A Chronicle of the Roman Twilight
A Novel
by
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Near the end of April, 399 I was made a member of an officer task force. We were sent north into our trans alpine provinces of Rhaetia and Noricum. Our mission was distasteful to us but we had no choice. More than four years had passed since the Battle of the Frigidus River but the manpower shortfall in the Army of Italy, that had been derived to begin with mainly from the Army of Gaul,was still severe. The short term solution was to make up the numbers from the frontier garrisons. We were to inspect mobile regiments on the upper Danube for the purpose of selecting the most capable for reassignment. It was always dangerous to weaken the frontier even for the shortest time. The dukes commanding these front line provinces would have to make good their numerical losses by hiring more recruits from north of the Danube. Thus the Germanization of our army would be ratcheted up another notch. In generations past the infusion of German recruits into a regiment would represent a minority of the total complement. The remainder would consist of Romans or Romanized Germans who would in turn Romanize the new recruits. Now in all too many frontier units the German recruits were becoming the majority. The long shadow cast by the Frigidus River was bringing in too many Germans in too short a time span. Romanization was not taking effect and standards of training were starting to suffer as a result.
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About the Book
The story begins in A.D. 364 when the author of this memoir, Marcus Cedranus, is born into a middle class landowner’s family in western Britain. While his material prospects are promising, his deteriorating relationship with his parents causes him to leave home for the continent. In Gaul he becomes a teamster for a freight hauling company, meets an older woman who will eventually play a major role in his life and is drafted into the Roman army in 382. He is assigned to Legion XXII in Mainz and in 383 is temporarily transferred to Belgrade on the Danube. A revolt in the west makes this transfer permanent. He participates in several military campaigns and takes part in a triumph in Constantinople in 386. In 388 his regiment takes part in the eastern offensive against the revolt in the west that has by now spread to Italy. With the revolt suppressed, he is assigned to a new imperial guard regiment for the restored western emperor, Valentinian II. During another transfer to the east Marcus suffers a terrible personal tragedy from which it is impossible to recover. Another civil war breaks out in the west and is suppressed with terrible casualties. Marcus is appointed tribune and made a member of the personal staff of Stilicho, the new generalissimo of the west. Further military adventures take place in Greece, Britain and Italy. A massive barbarian invasion of the west on December 31, 406 triggers political instability leading to revolts in both Britain and Italy. This inevitably leads to the sack of Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths in 410.
About the Author
John Ranger, retired computer programmer and database administrator who spent 32 years at IBM, has a B. Sc. degree from the University of Manitoba, Canada and a lifelong interest in Roman history. He has one son and lives in Wappingers Falls, New York.