Antolijus Sannas

Kingdom of Travaenia

Legatus Antolijus Sannas (612 - 703) was a military commander in the late Reman Republic and the founder of the modern state of Travaenia. Ethnically Agrimentan, Sannas was the commander of an auxiliary unit attached to the Legio de Fulminatus, though during the chaos of the Vardano-Reman Religious Wars his unit was separated and forced to make do on its own.

Sannas grew up on a farm in the town of Eruleum, just inside the Reman border. Seeing the abject poverty of his town's existence, he joined the army as part of a local auxiliary unit in 640 and spent the first four years of his career as a skirmisher.

Once the Vardano-Reman Religious Wars broke out in 644, Antolijus' unit was summoned to the front and attached to the Legio de Fulminatus. Owing to the irregular sizing of the auxiliary units at the time, Antolijus' unit was as large as the regular legion on its own. This force was sent, in September 644, to put down a rebellion in Leucia. While their mission was successful, the wholesale slaughter Antolijus saw affected him for the rest of the career - his colleagues in the ranks claim that, before Leucia, he was lighter and more cheerful. To contrast, after Leucia Antolijus had a hard, serious edge he'd never had before.

After Leucia the Legio de Fulminatus was assigned to the city of Tauromus, where the rebellions were not quite as prevalent. Here Antolijus made a quick rise through the ranks - by 654 he had risen to Praefectus, the overall commander of the auxiliary forces attached to the Legio de Fulminatus. Shortly after this promotion, the Reman Republic fractured and broke entirely. The legion entered the service of the city of Tauromus, along with three others which were garrisoned at the fort of Ol.

Antolijus' Tauromean service lasted until 662 - the city was being ruled by the commanders of the four legions, and in 662 the legate of the Fulminatus was assassinated. The legion was under threat, and Antolijus took command to bring his auxiliary unit, now supported by the auxiliaries of the other legions, further west. They passed unhindered through the battleground that was the remains of the Reman Republic, and Antolijus declared his ambition to conquer the city of Semnah in the eastern Vardanid Empire. He was confronted by a Vardanid army at the Battle of Sharik in 663 and, though victorious, his force was too weakened to capture Semnah.

With his dream of a rich Vardanid city crushed, Antolijus set his sights on easier prey - the weakened cities of the Flentia River valley. In particular, the easily-defensible city of Ars Mons. He took the city from the Legio de Scuteus in 665 after a year-long siege, and made the city his capital.

From here Antolijus was not so much a military commander as a monarch. Lacking the imperious attitude of the Reman legion commanders and sympathising with the townsfolk, Antolijus quickly consolidated control over the area around the city. He took Pautalia and Ratiaria in 668 and stretched his realm to the bank of the Flentia River in 671.

In 672 Antolijus celebrated his sixtieth birthday and, with this, passed the reins on to his deputy, Jarnevias Puelias. He retired to a farm not unlike that he had in his youth, where he lived out the rest of his years. He died peacefully in 703.