An Age of Miracles III: The Romans Endure
- Thread starter Basileus444
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It could, but I expect it matters a lot just how big a portion of the state the military represents. How similar to OTL Prussia is Rhomania? IIRC Prussia was described as an army with a life support system. Presumably Romania isn't that bad, but how close is it?
I would guess that the Roman society on the whole is military positive as someone knows someone serving. But I would not go so far as to say the state serves the military's aims, just that the people see having a strong and capable armed forces as Paramount to not being invaded again, again, again.
It would be interesting to see Athena, if she gets her revenge, castrate the tourmarchs ability to influence the governing of the state. The biggest hurdle is the Emperor however, as with H3 we have seen how amendable the throne is to letting the Army do as the Army wants. It would take some serious reforms in how the state is governed, to limit the Army's influence. Long is the Roman memory.
It would be pretty hilarious if we got a repeat of Thessaloniki At Baghdad...but with a tweest:
"Shahnshah, the Romans have brought up the guard tagma! We're fucked! HOW DID THEY GET HERE SO QUICKLY"
"Yeah, it was a bit faster than I expected, but not entirely unwelcome. After all, who do you think asked them to come?"
"What?"
cue the Varangians, Athanatoi, and company slamming into the rear of Keraunos' lines
I’m on the side of the Roman people, but I am on team Persia here. To be realistic, Rhomania can’t always be in the right. As the saying goes, if your history just makes you feel happy and proud, you probably aren’t studying history.
But I will be glad when we get to a point where I do feel the Romans are in the right.
I would prefer that too, but feel it’s something that has to be developed in order to be realistic. It’s not something that can just be assumed and asserted.
Are you sure about Nicholas II? He said some pretty racist things about the Japanese. (Although if one reads almost anything from that period, it usually comes saturated in racism, to a degree I think a lot of people today don’t realize.) And there was the assassination attempt against him in Japan while visiting as Crown Prince.
He could hold it against the Mesopotamians, since they’re so poorly armed, especially with heavy weapons. Persians are more questionable; it would depend on how well armed the Persian expeditionary force and the condition of the post-conquest Romans. But the odds would be better for the Romans if they have Baghdad than if they don’t.
I’d say Rhomania is militaristic, but in what would be normal for an OTL 17th century state, perhaps a bit more just because the tradition of an established standing army is older and more developed. But not a Prussia. My brain is saying that Prussia around 1700 had 80,000 troops for a population of 2 million (take figure with a grain of salt, since I haven’t checked that, but Prussia’s army-to-population ratio was ridiculously skewed). If that is true (see important caveat), for Rhomania=Prussia its standing army would have to be around 650,000.
But the attitude of the war hawks does remind me of Brandenburg post-1648, where after the horrors of the Thirty Years War, there was a strong current of ‘never again’ which helped inspire the hyper-militarism.
Yeah, the issue is less ‘army involved in politics’. It’s that in an absolute autocracy, anybody who can bend the ear of the autocrat can control the state. And the ear of Herakleios III can be easily bent by at least certain people.
The guard tagmata are the units under the direct command of the Tourmarches…
Important Update Schedule Announcement for March: I will be traveling for the rest of the month. (Through Greece! As a sign for how weird I am, I’m most excited for the Byzantine sites. Mystras, Monemvasia, and Meteora are on the itinerary.) This is going to impact the update release schedule. I’m not sure exactly how, but some will probably be a day or two off from what is the normal release, although I am planning the regular amount of updates.
True, but that situation could arise much more easily ITTL than OTL due to their shared religion, cultural influences, and relationship to Rhomania. It really just depends on how Russia and Japan's foreign policy operates within the next century or so.
As for NII, he did have some racist things to say about the Japanese (especially before the war) but I believe he did have a surface level of respect for them due to his visit to Japan and how the Emperor conducted after the attempted assassination, so it wasn't completely negative. After all, he did get that tattoo from Japan.
With the TL, there's a certain possibility that a Russian prince could have even more admiration for Japanese culture in this alternate timeline due to their closer relationship and respect for one another as fellow Orthodox powers. I'm just hoping that it does happen.
Have fun out there.
Have fun in Greece. The food is great. I went there to watch a football(soccer if you're american, aka wrong😉) match once. Found it quite interesting that two of the clubs names translate to athletic club of constantinople in Athens(for aek) and thessaloniki(for paok) and both their badges have double headed eagles. They really care about their roman heritage in Greece. Underrated place in Athens to see is the hephaestus temple
I hope that you enjoy your stay in my country sir, the places that you are going to visit are just magical! Just try to avoid travelling by train while you will be in Greece. If you will spent some time in Athens, try to visit also this fine museum !
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Soccer is a posh word which entered usage around the 1870s. The Cambridge University Foot Ball Club wrote the first set of rules for association football in 1848. Arbitrary change - the USA Football Association's name change to the the US Soccer Federation in 1974.You mean the word that was originally used to describe the sport before the name was arbitrarily changed out of spite?
March Updates on Hiatus
March releases update: I've decided on a change of plans. I won't be releasing any updates in March with the plan of resuming the normal schedule on April 5.
For Patrons on Patreon: The update hiatus will also apply to Not the End: The Empire Under the Laskarids for the month of March. While there won't be any special update, since there won't be any normal updates there will not be any Patreon charges for the month of March.
Thanks again for your support.
For Patrons on Patreon: The update hiatus will also apply to Not the End: The Empire Under the Laskarids for the month of March. While there won't be any special update, since there won't be any normal updates there will not be any Patreon charges for the month of March.
Thanks again for your support.
This thread might be useful for OP to consult:
Handbook of Byzantine Protocole and Ceremonies
I am helping a friend of mine with a study on Byzantine Protocole and ceremonies and i thought it would be good to share it with u guys... It can be a good "handbook" about how the Byzantine Court functioned... It will take me some time to complete it though but i hope u will enjoy it... In the...
www.alternatehistory.com
I wonder if we’ll ever get perspectives from Rhomania’s European neighbors to see how they feel about the current situation. Perhaps something from Serbia and Hungary and Sicily’s POVs to see why they resent Constantinople.
I think we've had a few posts that cover that, or at least details/explanations for a lot of it. Notably Sicily and Vlachia. The former feeling jerked around diplomatically and the latter economically exploited. Serbia's pretty simple AFAIK, they're independent now, and don't want that to change.
Compared to OTL a better relationship is a total shoe in. The Tsar directly controls eastern siberia without the legislative body (forgot what it's called ITTL) and it has more development and investment, and a bigger population of Russians, compared to OTL. So the idea that the Tsar himself would be over there more is likely, and that means he'd probably visit Japan or have more personal relationship with Japan. Japan and Russia working together is more likely than not.
I imagine there could be a scenario where the Tsar wants to make a move on China, but can't get the soldiers from the legislature. So, in order to bolster what he can personally recruit in the far east, he asks japan if they want to go in on it together. Tell me this isn't possible.
Russia and japan still have Korea question to settle. But their relationship should be better than OTL by a mile