The Will of the Senate - Senate Deliberations

[shifty157]

I would just like to make a small, but crucial point which might be taken up in your considerations. Construction of auxilia is immensively expensive and timeconsuming. I urge you to vote to build traders and markets first, because they take a short time to build and are less expensive. They provide a deperately needed cash boost which we will need to build the auxilia buildings themselves while paying our troops. Also, the barbarian towns to our north are hardly profitable. The money we will need to spend to conquer, guard and develop them will constitute a cash-drain on our economy. The roads are vital military and also profitable. That said, the very next priority should be auxilia buildings.

But do you realize that since they are so timeconsuming, if we do not begin building them now then they will be completed much too late to be of any use against Gaul or Carthage. Our economy is sufficiently stable to support such expenditures at the present. Our army however may not be sufficiently stable enough to function without them in the coming years. You senators talk about how powerful Carthage is and difficult the war will be but you take no action to support and strewngthen our military for the long term. Every turn that we delay in beignning the process of auxilia assimilation is at least one turn in the future that we will stunt our own growth and expansion.

Senators let me also bring another point to your attention. There have been rumors from the north. From Aretium and Arminium. The rumors speak of Gaulish spies in our towns and villages making inquiries as to our militaries and garrisons and the locations of our major cities. I have given these rumors little credit until recently when i recieved word from our governor in Aretium that a Gaulish spy has been identified within the city. The spy unfortunatly escaped the garrison forces as is currently wandering within our own borders. The presence of this spy is a great disturbance to me. I believe it clearly displays the intentions of the Gauls. At this point, the question is not IF the Gauls will attack our land but merely WHEN they will be ready to. Currently we know nothing of what lies beyond the Gaulish border and I fear we may be shocked and horrified when we find out.

Indeed, war with Gaul is coming regardless of if we are prepared for it or when we would like it to happen. We already know that war with Carthage is also on the horizon. Could we support both fronts with three units per turn? Could we support two wars against two of the largest most powerful factions in the known world on three units per turn?

The barbarian war machine is already moving in our direction and it sits only a very short distance from our city of Rome. We must be ready.