485-537 CE (Superpowers)

Emperor Avitus (485-494)
As the eldest son of the Emperor Draco, Avitus was the most prominent public figure in Rome on his death. The Senate had a good deal of optimism towards this new dynastic line and had so far been far from disappointed. The new emperor, though nothing exceptional, was an ideal candidate for stable times in the Empire as he was neither too ambitious nor too foolish of a leader, either one of which could lead to economic, or worse, complete national ruin. His reforms focused mostly on the newer Germanic Provinces, continuing the industrialization that was well under way by the time of his father's death.

Civl and Military Events
Taking up 10% of Rome's industrial output, Germania was already one of Rome's strongest economic regions and though its population had grown to 890,000 people, most of what was being produced there was shipped away to serve the more well off citizens of the Empire. This movement of goods was a long and costly undertaking until the completion of the Germanic Road Network in 487. Around the same year, the agricultural sector of Germania was emerging to remove the cost of shipping in food to the provinces there. With the province becoming self-sustainable by 490, Germania was finally considered the single most profitable expanse of territory under Roman dominance, producing even more than Aegyptus. Eventually the area was experiencing grain surpluses of more than 180%, most of which was shipped south to support the mountainous Balkan Provinces.

In 489 CE a new science was developed by the Romans, a field of study that was the precursor to modern geology. Engineers were taking note of the type of regions, and the kinds of rocks found where certain vital metals such as copper, iron and silver were located. These new discoveries allowed for an enormous increase in the finding of mining sites, and therefore, in the production capabilities of the Empire. Not only that, but the technology of creating cast iron was brought back from China only two years later. This new metal found its use in cases where high stress resistance was not needed and lower costs were the priority. This made it the prime choice in figurines, carriage wheels, harnesses for armor and weapon handles, all items that were mass produced at the time. These developments reduced the upkeep cost of the army and increased the speed of carriages through widespread use of metal wheels.

Following alongside the recent industrial developments, several reformations of Roman military equipment were made. The Gladius was increased in size by approximately 14 cm, making it more useful against shielded opponents as well as in individual combat. The Spatha was chosen as the standard weapon of the Auxilia and was increased to a length of exactly 0.92 m, and at the same time those of horseback riders were increased to about 1.05 m, whilst the edge was also rounded even more to prevent the sword from sticking in enemies. Roman Scutum, and their central boss, were decreased somewhat in size, though not thickness, allowing for legionaries to be far more maneuverable as well as tire less easily, at only the minor cost of less cover under arrow fire. The Plumbatae (Darts) were completely removed from use, ending their steady decline in use since the rise in importance of Sagittae (archers) in the army.

The organization of the Legion was also shifted around to increase the standardization of the military. Though each Century remained at 80 men, the Cohors were changed to be made up of 8 of these Centuries, instead of the old 6. Legions remained at 10 Cohors and so now contained exactly 6400 Legionaries each. This number didn't include: soldiers of rank "Centurion" or above, ballistarii (artillerymen), sagittae and medici. The Cabellica (Cavalry Legion) was set at a standard of only 10,000 equites. They had moderate armor, a little more extensive than legionary, a specialized spatha and their own sagitta (the word evolved to interchangeably mean either a bow or an archer, which to a general were basically the same thing anyway). As the reforms were completed by 492, the Roman Army's size stood as follows:
 * 32 Legions - 204,800 legionaries
 * 360,000 Comensati (Auxiliaries)
 * 76,800 Sagittae
 * 10,000 Equites

The noticeable rise in importance of a standing rather than militia based army was the primary feature of the Avitan Reforms. The Roman Legion now cost even less to field, was easier to control and was more effective than it had been at any point in history. This was despite the fact that military technology had advanced very little, even over the five hundred years of the Empire's existence.

Emperor Periclius (494-507)
The next man in line for the throne after the assassination of Emperor Avitus was his youngest brother Lucius Periclius Draconis. Already 46 years old, the only reason Periclius was well liked in the position of emperor was because it meant the next in line was his adopted son Lucius Lorus Derius. A smart man of 22, he was anticipated to be the next great emperor, having already passed top of his year at the Academia Bellica in Carthage. In any case, his father did manage several achievements during his life, including a short religious war with the Frankish Union and the putting down of a minor rebellion by a prominent Greek orator.

Civil and Military Events
In 496, the Pope Gelasius I made the daring move of traveling to the court of King Clovis of the Frankish Union and making an attempt to convert him to Christianity. Though he was successful in his goal, attributing the Empire's success to their devotion to Christ, the change was not to last. The Frankish king died only five years later and was replaced by the elected Christian King Thrasamund of the Vandals. His people of origin, who had been Arian Christians for more than 40 years already. As this was the predominant form of Christianity in the country, the state religion was soon switched from Catholicism to appease the general public.

Personally insulted by this, Gelasius approached the Emperor Periclius on the matter. Though he sent an envoy to question the Germanians about what had changed, their reply was just uninterested enough to upset the leader of Rome. Now convinced that the Federation of Germania was directly making an affront towards the Roman Christian Church itself, Periclius declared war for the first time against that nation in 502 CE. With victory being achieved by fall with the taking of the Frankish capital, both nations quickly went about the business of peace. The Union was forced to profess how they were creating their own separate church with the "utmost respect to the true sovereign Church of Christ in Rome" and how their king apologized for his rudeness the year before.

A major consequence of the war was the creation of an organized Federation military force, the Defenders of the Land. Organized similarly to the Roman legions, and even with several titles converted to their own languages, it was regarded by most Romans as being worse than any other empire's armed forces of the time, and yet still better than anything that had risen out of that particular region. Though the former fact was entirely true, the very same could be said of the latter as well and so this was one of the greatest developments in the history of Eastern Europe. Such an organization would later become even more important because the Union never quite got a hold of its stability, having to face constant separatist movements, rebellions, and finally, a revolution that would completely wipe the nation off the map.

Internal matters of the Empire were not much more stable. In 495 a Greek orator, philosopher and historian known as Elarnassus was stirring up the already growing nationalism of his countrymen in Macedonia. As his followers numbered in the hundreds of thousands by the turn of the century, the Roman provincial government became more weary of him and informed the Senate of these discomforting going-ons. Several soldiers were sent to take the dissenter into custody, despite the violent protests that followed, to be brought before the emperor for judgement. Though only 240 or so people were killed in the initial incident, Elarnassus' execution would make him a martyr for the cause of Greek independence, ensuring that the issue would not be resolved for some time still.

Emperor Scipio II (507-528)
During his father's reign Lorus returned to military school, this time the Academia Nauticus, to take up further studies in preparation of his job as emperor. It was there that he gained a deep love for naval engineering and the life at sea. For this reason he changed his name to that of Rome's greatest emperors at sea, Scipio.

Civil Events
Following the old Agricolan Economics, the first act of Emperor Scipio II was a large decrease in taxes for the lower classes and non-citizens. Based on those theories, this would lead to an increase in the growth rate of the nation's economy at the only cost of less available government income. Since the national treasury was in no danger of becoming empty (being at 90% what it was at Sulla's death, inflation taken into account) the act had enormously positive effects when compared to the usual reductions or increases in taxes that occurred every ten years or so. At the same time, with the help of the economic council, he made significant efforts to keep government spending at such a rate that the national budget was always balanced, something most emperors never put in the work to try and do.

In 509 a guild was founded by the government that provided transportation, for a fee, to anyone wishing to travel between Rome and Neapolis, one of the first true public transport systems in the world. Though initially consisting of only about fourty or so raeda (with payed drivers) in total, demand for the service grew at an unexpectedly high rate mostly due to its enormous popularity with people who had a medium to low income. By the next year it was expanded to about 160 raeda and provided transport to anywhere in the province of Italia from stations found outside every major city. A little while later the network was further organized, transport only being allowed between one station and another, though they were now far more common with many even operating out of tabernae between cities.

In 511 it was expanded again to allow transport all along the Dalmatian Coast and then even more to the four main Greek provinces, and Constantinopolis, in 516. What this amounted to was that a middle-class citizen, living on 1500 denarii a year (37,500$ US) could afford a trip from Rome, to Constantinopolis and back, a total fee of about 100 denarii or so. This meant that the program was churning some impressive profits for the government, something which provided even further incentive to continue expanding it. This was done in 517 CE with an entirely new addition, a boat service that made the journey from Neapolis to Alexandria, and vice-a-versa every month and a half at the cost of 200 denarii per person. As this was lower than the average rates charged by traders for the same trip, the government had essentially cornered the market with the requirement of only buying two boats (one for each direction at a time).

This was not the end of the network's expansions for Scipio's reign. By 523 the boat service was being provided for monthly trips from Neapolis to either Carthage, Constantinopolis or Alexandria on a monthly basis, whilst trips between any of the other three cities were being taken every 3 months. Finally, in 525 the system was enlarged again to allow trips over land from Italia to both Lugdunum and Parisium in Lugdunensis. As important as the contribution this made to public capabilities was, its major facet was that it created an enormously potent infrastructure for the government to move around its own people and supplies. Later emperors would continually expand on the network, and by the end of the VIIIth Century it would cover every non-insular province in the entire Empire.

In 526, tragedy struck. An earthquake in the province of Syria struck right beside the town of Antioch, one of the Empire's major cities. The devastation killed an estimated 270,000 people and destroyed virtually all of the city's infrastructure. Only strong, stone or concrete buildings such as the Cathedral of St. Andrew and the Provincial Capitol building in the city's forum. As well, most of the buildings of the rich were left standing, though their gardens were all destroyed in the fires that ran rampant through the city following the earthquake.

Reconstruction was to be led by a team of architects who were to recreate the city almost entirely from scratch. The districts were organized in a more linear formation and the overall city design was that of a perfect square surrounded by heavy walls. All buildings were built by government standards to be largely resistant to earthquake damage, up to a certain point anyways. The new city of Antioch was finally completed in 549 CE.

The shock of this event led to the Roman government making several actions in earthquake prevention, throughout the Empire. First, a chinese invention that the Romans called a seismetros was required in any city that was near an area that historically had experienced earthquakes. Though the devices design was changed to that of a more Roman-like statue, the mechanism remained largely the same. Then, city's which were historically at the epicenter of earthquakes were rebuilt in part so that most of the buildings could survive an earthquake. One area that was particularly upgraded was the island of Crete which had suffered a devastating quake almost two centuries ago.

Military
Whilst Scipio was spending money on public transit in his attempts to keep a balanced budget, these expenditures were not always enough. To compensate, from 510 to 515 CE he worked on a complete reformation of Rome's Navy. While still maintaining the fleet divisions established by the previous Scipio, the ship types that they utilized were changed entirely. The new backbone of the navy were Deceres galleys, which were essentially floating fortresses that served as a safe platform for archers and ballistae at sea. Supporting these mighty warships were advanced Quinqueremes whose designs had changed a good deal from the Punic Wars and were now the most potent combination of speed and durability that could be built at sea. In these reforms, the Classis was increased so that it consisted of approximately 250,000 crewmen and soldiers.

Coastal fortifications were also built at many key points around the Empire. For the most part, this meant fortifying the entrance points for most rivers that led to a major Roman city (Rivers Elbe, Thames, Tiber and Seine) as well as increases in naval defenses along the coast of the Red Sea.

In foreign affairs, the nation of Nobatia collapsed in 512 following the refusal of one of its Nubian generals to attack the Axum Empire. This was taken advantage of by Makurian Separatists who then formed their own rebel militia army that same year. By 514 the Nobatian Civil War became an uneasy stalemate, with Rome offering support to the remaining territories of the government of Nobatia, Axum sending soldiers to defend the military state of Alwa and the free state of Makuria serving as a dividing line between the two. Although this increased tensions between the Romans and their east African allies, their support to two of the opposing sides was most likely a major factor in the halting of the war.

Emperor Validian (528-537)
Emperor Validian, the third-eldest son of Scipio II, came onto the world stage even before being named the leader of the world's greatest nation. Using the considerable wealth of his family he travelled around the Empire in campaigns of providing welfare to his father's less fortunate subjects, and from these journeys he gained a profound sense of the plight of the average Pleb. Therefore, once he gained the throne, he set about passing laws to further relieve the poor's suffering. His sincerity in helping his people made it tragically ironic that he would be assassinated in his prime by Greek nationalists seeking redemption for their defeat in the civil war from half a decade before. However, much like how Elarnassus' death sparked the movement, the murder of Validian would put a most displeasing light on it in the eyes of the entire Empire's population, including many of those living in the Greek provinces. This effectively brought an end to their nationalistic efforts.

Civil and Military Events
The emperor had a strong sense of Roman patriotism, above most others, and this was reflected in many of the ways he governed the Empire. His belief was that Rome should be economically independent from the outside world, and if it had to depend on someone, the Empire had to be the one in control. Though this began a brief period of isolationism, his policies still provided a great many benefits to his nation. First, he wished to decrease the amount of Roman wealth being lost in importation, to accomplish this he placed heavier taxes on trading with both the Sassanids and the Frankish Union, stifling demand for their foreign goods. Next he made deals with several of Rome's foederati, such as Armenia, that only allowed for trade to be done with the Empire over a singular trade route that would be chosen for each of them. Finally, a massive road was built to link the province of Aegyptus with the capital of the Axum Empire, Rome's biggest trading partner. Though it was a grand route that helped to greatly increase trade between the two nations, Rome had near total control over the highway, putting the Axumites in a more comprising position. Still, since it decreased the overall cost of trade, they made no complaints to the Romans about it.

In 530, Validian passed several acts that expanded the still growing public transport system that was developed by his predecessor. First expanding a land network over Aegyptus during that year, he steadily expanded to province after province until 537 when the entirety of Roman Africa was connected by the transport system. Though the African network was far less extensive than that going from Italia to Thrace, its effect on the region's economy was still enormous. For the first time in history, normal citizens were taking long trips to far off places for the simple reason of seeking enjoyment, effectively creating the world's first public tourist industries. The emperor however frowned upon this particular development and so placed several taxes on industries of that kind.

In 532, an organization of Greek nationalists took over the city of Buthrotum in Epirus, around which they gathered up a rebel army to combat the Romans. By winter of 533, their forces had grown to nearly 100,000 armed soldiers who were on their way to take the Thracian metropolis of Constantinopolis. As the city was completely unfortified, should they have made the journey successfully, it most certainly would have been taken and many of the inhabitants probably killed. Luckily, the Rebel Greek Army was intercepted by General Gnaeus Fablius Comptus and his force of two legions. Though the Siege of Constantinopolis was a difficult battle for the Legion, they managed to achieve a stunning victory nonetheless, essentially getting rid of the threat of an uprising of that scale in Greece ever again.

The rest of 533, and the following year were marked by the emperor's many attempts to reduce the chances of any follow-up rebellions happening anywhere in the Empire, a policy which fit very well into his ideas of helping the public. As soon as the war was over, citizenship was granted to all freemen of the province of Thracia, something which was had only been given to a select few provinces in Rome's history up to that point. In the four main Greek provinces a State Welfare program was established that provided a steady income to anyone who, without a doubt, was living in abject poverty. Despite all of this, the city of Constantinopolis was still never given a protective wall beyond a simple wooden palisade.

One of the most important reforms by the emperor at this time was the creation of the Validian Codex. Created by an act passed in 324, the Codex was a massive collection of written documents which detailed the new Roman Law system that Validian was introducing with the act. Despite its great size, the text was incredibly straightforward and was even harder to find loopholes in than the old Roman Laws. Though many things were kept, one of the more important changes was the removal of most references to sorcery that were still part of Rome's legal documents.

As part of this change, the Judicia Imperia building was constructed in Rome to serve as the only official standing court of the Empire. Although the resolution of legal disputes could was still, for the most part, resolved in the traditional Roman way of forming spontaneous courts, anyone who could afford it would be allowed to take their case to the new Roman Supreme Court. The Magnus Judex, head of the Roman Court system, was elected for single term 4 year periods by popular vote of the Senate. Since he was the final decider in all cases brought to the Supreme Court, the emperor and Senate made certain that whoever held the position was as incorruptible as possible.

The Judex was protected by a constantly shifting group from the Praetorian Guard, ensuring that threats of death against him could never be substantiated. To prevent bribery, his pay was made to be extremely large and should he ever bring proof of a bribery attempt on him, the government would match that same price and ensure that the perpetrator was made to face the law.

A major development, which the Senate convinced Validian not to go through with, was the creation of state-run holding facilities for criminals, something which would have allowed for the death penalty to have been removed for certain crimes. Based on alleged calculations made by mathematical erudites working for the Senate, instituting a prison system would doubtlessly bankrupt the entire Empire within only a decade or so. All things considered, this really was most likely true.

Mayan Conglomerate
Now that the Conglomerate encompassed every Mesoamerican city and was fortified to the south, the kings could focus more on the internal organization of the nation. Something which greatly aided in this were the plans left over by the first king Mayapan I detailing his long-term goals and reforms that he had in mind but would never be able to implement. A court system, more extensive than that which would be created by Rome, was founded by the Mayans in 492 CE. A judiciary building was founded in 20 of the largest Mayan cities and each was given substantial written laws to use in legal procedures. Also, Record Safes were constructed in every major city which held paper files containing all the legal documents for the people living in the city. This information included their wealth, education, profession, home, family members and records of their financial transactions made at the official markets. To reduce clutter, outdated or useless documents were always disposed of by the authorities.

The spreading of infrastructure and technology within the Mayan and Mexica states was also of vital importance to the government. Concrete roads connected all the major cities, between which were thousands of state-run inns that served as resting stops over the long journeys on foot between cities. A law passed in 509 required that all public buildings be made of stone, concrete or any other material that could be used to make permanent and non-flammable structures. Border cities had some of the first city walls built around them for defense against any natives that might wander into the area.

Though the army was reduced to about 200,000 professional troops due to there being no longer a need for large standing armies, most of these soldiers were stationed in the first Mesoamerican Forts that were located at key strategic points facing towards unoccupied territory along the northern border. The Mayan Army was highly disciplined and their strict military education system ensured that rebellions by soldiers were virtually unheard of.

Sometime around the 520's, schools became centers for scientific research on both new technologies and theoretical ideas. Though technological development in the Conglomerate would never again reach the levels it had under Mayapan I, they were still the fastest advancing nation in the world at the time. Agriculture was a major field of study there with many advances in fertilization technologies and crop organization methods being developed by 530. Collectivized farming was the most common type by 536, giving the Conglomerate the highest yield to farmer ratio of any nation in the world. Although this made it impossible for farmer families to advance economically, the social order system of the Mayans made there virtually no resentment from them for this reason.

Historical Statistics
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