SCORTCHED LAND - Defence of the roman east during the 3rd century crisis -

[OskarEriksson]

INVASIO BARBARORUM - RESTITVTOR ORBIS 260 AD CAMPAIGN AAR






PREMISE
This is a better version of an AAR i had begin months ago, and not completed for real life issues ,"Scortched land - A roman military advisor in Palmyra".
I would have done this AAR that i consider a small documentary on the situation of the roman east, and the roman fleet during the crisis of the 3rd century for the amount of historical informations i will put in, with the version of INVASIO BARBARORUM RESTITVTOR ORBIS of ALEX.EXE, where the roman, palmyrene, and gallic officers and generals are much more realistic, with the romano-syrian-arab lords dresses as they was in reality, with ZENOBIA OF PALMYRA being a general, and not an ancillary, and so on the others roman in the west, but i prefered to use the BI.EXE version since it is more stable, where all the roman faction, comprised the hellenistic client kingdom of the bosporus cimmerius, have the classic late roman general look. I'm sorry for that.


POLITICAL SITUATION
After the assassination of Severus Alexander in 235 AD, for Roma begin a countdown for a crisis both political, military, demographic, climatic, and other factors, that will push the empire into probabily his worst period of crisis before the islamic invasion of 7th century, and the decades between 250 and 260 AD is when this crisis growth, mature, with the pressure on all the frontiers, the death of one emperor in battle, and the capture of another emperor, usurpers rising everywhere (i will try to explain it easily: WITHOUT THE EMPEROR PRESENT, THE COMMANDERS COULDN'T MOVE ALL THE TROOPS AT THE FRONTIER, EACH ONE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR A SECTOR, AND A UNIT OR A GROUP OF UNITS, BUT WHEN THE FRONTIERS WAS PRESSED EVERYWHERE CONTEMPORARY, THE EMPEROR COULDN'T BE ANYWHERE, AND THE SOLDIERS, AND THE LOCAL PEOPLES, FELT ABANDONED, SO THEY TEND TO RISE TO THE PURPLE THE LOCAL COMMANDER OR GOVERNOR, THIS PROBLEM CREATED SO MANY USURPERS, ALMOST ONE PER YEAR IN SOME PERIOD, ALSO MORE THAN ONE, IS HAPPENED EVEN THAT THE USURPER ONCE REPELLED THE BARBARIANS, CEASED THE REBELLION, GIVING BACK THE POWER TO THE EMPEROR ONCE THE CRISIS WAS ENDED, BUT USUALLY THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN, AND IN SOME CASES LIKE IN GAUL, AND IN THE EAST, THIS MATURED IN THE HEARTS OF THE PROVINCIAL A FEELING OF WRATH VERSUS THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, SO ONCE THEY RAISED THEIR USURPERS, REPELLED THE ENEMY INVADERS, THEY DIDN'T TRY TO TAKE THE POWER IN ROME MARCHING ON ITALY, BUT REMAINED IN THEIR PROVINCE CREATING REAL SECESSIONIST SPLINTER STATE WITH THEIR OWN SENATE, PRETORIAN GUARD, AND SO ON LIKE IN GAUL WITH POSTUMOUS, OR IN THE EAST WITH PALMYRA.



In the years 50', a civil war in the client state of the bosporus occurred, and one of the claimant to the throne, an usurper, hired several gothic, boranii, and heruli bands, promising them to put at their disposal the bosporan fleet with their oarsmen, to taxi them south, over the anatolian and greek coasts, to loot virgin territories (by now moesia and pannonia was devastated), at the end this usurper was defeated and died, but the steppe raiders had the fleet at their disposal and this created a serie of disgraces for the empire for a time of 30 years almost until the new illyrian emperor put an end to it.

Over than, some franks penetrated in gaul, passed the pyrenees, arrived in tarraconensis, occupied a coastal stronghold, and started to piracy in mediterranean attacking the islands, north africa, and sicily, over that saxon and frankish pirates was harassing britannia and gaul coastal areas....

in 50 years, circa 25-30 emperors succeeded, the longest reigning emperor was Gallienus, who ruled for 15 years, but the others lasted for only one or two years usually, it was really a disaster and the roman empire was near so, to be destroyed like the achaemenid empire, or the assyrian empire, or the akkadic empire before it.
If this didn't happen, and if Rome falled in all other circumstances, with her cultural heritage arriving until the modern days, it was for the tenacity of a group of military emperor, a junta, who ruled the empire for 50 years circa, and that saved the empire in the last part of the 3rd century ad.



Over that in the east, a new power, the Sassanid dinasty, from Persia, much more aggressive and nationalistic than the previous Parthian rulers, raised in the 30's, starting to inflict severe defeated to the romans in the east, killing one emperor in battle, Gordian III, forcing another, Philip the arab to an humiliating peace, sacking antioch 2 times, capturing another emperor Valerian in battle, in 260 AD, and making raids into anatolia, Syria, Armenia, claiming all the former territories of the achaemenid empire, and draining resources, manpower, and gold from Rome, for the citizens of the empire there was really the sensation that the empire was falling and that Rome had lost the favour of the gods....



THIS AAR WILL BE IN THREE EPISODES, THE FIRST WILL BE ABOUT THE YEARS 260-268 AD, DURING THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR GALLIENUS, ABOUT THAT I LEAVE A DOCUMENTARY OF SPQR HISTORIAN ON YOU TUBE ABOUT HIS REIGN:

[YOUTUBE]

[OskarEriksson]

SCORTCHED LAND - DEFENCE OF THE ROMAN EAST DURING THE CRISIS OF THE 3RD CENTURY

EPISODE 1 - PROLOGUE... A TROUBLED MONTH

PO RIVER, NEARBY RAVENNA, ITALIA, LATE SPRING YEAR 1012 AUC (260 AD)




FROM THE JOURNEY DIARY OF THE PREFECTUS CLASSIS GAIUS HOSIDIUS HISTONIENSIS

I was resting at the home of my uncle, the brother of my father, from a wound received while serving in the pontic fleet, where i was operating together with the bosporan allies against the scythian pirates (note: scythians, during the 3rd century mean goths, boranii, heruli, the tribes living north of crimea that did piracy in eastern mediterranean and black sea) that with the help of the bosporan fleet and oarsmen (that an usurper of the bosporan kingdom put at their disposal years ago) started to raid colchis, pontus, and other locations of the pontic sea, when terrible news arrived, emperor Valerian while campaigning in the east was captured with a trick near Edessa in Oshroene with all his major staff, the pretorian prefect Successianus (i knew him, he defended Pytius and other allied cities from the pirates in the colchis the year before) and many senators and officers by Shapur the king of Persia!

The new sassanian dinasty that rule the east by 30 years is much more aggressive and nationalistic than the previous parthian rulers, they sacked Antioch 2 times in last years, destroyed the fortress of Dura Europos on the Euphrates taking the population and the prisoner as slaves in Persia, and raided in asia until phrygia and pamphilya, they was stopped only by general Ballista, that with the treasures of the army of Valerian escaped, and attacked one by one the persian looting parties in cilicia and northern syria, while the prince of Palmyra Odenathus, or Ras as they call him there, attacked the persian rearguard while they was crossing the euphrates, defeating them and capturing Shapur's harem, this miracle probably saved the eastern provinces... At least is what the arald sad...But my idea is that Shapur doesn't want to claim all the former achaemenid empire territories until the aegean coast, his target are the roman resources, to drain money, manpower, to weaken Rome in the east while he growth......


DURA EUROPOS FIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PALMYRENE GATE, BY AMELIANVS



TUNNEL RATS!
DURA EUROPOS FIGHT IN THE TUNNELS, MINE AND COUNTER-MINE, THE PERSIANS RELEASE TOXIC GAS BURNING SOMETHING IN THE TUNNELS.

The new persian military machine is much more advanced than their previous parthian counterpart, they rely on a formidable heavy cavalry, with a good infantry to man the siege works, they are capable, contrary to the parthians, to lay a siege with siege machines, and to build even a vallum around the city just like Caesar in Alesia, they are much more dangerous than the parthians.... And much more aggressive, with a more centralized machine.





TWO DAYS LATER A FRUMENTARIUS ASKED ABOUT ME TO MY UNCLE ITALUS, A RETIRED CENTURION OF THE CLASSIS RAVENNATE, HE PRESENTED ME A LETTER WITH THE IMPERIAL SEAL OF THE AUGUSTUS GALLIENUS THAT I MEET AT THE TIME WHEN HIS FATHER VALERIAN WAS COMMANDER OF THE LEGIONS ON THE RHINE, AND I WAS PREFECT OF THE RHINE FLEET SOME YEARS AGO...

"TO GAIUS HOSIDIUS HISTONIENSIS, SALVE!
Due to the circumstances, our person was forced to offer the entire command of the eastern provinces to the Prince of Palmyra Odenathus, when he departed for the east my father left the pontic sea without a fleet, having bringed these ships with him in Syria to supply the army, now the fleet is dispersed, the coastlines are harassed by the scythians, while the land is ravaged by the Persians.
We order to you to embark as soon as possible in the port of classis where a small merchant ship is waiting for you, and to reach the port of Tyrus not over the end of the month, to act as a military advisor for the Prince Septimius Odenathus, and to take care of Rome's interests at the same time... Go with Fortuna, Prefect!"

A political mission.... this time.
I ordered immediatly to my slave Pontius to pack my stuffs, and robes, a couple of military tunics, the decorations, and a civil elegant dress since we should operate at court there too, and departed for Classis, arriving at night...at dawn we was yet on the adriatic sea...



Two weeks of navigation, fortune was with us since we avoided both the frankish, and the scythian pirates, the first occupied a coastal city in tarraconensis, and from there raid north africa and sicily, the others depart from crimea, raiding the whole eastern mediterranean and pontic sea.....

But once arrived in Tyrus, we discovered there was a military revolt, the general Ballista and Macrianus the older, the treasures of Valerian, pushed the remaining legions of the army of valerian, mainly the XVI FLAVIA FIRMA, the PRIMA PARTHICA, and some pretorian cohort, to hail as augustus the latter, and his son, Macrianus the younger, starting another revolt against the augustus Gallienus (other two occurred in gaul, where the general Posthumous killed Saloninus, the younger son of Gallienus, 17 years old, poor boy, and in Illyricum where Ingenous killed the other son of Gallienus, being hailed as augustus by the troops, the boys where left there with the title of Caesar to represent the dinasty and to prevent usurpations.....damn.), so we navigated sometime on the coast at distance, when we spotted a Palmyrene cavalry column that was going to besiege the city, so we beached the ship, joining the Palmyrenes....

They was commanded by a roman officer, a levantine, prefect of legion, but pratically commanding only a small vexillatio of cavalry, aside the palmyrene forces (composed mostly of cataphracts, horse archers, and few foot archers, the only heavy infantry units are those used as auxilia by the roman troops pratically), when in the tent outside the city he illunstrated me the strategic situation, it was terrible....





There was an arab, and en egyptian in the tent, two spies, agents of the Prefect, who was infiltrated respectively in Edessa, Oshroene, where Rome have many supporters (the oshroene, commagene, and hatrense peoples hate the sassanians who overhtrown their parthian overlords and sacked their lands , in the case of Hatra razing to ground the city and eliminating the kingdom of araba, exterminating the arab hellenistic dinasty who ruled there for centuries, that's why we have several hundred parthians, oshroenians, and hatrense nobles fighting in our forces,until 40 years ago the latters was faithful vassals of the parthians, and enemy of Roma, but when the sassanians raised, Ardashir and Shapur his son didn't let this small peripheric kingdoms to live, so these kingdoms like Hatra passed on Rome's side, accepting a small roman garrison in the citadel, but this wasn't enough, the city who didn't fall to the sieges of Trajan and Septimius Severus, was destroyed by Shapur and Ardashir years ago, now the hatrense nobles, peoples without a country, full of wrath, put their sword at the service of every enemy of persia, so..of Rome. Their arabian parthian cataphracts are very useful in this theatre believe me).

From there, i was attached to a Palmyrene caravan, escorted by irregular horse archers, directed to Damascus, where i will meet other skidded roman officers now at the service of Palmyra against Persia, and then all together will reach the Prince Odenathus that is campaigning on the shores of the river Euphrates against the usurpers and their king maker, Ballista.

The first objective is to suppress the revolt, kill the usurpers, occupy Antioch, Emesa, and Edessa, and then turn against the persians.

Once arrived in Damascus, i walked immediatly at the local roman quarter, where in a building similar to a basilica, there was three officers waiting for me...... I will talk about them in next episode, they will be our company for the next months....



end of the first episode...

[Alwyn]

A dangerous time for Rome, a well-chosen setting for a great AAR!