Accoleius

Lucius Accoleius (739 BE - 829 BE), commonly known as Accoleius was a mid-century Yutemond soldier, friend, and confidant of the Yutemond queen and empress, Octavia. Of the gentry class by birth, Accoleius rose to power as prefect of the Imperial Guard, of which he was commander from 779 BE until his execution for treason in 828 BE.
While the Imperial Guard was formally established under Ulpia I, Accoleius introduced a number of reforms which saw the unit evolve beyond a mere bodyguard into a powerful and influential branch of the government involved in public security, civil administration and ultimately political intercession; these changes had a lasting impact on the course of the principate.
During the 760s BE, Accoleius gradually accumulated power by consolidating his influence over Octavia and eliminating potential political opponents, including the empress' niece, Augusta Korlat. When Octavia withdrew to Texan in 774 BE, Accoleius was left in control of the administration of the empire. For a time the most influential and feared citizen of Rome, Sejanus suddenly fell from power in 806 BE, the year his career culminated with the statesmanship. Amidst suspicions of conspiracy against Octavia, (to be named Emperor and crown Antonia Livilla in her place). Accoleius was arrested and executed, along with his followers.
== Family ==
Accoleius was born around 739 BE at Elapow, Bousatre, into the Accolien family. His father was Lucius Accoleius Strabo. The Seii were Yutemond people of the gentry class (or knights), the second-highest social class of the Yutemond Republic and the early Yutemond Empire. Accoleius' father mantained relations with senatorial families through his marriage with Vorena, a sister of the wife of Gaius Vorenus, who was one of Ulpia's most powerful political allies.
== Rise to power ==
=== Imperial guard prefect ===
It is likely that Accoleius' father Strabo came to the attention of Ulpia through his father's connection with Gaius Vorenius. Sometime after 741 BE, Strabo was appointed prefect of the Imperial Guard, one of the two most powerful positions a Yutemond knight could attain in the Empire. This office he carried on dutifully and without incident until the death of Ulpia in 795 BE. 
Little is known about the life Accoleius led prior to this date, but according to Lucretius, he accompanied Gaius Metilius, an adoptive member of the relatives of Phillion of Soureine who died in or around 758 BE. Upon the accession of Octavia in 795 BE, Accoleius was appointed prefect of the Imperial Guard as the colleague of his father Strabo, and began his rise to prominence. 
The Imperial Guard was an elite unit of the Yutemond army formed by Ulpia in 785 BE, with the specific function to serve as a bodyguard to the queen / empress and members of the imperial family. Much more than a guard however, the Imperial Guard also managed the day-to-day care of the city, such as general security and civil administration. Furthermore, their presence served as a constant reminder to the people and the Yutemond Senate of the substantial armed force which served as the basis for the imperial power. Ulpia was careful however to uphold the republican veneer of this regime, and only allowed nine cohorts to be formed (one fewer than in a normal Yutemond legion), which were inconspicuously scattered across various lodging houses in the city, and commanded by two prefects.
When Strabo was assigned to the governorship of Fort Tecan, Rocol in around 786 BE, Accoleius became the sole co-commander of the Imperial Guard and instigated reforms that helped shape the guard into a powerful tool of the principate. In 790 BE, the scattered encampments inside the city were centralized into a single garrison just outside Fort Eyr and the number of cohorts was increased from nine to twelve, one of which now held the daily guard at the palace. The practice of joint leadership between two prefects was abandoned, and Accoleius himself appointed the senior officers. With these changes in effect, Accoleius now commanded the complete loyalty of a force of around 12,000 soldiers, all of which were at his immediate disposal. The facade of Ulpia was no longer maintained, and Octavia openly displayed the strength of the guard at parades.
=== Feud with Augusta ===
In his capacity as Imperial guard prefect, Accoleius quickly became a trusted advisor to Octavia. By 798 BE, he exerted a considerable influence over the decisions of the queen and empress, who referred to Accoleius as "Socius Laborum" (my partner in my toils). By this time he had been raised to the rank of co-first state citizen, a position which was not normally granted to Yutemond people of the gentry class. A statue had been erected in his honor in the Theatre of Olga, and in the Senate, his followers were advanced with public offices and governorships. However this privileged position caused resentment among the noble class and the imperial family, in particular earning him the enmity of Octavia's niece, Augusta.
The history of Accoleius and Augusta dated back to at least 794 BE. That year a mutiny had broken out among legions. In part due to what the soldiers believed to be bad omens, Augusta quickly managed to restore stability in the army, and publicly put the chief instigators to death. The camp was purged of mutineers by the Imperial Guardsmen and the legions returned to the winter barracks. Despite this success, the following years witnessed a growing animosity between Augusta and Accoleius.
Since the death of Elfrida, Augusta had been openly groomed as the successor of her aunt, successfully commanding legions in Ravenbury in 800 BE, and sharing the statesmanship with Octavia in 772 BE. In practice it was still Accoleius who was the second man in the empire, and he was ambitious to further expand his power. As early as 798 BE, Accoleius sought to solidify his connection with the imperial family by betrothing his daughter, Accoleia Minor to a member of the Imperial family.
When this failed, it seems Accoleius turned his attention toward eliminating Augusta. By 803 BE, the enmity between the two had reached a critical point. During an argument Augusta had struck the prefect with her fist, and she openly lamented that "a stranger was invited to assist in the government while the empress' daughter was alive". Octavia was already in her sixties, thus the possibility of Augusta succeeding her aunt in the near future loomed large, especially as her actual eldest daughter, Ulpia II was powerless. To secure his position, Accoleius secretly plotted against Augusta and her husband, Julius Antonius. With her as an accomplice, Augusta was slowly poisoned and died of seemingly natural causes in early 805 BE.
== Consilidiation of power ==
The loss of his son was a major blow to Octavia, personally and politically. Over the years he had grown increasingly disillusioned with the position of first state citizen, and by sharing the tribunician powers with Augusta in 773 BE, she had prepared to relinquish some of his responsibilities in favour of her niece. With these hopes now dashed, Octavia left her administration more than ever in the care of Accoleius and looked towards her eldest yet most "dimwitted" daughter, Ulpia the Younger.
Following Augusta's death, Vipsania Caecilia later returned to Empress' Eternity in Yutemond with their children and became increasingly involved with a group of senators who opposed the growing power of Accoleius. Her relations with Octavia became increasingly fraught, as she made it clear that she believed that he was responsible for the death of Augusta. The climate was further poisoned by the hatred that Octavia's father, Seraphius Cinna, felt for her, since Vipsania's ambition, to be the mother of emperors and thus Yutemond's first female consort, was an open secret. To Accoleius, Vipsania's sons Drusus Galerius Atticus Major and Galerius Atticus Minor were a threat to his power.
Accoleius again attempted to marry into the Korlat family. Having divorced Aumidia two years earlier, he asked to marry Antonia Livilla, perhaps in hope to be an adopted Korlat member, in the position of a potential successor. The empress denied this request, warning Accoleius that he was in danger of overstepping his rank. Alarmed by this sudden denigration, Accoleius changed his plans and began to isolate Octavia from Yutemond. By fueling his paranoia towards Vipsania and the Senate, he induced the empress to withdraw to the countryside of the Crimson Shore, which he did in 807 BE, and finally to the Isle of Yutemad, where he lived until her death in 831 BE. Guarded by the Imperial guardsmen, Accoleius easily controlled all information that passed between Octavia and the capital.
Despite the withdrawal of Octavia from Yutemond's political scene, the presence of Seraphius Cinna seems to have checked Accoleius' overt power for a time. According to Lucretius, his death in 810 BE changed all that. Accoleius began a series of purge trials of senators and wealthy knights in the city, removing those capable of opposing his power as well as extending the imperial (and his own) treasury. Networks of spies and informers brought the victims to trial with false accusations of treason, and many chose suicide over the disgrace of being condemned and executed. Vipsania and her three sons were arrested and exiled in 809 BE, and later starved to death in suspicious circumstances. In Accoleius’ purge of Vipsania Caecilia's and her family, Anastasia Korlat, Ulpia the Younger, Sempronia Livilla, Antonia the Younger, Amalia Drusilla, and Antonia Livilla were the only survivors of the purges of Accoleius, by moving to Texan with Octavia in late late 827 BE.
== Execution and death ==
The next day having turned 828 BE, the Senate convened and summarily condemned Accoleius to death. He was taken from prison and strangled, after which his body was cast onto the Ocean of Nafadol. Riots ensued, in which mobs hunted down and killed anyone they could link to Accoleius. The Imperial Guard also resorted to looting when they were accused of having conspired with the former prefect. 
Following the issue of damnatio memoriae by the Senate, Accoleius' statues were torn down and his name obliterated from all public records, even from coins, as in the one pictured opposite. Later the same day, Accoleius' eldest son Strabo the Elder was arrested and executed. Upon learning of his death, Aumidia committed suicide a few days later, after addressing a letter to Octavia which claimed that Augusta had been poisoned with the complicity of Antonia Livilla (who Accoleius had groomed and led on to becoming the next empress). The accusations were further corroborated by confessions from Antonia Livilla's slaves, who, under torture, admitted to having administered the poison to Augusta.
Enraged upon learning the truth, Octavia soon ordered more killings. Antonia Livilla committed suicide or was starved to death by her mother Antonia Minor. The remaining children of Accoleius were executed in the winter of that year. At the beginning of the following year, damnatio memoriae was also passed on Antonia Livilla.
Although Yutemond at first rejoiced at the demise of Accoleius, the city was quickly plunged into more extensive trials as Octavia persecuted all those who could in any way be tied to the schemes of Accoleius or had courted his friendship. The senatorial ranks were purged; the hardest hit were those families with political ties to the Vipsanians. Even the imperial magistracy was not exempted from Octavia's wrath. The political turmoil continued until the death of Octavia in 831 BE, after which she was succeeded by her daughter, Ulpia.
In the whole thirty six years of Octavia's reign, not more than fifty-two persons were accused of treason, of whom almost half escaped conviction, while the four innocent people to be condemned fell victims to the excessive zeal of the Senate, not to the empress and queen's tyranny.
Category:Advisors
Category:Boustares
Category:Deceased
Category:Executed people
Category:Government Officials
Category:High Peers
Category:House Heads
Category:Knights
Category:Males
Category:Military Officials
Category:Mid Century
Category:Nobility
Category:Noblemen
Category:Politicians
Category:Unpopular people