XIII. The Great War of Aratus II
Aratus had been emperor for a quarter of a century, and a successful emperor at that, but his popularity was waning. His attempts to create a power structure that would ensure lasting peace had failed spectacularly and, while the east was turbulent, Rome and Carthage slowly recovered from their long war in the west. It was then that, as had happened so many times in the past, Parthia declared war on the Seleucid Empire, which called in its ally, Rhodes, which called in its ally, the Achaean Empire.
The Parthians were a constant headache for the Seleucids, who could do little to counter them directly because their movements were restricted by the Egyptian ownership of Babylon, but they were far weaker, militarily and technologically, than the Achaean Empire. So Aratus negotiated military access through the Egyptian territories and dispatched four armies from Libya, which sailed to Phoenice and then marched to the Seleucid-Parthian border. The Achaean soldiers were well trained and equipped, but not equally well led. The reforms Aratus had recently instated in the army’s leadership had left many armies without notable generals, and those four were no exception. In their opening clashes with Parthian forces, this led to a high toll in Achaean blood, and significant political backlash for Aratus at home. Left with little choice in the matter, Aratus recalled from retirement Lysander Proctid, an excellent general but also eminently disloyal, and showered him with money and promises of future riches, to ensure his cooperation. Under his leadership, the Achaean expeditionary force managed to regroup and push into Parthia itself, where it overcame the Parthians’ attempts to repel it.
Battles raged around the border for another year, until the Parthians made a white peace with the Seleucids. But they remained at war with the Achaean Empire, so the fight continued. A desperate Parthian attempt to move a strong army through Egypt and threaten Achaean holdings in Libya failed spectacularly when the Achaean navy moved fresh forces into that region.
Days later, the Parthian High Priest accepted Aratus’ peace offer, where the Parthians gave up their claims to all Seleucid lands and paid a small, symbolic indemnity to the Achaean treasury.
But while the Achaean army was busy with its Parthian adventure, the Egyptians moved rapidly and ruthlessly against Pontus. In 692AVC they forced the Pontics to give up three strategic provinces, which fundamentally altered Achaean defensive plans.
Until then, Pontus and the Seleucid Empire could be counted upon as buffer states that restricted the front with the Egyptians to one small region in Asia, between Lydia and Lycia, and to the border between Libya and Egypt itself. Now the Egyptians had gained two more points of contact, via Trapezus and Paphlagonia, while they also gained a common border with Albania, which had gained its independence from Pontus a few decades before. Moreover, this crippled what remained of a Pontic state, since there would be no connection between the capital and its eastern provinces.
This sudden Egyptian expansion causes an outrage in Achaea. The people demanded that the Greeks of Trapezus be liberated from the heathen Egyptians. To allay people’s doubts that he was not taking the situation seriously, Aratus took personal command of the army on the Paphlagonian border, and ordered a redistribution of forces to better defend the Empire in the event of a new war with Egypt.
Aratus also guaranteed Pontus, Albania and the Seleucid Empire against Egyptian aggression. So it came to be that when, on the 14th of February 698AVC, the Pharaoh declared war on Pontus once again, the Achaean Empire had a casus belli to intervene. After a month of careful preparations, Achaean forces moved across all border provinces in a concentrated assault.
The opening moves of the war went fortuitously for Achaean arms, and even the Pharaoh himself was forced to do battle in Mesketi.
Although he eluded death or capture, he was nevertheless forced to an ignominious retreat.
One month later, the Seleucid Empire declared its own, opportunistic war on the Achaean Empire. Thus it became the Seleucids attacking the Achaeans who were attacking the Egyptians who were attacking Pontus.
Meanwhile, Aratus kept sending gifts to Rome and Carthage, out of fear that they too might decide to attack the overstretched Achaeans. Many Achaean forces were kept in Italy, to dissuade any Roman designs (and indeed, the Romans had given many causes of concern for their intentions, as their agents had been caught inciting popular unrest in Marmarica on multiple occasions).
But Achaean forces were mostly victorious on land, and dominant at sea, when after nary half a year of war a disgruntled Celtic general incited a civil war in Egypt.
This would make things easier for the Achaeans, but had an unexpected side-effect. Carthage declared war on the Egyptian rebels and proceeded to land a large force on Cyprus, which had declared for the rebels. An Achaean force was been assembled for its own invasion of Cyprus, but the Carthaginian senate outmaneuvered the Achaeans, much to Aratus’ chagrin. But it would have been pointless to antagonize Carthage, so Aratus accepted their siege as a fait accompli. Instead, he proposed an alliance with Carthage, in the face of a common foe, which the Carthaginian senate happily accepted.
This did not go down well with Rome, which felt increasingly isolated and worried about the effects of Carthage and the Achaean Empire getting fat on the spoils of Egypt. Thus, the Roman senate surprised Aratus with a declaration of war.
Carthage answered Aratus’ call to arms, and so all the great powers of the Mediterranean were now at war with each other; the Achaean Empire and Carthage versus Egypt, Rome and the Seleucid Empire. The two sides, however, were far from equal. The war thus far had exhausted both Egypt and the Seleucids, while Carthage had recovered a lot better from the Second Punic War than had Rome. The Achaeans and Carthaginians were the only powers with large manpower reserves, as well as large battle fleets.
The first battle on the Italian front took place at Lucania, where Achaean forces had been reduced to a bare minimum, due to the needs of operations against the Egyptians. Left to face the over 74,000 Romans were a mere 26,000 Achaeans, under the command of Aratus’ uncle. But the Roman army proved to be a giant with clay feet. The dire state of Rome’s economy had left its army chronically underfunded, while its leadership was almost universally dismal. As a result, the first battle was a resounding Achaean victory.
Aratus pursued the retreating Romans, while the other two Achaean armies stationed at the border had similar successes, with the exception of a battle in Raetia, where the only good Roman general was in command of the enemy army. Achaean fleets promptly transported some armies from the east, and within months the Roman military structure was collapsing all along the border.
In November 702AVC the Seleucid Empire was brought to the negotiating table, where it ceded Panticapeum to the Achaean Empire. After 142 years of Seleucid rule, the province would once again be Achaean.
By 704, Egypt had been thoroughly defeated as well, and was forced to part with most of its recent Pontic conquests, as well as a couple of provinces in the south of Asia Minor.
Carthage, happy to be on the winning side in the war against Rome but weary of the possibility that Aratus might not have their best interests in mind when it came to signing a peace treaty, made a separate peace with Rome, annexing Trinovantes, a strategic province in the middle of Britain, from which Carthage could challenge Roman ownership of the island.
But the Achaeans fought on, and Aratus himself led an army that reached the gates of Massilia, that distant Greek city which had suffered so much hardship in the hands of the Romans. Aratus vowed to liberate it.
When the Roman Senate accepted its total defeat, it made large territorial concessions to the Achaean Empire. Besides Massilia, five border provinces were transferred to Achaean control.
And so the Great War ended, with the Achaean Empire gaining 12 provinces in total from its three enemies.
Aratus was then in his 60s, and at the peak of his power. He was able to persuade the Carthaginians to trade elephants with his empire, which would increase the tactical flexibility of the Achaean armies. The Achaean Empire was becoming the arbiter of international affairs, its wealth surpassing Egypt’s and its people increasing in both number and prosperity. But great men are not free of enemies. In fact, the greater one’s position of power, the more it is observed to attract sycophants and conspirators alike, making an emperor’s life as dangerous in the palace as it is on the battlefield. So it came to be that, while Aratus was busy organizing a punitive expedition against Pontus, which had ignored an Achaean guarantee on Albania, Neoptolemus Peneid, one of Aratus’ kinsmen and governor of Dacia, plotted his demise.
Although Neoptolemus’ participation in the plot was never proven, there was little doubt that he was behind the assassination. Aratus II, emperor of Achaea, died under mysterious circumstances in 8 October 710AVC. The throne passed to his nephew, Ephron III.