Vissarionas has been waiting impatiently for someone more senior to make what he feels is an important point, and his jitters finally overcome his restraint, so he rises to speak.
If the plan to reclaim old territories is put forward under the idea that it is more practical than capturing Antioch or Adana, I have to say I find the idea quite suspect. Antioch is a city rich in trade and unheld by any organized nation. The rebels in power there are quite weak, and our ships and troops already present in the region would be years travelling to the provinces listed in the Edict when a journey of mere months would take them to Antioch.
Every man here wishes to see the Empire rebuilt to it's place of glory, but a constraint on our conquests will, on purely practical grounds, hinder that effort more than help. I can only presume that many of the settlements on this list were, forgive me for stating the obvious, lost with light defense precisely because a stronger defense was unjustified by their relative worth. If we pour forth our armies taking back lands that were lost because they had little to offer the Empire in the first place then what purpose will all our blood and effort have served but to invite those lands to be lost again?
I am a new man here, and very junior I know, but let us have some common sense in our proposals of law. Aid the commanders in the field, rather than constrain them, and these good men will bring glory to the Basileus and the Empire!
So saying Vissarionas colors faintly and returns to his seat without looking about to see how his speech was received.
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