I should have been more clear. Hegemonies stifle innovation due to lack of competition. China produced its greatest innovations when they were split politically such as the warring states period or the southern song dynasty. The British Empire was not a hegemon in Europe and Europe innovated primarily because of competition between emerging nation states. Back to topic Rome was a hegemon and so that's one reason why little innovation happened compared to the Hellenistic years or when Rome was fighting many powerful enemies as a republic.
Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot
- Thread starter Hecatee
- Start date
I should have been more clear. Hegemonies stifle innovation due to lack of competition. China produced its greatest innovations when they were split politically such as the warring states period or the southern song dynasty. The British Empire was not a hegemon in Europe and Europe innovated primarily because of competition between emerging nation states. Back to topic Rome was a hegemon and so that's one reason why little innovation happened compared to the Hellenistic years or when Rome was fighting many powerful enemies as a republic.
Hecatee
Donor
True a lot of innovation stemmed from strife. But not all competition has to been between states, internal competition can also lead to this type of développement. The incremental developpement of the smartphone is an exemple : no war but well competition
Although I agree the Cold War produced more innovation. Here the competition is between the great families : there are about 600 senatorial families and some 30 000 equestrian families, all with the means to invest in new mechanical developpements and engaging in prestige competitions at the local or imperial level. More importantly, while the main engineers (either legionary engineers or academy trained ones) may not be availlable, a class of local care takers has risen to keep care of the invention they left behind, repairing broken pieces and familiar with mechanics even if they are not inventors. It creates slowly a base of knowledge, and in the 40 years since the creation of the academy we are already at the second generation of such care takers.
Donald Reaver
Donor
There are always home grown tinkers, who have a craving to change things. Getting those people not to be squashed, but encouraged and to benefit from their ideas is the goal. Money triumphs over war as inspiration. The lack of a major war since WWII has not slowed innovation. The cold war did indeed produce many advancements, but that ended and technology is still advancing ever faster. The patent system of making inventions, improvements profitable is a key. I doubt that can be enforced at this point in the Roman world, but any movement towards that, could be critical.
The biggest steps forward in Chinese technology weren't during eras of strife, but of unification. The Tang and Song dynasties had many great inventions spread during their reigns and the CPC rule of China since Deng has been an era of great innovation without war.
Wrong, totally wrong. Okay this is going to be wildly off-topic but I can’t resist.
You have to learn to read “between the lines” of Chinese history and the official word of what was recorded. Many of the great “advances” of unified dynasties were emperors leveraging existing technology already developed and spreading it on a wide scale. (while spreading their word for propagandic purposes, since intellectual prestige was a source of political legitimacy) The real advances were often made decades if not centuries before (during times of strife). Emperors would appoint grand officials to assemble vast encyclopedias of knowledge, science, technology from across the empire, while popularizing their findings. Many of these famous inventors of Chinese history were simply building off the work of generations before them. They did not actually “invent” all the stuff they wrote about!
Basically the accomplishments of unified dynasties have been overstated while the contributions made by lesser-known periods have been understated.
With regards to the dynasties, Southern Song was probably more innovative and advanced than Northern Song especially in gunpowder tech, and even the Northern Song was a period when China was not particularly powerful militarily speaking, relative to its neighbours.
The Warring States Period had the Hundred Schools of Thought. The Qin Dynasty had book burnings. The Three Kingdoms produced a lot of innovation within a short period of time relative to the much longer Han Dynasty. The period between Han and Tang when China was often politically divided produced a ton of innovation. If you compare Tang with say Sui (which lasted 37 years), year on year Sui was more impressive.
Ming, and Qing produced relatively little innovation. Yuan produced a lot during an era of relative strife.
CCP has not been a great innovator compared to the Chinese dynasties they have copied more than invented with the perhaps exception of only the last decade or so. And this is with the introduction of western concepts of patent law, copyright, mass-education ect.
All things being equal: strife = more innovation. harmony and hegemony = less innovation. It’s human nature.
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All fine but I don’t exactly know the state of Roman patent law or copyright or how strong the rule of law is that doesn’t prevent rich and powerful people from stealing inventions (from the less rich and powerful) to benefit themselves, stifling inventors and investors. Basically I feel we need to strengthen patent law, copyright, investment law, and the rule of law in general for this to be more plausible. That's how it went historically in Europe anyways. Otherwise inventions just tend to become fanciful toys for the rich.
Hecatee
Donor
as far as i know they were no patent or intellectual property laws in the roman empire. and while some things such as glass production techniques or metalworking techniques was not recorded, engineering design (Hiero of Alexandria, ...) or agricultural practices (Cato the elder, ...) were and were shared, this is why we know of balista designs or the aelopyle. You could compare the situation with Europe's Renaissance period. BUT, and that's a massive but, here you also have at least two central institutions which act as information clearing house where everyone can come and bring or get the knowledge : the Alexandrian library, which serves as a mainly theoretical research center for domains such as astronomy (with Claude Ptolemy going for heliocentrism in this world due to direct observation), optics, mathematics (includes mesopotamian research following the capture of the area), and the Academia Militaria Practica in Rome which works more on mechanics, engineering, and similar topics with a strong focus on practicability with incentive to improve and simplify designs (through the end of studies project).
Given that the engineers will either go back to Rome at the end of their tour or meet with people fresh from Rome and who knows all the novelties, you will have information exchange on a scale not seen in Europe's Renaissance and while it remains exceptional to have a Leonardo da Vinci, and may in some ways become harder to get one, you get many more people trained with the mind of engineers. Also note that while a lot of the theoretical stuff may be written in greek, a lot of the practical stuff is written in latin, which could have an impact later on in case of dislocation of the empire in either the east or the west...
Given that the engineers will either go back to Rome at the end of their tour or meet with people fresh from Rome and who knows all the novelties, you will have information exchange on a scale not seen in Europe's Renaissance and while it remains exceptional to have a Leonardo da Vinci, and may in some ways become harder to get one, you get many more people trained with the mind of engineers. Also note that while a lot of the theoretical stuff may be written in greek, a lot of the practical stuff is written in latin, which could have an impact later on in case of dislocation of the empire in either the east or the west...
Then no monetization will occur from the innovation limiting its utility for society. Or if the inventors do monetize it you think the rich will not go after their profits? (either stealing their idea and competing with them using their massive resources or if that is insufficient hire thugs and pay the authorities) But if they are expected to do this why then would the inventors monetize it?
Something does not have to be monetized to benefit society. There's plenty of criticism of patent systems around, not least the overhead costs they cause which can mean poor inventors never get to patent something. And there are definitely those who refuse to patent something because they want to keep it secret (e.g recipes). The improved horse collar was never patented, did that mean it didn't spread or benefit society?
There's an interesting article on historical innovation here
There's an interesting article on historical innovation here
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Decent analysis, but I think it's fair to point out that some of the most striking technological innovation has occurred since the 1980s, and for most of that period, there has not been a serious competitor for global hegemony. Admittedly, there are additional incentives for innovation such as a strong patent law, a culture emphasizing ownership and hard work, and a healthy military-industrial complex, but I'd argue ancient Rome had at least two of those things (absent any sort of patent system afaik), so I don't think its necessarily fair to just assume hegemony stifles innovation just because that analysis applies decently well to imperial China.
The way I see it hegemony doesn't necessarily stifle innovation, instead what stifles innovation is one of the symptoms of hegemony and that is complacency. When a country is dominant and doesn't feel threatened it becomes complacent and that stifles innovation. But I don't think hegemony itself stifles innovation, in fact it could benefit because a larger state has a lot more resources to throw at innovating then a smaller state. An example of this would be the space race both the USSR and USA were hegemonies and they made great advances in innovation (yes I know it's cause they were competing but my point is that they weren't complacent and thus didn't stifle innovation and in fact helped it because they were able to throw more resources at it than any other country could) feel free to correct me though I wanna learn
It's not only that complacency stifles innovation which is true but also that the fear of enemies and outside competitors spurs you to actively try and experiment with stuff you'd otherwise not bother with; to solve particular problems and challenges, with more leeway to go against vested interests because the stakes are much higher. Most authorities have a tendency to discourage innovation because it produces disruption and instability relatively speaking, until they find themselves forced to.
For this TL I'd like Rome to meet up with China, both should learn and discover they aren't necessarily the centre of the world. Then the emperors and learned officials from both empires will hopefully try to up their game to match and build on the achievements of the other while stealing trade and tech secrets and learning about the other's institutions. It would be lovely to see the Romans eventually discover paper, printing, silk-making, porcelain, advanced agriculture and bureaucracy from the Chinese while they discover Roman law, engineering, architecture, professional military organization, glassmaking, urban planning.
Hecatee
Donor
Ok, so I was in London and Oxford those last few days, museum hopping (British Museum, Soane Museum, Ashmolean Museum, but also an exhibit at the National Gallery, another at the Bodleian library, and a visit to the Wallace Collection too...) and (massive, in the 750£ range...) book shopping, and already I've spotted in my new acquisitions some elements that will force me to re-write some of the chapters I planned to publish in the next few days. For this reason I will not follow the planned schedule, so the posts on institutions and an ambassy to a land far far away will have to wait a bit.
But it also brings me to another problem : While I have a few thousands books in my home, I don't have anything on Han China beside what McLaughlin mentions in his Roman Empire & the Indian Ocean Trade and in (the newly acquired and yet to be read) Roman Empie & the Silk Road.
So does anyone have anything to suggest to introduce me the the Han dynasty, especially the eastern Han ? Because I've begun to have some ideas, but I'd like to ground them in reality...
For the curious, among my new books and related to this thread I may mention David S. Potter's The Roman Empire at Bay (2nd edition), the aformentionned McLaughlin book on Romans & the Silk Road and Campbell Tritle's Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World. Beside that I bought some Pen & Sword books on sale (Rome seizes the trident by De Santis, Spartan Supremacy by Roberts & Bennett, Sparta's Kings by Carr, Mark Anthony by de Ruggiero, Vuruathus by Silva, Mercenaries in the classical world up to the death of Alexander by English), a number of books of the presence of antiquity in modern literrature (Classics & Comics and its sequel Son of Classics and Comics edited by Kovacs and Marshall, Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 by McConnell & Hall, Antiquity Now by Jenkins), a few classics themed books (Stuttard bio of Alcibiades "Nemesis", Isaac's The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, Yeroulanos' Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotation and Whitmarsh's Battling the Gods : atheism in the Ancient World; Van Wees Ships and Silver, Taxes and Tributes, Laurence's Roman Archeology for Historians), a few "oxford very short introduction" even if I probably know most if not all of what they teach (history, classics, late antiquity, classical litterature, alexander the great, egyptian myths, ancient egypt, hellenistic age). there are also a few novels but only the Time Travellers' Almanac edited by the Vandermeer is relevant here )
But it also brings me to another problem : While I have a few thousands books in my home, I don't have anything on Han China beside what McLaughlin mentions in his Roman Empire & the Indian Ocean Trade and in (the newly acquired and yet to be read) Roman Empie & the Silk Road.
So does anyone have anything to suggest to introduce me the the Han dynasty, especially the eastern Han ? Because I've begun to have some ideas, but I'd like to ground them in reality...
For the curious, among my new books and related to this thread I may mention David S. Potter's The Roman Empire at Bay (2nd edition), the aformentionned McLaughlin book on Romans & the Silk Road and Campbell Tritle's Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World. Beside that I bought some Pen & Sword books on sale (Rome seizes the trident by De Santis, Spartan Supremacy by Roberts & Bennett, Sparta's Kings by Carr, Mark Anthony by de Ruggiero, Vuruathus by Silva, Mercenaries in the classical world up to the death of Alexander by English), a number of books of the presence of antiquity in modern literrature (Classics & Comics and its sequel Son of Classics and Comics edited by Kovacs and Marshall, Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 by McConnell & Hall, Antiquity Now by Jenkins), a few classics themed books (Stuttard bio of Alcibiades "Nemesis", Isaac's The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, Yeroulanos' Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotation and Whitmarsh's Battling the Gods : atheism in the Ancient World; Van Wees Ships and Silver, Taxes and Tributes, Laurence's Roman Archeology for Historians), a few "oxford very short introduction" even if I probably know most if not all of what they teach (history, classics, late antiquity, classical litterature, alexander the great, egyptian myths, ancient egypt, hellenistic age). there are also a few novels but only the Time Travellers' Almanac edited by the Vandermeer is relevant here
)Glyndwr01
Banned
Ok, so I was in London and Oxford those last few days, museum hopping (British Museum, Soane Museum, Ashmolean Museum, but also an exhibit at the National Gallery, another at the Bodleian library, and a visit to the Wallace Collection too...) and (massive, in the 750£ range...) book shopping, and already I've spotted in my new acquisitions some elements that will force me to re-write some of the chapters I planned to publish in the next few days. For this reason I will not follow the planned schedule, so the posts on institutions and an ambassy to a land far far away will have to wait a bit.
But it also brings me to another problem : While I have a few thousands books in my home, I don't have anything on Han China beside what McLaughlin mentions in his Roman Empire & the Indian Ocean Trade and in (the newly acquired and yet to be read) Roman Empie & the Silk Road.
So does anyone have anything to suggest to introduce me the the Han dynasty, especially the eastern Han ? Because I've begun to have some ideas, but I'd like to ground them in reality...
For the curious, among my new books and related to this thread I may mention David S. Potter's The Roman Empire at Bay (2nd edition), the aformentionned McLaughlin book on Romans & the Silk Road and Campbell Tritle's Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World. Beside that I bought some Pen & Sword books on sale (Rome seizes the trident by De Santis, Spartan Supremacy by Roberts & Bennett, Sparta's Kings by Carr, Mark Anthony by de Ruggiero, Vuruathus by Silva, Mercenaries in the classical world up to the death of Alexander by English), a number of books of the presence of antiquity in modern literrature (Classics & Comics and its sequel Son of Classics and Comics edited by Kovacs and Marshall, Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 by McConnell & Hall, Antiquity Now by Jenkins), a few classics themed books (Stuttard bio of Alcibiades "Nemesis", Isaac's The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, Yeroulanos' Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotation and Whitmarsh's Battling the Gods : atheism in the Ancient World; Van Wees Ships and Silver, Taxes and Tributes, Laurence's Roman Archeology for Historians), a few "oxford very short introduction" even if I probably know most if not all of what they teach (history, classics, late antiquity, classical litterature, alexander the great, egyptian myths, ancient egypt, hellenistic age). there are also a few novels but only the Time Travellers' Almanac edited by the Vandermeer is relevant here
That sir is some dedication!!!!
Senate House, Rome, September 174
Hecatee
Donor
Senate House, Rome, September 174
Marcus Aurelius himself presided the seance of the Senate, a not so exceptional occurrence since his return from the war in the north. Yet today was an important day because the senior consul was about to present to the Senate a law proposal which everyone knew came from the Emperor himself although its topic was unknown from most senators. There was no doubts it would be adopted as wanted by the princeps, but there might be room for either improvements or flattery for the Emperor, which was never bad even if Marcus Aurelius was known to be rather indifferent to sycophants.
“Conscript fathers, most honourable senators, I would present before you a new law about the establishment of the command of the provinces and of the armies.
Our empire grew since the time of the divine Trajan in ways not seen since the time of the divine Augustus himself, but we keep managing it as if it were olden times. We need to correct this situation because as it is the action of the emperor cannot reach every inhabitant of the Republic in an equal manner.
We have thus conferred with our Princeps and his advisors and would submit to this assembly a major reorganization of the empire and of the career of those who, like us, serve the senate and the people of Rome.
While the full text of the law will be given to you before any vote takes place, and while this is but the first of a number of meetings we will have on the topic, I would like to introduce you to the main changes we intend to operate in the empire.
First, it has come to the attention of our princeps that the provinces are too big to be properly managed, especially in these times of innovations and changes and prosperity. Given the number of request coming to the princeps, it stands to reason that we need to add new ways to manage things such as requests for new aqueducts, city walls or public baths, and we need to make sure governors worry about the civilian affairs and not the military defense of the borders which requires the full attention of those who are in charge of it.
Every request that comes to the Emperor for approval has to travel for months before it comes to wherever the Emperor is, and then it has to travel back with the response after weeks if not months waiting for the Emperor to reply to it. In the end many demands require one or two year before being examined. Some other decisions are to be taken by governors, but they too are as you are well aware kept busy by the twin demands of their charge, meaning that often the decision they have to take also demand months before they are taken and implemented.
In the beginning every governor worked with a staff made of his personal slaves and a few public slaves. When the divine Augustus became princeps of this assembly he did work in the same way, and most of those who work in Rome to make the wheels of government work are still the property of the Emperor or their freedmen.
Maybe an increase of efficiency could be had by increasing their numbers, but this is not what we deem to be the best course of action. An increased central administration would simply create new offices, add new layers, but requests would still have to come to Rome and time would still be lost.
Instead we think it best to improve the administration in the provinces, and that means changing things abroad, in many number of ways.
Every year thirty of you serve as legion commanders, and the empire is divided in almost forty provinces. With this reform the number of legions will stay the same, but their commanders will have no other responsibility than their force. They will, as tradition mandates, young senatorial tribunes as aides in their command, alongside the other officers such as our forces already have.
As for the provinces, they will now number a hundred and twenty. Of course this noble assembly could not be counted upon to provide such a high number of administrators, that is why the position will be given for a period of two years to procurator centenarii who may not be born in the diocese in which their allotted province lies.
Of course such a number of provinces requires an organization, and that his why seventeen diocesis are to be created, a position from which propraetors from our noble assembly will rule for two years in the name of the Senate.
Finally four proconsuls with two years mandates will be named by this august body to the new rank of senatorial praefect, on a suggestion by our Princeps. Their task will be to be the highest authority in their area of responsibility after the Emperor, and to assume command of multiples legions if the security of the Empire requires it and both the Emperor and his heir are otherwise occupied. Their imperium will only be surpassed by the Augustus and the Caesar or a general sent by them in exceptional circumstances, and no one may become senatorial praefect in the prefecture in which his family has its roots.
Beside this our princeps has seen that change is needed in the way the provinces themselves are managed, to provide more opportunities for the talented amongst the local equestrians and notables to serve the empire.
But more importantly it has become the conviction of our Princeps that the traditional cursus honorum is no longer sufficient to provide the Republic with able advisors and commanders. The example of the Academia Militaria Practica has shown that much is to be gained by having the state train its best engineers, be it for the prosperity of the land or for military confrontations, as has been shown five years ago both in the Marcoman war and in the Caledonian revolt.
Likewise too often our centurions think like their predecessor did and lack flexibility of thought, because they’ve been doing what they learned while serving. Likewise our tribune and legates could be better soldiers and better generals if they had been trained more rigorously for their function so that no Varus may ever command a legion of Rome.
The old idea of Aristotle that the philosopher must not dirty his hands has been proven wrong, and the same is true for us : one can’t be a good soldier because one’s parents were, and too often our arrogance, our hubris even, caused the unnecessary deaths of legionaries of Rome. Commanding men in battle is a skill that has one has to learn as much as the skill of the carpenter or that of the smith. And if the commander is the backbone of any army, then he must be forged before the fight as is the spine of a gladius so that he may not shatter when striking the foe.
If the elder Cato, one of the noblest men to have ever been seated in this assembly, thought it useful to write practical treatises on topics such as agriculture, if we send our sons to practise oratory to the schools of Rhodes or Athens, then we must plan for a formal training of our senior officers, be they from senatorial or equestrian rank.
Youths who expect to enter the Senate have to do their ten years of service, and this period will now include a first year of formal training at a new military academy that will be established close by the Academia Militaria Practica, in which it will be determined if they are fit for the command of men.
Likewise men destined to become legion legati will have to spend six months learning the tricks of higher command in Rome before going to their command, and while it will still be possible to become consul without having been legatus it will not be possible to become senatorial praefect, a position that will also require six months of intensive training.
Each diocese will also have its own academia for the newly promoted centurions, so that they receive six months of education in the art of war seen from a wider perspective than what they know and that they receive some education in law and civilian matters, because they may have to enforce rules on request from local civilian authorities or otherwise interact with them.
All this will require an increased administration, generate new costs and require new taxes. But the princeps does not want that to be an obstacle and wants to simplify the transition period. This is why he as decided, as had the divine Hadrianus before him, to remit all the debts due to the state by individuals or collectivities, so that from a clear situation each may now what he owns the state for his protection.
This is, in the great lines, what is now presented to this honourable assembly for discussion”
Marcus Aurelius himself presided the seance of the Senate, a not so exceptional occurrence since his return from the war in the north. Yet today was an important day because the senior consul was about to present to the Senate a law proposal which everyone knew came from the Emperor himself although its topic was unknown from most senators. There was no doubts it would be adopted as wanted by the princeps, but there might be room for either improvements or flattery for the Emperor, which was never bad even if Marcus Aurelius was known to be rather indifferent to sycophants.
“Conscript fathers, most honourable senators, I would present before you a new law about the establishment of the command of the provinces and of the armies.
Our empire grew since the time of the divine Trajan in ways not seen since the time of the divine Augustus himself, but we keep managing it as if it were olden times. We need to correct this situation because as it is the action of the emperor cannot reach every inhabitant of the Republic in an equal manner.
We have thus conferred with our Princeps and his advisors and would submit to this assembly a major reorganization of the empire and of the career of those who, like us, serve the senate and the people of Rome.
While the full text of the law will be given to you before any vote takes place, and while this is but the first of a number of meetings we will have on the topic, I would like to introduce you to the main changes we intend to operate in the empire.
First, it has come to the attention of our princeps that the provinces are too big to be properly managed, especially in these times of innovations and changes and prosperity. Given the number of request coming to the princeps, it stands to reason that we need to add new ways to manage things such as requests for new aqueducts, city walls or public baths, and we need to make sure governors worry about the civilian affairs and not the military defense of the borders which requires the full attention of those who are in charge of it.
Every request that comes to the Emperor for approval has to travel for months before it comes to wherever the Emperor is, and then it has to travel back with the response after weeks if not months waiting for the Emperor to reply to it. In the end many demands require one or two year before being examined. Some other decisions are to be taken by governors, but they too are as you are well aware kept busy by the twin demands of their charge, meaning that often the decision they have to take also demand months before they are taken and implemented.
In the beginning every governor worked with a staff made of his personal slaves and a few public slaves. When the divine Augustus became princeps of this assembly he did work in the same way, and most of those who work in Rome to make the wheels of government work are still the property of the Emperor or their freedmen.
Maybe an increase of efficiency could be had by increasing their numbers, but this is not what we deem to be the best course of action. An increased central administration would simply create new offices, add new layers, but requests would still have to come to Rome and time would still be lost.
Instead we think it best to improve the administration in the provinces, and that means changing things abroad, in many number of ways.
Every year thirty of you serve as legion commanders, and the empire is divided in almost forty provinces. With this reform the number of legions will stay the same, but their commanders will have no other responsibility than their force. They will, as tradition mandates, young senatorial tribunes as aides in their command, alongside the other officers such as our forces already have.
As for the provinces, they will now number a hundred and twenty. Of course this noble assembly could not be counted upon to provide such a high number of administrators, that is why the position will be given for a period of two years to procurator centenarii who may not be born in the diocese in which their allotted province lies.
Of course such a number of provinces requires an organization, and that his why seventeen diocesis are to be created, a position from which propraetors from our noble assembly will rule for two years in the name of the Senate.
Finally four proconsuls with two years mandates will be named by this august body to the new rank of senatorial praefect, on a suggestion by our Princeps. Their task will be to be the highest authority in their area of responsibility after the Emperor, and to assume command of multiples legions if the security of the Empire requires it and both the Emperor and his heir are otherwise occupied. Their imperium will only be surpassed by the Augustus and the Caesar or a general sent by them in exceptional circumstances, and no one may become senatorial praefect in the prefecture in which his family has its roots.
Beside this our princeps has seen that change is needed in the way the provinces themselves are managed, to provide more opportunities for the talented amongst the local equestrians and notables to serve the empire.
But more importantly it has become the conviction of our Princeps that the traditional cursus honorum is no longer sufficient to provide the Republic with able advisors and commanders. The example of the Academia Militaria Practica has shown that much is to be gained by having the state train its best engineers, be it for the prosperity of the land or for military confrontations, as has been shown five years ago both in the Marcoman war and in the Caledonian revolt.
Likewise too often our centurions think like their predecessor did and lack flexibility of thought, because they’ve been doing what they learned while serving. Likewise our tribune and legates could be better soldiers and better generals if they had been trained more rigorously for their function so that no Varus may ever command a legion of Rome.
The old idea of Aristotle that the philosopher must not dirty his hands has been proven wrong, and the same is true for us : one can’t be a good soldier because one’s parents were, and too often our arrogance, our hubris even, caused the unnecessary deaths of legionaries of Rome. Commanding men in battle is a skill that has one has to learn as much as the skill of the carpenter or that of the smith. And if the commander is the backbone of any army, then he must be forged before the fight as is the spine of a gladius so that he may not shatter when striking the foe.
If the elder Cato, one of the noblest men to have ever been seated in this assembly, thought it useful to write practical treatises on topics such as agriculture, if we send our sons to practise oratory to the schools of Rhodes or Athens, then we must plan for a formal training of our senior officers, be they from senatorial or equestrian rank.
Youths who expect to enter the Senate have to do their ten years of service, and this period will now include a first year of formal training at a new military academy that will be established close by the Academia Militaria Practica, in which it will be determined if they are fit for the command of men.
Likewise men destined to become legion legati will have to spend six months learning the tricks of higher command in Rome before going to their command, and while it will still be possible to become consul without having been legatus it will not be possible to become senatorial praefect, a position that will also require six months of intensive training.
Each diocese will also have its own academia for the newly promoted centurions, so that they receive six months of education in the art of war seen from a wider perspective than what they know and that they receive some education in law and civilian matters, because they may have to enforce rules on request from local civilian authorities or otherwise interact with them.
All this will require an increased administration, generate new costs and require new taxes. But the princeps does not want that to be an obstacle and wants to simplify the transition period. This is why he as decided, as had the divine Hadrianus before him, to remit all the debts due to the state by individuals or collectivities, so that from a clear situation each may now what he owns the state for his protection.
This is, in the great lines, what is now presented to this honourable assembly for discussion”
Hecatee
Donor
Sorry for the huge post, it has taken quite a bit of rework yesterday...
For background we already discussed some of the change a few weeks ago : https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...olidation-reboot.388488/page-40#post-17240797 and https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...olidation-reboot.388488/page-39#post-17223045
But I added some more rationalization here based on my reading of (part of) Potter's "Roman Empire at bay". In it the author makes the argument that part of the strength of the early principate was that it was quite decentralized, while from the 3rd century onward their is a distinctive attempt to centralize it. Thus my goal with this reform is to find a way to keep the old way of thinking (senators have privilege and higher jobs), include the new thinking (competence demands training and work, not just the "right blood"), increase the role of the equestrian class (which happened any way OTL, although in different ways), find a roman solution (here largely the one found by Diocletian a century later, but taken in a less taxing environement and thus with no need to stop the emperor from ruling alone) and introduce structures that would help with the decentralization while not weakening the imperial control (thus the interdiction to serve in one's original diocese).
Tell me what you think !
For background we already discussed some of the change a few weeks ago : https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...olidation-reboot.388488/page-40#post-17240797 and https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...olidation-reboot.388488/page-39#post-17223045
But I added some more rationalization here based on my reading of (part of) Potter's "Roman Empire at bay". In it the author makes the argument that part of the strength of the early principate was that it was quite decentralized, while from the 3rd century onward their is a distinctive attempt to centralize it. Thus my goal with this reform is to find a way to keep the old way of thinking (senators have privilege and higher jobs), include the new thinking (competence demands training and work, not just the "right blood"), increase the role of the equestrian class (which happened any way OTL, although in different ways), find a roman solution (here largely the one found by Diocletian a century later, but taken in a less taxing environement and thus with no need to stop the emperor from ruling alone) and introduce structures that would help with the decentralization while not weakening the imperial control (thus the interdiction to serve in one's original diocese).
Tell me what you think !
