251-300 (Abrittus)

251
Roman Empire: Roman legions triumph over invasion troops led by Visigoth King Criva at Abrittus. Consequent military successes north of the Danube lead to an utter defeat of Visigoths and their allies (Carpi, Hasdinga, several Sarmatian tribes). Visigothic aristocracy captured.

Emperor Decius founds the first Academia Martiana in Rome, a university for military strategy.

252
Roman Empire: Decius intensifies persecution of Christians. Several thousands killed, among them Cornelius, the new bishop of Rome, who had sought to both rehabilitate the "lapsi" (who had denied their faith in the face of persecution) and appease the imperial administration. Cornelius` appeasement had already led to the establishment of counter-pope Novatian, who did not want to reintegrate the lapsi. The Apostolic Church is split.

In increasing numbers, Christians flee the Empire and seek refuge in Arabia and Persia.

Intense interrogations of the captured Visigothic nobles reveal agricultural failures up north and the attraction of Roman wealth as the main motives for Gothic attacks on Rome´s Balkanic provinces. Decius decides to settle unarmed Visigoths who swear allegiance to Rome in the Dacia province under a loyal pro forma Visigothic king.

253
Roman Empire: Cornelius` successor, Lucius, is also killed. In Syria Palaestina, the Christian radical Simon, who denounces the monepiscopal church as "fat cowards" and deems active resistance against the "pagan tyranny" a Christian duty, finds many followers among rural and urban people and especially among the slaves, for whom he demands immediate liberation.

Roman Empire / Persia: Sassanid shah Shaipur attacks Rome`s Mesopotamian province. Along with his successful equestrian forces, an infantry unit of exiled Christians, who were lured by Shaipur`s promise of making Christianity the official creed in the conquered territories, is seen for the first time.

254
Roman Empire: Antiochia falls to the Sassanids. Decius is forced to send more and more reinforcements. As the war drags on, diseases, famine and misery hit the formerly wealthiest province of the Empire, and dissatisfaction brews.

The Academia Martiana insist on modernising and expanding Rome´s equestrian forces. Decius agrees to a build-up after the war.

255
Roman Empire / Persia: Decius negotiates a ceasefire with the Sassanids, who keep Mesopotamia and Armenia under their control, but retreat from Syria. This defeat severely damages Decius` popularity.

256
Roman Empire: In a series of suicidal attacks, the provincial governor of Syria Palestina and his guards in Antiochia as well as the priests of Roman temples in Pergamon are killed by Simonist Christian rebels.

257
Roman Empire: Simonist attacks have spread all across the Eastern part of the Empire. Following advice from the Roman Academia Martiana, Decius implements a counterinsurgency strategy that manages to reduce the guerrilla attacks, but heavily restricts civic life in the cities.

258
Roman Empire: After initial successes of the counterinsurgency strategy, Simonist guerrilla warfare has started to spread across Africa and into Italy, accompanied by slave rebellions. Decius decides to test his new cavalries in the crackdown.

Angles and Saxons raid the Eastern shore of Britannia, which has been left undefended due to the Sassanid and counterinsurgency efforts.

Saba: The influx of great numbers of (often well-educated) Christian refugees shows its effects: the King of Saba converts to a miaphysitic type of Christianity, and with him his entire beleaguered Kingdom.

259
Roman Empire: Since the beginning of the twin crisis of Simonist / slave revolts and Sassanid war, trade has more than halved empire-wide, and living standards in the cities have declined sharply. For the first time in centuries, protest marches of Roman citizens are seen in the streets of Rome, Corinthia, Alexandria, Tarraco, Cyrene and Carthage. Most protesters demand an end to the military counterinsurgency strategy and peace talks, but a growing minority also demands limitations on the Emperor`s powers, and some protesters even identify with the goals of Simonist Christians and fraternise with them.

Alemanni raid and sometimes conquer Roman towns in Germania.

260
Roman Empire / Gaul: Franks raid cities in Germania Inferior. Gallic discontent with Rome`s escalation in the East and its military abandonment of its Western provinces ignites after Germania Inferior`s governor, Marcus Postumus, manages to defeat the Frankish raiders and seize their loot, but caesar Salonnius demands that the loot be handed over to Rome. Postumus declares the independence of an "Imperium Romanum Galliarum", comprising Germania Inferior and Superior, Raetia, Gallia Narbonnensis, Gallia Lugdunensis, Belgica, Britannia, Aquitania, Hispania Tarraconensis, Lusitania and Baetica.

Decius has no troops to spare to confront the usurper. With civil war in the East, slaves killed or revolting, cities impoverished and protesting and now the Western half of the Empire gone, the Senate seriously considers replacing Decius with another emperor, or even giving in to the demands from the streets that negotiations be held with the various rebel groups.

But before the Senate acts, a Simonist terrorist attack kills Decius and his entire surroundings.

The Senate elects Valerian - the only provincial governor who put up a fight against Postumus` usurpation and managed to keep Norica under Rome`s control - as new Emperor.

261
Roman Empire / Gaul: Ignoring the A.M.`s advice, Valerian withdraws troops from the Mediterranean to claim Gaul back, without officially stopping the counterinsurgency strategy. Three legions land near Massilia and regain control of the Narbonnensis coastline, but cannot obtain further territorial gains, as Postumus successfully adapats Simonist asymmetric tactics, attacking the rear in territories already considered safe and thus binding more and more Roman troops.

Meanwhile, a slave rebellion in Cilicia (Simonist and non-religious groups fighting side by side) succeeds, slaughters hundreds of patricians and declares a democratic and egalitarian Republic of Tarsus.

Across Eastern, Greek and even Illyrian provinces, mass protests now unanimously demand civil rights and democracy, and more and more people also demand a confiscation of patrician property and land reform; with rural areas now supporting the cause even stronger than cities.

Shocked, Rome`s upper class tries to regain the support of its middle classes, who have increasingly embraced ideas of republicanism, democracy, emancipation and isolation. The Senate invites representatives from various rebellious groups to round table peace talks.

262
Roman Empire: After difficult negotiations, further impeded by the assassination of several delegates by various splinter factions, the round table finds a compromise that would change the Roman Empire deeply. Forging an alliance with those rebel representatives, who are from urban merchant backgrounds and the like, Rome`s upper classes manage to avert a land reform or other limitations to their property rights. Also, to strengthen the Republic`s army in the face of threats from all sides, permanent general conscription is constitutionalised. In return, the Army is constitutionally given a defensive role ("defensor imperii et civum romanorum").
 * Slavery is abolished. All former slaves and other permanent residents of the Roman Empire become free and equal citizens.
 * Religious freedom is guaranteed to all citizens in all provinces. The persecution of Christians will stop immediately.
 * The powers of the Emperor are curbed drastically, de facto reducing him to a figurehead. Emperors, alive or dead, need not be venerated anymore.
 * Power is returned to the republican institutions. All male citizens have equal voting rights for the Senate.
 * Provinces gain relative autonomy from Rome. In several political domains, they may pass their own laws; this is done by renewed Comitia, for which elections are free and equal.

Valerian is forced to withdraw from Gaul. Postumus manages to calm his breakaway empire. Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Jewish and Christian religious practices are declared as "free and protected" in Gaul.

263
Roman Empire / Gaul: In the first free and equal elections in Roman history, pacifist and reformist factions gain a majority in the Senate. They invite Postumus to talk about reintegrating Gaul. Postumus demands both immediate military support from Rome against Angles and Saxons in Britannia and Franks and Alemanni at the Rhine, as well as decentralised control over the military later. The Senate rejects these conditions. Both sides grudgingly arrange with the status quo.

Roman Empire: The last pockets of rebellion are pacified in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although tens of thousands of Christians have been killed in the persecutions, Christian confessions still make up 25 % of the Empire`s population. But among these Christian confessions, power has shifted away from the monepiscopal Apostolic Trinitarian Church, who is still separated over the treatment of the lapsi. In Greece and Asia Minor, gnostic groups have become the majority, while in Syria, radical Simonism continues to grow. In the following years, most Simonists refrain from violent action, though, and try to use the Comitia to implement their ideals.

264
The Kingdom of Saba wins a decisive battle against the Himjar and regains control over the entire South-Western part of Arabia, except for a small part belonging to Aksum.

265
Gaul: Two Celtic legions manage to eradicate Saxon footholds in eastern Britannia.

269
Roman Empire: After several Comitia not only in the East have leaned to the far left, the Senate passes a land tax and increases welfare services by the Cura Annonae.

Salvador79 (talk) 01:13, February 28, 2014 (UTC)

Abrittus