Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

If the Nubians become strong again and suppress the Aksumites on land, the situation will be very favorable to Orwell. After all, people have to live on land, and the pressure from the land will force them to focus on the Nubians, and their attention to the ocean will decrease. Orwell will have the opportunity to expand his influence in the Red Sea. He does not require the other party to completely kill the Aksumites. It is enough to delay the other party for five or six years.

There is still a gap between the Romans or Egyptians and the Aksumites. The former has more advanced technology and more resources. It only takes a few years for them to catch up. This is not impossible.

Even if Orwell supports Nubia on behalf of the Romans, it will not be to the point of raising a tiger to cause trouble. Nubia's land is seriously affected by desertification. Now it can no longer be self-sufficient in food and needs to rely on the Egyptians to survive. There is a dependent relationship between the two sides. Since Egypt holds the lifeline of the Nubians, it is actually not very afraid of the other party's restlessness, not to mention that the three legions are still stationed on Egyptian land and can carry out military activities at any time.

Overall, it seems that supporting the Nubians is not a bad idea. Orville also has this plan, but he decisively rejected the other party's application for marriage.

There are two main aspects. The first is to be credible. His promise is to keep Arsinoe in the cold, not to use Arsinoe as a political bargaining chip. The other party just needs to maintain its existence quietly. Throwing it to Nubia may cause trouble.

The second is the tolerance of the people. The Egyptians cannot accept the marriage between the royal family and the Nubians because they think that the Nubians are a subordinate race lower than them, and there are still many hatreds between the two sides. The Greeks believe that the noble royal family cannot marry black barbarians. This is a kind of dwarfing of their identity. Since both sides do not like this matter, Orville certainly cannot agree to it.

Fortunately, the other party did not insist on this matter, and soon changed the requirements-sending scholars to Alexandria for further study, the top leaders of both sides at least selected people to have a marriage as a show, and sending people to Rome to learn technology.

Orville changed the last request to Nubia providing a group of skilled laborers to work for him for ten years. Orville would let them go after ten years. The prince reluctantly accepted this "unequal treaty" and the two sides reached a unified consensus.

Grotius and others were not born at that time, and there was no shadow of international law. The two sides could only use simple and plain signatures and seals to prove it. Orville was more thoughtful. He asked the other party to send an ambassador to stay in Alexandria, Egypt, so that they could communicate through the ambassador if there were any problems.

The Romans seemed to have had people with similar positions before, and the hostages sent here could also play this role to a certain extent, but Orville should be the first person to pull out the concept of diplomats separately.

Thinking that he could leave a mark in history, Orwell also sent someone there with a little self-mockery. It could be considered as diplomatic personnel sent to each other. Of course, neither side sent many heavyweight figures. Envoys in this era were high-risk professions. Killing envoys was not only commonplace, but also happened frequently. In order to ensure the safety of important figures on their side, unless it was a critical occasion to show sincerity, few important personnel would go abroad.

In any case, both sides probably reached a satisfactory result - the Romans and Egyptians would support the Nubians against the Aksumites, thereby indirectly weakening the Aksumites' presence at sea.

After the Aksumites, the next people that Orwell had to deal with were the Nabataeans on the Red Sea. He basically followed Cleopatra's advice and used caravans to lure the Nabataeans to attack him. This was a group of merchants with a relatively loose organization. They jumped back and forth between merchants and robbers. The king's authority and strength were not strong, and he could not form any effective constraints on them. Needless to say, Orwell's caravan was looted, and he quickly responded by mobilizing a Roman legion and an Egyptian legion stationed in Egypt to enter the current Jordan area and began to besiege the most prosperous city of Petra in the area, asking the Nabataean king to give them an explanation.

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The Romans never took action against the Nabataeans. One of the more important reasons was that the country of the Nabataeans was almost a desert, with dotted towns hidden near the coast and oases, and the road system was not perfect. For the legion soldiers who were not familiar with the local climate and environment, it was very difficult to supply. If they were on the Mediterranean coast, they could rely on complete control of the Mediterranean sea to transport supplies, but they lacked a navy in the Red Sea and it was difficult to stably supply supplies by sea.

Coupled with the shrinking strategy of the empire since Augustus, the Nabataeans have been developing since the Seleucid Empire. Now they have encountered the first major test since their prosperity, which is the threat and covetousness from the Romans.

Orville personally commanded the army to set out from Alexandria. Thanks to the good road network around the Mediterranean, he did not encounter much trouble. The army quickly moved from Alexandria to the border with the Nabataeans, and then there was a small-scale security battle and an orderly advance.

Neither he nor Cleopatra was crazy because of poverty, and they still had the most basic moral bottom line. He and the officers strictly restrained the soldiers and did not let them vent their desire for plunder on the local civilians. They also made three promises to the local nobles that their purpose of coming this time was not expansion, but to solve the problem. They were not targeting the local nobles, but just wanted to borrow the road to Petra.

With kind words of persuasion and the army approaching, these people had to bow their heads and accept the reality. Orwell did not relax his vigilance. The two legions would never act separately, and the baggage team would never transport the baggage by land, but transport the baggage completely by sea, giving no chance to the local people waiting for an opportunity.

As for whether the sea was safe, Orville had received Ivar's full support. After tasting the sweetness of Indian trade, the Vikings, who were used to the bitter cold, were almost crazy about it - the profit of just one ship was equivalent to the looting of dozens of ships, and Orville also promised to give them more things, so the Vikings were eager to increase the stakes again. Ivar pulled more than a thousand reinforcements from Ireland and his hometown, which could be said to be a huge investment.

You should know that Ivar can mobilize about 7,000 to 8,000 people in total. Now Egypt has nearly 2,000 of the strongest and bravest men. Even if you expand your vision, from the perspective of the Romans, 2,000 sailors with people and ships are not a small number, especially their bravery and good fighting, plus Orville's own navy, in the Red Sea, they have formed a posture that can compete with the Nabataeans.