The Senate Building, Rome. 245 AUC.
Lucius Cornelius Scipio arrives to address the Senate.
Friends, it seems our enforced exile from world affairs is ready to end. The Legions are once again confident enough to take on the world, the Gallic Disaster will go down as a blip in Rome's inexorable rise to world domination. In the three years since the loss of our Legions you men here have shown wisdom and leadership, choosing the Scipione style of Legion and choosing to increase our forces will no doubt be viewed by history as a wise choice.
Legio I is currently stationed in Sicily, it will continue peacekeeping operations and ensure the grain is despatched safely. Legio II is in northern Italia. The Gallic horde who slaughtered our Ligurian watchmen and dared to seige the city of Mediolanium fled without a fight when Cotta arrived. If I may add, in a moment of fatherly pride, my son, Numerius, is acting as legate to Cotta. Learning from the best, I have no doubt he will be leading Romes Legion's himself someday. Legio III and IV are awaiting orders. The consensus seems to be Spain, and sending two Legions there. I would like to take this moment to second Senator Arnza's proposal we take the Dalmation coast. I have changed my mind that Hispania is the superior point to send our Legions. The reason? Simple, I believe we need two Legions in northern Italia. I am told the Gauls are getting restless and my sources suggest Germanic tribes are moving south. That would only leave one Legion, not enough for an expedition to Hispania but surely enough to pacify some pirates. As always the choice is yours my friends, it seems you all wish to find the truth in the rumours of gold in the west, my role is to advise and inform not to decide.
One more thing I would like your input on is the allies we should bring with our Legions. You are all experienced men, who have you fought with that impressed you? Who didn't impress you? Are there any weaknesses in our forces certain allies can cover for? Legio II has a medium sized allied contingent:
some gallic slingers, some greek skirmisher, a number of hoplites from Massalia, gallic spearmen, Illyrian scum and Campanian cavalry. Our other allies need to be determined.
Some of you have asked about our political and financial status. We are allied with the Lusotannan tribe in Hispania, that alliance must be considered in any attempt to move into that region. Also the Arverni Gallic tribe, they are in a civil war with the Aedui, who we believe perpetrated the Gallic disaster. Perhaps funding these men would leave us free to concentrate on other spheres, let the barabarians fight each other. Finally we are also allied with a confederation of Germanic tribes, we hope this is of help with the tribes moving south but it may not be enough to hold them over the mountains. I believe I forgot to answer a question on our status with Carthage, we do indeed have trade rights with them, this was part of the terms of their surrender. We should also consider this when we contemplate future actions, the main reason for our financial situation is the generous trading terms we negotiated with them. The Punic conflict was started over an insult to Rome's honour, unless they threaten us in some way in the future I see no reason to seek conflict again. We also have trading agreements with all the major nations.
Our financial position is very healthy, even the fortune we spent rebuilding and re-equipping our army has had little effect on the states income. We will easily be able to afford a four Legion army, and our navy of two Trireme fleets and one Quadrime fleet can also be afforded. In fact we may look to upgrade our Triremes to Quadririmes, the difference we saw in the Punic conflict was immense.
Thank you for your time gentlemen, I leave you to your deliberations.
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