Roman Empire (Superpowers)

The Roman Empire (La: Imperium Romanum) or Senate & People of Rome, an autotheocratic constitutional monarchy, covers a third of the planet. The most powerful sovereign state in the modern world and the largest and oldest country in history, Rome controls land on every continent and shares borders with every sovereign state.

The Roman Imperium was founded, along with its capital, Rome, on the Tiber in 753 BCE by the eponymous Romulus. Shortly thereafter, the city was taken over by Etruscan kings. The last one, Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by Brutus of the Junii clan in 509 BCE in revolt against recent disrespect to a noble. This series of events created the First Republic.

The Republic's history was tumultuous, defined by long periods of unrest and dictatorship. But it upheld the democratic principles on which it was established until a general named Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River into Italy in 49 BCE. His actions plunged the Republic into civil war. Fighting did not end until 27 BCE. Rome was reborn from the fire like a phoenix into a magnificent new entity, the Roman Empire.

Rome's new empire experienced numerous wars in the last two millennia and has not lost one. But the state almost met its downfall in the Second Civil War, splitting it in twain. The upheaval ended with the fusion of the papal and imperial thrones in 1066 CE. The power of this autotheocracy has ensured the persistence of the Imperium under its leader's near absolute religious and civil authority.

No country in history compares to the modern Imperium. It has control over land, air and space that is unmatched by states on this Earth or nearly any alternate Earth. The Caesar's domain encompasses a third of the planet's surface, and a fourth of the human race. In 1837, Alexander XIV reportedly told a Muscovite ambassador, "I am called the most powerful monarch in the world. The sun never sets in my dominion."

Etymology
Rome, the name, is accepted to stem from its ancient founder, Romulus, a descendant of Aeneas of Troy. This theory has been nearly undisputed over the last two and a half millennia. Nevertheless, historians note a similarity to the Greek word rhòme (ῤώμη) for strength, though the comparison only shows the name's appropriateness. When the City encountered South Italian Greeks, itself and all its possessions began to be referred to simply as Rome. This is an insightful moniker because as a republic and an empire, the country has always existed to serve the interests of Rome, the Eternal City.

Among Romans, references to the country are simple. The old name was the Republic and nothing more. In the time of Julius Caesar, senators would urge people to act "in the interest of the Republic" or "to preserve the Republic". By the death of Nero, the popular name was the Empire. Before setting out to fight in Greater Germany, Sulla told his troops that they fought for "the glory of the Empire." The word itself, Imperium, evokes strong patriotic sentiment. No other country is called an empire. On maps, Romans write Mongol Kingdom or Kingdom of Japan with the distasteful word Regnum.

Officially, the state is the Senatus Populusque Romanus — the Senate and People of Rome. The abbreviation, SPQR, is publicly displayed on Roman landmarks, triumphal arches, milestones, palaces and churches. Outside, Rome and her possessions are simply the Roman Empire.

History
Main Article: Timeline

According to tradition, Rome was founded along the Tiber by Romulus in 753 BCE. Roman historians agree that he descended from Numitor, rightful king of Alba Longa and descendant of the Trojan prince Aeneas. This establishes Rome's moral legitimacy for Greece, Anatolia and Italy.

The early city was a monarchy governed by Kings (Latin: Regis) elected by the Senate and people of Rome to serve for life. But the Etruscan kings had no legitimacy on the throne and the seventh king, Tarquinius Superbus, was expelled by the efforts of Lucius Junius Brutus and the Senate. Subsequently, the monarchy was dissolved in favor of a Republic, the First Roman Republic.



A new Roman order began in 509 BCE, seeing the nation through its conquest of Italy, Carthage, Greece, Anatolia, Gaul and Egypt. Rome's ambition derived from similarly ambitious leaders, such as Cornelius Sulla, Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus and Marcus Antonius. However, the contentition for leadership of the City led to the Republic's downfall in a series of Civil Wars from 49 to 31 BCE. Four years later, Gaius Julius Caesar (Octavianus) was bestowed the title Augustus (Venerated One). His reorganization of the state into a Principate, where Caesars ruled by decree of the Senate and People of Rome, informally ended Rome's democracy.

The new government had a glorious millenial rule, ending when the state split into an Eastern Monarchy and Western Republic, the Second Roman Republic, in a civil war. The Imperium was re-united by the Pope, who crowned himself the next Caesar. Unification altered the mode of government. The new emperors were regarded as greater than other mortals, though not as deities. This period in Roman history is divided into two unequal parts. The Pontificate goes from 1066 to 1372, a time when the identity of the caesarship with the papacy was clear. After Faustus Galerius Pertinax took power in a peaceful coup, the emperor became recognized more for his legal authority, rather than his religious one. This final period - the present era - is the Dominate.
 * Kingdom => Republic => Principate => Civil War => Pontificate => Dominate

Geography
The land area of the Roman Empire is approximately 47,614,000 km². Of this, 26,490,000 km² (55%) makes up the contiguous provinces of Imperial Eurasia. New World colonies constitute 9,330,000 km² of land while the Pacific island territories are another 7,880,000 km². Colonies in India extend for 3,850,000 km² and consist of the Hindu and Islamic halves of the subcontinent. Altogether, Rome's territories cover one third of the planet.

The diversity of terrain, flora and fauna in the Imperium is astonishing. Regarding plants and animals, there are three areas of interest dispersed throughout the planet. Additionally, unique environmental extremes of geographical significance can be found at three locations.

Ecological
Of the ecological zones, the first is Malagasia, an African island containing thousands of plant and animal species not found anywhere else on the planet. Of its flora, 90% are unique to the island, a fact which has made it intensely interesting to the Inca, who believe that it holds a wealth of medical substances. However, the human presence on the island, limited as it may be by provincial laws, has reduced the level of vegetation coverage to only 45% of what it was 300 years ago, and has led to a 70% level of deforestation.

The second region notable for its ecology is the Great Columbian Rainforest of South Columbia. While only 60% of it is in Roman land, the forest's diversity is tremendous in those 3.3 million km². One in five bird species, 3,000 species of fish and 2.5 million species of insect live there. The vegetation consists of some 50,000 species of plant, with thousands anticipated for discovery. Unfortunately, like Mahagascar, the rainforest experienced a great deal of deforestation over the last few centuries of industrial and agricultural expansion. 190,000 km² of forest, greater than the surface area of the Greek provinces, has been cleared by machines and a net clearance rate of 2,400 km² per year persists. The Rainforest, as an important source of future wood for the paper and construction industries, has been targeted for extensive corporate replanting programs. Guilds supporting the lumber industry expect a sustainable exploitation of the rainforest due to renewal efforts.

The last ecologically significant place in the Empire is Australis, a hub of unique aquatic and desert life. 80% of the species in the deserts on the mainland are endemic to Australis, including 800 unique species of lizard. The island's greatest contributor to biodiversity is the vast coral reef that stretches around 2,000 kilometers of its circumference. The Claustrum Cotes Magnum (Great Barrier Reef) is the agglomeration of billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps which form a reef belt visible from outer space. Unlike the aforementioned forest ecosystems, the Great Barrier Reef, far from being threatened by human presence, is actually growing in size and splendor due to expansion by Roman artists, architects and biologists. The aesthetic beauty of the reef alone has driven many, the Caesar included, to protect and nurture this wonder of the natural world.

Geological
For geographic wonders, the Imperium is blessed with the Himalayan Mountain range at the north-eastern edge of India, home of the highest mountain on Earth, Alexandros Mons (after the ruling dynasty on discovery), and over a hundred peaks taller than 7,000 meters. The mountain range is so extensive that its drainage basin covers most of Asia, irrigating farms which feed over 3 billion people.

The Mediterranean Basin, known to Romans as Mare Nostrum, is a 2.3 million km² body of water. The womb of Western Civilization, the Mediterranean was one of the largest seas in the world. A few decades ago, the empire terraformed it into a lake geologically sandwiched between Europe and Africa. The transformation did not greatly alter its physical state, only replacing entrypoints with dams and waterways, but is incredible for having its entire environment maintained by human forces. Inward and outward flow is fully controlled by engineering stations so that total volume, salinity, and ecology is at the Imperium's whim.

The last of the empire's geological wonders is the Columbian Falls near the border with Tawatinsuyu. The waterfall is the tallest in the world with a height of 988 m and a plunge of 816 m. Scaffolding was constructed at the cliffs to release the stream at an elevated point. The new topmost edge is 9 meters higher than ground and surrounded by a marble archway. The peak's resort is one of the most popular tourist attractions in South Columbia and a location of choice for Romano-Inca political conferences.

Meteorological
Climate control is not a technology unique to the Romans. Japanese, Maya, and Mongol engineers can seed clouds to induce rain when and where they choose. While the Maya have the best chemical inducer, the Romans deploy it most effectively through nanotechnology. They do not even need to approach the target clouds by air. Cloud seeding is the only climate control technique available to multiple countries.

Romans control the climate with three other mechanisms:

First, solar energy collectors in space can beam microwaves over an area to heat it at a rate of 11 °C/h under ideal pressure and temperature conditions. Fine-tuning of temperature on large scales is possible by this method, and so phenomenon like hurricanes, tornados and typhoons, which rely on temperature gradients, can be prevented. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico are destroyed yearly by microwaving in the Summer and Fall. Satellites were used several times to create tornados that were captured by wind turbines for temporary power generation. This has zero feasibility as a sustainable power source.

Second, major cities are equipped with integrated climate control in their streets. Large municipalities have air purified of bacteria by ionizers, are heated by radiators in the fall and winter, and cooled by refrigerators in the spring and summer. Climate control is built seemlessly into the city, visually inconspicuous. Urban temperature is regulated between 0 and 25 ° C, except in Rome where heating systems are supplimented by mirror satellites in tundra orbits, shortening the temperature range to the upper end.

Lastly, global climate control is under strict imperial government regulation. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere must remain under 300 ppm by volume. Higher concentrations risk a greenhouse heating effect on a planetary scale that would melt vast quantities of ancient ice in glaciers and permafrost. The atmospheric gas is periodically extracted by artificial carbon fixation into carbon polymers by the Galiran process. Once detected, holes in the ozone layer are sealed by oxygen processing aircraft that fly into the upper atmosphere. High-pressure ultraviolet factories in the plane's bowels transform dioxygen into trioxygen faster than natural atmospheric reactions, sealing the ozone holes. Invention of this technique was necessitated by the international scare of the 1780's when Romans discovered an antarctic-size seasonal hole in the ozone layer that scientists attributed to chlorofluorocarbons used in Roman and Mayan refrigerators. Planes had yet to be invented so ozone factories were built on the ground beneath the hole to maximize regeneration.

Government & Politics


The Roman Empire is an autotheocratic constitutional monarchy governed by a Caesar (Emperor) under his Auctoritas Principis (supreme social authority), Imperium Maius (military and civil power to command) and Jure Divis (divine mandate of a Pope). Other magistrates and noblemen possess similar legal power but an emperor's supersede all others. Caesar's other titles include Princeps Civitatis (First Citizen), Augustus (Venerable One), primus inter pares (first among equals) and Imperator (Supreme Commander) and Pontifex Maximus (Pope). Separate from the public office, a Caesar bears the highest Dignitas of a Roman citizen and has physical sacrosanctity protecting him from physical harm under Christian and Roman laws. Violating his sanctity is sacrilege and treason - punished by death.

The papal reactionary movement of 1066 gave Caesars the right of representing God on Earth by the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. The religious powers of Pope are diluted in their new person, as a Caesar cannot bring forth new religious dogma. This authority was handed to the office of Deydiakonos. Still, as Bishop of Rome the emperor may issue binding papal bulls, canonize Saints and structurally reform the Church. The executive leader of the Senate and People of Rome, a Caesar alone can enact legislation promulgated by the Senate. Among his executive power, he has the authority to: Veto, block legislation; Abnustas, annul the tribune's veto; Recogite, bring old legislation back to vote and Tacite, silence the Senate to speak.

On top of his civil powers, the Caesar: has imperium maius (highest command) in the Roman Armed Forces, can appoint or disband Ministers, and circumvent the traditional procedures of court to prosecute or acquit at will (unless opposed by the Senate). A Caesar's judicial rights are outlined in the Juris Augustis. Most emperors have wielded some powers that are not legally binding. Citizens indulge their leader in these respects because of his supreme personal dignitas (social standing). The practice of an emperor enforcing his social rights by physical brutality with the Praetorian Guard is (thankfully) ancient history. A short list of what leeway Caesars are granted includes: the satisfaction of minor personal demands, the representation of Rome abroad, the use of Rome's treasury for personal expenditure and calling or disbanding the Senate.

The power of Roman citizens (demos) is exercized through their right of assembly. Affairs that must be decided by the people are settled in mass public votes. Anyone with imperial citizenship in the voting zone has one vote. Possible zones range from townships to regios and cities. A conglomeration of voting citizens in a legally binding action is a Popular Assembly (Comitia Popula). Romans are proud of this extreme method of direct democracy, similar to Ancient Greek polities, as it embodies a highly popular government.

Imperial Legislature
Main Article: Imperial Senate

In many ways, the empire is an autocracy, as almost total power is vested in an executive leader, the Caesar. However, the empire's constitution is the ultimate authority in all judicial, executive and legislative matters. The Constitutio Romano (Constitution) has 32 Pronuntiatios. All constitutional proclamations are inviolable. Neither the Senate, nor the people, nor the military nor the Caesar can break them. The document's purpose is to guarantee imperial citizens certain inalienable rights against imperial, senatorial, collegiate, or cultural oppression.

The legislative government is run by a bicameral (two house) body known traditionally as the Imperial Senate. The Lower House is officially the Curia Imperia (Imperial Curia) but tradition refers to it as the Roman Senate. Members of the Senate, officers of fiscal legislation, are referred to as Senatores (Senators). Regular bills need a 50% senatorial majority to become senatus consultum. Such a bill will be posted in the Forum for review by senators and citizens the following morning. Afterward the Caesar can declare it a new law.

Senatorial procedure is highly influenced by ancient traditions. Voting is done by standing in support of a bill, and strong opposition by even one senator can put a motion on hold for further deliberation. No bill can reach the Senate without originating in the Upper House of parliament except fiscal legislation. Fiscal matters of the Senate, like public funding and taxation, are dealt with according to custom. One senator proposes a bill for discussion and then another senator seconds the proposal.

Legislature's Upper House is the Comitium Consularum (Consular Congress), a body which traces its origins to the Second Roman Republic. Members of Congress are Consulares (Consuls) but not at all like the identically named bureaucrats of the First Republic. Consulares govern the highest division of the Roman Empire (Foederatae), areas that are equivalent to cultural dominions, and have federal power to create major legislation, which no other body can do, and monitor each of their respective regions for civil order.

The Consul Italii, directly representing the Roman people, is the most potent legislative post in the imperial government. A distinguished Consul and the only person other than an emperor that can call Congress, the Consul Italii is elected by direct vote of citizens in the city of Rome on the Field of Mars (the location of all the Eternal City's popular assemblies). The Princeps Senatus, first man of the Senate, has the next most legislative power. Once only an honorary title, the office now grants arbitrative rights over senatorial proceedings and allows its bearer to call out orders of business or declare the winner of a legislative debate. The Princeps is chosen by indirect election in the Senate every July and begins his term on New Year's Day. When in power he can call the Senate, cancel the weekly sessions on Sunday, sway a vote (both legally and by his support) and act as deputy-regent in the complete absence of a Caesar; the Consul Italii would take on the representative duties. Tradition - always important in Roman politics - dictates that a Princeps must perform the acts of promulgating bills and declaring the full legislation of a senatus consultum. He also has the power of Tacite. When a Princeps' term is up in December, he must wait five years before running again (period known as a Lustrum).

Members of Parliament
Main Article: Ministries

Two thousand senators (discluding the Princeps Senatus) run the affairs of the Lower House and 40 Consuls (including Consul Italii) control the Upper House. Each senator is elected for a 5 year term by popular assembly of the citizens in his Regio, a small administrative region theoretically consisting of 900,000 citizens. The people are however very limited in their election choices as senatorial candidates are approved at the whim of the local Praetor. He can allow any candidate he wishes but he must permit at least two to be in the running (or else there would not be a fair election). Consuls are appointed in a similar manner but only the Caesar himself decides candidacy and a popular assembly in the Foederata's capital city determines the Consul-elect.

Roman parliament consists of bureaucrats other than senators and Consuls. Praeministra (Ministers) are the administrators of the various operational government bodies such as treasury or technological development. Depending on the Minister in question, anywhere from zero to several thousand people work within their Ministerium (Ministry). There are one hundred Ministries in the Roman government. Parliament's Ministry of the Treasury employs ten taxation officers called Quaestores. These scrupulous men are charged with collecting taxes from praetors for the federal government, calling out financial corruption and serving as right-hand men and messengers of the treasury and Mensarius Superbus (manager of the treasury).

Non-Parliamentary Magistrates
Other magistrati (bureaucrats) operate outside the Senate. Most powerful are the illustrious Censores - 18 members of the Ministry of the Census (Comitia Censoria) responsible for maintaining public morality, protecting the Constitution and administering the official Public Census every Lustrum. Their duty and power to issue a public inquiry into literally any military, civil or private activity supercedes every institution in the empire. Only the emperor can avoid them by taking his case to the courts and away from the Censors. Within the Ministry of the Treasury are 120 Aedilis who supervise spending of money from the treasury, meaning they are basically the opposite of the Quaestores. Whenever any federal funds are appropriated, an aedile must first be consulted; consequently, the emperor always has three or four of them at hand. Furthermore, one or two will usually be sent to the construction sites of public monuments to ensure that money is used as efficiently as possible.

The last major bureaucrat is the Tribune of the Plebs, a position with extensive oversight of government activity in the Senate and the Palace. The duty of Tribunus is to safeguard the well-being of the common people, the Plebeian Order, from the greed and corruption of politicians, royals and collegiates.

Territorial Administration
Between Foederatae and Regio are Provinciae (Provinces), the most characteristic division of the Imperium Romanum. Each Provincia is run by an appointed Praetor (Governor), except for Judaea whose praetorship is held by the Judaean Consul. Under normal circumstances, available or soon to be available praetorian posts are brought before the Senate in August so that elections can be held to fill them with ambitious Italian patricians. All members of the patrician class in Italy can run for this office, the stipulations being that they give up their current job and leave for their appointed province no more than two months after winning their election (also the Princeps Senatus and Caesar are ineligible). The purpose behind the praetorship is for every province (Judaea having special sanctions against this) to be steared by a pure Roman citizen. However, the emperor can impeach any reigning Praetor, forcing a new election unless the impeachment is vetoed by the Tribune. Such is the politics of an autocratic state like the Imperium.

The lowest level division is the Municipia (Township), administered according to a system distinct from higher strata. Praefecti Urborum (City Prefects, mayors) are elected every other year by popular assembly of the inhabitants (not just citizens) of a municipium. This is the only titled government position, other than Tribune, that can be held by someone beneath the patrician order.

Quite obviously: Romans love elections. They are a source of drama and very often entertaining for the public. One of the most important facets of elections, however, is that they give the Roman people a sense of power and involvement in their government, explicitly demonstrating the Greek idea of the power of Demos.

List of State Leaders (i.e. Caesars)
Caesarean Dynasty
 * Caesar Augustus (Gaius Octavian Thurinus) : 27 BC-14 AD
 * Caesar Tiberius I (Tiberius Claudius Nero) : 14-37
 * Caesar Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) : 37-41
 * Caesar Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Drusus) : 41-54
 * Caesar Nero (Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) : 54-68

Year of the Four Emperors
 * Imperator Galba (Servius Supulcius Galba) : 68
 * Imperator Otho (Marcus Salvius Otho) : 69
 * Imperator Vitellius (Aulus Vitellius Germanicus) : 69

Flavian Dynasty
 * Caesar Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus) : 69-79
 * Caesar Titus I (Titus Flavius Vespasianus) : 79-81
 * Caesar Domitian (Titus Flavius Domitianus) : 81-96

Nervan Dynasty
 * Caesar Nerva (Marcus Cocceius Nerva) : 96-98

Antonine Dynasty


 * Caesar Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus) : 98-117
 * Caesar Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus) : 117-138
 * Caesar Antoninus Pius (Titus Aurelius ... Antoninus) : 138-161
 * Caesar Marcus Aurelius (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) : 161-180
 * Caesar Sulla Magnus (Gaius Corellus Sulla) : 180-228
 * Caesar Marcus (Marcus Valerius Fulvus) : 228-272
 * Caesar Benedictus (Lucius Corellus Sulla) : 272-324
 * Caesar Constantine Magnus (Flavius Valerius Constantinus) : 324-339
 * Caesar Agricola (Gnaeus Aurelius Agricola) : 339-360
 * Caesar Sapiens (Gnaeus Aurelius Agricola) : 360-395
 * Caesar Aurelius (Marcus Aurelius Sapiens) : 395-402
 * Imperator Senexis (Gaius Aurelius Sapiens) : 402-408
 * Caesar Maximius (Gaius Sapiens Maximius) : 408-417
 * Caesar Antonius (Publius Sapiens Antonius) : 417-431
 * Caesar Scipio I (Gaius Sapiens Antonius) : 431-448
 * Caesar Romulus Augustus (Romulus Sapiens Antonius) : 448-452

Draconian Dynasty
 * Caesar Draco (Gaius Julius Draconis) : 452-485
 * Caesar Avitus (Gaius Draconis Avitus) : 485-494
 * Caesar Periclius (Lucius Draconis Periclius) : 494-507
 * Caesar Scipio II (Lucius Scipio Derius) : 507-528
 * Caesar Validian (Marcus Scipio Validianus) : 528-537

Comptian Dynasty
 * Caesar Comptus I (Gnaeus Fablius Comptus) : 537-582
 * Caesar Constantine II (Gnaeus Valerius Constantinus) : 582-595

Phillipian Dynasty
 * Caesar Phillipius the Jew (Lucius Votus Phillipius) : 595-604
 * Caesar Tiberius II (Tiberius Votus Phillipius) : 604
 * Caesar Tiberius III (Tiberius Votus Phillipius) : 604-642

Constantian Dynasty
 * Caesar Constans I (Gnaeus Valerius Constans) : 642-689
 * Caesar Constans II (Lucius Valerius Constans) : 689-700
 * Caesar Constans III (Gaius Valerius Constans) : 700-727
 * Caesar Constans IV (Gaius Julius Constans) : 727-730

Peritan Dynasty
 * Caesar Perita (Lucius Perita Dorius) : 730-762
 * Caesar Valens (Titus Valens Perita) : 762-801
 * Caesar Cassius (Gaius Cassius Pellitus) : 801-837
 * Caesar Titus II (Titus Cassius Nasica) : 837-855
 * Caesar Calvin (Titus Aelius Calvinus) : 855-876
 * Caesar Aulus (Aulus Furius Calvinus) : 876-892
 * Caesar Brutus (Servius Brutus Corruptus) : 892-951
 * Caesar Claudius II (Publius Claudius Moratius) : 951-986
 * Caesar Claudius III (Publius Claudius Liberalis) : 986-988
 * Caesar Norban (Aulus Claudius Norbanus) : 988-1005
 * Caesar Julianus I (Gaius Julianus Flaminius) : 1005-1012

-Imperial Schism-

Moratian Dynasty (Brittania)
 * Imperator Pellatius I (Sextus Pellatius Flaminius) : 1012-1034
 * Imperator Marius (Lucius Marius Flaminius) : 1034-1051
 * Imperator Pellatius II (Gaius Pellatius Flaminius) : 1051-1066
 * Duce Moratius the Elder (Gnaeus Moratius Brutus): 1006-1032
 * Duce Moratius the Younger (Gnaeus Moratius Brutus) : 1032-1066

Aegranian Dynasty
 * Caesar Aegranus (Manius Aegranus Votus) : 1066-1076
 * Caesar Columbus (Kaeso Aegranus Columbus) : 1076-1139
 * Caesar Magnus I (Tertius Aegranus Magnus) : 1139-1175
 * Caesar Sextius Severus (Sextius Severus Curia) : 1175-1195
 * Caesar Magnus Magnus (Optimus) (Amulius Magnus Plutarchus) : 1195-1247
 * Caesar Magnus III (Aulus Magnus Varus) : 1247-1262
 * Caesar Rufus (Publius Septimius Rufus) : 1262-1276
 * Caesar Varro (Gaius Valerius Varro) : 1276-1295
 * Caesar Calva (Gaius Julianus Calva) : 1295-1301
 * Caesar Julius (Gnaeus Julianus Calva) : 1301-1321
 * Caesar Ferrarus (Amulius Julianus Ferrarus) : 1321-1348
 * Caesar Ursinius (Titus Galius Ursinius) : 1348-1361
 * Caesar Valerius (Quintus Valerius Eccus) : 1361-1372

Alexandrian Dynasty
 * Caesar Alexander I (Faustus Galerius Pertinax) : 1372-1395
 * Caesar Alexander II (Titus Pertinax Alexander) : 1395-1462
 * Caesar Alexander III (Aulus Gabinius Alexander) : 1462-1487
 * Caesar Alexander IV (Gaius Cardassus Alexander) : 1487-1512
 * Caesar Alexander V (Gaius Cassius Alexander) :1512-1548
 * Caesar Alexander VI (Marcus Sextus Alexander) :1548-1583
 * Caesar Alexander VII (Septimius Junius Alexander) : 1583-1601
 * Caesar Alexander VIII (Gnaeus Junius Alexander) : 1601-1634
 * Caesar Alexander IX (Lucius Placidus Alexander) : 1634-1689
 * Caesar Alexander X (Tiberius Gaullus Alexander) : 1689-1721
 * Caesar Alexander XI (Titus Corvus Alexander) : 1721-1753
 * Caesar Alexander XII (Sextus Corvus Alexander) : 1753-1784
 * Caesar Alexander XIII (Marcus Hosidius Alexander) : 1784-1804
 * Caesar Alexander Magnus (Tiberius Bracchus Alexander) : 1804-1885

Pontifican Dynasty
 * Caesar Pontifex (Pakus Martinex Rullianus Juvenis) : 1885-1914
 * Caesar Sulla II (Marcus Rullianus Juvenis) : 1914-1950
 * Caesar Lucius (Lucius Halerius Novitas) : 1950-1967
 * Caesar Raphael (Tiberius Calva Mirifico ) : 1967-1985
 * Caesar Cicero Magnus (Vibius Aemillius Optatus) :1985-

Territories
The vast land of the Roman Empire is divided into territories known as Provinciae, ruled by Praetores (Governors) appointed by the Senate whenever a Praetorian position opens (either by resignation, death or impeachment). Praetors must be patricians able to trace their Italian heritage at least a millennium into the past. Once elected, the new governor forfeits his other magisterial positions or private jobs. Consequently, a praetorship is a common successive post for senators or Consuls after their terms. However, the position is precarious. The Emperor can remove and replace Praetors at will. See above in Government & Politics for more information on the regional divisions of the Imperium Romanum (e.g. Foederata, Regio, Municipia).

National Guard
All provinces are equally safe, with the exception of certain Sub-Saharan colonies, but not every one has its own legions for defense. Legions tend to be stationed only in border provinces. Nevertheless, no provinces are without soldiers from the National Guard (Castellanae Imperiae). The protection they offer is retained by Castra (Forts) found in every province. Usually a Castra contains 1,000 Guardsmen each, under the leadership of a Praefectus Castrorum (base commander). However, strategic sites can have two or up to five national guard units (thousand men each) in a single base. Otherwise, castra are military forts dedicated to training new recruits (Tirones) and supplying reserve soldiers (Adscripticii) for global deployment at a moment's notice to replace fallen legionaries to maintain a consistent size for all legions.

List of Provinces
Magna Europa
 * Rome
 * Italia
 * Raetia
 * Noricum
 * Alpia

Insulae Brittanicae
 * Magna Brittania
 * Cambria
 * Caledonia
 * Hibernia
 * Frigerra

Mare Nostrum
 * Sicilia
 * Melita
 * Corsica
 * Sardinia

Europa Orienta
 * Dalmatia
 * Pannonia
 * Isteria
 * Moessia
 * Dacia

Graecia
 * Macedonia
 * Eperia
 * Thracia
 * Creta
 * Achaea

Anatolia
 * Licia
 * Asia
 * Phrygia
 * Gallatia
 * Cilicia
 * Cyprus

Asia


 * Arabia
 * Judea
 * Palestina
 * Syria

Europa Occidenta
 * Lugdunensis
 * Aquitania
 * Belgica
 * Harbonensis

Iberia
 * Lusitania
 * Baetica
 * Hispania

Magna Germania
 * Germania Inferioris
 * Germania Superioris
 * Gothia
 * Cimbria
 * Venetia
 * Aetia

Muscovy Africa Maior
 * Francia
 * Sarmatia
 * Barbaria
 * Muskovia Inferioris
 * Muskovia Superioris
 * Magna Muskovia
 * Taurica


 * Aegyptus
 * Mauretania
 * Numidia
 * Cyrenaica
 * Berberia

Africa Australis
 * Nubia
 * Axum
 * Somalia
 * Swahilium
 * Ferunia
 * Konconia
 * Galleria

Africa Minor
 * Maluria
 * Magneremia
 * Caenuria
 * Nigeria
 * Anthracina

India Borealis
 * Calipha
 * Cashmira
 * Nepalia
 * Mahara

Coastal India
 * Bengalia
 * Odria
 * India
 * Mysoria
 * Carnatia
 * Taprobania

North Columbia
 * Alkonquia
 * Audenisonea
 * Ojibrea
 * Roanokia
 * Haevatenia
 * Apalachia

Tainuria (Caribbean)
 * Hispaniola
 * Magna Tainuria
 * Colonia

South Columbia
 * Austeria
 * Transylvania
 * Littunia

Oceania
 * Argentinia
 * Nova Graecia
 * Illyria
 * Atlantia
 * Australiola

Law
Rome's Constitution is the heart of its law - without a doubt, the single most important document in the empire. Nothing in the Constitution can be contradicted. Therefore, its laws must be protected by the highest office of government, the Censores, who have the power to conduct an inquiry into literally any activity in the Imperium. During an investigation, evidence against the accused is brought before the 18 person Comitia Censoria (Censorial Assembly). A 78% majority for a guilty verdict is needed before the appropriate punishment for the crime, according to the Constitution, is administered. Only a Caesar can transform a Comitia Censoria into a court case, putting him at the mercy of a public jury rather than a group of sacrosanct magistrates.



The Imperial justice system is very hierarchical. Centered around honor, a witness, who must be a citizen, is always believed unless directly contradicted by evidence. Lying in court is a fatal blow to one's dignitas, a permanent scar on the reputation. A citizen on trial has a judge of his social order interpreting evidence that a random jury of 4 plebs, 4 equestrians and 4 patricians presents. While most trials are held in a public urban field, an accused in Rome can pay 50,000 Dn to take a case to the Tribunalis Ultima (Supreme Court) near the Forum Magnum. Elsewhere, every citizen can rightfully plead their cases to the local Praetor, which is the emperor in the city of Rome. Whether a praetor hears a citizen's case depends on the his mood and the citizen`s persistence.

Roman law is egalitarian, equally preserving the natural rights of everyone regardless age, race or gender and guarantees the same legal treatment to all social classes. Legal proceedings of an accused can only be judged by a member of the defendant's Order (Pleb, Equestrian, Patrician) so that classism does not interfere with justice. Add protection of the weak by the Tribune and Censors to this for a extremely fair judicial system. All citizens are also afforded medical care and have free education plus representation in court and the Senate.

Citizenship
Civitatem Romanum (citizenship) is the lifeblood of the powers of the Senate and Caesar as well as the most coveted possession of a member of the Imperium. Once possessed, it is irrevocable except in extreme cases - being guilty of treason, desertion, perjury or barratry. Civil rights granted by citizenship are absolute, guarding a Roman from many injustices suffered by residents of other countries.

No one is a cives (citizen) but a male over 16 who has a. been born of two Roman citizens; b. clear Mediterranean heritage; c. been offered citizenship by the Caesar or Senate or d. served a set term in a branch of Rome's military or is a limited citizen but a female under the same conditions. That being said, non-citizens are excluded from the air force, Legion, officer rank, political offices, embassies abroad, free hospital treatment, free education in school and Italy. Neither marriage to a citizen nor birth from one Roman parent guarantees citizenship, though it is often offered by a local Praetor in the latter case under the second condition.

After the age of 16, a candidate for civitatem may visit the local Praetor's office to request becoming a citizen. First, a presentation of credentials is made, after which the candidate may return after a period of a few work days for secretaries to complete a background check. On return to the Praetor, an interview is conducted to determine whether the individual is fit to make decisions on his or her own behalf - this is very easy to pass for anyone over 16. Finally, the candidate must read and sign a lengthy contract (pactum socialis) and declare to the reigning Praetor, "Civis romanus sum" (I am a Roman citizen), before being given a small token, which is impossible to fake, proving his or her citizenship. Every new citizen's name is entered into official records.

Acquiring one's civitatem reflects the theory of social contract, wherein a government's power is the aggregate of the people's power, the true sovereigns, and exists solely by virtue of this legal relationship.

Possession of a Roman citizenship is no small matter. A citizen of the Imperium will always be defended by a forceful arm of the Roman government - like the Legion or Classis - allowing a cives to walk the earth unmolested by any foreign power. In this day, the proudest boast a man can make is civis romanum sum.

Citizenship is also a great responsibility; a Roman citizen has honor, virtue and vigor. He cannot betray his country, lie on his name or abandon his civil or military duties. These actions almost always result in a loss of citizenship after a fair trial in the highest court of Rome. Thus citizens are instilled with firm reasons to be honest witnesses in court, never plot against the state and never desert the Legion or Classis.

Vigiles, Praetorians & Lictors
Maintaining the peace in cities, towns and villages are vigiles (police). The fluidity of officer jurisdictions is such that any vigilum can be quickly assigned elsewhere in the empire or make arrests outside his usual patrol routes. Vigilum is a relatively unreliable job for a citizen as they are hired and fired to meet present needs, with only the most natural vigiles retaining their posts. The political nature of the job is such that people may take a break from work to fill a temporary demand for officers while their employer is compensated by the provincial government.

Rome, the city and province, uniquely lacks vigiles patrolling its streets, having other means of civil protection. Praetoriani (Praetorian Guards) are the most distinguished officers of the law, with an average salary around 2,900 Dn ($145,000 US). While Praetorians primarily patrol the Imperial and Valentissima districts, other districts are protected by watchmen hired by a local collegium in what are technically private security forces or by the legionaries of the emperor's personal 101st legion.

Magistrates are afforded personal Lictors (imperial bodyguards) according to the degree of political imperium possessed by their office - an emperor has 24 lictors and a censor has 18 but a praefectus urbi has 2. Wielding the fasces to indicate their civil authority, lictors have the power to arrest suspected criminals and kill anyone they deem a threat to their assigned magistrate.

Military
The Roman armed forces has three divisions:


 * The Legion (Army)
 * Classis Imperialis (Navy)
 * Legio Caelis Custodiae ( Air Force )
 * Legio Aetheria (Space Task Force)

Military expenditure consumes 3.4% of Rome's GDP, the second highest portion in the world. This is greater than 175 billion Dn ($9 trillion) as the Imperium has considerable wealth. 24% of military spending goes to satellite defense, 20% to the Air Force, 18% to the Legion, 17% to the Navy, 15% to static defenses, and another 6% to miscellaneous expenditures like the private jet for military leaders and public Triumphs. Rome's military is backed by the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on earth. About 7,416 ICBMs are stored in facilities across the empire, either underwater, underground, on the moon and on battleships. The majority of atomic warheads use a single-stage fusion design, while the rest are neutron bombs or dual-stage H-bombs. A great deal of these rockets will open in the atmosphere releasing multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs) for a maximum spread of destruction. The rest detonate in one massive explosion.
 * The Legion fields 1,242,180 legionaries and 3,000,000 national guardsmen. Their engines of war are maintained by teams of thousands of military engineers. The most potent of these machines are Testudos (Tanks). Smaller than the Mongol and Maya armies, the Legion equips its troops with weaponry that surpasses any other force in history.
 * The Imperial Fleet employs over 1,200,000 crewmen and thousands of commanders and engineers. The Imperial Navy is the second largest in the world, running 90 nuclear aircraft carriers, 320 battleships, 700 Destroyers, 980 transport-assault ships and about 440 assorted cruisers and small attack vessels. Since the Romans advantageously apply automation in many ship functions, the required number of personnel for each vessel is miniscule when compared with other countries.
 * The Aerial Defense Legion boasts an impressive 1,864,000 active airmen and 600,000 pilots in reserves. Another 350,000 engineers and IT specialists run the operations and logistics of the air force. Total employment of the Aerial Legion reaches 2,814,000 people. The Roman Air Force is the largest and most powerful one in the world, easily outclassing the combined air squadrons of all other countries combined.
 * The Space Legion reportedly has over 4,300,000 technicians and officers. Its most essential asset are its orbital artillery installations, vital as they are to the imperial military machine. Presently, 40 missile satellites, 40 kinetic bombardment satellites and 160 laser satellites remain in orbit around the Earth, which is to say nothing of the hundreds of barracks, surveillors and fighters Rome has in space. The combination of these military installations has made Rome a nearly omniscient and omnipotent force.

Missions of a subtle nature required the work of the Munus Indicius Romanus (Roman Intelligence Service) to maximize discretion. A division of the Praetorian Guard, MIR operates the only spy network in the empire, with Agents spread across the globe. These Agents have become the most feared men in the world, undergoing psychological scrutiny and rigorous physical as well as mental training. An Agent's effectiveness is matched only by the deadly undetectability and fighting prowess of the Mongol Shaolin Monks.

The Senate makes no secret of its military intentions for the national and foreigns press. Statements to the public freely admit: restraining foreign powers, overthrowing threatening regimes and destabalizing national foes. The central strategic goals of the Legion and Classis are defense of the Imperium at all costs and pursuance of Rome's policies by non-political means. Those is the heart of Rome's armed forces.

Economy
Main Article: Economy

The empire's economy exhibits the deregulation and minimal subsidization of a staunchly capitalist country. However, the extreme intervention of the government in its own markets - like public transit or national defense - is characteristic of state capitalism. On a national level, Rome's markets are dominated by monopolies in sparse competition while, locally, small businesses flourish on their social advantage in retail.

The Banca Romanae estimates that Rome's GDP is 5.136 Trillion Dn ($256.8 Trillion), the highest on Earth (38% of global GDP). Rome's GDP per capita, 2400 Dn, is also higher than any other country. However, it should be noted that per capita GDP does not necessarily reflect the average or minimum incomes of residents and citizens.

Rome is the greatest exporter and fourth largest importer of visible goods, trading double what Mongolia trades on the international markete. Its current account recently ran a 26.8 billion Dn ($1.34 trillion) surplus sustained by visible exports. Commercial partners by percentage are Maya 34%, Japan 28%, Mongolia 17%, Inca 11%, Nord 6%, and other 4%. The federal government's financial office, the Fiscus, is the highest credit rated organized body or person. It has not reneged on a debt for over 2000 years. Even in times of turmoil such as civil war, someone claimed and payed the federal debt.

The modern economy is 38.5% private activity, 41.2% federal government, and 20.3% provincial government. Meanwhile, a postindustrial economy is indicated by the country's small manufacturing and labor sectors (14%), and large (86%) service sector. The reason for this is that labor intensive jobs can be replaced by automated workers needing one technician where a thousand workers were once necessary. Sectors like agriculture account for a mere 0.001% of the labor force, as farming is nearly totally automated. The state's agricultural output is still 14.1 billion Dn ($705 billion). However, Rome has a balanced economy where no single job sector accounts for a disproportionate amount of economic activity. This protects the economy from long-term shortfalls in particular sectors that can result from structural economic development.

In 2751 AUC, the empire fell into a recession but unemployment has yet to exceed 3.4% of the labor force (41 million unemployed). Once cyclical (i.e. recessional) unemployment is subtracted, the natural rate of unemployment fluctuates around 1 to 1.6%. Roman unemployment protection is almost non-existent. The federal government only offers assistace in the search for new jobs by facilitating communication. General unemployment benefits have never been offered in the history of the Roman Empire. Also, unlike the former platonic socialist countries, worker's unions are absolutely illegal. There are federal regulations that force guilds to provide a high minimum wage and a safe, unabusive work environment for their workers, but there is nothing in the way of health benefits or of allowances for worker strikes. However, severance pay is very large by government law and every Roman worker can expect no less than 35 days of paid vacation. Certain institutions such as federal buildings and schools are not allowed to offer so many holidays, but still offer about 20 days. With low regulation, no unions, high minimum wage, and no unemployment benefits, Rome's voluntary unemployment rate is the lowest in the world.

Income and Human Development
Data collected by the Imperial Census Bureau has calculated a per capita GDP of 2400 Dn, unmatched by any other country at any point in history. A more meaningful quantity, the pretax income of the average Roman male, is equal to 2108 Dn ($105,400). This marginally improves upon Rome's closest financial competitor Japan. Taxes under the Senate are rated third highest in the world, after the Maya and the Japanese. But unlike them, income taxes are proportional across all orders of society. Presently, Roman citizens give their government 32% of their earnings so the average wealth ends up much higher than their more strongly-taxed neighbours.

However, Roman society suffers from an income inequality that is ingrained into its history and class system. The top 10% of earners control about 87% of the empire's wealth - the top 1% alone more than 44%. Still, a Roman citizens has an incredibly high standard of living compared with residents of other states. Everyone has access to liberal amounts of food, water, electricity, living space and can afford telescreens, cars, computers, books, entertainment and vacations in the plural.

While 15.5% of citizens live below the imperial poverty line, these would not be considered poor by anyone elses measures of poverty. The minimum hourly wage for a Roman is 3 HS ($37.50) which with an 8 hour work-day and 220 days of work is a yearly income of 1320 Dn ($66,000). Yet few Roman males make less than 1600 Dn and only non-citizens, who aren't subject to minimum wage, and Roman females, who tend not to work or work few hours, by comparison have lower yearly salaries.

Unsurprisingly, the empire's gender gap is enormous. 95% of women who reported working in the year of the last census earned less than 1000 Dn that year. Women are subject to the same minimum hourly wage as men so their lower income comes from a lack of work hours - a social disparity rather than legal inequality. Regularly working females tend to hold jobs for which men are less suited, designing women's clothes, or men consider degrading to their gender, prostitution. Other jobs typically held only by females will place them underneath men, like the position of secretary, or keep them by a businessman's or politician's side.

For both genders, work can only begin at the age of 16, when boys receive their toga virilis (toga of manhood), and children can acquire citizenship. There is no legal or customary end to a Roman's work life. Retirement is as rare an occurance in modern as it was in ancient Roman society. Only those who are debilitated by a condition, as most of the elderly were before medicine caught up to life expectancy, retire from their careers.

Rome's economic development is the bar by which other states measure their own. Not one Roman citizen has starved to death due to poverty for centuries. Homeless people are unheard of outside the colonies and the lex doma omni has given citizens to option to take low-interest loans if the money goes towards buying a house. When citizens or corporations lacked the means to support themselves the Senate's first action for centuries has been to offer low-interest loans. This policy reduces public dependency on hand-outs and bail-outs.

Federal expenditure is largely allocated towards developing infrastructure to support Roman citizens. Structures with which the Senate and emperor are involved include viae (roads), aquae (aqueducts), cloacae (sewers), vehiculae (public transport), teleloquum (communications) and basilicae (public buildings). Roman highways are known for having thousands of years of use with little maintenance. The empire's communication network is supported by 1,289 satellites and hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables.

Energy
Every watt of power generated in the public sector of the Roman Empire comes from either renewable or nuclear resources. The Census of 1997 calculates that year's statistics as: 15.37 kW per citizen, 588,329.5 TW-h for the entire year, of which 18% was from orbital solar arrays, 31% was from hydroelectric dams, 47% came from nuclear fusion and the other 4% from other renewable sources (wind, geothermal, wave, etc.). These numbers do not reflect anything other than the energy produced in publicly available power plants on Earth.

The Breakdown of energy consumption by economic sector is as follows (figures only apply to Earth):


 * Residential: 14%
 * Commercial: 11%
 * Transportation: 36%
 * Industrial: 43%
 * Wasted Energy: 8%

Electricity wasted as heat is reduced by transporting it over medium or long distances with superconductors and by not using thermal engine type power plants.

A major industrial energy cost is urban climate control, something which has existed in major cities for the past twenty years. Cities with a population above 1-2 million people make use of an extensive climate control system to regulate temperature, precipitation and air quality. Meanwhile, animal life is restricted by natural and artificial means to permit eagles, falcons and domesticated mammals and eliminate rodents, insects and unwanted birds. Urban temperature is kept from 10 to 28 degrees Celsius by powerful heating and cooling stations built seamlessly into the city and below its streets. The city of Rome receives special treatment in this regard as there are satellites in Tundra Orbits above the city that reflect additional sunlight onto the city during the day, giving it warm Spring temperatures all year round. Weather control by cloud seeding keeps rainfall in the countryside and softens disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes to more manageable scales.

Technology
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and this idiom is evident in the Imperium. Its technology level is vastly superior to OTL and neighbouring states, none of whom could understand most Roman devices if they were in their hands. The barrier to comprehension is as simple to expose as it is intrisically complicated: nanotechnology. The science of the very small allows Romans to accomplish incredible feats in medical, military and material technologies of which no one has ever been capable. They can, despite insufficient chemical knowledge, create a greater variety of compounds than Maya chemical engineers.

One factor in Rome's incredible technology level is its 160 year old computer industry. A hundred years ahead of OTL, the Romans have invented intricate electronics and robotics. Standard handheld devices made in Roman factories are more powerful than OTL supercomputers and their principles of computation use science that we have only applied on small scales. One consumer wireless phone available in Parisium has a clockspeed equivalent to 3.87x1018 operations per second (exascale computing), 350 TB storage, display resolution finer than an eye can differentiate pixels, 20 megapixel camera, and nanotube casing fitted for maximum durability.

In order to link together computers, Roman scientists invented the Cratis Imperis, popularly called the Cratis. Accessing the Cratis requires registry by ID code onto a computer with an online route of access (e.g. Wi-fi). The Cratis has no room for anonymity as everything done on an ID code is registered to it and easily verifiable by the crativigiles (online police). Uncreated domains (websites) are purchaseable from the federal government for 10 Cn, and existing ones can be bought from their current owner as if they are property. All domains are hosted on public server farms owned by the federal government and together require several million Denarii of taxpayer money each year to operate. The most impressive domain is the government funded "Apotheca", a vast repository of knowledge on billions of topics from the meaning of the word "imperium" to everything you want to know about apples but were afraid to ask.

The most powerful computer in the world is located in the Castra Italia complex in the Alps. Gabriel, the name of the computer and artificial intelligence, was completed in 1988, designated the first self-aware non-organic machine. His "brain" is a 3 million yottahertz-equivalent array of quantum processors and 0.76 zottabyte in RAM for short-term memory. The primary hardware is stored in a 2.9 million cc unit but the intelligence itself is sustained by the interconnection of 19,000 trillion programs running together, each simulating one neuron. Gabriel's purpose is to push the limits of artificial intelligence and advise Rome's military high command in strategic calculations in the same capacity as human military advisers.

Transportation
Autokinetici (cars), or autons, are class-oriented possessions, with specific designs common to certain strata of society. Most lower class Plebeians do not own a personal vehicle, using the empire's extensive public transit system. On the opposite end of the spectrum, patricians may own multiple luxury vehicles driven by autonomous chauffeurs. Cars are powered almost exclusively by onboard batteries that last days. Since vehicles larger than a bicycle are not allowed in city limits from 7 am to 9 pm, the state has always had a way to store cars while their owners visit a city. Recently, the government built massive storage towers a few kilometers from major cities to replace the public parking lots that were used in centuries past that themselves replaced massive public stables. These parking towers are reachable by public transit from nearby cities and can usually hold between 10,000 to a million cars at 10,000 per tower. The towers are very efficient in regards to space, extending several hundred meters underground (or aboveground) and using lifts to arrange the cars in racks.

Metropolitan areas with over 200,000 people have underground rail lines stretching beneath city streets. In most cases, tracks criss-cross in a meshwork of 1 km sided squares, a station at each vertex. Between most cities short distance maglev trains run underneath or alongside the highways. For longer distances high-speed maglev trains transport passengers several times a day in time periods that are impossible by other methods of travel. Several examples of these are the Transatlantic Highway and Circummediterranean Rail, that travel at 4570 and 2680 kph respectively. Furthermore, every province has at least one major airport to satisfy long-distance and intercontinental travel.

Costs for public transport are extremely low in the Roman Empire. Any Roman citizen can buy a monthly transit pass for themselves, a programmable chip that can be located in an object of their choice, at the cost of 7 Dn for the chip. This provides unlimited travel on underground rails, light rails and buses in all Roman cities. Most high-speed train tickets cost 2 to 10 Dn, but a Transatlantic rail ticket will lighten your wallet 12 Denarii. Plane tickets are from 14 Dn, Neapolis to Parisium, to 34 Dn, Constantinopolis to Halorium (Columbia). Ships are rarely used for transit except as part of a short-distance ferry service. These are usually very low cost (2-20 Cn) and require upfront payment in order to use. However, thousands of Roman cruise ships travel the world offering high price vacations for the leisure of the rich.

The Interprovincial Highway System is a global network of roads linking the entire Imperium Romanum. The network spans over 843,580 km of block and paved roads called viae. The quality of viae is such that many are in working condition after a thousand years. The entire system, over the centuries, has an estimated 240 billion Dn ($12 trillion US) construction cost and presently requires minimal maintenance, making it one of the largest construction projects in human history.

Demographics
The population of the Imperium Romanum is estimated to be 2,141,600,000. It has two primary demographic regions. 64.1% of the population live in the Colonies, a region outside the imperial heartland. The latter is the nerve center of the state, known to Romans as the Imperium. The demographic separation between these two areas is significant. Almost the entire population of an Imperial province has citizenship while Colonial provinces are mixed. Citizenship is essential for life in the empire, exempting one from the poll tax, allowing one to join the army as a legionary rather than a guard and permitting appeals to a Praetor for legal judgement. It grants voting rights at the age of 16 and allows someone to run for political posts limited only by social class.

While the Imperium Romanum is the second most populous country in the world, after the Mongol World Empire, it is the second least densely populated one behind the United Chiefdoms of Columbia. It owes the latter to its great size, exceeding every other country by a large margin. The average population density is very small, but a lot of the population is concentrated in urban areas. The urbanization rate is about 85%. However, cities are thinly populated compared to other countries due to the absence of skyscrapers. Unlike other countries, the borders of Roman cities are very clearly delineated by large stone or metal walls. Currently about 1208 cities have populations over 100,000 people, an additional 83 are inhabited by over a million people and of that 29 are classified as global cities, i.e. over 2 million residents. Of the 30 most populated metropolitan areas in the world, 14 are officially Roman settlements.

The empire had rapid population growth over the last two centuries. Today, it shows no sign of slowing down. The root of this boon is the country's high fertility rate, higher than any other place in the world, at a national average of 4.8 births per women. This is well above the replacement rate of 1.9 and adds significantly to the 2.9% aggregate population growth. However, immigration, the only source of non-natural growth, is severely limited by the Roman Constitution. Numerous bureaucratic hoops stand between a peregrini and entry into the state to live. Citizenship is even more difficult and costly to acquire. Therefore, most of the country's growth is natural, with 83.5 million more births than deaths each year. Net migration into the empire only accounts for 430,000 new inhabitants a year, most of whom will leave the country within a year or two. The retention rate of immigrants to the empire is low in spite of the desirability of a Roman lifestyle.


 * Total Population: 2,140,600,000 inhabitants
 * Percentage of World Population: 18.5% (1/6th)
 * Imperium Population: 770 million inhabitants
 * Colonial Population: 1.37 billion inhabitants
 * Citizenship: 1,819,000,000 citizens (85%)
 * Population Density: 44.96 inhb/km²
 * Population Growth: 2.9% (62.1 million people per year)
 * Urbanization: 85%

Health
Standards for health in the Roman world, in civilized regions especially, are nearly the same as the world leader in health - Tawatinsuyu. All manner of diseases are treatable. Victims of senile dementia can be cleansed of plaque around their neurons, strokes can be prevented by safely unblocking arteries, cancer is curable with nanite therapy and failing organs can be replaced with synthetic or cloned prosthetics. Only long-term conditions like diabetes are limited to treatment without curative procedures. Altogether, the mortality rate attributable to disease has become insignificant among Rome's citizens.

Even without medicine, Romans are a healthy society. Food is naturally grown - with no artificial additives, preservatives, drugs or pesticides at any stage of its production - in a manner that used to come at great cost to potential productivity. Nowadays, genetically modified crops and animals confer the same advantages as drugs and chemicals could offer to the agricultural industry but without side effects to consumers.

The lifestyle of your average citizen is widely recognized as being the healthiest lifestyle in the world - Rome's only health advantage over the Inca. Regardless of wealth, Romans will eat fish or other white meat on a weekly basis while red meats are reserved for dinner parties that may happen anywhere from once to five times a week, depending on your position in society. Nuts, vegetables and bread are staples of a Roman's diet, eaten as meals or snacks almost constantly. Natural condiments such as garum, tomato sauce or pepper add taste without the use of artificial sweeteners or colors.

By arbitrary standards [those of Our Timeline], nearly 2.1% of citizens could be classified as obese - e.g. weigh over 100 kg when 6 ft tall - and 4.3% of the population (non-citizens included) could be called underweight or malnourished - e.g. weigh under 62 kg when 6 ft tall. These standards would declare only 6.4% of residents as living at an unhealthy weight. The same standards would say that 20.7% of male citizens and 64.9% of female citizens could be classified as overweight. The disproportionate number of women carrying more weight than some societies might consider normal is attributable to the Roman preference for voluptuous female bodies, accentuating the statistically desired 7:10 waist-to-hip ratio. In the 1993 public census, where detailed health exams were given to every citizen, the average waist size for woman was 30.5in and average hip size was 41in. Census data across the centuries shows little variety on this matter.

A contributing factor to the health of Romans is that the Senate offers free healthcare to children of citizens before they acquire their citizenship and elder citizens above 70 years of age. Literally any medical demands, from dentist check-ups to eye exams are paid from the federal treasury. On a per capita level, this costs the Senate about $1,100 for children and $11,400 for seniors, though wealthier seniors usually opt out of free healthcare out of social pressure or moral obligation. Outside these demographics, anyone can request a low interest loan from the government to afford medical treatment as has been done for the entire existence of the Constitution which guarantees the availability of necessary medicine for citizens.

The ability to consent for financial transactions and sexual intercourse is gained with citizenship, or when that is not forthcoming, at the age of eighteen. The average child-bearing ages are 20 for women and 23 for men. The notion of teenage pregnancy is not distinguished from adult pregnancy and it is hardly uncommon for girls in the 16 to 19 range to bear children. According to the last census, 89.7% of teenagers with children had the baby in the bounds of legal matrimony. People seeking abortion will have to seek the procedure outside the empire as it is a major crime, equivalent to first-degree murder, for a Roman doctor to terminate a pregnancy once a heartbeat is recognizable in the foetus (usually on the 18th day of pregnancy). Unlike other countries, the Roman Empire never experienced a movement to legalize abortion. Still, contraception is readily available as a pill or physical countermeasure, contributing to the facility of prostitution, a completely legal, if disreputable, profession. The infamy of prostitution has not stopped the Senate from offering health and wage coverage in the event one becomes pregnant or from directly running public brothels.

While Roman views on sexuality are incredibly liberal, having resisted the oncoming of Christian values, there is nothing in the empire recognizable as a strip club or pornography though a great deal of literature and art will shamelessly portray nudity or sex and the walls of brothels tend to be covered in mosaics and paintings of the most graphic designs. Their inclusion in these respects is more atmospheric than primary.

Switching topics, therapeutic cloning is an especially interesting aspect of Roman medicine. It is a technique that used to create new organs for transplants and provide stem cells for regenerative therapy. Due to a law banning the retrieval of embryonic stem cells when endangering the baby, Roman scientists had a great deal of pressure to devise alternatives. Without foreign help, the process was perfected to a marketable level by 1949. Today, injuries that cause the loss or damage of body parts, including organs, can be easily repaired by this process, as can permanent tissue damage such as tar build-up in the lungs and sensory deterioration of the eyes and ears. The one thing that remains irreparable is severe spinal cord injury.

In spite of Rome's monumental healthcare system, indigenous people and foreigners are not covered. Therefore, certain communities in Africa and Columbia, including most of Swahilium, experience shocking levels of poverty that give them health averages far below the rest of the Roman Empire. Since they are non-citizens, the federal government cares very little about helping them and even less sympathy is given by citizens.
 * Life Expectancy: 95.5 years
 * By Gender
 * Men: 92.1 years
 * Women: 99.4 years
 * By Class
 * Patrician: 108 years
 * Equestrian: 101 years
 * Middle Plebeian: 98 years
 * Lower Plebeian: 91 years
 * Indigeni: 68 years
 * Infant Mortality Rate: 1.2 per thousand births
 * Fertility Rate: 4.8 births per woman

Education
A so-called Roman education is desired around the globe. Rome is the home of what is globally known as the imperial education system, copied all over Europe, Africa and Asia. Progress in that system comes in stages: first, a lower curriculum covers the ages of 6 to 17 then a higher curriculum instructs students on the necessary material for their chosen employment.

Learning at a grammaticus (primary school), public school students will learn Roman history, basic geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, logic, basic chemistry, mechanics, electrostatics, ethics, cellular biology, basic micro and macro economics, epistemology and Latin reading, writing and literary analysis. Room is left in a student's timetable for advanced courses in several of calculus, international economics, Roman politics, anatomy, modern physics, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, metaphysics, manual work or other languages.

The curriculum is arranged in 6-9 week terms separated by three week vacations. A term is closed by testing students' knowledge of the compulsory material learned that term, as optional advanced courses are not tested. In the next term, older students may select different advanced classes - the choice being given in the first place to provide teenagers the experiences to make informed career choices after receiving their diplomae.

Higher education is done in either academiae (academies) or universales (universities), whether one wants to receive an Academy Degree and become a Doctor (PhD) or not respectively. While attending a grammaticus is compulsory for all citizens, higher education can be avoided in order to take an apprenticeship in manual work.

At this level, courses are distinguished into the classical branches of philosophy. Graduating as a doctor in one's field is not only prestigious but beneficial for one's career as well. Modern lawyers, senators, medical doctors, scientists, generals and economists are almost unanimously doctores. There's no distinct school system for medicine or law as these already have academies like other subjects.
 * Literacy:
 * ​Citizens: 99.999%
 * Adult non-citizens: 83.7%
 * Degrees (citizens over 30):
 * Diploma: 99.999%
 * Universal Degree: 67.294%
 * Academy Degree: 7.105%

Ethnic Groups
In contrast to the more populous Mongolian China, the Roman Empire has a diverse population of citizens. Over twenty broadly distinct nations are recognized by the Senate: Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Phoenician, Syrian, Numidian, Gallic, Germanic, Hebrew, Malian, Swahili, Arab, Ghaznavid, Indian, Sinhalese, North Columbian, South Columbian, Maya, Inca and Serese. Some merely come from immigrant exclaves spread across the empire while others are established Mediterranean or African cultures that have been dealt with for centuries.

Ancient ethnicities like the Dacians, Hispanians or Etruscans were long ago assimilated into the monolithic Roman nation while others like the Ionians, Mauretanians, Berbers, Macedonians, Picts or distinct Germans have blurred into major regional ethnic groups. In the colonies, the lack of recognition for diversities is largely due to laziness mixed with racism of bureaucrats. These 20 races are the only options on the Public Census.

Major cultural and ethnic divisions mark the boundaries of the empire's forty Foederatae. Each cultural group is governed by its own Consul who brings their unique interests into deliberations of the Senate's upper house. The attention given to recognizing populous nations was a skill learned by the government out of habit. It is a simple, if slightly humbling, means of pleasing people and keeping them satisfied with only their bread and circuses. Now it is part of the Roman way of dealing with a diverse population.

Greek is the largest, homogenous non-Roman ethnic group, dominating Greece, Moesia and Anatolia and found in the most widespread network of colonial populations. Phoenicians and Numidians are the largest groups of African ethnicities in the world, having spearheaded the Roman cultural advance into Sub-Saharan Africa. They have firmly supplanted a large number of former tribes across almost a quarter of Roman Africa. In the east, the Egyptians, Syrians and Arabs have stayed in their respective regions, showing little interest as a culture to spread like their Greek, Hebrew or Italian brothers.

The largest group of indigineous ethnicities outside the Mediterranean are the South Asians - broadly split into the Islamic Ghaznavids and Hindu Indians. Over the four hundred years of Roman rule, India has found its people encroached upon by Mediterraneans nations, forcing many into what is now part of the Mongol Empire and causing many to die of neglect during outbreaks of disease and famine while Roman citizens prospered.

Notably absent from any Roman list of ethnic groups are the Japanese. Their government outlaws the emigration of its citizens, punishing them with exile, making it rare to find a Japanese doing anything more than visiting outside the home islands. Only about 1-2 million are in the Roman Empire at once, the majority working their on business while others came to find a life outside Japan.

Unsurprisingly, the dominant ethnicity is Italian - those original Roman or other Socii peoples who are virtually indistinguishable from one another. No other race visually represents the empire better than the Italians. Their image alone evokes strong sentiments, whether feelings of reverence, fear or hate.
 * Total: 2.14 billion people
 * Roman: 1.415 billion citizens (66.0%)
 * Italian: 843 million
 * Gallic: 198 million
 * Graeco-Roman: 101 million
 * Romano-German: 91 million
 * Coptic Roman: 78 million
 * Black Roman: 66 million
 * Red Roman: 32 million
 * Hebrew Roman: 6 million
 * Indian: 128 million people (6.0%)
 * Greek: 122 million citizens (5.7%)
 * Numidian: 109.1 million citizens (5.1%)
 * Hebrew: 83.5 million citizens (3.9%)
 * Germanic/Muscovite: 68.5 million people (3.2%)
 * Bantu/Swahili: 64 million people (3.0%)
 * Egyptian: 60 million citizens (2.8%)
 * Inca: 21 million people (1.0%)
 * Serese: 17.1 million people (0.8%)
 * Columbian: 17.1 million people (0.8%)
 * Maya: 15 million people (0.7%)
 * Arab: 12.8 million people (0.6%)
 * Nordic: 4 million people (0.18%)
 * Japanese: 2 million people (0.09%)
 * Other: 4 million people (0.18%)

Religion
As Roman emperors represent the Catholic Church, citizens of the empire almost exlusively practice some variant of this sole sect of Orthodox Christianity. Diversity in the Ecclesia Catholica was instituted in the Church's early years to magnify retention of Christians across cultures. For example, Egyptians, Nubians and Aksumites practice the Coptic liturgy while most of Europe is under the Latin liturgy, with the exception of Greece.

Nothing in Catholic doctrine varies among the liturgies but facets of religious practice such as language, prayers, art, architecture and symbolism differ. Sometimes, as in the case of India, the distinctions of a liturgy are a major factor in the conversion of certain cultures.

Despite Christianity's prevalence and unity with the state, freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution. In particular, the Jews are highly regarded in Roman society, possessing a significant portion of the banking and investment industries due to a historic monopoly on charging interest. Their religion is granted specific benefits such as prominence in the bureaucracy of Judaea, support for major synagogues and reception of citizenship at an early period in Roman history. The other major religion, Islam, has a strong presence in Arabia and India, with the province of Palestine boasting the largest Sunni population in the world.

Foreign and small domestic religions exist as well, Ahauism and Hinduism being two of the most significant examples. The latter has seen dwindling membership over the past 4 centuries of Imperial rule, with many Indians already converted to Islam and many others emigrating or converting to Abrahamic faiths over time. The empire also boasts one of the largest populations of atheists in the world, spread thinly among the provinces. Irreligious people are rare in developed countries, mostly found in the former socialist states such as the Danish Imperium. Rome's unusually high number of atheists is likely attributable to the Humanist movement, which sparked the few atheist movements in the nation's history.
 * Christianity: 1,913,160,000 christians (89.4%)
 * Catholicism: 1,896,040,000 catholics (88.6%)
 * Roman Liturgy: 58% of catholics
 * Hellenic Liturgy: 17% of catholics
 * Coptic Liturgy: 11% of catholics
 * Punic Liturgy: 8% of catholics
 * Indian Liturgy: 6% of catholics
 * African Liturgy: 3% of catholics
 * Arianism: 16,020,000 arians (0.75%)
 * Other: 0.08%
 * Judaism: 77,400,000 jews (3.6%)
 * Hinduism: 40,660,000 hindus (1.9%)
 * Islam: 27,820,000 muslims (1.3%)
 * Sunni: 0.7%
 * Shi'ah: 0.6%
 * Animism: 8,600,000 animists (1.5%)
 * Ahauism: 8,600,000 people (0.5%)
 * Irreligion: 6,400,000 atheists (0.4%)
 * Agnosticism: 0.2%
 * Anti-religion: 0.1%
 * Atheism: 0.1%
 * Wiraqutra: 4,200,000 people (0.2%)
 * Druidism: 2,000,000 people (0.09%)
 * Shinto: 800,000 people (0.04%)

Language
Latin is de jure the Imperium Romanum's national language, representing its culture, its people and its influence throughout the world. Latin is required learning by law in all schools within the empire's borders and thus almost universally understand within the limites of Rome. Reeducation programs in Africa, Columbia and India focus solely on the instruction of Latin as its understanding is believed to be the first step towards civilizing their region. Native African and Columbian dialects are discouraged by outlawing them as subjects in primary schools but the dialects of the former, namely Bantu and Swahili, are the religious tongue of the African liturgy.

The de facto national tongue of the empire is the Hellenic language, Greek, spoken by about 39% of residents. Not an international language like Latin, nor required material in schools, Greek is nonetheless emphasized as a language of high culture and intelligence. Being able to speak proficient Greek is a distinction in Roman society (a very small number of non-Greeks can speak it well). Another three major imperial languages are Pheonician, a unified language since the late 1400's, Coptic, a popular tongue in Africa, and Aramaic, the standard language of most Judaeans and Jews even before the 6th century when it superseded Hebrew.

Certain regional languages are prominent within their own domain. Arabic has flourished as a local tongue in the provinces of Arabia and Palestina while the British Isles and Gaul have enshrined Brythonnic as their commercial and bureaucratic language.

Certain languages also hold local significance in certain provinces. Palestina and Arabia use Arabic as their language of business and politics, and Caledonia, Cambria, Hibernia and Magna Britannia all make use of Brythonnic in their laws and institutions. Other ancient language groups like Gaelic, Dacian, Syrian and others have gone extinct, remaining alive only as a dead language learned by students and academics.

Some international languages have gained a foothold for the purposes of polite communication and business. Quechua, a major medical language, is the most widely spoken, with nearly 45 million speakers, though Norse, Japanese, Nahuatl and Mandarin are not excessively far behind.
 * Latin: 2.12 billion (99%)
 * Greek: 835 million (39%)
 * Coptic: 235 million (11%)
 * Brythonnic: 221 million (10.3%)
 * Phoenician: 203 million (9.5%)
 * Aramaic: 111 million (5.2%)
 * Quechua: 45 million (2.1%)
 * Nahuatl: 34 million (1.6%)
 * Japanese: 32 million (1.5%)
 * Hebrew: 28 million (1.3%)
 * Mandarin: 26 million (1.2%)
 * Arabic: 19 million (0.9%)
 * Norse: 15 million (0.7%)
 * Indian Dialects: 118 million (5.5%)
 * Germanic Dialects: 88 million (4.1%)
 * African Dialects: 62 million (2.9%)
 * Columbian Dialects: 17 million (0.8%)
 * Other: 32 million (1.5%)

Social Orders
Roman society has a strict national stratification dating to its ancient Republican era called the ordones.

Patricians, fathers of Italy, are the apogee of Roman citizenship. Typically wealthy and influential, they have the most freedom to engage themselves in politics and bureaucratic affairs. Thus they have the most control in the Roman Empire, often portrayed - if somewhat unjustly - as subjugating the other orders of society. The greatest of patricians are members of the imperial family, the immediate relatives of the Augustus and Augusta along with the children of previous emperors of their dynasty. The modern imperial family counts 177 members.

Farther down the social ladder are the Equites (Equestrians), a rich mercantile class whose members manage a great part of Rome's economy. Below them are the Plebeians or, simply Plebs, who can be split into two orders according to their wealth: the Upper-Plebeian order and Lower-Plebeian order.

Upper Plebs are the empire's middle class, earning a decent living but lacking the privileges of the upper classes. They represent your average citizens, making up the majority of the population. Lower Plebs are the work force, laborers who do jobs no one wants but everyone needs. Plebeians receive good benefits from the government to compensate for their reduced privileges and are more well-off than the lower classes citizens of other countries.

Unofficially, there are also Peregrini (foreigners), non-citizens like Maya or Japanese expatriots or visitors. They have no legal rights under Roman law, as their home countries are expected to care for them even if they have no home. Nevertheless, they often remain in Rome with the hopes of one day gaining citizenship.

The final stratum is the lowest order who, in addition to receiving almost no government benefits, is heavily looked down upon by the rest of society. They are the Indigeni, who are the native Africans, Columbians, and, in some places, Germans, who have been conquered by Rome. Most citizens view them as inferior to Mediterranean races and, consequently, most of the country's racism is directed at them. Slavery was abolished in the empire in 1449 with the proclamation of universal human rights, freeing many of these subjugated people.
 * Patrician Order: 6.3 million nobles (0.29%)
 * Equestrian Order: 156.9 million equestrian (7.33%)
 * Upper-Plebeian Order: 1,376 million plebs (64.29%)
 * Lower-Plebeian Order: 331 million plebs (15.47%)
 * Indigeni: 261.1 million natives (12.2%)
 * Peregrini: 59.9 million foreigners (2.8%)

Culture
Main Article: Culture

The Imperium's culture reflects the diversity of its population. Regarded as a melting pot of ethnicties by homogenous countries like Japan and the Caliphate, Rome is tolerant and respectful of the majority of cultures within its empire, encouraging some of their activities through socio-economic measures. No other country treats as large a number of groups with care and equality as does the empire. Even the bureaucracy and local elites reflect the regional distinctiveness of the population, allowing a degree of cultural independence that goes beyond mere appearances into religious and political recognition.

Birthplace of some of humanity's greatest minds, the empire is a mecca of high culture and intellectualism. For millennia, it was a model country, emulated by others in the arts and sciences, and with philosophies and politics getting copied around the globe. Romans are trend setters for the modern world as they were for the ancient one. A Roman who visits a foreign land will undoubtedly be treated with dignity and respect by the locals and visitors in the Imperium are even more respectful of its ways. Mistreatment of Romans abroad is only done by the unbalanced or vengeful, no one else would dare disrespect a Roman citizen.

A principle which underlies Rome's cultural achievements is Libertas (Freedom). Freedom of movement within the country, freedom to share ideas and customs and freedom to seek wealth. The Senate hardly limits these liberties of the people with law, force or even propaganda. Furthermore, inside the Imperium's borders for the last 2,000 years has been a stability unseen at any other time or place, a true Pax Romana. Safety and liberty are no less immanent as factors today, driving Rome ever more into the future.

Fine Arts
In the 600's, painting became the dominant mode of artistic expression in the Roman Empire, superseding (but not replacing) the earlier art of mosaics. Within a few centuries, the Veritamilis style, which sought to create art that looked as realistic as possible, emerged as the popular form of painting. Even with today's photography, the art of painting realistic images is far from dying out. Emperors are especially patrons of this art. For instance, for over a thousand years it has been customary for a Caesar to commission great works of art depicting major events of his reign, such as scenes of battle or their coronation ceremony. Some emperors, and even members of the nobility, will pay an artist to live with them and occasionally paint scenes either on location or by memory.

Nearly every major city in the empire has at least one art museum, and it is customary for a city to offer another city paintings that depict scenes set in its municipality. This was an idea pioneered by Caesar Magnus II and it has ultimately resulted in most major cities being able to display works of art featuring other major cities. The Imperial Museum of Art in fact has a series of rooms called the Orbis Urbum, which has skyline shots of all 98 provincial capitals. On the opposite side of the building is the 200 meter long Hall of History, which features the finest works of art that depict scenes from Rome's history, including the Capture of Vercingetorix and the Detonation of Michael. Meanwhile, the halls of the Palace of Imperials are lined with the imperial portrait of every Caesar from Octavian to Cicero, leaving out those who only claimed the title Imperator.

Art museums are very popular destinations within Roman cities. The three largest museums of art receive 14 million, 9 million and 4 million visitors each year respectively. Also featured in the art museums are the ever popular Roman sculptures. The art of sculpting is perhaps the greatest product of the Western arts, and definitely one which the Roman Empire made full use of. The Romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians are all very found of creating their sculptures, and cities in areas influenced by all three cultures are dotted with sculptures of many different kinds. The grandest statue in the empire, however, is the Statue of Victory (depicting a Nike, or Angel) in the Neapolitan Bay near Prochyta. Standing on a 60 m pedestal, the Statue alone is 240 m tall. The Statue of Victory is a widely recognized national symbol representing the indomitable spirit and power of the Imperium.

Media
The immensity of Rome's empire and the security that its citizens enjoy necessitates a great deal of effort in both entertaining and informing the public. Until recently, the primary means by which news was spread was the praeconis (heralds). These public-wage scribes stood in major plazas within the cities every day to declare recent news to people walking in the streets, in the manner of giving a speech. Amazingly, this form of reporting was so popular with the Romans that not even personal telescreens could supercede heralds in getting government funding to relay news. It is only in modern times, in the larger cities, that live heralds were replaced with holographic recordings. These holograms look realistic enough that the change is irrelevant to the public. The rich, as always, use personal secretaries to bring them the news. Except in Rome and Carthage, the news given by heralds is relevant only to the city itself, with the exception of major national news. While news of a murder or disaster in Mediolanum will be spread by heralds there, no one elsewhere in the country will hear about it. An interesting case regarding disseminaton of the news is Constantinopolis whose heralds proclaim global economic updates on top of local news.

National and international news is relayed publicly by the Nuntia Imperia, the state-run newspaper. Its main sections are: Ludonus (public events/sports), Artanus (the arts), Peregranus (foreign news), Forum (business), Otianus (leisure/vacation), Mortianus (obituaries), a front page for the daily top story and a dozen other pages for other recent major news. Some cities have newspapers that are published and circulated by rich business owners, but thse differ greatly from the government paper and tend to include the political bias or desired focus of their patron (say on sports). Next to the newspapers and the heralds, the only other sources for news are public announcements by city officials, gossip and, formerly, the radio (a kind of virtual herald).

Mass advertising never developed in the Roman world, leading to a commercial dynamic far removed from OTL. Advertisements of any kind are banned in newspapers, the radio, the movies and telescreens. The only permitted and publicly accepted form of advertising is street signs, though some businesses shrewdly bribe heralds to mention their product in a good light. Nearly all shops abide in distinct market districts in the cities and villages, so business owners rely on signs and their own charisma to attract customers to their stall or shop. Nearly every product is sold by a regional monopoly, or by two or three large businesses, therefore advertising for products is wasteful anyways. Certain kinds of street adverts like electric signs or excessive lighting are outlawed in large cities since people find them to be disruptive and bothersome - especially neon signs.

National Reputation
Imperial society is almost universally regarded as a model for the rest of the world. Not only are its artistic forms and customs copied by billions but its Constitution provided a template for other autocratic republics. Romans are justifiably proud of their international reputation. Global polls by Japan, which queried 10,000 people from each country, found that 65% saw Rome in a positive light while an opposing 32% saw it in a negative one. From these results, it seems that few lack a strong opinion of the empire. An internal census of the empire in 1977, polling its entire body of citizens, showed a 92% approval of their country. Another 5% were completely neutral on the subject and a final 3% believed Romans were harmful to humanity.

Fascisma, or the fervent support of the Roman Empire and its government (Nationalism), is common among citizens. The name is derived from the magisterial fasces, a symbol of reciprocal strength through unity and unity in strength. Romans view their society as a beacon of civilization in a barbaric world. A majority of Romans take this farther. Many citizens and politicians believe all human activity is their empire's business and their state has a duty, as protector of the human race, to intervene as it deems appropriate.

As bigoted as Roman society may appear, the empire has historic ties to human rights and protecting the interests of the human race. Romans were the first advanced civilization to abolish slavery and it was Roman philosophers, building on the ideas of the Greeks, who invented the ethical and legal idea of natural rights. The Romans professed to believe that every person was entitled to specific things: the right to his or her own body, the right to breed, the right to equality among their peers, etc and that these natural rights are equally held by everyone - regardless of nationality or race - and cannot ever be revoked. No other state on Earth safeguards the rights of human beings as fervently or as broadly as the Imperium Romanum.

Penning the first Constitution in 1191, Romans also pioneered the practice of laying down inalienable rights into an unbreakable code of law. From its inception, Rome's Constitution ensured every Roman citizen: two thirds of his or her income, fair trial by members of his or her own social order, equal representation in the Senate, free education, the ability to afford medical care, the legal right to their citizenship unless justly revocable and the right to the use of one's genetic information. Furthermore, the empire is the only country which offers absolutely free healthcare to the more vulnerable members of its society.

Civilization
Romanitas (Romanity, or Romanism) is the idea of Roman civilization rather than its political reality. Included among its concepts are the very symbols of the Roman Empire, those things that are identified with the Roman people, military and government. Rome has such a great number of symbols that listing them all is impossible.

The primary symbol of Rome is the formula of the nation, legally standing for the city and empire as well as the Senate and cives. It is most often written as SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS (SPQR). One would find the so-called tetragrammaton of Rome on government documents, senatus consulta, public buildings, milestones, monuments and some government officials. Internationally, SPQR evokes memories of imperialism and brings forth a fearful respect, causing many people to avoid uttering it - like they could be struck down misusing it.

Another major representation of the empire is the Caesar - not as an individual - as an office. No believes that emperors are deities but the extent to which they are venerated by the people is comparable to the worship of states whose leaders are deified. It is hard to overstate the emperor's importance to Roman society. A national anthem, Deus Caesaro Tege (God Defend the Emperor), is unique to the Caesar and used whenever he involves himself in a public event. And even in casual conversation, Romans refer to a living emperor with phrases like "our Lord, Caesar", "Augustus" or "the father of our nation".

The anthem of the Roman people themselves, used in festivals and at the opening of sports events, is Cantus Arma Virosque (Song of Arms and of Men). The name was taken from the first words of Virgil's Aeneid, and its lyrics from the story itself and the history of the Roman people. The last national anthem is Terra Nostrum (Our Land) which is customarily sung by other countries when they receive Roman dignitaries.

Another major symbol of Romanitas is the Aquila, or Roman Standard - an Eagle. Its visual representation is stitched into all military and civil service uniforms and physically placed on most public buildings, usually with the national formula. Using the eagle as a symbol is exclusively reserved by the Roman Empire. Should a foreign country try to use it they could swiftly expect a serious international incident.

Important symbols of the Roman Empire are internationally recognized, signaling the imperial presence across its entire sphere of influence. Within the empire, no one can go over a day without seeing an SPQR, eagle or wreath in some form. Rome strains itself to display its image and splendor on a global scale. This effort is made easier by the ability to broadcast Roman media into radio and telescreens around the world. In effect, everyone has heard of the Imperium Romanum, the Senate and the Caesar.

Philosophy
Main Article: Philosophy

Romans have engaged in philosophical enquiry since the Republic annexed Hellenistic philosophy schools in the 3rd century BCE. Adopted institutions included the Peripatetic, Eleatic, Stoic, Cynic and Skeptic schools. The early imperial era saw marked growth of Stoicism, peaking with the publication of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. After a high-period of Stoic support in the 6th century, Aristotelian science and philosophy dominated Roman academia. Its sudden blossom is attributed to the extensive use of Aristotelian texts by Archaedavincus in his formulations of engineering principles. While he ultimately rejected much of Aristotle's physics, the Philosopher's ethical, political and metaphysical writings flourished.

Modern Roman philosophy is a strict academic field akin to the sciences. As such, it is necessary for children to study certain areas of philosophy at the grammaticus (high school) level. The necessary parts for a proper education are Ethica, Vitalogia, and Epitesmelogia. Professional philosophy is a difficult field due to the density of some of the subject-matter. Many in the field of ethics are looked to as leaders in the political arena and prominent metaphysicians often have dual degrees with the empirical sciences. The agreed structure of philosophy in the Imperium is the following:
 * Designates a Metaphysica Naturalis and a Metaphysica Moralis

The above diagram does not express branches as contained within their roots. It shows that proper study of the branches needs an understanding of its elemental concepts, which can only be given by the preceding root, i.e. empirical physics needs a metaphysics of nature to be fully justifiable. Furthermore, branches on the same level provide information supporting one another and so are interdependent.

Logic
The science of Logic is the heart of Roman philosophy. The ancient Aristotelian Logika Syllogistica (Eng: Propositional Logic) went out of use after the publication of De Logika in 1218, a book which established the dominance of Logika Attributia (Eng: Predicate Logic). Since the invention of symbolic logic by Archaedavincus, the application of logical systems has had the appearance of a sort of verbal mathematics. The symbols and form of Archadavincus' system came from his development of set theory in the 740's.

The proposition 'There is perfect justice' can be expressed in symbolic logic as "∃Justice(Justice Perfect)". While the notation seems basic, and is quite straightforward, its proper use is for infering new propositions out of original ones. The practice of making inferences from propositions is called reasoning as it applies the human faculty of Reason.

Roman philosophers view logic as a description of the necessary form of thinking itself, not simply axiomatic rules for inference and judgement. For this reason, logic is the foundation of Roman philosophy.

Metaphysics
Roman metaphysics splits philosophical enquiry into two domains: nature and morals. This division has its roots in Hellenistic philosophy. The present framework for all metaphysics was created by Immanuel Cornelius Hesserlus and is followed by the majority of philosophers. However, it requires what its few opponents call a 'monstrous leap' in reason and therefore has failed to supercede Eastern philosophy in the Mongol Empire.

Hesserlus' starting point is that the laws of nature forbid prescriptive truth; the world cannot be other than what it is, therefore there are no oughts. Even the actions of intelligent beings are causally determined by natural laws. This was called the theoretical truth of the human will. However, Hesserlus reasoned, people are self-determining as regards their actions in a practical sense - we can only act under the Idea of freedom.

For humans to be free and not free at the same time is a contradiction, unless each is in a different way. The 'monstrous leap' Hesserlus made to resolve this contradiction was to postulate a separation of the empirical/natural and the non-empirical. Empirical things are comprised of all objects of the senses. The manner in which things are perceived is how things are as appearances (Phenoemena). Objects independent of a perceiver are things as they are in themselves (Eimana) and as perceiver we consider them as they are thought to be in themselves (Noumena). Hesserlus' Trinity of Existence underlies much of Roman philosophy.

Natural Philosophy
Physics and Ontology respectively study dynamic and static phenoemena. Thus ontology examines the nature of space, time, causality and being. Meanwhile, physics is distinctly subdivided: The physical sciences exhibit a progression from basic Kinematics to Geohistory at the far end. The richest area is certainly mechanics which comprises kinematics, electrodynamics, optics, cymatics and even relativity.