The Will of the Senate - First Consul reports

[Lucjan]

In light of recent circumstances I feel it is necessary to release another consular report a bit early for the senate's review. It has been a long time since I've been able to write from the comfort of a firm table and a steady candlelight, but our conquest of 'mighty' Carthage's capital city went almost unopposed. Thapsus was bribed away from us this season, but it matters not, the abandonment of that settlement was intentional. Without doing so splitting the army to take Cartago would have been too risky.


As for the situation here...Servian Authority has been firmly established.

And on top of that, uncle Marcellus is due to arrive soon.


His fleet is only a season's sail away.

The fall of Cartago and the subsequent enslavement of these people has left many a building open for Roman boarding, and put many more servants in Roman houses. To be precise, twelve thousand from Cartago alone have been spread out across Ariminum, Ancona, Bononia and Corfinium, combined with last seasons raids adding to the population of Roma, Paestum and Arretium, it is save to say that the population of our core provinces has been greatly increased. This should end our low population scare for many, many years to come, if not solving it indefinately. As the increase has been so great that Paestum, Ancona, Ariminum, Arretium, Corfinium, and Bononia have all reached a new level of development, and are ready to receive upgraded administrative buildings. These will come in due time, but the immediate concern will now be with money making constructs. We have looked deeply into the possibility of greatly expanding our trade through the construction of ports, safe harbors and mines throughout the Republic.

Furthermore, we've completed the following list of structures this season.





Our cheap but effective construction plans continue, but last season saw the beginning of a number of more serious, more extensive and more profitable plans put into motion. Both plans will continue throughout the rest of my rule.

They will be needed most in the east, where our progress is coming along more quickly and more efficiently than I had hoped. Abydos, Pergamon, Nicomedia and Mytalene have already fallen to our might. Manius Coruncanius is set to land at Halicarnassus within days, and Numerious Aureolus has begun the siege of Smyrna. He will switch places with Manius at Halicarnassus next season, and the full consular army will take the walled town of Smyrna. Any more enslavement will overburden the Republic in the west, so the consular garrison will initially be required to hold the settlement. Tiberius Coruncanius is on his way back to Roma to have his consular legion restored, and Appius Barbetus is set to disembark for the east with reinforcements for Numerious as soon as Tiberius's fleet arrives.


The situation, all in all, goes well.

I would like to extend some personal congratulations once again this season! It seems that Roma is in no dire straits when it comes to extending our great families, and that is a most wonderful thing indeed.


Congratulations go to Julianus Avilius and Publius Fuscus on the birth of their daughters.

As for the situation in the west with Iberia, I believe it has already been mentioned in the deliberations, but it can't hurt to report it again.


We'll have to remain very wary of their movement in recent days, lest we find our only neutral border also set ablaze with the fires of war.

The complications never seem to end, but as always, I pray to the gods for our good fortune.

With one last bit of good news before I end the report, I'd like to announce the completion of almost all of our defences along the Danube. We lack only one more fort further north of Oduba, and it should be completed relatively soon. As of right now, Thrace has finally been blocked from incursion in the east, and we should see a significant stabilisation of the situation there.


Hopefully, our Thracian border will settle, or at the very least, its defence will come much, much more easily in the coming years.

In nomini Roma, et pro totus doxa deum.
Servius