Aitolos: Of Despots and Dictators

[The Valkyrier]

Prologue

The "story of" parts are from english wikipedia and from my memory of my history classes. They aren't meant to be historically correct but rather give you a slight understanding on the background, if you don't know it already.


The story of the Aetolian League.
The Aetolian League was a confederation in ancient Greece, with it's seat in Delphi, and with a strong position in the region known as Aetolia. It was established in 370 BC in opposition to Macedon and the Achaean League.

The Aetolians were not highly regarded by other Greeks, who considered them to be barbaric and reckless. However their league had a complex political and administrative structure, and their armies were easily a match for the other Greek powers.
The Aetolian League was known for its warlike tendencies, it was viewed as one of the most lawless and violent Greek states in the Hellenistic world, known for piracy and similar activities. The armed forces of the Aitolian League are peculiar as compared to other Greek states in the fact they barely used at all any mercenaries, in fact it was more likely for Aetolian to be exported abroad as mercenaries. Aetolian cavalry was more easily available in larger numbers than the infantry due to the fact that it was supplied by the rich and by the nobles.

The story of Aitolos.
Aitolos (latin Aetolus) was a son of Endymion and a nymph. His father decided that he and his two brothers were to have a contest at Olympia, with the winner becoming the heir to his kingdom. Epeius, the eldest of Aitolos brothers, won and occupied the throne after his father had died. When in turn both brothers died they were succeeded by Aitolos. During a race which were held in honor of Azan he ran his chariot over Apis, son of Jason and killed him. He was then banished from Pelopunnesus and fled to the land of the Curetes tribe where he slew their king and gave the contry the name of Aetolia.

The story of the Oracle.
Delphi is perhaps best-known for the oracle at the sanctuary that became dedicated to Apollo during the classical period. The priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia. Apollo spoke through his oracle, who had to be an older woman of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area. The sibyl or prophetess took the name Pythia and sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth. When Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, according to legend, and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied.

Introduction.
I am Aitolos, and this is the story of my people. The people of Aetolia, the people of Elláda. The people that bear my name with pride, that does not give in to words nor weapons, the people of many talents. Throughout history despots and dictators have risen and fallen, have build and destroyed. But the Aetolians have never been interested in the affairs of these people. The Aetolians only interest is the welfare of their brothers and sisters. It is the nobles and most kind people that has ever walked this earth. But do not mistake them for fools, for if you betray them or treat them unjust they will never forget nor forgive. With this said I will tell you the story of incredible deeds, of heroic victories and of epic fails.

Current rulers titles:
First citizen of Delphi, Lord Archon of the seven cities and it's people, Ruler of all Hellas, protector of Elláda. Son of Apollo, the sun god and heir to Aitolos, the kingslayer.

Current Ruler:
Dorimachus

Wars:
War of unification: 474-500 (Macedonian war 474-75, The traitors war 475-76, Achean war 477, Spartan war 478, Ilyrian war 483-86 Thracian war 486, Second Macedonian war 489-90, Epirean war 493, First Roman war 493-99, Third Macedonian war 500)

Chapter One - From League to Nation:
The chronicles of Dorimachus, son of Apollo - pt. 1
The chronicles of Dorimachus, son of Apollo - pt. 2
The Unification of Hellas - pt. 1
The Unification of Hellas - pt. 2

 

[Coinneach]

heres to an aetolian empire upon with the sun never sets good luck, will be watching

 

[The Valkyrier]

Chapter One - From League to Nation
The chronicles of Dorimachus, son of Apollo - Pt. 1
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --


WAR! screamed Dorimachus.

- War with me? I am Archon of the seven cities, first citizen of Delphi and commander of the armies of the Aetolian Leauge. They wan't war with me? They wish to mock Apollo? They wish to battle the people of Aitolos, the man who killed the last king of Curetes? If they want war then war we will bring them! By my fathers spirit I will not rest before the Macedonian cities lie beneath my feet.

- But we don't have enough men to arm! We don't have enough gold to buy illoyal enemies with! We do not have enough food to support an army of that size! The cowardly Traitorus, eternal leader of the opposition, had spoken.

Once again Dorimachus voice echoed in the hall like the thunder of Zeus.
- We do not need men to arm, for we have the gods on our side. We do not need any gold to corrupt the enemy with for when they see us they will flee. We do not need any food to give the soldiers for the pride and honor of serving Apollo will be enough to keep them warm at night and eager to fight at day.

First rose the Spartan councillor. He drew his sword and held it with both hands hight over his head. Then rose Athens and Tegea. And then Elis, Messene and Amphissa. The council had agreed. Traitorus silently left the room through the back door, giving Dorimachus the evil eye.

With a heavy heart Dorimachus marched his army of 7000 Militia men out of Delphi, toward Argolis. He knew that they would stand no chance against the Macedonian army, so instead he planned on circling around the enemy along the east and take Pella, while the enemy was still sieging Delphi, and force the Macedonian king to give up the regions bordering Aetolia. Dorimachus knew that his biggest enemy here was time, and not the Macedonian army. He would need to take control of 3 regions before Aetolia was subjugated. He had brought stone from Achaea and he had made sure that the citizens of the league would resists until and even after the city walls were razed, he made them swear an oath to defend their home, it was their civic duty.

9 months after the march from home he had managed to conquer Argolis, Thessaly and he was almost in reach of Pella, the capital of Macedon. Back home the enemy's fighting spirit had been broken for when they attacked the walls of Delphi it was like waves hitting the rocks on the shore. The city stood there like nothing had happened.

As soon as the king saw Dorimachus army he tried to flee, but alas he was captured and was not only forced to accept, but also forced to suggest the most humiliating peace treaty in the history of Greece. Dormachus had defeated an overwhelming force with only 7000 militia men at his disposal. Now he would surely return home as a hero.

Upon his return to Delphi he was expecting to be greeted as the conqueror he was, but the city gates remained closed. Traitorus had taken over the city and was de facto Archon of the league. Furious over the betrayal Dorimachus ordered his remaining forces to attack. The city which the Macedonians hadn't been able to take in over 10 months now fell to Dorimachus men in less than an hour. Inside the city loyal citizens had occupied the temple of Apollo and through the western gate Dorimachus could enter the city. The populist forces were quickly there, setting up a 4 line defense with heavy infantry to fight off Dorimachus poorly armed militia, and they would have succeeded, but they were too afraid of Apollo cursing them so they dared not enter the temple armed. Dorimachus however marched a small portion of his forces right trough, taking the priests out with him on the other side. He killed the enemy commanders and then made the priests form a protective circle around him and his men, effectively disuading any potential attacker. One hour later, in the forum of the city, the Oracle told an ecstatic crowd that Dorimachus was the one and only Archon of Delphi, and that anyone who dared try and unlawfully take Delphi again would bring down the wrath of the gods.

The city was safe, for now, even though Traitorus had escaped. Dorimachus was once again Archon of the seven cities and life in Aetolia was good.

 

[The Valkyrier]

Chapter One - From League to Nation
The chronicles of Dorimachus, son of Apollo - Pt. 2
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The 475 citizenship reform Dorimachus persuaded the council vote trough enabled free men to buy citizenship in the one of the seven cities they lived in, or the one closest to where they lived. As long as they signed a 7 leaves long agreement, and payed a sum of gold, which depended on their relation with the magistrate and of course what mood he was in, the citizenship was theirs. The agreement, among other things, included the following:
"Defend the league, it's allies and it's Archon even if it could cause personal tragedy or death."
and
"On death, without any lawful male child, all belongings can and will be apprahended by the seven cities"

This extended the Leagues power even further, and that was in direct conflict with the populists who wanted to give more power to the city-states. This of course caused an even greater uproar among the populists, even though you had to be a citizen to vote the populists drew their support among the urban plebs.
Of course the son of a god could not have made a mistake, in fact it was his intention to make the populists angry. He wanted to spill the blood of Traitorus and he wanted back the full control of the council.

June 4th 476: Traitorus has taken control of the Argolis region. The news spread rapidly in the League and a lot of councilors mysteriously "dissapear", only to join the rebellion. The populists power is cut down to half, but they still have almost as many seats as the other factions put together.

From the writings of Agelaus of Naupactus.
The battle was to take place on an open field outside Traitorus capital, Athens. Dorimachus legendary 7000 men were in good mood the night before the battle. The warcamp looked just as much like a temple yard as a provisional group of tents; Priests were chanting & blessing the soldiers and ceremonies and offerings to Apollo could be seen everywhere. The soldiers ate well and they drank well and then Dorimachus held an inflaming speech. He told them of the capture of the king of Macedon. He told them of the battle of Delphi between his & Traitorus forces. He told them Traitorus commited Hubris and that his life was to be ended, and that they had been chosen by the gods for that task. He reminded them of the Oracle whom had made clear that anyone who dared question the righteous rule of the Archon would bring the wrath of Apollo.

The battle was short and bloody, whomever commanded the rebel forces was outmanouvered by Dorimachus men and after just 2 hours the battle had ended. After a couple of days Athens was taken and the leaders of the rebellion executed. However things did not settle. Dorimachus term was soon to be over, with no more than a year left, and the populist leader Selagus Zagreid still had the power in the senate. Dorimachus now saw his chance to save the country. He mrached back to Delphi, put a soldier in every corner of every building, occupied the council hall and imprisoned Zagreid. The council (exept the populists of course) was begging Dorimachus to do something, to end the misery the League was in.

So on the January 27th, 477 Dorimachus was sworn in by the Oracle as First citizen of Delphi, Lord Archon of the seven cities and it's people, Ruler of all Hellas, protector of Elláda. Son of Apollo, the sun god and heir to Aitolos, the kingslayer.
Traitorus, who had managed to escape Athens but gotten captured trying to flee to Achaea, was beheaded in front of a cheering crowd.
The city celebrated for 7 days (which was a good time for Dorimachus to round up the rest of his opponents since the plebs were too drunk to notice) and life in Aetolia was good.

 

[Coinneach]

holy zeus's bollocks! 93 populists? you'd think that kicking some barbarian macedonian arse would be populist enough well done with the war though, next stop, Babylon! :rofl:

 

[Enewald]

I hate populists. Every event gives them power, or just gives them more power after they get to power.

Well done!
This is just like the Granada aar by Monnikje on eu3 forum. The castillians besiege Granada for years while his cavalry marches around spain conquering forts.

 

[unmerged(109735)]

So it seems you have a taste for playing Greek minors. You are off to a good start again, Macedon was certainly the biggest threat around and knocking them down a notch early on was certainly a good strategy. You should now be able to achieve comfortable dominion over all of Greece before any of the really big powers come knocking on Aetolia's door.

 

[The Valkyrier]

holy zeus's bollocks! 93 populists? you'd think that kicking some barbarian macedonian arse would be populist enough well done with the war though, next stop, Babylon! :rofl:

with only 1 region war exhaustion grew very quickly. Thats the hardest thing I've found when playing tiny nations. If the enemy's armies doesn't kill you then rebels (in a republic) or rioters (in a despotism) will.

 

[The Valkyrier]

Chapter One - From League to Nation
The Unification of Hellas - pt. 1
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

With the council under control the situation quickly stabilized. Dorimachus now turned his head toward Acheae - their mortal enemy. In a decisive campign during the summer months the Achean League was crushed. About a year later the proud warriors of Sparta were subjugated. The people of Delphi were cheering their leader like never before. Dorimachus used this situation to make his son the heir to the throne (before the law said that in case of Dorimachus death the League would elect it's dictator), a decision which had nearly no effect on his popularity at all.

To the common citizen or soldier Dorimachus was more his father than he was a man. There wasn't any opposition to him at all anymore, at least not publicly.

With Sparta concuqered, the whole of Peloponnese was now under Aetolian control, meaning that the south was secured and that he only had to protect one border now. Dorimachus started building up his armies for the first time since the Macedonian wars, with the queues outside the recruitment offices being hour long. And so in May 483 he had a total of 21,000 well trained men ready to march to war.

Illyria might have looked intimidating on a map at the time, but with the pressure of such a large army it collapsed like a house of cards. Dorimachus knew that the Macedonians was higly uncooperative with their new ruler, and that they would much rather be allied with the League than having a foreign king rule them. He also knoew the provinces of Ditones, Agrianes, Moesi, Dardania, Paeonia and Maedi were all newly colonized and would not be able to resist. Dorimachus moved swiftly across the plains and hills of Illyria, taking it city by city. He faced the army of Illyria, not even half the size of his. After three years of fighting Illyria was totally broken, and the peace left the kingdom only with it's capital region. Only 2 months later, in october 486, Dorimachus started yet another war. This time against the tribes of Thracia, and they were annexed before winter had come.

In 488 Dorimachus allied himself with Cyrenaica, a newly formed greek kingdom that broke away from Egypt, who had been plauged by a war with Carthage & the Selucids and on top of that now was in the middle of a civil war. The League now focused on building a strong navy, and in 490 the island of Crete, which was under the rule of Macedonia, was integrated into the League.
491 the last area's of Illyria were captured, together with Apu, which had been controlled by Dacia. 493 saw the end of the despotism of Epirus when it was annexed, and it's king and all his relatives executed.

Greece was unified, and life was good.

 

[The Valkyrier]

Chapter One - From League to Nation
The Unification of Hellas - pt. 2
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Dorimachus creation of a Greek state was however not appreciated by everyone. Across the adriatic sea the Roman senate had been watchin and now fellt threatened that someone could be more imperialistic than themselves. The annexation of Epirus, which was more or less a puppet state of Rome since the end of the Pyrrhic war, was too much for Rome to ignore.

At the beginning of the war Rome was winning. They invaded Dalmatae in November 493, quickly taking Scodra, Ditones and Agrianes. Meanwhile in southern Greece the Aetolian fleet, consisting of more than 30 ships set sail with an army of 15 thousand led by a young Stratos named Arganos Peneid onboard. They attacked Tarentum in January 494.

The most famous battle of the war was that of Agrianes, 5 February 494. Even though Dorimachus was forced to retreat it was still, at the end of the day, a winning battle. He managed to kill almost ten times as many as he lost, even though the enemy outnumbered him in thousands. This battle was the turn of the tide, with the Roman invasion force destroyed Dorimachus marched to the northwest, around the venettian bay, this way Rome was forced to fight two fronts: Dorimachus in the north and Peneid in the south. In march the fleets clashed in the Terentine bay, when the Roman fleet tried to blockade the port of Tarentum from recieving reinforcements from Greece. In command of the Aetolian fleet was Admiral Eumydes, who had 10 more ships than Rome and could easily win.

In 499, after 6 years of fighting, a peace treaty was signed, where Rome ceded the Greek colonies in the south and the area's around them.

Greece and it's vincinity as of January 1st, 500 AVC. The Macedonian islands were annexed a few months later.

Later the same year Dorimachus only son died at an age of 12, which led to a rather long period of instability, especially in the council. The debate of who was going to succeed Dorimachus in the event of his death was going back and forth, while the Archon himself had not leaved the temple in two months. Peneid was in the meantime acting Archon but was unable to control the animals in the council hall and the situation was getting very bad very fast. In September Dorimachus at last emerged together with the Oracle, announcing that his eldest child, the daughter Aspacia, age 24, would from now on be his heir. This caused an uproar in the Council, but among the plebs this was good news since Aspacia had been visiting the seven cities a lot, attending festivals and ceremonies while her father was out fighting some enemy.

Once again Aetolia had an heir, and life was good.

 

[Enewald]

Ohho, now there are three big republics around mediterranean!
Qart Hadascht, SPQR, and the Seven Hills of Aetolia.

Nice nice!

And evil imperialism!

 

[The Valkyrier]

I'm suspending this AAR until a fix for the hier's chance of death that is compatible with save-games is released. Currently it's not working very well. All 4 children are dead and at least 10 non-family heirs have been killed in less than 5 years. I'll reroll the AAR to when my last post was made, when Aspacia was still alive. I hope it won't take all too long.

 

[Enewald]

Isn't the one on modification forum compatible with savegames?

 

[The Valkyrier]

Isn't the one on modification forum compatible with savegames?

Currently no, and that sux cus I've installed it and it works great, so it would be very cool if it could be made to work with vanilla saves.

 

[Enewald]

Well, you could just edit the events manually to fire less often.
Just put a dozen zeros behind the mean time to happen.

 

[The Valkyrier]

Well, you could just edit the events manually to fire less often.
Just put a dozen zeros behind the mean time to happen.

I'd rather play the game is it's intended to be played and I generally don't use mods. If the unofficial hotfix had worked with saves I'd have used it since (hopefully) the person that made it has also spent some time in balancing it. Doing it myself will feel like cheating ruin my gameplay.

 

[Enewald]

I'd rather play the game is it's intended to be played and I generally don't use mods. If the unofficial hotfix had worked with saves I'd have used it since (hopefully) the person that made it has also spent some time in balancing it. Doing it myself will feel like cheating ruin my gameplay.

And your gameplay won't be ruined when all the heirs of every monarch die less in a month?
There can be no dynasties, only monarchs which can not be inherited. Usually they were guarded better and the guards didn't let events pass them.

 

[The Valkyrier]

And your gameplay won't be ruined when all the heirs of every monarch die less in a month?
There can be no dynasties, only monarchs which can not be inherited. Usually they were guarded better and the guards didn't let events pass them.

Indeed that will ruin gameplay as well, and thats why Im suspending the AAR and playing the hotfix until it's made vanilla compatible or an official patch comes along

 

[Coinneach]

AFAIK the problem is an event which fires too often, so why not simply edit the event to something balanced - i.e. make it less likely to happen, but when it does happen trigger a succession crisis event or something?

 

[The Valkyrier]

AFAIK the problem is an event which fires too often, so why not simply edit the event to something balanced - i.e. make it less likely to happen, but when it does happen trigger a succession crisis event or something?

If someone want to put time into that, I'll be very happy. I have 0 skill in modding games though, even if it's a game as mod-friendly as EU.
However I don't want to "just add lots of zero's" to make the game more to my liking.