Terra Cognita

The following is composed of excerpts from historian and author Arthyen Columan’s following books: Himnu Ad Roma: A History of Romania; A Concise History of Romania; Pirate Kings; Libia: Womb of the World. Additional excerpts from historian Eledh Eseld Nanscoll’s following works: Looking East, A Brief History of Asia; Looking West, A Brief History of Hesperia; Looking North, A Brief History of Europe; Looking South, A Brief History of Libia; Kingdom of Light: A History of Bakitara.

Translations from the original Cambrian provided by me, with excerpts arranged chronologically and highlighted on events that will interest the reader due to counter factual events.

A note on translation, transliteration, and the non-existence of English: English is a non-existent language in this world, this dimension, this universe. The Angles, though invading Britannia with the Saxons, Frisians, and Jutes were only half successful. Ultimately the invading Germanics were defeated by a Romano-Briton coalition reinforced by Syagrius and a mass of refugees from the continent. Though allowed to settle along the eastern portion of Britannia, their power was broken and they never came to dominant. Instead, a dialect of the Britons from the southwest corner of the island came to be the lingua-franca of what is called Cambria. The two primary sources I use to explore, explain, and translate from are Cambrian and Roman. I will subsequently use the best English-language equivalent for names and locations when available or develop one that seems like the most plausible English-language version when such a thing does not exist in parallel from our universe.

Thank you for your time, fellow world traveler, and enjoy the explorations.

-

History
=== '''Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus Parthicus (Julian the Philosopher)''' ===

=
☀Julian has long been held in a great dichotomous view: on high in the Hellene West as a genius and one of the greatest emperors produced by Rome. In the Christian East, a villain and the original source of the splintering of a once mighty Empire (though perhaps ironically an empire despised by many of these same writers as imperial Latin oppression). Our world view, supported by the distance of time and an increase in secular thought, has allowed us a more nuanced view of Julian the Philosopher, less tethered by Christian antipathy or Hellene laurels.

We can examine the more positive fulcrum of Julian’s success. This route, however, has been gone down in the west, the Hellene world, since the Emperor first rose to power. It therefore seems a fairly redundant avenue to travel. I will say that I am not against Julian the Philosopher, rather I prefer to see him as the complex character from history he was, just like all of the other rulers of all of the realms of the world. I will certainly and without qualms say that Julian is to be ranked among the top rulers of the Roman Empire, though I will not venture to rank him in the top three as has so often been done in the west. He had faults but he was also stocked full of positives. Julian’s revenue reforms were an undeniable boon to Romania and his tax system aided to realm from his time onwards. His martial prowess and successes are laudable and undeniable as well. One can also delve into him as a thinking man and the examine his immense popularity, during his life and after, to the Romans of the west.

It does appear, however, that Julian was with many faults which we heirs of the West may highlight through this new understanding of history. His reformation of the old Greco-Roman tradition into an organized Henotheist religion, Hellenism, might be, with just reasoning, a principal source of the undoing of the Roman Empire and what would lead to a rift between West and East that became permanent. With whimsy we can speculate that had Julian perhaps embraced Christianity the whole of the Roman realm, from Hispania to Anatolia, may have remained intact to this very day. Christianity is estimated to have constituted approximately 10% of the populace of the Roman Empire by AUC 1053, with a bulk located in the Eastern and southern parts of the empire. The growth in numbers, however, was significant and these numbers coupled with the overt influence the religion had on the Hellenist Reformation and the ultimate dominance of Christianity in the east suggest a plausible scenario of being fully embraced in the West. It may seem fancy to say that now and we do know that Hellenism, or rather the old Hellene Traditional belief, was still prevalent in the Western Roman world which makes it seem inevitable that Christianity would never truly take hold there. But I believe, and history suggests, that Christianity was taking hold regardless and, without Julian’s interference, may have spread just as it had in the east. The rift caused from the fallout of the Hellenic reformation also planted the seeds of the endless-to-come Wars of Religion with all the myriad zealotry and carnage wrought by all sides that would not only include the Hellenes and Christians, but Zoroastrians, Muslims, Jews, Manichaeans, and others. Additionally, Julian seemed to tilt from popular to mockery throughout his reign, despite rose colored reviews from later generations of the inhabitants of Romania - likely colored so by the successive eyes of devout Hellenes as that religion solidified and dominated. His successor, Procopius, wisely removed animal sacrifice from the reformed Hellenism, a practice Julian favored but which was outdated and viewed unfavorably by most Romans; rightly called an ‘animal holocaust’ by historian Elestren Marghek. It is through glimpses such as this that we might rightly see Julian as human and fallible with his success sometimes teetering on a precipice of disaster or success – the latter of which he ultimately fell into. History is nothing if not chance and whimsy!

The Roman-Sassanian War

By mid-May AUC 1116 the Roman army had come to the outskirts of the Persian capital, Ctesiphon. It was here that Julian unloaded his fleet and ferried his men across the Tigris under cover of darkness. The stunning tactical victory won by the Romans, with a loss of 70 men to the Persian 2,500, was complicated by a lack of siege equipment in which to take, by force, Ctesiphon. The headache was alleviated by the fortuitously arrived of Procopius, which allowed the Roman emperor the completion of his desired pincer to snare the approaching Shapur II in a vice.

The battle beneath Ctesiphon did not end as decisively for the Romans as had the previous engagement. The losses to both sides were stunning and, after the dust had settled, Shapur II lay dead at the hands of Julian himself. The death of the King of Kings compelled the Persian city to open its gates to the new Roman conqueror and by days end Julian had gained the city and the honorific of Parthicus. Ctesiphon’s resistance had fallen.

The Romans installed Hormisdas, exiled brother-in-law of Shapur, as the new Persian King and annexed all the land west of the Tigris to, and including, Armenia (previously a joint venture between the Romans and Persians, now fully Roman), Ardhania, and Hiberia – all now Roman Provinces.

Julian became the first, and last, Roman emperor to sail the Persian Gulf as the Roman’s mopped up the last resistance led by Ardashir II, self-proclaimed King of Kings and rival to the Roman appointed Hormisdas. Ardashir’s death in the Autumn of AUC 1116, at the hands of his own Persian nobles, ended the campaign on a whimper though decidedly.

Trouble brewed for Julian on his return home. The population of Antioch, which had ridiculed the emperor on his journey east to fight Shapur, followed up with more and amplified protests on Julian’s return. His victory in the east had done little to impress the citizens of this ancient city who, perhaps justly, felt that their religion was under attack by the emperor.

The Hellene Reformation

Julian turned his attention to religious reformation following the consolidation of the Persian campaign. Lauded as Alexander reincarnate, the emperor basked in renewed vigor and popularity (at least in the western half of the Roman realm). The masses as well as the politicians, swayed as they were and vassals of the winds of popularity, moved with the religious flow. Julian further enforced the School Edict, requiring all public teachers to be approved by the Emperor. Hellenist charities began to blossom, temples were rebuilt with war funds from the victory over Persia, and the culmination of Hellenism’s religious text, the Scriptura, neared completion. Julian successfully steered the old and ununified Greco-Roman faith into a linear, unified religion. Ironically, he shaped the old ways into something far more akin to Christianity. The emperor organized the priesthood, placing at the top of this centralized organization the Pontifex Maximus. The first to be bestowed with this title was Libanius, with the office headquarted in Athens. The Pontifex Maximus was in-charge of religious matters as head of the state-endorsed religious organization and would be the one to appoint provincial High Priests. High Priests, provincially appointed, oversaw the religious matters of each province, with the ability to appoint their own priests under their authority and so on.

The High Priests primary concern was, first and foremost, furthering Hellenism. In general, the duties of priests were to help the old, the poor and the sick, while they also provided and managed charity. Julian’s reformation of Hellenism introduced an emphasis on the personal piety of the priesthood. The moral standing of the Priesthood was to be exemplary, as Julian writes “the qualities that are appropriate for one in this high office are, in the first place, fairness, and next goodness and benevolence towards those who deserve to be treated like this. Any priest who behaves unjustly to his fellow men and impiously towards the Gods or is arrogant, must either be given a warning, or be rebuked with great severity.” The shift from the old religion’s notion of priests as elites to priests as model citizens reflected the myriad influences from Christianity, likely enacted to combat what was the encroachment of this religion. The shift from tradition to religion was rapid and consuming.

Additional religious shockwaves enacted by Julian was the funding for the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Judea and the preferential status of Jewish subjects in that province. This caused further rifts with the Christian community, though began a sort of alliance between Hellenes and Jews.

As Hellenism began to root itself in the empire Julian turned his attention to the troubles along the borders of Rome. In AUC 1118 the Alamanni crossed the Rhine and invaded Gaul. Simultaneously, Aequitius– the rough and boorish usurper raised high by rebellious Christian factions in the east – began his revolt.

The superior ability of Julian’s generals prevailed in the Battle of Nacolia where Aequitius' forces were defeated. He fled the battlefield and was for a while a fugitive in the wilds of Phrygia, but was soon betrayed and killed by his own generals, ending the Christian Rebellion less than a year after it began.

The Rhine Wars

A tit-for-tat conflict played itself out on the Rhine border before the Alemanni crossed in force and sacked Moguntiacum, after killing two of Julian’s generals. Julian spent the winter of AUC 1120 gathering a massive army, consisting of Italian and Illyrian legions, for a spring offensive. The army crossed the Rhine and Main rivers into Alemannic territory, encountering no resistance initially – burning any dwellings or food stores found along the way. The campaign culminated in the Battle of Solicinium, with a decisive, though costly, Roman victory. During AUC 1122, Julian ordered new defensive works to be constructed and old structures refurbished along the length of the Rhine’s west bank. Boldly, he ordered the construction of a fortress across the Rhine in the mountains near modern Mercimbri as well as a new watchtower on the Nicarus and a temple re-dedicated to Mercury atop the summit, in this region an amalgamation of Roman Mercury and Germanic Wodan (titled Mercurius Cimbrianus), supplying the fortress/settlement with a namesake. The Alamanni sent envoys to protest, but they were dismissed. The Alamanni attacked the fortress while it was still under construction but were turned back at great cost to the Barbarians. Mercimbri was reinforced with a significant Legionary presence.

The Great Conspiracy

In AUC 1120 reports surfaced that a combined force of Pictus, Attacotti, and Scots had killed the Comes litoris Saxonici Nectaridus and Dux Britanniarum Fullofaudes. At the same time, Frankish and Saxon forces were raiding the coastal areas of northern Gaul. The empire was in the midst of the Great Conspiracy – and was in danger of losing control of Britain altogether. Julian set out for Britain, sending Comes domesticorum Severus ahead of him to investigate. Severus was not able to correct the situation and returned to Gaul, meeting Julian at Samarobriva. Valentinian then sent Jovinus to Britain and promoted Severus to magister peditum. Jovinus quickly returned saying that he needed more men to take care of the situation. In 1121 Valentinian appointed Theodosius as the new Comes Britanniarum with instructions to return Britain to Roman rule. Meanwhile, Severus and Jovinus were to accompany the emperor on his campaign against the Alamanni. Theodosius arrived in 1121 with the Batavi, Heruli, Jovii and Victores legions. Landing at Rutupiæ, he proceeded to Londinium restoring order to southern Britain. Later, he rallied the remaining garrison which was originally stationed in Britain; it was apparent the units had lost their cohesiveness when Fullofaudes and Nectaridus had been defeated. Theodosius sent for Civilis to be installed as the new vicarius of the diocese and Dulcitius as an additional general. In 1122, Theodosius set about reconquering the areas north of London, restored the rest of Britain to the empire and rebuilt many fortifications – renaming northern Britain 'Valentia'. After his return in AUC 1122, Valentinian promoted Theodosius to magister equitum in place of Jovinus.

In AUC 1123 the Saxons renewed their attacks on northern Gaul. Nannienus, the comes in charge of the troops in northern Gaul, urged Julian to come to his aid. After several modest successes, a truce was called and the Saxons handed over to the Romans young men fit for duty in the Roman military – in exchange for free passage back to their homeland. The Romans ambushed them and destroyed the entire invading force. Meanwhile rumors of a Roman alliance with the Burgundians began to surface and had the effect of scattering the Alamanni through fear of an imminent attack from their enemies. This event allowed the magister equitum Theodosius to attack the Alamanni through Raetia – taking numerous Alamannic prisoners. These captured Alamanni were settled in the Po river valley in Italia. The Alemanni finally sued for peace and transferred more of their tribesmen into Roman hands. Julian campaigned successfully for four more years to defeat Macrian who in AUC 1125 was finally captured by Theodosius. Meanwhile, Julian continued to recruit heavily from Alamanni friendly to Rome. He sent the Alamannic king Fraomarius, as a Tribune, to Britain with an army in order to replenish troops there and made the noblemen Bitheridius and Hortarius commanders in his army although Hortarius was soon executed for conspiring with Macrian.

The Armenian Revolt

Julian was forced to change direction after the Alamannic campaigns were wrapped up. In 1125, the rebellion of Papas of Armenia, self-proclaimed King of Armenia, broke out in the eastern provinces. This rebellion was driven by the continued religious unrest amongst the Eastern Romans. Julian pursued Papas through Armenia, eventually besieging them in a fortress in Van. Unbeknownst to Julian, Papas was fleeing to rendezvous with the remainder of his army. They engaged in a massive battle on 10 July 1126. The battle lasted for days, but in the end, the Romans are worn down to nothing and Julian was killed by a thrown spear from an uknown horseman. Rumors began to circulate almost immediately as to the identity – was he Armenian or Greek? Julian’s body was hurried back to camp where he waxed about poetry and, after urging, announced Procopius as his successor, though Julian had spent the years since his return from Persia grooming his cousin for just such a purpose, despite the emperor’s self-declared disdain for nepotism. Julian was given a full state funeral in Rome and buried in Athens. His death, like his life, divided the empire. The West mourned while the East celebrated and prepared.

Augustus Procopius

Procopius spent the first part of his reign trying to plug the leak that was Armenia. The Persian’s took the opportunity to step into the conflict and began an invasion to retake their lost territory beyond the Tigris. The complicate matters, in Isauria, the mountainous region of western Cilicia, a major revolt had broken out in 1128, religious in nature and possibly linked to the death of Julian, which diverted troops formerly stationed in the East. Furthermore, by 1130, the Saracens under Queen Mavia had broken into revolt and devastated a swath of territory stretching from Phoenicia and Palestine as far as the Sinai. Though Procopius successfully brought both uprisings under control, the opportunities for action on the eastern frontier were limited by these skirmishes closer to home and the Persians fully occupied their territories lost to Julian – even raiding beyond – and Armenia had consolidated itself as independent.

Procopius’ plans for an eastern campaign were never realized. In preparation for an eastern war, Procopius initiated an ambitious recruitment program designed to fill those gaps wrought by the rebellions and Germanic incursions. It was thus not entirely unwelcome news when Procopius heard of Ermanaric's death and the disintegration of his kingdom before an invasion of hordes of barbaric Huns from the far east. After failing to hold the Danastris or the Prut against the Huns, the Goths retreated southward in a massive emigration, seeking new settlements and shelter south of the Danube, which they thought could be held against the Huns.

The Gothic Incursion

In AUC 1129, the Visigoths under their leader Fritigern advanced to the far shores of the lower Danube and sent an ambassador to Procopius who had set up his campaign headquarters in Antioch, and requested asylum. As Procopius' advisers were quick to point out, these Goths could supply troops who would at once swell their ranks and decrease his dependence on provincial troop levies and the increasingly rebellious and unreliable Christian locals. However, it would mean hiring them and paying in gold or silver for their services. Procopius granted admission to a number of Gothic groups, including Fritigern and his followers. When Fritigern and his Goths, to the number of 200,000 warriors and almost a million all told, undertook the crossing, Procopius’s mobile forces were tied down in the east, on the Persian frontier. This meant that only limitanei units were present to oversee the Goths' settlement. The small number of imperial troops present prevented the Romans from stopping a Danube crossing by a group of Ostrogoths and yet later on by Huns and Alans. What started out as a controlled resettlement might any moment turn into a major invasion. But the situation was worsened by corruption in the Roman administration, as Procopius' generals accepted bribes rather than depriving the Goths of their weapons as Procopius had stipulated and then proceeded to enrage them by such exorbitant prices for food that they were soon driven to the last extremity. Meanwhile the Romans failed to prevent the crossing of other barbarians who were not included in the treaty. In early 1130 the Goths revolted after a commotion with the people of Marcianople, and defeated the corrupt Roman governor Lupicinus near the city. After joining forces with the Ostrogoths under Alatheus and Saphrax, the combined barbarian group spread out to devastate the country before combining to meet Roman advance forces under counts Traianus and Richomer. In a sanguinary battle at Ad Salices, the Goths were momentarily checked and Saturninus, now lieutenant in the province, undertook a strategy of hemming them in between the lower Danube and the Euxine, hoping to starve them into surrender. However, Fritigern forced him to retreat by inviting some of the Huns to cross the river in the rear of Saturninus's ranged defenses. The Romans then fell back, incapable of containing the irruption, though with an elite force of his best soldiers the general Sebastian was able to fall upon and destroy several of the smaller predatory bands. By 378, Procopius himself was ready to march west from his eastern base in Antioch. He withdrew all but a skeletal force—some of them Goths—from the east and moved west, reaching Constantinople by 30 May, 1131. The citizens of Constantinople were clamoring for the emperor to march against the enemy whom he had himself introduced into the Empire and jeering him as a ‘vile Hellene’. The result became an example of hubris, the impact of which was to be felt for years to come. Procopius decided to advance at once and win the victory swiftly.

On 9 August 1131, the Battle of Adrianople took place between the Romans as Goths. The Romans held their own early on but were crushed by the surprise arrival of Visigoth cavalry which split their ranks. Procopius had left a sizeable guard with his baggage and treasures depleting his force. His right cavalry wing arrived at the Gothic camp sometime before the left wing arrived. It was a very hot day and the Roman cavalry was engaged without strategic support, wasting its efforts while they suffered in the heat. Meanwhile, Fritigern once again sent an emissary of peace in his continued manipulation of the situation. The resultant delay meant that the Romans present on the field began to succumb to the heat. The army's resources were further diminished when an ill-timed attack by the Roman archers made it necessary to recall Procopius' emissary. The archers were beaten and retreated in humiliation. Returning from foraging to find the battle in full swing, Gothic cavalry under the command of Althaeus and Saphrax now struck and, in what was probably the most decisive event of the battle, the Roman cavalry fled. Procopius was "mortally wounded by an arrow, and presently breathed his last breath". This action turned the tide of the battle which resulted in a tactical victory but a strategic loss. When the battle was over, two-thirds of the eastern army lay dead. Many of their best officers had also perished. What was left of the army of Procopius was led from the field under the cover of night. For Rome, the battle incapacitated the government, unable to deal with the catastrophe, which spread out of control.

Eugenius & Theodosius

In a move of desire to stabilize and better control the Empire, it was split into two halves once again. In the West, Procopius’ desired replacement, Eugenius, was declared Augustus while in the East, Theodosius, newly anointed commander of the Illyrian forces, was hailed co-Augustus.

Theodosius campaigned against Goths and other barbarians who had invaded the Empire, though his resources were not sufficient to destroy them or drive them out, which had been Roman policy for centuries in dealing with invaders. By treaty, which followed his indecisive victory at the end of the Gothic War, they were established as foederati, autonomous allies of the Empire, south of the Danube, in Illyricum, within the Empire's borders. They were given lands and allowed to remain under their own leaders, a grave departure from Roman hegemonic ways. This turn away from traditional policies was accommodationist and had grave consequences for the Empire from the beginning of the century, as the Romans found themselves with the impossible task of defending the borders and dealing with unruly federates within. He issued decrees that effectively made Nicene Christianity the official state church of the Eastern Roman Empire and, additionally, a rift began that saw the two halves as more and increasingly autonomous from one another. He neither prevented nor punished the destruction of prominent Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, including the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the Serapeum in Alexandria, both incidents that sent shockwaves and outrage across the Western Roman Empire. Theodosius banned the Olympic games, declaring the even a pagan celebration and setting up the stage for a Latin coup of the sporting even that would last centuries.

Eugenius’ successor, Nicomachus Flavianus, was the first to declare the Olympic games reborn in Milan during the latter half of his reign, AUC 1183. Vettius Agorius Basilius Mavortius amplified the games during his reign, 1280 to 1287.

Romania Resurgent
Julius Nepos’ appointment as Augustus of the Western Roman Empire by Eastern Emperor Leo I was immediately unfavorable to the inhabitants of the West. A Christian emperor had not sat the Western throne since before Julian and religious division had solidified heartily by this time. The reign of Nepos ended in AUC 1228, when Orestes, his Magister Militum, deposed him and usurped the government at Ravenna on August 28, forcing Nepos to flee by ship to Roman Dalmatia. In the same year, Orestes enthroned his teenage son as the new Western Roman Emperor with the regnal name Romulus Augustus. Born to a Roman aristocratic family from Pannonia Savia, Orestes was son of Tatulus, a devoutly religious Hellene, and son-in-law to Romulus, who served as comes in the Western Roman Empire. After Pannonia was ceded to Attila the Hun, Orestes joined Attila's court, reaching high position as a secretary (notarius) in AUC 1202.

In AUC 1228 Flavius Odovacer, allied with Orestes, dealt a decisive blow to Emperor Julius Nepos at the Battle of Istria. Nepos became legitimate only in the eyes of the Eastern Emperor, Zeno. Odoacer was made magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, which by now was reduced to Italia, Raetia, Noricum, Sequania, and the Dominion of Sygarius in northwestern Gaul, unconnected physically to the rest of the Empire.

Odoacer began a campaign against the Visigoths in 1230, gradually and decisively pushing west until, in AUC 1234, he defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Arelate and restored Provence to the Empire. In 1239 Sygarius met defeat by King Clovis of the Franks. Sygarius’ route home, to Rome, was blocked by the Visigothic remnant, causing the Gallic-Romans to turn towards Armorica where Sygarius fled into Britannia – proving to be a boon to the struggling Romano-Britons at war with invading Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and Iutes.

By 1240 Odoacer had subdued the unruly Rugians inside the Noricum borders and reestablished stability along the Danube. 1241 Saw the return of Nepos with the Eastern Roman army at his back, with tit-for-tat skirmishes around the Dalmatian border. The Siege of Ravenna in AUC 1246 ended in a victory for the 33 year old Emperor Romulus and the Eastern army fled into Dalmatia, broken. Odoacer, however, lost his life in the battle, though his body was never recovered. The loss of the brilliant strategist and chief supporter of Romulus was a significant blow to Western aims.

Romulus brokered a peace with Eastern Emperor Anastasius I and Julius Nepos. The Empire was split in three – Western, Eastern, and Dalmatian, with Romulus ruling the first, Anasatius the second, and Nepos contained, unhappily, within Dalmatia.

The Frankish invasion of Aquitaine and subsequent death of Visigoth King Alaric II at the hands of King Clovis resulted in the annexation of Aquitaina by the Franks in 1260 and a more direct confrontation with the Franks began. Romulus was kept busy containing Frankish expansion and was able to help the Visigoths keep Septimania after two Frankish invasions. In 1263 Romulus defeated the Vandals decisively at sea and seized Corsica and Sardinia before a decisive battle outside of Carthage saw the Vandal realms and Mauretania returned to the Roman fold.

Romulus began a reform of the Roman Army in 1268, rebuilding the navy, and establishing a series of fortresses along the frontier zones in a move to consolidate the Western Empire. He also initiated forced transfers of Germanic tribes living within the Empire, all of which would result in his leaving a much strong Western realm to his grandson, Rufius Gennadius Probus Orestes. Probus Orestes became Augustus on the death of his grandfather, of natural causes, in AUC 1279. Probus Orestes began a massive effort to re-establish Roman supremacy in the West, building on the success of his grandfather. The Balearic Islands were retaken in 1288, next the Franks were attacked, culminating in a hard-won campaign from 1289 to 1292, restoring what had been Burgundian lands, then Frank, and now Roman once again. In 1295 Probus Orestes began a campaign against the Gothic Kingdom in Iberia. The campaign proved brutal and Iberia was decimated. King Theudis of the Goths was defeated and routed at the Battle of Saragossa and, simultaneously, Cartegena fell to the Romans. Toledo was taken after a siege in 1298. King Theudis was finally defeated and killed in the Battle of Seville AUC 1299. The last Visigoth warlords surrendered to Probus Orestes in 1301.

The Franks, attempting to take the Romans while they were occupied in Iberia, attacked Septimania and Burgundy in 1301 but were driven back by the Roman General Vitalius who followed up by taking the city of Luon in 1303.

Emperor Probus Orestes died in 1305, of natural causes, and his chosen successor, Vitalius, was given the purple. Flavius Patriciolus Vitalius Burgundicus is a somewhat shrouded figure, described as short of stature but widely lauded for his personal bravery and military skills, Vitalius may have been of either partial Gothic or Dacian stock, perhaps both.

Vitalius saw off an attempted invasion by the Lombards in Noricum and Venetia, driving them across the Alps in 1328. The counter was only partly successful and the Lombards kept the eastern part of Noricum. This portion of Noricum was the only part Vitalius failed, however, instead seeing remarkable success elsewhere. The last attempt by the Alemanni was subdued, in large part thanks to the strengthened borders from the previous two Emperors. He succeeded in pushing the Franks north and established the border at the river Liger, which he fortified. Two forays into Basque territory were unsuccessful and the effort was not reattempted. It was by this point that the Western Empire had reached the current borders, with the addition of a bit, that we have today. Vitalius spent the remainder of his reign consolidating the gains of his predecessors as well as his own. Following the example begun by Romulus and continued by Probus Orestes, Vitalius enacted a colonial policy and peopled the reconquered and depopulated areas with waves of settlers from Italia, which had in turn seen a population boom and was largely unscathed form the turmoil of the last century, both plague and war.

AUC 1330 saw the death of Vitalius, like his two predecessors from natural causes. The favored life-span of these three was well commented by contemporaries, such as Caecina Agorius, who declared, “Zeus-Helios surely smiles divinely on our Realm,” as he further noted the troubling Slavic invasions and Persian resurgence in the Eastern Roman Empire. His statements also give a hint at the growing view that the Western Romans and Eastern Romans were two different people and, rather than two governed halves of one realm, that they were two antagonistic rivals. Vitalus’ successor, Volusianus Anicius Maximus, a capable military man, but young and brash and quick to anger, spent his rule largely uneventfully, dying in an attempt to put down a religious revolt in Carthage in 1340. Carthage and the former Vandal territories, excepting Corsica and Sardinia, would remain separate and devoutly Christian – looking to the Eastern Roman Empire for support. This, coupled with the Eastern Roman claim over Magna Graecia, caused a diplomatic issue in both halves of the Roman world. This would come to a clash in AUC 1355.

The Yellow Plague

The Yellow Plague of AUC 1289-1295 saw a mortality rate of 40 to 80% across the Roman Empire and beyond. The cause of the plague is still unconfirmed, but the leading theories suggest Smallpox or Bubonic. The Plague seemed to spread with the movement of conflict westward and would, together with the ravaging of the land via the on-going warfare and other deaths related to such martial chapters in history, claim 80% of the populations in the lands regained by the Western Roman Empire. Losses in northern Gaul, outside of the Roman realm, is estimated at 20 to 30%, while 60% for western Francia and the Roman regions north of the Alps, and 75 to 80% for Aquitania and Iberia.

Probus Orestes’ quarantine of Italia, along with a lack of conflict along the Apennine peninsula, saw a remarkable stability and population boom. The Emperor took a step further and quarantined the colonial resettlements enacted by his predecessor, Romulus, turning them into islands of fortresses across the reconquered territories. This move is largely seen today as an act of biological warfare, allowing Orestes an interesting tactical view of the situation the Yellow Plague presented. The quarantine failed in many of these external areas, but was fairly successful across the board. Attributed to this even is the sudden quick spread of the Vulgar Latin dialect that was being promoted in Italia, supplanting many of the existing dialects in reconquered areas. Genealogical traces are evident as well, with a fairly seamless stamp across Romania today that was, speculatively and, research into DNA suggests, more confined to the Apennine Peninsula before the Yellow Plague. Probus Orestes is, subsequently, vilified for understanding his actions as spreading this disease and death along with his war of reconquest – arguably an act of genocide.

The Great Schism
Known by a number of names - the First War of Religion, The Great Schism, the Greco-Roman War, and the Western Roman-Eastern Roman War, this conflict that erupted in AUC 1355 between the two halves of the Roman Empire had largely religions overtones. Territory, economics, language, and culture all had roles as well. Phocas, Eastern Roman Emperor, moved forces into Magna Graecia, a territory considered a part of Italia and therefore Western Roman. He followed this up with a fleet to Carthage. The Christian populations of both welcomed the arrival of what they deemed the True Romans. Phokas formally annexed Africa into his possession, as well as Magna Graecia, which the Western Emperor, Liberius, took as a declaration of war. Liberius’ intent was to dethrone Phocas and rule the Empire as a single entity again, with Western contemporaries viewing the conflict in the guise of a Civil War. Eastern contemporaries saw it as a war against Hellenism and in defense of Christianity and as Roman against Greek. Because of Phokas' incompetence and brutality, the Exarch of Carthage, Iraklios the Elder, rebelled against him. Iraklios the Elder's son, Iraklios, succeeded in taking Constantinople on 5 October 1363, and executed Phokas on the same day, before declaring himself the Eastern Roman Emperor. Iraklios declared for peace with Liberius but the offer was denied.

The Great Schism ran alongside the Greco-Sasanian War, the former lasting until AUC 1370. Both sides ended the conflict exhausted. The Western Roman’s, henceforth known as the Roman Empire and, frequently, Romania, gained back Magna Graecia, the Eastern Roman’s, henceforth known as the Empire of the Greeks, retained Africa. Dalmatia was reestablished, as it had been under Nepos, as an independent entity under joint governance by both Empires – a sort of buffer zone. Iraklios was able to turn his full attention to the ongoing Sasanian War and, in 1375, scored a decisive but costly victory against Shahrbaraz and his Persians, pushing them from Anatolia. A ceasefire was agreed to in the east, with Persia gaining Judea, established as a loose protectorate and a reborn Jewish realm, the Commonwealth of Judea, as well as now directly controlling Assyria, Armenia, and pushing their boarder to the Caucasus.