To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods? For Romans in Rome's quarrel spared neither land nor gold, Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, in the brave days of old.
Roman politics were a confusing, brutal, and byzantine (heh) mess. I'll provide a few quick pointers for those of you not in the know or just a little rusty on your 2000-year-old political intricacies.
First off, the core of Roman politics in the late Republic: the Roman Senate, and it's divisions, the populares and the optimates.
The Roman Senate was the core of the Republic. Headed by two consuls who were elected every year, the Senate was composed of land-owning nobilis, Romans descended from Romans who had already sat on the Senate, or who had earned inclusion into the Senate through bravery or prestige. The populares and optimates were largely unofficial factions in the Roman Senate, organized along political lines.
The populares, as the name implies, were of the people. They courted the plebians and the lower classes, promising to fix their problems, inequalities of wealth, and provide them with jobs, food, and security -- the same things the poor have always wanted. The populares was often the party of demagogues and rabble-rousers, senators who rose to power by giving long speeches about making Rome great again. It was notably also the party of soldiers such as Gaius Marius, Mark Antony, and Julius Caesar, all of whom won glory on the battlefield and harnessed it into popular support at home. The populares were defined by their willingness to appeal to the people and use their popular support to defy the traditions and rules of the Republic, ultimately circumventing the democratic ideal of Rome.
As the game starts, the populares are the party of Gaius Marius, Rome's most famous general, who, with popular support, has seized the city of Rome from his enemy Sulla and the rival optimates.
The optimates were the polar opposite of the populares. Anchored in four centuries of tradition, they were the party of the aristocracy and the patricians, devoted to reducing the power of the plebians and the common folk and increasing the power of the Senate itself. By their nature conservative, they sought to keep the status quo of the Republic and prevent opportunistic generals like Caesar from becoming dictators.
Now, however, they are the party of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a general almost as famed as Marius, who opposes the progressive reforms of Marius and his populares. Overseas defeating a rebellion in Greece when Marius seized power, Sulla is returning to Rome with a legion at his back as the game begins, and is supported by many old and powerful noble families in Rome herself.
These were not hard parties as we think of them today, but rather described the way a Senator chose to act. A Senator could, at different times through his life, court the people and support hardline legislation that curbed their rights. The populares and optimates were used to group senators who, at that moment in time, chose to consistently appeal to either the people or the aristocracy for support. They did not always work together as a unified party, and some often switched allegiances as convenient.
Now, one wonders, how can this be a democracy if the aristocrats control everything?
Well, to put it simply, they don't.
The People's Assembly, composed of all the plebians, or common people, of Rome, elects a Plebian Tribune each year. These tribunes represent the common people to the largely patrician Senate, and can convene the Senate, propose legislation, and act for the people in legal matters. Their most important power, however, is the veto, which gives the people a measure of control over the largely patrician Senate. Any assault on the person of a tribune is against the law -- a fact many tribunes have used to their advantage to physically stop the Senate from voting on a bill.
The plebs, optimates, and populares will all come into conflict in the waning years of the Republic, and Roman politics still hide a ocean's worth of complexity and mazelike contradictions, but this starter should get you brushed up on the terms that will be used frequently in this Quest.
So, I had some free time today, and thought it might be useful for people to have a cliffnotes list of prominent Romans and their political leanings. It's far from an exhaustive list, and I'd appreciate it if people could mention any omissions/errors they find particularly egregious. (I know I've missed Sulla's legates.)
Gaius Marius New Man
Third Founder of Rome, Winner of the Jugurthine War, Vanquisher of the Cimbri and the Teutones, seven times consul etc. etc. Quite possibly insane, and definitely very old. Pretty much the sole thing keeping his coalition (and thus Rome) even vaguely on the rails. Brands himself as a straight forward, practical, traditionally Roman military man, but perfectly capable of being underhanded. (See his usurpation of the Numidian command.) Currently proconsul of Greece and Asia, leading a three legion army to fight Sulla and Mithridates.
Gaius Marius the Younger Plebeian
Son of the above, and cousin to Caesar, which is pretty much all that can be said of him. OTL, when the Capitol caught fire, he rushed to the scene and rescued, not the statue of Jupiter, not the Sibyllene Books, but the temple treasures, which he sold to pay for legions. Was beaten fairly handily by Sulla, and spent the rest of the war under siege in Praeneste before committing suicide. All indications are that he was not up to much, but he will have had the best education money could buy. Currently the consular colleague of -
Lucius Valerius Flaccus (Consul/Flamen Martialis) Patrician
High Priest of Mars, serving his second term as consul. His first was spent as partner to Marius, during the Cimbric War. Rutilius Rufus described him as "More slave than colleague," and he seems like to repeat that conduct here, despite his reputation as a moderate. However, OTL he was the one to propose the law making Sulla Dictator, so he's obviously a survivor if nothing else. A cousin of his namesake, who is currently serving as legate to Marius in the east, commanding Legio IX.
Lucius Cornelius Cinna Patrician
Consul for 87 and 86 BC, and currently proconsul of Italia and Gallia Cisalpina. Presumably a charismatic speaker, as he kickstarted the Marian return to Rome by talking a Sullan legion into mutiny. May be a marked man given the supernatural elements of the quest, as he broke a solemn oath not to oppose Sulla. His one consistent political principle seems to have been support for Italian rights, but that may have just been an attempt to build up a secure power base to oppose Sulla. OTL, his daughter was Caesar's first wife.
Gnaeus Papirius Carbo Plebeian
Staunch Marian, legate under Marius in the east, serving as commander of Legio VII. OTL, he was consistently outmanoeuvred by Sulla and Pompey when the former returned to Italy, but that's a bit like losing a boxing match to Ali. Supposedly met his death at the hands of Pompey with unmanly and unRoman lack of grace and dignity. Read into that what you will.
Lucius Valerius Flaccus (Legate) Patrician
Cousin of the consul and Flamen Martialis, serving as legate under Marius commanding Legio IX. May have been the Valerius who treacherously handed Ostia over to Marius in 87BC. Not a terribly impressive general OTL, and died in a mutiny instigated by -
Gaius Flavius Fimbria Plebeian
I gave serious consideration to listing him under 'Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know.' Man was a complete mad dog, but seemingly a thoroughly Marian one. Tried to kill Scaevola in 86BC OTL, and led the mutiny that killed Flaccus. Probably currently serving as Quaestor for Marius in the east. A competent soldier, if nothing else.
Marcus Marius Gratidianus Plebeian
Nephew of Marius. Was a praetor in 86, and might currently be serving as propraetorian governor of Africa, Corsica-Sardinia, Sicily or either of the Spains. (Those are the traditional praetorian provinces.) Might instead be serving a (thoroughly unconstitutional) second term as Praetor. We've previously discussed how he stole the credit for mitigating the financial crisis, and is now literally worshipped for it. He also took Ariminum from Publius Servilius Vatia when the populares retook Rome. Prosecuted Catulus the Elder in the immediate aftermath, leading to the latter's suicide. OTL, was brutally murdered by his brother-in-law Cataline.
Gaius Marcius Censorinus Plebeian
Currently commanding Legio III in Transalpine Gaul. Back before the Social War he accused Sulla of taking bribes, but never showed up in court and later retracted. He's another Marian with a lot of bad karma coming after him - he has actually killed a legally elected consul (Gnaeus Octavius). OTL, he was repeatedly embarrassed by Pompey during Sulla's second march on Rome.
Quintus Sertorius New Man
Our current commander, and, with the possible exception of Marius himself, the best general the populares have. Winner of the Grass Crown, the highest military honour the Romans have. (The Civic Crown is given for saving a citizen's life in battle. The Grass Crown is given for saving an entire army or city. Just to give some perspective). A noted orator and jurist, too, and not all that fond of Marius. His ideal ending for this little spat is probably something like the optimates win, but Sulla is dead and Italian rights are preserved.
Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus Plebeian(?)
I'm not actually sure of his status, as I understand there is some debate as to whether the gens Junia were patrician or plebeian. Anyway, I list him only because he was the guy Young Marius instructed to kill Scaevola and other suspected Sullans in 82BC. He was Urban Praetor at the time, which means he's a noteworthy figure.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Patrician
Victor of the Social War, the man who actually captured Jugurtha, first Roman general to ever march on Rome, and would be the luckiest son of a bitch to ever live if it weren't for the existence of Caesar. Considers himself a champion of the Senate and the mos maiorum, but ironically lives a private life that would make a Greek blush. His epitaph is highly instructive - "No better friend, no worse enemy" - but so is a quote from Carbo - "Making war upon the lion and the fox in Sulla, I find myself more annoyed by the fox."
Quintus Mucius Scaevola Patrician
Our Patron. The Pontifex Maximus, superb orator, principled administrator, and the greatest legal scholar alive. A natural focal point for the optimates remaining in Rome. His star is on the rise again, thanks to us.
Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus Patrician
The other natural focal point for the optimates in Rome. Brother of the late Marcus Livius Drusus the Younger, adopted into the Aemilii Lepidi, son-in-law of Sulla, and uncle to Cato, Servilia Major and MInor, and Quintus Servilius Caepio . He's a pontifex, so we'll likely have met him, actually. He served under Metellus Pius in the Social War, and actually killed the Marsic leader Quintus Poppaedius Silo in single combat. (Silo, interestingly, had been a friend of Drusus the Younger). OTL, he would have been busy preserving what he could of Sulla's fortune and family at the moment, before heading off to join him in Greece. We know he was in Rome as of July 86BC, as he was involved in quietly quashing the Pompeian conspiracy.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Plebeian
Son of Metellus Numidicus (an inveterate opponent of Marius until his death in ~91BC), and heir to the Metelli faction that formed the core of the optimates in recent history. Served admirably during the Social War, and was actually the man originally supposed to deal with the Samnites. He was recalled from that duty when Marius and Cinna laid siege to Rome, and actually negotiated the terms for the Marians to enter Rome. OTL, he soon fled to Africa and started raising troops. Presumably he's done the same here, in which case he's perfectly positioned to threaten the vital grain supply. (Drawn mainly from Africa, Corsica-Sardinia, and (especially) Sicily at this time.) If he's still in Rome, we've met him, as he's also a pontifex.
Lucius Licinius Lucullus Plebeian (?)
I always thought the Licinii were patrician, but apparently not. Triple L is currently serving as Sulla's Quaestor. A cousin on his mother's side of Metellus Pius and Sulla's wife Metella Dalmatica. A noted philhellenist and bon vivant, he's also a brilliant general and able, energetic administrator. Fervently loyal to Sulla, Lucullus was the only official to stay with him when he first marched on Rome. (Sulla named him guardian of his children in his will.) He was also a noted enemy of the publicani, who were a big part of the populare coalition.
Quintus Lutatius Catulus Patrician
Son of the Catulus who killed himself to avoid prosecution by Gratidianus. Brother in law of Hortensius. Later consul, censor, princeps senatus, and a noted enemy of Caesar. At the moment, he's probably keeping his head down in Rome. He became a pontifex at some point, so we may have met him. Not outrageously talented by the (admittedly obscenely high) standards of the late Republic, but diligent.
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus Plebeian
Cicero's great oratorical rival. Married to the sister of Catulus. Took his first case at the age of nineteen. A master of the Asiatic style of oratory. Nicknamed the 'dancing master,' due to his graceful motions when declaiming. Another bon vivant and fish-fancier. Like his brother in law, probably keeping his head down at the moment.
Marcus Licinius Crassus Plebeian
The future second richest man in Rome. (Pompey is generally held to have been richer, but less liquid and much less shrewd in his use of his wealth). His father and surviving brother died in the Marian take over of Rome, and he himself was forced to flee, initially to Africa, and thence to Spain after he quarrelled with Metellus Pius. OTL, he raised troops there from his family's clients and joined Sulla in Greece, before going on to make his fortune during the proscriptions. A deeply dangerous man, with no readily apparent principles.
Appius Claudius Pulcher Patrician
Praetor in 88BC. Uncle of Philippus (despite being much younger), who OTL expelled him from the Senate during his time as censor. Uncle by marriage of Celer and Nepos. Father of a large brood, including the infamous Clodius and Clodia. As a Claudian, we can expect arrogance to be his defining characteristic. OTL appointed consul for 79BC by Sulla, and thence governor of Macedonia.
Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella Patrician
Commanded a fleet for Sulla in the east, and fought in central Italy when Sulla returned OTL. Was then made consul in 81BC, and subsequently proconsul of Macedonia until 78, where he won a triumph. He was prosecuted for extortion by Caesar shortly thereafter, but was defended by Hortensius and Gaius Aurelius Cotta (Caesar's maternal uncle) and acquitted.
Quintus Lucretius Ofella Plebeian
One of Sulla's legates. OTL, his main claims to fame were besieging Young Marius in Praeneste, and being murdered in the Forum by Sulla when he tried to run for the consulship against the Dictator's wishes. A calm, competent soldier, but obviously also notably proud and ambitious, even by the standards of the Roman aristocracy.
Publius Servilius Vatia Plebeian
Praetor for 90BC, and won a triumph in his province (either Corsica-Sardinia or Cicilia) which was celebrated in 88BC. Was Sulla's preferred candidate in the consular elections of that year, but was defeated by Cinna. Driven from Ariminum by Gratidianus in 87, and fled to join Sulla in Greece. OTL was appointed consul for 79BC alongside Appius Claudius, and then sent to govern Cicilia with a three year remit to campaign against the pirates. Won a triumph, and famously donated his share of the spoils to the State treasury.
Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) Upjumped Gaul Plebeian
Half Hellenic despot, half barbarian chieftain wearing the skin of a Roman nobleman, Kid Butcher is probably going to be decisive in how the Civil War plays out. His three veteran legions give him the greatest military force of any man on the Italian peninsula, with the possible exception of Cinna. Charismatic, wealthy, likeable and a genuinely excellent general, but also somewhat insecure, desperate for the approbation of his peers, and no great shakes at politics. Also our enemy. Fought for Sulla OTL, but mainly as a result of what he perceived as poor treatment from the Marians. Who knows where he'll end up now?
Lucius Marcius Philippus Plebeian
The quintessential political survivor, who never had a principle he wouldn't cheerfully sell to save his skin. Vehemently opposed to Italian citizenship in 91BC, elected censor in Marian Rome in 86BC, and (OTL) joined Sulla in 83BC. Might be the best orator in Rome at the moment, with the possible exception of Scaevola. Another bon vivant, later in life he went on to become Pompey's foremost partisan in the Senate. He's an augur, so Scaevola may have introduced us.
Publius Cornelius Cethegus Patrician
A rarity in Rome; a man who wields auctoritas without having held a magistracy. Cethegus controlled a huge block of backbencher senators though various means. (When Lucullus as consul sought a command against Mithridates, he needed the help of Cethegus to secure it. Unable to damage his pride and ask directly, Lucullus instead seduced Cethegus' mistress and had her ask on his behalf.) Like Philippus, he defected to Sulla in 83BC.
Lucius Sergius Catalina Patrician
Last scion of an old patrician line, scandal follows Lucius Sergius like a cloud of perfume. He's the brother-in-law of Gratidianus, and OTL murdered him in rather brutal fashion. At various points he was also accused of murdering his own son and of seducing a Vestal. Personally charming and immensely courageous, Lucius Sergius is currently affiliated with the optimates, but as his OTL career shows, he has no problem playing to the mob.
Gaius Antonius Hybrida Half-man, Half-animal Plebeian
Brother to the Man of Chalk, Hybrida is currently serving under Sulla as a prefect of cavalry. Simply put, the man is a vicious, unprincipled thug and extortion artist, and incompetent to boot. Our only interaction with him should be to prosecute him into oblivion.
Gaius Verres Plebeian
The infamous byword for Roman gubernatorial corruption, prosecuting him for extortion was how Cicero essentially made his name. Currently affiliated with the Marians, OTL he defected to Sulla shortly after Lucius Cornelius landed in Italy.
Marcus Tullius Cicero New Man
The thread's chosen waifu. Possibly the greatest orator of all time, though Cicero would modestly rank himself at joint third. (The first is Demosthenes, the second Crassus Orator, and then Cicero and Antonius Orator.) In his own time Cicero was perceived by his peers as something of an indecisive, hypocritical trimmer, he can generally be considered an optimate, at least in policy if not always in principle. Three years older than us, he should immediately precede us in each office on the cursus, assuming we both attain office in suo anno. OTL, he was consul in 63BC, which means he would be supervising the elections when we run. Currently keeping his head down.
Servius Sulpicius Rufus Plebeian
Our sole competent colleague in Legio VI. OTL, a noted jurist and legal scholar, and friend of Cicero. A useful connection for us, as OTL he first ran for consul in 63BC. If we stay close, we could run as a pair, which plays well with voters. They like to know that their consuls get on.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer Plebeian
Brother of Nepos, uterine brother of Mucia Tertia, and cousin to the brood of Appius Claudius. OTL, a Pompeian up until Pompey divorced Mucia, after which he became a key member of the optimates. A generally formidable fellow. Currently serving as a military tribune.
Marcus Antonius (Creticus) Plebeian
Chalkman! We've discussed him. He's a little older than the others listed in this section, but as he appears to only be starting his career it seemed appropriate to list him with them. Son of the famous Antonius Orator, and brother of the (soon to be) infamous Hybrida, his family connections suggest Sullan alignment, though I doubt the man himself gives the matter much consideration. Currently serving as a military tribune.
Lucius Calpurnius Piso (Caesoninus) Plebeian
An Epicurean, OTL he worked with Clodius to have Cicero exiled when he was consul in 58BC, leading to a brief, indecisive feud. His daughter Calpurnia was Caesar's third wife. He stayed neutral when Caesar fought Pompey, but was suspected of Pompeian sympathies. Currently serving as a military tribune.
Gaius Julius Caesar Descendent of Venus Patrician
You know who this is. Nephew of Marius by marriage, but with plenty of familial connections to Sulla, too. Three years younger than us, OTL Caesar would be married/betrothed to Cinna's daughter and made Flamen Dialis around now. Popularis.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Plebeian
Younger brother of Celer. Pompeian partisan for much of his career. Feuded famously with both Cicero and Cato, and supported Clodius at one point. Roughly the same age as Caesar, he should be just about putting on his toga virilis.
Marcus Porcius Cato Alcoholic Plebeian
TheOptimate and quintessential Stoic of the late Republic, and possibly the man who invented the filibuster. Infamously hard-headed and convinced of his own righteousness, but actually lived up to his own propaganda, unlike every other Roman. Not a likeable character, but a truly formidable one. Roughly eight years younger than us.
Publius Claudius Pulcher (Clodius) Patrician (Plebeian)
I really should have listed him under 'Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know,' but he's currently about eight, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. OTL, perhaps the greatest demagogue of the late Republic, and as fond of controversy as Cato was of wine. Infamously infiltrated the Bona Dea festival in drag, apparently with the intention of sleeping with Caesar's wife. Also frequently accused of incest, and once led a mutiny in the army of his brother in law Lucullus. The greatest enemy Cicero ever had, and generally pure poison.
I'll probably add a 'Young Guns' section, covering our contemporaries and juniors, over the weekend, along with adding in any omissions.
Added a Young Guns section and edited Sulla's legates into the Optimates.
You know, I was thinking about how Julius Caesar's cognomen became the royal title for Roman emperors and Russian and Bulgarian emperors as well. If Atellus becomes Emperor at the end of this quest, then Atellus would become something like Imperator Atellus or Augustus Atellus, right? I'm no expert on how Roman's names things or Cognomen's.
Imperator is, in republican times, an acclaimation for successful generals and a term for military dominion — i.e, where one holds imperium, the power to command people and troops and have their word obeyed. In the Republic, different people held imperium over different places for various reasons. For example, a governor would hold imperium over his province, and a consul would hold imperium over the city, while a general would have imperium over the lands he's meant to conquer. When Octavian (later Augustus) became master of Rome, he gave himself imperium over everything — making him the Imperator.
As for cognomens, Roman names are split into three parts: your name (Bob, Fred, what have you) and your family name (Johnson, etc), much like today. But prestigious people of note could have cognomens, or nicknames, attached to the end of their names, which could be passed down to their descendants and came to signify entire family branches. So a Roman name looked like this:
Gaius (personal name, used by family and friends) Julius (signifying the holder as being of the clan of the Julii) Caesar (lit. the hairy, signifying the holder as being one of the Julii Caesares, descended from the first Julius Caesar, who presumably did not shave.)
As this system grew more and more unwieldy, with there being only a handful of first names in circulation by the end of the Republic, it became harder and harder to identify people, such that further nicknames had to be used to identify which member of a branch of the family you were speaking of (I.e, the statement 'Gaius Julius Caesar is a dick' could, at one point, referred to no less than three men of power living in the city of Rome concurrently).
And, of course, the Senate could change your name or grant you victory titles, which would be appended on to the end of the cluster of names you already had.
For example:
The man who would be Rome's first emperor was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus — Gaius of the Thurinii branch of the Octavii. He abandoned his original name when he was adopted by Caesar, becoming Gaius Julius Caesar, called informally Octavianus or Octavian to differentiate him from the still-living dictator. So now he is Gaius of the Julii Caesares, called Octavian.
When Caesar was made a god in death, this naturally made Octavian the son of a god, and to represent this he added the title Divi Filius to the end of his name, making him Gaius of the Julii Caesares who is called Octavian, the son of a god.
To further boost his connection to the army (who had loved Caesar) and further his connection to his father, he again renamed himself during the Second Triumvirate, this time to Imperator Caesar Divi Filius, making his name 'Commander Caesar the son of god'. Here he begins to break from Roman naming conventions.
Finally, after his defeat of Marc Antony and rise to absolute power, he is bestowed the name Augustus by the Senate, a title meaning 'revered' or 'venerable'. His full name is now Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus: Commander Caesar, revered son of the god. Nothing remains of the man Octavian — he is the god Augustus, and is referred to as such, or Imperator by his troops.
If Atellus became supreme ruler of Rome, his name would be changed to whatever the Senate felt was appropriate, and based on whoever he was attempting to curry favor with. Imperator and Caesar only became Augustus' names because he was trying to win favor with the legions, and further ingratiate himself with his adopted father's legend. His successors, in turn, were trying to ingratiate themselves to his own legend when they took the names 'Imperator', 'Augustus', and 'Caesar'. Assuming the Senate and army feel as glowingly about Atellus as they did Caesar, then we might see:
Imperator Atellus Augustus. If you win a resounding victory in Spain, perhaps, then we could see Imperator Atellus Hispanicus Augustus: Commander Atellus, revered victor over Spain. If, perhaps, you lose all your hair before 30 and are somehow okay with this being immortalized, then they might call you Imperator Atellus Glaber Hispanicus Augustus: Commander Atellus the bald, revered victory over Spain.
(Romans called Glaber did not typically choose to be called Glaber, as most bald people would rather not be called 'the bald man' everywhere they went in perpetuity. Those who inherited it as a cognomen were spectacularly unfortunate.)
Welcome to another installment of "Telamon Explains Something He Should've Explained a While Back, But Didn't Fully Flesh Out Until Now".
Today, we'll be covering Warfare and Battle in Antiquity. Awesome modifiers and cool-sounding ranks with big numbers next to them look awesome on paper, but a fight between two legendary generals (Caesar and Pompey) would hypothetically look like this if you just threw their personal modifiers and army modifiers together:
Hypothetical Fucking Awesome Battle That Never Happened said:
Attack Pompey(Julius Caesar): 1d20 +8 (Legendary Military) +8 (Legendary Command) +5 (Gift of Mars) +3 (Elite Troops) +2 (High Ground) = 45
versus Attack Caesar(Pompey Magnus): 1d20 +8 (Legendary Military) +8 (Legendary Command) +5 (Gift of Mars) +3 (Elite Troops) -2 (Terrain Disadvantage) =38 Result: Holy Shit Those Are Some Big Numbers
That's not, historically, how battles happened in real life, however. Rather, when commanders fight on the level of armies and campaigns, generals often don't command personally, and a brilliant general's stats can be screwed over by a weakness in those under him. That's why in legion-scale battles and up, the rolls are done between different flanks of the army engaging one another. So, say, a battle between Pompey and Caesar under this system would realistically look like this:
Significantly Less Awesome But More Realistic Battle said:
A general's high stats aren't worthless on this scale, however. Any modifiers they add are applied to their troops on an army-wide scale, so if Caesar has a (Fuck Pompey) modifier which gives him +3 to all combats with Pompey, all his troops get it. Half a general's command skill is also applied to morale rolls to see if the flank/cohort/what have you breaks. For example:
Morale Check DCs depend on the closeness of the defeat (i.e, a Narrow Defeat is a DC 5, while a Resounding Defeat is a DC 14, and a Crippling Defeat (20 vs a 1, almost impossible without terrain/tactical advantage) would be a DC 18. After every defeat in a round of combat, the Morale Check DC for the next round increases by 1 no matter what. So, in the next turn of the hypothetical battle above, Pompey's cohort would have to beat a DC 6 if they lost narrowly again, and a DC 15 if they lost Resoundingly.
A general's personal cohort, which he is in command of, obviously receives all of his boosts, and so a force personally commanded by Pompey would decimate anything it came into contact with -- unless, of course, the shit commander to his flank crumbled, giving him a -4 tactical disadvantage, and the one to the right of him broke as well, giving him another tactical disadvantage and a -6 outnumbered malus. He might not do so well then, and his only reasonable choice would be to flee.
A general with a high logistics or military score might instead chose to remain behind the main force and command the entirety of the battle, giving all of his troops half of his military stat as an armywide bonus to combat, and half of his logistics skill as an armywide bonus to movement.
What does this mean? Well, it means fuckheug stats will not and cannot always win the day. Feeding your troops, keeping their morale up, and selecting competent subordinates is just as important in this game is it would have been in real life. Later, when you can make large-scale strategic decisions, things like picking the terrain and making pre-battle choices (say, splitting your force in half to attack from behind and in front) may add modifiers which will turn the tide of battle against even a vastly more skilled opponent.
(Note: This is all subject to change and modification in the future as Telamon wrangles with his oldest and greatest enemy, numbers.)
I checked, but it doesn't look like you changed anything I mentioned...
We're still born in 103 BC and belong to the Patrician class (and Optimates party, thanks to Scaevola). Our stats have been adjusted -- our highest scores are still in Intelligence and Military, but 'Oratory' has been changed to 'Speech', and an 'Education' category was added.
But now there's a new slide for 'Skills', and this one is revealing:
Check out those Law and Philosophy scores. Oof, that's even worse than our Administration skill. We definitely need to boost those skills, so I'm even more confident that working with Scaevola and Cicero is the right call. I am not as confident that training guards for the Vestal Virgins is the best use of our time -- @Telamon, will our 'Command' skill be capped at '5' even if we lead the Temple guards? If not, then unless Scaevola's first assassination attempt involves some sort of battle, our skills wouldn't benefit from training the guards. 'Favor > Debt Collector' would be preferred, in that case, especially since we apparently have 'average' Administration skill.
Actually, how does that work? We have 'Poor' Stewardship -- it literally says "You couldn't manage a wine stand" -- yet 'Average' Administration -- "You can run a house decently, but probably not a city." Isn't that an obvious contradiction? A house is a lot more complicated to manage than a wine stand.
Plus, it kinda feels redundant to have a Skill that covers exactly the same material as a Stat. What is the difference between 'Stewardship' and Administration, or between 'Speech' and Oratory? I'm not sure how to interpret our character sheet....
Stewardship is a stat, and is the act of business, of sale and management and financial matters. It essentially governs your financial savvy and head for numbers.
Administration is specifically the art of running a city, of administrating and governing groups or large groups of people effectively. It is a skill, and you must administer something to increase it.
Speech (Note: Now Charisma) is a stat, and governs how well you speak and carry yourself.
Oratory is a skill, and is the art of speaking well to massive crowds of people, and winning them to your side — which someone with a high Charisma stat could certainly do more easily, sure. But just as how people who can speak well in person aren't great orators, so too a high Charisma stat does not mean a high Oratory skill.
Essentially, Stats are your mental capabilities and strengths, while Skills are things you do, and can only be increased by doing said thing.
For example, your military is ridiculously high, but your Command is average. Just because you have a head for tactics and have read a lot of military histories, you're not a master general until you've led men into battle — you're just a boy with a lot of potential.
For doing something, say speaking to the crowd in defense of a client, I will take your Oratory score and give it a bonus from your Charisma score for the purposes of the roll. Now, for, say, convincing a Gaulish warlord not to kill everyone in the province you're governing, that's Diplomacy + Charisma to get the bonus for the roll.
How much money is ten talents, relatively speaking? We're spending it on fifty guys, how much is that per guy?
Also, do we know how much the loot from the other town is?
Whatever we do, I definitely don't want to try and get these guys to fight for us. Even if this is an honest offer, they're making this offer because they're scared. These are not people to rely on in a fight.
A gold talent is roughly equal to 6,000 silver denarii. One denarius is what the average laborer makes in a day. An officer like Mercator makes four a day, and you earn 500 a month (adding up your pay as a tribune and your other sources of income). You are relatively well off compared to the average Roman, so a single talent is about a year's pay for you.
The worth of the loot the cohort took from the town is about sixty talents, to be divided equally among the five thousand men, so about 72 denarii per man — little more than half a month's pay for a centurion like Mercator.
Essentially, ten talents of gold is a sizable amount for a relatively impoverished noble like yourself, but for a soldier or a common man, it's a fortune. To an officer, it's a decent gain — and to a bandit, it's more than enough to abandon an already doomed cause.
To put this in perspective, the Roman Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the richest men in Roman (and human) history, will eventually amass a fortune equal to 8,333 talents — roughly 50 million denarii, or $20 billion dollars in today's money.
Something that's been bugging me for a while now is the fact that while some of us know very much about the history and politics of ancient Rome, there are many in the quest who have only a passing familiarity with the end-days of the Republic, and even then, only the most popular parts. But the events that will shape the last century of the Roman Republic had their start many, many years ago, and the political situation of Atellus' time is influenced by things that happened decades before his birth.
As such, I've decided to begin a series of Roman Histories posts on events, people, and occasions influential to the time of the quests -- things Atellus would almost certainly know about, but the average poster might not. I'll be putting these posts up on the front page as recommended reading, as I feel they'll be quite useful to newcomers and long-time readers alike in understanding the political and social tone of the quest.
Roman Histories:
The Gracchi
One cannot truly understand the political climate of the early first century, the tensions between the populares and the optimates, or the very real consequences of those tensions, without knowing the story of the Gracchi. Their eventful lives, and eventual deaths, would leave a lasting mark on Roman history that would echo well into the time of the Caesars.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (b.169 ~ 163 BC) and and Gaius Sempronus Gracchus (b.154 BC) were brothers born into a plebian branch of the gens Sempronia, an ancient and powerful noble family in Rome. Their father, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, was tribune of the plebs in his day, serving as the voice of the common people of Rome, and their representative on the political stage. After his death, the boys were raised by their mother Cornelia Africana, but they never forgot their father's example, and both of them would eventually follow in his footsteps as representatives of the common people of Rome.
Much has been written of Cornelia Africana, the mother of the Gracchi, and indeed, one cannot credit the Gracchi brothers for what they would achieve in the years to come without first crediting their mother. A daughter of the legendary Scipio Africanus, the man who defeated Rome's archenemy Hannibal, she came of age as one of Rome's most affluent women, but she only becomes remarkable in Roman history after the death of her husband. She famously refused a marriage offer from Ptolemy Physcon, the then-Pharaoh of Egypt, choosing not to remarry, but instead to remain a widow and raise her sons to be proper Romans in their own right. And this she most certainly did, bringing the finest tutors from across Italy and Greece to educate her sons, who took the education with aplomb.
The Gracchi excelled at everything they touched. Masterful orators from youth, they were charismatic, energetic, and well-liked among their peers. They took the sword as well as any Roman who ever lived, evidencing, in Roman eyes, their descent from the great Scipio Africanus. The brothers began their rise through the cursus honorum young -- the eldest, Tiberius, was elected to the priesthood as an augur at only sixteen years of age, and at 20, he became military tribune under Scipio Aemilianus during the Third and final Punic War. There, he won decorations for being the first man to scale the walls of Carthage, and proved himself to be a capable soldier and leader of men.
In 137, Tiberus was appointed quaestor in the Spanish province of Numantia during the Numantine War, fought to subdue the Celts in Spain. After his commanding officer dishonored himself and suffered crippling defeats at the hands of the Numantians, Tiberius leveraged his father's history in Spain, and the favorable dealings he had made with the Numantians then, into a peace treaty with the warlike Celts, saving the legions from certain destruction. While some back in Rome saw this as cowardice, Tiberius and his brother-in-law, Scipio Aemilianus, were able to convince the Senate to accept the treaty.
Tiberus built his political career off the back of these military victories, and with his renown and acumen, it is thought by many that he could have been one of Rome's youngest consuls, and had he chosen such a path, could have risen to be one of the greatest men of the late Republic.
But Tiberus had another calling. According to Plutarch, Tiberius first saw this calling when traveling to Spain, when he witnessed Roman farms absent of Roman citizens, being worked instead by slaves and barbarians from Gaul, in service to wealthy senators. Due to the way Roman warfare worked, soldiers could be on service for as long as a war lasted, meaning that their farms back home could and would go under, at which point they were snapped up by wealthy landowners. To avoid the circumscriptions against owning too much of the public land, these landowners would operate through proxies, farming the land with slaves brought from elsewhere. As a result, soldiers would return home from war to find that their homes, which they had fought for so long, were gone, and that they were effectively homeless -- a fact which ironically meant they could no longer join the military.
Tiberius rightly saw this as an injustice which was destroying the Republic's military and economic power in the name of greed. In 133 BC, he campaigned for and won the position of Tribune of the plebs, the position his father had once held, championing the cause of the homeless soldiers who had given flesh and blood for Rome and now had not even a roof to cover their heads in winter.
Once elected, he worked with the then-consul Publius Mucius Scaevola (father of the later Scaevola Pontifex) to design an agrarian law reform called the Lex Sempronia Agraria. It would enforce the standing circumscriptions on the amount of public land which could be held by a single man, fining those landowners who held more than the limit and forcing them to relinquish their extra holdings to the people. The confiscated land would then be re-distributed to the homeless and poor, dealing with the growing problem of Rome's homeless.
Knowing the patrician Senate would never accept a bill which so attacked their coffers, Tiberius skipped submitting the bill to the Senate, and instead took it directly to the Public Assembly, filled with plebs who were in overwhelming favor of the Gracchan reforms. While this was technically legal, it cut out the Senate entirely, offending many senators, even those who supported such reforms. The incensed Senators connived another way of influencing the bill, and either bribed or persuaded Tiberius' co-tribune, Octavius, to use his tribunal veto to stop the bill from passing. In response, Gracchus tried to have Octavius deposed, but Octavius simply vetoed any bill to depose him, and any other movement which Tiberus tried to make.
In opposition to the Senate and their cronies, Tiberus began to use his tribunal veto as a club, stopping the temples, markets, and public places from opening and functioning. In this way, he brought the entire city to a standstill until his laws were passed, holding Rome herself a hostage for her own good. The people overwhelmingly supported him, and an armed guard followed him day and night to protect him from the Senate's thugs. Finally, he had Octavius forcibly removed from the Senate chambers despite his supposed sacrosanctity as a Tribune of the people, and had his laws passed with majority support of the people. In addition, he deposed Octavius, stating that no man who would so adamantly stand in the way of the public good could ever truly represent the people.
This was the beginning of the end for Tiberius. He became a popular hero, revered across Rome and Italy as the voice of the people and the champion of the Republic, the vanguard of democracy and a Roman above all others. People began calling for him to be crowned as king, and though he adamantly refused, this terrified the Senate. When he seized public funds in order to secure money for his reforms -- money which had been denied him by the Senate -- his fate was sealed. His enemies used his forceful deposition of Tiberius and disregard for the Senate as a club against him, claiming he meant to be King in Rome. Once his tribunate was over, he would almost certainly be killed.
In order to avoid this, Tiberus won re-election, promising even more liberal reforms, such as the admission of all Italians to Roman citizenship. This won him yet more support, and the Public Assembly sent plebian guards to watch his door day and night to protect him from assassination. The Senate began to lobby the consuls to deal with Tiberus and declare him an enemy of the state, yet they refused again and again. Finally, led by Publius Nasica, Tiberus' own cousin, the Senate and their slaves attacked Tiberus one morning as he entered the Senate Chambers, beating him and many of his followers to death with clubs, sticks, and stones. Their corpses were unceremoniously dumped in the Tiber, his remaining supporters exiled without trial, and his reforms rolled back.
But this was not the end for the Gracchi. Gaius, Tiberus' younger brother and one of Rome's most skilled orators, immediately set out to avenge his brother's death. He openly mourned his brother in the Senate, using Tiberus' murder as a club to attack his opponents and political enemies, and had Publius Nasica exiled for the murder of Roman citizens without due cause. Ten years after Tiberius' death, he had won enough support in the public eye to campaign for the same office as his brother and father before him, winning election to the Tribunate in 122 BC. His first actions were widespread judiciary reforms that sought to place more power in the hands of the people, and enabled the prosecution of those who had exiled Romans without trial -- a clear blow against those who had murdered his brother. He also forbade courts run solely by patricians, ensuring that the people would have a say in their own justice.
He continued Tiberius' land reforms, expanding them and rolling out even more liberal additions, forcing the Senate to buy cheap grain and distribute it to the people. He shortened the terms military service, ensured soldiers were provided with armor and weapons instead of having to purchase them, and rolled out a series of protections for citizens enrolled in the military. Perhaps the pettiest of Gaius' bills was the change to public speaking. Before, when Romans spoke in the Forum, they would speak facing the Senate chambers. Gaius introduced a bill stipulating that speakers were now to face the other way, literally turning their back on the Senate to speak to the people.
As one of the greatest administrators in Roman history, Gaius was beloved by the people, and his reforms were met with widespread public support. He famously moved his family from the Palatine hill, where Rome's wealthiest lived, to the slums near the Forum. The message was clear to the people and the Senate alike: the Gracchi, all of them, spoke for the common man. His own fame and reputation quickly matched that of his dead brother, and the Senate soon came to fear him just as much -- perhaps even moreso -- than they had feared Tiberius. The oligarchy and higher classes of Rome began to rally against him, supporting Tribunes who opposed Gaius' legislations and vetoed his bills.
After Gaius famously had the senatorial seats in the arena removed so that the poorest of Romans could watch that day's gladiatorial games, the Senate turned almost entirely against him. They convinced a tribune, Opimus, to repeal the laws of the Gracchi. On the day Opimus was meant to repeal the laws, supporters of Gaius' killed one of Opimus' servants in the Forum. It is unknown whether or not Gaius Gracchus ordered it, but Opimus and his allies seized on this as pretext, declaring Gaius Gracchus a tyrant and an enemy of the state and raising a mob to forcibly depose him. In response, Gaius' most prominent friend and supporter, the Senator and consul Fulvius Flaccus, armed himself and his supporters and took to the streets. After tense negotiations which eventually broke down, the two factions erupted into bloodshed in the streets. When the Senate offered amnesty to the Gracchan supporters, many of the surviving mob came over en masse. Afterwards, Opimus ordered his hired mercenaries to attack the remaining crowd, dispersing the mob and killing Flaccus and his sons. The cause was dead.
Gaius, meanwhile, had fled, initially taking refuge in the Temple of Diana, and then finally fleeing across the Tiber while his closest friends stayed behind and gave their lives that he might escape. Together with his most loyal slave, he committed suicide in a holy grove on the outskirts of Rome. According to tradition, he damned the Roman people with his final breath, sending a prayer to the gods that Romans might forever be slaves, as they seemed to so desire.
Gracchus' head was cut off and returned to Rome as a trophy, and his remaining supporters exiled or dispersed. The laws of the Gracchi were reversed and repealed, and then some -- within a decade, the people suffered even more than they had before the Gracchian reforms. In death, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus become demigods, heroes of the city and the people, worshiped on street corners and in temples as champions of the Republic and idols of the common man. The spots where they died became holy ground, and shrines to them popped up across Rome and Italy. They were prayed to by the poor and the weak and the homeless, who begged them for succor, for liberty, for the freedom they had so briefly tasted. But it was too late. The final, staunchest defenders of Roman democracy were dead, and the ideal would never rise again.
The Gracchi went down in history as the last true democrats of Rome, the greatest of the populares, and the last Romans to truly champion the cause of the people. Those demagogues and firebrands who would follow after, like Catiline, Caesar, Marius, and their ilk, were interested in the cause of the people only so far as the cause of the people aligned with and supported the cause of Catiline, Caesar, and Marius. Public freedoms became a joke, and the rights of the plebs an even bitterer one. Power and authority in Rome became firmly centralized upon the Senate, with the tribunate declining first into irrelevancy and then into nonexistence under Sulla and his followers in the next century.
But in Atellus' time, the long shadow of the Gracchi still hangs over Rome. In the minds of the people, they are an ideal to strive towards, a dream, a hope now long lost, of equality in the city of Romulus. To the Senate and the patricians, they are a haunting specter, a chilling warning, of knives in the dark and mobs in the streets, of how one man with a silver tongue can incite the rabble to murder and treachery. And to all, they are a fading memory of the oldest and most downtrodden ideals of the Roman Republic -- that all Romans, no matter class or status, might stand equal as brothers.
Perhaps the defining event of the early 1st century BC, and almost certainly one of the defining events of the young Atellus' life, the Social War would set the stage for the expansions and policies of the late Republic and the Empire after it. The Social War, or the Bellum Sociale as the Romans knew it, was the conflict fought between Rome and her Italian allies, the Socii, over their claim to Roman Citizenship. It embroiled all of Italy in conflict, and saw the historical 'last stand' of many cultures and peoples that afterward disappear entirely from the historical record, either from extermination as a result of their aggression during the war, or as a result of their total assimilation into Roman society.
After the defeat of the Samnites in the 2nd Century, Rome was effectively the undisputed master of Italy. The tribes and cities of the Italian peninsula had all been defeated by Rome or, seeing the writing on the wall, allied themselves with her. The Latins, the Etruscans, the Campanians, and even the fierce Samnites -- all, in their turn, had fallen before Rome's might, and now stood as little better than slaves to Rome. This unchallenged dominance was expressed in the form of a system of alliances and oaths of fealty, in which Rome would assume economic, cultural, and diplomatic supremacy over it's new client states. Most importantly, however, the allies would provide auxiliaries for Rome's legions, meaning that the deadly Italic cavalry the Romans had so long struggled against would now ride in their service. In return, the allies were allowed to pretend at independence by governing themselves, administering their own taxes, and settling most matters locally.
This arrangement worked out perfectly for Rome. Her armies swelled by the might of Italy, Rome was capable of meeting her archenemy Carthage on even footing, and for the next half-century, struggled with the Carthaginians for the Mediterranean in the famous Punic Wars. During the Second Punic War, Hannibal threatened the core of Roman military might by calling on several of the Socii to defect and take up arms against Rome. Some did, but far more, cowed by Roman might or Roman coin, did not, and when Hannibal was defeated once and for all, the idea of Italian independence died with Carthage. The allies spoke like Romans, acted like Romans, and talked like Romans.
But they were most pointedly not Romans, a fact which smarted all the more as decade after decade passed and the allies grew more and more vital to the Roman state. The patricians and elite of Rome began to plunder their lands, repeating what they had done in Rome herself by buying up the farms of auxiliaries off at war and amassing the huge amounts of land through proxies. But unlike the Roman citizens, the Socii were wholly disenfranchised -- indeed, they could not even complain legally, for they were not citizens of Rome, and as such had no rights in Rome. This was a point of grievance for many of the Italians, who by now considered themselves Roman in all but name. They fought for Rome, bled for Rome, gave their lives, harvests, and coin to Rome -- why, then, could they not call themselves Roman?
Many Romans agreed, and several prominent populists attempted to curry favor with the crowd by promising citizenship to the allies. Among these were the Gracchi brothers, who both listed Italic citizenship on their long list of liberal reforms. When the Gracchi died, however, their reforms were all rolled back, citizenship among them. The wealthy patricians did not want to let a new batch of voters inclined to populist demagoguery into the Republic. And of course, there was the fact that traditionally, Roman citizens were born in Rome -- not in Samnium or Sicily or Capua. What it meant to be Roman, and whether that meaning could rightfully be extended en masse to those who had once been enemies of Rome, was a heated debate in the waning days of the Republic.
This feeling came to a head in 91 BC, during the tribunate of one Marcus Drusus, a demagogue who began proposing several populist reforms. In order to gain support for what he truly wanted -- land reform -- Drusus added Italian citizenship to his proposed bills, winning him the support of the Socii across Italia. While initially supportive of Drusus, the Senate turned on him when he gained popularity, fearing another firebrand in the mold of the Gracchi. Drusus was murdered in his own home in September of 91 BC, and those who ordered the assassination must have thought the nonsensical idea of Italian equality dead for another generation. If so, they were sorely mistaken.
The Socii had had enough. If Rome would not give them equality, they would have independence, no matter how bloody. Led by the Marsi and the Samnites, those tribes which had been among Rome's staunchest foes since the days of wheel and fire, twelve Italian tribes, along with numerous cities and towns which had tired of the Roman yoke, rebelled against Rome. Calling itself Italia, this confederation adopted a government based on the Roman system, headed by two Consuls who ruled from the city of Corfinium, which they quickly renamed to Italica. The elder of these Consuls was Quintus Pompaedius Silo, a friend of the murdered tribune Drusus and one of the foremost inciters of the Social War. His confederate in the Consulship was one Gaius Papilus Mutilus, a Samnite noble who had raised Samnium to arms.
The two Consuls, together, commanded a force of well over 100,000 men, and the Italian Confederation, at it's height, may have mustered nearly 130,000. The armies of the Allies were composed of former Roman auxiliaries, who had fought and bled for Rome for decades without reward, and now turned their swords to the service of home and hearth. They were led by battle-hardened commanders who had learned of war at the feet of Rome herself, men who had fought beside the legions and knew their tactics, their strategies, and their weaknesses.
Caught off-guard, it was all Rome could do to survive in the first few months after the rebellion began. The Allies inflicted horrific losses on Rome in the first year of the war, seizing cities such as Aesernia and Nola, and conquering much of Campania. Rome desperately struggled to keep allied cities and tribes from slipping away, and in this they largely succeeded -- the Latins, those tribes which had been the first to bend knee to Roman rule, largely remained loyal. Without them, Rome almost surely would have lost against the combined onslaught of the last Italic League. As it stands, however, the Bellum Sociale was without a doubt one of the bloodiest wars fought on Italian soil in living memory, and if not for the rash of civil wars that would plague the Republic until it's death, would surely have been the bloodiest of the First Century. Rome was forced to rely on newly-raised legions from distant provinces such as Spain and Africa simply to survive, as well as the goodwill of it's many client kingdoms.
But though the war began splendidly for the rebels, it was not to be. Though skilled and driven, the Allies were up against some of the finest military minds of not just Roman history, but human history, among them two in particular: Gaius Marius, the famed 'Third Founder' of Rome, who, at the time of the Social War, had been consul six times, and would live to see a seventh, and his erstwhile student and later archenemy, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the later dictator and conqueror of Greece. The aging Marius won some few victories against the allies in the opening days of the war, but the Senate refused to allow him overall command of the Social War, a victory that would no doubt have catapulted his name to meteoric heights and made him a living God in Rome -- just the thing the conservative Senate feared.
Instead, the Senate chose to rely on his former tribune, a skilled young officer by the name of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, newly returned from his governorship in Cicilia. Sulla burnt a path of death and destruction across Samnium, driving the Allies from their strongholds and laying waste to their cities. At his side was Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, the Butcher of Picenium, an infamous sadist possessed of little loyalty or remorse, and Strabo's son, a young boy who even then showed extraordinary talent for the art of war -- Pompey the Younger, the later Pompey Magnus. Pompey gained his first taste of blood as Sulla burned the walls of Bovianum, sacked the Samnite town of Aeclanum, and put town after town of the Samnites to the sword. Even the Butcher's savagery paled before Sulla's methodical onslaught, which crippled the Italian resistance piece-by-piece, defeating armies at Nola and Pompeii, depopulating Samnium, and killing both the Consuls of Italia.
By 88 BC, the majority of the Samnites were massacred, their lands burnt, their farms razed, and their people slaughtered. The last vestiges of Samnite resistance holed up in the cities of Aesernia and Nola, besieged by Roman militia. Their resources strained and their manpower waning, the rest of the allies ceded victory to Rome in exchange for Roman Citizenship -- the very thing they had demanded in the first place. Sulla was hailed as the savior of the Republic and a hero of the city, and awarded the Grass Crown, the City's highest military honor. The war at large was over, but the Samnites, Rome's oldest foes, would continue resisting for much of the 80's BC, until Sulla, victorious in the Civil Wars, returned to wipe them from the face of Italy sometime around 83 or 82 BC.
The consequences of the Social War would echo through Roman history. It saw the rise of Sulla, who would become Consul and lead the first war against Mithridates in the following decade, and the decline of Marius, who, his power in Rome waning, would incite his followers into what would be the first of many Civil Wars in the century to follow. It saw the final, desperate stand of the Italic tribes, who, defeated once and for all, fade from history in the growing shadow of Rome. Lastly, it forced the Senate to concede, once and for all, that Romans could be born outside of Rome, and began the idea of extending the franchise of citizenship en masse to provinces outside Rome proper, an ideal that would save the later Empire.
As the game begins, the shadow of the Social War hangs over Italy. There are few living in the Italian provinces who do not remember when Rome came to slaughter their fathers and their sons, and there are few in Rome who do not bear the scars of those dark years when the Socii rose up to bite the hand that had so long fed them. The Social War planted the seeds of many things that still fester in Rome as Quintus Cingulatus Atellus begins his journey up the cursus honorum, and you would do well to remember that the ire of the people, once raised, can topple kings and raise up gods...
Gaius Marius (b. 157 BC), at the time the game begins, is the most powerful man in the Roman world, with over half a century of legendary achievements to his name. Seven times consul, hailed as the Third Founder of Rome and the second Romulus, he is beloved by the legions and the common man. He is, bar none, the most influential person in Atellus' world. Marius was, without a doubt, the prototype for Caesar and the emperors who followed after him, and no understanding of the final days of the Roman Republic is complete without an understanding of Marius.
Born into a lower-class family in the north of Italy, Gaius was a novus homo, a New Man. He had no storied line or distinguished lineage -- all he accomplished in Rome, he accomplished on his own merits . There is a tale which says that as a young man, Marius discovered an eagle's nest with seven eggs nestled within. This, he would later claim, was a sign from the gods that he would hold the consulship an unprecedented seven times, and that he was destined for mighty things.
In youth, he served under the grandson of the great Scipio Africanus in an expedition to Spain, where he first learned of war. As military tribune in the army of one of Rome's most powerful generals, Marius was well set on his way up the cursus honorum. History says that the success he enjoyed here allowed him to run as plebian tribune in 120 BC, supported by the Metelli, one of Rome's more powerful families. He quickly angered his optimate patrons, however, by passing a law known as the Lex Maria which sought to prevent the wealthy from using their influence to sway votes. Having thus angered the Metelli, Marius lost a powerful ally in Rome, and gained a dangerous enemy, one that would hobble him in all future elections.
Despite this, however, he was able to secure election as a praetor and was sent to Spain in 114 BC. Here, he gained the wealth and prestige that allowed him, upon return to Rome, to marry into a powerful and noble family of ancient lineage -- the Julii Caesares. Their line had fallen on hard times, and by marrying one of Rome's rising stars, they could ensure the connection of their name to Marius' for all time, while Marius gained the prestige of being married into the Julii.
His rise to power began when he was sent to serve as legatus under the Consul Quintus Metellus in the Jugurthine Wars against the upstart African King Jugurtha. During this war, he saved Metellus' armies from certain destruction, winning him a reputation as a skilled general and a Roman hero. With this injection of fame, he turned fully against his old patrons the Metelli, and wrote back to Rome claiming that the elder Metellus' indecision and weakness would lead to a defeat against Jurgurtha. With public support behind him, Marius quickly returned to Rome for a landslide election as consul -- the first of seven -- then back to Africa, where he took over Metellus' command.
To facilitate the sure victory against Jugurtha which he had promised the Senate and the people, Marius began the reforms which would later bear his name. He lifted the property requirements for men to serve in the Roman armies -- any Roman, should they be a citizen, was now able to die for his city. His armies swelled with Rome's poor, legions of men who would come to love the man who lifted them from poverty and put a sword in their hands. These Marian legions, however, proved unable to perform against Jugurtha's lightning-quick guerrilla tactics, and Marius suffered several near-defeats at his hand. It was only after a young staff officer under his command convinced Jugurtha's allies to betray the tyrant that Marius captured the upstart king-- a fact the general omitted during his letters back to Rome.
A victorious Marius returned back to Rome, where he received a mighty triumph in his honor, during which the African king Jugurtha was marched through the streets of Rome before Marius' horse, prophesying death and destruction for the city with every breath. Marius had won where the high nobility could not, and glory and laurels were heaped on him -- but no glory was given to the staff officer responsible for his victory, a young optimate by the name of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who bore a grudge against Marius from that day onwards.
But Marius was soon to win a victory on his own merits. While he was in Africa, the Gallic tribes known as the Cimbri and the Teutones had stormed into Roman Gaul and defeated two consular-led armies in humiliating battles. With the interior of Italy itself threatened, the People's Assembly unanimously (and illegally) elected Marius, their hero, consul for the second time in three years, and twice again in succeeding years, out of fear of the Cimbri.
Newly returned from Africa, the mighty general assumed control of the Cimbrian war almost immediately after his triumph. He raised an army of some 30,000 men, levied, again, from among Rome's poor, and began in earnest the reforms which would be his lasting legacy. Instead of levied armies, Rome would have standing legions organized into cohorts raised from among the city's poor, who would serve for a minimum of fifteen years. The livelihoods of these poor would depend entirely on if their general was able to convince the Senate to pay them properly and grant them land for their families in the provinces. Thus, the love of the army would rest not on the Senate, but on their general, who fed them, clothed them, and armed them.
In 102, what the Romans had so feared came to pass: the barbarian hordes of the Teutones, the Cimbri, and the Ambrones invaded Italy, dividing their forces into two and attacking both sides of Italy, threatening Rome herself. In the first display of his new Marian legions at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae, Marius destroyed the first of these divisions, utterly annihilating the armies of the Ambrones and the Teutones, a force some 200,000 strong, with six legions roughly 40,000 strong. Marius' co-consul could not overcome the forces of the Cimbri and was forced to fall back. On the heels of his defeat and Marius' victory, Marius was elected to a fifth consulship in 101 BC to deal with the Gallic threat once and for all.
Marius marched quickly north to face the Cimbri. It is said they sent a messenger who taunted him by telling him that even as they spoke, the Teutones and the Ambrones fell upon Rome -- to which Marius supposedly replied: "The Teutones are no more." What followed was the Battle of Vercellae, the most resounding Roman victory of the century. Eight legions under the command of Marius and his cavalry officer Sulla stood against a force well over 200,000 strong, and emerged triumphant. The Cimbri were decimated, with casualties in the hundreds of thousands, and the survivors were chained and brought back to Rome as slaves. The surviving Gauls fled back into Gaul, never again to bear arms against Rome.
Marius marched his defeated enemies through the streets of Rome in his second triumph, and amidst all the pomp and splendor of his victory, was elected as consul a sixth time. Hailed as the savior of the Republic and unquestionably the first man in Rome, none lived who could challenge Marius at his height.
None, save Sulla.
The optimates had grown to fear Marius -- a new man and a populare, he was everything they feared, and more. Beloved by the masses, untouchable on the battlefield and in the political field, he was the dictator they had so long feared, the Gracchi in new flesh. If they would elect him consul six times, then might they make him king in Rome? To dispel these ideas, Marius had Lucius Saturninus, a radical populare who advocated many policies Marius himself supported, lynched by mob in the streets of Rome -- to no avail. Marius was the arch-radical, and any action on his part could not dispel the fear the Senate had of this man who was a king in all but name.
When Saturninus' supporters across Italy exploded with rage and declared rebellion against Rome, beginning the Social War, Marius no doubt expected a seventh consulship and command of the war against the Socii. However, the Senate granted the command to another man, one who had once served under Marius and now served above him: Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. Sulla and his optimate allies burned a path of destruction through Italy, defeating the Samnites and the Socii and winning glory that Marius saw as rightfully his.
In the blink of an eye, Marius' star had began to fade and Sulla's was ascendant. When the Pontic King Mithridates rose up in the east, Sulla, again, was appointed the command. And now, Marius thought, he would go east, best the deadliest foe Rome had seen since Jugurtha, and cement himself as Marius' superior, his better, his successor?
No.
Marius' allies, at his behest, called an impromptu popular Assembly which unanimously selected Marius, a man holding no position in the state, as the general who would go to Pontus and beat Mithridates. Upon receiving this news, Sulla rallied his armies and did something even Marius could not have foreseen: he marched on Rome. Marius desperately rallied a force of slaves and ex-Marian legionnaires to try and hold him back, but Sulla's legions smashed them aside. Marius and his allies were proscribed and exiled, their lands and holdings stripped, their names struck from all records. Marius could walk in no Roman lands under pain of death.
That, Sulla must have believed, was the end of his old enemy. And for a time, it seems, Marius must have believed it too. It is said he fled to the ruins of Carthage, and there sat broken and despondent, a wreck of a man amidst the wreck of a city. But fate works in strange ways.
The ambitious Marian consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna, elected consul at Sulla's behest to make peace with the Marian faction, had come into conflict with Gnaeus Octavius, his co-consul. Forced to flee the city after Octavius' thugs threatened his life, he rallied ten legions from among the cities of Italy. Seeing his chance, Marius returned quickly to Italy with an army he had raised in Africa and joined Cinna. Seeing this overwhelming force, the Senate surrendered on Cinna's promise not to kill any Romans.
Marius had promised nothing.
At the head of an army of exiles and slaves, he ran rampant through Rome, slaughtering his old enemies and their supporters, a purge that was stopped only when the Marian general Sertorius threatened to turn his legions on Marius' if the slaughter did not cease. As the streets ran red with blood, he seized the Senate house and forced an immediate re-election of the consulate, with two candidates: Marius and Cinna. Democracy died to thunderous applause as Marius fulfilled the destiny he had waited a lifetime for, and was elected consul for the seventh time.
Now, as the game begins, he is the unquestioned master of Rome, and side-by side with Cinna, Sertorius, and the Marian faction, seek the final defeat of his once-protege Sulla. But age weighs even on the greatest of men, and Marius has been the titan of Rome for over half a century. Can the will and ambition that have carried him to the heights of Rome triumph against death itself? Can the old lion beat the rising star of Sulla?
This is the world into which a young Quintus Cingulatus Atellus emerges, a Rome bathed in blood and ruled by an old man and his sychophants, a man revered as a god, and little more besides...Marius. He is the sun of his age and the greatest man of his time, and while he lives, all Rome is in his shadow.
Without a doubt, the greatest enemy of the ascendant Roman Republic in the time of our game is Mithridates (meaning 'Gift of Mithra', Mithra being a Persian god of war) the Sixth of Pontus (135-63 BC), called by his people Megas (the Great) and Eupator (of great father). Ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus in the Black Sea, he is the last and greatest of the Kings of antiquity, descended from noble blood and lord of a Kingdom that straddles both east and west. Powerful, intelligent, and crafty beyond measure, he is hailed by his people as Alexander come again, the hero of the Greeks who will throw the Roman tide back into Italy and free Asia and Greece from the Italic scourge.
To understand Mithridates, one must understand his legend. His ancestors were Zoroastrian satraps in ancient Persia, descended from the line of Cyrus the Great, the King of Kings of Persia and Lord of the Four Corners of the World. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, they swore loyalty to him, and after his death, successfully resisted being ruled by his successors, the warlords known as the Diadochi. Instead, they fled to the shores of the Black Sea, where the first Mithridates was hailed as King of Pontus by the greek-speaking peoples who lived there. They defended their nascent kingdom against the mighty powers of Selecus and Ptolemy, the famed heirs of Alexander and mighty generals in their own right -- and their legend grew.
As the Mithridatids expanded their small Kingdom, their dynasty grew to include even nobler lineages. As the power of Rome grew and the time of the Macedonian kingdoms waned, the Mithridatids expanded from their Persian roots, intermingling with the Greek dynasties that surrounded them, taking on the appearance and manners of their ancient foes while retaining their Persian pride. This culminated with the marriage of Mithridates V to a princess of Seleucid Persia, once sworn enemies of the Pontic Kings. This made their son Mithridates, upon his birth, descended in the male line from the mightiest Kings of the Persians, and in the female from the mightiest kings of the Greeks -- the Diadochi Antigonus and Seleucus, who once ruled half the known world.
The young prince may have had great lineage, but his life began to a troubled start. His father was poisoned by his enemies, and his mother immediately seized control and began a Greek regency of Pontus that would last most of his childhood. His mother favored his brother over him, and it was widely held that she would have the elder Mithridates slain when he came of manhood. To avoid this fate, he escaped the Pontic court with the aid of his father's allies and went into hiding. When he returned to Pontus, he was a man of great intelligence and strength, charismatic, bold, and skilled at war. He could speak both Persian and Greek, the twin tongues of his land, and with his magnetic personality, he rallied the kingdom to him and was hailed as Basileus -- King, to the Greeks.
He claimed both sides of his heritage, acting as the heir of Alexander to the Greeks and the heir of Cyrus to the Persians. In the East he was a conquering satrap, and in the West a mighty Greek conqueror in the mold of the Diadochi, whom they called the new Dionysius. His effective and two-faced propaganda meant that he had overwhelming support from all sides, and could call on the legends of both Cyrus and Alexander to bolster his own.
The new king overthrew his traitorous mother and brother, both of whom later died in prison. His power-base secure, he began to expand, conquering the Colchian people to his east and extending offers of vassalage to the Greek-speaking peoples who lived around the Black Sea in exchange for protection from the nomadic Scythians. The most powerful of these was the Bosporan Kingdom, a mighty Greek state that had existed since the days of Alexander and controlled much of the Crimea. With the Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea under his power, the ambitious king warred against the fierce Scythian tribes to his north. By the year 100, the Scythians lay in disarray and defeat, and the nomads bent the knee to the King of Pontus, acclaiming him as lord of the steppe and master of the Black Sea.
In just 13 years of rule, Mithridates had more than doubled the size of his kingdom -- and he was by no means done. In Asia, his ally, the Bithniyan King Nicomedes, had come to fear Mithridates' ambition, and sought aid from the rising power of Rome. The Romans answered in kind, turning Bithniya into a client kingdom and leaving Mithridates with little choice. If he wanted to rule in Asia, as his ancestors had, he would have to make war on Rome.
But he would not do it alone.
In the early 80's BC, when Rome was embroiled in the Social War, Mithridates saw his chance, and struck. With only two legions in Roman Asia, the power of Bithniya was weaker than ever before. He shattered two Roman legions and the army of Nicomedes in a resounding victory that won him acclaim across the Greek world. For the first time in lifetimes, a Greek king had bested a Roman army on the field. Rome was not invincible. She was not unstoppable. The heirs of Alexander had ruled all of earth once, and might do so again. The name of Mithridates rippled across the Greek cities like wildfire, tales of his strength and heroism, his mighty heritage and his skill at war. All it needed was a push.
Mithridates pushed.
Scarcely a year after his victory over the Romans, in the Asiatic Vespers of 88 BC, the Greeks rose up as one. Romans in cities across Asia were butchered, put to the sword, and slaughtered. Men, women, children -- it mattered not. Tens of thousands of Roman settlers, merchants, and travelers were massacred across the breadth and width of the Greek world, and the gates of the cities of Asia were thrown open for the armies of Mithridates. In one violent breath of war, Mithridates had driven Rome from the east and struck a horrific blow against his new enemy.
Hearing of this mighty upturn, the ancient cities of Greece, so long in chains to Rome, rose up as well. Mighty Athens, fair Sparta, and ancient Thebes of the Seven Gates -- these too fell under the power of the Pontic King, with Mithridates installing loyal dictators in each of the cities. The power of Pontus now stretched across all of Asia and Hellas proper, the lands of antiquity and titanomachia, the birthplace of the Greeks and the cradle of western civilization. The Greeks hailed Mithridates as 'ho Megas', the greatest since Alexander, the hero of the Hellenes and the conqueror-king who would restore the Hellenic age that had died with Alexander -- and so he would have them believe, for his armies spread this message far and wide across his lands.
To his east, seeing a power which might challenge the terrifying might of Rome, the powerful Armenian King Tigranes the Great sought alliance with Mithridates. Armenia was the strongest state to the east of Rome, and sought a powerful ally to help it expand from under the growing shadow of the Republic. Mithridates, descended from the Zoroastrian emperors of yore, before whom all the East had once bowed, seemed the perfect candidate. With the union of Armenia and Pontus, all the near East was unified against Rome and her power. Like the Italic Confederation and Hannibal and Jugurtha in Africa before them, the mighty Greco-Persian realm Mithridates had established was to be the last and best chance at freedom from the Roman hegemony.
As the game begins, armies under the command of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the most skilled and bloodthirsty of Rome's generals, have landed in Greece, sacking many cities and laying waste to the famed Acropolis of Athens. Mithridates manuvers to throw him back into the sea, keeping a wary eye on the city of Rome, still embroiled in a bitter civil war. If Rome unites, Mithridates cannot stand. But if the Romans remain divided? If the Republic tears at itself out of ambition and arrogance?
Then there may be a King over Greece once more.
*Asia here refers to the region known as Byzantine Anatolia, or modern-day Turkey.
