Axis & Allies - damowords

Fall of Rome
Rome risen from the ashes as a bird,
Fate has not yet dictated she shall fall,
Tho fetterless her sense of freedom stirrʹd,
The rumor‐mill a growing hill‐snowball;
The ʹScourge of Godʹ
Has Rome upon the run,
All kneel beneath the rod of Atilla the Hun!
Headquartering in Hungary
Master of vast resources,
Between the Rhine & Euxine Sea
Went watering his horses,
With victories in Italy
Lavishʹd on his forces ‐
Before a life of excess pierecd his heart
As pearldivers may die by stingray dart.
Then strode noble Theodoric,
The old empire divides,
Thro phantastical rhetoric
Phlebotomy subsides ‐
Driving the Latin tiremes from the Adriatic tides.
Ravenna
525
Byzantium
Altho the western empire has been lost
Constantinople prospers in the east,
Justinian by Ceasarʹs soul embossʹd,
Once more the conqʹring legions are releasʹd;
Vi et armis!
Seccession by the sword
Stainʹd by fatalities the cessionʹry restorʹd.
This was a golden age for Greece
& the ghosts of Pericles
When freedom from Roman release
Philosophical degrees,
ThʹAegean sea swimming in peace,
With empire overseas
Flying rival of the classical past ‐
Their dying emporer now breathes his last.
Soon offspring of each brave bear‐skin
That laid the west full low,
Round Etna spin, old Rome rewin,
Back‐wrested Cathargo,
Drive legionairres from lionʹs lairs & push them from the Po.
Europe
580