Wrote up something new for the front page, clarifying the Epulian League:
Emerging from the expansion of Eretrian hegemony to the surrounding Epulian colonies, the Epulian League is both a blunt extension of Eretrian power and an experiment in cooperative diplomacy and mutual defense. From this contradiction has emerged a network of cities stretching from the south of Epulia to the northern Adriatic beholden to Eretria and restricted in foreign liberties, and yet feeling enough affection to their overlord that they are willing to accept the fiction that they exist in a league of equals under a protective mother city. They meet annually in Eretria at the city's Epulian Synedrion, a squat and unimpressive building near the city's older harbor.
Eretria has a permanent presidency over the league, and occupies a special status among its members. Alone among the members of the league it can form outside alliances, though if this alliance was judged as against the interests of the league by 2/3rds of its members the alliance could be overrode. However, to test the patience of their overlord would be a foolish move indeed for a group of cities who lives in fear of both the interior
barbaroi who despise their existence and the bloodthirstiness of an Eretria with its back pressed up against a wall.
Most egregious of the league's stipulations is the collection of a 10% due by Eretria, which theoretically is to be used in the league's common defense but more often goes into the energetic and unprecedented building projects that the Eretrians use as an an alternative to wealth redistribution and an exercise in the glory of their planners and architects. Without a common treasury or even rules on how the money should be used, there is little accountability for Eretrian to pilfer the money for its own parochial purposes.
But common bonds of culture, faith in the Divine Marriage and the fundamental reality of Eretrian domination keep the league together, and the relative leniency of the Eretrians combined with the awareness that this leniency comes at the price of compliance has meant that the league has remained stable and without rebellion throughout its history. The fact that all members of the League are also either colonies of Eretria or were subordinated soon after their foundation in an atmosphere of mutual danger has softened the otherwise prideful and autonomist attitude of the
polis, as there is no history of independence to remember and yearn for.
Reforms in 348 OL, spurred on by the careful Pylonos of Pylona, have been made to shift the league away from a simply exploitative model and accepted by the Eretrians as a reward for loyalty and a necessity for maintaining allegiance. Members of the League now:
- Elect a strategos who leads the cities under Eretrian command in war and presents the concerns of the cities at the Synedrion in peace
- Hold quadrennial Epulian Games hosted outside Eretria Eskhata, a partly-religious athletic ceremony popular among the aristocracy
- A system of common weights and measures based upon Eretrian measures, one also popular throughout Italia
- League ceremonies, including an Oath to the Divine Marriage for new members and sacrifices to Zeus Olympios
- Have the ability to wage independent wars, but can keep no outside alliances
- A designated section of the Eretrian Agora where they can ply their wares
- Can veto Eretrian proposals to the league if 2/3 of all Epulian League Cities refuse the proposal
- Contribute 10% of their revenue annually to Eretria's treasury as dues for the common defense
- Automatically join the League as a new colony founded on Eretria's approval, but must have the Linean laws applied to them upon their founding
And a special mechanic for a crisis:
Lithokratia is among the most dire and serious laws that can be invoked in Eretria. Introduced in reforms during an interruption in the Drakonian dominance, though based on a precedent dating back to the city's founding, Lithkoratia means literally "the rule of stone", though might be better translated as "rule of
stones", as it refers to the boulders of the assembly upon which citizens must stand if they wish to be heard.
Lithokratia, inspired by the period directly after the city's founding in which there was no institution except for the assembly and the city was controlled by a radical and energetic citizenry reveling in its newfound power while battling for its survival, can only be activated during a crisis in which an enemy has crossed the boundary stones separating Eretria from the tributary Peuketii and Messapii. Upon news of this reaching the city, a member of the assembly can request that both the
proboulos and
xenoparakletor complete the act of cession, in which their powers are temporarily subsumed into the assembly. If both agree, then lithokratia begins, and can only be ended by the assembly.
During lithokratia, normal elections are suspended. A black stone, perhaps from a falling star, is taken from its resting place in the back of the Temple of the Divine Marriage and placed in the center of the assembly field. From among the people a
Klefton, or lifter, is elected, who will help guide the assembly through the crisis and stand upon the stone. The
Klefton is vested only in veto authority of intemperate assembly laws, but can also propose new laws to the assembly andand has far less limits on the subjects on which he can speak on in the assembly than any ordinary officer. Ten
Kleftes are chosen by lot to hold him up, and can restrain him by majority vote, as well as being able to propose laws to the people. A
strategos is elected per usual, but with the assembly taking direct control, the government reverts to a state of popular supremacy until the crisis has ended. Lithokratia can be lifted by a simple majority vote of the assembly once the crisis appears to have passed, or if the war has ended; it cannot be held for more than a two-year period, and once lithokratia has ended the situation in the city will revert to normal and elections will be held in the following year.
The purpose of Lithokratia as a law was to allow for an end to all factionalism and distraction during a period of grave danger. With the assembly empowered to make all the decisions, lithokratia represents an unprecedented opportunity for an ordinary citizen to make their voice heard, but if it is maintained for too long, the happiness of the city's aristocracy will erode, the city's traditional institutions will lose their influence, and the city's position in other spheres will suffer as the lithokratia is necessarily limited in focus to ending an existential crisis to the city's safety.
A lithokratia is an extraordinary opportunity for citizens to implement wide-ranging reforms in responding to a crisis, but it is also a tool used sparingly and carefully only in the most dangerous circumstances for a short period of time. Since its introduction, Eretria has been blessed to have never been in a situation where its use has been necessary.
