I apologize for the delay, but this chapter required some research, and one thing led to another, and I ended up reading a 400-page treatise on life in Hungary and Romania during the Bulgarian era.
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Anno Domini 829, July-16
"I am glad you were all able to come before we continue our march" I said, seated in the chair, while a group of Varangian leaders and jarls watched me attentively in silence.
"What is this about Roman? What has happened that we are summoned like this?" one of the jarls asked, the one who seemed most respected, since none interrupted him and all waited for his word as though he spoke for them.
"It is simple" I replied calmly. "I sent word for the families who arrived with your last group to turn back."
Several gazes hardened at once.
I raised my hand before the jarl could speak.
"Let me finish. Not long ago I had a conversation with the basileus Rhomaion about an opportunity for your people, and after difficult negotiations and after spending every favor and every measure of esteem he holds for me, I secured more than permission to settle you in Crete. He has granted vast fertile lands where you may settle and build."
The mood shifted almost immediately. I saw smiles break through braided beards and low murmurs of approval, though some still studied me without fully relaxing.
"These are good tidings from what I hear" the Varangian leader said, though his tone carried caution.
"They are" I answered, spreading a map across the table.
"This is a map of the Empire and of what are now considered its borders. Yet to the north, where the Empire once ruled, there are rich fertile lands, mountains overflowing with minerals, fields that yield more than any island can offer, territories difficult to defend, yes, but valuable. The Empire held them as long as it could, but internal weakness forced withdrawal. Now that it stands again and reclaims what is its own, it intends to recover those lands."
I slid my finger across the region north of the Danube.
"The emperor has entrusted me with the task of colonizing them, raising settlements, building roads, and fortifying the region. With the recent conquests, however, the Empire lacks the population to repopulate everything at once. The basileus Rhomaion cannot move hundreds of thousands without destabilizing Anatolia in order to secure the Balkans. This is where you come in."
I looked at each of them, making sure my words carried the weight of privilege.
"These lands will be governed by you under Roman law. We will build cities in the Roman manner to forge a bond between your people and ours, and one day they will stand as full parts of the Empire" I said, extending my hands over the map.
"That sounds… ideal, but what then? Will we have to fight those who dwell there and take it by force?" another jarl asked.
"Since when has that troubled you?" I replied, raising an eyebrow and holding his gaze.
"That is not what I mean" he said, gesturing dismissively while the others watched him. "I mean whether we will have to fight constantly to hold it."
"It is likely" I admitted. "Yet the gates will stand open to every man from the northern realms who wishes to come. Not only warriors, but their families as well. Any who desire land will have it."
"That sounds costly" the most respected jarl said, stroking his chin. "We would have to build everything from nothing. As you say, those lands are held by tribes, and construction will not be cheap. We will need timber, stone, iron, tools, and I do not know whether the Romans will seek to profit from us."
"It will be costly" I agreed. "But how could I call myself your great jarl if I did not stand with you now? You have my word I will see that materials are sold to you at the lowest possible price. I will use every measure of my influence to secure favorable terms. I know a vast network of merchants who owe me favors, and I will use my own wealth as well. We will raise cities that strive to rival Constantinople, with better drainage if needed, and I will ensure you have fortresses and walls worthy of guarding the Empire's frontier."
The jarls exchanged looks. Some nodded slowly. Others murmured in their own tongue.
"Where do we march now? Where do we bury the axe?" the chief jarl finally asked.
"For now we march north and cross the Danube near Dorostolon. We will settle near one of the tributaries that feeds the great river. There we will raise the first settlement and establish positions from which to extend our authority while we wait for more Varangian colonists to arrive. That is the greatest advantage. From the Danube you may reach the sea and return to your northern homelands. You may come and go and bring as many as you wish. To populate these lands we need more people than ever. We will also subdue the local Slavs. Most of the Bulgarians are already enslaved, so we will likely find chiefly Slavic tribes who once lived under their rule."
I rose and walked slowly before them.
"Now that you know what awaits us let us move. We have much to accomplish, and I may remain here beside you longer than any of us expect" I said with a faint smile.
The Varangians smiled in return and dispersed swiftly, leaving no room for dissent to fester. The options Theophilos left me were few if I wished to avoid seeing the Varangians rage at such a shift in circumstance, so I had no choice but to sweeten the bargain with a generous measure of my own gold to keep them steady. It would not be without cost, yet I would consider it an investment. These lands would be mine in all but name, peopled by Varangians as colonists.
Once and for all I needed a settlement rich in iron that did not depend upon imports. That was the greatest limitation of my smithing industry. We produced more worked iron than we could replenish through shipments, and no matter how many ships brought ore across the sea, a single blast furnace of mine could consume in days what an entire vessel carried.
If we found a mine in the Carpathians, which without doubt must exist, and near a river, I would have the perfect site for a massive forge, the ideal place to stop dreaming and finally equip an entire army with full plate armor of steel.
Setting those thoughts aside, we organized the army. The thematic forces remained in the region securing the territory and were sent in different directions to expel the last Bulgarian remnants hiding in isolated settlements.
We began moving north. Twenty two thousand men marched with me, and using the available roads we reached Dorostolon without much delay, where we crossed the wide Danube over the bridge that still stood, while I listened to the Varangians remark that the river was navigable for their drakkars.
Once the crossing was complete, we observed what I had expected. Many of the inhabitants were Slavic tribes who used the land for grazing. Small scattered settlements were barely visible, marked only by thin columns of white smoke rising above their huts.
There was little choice. We had to expel them or put them to work. I sent the cavalry to do what cavalry does best. Before long the villages were surrounded and the Slavs captured.
I attempted to exchange a few words with them, but they did not speak Bulgarian. I let the Varangians enslave them, and we continued in the same manner as we moved north, striking small settlements, taking livestock, capturing men and women, all while searching for the ideal location to found the first Roman city in the region in centuries.
As we cleared the land and sent those who spoke Bulgarian to Anatolia to work themselves to death, we eventually reached a site that seemed ideal.
To our fortune, or perhaps not, we encountered large groups of Vlachs, descendants of Romanized Dacians. I did not understand their language, but some spoke Greek, as their merchants often traveled south in search of goods unavailable in their homeland, a land with very few cities and only a handful of ancient fortresses that appeared to date back to Roman times and had somehow endured.
They were Christians, which meant they could not be enslaved. This displeased several Varangians who were already arguing over the labor required for the coming construction.
We decided to advance slightly farther north and settle near the great forests and the mountain passes of the Carpathians.
The locals called the area Târgoviște, and it was ideal for fortification. We immediately began work on raising a city. I had no architects, but after years of supervising construction I knew enough about foundations, layout, and defenses to direct the initial stages.
We raised an enormous military camp, assigned zones for the horses, and thousands of slaves began digging with picks and shovels while my men felled the largest trees in the nearby forests. I had to assist in some tasks myself. It was not uncommon for some fool to be crushed by a falling trunk because he misjudged its descent, so I had to supervise nearly everything.
As days passed, Vlach merchants began arriving. They had once paid tribute to the Bulgarians and now had no one to pay. I sent riders to known villages with the help of their own traders, proclaiming the imperial mandate of the basileus Rhomaion and my position as governor of the lands north of the Danube.
Within days Vlach merchants began to arrive in greater numbers. I seized the opportunity to offer them work. I no longer had the patience to keep learning new languages, so I could generously pay some of my officers to learn their tongue instead. I had no time to sit for days with a Vlach trying to absorb his language as quickly as possible.
Work continued without pause. Foundations began to take shape and the surrounding Vlach settlements were gradually absorbed into the growing city.
There were still no true buildings standing and we were only in the earliest stages, and winter would likely catch us there, but we had already begun preparing for it.
As I continued working, I noticed I faced a more personal problem. Since Pliska, since the weight I carried had vanished, I felt things returning that I had long suppressed, and nothing struck harder than desire.
I do not know whether the absence of immediate objectives stirred hormones that at my age should already have settled, but I frequently found myself thinking of my wife, which did not help in the slightest given that she was hundreds of kilometers away.
Only my willpower, and my rule forbidding women in the camp, kept me under control. I would not degrade myself by taking a slave nor would I pay for it. However arranged my marriage might be, I would not betray my own integrity for an impulse.
So I endured the abstinence and fought my own desires. I would not be a hypocrite regarding my own rules.
Once I forced my mind away from useless distractions, I returned to the work, satisfied with the progress. The foundations were completed and at last the Varangians who had gone to Crete began to arrive as they were ordered. After several weeks they appeared, and with them came a considerable group of people I had requested from Heraklion.
Architects arrived, along with administrators, and merchants carrying bricks, Roman cement mixtures, vast quantities of nails, hammers, saws, axes, and every tool necessary to construct a major settlement.
The new city continued to grow. Many Slavic tribes that had inhabited the Balkans began fleeing north of the Danube, and many passed through our region, opening new possibilities for us, to enslave them or subjugate them as we had done with the Bulgarians.
Each day the city gained more people: Vlachs arriving to trade or settle, Varangian colonists dividing lands and determining which plot belonged to whom, local Slavs living in a mixture of slavery and subordination under our rule, and Greeks who had marched with me.
What I remembered clearly was the deep hatred many of those Greeks felt toward the Bulgarians. They had lost lands, families, fortunes, and for that reason they had followed me almost without question wherever I led them.
But the time was beginning to come to part with some of them. It was not uncommon for several to request release from their contracts in friendly terms in order to settle permanently there and become defenders of the frontier. Many assumed we would return to Crete once the first fortifications were complete.
Unfortunately for me, though not for them, that would not be the case. We would remain north of the Danube for a long time. I would not retire until every Carpathian mountain pass was fortified and the eastern steppes secured. That meant years.
Those Greeks would therefore become the first permanent thematic forces in the region, the military foundation of a new imperial frontier.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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