|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/markrose/atlas/ |
Upload File : |
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>1024</TITLE>
<style>
h2
{color:#9C8900;}
h3
{color:#9C8900;}
h4
{color:#9C8900;}
</style>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<h3>1024 — The end of Cuzei</h3>
<h4>Caďinorian and Cuzeian</h4>
The end was inglorious. <b>Cuzei’s</b> <b>last king</b>, Zeilisio IV, spent his time carousing, drinking, and lecturing the Caďinorian ambassador on how Cuzei saved the Plain more than half a milennium ago. His army rebelled in 1010 under the general Bēgisios— also a heretic; he added two deities to the trinity, Usolu ‘darkness’ and Enäron. The prophet Examnās symbolically rent the Cloth of Cuzei, to show that the favor of Iáinos was no longer on his people.
<p><a href="Javascript:parent.al('Nusisponos');">Nusisponos</a>, the Caďinorian <i>elorion</i> (king), invaded Cuzei, at Zeilisio’s request (1012). Bēgisios was suppressed, and for some time Zeilisio was allowed to rule Eleisa. Nusisponos spoke Cuêzi, and was at first hailed as a liberator; the Caďinorians had every intention of being tolerant and beneficient overlords, restoring order and virtue in an ancient state whose present-day corruptions and alarums were a sad and irritating spectacle. However, the occupation proved difficult. Rebellions sprang up almost immediately; the Houses insisted on privileges which had not been operative for centuries; Examnās preached disobedience to pagan rulers.
<p>When Zeilisio died, in 1024, the situation had deteriorated to the point that Nusisponos did not name a new <i>zîtenarrûos</i> but simply declared that the Houses and cities of Cuzei were under the protection of Caďinas. (Simply leaving was never perceived as an option.)
<p>He was succeeded in 1031 by his son <a href="Javascript:parent.al('Besclaies');">Besclaies</a>, who ruled with a increasingly heavy hand. Examnās was found murdered in 1038; the Glade in Eleisa was burned down in 1045. The Caďinorians tried to teach that Eīledan was simply a pseudonym of Enäron. When this had no effect they decided on the suppression of Cuzeian religion (1052). They imprisoned or executed priests, deposed the Lords, required the teaching of Caďinor, replaced Cuzeian law with Caďinorian, even renamed Cuzei “Eärdur province.” It took more than a century, but Cuzei was eventually reduced to a sullen obedience. It did not regain its independence from Ctésifon for 1500 years.
<p>In the light of history, the occupation of Cuzei can be seen as a great mistake. The immediate effect was virtually to remove Caďinas from the fight against Munkhâsh; it was the other Central states, Cayenas, Tel Neuor, and Araunicoros, which accomplished most of the gains against Munkhâsh in this period. The long-term effect was to make the Eärdur a hotbed of dissent, always difficult to rule, ever ready to embrace heretics and rebels.
<p>The <b>Monkhayu</b> were also doing well against Munkhâsh; the young city of Awoilas (modern Avéla) had captured Gopando at the mouth of the Shkónoro, and also reclaimed much of Davrio from Cayenas. A Monkhayic rebellion was brewing in the south, in a mountainous area which has always been difficult for the ktuvoks to contain. Its present-day name, Murnoc, is a reflex of ‘Monkhayu’.
<h4>The Age of a Thousand Suns</h4>
This is the height of <b>Axunai</b> in the south— the Age of a Thousand Suns. Verdurians may prefer the literature of later times, but this age bristled with power and glory; the <i>éclat</i> of the <i>nivedax</i> (emperor’s compound) in Weinexi (X. <i>Inex</i>) has never been greater. The emperors’ greatest achievement, perhaps, was to <b>humble the nobles</b>. They revived the Ezičimi doctrine that the nobles received their estates from the ruler’s hand— indeed, in the first centuries of Axunai, the <i>nivee</i> chose each noble’s successor. The emperor’s growing army of bureaucrats also made sure that the peasant paid their taxes first to the emperor, and only secondly to the estate owner; as assessments were fixed in the early years of the state and were never adjusted, it became an unprofitable business in some areas to be a noble, and estates ended up being divided or sold to pay debts.
<p>The <b><a href="Javascript:parent.updir('meshaism.htm#Axunai');">administration</a></b> was organized into seven Adjutances: the army, the engineers, the judges, the treasury, the registrars, the priesthood, and the palace administration. The bureaucracy restored and expanded the irrigation works, managed intercity trade and the royal monopolies, administered famine relief, mediated disputes, kept records and annals, and oversaw the Mešaic priesthood. Only servants of the <i>niveï</i> had the right to travel the entire empire; even nobles could not leave their home region, unless summoned to Weinexi. If that was not enough to control the aristocracy, there was also a busy secret police.
<p>The <b>economy</b> was more prosperous than ever before, due to the hard work of the Adjutances and the freedom from war; still, it was a rigid system, and only trivial aspects of the economy were market-driven. If some good was in short supply in a province, an official would notify Weinexi, and the goods would be commandeered from another region (or, if necessary, purchased from foreign traders, mostly Skourenes) and distributed by the state.
<p>Unsurprisingly, <b>Axumemi scholarship</b> is chiefly known to us for its mathematics, its treatises on statecraft and the art of war, and its systematic philosophy. (Its poets also produced paeans to their masters, but none of these were considered memorable even in ancient times.)
<p>The one gleam of dissent in Axunai was the official chronicles. For religious reasons these were required to be completely honest. They were written by a caste of monks with no other function, and with full access to official documents; the records of one reign were released during the next. The reports were often scathingly critical of the monarch, and comprise some of the ancient world’s most fascinating reading.
<img src="../illo/axunemi.jpg" width="243" height="191" align="right" title="Woman, man, ewez">
<p>A striking curiosity of Ezičimi and Axunemi society was its belief that there are <b><a href="Javascript:parent.updir('meshaism.htm#three');">three sexes</a></b>, not two. Men were warriors; women were child-bearers. Those who were more interested in books, religion, and art than in swords and babies were <i>ewemi</i>, literally ‘middlers’. The categories were recognized at puberty; in theory men only married women and <i>ewemi</i> only married each other (irrespective of physical sex). Early Ezičimi glorified the warrior above all else, but over time the state found itself relying more and more on the <i>ewemi</i> as the backbone of the bureaucracy and the temples.
<p>The conquest of the Mnau peninsula was begun in earnest by the emperor <b>Čeba</b> in 990, and completed in 1005 by the genius general Duxivei. The new territory was named after the emperor: <i>ros Čebevi</i>, Čeba’s land (Xurnese <b><i>Čeiy</b></i>, Ṭeôši <i>Ṭeô</i>). The local tribals were hardly worth conquering; to actually retain the territory Axunemi had to be encouraged to settle there.
<p>Duxivei advanced into Skourene territory in 1010; this newest province was called Mura, after the Mudric Confederacy.
<h4>Other developments</h4>
The Čia-Ša kingdom of <b>Meuneli</b> collapsed when the Axunašin conquered the mouth of the Čiqai (975); harried by the Bucair streaming in from the north, the hapless Čia-Ša moved further south.
<p>The <b>Skourenes</b> have entered something of a dark age. The freewheeling clans of old were now tired, change-averse oligarchies; deforestation led to loss of topsoil and threatened the supply of wood and iron (because of the need for charcoal); Axunai, effectively the region’s sole trading partner, grew stingier. Many of the Skourene cities are actually smaller now than they were in 600. The Mudric Confederacy collapsed into civil war, as no one really trusted the Kuliŋiboriki; amid the confusion the Skourene League was effectively hijacked by Engidori (980).
<p>The Enevi have taken over the Lenani steppe, leaving the Tžuro cramped and angry. The leading clan in the southward push of the Enevi, the Turomi, felt secure enough to establish their independence.
<p>In <b>Nan</b>, irrigation was used to extend the useful cultivation area for rice, which requires flooding to geminate. This resulted in a great increase in population density.
</BODY></HTML>