Res Publica: A Quest of Ancient Rome
- Thread starter Telamon
- Start date
- Original Historic
By about a year.
Interestingly, his OTL death came about because the Marians/Carboans were losing the civil war at that point, and so Young Marius ordered Rome purged of suspected Sullans.
- Location
- Classified
I thought Telamon was telling us something, but you're right. OTL Scaevola died in 82 BC.
Fun fact: When Scaevola was consul, he passed a law, the Lex Licinia Mucia, that denied Roman citizenship to Rome's Italian allies, which was one of the major causes of the Social War.
- Location
- France
Sound like Marius didn't roll very well on his life rolls, we might have quite a bit of work to do back in Rome.
I hope he didn't waste perfectly good Legions on his Madness...
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- Location
- Europe
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- Location
- Texas
And this would be next?
Possibly, if you play your cards right. Or wrong, as the case may be.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
So much would depend on HOW the heck we did that, that we really, really couldn't predict the outcome.
Well yeah, presumably whatever forces would cause Scaevola to be assassinated will still happen if we don't do anything to prevent it. I mean, we shouldn't assume Scaevola is 'fated' to die, because that's almost certainly going to depend on circumstance, among other things because historically he was assassinated in the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. And we handpicked and trained the guard force for that place.
But in order to write the history, @Telamon has to make SOME assumptions about how things are later going to play out. E.g. Cicero becoming famous, which purely theoretically might not happen, because he might slip and fall and break his neck on a flight of stairs or something.
- Location
- Europe
Didn't you answer your own question? Probably something about how he was the best? About whatever campaigns Atellus led, reforms he instituted, who his great rivals were (*cough*Pompey*cough*) and probably some contrarian take about how Atellus was a "ruthless monster" and how he killed "democracy" and how Pax Romana was "overrated".
- Location
- Texas
Yeah, these histories, if I continue doing them (which I likely will) are written from the point of view that after the end of the last turn, history continued on as close to OTL as possible, with Atellus vanishing from history after the end of the turn.
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
I'm just imagining us becoming an Emperor or something, and then randomly vanishing from history. So many conspiracy theories.
- Location
- France
Vanishing at the end is going to get weird as we get more Important.
« And then, the Imperator of Rome, Atellus, disappeared from History as he was going to the toilets »
But honestly this is a really Interesting thing to do, so Thanks Telamon
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well, by that point Atellus is going to be an old man (barring some truly remarkable good fortune and crit rolls), so the most probable explanation is just something like "randomly dropped dead of a heart attack." Right now the most probable explanation is "got killed in a skirmish by some Samnite." And so on.
- Location
- USA
That sounds like some of the Choice of Games stories I've seen.
Tin Star had a history timeline you could check in on every chapter to see how history would remember you, especially depending on notoriety vs obscurity score. One chapter has you defending a carriage convoy from bandits. Depending on how obscure your character keeps themselves and how successful you were, the story can eventually morph into a legend later adapted to a heavy metal song.
- Location
- Texas
Yeah, it was Tin Star I was talking about. That game is a favorite of mine.
- Location
- France
Damn, Clodius sounds like a piece of work....
- Location
- NY
[X] Plan Roman Duty
xa na xa
A.E.I.O.U. - Antarticae est imperare orbi universo
- Location
- σ Octantis
I find the lack of discussion about her a bit dismaying and disconcerting.
If going to Abellinum is not the best option, it should beat least argued as to why and why other options are superior.
Abellinum is a microcosm of the war.
If we can bring Samnites and Romans together there, we can do it for the whole campaign.
3 out of the 4 options are about complex negotiations, and the fourth is to be relegated to be the muscle of whackamoling second rate rebels in the second rate northern sector of the theatre.
So it isn't the question of what (a delicate balance of war and peacemaking) we are going to do, as much as where.
But that question of where is a question of whom and for whom too.
We can do this as the instrument of someone else, as the Hand of Sertorius for instance, or let our own Hand write History.
It's clear as the Diamonds of Ampscantus we didn't take as booty that Visellia Mertia is our nemesis.
If as our nemesis she is the personification of the Samnite warrior spirit, that makes us the personification of Rome's warrior spirit.
I sense a reluctance among many questers to confront Visellia, because they're unsure how to handle her. "She's spooky, let us play general and move troops around and speechify, stuff we're good at, and let's pretend she doesn't exist."
But if are going to win the war, especially win the war in way that let us leave our personal mark on it, we have to have confidence in more than ourselves. More than our personal traits and qualities. More than our skills and wits. More than our ability to wield a sword and a command staff.
We have to have faith in Rome. Our ancestors. Our Gods.
Article: [] Blessed By Mars: Sertorius has made clear his intentions to honor Mars as the patron of the Sixth Legion, and the nickname given to the legion, the Blessed-By-Mars, has already filled the men with a sense of pride and driven up Mars worship in the legion. You begin to enforce and codify this practice, trying to encourage commonplace worship of Mars (in his aspect as Gradivus the Soldier-God).
And in particular Mars Gradivus.
By what means are we to take on her? Convince her or force her? Seduce her or threaten her? Woo her or beat her?
Again let us go beyond the limitations of our own mind. It's not our ability to train legionnaires or increase the efficiency of foraging that will impress Visellia Tertia.
Article: [] Portents and Signs: You contact the Camp Augur and hold a public augury. Auguries are necessary to determine the fate of any military venture, as men are often nervous marching into battle without a sign from the gods, but if the augury is unfavorable to the campaign, the morale of the legion will be lowered.
Rufus' puzzle works as well for all Samnites, be they lowly humans or gods.
Let Mars play the ruffian with the dagger, and Minerva the wise bodyguard offering protection, and Mephitis can choose for herself to whom she'd paid money.
We will follow whatever signs the augurs show us in dealing with the priestess of Mephitis.
Article: [] Write Home: You took the opportunity of remaining on the Italian Peninsula to write back home to your friends and allies in the city. You wrote to...
--[] Scaevola
--[] Cicero
Scaevola as pontifex maximus and our patron is exactly the kind of help we'd need in a religious situation like this.
We should ask Cicero for advice, giving the Tablet of Ascargantus as an example of culture that could bind Romans and Samnites together, and how we could use it for best rhetoric effect for this purpose.
Plan Ten Denarii For The Gods
[X] Abellinum
-[X] Blessed By Mars
-[X] Portents and Signs
-[X]Write Home
--[X] Scaevola
--[X] Cicero
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- Location
- USA
There was a lot of nice attention to the small details depending on your choices too.
Lords of Aswick was another one with a semi-historical timeline view on your character's story, but that was done at the end of the game, and it's a bit too linear.
Very much someone who made the situation around him worse for everyone involved. He also turned out to be a massive troll against people who he clashed with, particularly Cicero. (Like demolishing Cicero's house and building a public temple on top of it)
So I see a cool looking advert when I visit the site, decide to take a break from disusing American politics and come here. And I spent most of my day reading through every single page. I must say I am very much enjoying what you've done here @Telamon. I'm an fan of Roman history, so seeing a quest with this level of detail is quite a treat. While I was too late for some of the previous decisions (why oh why didn't they just burn the pagan temple to the ground, and crucify the priestess so she died watching her life burn before her eyes. Like real Romans), I look forward to seeing where this goes next.
[X] Plan Roman Duty
I guess I should do something other than compliment. Voting is the privilege of every Roman citizen.
But man... I'd really like to go and deal with that witch...
[X] Plan Roman Duty
I guess I should do something other than compliment. Voting is the privilege of every Roman citizen.
But man... I'd really like to go and deal with that witch...
- Location
- France
In our defense, I'd say we did a good job with the city after that
- Location
- NY
I think the prevailing mood is more that there's no sense throwing good rounds after bad. Could that have gone better for us? Yes, but that's the point of this being a quest. We screwed up by letting one priestess live, fine. More importantly, Bovianum is a centre of Samnite culture and history that chose to bend the knee to Rome unconditionally instead of rising up, and is now paying the price for it. While letting some priestess live may be a stain upon our personal honor, we do not have the luxury of acting purely in our own interests. We are a Tribune, and regardless of what the other layabout Tribunes may believe, that title means we serve Rome above all else. Our own mistake and our own ego is not even close to a justification for letting such a major city go to the enemy without a fight.