I remember playing small during the first time I played this game that I could invite settlers from other states. But now playing big, I could not do that. Big empires did that in history, Catherine the Great invited Germans into Russia, Bohemian kings invited a Germans into their kingdom, and the Ottomans welcomed Sephardic Jews from Spain.
Philip The Arab ruled as an emperor an unusually stable reign from 244-249 AD. He came from the Syrian town of Shahba, renamed as Philippopolis during his reign. Ascended after the death of emperor Gordian III. Some sources claim he was secretly Christian, though this is highly debated.
Nikephoros I ruled the ERE from 802-811 AD. Contemporaries around him described him as a Greek from Seleucia (modern day Silifke, Turkey), though non Byzantine sources claimed he had Arab origins, descendant of the Ghassanid client kings of Rome. He died in Pliska, after battling against the Bulgarians.
Celtic tribes migrated into Anatolia some few centuries after Alexanders conquest of the east. They were prominent enough to form a kingdom, which would later become a vassal of Rome. So notable in fact they copied and formed their own Legion based off of Rome’s, which would later be absorbed by the Roman military itself into the Legio XXII Deiotariana. Serving Rome until it’s destruction by the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Besides that, the Galatians were also famous through St. Paul’s letter in the Bible.
But what happened to them? Especially the in years 200s and onwards?
There is this common argumentation against the “Romaness” of the ERE that they are not Roman because they didn’t control the city of Rome. I find this to be quite ridiculous because in the late 3rd to early 4th Century, there were 3 to 5 emperors who didn’t rule the city of Rome. If we apply this argument logically, wouldn’t that also disqualify Diocletian as a Roman emperor since he ruled in the east? Voltaire might’ve been wrong about some things, but he might’ve been right that HRE wasn’t Holy, Roman, or an Empire.
Justin I (518-529) is probably one of the most underrated Emperors ever. He was born poor, traveled to the capital, joined the military and then the Imperial guard. And by some luck and his political maneuvering, he secured the imperial throne for himself. His rule was quite stable, Persia was contained, diplomacy was amicable with the Germanic kingdoms in the west, and his most impactful legacy would be his nephew, Justinian. A real rags to riches tale in history. Also reminds me of Philip II of Macedon’s rule paving the way for Alexander the Great.