Scenes From Elsewhere (Minor Powers) II

While Epirus and Carthage were fighting on Sicily, another Island in a different part of the Mediterranean was likewise being torn between two powers. Sparta's entreaties to the League of Knossos on Crete had been favorably received by the Synedrion of Knossos. Sparta had acted as a go-between, trading Epirote weapons and goods to Knossos whilst using her own favored trade status with Epirus from their alliance to purchase high-quality Iron weaponry at lower prices and sell to Knossos at a markup. Knossos, having already been trading for Epirote Weapons, knew little about the differences in prices. Thus it came to pass that while the Army of the League of Knossos re-armed with Epirote weapons, Sparta grew both in wealth and influence on Crete.

Seeing this, Athens sent entreaties to the other polity on the Island of Crete, the League of Polyrrhenia, offering Silver from the Mines of Laurion, Olive Oil, Pottery, and other goods to the merchants of the League, many of whom swiftly fell into debt with Athens, prompting the Synedrion of Polyrrhenia to begin negotiating with the Athenians. Athens sent the young Chiliarch Chremonides, whose father, Eteokles, served in the Athenian Assembly and had been Strategos in prior years. Chremonides spoke to the Synedrion of Polyrrhenia in a closed session. No one was certain precisely what the Chilliarch said to the Synedrion, though many observers noted a large covered wagon being brought into the Synedrion's meeting house by Chremonides and cried bribery.

Regardless of what actually was said, the results were the same. The Synedrion of the League of Polyrrhenia accepted Athenian Influence in their politics in exchange for the canceling of the League's debts. The League of Polyrrhenia drifted into the Athenian sphere of Influence just as the League of Knossos drifted into the Spartan Sphere of Influence. The two new client states would provide another potential flashpoint for tensions between Sparta and Athens, similar to how Corinth and the Achaen League were. Eventually, those tensions would boil over into war, though not just yet.

Further to the North, the fighting between Roigos, Regent of Thrace, and Monunios, King of the Rump Dardanian State had been ongoing for three years, both sides raiding and skirmishing with little in the way of real progress being made. Eventually, however, things came to a head in the spring of two-eighty-one as Roigos, setting out for an early campaign against Monunios, caught a chill while leading his forces out of the new Capital at Serdica toward the Dardanian border, dying three days later of Fever. This left the eight-year-old Thracian King, Alexander the Second, without a regent capable of leading the army. The result was that Monunios smashed the Leaderless Thracian Army at the border and made a beeline for Serdica.

Things looked dire for the Thracians, but aid came from an unexpected source. Twenty-three-year-old Alexander the Fifth of Macedon led twelve thousand men north to the site of Seuthopolis, where a small community had begun to rebuild a new town in the midst of the shell of the Old Capital. From there, he set up a supply post and garrison before marching west to Serdica, currently under siege by Monunios.

In the fall of Two-Eighty-One, the Battle of Serdica saw Alexander the Fifth of Macedon and Monunios of Rump Dardania clash beneath the walls of Serdica. In the ensuing battle, Monunios found himself pinned between Alexander's small Macedonian Force and a sallying force of one thousand Thracians from Serdica, and his force was utterly annihilated. Monunios himself would have his horse cut out from under him by a Thracian Rhomphaia whilst leading an attempt to break out of his encirclement and was slain.

Though the Dardanian Army managed to limp back into Rump Dardania with a few thousand men, they had lost their king in the process. Dardania would be forced to pay two hundred talents of Gold and Silver split between Macedon and Thrace as the cost of their aggression. Macedon also received territory in the South of Thrace as Compensation from the new Regent of Thrace, a man named Raskos, who had led the sally out of Serdica, pushing their borders further north, much to the delight of Alexander the Fifth. The cost of this opportunity was eventually calculated at one-thousand-five-hundred Macedonian Casualties. It was a heavy price to pay and would prove to be ruinous in the years to come.

That was because while the Macedonians, Thracians, and Dardanians were squabbling, frittering away their strength on petty disputes, Bolgios of the Treverii was consolidating further north. Already he had conquered the Boii and the Volcae Confederation, but by two-eighty-one, he had also forced the Cotinii and Osii to bend the knee to him as well. With the Gallic Tribes of the Pannonian Basin all acknowledging Bolgios as King of Pannonia, he turned his attention to the Quadii dwelling in the Mountains to the North of Pannonia.

The Quadii worked Iron, Silver, Copper, and Gold in their mountains, which made them rich. However they were not as numerous as the force that Bolgios could put together, nor did they have the advantage that Bolgios' Elite Troops had of Epirote equipment. Bolgios descended upon the Quadii with a force of thirty thousand troops, less than half of the warriors of Pannonia. Over the course of a year, his army swept over the Quadii like a storm, smashing whatever forces the Germanic Tribe brought to bear and seizing settlement after settlement. Eventually, with the loss of the lowland, food-producing, settlements, the King of the Quadii, Vibilios, was forced to submit to Bolgios and the Treverii, lest his remaining free settlements in the high mountain valleys starve.

Bolgios was enriched with the submission of the Quadii, as their mines brought plentiful metals to his Kingdom. It was not enough for him, however. Instead, he massed another army of Twenty-five-thousand Men on the border of the Azalii Kingdom. The Illyrians there knew they stood no chance, as the whole of the Azalii could only muster half of the Force on their borders. They submitted to Bolgios rather than fight, emboldening the Treverii King. He continued to press on. Tribes of different peoples fell to Bolgios, Gauls like the Latobicii and Serretes, Illyrians like the Osseriates and Breucii, and even Venetic Tribes like the Histrii and Catarii, whose customs and speech were strange.

By two-seventy-one, Bolgios of the Treverii would rule a swathe of Territory from the Border of Noricum south to the Border of Dardania, west to the Adriatic, and east to the Borders of Thrace. His Army was swollen to over Eighty Thousand men, he was rich off the largesse of dozens of tribes and could feed all his people. However, his reach went further still, poised to sweep south into Dardania, Thrace, Macedon, and beyond. He would do so in the spring of Two-Seventy beginning a massive invasion that would force the Greeks to unite against a common threat.

Meanwhile, far to the east, the Bosporan Kingdom under its new King Paerisades the Second had managed to push his borders west to Chersonesos and North to Kerkanitis, largely based on trade with Epirus. The Bosporans were a major exporter of grain, salted fish, timber, and slaves and they traded heavily with Athens who grew dependent on Bosporan Grain to feed their growing empire and timber to build their expanding navy. Athens paid for these goods with silver, which the Bosporans used to purchase Epirote Military Equipment. The main thing that helped them, however, was the introduction of hard tree saddles and stirrups, both innovations were copied on the sly with the aid of drawings made by Bosporan Merchants whilst observing their use by the Epirotes.

These Bosporan Copies were crude, the stirrups little more than loops of leather attached to four horn saddles. They still proved more than adequate when facing off against Scythians and other Tribes. By two-eighty, Paerisades the Second had inflicted a major defeat on the Scythians near the River Borysthenes and conquered the Taurii City of Kalos Limen. The Scythians were forced west by the Defeat, skirmishing with the newly arrived Goths to the Far North on the frozen shores of Scandia to attempt to settle away from the Bosporans. Meanwhile, King Paerisades pushed his territory west to the Greek Colonies of Olbia and Borysthenes before founding the City of Meotikos on the northern shore of the Meotis Sea in two-seventy-five.

This rapid expansion would not only bring the Bosporan Kingdom land, wealth, and Prestige but also make it a potential target for Conquest by the Seleucids. Previously, it had been too remote for what wealth it would bring in, especially with the everpresent threat of Scythian attack. Now, however, the Scythians were gone and the Kingdom looked worthwhile as a target for conquest. Antiokos I Asianos looked north from Sinope with hungry eyes, planning to strike out to take the Bosporan Kingdom by force, only to be stopped by events unfolding across the Hellespont in two-seventy, as the Treverii would stream across the borders of Thrace in their great invasion.

Finally, in Britannia, the shaky peace that had been upheld by the Tribes of Southwest Brittania after the defeat of Carthage finally broke down in Two-Eighty, as Hibernian Tribes began to raid the Dumnonii from the West, sacking coastal towns and villages before carrying off plunder and slaves in their boats back to their Island. King Lugotorix of the Dumnonii pled with his partners in the Confederation for aid in safeguarding his shores from raids. King Segomaros of the Durotriges agreed, but King Tincomarus of the Silures and King Cogidubnus of the Belgae refused. Eventually, the Hibernians were defeated at sea by a mixed force of a few Carthaginian ships from their Emporion on the Channel Islands and a lot more ships from the Armorican Kingdom of King Dumnorix.

This victory over their new enemies by their old enemies sent a shock through the Britannian Confederation, finishing what the refusal of the Silures and Belgae to aid their Confederation Partners started. By two-seventy-eight, the Brittanian Confederation was officially dissolved as accusations of cowardice and oath-breaking flew across tribal lines at the meeting hall in Isca. The very next year saw the first raids between former Confederation Partners take place.

It was a state of affairs that would last until two-Seventy-Five when the Silures sacked Durnovaria after the death of King Segomaros. . .

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AN: OK here we see some glimpses of various minor powers. Most notable for our purposes are the increasing tensions between Athens and Sparta over Crete, the Bosporan Kingdom becoming a target for Seleucid Expansion, and the impending doomstack of Bolgios of the Treverii poised to sweep south in a great invasion. You can kind of see where the next major flashpoints of the timeline will be from these interludes.

At any rate, next chapter we'll be back with Pyrrhus for the start of the last stretch of the war with Carthage.

Stay tuned. . .