Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot

Hecatee

Donor
Just a question for the Eastern frontier. Have the Roman expanded into the caucasus mountains? Or is still a bunch of Client Kings?
You're two or three weeks early with your question, as I'll be making a post on the topic then. But it is mainly under the control of Armenia and minor kingdoms.
 
You could go for an argument that says that perception is dependent on knowledge, and that while everything exists on two levels (ideal and perception) knowledge also exists on multiple levels : the practical, which is the more engineering side of things, which provides immediately perceptible results, and the theorethical or the "rules of the world" level that explain why things are as they are and that allow for better practika because you know the causes and not only the effects, Plato's cave being reinterpreted as leaving the cave once you understand the rules and laws that make the world and allow you to see it anew in its truth rather than in the shadows/effects/consequences of things, understanding the idea of things instead of the perception of things. It is in a way the rules that organize the ideas that become the new philosophical subject for natural philosophy and that needs to go through Aristotle's categories and systematic description of the world but brought to the ideal world instead of only the physical, perceptible one.

Also note that thanks to early lenses and microscope in this TL they know that the realm of perception can be extended (here toward the microscopic) and that things are more complex than they thought, the human body itself being host to smaller entities (and not only organs but also things that move in the blood)

There is still the problem of a connection between world of ideas and world of senses (even if they can be extended). Plato says specifically empirical knowledge can’t uncover deeper mysteries no matter how you go (only that of material reality), so the world of ideas would seem out of reach, in a different realm from sensory knowledge. There's also Plato’s conception of knowledge/learning: you can’t learn anything new, only retrieve what your soul already knows. You can reject Plato of course, but there seems to be a problem for the ancients in taking such a well-known analogy from a philosopher and then ignoring everything else that he says (saying it has no weight), which to them seems contradictory.

If you go with Aristotle you have to consider Aristotle’s conception of matter as pure potency, not perceivable. Thus material reality ultimately is not perceivable without form which would put a damper on modern sciences, aka searching for hidden/interior explanations beyond what is evident/visible.

Another problem: even if the abstract world of rules/ideas can be accessed (and not doing so is to be a slave), it still seems absent a monotheist God (who is like humans (in our likeness) and absolutely morally good and important to them), there is less urgency to discover nature's creations not created by this God? I can easily see scientists discovering a few rules and being satisfied with having left the cave, whereas scientists OTL could conceive that because God was immense so is everything he created...

Another wrinkle is that the Platonic distinction between being and form requiring God/the Sun/the One/Good is already well-established. (the existence of Helen’s beauty is not explained by Helen partaking in the form of beauty, why something is like a certain way doesn’t explain why it exists in the first place) So without this (first principle), you have infinite regress and no possible adequate explanation as the ancient conception of explanation is that explanation through "like" external means (motion by motion) is just adding to the problem. This is the original motivation for a Neoplatonic One, who is beyond need of external explanation and thus different from things in need of external explanation, and thus can adequately explain them.

Imho, the dilemma is: how to develop empiricism and rationalism as they are two different, often contradictory ideas? Rationalism OTL developed through Platonism/Monotheist God, empiricism entailed a rejection of that + enlightenment thinking, but TTL just following Aristotle should not get you to say Humean empiricism. (A new philosopher for this TL?) Finally with that done: how to reconcile the two completely (while defeating skepticism once and for all) for perfect outgrowth in the sciences? (because idea rationalism alone is still insufficient, while empiricism tends just towards the practical rather than the theoretical sciences also, otherwise) You may need to introduce a new philosopher with Kantian tendencies. Once you have accomplished that, you can realistically have a industrial/scientific revolution the likes of post 1800 Europe. Otherwise things will happen much more slowly… (think centuries instead of decades) The modern scientific worldview was not generated out of nothing after all…
 
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I've just finished reading this TL having started it only a few days ago. Great writing. Not my usual period of interest but definitely looking forward to hopefully more!

We now have the Romans digging canals, I wonder if they will be able to stumble across tramways. Certainly nothing technology wise in the way.

God help the enemies of Rome if Rome discovers gunpowder.


The Romans lack the metallurgy for the high-pressure steam engines necessary for vehicle propulsion.
 
The Romans lack the metallurgy for the high-pressure steam engines necessary for vehicle propulsion.
Well they already have steam launches, maybe they won't have trains but it doesn't strike me as unrealistic that they scale up the existing steam engines for larger vessels like tugs or galleys.
 
Chersonesus Taurica, Regnum Bosphorus, April 179

Hecatee

Donor
Chersonesus Taurica, Regnum Bosphorus, April 179


Tiberius Julius Sauramates son of Rhœmétalcès, king of the Regnum Bosphorus, looked in awe at the fleet coming in port. He could not remember such a display of military might and doubted there had been so many warships in the Euxine Sea and in particular in the Chersonesus since at least the time of the Diadochi, if not the war between Athens and Sparta. And this fleet was coming to his domain, in peace.

The fifty warships accompanied ten transports and a majestuous prestige ship of a gigantic size, three time the height of any other ship in the fleet, the sails on its masts purple in shade and emblazoned with the eagle of the empire. Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, had come to his kingdom.

Sauramates knew the emperor, having met him years before during his stay in Rome, where he’d been educated alongside a number of other sons of foreign dignitaries. But he’d been nothing at the time, one son lost amidst many others, heir to a prosperous but far away land, not as exotic as the Armenians nor feared as some of the Barbarian tribes…

He wondered about what Marcus Aurelius would think of his kingdom. The great northern wall had changed so many things in the regnum… There had been a lot op upheaval, but things were now settled. The grain production was on the rise, with new exports toward the western black sea to bring supplies to the fortresses on the new northern border of the empire and more food for the people.

A number of new granaries had been built in the main ports cities, based on the plan of those in use in the roman legionary bases. A number of houses were rebuilt in cut stone or bricks, showing a certain prosperity, while new and larger temples were being built, another sure indication of wealth.

Most of the new buildings were made of bricks, an innovation in the area brought by the defunct Herodes Atticus which had catched across the kingdom like a plain fire in the middle of summer…

Thanks to increased taxes on grain export Sauramates had been able to pay for the services of four roman engineers who had spent a year each roaming through his land and suggesting improvements. His cities had thus new and more efficient baths, sewer systems to take away soiled water,...

But all this had been made possible initially by a man that the emperor had condemned and exiled, and maybe Marcus Aurelius would be angry at Sauramates and the kingdom for having harbored the man..

The king was also worried because of the situation developing on the sea of grass. More and more information came from north of the wall about the Gothii tribe, violent northmen come down south and becoming more and more threatening for cities such as Olbia, which was outside the big wall. This tribe disrupted the river trade that connected the inner parts of the western sea of grass with the Euxine sea.

Due to that one engineer had designed improvements to Olbia’s defenses : using bricks they had made the walls thicker and, more importantly, higher to the point that in no places a ladder could reach the top. The gates had also been reinforced to prevent treachery in case of siege and make the use of a ram difficult.

Similar improvements had been made to the northern wall, which now had a large covered gallery at the top of it providing good firing positions protected from enemy archers and bad weather while its brick structure prevented any risks of fire ruining it. The gates were well protected, and towers had been built at regular interval to reinforce the defenses.

There were even talks of building a first, slightly lower, wall in front of the main one so as to trap any force able to force the first line in a place from which escape would be difficult. The Romans engineers knew of the capacities of the new bracchiae and planned with them in mind, even if there should be no way a barbarian tribe ever got such weapons. But the example of the traitors who had provided king Decebalus of Dacia with artillery in the time of the divine Trajanus showed them they could not count on a enemy never gaining access to the technology.

Of course some barbarians could try to go around the wall with ships, but it was expected to be even more difficult than for them to gain artillery : ships required very specific knowledge to operate and the Roman and Bosphorean navy, as small as they were in the Euxine sea, would be able to stop them dead in the water. Beside the engineers had also provided the kingdom with the new signal towers, meaning that information about any fleet sighted alongside the coast could very easily be transmitted everywhere in the kingdom and allow the king’s cavalry to throw them back from the beaches.

The kingdom had no strength to extend but would now be able to grow, its heart well protected from any threat and its eastern reaches kept reasonably peaceful...
 

Hecatee

Donor
I mean farther away from the wall not right next to it
They are not thinking "great wall of China" here, they simply don't have the population. That's also why they go for such huge fortification : they need less soldiers to be protected and once built do not cost that much in upkeep given that they are built in stone, brick and roman cement, with a earth embankment on the inside making them good for at least 500 years... In the end the result will be at least as good as the Theodosian wall of OTL Constantinople, if not better, but with the risk of seaborne attacks coming behind it (which they expect to fend off thanks to quick cavalry reaction helped by very quick communication systems), that risk also being mitigated by the fact that all the large settlements are protected by their own battlements (nowhere near as formidable, but still a good protection by the standard of the time) and, in the case of the capital Panticapaeum, another smaller wall cutting off the peninsula on which it stands.
 
The of Greeks have built a Theodosian Wall type of fortification on there northern border. That pretty cool. Good episode in general though I don't know about your idea of that if China is stronger the steppe people would move west and attack Rome.
 
A small vicus in Gallia, May 179

Hecatee

Donor
A small vicus in Gallia, May 179


The decision had been taken during the previous winter but work had had to wait for the planting to be done. Now it seemed that the whole vicus had turned out with axes and saws, picks and trowels and was working on opening new land for agriculture and a new village. Thirty men and hald a dozen women had come along for the adventure, leaving mostly the old and the very young in the village alongside four valid men to make sure no brigand had any ideas about them…

A spot had been chosen alongside the main road, two days walk from the nearest vicus, next to a statio. They had first cleared a path perpendicular from the main road, leading into the forest toward a sacred fountain and a small river. They had found a clearing that was perfect to establish the five new houses of the settlement, and from there they had started to cut the trees and take the roots out, making huge pyres every evening from them.

The material for the new houses had quickly been gathered that way, but the building itself could wait a bit : they had to clear as much land as possible so as to be able to plant winter wheat in autumn. Beside the owner of the statio had given them use of his stable, which was comfortable enough in this season.

The decision had been taken because of the need to preserve the woods near the vicus which prevented the opening of new fields despite the need for more food that the years of demographic growth had made necessary. So it had been decided that five young couples would be sent away to found a new village, and all had lent a hand to help them, thus the large work party.

The soil was rather heavy but that was not to be a problem given that the vicus had been able to petition its patronus for some communal ploughs and the man, a senator originally from Lugdunum, had been able to send them three plough of the new heavy design invented in Norica of which they had heard from a passing official of the governor’s staff. They had already had one before, and it had helped increase their productivity : the new settlement would keep one of the three new ones too.

The vicus was not the only one in Gaul to make such a choice. Many places saw similar initiatives, especially in areas well connected with the road network : the presence of a statio was often a deciding factor. The traditional individual farm was less popular, common working of the land allowing for larger investment capacity in the new tools needed to prosper, and the richer domains were not numerous enough to use all the lands, especially since more marginal lands were now exploitables.

This also caused other changes. More vici now had their own permanent blacksmith who replaced the itinerant ones because they needed bigger ovens to reach the high temperatures required for cast iron. The need for iron and coal also made many prospect the lands for the precious materials, and many trade it over some distances.

Gaul was flourishing and the new settlement was only one proof among many of that fact…
 

Hecatee

Donor
A statio is a road relay, that often proved to be the nucleus of small villages (vicus) : a place to stay for a night, grab a bite and change horse/donkey/mule, they were built some 15 to 20km appart alongside the main roads. They allowed for a speed of communication of some 80km/day and could be pushed up to 100 km/day.
They were in theory only for public service, they sometime developed a civilian side too and offered their services to private travelers but always with priority given to imperial service, in which case it was often known as mansio.
Here it forms the basis for part of the new telegraph network, and it could be extended into a civil post service... I add a picture reconstituting the mansio in Ambrusum, southern France

ambrussum0043b.jpg


I did not go in that much details for this update because it was not its topic but I hope those elements clarify things ;)
 
If the Romans visited China they should have the their plough design which was just as effective as the carruca plough in addition to being a lot lighter, economical, easier for individual farmers to use.
 

Hecatee

Donor
If the Romans visited China they should have the their plough design which was just as effective as the carruca plough in addition to being a lot lighter, economical, easier for individual farmers to use.
If contact were more frequent they might, but not from that one expedition...
 
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