[Multi-AAR] - History of men - EB part

[vartan]

Is it just me or is the new forum template killing the screenshots?

This is true. Good choice of quote by Ike. Hope people can see past war and break down what has essentially become a normal, everyday, accepted institution in our lives.

[Fixiwee]

This is true. Good choice of quote by Ike. Hope people can see past war and break down what has essentially become a normal, everyday, accepted institution in our lives.

Indeed. The quote is the contrast to the brutal war that is going on in the text. After all this first campaign already cost over 10.000 fictional men their lives.

[Fixiwee]

How Lucius Marcundus accidentally brought down the Roman Republic

By Eric Damon

(part IV)

When Lucius woke early that morning he saw the naked breasts of his wife Tullia. She lay next to him and the blanket only covered little of her body. “What a beautiful thing she is” Lucius thought.
When he returned back to Rome from Athens some years ago his father Manius Marcundus had organised the marriage with Tullia. She was a tall woman with brown hair and a friendly face. She came from a rich family in the order of the knights with some relatives being even being senators; she was also unusually well educated and stunningly good with numbers (which was an immense help to the Marcundus family business). The whole marriage was a gain of prestige to the family and a sign of their growing wealth. They came along well, both enjoyed their lives and often both made fun about each others in quite the absurd way. Their crowning achievement so far was Servillia, their two year old daughter.
Feeling thirsty Lucius stood up fetching a mug of water. While pouring the drink into a cup he noticed that a necklace on his bed table. The centre piece was made out of stone and had the profile of a young woman on it. He knew all to well who she was for he had actually carved the face into stone. Lucius silently took the necklace and went out to the garden where he could feel the sun rise onto this young day. Standing in the fresh spring grass he mumbled “Vibia”.
He and Vibia met at a party in Athens some ten years ago. It was the same place where he first met Caesar. After that fateful night he started having a sexual affair with Vibia which went on for a few months. Those were the most passionate nights with a woman he had ever had. She had a unique look with black long hair and he used to say that making love to her was like dancing naked with a goddess. Looking at her face carved in stone Lucius memory brought back her wonderful smell, something he recalled being between dark grapes and resins dripped in honey.

He sighted.

Lucius realised that he loved both women in his life, his wife Tullia and his long gone affair Vibia. But the latter he loved with a passion that he could not describe, nor could he tell anyone, except for his old childhood friend Tiberius who was far too pragmatic to really understand his feelings.

Lucius was 22 when he last saw her. Next week he would turn 30. And even after all this years he could not get her out of his head. How was she doing? Was she married? Did she have children? Was she still alive?
He could hear Tiberius speaking in his head: ‘Better get her out of your mind. You have everything you want: A lovely smart wife, a healthy child and a business that earns you a lot of money’.
But Lucius heart was filled with agony. He wanted something else. It was the call of the wild, the lust for adventure. To leave everything behind, he thought, maybe only for a year or two. Feel freedom for a while - Maybe in Northern Gaul for example. Seeing the large dangerous woods and the wild animals he heard so much lately with Claudius Nero fighting Gallic tribes there.

“Maybe Tiberius is right” he thought, “I’m better of this way.”
Lucius went back to bed and kissed his wife on the neck, trying his luck for some pleasant good morning sex.

[Fixiwee]

Galia est pacata

War in Southern Gaul
(67 BC - 63 BC)

The Roman Empire, by Wolfgang Schreier, Bonn 2003

The decisive victory over the Arverni king changed the political situations among the Gallic tribes. In 66 BC Nero was visited by Aedui [Haedui] emissaries who wanted to discuss an alliance between Rome and their tribes. Being ignorant about the political stability of Gaul Nero sent them away. The reason of the Aedui push for external security was another Gallic tribe that threatened to attack them: the warlike Allobroges. The Aedui emissaries travelled to Rome asking the Senate for help. The Roman consul Dollabella saw his opportunity to limit Nero’s ever rising prestige. He brought the Senate to agree to an alliance with the Aedui despite Nero’s special task authority in Gaul. The young general could do nothing but to accept the meddling of the Senate in his affairs.



The Roman Republic are in red, the Allobroges in green, the Aedui in dark green and the Bituriges in yellow.


The Allobroges actually saw the alliance as a threat to their security and being a warlike tribe they attacked the Aedui in the winter of 65 BC. Now Nero saw his opportunity to go to war again, so he was lucky that the Senate dragged his legions to a legal position for war and in early spring he marched against his new foe. The Allobroges didn’t prove a match for the experienced Roman troops. Their king, Maglocunos Moc Casticos soon saw him self besieged in his town Viennos. Nevertheless he received back up from another Roman enemy, the Bituriges who already fought with the Arverni against Nero only a few years ago.


The town Viennos


Roman soldiers storming the wall. Viennos put up less resistance then the camaign against the Arverni.


Viennos put up less resistance then the camaign against the Arverni.


After only three weeks the walls were broken and storming the city only took one day.


King Casticos soon saw himself overwhelmed by Roman forces.

Nero defeated the Allobroges in the battle of Viennos in the summer of 64 BC adding the conquered area to the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The following year he turned against the Bituriges and faced them in the battle of Cenocorii.


In the battle of Cenocorii the Romans adapted wood fighting against the Gauls.


That way Nero was able to hide his vast number of troops and lure the Bituriges into a trap.


Roman troops marching to battle once again. The many victories of Nero made him popular with soldiers and moral was very high. (Fighting against Gauls was still something the Romans had mixed feelings about. The history of Brenus sacking Rome was still popular.)


The Romans also relied on Gallic cavalry, since they had none of their own.


Gallic slingers fleeing from Roman auxillian cavallry.


The Bituriges were not in a proper formation to fight the large Roman army. Despite this, they were even more flexible and mobile then the Roman troops so they started to retreat and regroup to the woods.




Neros legions were rolling over the enemy.


Due to their mobility the Celts regrouped near the woods. But the manouver costed time and men and eventually the Romans surrounded the Bituriges and eventually destroyed them.

After their loss the southern Bituriges tribe surrendered to Nero. He installed a new province called Aquitania and for now Roman rule was stable in southern Gallia. Nero did not rush back to Rome; instead he secured the new provinces and stayed a few more months in Massallia. In 62 BC he returned to Rome, disbanded his troops like was expected from him. Nero was rewarded with a triumph that he celebrated in winter 62 BC. All seemed to be going well for the Optimates in Rome, until the moment Nero started to press for a new land-law that would supply his veterans in early 61 BC […]

[Fixiwee]

Before beginning, plan carefully.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero

The first triumvirate

A history of Rome, by Prof Alfred Kennard, 2002 New York

In 61 BC Nero presented his law regarding his veterans before the Senate. He didn’t expect any troubles considering the rather modest version of the law. But Nero was looked with scepticism from his own people – the Optimates. And now the disintegration process of the Roman Republic started in full effect. The most prominent members of the Senate, Iunius Brutus and Sergius Orata, blocked the law. Ancient historians already wondered why the elder Iunius Brutus acted totally irreproducible in handling Nero. The successful general then tried to push his law through the people’s assembly but fights on the Forum prevented the any further actions. Nero realised that he was rejected by his own people. Frustrated he had to look for new allies. In that sense the Optimates played Nero right into the hands of Marcus Julius Caesar.


The elderly Brutus. His irresponsible actions played Nero into the arms of Caesar.

Caesar had served as Propraetor in Illyria from 65 to 63 BC. In those years he campaigned against Illyrians and Pannonians in modern-day Slovenia. According to Helenos biography of Caesar he defeated armies over 15.000 men in both battles.



When he returned to Rome in 62 BC the Senate refused to award the leader of the Populares a Triumph. Angered by the Senates decision he set for a more aggressive rhetoric against the Optimates. In 61 BC he staged a spectacle to the surprise of both the Roman people and the senate. Caesar brought the exiled son of Aulus Atilius Calatinus – Servius Atilius Calatinus (or Calatinus the younger) to Rome. While Servius Calatinus did not have any political significance at the time being, this action was seen as a provocation against the Senate.


Calatinus the younger.

While Nero had been a supporter of Silanus back in the day he recognised Caesars daring move against the Senate and that was exactly what he was looking for. The following details and the exact timeline are unclear but eventually (probably in the winter of 61 BC) Caesar and Nero started a political alliance to support each other in the Senate. A third man soon joined the Alliance: the wealthy Lucius Papirius Crassus, a ruthless politician who failed becoming Consul over the past years. It was already rumoured back then that Crassus had connections with criminal groups in Rome (which will turn out to be significant later). Finally the triumvirate was born, not more then a private agreement, though it was kept secret from the Senate for the time being.


A young Nero. At the time of the triumvirate he was already 41.


A young Caesar. He was 39 at the beginning of the triumvirate.



In 60 BC it was agreed that Nero and Crassus would run for the consulship in 59 BC so that Nero could finally pass his veteran law. Caesar would run for consul the following year to protect Neros the laws. In return Nero would support Caesar to become Proconsul in one of the rich eastern provinces.
The Roman elections in spring 60 BC were accompanied with new turmoil and violence in the Senate and on the Forum but at last the motives became of the triumvirate became clear. Inius Brutus and Sergius Orata faced a new danger, yet they were ultimately helpless and could do nothing but watch Nero and Crassus become elected for consul.

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

You should change Clavdivs's name to Pompeivs....

[Fixiwee]

You should change Clavdivs's name to Pompeivs....

Thank you for your comment.
If you mean that you Nero is heavily inspired by Pomeius you are right.
But the fact that I am playing a alternative history means that Nero is Nero in this story. He comes from one of the most presitgious and ancient families from Rome and early fame hindered his career more then helping him. I really want to stress out that there are some huge differences between my fictious Nero and the historic Pompeius. Maybe it will become more apperent when the Republic will come down. In the TWC forum someone sumed up really good what this AAR (especially the Roman civil war) is about:

Then it would be Marius instead of Calatinus, Sulla instead of Silanus, Cato instead of Metellus and so on and so forth. It's a partial reenactment of history with slight differences. I tend to see it as what would happen if a butterfly flew a bit differently... it would probably alter the actors of the great drama that is history but maybe not the events or at least the pattern of events that much.

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

I know, just the fact that Caesar and (a realistically useless!) Crassus were there got me thinking "Arrgh, he was so close!"