I think you can block people so you don't see their posts, but I doubt you can selectively choose who sees your posts.
An Age of Miracles III: The Romans Endure
- Thread starter Basileus444
- Start date
I actually do wonder about Georgia through all of this. Especially with the hijinks in Mesopotamia. I have to imagine they have a vested interest in the outcome there. It's been a long time since this war started though, so it's highly possible this was addressed, but I forgot.
If I remember correctly Dacia is basically in a too far from God too close to Rome situation
If I remember right, Vlachia(Dacia) is not in a good way right now. During the start of the little ice age, the demand for grain from Constantinople was so large, the Vlach nobility, seeing an opportunity for profit, forced all their peasants into serfdom in order to keep producing grain at a large enough scale. While this sucks for the serfs, this isn't a huge issue economically at this point, but as the years go on I suspect Vlachia will be the most backwards nation in Europe.
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It’s your story man you could do whatever you want, we’re just here for the ride. Sure Personally I wanted you to focus on other stuff in this story besides the current civil war, like Mexico or Rhomania in the east because for me personally I wanted to know what happening there and the intrigue there,
All this talk about Vlachia makes me wonder if some Roman reformer in the future is going to dig into their Greek past and advocate for changes in the relationship with Vlachia by comparing them to the ancient Helots. I can see the political cartoons already, a modern dressed Constantinople businessman talking to a Spartan hoplite asking for pointers, a Vlach peasant staring up at his landlord asking his friend about the new lambda logo, etc.
Rhomania's General Crisis, Part 17.0: Sustaining the War, Part 1
Rhomania’s General Crisis, Part 17.0-Sustaining the War, Part 1:
The siege of Adrianople begins on September 27. The besieging army, although large enough to completely invest the Thracian city of fifty thousand inhabitants, is in poor shape. Strategos Nereas has done a thorough job of stripping the countryside of provisions before withdrawing eastward, holding position along the Via Egnatia. Forage and fodder for Pirokolos’s men, already in short supply, becomes even scarcer. In contrast, the larders for the garrison of Adrianople are well laden, to the point that occasionally they even cannonade shot made of bread and cheese into the siege lines to mock the besiegers.
There are shortages in other ways, with a frequently noted one being the lack of good footwear. After a season of campaigning across Bulgaria, the boots of the Macedonians have worn out with very few getting replacements. There are boots back in Macedonia but these cannot get to the men outside Adrianople. The most fortunate soldiers have looted shoes from the peasants of Bulgaria or northwest Thrace; the least fortunate are reduced to cloth wrappings.
Quantity of powder and shot are, surprisingly, less of a problem. The issue here is the quality of shot, and what is shooting it. Pirokolos has only a pair of cannons firing shot weighing more than fifteen pounds; the rest of his guns are light field pieces. For smashing down any respectable modern fortress, much less one as formidable as Adrianople’s recently improved battlements, this is utterly inadequate.
The Domestikos hopes to counter this with a group of miners from Upper Macedonia, many of whom are ethnic Serbs. If the walls can’t be battered down, perhaps they can be undermined. However, this contingent does not perform as well as he had hoped, making slow progress with the work that is done constantly hampered by countermining efforts of the garrison. Attempts to bait out the garrison also go nowhere; they have strict orders from Nereas to hold their positions.
Then winter hits with the full might of the Little Ice Age, with November opening with blasts from the Arctic. The siege camps are covered in snow while the ground freezes, making even the previous slow digging rate impossible. The freezing temperatures take no sides but the Adrianople garrison at least has solid shelters and a decent supply of coal and firewood for heating. Nereas and his men, camped to the east of Adrianople to cover Constantinople and harass Pirokolos, are much more exposed but at least have fresh shipments of boots and fur-lined mittens and coats. The furs are Siberian, purchased from Scythian merchants and shipped to Constantinople where the thousands of textile workers in the poorer districts and suburban settlements set to work combining fur and cloth. Gyranos arranged the drive, the first batch arriving just before the snows, although later deliveries came afterwards.
Pirokolos persists with the siege, loath to abandon it as to do so would be to acknowledge that a relatively quick knockout blow and an end to the war is impossible. But progress is nonexistent. Mining efforts have come to a halt while damage inflicted by his limited artillery is repaired as quickly as it is made.
On December 10, the Domestikos gives up; the siege is destroying his army faster than it is reducing Adrianople. The decision marks the end of the first phase of the War of Wrath. Both sides had hoped for quick decisive blows, with the assault into Thrakesia and Pirokolos’s march on Constantinople. Both had now failed. The war would drag on, a war of grinding attrition.
But first, the retreat, which turns into a nightmare. Nereas harasses the Macedonians but is still reluctant to commit to a major engagement, but the harassment is bad enough. The snow is bloody from the exposed and frostbitten feet of the wretchedly-shod Macedonian soldiery. There are many stragglers; unlike in Anatolikon most are captured rather than killed, with the majority ending up as forced laborers in Bithynia, with those who recuperate more fully switching to serve in the ranks of their captors.
Pirokolos withdraws into eastern Macedonia, where more supplies are available and where he can cover Thessaloniki. Nereas then launches an offensive into Bulgaria. The winter conditions are hard on his soldiers even with their new equipment, but conditions are much better for them than for their demoralized and exhausted opponents. In three weeks, he sweeps through the theme, retaking what had taken Pirokolos three months to take. By the time he comes to a halt, with supply constraints and winter conditions biting hard, all of Bulgaria answers again to Constantinople.
This is good news for the capital, met with great relief. The threat has been thrown back, although not eliminated. The Tourmarches and their supporters have been doing much to stoke that fear in recent months as Pirokolos hammered at the walls of Adrianople. The Tourmarches know they need to do more and better at rallying support for their cause and they show a noticeable improvement as fall turns to winter.
They take a page from Father Andronikos Hadjipapandreou; his disappearance still sparks many conspiracy theories but with no evidence or anyone able to rally a crowd like him, these go nowhere. The Patriarch clings to life, breathing raggedly, but his strokes leave him incapacitated, a political nonentity. Meanwhile the Tourmarches hire charismatic priests who think the right way to encourage support. None of them are the equal of Hadjipapandreou, but they don’t face competition from him and are far more numerous.
Their argument is a simple one. Emperor Herakleios III, supported by faithful Romans, wanted to strengthen and secure the Roman Empire and people. Sophia was against that, because she was in league with foreigners, and she and her supporters were either traitors or dupes. They had sabotaged the war effort in Mesopotamia and, not content with that, then risen in open rebellion against the legitimate Emperor. Sophia was essentially a new Elizabeth of Bavaria, and the latter at least had the excuse that she was of Latin blood.
This mixture of xenophobia-stocking and fear-mongering explodes on November 15. The nature of the spark is disputed, but the most common version is that some children of resident Latin merchants threw some stones and made mocking comments of an Orthodox religious procession. Matters escalate quickly and soon mobs are tearing through the districts of Constantinople where foreign Latins reside.
It is a pogrom, with Latins dragged from their homes and offices and torn to pieces. A few are given mock trials and condemned as spies for Sophia, on no evidence whatsoever. Specific tales of brutality abound, although many copy details from the anti-Latin pogrom of 1183. The two events, in broad scope, are extremely similar, but many historians are skeptical that the specific details would repeat so precisely. Foreigners from Orthodox and Muslim countries, who tend to live in different parts of Constantinople from Latin foreigners, are mostly untouched, although one Russian merchant found sheltering a Genoese family is badly beaten with three broken ribs, at least as many lost teeth, and a broken leg that never heals properly.
While estimates vary, the most accepted figure is that the Constantinople mob kills three hundred and injures another thousand, with massive property damage as well. The authorities notably do little to curb the violence unless it threatens to dissolve into indiscriminate looting, on the grounds that given the size of the mob, more was not possible. The violence, after lasting an evening and night, peters out the next morning.
Foreign opinion is, naturally, outraged. In Tuscany, Genoa, Arles, Aragon, and Spain, Roman merchants and their assets are seized in reprisal, with the announcement that they will not be released until satisfactory compensation has been made. Triune, Scandinavian, and Hansa merchants had also been attacked but lack this way to retaliate as there are no resident Roman merchants in their territories. But the Dutch can retaliate by intensifying their attacks on Roman holdings in Island Asia and they are always open to investors.
The Russians and Georgians also condemn the pogrom, with a growing view that the government in Constantinople is a rabid dog, a threat to its neighbors. The war hawks though are not concerned. Latin hostility is a given, but the provocation is not strong enough to incite military intervention in the heartland, so it doesn’t matter. Russian and Georgian displeasure is more of an issue and prompt apologies and damages are given for any and all instances where their persons and properties were affected.
Aside from dangerous and treacherous foreigners, the priests argue that the problems assailing the Empire are caused by the moral failings of the Romans, like drunkenness, promiscuity, and sodomy. These must be stopped. Several prostitutes and known homosexuals are paraded and whipped through the streets of the capital in the weeks after the pogrom. While these do continue afterwards, their frequency drops substantially after the failure of the siege of Adrianople reduces tensions in Constantinople.
When it comes to currying favor, the Tourmarches face a problem connected with the reform actions in the adjacent three kephalates of the Optimatic theme. Earlier the Tourmarches had won support with a section of the economic elite that wanted laws regarding just profit and price to be eliminated, making for a more free and open trade. Primarily this was in land but the program was to be expanded to other commodities.
However, those same elites attracted by this program are outraged by the provisions of the land reforms. Reclaimed land is to be sold in small plots, with sales to be reserved for those with no land or only smallholdings. This is hardly an open market for land sales and many had hoped to buy up reclaimed land plots for cheap in bulk and sell them later for handsome profits. They are now denied that.
Plytos is busy for some time allaying their concerns but is successful. He points out that the initiative is purely local, restricted to those three kephalates. It is absolutely not an indication of a change in policy. He shows them new initiatives that will widen the possibilities of privatizing common lands that lack clear ownership beyond traditional peasant usage, plus all the opportunities available from confiscating the assets of the many traitors and rebels. Once the war is won, the possibilities are vast.
Welp, there goes any hope of the Romans avoiding a military incursion by the Latins after this pogrom. If there's a chance of the Papacy and Christendom taking the Eternal City back, they'll most likely do so in retribution.
The Tourmarches' reaction to this event also makes me think they'll let go of Rome as long as they can use their resources to defeat Sophia and consolidate their power in Constantinople and the rest of Rhomania, which is to be expected.
We shall see if the Sophia faction manages to receive a victory after this failure in Adrianople, they certainly need one if they want to keep morale up.
The Tourmarches' reaction to this event also makes me think they'll let go of Rome as long as they can use their resources to defeat Sophia and consolidate their power in Constantinople and the rest of Rhomania, which is to be expected.
We shall see if the Sophia faction manages to receive a victory after this failure in Adrianople, they certainly need one if they want to keep morale up.
Wonder what’s going to happen when a certain relunctant/blackmailed colleague gets wind of this? Straw that breaks the camels back & flip to Sophia’s side?
This would be great to have. It's been a long time since we caught up on the visualization. The details are always very explicit, but the hard part about such a comprehensive alternate history is that there's so much to keep track of. Honestly I'm not sure how Basileus does it.
Germany is definitely a bitch especially with all the micro states that disappeared but I’m trying to work it out.
This TL is so in depth you could make a collage course out of the war of Roman Succession alone
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Your maps are such a great enhancement to this TL! Guess the big changes are in western and Central Europe.
Nice to see you again and I'm sure you'll do great work as usual. I always wondered where you got the blank base maps from
Tourmarches strategy of utterly alienating everyone around them is bold. Let's see if it'll pay off....