Cvria Ivlia, Consulate of Africanus/Julius (II)

[The10thLegion]

ooc: thats your job tenth lol you make the polls as JC

Im not sure on the actual policies though, and i dont want to mess it up.
I am seriously needing the representives to make their case (start their motion thread)

[Gaius Julius Civilis]

Falco enters the senate, he appears tired and it appears his jaw hurts when talking, but he still looks extremely content.

Good morning to you all, Senators!

You may wonder why I look so pleased in this age of war, death and indecision. I shall tell you. Tonight this world became a little less dangerous for us Romans. Last night I received a warning that the Spartan king was breaking camp and preparing to leave this night. I decided to jump at this opportunity and left the city late last night.

I arrived at the Greek camp an hour's hard ride later. The immense Spartan guard at the entrance - he must have been 6 ft 7 - apparently had orders to let me through, because he immediately let me pass once I stated my identity and purpose.

Inside there was the bustle of a camp on the eve of moving out. The handful of guards were all Greece's finest. They wore Spartan armour that slightly glistened in the moonlight. All wore the traditional crimson cloak and in the dark they looked very menacing. None was shorter than 6 ft 5 and all were fighting fit.

I took a deep breath and moved to the biggest undecorated tent, under the assumption that a Spartan never changes. My assumption was right.

I announced my presence to the King. He looked worse then when I last saw him. "Greetings, great king Archidamus V. I am here on behalf of… the Senate and People of Rome to negotiate a peace treaty."

"Ahh... Flavius was it!? I remember you! We had an excellent time 2 years ago... too bad that didn't work as we hoped..." The king chuckled, his eyes wide, sanity had clearly left his mind. "But... name your terms..."

"Marcus, your majesty, my name is Marcus..."

"Ahh Marcus! I knew a Roman called Marcus once! It was 2 years ago; he was on a diplomatic mission for your people! Smart man! Brokered an alliance and got land out of the deal, the alliance didn't last long. Please! Tell him not to take my breaking the alliance personally, Roman lands are rich lands!"

I did not have time to pity the king, I had a purpose:

"Well your majesty, you may remember I am here to negotiate a peace treaty." The king did not show signs of familiarity but I continued nonetheless: "Our terms are as follows:
I. A complete and utter stop to any hostilities
II. The safe return of any Roman prisoners of war
III. We shall return any Greek prisoners of war we happen to have."

"Yes... yes... no more fighting, I must build my war machine back up... too many nations vie for supremacy along our borders..." The King's eyes were clear now. "We didn’t take prisoners... except... we attacked a fort… at the beginning of the war... We slaughtered about 2000 of your men," The king chuckled, "We couldn’t find the eagle standard, but the Gods favored us, we found the commander... barely alive. Unfortunately, he was no great source of information... stubborn bastard." The King spoke casually as if the torture of a man was the same as sitting down to supper. "You can have him... any other prisoners were sent to the mines, and are all dead." The unnatural gleam had returned to his eyes.

This answer was unclear, I decided to push the matter. "Your majesty, if you have any prisoners, will you exchange them for the prisoners we took?"

"No!" The shout came sudden and harsh compared to our earlier conversation which was almost a whisper. "Keep the Greek prisoners... they deserve to die, after their cowardice! I will simply send you the Commander when I return to Greece... he has no value to me..."

"Very well your majesty."

"Anything else!? Or can I leave this... place..."

I hesitated, I did not know if I was pushing this matter over an invisible edge, losing it forever. I would find out soon enough.

"Your Majesty, will you pay 200 000 denarii for the peace treaty?"

The king stared at me for what seemed to be an eternity. Then suddenly it seemed as if something fell into place and he started to laugh uproariously. As I did not know what had gotten into the king, I decided it was wisest to laugh along.

Suddenly, the King's right fist connected with my jaw, I didn't see it coming, and I collapsed on the floor, the king on top of me; his face menacingly close to mine...

Anger then got the better of me, just as shame gets the better of me now, as I am remembering it.

"Your Majesty, you may strike me down, you may torture me, you may burn me, and you may kill me, but we will not sign a treaty that does not require a Greek payment."

As I got up, the king motioned to a nearby slave for a piece of cloth. I decided that it was too late now to back down. "We will get this payment, your Majesty, one way or another. If this treaty is not signed we will chase you all the way to Sparta if needs be to get this money."

The king glared at me, disdain in his eyes. "200 000 gold is too much... 100 000 is the most I can do... over a period of 2 years..."

This was still a far better result than I could possibly have hoped for. I decided not to show it. "Hmm, alright, but know this, Spartan. We expect payment every six months, miss a payment and we shall come to Greece to claim it."

The King said nothing, his face was now stone, his eyes faraway. "Scribe!" A pale short statured man appeared, the first man under 6 feet I saw in there, "Write the treaty!" The scribe took his time and wrote the treaty, the king simply stared at me the entire time. The scribe then suggested to me: "Trade between our two nations may be beneficial..."

I was overjoyed, but again I did not show it. I nodded, face grim, eyes fixed on the king. His steel grey eyes piercing through me.

The king muttered, the scribe took this as agreement and finished the clause. When the treaty was complete, the king signed at the bottom, the scribe then announced, "As the appointed representative of Rome," I cringed a little, "sign here..."

I signed quickly, as if I was afraid this was a dream and the treaty might disappear if I didn't sign it in time. A thought was stuck in my mind all night, a slightly scary thought. I decided to push my luck and I asked the king a pointed question, "Why did you want a treaty?"

The king's shoulders slumped, his spirit was gone, "My men... no matter how hard they train... they cannot beat your legions. They are like Erinyes led by Ares himself! (ooc: Erinyes = Furies, Ares = Mars) My generals have threatened to disband entire armies if I don't seek out peace. There is unrest all across my lands, the people hear about my losses, and wish to see me overthrown. Quite simply, Marcus, I'm doing what you Senators do, I'm bending to the will of my people."

"Any ruler should listen to the people, your Majesty, they are the backbone of his nation, no army will ever be the backbone of a nation."

"Bah, I am not here to debate politics with you! The treaty is signed... take it and leave now! I am breaking camp the instant you are gone."

I got a signed copy of the treaty and left. I have not even taken the time to go home and eat breakfast! This is history, my friends, history!

[Philos Sophos]

"Great,the treaty has now been made.Now we can start to strenghten our borders and make a turning point in the war with the barbarian Gauls."

[Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedon]

I withdraw my veto I apolagice for my behavior.

[The10thLegion]

thank you, Lucius. That was very noble with you.

Senators! We always have someone who cries about something! I think that we should debate, but not start something bad after we just had a victory over the Greeks (ooc- diplomacy victory)
We just got a diplomatic mission solved and what do i hear?

"I thought that you were suppose to request 100 000 denari??"

He just made a brave decision to go to Greece, and if you see he was hit in the jaw! Lets just be happy like most of the senators are.

[Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedon]

so the othere matter at hands, gaul.
do we need more legions there or do the seators want rome to take s-gaul?
I personally think it would be good to take one or 2 settelments from the gauls.

[apple]

OOC: In other new, Google has made a really good translator.http://www.google.com/translate_t

[Caesar Rex]

Well its taken its sweet time.
Marcus Lucretius, truely you are Romes' Luck.
Twice you have given Rome the breeathing space she needs to ready herself against her enemies.
From now on you will be known as Felix.
Marcus Lucretius Falco Felix.
To other matters that plague my mind is our commander in the north.
Spurius Vitrivius Habitus.
He has over the last two years waged a war against the hellenic nation.
And at the end of the day we have won.
It has been a war where many Roman lives were lost and seven times more the enemy.
54000 greeks beaten over more than 30 battles.
Truly a feat worthy of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
I hereby propose that he be cognominated Magnus for his triumph against the Greek people.
Also myself included feel that what was accomplished last year deserves a joint triumph for Spurius Vitrivius and myself.
To long have the plebeians been faced with war and too long have we not celebrated our victories.
It is time for Rome to remember her generals and all they have done.

[Snowball]

*Marcus rises from his seat raising his fist*

AYE!! we should remember and honour our generals and armies!

[Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedon]

yes a trimph but pehraps we could do more, counsul?
Rome owns you more than a trimph!

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Congratulations to Marcus Lucretius for such a diplomatic victory. Hopefully, as the Greeks have tasted the power of Roman steel, they'll know not to try and face it in the future. And even if they do, well it's given us the breathing space for our legions to refresh and retrain, for some of our commanders to take a little rest. And I believe Marcus and Spurius both deserve their respective cognomens. But now that the Greek Front has gone cold, it is time to focus our attention elsewhere.

1. Provinces: Lucius Aurelius proposed a new province system late last term, and was still going on about it early this term. It looks like it's been lost amid all the vetoing and the debates. So here, I'm going to bring it up again. A division should be seen as to whether these provinces are to be implemented. Also, another thing we need to address is what to do about our newly acquired lands in Greece. Are they to be split into two provinces or one? They will be very important to us if the Greeks start the war once again.

2. Gauls: From my relative's last report, the Gallic front is now pretty stable. However, the Gauls still have reasonable good access to the lands of Italy, through some unknown passes in the Alps. Not a few months ago, two Gallic armies were sighted near Mediolanium, and both managed to somehow get away before Quintus Marius closed up all the known passes.

But the point is this: At the moment, we are still vulnerable if the Gauls suddenly decide to send loads of armies streaming into Italy. Therefore, we need to move the front further away from Italy proper, so that if any of their armies to breach our fortifications, then we at least have some time to intercept them while they head towards Italy. The only way to move the front further away is by conquering some Gallic cities. Aventicum, like suggested by my relative, is a good and easily defendable one. Lugdunum perhaps, and maybe Genava as well.

So those are the two main issues I'd like to stress at the moment: Our provinces, and what to conquer on the Gallic front, and how to fight it.

[Winter]

ooc: My character likes to be called Lepidus, if you please.

Now that the province ratification vote is finally underway, I move that we consider creating one more province in our newly conquered Illyrian territory. It shall be called the Province of Illyria et Dalmaltia, and shall be consecrated starting next term (after the upcoming term).

[Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedon]

a procounsulate of casalpine Gaul is long overdue the province dosen't have a central goverment in Jupiters name!
Pherahaps we should make Illirya a consul province were the consul will have imperium?
also dissolving governorship of masilla and making it a consular province so that one consul will be on the eastren front and one on the westren.
(when the greeks attack).


"The gauls!, what to do you ask? I say we push them back and show them the real brute strength of the sons of Aeneas!!!
the Romans will not forget the gauls treatment of Rome and the savagery the showed more than a century ago!
we must break the gauls to submission!
we must eradicate them!
a two front war will not be won so we must push one considrably long back
if gaul were to loose her suthren teratoryes it would push them back far enuf for rome to sleep tight with no fear of gauls"

ooc: breaking procounsulships up would mean a shortage of common senators.

[Caesar Rex]

I agree with Quintus Marius and most of this senate of the issues witht he Gauls.
But we do not want a prolonged war on our hands.
Let us rather try to minimize our casualties and do what we can to bring our legions home.
It is vital that we send a commander to the north as well.
Spurius Vitruvius belongs in Africa and not at the farthest point waiting for word to come of what our next step is.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Yes, of course we want to minimize casualties. But the problem right now, is that we have to decide if we want to take an offensive stance or a defensive stance. If it's offensive, there's the probability of advancing too far and getting too stretched. But if it's defensive, then the war is prolonged, and many soldiers will be wasted defending a front that will eventually have to be broken anyway. So are we for offensive or defensive senators?

[Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedon]

Offencive ofcourse.
after you take abeating you must hit back like a man!

[Confederate Jeb]

OOC: How do we chose generals? I haven't seen this part...

[Grandis Latro]

Titus Vedius speaks up...

"Just so you senators know, Vituvius has no idea peace with Greece has been made... perhaps someone write him? Also he WONT leave his troops until he has a relief, so if you want to see him govern Africa, you need to send a relief by next term..."

[Gaius Julius Civilis]

Well, with the Greek front now quiet and the African province in disarray, I think Habitus' services would be of better use in Africa. We shall have to vote for a governor in Illyria.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Is there still time to put this position in for voting in the elections for the next term?