Cvria Ivlia, Consulate of Labienus/Publicola (II)

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I must agree with Tiberius. Though it is true that we are not yet at war with the Greeks, we must be sure that they will not attack us while we are concentrating on the Gauls. If possible, we could even try to ally with the Greeks to drive the Gaulish threat away.

Nevertheless, whatever we do, we must feel absolutely secure that our eastern front will not break open before we put our whole strength in the west.

[Maxinius Scipio]

"If it's a direct assault you're all thinking about, then we're going to fail."

Upon hearing the strange voice, many of the Senators turn their heads towards the chamber doors. They are closed, and not a single flare of light is entering the chamber from that direction. Instead, a tall man in a toga praetexta is standing confidently with his shoulders back and his chest puffed out. He strides forward, into the center of the chamber, and after looking at everyone with a reassuring look, he elaborates on his statement.

"The two nations are doing our work for them. It would be foolish to waste lives and fight thousands of soldiers of different nationalities, when instead, we can fight the victorious faction which will then have a weak and depleted army. If the Gallic coalition of tribes overwhelm the Hellenic phalanxes, then we will only have to fight the remnants of their warrior population. If the league of Hellenic city-states and kingdoms thrashes the Gauls, then we will only have to face the few remaining hoplites.

We must wait and see how things turn out before we attack out of fear. If we play our cards right, so to speak, then an entire region will enter our Republic with little bloodshed on our part."

Marcus Valerius Corvinus was back. Freed from the clutches of the Gauls.

ooc: I'll depart for Sicily tomorrow, probably. By the way, could I have the save soon so I can perform my duties as the Censor?

[Grandis Latro]

Vitruvius stands, he has been silently listening and has decided it’s been long enough.

“Senators,” his voice barely a whisper, he clears his throat, “Senators!” He shouts. The Senators quiet down, some look disapprovingly at the former legionnaire standing.

“I have been listening to the debate for a long while now and in my free time I’ve studied our Republic’s disposition as far as military matters go. It is this Senator’s opinion that we have erred in three things:

Firstly: if the Greek Nation does decide to attack, then allowing our troops to defend a bridge is a mistake! Those of you that are veterans, such as I, should darn well know that fighting a Phalanx head on in close corridors is suicidal and will result in the loss of many, many men. If the Greeks attack we must face them in an open field, to utilize our superior mobility. That is only if we cannot come to an agreement with our educated cousins. To fear them is a mistake. They are reasonable people. We are, after all, the civilized powers in the Mediterranean world, an allied front against the barbarians would be to our supreme advantage, not to mention the trade advantages.”

Vitruvius takes a drink to lubricate his dry throat, trying to hide his nervousness he continues

“Secondly, while I am happy to see our esteemed proconsul back safely it was a mistake to occupy Massilia, I say occupy, not attack. A raid should have been sufficient, for now we have a territory too far away to defend properly! We must fight to pull back our men.”

Amidst grumblings from the Senate body, he raises his hand to silence them.

“Yes, I admit I should have spoken sooner, I am, but a new Senator and I will no longer bite my tongue at these proceedings.

Thirdly: Every legionnaire knows, or should know, that information is vital in military strategy. Why aren’t our spies and diplomats out there ascertaining the strength of the Gauls and the Greeks? I will never support a war where we don’t know our enemies strength, this is foolish!

I say no war, not now. It would be rash and stupid. First gather the facts and work on diplomacy, war is best used as a last resort.”

Seeing some of the Senators start to become hostile Vitruvius amends himself

“Yes, yes I realize that they attacked first and I thank the Gods that Servius Labienus was able to save our city,” He looks to the Consul, “You sir, have my utmost respect.” Looking back towards the Senate. “The bottom line is: We were caught unprepared. It is our job to ensure our borders are defended… and we failed. To blame the Gauls for attacking is to blame the fire for burning our hand! We are smarter men than this and must act as such. The eve of elections is upon us, as soon as our new offices are filled I have several motions that I will discuss. Until then, I recommend we think on our mistakes and successes and learn from both. That is all.”

ooc Hello all thought I'd start strong lol

[Winter]

ooc You've started stronger than most...

[Xavier Dragnesi]

ooc: I agree. I don't think I've ever written such a long post in the history of me being in this forum

[Kritias]

Quintus Servilius Metellus, the tribune, was standing all this time idly by the Curia's doors, listening to the debates and intervening wherever was necessary. But suddenly he saw a new senator, a novus homo, who rose up and unleased a strong oration against the military fervor that had occupied the senate lately. Metellus thought best to step in and support the orator, before the Optimates cut him to pieces for being an peace-loving coward as they usually painted their enemies.

"Senators! I say that the man has some sense in his words! Let us pay attention to what he is saying." Metellus declared.

"It is true that the only weakspot of the phalanx is its vulnerable rear and pinning a phalanx in a bridge battle seems tactically incorrect, as Vitruvius stated already. To that end, I support the orator in his strategy."

"However, the man touched something with a needle here; why should we fear the Greeks instead of allying with them and securing our borders from the East? I am sure that none in this sacred chamber wants war with a nation both rich and powerful in the military so instead of letting fear rule us, we should let reason guide us!"

"Finally, I also support his unspoken motion to send diplomats and spies throughout the known world and discover the power of both the Gauls and the Greeks; if the Orator does not wish to propose the motion himself, I will."

OOC: Welcome to the Senate, Latro! Indeed, you started with the right foot!

[Philos Sophos]

ooc:WOW...Latro started well...Is English your native language Latro?

[Gaius Julius Civilis]

Falco, having recovered from his previous speech, listened closely to this new voice

"Welcome, new senator. I have noticed a few points which I hoped you could clarify. Firstly, you give a tactical reason for not defending at a bridge. I am no military man, I have not served in the legion. However I have seen armies on the march in Sicilia, and it appears it is very hard for an experienced army to cross a chokepoint - which, you will agree, a bridge definately is - in the narrow marching column. Would it not be many times more difficult to cross a bridge in the battle phalanx, while constantly under fire by our light auxilia, and our legionaires themselves. I do not think our consul is stupid enough to just plug up the bridge, he will use the disorder in the Greek ranks to his advantage.

Secondly, we have territories as far away as the cities of the African province, which we can support despite the strong Iberian presence there, why could we not support the city of Massilia, it has a port nearby, and we have the strongest navy in the area. Truly, Massilia would be an asset to the Republic, and let us not forget why they asked our proconsul for help in the first place: they hoped we could rescue them from the Gauls, not simply leave them to the Gods. Massilia will now also be a thorn in the side of Gallic expansion, I say maintain Massilia and fortify her.

As to your last point, indeed the fire is not to blame for burning my hand, but the Gauls are not a phenomenon of nature, are they? They attacked a seemingly weak spot in our limes, because of our unpreparedness, but they attacked nonetheless. Who are we not to retaliate? They send a raiding party to our city, we send a punitive expedition against their lands. They must learn that attacking Romans, no matter how weak we seem, will have serious consequences.

I do however agree it is wiser to wait and prepare, but we cannot wait forever. The world is tumbling down around us, smaller nations are swept away, so we need to show we are not a small nation. Abusing weaknesses in the enemy would ensure our success and the stronger enemy's failure. Spies and diplomats can spot such weaknesses for us, so I also agree on your second change."

[Caesar Rex]

I would like to take this time to remind you all of the following.

[Philos Sophos]

"On that map of yours it seems that there are less Gauls than Romans.They shouldn't be much of a problem?"

[Caesar Rex]

ooc: when I took the town there was even less. They continue to come.

[Philos Sophos]

"Then we must assist him,he cant stand for ever with only 1 legion.We must send a legion to help him."

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Quintus Marius studies the map of the Senior Consul closely. He notices something that none of the other senators has yet bought up.

Senators, am I right in saying that there are still a few units of old soldiers living in our lands in barracks that have not been disbanded? If so, I propose that those old units be sent here to Massilia, not to go into the city itself, but to defend the region. Why do I say this? Here is my explanation:

As you can see from the map, Massilia is defended from the North by a river, from the east by mountains, and from south and west by the sea. The sea, of course, is not one of Gaul's most favourable venture parts, and even they cannot pass whole armes through the mountains east of Massilia. That only leaves one way for them to come through: the north.

What do we find in the north? A river, fordable in two places by bridges. Now I have heard bridges being mentioned before by other senators as being bad places for defence against phalanxes. However, the Gauls have no phalanxes of any kind, and their barbaric ways of just charging across the bridge are perfect for our purpose of defending them. This defense can be left to our old soldiers.

Therefore, to prevent or delay the arrival of Gaulish reinforcements, I propose that we send those old units of soldiers up to Massilia and post the on the northern bridges, while our main army inside the city destroys all the troops besieging it.

[Philos Sophos]

ooc:how do you guys write so long texts?

[Xavier Dragnesi]

ooc: ummmm.... we think, then we type

[Caesar Rex]

Official Dispatch VII, Consulate of Labienus and Publicola

I have liberated Massilia.
While doing business as you know we were placed under siege in a last attempt by the Gauls to hold onto this port.
Having had to look over the walls at these Gauls for three weeks it was getting to much.
MOre arrived every day and in the end over two and half thousand massed outside the gates.



Our numbers had dwindled as they cut off our water.
Many of the citizens and soldiers fell ill.
Three days ago they launched an attack.
It was late in the evening and with their fires burning they surrounded the city.



They assaulted the city from four points.
The main blow from the front where I stationed myself on the walls with the Legion VI Ferrata.
Our numbers were already low after taking the city and freeing Marcus Valerius.
Fighting on the walls was hard at best.



Barking orders to my centurions left and right to get their men from one end to another at every turn.
The Gauls continued over the walls en masse.
It never occured to me or the legion VI Ferrata to stop fighting.



In the end ladders lay all around the walls and maniples were shifted from one wall to another.
The enemy continued to find ways into the city but we never let go of the walls.
To the last man we fought.



I lost four hundred and sixty eight men and three hundred and fifty six are injured.
I have gathered all of legio VI Ferrata and headed back to Rome.
Replacements are already moments away from taking over the city.
This legion has proven itself time and again.
They have proclaimed me 'Imperator' on more than one occasion and it with them I will return to Rome to place my candidacy for Consul.
Long live Rome.
I give praise to Jupipter Optimus Maximus for my victory and courage.
Ser.Labienus

[Grandis Latro]

Vitruvius listens closely to the various agreements and rebuttals to his argument.

As for Greek tactics it varies, of course, from commander to commander, but even if we blackened the sky (hehehe) with our arrows, and pila, a hoplite unit, even at half strength on a bridge is still incredibly dangerous, morale is strong with the Greeks, they will not route as easy as the barbarians or the Syracusans or the Eipirons, but I allow my military influences to get in the way, I apologize for this, Greek tactics are not the point here”

“Can we support our African Provinces truly? Only time will tell, Falco. We can barely defend our borders here. As for the Iberians aren’t they our allies? Forgive me, if I’m wrong, but that is what I have gathered. The Carthaginian threat I’m not entirely convinced we’ve dealt with it. The African province is, yet, another matter. The question we must ask ourselves is: Can we support a war with the Gauls and continue to defend our African Province? Not to mention the possibility of a Greek war? We are quite literally surrounded. In fact, we don’t have much in the way of choices, do we? The minute we decided to establish a stronghold in enemy territory, we locked ourselves into a war. We did this, not knowing the Greeks were on our doorstep and we did this without strengthening our hold on Africa.

I don’t care about the lives of the people in Massilia! (whoohoo! Controversy!) I care about Roman lives! We made a rash decision! Lives have been lost because of this! 468 men dead, and that’s only recent! Fathers, sons, husbands, brothers! Died for some Gods forsaken…!”

Vitruvius stops himself, breathing hard, he attempts to gather his wits, he takes a deep breath.

“I offer us a way out a simple retreat, so that we may face them on our own terms. We can use that battle hardened legion to shore up our borders.” (unless Caesar keeps giving us Heroic victories then its kind of a moot point isn’t it? Fess up, you’ve got it on easy dontcha?)

“That being said, I sense that we can all agree on one thing and that is, a two front war is not to our advantage, therefore I propose the following motion:

“We send our best diplomat to the Greek forces to create either an alliance, or at the very least an agreement of trade and goodwill between our peoples. Aye means you wish to send, Nay means you don’t”

Vitruvius sits, slightly embarrassed about his outburst, rhetoric is draining.

ooc: Yes English is my first language. As for the long, long, long responses hopefully over time they will taper down, lol. It helps to type your response on a word document, then copy and paste, for me personally anyhow. Whether you wanna do the force diplomacy mod is up to you, but have you seen the size of the Greek territory!? Holy Crap!

[The10thLegion]

Maxinus and I made up. He didnt get my dry humor

[Winter]

Thanks for the update.

[Caesar Rex]

As the consul returns to Rome he places his cadidacy.
Controversy looms.
How can he hope to hold office of consul once more.
This man who has conquered Carthage.
This man, saviour of Arretium.
This man, liberator of Massilia not once but twice.
A hero among the legions.
Frowned upon by the senate.
No triumph for such a man.
They have not even given him an ovation.
Talk of the grass crown but left to debate whether he should receive it.
He has given his life to the gods and to Rome.
Now he is being shunned upon.

(unless Caesar keeps giving us Heroic victories then its kind of a moot point isn’t it? Fess up, you’ve got it on easy dontcha?)

We dont get to choose the difficulty. That was predetermined before we started.

http://files.filefront.com/YATSRPGtm.../fileinfo.html the save game - I have passed it to Scipio for his proconsulate, he will send it on to the senior consul or other proconsul.