The Last of the Achaemenids (Megacampaign Part 1)

[Killcrazy13]

The Reign of Tigraios Achaemenid (400 AD – 417 AD)

An excerpt from the treatise “On Imperial Rule” by Bisthanes of Nikaea [1]

It is fitting then to reserve some little space for the life of kings in the past, whether we call it rusticity, or, if you prefer it, simplicity, in that case prodigality and frugality would fittingly be contrasted with one another; and once you had seen these in their naked reality, you would be enamoured of the true beauty of a king, dismissing that which is merely outward appearance and sham.

The one destiny we described in terms of material things for the most part, the other it is not possible to describe in these, and we must obtain it from other sources. Excess of worldly goods does not belong to the second of these lives because it is not striving for them. It would rather be represented by its habits. And yet work advances at once along with the progress of lives that are in conformity with the law of nature.

It is therefore worthwhile to make mention of the character and achievements of a certain king, for any particular story will suffice to draw all others along in its wake. It is told of one of no great antiquity but such a one as even the grandfathers of our own elders might have known if only they had not begotten their children when young, and not become grandparents during the youth of their own children.

It is said, then, that a certain monarch of those days was leading an expedition against the Scythians, [2] who had behaved towards the Persians in a barbaric and insulting manner. Now when they had reached the mountain frontiers of Moesia, before entering the enemy country, he was eager to dine, and gave orders to the army to make use of the provisions in the supply column, as they were now in a position to live off the neighbouring country should it be necessary. He was then pointing out to them the land of the Scythians. Now, while they were so engaged, an embassy appeared from the enemy lines, thinking on their arrival to have the first conversation with the influential men who surrounded the king, and after these with some dependants and gentleman ushers, but supposing that only on a much later day would the king himself give audience to the embassy. [3]

However, it turned out somehow that the king was dining at the moment. Such a thing did not exist at that time as the Immortals’ regiment, a picked force detached from the army itself, of men all young, tall, long-limbed and superb, "their heads ever anointed and their faces fair," equipped with golden shields and golden lances. At the sight of these we are made aware beforehand of the king's approach, much as, I imagine, we recognize the sun by the rays that rise above the horizon. Here, in contrast, every Spada doing its duty was the guard of the king and kingdom. And these kings held themselves in simple fashion, for they were kings not in pomp but in spirit, and it was only within that they differed from other people. Externally they appeared in the likeness of the herd, and it was in such guise, they say, that Tigraios was seen by the embassy. A tunic dyed in purple was lying on the grass, and for repast he had a soup of yesterday's peas, and in some bits of salted pork that had grown old in the service. [4]

Now when he saw them, according to the story, he did not spring up, nor did he change anything; but called out to these men from the very spot and said that he knew that they had come to see him, for that he was Tigraios; and he bade them tell the young king Attila] that very day, that unless he conducted himself wisely, he might expect that the whole of their forest and plain would be in a single month barer than the head of Tigraios. And as he spoke, they say that he took off his cap and showed his head, which was no more hairy than the helmet lying at his side. And he gave them leave if they were hungry to attack the stew-pot with him, but if not in need, he ordered them to depart at once and to leave the Persian lines, as their mission was at an end.

Now it is said that when these messages were reported to the rank and file and to the leader of the enemy, namely all that had been seen and heard, at once – as might have been expected – shuddering and fear fell upon everyone at the thought of fighting men such as these, whose very king was neither ashamed of being king nor of being bald, and who, offering them a stew-pot, invited them to share his meal. And their braggart king arrived in a state of terror and was ready to yield in everything, he of the jewelled armour and crown, to one in a simple woolen tunic and cap. [5]

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[1] Bisthanes (640 AD – 699 AD) was a member of a well-known and rich family of Nikaea, which claimed descent from the half-legendary founders of the city. Educated in Athens, he grew up to be an enthusiastic Neoplatonist. In 671 AD, he was chosen as envoy to the imperial court in Achaemeniyya to deliver the annual tribute and to seek tax remissions for his city and the province. During his time in Achaemeniyya, Bisthanes composed and addressed to the Shahanshah, Orodes IV, a speech entitled “On Kingship” about his learnings on the nature of wise rulership and a bold statement that the throne’s first priority must be protecting its people and remove the influence of evil and strangers. He was railing against the weaknesses of the realm amidst the Muslim invasions that had seen the empire lose significant amounts of territory. This excerpt is a small part that sheds some light on the nature of Tigraios’ rule and his campaign against the Huns.

Bisthanes and Orodes IV, 13th century, artist unknown​

[2] Scythians here refer to the Huns raiding from the Pontic Steppe. By 400 AD, they had begun raiding deep into Moesia, Macedonia and Thrace, sacking cities and ransoming prisoners. Arsaces (the Shahanshah before Tigraos) had been content to pay them of after some initial battles had led to ruinous defeat. Now led by Attila, he proved to be the bane of both the Achaemenids and Romans.

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[3] The embassy of Attila to the field camp of Tigraos is our first detailed description of the Huns. The embassy was described as such: “The Huns rode up with their heads covered by round caps, and their shaggy legs with the skins of kids; their shoes were not made on any lasts, but are so unshapely as to hinder them from walking with a free gait. Their faces bore wrinkled scars; and none among them grew a beard, like eunuchs, though they all have closely knit and strong limbs and plump necks; they are of great size, and bow-legged, so that you might fancy them two-legged beasts. The leader of the group of riders was dressed similarly but even more decorously. The sword he carried at his side, the latchets of his Scythian shoes, the bridle of his horse were adorned with gold and gems.”

[4] While the speech is crafted to carry across Bisthanes’ point on humility, we do know that the framing is not that far from the truth about Tigraios. He was a military man first and foremost. He was originally from the lesser nobility before his adoption and marriage into the Achaemenid family, having served admirably in the army. As mentioned previously, the Great Houses had been kept out of the military and in their place, men like Tigraios built their reputations. Upon his coronation, he made generous donatives to the generals and soldiers to ensure their loyalty and promoted others to high nobility. Aware that the Great Houses were unhappy at the situation, he arranged a complex web of marriages between his generals and eligible noble brides to build a new set of alliances between those who owed him favours and those who sought to regain their old influence.

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This support proved essential when his affair with Rinu Vivanid, a Great House Scion, came to light. Up to that point, the marriage between Tigraios and the Royal Princess Apame bore only daughters. With many demanding a male heir for the throne, the bastard born Darius was quietly accepted as the next Shahanshah.

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[5] This is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Tigraios’ campaign against the Huns lasted several seasons as both sides were unable to land the killing blow in inconclusive battles. During this period, Moesia, Taurica and Colchis were devastated by the fighting and Hunnic slave raids. Previously prosperous trading cities across the Black Sea shrunk into small fortified encampment and refugee shelters around their inner citadels. Finally in 415 AD, Tigraios managed to bring Attila to terms, agreeing a reduction in tribute while ceding Persian territory around Azov and Crimean steppe to the Huns. Tigraios ruled for a relatively short seventeen years and this peace with the Huns is his primary achievement. He would pass on in 417 AD, leaving the throne to his teenage son, Darius II, hoping that the alliances and favour trading he had built up would keep the boy on the throne and continue the line of the Dâmâds.

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[Killcrazy13]

The Reign of Darius II and the 3rd Persian Civil War (417 AD – 476 AD)

Darius II came to the throne as an eleven-year-old teenager. His father had done as much as he could to prepare his son for the trials of ruling but Tigraios’ advancing years limited his mobility and acuity. Initially, it seemed that Darius’ reign would survive his lack of legitimacy – bastard-born and not having a drop of Achaemenid blood. The court and the empire went through the motions, working to maintain stability as barbarian invasions and a poor economy limited the ability of Achaemeniyya to press its authority.

The Empire was recovering unevenly from the plagues and disasters of the last century. Egypt and Thrace seemed to have recovered best and could be said to be prosperous but Asia Minor, Greece and Syria were struggling with poor harvests and a breakdown in trade and communications. With control so weak, many of the governors had begun pushing for a looser relationship with Achaemeniyya and Darius’ advisors, aware of their limited reach, were inclined to accept. The first proposal to be accepted was from Cyrenaica on the African coast but others would follow in his reign. With the semi-independence of Cyrenaica, the Berber client state of Waddan had little reason to maintain ties to Achaemeniyya, ending tribute and support for the throne. In the years of Darius’ regency, other regions such as Syria, Egypt and Paphlagonia would establish their own independent states and limited tribute to the throne.

In Search of Legitimacy

By the time of Darius’ maturity and full accession to his powers, his advisors had made him well aware that his lack of legitimacy in the eyes of many was a grave weakness. Without a direct line to Achaemenid blood and a bastard born, they felt it was a matter of time before another coup or revolt erupted to topple the whole crumbling edifice. So in 424 AD, after scouring through ancient genealogical lists and tracing the lineages of ancient Greek families, the Achaemeniyyan Patriarch declared that Darius’ father, Tigraios, was descended from the line of Alexander through Thessalonike, half sister to the great conqueror. In a grand triumph, Darius Argead marched in procession through the city with the symbol of his new house. He declared that the Achaemenid Empire was now the Argead Empire and that his line would continue for a thousand years and reclaim the old empire of Alexander and Orodes. This was a fatal miscalculation.

The Centre Cannot Hold

With the charade of Darius’ Achaemenid ancestry banished, the last whispers of loyalty to the royal line ended. Now that the Shahanshah admitted that he was no more legitimate than any other non-Achaemenid, every noble house scion felt it was their own chance to grab power. Even worse, Darius had chosen to highlight his Greek lineage. While Greeks and Persians had intermingled for centuries within the empire, with much intermarriage and breaking down of social barriers, to many, the Empire was still Persian in nature and spirit. By choosing to be Greek, Darius had reopened old wounds that had scabbed over in the past centuries. Ethnic violence slowly but surely became more common as imperial partisans supported their Shahanshah or denounced his pretender status.

In 426 AD, Oxyartes Beth Narayan made his play for the empire. From his seat in Jerusalem, the holiest of cities, Oxyartes called his banners to him and convinced most of the empire to his side. Only Macedonia and the cities of the Northern coast of Anatolia supported Darius in the 3rd Persian Civil War. Even formerly loyal client states decided to partake in the great war, hoping to capitalise as the empire tore itself apart. As the sides gathered their forces, Parsa looked on impassively.

The first salvo of the civil war was at sea. The fleet Nava Indiae, loyal to Darius had been forced to evacuate from its docks in the Kemetic client state of Wasset to seek safer harbours. Off the coast of Egypt, Admiral Authophradates Beth Narayan (a rare loyalist from that Great House) and his 135 ships defeated the Egyptian fleet of 114 ships. 136 ships were lost in the battle – a preview of the war's destructiveness on the empire. Even today, you can spot the wrecks of the battle encased in silt at the mouth of the Nile, near Kanopos.

Darius’ first action was to secure his Western flank, seeking to bring loyalist Greeks to his side after he deposed their governors. The battle for Asia could wait. While the campaign for Greece was swift, the threat of Dacia in the North persisted. Defeating the former client state through the immense plains and forest of Pannonia would take decades and Darius would have to leave several expeditionary and mercenary forces to hunt down rogue armies and guerrilla forces. The campaign for Greece had taken two years and significantly boosted the forces Darius could call upon for his campaign for Anatolia.

He had deployed a small force to occupy the usurpers in Anatolia while he focused on Greece and they had some success along the Western coast before retreating from superior forces in the interior. In the meantime, formerly loyal satraps in Moesia and Bithynia broke off, declaring their own independent states. The kingdoms of Odessa and Demos and Themiskyra date their founding from this period, though the last became a nominal title with great prestige after its territories had been reclaimed by the empire.

The fiercest fighting would ensue in Anatolia and Syria, raging for three decades. Initially, the superior numbers of the revolt inflicted several defeats on the loyalist but calling on Greek reinforcements and hiring multiple mercenary armies allowed Darius to match their numbers over time. It now was a war of attrition. Both sides sacked cities mercilessly in search of gold and goods to keep their war effort going. Slowly but surely the forces of Darius slowly pushed the traitor armies back into Syria. Unfortunately, the formerly impassive eastern empire now took this opportunity to capture territory at the expanse of the west. Marching their armies into Caucasus, they sought to claim Sagarejo and its valuable mines for themselves. Forced to split his forces, Darius cursed in anger as victory against the usurpers seemed to be in reach. This war resulted in a Parsan victory as Darius’ troops ran short of supplies and manpower in the high mountain passes of Armenia. This was the first of the many incursions by Parsa into Achaemenid territories during the Civil War. By the end, they had stolen or conquered tributaries to ensure a presence on the Black Sea, the first time the Achaemenid Empire had to deal with enemy navies in these waters in centuries.

In the south, the civil war ground on. Syria and Judea were reduced to a wasteland and bodies from battles were stacked high after every victory or defeat. Neither side could land the knockout blow but like two evenly matched boxers, kept landing blows that slowly bruised and winded their opponents. By the end, both were facing acute manpower shortages and forced to conscript ever younger soldiers. Boys as young as 12 were forced into the armies to march into lands they only knew as legends or tall tales. Finally, after 44 years of fighting, Darius captured, Shapur, the son of the false emperor in Sudanese Wasset after Oxyarthes passed away in 467 AD.

Picking Up the Pieces

It’s impossible to describe the destructiveness of this civil war. Formerly grand cities had been stripped of their riches to pay for the war effort. Bronze statues melted, churches ransacked, ancient shrines defiled, and the countryside razed. An estimated 13 million soldiers died in battle while another 6 million civilians were killed as collateral damage. Overall, it’s estimated that more than half the male population of the empire had passed away in the nearly half-century-long conflict.

Darius had his victory and believed he had restored legitimacy and control to his empire. Now 68 years old, he had spent his entire adult life at war. Scarred by battle, worn down by campaigns and broken by end, Darius would be defeated by an enemy he had no recourse against – cancer. He sought to prepare the way for his indolent son, Tigraios but it was too little, too late to ensure that he was trained for his upcoming duties. Darius had spent too long away and Tigraios was left to his own devices and pleasures in the capital.

The empire was now much reduced from its territorial and economic peak and would lurch into the 6th century as a husk of a corpse riven by factional politics and parasitic noble houses before collapsing alongside the other great empires of antiquity in the century to come. In 476 AD, Darius II would lose his battle with disease and the Argead line would not long survive him.

 

[Killcrazy13]

We've come to the end of the tale of the Achaemenid Empire in the age of antiquity. The next chapter will be up soon in the CK3 forums detailing the fortunes of the Achaemenids and other successor houses as we move into medieval history.

If you have any questions about the nearly 800 years of history detailed above, do let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Thank you all for reading and your enthusiastic support to get me to complete this AAR.

 

[Killcrazy13]

I'll second this request.

It seems like the supporters of Darius chose the wrong appeal to the past. Will "true" Achaemenids succeed the Argeads, or is the title "Achaemenid Empire" more of an artifact than a meaningful name?

How did Rome split in half? Was there something like the Tetrarchy in this universe?

As requested @Midnite Duke @HistoryDude , here's the link to chapter 2. Providing a short prologue in media res in the 10th century before I revisit what happened in the past 400 years since the end of this chapter in 476 AD.

Link to Chapter 2 in CK3:
The Achaemeneh (Achaemenid Megacampaign Part 2)

I'll detail out the changes in Rome in CK3 but the metagame reason is that The Fallen Eagle mod forces some kind of empire split as a decision for the Rome AI so I had to shape the two empires to be semi-logical.