The Rise of Theodosius: The Roman Emperor of the New World.

Chapter 4: Marcus I, Emperor of all Romans



Year: 486 AD

Praetorian Republic

Province of New Julian

New Mediolanum

After years of battles against Cicero's forces and some native tribes, the final battle was approaching.

Marcus' army managed to inflict major defeats on Cicero's army, such as in the battle of the Julian River on November 15, 478, in which he managed to defeat 20,000 native warriors and with that the Julian River came under the control of Marcus' army, the Battle of New Cato on October 18, 480 marked the expulsion of Cicero's forces from the province of New Rome and stabilized the front.

After this defeat, Cicero's army invaded one of the provinces that Marcus' army stopped colonizing to finance his army and navy, with this he founded the Praetorian Republic and names the town of New Mediolanum as its capital on December 19, 480.

After the naval defeat at the Battle of New Latium, in which another 20 merchant ships and 100 canoes with natives with bows and arrows were defeated by about five Romulus ships using a new technology: The tar grenade.

The pitch grenade was created by military engineer Augustus Tiberius, who made this invention to be as efficient as the Pilum was at the height of the Roman Empire, but unlike the Pilum it had a new factor that Pilum never had: psychological damage to the enemy.

In the battle of Nova Latium, the pitch grenade was used with an iron coating and was mixed with what would become sulfuric acid and with this mixture, March 18, 481, marked the end of the naval threat that Cicero wielded against Marcus' navy and thus the province of New Latium was freed from Cicero's army, leaving the province of New Julian as the last resistance of Cicero's army.

But after years of skirmishes, both sides gathered large numbers of soldiers to their ranks for one last battle that would decide the future of the Romans in the New World.

Praetorian Republic

Province of New Julian

New Mediolanum

Marcus looked at his soldiers and saw on their faces a feeling that this battle would be different from the skirmishes they had faced for five years and one of those soldiers in his army said:

"My lord, this time we have finished these traitors once and for all." Says the soldier.

Marcus patted the soldier on the shoulder and said to him:

"I have faith that God will bless us against these traitors and perpetrators of the persecution of Christians. Today the last pagan force ends and we will be able to rebuild our civilization in this new continent,far from the barbarian Saxons, Franks, Visigoths and Ostrogoths, here will be our second chance that God gave us to pay for the sins of persecution committed by our ancestors, now The time has come to put an end to this bloody civil war, I swear that this war will not end today." Says Marcus.

Marcus walks around the camp to see if his soldiers were ready for the battle that would begin in a few hours, in the meantime he would keep his army's morale high for the battle that was approaching.

New Mediolanum

A Few hours later

Cicero's army had over 20,000 soldiers and 15,000 native warriors from various tribes, while Marcus' army had about 15,000 and 5,000 native warriors, despite the disparity With around 15,000 soldiers, Marcus' army possessed tar grenade technology and this made a huge difference in battle.

Marcus saw on the battlefield, a Shaman speaking something in their language that made the native warriors scream as if they were descendants of the fearsome Huns who invaded Europe in the early 5th century, which would come to be nicknamed of "Hunnis Novi Orbis" for a long time until the rise of Leo I who would conquer the entire East Coast of the Caesarian Empire which would occur in the 7th century at the same time that the Rashidum Caliphate invaded Mesopotamia and Persia.

After that demonstration as an attempt to put fear into Marcus' army, a priest sent by the bishop of New Rome was going to perform a preaching for Marcus' soldiers and brought with him a crucifix, his name was Andreas Sophocles, he was the son of a merchant from Constantinople who married the daughter of a low-ranking military man, his brother Alexander Sophocles was a tribune who represented the small community of Eastern Romans who decided to stay in the New World and settle here.

The priest raised the crucifix and all the soldiers including Marcus bowed before the crucifix, then the priest began his preaching :

" Lord of Hosts give us this victory against those who have persecuted us for centuries that now after the Fall of Rome, We Christians blame for the mistakes that pagans made for centuries, such as their inability to contain enemies like the Germanic tribes!Show us servants of the living God that this new chance we have is an atonement for our sins committed by our ancestors! Give us a chance to show that this time we will be true to the teachings of Christ and convert the New World to Christianity! Let the pagans tremble before the strength of Christ, what we are doing here is putting an end to the last pagan Roman stronghold, to mark the victory of Christ once and for all against Pagan Rome!

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen!" The priest preaches.

Marcus stands up and soon after his soldiers do the same, the priest leaves the battlefield and goes to Marcus' tent where there were some politicians and even a poet.

The soldiers on both sides were ready for the final combat, when a black wolf appeared and this caused panic in the native warriors on both sides, Marcus who was on his horse went to one of the natives and asked:

"What is the reason you are afraid of a mere wolf?" Marcus asked.

The native warrior who was in Marcus' army answered him:

"It's just that when a black wolf appears it means that a bad omen will occur and for this not to happen you should kill this wolf as quickly as possible, whoever kills it will be a great leader who will bring peace to his people." The native warrior responds.

With this answer, Marcus unsheathes his spathe and rides until he reaches the black wolf, gets off his horse, faces the black wolf and finishes it off with the spathe pierced through the black wolf's throat and with his enormous strength he tears off the black wolf's head and returns triumphantly shouting:

"Christ Lives! Fear not men, today the war ends and we will be triumphant! Long live Christ the King!!!!!!" Shouts Marcus.

The scene of Marcus riding with the head of the black wolf made the native warriors on Marcus' side raise their morale, while the native warriors on Cicero's side were terrified of facing a person who killed a black wolf, which meant that this person was a great leader, with that chaos was running through Cicero's army.

Marcus, realizing that the enemy's morale was low, orders his soldiers:

" Grenadiers throw the tar grenades at the native warriors, crossbowmen shoot at Cicero's soldiers, infantry focus on destroying as many enemies as you can and cavalry follow me!" Marcus orders.

Marcus and the cavalry leave the battlefield and see that the damage has already been done, victory is his, but he needs to end those responsible for the Macabre Easter, the Publius Clan.

As most of the military leaders were on the battlefield, the city of New Mediolanum was without any defense, Marcus had ordered the cavalry to also carry tar grenades that were made with pitch, mixed with sulfuric acid and olive oil, in addition to having a system of mecha, still very rudimentary but extremely useful for those cases where gunpowder has not been discovered.

Marcus and the cavalry throw the tar grenades and the city gate is destroyed, then he unsheathes his spatha and says:

"Forward cavalry! Charge!!!!" Says Marcus.

More than 1,200 horsemen invaded the city and what they found was a small pagan militia and there was Cicero Publius, wearing the attire of the ancient senators with a toga, he was willing to die for his cause but his supporters were not willing to die and started throwing money at Marcus and his soldiers, with this low attitude of trying to bribe his soldiers, Marcus ordered:

"Death to the pagans! Forward, cavalry!" Marcus ordered.

Like lightning the cavalry entered in full force and killed all the patricians who were in the city, including Cicero Publius in which Marcus killed him by cutting off his head and after having eliminated the patricians, Marcus returned to the battlefield with Cicero's head and with that the enemy army's morale fell and a true bloodbath occurred in that place, thus ending on March 21, 486, the end of the civil war, the dissolution of the Praetorian Republic, the formal annexation of the provinces of New Latium, New Julian and New Scipio and the founding of the Caesarian Empire.

Province of New Rome

New Rome

Church of Saint George

After years of war, peace has arrived and all because of Marcus who managed with few resources to defeat an enemy that was much more powerful financially than the Christian side in the war, with this great test what was previously a possibility remote was now a popular cry: Marcus should become emperor.

Politicians advised him to ask for support from Constantinople so that no barbarian kingdom in the future could receive the title of Roman Emperor of the West, so Marcus accepted and now he would found a new Roman Empire in the New World, this being the Caesarian Empire.

In St. George's Church were supporters of the Christian side and some who were on the pagan side but changed sides due to Marcus' sense of grandeur in the civil war.

Others were the commanders who fought alongside him in the war and the most impressive was a merchant from Persia with his extravagant clothes.

Marcus calmly awaited all the coronation rites of a Roman emperor and after passing the rites, Marcus now being Marcus I, gives his first speech as Caesarian emperor and speaks:

"It has been ten years since Rome fell to the Ostrogoths, it seems the Western Roman Empire will never rise again, our ancestors had countless chances to contain the Germanic tribes,but they decided to divide among themselves and cause bloody civil wars that weakened and encouraged the invasion of the Germanic tribes in Western Europe. We must learn from the mistakes of the Roman Empire at its peak, the Roman Empire before the administrative division and finally the Western Roman Empire, each era had successes and mistakes and it is with this reflection that I ask: The Romans they had the world in their hands and let slip precisely the part that was easiest to defend rather than the eastern part that was extremely difficult to defend from an invasion, is it a divine punishment for the sins committed by our ancestors?I don't think so, because we Romans are suspicious by nature and thirsty for power.But now it's time to look at what this land can give, Western Europe will unfortunately never rise again with some Roman emperor, forget about that, THIS is our new land, it will be here that we will refound Rome with a new vision, of unity, justice and peace, I promise as emperor of all Romans that we will never reach the low point of recruiting Germanic barbarians into our army, I promise to fight tooth and nail against the Saxons in Britannia and we will keep Britannia out of barbarian control as much as possible." Marcus speaks.

On May 10, 486, the Caesarian Empire was founded and would last another 1162 years.

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