Rome (Superpowers)

Rome, commonly known as Urbs (The City or Imperial City) is the political capital of the Roman Empire, founded on April 21, 753 BC. It began as a city that became one of several in the Roman Kingdom, but during the Republic and Early Imperial years it was the municipal capital of the province Italia. In 1067, during the Aegranian Reforms of the government, Rome became its own distinct province, the second municipal one in the Empire, after Melita. Although Rome was originally the only capital of the Empire, in 771 CE the Emperor Valens split its power into the cities of Constantinopolis and Carthage,leaving Rome itself as the nation's political capital.

The city of Rome is located on the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River and is not organized into any single district of the province. Enclosed within its walls, as long-term residents are about 23,860,000 Roman citizens. Due to a law passed in 1191 as part of the Constitution, "no person born of even one non-Roman [citizen] parent can set foot in Italia et Roma, except by permission of the government". Though initially this meant slaves were still allowed in, the 1449 Professio de Patronatos de Omnium et Servorum ended this as they were no longer seen as property anymore, but real people.

Amongst its titles are other names such as Caput Mundi and The Eternal City, both of which it has rightly earned. Its global influence in politics, literature, high culture, the arts, music, religion, education, fashion, cuisine and sports have led many to call it the City of the World. However, very few international organizations are based there, with the exception of the Roman Headquarters of the Alliance, as it is rather difficult for foreigners to so much as even enter the city. Still, Roman organizations and business often make their headquarters in Rome, especially as a means of earning further prestige.

Although the city has been continually inhabited for more than 2700 years, very little of its ancient wonders are still left standing. Buildings such as the Curia, Coliseum, Trajan's Column and Constantine's Arch have been either rebuilt in an even grander fashion, or had near perfect replicas built in the city to fit into its layout. Many of the grandest buildings in the city that are still standing were built following the 851 Earthquake that destroyed many parts of the city.

Through its unique status as a municipal province, the laws governing the layout of Rome differ greatly from those of other cities, even Melita. No non-government buildings are permitted to exceed 40 meters, and for several centuries, constructing a building 20 meters or more has required paying a heavy tax. These laws are intended to make the city of Rome as ascetically pleasing as possible and so the layout of the city at the present, meaning its roads, major buildings and walls, was designed over half a decade by some of the greatest architects of the mid-1500's, notably the brilliant Aulus Nickolus Tesla.

Geography
The city of Rome is arranged as a perfect circle with a radius of 80 km, or 20 kilometron, as delineated by its city walls. Four gates at each point of the compass act as the only entrances into the city, Melista or Caelum are not permitted within another 80 kilometers from the city walls. Each of these gates is made almost entirely of gold and silver and stands at 40 meters tall. Above each one is a marble archway that is topped off by a golden two-headed eagle standing atop the symbol of SPQR. The Golden Gates are typically left closed but open automatically whenever someone approaches them from either side. Directly on both sides of each gate are bastions that house 100 members of the Praetorian Guard dedicated to the protection of the city. However, no weapons or artillery of any kind are visible anywhere around the walls. The walls, except at the gates and bastions, are perfectly uniform, remaining at a constant height of 36 meters. Furthermore, at most points the wall is about 3 meters thick with an interior made of concrete and carbon nanotube pipes lining the inside for greater tensile strength. The inside face of the wall is made of marble, with statues of what are considered the city's patrons at the North-East; North-West; etc, points of the compass, each partially enclosed in a small mausoleum that allows the statue to be visible from outside. These statues are: NW Romulus, the city's founder; NE Augustus, the man who "left it marble"; SE Calvin, the Great Builder after the earthquake; and SW Tesla, the architect of the city's reconstruction in the 1500's. Though there have been centuries of protest to replace the statue of Tesla, given that he is the one who designed the mausoleums and chose the statues, his work to bring Rome into the industrial era and the future certainly makes him worthy of such an honor.

The most impressive act of his was the proposal to have the very Tyrrhenian coastline near Ostia artificially expanded to keep in with his vision of the city. A noted Pythagorean, Tesla venerated certain whole numbers and so he ensured that the plans allowed for a diameter of the city walls of 4 times 10 kilometron, which is why it now stands at 40 kilometron in diameter. This was considered especially unusual at the time as it would mean only about 10% of the city's area would be inhabited. The rest he decided, was to be covered by beautiful gardens and monuments to venerate the great city. Amazingly, due to his popularity at the time, and the patriotism of Roman citizens, his plans were accepted and all of the inhabitants of nearby towns were simply assimilated into Rome itself. The Urban metropolis steadily expanded over the centuries and now only about 6% of these gardens remain, though as they were lost, more were made just outside the city walls. Still, the monuments he commissioned remain standing and have almost all been made part of the metropolis itself.

Also coming as a great surprise, to keep the shape of the city as a circle, the wall stops just near the newly built coastline. A second city, named Ostia, clings between the city walls and the coast and serves as Rome's primary port town, receiving the largest traffic of almost any harbor area in Europe, aside from those along the nearby Amalfi Coast.

Even on the points at which the walls pass over the River Tiber, there is no change in their uniformity. Directly underneath the wall at these points are simple filtration systems that prevent any toxins or pollutants from entering the city through the river, making the Tiber River at one of its cleanest points when inside Rome. A metal grating further prevents, humans, animals or fish from getting caught in these filters or damaging them. In the city, the disposal of any garbage, food, waste, bodies, etc in the river is punishable by law and so rarely occurs. Small fences block off direct access to the river at most points along its length, with a few exceptions.

The Insula Inter-Duos-Pontes or Insula Tiberina is a small island near the center of Rome that lies in the middle of the Tiber River. The coastline of the island serves as the city's only beach. Any permanent resident of the city need only reserve in advance (well in advance) and they can have use of one of the 200 slots available every half-day for use of the beach, for the price of only 10 Dn. On special public occasions, like September 21, April 21, March 14 or the like, the beach is completely open to the public, with huge crowds usually forming on the island and its two bridges just to get as close to the celebrations as possible.

Destinations
In order to entertain its citizens, as well as attract tourists around the Empire, Rome has countless destinations to provide entertainment and satisfy cultural interest. Though the latter will be covered later, these tourist destinations are the subject for the moment.

The Villa Alearus is the only designated location for gambling in the city, as Imperial law doesn't allow public gambling within any city walls, except in government designated areas. Nevertheless, the Alearus easily satisfies the gambling needs anyone could ever have. For visitors, there is the glamorous Diversorium Aleator (Gambler's Hotel), which offers some of the finest rooms in the city for the price of 80 Dn a night. Once inside the casino there are 218 designated locations for a wide assortment of gambling games, covering nearly all of those known to the Romans. Additionally, there are 40 tables, that can be reserved for three hour periods for 10 Dn, that allow anyone to host their own games.

Aside from the Diversoria Aleator, there are 6 more hotels within the entire city, all either government owned or controlled. The largest by far is the Diversoria Imperia (Imperial Grand Hotels), which consists of three hotel buildings arranged around a central courtyard located about a kilometer west of the Insula Tiberina. The East and West buildings offer extremely high-class rooms for 160 Dn a night, with each building consisting of 110 rooms. These cater to the equestrian class in particular. The North building, nicknamed Caesar's Palace for its regal styled rooms, is clearly meant for the patrician class. There are 42 main rooms at 800 Dn a night that offer such accommodation as a butler, for a fee, and a "mini-tavern" stocked with chosen beverages. The building also has on-demand callgirls who work out of the main-building itself, the practice never having been banned within the Empire.

Finally, there are 10 Golden Rooms, all of which are identical and available for a price of 1800 Dn per night. These are almost exclusively sold to members of government, guild magnates and foreign dignitaries, with the government paying for the rooms in the latter case. These residences are globally considered to be the finest in the world, with foreign and domestic visitors alike having lauded them for several hundred years (the hotels having been completed in 1547 per Tesla's designs). On the opposite end of the hotel spectrum is the Diversorium Populum. Although it has 315 available rooms, they are all rather small in size and cost only 1 Dn per night. Also of note, a law states that no hotel room can be rented unless it is inhabited for at least four days of a one week period, thereby ensuring that slots are almost always available for those who need somewhere to stay.

Since 853, a building known as the Turris Horologis stood in the middle of the city, showing everyone exactly what time it was, without the need of the sun. However by the 1200's nearly all households had their own clocks and the unusually tall 200 meter tower was starting to be considered as a blemish on the cityscape. Therefore in 1235 Lucius Parellus Volta, a renowned industrialist of the time, was sold the land at an incredibly cheap price so that he could build a new structure. The Horologis was torn down and Volta began construction in 1237 on his proposed Volta Tower, a beautiful spiraling steel structure only 70 meters tall and intended to feature the Roman Standard at its top. Unfortunately for Volta, he died fours years later and never saw the completion of his tower. Instead, the government took control of his entire estate, gaining the land back in the process. Volta Tower was completed to his specifications, but an outer layer of silver was added to most parts, giving it a far more glamorous look. Most importantly, the base of the tower was rebuilt to serve as the Milliarium Aureum or Golden Milestone to which all roads lead to.

Hills of Rome
Next to Tesla's incredible achievement of extending the coastline was his plan to excavate the mountainous region around Rome. To be fair though, many of the mountains around Rome, not including the seven hills, had already been excavated in the 1230's by Emperor Magnus the Great, and furthermore, Tesla only had hills within about 20 kilometers of the city center taken away. Still, the former Aventine, Capitoline, Esquiline, Caelian, Quirinal and Viminal Hills were entirely flatened out between 1535 and 1572 so that Rome's only remaining hill was the Palatine, serving as the seat of its government. Although some work was still done on that final hill it was, technically speaking, mostly intact.

The most impressive part of this excavation procedure was that many buildings were left standing despite the ground under them being flattened. This was an incredibly risky and expensive process that even failed on two separate occasions, destroying three villas though harming no one. Still, the sight of the modern city of Rome is a testament to Tesla's genius, adding further right to him having a statue dedicated to him in the Eternal City. As for the mountains and hills even further away from the city, these were steadily torn away either for the construction of monuments within Rome's walls, or for the continued expansion of the cityscape.