The Will of the Senate - Senate Deliberations

[shifty157]

The ambitious plans of Publius Laevinius will break our fragile economy. The conquest of Carthage will be expensive, and if we are victorious, the rebellious cities we will have conquered will offer but little revenue due to the high unrest which will plague them. At the same time undertaking the conquest of Gaul borders on lunacy. Our armies will spread, weaken and die in the vastness of the Gaul forests or across the sea in Afrika. We will be unable to supply them decently and will run risks of rebellion in the provinces left undefended. After five years, our econmy will be in shambles and our armies weakened even if we succeed in all these conquests.

I dont believe so.

I believe senator that your strategy for expansion was rather cautious. You expanded only when knowing full well that victory was guaranteed. While this is a commendable strategy it is by no means necessary. We have all seen and heard of what our armies and generals can accomplish and I see no reason for this trend to suddenly stop. Our current standing armies are more than capable of defeating the standing armies of both Gaul and Carthage at the same time.

I also realize that despite your optimism the gauls and the carthaginians will continue to attack our lands on a regular basis. You back a candidate who proposes raiding into Gaulish territory but tell me how much gold do you really believe this will bring to our treasury? The Gauls control only six more cities worth conquering. Of these only three of them are within reach to raid and then return to the safety of the Alps in a reasonable amount of time. Granted the first time you raid these cities you may carry away thousands of denarii in gold but what after that? Will you continue to raid the same cities over and over and every time after bringing home only a few coins? The Gauls will not stand idly by. They will fight our armies and ambush them and wittle them down every time. And for what? To give the treasury a single quick golden high that disappears thereafter? The gauls cannot rebuild their cities overnight. Indeed they probably will not be able to rebuild them to their current level until well after this coming five year term.

So you raid the cities once and you get your gold. The Roman casualties are justifiable. Then what? Raid the burnt out ruins again taking more casualties every time? Will you bring the ashes back to Rome and fill the treasury with them?

The Gauls will not submit to becoming a protectorate just as we would never subject ourselves to such humiliation. The only way to eliminate the Gaul threat permanently is to crush it and take its land. Or would you prefer every Consul to defend the Alps against the constant Gaul attacks to the end of time? I dont know about the other senators but I would quickly grow weary of such constant attacks and casualties without any effort to alleviate the situation.

In short this strategy of raiding the Gaulish towns would work well for perhaps a year at which point it would fail miserably because there would be no more towns left worth raiding. It is the same with farmers. If they planted too many crops on their land they may reap the rewards of an exceptionally bountiful harvest the first year but for the next several years the land will be wasted and the farmer will be unable to harvest any more crops from it. So while the farmer enjoys the plenty the first season, he suffers for years afterward while his neighbor who takes care to regulate his planting, though he does not reap such large rewards immediatly, finds that a normal harvest every year is much more desirable and much more lucrative.