History of Selucia

The history of Selucia covers the history of the territory of the modern state of Selucia as well as that of the Selucian people.

Selucians are considered to belong to the Enetric peoples, and are thought to have arrived on the Selucian archipelago sometime in the 3rd millennium BCE. Throughout the following millennia, Selucian culture and civilization spread, directly or indirectly, to many areas outside the Selucian islands, including Pontesi, Barmenia, Deltaria, Zardugal, Istalia, or Canrille. Selucia was also the headquarters of the first international Hosian Church, and as such Selucian influence spread far beyond areas of Selucian control.

Prehistory
The Enetric Migrations are a prehistoric event hypothesized to have brought the Enetric speaking peoples, including Selucians and Kalopians, to Majatra from their initial homeland somewhere in modern Kundrati. When the Enetric peoples invaded sometime around 3000 BCE, the area was inhabited by various non-Enetric-speaking, indigenous pre-Enetric people, who practiced agriculture as they had done since the 7th millennium BCE.

Antiquity
Ancient Selucia was an ancient civilization that lasted from the Archaic period of circa 1000 BCE to the end of antiquity (c. 500 CE), but in common usage it refers to all Selucian history until the fall of the Qedarite Empire. Ancient Selucia is considered the foundational culture of Artanian civilization and one of the fundamental influences for Majatran civilization. Ancient Selucian civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly due to the spread of Selucian Hosianism, as well as a result of the rediscovery of Selucian antiquity during the Renascentia.

Archaic Selucia
In time the Enetric tribes on the archipelago began differentiating themselves from other Enetric peoples. During the 7th century BCE writing was introduced with the adoption of the Qedarite (Phoenician) alphabet, modifying it to create the Selucian alphabet. Selucia was divided into many small self-governing communities, to a large extent determined by Selucian geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges.

Classical Selucia
The basic political unit in Ancient Selucia was the city-state. Each city was theoretically independent, as was any colony, although colonies traditionally deferred to their mother city. The process of colonization around the Majatran Sea, started in the Archaic era, continued much more vigurously during the age of Classical Selucia, when the Selucian city-states competed with Cildanian and Kalopian polities in colonizing the shores of Majatra.

Qedarite Selucia
Competition between Selucian and Cildanian city-states intensified after the creation of the Qedarite Empire in 407 BCE. Desiring to maintain Cildanian monopoly on trade in the Majatran Sea, the Qedarite city-state of Qart Qildar imposed its hegemony over most Cildanian city-states around Majatra by the end of the 5th century. Trade disputes between Selucians and Cildanians and conflict over hegemony in West Majatra culminated in the Selucian-Cildanian Wars, a series of four wars that gradually brought most Selucian city-states under the rule of the Qedarite Empire. During the wars Selucia was united for the first time in its history under the Selucian League, an alliance of nominally independent city-states led by an elected Imperator (general), under the informal leadership of Auroria, the most powerful city-state at the time.

Selucia was defeated by the Qedarite Empire and incorporated as a province. Although Selucia declined militarily, Selucian culture continued to flourish under Qedarite rule. The Selucian city-states retained a large degree of autonomy, and the Selucian religion received much sponsorship from the Empire. Qedarite Selucia was also characterized by a large degree of syncretism between Selucian and Qedarite cultures, and many Kalopian influences were also introduced, especially after the Empire conquered Kalopia in 205 BCE.

The Jelbo-Tukaric Migrations that ultimately destroyed the Qedarite Empire did not affect Selucia directly, but the Selucian city-states did rebel against Qart Qildar in the Social War. With the defeat of Qart Qildar, Selucia gained her independence, but not her unity, as the islands would continue to be divided into a patchwork of small independent polities.

Middle Ages
Following the fall of the Qedarite Empire and the power vacuum left in its place, a new power slowly emerged in Selucia, the Hosian Church. Hosianism was founded in Beiteynu while the Qedarite Empire was crumbling, and the new faith was introduced in Selucia not long after its founding; according to tradition, it was St. Michael, one of the Disciples of Eliyahu, that brought the new religion into Selucia, becoming the first Bishop of Auroria, where he was also martyred. Lacking central authority, many of the city-states were quick to embrace Hosianism, while others remained adamantly Pagan. In Auroria iself, after its adoption of Hosianism as the city's faith, the Bishop gained the role of President of the City. Claiming legitimacy derived from Saint Michael, the Bishop of Auroria considered himself the highest authority of the emerging Church, so that when the Unitarian controversy was raging amongst Hobrazian Hosians, spreading into Majatra, Bishop of Auroria Adeodatus Florianus called for a council of the entire Hosian world in order to put an end to the controversy. The resulting Council of Auroria of 533 CE was one of the most important events in Terran religious history, as it formalized the mainstream Binitarian dogma, established the first Hosian Church (the Holy Apostolic Hosian Church of Terra), adopted a single biblical cannon for the whole Church, and recognized the Bishop of Auroria as Arch-Patriarch and leader of the entire Hosian world. The council also resulted in the oldest ongoing schisms in the Hosian Church, as the Unitarian party, rejecting the outcome of the Council, ultimately founded the Patriarchal Church (Eastern Rite).

The newly established Hosian Church, headquartered in the Selucian city of Auroria, gradually became the strongest political faction on the islands. By the 8th century Auroria was confirmed as the secular possession of the Church as the Patrimonium Sancti Michaelis ("Patrimonium of Saint Michael"). In the meantime Selucian towns outside the control of the Church preserved their independence. By the end of the medieval era, these towns had exited from Feudalism, so that their society was based on merchants and commerce. Owing to their favourable position between Artania and Majatra, Selucian cities became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads. Several of these cities became thalassocracies, building fleets of ships both for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks between the two continents, while also occupying coastal territory around the Majatran Sea.

Renascentia
Between the 14th and 16th centuries Selucia was the centre of the Renascentia, a cultural period marked by the flourishing of the arts, architecture, literature, science, historiography, and political theory. The newfound prosperity brought by trade and banking led to the power of the city-states increasing significantly, as the Selucian trade routes that connected Artania and Majatra were major conduits of culture and knowledge. Economic and territorial growth brought increasing wealth to the Selucian city-states, so that during the Renascentia many political leaders, including the Papacy, felt the need to show their affluence and taste by spending money on cultural symbols of wealth. Leading families in the city-states would become patrons of the arts and culture. A central feature of the Renascentia was the rediscovery of Classical Antiquity and its cultural, scientific, and artistic values. Renascentia luminaries strove to imitate the achievements of Antiquity and move away from the stagnation of the previous period, which they termed the "Middle Ages".

The rediscovery of classical mythology during the Renascentia led to a strong resurgence of Selucian Paganism beginning with the 15th century. As a consequence of newfound interest in the writings of ancient Selucians, Pagan writers could now rightfully point out that their faith, until that point looked down upon as nothing more than peasant superstition, had a rich and ancient philosophical tradition that could compete with Hosian theology on equal footing. The rebirth of Paganism during the Renascentia was however opposed by the Church, which also claimed itself the heir of ancient Selucian heritage by pointing out monotheistic tendencies within the writings of a number of classical philosophers. The Renascentia consequently became fertile ground for philosophical and theological disputes between the two competing traditions. The religious landscape of the archipelago was from this point on characterized by a relative balance between two religions, each with its own claim to higher intellectual and moral respectability.

During the Renascentia Classical literature was rediscovered, and with it widespread knowledge of Classical Selucian. Renascentia authors strived to immitate the writing of classical authors, creating a polished and artificial style that followed the prescriptions of 3rd century BCE Aurorian Selucian. The growing body of literature in Classical Selucian and the increasing divergence of colloquial dialects established the classical register as a common language throughout the islands, gaining acceptance as the language of diplomacy and trade in addition to its role as the language of literature and religion.

Early Modern history
Towards the end of the Renascentia the powerful families that ruled the Selucian city-states and who had been the major patrons of cultural rebirth gradually brought the various republics under their direct rule, establishing hereditary monarchies that would come to dominate the islands in early modern times. During the Renascentia Selucian writers such as Titus Tullius Coleus looked back to the perceived heroism of ancient times, when Selucia was united against foreign powers. In the late 18th century nationalist ideas began to gain momentum, supported by the growing middle class dissatisfied with feudalism, monarchy, and the disunity of the nation. Building upon the values of the Renascentia, early Selucian nationalists envisioned a single unified Selucian nation-state governed under Republican principles. Nationalist writers of the 18th century began publishing works in a modernized form of Classical Selucian, breaking from the archaic tendencies of Selucian writing during the Renascentia by tackling modern themes in an otherwise artificial standardized language, thus laying the foundations of Modern Standard Selucian as the single language of the Selucian nation. Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the Papacy and the Holy Apostolic Hosian Church of Terra, which feared that giving up power in the region could mean the persecution of Selucian Hosians. This led to a close association between Selucian Paganism and Selucian Nationalism, the latter of which saw the Hosian faith as an allogenous element and the main obstacle to unification.

One of the largest monarchic polities on the islands was the Principality of Argona, which had in the late 16th century come under the rule of the powerful Gens Urseola. The rising middle class of Argona was increasingly dissatisfied with the autocratic rule of the Urseoli, and in 1799 the Urseoli were overthrown in a republican revolution, founding the Argonan Republic. Due to the Republic's Pagan Nationalist and republican character, it soon entered armed conflict with the Church and the other states on the islands. The resulting war, won by Argona, led to the Unification of Selucia and the creation of a Selucian nation-state under pagan and republican principles. Hosianism was banned and driven underground, Paganism was granted a unified form and theology, and Modern Standard Selucian was established as the nation's sole official language.

First Republic (1811-1935)
The Unification of Selucia resulted in the creation of the First Republic. Sextus Fontilius, the commander in charge of the invasion of Auroria, was elected the first Consul of united Selucia together with former Dictator Iulianus Capraeus, establishing a form of government that would last, with numerous alterations and interruptions, for millennia. Politics in the Republic soon became dominated by a new Republican aristocracy. Known as the Patricii (Patricians), this new aristocracy had its roots in the rising industrial and capitalist oligarchy that gradually gained prominence as a result of the modernization of Selucia. The Patricians were distinguished by their enthusiasm for Classical culture and education; one major feature setting them aside from the rest of the population was their use of classical Tria Nomina, which in time became the most important marker of Patrician status. Four major Patrician families came to dominate Selucia by the 24th century, the Gens Assedonensis, Gens Commodiana, Gens Aurelia, and Gens Draconensis.

Fascist Selucia (1935-1972)
At the start of 1934, a military command leaded by Commander Alfuvius Tullius Saiunto, criticizing the "moral and civil decadence" that was happening in the nation in reference to the traditional republican policies of decision-making in the nation, and to oppose the gradually progressive policies of the selucian society, decided to give a coup d'état, starting one of the bloodiest periods of Selucia's recent history, winning and establishing a dictatorship that would end in 1972 when the citizens, reorganized in the so-called "resistance groups", massively paralyzed the country, entering the houses of the military of greater rank and executing them in public, putting an end to the dictatorship in what was called "The Revolution of the Intellect" because it happened after various statements made by intellectuals of the time in exile criticizing the regime harshly, making the fuse ignite in the citizenship. After the appointment, by the self-named "National Courts for the Republic", of Virgilio Auxentius as Rector of the nation, the Second Republic started in Selucia.