Curia Hostilia - Consulate of Balbus/Saevus

[Hesus de bodemloze]

That is a reconciling proposal Senator Falco, at least for the senators here gathered in the curia. But i am afraid Carthage will not accept such a proposal.

[chaplain118]

So, shall we move to secure peace with the Carthaginians? If they should refuse, then we will wrest Malta from their hands.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

This looks like a good plan Consul, will you bring this up to a vote please.

[chaplain118]

Someone will need to propose a motion.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

ooc could someone provide me with the latin name?

I. We the senate of Rome will send a diplomat the Carthage to settle a peace treaty with them.

II. I Carthage refuges to our demands one of the consuls will be put in command of a consular Legion to siege and capture the island of Malta for the sake of the Republic.

[Galerius Priscus]

This motion, I would support.

[Snowball]

Marcus rose to speak to the senate.

While i agree with the motion, principally, i wonder if we have a navy to safely transport a consular legion to malta, and back?
Have we such control of the sea?

I would like to hear more about how you plan to accomplish this, the "hidden" costs so to speak...Otherwise i will be forced to veto it, i do not think we should bind ourself legally to take Malta, when it is not clear if its feasible, or wise to do so.

[Ozy]

Well, Malta is not far from Sicily, so taking troops to the island should not be very different from taking troops to any of the other Punic islands. I think it might even be less risky that it was to send troops to Consiga or Sardinia...

[chaplain118]

There are ships docked in Sardinia are there not? They can first dock in either Messana or Lilybaeum for a season, and then they can be sent their way to Malta and back within a season.

[stormer]

Yes, we can transfer troops from Sardinia to Sicily, get the troops to the southern shores then transfer them to Malta.
Also, we should gather some troops for the proconsul to take Syracuse (please take it while it's weak), but before that send a spy into the city to assess the situation.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

We are in control of the islands Sardinia and Corsica tribune this gives us a backdoor. And what i mean with this is we would be able to gather the legion and small fleet in Corsica or Sardienia to take a detour along the shores of Gallie at a point where no Carthaginian fleet has ever been and bend of by a slanting line towards malta.

It would take weeks for a report of a Carthaginian spy to reach the Carthaginian senate and again some day' s for there fleet to prepare it self. After this thy will need some weeks to track us down and by then we will already have taken there island from them.

The only thing we must do is inform a small group of trusted officers to what there destination and oppertion will be, the selected Consul needs to be very careful with this. Once at sea he can inform the rest of the legion of there destination.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

"Rest assured, tribune, we have a fleet anchored in Lilybaeum, and I am sure that it will be sufficient to carry an army from Sicily to Malta. The distance is not that long. Now, while the matter of the Carthaginians is being voted on, I would like to propose my building plan, which is very similar to the previous Quaestor's except instead of focusing totally on economy, I have also looked at public order and defensive needs. Therefore I propose:

Arretium: Caupo - 1200 denarii - three quarters of a year building time - increased trade
Ariminium: Caupo - 1200 denarii - three quarters of a year building time - increased trade
Ancona: Forum - 4800 denarii - one year and three months building time - trains spies and diplomats, increased trade
Roma: Ferrarius - 4400 denarii - one year and three months building time - upgrades light, heavy and missile weapons, as well as armour
Capua: Villa Proconsulis - 10,000 denarii - two and a half years building time - expands the city, trains better diplomats
Corfinium: Traba Vallum - 1000 denarii - one year building time - walls around the city for defense
Paestum: Colonorum Deductio - 2400 denarii - three years building time - increased public order, new training centre for Italici hoplites and pedites
Tarentum: Caupo - 1200 denarii - three quarters of a year building time - increased trade
Croton: Lares Iuppiter - 400 denarii - three months building time - increased public order and cultural assimilation
Rhegium: Caupo - 1200 denarii - three quarters of a year building time - increased trade

This is the most all rounded plan I could think up to help Italia become more economically, militarily and publicly more sound."

[Snowball]

I fully support this plan, if we buy all this, how much money will be left in our coffers?


Furthermore, i formally request a full report on the Republics military.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

"By my calculations, that comes to some 26,000 denarii, which would leave our treasury with around 40,000 denarii left. With our collection of taxes and income every season, it shall not take long to return to our former money level. I estimate two or three seasons at the most."

[Junius]

Senators, I wish to open discussion on an idea I recently have had. The Republic has a growing military, and it will only expand as our power does. It is a complicated beast, to organise, recruit, and know where all these men are. I suggest we create an office to look after all military logistics. This 'Aedile' would be a low level magistracy, but would perform a vital task, which would allow the Senate to know what her military strength is. As the Quaestor is in charge of financial affairs, and has to publish a report on all the major towns of the Republic, the Aedile would have to prepare a report on the military strength, including garrison numbers, types of troops, navies, local commanders etc.. What are your thoughts on the creation of such a post?

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Senator Ahenobarbus i still stand with my previous statement it will exhaust our resources in a to high pace.

[chaplain118]

We have barely enough people manning the offices as it is, to put in more offices for men to fill would be nonsensical.

[Junius]

Then maybe we can expand the power and responsibilty of the Quaestor, or we could allow a person to hold both offices, the Quaestorship and th eAedileship.

[Lord Kal]

OOC: Save it for when we get more people. I believe we're advertising more soon.

As soon as the economic plan is approved I can move things on.

[Ozy]

What would be the point of dividing the power of an office in 2 offices, and then giving both offices to one person?