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Deleted member 5909
Not to worry, a new update is coming soon. I'm still in the process of writing it, but I promise that it will be a long one.
The Scythians have fragmented with the death of Azes and India is going to be ripe for the picking...
The Scythians have fragmented with the death of Azes and India is going to be ripe for the picking...
Deleted member 5909
The Conquest of India
Years 1 to 12 of Mithridatēs Alexandros Theos
133 B.C. – 121 B.C.
“India is the siren who haunts my house. She calls to me, as she has called to all my fathers before me who have sat upon this silver throne. The mention of that very word will bring a mixture of lust and sorrow to the hearts of any prince with the blood of the divine Alexandros Basileus in his veins, this I promise you.” – apocryphal words attributed to King Mithridatēs Alexandros
The new King Mithridatēs Alexandros knows that the powerful families of the empire’s ruling elite, when left idle, are a dangerous caste and a threat to the absolute power of the Great King. However, he also knows full well that the Achaemenid and Macedonian heritages of the nobility still run thick in their veins, and that they are, in essence, a warrior aristocracy. If kept occupied with warfare and the administration, they have the potential to serve as a valuable way of increasing the influence of the Argead Empire abroad. At this time enjoying their full confidence, and also that of the royal army, the Great King of Asia decides to act.
Since the foundation of the Argead Empire, it has been the dream of nearly every King of Kings to launch a successful campaign on the eastern frontiers, subduing India once and for all and completing the work begun by Alexandros Basileus Theos himself. Some, such as King Tiridatēs Nikatōr, have been successful and expanded the empire’s borders to the farthest reaches of the Indian subcontinent; others, such as King Tiridatēs Eusebēs have failed in their task, blinded by their own desire for personal glory, and as such have lost a great deal of their patrimony in the east. The Argeads, however, have always regarded India as their own personal possession, whether or not that be the reality of the situation—and often enough, it has not been, as there has been an historical trend in the dynasty’s history for the successor of each great conqueror to find himself unable to consolidate his father’s gains. At this time, however, the Argead Empire’s position in the east is at its lowest ebb in the dynasty’s entire history. The Great Kings have only been able to maintain a few citadels on the eastern bank of the Indos, with that river’s western bank, along with that of the Hydaspēs in the north, having become the established borders.
In the fall of 133 B.C., at Babylōn, King Mithridatēs II thus begins laying plans for a new Indian campaign against the Scythians, hoping to reverse the growing trend of decline in the east. The plan is well received at the royal court, with a great many of ruling nobility having lost fathers and grandfathers in the Second Scythian War several decades earlier, and thus eager to redeem their houses’ honors from the humiliations suffered by the barbaric Scythian peoples. The Great King, however, does not march east until June, 132 B.C., embarking from his summer seat at Ekbatana in Mēdia with a force of some 50,000 infantry, 22,000 cavalry and 3,000 war elephants, including his prized and fiercely loyal corps of 10,000 Athanatoi, the Immortals. As his predecessors before him, King Mithridatēs also is accompanied by a majority of his court and household, including his wives, concubines, children, slaves and eunuchs.
The royal party does not reach Baktra, the provincial seat of the satrapy of Baktrianē, until late November, 131 B.C., with King Mithridatēs deciding to winter at the city with his forces that year. It is there, in the midst of the winter of 130 B.C., that his queen, Sisygambis, gives birth to the couple’s eldest son, the prince Amyntas, named in honor of both the Great King’s father and paternal grandfather. Overjoyed by the birth of an heir of solid royal lineage, the proud King Mithridatēs has the infant presented to the synedrion and assembled local dignitaries of Baktrianē, born upon a shield by members of the Phylax Basilikos, proclaiming that as his ancestress, the goddess Rōxanē, came from the lands of Baktrianē, the blood of its people ran true in his veins and those of his son, and saying that they will someday have one of their own, born in Baktra, to reign over them. The message is clear: while the king may already have a son by his first wife, Queen Eurydikē, it will be his sons born in the purple alone who will succeed him if he is to perish in battle against the Scythians.
In August, 130 B.C., the Great King and his armies finally reach Taxila, and there, begin preparations to launch an invasion of the Scythian territories across the Hydaspēs. Continuing on their march, he and his massive army finally reach Nikaia in November, the farthest outpost of the eastern frontier. The Great King decides pass the winter there, until the snows melt in the spring and he can cross the Paropamosis mountains as safely as possible. Thus, it is not until late March, 129 B.C. that King Mithridatēs and his forces finally cross the borders of the empire and enter into the wilds of India. In a characteristic display of piety, the Great King publically sacrifices two white bulls each to both his patron deity and namesake, Mithra, and also to his ancestor, the deified Alexandros Basileus Theos, before embarking with his troops, invoking the gods’ favors in his endeavors.
By this time, however, the situation in the northern Indian subcontinent has changed greatly since the failed campaigns of King Tiridatēs Eusebēs. With the death of the great prince Azēs in 140 B.C., the leaderless Scythian tribes have descended into civil war, with each of the petty chieftains carving out principalities for themselves from the ashes of brief tribal confederacy. While raids on the Indian frontiers have increased over the years due to this, the lack of unity amongst the tribes has ensured at least some peace, however uneasy. Meanwhile, in the south of the subcontinent, the Sātavāhana dynasty, originally vassal princes to the Mauryan empire, have managed to take advantage of the power vacuum and greatly expand their realm north, forming a new Dravidian empire in southern India. Further, since the accession of their current king Sātakarnī in 180 B.C., the Sātavāhana have expanded north, swallowing up the remaining principalities there and checking any further Scythian expansion south. In the west, only the kingdom of Avanti remains, still ruled by the descendants of the traitorous king Kumārasri, though by this point it is only a shadow of its former strength, the kings of Avanti having lost a great deal of their southern frontiers to the advancing Sātavāhana, pushing them further east into Anarta. In the east, the Sunga empire still survives, and, despite its losses to both the Scythians and the Sātavāhana, remains a regional power. As a result, King Mithridatēs finds India ripe for the taking.
Encountering little opposition, the Great King of Asia and his forces take Sangala in early July, 129 B.C., entering the city in triumph after a siege of just two weeks. In return for the city’s speedy surrender, King Mithridatēs declines to sack the city and spares the inhabitants any pillage. Acting in the example of his ancestor and childhood hero, Alexandros Basileus Theos, the Great King publishes a decree to be spread throughout the Scythian lands, promising leniency to all those who lay down their arms and surrender at once to his forces, and threatening disaster to those who dare oppose the King of Kings.
Crossing the Hyphasis the following month, King Mithridatēs’ military prowess is finally put to the test. The regional power, a chieftain by the name of Mayou, has just managed some months prior to subdue his rivals in Trigarta, and now blocks the Great King’s advance into his territories with a force of nearly 45,000 battle hardened troops. The resulting battle takes place in September, on the plains of Turvasa, itself near to the infamous forest of Kamyaka. Using his superior numbers of light cavalry to a devastating effect, King Mithridatēs manages to massacre over 19,000 Scythians, winning the day and forcing Prince Mayou to retreat north to his seat at Prasthala, effectively securing the eastern banks of the Hyphasis, allowing the Argead army to winter at Sangala without difficulty, while still occupying their recent conquests. By May, King Mithridatēs and his forces are besieging Prasthala. While Mayou holds out for several months, he finds himself unable to successfully repulse the invading Argeads, having lost a great deal of his surviving army to starvation and disease. Finally, King Mithridatēs manages to breach the city’s massive walls on August 2, 128 B.C. The result is catastrophic for the inhabitants of the citadel.
True to his word, the Great King punishes the city of Prasthala for refusing to open its gates to him, claiming that the citadel is his rightful property, having been taken and held several times in the past since the reign of Alexandros Basileus Theos. Prasthala is brutally sacked, its treasures looted, its women raped, and a majority of its male population put to the sword, including the prince Mayou himself. Those that survive the terror are mostly captured and sold into slavery. After giving his troops a week to sack the citadel, King Mithridatēs then orders that the once great city be burned as a message to all those who dare oppose him in India (1). Though brutal, the Great King’s actions are essentially in line with those of his predecessors, particularly King Tiridatēs I Nikatōr, who sacked and destroyed the city of Mathura in 188 B.C. after its own refusal to capitulate to the Argeads.
With the fall of Prasthala and the death of Prince Mayou, any hope of Scythian resistance to the advancing Argeads is lost, as none of the remaining chieftains are strong enough to oppose the Great King. Marching south, King Mithridatēs consolidates his hold over the northwestern subcontinent, taking Manusa in November and wintering there with his forces. In the spring of 127 B.C., King Mithridatēs then sets about destroying the remnants of Scythian power in India, defeating an allied force of 42,000 under the Scythian princes Vonōnēs and Azilisēs near Dwaita Lake in September of that same year. Wintering at Sankha, on the banks of the Saraswati with the majority of his forces, the Great King then sends a force of some 30,000 into Sudra in February, 126 B.C. to crush what remains of the leadership of the Scythians and securing the subjugation of the tribes.
The successes of King Mithridatēs Alexandros in the west have not escaped the notice of the King Vasumitra Sunga, who now realizes the threat that Argead expansion posses to his empire. Indeed, the Sunga have profited greatly over the last decade from their alliances with the Scythians, playing the princes off against each other and expanding their own influence west, and using Scythian horsemen as mercenaries in their armies. The sudden destruction of the short lived Scythian hegemony there has thus left the Sunga vulnerable at the worst of times. King Mithridatēs, however, has little intention of halting his Indian campaign at the Saraswati river. Instead, in May, 126 B.C., he marches east with a force of some 70,000, including 19,000 recently arrived reinforcements from the provinces, determined to take Viratapuri by the fall. Having heard reports of the destruction of Prasthala and the great cruelty of the King of Asia and his armies, the city of Viratapuri surrenders immediately to King Mithridatēs on October 14, 126 B.C.
Upon hearing news of the fall of Viratapuri, King Vasumitra Sunga immediately marches west from his seat at Pataliputra, accompanied by an army of 48,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, determined to halt any further Argead advance and protect his interests on the subcontinent. By this time, however, King Mithridatēs is already marching on Indraprastha, determined to take the city and expand his reach to the eastern banks of the Ganges. However, unlike Viratapuri, the citadel of Indraprastha refuses to open its gates to the Great King, having already received word that King Vasumitra and his forces are on the march to relieve the siege.
King Vasumitra does not reach Indraprastha until the early July, 125 B.C. By this time, the plight of the citadel is desperate, its people half-starved and its defenses failing. The Sunga king immediately takes the offensive, ordering his troops to break through Argead lines and scatter the Great King’s men. However, King Mithridatēs proves himself a superior tactician, managing to hold his ground, wearing down the strength of the Sunga army, and then finally smashing through their ranks and decimating their numbers. The battle proves to be one of the most bloody fought in India, and by the end of the day nearly 55,000 men lie dead upon the field, including some 40,000 of the Sunga. Several days later, Indraprastha surrenders to King Mithridatēs, who then proceeds to sack the city and butcher nearly a third of its population, though the Great King of Asia mercifully spares it total annihilation.
Retreating east across the Ganges river, the defeated King Vasumitra and his remaining forces winter at Hastinapura, planning to gather reinforcements and attempt a second offensive the following spring. However, the aging Sunga king does not survive the winter months, dying of natural causes in March, 124 B.C. The death of King Vasumitra Sunga essentially leaves his empire in chaos and his troops leaderless. While the king’s son, Andhraka Sunga, is immediately installed as samrāt, the prince proves a poor substitute for his renowned father, immediately moving his troops further east to Kampilya to regroup.
In April, 124 B.C., King Mithridatēs Alexandros crosses the Ganges, a feat not achieved since the days of King Tiridatēs Nikatōr. Finding Hastinapura abandoned and undefended, the king easily takes the citadel by June, once again continuing his campaign of terror by sacking the city and looting a great deal of its wealth. By this time, however, King Mithridatēs realizes that any further advance will stretch his resources far too thin, and that he must secure some form of settlement in the coming months if he is to keep his new conquests. As a result, in November, 124 B.C., the Argead king sends a group of envoys to Kampilya, officially offering peace to King Andhraka Sunga. The offer could not have come at a more opportune moment, as by this time, the desperate Sunga king is now contemplating suicide, rather than facing his infamous Argead rival.
By the terms of treaty of Makandi, signed by both parties in March, 123 B.C., King Andhraka Sunga officially makes his submission to King Mithridatēs Alexandros, acknowledging the validity of his conquests in India and swearing his allegiance as a vassal. King Andhraka further promises an annual tribute of 600 gold talents, and in exchange, King Mithridatēs promises to leave the Sunga unmolested, as well as do his part to oppose the growing threat of the Sātavāhana to the south. To seal the agreement, King Mithridatēs weds King Andhraka’s own daughter, the princess Ragavati.
King Mithridatēs then returns to Sangala with his forces in May, 122 B.C., spending the next year consolidating his gains in India, including appointing several satrapai for his new Indian provinces and collecting tribute. Garrisoning the frontiers and laying the plans for new defenses, King Mithridatēs instructs his satrapai to promote the interests of the native kshatriya and brahman aristocracies over the Scythian invaders, seeing the value of securing the loyalty of his new subjects by maintaining ancient traditions. He even orders several new temples built to the god Surya in Viratapuri and Indraprastha, whom he identifies with his own patron deity Mithra. That same year, the Great King secures the submission of King Mahendra of Avanti, whom, seeing the advantage to Argead protection against the expansionist Sātavāhana, becomes an Argead client and vassal.
King Mithridatēs finally departs for Ekbatana in July, 121 B.C., leaving his trusted cousin and father-in-law, the stratēgos Argyros, in command of the eastern theatre as hyparkhos in India for the time being.
(1) Indeed, the Great King will not authorize a new city to be built on the site of Prasthala until 119 B.C., and only then on the condition that it be named “Mithridateia”.
Deleted member 5909
[URL=http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/absintheknight/?action=view¤t=Indiaa.png]
[/URL]
The Argead Empire and its vassals in India in 120 B.C., along with the bordering Satavahana Empire.
[/URL]The Argead Empire and its vassals in India in 120 B.C., along with the bordering Satavahana Empire.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
[URL="http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/absintheknight/?action=view¤t=Indiaa.png"]
The Argead Empire and its vassals in India in 120 B.C., along with the bordering Satavahana Empire.
Alexander salivates with pride I see in his descendants.
Huzzah, it has awakened from its slumber! I'm wondering how long the giant retinue tradition will last. Sooner or later, some Great King will notice how terrible an idea it is.
Deleted member 5909
It has come to my attention that there are some errors in Indian geographical details ITTL. Further, there are also some areas that I would like to improve upon (such as the early Scythian invasions and the maps).
Therefore, I've decided to work on editing TTL before making any of my planned updates--I'm contemplating starting a new thread for version 2.0. If anything, it will give plenty of time for new readers to get catch up, as well as allow longtime readers to update themselves due to the gaps between updates that have become endemic.
Look forward to some interesting new modifications, and a far more detail. My goal is for this to eventually a have the look and feel of an entire history of the Argead Dynasty, from Alexander onwards.
Oh, and one more thing: I apologize if there hasn't been as much of a focus on Rome as some of you would have liked. Keep in mind that TTL is first and foremost a history of the Argeads, and thus, while it contains information about the Roman Empire, it is only insofar as it concerns and relates the history of the Argeads themselves--of which, a great deal of it does. However, don't despair, there's always the possibility of a spin-off in the near future
Therefore, I've decided to work on editing TTL before making any of my planned updates--I'm contemplating starting a new thread for version 2.0. If anything, it will give plenty of time for new readers to get catch up, as well as allow longtime readers to update themselves due to the gaps between updates that have become endemic.
Look forward to some interesting new modifications, and a far more detail. My goal is for this to eventually a have the look and feel of an entire history of the Argead Dynasty, from Alexander onwards.
Oh, and one more thing: I apologize if there hasn't been as much of a focus on Rome as some of you would have liked. Keep in mind that TTL is first and foremost a history of the Argeads, and thus, while it contains information about the Roman Empire, it is only insofar as it concerns and relates the history of the Argeads themselves--of which, a great deal of it does. However, don't despair, there's always the possibility of a spin-off in the near future
I must say, I wonder if this repeating obsession with conquering India, where one king conquers, the next king proceeding to lose those conquests, thereby filling the king after that with the burning ambition to restore losses, is going to really cost the Argeads someday. India eats up vast armies, and many years of the King's time, particularly with all the time wasted dragging the entire retinue thousands of miles, and never seems to actually pay for itself before being lost again.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
It seems a big waste to put it nicely that India is always attempted to be conquered and then those lands are lost almost immediately. I can imagine one day that an Indian ruler rises to take the fight to the Argead lands and unlike them, keep their conquests like the Maurya did to Seleucus' Indian lands.
Of course it's going to cost the Argeads; it already has, arguably. The Indians are to the Argeads what the Persians were to the Romans: A serious and long-term threat that forces vast amounts of treasure and men to be spent in search of temporary advantage and ultimately critically weakens both sides when the real threat (steppe nomads acting up? Arabs having some type of *Muslim unification and conquest?) appears.
Or, perhaps, they're more like the Germans: For a long time relatively little threat far distant from the borders, not really possible to conquer (the Romans just gave up eventually, the Argeads won't because of Alexander's vanity), but eventually overwhelming or culturally annexing that area of their empire. What might happen is that in a few hundred years the Argeads are limited to their heartland of Egypt-Palestine-Syria-Anatolia (plus perhaps Mesopotamia and some areas of Persia proper) while Indian or ex-Indian (the guys were as good as fragmenting as the Germans, that's for sure) states occupy the rest of the land to Indochina, perhaps nominally under one ruler. IOW, the Argeads as the *Byzantines, the Romans as the *Caliphate(s), and the Indians as the *Carolingians. It might just be crazy enough to work...
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
More like a combined invasion by the Iranian tribes to their north and a rebellious Persian populace.
I'm a bit hesitant about the second part because it does seem the Argeads and their nobility have assimilated very heavily into Persian culture, though I suppose that doesn't necessarily protect you from rebels.
That was more because of getting their asses kicked by the Romans for two centuries. If your capital is sacked three times in a century, people start to question your competence.
But the Achaemenids also started because of a Persian revolt (against the Medians), so it could happen.
I just finished reading this TL: that is awesome, that is even one of the best that I have read.
I do not dare to imagine the amount of work.
I do not dare to imagine the amount of work.
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