Res Publica: A Quest of Ancient Rome
- Thread starter Telamon
- Start date
- Original Historic
- Location
- Texas
More like Colchis and the Black Sea, or the conquest of Bithynia. But yes, that would be your equivalent in a Mithridates Quest. Though the Pontics aren't strictly Greek —- moreso Hellenized Persic peoples of Asia.
Think Darius from 300, if he started cosplaying as the Spartans.
Also, here's a tally:
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- Location
- Europe
In the Mithridates quest we'd be groaning because the Romans do what they always do: throw more bodies at the problem until it's dead.
Ah, I think that one is wrong. When we got a new level due to banner reward, all XP we had for the old transferred, so we should be at 800 here.
@Thyreus, were you referring to this post, as the omake that went unnoticed?Truth be told, I should probably also write something, I'm thinking either Scaevola hearing of Atellus' speech or discussing him with another high ranking Sullan partisan, but I'm having trouble starting.
Edit: Might it be because my last attempt went unnoticed?
It is in-character, but as a response to a suggestion (join Mithradites) that would not be in character for any member of a Roman legion. Perhaps you could add a bit of context at the beginning -- Atellus overhearing the grumbling of a Greek auxiliary, on hearing the news of yet another town in Asia Minor joining the anti-Roman cause?
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Well, actually, interestingly enough, not by this point! Two officers of Gaius Flavius Fimbria, a Marian, defected to Mithradites after their commander's death rather than submitting to Sulla.
- Location
- Europe
Nah, that was just my Rome loving heart speaking.
Well, the longer war is somewhat in our favor as well, as the longer it goes on, the longer we can get glory, power, riches and influence from a very uncontroversial source - killing people who are not Romans. Well, that and talking them into obeying us. More time to learn more skills, too.
Though it is a tight line to walk, what's with the need to not lead the legion to defeat, and also to not die in a pretty risky environment.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
I always found the wars of the Late Republic (and Early Empire) pretty interesting because the nature of them is very different than in the Middle Republic. In the Middle Republic Rome was the rising power in a world of established powers and was slowly but surely destroying all of their rivals. And indeed, after Zama, Magnesia and Pydna there was basically no real established power which could effectively oppose Rome. Roman hegemony had not solidified however, and the haphazard way in which the Romans secured territory meant that it was possible for new actors to gain strength from the vacuum left behind.
A lot of the enemies of Rome in this period like Mithridates, Jugurtha, Vercingetorix, Tigranes, Arminius, even the Parthians, were exploiting the collapse of the established power and relations in order to construct new empires on the fragile edges of the growing Roman imperium. So you end up getting a pattern of:
1. Rome goes in and wrecks everything
2. Rome settles down in a very half-hearted manner without properly securing the region
3. Rome exploits the hell out of the region
4. New power rises but Rome doesn't move against them immediately
5. First Roman attempt to defeat them gets fucking owned and they build momentum
6. Proper campaign against them finally ends in the defeat of the challenger to Rome
7. Rome finally secures region
A lot of the enemies of Rome in this period like Mithridates, Jugurtha, Vercingetorix, Tigranes, Arminius, even the Parthians, were exploiting the collapse of the established power and relations in order to construct new empires on the fragile edges of the growing Roman imperium. So you end up getting a pattern of:
1. Rome goes in and wrecks everything
2. Rome settles down in a very half-hearted manner without properly securing the region
3. Rome exploits the hell out of the region
4. New power rises but Rome doesn't move against them immediately
5. First Roman attempt to defeat them gets fucking owned and they build momentum
6. Proper campaign against them finally ends in the defeat of the challenger to Rome
7. Rome finally secures region
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- Location
- Earth
Is anyone else interested in what letters to Volero might bring? I can only imagine that it would provide us some insight onto what Pompey is doing at present. It would be interesting to see what our newfound rival is up to.
Idea for a reform: Instead of filling the bag labeled "FOR ROME" and the rest going into the publicanus's pocket, some proportion of the taxes collected gets split between all living previous collectors for that area. The idea here is to encourage publicani to promote long-term growth instead of bleeding the province white and forgetting about it once their terms are up.
Impact on equites: Total income to the group from any given policy remains unchanged. Individually, current publicani see a reduced immediate take, while past publicani get more money. (Incidentally, past publicani are also those most likely to be currently in Rome.)
Impact on equites: Total income to the group from any given policy remains unchanged. Individually, current publicani see a reduced immediate take, while past publicani get more money. (Incidentally, past publicani are also those most likely to be currently in Rome.)
- Location
- Europe
How do you justify this in the senate and more importantly, how do you prevent this law from being immediately rolled back by other people?
The senate doesn't have the necessary incentive to actually reform the tax collection and will find less and less reason to as the corruption at the heart of the republic festers. To get elected politicians have to spend an ever increasing ludicrous amount of money and they do so with the premise in mind that they can get it back by bleeding a province dry.
Part of the reason for the conquest of Gaul was that Caesar needed money to pay back his debtors.
We aren't going to make lasting reforms if we don't get that problem at home under control (by say rendering the elections a farce and making sure the outcome is predetermined by us). What we might try to do is start build up a parallel civic bureaucracy in the provinces, but this is honestly a project which takes longer than the year of consulship we'll have at a time. Not that illegally seizing more consulships or playing power behind the curtain is so out there in the late republic.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I mean, the Romans were totally down with anthropmorphization, they just didn't go moe with it.
- Location
- In an quiet place
were they down with orgies or is it just a sign of their empire's culture declining?
- Location
- The Middle of the Howling Wilderness
Pretty sure we attended an orgy in the last update?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well, I was specifically talking about anime personifications of characters- there's a comic series of "legionnary troop types drawn as anime girls." I don't remember where to find it.
More generally, given how many abstract concepts the Romans represented as minor deities, usually female ones, I was noting that the Romans would basically be cool with that, they just didn't make their personifications cutesy.
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Plan Scope Out The Territory
- Location
- In an quiet place
i think it was just a party good sir if you can find evidence of a orgy(i meant a sexual kind of orgy sorry im not clear) can you please relay or quote the passage that describes the orgy but back on topic i was asking if the romans liked orgies like if it was common or rare due to the empire's cultural and political fall. i assumed decadance or simply decay played a part in the orgies.
i always wondered why they made these personifications based on myths they borrowed from the greeks instead of making their own even though if they had the power to do so? why do they make it sexy and beautiful instead of making it cute?
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My guess is that the reasoning is the same for why the Renaissance art was all about the nudes, and why Hollywood is stuffed full of attractive people: Sex sells, plain and simple.
(That or it could be,some latent superstition or cultural impulse or something? I dunno, why is Athena- goddess of strategy, war, wisdom, etc- female, when so much of that, especially in hyper-patriarchal ancient Greece, is masculine coded: stuff's just wierd sometimes).
As to why they borrowed from the Greeks, well, syncretism doesn't just go in one direction- as with the various occupiers of China (and for that matter, many of the Germanic tribes which settled in post Roman Europe- and the Arabs in Persia and Egypt and the Turks in Byzantium etc), the conquered, in time, tend to assimilate their conquerors when the latter are more "civilized" or established as a culture.
- Location
- In an quiet place
do you think it is a impulse passed down by generation or perceived reality?(thank you for enlightening me i am an newcomer to human nature or culture)
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The Romans assimilated Greek culture because if you go back to the early days of Rome (think 700 to 400 BCE), the Romans were a relatively minor city-state while the Greeks were founding dozens of colonies in Italy and were a powerful political and military force on the peninsula. Many of the cities of southern Italy as we now know them have names and histories dating back to their time as Greek colonies, including a lot of the cities that are now significant Roman centers in Atellus' time.
Greek influence was huge, and so it wasn't surprising that the Romans absorbed some of it, during a period when they themselves were still a relatively small and weak power struggling to define themselves in opposition to the Etruscans to their north.
Greek influence was huge, and so it wasn't surprising that the Romans absorbed some of it, during a period when they themselves were still a relatively small and weak power struggling to define themselves in opposition to the Etruscans to their north.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Scope Out The Territory
Satar
Xetares, Third Redeemer; World Drinker
- Location
- Sesh
Basically, play Magna Graciea and revel at the Romans being tiny, unimportant swamp hicks whose existence is a factoid to our democratic Greek lithocracy.
Tbh the two quests pair so well together it's scary.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
I am several pages behind, but can't help but wonder if Atellus (assume he lived that long and didn't prevent Cesarion's birth) could spirit him away and present him as the grandson of a dead soldier he owed a favour to.