HIR

empire sine fine

rome = big

dacia

just a random place in romania (mentioned TWICE in the book), apparently has gold, trajan goes on a campaign and I think Hadrian has to pull out

tacitus

roman historian, explains how everything is fucked and how most emperors suck; talks about claudius and caligula

plutarchus

greek author who said alexander the great succumbed to persian luxuary (mentioned ONCE in the book)

hadrian

Roman emperor, has to withdraw from mesopotamia

trajan

Roman emperor who caused military overstretch in the east

marcus aurelius

Roman emperor who has to try and manage rome's military overtstretch and fix unrest along borders (also mentioned once, I hate this)

cassius dio

historian/senator, late 2nd to 3rd century rome: abuse of power, corruption, endless wars

ammianus

soldier-historian who wrote about rome laughing at the goths (mentioned ONCE)

zosimus

byzantine historian, late 5th century: describes trouble such as threat along northern border from goths and east from the sasanians (guess how often he's mentioned)

augustine of hippo

"god gave swords to kings to protect christian peace" (christianity as reason for war) ((also … man has one single mention in the book))

henotikon

thing written by byzantine emperor zeno where he begs people to just be friends

zeno

byzantine emperor during fall of rome (476), asks odoacer to depose emperor, has odoacer killed, has some struggles with the pope

clovis

5th-6th century Frankish king, founder of merovingian dynasty, takes on title of consul, converts to christianity

justinian the great

527-565 Byzantine emperor who never slept, build hagia sophia, writes corpus juris civilis, treaty with

peri politikes epistemes

Byzantine book around 6th century? that states ideal emperor is wise philosopher-king

strategikon

written by emperor Maurice (epische naam wtf), protect chief cities, defensiveness, restraint unless great opportunity, navy important, barbarians are losers

völkerwanderung

giant chain of migrations all over europe, eg goths, vandals

avars

around 7th century (at first nomadic) people; originate from steppes, driven west by gokturks, threaten constantinople

huns

nomads who run from climate change around 4th-5th century? Fuck shit up all over, cause völkerwanderung, gupta downfall, weaken sasanians