AHC: Post-Ides of March Roman Republic

With a POD after the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman State should have a fully Republican model of government for an extended period, omce the Civil Wars die down. This means no Imperator/Princeps or Dictator for life controlling all (or most) the levers of government, no matter how much of a veneer of Republican legitimacy the government may maintain.

- It need not be exactly as ordered as the previous incarnation, feel free to suggest plausible reforms.
- It need not hold on to all its territory. Italy is the bare minimum.

- Bonus points if you get any of the major Ceasarian leaders, sich as Octavian or Antony, on board with the new regime, without them just dominating it through force.
 
Octavian genuinely retires, after ordering the state in a republican way. Still, no warlord would dare upset his arrangement, since even if he genuinely retires, people still respect/ fear him and ask his opinions, and knows that the legions really follow him even if he really retired.

So a genuine retirement, but people still can't believe that he is really retiring.
 
You'll need a lot of imagination to have no imperator. The figure of dominating imperator (meaning the overpopular and overpowerful general in the republican age) had already been a reality for 2 generations since Marius. It was inherent to the existence of a roman empire in an aristocratic roman republic. You had Marius, then Sulla, then Pompey, then Caesar.

My point of view is that, if you want to avoid the imperator, you need to destroy the aristocratic nature of power and of the social order in Rome and turn It into some kind of athenian democracy. If you don't, then the combination of aristocratic society and of permanent mass military mobilization because of a huge empire Will unavoidably bring imperator es again and again.

Octavian genuinely retires, after ordering the state in a republican way. Still, no warlord would dare upset his arrangement, since even if he genuinely retires, people still respect/ fear him and ask his opinions, and knows that the legions really follow him even if he really retired.

So a genuine retirement, but people still can't believe that he is really retiring.

I think that you are misunderstanding what is a genuine retirement. In the roman social system, the patron remained the patronus as a private citizen. There as no separation, Neither in principle not even less in day to day reality) between the political public sphere and the social private sphere.

Sulla's retirement, although genuine, did not make him an absentee because he retained the loyalty of 120.000 veterans to whom he had granted lands and money. They, much more than Sulla's noble allies, the guardians of Sulla's new political order. They were the one that were mobilized when the nobility needed to protect itself against any attempt to overthrow Sull's new order.

Thats what the romans called Auctoritas. Although private citizens, the most prestigious nobles were able to demand, Obtain and command to their countrymen.

So the only true retirement would need Octavian dying and then waiting for almost a generation so that caesarian/augustan veterans die or flock to new patrons.

Even more. If Octavian is still alive and genuinely retired, then some ambitious nobles are going to test the margions and limits in order to recover maximum real libertas and hasten the advancement of their own ambitions. Their goal is first going to be to undermine Augustus' clientelae. Augustus is going either to be forced to react or to let his social political resources crumble. If he does not react, then he may even end being endangered. This had been the game of the roman republic since the origins.

Just consider what both Pompey s enemies and Pompey's not closest friends did to him after his triple triumph of 61 BCE. They all coalized in order to weaken him, paralyze him and destroy his powerbase. This is precisely what Theresa Pompey into à long lasting alliance with the most talented, reckless and loyal of political outsiders called Julius Caesar. All the Catos and Ahenobarbi and Metelli and the rest that triés to bring Pompey's downfall did paradoxically cause the rise of Caesar to prominence. That was the Fabrice of the roman republic at imperial ages. You can't escale the présence of an imperator and nobody else than an imperator car rid you of another imperator.
 
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And if said Empire is not so huge?
If the Empire is not so huge with a PoD after Caesar`s assassination, then that means diadochi wars. Gaul may have broken free and gone its own ways, but Hispania, Africa, Sicilia, Greece etc. are still there and bound to be ruled by Roman nobles if Rome is to be smaller. Difficult to expect a return to less concentration of power in one hand in such circumstances.
 
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