892-951 CE (Superpowers)

Before even setting himself onto the throne, Brutus was one of the most influential individuals in the Empire, next to only his older brother. On his 25th birthday he was named Governor of Judea, an extremely important position due to how highly the Jews are regarded in Roman society. On turning 29 he was given the position of Mensarius Superus, essentially the highest financial position in the Empire. It was only a year later that he was reported that his brother had died and he was the next in line. Excited to receive another "promotion" so soon after his last one, Brutus immediately began to do things to make his mark on his nation.

Civil Events
Through his experience as the Mensarius, Brutus knew a good deal about where money was being spent, and in what places this money was wasted, and so many times during his reign he worked to reduce costs and increase income for the government. The first move he made in this direction was in 892 itself when he decided to reduce the costs of cleaning the cities, something which went into the millions of Denarii every year and left thousands of Romans with a rather undesirable job. Furthermore, it was believed that damage to building infrastructure by vermin was a major cause in the level of destruction in the earthquake not even a century ago. His solution to this problem was as inventive as it was effective, even still being in use within nearly all major cities.

Since the 500's, a rather unorthodox pastime had grown popular among the rich and middle-class, this pastime was eagle training. Although considered to be extremely difficult, many people could now make their living capturing and raising eagles to be sold to potential buyers. At the same time, the less exclusive sport of falconry became extremely popular and by the late-600's Rome had an incredible infrastructure in regards to both sports. Brutus, an avid aquilarius (equivalent to falconer...but for eagles), thought that their ability to spot and capture prey so effectively made them the perfect solution to the ongoing vermin problem in the cities. He organized for almost 6,000 eagles to be permanently integrated into the 24 largest cities in the Empire from 892 to 904. At the same time, many of the minor cities had small falcon stations established for the same purpose.

By the 920's virtually all other birds in the major cities were wiped out, and the number of eagles and falcons was cut back a bit in order to prevent them becoming the next major problem. Many still remained to continue maintaining the city, but all in all, a good deal of money was saved through these efforts (though their was some clean-up in the initial aftermath of their introduction). In addition to this, regulations were extended to all cities that required for more efficiency in building construction, with no rooms or spaces available for some animal to occupy.

In 898 he created the first public transport system that extended to the new province of Frigerra (Iceland). This consisted of two boat networks, one from the North coast of Lugdunensis (Normandy) and another from the West coast of Caledonia, near the city of Correlia. All profit generated by these and the other networks that were to follow went to the government, much like the other networks that already spanned most of the Empire. Other public boat networks were created in the Red Sea, connecting the provinces of Arabia and Axum; between Achaea and the provinces of Judea, Syria and Numidia; and one going from the province of Lusitania to Hibernia and Caledonia. Five primary hubs of public transportation were also organized, these are the cities of Carthage, Tyrus, Alexandria, Neapolis and Magdunum (near Correlia). Although back and forth pathways extended to almost 40 other cities, they only extended from one of these four hubs, greatly organizing the entire network. Most of these reforms were completed by 925 CE.

Public transportation was not the only way in which Brutus attempted integration of the Empire, as he had two other primary projects as well. Although the centuries old practice of placing public bulletins was still in heavy use, Brutus saw it as a rather flawed and overly costly system, even if they were being made in paper since the late-700's. Instead, taking advantage of the prosperous printing industry, Brutus commisioned for the construction of 40 printing houses in the cities of Rome, Constantinopolis, Neapolis, Tyrus, Carthage, Parisium, Londinium, especially Melita and about 15 others. Every week these would print an edition of the Nuntia Imperia, the first publicly circulated newspaper in the world. In the form of a thin book about 30 cm high and 20 cm across, most issues of the Nuntia were about 20 to 30 pages long, filled with news on virtually any happenings of importance throughout the Old World. The First Edition of the Nuntia Imperia was circulated on January 1st, 912 with the headline proclaiming the declaration of war on the Danish Kingdoms over an incident in Frigerra.

The general format of the Nuntia was to have the entire front page dedicated to the biggest story of the week. The next 8-14 pages would then be dedicated to other important news stories, ones that would not be considered normal occurrences (for instance, whilst the appointment of a new emperor might go into the Politicals, it would be part of those 10 to 16 pages). The next 2-3 pages were known as the Ludonus, and provided information on the weeks events at the Coliseum in Rome, major events that week in other amphitheatres, and any significant occurrences in the world of sports. Another 2-3 were called the Artanus and discussed art and events relating to art, the first of these pages usually being a feature on a major piece of art or architecture somewhere in the Empire. Next were 3-5 pages called Civiliam that provided information on any current government acts or motions, as well as usually a page or two that described the primary meeting of the Senate that week, something which usually occurred on a Saturday. There were also four other sections: the Peregranus (Major Foreign Events), the Forum (Business and market news), the Otianus (Vacation sights and other leisure related things) and lastly the Mortianus (Obituaries of important people).

His other attempt to better organize the Empire was to reduce the number of national holidays, just a little bit though since the Romans loved their holidays to such a high degree. Considering most shops and businesses were open on these days anyways, owing to the large profits that could be made off of vacationers, this was only helpful to a small margin, and mostly just affected people working in the government, especially the Senate.

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