Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot

[Hecatee]

Mosylium, coast of Mare Erythreum, July 130


Moshe looked at his surrounding and despaired. He was on the roof of a small house crudely made with bricks of raw earth covered with a quick wash of lime, his wife and two children next to him. In that he was fortunate, for many had lost their family in the violent uprisings that targeted the Jews of Egypt. He’d recognized soon enough that they were worse than the usual troubles and left for Myos Hormos with the first caravan he could find, taking all the money he could find, his wife and his kids on this one way trip.

Myos Hormos, a port of the Red Sea, was almost empty for most of the year and he’d had to wait there for the sailing season. His coins stack slowly dwindled but luckily his non Jew associates managed to liquidate some of his assets and send him more money, although he suspected they had taken more than their share of it. While waiting in Myos Hormos he’d seen other Jews arrive, often in worse shape than him. At the end there were around a hundred families waiting for the trade ships to leave Egypt on their annual cruise toward India where they would buy spices and silks from Serica.

Moshe and his family left Myos Hormos with a dozen other families, one for each tribe, looking for a new home in one of the numerous ports alongside the coast. The eldest jews in Myos Hormos had decided that each group leaving the city would be composed of a family of each tribe so that Israël might survive afar while waiting for an opportunity to come back to the promised land once the Romans were finished with their madness. Each group would carry a copy of the sacred texts so that the faith may never die…

The first few ports they had met on their trip looked miserable and set in poor regions where food was hard to grow. Then they’d come to Mosylium and their captain had told them they would have to land now because he was going back to Myos Hormos, despite the fact they had paid for a trip all the way to Muziris in India : he could afford to abandon him given how rich he was going to be with the year’s first batch of incense and how destitute they were...

The twelve families had thus looked for a place to stay in Mosylium, soon deciding to build their own houses next to each other and close to the port, so as to be able to trade more easily. Their houses delimited a small square where goods could eventually be stored if need be, and which they could defend if needed. But they were not sure that much trade existed…

Set on the southern coast of the sinus leading from the arabian gulf to the Erythrean sea, on the coast opposite Arabia Felix, it was mostly a land where pearls were collected on the seabed. The merchants in Myos Hormos had also said that the town exported tortoise shells, some incense and ivory and served as a transit point for bulk exports of Cinammon. Diet seemed to be made of some plants and a lot of goat meat as well as fish. At least it was not pork…

The treacherous merchant had accepted to carry a letter back to Myos Hormos for Moshe, in which he told his associates in Alexandria where he was and what he could see from the place’s potential. They had agreed during the winter to try to make the best from a bad situation by cornering as much of the trade as possible by installing permanent trading posts in India, but he would have to do with what he had here as he could not afford to pay another captain.

Now they would need to stimulate the production of local resources and manage to centralize it in their compound in order to sell it in bulk to roman merchants. Maybe later they would be able to have their own ship to control the local sea trade ?

 

[Md139115]

Moshe and his family left Myos Hormos with a dozen other families, one for each tribe, looking for a new home in one of the numerous ports alongside the coast. The eldest jews in Myos Hormos had decided that each group leaving the city would be composed of a family of each tribe so that Israël might survive afar while waiting for an opportunity to come back to the promised land once the Romans were finished with their madness. Each group would carry a copy of the sacred texts so that the faith may never die…

Hang on... I was under the impression that by this time, ten of the tribes (okay, 9 1/2 tribes) had been lost to the ages.

 

[Hecatee]

Hang on... I was under the impression that by this time, ten of the tribes (okay, 9 1/2 tribes) had been lost to the ages.

"Some evidence exists of a continuing identification in later centuries of individual Israelites to the Lost Tribes. For example, in Luke 2:36 of the New Testament, an individual is identified with the tribe of Asher." (wikipedia) : I used this line as basis, it made a nice mention

 

[trajen777]

Hello Emperor of the north sea --- i would state that you are partially correct in the performance of the repeating crossbow. However there are several factors which would make it a good weapon for the Romans :
1. Distance of fire -120 meters, with an effective range of 80 metres (260 ft)
2. Rate of fire :easily launch ten bolts in fifteen seconds
3. Training : just like the musket was very ineffective vs a "trained long bowmen" - the key word "trained" comes into play
4. The small size of the unit could allow infantry men to create a firestorm against oncoming troops. (just like legionnaires carried slings as projectile weapons until it came to hand to hand combat time). From a morale standpoint few poorly trained (with little to no armor) would have a very hard time to advance.
5. The use of poison in the barb and the lack of defensive armor with the barbarians would cause very hi causalities
6. This would allow fortifications to be much more defend able with basically town people able to fire on approaching troops
7. Wider use of poorly trained troops to help with the legions
8 The large repeating crossbow with much more power at gate positions or with Mobil units

 

[Krishna123]

The Roman state de-militarised the general population for
Political reasons, the experience of the various republic civil wars did for militias. You need a unified political system before you can alow the hoy poloi to be armed. In short the state monopolised military power so the general population had no chance to resist its demands

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

5. The use of poison in the barb and the lack of defensive armor with the barbarians would cause very hi causalities

What is up with this meme that Barbarians never use armor or shields?

8 The large repeating crossbow with much more power at gate positions or with Mobil units

Better off trading rate of fire for range, all in all with better range (and thrust) you will get more casualties than with greater rate of fire. And if you still want rate of fire use multiple.

 

[Artaxerxes]

What is up with this meme that Barbarians never use armor or shields?

Years of mainstream media.

Noone ever remembers that most of the Roman kit came from Celtic and Samnite tribes. Let alone half of the wheeled vehicles, its all mud and rotting furs vs Roman armour and polite yet cut throat politics.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Years of mainstream media.

Noone ever remembers that most of the Roman kit came from Celtic and Samnite tribes. Let alone half of the wheeled vehicles, its all mud and rotting furs vs Roman armour and polite yet cut throat politics.

Well you could argue the Samnites weren't Barbarians per se (at least not compared to the Romans).

 

[Artaxerxes]

Well you could argue the Samnites weren't Barbarians per se (at least not compared to the Romans).

The Romans certainly considered them uncivilised hill scum.

 

[trajen777]

Armour and clothing of the Germanic warriors
Germanic warrior armour and clothing was truly a mix of styles and equipment. Due to the multiple Germanic tribes and groups, its hard to pinpoint down an exact uniform that the Germanic warriors wore into battle. Different groups had variations on a similar theme, and even in individual groups there were different levels of equipment an individual Germanic warrior might own.

Common to every warrior was a shield. Each Germanic warrior would use a shield as their primary defence, and was used in combination with swords, spears and shorter range melee weapons, although the spear was typically the most common weapon used.

Clothing was optional for Germanic warriors, trousers were common if owned, and sometimes a tunic and cloak would worn, but in many cases clothing was often seen a disadvantage especially if the dirty cloth was to infect a wound obtained in battle.

Helmets were typically rare, but some warriors wore them, whether they were their own or that of a past fallen foe from a previous battle. Chain mail had a similar distribution among the Germanic troops, if not slightly more common, and body armour increased in use later in time.

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-warriors/germanic-warriors/

 

[Hecatee]

Academia Militaria Practica, Via Appia, Rome, October 130


Around thirty men sat at desks set in an hemicycle around the table of the instructor. Baebius Novalis was the one teaching this class on mining : having been based in Hispania for a long time, he’d had to supervise a number of mines including those of the Medullas, famous for the amount of gold it produced. But mining was not only important for metal production : it had applications for stone cutting and, more importantly, for siege warfare.

After all one never knew when war with the Parthian would require you to besiege one of the mesopotamian fortress cities or even one of those puny fortresses currently giving so much trouble to the Caesar Voltinius in Judea : had he not a cohort stuck besieging one of those place since at least a year ? Maybe some well trained engineers could help him there ?

The cursus of the machinatorum’s training included a number of topics, to be studied over a year before the student was sent back to the units. It was expected that training fifteen machinatorum every year would be enough to provide replacement the thirty legions with at least a trained man who could become the right hand man to the Praefectus Fabri. Actually Baebius thought the number were too low given the needs, but that was what he’d received the budget for and he would do with it… Beside while he expected failure from some of his students, he did not expect the rate to be around half, so there would be some excess candidates who would be available for other assignments.

The topics studied were general architecture, water piping, mining, machines making, military architecture and siegecraft. Of course the men were soldiers so the usual weapon drills and marches were included in the training, so as not to send back men unable to hold themselves in a scrap.

The training was made of both theoretical and practical courses : the men had to learn how to give proper instructions to craftsmen while also learning to do things by themselve. In fact the students could only graduate if they brought an innovation to an existing machine or process, or came with a practical new one that could benefit the empire.

Of course no one expected them to cut stone, make metallic objects or work wood themselves, although they had probably done it at some point in their military career, but they had to be able to use the gnomon to survey land and to understand the machines they’d build to define their proper characteristics.

The curriculum had caused some political troubles at first, especially the training in general architecture. The builders’ colleges of both Rome and Ostia had complained to the Palatine’s administration, but the Emperor’s will was set and the course was kept. More interestingly in the eye of Baebius Novalis, he’d also received requests from some wealthy members of the equestrian class who asked for some of their sons to be trained. This request had also been relayed to the Palatine, but had not be solved yet. The feeling seemed to be that the Emperor wanted to see the benefits the first few students could bring to the empire before he started allowing civilians in the cursus.

The main question was whether the new training could lead to the creation of a new cursus honorum for the equestrian class. There were already possibilities for the sons of those rich but not of the senatorial order to get a good place into the government of the Empire, but maybe this new school could open new doors, positions in the provincial administrations or in the army…

Many thought of the school as an opportunity for the creation of new military tribunates or civilian procuratures, and Hadrian was not opposed to the idea, but on the other hand he did not want to bloat the administration and add too many new costs to the Empire : the machinatorum would have to be considered as the equals to narrow strip legionary tribunes, meaning that just thirty of them would cost 1.2 million sestertii a year. Still Baebius had heard from Apollonius that, according to Suetonius, the Emperor was thinking about the creation of a new cursus honorum for those coming through the school.

Future machinatorum would either come from the ranks of the legions’ centurions or from former auxiliary tribunes and would begin their service as tribune machinatorum, of a rank equal to the legion’s other narrow strip tribunes. Yet they would only get half pay during the training year, the remain being paid at graduation. Those who failed would have to spend two years in their previous rank before being authorized to leave the army, and would not get their money.

Those who succeeded would have the choice to serve five continuous years instead of three in a new military position, or to go directly to a civilian position. Those who stayed in the military would get fifty thousand denarii a year, before being allowed to seek a promotion into either a military or a civilian position. The period would count as two militias, and would bring them to a nine year long military career.

Further military promotion was possible at the rank of Prefect of the Camp, competing against the legions Primi Pilus for a job paid a hundred thousand sestertii a year, before eventually going into one of the six equestrian prefectures, the direction of the Schola Machinatorum becoming the new one alongside the prefecture of the annone or the prefecture of the Misena fleet, among other. The director must be a graduate of the school too, a requirement that did not exist for the other positions. Those who could not or did not want to stay in the military after their five years could also go back to the civilian career directly at the level of procurator sexagenarii.

Those who choose for the early civilian path would get a lesser pay as procurator quadragenarii rei machinatorii, a new category, and would have to serve for at least five years in the provincial staff of a governor, supervising great projects and suggesting new ones to develop the economy, depending on the available budget. The difference in pay with the military machinatorum would certainly be compensated by corruption…

From there they could get promoted to the rank of procurator sexagenarii rei machinatorii, head of the machinatorum affected to a given province, a two year affectation after which they could rejoin the normal cursus for the equestrian class by becoming procurator centenarii.

Overall Baebius had calculated that there would be around two hundred machinatorum of all ranks active in the empire at any time, for a total of some ten million sestertii a year, and to him it meant that the current output of the school was too feeble, they needed to double the number of trainees : between those who might get killed during their military service, those who’d take a rest between two functions, those who retired early and those who, for a reason or another, needed to be replaced, he thought they needed to have at least twice as many trainees as there were entry level positions…

 

[Hecatee]

For those who'd like to understand yesterday's post better :

Most often people who know about the working of the roman empire know that there were carreers for the senators and the members of the equestrian order. While it was not mandatory for the latter to enter a carreer, it was more important for the senators who wanted to stay in the senatorial order. But what many forget is that while the senatorial carreer was formalized as early as Sulla in the 1st century BCE and then revised by Caesar, Augustus and other emperors, the carreer for the equestrian order was not really fixed before Hadrian, who made a large reform of the system, formalizing things that existed before and adding new elements. Thus having Hadrian build a new carreer does not seem that much of a stretch.
The main issue here is the fact that the Schola Machinatorum deals with practical matters and training, which was frowned upon by the elites : gardening was probably a step too far for many... Yet on the other hand men who rose from the ranks would not have the same attitude, which helps in the matter. The curiosity shown by some equestrians was more of a surprise in this context, but could be seen as a way for equestrians to try to circunvent the major trade colleges (more or less guilds to take a medieval analogy) but that could be an issue because the college could be very rich and powerful, as is shown by buildings in Ostia for instance, and have of course leaders of equestrian rank who would not be happy to see other equestrians bypass them...

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

In fact the students could only graduate if they brought an innovation to an existing machine or process, or came with a practical new one that could benefit the empire.

1) wildly innovative for the Roman Empire, and
2) Ouch. How many innovations do you think are close enough that an average Joe can come up with a new one?

The builders’ colleges of both Rome and Ostia

Builders' colleges? Did these exist? Do you mean something like Guild?

machinatorum

what is "machinatorum" supposed to mean. It LOOKS like a second declension genitive plural (of a hypothetical adjective machinatus, 'machined'), but you seem to be using it as a nominative singular.

 

[Hecatee]

1) wildly innovative for the Roman Empire, and

Yes, very innovative indeed. But it is in fact a kind of "masterwork" clause similar to the one existing in many medieval guild models and might have existed in a way or another in the colleges of the roman period

2) Ouch. How many innovations do you think are close enough that an average Joe can come up with a new one?

For now the pool of innovation is rather wide, and innovations don't have to be ground breaking. Beside the first generations of trainees will have come from many parts of the empire and simply bringing full descriptions of something they've seen and making it work would be enough to pass. On the other hand this brings a spirit of competition and innovation. Also remember that we speak of 15 trainees a year for now, possibly going to 30 or 50, not an insane amount : just making small improvements on ideas by Hieron of Alexandria or Archimedes would be a way, as would new, more powerfull, larger or smaller versions of existing weapons, improvements in horse/oxen collars, new agricultural methods (or simply teaching about a method efficient in an area that could be tried somewhere else), improvements to the treviri's vallus (a kind of reaper described by Pliny), ... Later on the exam may change to writting some kind of "thesis" but with a practical part too because those guys are supposed to be in charge of practical work in the provinces and in the army so they can't be pure theoretical guys, that can stay in Alexandria's museum

Builders' colleges? Did these exist? Do you mean something like Guild?

A guild is a medieval thing, a collegium an ancient one we have well known example of a college of the carpenters and of a college of the builders, among others, in Ostia. Cf. too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ancient_Roman_Collegia

what is "machinatorum" supposed to mean. It LOOKS like a second declension genitive plural (of a hypothetical adjective machinatus, 'machined'), but you seem to be using it as a nominative singular.

Machinator, machinatoris: the one who builds/directs machines (Livy), artisan or author (Cicero), architect (Tacitus), engineer (Tacitus)

 

[Hecatee]

Hadriana Hermunduriana, Februarius 131


Outside the wind howled, the snow piled, the soldiers patrolled or tried to keep warm and see time pass as comfortably as possible. Some trained in the large hall erected in the center of the camp, where a few dozen training posts had been set at which they could hack with their training gladii but which could also be taken out to allow for basic unit manoeuvring training. In the praetorium another kind of storm raged after a messenger had brought a message to the Emperor.

Hadrian was ashen faced. How could he be so stupid ? Dying from a stone thrown by a kid wielding a sling ? Sure it had motivated his men, who’d stormed the last holdout of the rebels, but his heir was still a bunch of ashes in an urn on its way to Rome… The whole succession issue was back at stake, and he was far from Rome…

He was tired of those succession issues, still remembering the time the divine Trajanus had been elevated to the purple and his own accession to the throne. Things were not clear enough, left too much space for interpretations and ambitions. He needed to define once and for all a mechanism to choose one’s heir, something that the law would make official and that would prevent any troubles like those following the dead of the despised Nero.

The example of the Julio-Claudii showed well enough that designing one’s own sons was not a good idea, nor was the idea of adopting the previous children of one’s wife, Nero being here too the best example of how this policy could only lead to trouble. He needed to break the family policies to ensure the Empire long term stability.

On the other hand the fact that Voltinius had been known as the official heir of the Emperor had been beneficial : when he came to an area he was the Emperor incarnate and none could challenge him, not even a proconsul. He was above all but his adoptive father and could replace him when the ruler was not willing to come or too occupied to personally supervise an operation. That also allowed him to show what he was really made of, and allowed for dismissal of candidates that proved unfit for the task.

The heir would need to be chosen after he’d been at least a praetor, so in theory as he was already thirty years old, but should never be too old : a man in his sixties would be unable to rule effectively, especially if military action had to be taken. He knew it well enough, despite being only in his later fifties ! So a praetor not a son, a grandson, a brother, a cousin or a nephew of the ruling emperor, preferably aged between thirty and forty and in no circumstances older than fifty. The heir would also need to designate a boy between 10 and 15 years old to become his own heir, and that child would adopt his own heir when reaching the praetorship.

The Senate would be required to approve of the choice as well as in case of dismissal of an unfit heir. In the same way the senators needed to approve of a new emperor, they would need to officialize the succession, which would be another problem for any would be usurpator.

This would ensure that the principle of principato adottivo chosen by Nerva and through which both Trajan and Hadrian himself had been raised to the purple would become henceforth the law of the Empire, giving to custom the strength of the bronze tables on which it would be engraved.

Now he just needed to define who would succeed him… His good friend Lucius Catilius Severus is too old, although he could have been a good candidate. There is of course Antoninus who, at forty five, is a former consul, and thus respects the criterions... He could probably take the young Marcus Annius Verus as his own heir, given how precocious the boy was.

Calling on a secretary, Hadrian started to organize his thoughts in order to dictate the new legislation...

 

[Artaxerxes]

This is tricky, he's right it needs sorting out but sooner or later the issue will arise again as one man goes against it and tries to ensure his kid gets into power and establish a permanent dynasty.

 

[Md139115]

Voltinius! Noooooo!!!

 

[Hecatee]

This is tricky, he's right it needs sorting out but sooner or later the issue will arise again as one man goes against it and tries to ensure his kid gets into power and establish a permanent dynasty.

Of course some emperor will try to change things later on, but it should prevent Commodus, Caracalla and Geta (those last two if they were not other butterflies preventing their rise, but let's not cut hairs in four) and last at least a century because it is law and comes from a good emperor, not a tyrant : he who wants to go against such rule will have to be rather powerful, or brought to power by an outside coup.

Voltinius! Noooooo!!!

Yes, of course yes ! I'm no G.R.R. Martin nor a Steven Erikson, but my characters have to die sometime And beside he'd served his purpose, so why not do away with him ? He's no perfect Mary Sue

 

[trajen777]

Good ideas for the succession. However a large part that needed to be worked out is how to control the Generals of the large Legions groups on the Rhine, Danube, and to a lesser extent the East. Perhaps a rotational system of Generals ( 2 - 4 year assignments ?) to make them less powerful? One of the issues that faced Augustus was hit minimization of the senatorial class in favor of the equestrian class. So you will need to reverse this. This will allow the rotation of the generals to the senate and back and forth. You will also need to have more power of payments etc to the troops and a retirement plan so the $$ as seen coming form the center not the generals.

 

[Hecatee]

Good ideas for the succession. However a large part that needed to be worked out is how to control the Generals of the large Legions groups on the Rhine, Danube, and to a lesser extent the East. Perhaps a rotational system of Generals ( 2 - 4 year assignments ?) to make them less powerful? One of the issues that faced Augustus was hit minimization of the senatorial class in favor of the equestrian class. So you will need to reverse this. This will allow the rotation of the generals to the senate and back and forth. You will also need to have more power of payments etc to the troops and a retirement plan so the $$ as seen coming form the center not the generals.

Generals were already in a 2/4 years rotation, especially those with the larger overall command : indeed a legion was commanded by a legate that was also the province's governor, or the governor was the senior commander in charge when more than one legion was stationned in a given province such as the Germanies. But of course a governor could be more influencial than another, and/or negotiate with his fellow governors to assemble more legions than he should have : that's what happened with Vespasian who added troops from Egypt and Anatolia to his multi-legion force in Judea.

Now if you go to the map back on page 7 you'll see that the move of a number of legions has already broken part of the concentration of troops on the Danube as well as changed the situation in Germania Superior by moving the 8th Augusta that the lands taken from the Hermunduri, which i've not mentionned but are part of Raetia. So right now we have the troops in Britannia (2 Augusta, 6 Victrix, 20 Valeria), 3 legions in Germania Inferior (9 Hispana, 30 Ulpia, 1 Minerva), one in Germania Superior (22 Primigena), one in Noricum (10th Gemina), 2 in Pannonia Superior (14 Gemina, 2 Adiutrix), one in Iazigea (4 Flavia Felix), 1 in Dacia Superior -trajanic Dacia- (13 Gemina), 1 in Moesia Superior (7 Claudia), 2 in Moesia Inferior (1 Italica, 5 Macedonica), 1 in Dacia Inferior (9 Claudia), 1 in Tarracibebsus (7 Gemina), 1 in Africa Proconsularis (3 Augusta), 2 in Egypt (2 Traiana and 22 Deiotariana), and the 8 of the Persian front, from Cappadocia to Arabia Petraea.

This mean that only the provinces furthest from Rome have large concentration of troops : Britannia, Germania Inferio and Syria, giving ample time to react in case of need. Also all the forces between Germania Superior and Moesia Inferior are quite busy with the newly conquered lands, so no iddle soldiers ready to revolt, the same is true in many ways for Britannia and Germania Inferior.