First Among Equals: A Guide to Role-Playing Your Characters

[Zaknafien]

Salve, everyone. I was playing a campaign on 1.0 that just got rather interesting with political interplay,and was inspired to write a story about the characters involved. In doing so, I hope to show how you can portray your characters by role-playing them according to their traits, to spice up your game a little. All of these characters involved are real game characters, NO cheating involved in getting them any of these traits, I just play it how it comes. And so, here is the first installment:

Note: for the reader's convienence, I am using the Julian calendar even though it is inaccurate for this perod.

PRIMVS INTER PARES

In 199 BCE, The Roman Republic was on the ascent. It had concluded the Second Punic War some 10 years previously, and had only recently settled peace agreements between the Antigonids and other Hellenic states in Achaea, after tromping a Consular legion through the Peloponnesus and rasing the siege of Athens itself, punishment for Macedonia's alliance with Carthage during the war. The Republic had established client kingdoms of allied tribes on both sides of the sea, with both Iberians in the west and royal Dalmatian and Illyrian clients in the east. In 203, however, migrations of Dacian tribesmen, repulsed from the northern steppes and forests by fierce Germanic peoples, again turned their attentions southward, and abutted against the newly established Roman client states on the Adriatic coast. At first small bands of radiers and bandits would attack trade caravans and outlying smallholdings, and then more notable war chiefs and their followers began to move south west in force. The Illyrian soldiers proved inadequate to supress such a widespread movement, and thus, in 200, the aedile Numerius Julius Caesar was given a Consular Tribunate imperium, and given command of two legions of seasoned veterans of the Punic War to settle the issue with the Dacians. Caesar was a war hero and had served in both Hispania and Africa, and took command only after being promised the Consular Tribunate by the Seante, seeing as he would miss his chance to run for the Praetorship in the following year. Meanwhile, in Rome, the man of the hour is another Numerius, of the Cornelli Scipiones. Numerius Cornelius Scipio, another hero of both the Punic and Macedonian wars, was amassing great influence and wealth for himself both by his family's name and his new clients in Macedonia. Insulted at the Senate's denying him command in Dacia, he contemplates and broods, which in the near future will bode ill for the fate of the Republic...


Roma, Latium
Italia
Nones of September, 199 BCE

"For my part, I will do my duty as a general; I shall see to it that you are given the chance of a successful action." --Lucius Aemilius Paullus (c.228-c.160 BCE)

"I tell you, Marcus Porcius, it is absolutely not fair." Numerius Cornelius Scipio said, with all the assurance of a man used to getting his way. He was young and influencial, from the most noble of aristocratic families, and, at the age of 34, had already commanded legions in defense of the Republic, earning him the praise and trust of the people of Rome, yet the scorn and unease of its Senate.

He stood, slipping on his sandals and moving to the portico, rain drizzling at his feet. The night air was cold, uncommonly so for the season, and a dark front of clouds flecked with the occasional flash of lightning cast a pall over the slumbering city of Rome.

The view of the city was good, as their domus was perched on the Palantine, directly adjacent to the Forum on the corner of the Clivus Sacer and Clivus Orbius. To the west he could see the lightning flashes reflected off the bend in the Tiber as it snaked its way through the city beyond the Aventine and out to the sea. The cold air filled his lungs and the rain fell on his brow, cooling him.

"Numverius Cornelius, you are being over-dramatic, I think." Marcus Porcius was not so a fortunate son as Scipio, and their friendship was an unlikely one. Porcius--who had taken to calling himself Cato recently, was a Plebeian eques from an obscure Tusculum family of local renown only, and was considered a new man within the Senate after having won both a quaestorship previously and an aedileship this year, he was one of Scipio's partners in running for the Praetorship the coming spring.

Cato did not like the rain, nor the late hour at which his friend had called upon him.

"Am I?" Scipio asked, turning dramatically. He had had a bit much to drink, it was obvious. "Here I am, reclining with businessmen and builders in the Forum, while Caesar is out in the provinces heaping glory upon himself. My father was Princeps Senatus! I tell you,it should have been I that was granted command against the Dacians."

"And what of it? My friend, there are always more wars to be fought. You, despite your age, are undoubtedly among, if not the-- First Man in Rome--You, you are the conquerer of Macedonia, the Subjugator of Athens! Your name is like wine on the lips of the capite censi--you are a shoe-in for the Praetorship next year." And, Cato knew, his attatching himself to Scipio would work wonders for his own political career.

"Let Caesar have his sloppy war against some insignificant tribe of barbarians.. will the people remember that?"

"Not when I'm finished, they won't." Scipio said, quietly.

*******

Roman Camp, Serdike
Dardania

The city of Sardika, or Serdike, was an ancient Thracian enclave established by a tribe known as the Serdi. It had for some time been occupied by Phillip of Macedon and Megas Alexandros himself, and in recent years had been invaded and occupied by some Getic chieftan, of whom no knowledge was to be had. Its walls were crude by civilized standards, Caesar thought as he rode the length of his own battlements, his palfrey courser pausing to graze now and again.

Caesar did not mind, it gave him the opportunity to study his enemies all the closer.

The city butted up against an ancient black crag of rock and was generally raised in all directions by earth and stone, ringed by a stout stockade of wood and sharpened spikes atop stone mounds. Crude towers here and there gave overwatch over the river vallies, and only a few narrow cart-paths led up unto its barricaded gates.

Assault, then, was out of the question.

His own army, the remnants of two legions he had already marched the length and breadth of Illyria and only in the spring had moved into Dardania proper, was encamped directly opposite the city, controlling the trade routes from the south. The Roman fortifications were simple and laid out in a standard way, ditch and mound with a palisade of their own to discourage the enemy from launching a counter-attack.

As it stood, Numerius Julius Caesar decdied, he had not the men nor the methods to launch a full-scale assault on this stronghold, and thus siege was the only option.

And so, he would wait.


Caesar's two reduced legions


TO BE CONTINUED...





NVMERIVS CORNELIVS SCIPIO et

NVMERIVS IVLIVS CAESAR

[Megalos]

Good read! Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!


Mega

[Long lost Caesar]

oooh whats scipio gonna do?! play more! more...

[Pharnakes]

Just a little sugestion, Zaknafien, I can see this very rapidly becoming confusing with two identical threads with the same purpose, would it not be better to merge the two threads and just have a link from the main forum?

[Zaknafien]

yeah, probably so. i didnt expect it to take off in the main forum though lol

[Zaknafien]

OK, Ive decided I havent got time to invest fully into writing a story for this, with work, EB work, etc. But, I will udate for anyone intersted in the campaign. After this, Im going to move this into the AAR forums. Please drop by there and give feedback if you're so inclined

PRIMVS INTER PARES:

Part II

198, BCE
Pannonia & Dalmatia

The year 198 BCE was a tough one for High King Zusidava of the Thracian Getae. He was attempting to unite his people under one banner (his own), and had been doing so well until he had run across the foul side of the Roman Republic. Everywhere he turned, Roman diplomats were offering his vassals more money, his lieutenants more land, and his client tribes a grim choice--subservience or destruction. Not only that, Roman-paid assassins were attempting to take his life..thus far, unsuccessfully, praise gods.

Getic High King Zusidava, holding court in Naissos

The Roman Imperator Numerius Julius Caesar and his tribune, a man called Blasio, had succeeded in pushing his warbands back across the river, and had captured both Serdike and Sigidunum, two of his prize cities and centers of trade. Not only that, Caesar was a brutal conquerer---once captured, he ordered all of the citizens enslaved, marched off in chains and sold at great auctions by merchants that followed the Roman armies, and then, razed both cities to the ground. Everything that could be destroyed was, burned,
stripped, and torn. The fields were left standing, only to feed Caesar's troops while his people--the old and infirm not fit for slavery, were left to starve.

The year had went well for Caesar himself. With the word spread of his victories, he had been elected Praetor in abstentia, an almost unheard of feat in the day. How Scipio must have steamed when he found out, Caesar smiled.

Not only that, he narrowly avoided death in battle:

[Megalos]

You've got to follow this on Zak, even if it is just intermitently. Great fun and great read.

[CaesarAugustus]

Great read, Zaknafien !(at first I didn't even realize it was you writing with that new avatar -- my crown is bigger than yours... and I'm in the purple! )

Please continue to update this as much as you can, it is fun to read and is giving me some ideas for roleplaying my own Roman generals.

[Warmaster Horus]

I'll echo the others, this is great! Keep it up, if you can!

[Zaknafien]

PRIMVS INTER PARES:
Part III

Numerius Julius Caesar prosecuted the Dacian War until its bitter completion, using a strategy of sacking and burning cities while starving their inhabitants to force the ambitious barbarian King to come to the negotiation table. Romans, however, do not negotiate---they dictate terms. In 197 BCE King Zusivada accepted the now undeniable, that his feeble tribal forces,un-united and dispersed, could not withstand the effectiveness of a centralized and well equipped Roman military machine. In the Treaty of Segestica, Winter, 196, the Dacians accepted their fate, and Caesar presided over the surrender of arms and banners from the Dacian chieftans.

As part of the terms of the agreement, the Getae would pay Rome an annual indemnity of 1,000 talents worth in gold, and land conquered by Zusivada would be redestributed to form buffer states around the warlike clans. As such, Serdike was handed over to Macedonian power, and his eastern lands added to the lands of the Boii kingdom.

The Dacians were defeated, but as a result of this harsh treatment would harbor a festering resentment for the ascendant Republic which would haunt them in the future. King Zusivada would die an old, broken man, but his sons would live on with a hatred of the Sons of Romulus.

POLITICS IN ROME AND TROUBLE IN HISPANIA

197 through 194 were quiet years overall, in Rome business much as usual went on. Numverius Julius Caesar returned from Dacia a conquering hero, but once the accolades and triumphs were completed, retreated to a more contenmplative life of scholarship and oratory. He was undoubtedly one of the most august leaders of the Senate, and turned his attentions to more political pursuits and effective legislation. Often among his closest friends he would claim he was weary of war and battle, and had seen too many men killed and others wounded horribly.

Caesar brought on an orator and author to his household, Quintus Fabius Pictor, whom he sponsored to write histories in Latin and Greek of both the Punic Wars and the Dacian Conquest, both of which were quite favorable to the character of Numerius Caesar, of course.

In 194 BCE, Caesar was elected as Senior Consul for the year, while his rival Numerius Cornelius Scipio, whom had satisfied his warlike urges chasing Gallic bandits in the north for the past year, was finally accpted into the Praetorship.

The Roman World in 194 BCE

THE SECOND MACEDONIAN WAR, 194--190 BCE

The King of Macedon had long coveted the lands of his southern neighbors, and intermittent warfare had plauged Achaea for decades. Again, in 195, the Macedonians renewed their war on Greece, marching into the Peloponnesos with an army some 100,000 strong and capturing both Athens and Corinth in one summer.

The Senate was loathe to act in this matter, as the Dacian war had just concluded and no one was eager for another long confrontation, except the young magistrates eager for glory. Numerius Caesar gave an impassioned speech in the Senate house on Rome's involvement in foreign affairs that had nothing to do with her or its people, and claimed that Rome herself had created most of these situations by meddling in other nations' politics.

Most of the Optimates would have nothing to do with such speech, and Caesar was shouted down. His old rival, Numerius Cornelius, responded in kind, not only in the Senate itself but later in the Forum. The cities of Greece had long ago turned to Rome for alliance and assisstance against their northern aggressors, he reminded the people. The Hellenic city-states paid tribute to Rome, and saw Rome as their protector. How could Rome now abandon them? And so, with his allied Tribunes called a meeting of the Comitia Centuriata, Scipo was granted command of an army by popular acclamation, his mission to invade Macedonia, and restore freedom to the oppressed Greeks.

With a quaestor and 12 tribunes at the head of an army of two seasoned legions fresh from the Dacian wars, Scipio disembarked from Brindisi on 12 May 194, BCE.

The Arcadian Campaign was the first and probably most decisive battle of the war, in which the Macedonian puppet Astrabakos, tetrarch of the Peloponessos, brought his army of mercenaries and foreigners to oppose the landing of Scipio and the Republic. Scipio turned the phalanx upon itself and routed the Anatolian mercenaries in a crushing defeat for the Macedonian aggressors. It is then, historians believe, after the victory, that Scipio's agents purchased some of the captured Macedonian officers...

Scipio won victories one after the other for the next four years. First Corinth fell after a protracted siege. Then Athens, from treachery within its walls. The army crossed and moved upon Demetrias, storming it after two months and slaughtering the Macedonian garrison who would not surrender. In 190, with the Macedonian armies that remained stuck in Asia Minor, and the path to Pella open before Scipio's veteran legions, the King of Macedon opened peace talks.

Scipio demanded full subservience from the mere King, for he was a Praetor of Rome. In a humiliating treaty, Macedon was required to disband most of its armies, return its captured lands to their proper Hellenic natives, take apart its amassed navy, and pay indemnities to the Roman Republic. Furthermore, Macedonia was not permitted to make war outside its borders without explicit approval by the Senate of Rome. Essentially, the Kingdom of Alexander was made a client state of Rome.

[Zaknafien]

Might do more of an update later, but here is the current map: Lands in red outline are Clients of Rome. Those with (Amicus Populi Romani) are allies.

[Zaknafien]

PRIMVS INTER PARES

PART IV: Where Eagles Dare


"The eagle suffers little birds to sing,
And is not careful what they mean,
Knowing that with the shadow of his wings
He can at pleasure stint their melody."
--Titus Andronicus, ACT IV, Scene IV

The decade 190-180 BCE was a period of prosperity and growth for the nascent empire of the Roman Republic. With successfully concluded wars in both Spain and Greece, the Senate's authority was at an all time high, with Roman magistrates having influence on the far-flung shores of the Middle Sea. Men like Cornelius Scipio and Julius Caesar had demonstrated to the kingdoms of Europa that a Republic was not to be trifled with, not when peopled by Romans. The descendants of Alexander bowed to Roman law in Macedonia, and the heirs of Socrates and Plato bent the knee to Roman power in Achaea.

The decade saw the growth of Roman infastructure in Italy, with spectacularly designed roads of white stone laid across mountains and valley, bringing the secluded cities and vales of Italia together in a cross-knit weave who's heart was Roma herself. The treasury overflowed with tribute from client princes and tribes and confederatons, and a period of great achievements in both art and architecture was on. The first arena was constructed in Capua, and then spread across Italy as gladitorial combat became the sport of the day, fueled by the many slaves won in Rome's foreign wars.

The slave trade exploded in fact, leading to the growth of rural farmsteads across Italy worked by chain gangs of foreign servants. Land speculators and merchant conglomerates purchased estates in Illyria and Spain, establishing great corporate mines and agricultural plantations ran by slave labor camps.

In the later years of the decade, the Kingdoms of Illyria and Dalmatia were annexed by the Roman Republic, and made provinces so that they could be better administrated by the Senate's magistrates, leading to a flood of wealth from the gold and silver mines now owned by the state.

Banditry from the Dacian frontier was intermittent, a constant threat as on any wildland border, but the chain of Roman and local garrisons across the mountains kept any incursions in check.

Roman politicians and diplomats traveled the world, making calls upon potentates and kings in courts across the world, establishing the superiority of the Roman people and her good will to her friends, and unrelenting hatred to her enemies. Trade agreements and knowledge of geography was exchanged far and near, leading many to believe it was the most prosperous time the Republic had ever seen.

In 185, an incursion by Gallic radiers across the Padus river led to a brief expedition by a Roman legion into Italian Gaul, as it was called, where the Insubres and the Venetii made their homes. Manius Cornelius Dollabella was made governor of Cisalpine Gaul and sent to throw the barbarians back across the Padus.

The Venetii, a people long Romanzied due to the influx of merchants and travellers in and out of Italia, petitioned the Senate to protect them from the Gallic armies, and thus a Roman garrison was sent to stiffen the defense of the city against attack.

Dolabella did not prove himself to be the most competent of commanders however, and despite a strategy of ringing the Gallic lands with fortifications and watchtowers to screen their movements, managed to lose track of an entire army of tribesmen under a chieftan called Critognatos of Belenos, a union of Gallic and Alpine tribesmen bent on plunder and rapine in the fertile lands of the Padus valley.

Fortunately, Dolabella's legate, Publius Cornelius Blasio, had the good sense to take his legion east along the river and caught up with Belenos' forces outside Patavium, where they had begun a circumvallation in order to starve the Venetii and their Roman garrison into surrender.

It was a crushing defeat for the Gauls, who had not faced the steel of a Roman army in some years. Such was a hard lesson for those whose lust for gold and land outweighed their sense, and it should serve us well for years to come reminding barbarians to remain on their side of the Padus!

Two weeks after the battle, Dolabella's agents caught up with Critognatos in a village just one day's ride north of Patavium...

Dolabella, despite his blunders, was hailed in Rome for his victories over the Gauls. The mood of jubilation was broken, however, when one of the Senate's oldest and most respected members, the famed Numerius Julius Caesar, passed into the afterlife. A state funeral was held outside the Senate house, and a procession marched from the Forum to the gates of the city to inter him with his ancestors. Caesar, once Rome's greatest general, had in his later years become something of a pacifist, speaking out against foreign wars and encroachments on the Republic's behalf, being Numerius Scipio's primary opponent in the Senate as both were then Censors and held much esteem.

Now, with Caesar dead, Scipio's party in the Senate had designs on a grand war with non other than Rome's greatest enemy.. Carthage.




And then, disaster struck...

[Puupertti Ruma]

Premium stuff. I hope you will keep updating it as it is really a delight to read. Love your style and all the historical details your vast knowledge of the Romani and the era in general gives to your writing.

[alatar]

It's fantastic.

[CaesarAugustus]

EDIT: oh just saw the new thread

[Leão magno]

I would love seeing the 1st punic war!