The Will of the Senate - Senate Deliberations IV

[Lucjan]

Senator Barbetus has, in a covert maneouver down the coast, taken Arsinoe from the Seleucids. The lack of any public mention was to avoid the Seleucids warning the Ptolemites ahead of time. Let's face it, enemies they may be, but a chance for them to break a Roman army together would be enough to unite them for at least a moment.

As for your legion, Manius, I will be honest with you. The future of Rome is now with consolidation. We have reached our limits in the eastward push, but cannot now withdraw the legions there without suffering events that would cost us dearly. To move you west at such a critical time would be folly. Defending the Republic may not seem, at first glance, to be as glorious as conquest, but taking such a view could not place one farther from the truth. I would lay my very life down if the meant the defence and salvation of Rome, but I would not so much as entertain the thought of conquest unless I was absolutely certain I could win.

As the situation stands, I wish the state of affairs to become as such by the end of my consulship.

The East - Manius Coruncanius will hold two forts in the central riverlands of the Ancyran plateau. Appius Barbetus will defend a fort at the mountain pass near Heracleia. Numerious Aureolus will defend a fort near the straits of Cyprus. The eastern consular fleet will reside in the port at Smyrna, with two sub admirals endowed with 3 ships each at Rhodes and Sparta, for the purpose of pirate and stray foreign navy watchers.

Carthage - Oppius Aemilius will reside in Tingi, in preparation for the Iberian war. I myself, will reside in Palma, also, awaiting the Iberian war. The western fleet will be split into two praetorian size fleets, one stationed in the port at Tingi, the other at the port in Palma. Flavius Pacuvius will be mobilised within the region on the central fleet, ready to respond wherever necessary.

Italia, Hellas, Macedonia, Illyria - Various Upper house generals will be allocated to our cities where order and good governance are of significant need.

Danube - Lucius Aemilius, Quintus Libo and Tiberius Coruncanius will oversee the continued defence of the Danube.

Transalpine Gaul - Marcellus Aemilius will take over in Gergovia when he is finished in Carthage, and Cornelius Saturninus will take over command of the Comata legion. I will be relocating Servius Nero to act as Tribune for senator Saturninus, he is an adopted son of Quintus Libo and, regardless of being an upper house general, has proven of significant capabilities against the Thracians near Oduba. He could learn much as a tribune, and become a promising lower house general in the future.

This is the general plan, but you never seem to know with the world these days, anything here can change.