Chapter 3.39 The last years of the Confederation 726-772 CE
Make Etruria Great Again
Rule of Hilarious Sambatiolus of Ravenna (Viceroyalty of Etruria) 719-727 CE
The nobles in the Imperial Court of Ravenna were furious, not only the pagans had brutally murdered the Pope who only tried to convert them to the True Faith but also enslaved and killed many nobles who accompanied the Holy Father, they demanded retribution and were trying to pressure the Emperor into declaring a war against the Slavic and Celtic Kingdoms of the north, it was not like Emperor Hilarious did not wanted to go to war, but he knew that the volatile nature of the Viceroyalties and the taxes he would have to raise to finance a campaign of such magnitude would cause revolts inside the Confederation sooner than later from the same nations that now were asking for a war.
Meanwhile, the Pagans of the North were preparing for the inevitable conflict and for the first time were trying to create an alliance to stop the Mediterranean Confederation from invading their lands like they did in the past against the Huns, such alliance was a complicated affair because all the tribes had differences between them even if they looked the same from the outside and they were not enthusiastic about accepting the orders of a single leader and valued their independence above everything else. The “Pagan Alliance” was better prepared for war compared to the Mediterranean Confederation who had not experienced much warfare for the past decades and just threw unprepared men into the northern lands at the start of the conflict; Slavic troops took the initiative and won the first battles of the Holy War for Celtica of 726. But that would not last forever
The Slavs are difficult to defeat even divided.
Emperor Hilarious realized that he had to take command of his troops if he wanted to win the war, thing he did in 727 CE after a few battles but then he wanted to take advantage of the situation and declared war against the Kingdom of Raetia-Noricum in the northern Alps region claiming that they were occupying lands that once belonged to the Etruscan Empire, the Imperial Court, believing that the expansion into the northern lands would secure the borders against any future incursion for the Slavic pagans approved the war and trusted the Emperor and gave him the resources needed to conquer the Raetians.
But then, in one of the greatest mysteries of history, the seasoned Etruscan Emperor decided to cross the Alps to surprise the Slavs and siege their capital in an attempt to quickly end the war and was killed in the Battle of Innsbruck by an army at least four times smaller. With the death of the Emperor and the defeat of the majority of the armies of the Mediterranean Confederation the war got into a stalemate.
Yeah, i did not wanted that to happen, but i had limited resources so choose the shortest route to the capital of the enemy.
Rule of Makarios Ursus (Achaia) 727-736 CE
The Electors choose Makarious Ursos “The Chaste” of the Viceroyalty of Achaia as the new Emperor and the wise man tried to put order in the precarious situation the Empire was now, but when the army defeated and the coffers depleted he had to raise taxes and take loans to hire mercenaries to fight against the Raetians. For the next three years the war continued in a precarious stalemate while the political situation in the Mediterranean Confederation worsened over time.
Mochcouoh Murzukid, Viceroy of New Phoenicia declared a war of Independence alongside other Viceroys that were tired of paying taxes and sending young men to die in the wars of the Confederation. His revolt worsened the situation of Emperor Makarious that now had to fight the war of the Etruscan Emperor and quell the revolt before the Confederation he was elected to lead disintegrated. Trade in the Mediterranean Sea was interrupted on many parts of the trade network used by the Confederation and in many places famines were followed by peasant revolts; it seemed like the end of the world for many pious Christians in the region and religious zealots prayed in the streets about the end times like in past occasions.
Without a possibility to end the conflicts the Emperor had to station his troops in the Gallic region while trying to stop the Slavs from taking the rich agricultural lands of the area and the rebels from gaining the upper hand.
Emperor Makarious died in 736 from a natural death and the electors choose a man from the prestigious Haytili family from Carthage to led the Mediterranean Confederation in these troubling times. That Phoenician family had given some of the best administrative Emperors in the past and because of this the Electors agreed that the only way to stop the wars and save lives was to elect Aylayanheh Haytili the Viceroy of Achaia and one of the most capable nobles in the Confederation and their new ruler.
The first Greek Emperor since the fall of the Empire of Lydia at the start of this part
The Phoenician Period (736-759)
Rule of Aylayaneh Haytili of Carthage 736-740
The first thing Aylayaneh did as Emperor was to pick his battles carefully and send the hired mercenaries to places where he knew he could obtain small but strategic victories, avoiding the mountainous regions were the Raetians were skilled fighters and using every small terrain advantage he had to gain the upper hand and end the disastrous war as fast as he could manage… which he did in a matter of months but the Confederation at large was still suffering from food shortages and bankruptcy.
Wars can destroy your economy, luckily i sent the Mercenaries to weaken the Slavs before getting bankrupted
After signing a peace treaty with the Slavic Kingdom of Raetia he focused on the Independence revolt and was lucky because many of the revolting Viceroys died in the following weeks, with the titles returning to him and the new rulers appointed by him disbanding their armies claiming that the revolt was pointless since it started, the remaining rebels signed a white peace in 737 CE, ending a seven years revolt and bringing peace to the Confederation once again.
This was pure luck, they were at 97% warscore and winning, then their main leaders died and their titles returned to the Emperor, ending the civil war for good.
As the founder of his family once did, Aylayaneh Haytili worked to improve the financial situation of the Confederation and set a trend that would last for at least the next 20 years. He died in 740 CE from a natural death and was succeeded by his son, who was elected to honor the feats of such a good Emperor.
Rule of Maksineh Haytili 740-752 CE
Maksineh greatly improved the economic situation of the Empire but he focused even more on improving and increasing the power of his family on the Confederation, gaining more lands in the Balkans while trying to gain a reputation as a pious man converting the Raetians, thing he achieved in 742 CE.
He created the Viceroyalty of Gallia in 747 CE and gave it to the Galliya to rule, a people who was born from the union of the Gallic tribes who had inhabited the area for centuries with the relatively newly arrived Christian Slavs that came from the east in many migratory waves.
The Galliya have been living in the region for some decades after the first wave of Slavic Migration, but now are part of the Confederation
Maksineh had a successful and peaceful rule but an unknown party tried to assasinate him in 749 CE and he died comatose in bed in 752 CE, his brother Baalshillek succeeded him as ruler of the Mediterranean Confederation
Rule of Baalshillek Haytili 752-759 CE
Baalshillek was a talented administrator and during his short reign he increased the riches of his family and of the Confederation as a whole, creating a system of alliances with the Raetians in the north and with the Armenian Empire and Hunnic Hordes of the east to protect the peace on the Mediterranean.
He was murdered by an unknown perpetrator in 759 CE, some historians agree that another family member lost to history tried to get elected as Emperor by murdering Baalshillek but his plans were frustrated by Balam-Quitzé Q’uk’umatz from the Kingdom of the Frontier, who was elected almost unopposed.
The oldest trick in the book
The Mayan Rivalry (759-772)
Rule of Balam Quitzé III Q’uk’umatz “ The Victorious” (The Frontier) 759-769 CE
For centuries the Mayans had mingled with other peoples of the Mediterranean without problems, but since the Kingdom of the Frontier was created by Emperor Anoki Q’uk’umatz in 610 CE a great division was created amongst the ruling family of the Mayan people. The Q’uk’umatz clan was historically united under a single leader but after the division of the family on two great branches (and a third, still “pagan” and mostly irrelevant, exiled to the Atlantean islands –Madeira, Canarias and Azores of OTL-) the Mayans were politically divided and were becoming bitter rivals over time. The Q’uk’umatz that ruled over Kingdom of the Frontier in the east considered themselves to be the true heirs of Q’uk’umatz and saw themselves as the warriors of the past, and guardians of the military traditions of the family. Meanwhile the Q’uk’umatz rulers of the Kingdom of New Tikal saw themselves as the main branch of the family and saw the participation of their eastern brothers in the Imperial Court as an offense to their honor, the fact that the last Q’uk’umatz Emperors of the Confederation were from the Kingdom of the Frontier made this rivalry even bitter.
Balam-Quitzé III Q’uk’umatz ruled over the strongest version of the Confederation that ever existed, but the most divided one, and even if he tried to rule with a just hand and to appease the Q’uk’umatz of New Tikal it was not sufficient and two equally strong factions aligned with the two Mayan Kingdoms started to compete for power. It was something that maybe always existed in the politics of the Confederation…with the Etruscan and Mayan factions of the past, or the Trade and Conservative factions of the Mayan Empire…but now with one of the most important families waging a political war for dominance the peace of the Confederation was fragile and as the Viceroyalties had become richer and more powerful after the “Phoenician Period” a civil war would be the end of all of them.
Balam Quitzé III died at the young age of 47 due to complications related to gout but his faction claimed that he was murdered by the Q’uk’umatz of New Tikal, not wanting to destroy the Confederation in a bitter civil war in such prosperous times both factions agreed on electing Anoki Q’uk’umatz from the Kingdom of the Frontier as the new Emperor
Rule of Anoki II Q’uk’umatz (The Frontier) 769-772
Emperor Anoki II Q’uk’umatz was the greatest politician on the Mediterranean Confederation; some historians would claim what he, in fact, was the greatest in human history. But even a brilliant man like himself could not see what was about to happen.
Everything started with King Balam-Quitzé of the Kingdom of New Tikal asking the Pope Alexander II for an Ecumenical Council to settle the disputes between what remained of the Maya-Christians that were absorbed by the main Church over the past century and the doctrine of the Church, the Emperor, not wanting to create unnecessary theological tensions in the Confederation agreed.
The Third Ecumenical Council was organized in the city of Rome in 770 CE, in it the Church accepted some of the minor Maya-Christian traditions that not affected the Doctrine of the Church at large and accepted some of the deviations made by the Armenian Church to not create unnecessary tensions between the two major Churches of Christianity.
31 intrigue!, and it happened without me trying to breed him or anything.
After two years Balam-Quitzé of New Tikal asked Pope Alexander II and Emperor Anoki II for another Ecumenical Council, this time to discuss the nature of the power of the Papacy and …the role of the Pope as co-Ruler of the Confederation, the Fourth Ecumenical Council would to be celebrated in Carthage during march of 772...