Ṭisuram
From Almeopedia
| ṬISURAM • |
| Ṭisuram | |
| 337 - 1439 ; 1574 - 1631 ; 1645 - 1711 | |
| Native: | ancient Ṭisuram, modern Kurundim |
| Verdurian: | Corundim |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital: | Ṭisuram |
| Government: | ‘strong governor’ (ugaşras) |
| Ruler’s title | ageşor |
| Language: | Old Skourene |
| Religions: | Skourene paganism |
The nation of Ṭisuram [ˈʈi su ɽam] iwas centered around the Skourene city of the same name. Founded along the banks of the Šinour, it was a mediocre trading state, but an important religious center for the Old Skourenes and later a member of the Groparam and the Skourene League.
Etymology: Old Skourene‘great temple’, Uṭandal Čisur; Tžuro Kurundim after Kurund.
Contents |
Early years
Ṭisuram, situated less than 30 km from Sokandeli or Miligenḍi, had fallen under the sway of the latter early on. While not a colony, it didn't have any colonial cities of its own, and was effectively a part of Miligenḍi, obeying its rulers and fighting in its wars. Many Ṭisuramanda had achieved distinction in the war against Imuṭeli (295-299), and they floated the idea that Pitrat, a colony of Gasibur that had been captured by an alliance of cities in 245, should be given to them, as their own Littoral colony. This would not at all have been acceptable to Miligenḍi’s allies, but this point was not appreciated in Ṭisuram. And once their eyes were opened, the Ṭisuramanda found more and more slights to their dignity in continued Miligenḍik rule.
In 337 the senate deposed the Miligenḍik governor and appointed its own asemop, Umini. The Miligenḍiki were caught somewhat by surprise— they had never really understood, nor cared to understand, the disaffection in the city— and for a few weeks did nothing. Finally they moved to crush the rebellion.
This should have been easy— Miligenḍi had twice the population of Ṭisuram, and the resources of a littoral empire— but the rebel city had been fortified back when war with Imuṭeli threatened, and Umini had arranged with Iṭili for a supply of grain. It weathered a six-month siege and then, as the besiegers were in disorder, with many units off supplying themselves from the hinterland, they counterattacked. They won the battle, and spent two days rounding up the stragglers as prisoners and holding them for ransom.
This did not quite end the war— the Miligenḍiki raised another army and attempted another siege— but this went nowhere, and the next year they recognized Ṭisuram’s independence.
The woes of a fledgling nation
Ṭisuram now faced just one problem: it was deep in debt to Iṭili, and with no colonies nor much of a hinterland, it was likely to remain so. Nossururrikum, Umini's wife and successor, came up with an unexpected solution: in 352 she sent the Ṭisuramand army down the Dussil river valley, attacking Iṭili’s colony of Nibureli.
The Iṭiliki decided to address the problem at the root and attack Ṭisuram. This was a mistake, as Nossururrikum was already negotiating with Nibureli; she could now insinuate that Iṭili was unwilling to come to its colony’s defense. Nibureli duly switched sides, and the two cities sent their armies to meet Iṭili’s. Fighting went back and forth for nearly two years, but in the end it was Iṭili that sued for peace. Ṭisuram took over most of Iṭili’s guşouri, as well as its claim to Pitrat; it had no interest in Iṭili’s colonies in Gelihur.
Imuṭeli took advantage of the war to extend its empire in the Namal a bit northward; the Ṭisuramanda were angered, but for now had no recourse: despite its loss in Epuneka’s war, Imuṭeli was still the richest Skourene state.
The Quadrilateral War
In the last years of the fourth century there was something of a cold war in Skouras. Miligenḍi and its offshoot Ṭisuram (and Gasibur) had strong governor systems (ugaşrara). These seemed backwards and repressive to the people of Iṭili, Engidori, Imuṭeli, and Guṭḷeli, who had senatorial states (usampara). For its part, Ṭisuram tactlessly exploited its shrines and oracles as an indication of superior virtue, or even a divine mandate to dominate all of Skouras. Political conflicts, as for instance the squabbles over Pitrat, were intensified by these ideological divisions.
In 380, the war heated up, when the Pitrat senate declared that it could have no usampara protectors. This meant Engidori (since its other two protectors, Ṭisuram and Miligenḍi, were ugaşrara) ; and in practical terms meant that the city would be an autonomous region in the empire of Ṭisuram.
Engidori objected; but it was Guṭḷeli that took the occasion to lay down an ultimatum: if Ṭisuram sent troops to the city, it would declare war. Two years later a new ageşor in Ṭisuram decided to do just that, and Guṭḷeli duly invaded. It sent almost its entire army across the water to Pitrat, overwhelming the Ṭisuramand force.
Now all Guṭḷeli had to do was prevent Ṭisuram from sending a new army to Pitrat (or counter-invading Guṭḷeli). The remainder of the conflict was therefore naval, and here Guṭḷeli had a strong advantage; it had twice as many longboats as Ṭisuram— an advantage which allowed it to destroy Ṭisuram’s fleet in its harbor at Nibureli in 384, ending the war.
The usampara were disadvantaged by the bad blood between Guṭḷeli and its former occupier Imuṭeli; but this was overcome by Teralepṭ, the amesop of Imuṭeli, who proposed an alliance (403). The Guṭḷeliki accepted (beginning a long Skourene tradition of sudden rearrangements of alliances). The allies hoped to destroy the power of Ṭisuram, and they were hardly discomfited by the counter-alliance of Ṭisuram with its former master Miligenḍi. The Quadrilateral War began the next year.
It lasted fifteen years, and it was a disaster for the usampara. Guṭḷeli’s naval edge had been misleading— Miligenḍi was a strong naval power— and it was largely reversed when the Ṭisuramand army captured Ageşoram and with it half of Imuṭeli’s longboats. By the end of the war the ugaşrara had also captured Pitrat, Nemiṭali, and Meŋeland.
Stagnation and decline
In spite of the success of the Miligenḍik-Ṭisuramand Alliance, Ṭisuram found itself unable leverage its victory into any further expansion— the one exception being the island of Ḍarroḍ, received from Engidori as a bribe to break up the ugaşrara bloc. In 555, its colony of Ṭisuraku in the Namal declared its independence, and Ḍarroḍ was captured by Guṭḷeli in 558. Ṭisuram, ravaged by the ḍaukiurli plague, found itself unable to prevent either.
Guṭḷeli, emboldened by their naval superiority over the Ṭisuramanda— the Šinour was unsuitable for triremes upriver from Engidori— launched an attack on both Ṭisuram and Ṭisuraku in 724, later allying with Papliopagimi. Even though the difficult logstics made the war a slog for Guṭḷelik forces, a greatly reduced Ṭisuram sued for peace by 738. Papliopagimi took control of Nibureli and the Ṭisuramand coast, leaving it without direct access to the sea. It would maintain its borders largely unchanged until 975.
Recovery and additional decline
975 was the year of the expulsion of Kuḷiŋibor from the Mudric Confederacy, a situation which quickly devolved into open warfare. Ṭisuram, for its part, chose the path of independence and left the Skourene League, which had remained neutral in the conflict but seemed bent on transforming itself into a seperate confederacy. Its new territory included Miligenḍi, which was still smarting from its induction into the Confederacy by force in 930. It managed to stay on the good side of the new Engidorid League, and quickly resumed Miligenḍi's former empire over the Mei.
This wasn't to last, however. Ṭisuram had never been a powerful naval force or trading state, and found itself caught up in the general malaise of the Skourene cities, further deepened by the arrival of Axunemi armies in the Namal in 1134. These ventured into its territory as well, and even though it was never captured or besieged, it lost control of some of its hinterland. Papliopagimi had access to barbarian Tžuro mercenaries, whose horsemanship was unsurpassed, and it put these to good use by nibbling away at Ṭisuramand lands, capturing Miligenḍi in 1130. Iṭili anexed Ṭisuram proper in 1439, ending its independence.
Peligir aid and Ṭisuram's surrender
Ṭisuram's part in the grand drama of Skourene politics was not yet over, though. Former city-states often nurture resentment for their new overlords, and canny leaders can put these grudges to good use. In 1574, Peligi was the strongest Skourene state, and it was making a final military push towards Ageşoram and Ṭisuraku in the Namal. It tendered an offer to the disaffected Ṭisuramanda— distract and waylay the Iṭilik armies in return for independence. During the war the Peligir had implied that Ṭisuram might be given Ṭisuraku, its ancient colony, but afterward nothing came of this. The Peligir always insisted that nothing definite was ever promised; but in the heartland, the lesson taken was that Peligi was not to be trusted.
The Peligir preached unity in the face of the Jippirasti threat from the north, but the hard-nosed and independent-minded Skourene cities were deeply skeptical of its intentions. Indeed, while it did arrange for supplies, it didn't seem to lift a finger when Papliopagimi came under seige by the Tžuro forces in 1626. Papliopagimi fell in 1630; for the trouble it had given him, Kurund's son Burudusi executed each of its senators, razed its walls and all its temples, and massacred its remaining soldiers. He promised the remaining cities clemency if they surrendered. All but Miligenḍi did, and when Miligenḍi was taken the next year it received the same terroristic treatment. Next he turned to Ṭisuram, and his reputation was such that when the Ṭisuramand army was defeated in the field, its senate surrendered the city.
The final invasion and Ṭisuram's end
Burudusi died in 1644; he was succeeded by his brother Adubum. A passionate Jippirasti, he reversed Burudusi’s strategy and poured his riders into Munkhâsh. He conquered the pagans’ restlessness with a wager: if they defeated Munkhâsh, they must admit Jippir’s might and convert to Jippirasti; if not, he would abdicate. In Skouras, the effect was a loosening of the Tžuro noose. Ṭisuram shook off its Tžuro garrison in 1645, and allowed its territory to be used as a staging post for the Gurdagor liberation effort. It reconquered Miligenḍi as well, with help from Peligi. Both these large power blocs fell to internecine strife as each tried to assert their own supremacy, alienating Ṭisuram and Iṭili.
Once Munkhâsh had been reduced, though, the Tžuro turned their attention south once more. Their progress wasn't quite as swift as before, but unfortunately Ṭisuram was the smallest remaining Skourene nation and very close to the front lines. In a vain attempt to safeguard their city, Ṭisuram became a client state of Gurdago. While that guaranteed it a source of supplies, ferried in from the river, the forces of Attafei's grandson Busiŋgal proved too numerous to withstand indefinitely. The city fell in 1711.
See also
- For a comprehensive history of the Old Skourenes, please refer to the Historical Atlas of Skouras.
- For the history of Ṭisuram under the Tžuro, see Kurundim.
| Author: Yebi |
Categories: Cities | Nations | Skouras | Ṭrota
