This game is played with Rome: Total War, Barbarian Invasion. I'll play the Western Roman Empire, starting in summer 363. The difficulty will be Very Hard for campaign and Hard for battles. I will manage all settlements myself, and I won't have a battle time limit. The unit sizes will be maximal.
I have only played one Western Roman Empire campaign before this, with medium difficulty, and even then several cities revolted away and it was very difficult. So, I hope this will make it more interesting to read than "Everything went fine from day 1 and then I won".
The names are made out of three parts, with the second part the family name and the third what the character is called.
Chapters I and II are background, the action starts in chapter III.
Chapter I: The death and birth of the imperial familiesThe fall of the Roman Empire began with the death Emperor Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antonius, commonly known as Commodus on the 21st of April in the year 181 AD, exactly 934 after the founding of the city. No one knew it then, but because of this it might very well never have seen it's millennial. It is rumored that Commodus said just weeks before he was killed, that 'One can not have an empire without an emperor'. He was right.
Commodus was killed by a man named Decimus Meridius Maximus, former legate of the emperors Felix legions. It should be noted that Maximus, as he was called, never served under Commodus, but rather under the previous emperor Marcus Aurelius. After defeating the Marcomanni in Germania in late April, he moved to Vindobona with the army, where Marcus Aurelius and Commodus had arrived a few days earlier. A few days after that the Emperor was dead, and the very same night Maximus had vanished.
Later Roman historians speculated that even if the Emperor was said to have died of old age, it stands to reason that Maximus killed him. "Maximus, Death of Emperors" was a common war cry for the republic armies in the civil wars and rebellions that followed.
How Maximus came from Vindobona to Rome as a slave-gladiator is not known. His owner, Proximo, was killed a few days before the death of Commodus, and any other slaves that might have known about it vanished shortly after. Nor is it known why Commodus chose to fight Maximus on the arena. The most common explanation is pride.
During the battle the deceptiveness of the Praetorian Guard, the emperors private guard, was shown once again. After losing his sword, Commodus asked the guards for another one, but was refused. He was forced to attack Maximus with all he had left, a small knife, but Maximus, who was a stronger man, killed Commodus by sticking it in his throat. Maximus also died soon thereafter because of his wounds.
As his final wish Maximus asked that the senate be given full power again. Senator Gracchus became the strong man of the senate, who begun to lower the size of the army in favor of domestic construction. The Praetorian Guard took as its new objective the defense of the Senate. Senator Gracchus tried to balance the power of the Praetorians with the Felix legions, Maximus old command. It was a spectacular failure however, and the legions were barred from the city by a mob of angry citizens, and under the new army-reduction program it was the first large unit to be disbanded.
Meanwhile Commodus sister, Lucilla, left Rome with her son Lucius Verus. They went to the east, where they traveled around for almost a decade. They also spent three years in the Parthian Empire. When the senate heard of this several senators feared that Lucius and her mother Lucilla were attempting to offer the Parthians Asia Minor in return for supporting Lucius on the throne. Some senators, Gracchus at the lead, insisted that neither Lucius or his mother would do any such things, but as rumors came that the Parthians were building an army, the number who trusted Lucius sank dramatically, and in the end only Gracchus was left. In April 190 he was finally forced out of the senate.
The senate did not wait long after that to take action. An assassin were sent to kill Lucius, and in January 191 they succeeded while Lucius was visiting Hyrcania with Lucilla. Unfortunately the assassin, Pudens, was captured and tortured until he told the Parthians and Lucilla who had sent him.
Lucilla went berserk, and rode back to Roman lands, stopping at every village and town to ask for allies in a war against the Senate. She did not have much luck initially, the Parthians were not willing for a war, and in the Roman areas she only got a few allies, mostly tribal or city leaders who usually wanted independence from Roman taxes. It was only in summer that she finally had luck, when the governor of Egypt, Primus Valerius Dacien took her as his visitor to Alexandria, promised her 20.000 men. Dacien also proclaimed that Egypt could not suffer beneath a council of murderers, and then named himself Dacien the first king of the Valerian dynasty of Egypt. It is not known what Lucilla felt about all of this, but she got her 20.000 men "to bring freedom to the rest of the world from the rule of murderers".
She chose to march northwards towards the Sea of Marmara, recruiting mercenaries and allies in every city that she could. She defeated one Senatorial army at the village of Belkis in Syria, and another one near Tavium in Galata. After her army had passed by law and order almost always broke down, and there were several rebellions against Roman rule. One remarkable revolt took place in Judea, where Jews moved in from Egypt, the Parthian Empire and other provinces in hopes of reforming their ancient kingdom.
By the time Lucillas army had passed over from Asia, her army was 60.000 men strong, of which about 25.000 men were mercenaries and about 10.000 Egyptian men. Another senatorial army with 8 legions tried to defeat her just a few days after she had crossed, but she managed to defeat it by smashing it head on. However this victory cost her a third of her army, now holding only 40.000 men with 18.000 mercenaries.
She still moved on however, claiming she would kill every senator and senators lackey in Rome that she could find. In March 194 she occupied Thessaloniki. Her army was tired after defeating the army after the straits and suffering 5.000 more dead taking the city. The mercenaries demanded that they be allowed to loot the city in return for their services, but Lucilla refused their demands. In fact she killed 5 soldiers who had killed or raped the citizens, and had another 30 whipped for robbery. In gratitude for saving the city, the magistrates offered Lucilla their unquestioned loyalty, and 2.000 men from the city joined Lucillas army. She only spent 3 days in the city, left three men to keep watch and report to her, then moved on.
4 months later she took Dyrrhachium. While the magistrates in Thessaloniki had promised her money to pay for the army, she had only gotten letters that spoke of the damage the siege had done, and how there was no gold to find. Again the mercenaries demanded that they be given the right to loot the city, and again Lucilla refused their request.
The army was also worried because traders in the city spoke of another senatorial army, this one 60.000 men strong. Within the army the rumor escalated, and soon everyone the size of the enemy army was up to 200.000 men, and it was said to be less than 2 weeks away.
Lucilla sent half the cavalry to move ahead and try to see the size and location of the senate's army. One week later one man of the cavalry returned, dead and dragged by his horse. When the news of this reached the mercenaries, who Lucilla had camped outside the city, they began to rebel in great numbers. First a few single men, then whole companies. Most decided to try and loot the city while there was still time, they had still not gotten paid. Within one day the entire city was in flames, the mercenaries were all gone and Lucilla was dead. It was claimed that a group of mercenaries broke into the palace she slept in, raped her, killed her, then took everything they could carry and ran away. In the end only 4.000 men of her army was left, and in the week that followed most left for home, with only 500 men remaining as the senatorial army reached the city.
Their commander, Tertius Hirtius Buteo hoped to make the senate pay one last time for all their crimes, but the city rose up in revolt and killed Buteo and his men. The senate's army marched into Dyrrhachium trough open gates and was greeted by cheering citizens.
When word arrived to Thessaloniki of what had happened, Lucillas three men were captured and sent as prisoners to Rome, where they were killed.
During this revolt Dacien in Egypt managed to consolidate his rule, and the Jews form a kingdom centered in Jerusalem. Also, after Lucilla moved away from Asia and had her last victory on the field, the Parthians saw their chance and moved into Asia Minor and other areas close to Parthian rule.
The senate had problems in the west as well. Between the death of Commodus and recon quest of the lands in the east, 6 generals tried to rebel and declare themselves Emperors. Dardanus in Gaul in 191, Zeno in Africa in 194, Hilarius in Gaul in 202, Honoratius in Dalmatia in 202, and finally Falx in Hispania in 230. Flax was the most successful, and managed to besiege Rome for two weeks before being driven off and finally defeated in 237.
It is said that if the rebel emperors cost the senate half, then the wars to retake the east cost the other half. When they were finally all taken back in 247 the eastern provinces were severely destroyed and depopulated, General Magnus rebelling in 202 and General Carbo in 236 did little to help the war effort or the reconstruction. The victory did little to regrow the confidence of the Roman republic; the real reason for the final conquest was Persia falling into civil war, where the Sassanid dynasty finally won in 249.
By 250 the republic was in a real decline. The senate focused heavily on rebuilding the east, but it seemed to forget about the west. Bandits made trade difficult, and when the Franks, Saxons and Alemanni started doing raids into Germania and Gaul, many legions were sent to the border and away from fighting bandits and other rebels. One Aleman army even reached Hispania and raided the countryside for 3 years there before returning north.
With trade becoming ever more difficult, prices rose almost everywhere. To offset this the senate began to mint more coins with less gold and silver in them. This worked for a while, but over the next 50 years inflation became massive. Because of this economic life even within the cities started to stagnate and fall, and the state institutions became abandoned. Farming output also sank even though the people from the cities moved away to the countryside.
In the east things were better. Between 260 and 276 the Sassanids tried to retake the lands that the Senate had retaken earlier. General Decimus Flavius Crito won 10 battles against the Sassanids, and defeated another rebel General, Tatian, in 268. In thanks for this they offered him the command of the military forces in the east, which he used effectively to break any rebels and uprisings.
In 286 the Germanic tribes formed an alliance and moved westwards in force. The senate called on Crito to defend them. Crito had at best 50.000 men with him, while usually the Germanians had over 100.000, at some points in the campaign over 200.000. They managed to sack large parts of Germania, Gaul, Rhaetia and Noricum. One Aleman army reached within a day's walk of Mediolanum before it was defeated, and another smaller force invaded Britannia as well.
In 291 Crito was preparing a larger invasion of inner Germania, when he was called back to Rome. His successes had produced jealously and fear in the senate in Rome. Senator Felix had convinced many of the others that Crito meant to declare himself an Emperor, and that he should be killed before it was too late.
When Crito found out about the plot against him, he was already in Rome. He tried to escape back to his army in Germania, but Praetorians captured him just outside the city gates, and they killed him instantly.
Meanwhile, his firstborn son, Primus Flavius Vonones, became governor of Thracia in 290. He was also a sound general; he had defeated a large Arab army while he was governor of Syria in 289. When he read that his father had been killed, he decided that the Senate probably meant to kill him too. He assembled five legions, or about 30.000 men, and begun to march northwest, hoping to reach his fathers army in Germania, where another 7 legions with 40.000 men would be. Of his own army two legions were real soldiers, the other three were peasants, pikemen and archers that he had drafted from the province. Of the Germanian army all 7 divisions were veteran soldiers, although only one of them was Italian, the other 6 were of Gallic and Germanian stock.
The murder of Crito also started another, popular, backslash against the Senate. The people, especially the Italians who believed his successes saved them from the same horrors that happened in the other provinces to the north, had loved him. Vonones reached the Germanian army in November, and immediately began to march south. His march over the Alps made the senate try to equal him to Hannibal. The senate shipped soldiers over from Hispania and Africa; Vonones was well liked in the east, while the army the senate formed in Greece marched towards Thracia.
Vonones defeated the senatorial forced four times, first at Verona, then north of Ravenna. The third time he fought them by the Rubicon, where the entire senatorial army was destroyed except for the few men who swam over the river and then disbanded themselves. The last time was when Rome was already in sight. The senate sent forth the rest of their forces, including fresh troops from Africa. Volones defeated them as well, but decided to camp for the night before moving on to Rome.
Meanwhile the senate was in a panic. There were no more forces, and they felt like the city might rise up against them any minute in order to be spared from having an army march into Rome and possibly loot it. The leader of the Praetorian Guard, Pontius Ursus offered to smuggle the whole senate and their families out to safety, he claimed that with the ships in Ostia they should be able to escape and fight another day. During the night they assembled and began to march out the city. Ursus said that they would march trough the forest to avoid being seen, which sounded wise to the senators. But instead he betrayed them and marched the whole senate straight into Vonones camp.
The next day Vonones marched into the city with the senators and their families in chains, all the senators in one link of chains and their families in another. First he made them declare him emperor of the Roman realm. After they had done that, he told them "This is what it feels like to have your family killed," and ordered his soldiers to kill every single family member while other soldiers held onto the senators and their chain. After that he let the senate look at their dead families for a while, before he executed them as well.
The next day he called on the Praetorian Guard to meet him. He told them not to bring any swords or armor with them, because the gift he would give them for giving him the senate would be heavy enough for them to carry later on without any extra weight. Then he ordered his soldiers to kill the Praetorian Guard as well, and hunt down the members of it who had not shown their faces today. "Never trust a betrayer, even if it is your enemy that he betrayed," he said. During the campaign he had learnt to trust his Germanic soldiers, and promoted the best of them as his personal guard.