Roman Empire in 1333 AUC (Superpowers)

The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) is the largest and wealthiest geopolitical region in the year 580 CE. United by an assembly of aristocratic bureaucrats and a single absolute autarch, this region has flourished at the same time as other civilizations and their governments have collapsed under internal and external pressures.

Authority over this region is concentrated in Rome - the Caput Mundi or capital of the Western World. However, certain political tools are slowly getting distributed to other cities. Constantinople has become the locus for taxes collected in coin and for auditor-generals of the state finances. In the east, authority is concentrated in Alexandria, where food is shipped to Rome and a large part of the provincial bureaucracy resides.

Throughout its history, Rome has weathered numerous threats to its own stability: a great migration of barbarians, waves of new plagues, and two civil wars. With these troubles, Rome has tested its mettle in the harshest fires but emerged stronger than before. Triumphal parades have always shown the common people the military successes of Rome and there have been two such triumphs during the reign of the current emperor.

Setting the Roman Empire apart from other kingdoms are institutions that characterize a modern state. Citizens inhabit regulated colonies spread across a region secure from foreign incursions; a network of public roads, ports, and aqueducts is woven through this land supporting tens of thousands of kilometers of trade routes connecting these settlements; and when Rome goes to war, it fights with a standing army of citizens who are equipped and trained by the central government - a political institution that employs a nationwide apparatus for polling, taxing, and adjudicating.

In its 1,333rd year, the Imperium Romanum is unique among civilizations, only continuing to grow in size and wealth. Under its present emperor, it is in the midst of a Golden Age for the arts and sciences, accelerating the ongoing process of industrialization in Italy and Germany.

Provinces
Covering over 9 million km², the Imperium of the city of Rome is larger than the claimed lands of any kingdom or polity in human history. Land of this size is not easily controlled but Rome has gradually and often violently transitioned to more effective methods for controlling its territories. As a democracy, the Senate issued prorogationes (extensions) for the terms of its most powerful magistrates to send them to govern its dependencies. These governors were basically dictators within their jurisdictions and could illicitly amass tremendous wealth using their authority and armies, precipitating several violent coups d'état that ultimately ended the republic.

Statehood
On the whole, the "empire" is just a large region dotted with cities that are engaged in sophisticated intercontinental trade and share certain aspects of an ancient Hellenic culture. Any unity the Roman Empire has does not compare with the political unity of a polis. However, more unifies this land than shared commerce and a heritage of ancient traditions.

Firstly, the political unity of the empire exists through citizenship and the self-identification of these citizens as Roman. Only the capital has the legislative and financial autonomy of an independent polity or state but the possession of citizenship on its own extends some of the political rights required of a polis. Coloniae consisting solely of citizens are a further extension of this same political unity, mitigated primarily by geographic separation from the capital. Fortified borders and trade barriers create a geographic unity that distinguishes a Roman world from the lands beyond the limites (frontiers) of Roman rule. Within these borders, most people feel religious unity through participation in the Ecclesia Christiana (Christian community), an intercontinental group united by the collaboration of bishops with the Bishop of Rome (Pontifex Maximus). Lastly, territorial claims of the Senate and People of Rome over a region constitute the literal meaning of the Imperium of Rome, brought into practice through the military unity of the empire behind the princeps civitatis.

A more limited unity, as a nation, arises through Roman culture - the purple cloth that lies over the distinctive patterns of local cultures within the Imperium Romanum. This culture is distinct from the Hellenic culture that existed before the expansion of Rome. Features of Roman culture include the Lingua Latina, the holding of grand public spectacles, the enjoyment of performative and musical arts during private social events, and the realistic depiction of the human body on canvas and marble. Cultural aspects of the Romans have disseminated themselves throughout their empire, transforming the local cultures as much as they transformed Rome.

Types of Provinces
Under its present emperor, the Roman Empire is subdivided into three types of provinces (administrative regions): provinciae propraetorianes, provinciae praefectures, and provinciae imperiales. These categories represent the three modes that the capital has adopted for administering the vast territory shared between the Senate and Caesar.

Praefecturial and Imperial provinces are governed by citizens appointed by the emperor, although the legati augusti who govern the latter are milites (soldiers) as opposed to private citizens. Propraetorian provinces   are governed by the  prorogatio  of a praetor's magistracy. This governor is a   propraetor   whose assigned province is determined by lot between the praetors wishing to take a province after finishing a term. In all cases, a  propraetor  serves until he is recalled by the Senate, on the basis of whether or not his province has been randomly selected that year for another praetor's   prorogatio.

The highest responsibilities of a propraetor are the maintenance of ager publicus (public land) within his province (from which he receives a cut of revenues), supervision of his provincial administration, and presiding over the highest courts for non-citizens. A number of lesser magistrates and public officials assist him in these tasks.

List of Provinces
There are 48 provinciae, excluding Italia, that compose the Imperium Romanum. Among these provinces, only two are known as provinciales praefectures, namely Aegyptus and Armenia. The praefectus aegyptus and praefectus armenicus are civil servants who administer each respective province in the name of the emperor as the entirety of both regions is ager privatus (private land) of whoever holds the status of princeps civitatis.

The 32 provinciales propraetorianes are Sicilia, Corsica et Sardinia, Alpes Maritimae, Alpes Ulterior, Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Lugdunensis, Aquitania, Tarraconensis, Baetica, Lusitania, Melita, Africa, Cyrenaica, Creta, Achaia, Epirus, Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia ,  Thracia ,  Moesia Superior ,  Dalmatia ,  Noricum ,  Raetia ,  Pannonia Superior ,  Cyprus ,  Asia , Lycia ,  Galatia , Britannia, Palestina ,  and finally  Caledonia.

The 14 provinciales imperiales are Mauretania, Nubia, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Arabia, Dacia, Moesia Inferior, Pannonia Inferior, Gothica, Germania Superior, Germania Inferior, and Hibernia. As these lists demonstrate, less of the Imperium Romanum falls under the authority of the Caesar than of the Senate. However, Aegyptus and Ethiopia are easily the two richest provinces besides Italia, concentrating Roman wealth in imperial hands.

Italia
The region of Italy has a special status within the Imperium. Italy has no governor and none of its citizens live in coloniae. Neither imperial nor promagisterial governors are required for Italy, since the land is governed directly by the Senate. Every free man in Italy is assigned to a centuria for voting in the elections in Rome, unlike the colonies where only partial enfranchisement exists. This political involvement means that Italy, particularly the space around Rome, can be viewed as a true polis - a state where the people are the arbiters of the laws that govern themselves. The  magistrati provinciales that extend the authority of the Senate over the provinces are only reflections of the magistrati  with financial and political power in Italy ( magistrates who are now distinguished by designating them  magistrati imperiales ).

Over the last two centuries, Italy has seen the transferral of the latifundia (landed estates) owned by the nobility to the hands of the common people and veterans. In particular, the regions of Campania and Aemilia are swaddled in these peasant farms which are protected by law from appropriation once again by the nobility.

In the political sphere, Italians were unique for possessing the franchise to vote through the Centurial Assemblies in Rome. At the moment, the empire is transitioning to a wider electoral franchise. On its restoration in 535, the Centurial Assembly was created with distinct centuries for distinct subregions of Greece. While Italy retained exactly 560 out of 608 centuriae in the assembly, this enfranchisement has, in principle, shifted some power from the territory. Extensions of public transport on mainland Europe have expanded the franchise to Greece in practice as well.

Federations of Provinces
Governing territories spread across Europe and North Africa has been a difficult task for the Senate and Caesar, especially when cultural differences from Rome within certain regions have risked inspiring rebellion against the capital. Against this threat, Sulla  granted power to senators with backgrounds in these regions, effectively subdiving the Imperium Romanum into federations that were styled vassals (foederati) with special status. A single such  foederata  ( federation of provinces ) was assigned to each of the major cultures under Roman rule. Governors of the provinces in a  federation had to answer to its federal chief, an office formed alongside the abolition of consular authority in Rome, appropriating the title. Each one of these consulares  is a senior magistrate  elected each year from polls in the  cultural capital of his  foederata, with every resident of the  federation possessing the franchise as long as they were recognized by the  Census (for this reason, tribal communities are excluded from voting for their consul). Candidates must have served as a  propraetor and be over 40 years of age.

A consul has the political authority to impeach the provincial magistrates and governors within his foederata. The only check on this power is that the Senate or emperor can overrule his decisions, restoring the position of whomever he impeached. Using his unique power, a consul is responsible for communicating the wishes of his community to the magistrates under his command. He must suggest appropriate dates for cultural festivals and gladiatorial games, using only the modest provincial funds at his disposal unless a provincial aedile should deign to support his foederata that year. Furthermore, he is expected to voice issues facing his people to the Senate and constantly travel throughout local communities to communicate directly with his people.

The foederatae of the Imperium Romanum are Italia, Gallia, Hispania, Germania, Illyria, Dacia, Graecia, Anatolia, Arabia, Judaea, Africa, and Mauretania, meaning there are 12 consulares serving at a given time. Since each consul must have family ties to the community that he governs, these senior magistrates are often from families with origins in the local nobility before the annexation of their land by Rome. The Consul Italiarum has the strictest such qualifications as he must come from one of the old families of the Republic, such as the Junii, Julii, Fabii, or Aeimilii. With so few available spots, former consuls are usually of the highest dignitas when they return to their positions in the Senate. They are privileged to speak before almost any other senator and tend to be the center of political factions within Roman government.

Although consulares lost direct financial powers during the latest change in laws, their power over their respective magistrates is more than sufficient to force their hands whenever desired. Furthermore, a consul officially has the third highest imperium after the censores, earning him 12 lictores (magisterial bodyguards) for his protection.

Government
Rome may have the only absolute monarchy which can function perfectly without it autarch. The absolute monarch of Rome is designated its princeps civitatis (first citizen) and princeps senatus (first senator) to denote his imperium maius (supreme power) and auctoritas principis (primary moral authority). The latter auctoritas has no constitutional basis except as the senator who may speak first or interrupt any other magistrate on the floor of the Senate. Otherwise, the authority of the princeps civitatis derives only from the history of imperial leaders and the past successes of the present ruler. A good emperor is regarded by citizens as bearing equal auctoritas to the pontifex maximus but a bad emperor will usually fail to garner the respect of the Senate and people. Despite its formality, an emperor's auctoritas principis allows him to pass legislation through the Senate, by the reverence that senators and the public have for the moral prescriptions of a respectable emperor.

An emperor without auctoritas that outshines his magistrates could easily fall from power, since other men hold greater sway over the decisions of the Senate. However, the act of appointment by itself grants immense respect on whomever it is bestowed, to the extent that a first citizen must show tremendous incompetence to lose his principal authority. Any emperor is granted some privileges on the basis of his auctoritas, without any constitutional rationale. In particular, an emperor has the auctoritas to speak for Rome in front of kings or their delegates; to declare war against a foreign power; to demand the presence of any magistrate or private citizen; to request favors of the pontifex maximus; and to advise the pontifex maximus on matters of the Christian faith. These are not rights or powers conferred upon an emperor by law but liberties permitted to him out of respect, tradition, or fear. Actual power resides in the imperium which Roman law recognizes in the person of the first citizen - the highest power of command over the magistrates, courts, and legions. From this supreme power, the emperor may dismiss any magistrate other than a senator, censor, or tribunus; convene the Senate at his leisure; pardon a criminal in the courts; appoint governors for certain provinces; order an aedile to procur funds from the treasury for either games or public works; confer citizenship upon any peregrinus; emancipate any servus; and adopt any citizen as his lawful heir. In addition to these political powers, the imperium of the emperor extends over the citizens who have entered the service of Rome as soldiers of the Legion.

In particular, the emperor is a perpetual imperator, one with the sole right to maintain his military imperium within Rome. On the field, he may command any miles (soldier) up to the highest legate; may appoint any of his legates as dux generalissimus (most general commander of the armies) to share his military imperium with another man; and may dismiss any miles from his duties. Similarly, the emperor may permanently disband legions at his pleasure. Despite his power of command over the Legion and the Praetorians, the emperor has no direct control over the Classis, an authority that rests solely with the Senate.

Aside from his imperium maius and auctoritas principis, the emperor holds the tribunicia potestas maior. While he is not a tribune, the emperor is nominally elected by the populusque romanus, granting him tremendous legislative authority. Aside from permission to sit on the Concilium Tribunum, the emperor may veto legislation passed by the Senate or another magistrate; overrule the veto of any individual tribunus but not of the entire Concilium Tribunum; and, most significantly, his body is sacrosanct. The sacrosanctity of a living emperor renders anyone who lays hands on him an outlaw, a heretic, a non-citizen, and guilty of the highest treason (for this reason, Imperator Antoninus had to be recognized as illegitimate in order to sanction his murder by his nephew Maximius ).

Comitia Centuriata
Magistrates have their authority on the basis that they all exercise their powers for the populusque romanus (people of Rome), a group of people identified by possession of civitatem romanum (citizenship). Although Caesar Augustus recognized the Senatus as authoritative of the interests of the whole populusque romanus, Caesar Ulpius reversed this decision by reinstituting the Comitia Centuriata (Centurial Assembly) as an electoral body of citizens (cives). Now, in practice, every civis publicus receives his office and powers either directly or indirectly from the consent of every civis privatus (private citizen). All citizens living in Italia, Graecia, or a colonial city are assigned by the Census to their own centuria suffragia, out of 608 centuriae.

There are two purposes for any given Comitia Centuriata: (1) for electing some magistrate by a certain majority of the citizens and (2) for passing a bill without the authorization of the Senatus but through the will of the populusque romanus. Only someone with tribunicia potestas may call an assembly of the citizens for enacting a piece of legislation mentioned in the Senate. Any elections start on specific days enshrined in the laws, only ending once every century has gone. For any decision, the patrician centuries - of which there are two - vote first, setting the precedent for the rest of the polls (centuries vote one at a time).

Every vote is presided over by the Consul Italiarum (Consul of the Italians), whose duty is to declare each step as it arises and to announce the collective vote of each centuria. When a bill comes before the assembly, individual voters write either a large V or a large A on their tabella (paper ballot) to declare their agreement or disagreement respectively. Voters assemble in different parts of the city of Rome, with temporary barriers in place to group members of each centuria. When a centuria has its turn, its voters assemble in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) where they will cross the pons (bridge) into the saepta (voting pens). The saepta  can hold upwards of 40,000 voters at once, requiring incredible organization on the part of the aediles imperiales. Once voting begins, a committee consisting of two tribuni, two censores, two consulares, two senatores, and two praetores will supervise two groups, of a hundred custodes, that each does its own distributio (tally) of ballots. Counting happens in full view of the citizens whose votes are being tallied, preventing even the swiftest custodis from discreetly discarding ballots. Each group sums its counts to produce two independent tallies that are averaged to determine the vote of that centuria.

Depending on the size of a centuria, this process can take anywhere from a minute to ten minutes, meaning some votes can take up to a week to complete. The election for Fabius drew the largest crowd of voters, with nearly every freeborn male of Italy traveling to Rome to express his agreement with the incumbent emperor.

Senatores are elected by the same procedure as emperors, meaning each candidate receives either a V or an A. However, more than one senator goes up for election at once, with one ballot for every candidate. A citizen may only submit as many Vs as there are available positions in the Senate.

Other elections usually involve a number of candidates for which every male citizen gets two distinct votes. Imperial positions for aedile, praetor, censor, and tribunus are refilled each year by public elections held in July. Unless a tribunus calls for the impeachment of a magistrate in one of these offices, there will be no other elections until the next July. Senatores and the Consul Italiarum also have their public elections in Rome at the same time as these other magistracies.

Senatus Romanus
Although ordinary senators have no imperium as individuals, the Senate itself receives 24 lictors who answer to the princeps senatus (i.e. the emperor). These bodyguards usually stand by the rope cordoning off the main floor of the Senate from onlookers who come from the street to view their legislature in action. On the steps of the Colossus of Sulla outside the old Curia Julia (Senate House) is the senaculum, a space for senatores to mingle in the hour before the curia opens for business. The flocking of Senatores, clad in their stark white and purple togas, to this spot is widely considered one of the greatest sights of Rome.

In total, there are 600 senatores serving as members of the Senatus Romanus. When a senator is elected to a magistracy, he retains his seat and single vote in the Senatus, although his duties may keep him physically absent. Every senatorial meeting is opened with a speech by some senior magistrate, usually the Consul Italiarum, princeps civitatis, or praetor urbanus. This man is the presiding magistrate for the assembly that day and decides the day's order of business. When an issue is presented, the various senators speak in order of seniority: essentially, princeps senatus, censores, magistri, consulares, praetores, aediles, and, finally, the pedarii (those who vote with their feet), senatores who have yet to hold other offices. Someone who has once held any of these offices has the same privilege of speech in the Senate as one presently holding that office.

When a vote is called by the presiding magistrate, all senatores stand then relocate to the side of the house representing their decision on the matter at hand (unless the motion is sufficiently minor to merely involve a show of hands). Should someone with the tribunicia potestas be present for any vote, he may veto the motion using his right of intercessio. Should the motion pass then whatever action is entailed by the decision must be carried out by relevant magistrates. For a legislative bill, the result is a new lex (statute) that carries the force of law, either in the public or private courts.

In principle, the sole power of a senator is his vote - alone, a senator is powerless beyond his personal auctoritas. Senators rely on attaining proper magisterial power (potestas or imperium) to exercise authority in the public arena.

Judicium
At the highest position in Roman law is the emperor, who may pardon any criminal unless opposed by a censor, but beside him in imperium is the princeps judex (first judge), who presides over the highest court of Roman law - the Judicium Maium. It is his duty to judge any case brought before this court, one that meets on the rostra of the Basilica Divi Julii. After Agricola deconsecrated the Temple of Divine Julius, this public building has served as a bureau of justice, with the praetores imperiales and a number of judges working inside. Most importantly, it is where the public courts accept libelli (summons) from plaintiffs.

Aside from the judicium maium, there are fifteen public courts in Rome, each presided over by a praetor imperialis. Each court meets regularly at a specific location in the capital. Every imperial praetor has one such public location which serves as his official place of work and court, where he may be found during regular work days. Some of these locations are: There are a total of 20 praetores imperiales who operate primarily within the city of Rome, only the praetor peregrinus, praetor fiscalis, and praetor militaris have jobs that keep them largely outside of Italy. Every province has a praetor provincialis who presides over its highest court for citizens and appoints its local judges. These praetores are magistrates of equal rank as praetores imperiales but their distance from Rome marks them as less prestigious for senators. In particular, senators who are seeking higher magistracies (such as magister fiscalis) seek to get elected as an imperial praetor since those offices tend to improve their reputation in Rome while the appointed provincial praetors do not get such exposure to voting citizens. Although, with the enfranchisement of Greece, the lottery for provinces has become a more exciting occasion for appointed praetors. As for imperium, the princeps iudex qualifies as a magister, earning him the appropriate 12 lictores, whereas the praetores are only vested with sufficient imperium to merit 6 lictores, excepting the praetor urbanus who receives ten.
 * Extortion court: in front of the Basilica Commercia, site of the bureau of standards carrying official weights and measures.
 * Electoral court: in front of the Saepta Julia, site where voting takes place during elections.
 * Treason court: on the rostra, directly in front of the Basilica Concordiae, considered the bureau of the censores.
 * Embezzlement court: on the Forum Traini, beside the equestrian statue of Trajan and surrounded by the public markets.
 * Adultery court: in front of the Templum de Virgo Maria, a convent for nuns that was formerly the House of Vestals.
 * Perjury court: on the portico of the Tabularium, the national archive that also contains records of court procedures.
 * Parricide court: in front of the Basilica Patriae, the former Temple of Divine Antoninus and Faustina.
 * Guardianship court: on the rostra of the Domus Augustana, where guests to the emperor come to wait in the Domus Flaviae.
 * Inheritance court: in front of the Biblioteca Minerva, the former Temple of Minerva on the Forum Nervae.
 * Debtors court: in front of the Banca Romae, the bank situated beside the Temple of Harmony.
 * Military court: in the outdoor gymansium of the Academia Bellica, the military academy in Carthage.
 * Treasury court: in the Augustaeum, the main forum of Constantinople.

Aerarium
The Public Treasury (aerarium stabulum) is a secure facility on the main forum of Constantinopolis where the funds held by the Fiscus (public accounts) are stored - in the forms of both a coin hoard and bricks of gold or silver. Administering the Fiscus is the Magister Fiscalis, appointed by the Senate with the approval of the emperor. His authority extends to the dismissal and the approval of the financial magistrates. Highest of these magistrates are the four aediles imperiales respectively tasked with the supervision of the grain dole in Italy, supervision of the renovation and maintenance of basilicae in Italy, superintending of the public games and festivals held in Rome, and supervision of the public services in Rome. As a junior magistrate, an aedile only has potestas fiscalis, accompanied by the protection of 2 lictores.

Outside Italy, there are twenty aediles provinciales who are assigned yearly by the Senate to a specific provincia, foederata, or urbs. Some provinces such as Thracia have permanent aedilian magistracies, such is their importance to Rome. They perform a mixture of the roles of the imperial aediles but with more limited funds. Regardless of location, an aedile is the sole magistrate who may authorize the removal of funds from the aerarium, using his seal of office to do so through letters.

Conversely, the quaestores provinciales are each appointed by the Senate to each province for the purpose of supervising the tax collectors employed there. They are tasked with hiring these publicani (public service officials), firing them if appropriate, and auditing the accounts of their subordinate numerarii (accountants). In principle, a provincial quaestor is an accountant and auditor-general for taxation in his province. There are thirty quaestores imperiales appointed by the Senate from patricians who are at least age 30 and are seeking a public career. Out of these junior magistrates, ten supervise tax and spending records in Rome, often advising senators or other magistrates based on these records while the other twenty are the accountants and the comptrollers for the Fiscus in Constantinople, the auditor-generals of the empire.

A quaestor only has potestas taxanis (power of appraisal) which does not merit protection by lictores. Few of the quaestores are members of the Senate, since there is dishonor in going backwards to the starting point of a public career. Serving one term as a quaestor is the principle requirement for membership in the Senate, with experience as an advocate or service in the military being optional in principle but practically required as early careers for patricians seeking public careers.

Cursus Honorum
Magistracies in the Roman Empire are constituted in a manner that gradually tests the abilities of the nobles who pursue power and authority in Rome. The standard public career of a patrician is the cursus honorum - a series of magistracies that must be taken to rise in the ranks of the Roman government. Few men achieve the illustrious consularship and even fewer are deemed worthy of the sacred office of censor. Achieving senior magistracies in an honorable fashion and at a young age is the surest way for a patrician to gain dignitas for himself and for his descendants. Those of the highest social standing may even be elected as the next emperor should the reigning princeps civitatis adopt them or die without naming a successor.

First, a patrician who has received a proper Roman education will either take up law as an avocatus (advocate) or join the War Academy to become an officer in the Legion. The former used to be far less prestigious than the latter, with senatores who had not done military service getting reputations of being "draft dodgers", but this changed during the first four centuries of emperors. A noble who pursues a philosophical or business career is usually regarded as unfit for public service by most other nobles, in effect excluding such people from the cursus honorum.

A patrician who has spent around a decade in one of these careers may decide to seek the quaestorship by applying to the Senate on the day of his 30th birthday. In the next September, senatorial elections will be held for these yearly positions, of which there are presently 78 available spots. Once he has served one year as quaestor, a patrician is eligible for election to the Senatus Romanus, with around four to fifteen spots opening each year for various reasons (death, dismissal, or bankruptcy). Those who are not elected to the Roman Senate may do other work in Italy or pursue offices in the city senate of a colonia or municipium elsewhere in the empire, as former quaestors are highly sought for in those positions.

As a senator of Rome, a patrician has a direct hand in the governing of the empire, voting in the appointment of many officials and in the enactment of new laws. However, as a new senator, he is a mere pedarius, one whose sole power is where he walks when a vote is called in the Senate. Once he reaches the age of 34, he may run for popular election for the aedileship, thereby gaining magisterial authority and a means of making a name for himself among a wide audience. Even a provincial aedile, when enterprising and popular enough, can have citizens from his province come to Rome to speak on his behalf to the people, thereby elevating his name among the voters in the Comitia Centuriata. However, not only does an aedileship, like any magistracy, not come with a public wage, but the imperial aediles will be expected to supplement the public funds for their assigned task with their own private funds to contribute to the success of their spectacles or services to the populusque romanus.

The aedileship is entirely optional for a senator seeking more advanced office but is extremely helpful for currying the favor of the voters in Rome. After his 37th birthday, a senator may apply for the July elections to the praetorship, with the 20 senatores with the highest number of votes receiving the imperial praetorship and the next 48 senatores getting the provincial praetorship. Either praetor will hold his office from January of the following year to December of his fourth year, after which time he may request prorogation of his authority to continue as propraetor of one of the provinciales propraetorianes. Should he become propraetor and return after only a year (the minimum length of his term) then he may join the former praetores who did not seek prorogatio in getting approval from the emperor to run for a consulship at the age of 42.

For a consulship, this senator will be trying to become consul suo anno (in his year) but will be competing with other senators who are seeking election to consul at a later age or even re-election after serving a year as consul and waiting the minimum of five years (a lustrum) before being eligible again for the consulship. Indeed, a patrician who got elected as consul would have the rest of his life to seek re-election, serve as a senator, or apply for the censorship when a spot became available. Exercising one's auctoritas over votes in the Senate, between terms as the administrator of a number of provinces, is the endpoint of the most successful political careers, continuing until that noble's death or retirement from public life.

Concilium Tribunum
For a man of the plebeian order, there is no cursus honorum but there is one office of great power that he can hold. The greatest honor for a pleb is to become a tribunus plebis (tribune of the plebs). Aside from the requirement of order, a man may only be a candidate for the tribuneship when he has not committed any crimes and be at least 30 years of age. The censores are also permitted to bar someone from the yearly elections should they suspect him of being ill-intentioned or of being in the pocket of someone of the patrician order.

The six tribuni take their office in January of the year after getting elected. Each tribune possesses the tribunicia potestas which confers the authority of intercessio, the veto of legislation promulgated by the Senate. In principle, a tribune must use his power for the benefit of the lower class and any tribune can impeach another by accussing him of misusing his veto. When such an accusation is levied upon a tribune who is using his veto, a vote of the people will be called to determine whether it was valid. Perhaps their greatest responsibility and power is the authority to call an irregular assembly of the Comitia Centuriata to vote on a law, an impeachment of a magistrate, or some other function of the government. While each tribunus has this power, the rest can overrule his decision as long as two are opposed.

As a council, the Concilium Tribunum can overrule the major veto of an emperor but only through unanimity. In addition, this plebeian council can vote to overturn some judicial decisions by the praetores, provide sanctuary to any person accused of a crime, and advise the Senate on matters brought to their basilica by the plebs. Their primary facility is the Basilica Popula (formerly the Temple of Vespasian on the Roman Forum) but at least on tribunus can be found most days in the market. There are usually large gatherings of people in the atrium of the Basilica Popula - poor citizens seeking help from their representatives.

With their location close to the Senate, at least one tribune could easily attend every meeting of the Senatus Romanus. This was necessary for the exercise of the plebeian veto could only be used when physically present, whereas the major veto could be performed after a delay of three days from the emperor being within the Pomerium of the city of Rome.

Comitia Censoria
Perhaps the most authoritative body in the empire is the Comitia Censoria - an assembly of the twelve senior censores. As a group, the censores are the authority on who is a citizen of the Roman Empire. In principle, they have no other power than the ability to decide who has citizenship and what type of citizenship they hold. Unlike in the provinces, where the Census - the recording of data about people living within the empire - occurs on a continuous basis as censitores (census-takers) in each province go to every corner of the territory over the course of five to six years, in Rome the Census happens from January to the start of April exactly every five years. The censores situate themselves in forty rooms of the Saepta Julia on the Campus Martius, talking to every male citizen in the city of Rome, getting the information required of the Census. In this way, they spend about 5 minutes with each person, while a scribe records the responses of the citizen about himself, his wife, and children. Unmarried and independent women are required to attend the Census as men do, something viewed as dishonorable rather than a privilege. Every man in the city knows the procedure for the  Census, permitting a certain degree of expediency that would be otherwise impossible for this process (going something like Nomina? answer Aetas? answer, and so on).

Over the course of April, this data is tabulated by publicani for review by the senior censores, with the assistance of the junior censores. Any gaps are filled by directly calling the citizen to the Basilica Concordiae in the Roman Forum. By July, the data is usually in order, in time for the annual elections. For the next five years, archivists under the Praefectus Tabularius, who is appointed by the Comitia Censoria from senators, compare this data with earlier Census records to determine who has moved away from Rome and to confirm the deaths and births from hospital or funeral records.

Concilium Civium
Some magistrates work outside the Senate and have no direct roles in the judiciary or finances. Most such senators had additional duties with the emperor - serving as advisors on his personal council. This Concilium Civium (Council of Citizens) did not formally meet as an assembly but its members were required to regularly visit the emperor with reports on their domain and they had to be constantly available to advise him on relevant matters of state. At this time, membership in the CC is large enough that only a list can adequately present the combined scope of their domains:
 * 1) Proprinceps: assistant to the emperor that is elected by the Senate who can execute commands in his name.
 * 2) Praetor Urbanus: representative of the emperor in the Senate and supervising magistrate of the other praetores imperiales.
 * 3) Magister Correctores: overseer of provincial governors and arbiter of the correct employment of Roman Law in the provinces.
 * 4) Magister Militum: overseer of the supply chain to all military outposts and caretaker of military records.
 * 5) Magister Officium: chief of staff for the Senate and palace, who coordinates the activities of the supporting staff in the capital.
 * 6) Praefectus Argentarius: representative of the magister fiscalis in Rome and caretaker of financial records in the capital.
 * 7) Praefectus Tabularius: overseer of the various archives on census data, political records, and major events.
 * 8) Praefectus Memoriae: overseer of the emperor's relations with the public, both in public appearances and in communications.
 * 9) Praefectus Annonae: overseer of grain dole throughout the empire, often coordinates with the aediles.
 * 10) Praefectus Itinerarius: overseer of public transportation over land as well as sea and caretaker of the archive for maps.

Economy
In practice, the Roman Empire is a vast collection of cities unified through fidelity to a dominant military leader and the idea of Rome as a symbol of Western civilization. This reality is reflected in the different economic, legal, and even political environments into which the empire is vaguely divided. However, speaking in economic terms, the capital may be considered the ideal that other cities and towns approach to varying degrees depending on their respective extents of Romanization.

Agriculture
Wherever there is a city, farmers must do business with craftsmen to exchange their agricultural surplus for manufactured goods. A modern farm cannot operate without the services of ironsmiths, potters, carpenters, tanner, and certain other artisans. Similarly, a resident of any settlement cannot survive without the foodstuffs sold by farmers, fishermen, shepherds, and other agrarian laborers. Commerce between urban and rural workers allows for cities just as commerce between cities allows for an empire.

Roman farmers alternate planting and fallowing each field, depending on its stage in a two-field rotation of crops. Wheat, oats, rice, millets, and barley are the primary cereal grains in the empire, where each crop is suited to specific regional climates. Recently, the imported sugarcane has become a popular crop in Egypt and Nubia, although some aristocratic landowners have caught onto the trend on their Italian and African estates. Sugar from the stalks of this grass is becoming a popular food additive for the nobility, in a manner similar to the addition of honey to give more flavor to a meal.

A wealthy landowner typically runs a latifundium, a commercial farm spread over more than 350 acres. Agricultural slaves work this land for their masters but still follow typical Roman agricultural practices. In Italy, most harvests follow the same pattern. Fields are furrowed with mouldboard plows drawn by horses. All horse-drawn implements employ the now ubiquitous horse collar for getting pulled by this vastly more efficient beast of burden. The same horses are driven at the head of a mechanical reaper, a complicated machine derived from earlier Gallic reapers, to harvest the ears of a crop without the straw. Between planting and reaping, farmers in Italy water their fields using irrigation channels fed by the local system of aqueducts through roadside ceramic pipes. A smaller farm receives so little water on a monthly basis that its owners must store it in towers to properly irrigate their fields.

Other tasks are performed by hand using cast iron tools. Farm implements were more expensive before the spread of iron casting throughout the empire but today only a handful of different hand tools are regularly needed (e.g. shovels, pails, scythes, flails), only some of which require metallic components.

Massive estates procure tools and repairs through contracts with blacksmiths and machinists in nearby towns. Other farmers must get these services themselves when they visit cities or towns on the regular market days. Harvested crops are either transported to towns or stored below ground in granaries, after spending time in winnowing barns to remove the chaff. Altogether, a typical wheat farm attains a crop yield better than 15:1 at an average sowing rate of around seven modii of grain per iugerum (76 kg/acre). In other words, an average acre of Italian farmland that grows wheat has an output of around 750 kg of grain.

Despite the local efficiency of Italian farms, a lot of grain for the capital comes from the province of Africa Proconsularis, which tends to annually produce over 2.2 billion kg of cereals and exports nearly half of this to the rest of the empire. Similarly, Egypt exports 230 million modii (~1.6 billion kg) of grain over a typical year. These large quantities characterize the specialization of provinces at this point in time, when Egypt and Africa Proconsularis serve as major sources of grain for coastal provinces. These nationwide economies of scale drastically increase supplies and reduce prices for food in cities, allowing larger urban populations.

Through taxation, the Senate gets about 900 million kg of grain for disseminating through a free grain dole to poor urban citizens. At 300 kg per person, around 200,000 citizens in the capital, 1.5 million citizens elsewhere in Italy, 800,000 citizens in Egypt, 200,000 citizens in Syria, and 300,000 citizens in Greece are supported entirely by this form of state welfare.

Artisanry
Only three-quarters of the free population participates in the agricultural industry of the Roman Empire, leaving a substantial portion of Roman citizens for other industries. After farming, the next most common professions are related to processing foodstuffs. In Italy, millers are common but the efficiency of their watermills allows there to be relatively few. In the city of Rome, water from aqueducts not only sustains the populace but also powers over a thousand machines for local craftsmen. In particular, the city has nearly five hundred watermills, together grinding nearly 380 tonnes of flour every day.

Italy is currently transitioning into a proto-industrial economy founded on mechanical hydropower. A century ago, the invention of an efficient turbine that could be driven by water flow from an aqueduct opened the door for water-powered machinery inside cities. Before this time, mining and forestry benefitted immensely from stamp mills, trip hammers, and sawmills wherever rivers were available to power the machinery. Today, hydropower can reach wherever aqueducts go, allowing for the invention of fulling mills and the powering of bellows for smiths, lathes for carpenters, and miniature trip hammers for various professions.

In the early 6th century, the sudden efficiency of some industries in the capital temporarily created a large class of unemployed men, whose labor was no longer needed. This crisis only lasted a few decades before naturally correcting itself through emigration to the frontierlands of Germany. At the time, severe starvation was avoided by redirecting more of the available grain dole to Rome. Now, cities have settled into a new equilibrium, with a slower and self-managing rate of new structural unemployment. This process of replacing manual labor with machines characterizes the present Roman economy, creating a new type of craftsman for repairing and assembling complicated machinery - the machinator (machinist). These artisans apprentice in the tradition of Roman geometers and emerged out of architect guilds working in coordination with carpenters and blacksmiths.

Guilds
With nationwide communication and trade, some collegia (guilds) have managed to grow immensely in influence, principally through the unification of local guilds into intercity guilds. These institutions set minimum prices to prevent craftsmen from undercutting one another through price wars and negotiate business between their craftsmen and the craftsmen of other guilds. Guilds with an influence in multiple port cities tend to advertise supplies of goods available at other ports to help merchants know where the supplies are low and where a new stock may be ready for shipping elsewhere. Cheap communication by the cursus vehicularis has been the driving force behind the spreading influence of intercity guilds, along with the relative safety of travel within the empire.

The manner in which larger guilds operate differs from the practices of small guilds. The support offered by a guild to members manifests more as a means for guilds to employ workers, by offering benefits in exchange for a share of profits. Since a guild does not provide wages, even to its administrative members, cuts from their members are pure profit that gets saved for taking care of veteran members when they are unable to work, greasing the wheels of business, funding large scale developments, or collaboration with natural philosophers (a transaction largely unique to the metallurgical industry), and even being charitable to their community. Guild profits have been a driving force for industrialization and the discovery of new mechanical technologies.

Perhaps the largest present guild is the Collegia Stena (Stena Guild). Among its services, this guild: employs merchants for transporting metal ingots throughout the empire, supports thousands of smithies across Central Europe, funds research by the Lyceum (the foremost philosophical school for Aristotelians and, therefore, geologists), and finances prospecting for miners, especially for immigrants to the German colonies.

Much of the credit for the economies of scale present in the Roman economy as well as the efficient exchanges between different suppliers and craftsmen can be attributed to the empire's elaborate networks of guilds.

Banking
Another powerful guild is the Collegia Bancanorum (Bankers' Guild) on the island of Melita (Malta). With its own senate and relation with banks from Lusitania (Portugal) to Syria, this guild acts as the governing body for a disconnected national finance industry. The guild halls and senate house on the little Mediterranean island are a place for hundreds of bankers to mingle. Using the national postal service, the guild constantly disseminates news to banks across the major cities, turning city banks into the most useful places for getting direct news from the other side of the empire.

A Roman banca (bank) functions as a place for citizens to store their wealth and arrange special financial transactions in the view of a numerarius (accountant) or avocatus (legal advocate). After their development in the 3rd century, banks have evolved into the most common multi-purpose institutions for finance, offering a range of financial services. In principle, banks are legally permitted to charge interest on loans. However, Roman law prohibits Christians from usury, implying any unproductive multiplication of wealth, so most banks have circumvented the law by hiring non-Christians - primarily Jews - as bancani (bankers or bank tellers). Otherwise, a bank can still earn a profit by investing in commercial endeavors such as trade ventures and resource exploitation. In fact, the regulations on charging interest for loans has motivated a high level of investment in the Roman Empire, creating a noticeable culture of entrepeneurship and exploration for geologists, miners, cartographers, maritime traders, and machinists.

Specialization
After centuries of trade, the provinces of Rome have transitioned away from producing goods which other provinces can produce more efficiently and instead shifted production to goods which they produce more efficiently. Among these specialized economies of scale, the types that produce agricultural goods are the most commonplace. Aegyptus and Africa Proconsularis grow wheat for a number of Mediterranean provinces while Italia and Tarraconensis (Eastern Spain) produce most of their olive oil, and wine. Spain and Germania Superior (Upper Germany) supply disproportionate quantities of the milk and meat for Italy, Gallia (France & Britain), and Illyria (Western Balkans). Nevertheless, most provinces locally procur the majority of their own food.

There are a handful of provinces that each specialize in mining and processing a variety of metal ores. Hispania (Spain & Portugal) is the largest source for gold, silver, lead, and tin; Britannia trades large quantities of iron, lead, copper, and tin; Gallia provides a great deal of iron, brass, and copper; and Bithynia  ( Northern Turkey ) supplies  silver  and  iron. Conversely, Cyprus specializes in procuring copper, Dacia (Eastern Balkans) and Noricum (Austria) are the greatest suppliers of iron, and Sicilia is renowned for trading in lead. The provinces of Germania Inferior (Lower Germany), Gothica (West Poland), and Upper Germany are not major producers but their exports are cheaper than other sources of metal ingots.

Other industrial materials are shipped primarily from specific provinces. Coal arrives along the Atlantic coast in vast quantities from Britannia but also came from local sources in most provinces. Petroleum almost entirely originates in Dacia and Mesopotamia, where oil fields are readily accessible. Lumber once needed to be shipped from Asia Minor and Gallia but Germany has slowly overtaken them as the primary distributor of wood.

Military
Fundamental to the economic and political stability of the Roman Empire is the presence of a professional army of loyal volunteers. Citizen and non-citizen residents of its cities desire the continued rule of Rome and many willingly give their lives for this assurance. The core of these armed forces is the Roman Legion - a standing army of citizens who are trained and armed by the state.

Essential to the operations of the Legion are its legionaries. Each one is a heavily-armored and highly-trained citizen of Rome who fights with a gladius (short sword), scutum (heavy rectangular shield), pilum (javelin), and pugio (dagger). A citizen who volunteers must undergo two years of training before joining the ranks of one of 28 legions. His military service lasts a further twenty years after his training but once his term of service ends, a legionary receives a praemia in the amount of 5000 Dn (~$175,000 US). The lowest ranked legionary is paid an annual wage of 365 Dn, including the meals he is provided. Legionaries arrange with military accountants how their salary will be dispensed, most have some go into a bank of their choice and some be given to them during their service. Many legions spend the majority of their time in towns and cities, giving legionaries some downtime for personal recreation.

Hierarchy
A camp of ten legionaries is a contubernium while a division consisting of eight conturbernia is a centuria. There are eight centuriae in every cohort, the primary separable unit (manipulus) of the standing army. An army with ten cohortes constitutes a single legion. In other words, there is a total of 6,400 legionaries in every legion, discounting commanding officers above the rank of decanus. An officer's wages increase in large increments with rank, going as high as the 44,000 Dn received by the commander of a legion.

The highest ranked soldier that still participates in battle is the signiferius - the commander of a cohort. True to his name, this officer has the honors of bearing the legionary standard of the cohort under his command, serving the purpose of designating the location on the battlefield of every cohort and the distribution of every legion. Cohorts are highly personalized by agreement of their officers, distinguished both in the appearance of their standard and their name. Each signiferius relies on his primus pilus (first spear) to assist in his command, as the highest ranked CO of his centuriae. The other COs of centuriae are regular centuriones, tasked with relaying orders directly to the troops in a literal chain of command on the field of battle.

Lowest of the commanding officers is the decanus, a rank that loses all distinction once any fighting starts. Their job is to keep the men of their contubernium organized when establishing a camp, relaying directions for where to lay a tent and instructing each man in the placement of his sudes (stakes). The independence and self-sufficiency of legionaries is one of their essential advantages in warfare and the decanus is a key component of the required level of organization.

High Command
After the Avitan reforms of the Legion, a strict hierarchy is enforced for the upper echelons of leadership of the Legion. Each legion has its dux (pl. duces) to represent it during the planning phase of any maneuver. These general commanding officers are typically placed above the men of their legion, by enforcing regular salutes and by sleeping in their own quarters within an encampment. Dux is the lowest rank to confer the privilege of declining to carry one's own equipment. Nearly all duces would have graduated straight into the rank of signiferius from the Academia Bellica (War Academy), since unschooled and often illiterate soldiers are seen as unfit for any strategic level of command. Nevertheless, history records a few rare examples of such a stellar military career.

Graduates of the War Academy in Carthage partake in a different form of military service than other citizens. They serve in five year periods, each of which can be terminated with retirement from the Legion. This variety of service is considered one of the two main starting points for a political career (cursus honorum) in the Senate.

In principle, nobody can rise higher than dux merely through service in the army, although certain exceptions punctuate history. The high office of legatus augustus or simply legatus, where the context is understood, is both a military and a political rank. For this reason, most legati are senators who had already served for a time as duces. There is no minimum position in the Senate required for appointment as legatus by the emperor but it is considered prudent to choose former praetors. Like any other military rank, the titles and authority of legatus are conferred by its superior officer, in this case either the emperor or the supreme commander.

The supreme commander of the Roman Legion is the Dux Generalissimus, literally the most general commander of the Legion. Unlike other ranks, Generalissimus is an extraordinary office, meaning an appointment is only made under certain circumstances. There is no peacetime supreme commander, except the emperor, and most minor conflicts do not require a single general, since a council of legati and duces can handle the strategic command. However, sometimes a single authority is needed to hasten decisions and centralize the formulation of strategies. A Generalissimus adequately serves these functions.

Non-infantry
Despite being the essential feature of the Legion, legionaries and their officers constitute only about three-quarters of its soldiers. The rest perform less direct roles in combat but are arguably more responsible for the unparalleled strength of the Roman Legion. Among these additional roles, the sagittarius (archer) should be mentioned first as the most directly similar to the role of legionary. Archers in the Legion are heavily armored, except around the limbs, since durability is viewed as more important than mobility. Their bow is a double-recurve composite shortbow, replacing the arcus ligneis (longbow) popularized during the 2nd to 3rd century. A sagittarius is a less prestigious and lower wage position in the Legion but involves twice the training and two-thirds the time in service, in addition to carrying a famously low probability of injury or death compared with being a legionary.

A more personal role than sagittarius is that of kataphractos (heavy cavalry), descending from the tradition of Roman cavalry and the heavy horsemen of Sassanid Persia. Covered in scale armor instead of the laminar armor of legionaries and archers, riders are the most heavily armored soldiers in any European army, wearing a mail hauberk underneath their scaled body armor. Their horses wear less armor but are protected by laminated plates around the chest and sides of the head. Most kataphracts are members of the merchant class of citizens, distinguished by ownership of urban property and their own stable of horses. A personal mount is riden by each kataphract outside battle, with their war horse being led alongside them on a march. These lighter horses are mounted without the scale layer of armor, effectively turning them into light cavalry. When travelling, generals usually send their kataphracts in this way to scout around the marching column, allowing one rider to serve dual roles as both heavy and scout cavalry.

Almost as famous as the legionary is the ballistarius (artilleryman) of the Roman Legion. Following the Greeks, Rome has nurtured an elaborate collection of artillery pieces (ballistae) for supporting its infantry. The present emperor founded a school dedicated to the training of artillerymen and study of weapons and armor, particularly of machinery for artillery. Home to the foremost geometers, architects, and machinists in the empire, this Technaeum Armarum et Armaturae (Technical School for Arms and Armor) has been the source of most advancements in military technology for the last twenty years, including the composite bow of sagittarii and the latest versions of standard Roman artillery.

Among the artillery pieces of Rome, the most formidable is the polybolos - a mounted semi-automatic crossbow driven by a winch. The type of polybolos in the Legion is transported on a horse-drawn cart but must be mounted on the ground before use. Once in action, the turret requires two operators to maintain a consistent firing rate of 11 shots per minute as long as ammunition remains. Despite its high rate of fire, a polybolos tends to kill or incapacitate with a single blow, making a battery of polyboloi one of the most effective countermeasures to light infantry and cavalry - to which the failed invasion of the Huns stands as testament.

Other than polyboloi, the Legion fields a regular number of manuballistae - a handheld long-range crossbow - and carroballistae - a mounted crossbow fired from a moving wagon. The former serves the role of picking out targets within an enemy formation from a distance while the latter provides highly-mobile artillery support on a chaotic battlefield. Since the manuballista is handheld, its users operate alongside archers, filling the position that most advanced armies allocate to regular crossbows.

As for numbers, every legion has an identical quantity of each of the above type of soldier. In one legion, there are 400 kataphractoi, 1,600 sagittarii, 40 polyboloi, 120 manuballistae, and 10 carroballistae. Another 80 artillerymen serve in every legion to assist in mounting artillery, reloading complicated artillery, building then operating siege artillery such as onagers and heavy ballistae, and guiding the construction of fortifications for a temporary legionary encampment. Each ballistarius has graduated from the Technaeum and has several years of technical expertise to draw upon during his military service.

Support
For additional support, a legion fields civilians to fill roles which do not take part in battles, most help support the baggage train that is firmly integrated into a marching army. For their part, each legionary and support unit carries a sarcina (marching pack) containing 14 days of rations, a cooking pot, a tin bowl, a waterskin for posca, a folding shovel, a hatchet, stakes, replacement parts for armor, a cloak, tent pegs, ~29 feet of rope, and a whetstone. Other equipment such as tent sheets, pickaxes, and baskets are shared between legionaries in a contubernium so that each man gets some days of rest from the extra weight.

The most specialized support available to a legion are its field surgeons. Complimenting their training at a surgical academy with the typical physical training of a legionary, field surgeons in the Legion carry a portable array of standard surgical tools, alongside a large sack of soaps and a bag of medicinae (medicines) from herbs to opium. A military surgeon effectively carries an entire hospital on his person, allowing him to treat the kind of wounds and sicknesses that could be expected in war. Every centuria is assigned its own surgeon but those of a whole legion usually establish their own tent for mass treatment of the sick and wounded.

Larger tents such as the medical tent and general's tent are carried on wagons driven by legionaries on a rotation. Wherever possible, tasks that could be performed by servants are delegated to the troops, minimizing numbers on a campaign. Nevertheless, a moving legion has two camp servants for every centuria and five for the general himself. Their jobs include the most menial or labor intensive work required by an encamped or marching army, usually running to fetch people or water and delivering letters from the general to a military courier, any of the ten couriers in his service for relaying messages to the national postal service.

Aside from surgeons, couriers, and servants, a single cohort brings on a march its own blacksmith, for repairing damage to armor and weapons, and cartographer, for orienting the legion using local and global maps. As for animals, a legions has 400 war horses and 400 other horses for its kataphracts alongside another war horse for the general. Lighter horses pull wagons of special supplies that cannot be carried by one man, no matter how strong. Since most supplies can be carried by legionaries, a cohort brings only a small number of wagons, avoiding loss of mobility. The most important wagon is the brick kiln that legionaries use to set bricks for an encampment and the blacksmith uses for heating metal during repairs. Anything pulled alongside a legion has medium-weight horses drawing it along, an expensive but more effective mode of transportation than mules or oxen.

Auxiliaries
Rome has another army besides its Legion. Unlike legionaries, auxiliary soldiers are not necessarily citizens and do not require extensive training before accepting arms in defense of Rome. However, this deficiency does not mean they are always unskilled. About a third of auxiliaries are members of the Municipia, the town guard of every settlement above a population of 80,000 people. Nearly a quarter of men who join the Municipia are retired legionaries, using their one skill to earn a living after their service ended. Men who join without prior military experience undergo a month of training before going onto the streets as guardsmen.

The larger fraction of the auxiliaries are the Valla, the border guard for the frontiers of the Roman Empire. These soldiers are purely non-citizens from the province whose border they defend, except in Germany and Syria where there are no recognized non-citizens. Unlike their brothers in cities, recruits of the Valla receive six months of training before getting left to their own devices. People who enlist here do not serve terms like legionaries but continue to work until they quit or until the age of 50, when they are forced to retire.

There are around 240,000 auxiliaries working at any given time but their numbers vary daily since there is no set term limit or number of regiments as in the Legion. Despite its failings, the Auxilia is an effective tool for lightening the load on the Legion and giving a stronger facade to the enemies of Rome, both within and without its national borders.

Navy
Although the Classis Romanis (Roman Fleet) once served as only a branch of the Legion, the Caesar Scipio II established a more independent navy as an arm of the Senate, similar to the Legion serving at the pleasure of the emperor. Control over the navy is extended through the appointment of each procurator navalis, a commander of a grecis (high fleet), by the Senate and through the election of the Procurator Admirabillis, the supreme commander of the empire's naval forces. These officers are similar to legates in only being available to senators who have military service under their belts. The five high fleets of Rome are the Grecis Axeinus, Grecis Rubricanis, Grecis Britannicus, Grecis Occidentalis, and Grecis Orientalis.

A high fleet consists of several fleets (classes) commanded by a dux classiarius. Most fleets are named after their primary task and do not feature the full variety of ships employed by the empire. For example, the classis annona africana secures grain shipments in the Mare Nostrum (Mediterranean Sea) from the scarce few pirates there and only has a few dozen liburnian galleys (liburnae) that spend most of their time transporting grain for the national dole. Conversely, the classis aegyptus augustus is the core military arm of the Red Sea Fleet, defending the coastline of Egypt and Nubia with liburnae, quinqueremes, and colossal decaremes.

Strength
Overall, the military strength of the Roman military is difficult to express through mere numbers. Rome's entire armed forces has been incrementally designed throughout its history, with the result of a highly integrated and purposeful military. Furthermore, its foot soldiers are professionals with years of training building physical strength and discipline to match even the finest soldiers in most other armies. For these reasons, the strength of the Legion is greater than the numbers might suggest.

There are 179,200 heavily-armored swordsmen and 44,800 archers in the Legion, supported by 11,200 heavy cavalry that can perform the role of scout cavalry outside of battle. Providing further assistance are 3,360 arbalests and 1,120 anti-infantry guns of the mechanical variety. When necessary, there are ~180,000 light swordsmen in reserves along the borders of the empire and over 30,000 light swordsmen serving as marines onboard ships. These numbers entail a total army of ~420,000 soldiers, albeit spread across a vast territory with borders that stretch across tens of thousands of kilometers.

Philosophy & Technology
Through trade and conquest, Rome inherited the technological and philosophical traditions of the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Celts. The nature of Roman success has long depended upon the adaptation of foreign ideas, often with a more refined eye to their practicality. While Rome has depended on other kingdoms for its philosophical traditions, the specific discoveries that presently drive Rome often originated within the empire from the work of its citizens. The stability and prosperity afforded by Roman rule has been a boon to fields from medicine to geometry, serving as a good environment for countless discoveries.

Aside from its military and economic environment, Rome is also home to numerous institutions devoted to studying the natural world. Many of these places are only libraries or the homes of wealthy philosophers but some such as the Faustian Academy are locations where scholars gather to pursue new frontiers for human knowledge. The four most prominent institutions of this kind are spread across the empire: the Musaeum of Alexandria, the largest library in the world; the Technaeum of Carthage, the largest facility for studying machinery for the military; the Lyceum of Athens, the center of Aristotelian philosophy and geological science; and the Academia Medica Galena, the foremost library and school of medicine.