Sabrian Wars

The two empires before the war.

The Sabrian Wars were a series of two wars between 656 and 692 CE fought between the Makedonian Empire and the Sabrian Empire. The First Sabrian War was fought between 656-661 CE over the eastern Siduri coastline. The Second Sabrian War occurred between 680-692 CE and was fought primarily at sea on the island of Lirinya. The wars pitted the two dominant powers of Siduri at the time against each other, the Makedonians controlling much of northern Siduri from coast to coast, while the Sabrian Empire dominated eastern Siduri.

A principle naval power, the Sabrians had amassed a large empire spread out over much of eastern Siduri and the coast of southeast Eracura, as well as exercising de-facto control of the Cacertian isles. In 638 CE Deinokrates III began his conquest of Quenmin, which brought the Makedonians into contact, and eventual conflict, with Sabrian holdings along the Quenminese coast. The First Sabrian War broke out in 656 CE following the Makedonian capture of Sabrian ports within Quenmin and over the course of five years the Makedonians steadily reduced the Sabrian presence along the continent. In the process of doing so, the Makedonians exercised complete control of Quenmin and established a foothold in neighboring Knichus. Sabrian dominance of the seas allowed Sabria to continue to resupply its forces on the continent which eventually led to a cessation of hostilities in 661 CE.

The ascension of Heliodoros to the Makedonian throne in 677 led to a renewal of tensions with Sabria resulting in the Makedonians breaking the peace treaty in 680. By 683 the Sabrians had effectively been pushed entirely out of Siduri proper, but Heliodoros followed up with an extended naval campaign and launched an invasion of Lirinya in 687. Initially successful, the Makedonians conquered nearly a quarter of the island before the Sabrian general Tiberius Decmus inflicted a decisive defeat at the Battle of Asakumo in 690 CE which halted the Makedonian campaign and re-establishing Sabrian control over Lirinya. A second peace treaty was signed in 692, permanently ending hostilities between the two powers.

Both powers were exhausted by the wars and it is believed to have contributed in part to their decline. Despite their victory in the second conflict, the Sabrian Empire was left bankrupt by the defeat as most of its continental holdings gone. This left Sabria left devoid of much of its wealth and power which had relied heavily on its now-shattered trade networks. Throughout much of the 8th and 9th centuries Sabria was wracked by several internal conflicts and entered into steep decline, eventually dissolving in 858 CE. The Makedonian Empire would end the war at it's greatest territorial extent, but steadily declined in the coming centuries. Between 800 CE to 1100 CE the Makdonians gradually lost control of eastern Siduri as Quenminese rebellions and the rise of the Arkoennites steadily reduced Makedonian influence while the rise of Islamic caliphates in Mansuriyyah further divided the Empire's attention.

Heavily studied by historians, the Sabrian Wars involved participants from all over Tyran in the form of levy soldiers and mercenaries fielded by both sides. Both empires fielded large armies and navies resulting in some of the largest battles of late antiquity with many battlefields remaining popular archeological sites and tourist attractions. More than a thousand treatises and studies have been published on the wars since their conclusion over a millennia ago, and the wars are extensively covered in the historical education of both Syara and Cacerta.

Background and Origin

Orestes II had ended his campaign of Arkoenn in 226 BCE, effectively establishing the Makedonian Empire's borders with Quenmin which stood more or less unchanged for nearly 800 years. During this time the Makedonians embarked on a number of other campaigns, crossing the Sundering Sea and invading Borea in the 4th Century under Anaximenes. Starting in the 5th and 6th centuries the Makedonians conquered and absorbed Mansuriyyah and extended their control south along the west Siduri coast. In 635 CE, Deinokrates ascended the throne in Pella and immediately aimed to expand Makedon's borders east following the onset of the Second Quenminese Anarchy, which left Quenmin fractured and in a state of constant warfare. Deinokrates assembled a massive army and began his campaign in 638 CE. The disunified Quenminese warring states were in no position to challenge the Makedonian Army, and Deinokrates proceeded to conquer or subjugate Quenmin over the course of five years. It was during this campaign that the Makedonians first came into direct contact with the Sabrian Empire, which maintained control over several coastal strips of land and ports along the Quenminese coast of the Bara Sea.

Indirect relations between the two powers had existed for centuries beforehand through merchants and traders traveling along the Siduri Coast. First contact is believed to have occurred with Kydonian and Makedonian sailors attempting to circumnavigate the continent, some who eventually settled in Gylias to become Hellene Gylians. Sabrian emissaries were dispatched sometime in the 2nd and 3rd century but never reached Syara proper for reasons that are still not certain. By the time of the Makedonian conquest of Quenmin, the Sabrian Empire was already in a state of slow decline following the collapse of the Acrean Empire a few centuries prior, which had robbed the Sabrians of a major trade partner. While the arrival of the Makedonians on the borders of Sabrian holdings in Siduri alarmed some Sabrian leaders, the two powers co-existed for more than a decade without major conflict, and both states signed treaties recognizing the other's sovereignty.

The traditional historical perspective of the Sabrian War as crafted by Cacertian and Syaran historians throughout much of the early modern era have typically painted the Sabrian Wars as an inevitable dialectical conflict between the two regional superpowers. Modern historians on the other hand tend to view the origin of the conflict as more nuanced. The expansion of the Makedonians into a Quenminese state in the midst of a warring states period had left the region generally unstable, with numerous vassal and client states forming complex, and at times seemingly contradictory, networks of alliances that both Makedon and Sabria were drawn into in the decade between the Makedonian conquest and the outbreak of the first war. The common consensus today is that both powers were ultimately drawn into fighting each other while weaving through the web of regional relations as a result of numerous competing interests rather than a simple desire to struggle for supremacy of eastern Siduri.

Forces Fielded

Some of the largest wars that occurred in late antiquity across Tyran, the Sabrian Wars were massive conflicts fought on a scale that wasn't seen again until the Siduri War. At it's peak in the 680s CE, an estimated one and a half million soldiers and sailors were fielded by the two powers in armies that fought along a front line that stretched from Trang Dihn in the north and the Liúşai League in the south.

Ancient Makedonian histography has often emphasized the mercenary aspect of the Sabrian armies. This characteristic was not without merit, but overstated; many Sabrian soldiers were foreigners either hired or drafted from overseas territories under direct Sabrian control or within their sphere of influence, rather than simple soldiers of fortune. Nevertheless, the Sabrians made extensive use foreign fighters from across Tyran, including Gylians, Acreans, Quenminese, Knichans, Delkorans, Akashi, Kosdreans, and Tennaiites. Many Sabrian troops were from the Cacertian archipelago itself, and often formed the core of Sabrian armies. Sabrian soldiers themselves were predominantly citizen-militia, landowners who could afford their own equipment and weaponry.

In comparison to the Makedonians, the Sabrian armies typically fought in a looser order, relying on the flexibility and agility of their diverse forces to compensate for their usual inferiority in training and drill. In battle the Sabrians typically employed their forces in staggered lines of intermixed light and heavy infantry, skirmishers, and archers. Cavalry was utilized extensively as a screening and scouting force, or to chase down retreating enemies. The Sabrians had comparatively fewer heavy or shock cavalry. As the wars waged on, Sabrian infantry gradually grew heavier and better armed, eventually being equipped with their own javelins in addition to short swords, spears, and occasionally battleaxes. The Sabrians at times emulated the pike phalanx of the Makedonians, though this was not standard. In battle the Sabrians preferred to engage heavily with missile fire before moving into a short, vicious melee attack before retreating again. This fighting style became known as fluctus (Sabrian for "waves"), and differed from the steady, resolute close order battle line favored by the Makedonians.

The Makedonian Army had retained much of its fighting traditions since Orestes II had first expanded Makedon's dominion beyond Syara's borders, but as the Empire had expanded so had it's armies. The centerpiece of the Makedonian armies, the phalangitai, or pike phalanx, remained. Each army usually had 15,000-25,000 pikemen, and there was typically the only Makedonian soldiers present (save for the officers). Various other levy soldiers and auxiliary troops were conscripted or hired from across the Empire. Ruvelkan heavy infantry, Mansuri skirmishers and cavalry, Scitarian and Galanian infantry, Quenminese cavalry, halberdiers, and archers were fielded in large numbers as well.

In battle the center was usually held by the Makedonian pikemen, and supported on their flanks by Ruvelkan or Quenminese infantry. Cavalry was often positioned on the wings, with Quenminese archers in the rear and Scitarian and Mansuri skirmishers up front. While often described as serving as the "anvil" in "hammer and anvil tactics", the phalanx was powerful offensive tool of its own right; well drilled and trained, the Makedonian pikemen were among the most professional soldiers in the world of their time. In battle it was common for Galanian and Ruvelkan heavy infantry to act as "shock troops", charging the enemy lines to weaken them before the phalanx would crash through it. The downside of the phalanx was it required highly trained professional soldiers to wield it effectively; levy troops lacked the discipline and precision to perform complex maneuvers or react to flanking attacks, placing Makedonian pikemen at a premium.