MotF 138: The Hellenic Confederation, 515 AD

The Hellenic Confederation, 250 BCE to 525 AD

The "No Competition" Period: 250 to 96 BCE
After defeating the final Roman insurrection in 254 BCE, the Greeks defeated their last opponent on the battlefield. All the rest had been subsided, or at least tamed for the time being. The Persians were under an Argead dynasty as of 250 BCE, and Carthage found it difficult to expand with the Greeks on every corner. Ultimately, in Europe it was only them. At the time, of course, the Greek system of government was far different than what it would evolve to be. While they were the same people who had been executing philosophers years before, Greek governors in the 200's BCE embraced the idea of confederation. The different kingdoms and republics were still independent of one another, they just got along under a single reagent when disaster struck. In the case of Rome, the government was enforced, but it normally worked out fine when you appointed the right people to the right positions. The term Hellenic Confederation was mostly a term used to describe the military alliance used to take down the Latin League, and most people would never have identified themselves as "Hellenic", rather the demonym of their home city-state. But still, some confederation was better than no confederation at all, and it allowed the Greeks to rule the continent.

The No Competition period reached its height around 150 BCE, when Carthage was taken over in a brutal war. After they tried to take over the Greek ports in Sicily and Magna Graecia, the the "Confederation" responded with a barrage on all fronts. With the entire power of Europe turned against them, the small kingdom of Carthage surrendered within years. Quickly, the Hellenic Confederation absorbed Illyria and parts of Dacia, attempting to put them under the leadership of Greeks. The question arose, though, how would they be governed? How should places without any real borders, except those of the clannic, be divided up? It didn't seem to make sense to divide it up into different kingdoms if they didn't have to, so Illyria was absorbed as something of a core territory, under the control of all the Greek nations. However, it seemed too unstable, and people began to disagree with the current system. Not only would Illyria get away easily, the countries who divided it up would only end up fighting over it in the end. So, one philosopher, a man named Andelios, proposed a new system. He believed that with a more centralized government, and by not allowing each little kingdom and republic to have more power than the Hellenic state itself, it would bring them more power on a global stage. Slowly, people began to agree, especially those who took part in the Hellenic government. They began to push kings out of their respective nations, mayors from their respective towns. Many were obviously still allowed to rule, as it wasn't completely centralized, but Greece ultimately became far more authoritarian.

However, even if some called it authoritarian, the Confederation was still in its golden age. The Andelian system, as it was called, worked out great in the beginning. The leaders in the Hellenic government, democratically elected by each country, gave the people more power than their kings. So, while they were serious about keeping their governmental system in place, they ultimately only brought more democracy to Greece than they squashed. Illyria was peacefully divided up into new provinces, and things were seemingly going okay. Even still, it wouldn't last in that utopian stage for very long...

The Age of Exploration: 96 BCE to 102 AD
96 BCE was not characterized by the fall of some Greek system, like most age beginnings are. Instead, 96 BCE represented the shift from a military and philosophical superpower to one of cultural influence. The Age of Exploration is commonly referred to as the second half of Greece's golden age, after the shaky installment of the Andelian system and the boom that came with it. Throughout the 110's and 100's BCE, merchants had been setting up ports all throughout the Mediterranean, sometimes spilling out and around Hispania and Galatia. During those two decades, new cities were formed outside the Greek's original trading zone, with trade stretching north. However, the real switch to an Age of Exploration comes from the journeys of Aristoxenus, a 54 year old voyager who explored the northern lands of Velgio. There had been people who did it before, of course, many times. Even before the formation of the Hellenic Confederation, there were voyagers who explored the region. But Aristoxenus tried something nobody else had yet, at least not in the area; he formed a city. The little port of Thebocaea, which would eventually grow into a bustling city, became the outlet for the people of Britannia, and even those in northern Galatia, to learn about the wonders of Greek invention.

After Aristoxenus opened up the rest of Europe to Greek trade, merchants came flooding in, looking for new resources and things they might be able to trade for more money back home. The colony of Thalassie, the largest Greek colony outside of Chersonesus, grew in leaps and bounds over the course of a century. The farthest reaches of Europe, the region known as "Neolimani" to the Greek settlers who lived there, was rich in potential slaves. After the discovery of so much stuff to the north, the Greeks began to look for ways to climb north without having to cross a dangerous sea journey. Quickly, a route to Neolimani was found, and was one of the easier places to get to (just take a river from Chersonesus and walk a couple miles). Many places, such as the barbarians in Barbarus (hence how it got its name), would adopt Greek naming systems and culture quite quickly, as did Thalassie and the Basques in Leugetia. However, such an influence would only bring it more competition, leading to the Hellenic Confederation's own demise...

The Migration of the Invading Crowns: 102 AD to 216 AD
The Migration of the Invading Crowns era, normally shortened to the Migrations Period, was one of the darker days of Hellenic history. While Greece had formerly ruled all of Europe, politically and culturally, entire groups of people began to fight back. It began with the migration of the Moors into the Greek parts of Hispania. The Moorish armies brutally pushed back any Celtic settlers in the area, leaving the Greeks to flee. Quickly, other groups began to do the same, hoping to loosen the centralized Greek power and leave themselves more places to loot. Armenians moved into Pontus, taking it over amid all the confusion. Germanic tribes were pushed out in the north by Greek settlers, but they began to invade from the north of Dakoi (Dacia). The Basques, who formerly only lived in the western portion of Leugetia, began to take over the entire thing, becoming independent from Greek rule. Over the course of over a hundred years, Thalassie and Barbarus both did the same. Even the Irish began to move into Velgio and Galatia, taking over the northern half of it just to push the Greeks out. The same with the Scythians, who invaded Anatolia by boats across the Euxine Sea. While it was slow, the Hellenic Confederation most certainly didn't expect it.The surprise was enough to put its Golden Age in a coffin, and the events of 212 AD hammered in the nails.

From 212 to 216 AD, a massive Persian succession period took place. The Argead kings, who had been slowly merging with Persian bloodlines for centuries, were ousted by pro-Persian leaders. It wasn't for no reason; they had been secretly sympathizing with the Greeks for years (or not so secretly at times). The new family that ruled, the Astarabadis, immediately got into a war with the Hellenic Confederation over who really deserved to be the rulers of Persia. In the end, it was something of a draw, with the Persians still keeping most of their key cities. Still, they had to give up Babylonia, as well as some other land. After the four year war, though, Persia would easily bounce back, soon forming the buffer state of Albania with fellow superpower Armenia just to have another anti-Greek nation. One nation that would not recover in four years were the Greeks. They would never be the same as they were before the sudden crisis again...

The Era of the Shaky Peace: 216 to 476 AD
The Era of Shaky Peace could also have been described as the Era in Which Nations Form, because all sorts of new nations emerged from the ashes of the Hellenic colonies. Kereion, Markomannon, Giouta, all these different cultures formed from amalgamations of clans past. Ultimately, the Greeks stayed pretty quiet for this, rarely reforming their current Andelian system to be any more functional under the extreme pressure. It worked in the golden age just fine because there was no competition, but now there were something like twelve more tribal confederations to deal with. But no, the Hellenic leaders didn't want to budge. All they did was focus on settling Lydia, trying to erase the fact that these people were trying to get rid of them. The power center would shift back to Athens and Sparta, and away from any of the other countries, even those who were ethnically Greek. If you weren't in the center of Hellenic civilization, then the 300's were not a good time for you to be alive in the Confederation. You would have been ignored, segregated, possibly even channeled into slavery. Ultimately, this would lead Carthage, and eventually eight other nations, to rebel against the Andelian system.

The Crisis of the Nine Kingdoms: 476 to ???
In 476, the Kingdom of Carthage rebelled, forming an army on a massive scale. It managed to overtake the Greek generals by storm, pushing them out within weeks. Hellenic troops sat on the border which was slowly being pushed back, as the Carthaginians began to secure more and more land for themselves. The government didn't see it as a complete emergency, though. If the rebellion stuck for more than ten years, give it more autonomy, and pretend to reform the system enough to appease them for the short-term. That would have worked fine if it wasn't for the Vourgoundian/Vourgoundi Crisis. For one year, the governor of Vourgound seceded from the Hellenic Confederation, purposefully trying to divert military power away from Carthage. He wasn't intending to go free for long, all he wanted was change in the provincial system. But still, his plan worked to the tee, diverting Greek armies to the point where Carthage was able to push them back to nearly Cyrene. A few years later, when the Greeks were just beginning to exhaust their armies in the area, the colony of Chersonesus decided to rebel as well. Multiple provinces in the area seceded at roughly similar times, eventually banding together to form a new kingdom. They received support from the Armenians and the Persians. Soon, even more provinces fell, with the most leaving from 490 to 510. Egypt was united once more, along with southern Galatia and Babylonia. Every region that wanted autonomy began to force Greece's hand. By 515, Rome is arguing with itself about whether to push the button and secede. If it does, it'll probably end up collapsing the central government and the confederation with it, possibly plunging Europe into a Dark Age. If it doesn't, then how long will this Greek tyranny last? Sure, they say they're willing to change, but are they? I guess only time will tell...