395-431 CE (Superpowers)

Emperor Aurelius (395-402)
Since Marcus Aurelius Sapiens became Emperor of Rome in September 395 CE, the Empire underwent a period of still continued growth, interspersed with many periods of stagnancy, or even decline. Though the reign of Emperor Aurelius would not be detrimental to Rome, it had no where near the effect that the rules of the last 10, even 11, emperors had. The emperor, already aged over 40 years of age, was known for his many attempts to continue the policies of his father, the Emperor Sapiens. Though he did achieve many successes, he didn't have the genius necessary to be anywhere near as prolific as his predecessor. Still, he worked very hard to live up to his family's reputation, meaning that his long days spent making decisions would ensure growth, at the cost of a slow processing of government actions.

Civil Events
Believing religion to be the answer to a stable nation, Aurelius focused on spreading Roman Christianity for much of his reign. Never spending enough to actually shrink the government coffers, he commissioned grand churches and Cathedrals throughout his Empire. Africa in particular was a favorite target of his as his Religious advisor, Augustine of Hippo, believed they were one of the more troubling of the schisms. By ensuring the growth of a proper religious hierarchy with priests and cardinals, much of Roman Africa was brought almost completely under the banner of Catholicism, as it was often called, centered around the Cathedral of Saint Mark in Alexandria. Furthermore, many schools modeled after the didascalium of Alexandria began to pop up in Africa and the Middle East, ensuring that nearly all of Christianity's leaders would know where to turn for guidance, and not follow any of the heresies.

Furthermore, believing ethnicity to be a driving force of unity, he ensured that every major ethnic group (Celts, Africans, Romans, Greeks, and Middle Easterners) had a primary Cathedral to gravitate around. These Cathedrals, many of which were selected from those already built, existed in Parisium, Alexandria, Rome, Constantinopolis and finally, Jerusalem. All quite successful measures, heresy during the reign of Aurelius was drastically reduced all across the board. One of his final moves in a religious regard was the persecution of anyone who professed beliefs connected to Manichaeism in 401, the very worst of the foreign heresies.

Military
In 396, the Visigoths once again made a move to attack the Romans. This was however a minor skirmish perpetrated by their ambitious King Vrotergin, a usurper of the throne, who wished to test out his new army's organization. Riding on his horse before his army, Athanaric taunted the Roman army from behind their wall, wishing to goad them into a fight. After several days of this, a daring Roman sagitta snuck down the wall as the sun was falling, a fired an arrow at the bothersome monarch, piercing him through the abdomen. Full of rage, his army dashed towards the source of the attack, covering their leader in the dirt and dust kicked up from their charge. Not only did the young Roman manage to get hauled up over the wall, but the crippling infections Vrotergin received from the wound killed him within only a few days. Still, few Goths were killed in the attack, and one of their commanders, who had been picked up from the area in their last attack, was able to have himself crowned King Alaric of the Visigoths in 397, uniting all of the tribes by 400 CE.

In 400 CE, Aurelius received from a far off emissary, the gift of the head of the Vandal King Godigisel. Informed that it had come from the Hun chieftain Uldin, the emperor and the Senate realized that the mighty enemy which had fought the Roman-Persian Coalition several decades ago was nowcoming to their own doorstep. Therefore, in the last two years of his reign, Aurelius commissioned the construction of the Raetian Wall. This left the only opening in Europe's defenses at the two Pannonian provinces, a region with a high density of forts and Roman soldiers.

On the journey to see the inauguration of his new wall, Emperor Aurelius fell ill and was forced to stop at Virinum to see a medicus. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done for the old man and he died only a day after arriving at the galenaria in 402 CE. His second oldest brother, Gaius Aurelius Sapiens, was next in line for the throne, all too aware of these events even before the emperor had even died.

Emperor Senexis (402-408)
One of the most unpopular Roman Emperor's in history, saying that the Emperor Senexis was a little bit of a madman would be an understatement. He greatly wished to share, not in the success, but in the popularity of his two predecessors, but was however too foolish to go about this the right way. Eventually, he was assassinated by his youngest brother Lucius Aurelius Sapiens in 408 CE. This begun what was known as the Fool's War, or the Mock Civil War. Still beside the body, Lucius was walked in on by his fourth youngest brother, Sextus Aurelius Sapiens and the eldest son of Emperor Aurelius, Gaius Maximius Sapiens. Immediately recognizing what had transpired, Sextus charged at his traitor of a brother and the two clashed for the dagger. Ending in a victory for Sextus, he was himself even more surprised to turn around to see his nephew clenching his gladius, only moments before slitting the throat of his uncle. In the end, Maximius would describe how he valiantly defended the honor of his eldest uncle by killing his assailants, thereby guaranteeing a position as the rightful Emperor of Rome.

Civil and Military Events
Though Senexis achieved very little during his short reign, he certainly messed up a good deal of things to compensate. All religions other than Roman Christianity were outlawed under his first act as emperor and a brutal persecution of pagan religions, especially the non-Roman ones, was begun. During his six year reign of terror, it is believed that over 500,000 non-Romans and 30,000 Romans were killed. Though this left Christianity in an even more dominate position, people of all religions were largely appalled at his actions and so the reign of the next emperor would be marked by the compensations for Senexis' actions.

The emperor was also quite the egomaniac, renaming several cities, including that of Constantine, after himself, and even changing the Via Appia to the Via Senexia, he quickly became unpopular within the Senate. Since his costly construction plans for statues and buildings for himself didn't help him either, he found himself forced to do something about the growing unrest in the upper classes. In his many assassination attempts on government officials, he continually forgot the fact that the Praetorian Guard, which he had expanded for his own protection, also had the duty of protecting members of the Senate. Though the ensuing scrambles for daggers could hardly be considered as comic as the one which would end his reign, they certainly became the main topic of conversation between the Senators. Many boasting that they had even have five attempts made on their life. Because only one was killed, by accident, in all 396 attempts, this was one of the major reasons for which Senexus would be called Stultum, the Fool.

As far as military endeavors were concerned, the emperor got some ideas from the reign of Constantine and soon believed he could do the same. Calling all of the Empire's legions to its borders in Europe, he commanded all of them to move out into foreign lands to return with plunder and slaves. Aside from the fact that this left the entire empire grossly undefended, especially in Africa, the entire exercise was futile since the lands nearby were already to impoverished and depopulated to have anything of value worth stealing. Worse, he copied Constantine even more and refused to pay the legions during this time, the entire Roman Legion was now at great risk of deserting.

Were it not for the timely circumvention of the emperor by the Senate, and the patient leadership of many of the generals, this two year campaign would have ended in disaster. Payed a full four years salary in 407, the armies were returned to their original posts and this final crisis of Senexis' reign was averted.

Emperor Maximius (408-417)
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