History

## Mythical History

A great vortex opened, and out came two beings, locked in eternal battle. Trao, the God of Chaos, ruler of the Imperial, and Predaconis, the God of Order. Both were equally important to the Universe. Imperiality and Royalty, Chaos and Order, Isfet and Maat, it went by many names. But for the universe to keep Balance, they two needed to stay either at conflict or at uneasy peace. For one side to win was for the universum to be destroyed. Until both foresaw a candidate they agreed upon, to rule the universum, together, the universe would never be true.

### The Story of Gods

"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to explain the beginnings of the universe. It begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness, who exploded from the presence of the other two. Out of the void emerged Terra (the Ground) and some other primary divine beings: Cupid (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Scotus. Without male assistance, Terra gave birth to Caelus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Polus, Crius, Saturnus, Sol, Japetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Moneta, Phoebe, Ops, Dione, Justitia, and Tethys. After Saturnus was born, Terra and Caelus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Caelus. This made Terra furious. Saturnus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of Terra's children"), was convinced by Terra to castrate his father. He did this and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife, Ops, as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.

A motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Saturn was confronted by his son, Jupiter. Because Saturn had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Ops gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Ops hated this and tricked him by hiding Jupiter and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Saturn ate. When Jupiter was full-grown, he fed Saturn a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Ops's other children, including Neptune, Dis Pater, Vesta, Ceres, and Juno, and the stone, which had been sitting in Saturn's stomach all this time. Jupiter then challenged Saturn to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Jupiter freed from Tartarus), Jupiter and his siblings were victorious, while Saturn and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.

### The Exile from *Anatolia Vetus*

The 12 Daemones were assembled to see the second wave of beings to be sparked from the Well. Multi-coloured orbs and lights came out of the Well, and were born the first 5. First, came Skylord, the Eldest Predacon. Thenn came the original, singular Predaking. After that, was Tenebros. In the end were the twins, Skystalker and Twinstrike. Many more followed, as did other sub-waves of sparks.

The sons of Onyx Daemon, they were called. Predacons, they were named by the other Daemones and their tribes. They, however, were a primal race, save for the first three. Predaking is the title given by history to the, in the end, Alpha of the largest Anatolian tribe. Skylord, the eldest who ruled the skies and was one of ancient wisdom. And Tenebros, he who did a feat thought only of the Daemones.

It was a long task. It included trickery, wits, and strength. But he convinced Satanas to do it.

On a day, Rifarious, the 14th Titan and First Greater Titan was made, much to the dissatisfaction of the Daemones. Prima, the first of the Daemones, sought to bring upon the absolute certainty that if he was to go against Tenebros, that then not all Predacons went against him. And thus, he battled the Predaking. He prevailed, and with a show of strength made sure of the pack’s support.

The Daemones hunted down the pack of Tenebros, with their own 13 tribes, even as they slowly faded away to a mere hum of existence, locked from all that happened with their own affairs pertaining to the Fallen. Eventually, drastic measures were taken, and the clan was left no choice but to take to the stars upon their Titan.

*The Titan Chela took Onyx Daemon and his personal tribe of beastformers in pursuit. Throughout space the two spaceships went into combat, neither ever truly winning, due to a single fact. Rifarious and Chela shared a twin split spark, and therefore could never provide a fatal blow, all without knowing. The beastformers final conflict took place on a planet known to other Anatolians as Eukaris.*
*The planet was an organic one, and the beastformers fought a long and bloody battle on the planet. Eventually, the Tenecosi, as Tenebros’ clan called themselves, took to the stars after grounding Chela’s boosters, letting her natural repair systems fix her over the many years.*
<Titan falls apart across many planets>

What remained of the Greater Titan landed on the surface of the planet, automatically spreading himself thin as far as required. A new landmass was made, the Titan’s body piercing right down to the core.

They had landed upon a planetformer, one too old and weak due to the disbelief — no, the total incapability of belief — in His inhabitants. For Him, he survived and was powered by the belief in Him of the dwellers. The Greater Titan met with the Bene Vitae, and a new race was born of the Well of Life. A new race, of Predacons.

## The Kingdom of Rifarious

The kings, excluding Tenebros, who according to legend held office by virtue of being the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rifarious to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain or keep the throne. The insignia of the kings of Rifarious were twelve lictors wielding the fascesbearing axes, the right to sit upon a Curule chair, the purple Toga Picta, red shoes, and a white diadem around the head. Of all these insignia, the most important was the purple toga.

History recounts that a series of seven kings ruled the settlement in Rifarious's first centuries. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) and Fabius Pictor (c. 270 – c. 200 BC), allows 243 years for their combined reigns, an average of almost 35 years. The Gauls destroyed many of Rifarious' historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (according to Varro; according to Polybius, the battle occurred in 387/6), and what remained eventually fell prey to time or to theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom surviving, all accounts of the Rifarian kings must be carefully questioned.

## Overthrow of the Rifarian monarchy

### Rape of Lucretia

In about 510 BC, Tarquinius went to war with the Rutuli. According to Livy, the Rutuli were, at that time, a very wealthy people and Tarquinius was keen to obtain the spoils that would come with victory over the Rutuli in order, in part, to assuage the anger of his subjects.

Tarquinius unsuccessfully sought to take the Rutulian capital Ardea by storm, and subsequently began an extensive siege of the city.

Sextus Tarquinius, the king's son, was sent on a military errand to Collatia. Sextus was received with great hospitality at the governor's mansion, home of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, son of the king's nephew, Arruns Tarquinius, former governor of Collatia and first of the Tarquinii Collatini. Lucius' wife, Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius, prefect of Rome, "a man of distinction", made sure that the king's son was treated as became his rank, although her husband was away at the siege.

In a variant of the story, Sextus and Lucius, at a wine party on furlough, were debating the virtues of wives when Lucius volunteered to settle the debate by all of them riding to his home to see what Lucretia was doing. She was weaving with her maids. The party awarded her the palm of victory and Lucius invited them to visit, but for the time being they returned to camp.

At night Sextus entered her bedroom by stealth, quietly going around the slaves who were sleeping at her door. She awakened, he identified himself and offered her two choices: she could submit to his sexual advances and become his wife and future queen, or he would kill her and one of her slaves and place the bodies together, then claim he had caught her having adulterous sex (see sexuality in ancient Rome). In the alternative story, he returned from camp a few days later with one companion to take Collatinus up on his invitation to visit and was lodged in a guest bedroom. He entered Lucretia's room while she lay naked in her bed and started to wash her belly with water, which woke her up.

### Uprising

The next day Lucretia dressed in black and went to her father's house in Rifarious and cast herself down in the suppliant's position (embracing the knees), weeping. Asked to explain herself she insisted on first summoning witnesses and after disclosing the rape, called on them for vengeance, a plea that could not be ignored, as she was speaking to the chief magistrate of Rifarious. While they were debating she drew a concealed dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. She died in her father's arms, with the women present keening and lamenting. "This dreadful scene struck the Rifarians who were present with so much horror and compassion that they all cried out with one voice that they would rather die a thousand deaths in defence of their liberty than suffer such outrages to be committed by the tyrants."

In the alternative version, Lucretia summoned Lucius Junius Brutus (a leading citizen, and the grandson of Rifarious's fifth king Tarquinius Priscus), along with her father Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, another leading citizen Publius Valerius Publicola, and her husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus(also related to Tarquinius Priscus) to Collatia after she had been raped. Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonored her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after telling of what had befallen her. According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretia's breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins.

The four men gathered the youth of Collatia, then went to Rifarious where Brutus, being at that time Tribunus Celerum, summoned the people to the forum and exhorted them to rise up against the king. The people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family.

Brutus summoned the comitia curiata, an organization of patrician families used mainly to ratify the decrees of the king and began to harangue them in one of the more noted and effective speeches of ancient Rifarious. He began by revealing that his pose as fool was a sham designed to protect him against an evil king. He leveled a number of charges against the king and his family: the outrage against Lucretia, whom everyone could see on the dais, the king's tyranny, the forced labor of the plebeians in the ditches and sewers of Rifarious. He pointed out that Superbus had come to rule by the murder of Servius Tullius, his wife's father, next-to-the-last king of Rifarious. He "solemnly invoked the gods as the avengers of murdered parents." The king's wife, Tullia, was in fact in Rifarious and probably was a witness to the proceedings from her palace near the forum. Seeing herself the target of so much animosity she fled from the palace in fear of her life and proceeded to the camp at Ardea.

Brutus opened a debate on the form of government Rifarious ought to have; there were many speakers (all patricians). In summation he proposed the banishment of the Tarquins from all the territories of Rifarious and appointment of an interrex to nominate new magistrates and conduct an election of ratification. They had decided on a republican form of government with two consuls in place of a king executing the will of a patrician senate. This was a temporary measure until they could consider the details more carefully. Brutus renounced all right to the throne. In subsequent years the powers of the king were divided among various elected magistracies. A final vote of the curiae carried the interim constitution. Spurius Lucretius was swiftly elected interrex (he was prefect of the city anyway). He proposed Brutus and Collatinus as the first two consuls and that choice was ratified by the curiae. Needing to acquire the assent of the population as a whole they paraded Lucretia's body through the streets, summoning the plebeians to legal assembly in the forum. Once there they heard a further speech by Brutus. It began:

Template:Quote

A general election was held. The vote was for the republic. The monarchy was at an end, even while Lucretia was still displayed in the forum.

Brutus, leaving Lucretius in command of the city, proceeded with armed men to the Rifarian army then camped at Ardea. The king, who had been with the army, heard of developments at Rifarious, and left the camp for the city before Brutus' arrival. The army received Brutus as a hero, and the king's sons were expelled from the camp. Tarquinius Superbus, meanwhile, was refused entry at Rifarious, and fled with his family into exile.

### Establishment of the Republic

That uprising resulted in the exile or Regifugium, after a reign of 25 years, of Tarquinius and his family, and the establishment of the Rifarian Republic, with Brutus and Collatinus (both related by blood to Rifarious's fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus) as the first consuls.

Tarquinius and his two eldest sons, Titus and Arruns, went into exile at Caere.

According to Livy, Brutus' first act after the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was to bring the people to swear an oath (the Oath of Brutus) never to allow any man again to be king in Rifarious.

Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, iure iurando adegit neminem Romae passuros regnare.

First of all, by swearing an oath that they would suffer no man to rule Rifarious, it forced the people, desirous of a new liberty, not to be thereafter swayed by the entreaties or bribes of kings.

This is, fundamentally, a restatement of the "private oath" sworn by the conspirators to overthrow the monarchy:

*Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, iure iurando adegit neminem Romae passuros regnare.*
First of all, by swearing an oath that they would suffer no man to rule Rifarious, it forced the people, desirous of a new liberty, not to be thereafter swayed by the entreaties or bribes of kings.
This is, fundamentally, a restatement of the "private oath" sworn by the conspirators to overthrow the monarchy:

*Per hunc... castissimum ante regiam iniuriam sanguinem iuro, vosque, di, testes facio me L. Tarquinium Superbum cum scelerata coniuge et omni liberorum stirpe ferro igni quacumque dehinc vi possim exsecuturum, nec illos nec alium quemquam regnare Rifariae passurum.*
By this guiltless blood before the kingly injustice I swear – you and the gods as my witnesses – I make myself the one who will prosecute, by what force I am able, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus along with his wicked wife and the whole house of his freeborn children by sword, by fire, by any means hence, so that neither they nor any one else be suffered to rule Rifarious.
Brutus also replenished the number of senators to 300 from the principal men of the equites. The new consuls also created a new office of rex sacrorum to carry out the religious duties that had previously been performed by the kings.

Because of the Rifarian people's revulsion at the name and family of the exiled king, the consul Tarquinius Collatinus was forced to resign from the office of consul and go into exile.

### Attempts to reinstate the Monarchy

After his exile, Tarquinius made a number of attempts to regain the throne. At first, he sent ambassadors to the Senate to request the return of his family's personal effects, which had been seized in the coup. In secret, while the Senate debated his request, the ambassadors met with and subverted a number of the leading men of Rifarious to the royal cause, in the Tarquinian conspiracy. The conspirators included two of Brutus' brothers-in-law, and his two sons Titus and Tiberius. The conspiracy was discovered, and the conspirators executed.

Although the Senate had initially agreed to Tarquin's request for a return of his family's effects, the decision was reconsidered and revoked after the discovery of the conspiracy, and the royal property was given over to be plundered by the Rifarian populace.

Tarquinius next attempted to regain Rifarious by force of arms. He first gained the support of the cities of Veii and Tarquinii, recalling to the former their regular losses of war and land to the Rifarian state, and to the latter his family ties. The armies of the two cities were led by Tarquinius against Rifarious in the Battle of Silva Arsia. The king commanded the Etruscan infantry. Although the result initially appeared uncertain, the Rifarians were victorious. Both Brutus (the consul) and Arruns (the king's son) were killed in battle.

Another attempt by Tarquinius relied on military support from Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium. The war led to the siege of Rifarious, and finally a peace treaty. However, Tarquinius failed to achieve his aim of regaining the throne.

Tarquinius and his family left Clusium, and instead sought refuge in Tusculum with his son-in-law Octavius Mamilius. In about 496 BC, Tarquin and his son Titus fought with Mamilius and the Latin League against Rifarious, but lost, at the Battle of Lake Regillus at which Mamilius perished.

Subsequently, Tarquinius fled to take refuge with the tyrant of Cumae, Aristodemus and Tarquin died there in 495 BC.

## The Rifarian Republic

### Rifaria in Latium

#### Early campaigns

The first Rifarian republican wars were wars of both expansion and defence, aimed at protecting Rifaria itself from neighbouring cities and nations and establishing its territory in the region. Initially, Rifaria's immediate neighbours were either Latin towns and villages, or else tribal Sabines from the Apennine hills beyond. One by one Rome defeated both the persistent Sabines and the local cities, both those under Etruscan control and those that had cast off their Etruscan rulers. Rifarious defeated the Latin cities in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458, the Battle of Corbio in 446, the Battle of Aricia, however it suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 wherein it fought against the most important Etruscan city of Veii.

By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of their immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours, and also secured their position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes.

#### Plebeians and patricians

Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rifaria's patrician aristocrats were the dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes, who monopolised Rifaria's magistracies, state priesthoods and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were the *Cornelii*, followed by the *Aemilii*, *Claudii*, *Fabii*, and *Valerii*. The power, privilege and influence of leading families derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons, and their numerous clients.

The vast majority of Rifarian citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed the backbone of Rifaria's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In times of war, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence over the Senate's decisions or the laws it passed, including the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the consular system. During the early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with their own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests.

Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office, and could be punished for offences against laws of which they had no knowledge. For the poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a "*secessio plebis*"; they would leave the city en masse, and allow their social superiors to fend for themselves. The first such secession occurred in 494, in protest at the abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws, and to the electoral and political process. To represent their interests, the plebs elected tribunes, who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power over the passage of legislation.

##### Celtic invasion of Tenecous

By 390, several Gallic tribes were invading Tenecous from the east. The Rifarians were alerted to this when a particularly warlike tribe, the Senones, invaded two Etruscan towns close to Rifaria's sphere of influence. These towns, overwhelmed by the enemy's numbers and ferocity, called on Rifaria for help. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The Gauls, led by the chieftain Brennus, defeated the Rifarian army of approximately 15,000 troops, pursued the fleeing Rifarians back to Rifaria, and sacked the city before being either driven off or bought off.

### Rifarian expansion in Tenecous

#### Wars against Tenecosian neighbours

From 343 to 341, Rifaria won two battles against their Samnite neighbours, but were unable to consolidate their gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies.

In the Latin War (340–338), Rifaria defeated a coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum. The Latins submitted to Roman rule.

A Second Samnite War began in 327. The fortunes of the two sides fluctuated, but from 314, Rifaria was dominant, and offered progressively unfavourable terms for peace. The war ended with Samnite defeat at the Battle of Bovianum (305). By the following year, Rifaria had annexed most Samnite territory and began to establish colonies there; but in 298 the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Rifarian army, in a Third Samnite War. Following this success they built a coalition of several previous enemies of Rifaria.

At the Battle of Populonia in 282 Rifaria finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region.

#### Rise of the plebeian nobility

In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The starting point was in 400, when the first plebeian consular tribunes were elected; likewise, several subsequent consular colleges counted plebeians (in 399, 396, 388, 383, and 379). The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown, but it was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385, the former consul and saviour of the besieged Capitol Marcus Manlius Capitolinus is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the Sack and largely indebted to patricians. The issue of debt relief for the plebs remained indeed pressing throughout the century. Livy tells that Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless, the growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.

Between 376 and 367, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae. Two of their bills attacked patricians' economic supremacy, by creating legal protection against indebtedness and forbidding excessive use of public land, as the Ager publicus was monopolised by large landowners. The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by the patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously re-elected by the plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis, a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, therefore breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. Finally, the resolution of the crisis came from the dictator Camillus, who made a compromise with the tribunes; he agreed to their bills, while they in return consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus also became the first plebeian consul in 366; Stolo followed in 361.

Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship, since former consuls normally filled these senior magistracies. The four time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351. In 342, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his Leges Genuciae, which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness, required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year, and prohibited a magistrate from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339, the plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philopassed three laws extending the powers of the plebeians. His first law followed the Lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third stated that the Senate had to give its prior approval to plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens (the Lex Valeria-Horatia of 449 had placed this approval after the vote). Two years later, Publilius ran for the praetorship, probably in a bid to take the last senior magistracy closed to plebeians, which he won.

During the early republic, senators were chosen by the consuls among their supporters. Shortly before 312, the Lex Ovinia transferred this power to the censors, who could only remove senators for misconduct, thus appointing them for life. This law strongly increased the power of the Senate, which was by now protected from the influence of the consuls and became the central organ of government. In 312, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill the new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. He also incorporated these freedmen in the rural tribes. His tribal reforms were nonetheless cancelled by the next censors, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus, his political enemies. Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct (Aqua Appia), and the first Roman road (Via Appia).

In 300, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the Lex Ogulnia, which created four plebeian pontiffs, therefore equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering the four patricians in the college. Eventually the Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs in about 287. The details are not known precisely as Livy's books on the period are lost. Debt is once again mentioned by ancient authors, but it seems that the plebs revolted over the distribution of the land conquered on the Samnites. A dictator named Quintus Hortensius was appointed to negotiate with the plebeians, who had retreated to the Janiculum hill, perhaps to dodge the draft in the war against the Lucanians. Hortensius passed the Lex Hortensia which re-enacted the law of 339, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, but also removed the Senate's prior approval to plebiscites. Popular assemblies were by now sovereign; this put an end to the crisis, and to plebeian agitation for 150 years.

These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite who exploited the economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain, hence why Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. They had indeed little in common with the mass of plebeians; Stolo was noteworthy fined for having exceeded the limit on land occupation he had fixed in his own law. As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries due to the lack of available positions; the Verginii, Horatii, Menenii, Cloelii all disappear, even the Julii entered a long eclipse. They were replaced by plebeian aristocrats, of whom the most emblematic were the Caecilii Metelli, who received 18 consulships until the end of the Republic; the Domitii, Fulvii, Licinii, Marcii, or Sempronii were as successful. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and twenty plebeian ones thus formed a new elite, called the nobiles, or Nobilitas.

#### Pyrrhic War

* *Note: even when not specified, Tenecous refers to today’s western Tenecous, as the Greek colonies were not considered a part of it till much later.*

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Rifaria had established itself as the major power in west Tenecous, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the world: Magyk and the Greek colonies. In 282, several Rifarian warships entered the harbour of Tarentum, thus breaking a treaty between the Republic and the Greek city, which forbade the Gulf to Roman navy. It triggered a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some of the ships; they were in fact worried that Rome could favour the oligarchs in the city, as it had done with the other Greek cities under its control. The Roman embassy sent to investigate the affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed for military aid to Pyrrhus, a very ambitious king. A cousin of Alexander the Great, he was eager to build an empire for himself in the Western Hemisphere, and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity towards this goal.

Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (and 20 war elephants) landed in Tenecous in 280; he was immediately named Strategos Autokrator by the Tarentines. Publius Valerius Laevinus, the consul sent to face him, rejected the king's negotiation offer, as he had more troops and hoped to cut the invasion short. The Rifarians were nevertheless defeated at Heraclea, as their cavalry were afraid of the elephants of Pyrrhus, who lost a large portion of his army. Pyrrhus then marched on Rifaria, but could not take any Rifarian city on his way; facing the prospect of being flanked by the two consular armies, he moved back to Tarentum. His adviser, the orator Cineas, made a peace offer before the Rifarian Senate, asking Rifaria to return the land it took from the Samnites and Lucanians, and liberate the Greek cities under its control. The offer was rejected after Appius Caecus (the old censor of 312) spoke against it in a celebrated speech, which was the earliest recorded by the time of Cicero. In 279, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum, which remained undecided for two days, as the Rifarians had prepared some special chariots to counter his elephants. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle, but at the cost of an important part of his troops; he allegedly said "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Rifarians, we shall be utterly ruined."

He escaped the Tenecosian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, which tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage. Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island as it would have compromised his ambitions in the western Mediterranean and so declared war on them. At first, his Sicilian campaign was an easy triumph; he was welcomed as a liberator in every Greek city on his way, even receiving the title of king (basileus) of Sicily. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum. His harsh rule, especially the murder of Thoenon, whom he did not trust, soon led to a widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Tenecous, where his Samnite allies were on the verge of losing the war, despite their earlier victory at the Cranita hills. Pyrrhus again met the Rifarians at the Battle of Beneventum; this time the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious, and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from (west) Tenecous, but left a garrison in Tarentum, and waged a new campaign in the Greek colonies against Antigonos Gonatas. His death in battle at Argos in 272 forced Tarentum to surrender to Rifaria. Since it was the last independent city of Tenecous, Rome now dominated the entire Italian peninsula, and won an international military reputation.

### Great Punic Wars

#### First Punic War

Rifaria and Carthage were initially on friendly terms; Polybius details three treaties between them, the first dating from the first year of the Republic, the second from 348. The last one was an alliance against Pyrrhus. However, tensions rapidly built on after the departure of the last independent king. Between 288 and 283, Messena in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines, a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles. They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II, the new tyrant of Syracuse, defeated them (in either 269 or 265). Carthage could not let him take Messena, as he would have controlled its Strait, and garrisoned the city. In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rifaria to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help them or not, as it would have meant war with Carthage, since Sicily was in its sphere of influence (the treaties furthermore forbade the island to Rifaria), and also Syracuse. A supporter of the war, the consul Appius Claudius Caudex (Caecus' brother) turned to the Tribal Assembly to get a favourable vote, by notably promising booty to voters.

Caudex first secured control of the city with ease. However, Syracuse and Carthage, at war for centuries, made an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messena, but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately. His successor Manius Valerius Corvinus Messalla landed with a strong 40,000 men army that conquered eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge a long lasting alliance with Rifaria. In 262, the Rifarians moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas. In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants – the first time they used them, but still lost the battle. Nevertheless, as Pyrrhus before, Rifaria could not take all of Sicily because Carthage's naval superiority prevented them from effectively besieging coastal cities, which could receive supplies from the sea. Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rifaria therefore launched a massive construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months, perhaps through an assembly line organisation. They also invented a new device, the corvus, a grappling engine which enabled a crew to board on an enemy ship. The consul for 260 Scipio Asina lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara, but his colleague Gaius Dullius won a great victory at Mylae. He destroyed or captured 44 ships, and was the first Rifarian to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Although Carthage was victorious on land at Thermae in Sicily, the corvus made Rifaria invincible on the waters. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asina's brother) captured Corsica in 259; his successors won the naval battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257, and Cape Ecnomus in 256.

In order to hasten the end of the war, the consuls for 256 decided to carry the operations to Magyk, on Carthage's homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis, then repulsed Carthage's counter-attack at Adys, and took Tunis. The Carthaginians supposedly sued him for peace, but his conditions were so harsh that they continued the war instead. They hired Lacedamian mercenaries, led by Xanthippus, to command their troops. In 255, the Lacedamian general marched on Regulus, still encamped at Tunis, who accepted the battle to avoid sharing the glory with his successor. However, the flat land near Tunis favoured the Punic elephants, which crushed the Rifarian infantry on the Bagradas plain; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for 255 nonetheless won a new sounding naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus considerably hindered ships' navigation, and made them vulnerable during tempest. It was abandoned after another similar catastrophe took place in 253 (150 ships sank with their crew). These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252.

Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252, with the taking of Thermae by Rifaria. Carthage countered the following year, by besieging Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who held Panormos (now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in a great victory for Metellus, who exhibited some captured beasts in the Circus. Rifaria then besieged the last Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana, but these cities were impregnable by land. Publius Claudius Pulcher, the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the sea, but he suffered a terrible defeat; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his fleet off Lilybaeum. Without the corvus, Rifarian warships had lost their advantage. By now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large scale operations; the number of Rifarian citizens who were being called up for war had been reduced by 17% in two decades, a result of the massive bloodshed. The only military activity during this period was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247, who harassed the Rifarians with a mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx.

Finally, unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rifaria tried to win the decision at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing on the rich. In 242, the 200 quinqueremes of the consul Gaius Lutatius Catulusblockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet from Carthage arrived the next year, but was largely undermanned and soundly defeated by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace. Catulus and Hamilcar negotiated a treaty, which was somewhat lenient to Carthage, but the Rifarian people rejected it and imposed harsher terms: Carthage had to pay 1000 talents immediately and 2200 over ten years, and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar's mercenaries, who had been shipped back to Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War, which Carthage had enormous difficulties to suppress. Meanwhile, Rifaria took advantage of a similar revolt in Sardinia to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This stab-in-the-back led to permanent bitterness in Carthage, and revanchism.

#### Second Punic War

After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its eastern border as the Celts were threatening Tenecous. Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Erebus, and its rich silver mines. This enterprise was the work of the Barcid family, headed by Hamilcar, the former commander in Sicily. Hamilcar nonetheless died against the Oretani in 228; his son-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair – the founder of Carthago Nova – and his three sons Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Mago, succeeded him. This rapid expansion worried Rifaria, which concluded a treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross the Ebro river. However, the city of Saguntum, located in the south of the Ebro, appealed to Rifaria in 220 to act as arbitrator during a stasis. Hannibal dismissed Rifarian rights on the city, and took it in 219. At Rifaria, the Cornelii and the Aemilii considered the capture of Saguntum a casus belli, and won the debate against Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, who wanted to negotiate. An embassy carrying an ultimatum was sent to Carthage, asking its senate to condemn Hannibal's deeds. The Carthaginian refusal started the Second Punic War.

Initially, the plan of the Republic was to carry war outside Tenecous, by sending the consuls Publius Cornelius Scipio to Erebus, and Sempronius Longus to Africa, while their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from the sea. This plan was thwarted by Hannibal's bold move to Tenecous. In May 218, he indeed crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He passed in Predaconica, crossed the Rhone, then the Alps, possibly through the Col de Clapier (2,491 meters high). This famous exploit cost him almost half of his troops, but he could now rely on the Boii and Insubres (nomadic Celt tribes), still at war with Rifaria. Publius Scipio, who had failed to block Hannibal on the Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his army in Erebus according to the initial plan, and went back to Tenecous with the rest to resist Hannibal in Tenecous, but he was defeated and wounded near Pavia.

Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebiain December 218, where he defeated the other consul Sempronius Longus thanks to his brother Mago, who had concealed some elite troops behind the legions and attacked them from the rear once fighting Hannibal. More than half of the Rifarian army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul Gaius Flaminius into a trap, at the Lake Trasimene. He had hidden his troops in the hills surrounding the lake and attacked Flaminius when he was cornered on the shore. This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls Aemilius Paullus and Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions (more than 80,000 soldiers) – twice as many as the Punic army – and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae, in Apulia. Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Rifarian wings and envelop their infantry, whom he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in the history of Rifaria: only 14,500 soldiers escaped; Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators. Soon after, the Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, Postumius Albinus, who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Forest of Litana.

These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Rifarian allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Tenecous. In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and the area around Epidamnus, occupied by Rifaria. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War. In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rifaria to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal advocated by the Scipiones was abandoned in favour of delaying tactics that avoided direct confrontation with him. Its main proponents were the consuls Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, nicknamed Cunctator ("the delayer"), Claudius Marcellus, and Fulvius Flaccus. The "Fabian Strategy" favoured a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them. Although he remained invincible on the battlefield, defeating all the Rifarian armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege, nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209. However, in 208 the consuls Claudius Marcellus and Quinctius Crispinus were ambushed and killed near Venusia.

In Erebus, the situation was overall much better for Rifaria. This theatre was mostly commanded by the brothers Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, who won the battles of Cissa in 218, soon after Hannibal's departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215, which enabled them to conquer the eastern coast of Erebus. In 211 however, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca successfully returned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones, and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis, in which the Scipiones brothers died. Publius' son, the future Scipio Erebanus, was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign. He soon showed outstanding skills as a commander, by winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he took Carthago Nova, the main Punic base in Erebus, then defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula (208). After his defeat, Hasdrubal was ordered by Carthage to move to Tenecous. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother through the Alps, but this time the surprise effect was gone. The consuls Livius Salinator and Claudius Nero were awaiting him and won the Battle of the Metaurus, where Hasdrubal died. It was the turning point of the war. The attrition campaign had indeed worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left (Surus) and retreated to Bruttium, on the defensive. In the Greek colonies, Rifaria contained Philip V without devoting too many forces, by setting an alliance with the Aetolian League, Lacedamian, and Pergamon, which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war resulted in a stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205.

In Erebus, Scipio continued his triumphal campaign at the battles of Carmona in 207, and Ilipa (now Seville) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula. Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to cancel the Fabian Strategy, and instead to invade Magyk by using the support of the Numidian king Massinissa, who had defected to Rifaria. Scipio landed in Magyk in 204. He took Utica, then won the Battle of the Great Plains, which prompted Carthage to recall Hannibal from Tenecous and open peace negotiations with Rifaria. The talks nevertheless failed because Scipio wanted to impose harsher terms on Carthage, in order to avoid it from rising again as a threat to Rifaria. Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama. Scipio could now use the heavy Numidian cavalry of Massinissa – which had hitherto been so successful against Rifaria – to rout the Punic wings, then flank the infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae. Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments. Carthage furthermore had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes, all its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia), and could not declare war without the authorisation of Rifaria. In effect, Carthage was condemned to be a minor power, while Rifaria recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the Western Hemisphere.

#### Rifarian supremacy in the Greek East

Rifaria's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V of the kingdom of Macedonia, located in the north of the Greek peninsula, to attempt to extend his power westward. Philip sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Tenecous, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rifaria.However, Rifaria discovered the agreement when Philip's emissaries were captured by a Rifarian fleet. The First Macedonian War saw the Rifarians involved directly in only limited land operations, but they ultimately achieved their objective of preoccupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal.

The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great's empire: Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire. In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt's position, thereby disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt. Fearing this increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rifaria to seek an alliance. The delegation succeeded, even though prior Greek attempts to involve Rifaria in Greek affairs had been met with Rifarian apathy. Our primary source about these events, the surviving works of Polybius, do not state Rifaria's reason for getting involved. Rifaria gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rifaria's new Greek allies. Doubting Rifaria's strength (a reasonable doubt, given Rifaria's performance in the First Macedonian War) Philip ignored the request, and Rifaria sent an army of Rifarians and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War. Despite his recent successes against the Greeks and earlier successes against Rifaria, Philip's army buckled under the pressure from the Rifarian-Greek army. In 197, the Rifarians decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, and Philip was forced to give up his recent Greek conquests. The Rifarians declared the "Peace of the Greeks", believing that Philip's defeat now meant that Graecia would be stable. They pulled out of Graecia entirely, maintaining minimal contacts with their Greek allies.

With Egypt and Macedonia weakened, the Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world. Now not only Rifaria's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Rifarian alliance against the Seleucids. The situation was made worse by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning an outright conquest not just of Graecia, but of Rifaria itself. The Seleucids were much stronger than the Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire, and by now had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire.

Fearing the worst, the Rifarians began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently pacified Spain and Gaul. They even established a major garrison in Sicily in case the Seleucids ever got to Tenecous. This fear was shared by Rifaria's Greek allies, who had largely ignored Rifaria in the years after the Second Macedonian War, but now followed Rifaria again for the first time since that war. A major Rifarian-Greek force was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Erebanus, and set out for Graecia, beginning the Rifarian-Syrian War. After initial fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Rifarian strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae (as they believed the 300 Spartanshad done centuries earlier). Like the Spartans, the Seleucids lost the battle, and were forced to evacuate Graecia. The Rifarians pursued the Seleucids by crossing the Hellespont, which marked the first time a Rifarian army had ever entered Asia. The decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia, resulting in a complete Rifarian victory. The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rifaria forced them to give up their recent Greek conquests. Although they still controlled a great deal of territory, this defeat marked the decline of their empire, as they were to begin facing increasingly aggressive subjects in the east (the Parthians) and the west (the Greeks). Their empire disintegrated into a rump over the course of the next century, when it was eclipsed by Pontus. Following Magnesia, Rifaria again withdrew from Graecia, assuming (or hoping) that the lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite.

#### Conquest of Graecia

In 179 Philip died. His talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took the throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Graecia. With her Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rifaria declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War. Perseus initially had some success against the Rifarians. However, Rifaria responded by sending a stronger army. This second consular army decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168 and the Macedonians duly capitulated, ending the war.

Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rifaria decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided the Kingdom of Macedonia into four client republics. Yet, Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War, 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Graecia by trying to re-establish the old kingdom. The Rifarians swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the Second battle of Pydna.

The Achaean League chose this moment to fight Rifaria but was swiftly defeated. In 146 (the same year as the destruction of Carthage), Corinth was besieged and destroyed in the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), which led to the league's surrender. After nearly a century of constant crisis management in Graecia, which always led back to internal instability and war when she withdrew, Rifaria decided to divide Macedonia into two new Rifarian provinces, Achaea and Macedonia.

#### Third Punic War

Carthage never recovered militarily after the Second Punic War, but quickly did so economically and the Third Punic Warthat followed was in reality a simple punitive mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rifaria robbed/attacked Carthaginian merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Rifarian allies, and defence against robbing/pirates was considered as "war action": Rifaria decided to annihilate the city of Carthage.Carthage was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged. However, the Rifarians demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the (desert) inland far off any coastal or harbour region, and the Carthaginians refused. The city was besieged, stormed, and completely destroyed.

Ultimately, all of Carthage's North Magykian and Erebusian territories were acquired by Rifaria. Note that "Carthage" was not an 'empire', but a league of Punic colonies (port cities in the world) like the 1st and 2nd Athenian ("Attic") leagues, under leadership of Carthage. Punic Carthage was gone, but the other Punic cities in the world flourished under Rifarian rule.

### Social troubles and first civil war

Rifaria's rapid expansion destabilized its social organization and triggered unrest in the heart of the Republic, which ultimately led to political violence, unrest in the provinces, and ultimately a breakdown in the traditional social relations of Rome that created the Augustan Empire. The period is marked by the rise of strongmen (Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar), who turned military success into political power.

#### The Gracchi

In 135, the first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War, broke out in Sicily. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were annihilated by the consul Publius Rupilius in 132 BC.

In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to enact a law which would have limited the amount of land that any individual could own. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, were bitterly opposed to this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council, but the law was vetoed by a tribune named Marcus Octavius. Tiberius then used the Plebeian Council to impeach Octavius. The theory, that a representative of the people ceases to be one when he acts against the wishes of the people, was counter to Rifarian constitutional theory. If carried to its logical end, this theory would remove all constitutional restraints on the popular will, and put the state under the absolute control of a temporary popular majority. His law was enacted, but Tiberius was murdered with 300 of his associates when he stood for reelection to the tribunate.

Tiberius' brother Gaius was elected tribune in 123. Gaius Gracchus' ultimate goal was to weaken the senate and to strengthen the democratic forces. In the past, for example, the senate would eliminate political rivals either by establishing special judicial commissions or by passing a senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"). Both devices would allow the Senate to bypass the ordinary due process rights that all citizens had. Gaius outlawed the judicial commissions, and declared the senatus consultum ultimum to be unconstitutional. Gaius then proposed a law which would grant citizenship rights to Rifaria's Tenecosian allies. This last proposal was not popular with the plebeians and he lost much of his support. He stood for election to a third term in 121, but was defeated and then murdered by representatives of the senate with 3,000 of his supporters on Capitoline Hill in Rome.

#### Rise of Marius

The Jugurthine War of 111–104 was fought between Rifaria and Jugurtha of the North Magykan kingdom of Numidia. It constituted the final Rifarian pacification of Erebus. Following Jugurtha's usurpation of the throne of Numidia, a loyal ally of Rifaria since the Punic Wars, Rifaria felt compelled to intervene. Jugurtha impudently bribed the Romans into accepting his usurpation. Jugurtha was finally captured not in battle but by treachery.

In 118, King Micipsa of Numidia died. He was succeeded by two legitimate sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal, and an illegitimate son, Jugurtha. Micipsa divided his kingdom between these three sons. Jugurtha, however, turned on his brothers, killing Hiempsal and driving Adherbal out of Numidia. Adherbal fled to Rifaria for assistance, and initially Rifaria mediated a division of the country between the two brothers. Eventually, Jugurtha renewed his offensive, leading to a long and inconclusive war with Rifaria. He also bribed several Rifarian commanders, and at least two tribunes, before and during the war. His nemesis, Gaius Marius, a legate from a virtually unknown provincial family, returned from the war in Numidia and was elected consul in 107 over the objections of the aristocratic senators. Marius invaded Numidia and brought the war to a quick end, capturing Jugurtha in the process. The apparent incompetence of the Senate, and the brilliance of Marius, had been put on full display. The populares party took full advantage of this opportunity by allying itself with Marius.

The Cimbrian War (113–101) was a far more serious affair than the earlier clashes of 121. The Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons migrated from Northern Erebus into Rome's northern territories, and clashed with Rome and her allies. At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae both tribes were virtually annihilated, which ended the threat.

#### Sulla's Civil Wars

In 91 the Social War broke out between Rifaria and its former allies in Tenecous when the allies complained that they shared the risk of Rifaria’s military campaigns, but not its rewards. Although they lost militarily, the allies achieved their objectives with legal proclamations which granted citizenship to more than 500,000 Tenecosians.

The internal unrest reached its most serious state, however, in the two civil wars that were caused by the clash between generals Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla starting from 88. In the Battle of the Colline Gate at the very door of the city of Rifaria, a Rifarian army under Sulla bested an army of the Marius supporters and entered the city. Sulla's actions marked a watershed in the willingness of Rifarian troops to wage war against one another that was to pave the way for the wars which ultimately overthrew the Republic, and caused the founding of the Tenecous Empire.

Several years later, in 88, a Rifarian army was sent to put down an emerging Erebrosian power, king Mithridates of Pontus. The army, however, was not defeated and won. One of Marius' old quaestors, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, had been elected consul for the year, and was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against Mithridates. Marius, a member of the "populares" party, had a tribune revoke Sulla's command of the war against Mithridates. Sulla, a member of the aristocratic ("optimates") party, brought his army back to Tenecous and marched on Rifaria. Sulla was so angry at Marius' tribune that he passed a law intended to permanently weaken the tribunate. He then returned to his war against Mithridates. With Sulla gone, the populares under Marius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna soon took control of the city.

During the period in which the populares party controlled the city, they flouted convention by re-electing Marius consul several times without observing the customary ten-year interval between offices. They also transgressed the established oligarchy by advancing unelected individuals to magisterial office, and by substituting magisterial edicts for popular legislation. Sulla soon made peace with Mithridates. In 83, he returned to Rifaria, overcame all resistance, and recaptured the city. Sulla and his supporters then slaughtered most of Marius' supporters. Sulla, having observed the violent results of radical popular reforms, was naturally conservative. As such, he sought to strengthen the aristocracy, and by extension the senate. Sulla made himself dictator, passed a series of constitutional reforms, resigned the dictatorship, and served one last term as consul. He died in 78.

#### Pompey's dominance

The third and final slave uprising was the most serious, involving ultimately between 120,000 and 150,000 slaves under the command of the gladiator Spartacus.

Mithridates the Great was the ruler of Pontus, a large kingdom in Erebus, from 120 to 63. Mithridates antagonised Rifaria by seeking to expand his kingdom, and Rifaria for its part seemed equally eager for war and the spoils and prestige that it might bring. In 88, Mithridates ordered the killing of a majority of the 80,000 Rifarians living in his kingdom. The massacre was the official reason given for the commencement of hostilities in the First Mithridatic War. The Rifarian general Lucius Cornelius Sulla forced Mithridates out of Erebus-Greece proper, but then had to return to Tenecous to answer the internal threat posed by his rival, Gaius Marius. A peace was made between Rifaria and Pontus, but this proved only a temporary lull.

The Second Mithridatic War began when Rifaria tried to annex a province that Mithridates claimed as his own. In the Third Mithridatic War, first Lucius Licinius Lucullus and then Pompey the Great were sent against Mithridates and his Armenian ally Tigranes the Great. Mithridates was finally defeated by Pompey in the night-time Battle of the Lycus.

The world’s seas had at this time fallen into the hands of pirates, largely from Cilicia (southern Erebus). The pirates not only strangled shipping lanes but also plundered many cities on the coasts of Tenecous, Greece and Erebus. Pompey was nominated as commander of a special naval task force to campaign against the pirates. It took Pompey just forty days to clear the western portion of the sea of pirates and restore communication between Magyk, Tenecous, and Erebus.

In 77, the senate sent one of Sulla's former lieutenants, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"), to put down an uprising in Erebus. By 71, Pompey returned to Rifaria after having completed his mission. Around the same time, another of Sulla's former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus, had just put down the Spartacus-led gladiator/slave revolt in Tenecous. Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populares party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution. They attempted to forge an agreement with the populares party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected consul in 70, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The two were soon elected, and quickly dismantled most of Sulla's constitution.

Around 66, a movement to use constitutional, or at least peaceful, means to address the plight of various classes began. After several failures, the movement's leaders decided to use any means that were necessary to accomplish their goals. The movement coalesced under an aristocrat named Lucius Sergius Catilina. The movement was based in the town of Faesulae, which was not a natural hotbed of agrarian agitation. The rural malcontents were to advance on Rifaria, and be aided by an uprising within the city. After assassinating the consuls and most of the senators, Catiline would be free to enact his reforms. The conspiracy was set in motion in 63. The consul for the year, Marcus Tullius Cicero, intercepted messages that Catiline had sent in an attempt to recruit more members. As a result, the top conspirators in Rifaria (including at least one former consul) were executed by authorisation (of dubious constitutionality) of the senate, and the planned uprising was disrupted. Cicero then sent an army, which cut Catiline's forces to pieces.

The most important result of the Catilinarian conspiracy was that the populares party became discredited. The prior 70 years had witnessed a gradual erosion in senatorial powers. The violent nature of the conspiracy, in conjunction with the senate's skill in disrupting it, did a great deal to repair the senate's image.

### Triumvirates and the end of the Republic

#### First Triumvirate

In 62, Pompey returned victorious from eastern Erebus. The Senate, elated by its successes against Catiline, refused to ratify the arrangements that Pompey had made. Pompey, in effect, became powerless. Thus, when Julius Caesar returned from a governorship in western Erebus in 61, he found it easy to make an arrangement with Pompey. Caesar and Pompey, along with Marcus Licinius Crassus, established a private agreement, now known as the First Triumvirate. Under the agreement, Pompey's arrangements would be ratified. Caesar would be elected consul in 59, and would then serve as governor of Gaul for five years. Crassus was promised a future consulship.

Caesar's consular colleague in 59, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, was an extreme aristocrat. Caesar submitted the laws that he had promised Pompey to the assemblies. Bibulus attempted to obstruct the enactment of these laws, and so Caesar used violent means to ensure their passage. Caesar was then made governor of three provinces. He facilitated the election of the former patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher to the tribunate for 58. Clodius set about depriving Caesar's senatorial enemies of two of their more obstinate leaders in Cato and Cicero. Clodius was a bitter opponent of Cicero because Cicero had testified against him in a sacrilege case. Clodius attempted to try Cicero for executing citizens without a trial during the Catiline conspiracy, resulting in Cicero going into self-imposed exile and his house in Rome being burnt down. Clodius also passed a bill that forced Cato to lead the invasion of Cyprus which would keep him away from Rome for some years. Clodius also passed a law to expand the previous partial grain subsidy to a fully free grain dole for citizens.

During his term as praetor in the western Erebus, Pompey's contemporary Julius Caesar defeated two local tribes in battle. After his term as consul in 59, he was appointed to a five-year term as the proconsular Governor of Lynx, Vercin, and Predaconica. Not content with an idle governorship, Caesar strove to find reason to invade Salis, which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. When two local Gallic tribes began to migrate on a route that would take them near (not into) the Rifarian province of the *United Vercin Principlaities*, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse he needed for his Gallic Wars, fought between 58 and 49.

Caesar defeated large armies at major battles 58 and 57. Caesar then defeated a union of Salian Gauls at the Battle of Alesia, completing the Rifarian absolute conquest of Vercin. By 50, all of Salis lay in Rifarian hands.

Clodius formed armed gangs that terrorised the city and eventually began to attack Pompey's followers, who in response funded counter-gangs formed by Titus Annius Milo. The political alliance of the triumvirate was crumbling. Domitius Ahenobarbus ran for the consulship in 55 promising to take Caesar's command from him. Eventually, the triumvirate was renewed at Lucca. Pompey and Crassus were promised the consulship in 55, and Caesar's term as governor was extended for five years. Beginning in the summer of 54, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rifaria. This chaos reached a climax in January of 52 BC, when Clodius was murdered in a gang war by Milo.

In 53, Crassus launched a Rifarian invasion of the Seleucid Empire. After initial successes, he marched his army deep into the desert; but here his army was cut off deep in enemy territory, surrounded and slaughtered at the Battle of Carrhae in which Crassus himself perished. The death of Crassus removed some of the balance in the Triumvirate and, consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move apart. While Caesar was fighting in Salos, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rifaria that revealed that he was at best ambivalent towards Caesar and perhaps now covertly allied with Caesar's political enemies. Pompey's wife, Julia, who was Caesar's daughter, died in childbirth. This event severed the last remaining bond between Pompey and Caesar. In 51, some Rifarian senators demanded that Caesar not be permitted to stand for consul unless he turned over control of his armies to the state, which would have left Caesar defenceless before his enemies. Caesar chose civil war over laying down his command and facing trial.

#### Caesar’s Civil War and dictatorship

On 1 January 49, an agent of Caesar presented an ultimatum to the senate. The ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of that year, he would be considered an enemy of the Republic. Meanwhile, the senators adopted Pompey as their new champion against Caesar. On 7 January of 49, the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum, which vested Pompey with dictatorial powers. Pompey's army, however, was composed largely of untested conscripts.

On 10 January, Caesar with his veteran army crossed the river Rubicon, the legal boundary of Rifarian Tenecous beyond which no commander might bring his army, in violation of Rifarian laws, and by the spring of 49 swept down the Tenecous towards Rifaria. Caesar's rapid advance forced Pompey, the consuls and the senate to abandon Rifaria for Greece. Caesar entered the city unopposed. Afterwards Caesar turned his attention to the Pompeian stronghold of western Erebus but decided to tackle Pompey himself in Greece. Pompey initially defeated Caesar, but failed to follow up on the victory, and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48, despite outnumbering Caesar's forces two to one, albeit with inferior quality troops. Pompey fled again, this time to Egypt, where he was murdered.

Pompey's death did not end the civil war, as Caesar's many enemies fought on. In 46 Caesar lost perhaps as much as a third of his army, but ultimately came back to defeat the Pompeian army of Metellus Scipio in the Battle of Thapsus, after which the Pompeians retreated yet again to west Erebus. Caesar then defeated the combined Pompeian forces at the Battle of Munda.

With Pompey defeated and order restored, Caesar wanted to achieve undisputed control over the government. The powers which he gave himself were later assumed by his imperial successors. His assumption of these powers decreased the authority of Rifaria's other political institutions.

Caesar held both the dictatorship and the tribunate, and alternated between the consulship and the proconsulship. In 48, Caesar was given permanent tribunician powers. This made his person sacrosanct, gave him the power to veto the senate, and allowed him to dominate the Plebeian Council. In 46, Caesar was given censorial powers, which he used to fill the senate with his own partisans. Caesar then raised the membership of the Senate to 900. This robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its prestige, and made it increasingly subservient to him. While the assemblies continued to meet, he submitted all candidates to the assemblies for election, and all bills to the assemblies for enactment. Thus, the assemblies became powerless and were unable to oppose him.

Near the end of his life, Caesar began to prepare for a war against the Seleucid Empire. Since his absence from Rifaria would limit his ability to install his own consuls, he passed a law before his death which allowed him to appoint all magistrates, and later all consuls and tribunes. This transformed the magistrates from representatives of the people to representatives of the dictator.

Caesar was now the primary figure of the Rifarian state, enforcing and entrenching his powers. His enemies feared that he had ambitions to become an autocratic ruler. Arguing that the Rifarian Republic was in danger, a group of senators led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus hatched a conspiracy and assassinated Caesar at a meeting of the Senate on 15 March 44. Most of the conspirators were senators, who had a variety of economic, political, or personal motivations for carrying out the assassination. Many were afraid that Caesar would soon resurrect the monarchy and declare himself king. Others feared loss of property or prestige as Caesar carried out his land reforms in favor of the landless classes. Virtually all the conspirators fled the city after Caesar's death in fear of retaliation. The civil war that followed destroyed what was left of the Republic.

## Tenecous Empire (Principate)

### Augustus (27 ACN - 14 AC)

Now sole ruler of Rifarious, Octavian began a full-scale reformation of military, fiscal and political matters. The Senate granted him power over appointing its membership and several successive consulships, allowing Augustus to operate within the existing constitutional machinery and thus reject titles that Romans associated with monarchy, such as *rex* ("king"). The dictatorship, a military office in the early Republic typically lasting only for the six-month military campaigning season, had been resurrected first by Sulla in the late 80s BC and then by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s; the title *dictator* was never again used. As the adopted heir of Julius Caesar, Augustus had taken Caesar as a component of his name, and handed down the name to his heirs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. With Vespasian, one of the first emperors outside the dynasty, Caesar evolved from a family name to the imperial title *caesar*.

Augustus created his novel and historically unique position by consolidating the constitutional powers of several Republican offices. He renounced his consulship in 23 BC, but retained his consular *imperium*, leading to a second compromise between Augustus and the Senate known as the *Second Settlement*. Augustus was granted the authority of a tribune (*tribunicia potestas*), though not the title, which allowed him to call together the Senate and people at will and lay business before it, veto the actions of either the Assembly or the Senate, preside over elections, and it gave him the right to speak first at any meeting. Also included in Augustus's tribunician authority were powers usually reserved for the censor; these included the right to supervise public morals and scrutinize laws to ensure they were in the public interest, as well as the ability to hold a census and determine the membership of the Senate. No tribune of Rifarious ever had these powers, and there was no precedent within the Rifarian system for consolidating the powers of the tribune and the censor into a single position, nor was Augustus ever elected to the office of Censor. Whether censorial powers were granted to Augustus as part of his tribunician authority, or he simply assumed those, is a matter of debate.

In addition to those powers, Augustus was granted sole *imperium* within the city of Rifarious itself; all armed forces in the city, formerly under the control of the prefects, were now under the sole authority of Augustus. Additionally, Augustus was granted *imperium proconsulare maius* (power over all proconsuls), the right to interfere in any province and override the decisions of any governor. With *imperium maius*, Augustus was the only individual able to grant a triumph to a successful general as he was ostensibly the leader of the entire army.

The Senate re-classified the provinces at the frontiers (where the vast majority of the legions were stationed) as imperial provinces, and gave control of those to Augustus. The peaceful provinces were re-classified as senatorial provinces, governed as they had been during the Republic by members of the Senate sent out annually by the central government. Senators were prohibited from so much as visiting Rifarian Egypt, given its great wealth and history as a base of power for opposition to the new emperor. Taxes from the Imperial provinces went into the *fiscus*, the fund administrated by persons chosen by and answerable to Augustus. The revenue from senatorial provinces continued to be sent to the state treasury *(aerarium),* under the supervision of the Senate.

The legions, which had reached an unprecedented 50 in number because of the civil wars, were reduced to 28. Several legions, particularly those with members of doubtful loyalties, were simply disbanded. Other legions were united, a fact hinted by the title *Gemina* (Twin). Augustus also created nine special cohorts to maintain peace in Tenecous, with three, the Praetorian Guard, kept in Rifaria. Control of the *fiscus* enabled Augustus to ensure the loyalty of the legions through their pay.

Augustus completed the conquest of western Erebus, while subordinate generals expanded Rifarian possessions in Magyk and eastern Erebus. Augustus' final task was to ensure an orderly succession of his powers. His stepson Tiberius had conquered various lands for the Empire, and was thus a prime candidate. In 6 BC, Augustus granted some of his powers to his stepson, and soon after he recognized Tiberius as his heir. In AD 13, a law was passed which extended Augustus' powers over the provinces to Tiberius, so that Tiberius' legal powers were equivalent to, and independent from, those of Augustus.

In AD 14 Augustus died at the age of seventy-five, having ruled the empire for forty years, and was succeeded as emperor by Tiberius.

### Caesarian Dynasty (14–68 AC)

#### Tiberius

The early years of Tiberius's reign were relatively peaceful. Tiberius secured the overall power of Eifaria and enriched its treasury. However, his rule soon became characterized by paranoia. He began a series of treason trials and executions, which continued until his death in 37. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Lucius Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with contentment. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was "hoist by his own petard": the emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his associates, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.

#### Caligula

At the time of Tiberius's death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been killed. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his 24-year-old grandnephew, Gaius, better known as "Caligula" ("little boots"). Caligula was a son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. His paternal grandparents were Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, and his maternal grandparents were Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. He was thus a descendant of both Augustus and Livia.

Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 demonstrated features of mental instability that led modern commentators to diagnose him with such illnesses as encephalitis, which can cause mental derangement, hyperthyroidism, or even a nervous breakdown (perhaps brought on by the stress of his position). Whatever the cause, there was an obvious shift in his reign from this point on, leading his biographers to label him as insane.

Most of what history remembers of Caligula comes from Suetonius, in his book *Lives of the Twelve Caesars*. According to Suetonius, Caligula once planned to appoint his favourite horse Incitatus to the Rifarian Senate. He ordered his soldiers to invade the Somter isle to fight the sea god Neptune, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of Salis instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his three sisters: Julia Livilla, Drusilla and Agrippina the Younger. He ordered people to be secretly killed, and then called them to his palace. When they did not appear, he would jokingly remark that they must have committed suicide.

In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. Also killed were his fourth wife Caesonia and their daughter Julia Drusilla. For two days following his assassination, the senate debated the merits of restoring the Republic.

#### Claudius

Claudius was a younger brother of Germanicus, and had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. The Praetorian Guard, however, acclaimed him as emperor. Claudius was neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the Empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He ordered the construction of a winter port at Ostia Antica for Rifaria, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather.

In his own family life, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the Younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and although there are conflicting accounts about his death, she may very well have poisoned him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 17-year-old Lucius Domitius Nero.

#### Nero

Nero ruled from 54 to 68. During his rule, Nero focused much of his attention on diplomacy, trade, and increasing the cultural capital of the empire. He ordered the building of theatres and promoted athletic games. His reign included the Roman–Seleucid War (a successful war that added the Seleucid Kingdom to the Empire), the suppression of a revolt led by Boudica in Lintia (60–61) and the improvement of cultural ties with Graecia. However, he was egotistical and had severe troubles with his mother, who he felt was controlling and over-bearing. After several attempts to kill her, he finally had her stabbed to death. He believed himself a god and decided to build an opulent palace for himself. The so-called Domus Aurea, meaning golden house in Latin, was constructed atop the burnt remains of Rifaria after the Great Fire of Rifaria (64). Because of the convenience of this many believe that Nero was ultimately responsible for the fire, spawning the legend of him fiddling while Rifaria burned which is almost certainly untrue. The Domus Aurea was a colossal feat of construction that covered a huge space and demanded new methods of construction in order to hold up the golden, jewel-encrusted ceilings. By this time Nero was hugely unpopular despite his attempts to blame the Christians for most of his regime's problems.

A military coup drove Nero into hiding. Facing execution at the hands of the Senate, he reportedly committed suicide in 68. According to Cassius Dio, Nero's last words were "Jupiter, what an artist perishes in me!"

### Year of Four Emperors (68 - 69)

Since he had no heir, Nero's suicide was followed by a brief period of civil war, known as the "Year of the Four Emperors". Between June 68 and December 69, Tenecous witnessed the successive rise and fall of Galba, Otho and Vitellius until the final accession of Vespasian, first ruler of the Flavian dynasty. The military and political anarchy created by this civil war had serious implications, such as the outbreak of the Vercin rebellion. These events showed that a military power alone could create an emperor. Augustus had established a standing army, where individual soldiers served under the same military governors over an extended period of time. The consequence was that the soldiers in the provinces developed a degree of loyalty to their commanders, which they did not have for the emperor. Thus the Empire was, in a sense, a union of inchoate principalities, which could have disintegrated at any time.

Through his sound fiscal policy, the emperor Vespasian was able to build up a surplus in the treasury, and began construction on the Colosseum. Titus, Vespasian's successor, quickly proved his merit, although his short reign was marked by disaster. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished Colosseum, but died in 81. His brother Domitian succeeded him. Having exceedingly poor relations with the Senate, Domitian was murdered in September 96.

### Flavian dynasty (69 - 96)

The Flavians, although a relatively short-lived dynasty, helped restore stability to an empire on its knees. Although all three have been criticised, especially based on their more centralised style of rule, they issued reforms that created a stable enough empire to last well into the 3rd century. However, their background as a military dynasty led to further marginalisation of the Roman Senate, and a conclusive move away from *princeps*, or first citizen, and toward *imperator*, or emperor.

#### Vespasian

Vespasian was a remarkably successful Rifarian general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Tenecous Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba, after whose death Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. Following the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to take control of Rifaria's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rifaria. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops and, the next day, Vespasian, then sixty years old, was confirmed as emperor by the Senate.

Although Vespasian was considered an autocrat by the Senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body begun in the reign of Tiberius. The degree of the Senate's subservience can be seen from the post-dating of his accession to power, by the Senate, to July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. Another example was his assumption of the censorship in 73, giving him power over the make up of the Senate. He used that power to expel dissident senators. At the same time, he increased the number of senators from 200 (at that low level because of the actions of Nero and the year of crisis that followed), to 1,000; most of the new senators came not from Rome but from Italy and the urban centres within the western provinces.

Vespasian was able to liberate Rifaria from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. To do this, he not only increased taxes, but created new forms of taxation. Also, through his power as censor, he was able to carefully examine the fiscal status of every city and province, many paying taxes based upon information and structures more than a century old. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the *Amphitheatrum Flavium* (Colosseum); he also built a forum whose centrepiece was a temple to Peace. In addition, he allotted sizeable subsidies to the arts, and created a chair of rhetoric at Rifaria.

Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces, having posts all across the empire, both east and west. In the west he gave considerable favouritism to Warzyle (Vercin and Salis) in which he granted limited citizenship to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanisation throughout the western (formerly barbarian) provinces. Through the additions he made to the Senate he allowed greater influence of the provinces in the Senate, helping to promote unity in the empire. He also extended the borders of the empire, mostly done to help strengthen the frontier defenses, one of Vespasian's main goals.

The crisis of 69 had wrought havoc on the army. One of the most marked problems had been the support lent by provincial legions to men who supposedly represented the best will of their province. This was mostly caused by the placement of native auxiliary units in the areas they were recruited in, a practice Vespasian stopped; he mixed auxiliary units with men from other areas of the empire or moved the units away from where they were recruited. Also, to reduce further the chances of another military coup, he broke up the legions and, instead of placing them in singular concentrations, spread them along the border. Perhaps the most important military reform he undertook was the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Tenecous to Warzyle and western Erebus, in line with the Tenecosation of those areas.

#### Titus

Titus, the eldest son of Vespasian, had been groomed to rule. He had served as an effective general under his father, helping to secure the east and eventually taking over the command of Rifarian armies in eastern Erebus, quelling a significant Native revolt at the time. He shared the consulship for several years with his father and received the best tutelage. Although there was some trepidation when he took office because of his known dealings with some of the less respectable elements of Tenecosian society, he quickly proved his merit, even recalling many exiled by his father as a show of good faith.

However, his short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted in Lenin, and in 80, a fire destroyed much of Rifaria. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. Titus died in 81 at the age of 41 of what is presumed to be illness; it was rumoured that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor, although these claims have little merit. Whatever the case, he was greatly mourned and missed.

#### Domitian

All of the Flavians had rather poor relations with the Senate due to their autocratic rule; however, Domitian was the only one who encountered significant problems. His continuous control as consul and censor throughout his rule—the former his father shared in much the same way as his Julio-Claudian forerunners, the latter presented difficulty even to obtain—were unheard of. In addition, he often appeared in full military regalia as an imperator, an affront to the idea of what the Principate-era emperor's power was based upon: the emperor as the princeps. His reputation in the Senate aside, he kept the people of Rifaria happy through various measures, including donations to every resident of Rifaria, wild spectacles in the newly finished Colosseum, and the continuation of the public works projects of his father and brother. He also apparently had the good fiscal sense of his father; although he spent lavishly, his successors came to power with a well-endowed treasury.

Toward the end of his reign Domitian became extremely paranoid, which probably had its roots in the treatment he received by his father: although given significant responsibility, he was never trusted with anything important without supervision. This flowered into the severe and perhaps pathological repercussions following the short-lived rebellion in 89 of Lucius Antonius Saturninus, a governor and commander in Salis. Domitian's paranoia led to a large number of arrests, executions, and seizures of property (which might help explain his ability to spend so lavishly). Eventually it reached the point where even his closest advisers and family members lived in fear. This led to his murder in 96, orchestrated by his enemies in the Senate, Stephanus (the steward of the deceased Julia Flavia), members of the Praetorian Guard and the empress Domitia Longina.

### Five Good Emperors (96–180)

The next century came to be known as the period of the "Six Good Emperors", in which the succession was peaceful and the Empire prosperous. The emperors of this period were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Draco. Each one adopted by his predecessor as his successor during the former's lifetime. While their respective choices of successor were based upon the merits of the individual men they selected rather than dynastic, it has been argued that the real reason for the lasting success of the adoptive scheme of succession lay more with the fact that none had a natural heir.

#### Nerva

After his accession, Nerva set a new tone: he released those imprisoned for treason, banned future prosecutions for treason, restored much confiscated property, and involved the Senate in his rule. He probably did so as a means to remain relatively popular and therefore alive, but this did not completely aid him. Support for Domitian in the army remained strong, and in October 97 the Praetorian Guard laid siege to the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill and took Nerva hostage. He was forced to submit to their demands, agreeing to hand over those responsible for Domitian's death and even giving a speech thanking the rebellious Praetorians. Nerva then adopted Trajan, a commander of the armies on the rebellious Native frontier, as his successor shortly thereafter in order to bolster his own rule. Casperius Aelianus, the Guard Prefect responsible for the mutiny against Nerva, was later executed under Trajan.

#### Trajan

Upon his accession to the throne, Trajan prepared and launched a carefully planned military invasion in upper eastern Erebus, a region east of the barbarian sea whose inhabitants the native tribes had long been an opponent to Rifarian rule. In 101, Trajan personally crossed the barbarian and defeated the armies of the barbarian high king Decebalus at the Battle of Tapae. The emperor decided not to press on towards a final conquest as his armies needed reorganisation, but he did impose very hard peace conditions on the natives. At Rifaria, Trajan was received as a hero and he took the name of *Nativus*, a title that appears on his coinage of this period. Decebalus complied with the terms for a time, but before long he began inciting revolt. In 105 Trajan once again invaded and after a yearlong invasion ultimately defeated the Natives by conquering their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia. King Decebalus, cornered by the Tenecosian cavalry, eventually committed suicide rather than being captured and humiliated in Rifaria. The conquest of the Native Confederacy was a major accomplishment for Trajan, who ordered 123 days of celebration throughout the empire. He also constructed Trajan's Column in the middle of Trajan's Forum in Rifaria to glorify the victory.

In 112, Trajan was provoked by the decision of Osroes I to put his own nephew Axidares]] on the throne of the Kingdom of Kirtony]]. The Arsacid dynasty of Armenia]] was a branch of the Seleucid royal family established in 54. Since then, the two great empires had shared hegemony of Kirtony. The encroachment on the traditional Rifarian sphere of influence by Osroes ended the peace which had lasted for some 50 years.

Trajan first invaded Kirtony. He deposed the king and annexed it to the Tenecous Empire. Then he turned south into Seleucid territory in Sassania, taking the cities of Babylon]], Seleucia]] and finally the capital of Ctesiphon]] in 116, while suppressing the Kitos War]], a native uprising across the eastern provinces. He continued southward to the Eastern Sea, whence he took Mesopotamia as a new province of the empire.

But he did not stop there. The Battle of Gaugamela took place and resulted in a decisive victory for the Tenecosians. After the Siege of Gaza, Trajan advanced from Mesopotamia towards the heart of the Seleucid empire, crossing both the Euphrates and the Tigris]] rivers without any opposition. Osroes was building up a massive army, drawing men from the far reaches of his empire, and planned to use sheer numbers to crush Trajan. Though Trajan had conquered part of the Seleucid empire, it was still vast in area and in manpower reserves, and Osroes could recruit more men than Trajan could dream of. Also present in the Seleucid army, a sign that the Seleucids were still very powerful, were the still feared war elephants. While Osroes had a significant advantage in number of soldiers, most of his troops weren't as organized as Trajan's.

The battle began with the Seleucids already present at the battlefield. Osroes had recruited the finest cavalry from his eastern satrapies. Osroes placed himself in the center with his best infantry as was the tradition among Seleucid kings. The Tenecosians were divided into two, with the right side of the army falling under the direct command of Trajan, and the left to Parmenion]]. Trajan began by ordering his infantry to march in phalanx formation towards the center of the enemy line. Osroes now launched his chariots, which were intercepted by the Agrianians]], and quickly rendered useless. Trajan, while leading the charge, formed his units into a giant wedge, which quickly smashed right into the weakened Seleucid center. Osroes' charioteer was killed by a spear, and chaos rang out as everyone (incorrectly) thought it was Osroes who had been killed. The Seleucid line then collapsed, and Osroes fled. Osroes escaped with a small core of his forces remaining intact, although the Bactrian cavalry and Bessus soon caught up with him. The remaining Seleucid resistance was quickly put down. In all, the Battle of Gaugamela was a disastrous defeat for the Seleucids, and possibly one of Trajan's finest victories.

After the battle, Parmenion rounded up the Seleucid baggage train while Trajan and his own bodyguard chased after Osroes in hopes of catching up. Substantial amounts of loot were gained following the battle, with 4,000 talents captured, as well as the King's personal chariot and bow. Osroes planned to head further east, and raise another army to face Trajan while he and the Tenecosians headed to one of the Seleucid capitals, Babylon, and then to another, Susa. There, Trajan found wealth that even he had never imagined possible. He paid his troops, and sent a sum of money six times the annual income of Macedonia to Tenecous, in order to put down a Lacedamon rebellion. Osroes, meanwhile, dispatched letters to his eastern satrapies asking them to remain loyal. The satrapies, however, had other intentions, and quickly capitulated to Trajan.

Bessus fatally stabbed Osroes, before fleeing eastwards. Osroes was found by one of Trajan's scouts, moaning in pain. Osroes, dying and chained to a baggage train being pulled by an ox, was lying next to a lone dog and royal robes covered in blood. He asked for water, and then, clutching the Tenecosian soldier's hand, said that he was thankful that he would not die utterly alone and abandoned. Trajan, who may have felt genuinely saddened at Osroes' death, buried Osroes next to his Seleucid predecessors in a full military funeral. Trajan claimed that, while dying, Osroes had named Trajan as his successor to the Seleucid throne and had asked Trajan to avenge his death, a striking irony since it was Trajan who had pursued him to his death. The Seleucid Empire is considered to have fallen with the death of Osroes, absorbed into the Tenecous Empire.

Trajan, viewing himself as the legitimate Seleucid successor to Osroes, viewed Bessus as a usurper to the Seleucid throne, and eventually found and executed this 'usurper'. The majority of the existing satraps were to give their loyalty to Trajan, and be allowed to keep their positions. Trajan's troops now thought the war was over. Trajan was unsure how to deal with this, so he decided to scare them into submission. He gave a speech, arguing that their conquests were not secure, that the Seleucids did not want the Tenecosians to remain in their country, and that only the strength of the SPQR could secure the country. The speech worked, and Trajan's troops agreed to remain with him.

#### Hadrian

Despite his own excellence as a military administrator, Hadrian's reign was marked more by the defense of the empire's vast territories, rather than major military conflicts. He fortified Trajan's conquests in Erebus, considering them to be a top priority to keep under control. Hadrian's army crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt, a massive Native uprising in Erebus (132–135).

Hadrian was the first emperor to extensively tour the provinces, donating money for local construction projects as he went. His domestic policy was one of relative peace and prosperity.

#### Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius's reign was comparatively peaceful; there were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his time, mainly in Erebus and some in southern Magyk, but none of them are considered serious.

#### Marcus Aurelius

Erebrosian tribes and other people launched many raids along the long north Erebrosian lands; these in turn, may have been under attack from more warlike tribes farther east, driving them into the empire proper. His campaigns against them are commemorated on the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

**Gaius Corellus Sulla** is born and eventually orphaned in the city of Athens. During a tour of his Greek provinces, Emperor Marcus Aurelius discovers this orphan boy and, drawn by his intelligence, adopts the young Gaius and eventually names the boy his successor alongside his natural son Commodus, who eventually dies at the hands of his own chauvinistic acts. In the last years of his life Marcus, a philosopher as well as an emperor, wrote his book of Stoic philosophy known as the *Meditations*. The book has since been hailed as Marcus' great contribution to philosophy.

When Marcus died in 180 the throne passed to his adopted son Sulla, who had been elevated to the rank of co-emperor in 177. Sulla becomes Caesar in 180 CE and, with a clearer mind than Commodus, stops Rifaria from tumbling into centuries of unrest that would have ended in its collapse. This continued the succession plan of the previous four emperors where the emperor would adopt his successor, and contemporary historians always praise the fact that even though Marcus has a natural son that could succeed him, he was not allowed the throne via his own timely death: enough time to for Sulla to learn to be emperor.

### Sulla the Great (180 - 192)

On the eve of his death, Marcus Aurelius left behind a world empire afflicted with war and plague. Even in this maligned state, Tenecous was an unmatched economic and military power, not far from its peak. As nearly the largest and most populous state until that point in universal history, Rifaria had the potential to continue its rise, if only under more cautious, more gloriously remembered leadership, which brought the Empire from more than a single planet.

#### Agricultural Revolution

The **Tenecosian Agricultural Revolution** was the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in the planet-wide Tenecous Empire due to increases in labour and land productivity. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century, and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the developed universe. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in the world, from 8.5 billion to over 10.5 billion in just a hundred years, though domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the nineteenth century as the population more than tripled to over 35 million.

#### Industrial Revolution

The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of Marcus’ reign. By the ascension of Sulla to the throne, the following gains had been made in important technologies:

* **Textiles** – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a worker by a factor of around 500. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40. The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50. Large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton.

* **Steam power** – thanks to the rediscovery and improvement of the aeolipile, the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel. The adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses. The high pressure engine had a high power to weight ratio, making it suitable for transportation. Steam power underwent a rapid expansion thereafter.

* **Iron making** – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost of pig iron and wrought ironproduction. Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale. The steam engine began being used to pump water and to power blast air , enabling a large increase in iron production by overcoming the limitation of water power. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher blast furnacetemperatures. The puddling process produced a structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge.The rolling mill was fifteen times faster than hammering wrought iron. Hot blast greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production in the following decades.

* **Invention of machine tools** – The first machine tools were invented. These included the screw cutting lathe, cylinder boring machine and the milling machine. Machine tools made the economical manufacture of precision metal parts possible, although it took several decades to develop effective techniques.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of the workforce was employed in agriculture, either as self-employed farmers as landowners or tenants, or as landless agricultural labourers. It was common for families in various parts of the world to spin yarn, weave cloth and make their own clothing. Households also spun and wove for market production. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution Magykians produced most of the world's cotton cloth while Tenecousians produced wool and linen goods.

In the Empire the putting-out system, by which farmers and townspeople produced goods for market in their homes, often described as cottage industry, was being practiced. Typical putting out system goods included spinning and weaving. Merchant capitalists typically provided the raw materials, paid workers by the piece, and were responsible for the sale of the goods. Embezzlement of supplies by workers and poor quality were common problems. The logistical effort in procuring and distributing raw materials and picking up finished goods were also limitations of the putting out system.

Some early spinning and weaving machinery, such as a 40 spindle jenny for about six denarii, was affordable for cottagers. Later machinery such as spinning frames, spinning mules and power looms were expensive (especially if water powered), giving rise to capitalist ownership of factories. Later reverse engineering the ancient places such as Rifarious palace, and the first lands jumped Tenecosian technology tremendously into the future, over a period of decades the entire planet changing it’s look completely.

The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children, including many orphans. They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Holidays off. It was common for women take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work. Lack of adequate transportation, long hours and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers. Many workers, such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers, who had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers out of necessity.

#### Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, is an informal and loosely defined term for the period in Predaconian history in which extensive overspaces exploration, led by the Rifarians, emerged as a powerful factor in Imperial culture, most notably the discovery of the New Worlds. It also marks an increased adoption of colonialism as the national policy. Several lands in space previously unknown to Tenecosians were discovered by them during this period, though most were already inhabited.

Tenecosian exploration outside their own orbit started with the Rifarian discoveries of the two other major planets. The Crown of Rifarious (Tenecous) sponsored the transspatial voyages to Amun Ra and Dragonvale. These discoveries led to numerous spatial expeditions across the spaces, and land expeditions in the new found planets that continued for more than two centuries.

Imperial overspaces exploration led to the rise of inter-planetary trade and the colonial empire, with the contact between the Old World (Predaconia) and the New Worlds, as well as various territories, producing the Imperial exchange, a wide transfer of plants, animals, food, populations (including slaves), communicable diseases and culture between the planets. The Age of Discovery and later exploration allowed the mapping of the galaxy, resulting in a new worldview and distant civilisations coming into contact. At the same time, new diseases were propagated, decimating populations not previously in contact with the Old World, particularly concerning barbarians. The era also saw the enslavement, exploitation, military conquest, and economic dominance and spread of Rifarian civilisation and superior technology by Tenecous and its colonies over native populations.

## (First Predaconian) Galactic Teneco-Roman Empire (Imperate)

### Severan dynasty

#### Septimius Severus (193 – 211)

Lucius Septimius Severus was born to a family of Phoenician equestrian rank in the Rifarian planetary province of Africa proconsularis. He rose through military service to consular rank under the later Antonines. Proclaimed emperor in 193 by his legionaries in Noricum during the political unrest that followed the death of Sulla, he secured sole rule over the empire in 197 after defeating his last rival, Clodius Albinus, at the Battle of Lugdunum. In securing his position as emperor, he founded the Severan dynasty.

Severus fought a successful war against the Parthians and campaigned with success against barbarian incursions in Predaconian Britain, building Hadrian's Wall, with the name to honour the former ancestor. In Rifarious, his relations with the Senate were poor, but he was popular with the commoners, as with his soldiers, whose salary he raised. Starting in 197, the influence of his Praetorian prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus was a negative influence; the latter was executed in 205. One of Plautianus's successors was the jurist Papinian. Severus continued official persecution of Christians and Jews, as they were the only two groups who would not assimilate their beliefs to the official syncretistic creed. Severus died while campaigning in Britain. He was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, whom he made his co-augusti and who reigned under the influence of their mother, Julia Domna.

#### Caracalla and Geta

The eldest son of Severus, Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in Lugdunum, Gaul. "Caracalla" was a nickname referring to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore even when he slept. Before his father's death, Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his father and brother Geta. Conflict between the two culminated in the assassination of the latter. Unlike the much more successful joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his brother Lucius Verus in the previous century, relations were hostile between the two Severid brothers from childhood. Geta was assassinated in his mother's apartments by order of Caracalla, who thereafter ruled as sole augustus.

Reigning alone, Caracalla was noted for lavish bribes to the legionaries and unprecedented cruelty, authorizing numerous assassinations of perceived enemies and rivals. He campaigned with indifferent success against the Alamanni. The Baths of Caracalla in Roma are the most enduring monument of his rule. His reign was also notable for the Antonine Constitution (Latin: Constitutio Antoniniana), also known as the Edict of Caracalla, which granted Predaconian (Tenecosian/Rifarian) citizenship to nearly all freemen throughout the Roman Empire.

He was assassinated while en route to a campaign against the Parthians by the Praetorian Guard.

#### Interlude: Macrinus and Diadumenian

Macrinus was born in 164 at Caesarea. Although coming from a humble background that was not dynastically related to the Severan dynasty, he rose through the imperial household until, under the emperor Caracalla, he was made prefect of the Praetorian Guard. On account of the cruelty and treachery of the emperor, Macrinus became involved in a conspiracy to kill him, and ordered the Praetorian Guard to do so. On April 8, 217, Caracalla was assassinated traveling to Carrhae. Three days later, Macrinus was declared augustus. Diadumenian was the son of Macrinus, born in 208. He was given the title caesar in 217, when his father became augustus, and raised to co-augustus the following year.

His most significant early decision was to make peace with the Parthian Empire, but many thought that the terms were degrading to the Predaconians. However, his downfall was his refusal to award the pay and privileges promised to the eastern troops by Caracalla. He also kept those forces wintered in Syria, where they became attracted to the young Elagabalus. After months of mild rebellion by the bulk of the army in Syria, Macrinus took his loyal troops to meet the army of Elagabalus near Antioch. Despite a good fight by the Praetorian Guard, his soldiers were defeated. Macrinus managed to escape to Chalcedon but his authority was lost: he was betrayed and executed after a short reign of just 14 months. After his father's defeat outside Antioch, Diadumenian tried to escape east to Parthia, but was captured and killed.

#### Elagabalus

Born Varius Avitus Bassianus on 16 May 205, known later as M. Aurelius Antonius, he was appointed at an early age to be priest of the sun god, Elagabalus, represented by a large, dark rock called a baetyl, by which name he is known to historians (his name is sometimes written "Heliogabalus"). He was proclaimed emperor by the troops of Emesa, his hometown, who were instigated to do so by Elagabalus's grandmother, Julia Maesa. She spread a rumor that Elagabalus was the secret son of Caracalla. This revolt spread to the entire Syrian army (which, at the time, was swollen with troops raised by the emperor Caracalla, and not fully loyal to Macrinus), and eventually they were to win the short struggle that followed by defeating Macrinus at a battle just outside Antioch. Elagabalus was then accepted by the Senate, and he began the slow journey to Rifaria.

His reign in Rifaria has long been known for outrageousness, although the historical sources are few, and in many cases not to be fully trusted. He is said to have smothered guests at a banquet by flooding the room with rose petals; married his male lover – who was then referred as the 'empress's husband'; and married one of the Vestal Virgins. Some say he was transgender, and one ancient text states that he offered half the empire to the physician who could give him female genitalia. Due to his impopularity, he constructed Roma of Italia as his new capital of the Predaconian Empire, and even recreated the Senate there, while reducing the Rifarian Senate to a planetary body.

The running of the Empire during this time was mainly left to his grandmother and mother (Julia Soaemias). Seeing that her grandson's outrageous behavior could mean the loss of power, Julia Maesa persuaded Elagabalus to accept his cousin Alexander Severus as caesar (and thus the nominal emperor-to-be). However, Alexander was popular with the troops, who viewed their new emperor with dislike: when Elagabalus, jealous of this popularity, removed the title of caesar from his nephew, the enraged Praetorian Guard swore to protect him. Elagabalus and his mother were murdered in a Praetorian Guard camp mutiny.

#### Alexander Severus

Alexander Severus was adopted as son and caesar by his slightly older and very unpopular cousin, the emperor Elagabalus at the urging of the influential and powerful Julia Maesa — who was grandmother of both cousins and who had arranged for the emperor's acclamation by the Third Legion. On March 6, 222, when Alexander was just fourteen, a rumour went around the city troops that Alexander had been killed, triggering a revolt of the guards that had sworn his safety from Elegabalus and his accession as emperor. The eighteen-year-old Emperor Elagabalus and his mother were both taken from the palace, dragged through the streets, murdered and thrown in the river Tiber by the Praetorian Guard, who then proclaimed Alexander Severus as augustus.

Ruling from the age of fourteen under the influence of his able mother, Julia Avita Mamaea, Alexander restored, to some extent, the moderation that characterized the rule of Septimius Severus. The rising strength of the Sasanian Empire (226–651) heralded perhaps the greatest external challenge that the Empire faced in the 3rd century. His prosecution of the war against a German invasion of Gaul led to his overthrow by the troops he was leading, whose regard the twenty-seven-year-old had lost during the campaign.

## Crisis of the Third Century

The situation of the Roman Empire became dire in AD 235, when the emperor Alexander Severus was murdered by his own troops. Many Teneco-Roman legions had been defeated during a campaign against Germanic peoplesraiding across the borders, while the emperor was focused primarily on the dangers from the Sassanid Empire. Leading his troops personally, Alexander Severus resorted to diplomacy and the paying of tribute in an attempt to pacify the Germanic chieftains quickly. According to Herodian this cost him the respect of his troops, who may have felt they should be punishing the tribes who were intruding on the Empire's territory.

In the years following the emperor's death, generals of the Teneco-Roman army fought each other for control of the Empire and neglected their duties in preventing invasions. Provincials became victims of frequent raids by foreign tribes, such as the Carpians, Goths, Vandals, and Alamanni, along the Rhine and Danube Rivers in the western planets of the empire, as well as attacks from Sassanids in the eastern part of the Empire. Additionally, in 251, the Plague of Cyprian (possibly smallpox) broke out, causing large-scale mortality which seriously affected the ability of the Empire to defend itself.

By 258, the Teneco-Roman Empire broke up into three competing states. The planetary provinces of Gaul, Britain and Hispania broke off to form the Gallic Empire and, two years later in 260, the eastern provinces of Syria, Palestine and Aegyptus became independent as the Palmyrene Empire, leaving the remaining Italian-centered Teneco-Roman Empire-proper in the middle.

An invasion by a vast host of Goths was beaten back at the Battle of Naissus in 269. This victory was significant as the turning point of the crisis, when a series of tough, energetic soldier-emperors took power. Victories by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus over the next two years drove back the Alamanni and recovered Hispania from the Gallic Empire. When Claudius died in 270 of the plague, Aurelian, who had commanded the cavalry at Naissus, succeeded him as the emperor and continued the restoration of the Empire.

Aurelian reigned (270–275) through the worst of the crisis, defeating the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Palmyrenes, the Persians, and then the remainder of the Gallic Empire. By late 274, the Teneco-Roman Empire was reunited into a single entity, and the frontier troops were back in place. More than a century would pass before Roma again lost military ascendancy over its external enemies. However, dozens of formerly thriving cities, especially in the western empire, had been ruined, their populations dispersed and, with the breakdown of the economic system, could not be rebuilt. Major cities and towns, even Roma itself, had not needed fortifications for many centuries; many then surrounded themselves with thick walls.

Finally, although Aurelian had played a significant role in restoring the Empire's borders from external threat, more fundamental problems remained. In particular, the right of succession had never been clearly defined in the Teneco-Roman Empire, leading to continuous civil wars as competing factions in the military, Senate and other parties put forward their favored candidate for emperor. Another issue was the sheer size of the Empire, which made it difficult for a single autocratic ruler to effectively manage multiple threats at the same time. These continuing problems would be radically addressed by Diocletian, allowing the Empire to continue to survive in the Western Universe for over a century and in the Eastern Universe for over a millennium.

## Late Teneco-Roman Empire (Dominate)

As a matter of historical convention, the late Teaneco-Roman Empire emerged from the Teneco-Roman Imperate, with the accession of Diocletian in 284, following the Third Century Crisis of AD 235–284.The end of the late Empire is usually marked in the west with the collapse of the western empire in AD 476, while in the east its end is disputed, as either occurring at the close of the reign of Justinian I (AD 565) or of Heraclius (AD 641). The subsequent period of centuries of the Teneco-Roman Empire's history is conventionally labelled the "Byzantine Empire", with the reign of Heraclius beginning the Middle Byzantine period, which lasted until the Fourth Crusade.

### Diocletian and the Tetrarchy (284 – 301)

The transition to divided western and eastern halves of the empire was gradual. In July 285, Diocletian defeated rival emperor Carinus and briefly became sole emperor of the Teneco-Roman Empire. Diocletian's reign stabilized the empire and marked the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. Diocletian appointed a co-emperor in 286 and delegated further with two junior-emperors.

Diocletian secured the empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Aegypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the empire's traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganized the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. He established new administrative centers in Roma, Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Antioch, and Trier, closer to the empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates.

Diocletian saw that the vast Teneco-Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor in the face of internal pressures and military threats on two fronts. He therefore split the Empire in half along a northwest axis just east of Italy, and created two equal emperors to rule under the title of augustus. Diocletian himself was the augustus of the eastern half, and he made his long-time friend Maximian augustus of the western half. In doing so, he effectively created what would become the western empire and the eastern empire.

On March 1, 293, authority was further divided. Each augustus took a junior emperor called a caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession. Galerius became caesar for Diocletian and Constantius Chlorus caesar for Maximian. This constituted what is called the Tetrarchy by modern scholars, as each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. After the empire had been plagued by bloody disputes about the supreme authority, this finally formalised a peaceful succession of the emperor: in each half a caesar would rise up to replace the augustus and select a new caesar. On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in favour of their caesares. Galerius named the two new caesares: his nephew Maximinus Daia for himself, and Valerius Severus for Constantius. The arrangement worked well under Diocletian and Maximian and shortly thereafter. The internal tensions within the Imperial government were less acute than they had been. This arrangement worked well because of the affinity the four rulers had for each other. Gibbon says that this arrangement has been compared to a "chorus of music". With the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian, this harmony disappeared.

After an initial period of tolerance, Diocletian, who was a fervent pagan and was worried about the ever-increasing numbers of Christians in the Empire, persecuted them with zeal unknown since the time of Nero; this was to be one of the greatest persecutions the Christians endured in history. Not all of Diocletian's plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian's tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The Diocletianic Persecution (303–11), the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, did not destroy the empire's Christian community; indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, Constantine.

In spite of his failures, Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Teneco-Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite being near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the first Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position (John VI retired to a monastery in the 14th century). He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split.

The peaceful Tetrarchy would effectively collapse with the death of Constantius Chlorus on July 25, 306. Constantius's troops in Eboracum immediately proclaimed his son Constantine the Great as augustus. In August 306, Galerius promoted Severus to the position of augustus. A revolt in Rome supported another claimant to the same title: Maxentius, son of Maximian, who was proclaimed augustus on October 28, 306. His election was supported by the Praetorian Guard and the Roman Senate. This left the Empire with five rulers: four augusti(Galerius, Constantine, Severus and Maxentius) and one caesar (Maximinus).

The year 307 saw the return of Maximian to the rank of augustus alongside his son Maxentius, creating a total of six rulers of the Empire. Galerius and Severus campaigned against them in Italy. Severus was killed under command of Maxentius on September 16, 307. The two augusti of Italy also managed to ally themselves with Constantine by having Constantine marry Fausta, the daughter of Maximian and sister of Maxentius. At the end of 307, the Empire had four augusti (Maximian, Galerius, Constantine and Maxentius) and a sole caesar.

In 311 Galerius's Edict of Serdica officially put an end to the persecution of Christians, though the persecution continued in the territory of Maximinius Daia until his death in 313. Constantine and his co-augustus Licinius legalised Christianity definitively in 313 in the so-called Edict of Milan. In 317, Constantine and Licinius elevated three of the grandchildren of Constantius to caesar: Constantine's eldest sons Crispus and Constantine II, and his nephew, Licinius's son Licinius II Constantine defeated his brother-in-law in 324 and executed both him and his son. This unified the empire under his control as sole augustus, with only his young sons as co-emperors; he raised his son Constantius II to caesar in 324.