Chapter 37 Caesar Publius Claudius Moratius 2128 AUC / 1375 AD - 2163 AUC / 1410 AD
After the death of the Emperor Pugnatus, his eldest surviving son, Publius Claudius Moratius was given the throne. In the great procession he was dubbed Emperor Claudius. However the way he handled the situation, and his ultimate sacrifice for the Empire, has allowed him to go down in history as the Heroic Emperor.
Many of Claudius' efforts in the public field were dedicated to upgrading and repairing much of the infrastructure, a job that was a little more difficult than usual every 200 years or so. Whilst doing so, Claudius decided to dramatically increase the number of large inter-provincial roads that stretched across the Empire. Although these had been destroyed centuries ago by Sapiens for the high-upkeep costs required to maintain them, the Empire's wealth was now at such a level that it could much more easily afford this, and the benefits of having more major roads. The improved network was completed, just in time for the next big war.
The major issue for the beginning of his reign was a rather surprising one though. Wood, one of the most important resources in the world, had steadily become more scarce a good. North America, once covered in continent wide forests, was now in danger of having this resource completely depleted. Economists together with botanists calculate that at the Empire's current rate of consumption, there would be virtually no trees anywhere in North America by 2353 AUC (1600 AD). Whilst many in the Senate waved this off as a problem for the future, not the present, Claudius at least had the foresight to now that the problem might become unresolvable by that time. Therefore began working closely with the Empire's greatest experts to find a solution to the problem. The solution they came up with was as simple as it was effective.
A law was passed the following year that required for anyone to cut down a tree, two more needed to be planted in the very same area. Anyone caught not following this law was subject to a crippling fine. Though this should have been enough to solve the problem, the emperor and his panel of experts were still worried that with enough people not obeying the law, there still might be a gradual decline. He therefore founded the Oficium Arboribus (Ministry of Forestry), an office in the government dedicated to the continued existence of a large source of wood, and the maintenance of the Empire's vast forests.
One of the most important jobs of the ministry was to organize the shifting of "Protected" and "Unprotected" zones. This was extraordinarily difficult, and to be effective, required a more precise mapping of the Empire's land. Once the cartography was completed, the business of establishing a system for these zones was underway.
Essentially the way this system worked was that entire areas would be declared off-limits for people to cut down. Scouts would be sent periodically to be sure that there were still as many trees there as when they last checked. If not, an investigation ensued. Whilst an area was "Protected" like this, the government would also send people to plant more trees until the entire zone was covered completely. After a few decades of being a protected zone, they would then become unprotected, and open to forestry again. This shuffling was usually noted in the weekly Nuntia, or could be found out by visiting the nearest government building with an Officer of the Forest.
Under Claudius, all of the science academies in the Empire were united in their work once again, and for the first ten years or so, they spent most of the time updating each other on what they'd done and re-establishing officials contact networks. Although these academies petitioned to Emperor to recreate electric weapons for his use in the war, he wagered that those devices were far too expensive to be of any use yet and instead he put almost a billion Dn every year into improving electrical research. One thing in particular that he wanted was a new source of electrical energy, less costly and more continuous than a battery. Currently the only way to charge them was through either natural sources of electricity or other batteries and the non-rechargeable ones were still costly and cumbersome to make.
Nevertheless, Roman chemists managed in 2143 AUC to invent rechargeable batteries with at least half the capacity per volume of OTL lithium-ion batteries. These were several times denser and heavier though and became unusable a lot more quickly. Still, this invention made rechargeable batteries a more profitable investment, as methods for charging them by lightning were improved even more in the 2150's. Over two-thirds of all major printing houses and three-quarters of all electroplating shops now made use of this sort of system.
In 2160, the Emperor decided that the Turris Horologis in the city's center should become electrically powered, something which would make it over ten times more accurate than the mechanical version and require substantially less maintenance, with the only requirement being to refill the batteries when they ran out completely, something which happened every four to eight years, and repair any occasional damage. Since very little power was required, just over long periods of time as the batteries were used to continuously reload one of two mechanical pendulums which ran the clock faces, all the energy could come from lightning strikes, as most power from the time did.
The field where Claudius really shined was in battle, as his father wished to have a son who was a strong military commander, like himself.
During the civil war, an Aztec army penetrated the border and attacked a town that was populated by about 1000 people near the Castrum Dentatus. The townspeople awoke to an army of Aztecs burning their settlement and looting their homes while taking imperial citizens as slaves. Aztec warriors looted and burned various houses and commercial buildings, fighting civilians defending their homes armed with crossbows and gladius, many of whom were veterans of the legions. Due to the situation of civil war, a military response could not be applied at that time and Emperor Montezuma I did not give in to the threats of the Empire or the demands for the return of the slaves, who had been sacrificed years ago in a ritual.
Because a foreign nation could not be allowed to attack the Empire even at its weakest, Caesar decided to send 30 Legions to bring the Elysean civilization south. The Bellum Aztecus stood out for the clash between savagery and martiality. The Aztecs had evolved their technology to reach a technological military level equivalent to 1200 OTL, a level that was not compared to the 1800 OTL that the army of Elysium had.
The Elysean legions invaded from the Castrums positioned on the border by rapid marches doubling the customary speed of 15-mile (25km) by 30-mile (50 km) per day, while the Aztec warriors tried to fight off the invasion using fortified defensive lines. , controlled forest fires, human wave attacks, extensive use of deliberate attacks against unarmed targets. A notable feature of the war was the glorification of martyrdom which further contributed to the extermination of some ethnic groups or peoples, although due to the usual Flower Wars: a ritual war fought intermittently between the Aztec Triple Alliance and its enemies many enemy peoples of the Aztecs ended up accepting the government of the Elyseans even providing auxiliary units that were identified by red cloth garments on the right arm.
The war served as a baptism for the next Imperial mentality to be spoken of in the future. The soldiers, including many graduates of Castella Martiana and Academia Bellica, had never before engaged in urban warfare, and marched straight into the open streets, where they were annihilated by defenders well hidden in the thick adobe houses. What served to apply the doctrine known as "Annihilatio" whose objective provided for the breaking of the enemy's advanced defenses, or tactical zones, through combined arms attacks. The overall goal was to inflict a decisive strategic defeat on the enemy's logistics and make defending their front more difficult, impossible, or even irrelevant. Unlike most other doctrines, Annihilatio emphasized combined arms cooperation at all levels: strategic, operational, and tactical with a single goal.
It must also be understood that after the civil war, the political parties known as Provinciales (those who favor the provinces) and Patricianes (men of the fatherland) ended up being eliminated to be replaced by the Martifilius (Children of Mars); it promoted nationalistic, militaristic and expansionist ideals and was mainly supported by veteran senators of the army and the Quirinfilius (Sons of Quirinus); It promoted a more prudent, gradual and progressive expansion while calling for the cooperation of the bureaucracy and merchants to maximize the imperial industrial and military capacity.
Many members of the military's favorable political party increasingly looked to the south as a target for further expansion. The Martifilius wanted to expand new territories in Mexico, the Quirinfilius wanted new territory for commercial reasons, and all agreed that the Aztec Empire, with its valuable mineral deposits and population, would be an excellent addition to the Empire.
Due to this, it was not difficult to invade and conquer the region, establishing four new provinces:
30: Yaqui Caesariensis Province
31: Neronia Ripense Province
32: Aztec Province
33: Oaxaca Province
Many of Claudius' efforts in the public field were dedicated to upgrading and repairing much of the infrastructure, a job that was a little more difficult than usual every 200 years or so. Whilst doing so, Claudius decided to dramatically increase the number of large inter-provincial roads that stretched across the Empire. Although these had been destroyed centuries ago by Sapiens for the high-upkeep costs required to maintain them, the Empire's wealth was now at such a level that it could much more easily afford this, and the benefits of having more major roads. The improved network was completed, just in time for the next big war.
The major issue for the beginning of his reign was a rather surprising one though. Wood, one of the most important resources in the world, had steadily become more scarce a good. North America, once covered in continent wide forests, was now in danger of having this resource completely depleted. Economists together with botanists calculate that at the Empire's current rate of consumption, there would be virtually no trees anywhere in North America by 2353 AUC (1600 AD). Whilst many in the Senate waved this off as a problem for the future, not the present, Claudius at least had the foresight to now that the problem might become unresolvable by that time. Therefore began working closely with the Empire's greatest experts to find a solution to the problem. The solution they came up with was as simple as it was effective.
A law was passed the following year that required for anyone to cut down a tree, two more needed to be planted in the very same area. Anyone caught not following this law was subject to a crippling fine. Though this should have been enough to solve the problem, the emperor and his panel of experts were still worried that with enough people not obeying the law, there still might be a gradual decline. He therefore founded the Oficium Arboribus (Ministry of Forestry), an office in the government dedicated to the continued existence of a large source of wood, and the maintenance of the Empire's vast forests.
One of the most important jobs of the ministry was to organize the shifting of "Protected" and "Unprotected" zones. This was extraordinarily difficult, and to be effective, required a more precise mapping of the Empire's land. Once the cartography was completed, the business of establishing a system for these zones was underway.
Essentially the way this system worked was that entire areas would be declared off-limits for people to cut down. Scouts would be sent periodically to be sure that there were still as many trees there as when they last checked. If not, an investigation ensued. Whilst an area was "Protected" like this, the government would also send people to plant more trees until the entire zone was covered completely. After a few decades of being a protected zone, they would then become unprotected, and open to forestry again. This shuffling was usually noted in the weekly Nuntia, or could be found out by visiting the nearest government building with an Officer of the Forest.
Under Claudius, all of the science academies in the Empire were united in their work once again, and for the first ten years or so, they spent most of the time updating each other on what they'd done and re-establishing officials contact networks. Although these academies petitioned to Emperor to recreate electric weapons for his use in the war, he wagered that those devices were far too expensive to be of any use yet and instead he put almost a billion Dn every year into improving electrical research. One thing in particular that he wanted was a new source of electrical energy, less costly and more continuous than a battery. Currently the only way to charge them was through either natural sources of electricity or other batteries and the non-rechargeable ones were still costly and cumbersome to make.
Nevertheless, Roman chemists managed in 2143 AUC to invent rechargeable batteries with at least half the capacity per volume of OTL lithium-ion batteries. These were several times denser and heavier though and became unusable a lot more quickly. Still, this invention made rechargeable batteries a more profitable investment, as methods for charging them by lightning were improved even more in the 2150's. Over two-thirds of all major printing houses and three-quarters of all electroplating shops now made use of this sort of system.
In 2160, the Emperor decided that the Turris Horologis in the city's center should become electrically powered, something which would make it over ten times more accurate than the mechanical version and require substantially less maintenance, with the only requirement being to refill the batteries when they ran out completely, something which happened every four to eight years, and repair any occasional damage. Since very little power was required, just over long periods of time as the batteries were used to continuously reload one of two mechanical pendulums which ran the clock faces, all the energy could come from lightning strikes, as most power from the time did.
The field where Claudius really shined was in battle, as his father wished to have a son who was a strong military commander, like himself.
During the civil war, an Aztec army penetrated the border and attacked a town that was populated by about 1000 people near the Castrum Dentatus. The townspeople awoke to an army of Aztecs burning their settlement and looting their homes while taking imperial citizens as slaves. Aztec warriors looted and burned various houses and commercial buildings, fighting civilians defending their homes armed with crossbows and gladius, many of whom were veterans of the legions. Due to the situation of civil war, a military response could not be applied at that time and Emperor Montezuma I did not give in to the threats of the Empire or the demands for the return of the slaves, who had been sacrificed years ago in a ritual.
Because a foreign nation could not be allowed to attack the Empire even at its weakest, Caesar decided to send 30 Legions to bring the Elysean civilization south. The Bellum Aztecus stood out for the clash between savagery and martiality. The Aztecs had evolved their technology to reach a technological military level equivalent to 1200 OTL, a level that was not compared to the 1800 OTL that the army of Elysium had.
The Elysean legions invaded from the Castrums positioned on the border by rapid marches doubling the customary speed of 15-mile (25km) by 30-mile (50 km) per day, while the Aztec warriors tried to fight off the invasion using fortified defensive lines. , controlled forest fires, human wave attacks, extensive use of deliberate attacks against unarmed targets. A notable feature of the war was the glorification of martyrdom which further contributed to the extermination of some ethnic groups or peoples, although due to the usual Flower Wars: a ritual war fought intermittently between the Aztec Triple Alliance and its enemies many enemy peoples of the Aztecs ended up accepting the government of the Elyseans even providing auxiliary units that were identified by red cloth garments on the right arm.
The war served as a baptism for the next Imperial mentality to be spoken of in the future. The soldiers, including many graduates of Castella Martiana and Academia Bellica, had never before engaged in urban warfare, and marched straight into the open streets, where they were annihilated by defenders well hidden in the thick adobe houses. What served to apply the doctrine known as "Annihilatio" whose objective provided for the breaking of the enemy's advanced defenses, or tactical zones, through combined arms attacks. The overall goal was to inflict a decisive strategic defeat on the enemy's logistics and make defending their front more difficult, impossible, or even irrelevant. Unlike most other doctrines, Annihilatio emphasized combined arms cooperation at all levels: strategic, operational, and tactical with a single goal.
It must also be understood that after the civil war, the political parties known as Provinciales (those who favor the provinces) and Patricianes (men of the fatherland) ended up being eliminated to be replaced by the Martifilius (Children of Mars); it promoted nationalistic, militaristic and expansionist ideals and was mainly supported by veteran senators of the army and the Quirinfilius (Sons of Quirinus); It promoted a more prudent, gradual and progressive expansion while calling for the cooperation of the bureaucracy and merchants to maximize the imperial industrial and military capacity.
Many members of the military's favorable political party increasingly looked to the south as a target for further expansion. The Martifilius wanted to expand new territories in Mexico, the Quirinfilius wanted new territory for commercial reasons, and all agreed that the Aztec Empire, with its valuable mineral deposits and population, would be an excellent addition to the Empire.
Due to this, it was not difficult to invade and conquer the region, establishing four new provinces:
30: Yaqui Caesariensis Province
31: Neronia Ripense Province
32: Aztec Province
33: Oaxaca Province
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