AH.com and a Map

My Araldyana Timeline is now on Alternate History. I changed some details in the story but it is overall the same.

and here a map for the new update:

Chapter XII: Theodosius

„Oh, dear cousin, you are dead and I am alive, but you don’t see me crying over that. We all have to depart this life one day or another. You went early and won’t come back. I never cry a tear; I will need my eyes in these days more than ever before.“ – Eucherius

418: the snow did not melt yet in Pannonia, Odo breaks through the passes, the Gepids fight the Huns and Himilvin and his men start the march to the south. As the news, of the attacking Pannonian Goths reaches Mediolanum, panic spreads. On the following day the Emperor is found dead – suicide. Flavia and her young children, Honoria and Theodosius, flee to the south-west.

In Pollentia, close to the advancing Western Goths, Flavia marries, only a few days after Honorius death, her mighty general Asterius. The army accepts Theodosius as rightful heir and emperor but the power lies in the hands of Flavia and Asterius. In the decades and centuries to come many will say the emperor’s suicide was a lie, the empress and the general were lovers for years. It will be the material of literature and theatre play but the truth is a mystery of history. 

Himilvin took Ravenna without fight, the city surrendered. The most of the peninsula east of the Apennine fell to his troops before summer. In the meantime Odo fought his way along the Padus. After Himilvin turned north again both rulers meet near Florentia. The Pannonian enjoyed the company of Alaric but now he is meeting his successor: Odo. The king is a rather short but sturdy man, around 40 years of age, less charismatic and diplomatic than his predecessor. Nevertheless is he able to talk Himilvin into an alliance not only against Rome but also against the Britannian troops in the north. Both agree on following: peace with Rome only in great favour for both kings; the Pannonians settle at the Rodanus and in Italia, whereas the Gallians expand into Hispania and to the north.

One thing Odo was ignoring in his plan: Eucherius - a man with many faces, imperial general, leader of the Aremoricans, commander of the Barbarians - gathered enough troops around him to actually thread the Goths. They fought on to many fronts, against Gerontius in the south, Asterius in the west and the Britannians in the north. Britannian is maybe not the right word to describe an army that consists mostly of Franks and Aremoricans. Eucherius is certainly one of the most interesting characters in this game for power. He has more charisma than all other commanders combined and is a born general. He is definitely his father’s child, a new Stilicho.

The Silingi had to leave the battle fields of Italia to defend what became in the last years their home. Eucherius took one city after the other. His army was growing and so was the fear of the Silingian king Filligund. Odo hated to see his ally heading north, he underestimated the Britannians strength and saw Filligund’s move as betrayal. The Silingian left to many people behind in Gallia, if his troops wouldn’t return it would mean betrayal on their families. Filligund tried his best but he failed. After facing Eucherius army and losing in the fight, he knew two things: 1^st Eucherius is too strong and 2^nd Odo won’t help him. Before getting smashed between the Britannians and the Burgundians in the west, Filligund decides to change sites. 

Arcadius panicked as he heard his brother is dead and so the first east Roman troops arrive in Italia around Christmas 418, after they marched through Dalmatia. More would follow later but the most soldiers would stay in the east, fighting the Persians. The emperor sent one of his best generals to Italia, Gaudentius, and with him his son Aetius arrives in the west. The Goths under Himilvin and Odo were unable to challenge Asterius in an open field battle and decided to siege and conquer Rome instead. The city fell as spring came but the Goths were not the rulers of the eternal city for a long time. Asterius avoided the Goths carefully and united his forces with Gaudentius army only a few weeks after the city fell. The battle for Rome began finally in April of 419 AD.

The Goths would have been eliminated, wouldn’t the most of the east Roman troops be at the Persian border fighting the Sassanid Empire. It was still a disastrous defeat. Rome was lost for the Goths, one of their kings died in the battle, namely Odo. Himilvin, the surviving king, was declared ruler of all Goths by his troops and became the first to rule over all them.

After the defeat at Rome the Goths withdrew o the north. The Romans split their army again, believing Himilvin would be vulnerable and easy to defeat again, but the imperials lost their second battle. Gaudentius himself died and the troops appointed his son Aetius as their new commander. The other half of the army, under Asterius’ command, stayed near Rome in the meantime. The northern army would suffer in several battles against the Goths and the game seemed to be on again, as in the late October the Theodosian Wonder happened: Eucherius’ army swept into the Rhone valley and the Gothic army under Himilvin was nearly encircled by the Romans.

Himilvin saw no way to win this war without losing the most of his men in the battle, Arcadius needed his Italian troops in the east, Eucherius wanted to secure his gains, Constantinus was more than surprised to hear how well his general did, the Romans were tired of war and Flavia wanted to save the throne for her son. And so the east, the west, the Britannians and the Goths met in Mediolanum and the Christmas of 419 would be a peaceful one. The Goths gained the Rhone valley, a part of Italia and Taragona, the Silingi were moved a bit to the east, Theodosius II and Constantinus III were both accepted as emperors, the latter as Junior Augustus and the other as Senior Augustus, the west would be split between them, the Britannians gained northern and western Gallia, the unconquered part of Hispania would be divided later, Eucherius gained the command over all non-Gothic forces in Gallia, Himilvin accepted the formal rule of the emperors but his people stay autonomous.

An unsatisfying solution.

 

Map 

The Western and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire in 419 AD.

Red=Western Empire; Outline=Goths

Purple=Eastern Empire; Striped=foederati 

Magenta=Britannian Empire; Light Magenta=Aremorica; Stripped=foederati
Brown=Vandals

Green=Hispanian Empire
Yellow=Gepids
Light Brown=Huns

Chapter XI: Edges of the World

„O God, why does the world end in my days?“ – Honorius

It is the year 416 AD and the Empire is falling. The Mare Nostrum, once nothing but a Roman lake but at the same time heart of the Empire, is now the territory of the barbarians. The west lost Africa and the East couldn’t reconquer it; Arcadius’ ships sunk against Geiseric’s fleet. It might be the Vandal King’s greatest victory, that he forced the Emperors to accept his African Realm. It weren’t the lost battles, which made the brothers so weak, that they accepted an independent kingdom, it was the hunger. The population of Rome depends on the grain from Africa and for years not a single ship from Cartagho reached Italia and brought food to the starving population. The end of the Vandalian War is the end of the Roman hunger years.

On the other edge of the known world, in the steppes of the Scythians, a king rose upon the local rulers. The Huns, north the Pontic Sea, are united under one banner again, 11 years after the fall of Udin, ruler of the Danubian tribes. Ultzindur is the mightiest man of all the rulers of the steppe. He united the most Hunnic tribes and led them already against the peoples of the northern Caucasus. Only the Huns which were once the core of Uldin’s empire are not yet part of Ultzindur’s domain. They settle mostly on the northern bank of the Danube and are busy with internal fights. Also some Goths are under them and other Germanics and furthermore some Romans live still in these lands.

417 AD is the year of Ultzindur: first the Delta of the Danube, then the plains of southern Dacia fall to his hordes. Many Huns cross in this year the Danube, not to conquer but to flee their invading brothers. They become part of the Eastern army and most of them will lose their life in the war for Rome.

The king of the Pannonian Goths, Himilvin, heard about the rise of a new Hunnic ruler, shortly after Ultzindur’s Dacian invasion. For the King it was certainly a bad sign. He had plans, big plans: the conversation of the Transdanubian tribes. Under all rulers, he was the one with the biggest religious spirit but he had nevertheless a sense for political necessity. Himilvin grew up under Hunnic rule and fears nothing more but their return. The Baiuvari could wait and stay pagans for now. The king needed a plan if the Huns should advance until Pannonia. His people could move to the north over the Danube but on the other hand will this land probably also fall to Ultzindur. The south would be another option. Himilvin feared the Romans much less than the Huns, but taking Italia would still be an ambitious project.

If Odo should invade Italia, Himilvin will attack from the north-east. In the moment the Roman armies under Asterius still hold on the Alpine passes but it is only a matter of time until the Goths sweep into the empire’s heartland. Honorius rule is limited on Italia. Gallia is lost to Odo and also to Eucherius. The later was able to gain land in the north against the Silingi, mostly because their troops are busy in the south. Eucherius’ formal master is emperor Constantinus and his son of the same name. The younger Constantinus left the command over the continental army completely to Eucherius, who was also promoted Magister Militum and Patricius of the empire. The young prince, lacking military talent, prefers to stay on the island. His father reformed the instable Britannian provinces already a few years ago: the field army, the comitatenses, was reduzed in terms of size whereas the border troops, the limitatei, were enlarged. The Britannian army adapted a defensive strategy. Most soldiers have family, didn’t see the continent for over a decade and are not willing to leave their home for the bloody barbarian playground of Gallia.

Eucherius acts nearly independent from the Emperor in Britannia. His army’s backbone consist of Aremoricans, Franks and even some Saxons; whereas Britannians make up only a tiny part of his troop.

 

At all edges of the Roman world, the imperial rule is shrinking and Honorius and Asterius control nothing anymore but Italia.

Map 

The Western and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire in 417 AD.

Red=Western Empire; Striped/Outline=foederati

Purple=Eastern Empire; Striped=foederatiMagenta=Britannian Empire; Light Magenta=Aremorica; Stripped=foederati
Brown=Vandals

Green=Hispanian Empire
Blue=Gothic Empire
Yellow=Gepids
Light Brown=Huns

 

King Himilvin of the Goth

The Gothic Alphabet

I made my own version of the Gothic Alphabet (see here and here for more info):

 

---> BIGGER VERSION <---

Chapter X: Imperial Blood

„Sire, your own blood may flow in your children’s veins, not on the battle field, but years will pass and from generation to generation, more drops of your blood will run out of your offspring’s corpse, down our swords, into the ground, following the water of once Roman rivers to the sea. You will salt the ocean more with every generation and may your own body rest one day in the Italian soil, your blood will never rest.“ – Odo

Aelia Eudoxia is 34 years old and gave birth to ten children. It was her duty as the wife of Arcadius and Empress of Rome to produce a potential heir, but she failed every single time. Eight daughters gave she birth to, one son died only a few hours after he saw the daylight the first and last time; he should have been a second Theodosius. Now she lays in her own sweat and blood, in unbelievable pain, and dies the death of a dutiful wife: giving birth to the tenth child, a healthy son.

Gratianus, born 414 AD, is the long awaited heir of the eastern throne. Arcadius feared his brother’s children could rule one day in Constantinople and should they prove to be as week as their father, it would be the end of the east too. The emperor would have liked to name the child after his own father, Theodosius, but Galla Flavia, his sister-in-law, gave birth to a Theodosius first. Naming the child Arcadius would have been an option, but that seems so egocentric and a bit impropriated in the emperors eyes. So Arcadius decided in favour of the name of the former emperor Gratianus, a short-lived half-brother of him had also this name and his family and Gratian’s are more or less related.

Flavius Aelius Gratianus – Aelius in honour of his mother – had as he was born four siblings, the other five died before him, all of them girls. From the oldest to the youngest there were Arcadia, Pulcheria, Theodosia and Thermantia. At Gratianus’ birth his father was already planning the wedding of Arcadia. A son of her could be a fall-back option if Gratianus shouldn’t live long enough to take his father’s throne. 

Exactly six month after the birth of his son Arcadius married his oldest daughter to the son of his general Gaudentius, a young man named Aetius. It would not be the last wedding of the year but the last the world would take such notice of. In the winter of 414, near the Atlantic, in the province of Aremorica, far away from Rome, closer to the Barbarians than to the Emperors, a relative of Honorius and Arcadius marries again; Eucherius. The son of Stilicho and Serena lost his first wife as he escaped from Burdigala, fleeing Odo’s Gothic troops, who sieged the city. With small ships did he, his families and his friends escape, his wife got sick and died before they reached northern Gallia, but Eucherius himself survived and so did his son Serenus. Gildo was the father of Serenus mother, his new step mother is the niece of the leader of the Suindini. They are the former inhabitants of Suindinum and the surrounding but lost their home to the plundering Silingi. Here a bit further to the west they try to build up an alliance against the invaders and seek to reconquer their homeland.

A few months later in the beginning of 415 the dream of the Suindini became true, at least the first part of it; the cities of Aremorica are united in their fight against the Goths and Silingi, even some Frankish tribes fight now on their site. Honorius has no power over this alliance; they swore loyalty to Constantinus in Britannia but even he doesn’t really rule them. The emperor stayed on his island with the most of the troops, whereas his son and Caesar, of the same name, led some soldiers to the mainland. In theory Caesar Constantinus commands the troops, but de facto it is Eucherius who leads the Aremoricans in the war for Gallia.

The Silingi and Goths move with the biggest part of their army to south-west, towards the Alps and into Hispania. The magister militum of the west, Asterius, was able to stop them for short time in the beginning of the war, but now, in the autumn of 415, they destroyed already the most of the Roman army. They crossed the Rhodanus and took Nemausus and Arelate. Asterius collects the rests of his troops on the Italian side of the Alps, awaiting Odo’s horde on the other side of the mountains. Waiting are also Honorius and Eucherius. The first in the palace at Mediolanum, the latter on the battle field near the Sequana, both waiting for their wives to give birth.

Two weeks later Honorius will get a daughter, Honoria; Eucherius a son, Romanus; blood flows in the empire: on the battle field and in the veins.

 

Map 

The Western and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire in 415 AD.

Red=Western Empire; Striped/Outline=foederati

Purple=Eastern Empire; Striped=foederati
Brown=Vandals

Green=Hispanian Empire
Blue=Gothic Empire
Magenta=Britannian Empire; Light Magenta=Aremorica; Stripped=foederati
Yellow=Gepids

Rome 413 AD (big map)

I hope you like it :)

EDIT: changed the Balkan a bit