Chapter 3.6- The Shadow of the Horsemen, 334
For centuries the Hellenic Kingdoms and colonies had civilized other peoples in their constant advance towards unknown lands in their crusade to bring the light of knowledge to the people who still lived like barbarians, because of it they had founded many cities and expanded their ideals from the south of Gaul to the far northern steppes, theater, philosophy, art, religion and Hellenic literature had spread throughout the civilized world. In the mountains of the Pyrenees under the control of the Etruscan Empire the same gods were worshiped and the same religious rites were performed as in Crimea and Athens, it was a fact that at the beginning of the fourth century there was still a Hellenistic era.
The Lydian Empire had been Hellenized a couple of centuries ago and now it was the shield of Europe against the Babylonian incursions from the east, the best warriors of the Hellenic world fought under their banners and the border they shared with their traditional enemies in the Caucasus was well guarded ... the reputation of The defenders of the Caucasus were such that the Babylonians had not tried their luck against Lydia for several decades since they had already suffered several serious and humiliating defeats.
… However, with all its power and knowledge, no one in the entire Lydian Empire had even thought that the greatest threat against the Hellenic world would come from the north.
At the beginning news came from the Hellenic colonies located on the banks of the Volga River about groups of barbarian civilians who fled westward without even causing problems on their way, then refugees arrived from the Hellenic colonies telling terrifying tales about the destruction of all Hellenic colonies between the Volga and Dnieper rivers.
The kingdoms of northern Crimea and Epirus collapsed in 330 at an impressive speed after centuries of stability, after the war against the Etruscan Empire of 329 Emperor Pelagius II of Lydia could not afford a long campaign against an enemy he considered completely inferior to his people, and because of that an army of three thousand men was sent to defend the northern border, Pelagius II could not disregard the eastern border since the Babylonians could see that as a sign of weakness, and could not neglect the West because the Etruscans could take advantage of the chaos to move their troops towards the Balkans.
But Lydia's three thousand men never returned.
In 330 a gigantic army of Slavic and Germanic refugees led by the Slavic princess Jadwiga Branicky advanced rapidly towards Bizantium, the capital of the Lydian Empire, quickly taking over the city and conquering what was one of the great empires of the world. If Pelagius II thought the barbarians were inferior, he was absolutely wrong.
But the subjects of the Lydian Empire would not accept a barbarian Princess seating on their throne for a long time, so after a couple of months they rebelled against the authority of Jadwiga, it was the moment that the Etruscans were waiting for, as taking advantage of the confusion they initiated a campaign to take the western territories of the last Hellenic Empire.
Jadwiga, now Empress of the Lydian Empire achieved important victories against the Hellenic rebels but was betrayed by an Etruscan agent and taken prisoner, she died in 331 in the dungeons of Emperor Bertrand II of the Etruscan Empire.
But the damage to the Lydian Empire was already done another Slavic princess took the Imperial throne after a short war and the Hellenic kingdoms took the opportunity to become independent. The Lydian Empire was shattered beyond recognition.
While the Hellenic world was destroyed by hordes of people fleeing from an unknown enemy, the Babylonian Empire faced the greatest civil war in its history, that is how Vachagan, a reputable man of Armenian origin, managed to make Syria and the newly created kingdom of Jerusalem among others independent in a revolt against the oppressive Assyrians, the Babylonians lost access to the Mediterranean.
But not only the Hellenes and Babylonians suffered from the current crisis since the Etruscan Empire was threatened by another civil war, this time the Etruscan subjects sought total independence as they had received news that the eastern border of the Empire was beginning to experience the same catastrophe that struck the Lydian Empire ... and they were not willing to send their children in the name of an empire that had oppressed them for centuries to fight the unknown menace, it was time for rebellion.
Meanwhile on the Italian Peninsula the Velahtri League was undergoing a great transformation, Numerios Maecilia, Dictator of the Roman Senate, had managed to seize the power to found the Latin League, a new power that threatened the supremacy of the hitherto invincible Etruscan Empire in Central Europe.
After a short time legends began to circulate from port to port, from town to town and from nation to nation, about how the barbarians that destroyed the Hellenic Kingdoms and that were invading the Etruscan Empire were fleeing from a demonic race of warriors that were half horse half human, they called them “The Huns”.
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Rituals
Great Temple of Cadiz, 334.
The new Ahau of Ispania, Chak Tok Ich’aak (or Great Jaguar Paw), reviewed in complete silence the reports that had come to him about the crisis that was affecting all the Empires of the region. What was happening in the world was an opportunity or a threat? Could the Etruscan civil war get out of control and threaten to take his people to a war they could not win? Was the Latin League a threat to Mayan claims to dominate the Mediterranean? ... so many questions ... no satisfactory answers ...
He had risen to the throne at age 44, never thought that his grandfather would die and because of that he never prepared himself for the responsibility of being the Ahau of the Mayans. He needed advice… and he didn't trust men for something as important as this.
After leaving his council in charge of the Kingdom, he locked himself with the High Priests in the Great Temple of Cadiz ... perhaps the gods had the answers he was looking for ...
Upon entering the Great Temple the priests gave him a basket with the four sacred varieties of corn cultivated by the Maya, that would be all he could eat for a week in which he would fast and prepare his mind to be able to communicate with the gods.
They four varieties of corn of the Mayan World
After a particularly difficult week for a man accustomed to abundance he was summoned to the upper part of the temple, where the priests were performing a ritual burning Copal resin and sacrificing one of the birds brought from the Mayab, a Macaw. Chak Tok Ich’aak felt physically weakened, but his spirit knew that the gods would listen to him.
Not all Mayan rituals involved human blood.
The ritual was over and the priests now surrounded him while performing sacred songs as old as mankind itself, the Ahau had drunk a mixture of hallucinogenic herbs and was now in a trance ...
Upon waking from the trance a series of words remained in his head.
Secure. Borders
Restore. Glory.
Lifetime. Short.
He remembered the colors black, red, yellow and white, the same as the four sacred varieties of corn, the same colors that since ancient times identified the cardinal points in the Mayan world:
The Red symbolized the East, life, blood.
Yellow symbolized the South, the skin, the rain, the material.
The White symbolized the North, the dead, the spiritual, the bones.
The Black symbolized the West, hair, hope.
His people had come from the West in the hope of finding a new home, the black color would symbolize this new covenant between the gods and the Maya, his mission as Ahau of his people was to secure the borders of his kingdom, restore the glory of his sacred lineage and he needed to do this fast ... since his life would be short among the mortals.
The gods had spoken, now it was Chak Tok Ich’aak's turn to carry out the divine will...