced warriors. The Kshatriyas govern themselves, too, forming associations and uniting under a dignified old dynasty (the Kabul Shahi) - but they do not rule over the city states. Taxes are collected and allotted by the cities` administration; cities and warrior associations negotiate contracts for services. When there is no war, some of the kshatriyas are hired to guard caravans against highwaymen; others focus on training and/or live in monasteries. They have an additional economic basis provided by land ownership. In the Pashtun, Dogari and Panjabi countryside, castes have reversed into permeable social strata: farmers can join the warrior associations if they can afford the training, weaponry and horse (both of which are often provided by Shaihr Jaari payments when a war is looming), while warriors engage in agriculture in times of peace, or upon retirement. Peasants are not taxed (but many must pay rent to warrior landlords), and they can move into the cities and take up a profession there. (The inverse movement, from town to countryside, is difficult, though.)

The next hundred years or so in the Indian sphere are marked by the conflict between the old and the new model and the transition from the former to the latter.

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.

While the Kushan-Shakan army suffers its defeat in the North, the wealthy port town of Barygaza / Bharikucha declares itself independent, too. Unlike their Northern counterparts along the Silk and Grand Trunk Roads, though, the Bharikuchans decide to defend themselves. They become a city republic like the Gana Sanghas in the Gupta realm. The walls of the town are fortified, but most of all, Bharikucha, as a maritime republic, needs a navy: Its guilds have come under pressure by cheap Roman textile imports, but since Vasishka and Peroz prioritise the war against the Sassanids over the protection of the commercial fleet, Bharikuchans can sell their own produce only via Roman, Tamil, Guptan or Ostrogothic intermediaries, who offer only low prices, or risk being robbed by pirates when undertaking unaccompanied sea voyages. This is accomplished by an alliance between the captains of eight Kushan-Shakan war ships, which return from their defense positions in Balochistan to their home port of Bharikucha, and the influential shreni (guilds / syndicates), Brahmin families, Mazdakist and Zurvanite herbads and Manichaean ardawans of Bharikucha, who all form a provisional republican government, without the involvement of any kshatriya dynasty. All male Bharikuchans between 17 and 45 must undergo military training (although its outlook differs greatly between Brahmin martial arts training and the drill provided to the shudra foot soldiers) and can be drafted in case of war.

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.

Kushana-Shakastan / Bharikucha: The Kushan-Shakan troops lay siege to Bharikucha, but after a naval defeat, they cannot prevent the city's supply by sea. After five months, they must abandon the siege. The defiant maritime city republic of Bharikucha emerges triumphant.

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.

The aedils of the republic and many of its civitates perform endless sacrifices and rituals to soothe the deities and stop the plague by religious means. No success so far, either.

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.

Ostrogothic sea merchants in the new longboats discover Sere Kounda. The merchant guild "Atlantikoi" establishes trade relations, buying primarily cotton, which is still extremely expensive, for the Roman textile manufacture from the non-Simonist Mandinke, who have come to call themselves "Horon" (=the free).

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.

Roman Empire / Baiuvaria: The fourth margo is established: Rei Publicae Romanae Margo Foederationis Baiuvarensis.

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 pacifist 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. The only two unequivocal allies of the new Mazdakite state are Choresmia and the city republic of Bharikucha. 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. (This, in turn, strengthens the position of Bharikucha, which will carry out much of the Persian sea trade volume over the next decades.) In the West, relations with Armenia are souring because Mazdakist influences are about to destabilise this country.

Gupta India: At the Kannada-speaking southern rim of the weakened Gupta Empire, Pulakesi of the Chalukya clan defeats Gupta`s Kadamba vassals and declares himself King in Badami.

544
Hausa, Banza et al.: The Simonist Civil War among the Hausa and Banza ends with a Kano victory, 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.

Gupta India: Pulakesi does not content himself with climbing merely one step on the ladder, by becoming a direct vassal of the Guptas instead of being a vassal of the Kadamba. He performs the Vedic sacrifices, which last a whole year and are a clear sign that he means his Chalukya Kingdom to be a sovereign empire.

Franconia: High King Ucomer dies and the Frankish Confederacy breaks apart over the question of his succession. Salians and Ripuarians cannot find a compromise and go to war against each other, but have to withdraw without either side achieving anything.

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.

Bharikucha: At the university of Bharikucha, the second largest in India and the largest secular one, Aryabhata publishes his seminal work on astronomy (in Sanskrit, one of the competing linguae francae - but the dominating one in the faculty of astronomy and mathematics then - at this multilingual university), theorising the rotation of the earth around itself and around the sun, explaining, among other things, eclipses.

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.

West Africa: When Roman sea merchants, who witnessed the huge wealth amassed by the Ostrogothic Atlantikoi association with cotton trade from a new unknown source close to the West African coast, arrive at Sere Kounda, they find, to their disappointment, that the Atlantikoi have not only built a dependence there, but also huge warehouses, in which they have stored the lion share of this year`s cotton harvest ready for shipping whenever Mediterranean market prices are best. The Horon of Sere Kounda advise the Roman merchants strongly against venturing upriver on the Senegal into the hinterland.

550s
As prices for cotton drop again, thousands of jobs in the uncompetitive wool-based Celtic textile business are lost and the Celtic economy undergoes another crisis, while Roman producers swamp the Celtic market and Celtic money wanders across the border into Roman pockets. Larger Celtic companies react with the acquisition of fresh slaves in Saxony (where both Saxon and Venedian slaves are sold), which destabilises Saxon society and shall turn out as a bad investment in the next decades.

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.

India: Pulakesi I. of the Chalukyas defeats Avinita of the Western Gangas and reduces them to vassals, making Talakad a sub-center of their empire`s administration.

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 Northward. 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.

India: The cosmopolitan port town of Cochin, only loosely controlled by the Chera after the collapse of Kalabhra rule anyway, gives itself a written republican constitution - the first one worldwide in which women (albeit only when paying a minimum amount of tax money, like men) are given active and passive voting rights for the town assembly.

In Vatapi, Pulakesi I. of the Chalukyas founds the first Hindu agrahara (place of learning) with Kannada, instead of Sanskrit, as the language of communication.

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.

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
Svearike / Sørstad: A son and a close adviser of the Svear king are assassinated. The assassins leave a message: "Stay off our towns." Around the Baltic Sea, the rumour spreads that one of the secret, allegedly very powerful, in any case mythicised "societies" of Sørstaders (syndicates, basically) are behind the assassinations, as a revenge for the raid of Grobiņa.

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 pacifist factions, who oppose a large-scale draft and an increase in taxation for the war and the build-up.

Eranshahr: At the University of Gundishapur, the Aryabhatiya is translated into Pahlavi.

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.

Franconia: A revolt of peasants in OTL Southern Netherlands and Flanders overthrows the Salian Frankish kingdoms. Under the leadership of Mark ("the Just"), the revolting peasants install a republican government.

Roman Empire / Eranshahr: The Roman Consuls seize the opportunity of the replacement of the ambitious and aggressive Sassanid Empire with the pacifistic Mazdakite State and negotiate a land leasing contract for a naval base at Eran´s southern coast. The naval base at Konarakon will become the backbone of Rome´s anti-piracy missions East of Arabia.

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.

Franconia: The Salian Republic`s government secures the support of the Celtic Empire, brokered in a personal meeting between Mark the Just and Artus Pistorius.

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.

Roman Empire / Saba: Roman fleet movements from Aden to Konarakon create a diplomatic crisis between Rome and Saba.

Bharikucha: The textile-producing shreni of Bharikucha inaugurates its new textile mill, complete with carding machines and water- and wind-powered looms. Bharikucha's competitivity is greatly improved.

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.

Franconia: Slavery is abolished in the Salian Republic, too. In addition, land is redistributed in a great land reform, and elections for a democratic Thing take place, in which Mark`s supporters achieve a huge majority.

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.

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.

Roman Empire: To secure the safety of Ostrogothic West African cotton trade, which is of vital importance to the Roman economy, the Republic builds a naval base at Promunturium Album (OTL Nouadhibou) and stations a dozen ships there to patrol the coast and guard it against pirates.

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.

Roman Empire: At the University of Antiochia, the Aryabhatiya is translated (indirectly, from Pahlavi sources) into Greek. It revives astronomic debates and resuscitates this discipline in the growing choir of scientific voices at Roman and Celtic universities.

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.

West Africa: An Ostrogothic exploring mission of members of the Atlantikoi association travels upriver on the Senegal from Sere Kounda. One of them, Nikomachos, will write a book (the "Senegalos") about their discoveries, which shapes the Mediterranean perception of West Africa`s peoples in the late 6th and 7th centuries. In the Senegalos, Nikomachos accurately describes the different degree of Horon control over ethnic groups closer to the coast and farther inland: Nikomachos also travelled across the land, Northwards into the desert and Eastwards to the homelands of the Mandinke. In all these places, be they Northern desert oases like Walata, Tixit or Wadaan, where the inhabitants speak Tamazight, or Eastern towns on the Mela (OTL Niger), Nikomachos finds life in the Simonist communes following the same principles: all goods are shared, the people are very pious - so far, nothing new for the Mediterranean readership. Nikomachos also deconstructs common Mediterranean clichés about the Simonist communities of Northern Africa, though, (e.g. that they`d share their women) as well as Horon judgements about them (e.g. that they`d drink blood). Nikomachos tells about literate girls and women and a generally peaceful society. He also creates some myths of his own, too, though, for example: "In the greatest heat of summer, the people of these lands sit in the shade and wait until birds, cooked by the sun´s heat, drop from the sky, ready to have their feathers removed and be eaten by the idle men and women of the oasis."
 * In the immediate vicinity of Sere Kounda, people of black skin speaking a non-Mandé language (Wolof tribes) are subjugated by the (equally black) Horon and work on their sorghum and vegetable plantations and as servants in their households.
 * The Haalpulaar`en, who inhabit a space beginning about 50 miles inland, are of a lighter skin; they work on the cotton plantations owned by a Horon group who speak a different dialect and call themselves Soninke.
 * Further inland, human settlements are only found at some distance from the river. This is the region inhabited by the Bafour

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.

574
Eranshahr: Chosrau I dies. The Mazdakite Congregation (consisting of Mazdakist herbads, delegates from rural communes and city councils - but not, for example, of representatives of the Balochian, Avromanian, Lakian and other tribes) gathers in Ctesiphon and elects Puran, a priestess and female philosopher, as the new head of state.

The election of a woman - of minor aristocratic (dehqan) descent - as head of state shows both the force of the elective principle in the early Mazdakite State and the re-definition of gender roles by the Mazdakists. Among the surrounding states, only Saba often has queens, but these can ascend the throne only due to royal lineage and only when there are no male heirs.

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 ensues, in which several claimants are killed. In the power vacuum, religious, social and economic associations and leaders in Ujjain, the capital of the Shaka Empire, and in the port town of Revatidvipa (OTL Goa) at the Southernmost tip of Shakastan decide to sort things out themselves and declare their independence, after the model of Bharikucha, Cochin and the earlier gana sanghas of the Gangetic plain and the North-Western periphery.

577
Samo unites many of the Slavic clans of OTL Slovakia and becomes the first King of the Czechs.

India: Rudraman V emerges victorious from the strife among the satraps - but he must move his court and ascend the throne in Mathura, as Ujjain's republican defenses resist his force. Beginning with his reign, what is left of the former satrapies - many of them headless - has 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. India: Kirtivarman of the Chalukyas attacks the Nalas, loyal vassals of the Guptas. Bhanugupta gathers the armies of his last loyal vassals and even gains military support from Rudraman of the Chastana, and they come to the Nalas` aid. The Eastward expansion of the (Hindu, Kannada-speaking) Chalukya into the lands of Gupta vassals who speak Telugu and are patrons of the Jainist faith (in OTL Andhra Pradesh) is stopped.  579 Eranshahr: The poet-philosopher Reza, is laureated by Puran. Reza's immense popularity, which is not limited to Persian cities since he has found readers in Balkh, Bukhara and Bharikucha, too, is related to the way he gives expression to the atmosphere of change, optimism, but also cultural clashes in the cities of the new Mazdakite society. His epic parodies of heroic tales reflect the growing self-confidence of a pacifist society; and in his longer poems, reflections about changing gender roles, the occasional annoyances of a more collectivist lifestyle, and the omnipresent religious hypocrisy (to gain influence, it pays to pose as an enthusiastic Mazdakist - a strategy pursued by many people whose religious beliefs may either be non-existent, or rather fall into the categories of non-Mazdakist (Zurvanite or polytheistic-ritualist) Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism) can be found.

Reza's popularity is an important contribution to the continuous importance and regional influence of the Pahlavi language after the demise of the Sassanids.

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. Franconia: Inspired by the success of self-confident self-governing cities among their Celtic and Alemannic neighbours and aided by the Salian Republic, the mayors of 37 Ripuarian towns, who are governed mostly by town councils increasing dominated by guilds, meet for the first time to co-ordinate their political efforts aimed at rescuing their relative independence and the rule of Lothringian law from transgressive monarchs. Their meetings, which take place in a different town each time, will come to be called the "Inter-Mayorate".

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.

India: Kirtivarman I. of the Chalukyas attempts to conquer the insurgent Southern Canara clan - and the adjacent maritime city republic of Revatidvipa. But Revatidvipa manages to gather help from Cochin, Bharikucha and a marine corps of Saba and fends off the invasion. Kirtivarman`s second defeat initiates the process of disintegration in the Chalukya Kingdom of Vitapa, with subservient clans like the Western Gangas and the Rashtrakutas reasserting their positions in the following decades.

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.

Franconia: Three Ripuarian kings volunteer to fight for the Celts against Widukind. They encounter massive problems with mobilising sufficient soldiers, since the Inter-Mayorate, which supports Widukind in Saxony, catalyses the formation of a soldier`s guild.

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. Some Chattish and Ripuarian troops are occupying a part of Southern Saxony.

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).

Roman Empire: The cloth market in Carthago Nova is the largest marketplace worldwide, with a turnover of more than 10,000,000 denarii each day.

Eranshahr / Armenia: Puran concludes a contract of good friendship and mutual help with Varaz Vzur.

586
Celtic Empire / Saxony: The Celtic navy, armed with Greek fire, sails up the rivers Amisia / Ems, Visurgis / Weser and Albis / Elbe. On the Elbe, they are stopped at Hammaburg; on the Weser, they break though the defenses at Bremen and sail far into the hilly woodlands near the Saxon-Chattic border, where they join with Chattish and Ripuarian troops, while on the Ems, they encounter no resistance. Landing parties meet fierce resistance, though, and improvised castra are regularly burned down, with the exception of the Southernmost regions. After five months, the Celts abandon their last own attempt at restoring control over Saxony and relegate the task to the Chattish and Ripuarian kings. With the consent of their Frisian allies, the Celts build fortresses on the islands Borcum / Borkum, Mellum and Novarca (OTL Neuwerk) and station battleships and longboats there - the official pretext is to prevent Saxon seaborne invasions, but their position at the mouths of the Ems, Weser and Elbe betray their real aim of monopolising the control over the trade flows carried out on these rivers (and thus an economic stranglehold on the strengthened Kingdom of Saxony, after military control had proved impossible).

Göktürks: With help (in the form of horses) from the Tuyuhun and a guarantee from Sui, Baga Khaghan leads the Eastern Göktürk warriors back North and reclaims the holy forest of Ötüken. The Eastern Göktürks now owe the Tuyuhun a lot of blacksmithing products as payment, and Baga Khaghan sends one of his daughters to Emperor Wen as concubine.

In the West, Apa has no other option but to proclaim Tardush as the only khaghan and accept a subordinate role as shad of the lands of the Kyrgyz.

Only 25 years after the Göktürk Empire's historical peak, the Ashina clan is haunted by infights, and the empire on the verge of dissolution. The Eastern Göktürks are vassals of the Chinese; under these circumstances, Baga Khaghan's position is more than endangered, and his rivals are already forging plans for his demise. In the North, Apa - as well as the Kyrgyz - are dissatisfied with Tardush's overlordship. In the West, the ambition of regional shads and Tardush's dangerous personality forebode new bloody conflicts in the near future.

587
China: Construction of the Shanyang Canal is begun.

Sui conquers Western Liang.

Saxony: King Widukind wipes the Chattish and Ripuarian occupation forces off the Southern parts of Saxony. Then, he founds a reformed Thing, which would serve both as legislature, and as advisory council to the king, but which would no longer play a role in choosing military leadership or in jurisdiction. Rural regional Things and city councils would send permanent Thing members; if the latter acted against the will of the former, the former could replace them with someone else. He announces the plan to have the new Thing codify traditional Saxon law.

Widukind also invites Svear priests from Helgö to teach the Thing members and a wider group of people in the service of the king in the use of the runic alphabet.

Armenia: Varaz Vzur is overthrown by an even more radical Paulician and militant leader, Vertanes.

588
Göktürks: Armed conflict breaks out among the elders of the leading Ashina clan in the East. Tardush requires warriors from all shads to interfere in favour of Ashina Yongyulu, who opposes Baghan's submissive policy toward Sui. Apa refuses to participate.

Bagha Khaghan is killed in the conflict, but Tardush does not succeed with his intervention, either. Aided by Sui, the rulers of the East resist his invasion. Instead of Ashina Yongyulu, Ashina Rangan becomes the new leader, bearing the title Yami Qaghan.

On his way back, Tardush leads his warriors to the North. The insurgent Apa Khaghan is killed in battle.

On a simite of leading representatives of the Silk Road cities, the increasing demands of Göktürk shads, who must maintain their armies, from the Silk Road shahristans are debated very critically. Several alternatives are discussed (especially A) an appeal to Sui to pacify the region as new overlords, and B) a co-ordinated self-defense army and an alliance with the Kabul Shahi), but none finds general support.

Saxony: The new Thing, which gathers in Hamburg instead of Marklo, begins the task of codifying the Saxon law.

589
China: Sui defeats Chen. Chinese historiography records this moment as the end of the period of Northern and Southern Dynasties (as in OTL).

Venedia: The first written document on Venedian religious practice in the Baltic space - or, more exactly, of the religious practices of the Luticians - is composed. It is an instruction text for novices in the priest circle of Rethra, written in Swedish runes, with three additional runes created for the "sh", "ch" and "ts" sounds. Presumably, the transmission of the runic alphabet to the Luiticians occurred through the trading port of Vineta.

590
As Samo`s Czech Kingdom expands in OTL Slovakia, other Slavic clans, whose members are interacting to a greater extent with the Roman margo of Baiuvaria and among whom there are numerous Christians, rally behind a counter-King Mojmir of the Moravians.

China: Emperor Wen applies the equal-field policy across his entire empire. The landed gentry in Chen rebels. The Sui general Yang Su quells the rebellion.

591
China: Emperor Wen lowers the taxes. Khan Murong Shifu of the Tuyuhun submits to Sui and sends tribute.

Armenia / Iberia: Vertanes launches a "crusade" to convert the (equally Christian, but Orthodox) Iberians by force. Armenian troops outnumber the Iberian defenders, who withdraw from the valleys to the mountains, from where they continue to offer resistance.

Eranshahr: "Celtic style" (= empirical) philosophers of nature, who would be labelled "chemists" in modern terms, at the University of Gundishapur, which has begun to flourish again after the crisis of the civil war years, discover a method to synthesise acidum salis petrae, using sulfuric acid for this process, whose synthesis from alaun had been discovered earlier in Alexandria.

592
Göktürks: Ashina Yongyulu allies himself with the Xueyantuo tribe and overthrows Yami Qaghan. He becomes Tulan Khaghan. This shows both the weakening of the Ashina clan's leadership and a process of tribalisation which threatens that which is left of the Göktürk confederal structures.

While Yami Khaghan, or rather Ashina Rangan again now, flees to Sui with his entire branch of the clan, Tulan Khaghan ends the submissive policy toward Sui. Emperor Wen orders the construction of the town of Dali for Ashina Rangan and his clansmen. Ashina Rangan receives a title from Wen, and many of his warriors join the regular Sui army.

In the West, Tardush supports Tamgan's renewed reach for regional hegemony in the Northern Caucasus by ordering other shads to support him with warriors.

The Ostrogoths mobilise their army in response.

Armenia / Iberia / Lasika: Although Iberia is not brought completely under control by far, Vertanes and his Paulician crusaders move Westward into Lasika. Wherever the Armenian troops gain control, icons and other depictions of Christ or saints are destroyed, mass anabaptisms are conducted, and those who resist are killed with swords.

Lasika's government and emissaries from the Iberian resistance appeal to Tamgan Shad for help.

593
Armenia / Iberia / Lasika / Göktürks: Tamgan Shad leads a large number of warriors over the passes of the Caucasus and deals the Armenians several crushing defeats both in Lasika and in Iberia. Vertanes abandons the crusade. Some zealots remain and continue to fight Lasika's and Iberia's governments, who nevertheless regain control over most of their territories. The Göktürks are repaid and are declared welcome ( = they may herd their livestock on these lands, and ride through them with their warriors) in the lands of the Nakh, the Alani, the Lakians, Iberians and Lasikans.

594
Göktürks / Ostrogoths: Tamgan Shad's warriors burn down the fortified camps of the Ostrogoths and restore Göktürk control over the Tanais-Ra passage. On the Tanais end of the passage, they begin to erect a large fortressed town named Sarkel.

Once again, the Ostrogoths appeal to Rome for help, but Rome´s leading politicians view the Göktürks as a beneficial force in the region since the latter defended Rome's Lasikan allies, where significant amounts of Roman capital had been invested, against Armenia, which is allied with the Mazdakite Eran, which figures in many Roman minds as a fanatic geopolitical wildcard. One more time, the Ostrogoths are outraged at Rome´s passivity. Many consider the decision not to join the Republic or at least its common military policy a major historical error, while a small minority ventures anti-Roman resentments. The Ostrogoths move their troops, and rumours about a military offensive are heard and passed on among Ostrogoths from Mari El over Tauris and the Mediterranean to Africa's West coast.

Tamilakam: Kadungon and his Pandyan Kingdom attack and defeat the Cholas, reducing them to vassals.

595
Göktürks / Ostrogoths: The Ostrogothic army attacks a Göktürk detachment at Sarkel, which busies itself with the construction of the fortress. Sarkel is destroyed, and the inexperienced, but euphorious Ostrogothic army moves on, Eastward, to liberate Chrysosydor. Halfway there, the Göktürk cavalry counter-attacks and devastates the Ostrogoths, who lose a third of their total armed forces in the battle.

Tamgan Shad and Tardush Khaghan ride Westward ...

China: Emperor Wen outlaws the private possession of weapons, except in the border provinces.

596
Western Göktürks / Ostrogoths: The Göktürks break through the Ostrogothic defenses at Gorgippia, Phanagoria and Nymphaion. The Roman Senate decides to send only a small marine division, which holds on against the Göktürks at Kimmerikon just long enough for the Pangothikon, the leading magistrates, the members of hundreds of syndicates and powerful associations, and almost a quarter of the population of Theodosia, Kerkinitis and the capital, Chersonesos, to flee on board the Ostrogothic (commercial) fleet. It is rumoured that they carried with them many tons of golds and endless amounts of other forms of currency.

In September, when the Göktürks have finally managed to move past Kimmerikon, it is too late for a siege of Chersonesos. They establish themselves temporarily on Tauris and plunder Theodosia in December.

China: Emperor Wen marries Princess Guangha off to Murong Shifu, consolidating the friendly relations with between Sui and the Tuyuhun.

Eastern Göktürks / China: Tulan Khaghan wins the Khitan for a common offensive against Sui's Northern provinces - the Göktürk attacking from the North-West, the Khitan from the North-East. Emperor Wen sends a sizable army led by Yang Su and aided by Ashina Rangan's people against Tulan Khaghan, and a smaller detachment led by crown prince Yang Guang against the Khitan. Yang Su's armies split and managed to encricle Tulan Khaghan's forces, who were utterly defeated. The Sui soldiers killed a large part of the Göktürks' livestock, causing a fatal famine. The Eastern Göktürks disappear from history, many of them fleeing and merging into other tribes.

The smaller campaign against the allegedly weaker enemy, the Khitan, does not go so well, though. While here, too, the Sui armies confront the raiders and kill many of them, their luck leaves them as they advance onto Khitan territory. Caught in an ambush, the crown prince's guard and Yang Guang himself are killed. Panicking Sui troops are chased away by the Khitan.

Emperor Wen, who lost his favourite son in this war, swears himself bloody revenge on the Khitan - but this chance would only come to his successor, his eldest son Yang Yong, who would become Emperor Yang of Sui (instead of Yang Guang, as in OTL).

597
Western Göktürks / Ostrogoths: The Göktürks lay siege on Chersonesos in March. After nine weeks, the city gives itself in - not before roughly another fifth of the population has escaped through tunnels and caves and onto boats and ships. Tamgan Shad lets his warriors plunder the magnificent city of Chersonesos, and later Kerknitis and, on the way back, Tanais, too. Together with Tardush, it is decided that Tauris shall become a new province led by a Duolo shad.

Although some Ostrogoths hold out in Saporon and Severopolis on the Borysthenes, almost the entire Margo has fallen to the Göktürks. The remaining Ostrogothic peasants and craftsmen of the formerly densely populated island have become their subjects.

The Pangothikon moves its seat to the civitas of Byzantion, which has invited them, while much of the foundations of Ostrogothic sea trade and the related wealth is moved to Malta. More than 150,000 Ostrogoths, many of them in longboats which only carry a family, are sailing across the Black and then the Mediterranean Sea, looking for a new homeland.

598
China: Sui experiences its greatest military failure in the first Sui-Goguryeo war, as in OTL.

Ostrogoths: While a minority of the Ostrogothic boat people (mostly craftsmen) find asylum in Roman and Celtic civitates across the Mediterranean and Black Sea, many more are still sailing, looking for land to colonise. The largest and most successful community of newly arrived Ostrogoths forms on the Nesoi Porphyroi (OTL Madeira and Porto Santo), where more than 50,000 Ostrogoths have arrived towards the end of the year.

The bubonic plague breaks out again, this time in the Roman civitas of Narbo.

599
Ostrogoths: Two ekklesiai form on each of the two islands of the Nesoi Porphyroi. The Ostrogoths recreate their political institutions in the new environment. They also aim at restoring their economic network, sending messengers to Malta and Byzantion to transmit who has moved here. It turns out that the Nesoi Porphyroi are full of forests with excellent ship-building wood - a lucky circumstance for a seafaring nation. In the deforested areas, the thinner twigs and low shrubbery are set alight to fertilise the soil with the ashes. The first harvest yields good results in a great variety of crops, and the terrible hunger among the new colonists finds an end.

The bubonic plague kills hundreds of thousands of people across the Mediterranean.

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

Abrittus