Roma Eterna Topic Guide

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Myronius (Myron Zhang to most of you) carissimis salutem plurimam dicit.

I would first like to note that using Latin in committee, although an excellent display of enthusiasm for the period in which the committee is set in, will probably not be understood by the moderators/crisis staff, so I discourage you from doing so lest your notes be returned with a no comprendo. Personally, I only know Chinese, so any Latin and Spanish lovers out there, you’re probably already rolling your eyes. Actually you’re all probably rolling your eyes But welcome! My name is Myron Zhang and I will be in charge of influencing your fates in committee, and that’s why I am incredibly excited to be running said committee – I don’t have a God complex, but I do have a Parcae complex (I made that one up), so if you can imagine a cackling old maniac in the crisis room evilly manipulating the horrible events happening to you all, then you get some kind of idea of why I get a kick out of my job. I also find often find myself daydreaming about an eternal Roman Empire… (ok, not all the time. I do have something of a life). And if you perform well, you could help me substantiate my dream in a much closer approximation of reality!

But not to worry – I’m a very lazy Parcae type figure, so if you are ingenious about your devilish designs, I shall not have to lift a finger to amuse myself.

More seriously, I found my first high school MUN experience to be utterly boring – I think I still have my doodled weapons system somewhere in my collection of high school relics – but that first impression turned me away from pursuing MUN in high school, much to my current regret.

But the past cannot be changed, so I can only hope to provide a rising generation of high school MUNers with an exciting (perhaps overly so – overcompensation, mayhaps?) experience; of course if you’re an old hand at this particular game, I hope you shall enjoy it as well. If you’re ever lost about what’s going on, don’t hesitate to ask! After all, I asked myself, but the only answer I ever got was a hurried response and a “Shouldn’t you already know this?” look. Ah, but that’s in the past. We must turn our eyes from the that which has gone before, and focus on the glorious future, brave Roman analogues!

Also, in case anyone’s interested, I am in Saybrook College, Class of 2016 (which makes me a sophomore), I enjoy wacking people over the head with bamboo (kendo), giving people money (microfinance), psychologically torturing people (MUN and… life), utilizing bad humor (this), and eating mooncakes (various Asian American cultural activities).

No, the fates will not favor you if you decide to bring an offering of mooncakes. Although the fates will likely eat them, if there are any (un-poisoned) ones.

I hope you learn something from this, about Rome or some other topic/aspect of your lives, but in the end I hope you are amused. After all, if life were but a litany of dull and dreary duties, what would be the point of it all? The fates would be very sad if your life was devoid of the little pleasures of existence.

See you all soon!

Valete!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS History of the Committee Topic History The Shape of the State Current Situation: Unraveling Dream Bloc Positions: The Three Families Questions to Consider Role of the Committee Structure of the Committee List of Characters Recommended Reading !

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5 7 16 27 28 29 30 31 40

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History of the Committee!

Rise of the Renovamen By the time of Commodus’s death in 933 AUC, the Senate, as it had been since the days of Augustus, was composed of circa six hundred members, hailing mostly from the established families of the Italian peninsula, but with a goodly number of provincials, promoted by merit or patronage into the ranks of the Senatorial class.

Although the early emperors had stripped the Senate of any kind of real political authority, the Senatorial stripe was still a much sought after indication of prestige and social standing among the ambitious young descendants of once powerful men.

After the death of Emperor Commodus at the hands of the General Maximus Meridius, Senator Gracchus was invested by the Senate with the powers of the ancient office of dictator, effectively making him the ruler of the Roman world without invoking the now toxic title of Imperator.

Unfortunately for the Senator, his idealism and stubbornness prevented him from realizing the fragility of his position – the Roman people, enthused by the actions of their hero Maximus, had politically forced the Senate’s hand, but the Senate, filled with men who would rather see themselves at the helm of the Roman state, did not and would not wholeheartedly support the Senator’s designs.

And what designs they were. A Stoic along the lines of Cato the Younger, Senator Gracchus instituted an austerity regime that undermined the two basic pillars of his regime’s popular support: bread and circuses. By abolishing the free grain dole that had been a part of Roman life since the time of Caesar and instituting (another) ban on gladiatorial games, Senator Gracchus had irrevocably irked the ire of the mob in the course of a single Senate meeting. And the Senate was only to happen to let him do it.

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With the masses openly talking of revolt and the Senate plotting against him, it was a matter of time before Senator Gracchus fell from grace. The last blow to his tottering authority came when Maximus’s lieutenant Quintus, Praetorian Prefect and till then a loyal supporter of Maximus’s ghost, was forced at sword point to abandon the Senator or “resign” his position. Quintus, hoping to at least preserve the fragile peace with the power of the Praetorians, removed the cohorts guarding the Senator and within days the old Stoic Senator was found dead in his bed.

While Senator Gracchus struggled and died for the ideals of the old Roman Republic, the other senators had been maneuvering for political advantage, hoping to rise high from the ashes of the Senator’s regime. By the time of Senator’s Gracchus’s death, a fragile power cabal had coalesced around some of the Rome’s oldest and most prestigious families – the Cornelii, the Fabii, and the Valerii, along with their various allies, clients, and some notable outsiders. With the now ascendant consuls thoroughly in their pockets and unstoppable voting clout on the Senate floor itself, this cabal soon became the executive body pulling the strings of the Roman world.

The Divided Roman Senate

ROMA ETERNA 6 Out of such humble beginnings, from amongst the ruins of the past, can you brave Romans reimagine the dream that is Rome, rebuild her empire, and create a peace that will last for all eternity?

We Romans are rulers – master administrators, legalists, statesmen, and commanders, but how we rule has varied over the course of our long and illustrious history. Now faced again with the challenge of creating a government in a moment of crisis, can we summon again the spirit of innovation that has guided our illustrious ancestors? Or shall we look to the distant but still remembered past, searching for a time when we Romans walked a more righteous path? Will the ghosts of Brutus and Maximus raise again the banner of the Republic one created and the other hoped to restore? Will the shade of Augustus and the Imperators who followed force the weight of empire upon the lands of the Roman Empire, reinstating the eternal Pax Romana? Or will the shadows of uncertain future resolve itself into a new path forward, bringing with it the furthering of Roman prosperity and power? It remains for you to decide.

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Topic 1.

The Shape of the State Topic History!

The Legend of Romulus and Remus’ Birth

The legendary Romulus, son of wolves, was the first king to rule over the seven sacrosanct hills of Rome, and the creator of the Roman Senate and Rome’s social order, separating the citizens into those of the patrician and the plebian orders. The kings that followed in his wake were selected by the People in name and the Senate in effect, and though the kings commanded ultimate authority in executive, legislative, and judicial matters, the Senate remained the repository of sovereign authority within the Roman state – it theoretically selected one man to use that power on behalf of the Senate and the People of Rome. In reality, however, the Senate served as the king’s council and participated in the legislative process by the side of the popular assemblies, but it possessed little direct power, instead depending on tradition, precedent, and prestige to influence the governance of the state. It was to all intents and purposes an absolute monarchy, with the Senate having several powerful but “soft” checks on the power of the kings.

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The Roman Kingdom effectively expanded its borders under some two hundred years of monarchical rule, becoming a major power in central Italia. The seventh and last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, unfortunately broke with the tradition of stability established by the six who came before and overthrew his immediate predecessor, afterwards using tyrannical force to maintain his control over the populace of Rome, without regard to the opinions voiced by the Senate or the People. After an incident in 244 AUC in which his son Sextus Tarquinius raped Lucretia, a woman of the senatorial class, four Senators including our legendary ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus overthrew Tarquinius Superbus, thus ending the reign of the Roman kings and ushering in the era of the Roman Republic.

The Roman Republic steadily evolved in the generations following the fall of the monarchy, taking on many forms as the socioeconomic divisions created by Romulus began to bear poisoned fruit. At first, the Senate simply replaced the King with two consuls, both holding the authority of the bygone monarch yet also possessing the ability to veto the other. Over the first few generations, the many powers that the Kings once held were divided among various magisterial offices – praetor, quaestor, military tribune, censor, etc.

These magistrates had their own individual duties – the consul dictated foreign policy and commanded troops in times of war, the censors were in charge of the census (hugely important in determining the composition of the centuries and tribes and therefore the composition of the popular assemblies), and the praetors acted as judges at the Forum. With

ROMA ETERNA 8 sovereign authority effectively diluted, the Senate no longer had to fear a repeat of the tyrannical excesses of Tarquinius Superbus, but a new problem soon emerged. Magistrates, though elected with the participation of the plebeians through the popular assemblies, could only be drawn from the aristocratic class of Rome, the patricians; the voting system, based on the socioeconomic division of the Roman population into “centuries,” (the centuries together constitute the Century Assembly) also distinctly favored the aristocrats, who possessed a disproportionate number of votes. The commoners, labeled as the plebeians, comprised the significant majority of society and bore most of the burden of Rome’s many expansionary wars, yet had no access to the magisterial offices and had little direct say in the day to day governance of the Roman state. This legal codification of Roman society into political castes became known as the “conflict of orders” and would come to dominate Roman politics for the next several generations.

The plebeians came close to rebellion due to what they perceived as the inequitable concentration of power in the hands of the patricians, refusing to serve in the Roman army until such time as their demands were met. The Senate and the patricians, unable to combat Rome’s numerous enemies without the help of the plebeian legionnaires, was compelled to make concessions, creating specific offices for the protection of plebeian interests (the Plebeian Tribunes) and opening the consulship and

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other magisterial offices to plebeians. Over the course of several generations, the plebeians gradually gained access to the few offices that remained closed to them, and soon some plebian families could sit with equal splendor amongst the oldest patrician families of the Roman Senate.

Eventually with the passage of the Lex Hortensia in 466 AUC the practical distinction between patrician and plebeian disappeared, and the Senate came to be composed of a mixed patrician and plebeian aristocracy, effectively alleviating the “conflict of orders.” The Roman Republic had attained its penultimate form, a complex hodgepodge of interlocking institutions that centered on the magistrates, the Senate, and the popular assemblies. The magistrates functioned mostly as executors of policy and law as well as judges, while also sitting as Senators during and after their term; provincial governors, known as proconsuls, were also drawn from the ranks of former magistrates. The Plebeian Tribunes were special magistrates, elected only by the plebian class and possessed of the power to veto the actions of any magistrate or popular assembly. The Senate dictated policy by issuing “advice” and also controlled state finances and the civil government of Rome (as we Romans all understand, Rome is more than just a city, or a capital – it is the center of the Empire. It may help to think of Rome as a city-state covering a huge territorial expanse, although by our current point in history this image is somewhat

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oversimplified). The popular assemblies held official legislative power, elected the magistrates, and acted as a court for major cases. It was a delicately balanced system, arraigning the power of the patricians against the plight of the plebs, dividing the power of the kings amongst various magistrates, all the while forging an empire that would grow unto this very day.

Although the legal castes had been largely done away with in effect, class remained an issue in Roman society and so it was after the Punic Wars a series of land and political reform bills, famously proposed by the Grachhi brothers and designed to take power away from the Senate and transfer it to the popular assemblies, inflamed Rome yet again.

From 620 AUC to 665 AUC a conflict between the populares ie the supporters of a more democratic government, and the optimates, conservative aristocrats that wished to maintain the status quo, raged in the streets of Rome and the rostrum of the Forum, but eventually a number of military strongmen seized the reign of power, most notably the seven time (an altogether unprecedented and rather illegal figure) Consul Gaius Marius and the perpetual Dictator (more illegality) Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Although the debate of the two sides would continue until the end of the Republic, by that point the issue was largely moot. Political power rarely rested in the handed of the officials in which it was officially vested – the dominant political entity in this period was the First Triumvirate, an alliance between the three most powerful men of Rome that controlled Roman policy through the official organs of government. Soon, even the Republican organs would be done away with, leaving only a marble façade. In 704 AUC a series of events (one of the most interesting periods of Roman history, but such

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stories hardly fit into a summary of Roman government through the ages) came to a head, and Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, beginning the civil war that would end the Roman Republic. With his eventual triumph over the forces of the Senate and his proclamation as perpetual Dictator, the Roman Republic was dead.

Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus believed otherwise, but the assassination of Julius Caesar did nothing to stop the continuing decline of the Republic. Power soon devolved to Caesar’s adopted son and heir, Gaius Octavius, and his fellow triumvirs, who formed the Second Triumvirate, a formal legal entity that sat atop the Republican superstructure and usurped all power from the underlying institutions, directing all policies of the now defunct Republic. With the sidelining of one of the triumvirs, the “Republic” was divided between two men, Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) and Gaius Octavius (Octavian), who controlled the East and the West respectively. The stage was set for a cataclysmic clash between the two men, and with Antony’s defeat at the Battle of Actium in 722 AUC, Octavian emerged as the sole ruler of the Roman world.

Octavian now had to decide what shape the new world would take. Haunted by the fate of his adoptive father Julius Caesar, Octavian sought to avoid any title or power that smacked of monarchical rule, instead basing his authority upon powers already established in the Republic. Within months of his victory over Antony, Octavian had acquired the power of a Plebian Tribune, which allowed him to veto any action that ran counter to his policies; the authority of an empire-wide proconsul, effectively making him commander in chief of the Roman army and the final executor of his own

ROMA ETERNA 10 policies; and a new title, befitting his newfound duties and powers: Augustus, the revered one.

Though the Senate and Augustus were considered equal in power, the Imperator now entirely controlled the reigns of the state.

Emperor Tiberius (middle) and other emperors

Augustus, First Emperor of the Roman Empire

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The power of the emperors only solidified with the coming years – the second emperor Tiberius transferred all the electoral, judicial, and legislative powers of the popular assemblies to the Senate, centralizing the machinery of government in a body that Tiberius completely controlled. The Senate from then on served mainly as the main administrative and advisory body of the Empire, giving the Emperor extra hands by which he could carry the burdens of the state, governing certain provinces and maintaining the treasury. The emperors gradually accumulated powers once reserved for the magistrates and Senate of the Roman Republic – the power of censorship, the power to ratify treaties, and the power to declare war. By the reign of Domitian, emperors had become virtual monarchs, imposing their will on the

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Senate and People of Rome at a whim’s notice, aided by an increasingly sophisticated court structure and Imperial bureaucracy staffed by competent slaves and freedmen, cronies of the Emperor, and ambitious and wealthier members of the plebian class. Some emperors, such as the “Five Good Emperors,” did not abuse their power; some emperors, particularly Commodus, frayed the very fabric of the empire with their degenerate habits, throwing Rome into the crisis that you brave Romans must resolve.

The past is a creature of many shapes and forms, the present is infinite, but the future can only follow one path. Which path shall you choose?

Among a nation of consuls and imperators, who shall rise above the rest and reign? It is an ageless question for us Romans. In the Republic, closely fought electoral battles determined who held power annually, but the Imperium has no such closely regulated and structured system. Augustus constructed an imperial system beneath the façade of the Republic – his power derived from the authority of the several offices he held in combination and in perpetuity. To transfer his power to Tiberius, the successor that ended up surviving until Augustus’s death, the old emperor needed to transfer his offices piecemeal to Tiberius – in reality it was a tightly controlled transfer of power, but it set a less than stable precedent. There was no legal structure for succession, no chain of hereditary inheritance, no system, only an ad hoc passing of power and position from one man to another.

So long as the men involved in the scheme could keep the game running behind the façade of the Republic, the Empire would hold together without a single hiccup. Unfortunately, the men who followed in the massive footsteps of Augustus

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failed to live up to his example, and without a formal system that could stand on the firm foundation of social indoctrination, precedent, and rule of law, the succession became the greatest source of instability in the Roman world.

Tiberius proved to be a dark emperor, but by the standards of his descendants he would be considered quite benign. The details of his reign will be explained in other histories, but two of his actions, or rather two examples of his inaction, would prove to be of huge and negative consequence to the Imperial system. Tiberius by all appearances did not want the post of Imperator, especially towards the end of his reign; a talented general and administrator under Augustus, Tiberius began to withdraw from public life with the death of his son Germanicus, the apparent successor. A few years after the death of Germanicus, Tiberius had completely removed himself to the island of Capri, his vacation home, leaving power in the hands of the corrupt Praetorian Prefect, Lucius Aelius Sejanus.

This signaled the point where the Praetorian Guard began to metamorphose from a simple unit of elite bodyguards to one of the most important players in Imperial politics. The Praetorians’ experience of holding and abusing the reigns of power under Sejanus allowed them to pierce the veil thrown over human civilization by the rule of law; from then on, the Praetorian Guard realized that power, when reduced to its most base form, rested in the scabbards by their sides and not in the script carved onto the tablets of law. Violence now had a foothold on the question of succession.

Sejanus eventually fell from grace: denounced by Tiberius and hated by the Senators he had terrorized during his regime, the Praetorian Prefect was quickly executed and replaced, but not

ROMA ETERNA 12 without dragging down a large section of Rome’s most powerful people in a series of treason trials that severely scarred the social fabric of the Empire.

Tiberius, however, remained ensconced on his island resort, leaving the Empire to the devices of the formative Imperial bureaucracy, which at the very least did not do anything to harm the fortunes of the Empire, though it had not yet acquired the ability to effectively react to the crises attended to by the Imperator. More ominously, Tiberius made no plans for the succession, an oversight that would have dangerous implications – with no formal system that could transfer power, the present Imperator absolutely needed to designate a successor, lest a war of succession break out at his death. Tiberius did no such advanced planning, and when he died his logical successor Caligula possessed none of the offices that Tiberius himself had held at the time of Augustus’s death.

Fortunately for the Empire, Caligula’s only competitor for the throne was a teenage boy who was speedily executed, but the ad hoc system that Augustus had put in place were beginning to show signs of falling apart. It was only a pruned out family tree that prevented the succession from devolving into another terrible civil war, and an execution was hardly the best way to secure one’s claim to a “throne” that did not actually exist in the façade of the Republic. People noticed the insecurity of the succession. Powerful people noticed, and they began to muse. If they could become adopted members of

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the Imperial family, if they could marry in, if they could secure the support of the Praetorian Guard, if they had but a marginal connection to the throne… what was stopping them from become the next Augustus? Ambition had not died with the death of the Republic. It had simply become more poisonous, hidden now in intrigue in bare-knuckle power politics, and the reign of Caligula would only further Rome’s problems.

Tiberius had been a paranoid, apathetic Imperator; Caligula was insane. There are many anecdotes concerning Caligula; perhaps the most outrageous is a story concerning how he attempted to appoint his horse consul, that position which such illustrious men as Brutus and Caesar had held with great pride in the past. Caligula’s rule continued the general trend of Republican erosion; Augustus had at least preserved a symbolic appreciation for the Senate’s importance and power, but by the reign of Caligula the act was wearing thin and what had been an unofficially monarchical position became increasingly obvious. The disappearance of the Republic’s shadow carried down with it several centuries of tradition and precedence, leaving only the recent history of dictatorship, treason trials, execution, and brutal power seizures. Such would the regular shape of succession in the Empire for the next few centuries. Caligula exercised his monarchical powers with a tyrannical hand, terrorizing the Senate and the richest and most powerful families of Rome while spending lavishly

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on the bread and circuses so beloved by the people.

The mob loved him, but it did not take long for the discontent of the powerful to turn to hatred and fear to turn to action, and an assassination plot in 794 AUC left Caligula dead and the state in turmoil.

The Senate attempted to reestablish the Republic, but the masses of Rome had long since become used to the largesse of the Imperators and the Praetorians found their comfy positions rather too compelling to obey the Senate’s commands – Caligula’s uncle was whisked away from the Senate’s clutches and declared Imperator. With the backing of both armed and popular force, Claudius soon secured his position, but the Imperial system was quickly breaking apart. In the past, the new Imperator had always been confirmed with the willing approval of the Senate; in the case of Claudius, the Praetorians shoved their favorite candidate down the throats of the Senate. The Imperial system was being questioned – the proposal for a return to the Republic, while abortive, reflected a common sentiment among the Senate and the ambitious. The masses, without the legal mechanisms of the Republican era popular assemblies, were exercising its power through the threat of revolt and mob rule. The rule of law was falling apart, replaced by a near anarchy of brutal bloodshed and repeated crises. Force had emerged as the clear determiner of succession.

Claudius was a welcome break from the dark reigns previous two emperors, enlarging the Empire’s territories and reorganizing the bureaucracies. Of course, his reforms would have unintended consequences on the succession – one of the generals blooded in the conquest of Britannia would be the future Imperator Vespasian, and the expanded bureaucracy simply made the Senate even

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more redundant, stripping it of its last administrative and financial functions, removing yet one more check from an already monolithic monarchy. From this point onwards, so long as a general possessed the necessary quorum of armed force, he could seize the throne – the machinery of government no longer had an interest in the succession, and there was no institution powerful enough to counter the brute force of the legions.

Claudius had few flaws as Imperator, but he did have a fatal one: his wife, Agrippina the Younger, a terribly ambitious woman who would stop at nothing to secure power for herself, or if Roman society chose not to accept a female, her son the future Imperator Nero.

And so it was in 807 AUC that Agrippina reputedly poisoned Claudius and the young Nero was proclaimed Imperator. The course of events was becoming depressingly repetitive. Rivals were executed, absolute power corrupted, and the powerless Senate and the restive and bribable mob did nothing to check the power of the Imperial court and the Imperator himself. Competent emperors such as Augustus or Claudius were succeeded by weaker, corrupt, or insane rulers, sinking the Empire into a more and more debilitated state; assassination, military coup d’état, and power plays had become the norm of succession; and the very idea of the rule of law and legitimate succession was at best a oft-used excuse to justify the bloodshed that accompanied an Imperator’s rise to power.

That excuse however was the only source of stability in the Empire, and the only illusion keeping the state from dissolving into civil war. So long as Rome expected power to remain within the dynasty inaugurated by Augustus, the Imperial family and the Eternal City could be embroiled in the tremors of

ROMA ETERNA 14 succession without affecting the Empire itself as a whole. This last pillar of stability collapsed when a series of events resulted in the proclamation of Galba, a governor of an Imperial province, as Imperator by the troops under his command. Nero’s position began to collapse as he lost support among the Praetorians and the members of the patrician class, and the still young man, instead of confronting the rebellion, fled the capital and eventually committed suicide. His ignominious death marked the end of the line of Imperators founded so promisingly by Augustus.

With the dynasty extinguished, the question of Imperial succession had reached a new low. Four men soon became contenders of power: Galba, the governor who had revolted against Nero’s role, Otho, an ambitious patrician who bribed the Praetorians to his side, Vitellius, commander of the Germanic legions, and Vespasian, the man who had been blooded in Britannia and had the support of the legions of the East. The exact events are complex, but by the time the dust settled, Vespasian was on the throne, the other three dead. It had been the Year of Four Emperors.

A hugely dangerous precedent had been set.

Imperial successions in the past, brutal though they were, at least involved only a limited cast of Imperial characters, but now the succession seemed to be open to anyone with a large enough army. The Roman Empire, once framed in the laws of the Republic, was now a function of how much steel and legions were controlled by a particular bidder for

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power. If there was any vulnerability in a chain of succession, if any family lost its monopoly on military power, it could expect itself to be overthrown and replaced with the next military strongman. Rome, the once proud bringer of civilization, had seemingly become an almost barbaric military despotism.

Except of course that for the next century no Imperator gained power through the use of armed force. Even after the assassination of Domitian, Vespasian’s second son and the last of that dynasty, power was peacefully transferred to Nerva, an advisor to Domitian. Nerva inaugurated a period of history known as the reign of the “Five Good Emperors,” during which Imperators adopted and groomed handpicked successors. So did the Imperial system rebalance itself? Had Nerva discovered the key to the problem of succession by adopting the most prominent and talented men as his successors?

Perhaps the events surrounding the end of the dynasty of Augustus had been an unfortunate and improbable series of events, a historical outlier. Or perhaps not.

From the time of Nero’s death to our current era, the Imperial system has not encountered much substantial change. That is to say it is for all intents and purposes it has remained an absolute monarchy backed by an imperial bureaucracy and a massive and well-organized army and the support of the masses of Rome. Did perhaps the gradual centralization of power somehow counter the problems encountered during the slow death of the Republican façade?

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Or perhaps the Imperial system still contains the systematic problems of succession exhibited by the problems of the 8th century AUC, and the transition to absolute monarchy has only increased the risks manifested by the degenerate, brutal, and tyrannical actions of Imperators ascending to a throne still limited by certain symbolic or political considerations. In that case, perhaps these “Good Emperors� are the outliers, a lucky streak of competent men who can proficiently manage the Imperial system.

It is not the task of this historian to fully this answer. I urge the distinguished Senators and magistrates to fully consider the history of succession and decide upon a system that allows for Rome to enjoy the posterity soon recently shattered by the false Imperator Commodus.

If lions cannot decide peacefully who is king, then there must inevitably be blood spilt. So choose, brave Romans. Blood or words.

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Current Situation!

Unraveling Dream Rome has enjoyed the fruits of a hegemonic peace for the last century, guided by the benevolent hands of Imperators skilled in war but fair in peace.

The Imperium covers a vast territory, stretching from the vast seascape of the World Ocean to the trackless deserts of the Sahara, from the cold northern wastes of Germania to the sunbaked mountains of Armenia. Encircling the Mare Nostrum, our ships sail from Byzantium, key of the Bosporus, to resurrected Carthage, gateway to the grain fields of Africa; our legions march from the wilds of Caledonia, home of the last of the Celtic tribes, to the sunbaked rocks of Masada, scene of the Hebrew’s last resistance; and our wondrous amphitheaters and aqueducts can be seen in every settlement in all the lands in between. Truly, Rome holds the entire world in the palm of her hand, and Rome itself, the Eternal City of a thousand marble monuments and a million living souls, lies at the heart of it all, the city to which all roads lead.

Senator Gracchus

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The successive fall of the false Imperator Commodus and the idealistic Senator Gracchus has shaken the Imperium at its very heart, but the Imperium itself still stands strong, in large part because the legions still guard the borders against the barbarians beyond and preserve the peace in the world within. It has been a century since the legions last left their posts to intervene in the Imperial succession, but a century means very little in the grand schemes of eternity. Memories are long, and perhaps even now ambitious generals in frontier fronts are plotting to march their hardened veterans from the barren edges of the Imperium to its living rich heart, and to seize that heart for themselves.

Two centuries ago, the great Imperator Augustus brought to an end the civil wars that had plagued the death throes of the Republic, laying the foundations of the Pax Romana. With peace finally secured in the vast domains of the new Imperium, Augustus decommissioned thousands of then redundant veteran legionnaires, settling them in military colonia throughout the provinces, leaving the Imperator with some thirty legions under his command, distributed along the borders. Although the numbers have fluctuated slightly since the time of Augustus with the rise and eventual defeat or Rome’s armies, Marcus Aurelius left the Imperium with thirty-two legions, stationed at virtually the same positions as their predecessors two centuries ago.

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Map of the Roman Empire, 125 A.D.

At the time of Commodus’s death, thirty legions were posted along the Imperium’s frontier.

The following map indicates the position and identity of each legion – although the map is rather outdated, the legions and the borders they guard have scarce changed in the years since.

Along with the legions, there were also significant numbers of auxiliary forces – the following chart gives a rough estimate of the various dispositions at the death of Marcus Aurelius. In the chaos of the last year, the numbers may have fluctuated slightly due to desertion or unreported recruitment by the provincial governors, but it is unlikely that any single formation has been sizably reinforced. It is to be assumed that in discussions of “legions” auxiliary formations are also to be included.

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Command of each legion is given to a senior officer known as the legatus, and the legions in each province are under the ultimate direction of the provincial governors. Originally the governors of provinces with military forces were directly appointed by the Imperator, but with the fall of Commodus all provincial governors, military or civil, are appointed by the Senator for a term that was hastily set at one year. One of the Senate’s first moves after reclaiming power was to recall all the provincial governors to Rome, ostensibly to swear loyalty to the reconstituted Republic, but many of the military governors ignored or outright refused the summons. No one party has yet acquired the military force to make a bid for power, but it would be foolish not to assume that several generals along the frontiers have already begun forging alliances,

ROMA ETERNA 18 hoping to gather enough support to seize the Imperial throne for themselves. Of the governors who did heed the Senate’s call, most of the civil governors, already loyal members of the Senate, were returned to their posts without incident, although the proconsul (a governor holding proconsular powers and therefore elevated in rank) of Africa suddenly decided that retirement to his country estate seemed to be in order, while the praefectus Aegypti (Egypt was a personal possession of the Imperator and therefore a special governor was traditionally appointed) suddenly disappeared three days after returning to Rome. Given that the governorship of Africa demanded a man of consular rank, the leader of the Cornelli family, a man with extensive administrative and political experience, was offered the position; he has yet to accept or decline the offer. The prefect of Aegyptus was traditionally not drawn from the ranks of the Senatorial order, and although some of the more ambitious members of the Senate are pushing for the termination of that tradition, a more conservative bloc has yet to acquiesce to their colleague’s desires – the governorship of Aegypt also remains to be decided. The two military governors who did return to Rome were charged with corruption and speedily imprisoned and replaced – a member of the Fabii family was sent to Cappadocia to take command of the legion there, and a Valerian was given the command in Tarraconensis.

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Two of the legions, however, were not stationed on the frontier. Legio II Italica and Legio III Italica were raised exclusively for the bellum Germanicum et Sarmaticum that the General Maximus brought to a decisive end at the Battle of Laugaricio, and were afterwards stationed at the Rome’s port, Ostia. Those two legions, having fought and died exclusively under Maximus’s command, were intensely loyal even after the general’s death, and Quintus, then still possessed of all the authority of Praetorian Prefect, incorporated the legionnaires into the otherwise apathetic and even potentially hostile Praetorian Guard, bringing the Guard’s manpower to near 10,000 active personnel and providing him with just enough support to survive the power transition after Senator Gracchus’s death. Such a huge military force obviously exerted serious logistical pressures on the Roman supply network, but fortunately for the prefect Senator Gracchus had appointed a ferociously stubborn and efficient fellow Republican named Senator Marcus Gracchus (a distant relation) as Curator Alimentorum, who after the first Gracchus’s death managed to maintain his position as controller of Rome’s grain supply by reinstating the dole. So long as Curator Gracchus controlled his position, the Praetorian Prefect could keep his troops fed – and so long as Praetorian cohorts wandered past the house of the tresviri monetales (the mint magistrate) every now and again, the troops would also remain paid. And paid Praetorians are happy Praetorians.

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Traditionally, the Praetorians were the only military forces in the capital that intervened in politics, but that did not signify that they were not the only armed formation in the city. Not only did Augustus establish the Praetorian Guard (originally simply bodyguards, the Praetorians soon became a fully self-sufficient operating unit), but he also commissioned three cohorts urbanae – Urban Cohorts, trained as a paramilitary force capable of handling heavy-handed policing actions. By the reign of Marcus Aurelius, there were four cohorts in the City, each numbering some 500 men, for a total force of 2000, none of whom had any love for the Praetorian Guard. Against the vast numerical superiority of the Guard the Urban Cohorts historically kept their silence and swords sheathed, a precedent that they adhered to in the recent crisis.

Whether or not they continue to remain neutral is largely dependent on the attitude and ambition of the quasi-mayor of Rome, the praefectus urbi (urban prefect) their commander – currently a young member of the Cornelii, his predecessor having been surrounded and lynched by the mobs at that plagued Rome at the end of Senator’s Gracchus’s reign.

Although Rome has always primarily relied on her legions and other terrestrial forces, the Imperial Navy has also played a key role in the history of the Imperium, notably at the critical battle of Actium that confirmed the great Imperator Augustus’s rule. In the decades and centuries after Actium, there have been no significant naval engagements; the Imperial Navy however has proved its worth in numerous campaigns along the rivers and seas at the fringes of the Imperium and against the pirates that still oftentimes plague the lucrative trade routes crisscrossing the Mare Nostrum. There are a number of provincial fleets stationed throughout the Imperium, supplemented

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by provisional fleets created by commanders on site to deal with military crises, but these fleets pale in comparison to the four main fleets of the Imperium.

There are two “praetorian fleets”, based on either side of the Italian peninsula and under the direct control of the Imperator; these fleets deal with routine patrols along the coast and also act as a strategic reserve for the Imperial military forces. The Classis Misenensis is based at Misenum at the northern end of the Bay of Naples, and is comprised of some 70 ships, of which 50 were triremes; Classis Ravennas was based at Ravenna, nearing the tip of the Adriatic, and included some 45 ships, also mostly triremes. The other two main fleets of the Imperium have more specialized roles: Classis Alexandrina (50 triremes) based at Alexandria in Aegyptus, is in charge of escorting the massive grain shipments from that province to Rome; and Classis Britannica (40 triremes), based at Gesoriacum in Normandy, is the link between the island of Britannica and the rest of the Imperium (see Map 1 for location of these major naval bases). These four fleets, commanded by equestrians of the highest income and social standing but manned by a mixture of maritime Italians and Greeks, have thus far remained apathetic to the conflict concerning the succession – historically, the fleets will pragmatically support whichever side appears to closest to victory. There is no doubt however that even these fleets might be enticed to support certain other political agendas with the right incentive.

On the political front, two fractions have begun to coalesce in the Eternal City – the Imperialists and the Republicans. The names are somewhat self-explanatory, but the composition of each faction is somewhat more complex. The poorest citizens, comprising a slight majority of the population, miffed at the austere measures of

ROMA ETERNA 20 Senator Gracchus and fondly (and rather mistakenly) remembering the excessive largesse of the Imperators, are rabidly Imperialist, but will likely be swayed if given the right incentive. The more affluent plebeians, shopkeepers and minor merchants, a quarter of the popularion, are in the majority apathetic to the identity of their rulers, so long as their feathers remain unruffled. Largely unaffected by either the purges or the largesse of the Emperors, save for the massive marble monuments that many already take for granted, the affluent plebeians have also long lost their taste for the exercise of political power. If their interests are threatened, however, they may yet find in their souls a burning flame of self-preservation and selfadvancement, but otherwise they are more likely to be conservative members of society. The equestrians, or knights, are the lower order of the patrician class, and are the primary economic movers of the Imperium, controlling some of the largest businesses and factors while also serving in prominent positions within the Imperial bureaucracy. Their numbers make up some ten percent of the city’s population.

Having benefited immensely from the Pax Romana established by the Imperators and already in control of many of the levers of the Imperium, the equestrians are largely but not zealously followers of the Imperial standard. Some of the perhaps cannier equestrians see in the reestablishment of the Republic an excellent opportunity to seize more prominent positions within the state, both for their

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order and for themselves. The Senatorial order of the patrician class, though they constitute but a few percent of the population, is politically dominant. Of course they are mostly interested in the reestablishment of the Republic, and with it the return of the days when they firmly held the reigns of the Roman state and controlled the destinies of millions. But why should the Senators control Rome when one Senator, or one family could do just as well? There is a suspicion that the most prominent members of the Senate would rather see the Imperial system continued, so long as the Imperators hail from the… appropriate lineage.

Of course, these generalizations hide a hidden layer of complexity. Although elections have been frozen and real power is rumored to be concentrated in the hands of a shadowy group of Senators and power brokers, the façade of the Republic brings with it the possibility of mobilizing the masses. The increased importance of public support given the divided nature of the state has meant the return of a bastardized form of the old patronage system – simply put, politically powerful patrons insure that their usually lower-class clients accrue some kind of advantage in return for political support. In the old days, the clients were expected to mobilize themselves and their acquaintances to vote for the correct measure – in these troubled times, the clients may yet be asked to vote again, but whether through ballots or clubs remains to be seen.

These personal relationships can supersede ties of

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class, meaning that the aspiring politician has multiple methods for wooing public support.

Of the two factions, one would expect the Imperialists to be possessed of the simpler plan: maintain the status quo, change nothing, and simply decide who should succeed the quickly disappearing shade of Commodus. The Imperial system, however, is not without its defects, and some of the resigned Imperialists would like to take advantage of the tumultuous situation to enact certain reforms. The current system, where all executive power is centered on the Emperor and the army while administration is left to a vast Imperial bureaucracy, leaves no room for the Senate except as an oft ignored advisory council. The proposals for reforming this system are numerous, from decentralizing the Roman bureaucracy to the provincial level to restricting the Imperator’s residence to the city of Rome itself; the debates over these reforms often leave the Imperial group at the edge of implosion.

Then there are the survivors of the Imperial family. Commodus died childless; his nephew Lucius Verus, grandson of Marcus Aurelius and the son of Aurelius’ late co-Imperator, Lucius is the natural and obvious successor to the Imperial throne. Remembered fondly as a fixture at the games but free of the taint of Commodus’s cruelty due to his innocent age, Lucius has become incredibly popular with the masses, and many in the Imperialist faction dearly wish to see him installed as Imperator – with themselves as guardians, of course.

His mother Lucilla, however, rumored to be the lover of the late hero Maximus, has skillfully sculpted an image of moderate Republicanism for the young boy. Noticeably silent during the draconian regime of Senator Gracchus, Lucius has since modestly indicated that he has no taste for

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power and would wish to see the Senate restored to its ancient glory. It is a pleasing song to the Senators and generally approved of by the patrician class, who think it simple enough to reduce the boy to a figurehead, especially since his mother seems perfectly content to adhere to the wishes of her dead lover. The only segment of society who has been noticeably cool to the young boy has been the legions – distrustful of his mother’s influence and aware of Lucius’s youth, there are many in the legions and the Praetorian Guard who speak of raising an older, more experienced man to the Imperial purple – a man who has of course spent time with the legions, for who else would be experienced enough to handle the difficult task of defending the Empire’s borders?

The Republicans would send the consuls to command the legions – or the proconsuls. Or perhaps it would be best to have a caste of professional officers. Madness! They would not interfere with the administration of the Republic!

We have not even decided how the Republic should be administered! How can we expect the people and Senate of Rome to govern a territory far outstretching the limits of the city itself? What do we do with the masses? How much power do we accede them? None! Then what Republic do you speak of – then what makes us better than the Carthaginians, with their council of judges? A Republic is not a democracy! We cannot allow the mob to rule. Rome must again select her own leaders, but they must be men worthy of that honor, not the favorite of the rabble! You talk about selection, yet I see no way to prevent the legions from making their own selection the new Imperator!

I will die before I see another half-educated puffed-

ROMA ETERNA 22 up military peacock on the throne! For the Republic!

For the Republic! For the Republic!

ROMANS! I ask you this – one simple question, and yet we have no answer: What is the Republic?

The Republicans too suffer from the effects of political infighting. That is why in the last few months the Senate and the city itself have ground to a half, embroiled in bitter factional dispute. It is one of the reasons why there are whispers of a secret cabal of important men who are working to find some solution to the gridlock. It is one of the reasons why the dream that is Rome is slowly, but slowly faster, unraveling.

The economic situation of the Imperium is also slowly unraveling. But one cannot understand the process of decay without first understanding the body – so too it will be necessary to survey the vast scale of the Imperial economy before we proceed to investigate its slow disintegration. Although the city of Rome itself is a huge and sprawling urban center, the Imperium itself is still largely rural and focused on the production and movement of agricultural goods. The driver of most of this economic activity remains the Eternal City itself – with its huge population, Rome requires the produce of several provinces in order to keep its half-million hungry mouths fed, and the vast trade network created by the transshipment process makes trade one of the key pillars of the Roman economy. Besides agriculture and its attendant transportation

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necessities, the largest economic sector in the Imperium is mining – mining not only for the precious metals found in Hispania but also for the marble of Rome’s monuments and the iron of the legionnaire’s gladius. Most of the material mined from the earth is refined and crafted in the few proto-industrial centers of the Imperium – Rome and the urban centers of the East and Gaul. The rest of the urban population is mainly engaged in the business of maintaining the fabric of the cities themselves – construction, distribution, service, and entertainment. The urban poor find themselves mired in poverty, laboring at the sweaty business of hawking wares and smelting metal; the equestrians on the other hand dominate the ranks of the importers and real-estate managers, exploiting not only the trade in agricultural produce but also in luxury goods from the Orient, destined for the consumers of the Senatorial class and Imperial family. So the lives of millions are threaded together, in a complex web of connections cemented by grain and gold.

Given the predominant position held by agriculture in the Roman economy, it is not surprising that land and its distribution has been a central economic and social issue since the time of the Republic. Currently, there are three types of landowners/land holdings in the large rural stretches of the Imperium. The latifundia are large-scale tracts of privately owned land specialized for the production of grain, grapes, and olives – the cash

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crops of the Roman world. Manned by masses of slaves imported from both within and without the Imperium, they are owned by rich equestrians, successful provincials, and members of the Senatorial class, and constitute a large degree of their wealth. These latifundia are primarily concentrated in the provinces, especially the grain producing provinces of Sicily and Africa, breadbasket of Rome.

Although highly efficient and massive in scale, they pale in comparison to the holdings of the largest landowner in the Imperium – the Imperator himself. Managed by the freedmen and equestrians of the Imperial bureaucracy, these Imperial estates are latifundia on a scale almost incomprehensible to private citizens, and also constitute a strategic reserve – it is primarily from these holdings that Imperators dole out the land promised to veterans who have completed their terms of service, settling them in military colonies throughout the vast reaches of the Imperium. These veterans are included in the final category of landowners – small private farmers who mainly can do more than provide for their own sustenance and perhaps spare some produce for the forum of a nearby settlement.

Hardworking, poor but not impoverished, these families live and die in the soil – unaware and uncaring of the grand machinations of Empire. From the banks of the Nile to the plains of Campania, these men and women seem to mold into the continuous onward march of time, generations cycling in their monotonously unique iterations.

They hardly stir – unless something or someone disrupts the way of life they have known since time immemorial.

Although some distribution of these three types of holdings exist in all the provinces of the Imperium, it must be noted that most

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provinces are mainly self-sufficient or otherwise only engaged in low-level regional trade – three provinces hold the monopoly on large scale exports of foodstuffs. These three provinces are Africa, Sicilia, and Aegyptus – in Africa and Sicilia, the main form of landholding is the latifundia, while in Aegyptus and sheer number of small landowning farmers and the legendary fertility of the Nile valley produces a substantial surplus. If anything should happen to the produce of these three provinces, it may well be predicted that the citizens who depend on the export of grain from these three provinces will be liable to express extreme dissatisfaction with whatever current regime appears to be holding power. Those citizens mainly reside in the city of Rome.

If Sicily, Africa, and Aegyptus are the breadbasket of the Imperium, Italia and Graecia are its quarries and Hispania, Dacia, Noricum, and Britannica its mines. Although there are limited mining operations in nearly all the provinces, there are only significant reserves of mineral resources in the above provinces, making them strategically important – if any of these provinces were to become separated from Rome itself, the long-terms effects could be devastating. Noricum, Dacia, and Britannica are the sources of much of Rome’s iron, used both in the implements of peaceful production and the weapons of conquest and war; Britannica and Hispania contain most of the Imperium’s gold mines and therefore serve as the foundation for the Roman currency system.

The currency system itself is rather complex and deserves mention. The two main types of coins in circulation in the present period are the gold aureus and the silver denarius; the former is hardly used in transactions but instead serves as the

ROMA ETERNA 24 “currency of account” to which all other coins are compared, while the denarius is the basic unit of currency used in a Roman’s day to day life. A Roman legionary currently makes 300 denarii a year, slightly more than a day laborer world; Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man of the Roman Republic, was worth some 50 million denarii. Currently, an aureus is valued at somewhere near 25 denarii, but crucially there has never been a way to enforce a strict ration between the fluctuating silver content of the denarius and to what is all intents and purposes the gold standard embodied in the aureus.

Coinage takes up the vast majority of the Imperium’s gold and river; the other baser metals are shipped to the urban centers of the Imperium, home not only to the workshops that make up Rome’s industrial base but also another strategic resource: population.

Although the Roman tax system allowed for the “tribute” of agricultural goods in lieu of actual specie, the urban populations of the provinces could were still quite efficiently taxed by the representatives of the Imperial bureaucracy, and served as a great source of income of the Imperator.

Large populations also provided manpower – although Rome’s armies have not resorted to conscription in centuries, a lengthy conflict could require the institution of conscription in order to make up for losses among the professional legions.

Finally, urban centers are also nodes of trade.

Whoever controlled the strategic cities bestriding the caravan and shipping routes of the Mediterranean

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would be able to profit from the immense wealth flowing through and besides their walls, and to a great degree prevent some of that wealth from reaching certain rivals.

So where are the urban centers of the Imperium? Each province has a provincial capital that represents the center of urban population in that province, but there are five cities that deserve special mention for their extraordinary concentration of humanity. The first city of the Imperium is obviously Rome itself – at the heart of Italia and home of some half million souls, it is the preeminent city of the Mediterranean world. Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great some four hundred years ago, stands at the head of the Nile Delta and controls access to and from the great grain fields of the Nile Valley. Antioch in Syria serves as the entrepot for the last leg of the Silk Road, transferring the loads of caravans laden with the goods of Asia to the trading ships of the Mediterranean. Carthage in Africa exercises her power over Mauretania and Numidia, another sources of vital grain for the Imperium. And finally, Ephesus in Asia Minor has emerged as the queen of the old Hellenistic city-states, first among equals of the heavily urbanized Aegean coast, rich in people, production, trade, and the attendant wealth such things bring.

Although much smaller in size, some other provincial centers deserve mention because of their strategic position and administrative importance.

The bases of the Roman legions shown in the maps

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above are obviously the epicenters of Roman politics on the frontier, but there are a number of civilian centers which serve analogous functions for the vast expanses of the Imperium’s interior. In Hispania, Corduba holds sway over the plains of Andalusia and the center of the peninsula, while Tarraco on the Mare Nostrum coast is the link between the peninsula and the rest of the Roman world. In Gaul, the ancient city of Lugdunum shines as an example of Roman urbanity in the center of the province, while traveling south on the Rhone river will eventually lead a traveler to the old Greek colony of Massilia, the primary port of Roman Gaul. In far northern Britannia, the walled city on the Thames, Londinium, hosts the Roman governor and his administration. Italia not only has the ports of Ravenna and Neapolis (close to the naval fleet at Misenum) but also the controller of the Po river valley, Mediolanum. Sicilia is the home of Syracuse, famed for its sailors and sculptors. Ancient Athens still remains a center of culture and history, while Byzantium sits at the crossroads of sea and land routes spanning the divide between Asia and Europa. Finally, Jerusalem in the sun-seeped lands of Judea is the spiritual home to both a emerging sect of religious devotees, the Christians, and a stalwart group of old malcontents, the Jews.

Such are the cities of the Imperium, and the general overview of the Roman economy.

And how exactly is such a massive web of interconnections slowly, ponderously, splintering into a thousand dying threads? Because in the end the Imperial economy is not a monolith – it is a web, and webs are liable to unravel. It begins with inflation. The Imperators have continuously debased the denarius over the last two centuries in order to generate more currency for their own personal

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projects, so that by the reign of Commodus the 300 denarii the legionary could expect in salary was equivalent to some 240 denarii of the Augustus era.

The Imperial government has also continuously demanded that taxes be paid in gold or silver specie, leading to a slow reversion to a barter economy in many of the provinces, where currency has grown exceedingly scarce. Senator Gracchus in one of his earliest reforms freed the provincials from the obligation of paying their taxes in specie, instead accepting agricultural goods – while popular with the Imperium’s masses it also accelerated the increasing regionalization of the economy. So long as prices remain stable and the currency is not further debased, inflation will likely remain steady, but even with the Roman roads and the vast grain fleets crossing the Mediterranean the Imperium has seen a sharp downturn in trade and inter provincial communication since the start of Commodus’s reign, leading many to fear that the Empire will splinter economically, and then politically.

Then there are the social and cultural tensions within the Imperium. Although Rome established her hegemony over Athens many centuries ago, the Eastern half of the Imperium remains highly Hellenized, especially Graecia itself and Asia Minor. In the provinces of Syria, Judea, and Aegyptus, indigenous cultures and civilizations mesh uneasily with layers of Hellenization and Romanization, creating an unstable mix of somewhat Roman-Hellenistic elites and more “native” populations. In the West, the populations are all superficially Romanized, but they have no more loyalty to Rome beyond the tips of their selfinterest. This is not the age of nationalism and there are hardly any separatists movements based upon ethnicity or culture, but the Imperium remains a

ROMA ETERNA 26 conglomerate, a conglomerate that could very conceivably split into many smaller parts without the slightest bit of centripetal cultural opposition.

Finally, there is the slowly decaying moral fiber of Rome. Ever since the rise of the Imperium the population of Rome has become gripped by an increasing disinterest in the affairs and administration of governance. The masses still demand their bread and circuses, that is true, and the Senatorial elite still expect the social prestige and influence of close Imperial connections, but the idea of serving the Roman state, the very virtue of service has slowly been extinguished from the minds of the Roman people. They demand, but they do not give; they expect, but they do not sacrifice. In the days of the Republic, private self-interest was chaotically but effectively unified with the interests of the Roman state; personal glory reflected the city’s glory; personal wealth would only be achieved by a conquest or clever political pandering to the interests of the people at large; and personal self-worth was inextricably tied up with the success of the state.

Even then the masses and the politicians were nakedly self-interested, but at least there remained a conception of Rome – an idea, an entity worth protecting, serving, and supporting. Now there is just an empty word, a sullen reminder of glories

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past, a façade and a mask and nothing to hide behind but all the Senators and all the people try – that is what Rome has become. The dream has been unraveling for so long that it may now be too late to try and hold all the loose threads together, too late to salvage the battered and broken dream of history and tradition. It may be too late; it may not be.

Rome simmers. The legions grumble at their posts and prod their generals, the politicians shout and debate and decide upon nothing, the ships of trade sail to closer ports fewer times, and all across the Imperium many forget the very essence of Rome, what it meant, the dream behind the city that drove it to chase eternity itself. Eternity marches onward, it has no regard for the petty squabbles of mortals, it cares not for politics and war and the thousand insignificant scurrying’s of our little lives. Time will not wait for us, dear Romans, and we are falling behind.

The thousand myriad threads fray, and you may yet despair of the complexity of the great beast that is Rome. But stitch by stitch, action by action, decision by decision, we may yet be able to slowly heal the wounds of war and degeneracy and rebuild the dream that was, and perhaps, against all that stands against us, still is, Rome.

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Bloc Positions!

The Three Families As previously mentioned, there are three patrician families who dominate the Renovamen – the Cornelii, the Fabii, and the Valerii. Over the centuries, the three families have developed certain connections and a certain reputation with certain blocs of the Roman population.

The Cornelli have provided consuls for both the Republic and the Empire, and since time immemorial have been one of the most respected patrician families of Rome. Noted for their elitism, stoicism, and righteous integrity, the Cornelli are often portrayed as the heirs to a long-dead Republican tradition of governance, and as such their prestige and influence among the Senators is especially high. They have long championed the rights and privileges of the Senatorial class. Now that the Empire is in the throes of an existential crisis, many informed observers have predicted that the Cornelli will be behind a concerted drive to resurrect the Republic, or at least to expand the power and influence of the Senate in Rome’s affairs. Although the Cornelli have as of yet not made explicit their plans and intentions, their supporters are expecting them to follow their Republican line, and would be severely disappointed if they saw the Cornelli betray their roots - unless of course those doubting supporters were… persuaded of the righteousness of the far-seeing Cornelli.

The Fabii have been one of the few patrician families in Rome’s history who have both demonstrated a knack for political maneuvering and the business acumen necessary to amass one of Rome’s largest fortunes.

Possessed of vast estates throughout the Empire and with many connections to the equestrian businessmen who dominate the industrial and commercial sectors of Rome’s economy, the Fabii are cynically expected to support whichever person and group would best support their family’s interests. Politically ambiguous, the Fabii could be the decisive factor that determines who wins in the contest between Republicans and Imperialists – or they could be the dark horse lurking in the shadows.

The Valerii have produced a number of fiery populist champions since the early days of the Empire, and they have since earned a place in the hearts of Rome’s plebeians. Always a supporter of more bread, circuses, and land for the city’s poor, the Valerii are cordially detested by a large number of Senators but have such popular support that they are considered critical to any solution to the crisis. Likely unwilling to give up their credibility among Rome’s lower classes, they face heavy pressure to secure a return to the days of Imperial largesse, but more subtle commentators believe that the so long as the Valerii are able to feed the mob the plebeians will not think too much on the identity of the hand that feeds them.

The rest of the Renovamen have no distinctive tradition of support or expected ideological track. They have no established base of political power and are therefore weaker than the families, but in contrast they are not constrained by the wishes of constituencies.

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Questions to Consider The Journey into the Unclear Future Who shall rule Rome? How shall they rule?

The old Emperor is dead, the dictator is dead, and the reins of power are waiting for a pair of strong hands to seize them. But though they need not be a pair of hands, there must be hands to guide the rudder of the ship of state, and those hands are most likely connected to a certain person or group of persons. Who will those persons be? Who will emerge from the power vacuum and ascend to the power wielded by the kings, the consuls, and the Emperors?

How will they rule, and over what? The Romans have seen monarchy, republic, and empire – perhaps they shall return to these traditions. Perhaps they will strike again into the wilds of political innovation and transform Rome into a shining vision of the future. And perhaps there shall be no Rome at the end of the journey, or at least, nothing of the Empire that Rome ruled over.

For now, the future of Rome rests in the hands of the Renovamen, but they must now decide the shape of that future emerging from the mists above the onrushing current of time.

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Role of the Committee!

The Power in the Shadows The Renovamen are not an officially sanctioned institution of the Empire, and therefore exercise no official power. It is more akin to an association of highly placed individuals who are in a position to concurrently sway the course of events in a desired direction. As individuals, the members of the Renovamen are extremely influential and can shape the events of the government and economy, but currently ultimate executive power remains officially vested in the hands of the two interim consuls and the larger body of the Senate, although even their authority is restricted given the large segments of the army, the city, and general Roman society which still support the old Imperial system. Insofar as the members of Renovamen control official positions within the pseudo-Republican government they can exercise those officially prescribed powers on behalf of the committee.

Members are also likely to succeed to further positions as the course of events proceeds, and will be able to exercise the powers associated with those positions on behalf of the committee. In limited circumstances, further members may be added. As the Renovamen molds the directives of the Senate, it may vest itself with official powers, or mutate the committee into another form that does possess official powers. In very rare circumstances, the committee may even break apart or be otherwise disbanded.

Effectively, the Renovamen possesses enough influence to act as the secret executive council of the Senate, but the Senate’s power is in practice limited at this juncture. It also has broad “unofficial” power derived from its influence and connections. These powers are subject to the continued influence of the members of the committee – if members fall from grace or are killed, the collective power of the committee will decrease.

But always remember this – the Renovamen were born to operate in the shadows, and only emerge into the light at their own risk.

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Structure of the Committee!

The Eagle’s Den This committee is not only the supreme executive council of the Roman state; it is also a battleground for some of the oldest rivalries in the Roman world. In its function as an executive organ, committee procedures will function much like most other MUN committees, with one major exception – as an unofficial association of asymmetrically powerful men, the committee has no sacrosanct constitution per se and voting rules in particular are subject to the whims of the members. Currently, voting rules can be changed by approval of ’s of the committee members, with the three paterfamilias holding veto power. Otherwise, resolutions and motions follow the standard voting procedure – for now.

The committee is also a battlefield, and as Marcus Tullius once said “the sinews of war are infinite money.” In theory, family members owe some degree of political loyalty to the paterfamilias by virtue of their position in their family, but they are powerful individuals in their own right and are expected to operate independently and for their own interests. The dynamic is particular noticeable when dealing with issues of capital. The state itself has income that must be appropriated by the committee, but each family has their own familial estates that are under the direct control of the paterfamilias. Each individual within the family also has limited financial resources that can be increased or stripped, depending on the political climate. And of course those members who do not belong to a family have their own considerable fortunes. Though Romans speak of power, glory, and honor, the currency of the realm remains… currency. You’ll find that you require money to carry out any schemes you might have.

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List of Characters!

The Cornelii Publius Cornelius Lentulus Paterfamilias, Proconsular Rank Age: 52 Publius Cornelius Lentulus is the current head of the Cornelii family, heir to a long line of highly successful patrician statesmen dating to the years of the Republic. Upon the tragic death of his father, murdered by highway bandits, the scrappy nineteen-year-old Lentulus became the embattled head of the vast Cornelii family, and managed to survive the intrigues threatening to partition the family’s fortunes by becoming good friends and political allies with the then still young Marcus Aurelius. Quick in mind but abrasive in manner, Imperial patronage assured Lentulus a rapid rise in the Senatorial ranks, and he quickly leaped from quaestor to praetor, praetor to consul, though he made a number of powerful enemies along the way. A tyrannical but excellent manager of men and administrator, Lentulus has also served extensively in the provinces, most notably in the prestigious post of Governor of Asia, which he was assigned immediately after his year in the consul’s chair.

Quietly retired from public offices after the ascension of the paranoid Commodus, Lentulus is still a well-regarded elder statesmen and wields considerable influence among the large network of allies and clients he has built both in Rome and in the cities of the Eastern provinces. A believer in the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and a Cornelii besides, he is a staunch Republican and has been one of the most vocal supporters of a return to Republican tradition. He is currently considering an appointment to the governorship Africa, where he had served as an adjutant to the old governor in this youth – but of course, such an appointment would require him to leave Rome, at least for some amount of time.

Lucius Cornelius Rufinus Urban Prefect, Proquaestor rank Age: 29 One of the younger members of the Cornelii clan, Rufinus is considered the young prodigy of the line and carries the burden of great expectations upon his thin shoulders. Never physically robust and teased since childhood about his more bookish predilections and his love of Greek culture and drama, what Rufinus lacks in military pomp he makes up for with a boyish charm and an easy acquaintance with his seniors and superiors, who are usually deeply impressed by his oratorical and educational accomplishments. Well-regarded by almost all the elder Senators, the brilliant young Rufinus was surprisingly chosen to be the urban prefect despite his relative inexperience – he had only recently left the office of quaestor, during which he had spent most of his time helping plan the memorial games for Marcus Aurelius. His inexperience did give him one immense advantage – having only just recently stepped into the political arena, he is considered a political nonentity despite his Cornelian (and therefore by default Republican) heritage and is thought to pose no danger to the established balance of power.

Now the de factor mayor of the largest city in the known world, Rufinus will need to quickly establish his

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ROMA ETERNA 32 credentials with the bureaucracies controlling the actual operation of the city’s infrastructure, secure enough support to maintain his political position with the Senate and the masses, and quickly learn the administrative and managerial skills required to manage the affairs of such a large urban population. If he manages to succeed in his position, he will become one of the major players on the Roman stage – perhaps even the leading player himself.

Gaius Cornelius Dolabella Praetor, Propraetor Rank Age: 39 Gaius Cornelius Dolabella was born under a baleful star, or so the stories say. Brash and arrogant as only a member of the Cornelii can be, the still young Dolabella has always been burdened by a birth defect that has left half of his face a disfigured morass of grotesquery. His natural bad temper has only been exasperated by the shameful scorning he received as a youth, driving him to make up what he lacked in physical qualities with the sheer force of his intellect and personality. He has since become the finest legal mind of his generation, but at a price; in the course of many acerbic and draconian prosecutions Dolabella has managed to become cordially despised by most of the Senators and feared by the masses, a political leper barely accepted by his own family.

Though hated, in the legal chaos following Commodus’s death there was no other man who had the credentials and abilities to control and reform the legal system, and Dolabella was elected to the office of Praetor. The Senate expanded upon the traditional judicial nature of the Praetorship and assigned Dolabella the task of reforming the Roman legal code, granting him special dispensations to present new laws without amendment to the Senate and to intervene as judge in any court case. Now finally Dolabella has attained the respect and power he has believed himself to have so richly deserved – finally people have begun to treat him as befits one of the descendants of the Cornelii family. But it is never enough. Nothing will ever salve the wounds that 39 years of pain and ridicule – no, even the world is not enough. But it will do.

Sextus Cornelius Cethegus Governor of Britannia, Proconsular Rank Age: 44 Second-in-command of the Cornelii, Cethegus is the military mind of his generation, having served with distinction during the recent war with the barbarians. Luckily for the then consul, Sextus was posted to contain the northern German tribes, far enough from Maximus’s armies that he escaped the purge that accompanied Maximus’s fall. Quickly declaring his loyalty to Commodus, Cethegus was rewarded with the Governorship of

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Britannia, a powerful post with the attendant command of three legions but also on the fringes of the Empire, where the increasingly paranoid Emperor thought Cethegus would pose little threat. Now that Commodus is dead, Cethegus has been caught in an awkward position. One of the few Cornelii to openly declare for the Emperor, the Republican majority in the family regards him with faint distrust, but the Imperial partisans simply cannot move past the Cornelius in his name and are also loath to trust him. With three legions behind him, he is too dangerous for any individual bloc to oppose him and too important for the powerbrokers to ignore, so he was duly invited to join the committee. Leaving his legions behind in his province as commanded, Cethegus has little immediate military muscle but a large potential force should he be able to reach his island – military muscle that could be used to support his family and the Republicans, the Imperialists who he had half-heartedly supported for a few short months, or… himself.

The Fabii Marcus Fabius Vibulanus Paterfamilias, Proconsular Rank Age: 57 Marcus Fabius Vibulanus is the richest man in Rome, perhaps the richest man in the world. Owner of a vast system network of latifundia in Iberia and Gaul, the Fabian fortune is built on the backs of slaves and wine, wheat, and the waves that carry those goods from the corners of the Empire to Rome. Now corpulent, good-natured, even lazy, Vibulanus was once one of the keenest and most cleverly corrupt officials during Marcus Auerlius’s reign, using his influence and political positions to secure extremely favorable tax and duty legislation for his massive agricultural and shipping Empire. After his consulship a decade ago Vibulanus retired from public life and ensconced himself in his massive country villa; many expected Vibulanus to remain there when Commodus died, continuing his life of frivolous and decadent luxury, but surprisingly the man charged up from the coastal plain and demanded a voice in the political process, ruthlessly bribing any who opposed his ambitions. No one has yet discerned what has motivated the fatly content Vibulanus to dive back into the fray – is it latent ambition?

Opportunism? Boredom? Or ideology? Only time will tell.

Titus Fabius Vibulanus Governor of Cappadocia, Proquaestor Rank Age: 28 Marcus Fabius Vibulanus handed out quite a few bribes in the months after Commodus’s death – and some of them eventually catapulted his nephew, Titus Fabius Vibulanus, to the governorship of Cappadocia. Owing his position to a complicated political deal and corruption on a massive scale, Titus Vibulanus is thoroughly despised by the other two families and generally considered an incompetent who has no skill save being related to his thrice-damned uncle! During his term as quaestor Titus Vibulanus was known primarily for his party antics – rumor tells that after being discovered in a brothel, he claimed to have been “inspecting the premises” before

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ROMA ETERNA 34 being hustled away by his manservants. Without any prior interest in political or military affairs (in fact, without prior interest in anything beyond drinking and whoring), Vibulanus has not even left Rome since being appointed Governor of Cappadocia. Whether or not there is hidden spine beneath the useless exterior waits to be seen.

Gaius Fabius Ambustus Pius Censor, Propraetor Rank Age: 51 There is a reason they call Gaius Fabius Ambustus “Pius” – unlike his distant relation Titus Fabius Vibulanus, Ambustus is considered one of the most rigidly moral men of his generation. A devotee of Marcus Aurelius’ Stoicism but a staunch opponent of the very notion of Imperial power, Ambustus came close to being arrested and executed many times during the course of Commodus’s reign; in fact, he came quite close to being arrested even under infinitely more benevolent reign of Marcus Aurelius, so outspoken are his opinions and Republican tendencies. A bit of a black sheep in his own family, Ambustus has nevertheless won the grudging respect of the Senators and the masses. When the Senate chose to revive the powers of the censor, moral guardian of Rome and possessed with the power to inspect and stripe Senators of their position, the impossibly integral Ambustus was the clear choice. Immediately upon his ascension, Ambustus disgraced a group of five of the most corrupt senators, including members of his own family, thoroughly alarming the establishment who had never imagined that they had perhaps released a power they could not control. Apparently determined to recreate the Republic of Cato, Ambustus will likely stop at nothing to purge the immorality and degeneracy of Rome. Except perhaps, death.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Governor of Germania Inferior, Propraetor Rank Age: 55 After Sextus Cornelius Cethegus left Germania Inferior for Britannia, Quintus Fabius Maximus was sent by Commodus to command the legions posted on the northern German frontier. With four decades of military service, Maximus is a seasoned but relatively undistinguished soldier, having served in Africa and as a legate under Cethegus in the recent campaigns. Thoroughly competent but never accused of brilliance, Maximus’s appointment was the expected pinnacle for an undistinguished member of the famous Fabian family, a reward for his long decades of service and his final opportunity for glory before being shelved in twilight appointments.

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Gruff, rustic, Maximus is often described as a “soldier’s soldier” and is well-respected by the military but fairly unknown in political circles; those few times he has spoken in the Senate House have been to fully and uncritically support the family’s positions. Now in a greater position of influence given the general turmoil, Maximus is expected to continue his loyalty to the family and play his accustomed role of the unsophisticated and loyal soldier. But soldiers have an odd tendency to become Emperor in chaotic times such as these.

The Valerii Gnaeus Valerius Potitus Paterfamilias, Proconsular Rank Age: 48 There are a number of anecdotes concerning Gnaeus Valerius Potitus – but none so famous as the one jokingly labeled the “Consul’s Wife.” Supposedly, at the age of eighteen the dashingly handsome and ferociously personable Potitus took it upon himself to seduce the wife of an oppressive patrician consul named Lucius Gaius Lepidus, who was known for his great cruelty against the plebeians. Potitus succeeded, naturally enough, but was discovered by the consul, who proceeded to draw his blade – but not quickly enough. Barely past the cusp of adulthood, Potitus became a killer. Instead of surrendering himself to the Urban Cohorts, who were under orders to deliver a light sentence to the scion of the Valerian family, Potitus was audacious enough to flee the city to nearby Neapolis, where he disappeared until the frustrated Marcus Aurelius declared the months-long manhunt over and granted clemency to the young man. In the intervening years, Potitus has hardly lost the violent, audacious streak of his youth – a firebrand and demagogue, he finds strict legal adherence ridiculous and fear an incomprehensible concept. A fervent supporter of the power of the plebs, Potitus was exiled to his country estate when Commodus ascended the throne but has since become uncomfortable bedfellows with the Cornellian Republicans, but there are whispers that Potitus would prefer to see an even more radical form of government – perhaps even that form of mob-rule known as democracy.

Tiberius Valerius Messalla Germanicus Governor of Tarraconensis, Propraetor Rank Age: 32 The son and grandson of legates and frontier governors, Messalla was born in the forward administrative center of Germania Inferior, Colonia Agrippina, and is well known and fondly remembered by both the citizens and soldiers of that province – many of them still consider his father’s governorship one of the most successful in recent decades. Tales abound of the young Messalla running amok around town, but the young boy had a keen eye for boundaries and never crossed them – toed them considerably, but never crossed. This devilishly accurate emotional intuition made him one of the best dice players in the province, but all such distractions were never his main interest in life. He spent more time in the armory than in the streets, more time reading than dicing. On his sixteenth birthday, his father put Messala in command of a routine patrol, but the exercise in leadership soon

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ROMA ETERNA 36 devolved into an actual military situation when Messala’s men came up against a band of German raiders on the wrong side of the Rhenus. After days of cat and mouse games, Messala cornered them against the Rhenus and crushed the utterly. Since then, Messala has earned a reputation for both military and administrative competence in his service in the German provinces, and his emotional intelligence has stood him in good stead since coming to the Eternal City herself. Recently finishing a term of praetor under Commodus, the young man is considered an up and coming provincial politician and soldier but has never been considered a contender in Rome’s much more dangerous political game. Coming from the provinces, the senators saw no objection to sending him back to another province, but for now Messala remains in Rome “arranging his affairs.” He’s playing a tight game – how can he keep his unimpressive exterior but also insert himself into the power games of the Capitol? Well. He has always been good at tight games.

Decimus Valerius Triarius Aedile, Proquaestor Rank Age: 36 Decimus Valerius Triarius is a bit of a black sheep when it comes to ambitious Romans. Instead of pursuing military glory, legal mastery, political control, or oratorical domination, Triarius is interested in… architecture.

Which makes him perfect for the position of aedile, in charge of initiating and maintaining the public works of Rome, but hardly a candidate for inclusion in the secret executive council of the Roman Empire. Triarius, however, is not only one of Rome’s greatest civil engineers – he also possesses an incredibly talent for languages and is an incredible mathematician besides. Well schooled in politesse, manners, and diplomatic maneuvering (one does need a certain diplomatic skill to negotiate the right to pursue one’s odd little hobby as a serious endeavor), Triarius has recently been recalled from the ambassadorship of the Parthian Empire, Triarius is Rome’s greatest expert on the world outside of the Empire’s borders, and has been accepted in the Renovamen as an integral advisory asset in these troubled and vulnerable times. The still youthful man appears completely harmless and completely useful – he is perhaps the one man on the council who might be considered neutral. This advantage, possessed with his numerous contacts in foreign nations, makes him a strange but incredibly strong candidate for power – but Triarius has never sought power. So why would he start now?

Publius Valerius Laevinus Pontifex Maximus, Propraetor Rank Age: 41 Amongst the chaos and political convulsions following the deaths of Commodus and Gracchus, hardly anyone

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noticed the position vacated in the spiritual heart of Rome. On the day following the death of Dictator Gracchus, a slave found the dead body of Lucius Aemelius Papus in the house of the Pontifex Maximus. In the rush of consolidation that followed the rapid deterioration of the Imperial system, a number of minor offices were rapidly emptied and filled with minimal examination by the Senate; somehow, the position of Pontifex Maximus, guardian of Rome’s religious life, was included in those lists of “minor” offices. And such was how one of the most mysterious men in Rome rose to one of the heights of Roman public life. Laevinus is an orphan – both his parents hailed from impoverished branches of old patrician families; both succumbed to one of the many aftershocks of the Antonine Plague. Shuttled from branch to branch within the Valerian family during his youth, Laevinus grew up to be taciturn, severe, reserved, but also incredibly resilient. The sudden death of a bright young quaestor gave Laevinus, then already resigned by the body of the Senate to the back benches, his first taste of office; a few years later, a sudden illness took the life of a distinguished praetor and Laevinus was again able to pick the fruit that had suddenly fallen from the tree of fate. Hardly anyone noticed; at least, not until they realized that a silent specter had somehow occupied the house of the Pontifex Maximus. Now there are whispers – whispers that the brooding and unloved Laevinus is connected to individuals whose main commodity is death.

Whispers that perhaps this shadow might hide the sharpest dagger.

Others Lucius Sempronius Lucullus Tribune of the Plebeians, Plebian Age: 33 The people need heroes. They had Maximus, who fought against the terror of Commodus. They now have Lucius Sempronius Lucullus, a former Praetorian officer, who in the turmoil following Gracchus’s death used the forces at his disposal to disperse many of the mobs threatening the fabric of the city. Although discharged from the Praetorian service for unauthorized military activities and despised by the more extreme and anarchic members of the plebian partisans, Lucullus rode his military exploits to electoral victory, becoming tribune of the plebs.

Charged with representing the interest of the plebeians and possessing veto power on any magistrate, including the consuls and other tribunes of the plebs, the Renovatem decided that at least one tribune was required on the committee, lest their actions be blocked. Lucullus among all the other tribunes is the only one to have shown any daring or initiative, but he is also plainly ambitious – neither megalomaniacal nor deluded, but keen to advance his position in life. More importantly, the lack of any serious vice combined with his flair for seizing the occasion has endeared him to the majority of the politically apathetic but security and prosperity conscious plebeian demographic. A Republican by virtue of his position and class background, Lucullus could be well placed to secure electoral victory in a stable Republic – but he could also ascend to high positions if he turned the power of the center towards the Imperial camp.

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ROMA ETERNA 38 Gaius Appueius Diocles Leader of the Blue, Plebeian Age: 29 Gaius Appueius Diocles is a rough, cunning man, unscrupulous, charismatic in a raw and animal way, and fond of horseflesh and women. Diolces was an orphan abandoned on the streets of Rome, doomed to an early death until he found his way to chariot racing at the age of fourteen. Racing for the Blue faction, Diolces proved to be a scrappy fighter both on and off the Circus Maximus, and with a well-provided lifestyle sponsored by rich aristocratic patrons Diolces soon became one of the most successful and arrogant chariot racers of all times, living a life of high-handed antics that only furthered his popularity with the masses. Probably the most popular man in the entire city, Diolces theoretically possesses enormous influence but was at first ignored by the powers that be.

He had no business sticking his presumptuous nose into the affairs of Roman politics and statecraft! Stick to the reins and leave the work of governing to real Romans. Denied a place in a political process dominated by patricians, Diocles canvassed his vast networks and somehow managed to discover the existence of the Renovamen. Waltzing into a secret meeting of Rome’s most powerful individuals, Diocles demanded a place at the table; Rome’s leading families were stunned. The first immediate reaction was to call the guards to throw this ruffian out – fortunately for the patricians some cooler heads had begun to wonder at the curious presence of a chariot racer at what was supposed to be a secret meeting after all, and they eventually convinced their colleagues that perhaps this chariot racer would be a good attack dog, a way to leash the masses. Diocles smiled when he heard that the Senators had decided that yes indeed he did have a seat at the table; it was a smile that frightened many of the rich and powerful men in that room. For a second, it was difficult to tell whether they had leashed a good, or if the dog had perhaps leashed them.

Tiberius Claudius Chryseros Secretary of the Imperial Treasury, Freedman Age: 42 Tiberius Claudius Chryseros has dealt with numbers his entire life – for as long as he can remember he has served within the golden walls of the Imperial Treasury. As a result, Chryseros never trusts anything that lacks statistical support, triple checked and recalculated to insure accuracy. Once proved, the conclusion pointed to by the numbers becomes the law of the universe, impossible to mold through human agency. Extreme, perhaps, but he

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was the official bean counter of the Emperors – anything less than paranoia could have led to his execution in the wrong circumstances. He still commands the Imperial Treasury in this new era, but he now collects revenues from only the Imperial provinces and the various Imperial estates throughout the Empire; these revenues are then made available as investment or potential spending. The Renovatem could hardly ignore or forgo one-half of the Empire’s revenue, and after determining that there were no outrageous Imperialist tendencies on the part of Chryseros he was invited to join the group. Used to dealing with powerful personalities and overblown egos, Chryseros has found the committee less than overbearing; instead he sees the committee as an excellent foundation for several of his own more personal projects… what those projects are, however, are still unknown.

Aulus Julius Frontinus Representative of the Publicani, Equestrian Age: 49 Aulus Julius Frontinus always looks hungry. Sparse and lean, descended from undistinguished equestrian businessmen, one would never expect this spartan character to be possessed of a vast material fortune. His townhouse near the forum is well appointed by hardly palatial; his attire is appropriate and well crafted by hardly opulent. It is generally agreed that these curious discrepancies between Frontinus’s resources and his expenditures indicate a profound obsession with denarii, and his current position seems to be no exception. In the Senatorial provinces, the governmental system can no longer effectively collect taxes through its own bureaucracy; instead, the Senate has decided to revive the old Republican system of Publicani, in which corporations bid to win contracts that give them the exclusive right to collect taxes in a certain province. Any revenue generated above the bid will be awarded as profit to the publicanus. Low bids have larger profit margins but are hardly competitive; high bids may secure the contract, but at the cost of little profit or even losses. Now that the publicani play such an important part in the state’s finances, the three families of the Renovatem decided it necessary to secure the support of these corporations, or at least their tacit agreement. Frontinus, already the controller of the largest of these corporations, was the obvious choice as representative. As an intelligent and influential liaison to the publicani he is an excellent link to the outside world; as someone considered singularly obsessed with money he is perfectly unthreatening to the vested political interests of the three families.

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Recommended Reading Caesar, The Gallic Wars Livy, History of Rome Polybius, The Histories Tacitus, The Annals Seutonius, The Twelve Caesars Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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