Eastern Roman Republic

"For Fatherland, Caesar, and God. Liberty or Death"

**The Eastern Roman Republic** is a Mediterranean state located in southern Europe, The ERR is bordered by Bulgaria in the north, Turkey in the east, and Greece in the west. Estimated population is 54 million people. The largest city and capital of the ERR is Adrianople and the Official language is Greek, with Romanian being the secondary language - Latin is used as an administrative language in the Republic also.

## History & Engagements

#### ***Early History***

The History of ERR is quite old and complex, dating back to ancient Thrace - the ancestors of the modern Thracian's of the ERR. The Thracian people originally are the mix of Indo-European tribes that settled in the eastern Balkan region of modern-day Bulgaria, and northern Turkey regions. The ancient Thracian's were seen as warlike people, by their Greek neighbors, but the Thracian presence has to be noted in history as they interacted with many modern-day cultures such ancient Greeks and Persians, notably at first by the Persians. Due to many of the Thracians being subjugated as satrapy by Persia during their invasion against the Greeks and Scythians. One of the historians of that era Herodotus noted that Thracia might be the second most populous people in the known world at the time if not the most powerful, but they lacked unity. The Thracians due to the influences of Persians and their war against Greeks, made Thracians interact with these cultures more while at first were not city builders and quite rural people the influence of these cultures influenced them extensively at later times - with the Thracians building Greek style buildings and cities and even adopting the Greek language.

During the Persian rule of the first kingdoms of Thrace, which the Persians established, united the Thracians in some way - during the war with Macedon however the kingdom of Thrace was dissolved but later re-established as the vassal state by the Macedonian king Philip II the father of the Alexander the great. Being under the Macedonian influence, the kingdom made some contributions and influence the Hellenic neighbors around them, Thracians actually introduced the type of soldier *Peltagast* which later was adopted by their Hellenic neighbors. During the Macedonian wars, advancing Gauls forced out the Thracians from Macedonia back to Thrace - where they remained. Eventually the Conflict between Macedon and Rome would begin, the Macedonian war defense against Rome would drag the Thracians into the conflict. Eventually the war would lead too Macedonian Parties to weaken and the tribal authority to rise. But after the battle of Pydna the Roman authority over Macedonia was obvious - so hence Thrace was now under Roman rule. The Latin Roman rule there were instant Macedonian and Thracian revolts but also instances of some Thracian tribes allying with Rome. This would lead to a time of conflict and revolt leading to a third Macedonian war, eventually the authority of Rome was finally acknowledged by the Thracians after the end of the war.

#### ***Under Roman Rule***

The next century and a half saw Thrace become the permanent client state of Rome, one Thracian king Rhescuporis was known to support both Pompey Magnus and Julius Ceasar, later supporting republican armies against Anthony and Cleopatra during the last days of the republic. However, after the last king of Thrace was murdered by his wife - Thrace became a province of the Roman Empire, the Romanisation was not forced onto the Thracians like some other provinces, due to the fact Thracians were already quite Hellenized by the time Romans arrived.

But the Thracian influence started to shine during late Rome era and later on the Byzantine empire compromising of many emperors from Thracian origin notably Justinian I and general Belisarius. The Thracians became quite notable troops for Roman emperors due to their warrior-like culture, during the Justinian's reconquest of western Rome, many of Belisarius troops were, in fact, Thracians who were recruited from Thrace and served as legionnaires for the emperor. The Thracian people survived the Bulgar Slav migrations and were not driven out of their lands or slavinized, which made the Thracians even more so a proud people. During the ending days of the Roman Empire and Byzantium, the reputation of the Thracians were for being good warriors and loyal servants to the Roman empire and at multiple times, having a Thracian in a Roman throne. Modern Thracian culture is the mix of Greek, Thracian and Latin cultures, but retaining strong Thracian traditions and history even to this day.

***Ottoman rule***

Spartacus, pls write this!!!!! Greek revolution n stuff

#### ***Resurgence of Thracian identity (1918-1951)***

During the early 20th century, the now secular post-World War 1 Turkish government decided to radicalize their ethnic laws - desiring to create a purely Persian society in the core of the country, they segregated majority of the mainly ethnic Thracian people to the far western reaches of the country. In effort to quickly industrialize the nation, mineral rich mountains of the Stara Planina were started to be exploited for their resources, with massive influx of Thracian exiles from all over Anatolia being used as a cheap and expendable source of labor. Despite the social progress of Kemalist policies, Thracians, together with Kurds and Armenians, continued to suffer massive injustices and discrimination.

On a more positive note, The fledging city of Adrianople, known for its splendor during antiquity and razed many times over, has started to recover gradually and became one of the largest urban centers in entire Turkish state. Its population, mainly consisting of mining and metallurgy industry workers, arose considerably from 1920's to 1950's, becoming a center for Thracian cultural revival and the main source of Thracian nationalism.

Turkey was not the only place where scattered Thracian populations were settled. The beginning of World War 2 saw thousands of Thracian refugees flee the Balkans from the approaching Nazi and Italian fascist menace, which also included many scattered nationalist guerilla movements that preyed on Thracians as well. The second phase of immigration to Thracian provinces of Turkey occurred during the soviet counter-offensive, which brought communism to Romania, Bulgaria and other Eastern-European states with Thracian populations. Most Thracians from these nations felt that it is better to join their kinsmen in Turkey, as it was better to live under a Turkish yoke than have their national identities erased by Communist-Stalinist regimes.

Ironically, big number of these refugees were communist as well - mainly socialist opponents of Stalinist system who felt danger of the approaching Red Army. These people eventually contributed a lot to development of events in the 50's.

#### ***The First Roman Uprising (1951-1954)***

The Thracians eventually would not stand the brutal treatment of their people anymore. Discrimination and poor living conditions forced a large scale response and the first ever push towards self-determination of Thracian peoples.
Inspired mainly by socialist ideologists, tens of thousands of miners and steel mill workers organized mass strikes and hunger rallies, bringing international attention to the impoverished province of Turkey.

The first significant accident occurred on April 24th of 1952 in Adrianople, when Turkish Gandermerie opened fire on mass-demonstration and killed over 87 Thracians and wounded many more. This day would be forever noted as *Scipio Aurelius Square Massacre*. The ensuing rage over this action erupted into massive riots all over New Thracian province. By May 12th of 1952, city of Adrianople was occupied by newly formed *United Front of Thracian Resistance (UFTR).* Its armed wing was composed mainly of lightly armed militiamen, who looted weapons form local Gandermerie barracks and put up surprisingly fierce resistance, ultimately gaining control of Adrianople. Turkish Army has been deployed to the region shortly to retake the city and pacify the surrounding provinces by force. Despite that, UFTR managed to sporadically resist the presence of Turkish forces by retreating into countryside and waging 2 year long guerrilla war. The struggle, however, failed to achieve the main goals of UFTR.

A ceasefire of December 12th of 1954 officially ended the conflict, though these agreements were formal at best - massive ethnic tensions remained between Thracians and Turks, hindering any form of inter-ethnic dialogue from ever developing. The remnants of UFTR quickly disbanded and formed the first Thracian political entities, one of which was the National Roman Party.

#### ***The Red Movement Uprising (2016)***

The Red Movement uprising, was an event when Socialists and other leftists in the ERR began protests in the capital, with the ERR government against leftists ideology the regime was quick to send in their "*Finis specialis seminarii Unit*" (FSSU ) - highly skilled and brutal special purpose police who serve the *National Roman Party* (NRP) and are their own paramilitary police force for the party, not the state. The protests started with marches, then the FSSU forces used tear gas and metal batons to waver the protesters from continuing although they became violent starting a three/four week armed revolt by socialists insurrectionist. By the end of the first week many were killed and the Legions were called in to settle the dissident people - this would last for three weeks with heavy fighting, seen in the streets with house to house clearing. This would also lead *The Frumentarii State Security* to begin purging and prosecuting the rest of the known socialists in the ERR, crucifying any survivors of the revolt.

## Era's of the Republic

### ***The Scipio Era***

#### (The reign of Titus Scipio)

Titus Scipio was the first head of state for the Eastern Roman Republic, who led the nation since it's creation - till his death in 2017 during an assassination attempt. The "Scipio Era" is one of the bleakest point's in the nation's history, it was out of it's bloody war with Turkey during the separatist conflict the nation arose. But the newly independent country felt the issues, problems with electrical grids, poor economy, and some ethnic rivalry plagues the regime for the better half of the 1990's.

The ERR would eventually come out of these harder times in the mid-2000's right before the economic collapse of 2008 and 2011 - in result would further fuel extremist sects of the ERR government. However, once times got better roughly around 2004, Titus Scipio was seen as the father of the Republic, with a pretty favorable ratting among the population, the Senate also would favor the now long serving Consul.

But not all is what it seemed, Titus ruled the Senate brutally overtime, opposition would disappear, and he became more favorable with oligarchy. Scipio would appoint loyal servants to him in positions of power, and bribing the second Consul that would take office - this led him to have a large amount of power in the government body. This was seen by many groups in the ERR, and would lead to several coup attempts, from the fundamentalist movements in the 90s, to the Red Movement Uprising in 2016. Throughout the war in Turkey, Scipio's corruption showed due too his meddling in military command during the early days of the war. But wasteful were his tactics, in terms of resources and manpower - leading to the eventual restriction of his powers during a military court ruled for martial law and a short time of emergency powers being put in the hands of the Supreme Legatus.

During mid-point of the war, came the end of Titus Scipio, during his recent purges of the Senate, and other political organizations, a lone wolf socialist sympathizer shot and killed Titus Scipio in a assassination attempt. The assassin would also be gunned down following the Consul's death. It was at this point rioting would follow for two straight months, exposing the ERR to collapse during this time the National Roman Party, tried to solidify it's own power by doing the same thing Titus Scipio did - purge all societal levels. However this would lead the nation to the edge of collapses, and in the middle of the war with Turkey.

During this time is when the Supreme Legatus took his personal Praetorian Legion and entered the capital with loyal forces. Declaring a military Junta, and ending the unrest with brutal crackdowns. Overall, many in the population look back at the former Consul; Titus Scipio with favor - as he was the one to bring the nation out of the realm of Turkish control, and build the nation up from a weak and small regime. There are still many quiet loyalists to the former Consul, and those who want to install the same government again, with Titus Scipio as the eternal leader.

## Political Systems & Ideology

### ***Ideology:***

The Eastern Roman Republic's ideology is based on "*Romanisation*" - the idea of spreading the cultural theme of "*Latinization*" to countries they conquered and the world. The best example of this was when Rome conquered the Gaulish tribes in France and Germania which they then "*Latinized*" wiping out their culture and instating Romans traditions, etc. The ERR tries to implement this mindset with the territory it conquers, but also they use propaganda and other means to influence other countries to become Latinized and align with the ERR. This imperialistic attitude is well documented and other countries have been quick to slam the ERR of being right-winged opportunists and warmongers for this - but even though it is just part of the ERR doctrine of Romanisation. The Eastern Roman Republic is a authoritarian society, with no public elections - although the Senate a major power branch of the Republic has internal elections for positions such as Consul, Legatus positions and also Caesar. The ERR citizen has been granted freedoms but they are "Granted" if so the Republic's government can also decline them their freedoms for reasons of crimes against the state and will apprehend them if necessary without trail. Some in Europe and the world have seen this as a dictatorship and a brutal way of running a society - although the ERR government have explained: "*The people within the country are at privilege to reside in a secure society and if they wish to act like barbarians then leave the state or be at the will of the governing body.*"

Many democratic nations disagree with the ERR's authoritarian approach although many also in the Balkans see it as a sign of strength and will power against invaders, feeble citizens and the western nations who many believe to be threatening rights of countries to do what they please. The ERR political system also embraces collectivism, mainly a part of leftist ideology - the ERR thought to use collectivism to their advantage where old Rome failed. To use the might of the Roman citizen collectively would help advance the Republic to greater strides and achieve more in a small amount of time. One of the other aspects in ERR political doctrine is the idea of a militarist society, militarism plays a critical role in ERR society with many citizens believing a military career is honorable to one's family, but also one may gain many benefits from serving in the Legion, while if they did not think to join at some time they must - as conscription is mandatory when a civilian of the state reaches eighteen years old. The military is invested upon greatly in the society with state budgets flowing towards the military complex. The manifesto that the ERR uses, is the 2nd edition of the "Liber" (The Book) which is a heavy read of 260 pages on the ideology, history and policies of the ERR which every citizen must read once in their lifetime - also Liber is a huge part in the doctrine of Romanization.

### ***Political System:***

The ERR is a totalitarian Republic, the ERR is a single-party state which means all other political parties besides the National Roman Party (NRP) are banned - there are still elections though, the citizens may vote in individuals to certain positions in the party. Their are senators whom are those appointed by the NRP to run positions of government and smaller independent representatives. However many regions of the Senate have merged into "Sectors" groups of individuals who's beliefs are similar so as independents try and shape policy but the efforts are small to non-existent unless the NRP approve.

## Social Statuses

#### ***Civilian Status:***

The ERR has two main designations for those residing in the ERR state. The first one is "Civilian Status" you are given very basic rights - but actually most of the common rights such as; voting, participating in political office, and basic human rights are forfeit. Civilians are not purposely treated badly, but can be subjected to harsher conditions for work, and punishment then those under "Citizen Status".

#### ***Citizen Status:***

Citizens of the ERR are granted all rights that the Senate allows, you are treated with more respect from others socially. But you can vote, serve in political office and harsh work conditions and punishments are not applicable to citizens - and it is illegal to have them forced on a citizen. Only the upper-State may grant such rulings only if they apply. However, to get this status a civilians would have to serve between 5-15 year long service in the Legion.

## Political Factors:

### ***NRP Goal:***

The National Roman Party's goal is to form a state similar to the Roman Empires state - or so believed under Titus Julius Scipio. This would mean the conquering of neighboring regions such as reuniting Thrace, along with other provinces of Rome, the key cities from the empire would also need to be under Roman control to be seen as a total victory and creation of the fallen Roman Empire - enacting *Nova Roma*, "New Rome".

For this to be achieved the Republic would also need to have full control of the Senate and also the key element for ideological supremacy which is the belief of *Res Publica*"The Republic". With this belief in the Senate and within the people's belief system - creating a new Romanized Empire is possible without interference with inner forces.

### ***Junta Goal:***

The Junta that currently governs the Eastern Roman state - after the fall of the NRP, has decreed many different political orders and agendas that it is trying to fulfill. Just like previous governments, it will solidify it's power, in less clumsy and unpopular means, avoiding mass purges, etc.

But the Junta's current goal is to rule over newly conquered Anatolia, and spread to capture the rest of it's historic lands in Turkey. This would resume the war with Turkey, but also - the regime would try and spread northwards to take Bulgaria, the Balkans, which would lead the Junta to proclaim Pax Thracius. The last stage in growth of the ERR regime, it shows that the Junta itself is a temporary stage in the civic system.

### ***Pax Thracius (Thracian Peace):***

Pax Thracius, also known as Thracian Peace in English, is the conceptual stage in the Eastern Roman's Republic life-span. In which, after the Republic conquers it's historical landmass it held in the days of the Byzantium Empire, it would then pacify the lands and proclaim Pax Thracius. Issuing in a new era of the Republic, that would bring peace - stability and growth.

Some also however, claim Pax Thracius should only be initiated after the conquering of most of the historic lands also held by the Western Roman Empire. That would include Italy, the Balkans, and Southern Gaul - now today's France, Switzerland, etc. However, this is strongly debated in the ERR and within it's government.

### ***Political:***

**Caesar**- A rare position in society, never always filled - it is given to former Proconsuls who usually govern a province and fight in a major conflict. The position is the strictest to get into with many regulations for any candidate, but once Caesar, you are granted powers beyond the Senate and usually the ERR becomes a military-junta for a time.

**The High Council** - 20 members sit on the council usually heads of different government sectors and must be NRP Members.

**The National Roman Party** - The Party is the head of the Senate and directly runs the ERR.

**The Senate** - Over 100 senators from different regions of the Republic.

### ***Military:***

**The Military Council** - The Highest position for any military figure, the council usually consists of the Supreme Legatus and other Legatuses, including all their Legates.

**The Frumentarii State Security** - The FrumentariiState Security, feared and brutal they usually hunt down and eliminate all enemies of the state many those who oppose the Caesar himself unless the Caesar is deemed unworthy of position.

**The Security Council** - The ERRSC is the military equivalent to the High Council and deals with all security and military matters.

**The Supreme Command** - The logistical arm of The Legion.

**Finis specialis seminarii Unit** (Special Purpose Unit)- The FSSU is a paramilitary branch of the NRP and conducts special operations that involve the party in political/social matters within the ERR.

**The Praetorian Guard** - The elite force of the Legion, they are split between the roles of special forces and elite armed forces.

**The Legion** - The Legion includes all branches of the armed forces; Ground Force, Air-Force, Navy.

### ***Political:***

**Caesar**- A matter of time before this position is filled in the Junta, when this happens the Caesar will be declared dictator for life.

**The Military Council** - All High Legatus of the Legion are apart of the Military Council that now runs the government, with the Supreme Legatus as the head.

### ***Military:***

**The Military Council** - The Highest position for any military figure, the council usually consists of the Supreme Legatus and other Legatuses, including all their Legates.

**The Frumentarii State Security** - The FrumentariiState Security, feared and brutal they usually hunt down and eliminate all enemies of the state many those who oppose the Caesar himself unless the Caesar is deemed unworthy of position.

**The Security Council** - The ERRSC is the military equivalent to the High Council and deals with all security and military matters.

**The Supreme Command** - The logistical arm of The Legion.

**Finis specialis seminarii Unit** (Special Purpose Unit)- The FSSU is a paramilitary branch of the NRP and conducts special operations that involve the party in political/social matters within the ERR.

**The Praetorian Guard** - The elite force of the Legion, they are split between the roles of special forces and elite armed forces.

**The Legion** - The Legion includes all branches of the armed forces; Ground Force, Air-Force, Navy.

## Other Branches

**Filii Caesar** - A large insurgent force bent on the spread of "Romanization" across the southern Europe and wherever they see fit. There has been no official statement by the ERR that binds the FC and ERR together as one but many FC cells have sworn fealty to the ERR.