The Eastern Eagle

**Aragon150** · November 17, 2015, 06:23 PM

The Queen of Cities, Constantinopolis the center of the eastern half of The Roman Empire was prosperous city, but with all of her prosperity came problems barbarians threatened to ravage her western holdings in the Balkans and lay siege to The Queen of Cities herself. Meanwhile The Sassanids wanted to humiliate Rome,and claim the lordship of the east. The Empire and the world sit on the edge of a knife.Emperor Flavius Arcadius Augustus won’t sit and wait for them to come to the walls of Constantinopolis, he will stop them whether with the pen, or the sword the The Queen of Cities must stand as a beacon of hope in a darkening world.

“They made ready for war.” Flavius Rufinus advised the Emperor to move Legio IV and XI to Scupi and Trimontium, but Arcadius looking to consolidate his rule decided to lead Legio XI Claudia to Trimontium, and crush the Visigoths in revenge for the disaster at Adrianople.

The territories in 395.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Emperor Flavius Arcadius a tad bit green, but has the room to grow into a fine commander of men.

**waveman** · November 18, 2015, 10:23 AM

Looks interesting! It's nice to see another Attila AAR up and going. I appreciate the map, but could you state what province Trimontium is in?

**Aragon150** · November 18, 2015, 03:28 PM

Yeah, thanks this is my first AAR ,and it's in Thracia it's the town with the gold mine west of Constantinopolis.

**Aragon150** · November 18, 2015, 07:20 PM

Chapter I Visigoth Hunting

The Visigoths decided to attack with their full force, and strike Trimontium. Emperor Arcadius was cornered like a fox surrounded by wolves, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The battle of Trimontium
The Visigoths decided to attack with their full force, and strike Trimontium. Emperor Arcadius was cornered like a fox surrounded by wolves, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight. He decided to force the enemy to fight in a narrow space like a Thermopylae, but only this time the strategy would work or so he hoped.Being out numbered 2 to one and soaked from the downpour the 1900 men in the army and garrison asked their officers if they were going to die, and the officers offered little if any support their men questioning the Emperor's decision to defend the small town. The Visigoths charged the line of limitanei screaming their war cries with such ferocity that the men quaked and the officers screamed. “HOLD!” For a few moments times seemed to slow an instant was an eternity and then as the attackers met the lines time seemed to speak back up. Meanwhile the cavalry were fighting their own skirmishes routing enemy cavalry and archers, so the cavalry distracted enemy units and kept them out of the main fight.The lack of additional enemy troops bought the main line time as the battle dragged on and they men had to step over the piles of bodies to even fight. The enemy’s reinforcements showed up and charged into the fray making the battle look more like a riot than a battle ,and the men fought thinking their fight was in vain, but the Emperor raised the standard and screamed his mighty cry urging the men onward, despite the titanic odds against them.The men would hear his piercing cry urging the men onward several times as the battle seemed to drag on for what seemed to be eternity, but hope would shine for a few moments as enemy units routed, unfortunately they would rally smashing the defenders once again like a tsunami. . The cavalry nearby heard his cry after a while, and charged the enemy mob several times and lost men on every charge whilst killing dozens of men until the horses fall and lied there in the dirt.Shortly after words the enemy lines started thinning and the soldiers charges only to stopped by the enemy formation they struggled there for a short while and then the Emperor charged in with ferocity of a lion, and the enemy’s resistance shattered the enemy general fell as he tried to rally his men.Afterwards the men tried searching through dying and dead men for their friends and family all the while trying not to vomit from the stench of death everywhere, realizing the search was hopeless since the piles of bodies were knee high. The Emperor ordered their bodies to be burned, rather than buried due to thousands that now lie dead and dying, although he did allow the crows to feast upon the enemy entrails out of sheer spite.

Legio IX got to see another day and the Western portions of the Empire were safe for now, due to only around 800 Visigoths surviving the encounter. Emperor Arcadius decided to hunt Alaric, and destroy his people he chased them across Thracia killing Alaric in the first battle, and destroying the small fraction of his army left in the second. Legio IV chased the second Visigothic Army destroying it on Danube in two short battles.Both of these events had taken until the next spring in 406 but the Visigoths had been destroyed buying the Emperor peace for a while.

**Alwyn** · November 21, 2015, 11:49 AM

A dramatic start with impressive images, I look forward to seeing how this story develops.

**Aragon150** · November 21, 2015, 03:30 PM

Thanks, that battle was tense I expected to lose.

**Aragon150** · December 13, 2015, 10:08 PM

Chapter II 16 Long Years of Peace

With the Visigoth threat gone, the empire went through massive economic reforms.Arcadius was happy about this due to his constant planning for a war in Armenia, he wanted to know if he led his legions in the east he could return home, and not find rebellion on his doorstep.During this peace relations with Sassanids started falling through due to Imperial ambitions on Nisibis in Osroene,the empire had tried starting a rebellion but it was crushed swiftly.The Emperor ended this period of peace after cutting off trade with Armenia and invading her personally, his newest adviser Cincinnatus was worried that the Sassanids would respond in force to the invasion, since it would disturb the delicate balance in the east that both had maintained since the last war.