Way of Overlord-Chapter 288: Coming to A Head

Roma grew from a small settlement on the Tiber river into a great empire.

And this was largely due to its military prowess and ruthless aggressiveness.

Military service is something that every Roma is accustomed toward.

And because of this, most of the Roma people is very adaptable, superbly disciplined and incredibly tough when it is time for them to do their duty to the Empire

It is an empire of humble beginnings.

From the founding of the Republic, to the rise of the Plebeians, through the battle with Karthaga, till the end of the Republic and the rise of the imperial power, Roma had survived it all.

Roma had experienced golden age, with Five Good Emperors that become the zenith of Roma, they had experienced crisis and catastrophe

There was reconstruction and revival of Roma even in their darkest moment.

A soldier turns emperor divided the empire.

But every civilization has their time in the sun.

Some recorded it and the record is passed through the ages, some recorded it but natural disaster, weather, and fate sometime buried these history, lost to the world.

Roma history is hard to erase and even harder to bury.

And while the Great Steppe is rising, a young chief that wanted to conquer the world began to make its move, and in Yindu, a young prince is about to fulfil his destiny, in Yan where heroes and villains rise together, in Roma, the empire is in a state of decline

In a winter day, that is colder than it has ever been recorded before, the Rhine river was frozen solid.

The Vandals and other barbaric tribe that the Roma had killed, feared and supresses is now about to make their own mark in history

There is garrisons around the Rhine.

It should have repelled these barbarians tribes however in the land of Albion, there is a usurper that is rising.

Because of this usurper the Rhine garrison that should have repel these barbarians tribe crossing through the Rhine could not do what they have been doing for all this time

The bad luck for Roma did not stop. The Rhine frontier since that moment would never again be restored. And Albion too is slowly abandoned by the Roma

At the same time, there was a problem in Italia. Stilichi was murdered by Honorius and Alaric, the Alaric Goth sacked the city of Roma.

The Goths under King Alaric is called the Alaric Goths.

They are the same as the Goths to the Roma people

The army under Alaric however is quite restrained in their conquest.

For they were of the same faith as the Roma and they respected the churches and the nuns. However, the world was profoundly shaken by this conquest

For the first time in eight hundred years in Roma history, Roma had fallen to the barbarians.

King Alaric stayed in Roma for only three days, leaving with much of the booty of war and also with a woman in tow

This woman is Galia, the emperor half sister

Not long after Alaric died and the Alaric Goths moved into southern Gaul. Without a unifying figure in their midst, the Alaric Goths is in the threat of disintegrating, no longer as strong as they were before.

There is a general Constantius that could see this and hounded the Alaric Goths in the southern Gaul.

Constantius a general then forced to Goth to return Galia

This commander then married Gallia, against her will and Constantius was proclaimed co emperor.

He died late that year and his son Valentinian become emperor.

Under his mother Galia, Valentinian reigned for thirty years and the empire continued to disintegrate.

Now the entire Rom empire is being besieged by barbarians. External problems is numerous, internal problems is surfacing

And barbarians tribes that the Roma look down before is now all rising like a mushroom that appears after a rain

There is the Vandals establishing themselves in many o Roma cities and regions.

There is the Eresian and the Ashran people that populated the north of the Great Steppe that is always coming over to Roma regions and with the Vandals take the riches of Roma to their coffers.

The Ashran and the Eresian of the north and the Vandals toward the east of Roma seems to have reached an alliance with each other.

Right now, while the Southern Great Steppe is fighting and unifying lands of the Great Steppe, the people of the north is taking the lands of Roma.

The Roma had always defeated the barbarians and any foreign enemies that dares fights against them.

And the people of Roma who lives in the center of the empire has these ideas of underestimating the barbarians because they live in peace most of the time

However, the barbarians , no matter how much the people of Roma thinks that they are stupid, the truth is different.

They did not create thing because they are a nomadic type of civilization.

Even if they create things, these things are used among their tribe only and when their tribe scattered, or broken up, these inventions ceased to be used any longer.

The knowledge could not be retained and used effectively

Even in the world that Aeryon lived in, the concept t of borders and nationalism is a very new concept, a young concept that has not yet passes through hundreds of years.

Even more so in Aeryon current era.

Settled societies and the concept of borders itself is something that is just taking shape.

In maps, sometimes, the border that they said they possess, is not actually theirs.

Even the people they say they conquer and control sometimes does not even known that they are being included in the map and written in the map as under certain empires or kingdoms.

The so-called barbarians is simply uses the methods that is familiar to them just like the people of Roma hundreds of years ago was also just like them, a tribe, just like Yan and Yindu, and other empires of the world who were just like them, wandering the wide vast world.

But some of them settled and settling they could organize themselves to do other things. Specialization appears, different jobs appears and talents could be cultivated.

But the barbarians are just people that did not follow their method and instead of settling they roam all over the world just like their ancestors did.

In the past, they could roam wherever they want, eat the meat that they found, drink the water they discovered and every land is their land.

However, these settled societies work with a different logic. Where they put their borders, they believe that is their land and when someone trespassed it they fight.

Who knows how the first fight between the settled societies and the nomadic societies began. Was it because the nomadic people violate some of the settled societies logic?

Or was it something else?

However, to think that the barbarians could not learn is the underestimation of enemies. Roma rarely make this kind of mistake.

But when they do, the price that they have to pay is steep

The barbarians, the Vandals, the tribes of the north of the Steppe had been learning.

Just like the western tribes in the Greta Steppe adopted some of the fighting methods of Western Zhou, the northern tribes of the Great Steppe also adopted some of the Roma fighting methods.

They use Roma armor and Roma weapons. When the Vandals attack Roma and captured tens of thousands of people, the northern tribes of the Great Steppe bought the knowledgeable and those who have talents.

Since that year, the northern tribes become even more powerful. The armor of the fallen legions of Roma is taken by the northern tribe and using those metals, they make the craftsman , the blacksmith that they kidnapped or bought from Roma to melt it and make new armours for them

They are learning and they are becoming even more powerful. And once they are powerful enough, they would avenge their death.

And the vengeance of the Steppe is very cruel and barbaric in nature.

In the north, unlike in the south, there is not someone like Aeryon that could restrain the basest desire of humans. free𝑤ebnovel.com

They come to Roma regions and wreak havoc and destruction all over the empire.

Their cities would be sacked and burned, their men is slaughtered, their woman is raped and there would be no living things as they passed.

To the Roma, the people of the Steppe is frighteningly effective horseman.

And in history, one of their rulers, once ravaged the entire northern province of the empire.

And in recent years, there is a resurgence, from the tribe leaders of the north to campaign toward Roma, take their riches and avenge the death of their people.

Unlike in many parts of the Steppe, the tribes and chief of the northern steppe solve their conflict with a meeting

When a conflict is deemed large enough and dangerous enough that it would affect the entire region, they would be call to the meeting so that they could hash out their difference.

This does not mean that they will not fight.

It is just that the effect of their fight would not lead so many men of Great Steppe dying killing each other.

A controlled environment where they could let loose but the damage is controlled to a minimum

This kind of unity could not be found in anywhere else other than the northern steppe.

It is probably because of the threat of the Roma that the tribes in the northern steppe evolved like this

One might argue, that Southern Great Steppe neighbours Yan and most of the Western Steppe also borders the Western Zhou so why they did not evolve like this?

This is very different.

Even though Yan empire borders the Southern Steppe, Yan actually is more afraid of the people of the Steppe than the people of the Steppe fears them

Hence why they always kill the people of the Steppe without mercy. It is an act of fear instead of dominance.

And the Yan empire took a different approach sometime with mixed reaction.

The Westen Zhou is also the same.

There is a record of give and take with the Grets Steppe and sometimes, there are even moments where relation between the Great Steppe and the Western Zhou is quite good

But Roma is different

It is an empire that keeps killing and almost kills millions of people of the Steppe.

To combat this behemoth, instead of dividing and killing each other, the past leaders of the tries in the northern Steppe created a Council of Chiefs where they would elect a leader to lead them in time of crisis.

They actually took this practice from Roma itself

In the past, before Emperors were the norms, the Roma in times of danger would pick one person to possess absolute power to protect their empire

The Northern Steppe believe that if they wanted to survive, they could not rely on their owns strength.

The strength of one tribe is little.

The strength of the entire Northern Steppe however.....is like a surging torrent river that could break any dam

And so, it is the norm for the northern steppe to unite against a common foe.

And while the other parts of then Steppe is now in a state of chaos, annexing lands and capturing people, the people of the north is attacking Roma, taking their riches and resources and many of them migrated with the Vandals toward the Roma empire

And sooner or later, there surely would be a decisive clash between the barbarians and the Roma empire.

And the aftermath of this battle would surely change the world

....