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Syria, autumn 117 CE

As tired as Publius Aelius Hadrianus Buccellanus might be, he knows his day is far from over. He has just finished a tense meeting with his concilium, during which the fate of Lusius Quietus, the untrustworthy legate of Judea, has been sealed. With the orders sent earlier to Publius Aclius Attianus, the præfectus prætorio, Hadrianus is confident that his rule will not be challenged in the immediate future, which only leaves the question of what to do for the long term destiny of the imperium.

For now peace had been restored in the East. The Parthian had been severly beaten, their armies shattered, numerous cities taken and plundered. The Jewish revolts in Judea and in various other cities of the empire have been crushed, with many of those blasphemous deniers of the gods killed by the legions or the regional authorities.

But peace is always fragile. The conquest of Dacia is still fresh, and there are other areas at risk from a barbarian invasion. Britannia, of course, is still partly free. Germania, as always, is a threat. Plenty of parts of the Danubian border are wide open to raids and even outright invasion, as he well knows since he did survey them in the name of the late imperator Trajanus.

Augustus, be he blessed in his eternal glory, had said that the Empire’s borders where to be secured, conquest to be shunned. Well, that had not been the vision of Trajanus, conqueror of Dacia and of Parthia… But would it be his policy ? He had already ordered a withdrawal from many part of the newly conquered territories, to insecure with their rear in full revolt. But should he do more ? Fortify what he could, abandon what he could not hold ?

A cup of wine in his hand, the emperor lost himself in his thoughts before finally falling asleep from the wine and the exhaustion, but not without taking some decisions first…
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