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A Tale of Traitors: Chronicles of the Later Seiani (A WtWSMS Western Roman AAR)

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Chapter XXXIV: The Henotikon​

The East is back at it again; as if we didn’t have enough issues with religious tension outside of our Imperial borders, I find it hard to understand the reason why Emperor Illus has decided to hold the Henotikon, whose preparations began back during Zeno’s reign.

The Henotikon is some kind of religious meeting but before I dig deep into what has shaken the known Nicene world I must request you, dear reader, to not take all I say for truth for I am not a scholar of any kind, I just know how to write. Apparently, the intention of this council much like the one of Nicaea held a hundred years ago is to denounce heresies, but well, you see how good it has worked with Arianism. In this council both Nestorius and Eutychus have been condemned as heresiarchs and their followers; Nestorians and Eutychians respectively have been denounced all around the Eastern Empire. This has also antagonized the Miaphysites and Monophysites, who are a religious majority from Africa to Arabia and conform around a third of the local Eastern Roman population. They see themselves as the last remnant of their own “beliefs” as they are the only ones that haven’t been yet denounced by the Nicene majority. I don’t really have any issues with Miaphysites or Monophysites, as they both recognize Jesus’ and God’s Godliness, and that’s the only thing that matters to me.

The Eastern part of this Empire has always been a mess of heresies and beliefs but I don’t think a council was really necessary to further antagonize all Christians that don’t follow the main religious line. There are currently plenty of Germanic tribesmen awaiting to be converted to the true faith but instead, the fools do nothing but clash with each other, ignoring Christ's biblical plea of peace between brethren.

Reactions to this address have immediately followed and Niketas Heraclius, Hellenistic Exarch of Pontus, has proclaimed himself as the legitimate religious head and has risen up against Illus, and under his cause almost the entirety of the Balkans and Cappadocia have rallied tens of thousands of men. Curiously enough, the Monophysites and Miaphysites haven’t taken arms yet, hoping that a quiet peace can be achieved.

No part will have any of it.

Meanwhile, here in the West, Emperor Romulus has promulgated the Religious Tolerance Law, which allows almost any kind of belief whose focus is put in God and Jesus to roam freely and meet all across the empire, with no reprisals permitted. Perhaps one day all of us, Romans, Pagans, Nicenes and Monophysites, will be able to live together under a common goal: To hoist the Eagle Standard everywhere we go!
 
Emperor Romulus Augustus is wise. Ilus isn’t.

Don’t antagonize half (or more) of your population!
 
Chapter XXXV: A quiet trip through Etruria​

Today there’s something different happening, something that will surely break the absolute monotony that has been bothering my mind these past few months. It’s not me who wants war or violence, but I’m kind of getting bored of so much peace. The Eastern Roman Empire is now getting all the attention from local historians and religious men and meanwhile I’ve got nothing here. You see, writers must live off of writing, but what if there’s nothing to write about? My “De Bellum Thuringicum” certainly did earn my pocket some gold coins, but a big part of it is long gone. What will I write about: Flowers and peasants?

For this exact reason I have convinced a small part of the court at Florentia to go visit the place they rule. The court is almost always stuck behind the walls of the same, although beautiful, city, and surely a change of airs is good for onseself. You don’t often get to the rank of Governor nor do you manage to live at the Governor’s home so why not take advantage of it? Won’t Decimus want to know what the nobles do when he’s not around? How are the commoners profiting from the good crops? Which exact regions are better to take a defensive position on and which ones are better to just charge straight into battle?

Well, he surely must have wanted to know the answer of at least one of those because he is now leading the retinue. Of course, this is no warband nor retreating foe so the pace is slower than if we were to fight off hordes of bandits or deserters.

A week later:

It’s been an extremely long but pleasant week, and I can barely feel my poor feet but I really think it was something we had to do. In other news, we’ve come across a dead body right outside Pistorium, a city, curiously, that hasn’t seen any fighting in the last twenty years. It seemed quite recent and the man was clearly carrying a sword and wearing a Roman soldier’s helmet. Bishop Honorius, the religious head of our retinue, suggested that he was one of those deserters that had escaped conscription long ago, back when joining the military meant definite death in exchange of absolutely no gain for the Empire, but I’m fairly certain that his corpse was far more recent. It seemed to me as if a settling of scores had taken place between rich men from the near area and that the poor comitatensis was just a side victim. I’ve seen plenty of those at Florentia and can recognize one when I see it.

What I find curious of this occurrence though, as finding a body is nothing new for the times we must live in and truly I was not expecting to write anything that deserved to be mentionable of this small trip, is what happened next. Decimus decided to set camp outside of Pistorium, instead of going inside, and give the poor man a proper burial, and following the building of a small wooden palisade our small unit went directly to sleep. A group of most loyal soldiers were guarding the settlement when Decimus, whom we had heard snore from tens of passuums away, suddenly left his tent and without saying anything began counting his steps. Then, as if possessed, he stopped under an old apple tree and dug out with his bare hands some kind of pottery full of coins from the time of the Republic. They were nothing really expensive and they were only worth the metal they were made of, but when questioned about how he knew the location of such a rare find, he simply shrugged it off and thanked a friend of his for telling him. I haven’t seen Decimus meet any of his known friends for a long time so I really don’t know what to think about it. Had he received a letter I didn’t know of? Was the dead man a friend of his? Was I being made fun of?

He also noted that said friend had warned him for things to come, but I really don’t know what he’s speaking about, there’s nothing to be afraid of right now. Etruria is, and has always been, a safe haven from this hellish world we must live in.
 
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Well, this chapter had some foreshadowing...

Decimus is exploring his realm... Good, good...

I wonder if the dead man will be important later?
 
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Chapter XXXVI: Pompeyan Vandals​
Well, there goes the peace and who else to blame than those damned Vandals. They didn’t have enough with taking the islands of the Mediterranean sea that they now want to rob the south of our country. Using his base at Panormus as a jumping point, Thrasamund, the son of the Vandal king Gentus, has begun raiding our coastline and much like Sextus Pompey during the times of the Second Triumvirate, he has now imposed a naval blockade so that nothing can enter or leave via sea. Not like the East was going to send us anything, they are still embroiled in their own petty squabbles, but well, food is still welcome nonetheless, and now the Imperial army must chastise a scoundrel for his unwise actions. Much like his Republican counterpart, Thrasamund received a no for answer to his demand of gold, and as such, promised the Roman emissaries that he would get revenge on the people his father and ancestors had already punished. He is… not completely wrong, I must grant him that, but this Empire is one much different than the one his grandfather encountered.

The Roman Navy is nothing to be proud of, and that’s a fact that not even Emperor Romulus wants to admit. For this reason, it is very unlikely that a Second Battle of Zama will take place in the ancient Carthaginian heartland. Instead, it is time for us to fight in the defensive and simply cross the strait from Italia into Sicily while keeping an eye on the entire coastline; just in case.

Of course, the second Decimus arrived home from our small trip he was overwhelmed by the amount of emissaries he had received directly from the Emperor. Flavius Orestes, the Emperor’s father, has completely abandoned politics ever since his son’s ascension and has instead retired to a private villa in the inner mountains of the peninsula, far away from all civilisation. I sometimes envy his decision, but well, someone will have to risk their life to write the unbiased stories of the Seiani, and I don’t see Decimus learning to write any day soon.

Returning back to topic though, the Vandals were already knocking on the peninsular door when Decimus got wind of what was going on. He quickly rallied the men of Tuscany that he had just had the opportunity to personally review, and followed by Ennodius Domitianus and Publius Sempronius, the brother of his most loyal subject the Comes of Saena Iulia, he led one of the many contingents of the reinvigorated armies into battle. Of course, I was going along, I wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.

The army first reagrupated at Urbs Vetus, not far away from Rome, should the Vandals attempt to emulate Hannibal and break into the ancient city. Of course, this time a breakthrough into the still razed walls would mean almost nothing, as all symbolic and historical meaning for the city had been lost in the previous centuries.
 
Ah, Orestes is enjoying the good life...

Wait, Decimus is illiterate? Or is that an exaggeration?
 
HistoryDude said:
Wait, Decimus is illiterate? Or is that an exaggeration?
Click to expand...
Possibly an exaggeration made by the writer, but it could mean that he was not good enough to do such a chronicle.
 
Chapter XXXVII: Deception Tactics​

Well, it’s been already two months since the campaign officially began and guess what the entire Roman army has been doing in this entire time: That’s right, chase a ghost.

Two months ago, while still settled outside of Urbs Vetus awaiting the enemy, our leadership got wind that a small cohort of Vandal troops had landed at Rhegium and that they had ransacked the possessions of Artemiodorus Nicomactix, the Gallic governor of the peninsula. Our units, of course, were immediately sent to deal with the menace but not everyone moved there, just in case it was a small attempt to divert and separate our forces. We still outnumber their supposed unit around three to one so they can’t be much of a threat for a well organized troop.

We thought that the foe would manage to hide less than a week or two since our arrival at the scene, but that was just in the very beginning. After a month had passed we began to even believe in the existence of the Vandal cohort. Everywhere our unit went we were told that they had just been there, sometimes buying food and resources, sometimes plundering towns and sometimes simply resting, but we never got to fight them. Our units weren’t even attacked. No guerrilla warfare, no ambushes, no nothing, they wanted to make us believe that the entire thousand men group was going completely mad.

Of course, seeing our “ineptitude” when dealing with such a small but mobile force, Clementius Anthemiolus, Tribune Palatine of the Imperial Armies, decided to abandon his entrenched position at the Ravenna-Florentia line and simply go all in and support our ghost-hunting quest. Of course, the second his two thousand men strong army left the zone, the Vandals, who surely must have spies infiltrated in the army, immediately invaded the Ravenna area and advanced towards the inner part of the country.

Decimus’ unit, of course, is still busy in the south, as we are currently searching for the intangible army in Beneventum, having heard that they are still going south once again. May God stop them any day soon.
 
Well, the Vandals know that their forces are outmatched, so this is a good strategy...

Perhaps an offensive war of revenge against them is in order a few years after this is finished?
 
HistoryDude said:
Perhaps an offensive war of revenge against them is in order a few years after this is finished?
Click to expand...
This war is, in fact, offensive, but I know Romans liked justifying all their war as "defensive" so I just may have biased the writer a bit. Even Iulius Caesar did it so we can pardon him for that.
 
Chapter XXXVIII: Paternal mischiefs​

The most feared day has finally arrived; I really thought it would actually never happen but it has indeed happened for I’m holding right now in my right hand a letter that confirms the biggest of Decimus’ fears. The Vandals have begun pillaging my kinsman’s governorate, stealing the supplies of the wealthiest of the territories in the entirety of the Empire and killing the people we just visited less than half a year prior. Unlike his Thuringian counterpart, King Gentus is no fool and he knows where the real money is, can’t blame him for that. Now, needless to say, he is going to pay the price most possibly with his own life. We can only hope really.

Of course, this is a war caused by his second son, who is the leader of the entire Sicilian island, so although in the beginning the High Command, led by Emperor Romulus himself, thought that this would be a duel between unequal forces; those of the entire Empire and those of the Vandal Sicilian holdings, King Gentus has apparently been requested assistance and well, even though Thrasamund isn’t the heir to the Vandal throne, there’s no way a father would say no to a son. Especially when that father is an expert soldier that has fought both in the continent and in the hot desertic areas of Africa.

This invading army has divided itself into two sections. The smallest one, led by the Vandal King himself, has remained in the Ravenna area should any victories lead to a meeting between both Heads of State and in the meanwhile they get to ransack some more wealthy lands.

As I mentioned before, the second Vandal horde is plundering the area around Luca, the northernmost territory of Etruria, where we curiously found the body that warned Decimus of incoming war. Was it a coincidence? Believing so would be believing in myths and ghostly rumours, which goes against the Biblical Script, but I can’t be certain of anything at this point.

The man leading the assault at the gates of the city is none other than Hilderic Hasdingi, nephew of King Gento and grandson of the famous and prestigious Emperor Valentinianus the third of his name. How did this happen? Well, the daughter of the former emperor was married to the old Vandal King at the time, Huneric, to ensure that no further attacks came from the new Vandalic homeland, and although being thirty years of age apart, they were able to sire a child: Hilderic. He is now around twenty years old and currently fighting his mother’s people. Oh if Flavius Aetius woke from his unknown tomb and saw what men like him were doing to the people swore to protect…
 
It seems as if our chronicler is having a crisis of faith. He’s an interesting character. Did we ever get a name for him, by the way?

The Emperor is attempting to reconquer Sicilia, then?
 
Chapter XXXIX: Sicilian Expedition​

We’re not having the best of luck here in the south; the ghost cohort is still at large, still haunting the dreams and reality of everyone in the tip of Italy, including us, and we fear they might escape back to their island safe and sound with a bounty twice the size of their army.

The reason we’re not going north, even though the biggest armies are located there is because we’ve got an even bigger unit there that doesn’t really require Decimus’ assistance. I know they’re ransacking Decimus’ property but it’s not like they’re sieging Florentia or something like that so as long as Decimus believes Sertorius to be safe behind the renovated walls we’re staying south.

A week later:
Well, we’ve finally gotten a real description and location of the Vandal cohort. unluckily for us they’ve crossed back to their island, and our leadership has no real intention to launch a campaign, but being Decimus the “legendary hero” everyone believes he is, he can really do as he pleases. The main Vandal forces are stuck up north so he will attempt to cross the strait and crush the invader, even if it is just a small part of its army. As I have mentioned several times before, a war cannot be won simply by obliterating an exact amount of troops, it takes time and the constant effort of an army. And that’s what we’re going to do.

Decimus also hopes that this way he will have enough time to take Panormus or Messana, the two biggest cities of the island before King Gentus’ winded veteran barbarian units come crashing onto us.

May God concede us a quick and safe victory, with small casualties and many stories to tell in the future.
 
Decimus is very famous in universe, I take it? Also, having a vassal with more prestige than you probably makes you uncomfortable... so is Emperor Romulus going to attempt to reign Decimus in?
 
Chapter XL: Maioricus, Dux and Legend​
I don’t do this very often but just this once, I’ll let the protagonist of this Chronicle be another man that’s not Decimus, for the deeds he has done in the past few days make him worthy of being remembered by future enemies or friends.

The name is Maioricus Silingi, member of a secondary lineage of the Vandal nobility. I don’t really know much about his beginnings, but from what I’ve seen, such battle qualities aren’t learned in a day, or in a year, or in ten years. This man has been the
leader of the Ghost Cohort I’ve been speaking about for many days, the one I begun to think was invisible and a punishment sent by God for some reason. Truly, behind those few hundreds of men there must have been someone extremely skilled to lead them through unknown enemy land without getting captured or defeated once, and without loosing a single man in the process.

That man has been Maioricus and I got to meet him, although from a safe distance, when both armies finally met in battle right at the beaches of Taormina, at the northernmost point of the island of Sicily. I’ll attach a drawing of his face right at the end, although as I said it will not be very precise as I was far away hidden behind some rocks drawing as fast as I could.

The area of Taormina, for those who don’t know or have never been there, is one of many hills but no trees or anything, just a muddy, hilly terrain, wet from the Winter rain and crowned with some snow at the top. Dux Maioricus had apparently had some delaying issues with the ships he used to cross the strait and when he saw our small but stronger navy crossing the sea he knew there was no escape this time.

He decided to battle in better terms for his men and so, quickly retreated westward to a small ridge to cover himself while the soldiers prepared a small palisade made of rocks and pikes. He knew nobody would come save him, as both Thrasamund, the de facto leader of the entire island and Thomas, the Graeco-Vandalic leader of Messana were both away from their posts, dealing with their own issues up in Italy.

When our units disembarked unopposed Decimus called his small group of bodyguards, the only ones with horses, to go around Maioricus’ position to make him believe we were to encircle him. We had no intention, of course, as encircling him would mean stretching our lines too thin and making our 3 to 1 advantage futile, but a general lacking experience, doesn’t really matter if he is Barbarian or Roman, wouldn’t have noticed it. He chose, instead to let Decimus’ bodyguards get as close as they pleased and as one of them said, even greeted them with a shout in Latin. He of course, refused to surrender and be captured, so the fight had to go on.

Now knowing that he wasn’t dealing with an unprofessional, barely recruited army Decimus charged in full force against the entrenched enemy. Unlike what had happened to us in Libarno many years ago, which still has me scarred to this day, Maioricus had nowhere to flee, not even houses to hide in, so really his fort of stone was quickly overwhelmed. Their small band of archers swiftly picked some of our men one by one as a formation was hard to organize when the enemy was so close, but in the end we got them cornered against their own stone wall. They fought to the last men and although Maioricus attempted to make one last charge against our center, which had been the most weakened by the now dead archers, he was stabbed with a pike and killed, as almost all of his men.

The Dux of Carthage had fallen, and with him, all Vandal authority on the island of Sicily had been defeated. Those barbarians may hide behind their walls, but we’ve got all the time in the world to crack them.
 
Looks like Sicily is finally giving way.

Unfortunately, the Vandals in Italy still need to be dealt with. Allowing them to vandalize Italia (again) could be disastrous.
 
This is an important step.
 
Chapter XLI: North and South​

So, while Decimus’ units fought bravely down in Sicily, what was the far superior Roman army doing in the north? Well, apparently absolutely nothing, in fact, they didn’t even stay in the north. Not to sound biased to my kin, but the second neither Decimus nor his trusted comitis-friends were in command the armies just returned back to the state they were back during Iulius Nepos’ Italian collapse: Inefficient, ill-led and wandering like a headless chicken.

Once Decimus and his Umbrian-Tuscan units had left the defensive positions of the center to catch the already dead Ghost unit, Clementius, the Tribune Palatine and overall commander of the Roman Armies, decided to follow our path for his glory’s sake and attempt to seize the holdings of Sicily for himself and his men. Six thousand men, completely ready to kick away the invade from Decimus’ homeland, wasted down south where our much more mobile army could have easily and quickly swept the remaining fortresses. But instead what we got were supply issues and lack of communications, because getting almost ten cohorts of men across the straits to Sicily is nothing of ease. It requires an immense amount of coordination and infrastructure that the absolutely relegated south of the peninsula doesn’t have.

To protect the defensive line of Florentia-Ravenna that the army had been organizing for the past six months Clementius left a group of around two thousand Thuringians, whose king was immediately called to help their Roman masters the second the first clashes began. Of course, I don’t really know what the Palatine was thinking but he must have been delusional, for he thought that a unit of decimated barbarians could really hold the line against the Royal units of King Gentus, battle-hardened in the desert for years.

The Thuringian units, hunger-stricken, scared and fighting in unfamiliar lands, could do nothing but retreat between defeat and defeat, losing tens of their men in each encounter. I can’t do anything but feel pity for them. We killed their most brave men in our own war only for the weakest of them to be slain by their Germanic brothers in a war they shouldn’t be fighting.

On the other hand, they messed with the wrong people and now they’re getting double the punishment. Is it excessive? Absolutely. But even the strongest pacifist must concede that we can’t deny the chaos they’ve caused in the northern provinces.
 
Well, it looks like the Western Roman Emperor needs to keep his vassals in line, or there won’t be an empire...
 
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