Antiquity II
4. The Kingdom of Nobila-the Kerykian dynasty
Kerykus, Dictator and King
A side-effect of the Cantabrian war was the first significant shift in the internal equilibrium of power of the Eptapolis Alliance. General Kerykus of Nobila, after his return from the final and successful Cantabrian campaigns which secured the salvation of his home city, led a popular revolt against the local aristocracy. He seized power as dictator, expelled the aristocrats and confiscated their property "in the name of the people". In 2 BC, he was proclaimed king by the people of Nobila and established a dynasty that would rule the city for nearly 250 years. The main characteristic of this dynasty's rule was the support that the kings gave to the merchant and artisan classes, in lieu of the religious and landowning classes. These, previously middle classes, became the foremost power in the kingdom's politics of the next two centuries. Their fall from influence came gradually with the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the resulting decline of the Roman Empire in terms of commerce and standards of living on the continent.
Kerykus established his rule in Nobila and soon after he prepared to expand his kingdom. In 8 AD he sent his troops southwards to Thermi, Artesia and Nikopolis and declared his rule over the area that is now northern and middle Concordia up to the town of Metropolis. The next year after some minor conflicts with the army of Marina, a truce was drawn between the two and the lords of Marina paid a yearly sum to the kingdom. In 18 AD he established closer ties with the Concordians when his daughter Mandia married the Concordian lord Luculus, thus controlling the line of success to the throne of Marina.
The Dais Wars
Kerykus abandoned the Eptapolis alliance in 20 AD, which thereafter disintegrated. He and his successors followed a policy of expansion in the north and central areas of the island and indirect control of the southern areas. In the summer of 20 AD a large Nobila army invaded Dais while Kerykus' fleet blockaded Adriatica. The Dais lords led by Caratas carried out an effective guerilla campaign against Kerykus. Finally, in 23, Kerykus lured Caratas into a set-piece battle and defeated him, although the Nobila king was fatally injured during the battle. The Dais leader sought refuge among the Concordians, but their lord Luculus proved his loyalty by surrendering him to the Nobilites. He was brought as a captive to Nobila, where a dignified speech he made during Kerykus' son Karanos accession to the throne persuaded the new king to spare his life. However, the Daislanders were still not pacified, and Venucius replaced Caratas as the most prominent leader of Dais resistance.
Karanos Kerykus followed in his father footsteps in regard of the kingdom expansion to the north. In the year 32 AD he defeated Venucius and captured his stronghold town of Krania. He was however forced to abandon the war against the remaining Dais lords, due to a revolt of the Concordians in the south in 34 AD, under the leadership of Budina, the widow of Marina lord Prasus. The Pharonian historian Tacticus reports that Prasus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Karanus in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Nobila responded by violently seizing the lands in full. Boudina protested. In consequence, Nobila punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the rest of the Concordian lords, joined by the Cantabrians, destroyed the Nobila town of Etosa and routed the part of the Nobila army that was sent to relieve it. Karanos rode to Artesia, the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Thermi. But Karanos regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Loudun. Boudina died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness.Karanos returned to the Dais front in 37 AD but he was faced again with troubles, this time in Nobila.
His brother Kraterus, backed by a number of army generals seized power in the city. Karanus ordered his army to march against the rebels, but on the way he was murdered by his own troops who joint the rebels and proclaimed Kraterus as king. Kraterus however proved to be less of a king than the army generals had hoped. He stopped every expansion activity to the north and even agreed to pay Venucius and the Dais lords a significant amount as war compensation. He indulged himself in festivities and begun to spend the kingdom's treasure for him and his court. In November of 38 AD, the army generals Tobrus and Kassos murdered the king in his private quarters and proclaimed 17 year old Karanos' 1st born son asthe new king by the name Kerykus II.
After new king Kerykus II secured the kingdom, his first two appointments as governor, Tobrus and Kassos, took on the task of subduing the Daislanders and Concordians respectively. Tobrus extended Nobila rule to all of South Dais, defeating the Dais army in several battles and after the death of Venucius ended the war with a treaty with Adriatica in 47 AD. The treaty gave Nobila all of south Dais and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Therovon. Meanwhile Kassos defeated the Concordian army in the battle of Seneca in 45 AD and established a new government in Marina.
The loyal State of Centralia and the long peace
By the middle of the 1st century AD, the central region of the island, east of the mountains, had been converted to a vassal state ruled by a local senate, with Scandia as its capital. Dimitrius Kerykus (reigned 49-63 AD), younger brother of Kerykus II, who succeeded his brother in the throne, after 28 year old Kerykus II died suddenly, probably from tuberculosis, fortified the new region to prevent future attacks from the north or the Cantabri. This region was named Centralia by the kingdom's bureaucracy and was a fiefdom that never wavered in its loyalty to the crown, because of the King's protection against the threat of the Cantabri and, possibly, the large number of Nobilite armies stationed for this purpose in the central region.
A period of almost 100 years passed without any major conflicts in the area, except the occasional Cantabri-Hinji expeditions. The Nobila kingdom thrived due mainly to the exploitation of the vast gold, silver and iron resources of Centralia. During the reign of Achillius Kerykus, 3rd son of Karanos (63-78 AD) and his son Livianus (78-99 AD), the kingdom flourished and became the major military and economic force in the island.
Livianus and his sons were murdered by army general Andranodoros in March of 99 AD, but the attempt of the general to seize power by force was met by a revolt of the citizens of Nobila a few months later. Andranodoros was arrested by the army and was put to death by drowning in the Nobila bay. 41 year old Gelon, son of Achillius' daughter Thiressia and general Menipus, was proclaimed new king as Gelon I Kerykus.
Gelon I ruled Nobila for 26 years (99-125 AD) and during his reign and that of his son Gelon II (125-138 AD) trade with continental Europe, mainly with the Romans as well as with Britain was expanded and peaked.
Economy
During the reign of the Kerykian dynasty, the economy in Pharos flourished. Mineral extraction sites developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for crushing and commination. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
Imports to Pharos included: pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava querns from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Pharos' exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt.
The Chariot War and the Subjucation of Dais
Gellon II Kerykus' son Sosistratus (reigned 138-139) and his brother Icetas (reigned 139-147), ruled the kingdom with no concern of the increasing people discontent for the aristocracy and their accumulation of wealth. In the year 147 the army led by prince Nysaeas, an illegitimate son of Gelon II Kerykus, seized power and murdered his half-brother Icetas in the palace courtyard as he was trying to flee. Nysaeas was proclaimed new king.
During Nysaeas' (147-156 AD) and his brother's Notis I (156-159) reign, the Nobilites imposed on Adriatica severe mercantile restrictions in order to limit their competition for markets and influence. The Daislanders objected to these restrictions and eventually, in 165-169, the brutal "Chariot War" was fought.
King Notis II (reigned 159-195 AD) bribed Victoria and Sorvykon into abandoning their initial indirect support for Adriatica and threatened Parva with invasion in case that they would interfere. Adriatica was defeated and totally destroyed. Nonetheless, the Nobilites considered it un-economical to govern directly the former lands of Adriatica. In an effort to subjugate the middle classes and the rural population, Nobila established many landowners in Dais, who became very wealthy vey quickly, and built a fort, named Centropolis, which was used as administrative center that serviced, but controlled as well, these landowners. The landowners had nominal independence from the kingdom, taking decisions in a senate of their own that gathered in Centropolis. Nobilite oversight was supported by the strong Centralian armies, which managed to maintain over 700 years, with only a few exceptions, a precarious peace against frequent revolts by the peasantry.
The Civil Wars
Notis II Kerykus died in 195 AD, being the ruler of the kingdom for 36 years. He married 3 times but only his 3rd wife, who was 30 years younger than him, gave him male offspring, although there was much discussion in the court about the king's impotence and that the 2 young kings were fathered by some unknown palace guards.
After the death of Notis II Kerykus, generals of the army fought each other for control of the kingdom. The Centralian general Kallikratis was appointed in 195 AD by the Nobila council as acting king until the coming of age of Notis' first born son Timoleon. The rest of the army was not pleased with that decision and after a bloody revolt they forced the council to accept general Phillistus as new king in January 196 AD. Notis' widow and the mother of Timoleon, Sivela, did not agree with the appointment, fled Nobila with the young princes and supported by 2 loyal army legions established a new kingdom seat in Scandia, proclaiming 16 year old Timoleon as the new king. Phillistus and the remaining army marched against her. The 2 armies met outside Scandia. In the resulting battle, the Centralian army defeated Phillistus - who was killed in the field - and they marched into Nobila, where they arrested and killed all the Phillistus sympathizers among the council. Although Timoleon was proclaimed as king and reigned for 18 years (196-214 AD), Sivela was the real ruler of the kingdom until her death - probably by poisoning - in 213 AD.
In 214 the army generals revolted once again, overthrowing the incompetent Timoleon and proclaiming his younger brother Nikitas as new king. Nikitas ruled for 13 years (214-227 AD) and proved to be a very hard king, introducing new taxes for small land owners and craftsmen, as well as some very harsh penal laws. In 227 a revolt of the people in Nobila ended up in a bloody massacre by the king's guard.
Taking advantage of the situation, the king's uncle Diodor, brother of his mother Sivela, took over the power, imprisoning the young king and promising reforms to the army and the people. Diodor was already 61 years old when he was proclaimed king. His reign lasted 5 years (227-232 AD) and was succeeded by his son Makrander, who was the last king of the Kerykian dynasty (232-238 AD).