Regional Descriptions: Help the EBII Team

[Macilrille]

This region is dominated, and frequently rearranged, by the forces of the sea. In the southern part, there are large estuaries of several Central European rivers, most notably the Elbe. While generally situated very low and its highest elevation being at only around 170m above sea level, a significant part of the province, particularly on the Jutish peninsula, is characterized by low, rolling hills formed by the retreating glaciers of the last ice age, which adds a pleasant touch to the landscape.
The natural landscape and vegetation mostly consists of lowland deciduous forests, raised bogs, heathland, fens, and, near the coast, sparsely covered sand dunes in some places and saltmarshes in others. The tidal mudflats in this region, known as the Wadden Sea, are some of the largest in the entire world.
While the terrestrial megafauna, apart from deer perhaps, would have been a bit depleted by our time frame, the coastal and estuarine mudflats as well as the saltmarshes are vital to huge numbers of migrating birds, particularly geese and a diverse array of waders and other shorebirds. The sea itself is home to seals, porpoises, gulls, terns and other creatures living off the rich fishing grounds.

It lokks OK- depending of course in how much detail you want to go. For example, while Eastern and Northern Jutland and the Danish Isles (plus Skåne), has some of the most fertile land in Northern Europe (the foundation of Denmark's dominance of Scandinavia until about 1550), South Western Jutland is infamously infertile as it was west of the ice Terminus for millenia with meltoff washing away most nutrients in the ground except on a few hills. https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:J%C3%A4%C3%A4kausi.jpg

[Kull]

Here is a map of 2.3 release

Definitely making progress! Only 7 provinces with no description of any kind. Can't believe there's nothing for Epeiros and Assyria. That's just embarrassing....I should be able to dig up something from Strabo.

[athanaric]

Thanks, Macilrille. I'll consider expanding the description accordingly. Can't promise to deliver anything over the next two weeks, though.



Definitely making progress! Only 7 provinces with no description of any kind. Can't believe there's nothing for Epeiros and Assyria. That's just embarrassing....I should be able to dig up something from Strabo.
Yeah that's weird.
By the way, the pictures for Nikron and Uidu Teuto Ikoranda (sp.?) feature Alpine-looking mountains (you know, the archetypal jagged outlines decorated with everlasting snow). While it is true that you can see the Alps on a good day from the southern reaches of Nikron (the French province is too far away altogether), they're still quite distant and not as close as on the pictures. None of the local mountains in those two provinces - not even the Vosges and Black Forest - look like that; they are older than the Alps and have smoother, rounded tops, and even at their highest points, there is no permanent snow.
I think those pictures were taken in the Alps or a similar mountain range. Maybe it's another case of accidental picture swap?

[Kull]

By the way, the pictures for Nikron and Uidu Teuto Ikoranda (sp.?) feature Alpine-looking mountains (you know, the archetypal jagged outlines decorated with everlasting snow). While it is true that you can see the Alps on a good day from the southern reaches of Nikron (the French province is too far away altogether), they're still quite distant and not as close as on the pictures. None of the local mountains in those two provinces - not even the Vosges and Black Forest - look like that; they are older than the Alps and have smoother, rounded tops, and even at their highest points, there is no permanent snow.
I think those pictures were taken in the Alps or a similar mountain range. Maybe it's another case of accidental picture swap?

If you can find something more appropriate, please post them (with actual location identified). Keep in mind that all "constructed icons" have to fit inside a frame, and picture dimension (excluding frame) is 378x121 pixels (i.e. roughly a 3-1 ratio). You don't have to provide pix of exactly that size, but that's the cropping/stretching I'll have to put them through.

[Kull]

Here is the full description of Trinakrie. Kull, thank you for the offer and I hope you have fun editing it down!

File edited and added to the internal build. I also bit the bullet and developed Strabo-based descriptions for 10 other "description-less" provinces. At this point, every province on the map has *something*! There are still eight which only have the "strategy" section, but I'll try to get something for those, too.

[mephiston]

I'm almost done with Syrthim: in a couple of days it should be ready. The fact that finally I managed to have some free days greatly contributed to the matter.

Some remarks on the description of Trinakrie.


Caltania
Catania is the correct spelling.


Syrakosai
As above, Syrakousai is the correct translitteration.


Mount Aetna [...] Monte Lauro
I feel kind of disturbed by the mixture of English, Latin and Italian: imho it's better to stick to one standard.


20-30 degrees Celsius
Two rules for numbers with unit of measure are used:

1) numbers and unit of measure written extensively ("between twenty and thirty degrees Celsius")
2) compact form ("20-30 °C")

One should stick to one or the other.


Dionysus I
The Latin name of the famous tyrant is Dionysius, while the Greek one is Dionysios. Dionysus = Bacchus.

But the delay is strong in me... Probably my remarks are no more relevant due to Kull 's editing.


Thanks; like you, I'm happy to help. Hope I didn't come across as too much of a jerk - this whole description business, given the academic standards of the mod, requires a lot of research in different directions. It's easy to get lost if you dont already have a lot of knowledge in all of the fields you are describing.
Incidentally, that's why I'm confounded by the plans of some people to translate EB II into other languages. Honestly, it's easier to just learn English. Especially seeing as creating any translation (much less a mod with a body of texts so large it would put Tolstoy or GRRM to shame) of an acceptable standard is a difficult and time-consuming business.

I encourage you to type every remark you have: you clearly know your stuff, and even if you were a jerk (which you weren't) still, as you said, the mod requires deep and diverse knowledge which you possess and I do not. Therefore I welcome every piece of criticism :bow:


If you can find something more appropriate, please post them (with actual location identified). Keep in mind that all "constructed icons" have to fit inside a frame, and picture dimension (excluding frame) is 378x121 pixels (i.e. roughly a 3-1 ratio). You don't have to provide pix of exactly that size, but that's the cropping/stretching I'll have to put them through.

I may have something for Nikron, since I'm quite familiar with the region: in the next days I'll give a deep look to my collection of pictures.


I also bit the bullet and developed Strabo-based descriptions for 10 other "description-less" provinces. At this point, every province on the map has *something*! There are still eight which only have the "strategy" section, but I'll try to get something for those, too.

Nice! :2thumbsup:

[mephiston]

Update: I may have found something for Nikron. The exact location is somewhere in the Semois valley, near Rochehaut. The picture was taken by myself, so it has no copyright that can be pressed. Let me know if this can be a suitable candidate.

Syrthim coming soon.

Cheers!


EDIT: Gah, the houses! There are a few near the river. If the picture can be nicely cropped, or if the shadow is in your opinion sufficient to cover them, all good; otherwise I know why it's unsuited.

[mephiston]

As promised, with a some delay, here you can find the description of Syrthim. It's a bit longer than expected: I preferred to leave everything I wrote so that Kull can decide what's best to remove.

BTW Kull did you take a look at the picture in my previous post? What do you think about it?

A suggestion for whoever is interested in finding ancient sources mentioning specific places. There is a website (https://topostext.org/) and also a mobile app ("Topos Text") that overlaps a typical Google map with markers for ancient sites of interest, each one of those linked to references in ancient literature mentioning that place. It is very useful in particular for regional descriptions, for evident reasons. I found it interesting also as a tourist, to get a quick reminder of the main sources and events related to the place I was visiting. Highly recommended overall.


Traveller's Log

East of the land of the Hesperides lies the land of Syrthim. The traveller can sail across the majestic gulf in three days and three nights, and find plenty of commercial enclaves where to rest and indulge in purchasing luxury clothes and items, only safe harbours for ships in a notoriously dangerous region. To take cover from the deadly current and wind of the perilous sea, he can drive into the land in the Northern coast, between the Trieron promontory and the Cinyps river. He will be met by prosperous and flourishing vegetation, where heat is mitigated by rainfalls in sufficient quantity to cause floods: agriculture is blessed, and multitudes of ears of wheat interchange with olive trees in covering the rich soil. As he moves inland, though, the landscape shows evidently the scars of the daily fight with the implacable sun. Shiny, cracked salt deserts are mute witnesses of the presence of once vast lakes; here sand is the unchallenged king. Scattered people are the Berbers of the desert, who live on the move penning in their flocks in winter. Some of their people have a name for the traveller, some of them do not. Tribes and petty kingdoms arise, fight, split and die out in the ever-present silence among the dunes.

Geography

Syrthim, also called Syrtis Megale by the Greeks or Syrtis Maior by the Romans, includes roughly two thirds of the current Libyan shoreline, the remaining part being Cyrenaica in the east. The epithet "Maior" is used to distinguish this province from the Syrtis Minor (Tunisia), and the two regions were collectively referred to as "The Syrtes". The coastal nature of Syrtim is remarked by its southern borders, which are about 200 km distant from the sea, at maximum: the interior lands have a totally different culture.

The most recognizable feature of Syrthim is the massive gulf nowadays called Gulf of Sirte. In ancient times, there was no clear distinction between the province and the gulf itself: the names were interchangeable, and one could refer either to the region or to the gulf with the name of Syrtis Maior. The strong current at the rising and ebbing tide is probably the origin of the particular shape of the coast: even in the Tabvla Pevtingeriana (a 13th-century road map possibly copied from a Roman original) a stripe of land shaped as a corkscrew is a curious feature of the area, probably due to the presence of this current. The constant stirring of the sand is also the reason why the Syrtes were notorious for the dangerous sandbanks, as the shallow waters were often a deadly trap for sailors (Strabo XVII 3, 20). The presence of a more than strong north wind contributed as well for the uncommonly low number of ports.

Even if the desertification has grown more intense in the modern period, Syrthim has never been blessed by prosperity: most part of the land is infertile and covered by the desert, to the point that Virgil named it "inhospita Syrthis" (Aen. IV, 41). In fact, the main source of water in the inlands are seasonal lakes which dry in summer, leaving only salty barren lands in their place. The only exceptions are the northern regions, where agriculture based on the knowledge of flood zones is the main source of sustenance and income. Olive trees are a big part of the economy, together with other plantations such as grapevines or figs.

People, Society and Government

Due to the intrinsic difficulties in the control of a mostly desertic territory, Syrthim as a whole shows no strong centralised government. The ethnic differences are remarked by a rather evident division of the population: while in the north the Libi-Phoenician settlers are predominant and are clustered in urban centres, the southern outskirts are depopulated and infested by Berber tribes such as the Nasamones or the Makai. Nonetheless, Punic merchants trade regularly with their semi-nomadic neighbours, since they represent the one and only access to the commercial enclaves beyond the Sahara: salt, clothes and metal goods are exchanged for gold, copper, ivory and slaves coming from tropical Africa. Camels are not used as pack animals, as oxen, donkeys and mules are preferred, but rather as a nourishment. Particularly prized for commerce are clothes whose dyes are extracted from specific shellfishes of the Muricidae family: archaeological findings of heaps of discarded murex shells confirm the presence of large facilities to produce high-quality dyes in most Punic cities.

The main urbanised centres of the region are three former Phoenician colonies. Lapqi, also known as Leptis by the Hellenes and later named Leptis Magna by the Romani, is is the easternmost among the three cities, and is built in a site which favours the establishment of an anchorage, due to the presence of four islets protecting the coast. To the west there are Makar-Oea, or simply Oea, and Sabratha, both sharing with Lapqi the absence of a proper harbour but the relative safety of anchorages. The presence of these cities is the reason why this territory is known to the Hellenes as Tripolis, on parallel with the Pentapolis in Cyrenaica, and later to the Romani as Tripolitania.

On the other hand, the Berber tribes living in the south are mainly herders and occasional raiders. As mentioned, they also trade goods in exchange for their livestock and wool, and act as a bridge between the northern Punic merchants and central Africa. The prolonged contacts between the two different spheres is the source of the certain degree of cultural and religious syncretism: the Berber pantheon, comprising figures like the "king" Bonchor or the "healer" Macurgum, is worshipped along with Punic deities such as Tanit or Baal.

History

There are scarce documentations relative to the history of Syrthim before the Hellenistic era: the most part of our knowledge is based on archaeology, and even written references are taken from the closest neighbours, such as Egyptians and Greeks. We certainly know that in Neolithic times the climate allowed for large megalithic societies to develop: this is evident in the presence of large numbers of trilithons and dolmens, similar to the ones in Stonehenge. The collapse of these civilizations is probably due to the desertification, as later happened to the Garamantes.

Phoenician presence is documented since the 7th century BC, when the cities of the Tripolis were founded. Their names are of clear Phoenician origin: Lpqy, M'qr, Sbrt'n all seem to be Semitic names, even if already existing Libyan settlements are likely to have already been in the same place. Due to the strong Greek presence, in the form of the nearby Pentapolis in Cyrenaica and settlers from the motherland itself, these cities and the outlying lands have been highly contested. There are cases of local conflicts between Greek colonists and Phoenician inhabitants: for instance, in the 6th century BC the citizens of Lapqi repelled an expedition led by Dorieus, a prince of the Agiad dynasty from Sparte. The legend concerning the Altar of the Philaenoi, found near the Lake Tritonis in the easternmost part of Syrthim, probably dates back to this period (Pomponius Mela II 1, 38).

Eventually Qart Hadasht replaced the Greeks in the control of the region. However, with the Second Punic War coming to an end and Qart Hadasht defeated, Syrthim was given to Masinissa, the king of Numidia after the defeat of Siphax, together with all eastern coastal regions. After the final destruction of Qart Hadasht in 146 BC by Pvblivs Cornelivs Scipio Aemilianvs the shift in the balance of power was definitive: the Romani, through the newly formed provincia of Africa and the alliance with the Numidii, were de facto controlling western Africa. The agreement between Numidia and the Romani was commercial, other than political, and was strengthened even more during the reign of Micipsa, the son of Masinissa. Nonetheless, the relations between the two eventually worsened when Jugurtha, one of the heirs of Micipsa, in his struggle to gain the throne, endangered the safety of Roman citizens to the point of causing a war, lasting from 112 BC to 105 BC. However Syrthim, by now called Tripolitania, was spared from the conflict, which was fought mainly near Kirtan and the Tell Atlas mountains, and the boundaries of Africa were not modified, although Roman control of the region was considerably strengthened after the dethronization of Jugurtha.

During the Civil Wars the region was divided by the conflict: only the defeat of the supporters of Pompeivs at Thapsus in 46 BC, among which there was Juba king of Numidia, gave Caesar the possibility to pacify the zone. Lapqi, which at this point was called Lepcis by the locals and Leptis by the Romani, was forced to pay an annual tribute of three million pounds of olive oil for having supported the Pompeians. The cities in Tripolitania were granted the status of "civitates liberae", though, due to the Caesar's usual habit of treating mildly defeated enemies, and therefore were bound to Roma by a special foedus and not directly included in the provincia. From 45 BC two provinciae were established in Africa, the Africa Vetvs and the Africa Nova: the second was the easternmost one, corresponding to the former eastern Numidia, and was bordering the kindom of Bocchus of Mauretania to the west and the Berber tribes to the south. The historian Sallvstivs was the first proconsvl.

With the administrative reform carried out by Avgvstvs, both provinciae were unified into Africa Proconsvlaris. In this phase it is likely that the civitates liberae in Tripolitania were included in the provincia as well. Augustan policy of favouring the establishment of coloniae in key areas mostly concerned already existing cities, giving property rights on African ground to family nuclei from Italia; his promotion of agricultural production influenced also Tripolitania and its already noteworthy olive oil output, even if as already said the prosperity of the region depended mostly on the commerce with tropical Africa rather than on agriculture.

During the 2nd century AD the importance of Tripolitania was due to the establishment of the "limes". Boundaries of the Empire and springboards for possible expansion at the same time, all "limites" had in common a relevant and ever-present concentration of military forces, and the Limes Tripolitanvs was no exception. The highest peak of prosperity reached by Tripolitania was reached under emperor Septimivs Severvs, in the years 197-211 AD. Due to being born in Leptis Magna itself, the emperor payed special attention to his native land both in art and architecture and also in pacification and conquest; this was the period of maximum expansion in Northern Africa for the Roman Empire, stretching until Garama, the capital of the Garamantes.

Under Diocletianvs the provincia was again reformed, with all western Africa being condensed into the Diocese of Africa, with two subsections: Africa Proconsularis Zeugitana and Africa Valeria Byzacena. After the death of Theodosivs I in 395 BC and the subsequent division between Western and Eastern Empire, Tripolitania became a provincia on its own. The grasp of the administration on the region was not as firm as before, though, and in fact in 429 AD and in the following years the Vandals occupied all Northern Africa. The ruling of this germanic tribe lasted until 533, when Byzantine general Belisarivs took back the region; the conquest was short-lived, because a combination of bad administration and pressure from outlying Berber raiders left little to oppose the Muslim tide. In 647 Tripolis fell under control of the governor of Egypt Abdallah ibn Sa'd. From this point on, the history of the region has been largely Islamic: all attempts to "take back" Tripolitania, from the Middle Ages with the Crusades until modern Italian and British colonialism, were brief and largely unsuccessful.

Strategy

As historically documented, with a properly developed infrastructure Syrthim is a relevant source of income due to the commerce, both on land and on sea. Its central position in Africa justifies paying a special attention to its boundaries, because it represents the shortest land route to and from Egypt. Land armies need to be cautious not to be caught in the middle of the desert during the hottest months of the year, though: the campaigning can be easily bogged down by the shortage of supplies and difficulties in marching itself.

[Kull]

As promised, with a some delay, here you can find the description of Syrthim. It's a bit longer than expected: I preferred to leave everything I wrote so that Kull can decide what's best to remove.

BTW Kull did you take a look at the picture in my previous post? What do you think about it?

A suggestion for whoever is interested in finding ancient sources mentioning specific places. There is a website (https://topostext.org/) and also a mobile app ("Topos Text") that overlaps a typical Google map with markers for ancient sites of interest, each one of those linked to references in ancient literature mentioning that place. It is very useful in particular for regional descriptions, for evident reasons. I found it interesting also as a tourist, to get a quick reminder of the main sources and events related to the place I was visiting. Highly recommended overall.

Thanks, I'll review this and add the necessary edits. Will also look at that picture at some point and let you know. :2thumbsup:

[Kull]

As promised, with a some delay, here you can find the description of Syrthim. It's a bit longer than expected: I preferred to leave everything I wrote so that Kull can decide what's best to remove.

BTW Kull did you take a look at the picture in my previous post? What do you think about it?

Edited the Syrthim description and added it to the internal build (will be part of v2.3a). Also added your new pix as a replacement for Nikron. Here's the before and after icons (new ones on top):

20594

[mephiston]

Edited the Syrthim description and added it to the internal build (will be part of v2.3a). Also added your new pix as a replacement for Nikron. Here's the before and after icons (new ones on top):

20594

It looks awesome! I'm glad you managed to include the pic, and the description as well. I hope I'll be able to continue with Byzacena as soon as possible. ~:)

[Ozonius Tomicus]

M2TW doesn't like italics (or our xml conversion tool can't handle them properly). The "italics code" has the unfortunate side effect of eliminating the spaces which immediately precede (or follow) it. We used to use it, but the overall effect was ugly and it was all removed in an update sometime last year. Don't know about brackets, but parens work fine.

Regarding the "xml conversion tool" you are using -- is that something that a coder could modify or a utility that could be replaced with a new custom version?

The specific problem (removing spaces before or after) seems as if it might be corrected at that stage to make M2TW happy.

If so, what language might said coder need to work in?

Just a thought so tossing-in my two mites since italics sound useful/desirable from a few other comments I have seen.

[Kull]

Regarding the "xml conversion tool" you are using -- is that something that a coder could modify or a utility that could be replaced with a new custom version?

The specific problem (removing spaces before or after) seems as if it might be corrected at that stage to make M2TW happy.

If so, what language might said coder need to work in?

Just a thought so tossing-in my two mites since italics sound useful/desirable from a few other comments I have seen.

The tool was developed by a former team member, and unfortunately we don't have anybody with the technical skill to go in and address the italics issue. Here's the link to the thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?128084-Release-of-the-CUF-%28font-text-rendering%29-mod-tool) where the tool was made available to the public. If you have the skills to navigate through that thing and can make the adjustments necessary, that would be awesome!

[Ozonius Tomicus]

Thanks Kull. I was able to download the source and binary files linked in that thread. It is Java -- which I did use to develop a couple of small apps many years back, and NetBeans, which I have seen but never used as an IDE. The updates and discussions in the thread should help understanding, though mostly unfamiliar topics to me...

I will try to get a handle on the utility but cannot promise that I will progress rapidly in understanding enough to find and correct the issues -- but am willing to try to bring myself up-to-speed as time permits in the near future.

It would be swell to give something back to the project that has provided me so much education and entertainment over the years!

[Heavenlyhorses]

Does anymore writing need to be done