Death of the Emperor Rhesus

Preparatory sketches for the illustration "The Death of the Emperor Rhesus"

Illustration will be for the chapter "Empire fall" for my unKnown world of Ída.

This part of my fantasy history and stories is inspired by two true events.

The first inspiration came from a book by Herodian (Rome after Marcus Aurelius). Herodianus describes how 4000 Sarmatian heavy cavalry got stuck in the mud after the spring snowmelt and were defeated by three Roman legions.

The "death of the emperor" itself is inspired by Livy and his description of how Alexander of Epirus raided southern Italy, but thanks to heavy rains, his army was divided by flooded rivers, ambushed and killed by Italic tribes.

I painted this real event years ago and you can see it here or in separate post with a historical description in my gallery.

The entire story of "Empire fall" is a variation on the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the invasion of the Huns and the cataclysmic flood that changed the world.