[PREVIEW] Pax Romana Nomadic Tribes/African Kingdom

[Emperor Caesar]

The playable Nomadic tribes have always been a pestilence to the Roman empire, ever-moving and and ever-changing. They are superior cavalrymen, better than the Sassanids some say. They speak Iranian languages and are branches of the ancient Sarmatian people.


Roxolani

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The Roxolani were a Sarmatian people, who are believed to be an offshoot of the Alans, although according to Strabo they were the most remote of Scythian peoples. Ruxs in Alanic means "radiant light", thus, the ethnonym could be understood as "bright Alans". It has been theorized that the name Roxolani is constituted by two tribal names, the Rus and Alans. Rus were closely associated with the Alans in the Sarmatian period. Jordanes mentions them as Rosomones in Getica. The ethnonym of Rus' has been connected to this name. Their first recorded homeland lay between the Don and Dnieper rivers; they migrated in the 1st century BC toward the Danube, to what is now the Baragan steppes in Romania. Later, Marcus Aurelius also campaigned against the Roxolani along the Danubian frontier. They are known to have attacked the Roman Province of Pannonia in 260; shortly afterwards contingents of Roxolani troops entered Roman military service.

Iazyges

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The Iazyges were an ancient Sarmatian nomadic tribe who had swept westward from Central Asia onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine in ca. 200 BC, and then, in the 1st century BC further into Hungary and Serbia, settling in Dacia. They were constantly at war with the Romans until their assimilation in the 4th century. The Iazyges first make their appearance along the Sea of Azov, known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans as the Maeotis. They are referred to by the geographer Ptolemy as the Iazyges Metanastae (wandering or migrant Iazyges). From there, the Iazyges moved west along the shores of the Black Sea to what is now Moldova and the southwestern Ukraine. They served as allies of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (in what is now north-western Turkey), in his wars against the Romans (c. 88–84 BC). In 78–76 BC, the Romans sent a punitive expedition over the Danube in an attempt to overawe the Iazyges. The prime enemy of Rome along the lower Danube at this time was the Dacians. In 7 BC, when the Dacian kingdom built up by Burebista began to collapse, the Romans took advantage and encouraged the Iazyges to settle in the Pannonian plain, between the Danube and the Tisa Rivers. Around 230, the Asding Vandals pushed in to the north of the Iazyges. The Vandals, and new Germanic tribal coalitions like the Alemanni and the Franks now became the Romans' primary security concerns. But as late as 371, the Romans saw fit to build a fortified trading center, Commercium, to control the trade with the Iazyges.

The African kingdoms are many. However, only a few, like Axum, have risen to great prominence. Some have advanced cultures and trade frequently with the Romans and/or India. Meroe, to the north of Axum, is another powerful African kingdom. The kingdom of Axum speaks a language call Ge'ez, an ancient south Semitic language.


Imperium Axum

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The Kingdom of Axum, also known as the Axumite Empire, was a trading nation in the area of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, which existed from approximately 100–940 AD. It grew from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD, and was a major player in the commercial route between the Roman Empire and Ancient India. The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own Aksumite currency, the state established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, eventually extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom. The Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet. Under Ezana Aksum adopted Christianity. In the 7th century, early Muslims from Mecca also sought refuge from Quraysh persecution by travelling to the kingdom, a journey known in Islamic history as the First Hijra. Its ancient capital, also called Aksum, was in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name "Ethiopia" as early as the 4th century. It is also the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the purported home of the Queen of Sheba.