A.C.E. 3

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ A.C.E. 3 / ACE CD 3.iso / files / docs / caesard.lha / Caesar.doc next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 95.6 KB | 2,343 lines

____________/\ /\ ________________________/\__________________ \ / \ / \ \ \ \ / \ \ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /___ / /___ / / / / / ____/ ____/ / / / \/ / \/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ___/ \ /___/\________/\________/\ /\ /___/\ /_____/\______/ / \ / \ / \ / \/ \________/Ci \/ \/ \/ -+(*- PRESENT -*)+- Caesar from Impressions - Complete Docs. CAESAR Thank you for buying this product. It is the result of a great deal of hard work and careful thought, and we hope that it will give you many hours of enjoyment. We are proud of our games, but we know that they can never be perfect. If you have any ideas about how we can improve, we would be de- lighted to hear from you. Please take the time to fill out the enclosed registration card. We can then add you to our mailing list, and keep you informed of new products and special offers as they come out. Caesar: Copyright Impressions 1992 INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to the grandeur and glory of imperial Rome! It is the first century BC, and the repub- lihas just fallen to the first Emperor, Caesar Augstus. Positions of power change hands as the would-be masters of the Empire rise and fall in the Emperor's favour. You are one such ambitious publifigure. Through patient skill and hard nosed dealing, you have managed to secure the governorship of a province of the Roman Empire. If you can turn the undeveloped backwater into a secure and prosperous home for its citizens, you will rise in rank, and in the Emperors esteem. If you can repeat that success throughout your career, anything is possible - perhaps even the throne itself. ABOUT CAESAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Caesar, you job is to govern your province as efficiently as possible. Much of your time will be spent in the capital city of your Province. You will have to design & build this yourself. Housing, water-supply, industry and many other factors will have to be balanced to produce a successful city. However, your citizens do not live in an ideal, insulated world where the only problem is how to spend your money. Beyond the Imperial frontiers are barbarians of many tribes, constantly trying the Empire's defences. If life under your rule is miser- able or harsh, you will also have to face opposition from within. You must ensure that the entire province is well defended, and that safe travel between its towns is maintained. OBJECTIVES ~~~~~~~~~~~ Your objective in Caesar is to govern your province of the Empire sufficiently well that you will be promoted. If promoted, you will be given control of a new region where standards must be higher. With enough successes, you could eventually rise to the rank of Emperor yourself. Your performance as provincial governor will be assessed in four ways: Peace - the degree of security your people enjoy. Culture - the publiand cultural amenities avail- able to the citizens. Prosperity - the wealth you have bought your province. Empire - the communications and transport network in the region. You will also have an overall rating based on these factors. You can always get a report on your current performance by consulting your administrative advisor, from the forum. Click on the base of each pillar in his report for a resume of the requirements to increase in each rating. To gain promotion, you need to achieve a certain overall rating, and have at least a minimum in each category. You can see what those figures are, again, by going to the forum - this time to see your political advisor. Once there, just click on your current title. The imperial favour rating on the same screen gives a more general indication of how important and how competent the Emperor considers you to be. TITLE IN CAESAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You start the game with the title of Decurian, one level above the citizens of the province. The ranks which exist in the game, from lowest to highest are as follows: Citizen - Decurian - Magistrate - Praefectus - Legate - Quaestor - Senator - Praetor - Consul - Proconsul - Emperor. INTERFACE INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This game has been designed with an easy to use mouse driven point and click interface. Each command you mighyt want to issue will be associated with an icon (a small picture) on the screen. The icons are always along the bottom of the screen. To give the command, just click on its icon - move the mouse pointer onto the icon and firmly press the left mouse button. Keyboard commands are also included for pusers who do not have a mouse. COMMAND MODE AND SCROLL MODE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After you load the game, you will see terrain over all of the screen except a strip along the bottom - the icons. The mouse pointer initially looks like an arrow. This means that you are in command mode, and can issue iunstructions by clicking on icons. If you give a command that needs a location to be specified (like building something), the pointer will change - usually into a picture of the thing you want to build. You are now in Scroll Mode. Clicking the right mouse button (right clicking) anywhere will also toggle you between the two modes. In Scroll Mode, when you move the mouse beyond one of the screen edges, the screen display will move in that direction up to the border of the terrain area. Both of the main terrain displays in the game are of an area much larger than what is first visible on the screen. So, if you want to build new houses, say, you must be in Command Mode and click on the icon that looks like a house. The pointer will become a small house, indicating that you are now in scroll mode. You can scroll all around, looking for a good sight to place your building. Click on a site to choose it. Having done so, you will stay in Scroll Mode, with house-building still the selected com- mand, until you right click, and shift back to Command Mode. GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please refer to your technical supplement for instructions on how to load the oame on your computer. Having done so, you will be shown the options screen. Here you can either load a partially-finished game you saved earlier and carry on, or set the parameters for a new uame. In a new game, you must first set a difficulty level, which determines how much money you start with in each province. You can also personalise the game by naming your new governor. You can rename your character later, or gain a reminder of where in the Empire you have been posted, by clicking on your Name and your prov- ince within the Political Advisor's report (see 'In the Forum '). THE CITY LEVEL AND THE PROVINCIAL LEVEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once past the options screen, you will be shown the area where you must build your new city. Initially, this 'City Level' is a bare landscape of rocks and trees. It is here that you will clear the way for housing, hospitals, schools and all the other buildings of the capital. Eventually, most of this countryside may become a bustling urban landscape. Whenever you take control of a new province, the terrain of the City Level will be generated randomly so as to maximise replay value. If you click on the arrow icon on the left, you will be taken from the City Level to the Provincial Level. This shows the whole province, not just the small area selected for the new Capital. The most important elements here are your main city and the larger towns of the region. You must add roads and walls, and base garrisons where you expect trouble. The red battle standard next to the build- ings marking your city represents the Prima Cohors - your first cohort of soldiers. The shape of the Provincial Level will reflect the actual province you are in. TIME IN CAESAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While you are looking at the City Level or the Provincial Level, time is always ticking away in Caesar. You can pause the game by clicking on the Disk Options icon and choosing Pause. Time also stops when you leave the two main displays altogether - for example when you consult your advisors in the forum, or inspect a Mini Map. THE MINI MAPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As well as the normal City Level, there are a number of small 'Mini Maps', each of which summarises information about one specifiaspect of the city, all on one screen. Select the Mini Map icon, and you are presented with the following list of available maps. Land Shape Water Distribution Land Value Administration Trouble Areas Road Layout Urbanisatinn Below that, the name of the map currently se- lected for display is given. This is the map that is actually shown to the left of the list. Click on the button next to an item on the list to select it. Note that most Mini Maps will initially look very boring - a display of your road layout won't be too interest- ino until you have built some roads. IN THE FORUM ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The large F icon will take you to the forum - the administrative centre of your city. Here you can check up on the state of various things, and get information from your main advisors and assist- ants. Each of the six figures in the picture is such an assistant. To get a report from any one of them, just click directly on them. From left to right, they are: The Political Advisor (BIue clooked man) The Military Advisor (Red uniformed soldier) The Financial Analyst (Man with blue robe) The Treasurer (Orange robed man) The Administrative (White robed & Advisor hooded man) The Slave Foreman (Man in white tunic) MONEY ~~~~~ The figure on the right of the icon bar is the amount of money left in the Province's coffers. This is a crucial fiqure - if you run out of money, you are doomed. Without money, you will not be able to build things, maintain them, support a workforce or keep a standing army. Eventually, the annual tribute which you are expected to pay to Rome will be missed enough times that you will be summoned to face the wrath of the Emperor. All expenditure is measured in Denarii, the Denarius being the basic unit of Imperial Roman currency. There are five main costs you will have to face in the game * Construction costs * Paying your soldiers * Looking after the slave population * Paying the Governor * The annual tribute You will be able to get money in from taxes - both personal income tax and business tax. CONSTRUCTION COSTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any sort of construction, from building a school to laying a road to establishing defensive walls costs money. Different projects cost different amounts. The cost will be displayed on the screen when you give the command (ie before you select where it is to be and so confirm the order). For comparison, consturction costs are also given below: City Level ---------- 1 Clearance 2 Housing 3 Water pipe 3 Road 5 Well 5 Wall 10 Plaza 10 Fountain 10 Tower 25 Prefecture 80 Barracks Forum ----- 60 Aventine 100 Caelian 200 Janiculan 300 Pincian 500 Romanum 140 Esquiline 250 Regia 350 Palatine 20 Temple 60 Hospital 200 Oracle 20 Market 100 Theatre 300 Hippodrome 40 Bath House 60 School 300 Heavy Industry 50 Business 200 Amphitheatre Provincial Level ----------------- 15 Clearance 30 Road 500 Fort 50 Wall 100 Tower PAYING YOUR SOLDIERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your soldiers cost you money. This goes on sala- ries, recruitment drives and other means of con- vincing people to join the army, as well as on the soldiers' basikit. The more you spend, the more people will sign up over time. To alter your military spending, select your Military Advisor from the forum (See 'In The Forum'). Towards the bottom of the screen is the Wages Bill, initially set at 10 Denarii per year. Use the up and down arrows next to the figure to alter it. LOOKING AFTER THE SLAVE POPULATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the most unpleasant aspects of the Empire was its practice of slavery. As a Roman adminis- trator, slaves are a normal and important resource to you - they provide the workforce for most activities. Although unpaid, slaves must be cared for. The more you spend on this, the more the slave population will grow over the years. Call on your Slave Foreman (See 'In The Forum') to check the current slave population and slave welfare expenditure. Use the arrows next to the latter figure to alter it. PAYING THE GOVERNOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The province must also pay its most important employee - you! As chief administrator, it is per- fectly possible for you to award yourself a huge wage. However, the city will probably go bank- rupt, and you will be taken away in chains to explain your failure. It is important to understand the difference be- tween your personal wealth and that of the prov- ince. You are governor, and have control of the province's money. It isn't yours, but you are allowed to say what it should be spent on - con- struction, wages etc. When you set your salary, you are setting how much the province will give to you personally. To change this amount, choose the Political Advi- sor from the forum (See 'In The Forum '). Use the two arrow icons next to the Salary Drawn figure to change it. You can also donate some of your personal wealth to the province, if you feel your career depends on it. The money you have is shown below your name and title. Click on 'Do- nate money to city' to give some away. Set the amount with the arrow buttons, and right click to confirm . Your personal wealth will go with you when you are promoted to a new province. THE ANNUAL TRIBUTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every year, you are expected to return a tribute to Rome. If you have insufficient funds to do so, you will receive a warning. If you fail to deliver a tribute three times in a row, you will be removed from office, your career over (not to mention quite possibly your life). The tribute begins at 50 Denarii per year, and increases over time. TAX ~~~ Fortunately, there are ways of getting money in, as well as spending it. This means tax. As Gover- nor, you set the tax rate. This affects the amount of money you get from private citizens, as well as from businesses. On the down side, high taxes discourage people from moving to your province, and so slow population growth. They also add to complaints and disaffection within the population. Note that Roman taxes were much lower than rates in modern countries: 5% would be a typical figure. Income Tax revenue depends on the number and quality on houses in your City. Business taxes depend on the number of businesses established, and how well they are doing. To see or check the current tax rate, which applies both to businesses and individuals, consult your Treasurer (See 'In the Forumr'). The tax rate is the first thing on his report. Alter it upwards or down- wards by using the two arrows next to the amount. Finally, you will only collect taxes from areas over which you have administrative control. Two types of building help here: prefectures give control over a very limited region. Fora (the plural of Forum) cover a much wider area. Use the Administration Mini Map to see how far the arm of the taxman reaches. KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR MONEY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two of your advisors (See 'In The Forum' will help you understand how your governorship is doing financially. They are the Financial Analyst and the Treasurer. The Financial Analyst will tell you how your economy has been doing over the last few years. He will present four graphs, showing the changes in: * Tax revenues gained from private citizens * Taxes gained from businesses * The overall funds held by the city * The population of the city The Treasurer on the other hand deals with exact figures for the present time and last full year. He will tell you the current tax rate, population and tax gained per head of the population. This last figure reflects the tax level and the strength of the economy. Below that is a summary of the income and costs for the previous year. The annual profit/loss over the previous few years is reflected in the bar chart running down the left of the picture. BUILDING THINGS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your main task in the Game wlll be choosing what to construct, and where. You will need to order many different construction projects to maintain an affluent and secure province. Check the 'Construc- tion Costs' section above, to see how much each costs. The procedure for building is the same in all cases. Each thing you might want to create has its own icon. Click on that and the mouse pointer will become an image of the thing you want to build. At the same time, you are also automatically taken into Scroll Mode, so you can move around until you have found the right spot. Then just click on the desired site to place your new development. If you build over terrain features like trees, they will automatically be cleared away. Also, if you keep the mouse button pressed down and drag the mouse across the screen, the new construction will be repeated again and again in all of the places the pointer passes over. This is particularly useful when laying out roads, pipes and walls. On the City Level, there are too many buildings to fit all of the icons on the screen at once. To get to the icon you need, you will first have to say what sort of project you are ordering. The normal icons are then replaced by new ones representing the specific jobs available, and you can click on the one you want. All jobs gexcept housing, which is available di- rectly have been divided into two groups. Infrastructure = roads, water supply, walls, administrative buildings. Construction = public amenities, cultural sights, businesses So, let's say you want to lay a road. That's Infra- tructure, so: 1. Select that icon. The new icons for roads and walls now appear. 2. Choose roads and click on the site where you want the road to be. 3. Finally, you can easily check how much of the City Level you have actually built on, by checking out the Urbanisation Mini Map. THE EVOLVING CITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In many cases, buildings will expand or fail inde- pendently of you, once they are set up. For in- stance, if you order housing for an area, your first settlers put up simple tent-like, semi-permanent dwellings. If you fail to provide basic amenities: opportunities for employment and so on, the inhabitants will just pack up and leave - the house will vanish. If you create the conditions for a fashionable residential area, the tents will eventu- ally become luxurious villas. Note however, that they will still cover the same physical area. The Land Value Mini Map will tell you how desir- able each area is considered to be. BUILDING A FORUM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The centre of your new City will be its first Forum. This large open square, surrounded by public buildings, is an administrative centre and also a major meeting place and social centre for every- one. To build a Forum, click on the Infrastructure icon, and then on Build Forum. You must then select from the eight different types of forum, from the small Aventine to the grand Romanum. The larger ones maintain their economic and administrative influence over a larger area. Convenient road access to the forum is a crucial factor in the development of many types of build- ing. You will see various people wending their way along the roads to and from the forum. The quicker and easier it is for them to reach a place, the greater the boost that area will receive. The area around a Forum is also considered to be under firm administrative control. See 'Tax' for the benefits of this. Note that it is perfectly possible to build several Fora, if your city starts to outgrow its original one. HOUSING ~~~~~~~~ The most basic thinq your city will need is, of course, housing. Ensure that the house: * has a road route to a Forum * is supplied with water * and that there is employment for the new settlers. A local market is also handy. Note also that build- ing humble shacks right next to grand mansions will depress the value of the more expensive homes. ROADS ~~~~~ Roads can be built in the City, and also on the Provincial Level. Road access to the Forum is important to all homes. On the Provincial level, it is important to connect the major towns of the reuion to your capital. If you can do this, trade will expand quickly, and the revenue you will get from businesses in the city will increase rapidly. Also, establishing a reliable road network is very important for Romanizing the entire area, and spreading Imperial culture and influence. This is reflected in the Empire success rating. There is a Road Layout Mini Map to show you where your roads extend to. WATER ~~~~~ Houses need water. You are not expected to connect plumbing directly to each dwelling, just provide all homes with a reasonably close water source. House values will be severely curtailed if you fail to provide them with water, and you will never see those shabby tents become palatial mansions. Bath Houses also need nearby water supplies. A local bath house is very important to the quality of life of any civilised Roman. Houses will not im- prove in quality very fast without bath houses around. There are three types of water source available in the game. Wells are the simplest. They can be sunk anywhere, but only provide water within a very limited area. Reservoirs are the next option. To create one, just lay a piece of water pipe on a straight section of river or lake. The pipinq will become a small water store. Nearby people will be able to collect their water directly from there. However, the main purpose of reservoirs is to provide water to fountains. If a fountain is placed, and is connected by pipe to a reservoir, it will provide water to a large area. It is possible to continue the pipe on past the fountain to further ones. The Land Shape Mini Map will tell you quickly where the natural water supplies are. The Water Distribution display from the same list will show which areas are currently considered to be sup- plied with water. WALLS ~~~~~ Any province of the Empire would be overrun with barbarians, were it to neglect its defences. A reliable army is one necessary protection. Another is a proper network of defensive walls. You can build walls on the Provincial Level, and on the City Level. The walls on the Provtncial Level are by far the most important - it is far better to keep the attackers out of your city than to contain their rampages once inside. A normal wall will usually keep a barbarian army out, although there is a small chance that it will break through the wall and carry on. If there is a tower built onto the wall close by, the chance of breaking through is much reduced. Note that towers are only used to strengthen walls - they cgnnot be built on their own. For more information on soldiers and barbarians, see 'The Army'. BARRACKS AND PREFECTURES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Barracks are small, local militia bases, which hold a few soldiers each. Prefectures are the Roman equivalent of police stations. Other officials like tax collectors also work there. Both buildings keep down the level of discontent in their part of the city. Barracks also put out soldiers who will intercept any barbarians and rioters they encounter. Note that these soldiers act automatically and need not be controlled by you. Prefectures create an administrated area immedi- ately around them, which means that taxes can be collected there. For more information, see the 'Tax' section. STARTING BUSINESSES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Governor you can help start small businesses, such as workshops, within the city. To do so, select the business icon and choose what the new firm is to manufacture. The workshop will appear. Once it begins to operate, you can check its performance at any time. The empty space within the workshop courtyard, below the main building, will start to fill up with produce. The more there is, the more successful the business is. Differene provinces will be best suited to making different things. For example, most people will tell you that the grapes in Gaul produce better wine than the ones in Brittanial Experience will tell you where to press wine and where to make pottery. Some variety is essential, though. If you find that copper goods flourish in your province, and from then on you only build those workshops, you will quickly flood the market, and wind up producing more copper than anybody wants to buy. For a business to be successful, two other things are needed. A nearby heavy industrial plant to supply the necessary raw materials is essential. Secondly, there must be a road from the business that leads to the vicinity of a marketplace, so that goods can be sold. Note that the road does not have to go right up to the market, but it should take you as close as possible. AMENITIES ~~~~~~~~~ Schools, Hospitals, Temples and Oracles all fall under this category. The number of schools and hospitals there are per head of the population will significantly affect the quality of life of your citi- zens - and so your ' Culture' rating. Having such facilities near a house will also help to boost its value slightly. Temples work in the same way, but are even more important. Oracles provide the benefit of several temples, and also have a significant effect on house values over a very large area. ENTERTAINMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amphitheatres, theatres and hippodromes all keep the populace entertained. Their presence boosts house values significantly. They also have a lesser effect on the Culture rating. FORTS ~~~~~ A Fort is the headquarters of a cohort. The cohort is the basiunit of men in the Roman army. Each one has its own fort. So, when you build a fort on the Provincial Level, you create a building for soldiers to live in, and you declare that a new Cohort shall be formed to operate there. A flutter- ing red flag appears at the fort, to indicate where the new cohort is. Note however, that until you assign men to the new Cohort there will be no-one in it, ond it will only exist 'on paper'. See the 'Army Recruitment' section for more information. DEMOLITION & CLEARANCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you build something and then change your mind about it, you can always knock it down. Select the demolition icon, and click on the building you want destroyed. It will come tumbling down, and be converted into rubble. Then just sweep over the rubble with the mouse button pressed to erase all trace of the unfortunate project. MAINTENANCE ~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, the things you build don't necessar- ily stay up. As well as barbarians and rioters, your creations are threatened by natural disasters such as fires, and the effects of the passage of time. Fortunately, you can assign people to do work which will reduce these dangers. The workforce in your province is composed of slaves. A slave can be given one of six tasks: Construction Work Fire Prevention Building Upkeep Army duty Road Maintenance No work assigned. You can see who is doing what by asking your Slave Foreman (See 'In the Forum'). Each work category has two figures next to it. The first is the number of work groups currently as- signed this job. The second is the minimum you should have assigned to cover that area fully. (Except in the Army cgtegory. See the 'Army Recruitment' section for more details). To change the number of groups working in an area, click on the two arrow icons next to the number itself. Note that the jobs are ranked in order of importance. If you try to allocate more slaves than you have to an area, the computer will automatically take them from less vital categories. Construction is so important it works differently from everyging else. The computer will automati- cally draw enough slaves from the pool to fulfill construction needs. If there are too few, it will take all that it can. Without construction groups, you will not be able to build anything. Leaving some slaves with no work to do is basi- cally wasteful, but it will help expand the slave population a little over time. THE ARMY ========= COHORTS ~~~~~~~ You control one Legion of men. This is made up of units called Cohorts. A Cohort in turn consists of several Centuries - groups of 100 men. Each Century is made up of one of the following types of soldier (there are no mixed Centuries): regulars - superbly trained professional soldiers irregulars - reasonably proficient drafted men auxiliaries- absolutely terrible slave soldiers Each Cohort will also have a morale rating, which will increase if they win battles, and go down if they lose. Every Cohort will also have its own battle stand- ard, number and name. BARBARIANS & RIOTERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are 16 different races of barbarians who might attack you. In battle, different tactics work best against different types of barbarians. Experi- mentation will tell you what sort of approach works best when facing Carthaginians, for exam- ple. It is vital to keep barbarians away from the capital. If they do reach your city on the Provincial Level, they will enter the City Level. They will then roam about destroying much of what lies in their path. Walls and barracks on the City Level may provide a last defence. Violent rioters are another class of people who will endanger your city. They act much like barbarians, but calm down reasonably quickly. INSPECTING YOUR TROOPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To inspect your Cohorts, go to the Military Advisor (see 'In the Forum'). The legion number at the very top of the screen just depends on which province you are in. Below that you will see the fluttering banner of one of your Cohorts. To the right of the standard, you should see the current orders of the unit, its morale, and the Centuries it is made up of. Use the arrow buttons further to the right to step through the different Cohorts you control. The button between the two arrows will toggle the current Cohort between mobilised and demobilised status gsee 'Army recruitment'). The very large numbers in the centre of the screen tell you the total number of regular, irregular and auxiliary Centuries in your entire Legion. The numbers in brackets are the amounts you had last year, so you can see if your army is growing or shrinking. Note that some of your Centuries may be en route to join a unit, and so not currently in any Cohort. ARMY RECRUITMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You start off with oniy one Cohort - the Prima Cohors. Initially, it consists of just 1 Century of regulars. Clearly, you would be safer with a bit more than that. You can set up new Cohorts whenever you like (see 'forts'). As explained in that section, however, setting up new Cohorts doesn't increase the number of men in the army, just the number of units it's divided into. There are three ways to add to the number of soldiers you have. If you spend more on your annual army wages (see 'Paying your Soldiers'), you will get more regular soldiers joining up. The new recruits will not appear immediately you spend the money. Rather, a steady flow of new applicants will be attracted to the job over the next few years. You will not need to assign these men to particular Cohorts - they will be spread throughout all of the Cohorts you have as evenly as possible. If you increase the rate of conscription, also through your Military Advisor, the number of Irregular soldiers you have will go up in the same way. If you ask your Slave Foreman to put more slaves on army duty (see 'Maintenance'), more Auxilia- ries will be assigned throughout your army. Note that on the Foreman's report, the first figure after the Army heading is the number of slave work groups assigned to army duty, and the second is the total number of cohorts your work groups translate into. The army will not use odd individu- als which they cannot form into a new cohort. If you want to increase the number of men in a particular location, you can tempotarily demobilise some other Cohorts. Their soldiers will feed slowly into the general pool of recruits, and will then be assigned to the various mobilised units of the army. You can re-mobilise the Cohort at any time, and it will start to fill up again. See 'Inspecting your Troops' for how to demobilise. CONTROLLING COHORTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your army exists only on the Provincial Level.(The soldiers you may see coming from city Barracks are militia - nothing to do with the regulor army.) There are four sorts of instruction you can give a cohort. In each case, you should click on the relevant icon on the Provincial Level, and then on the Cohort you want to order. Stop -the Cohort will stay still, awaiting further orders. Patrol -click anywhere and the unit will move between there and where it is now, indefinitely. Attack -click on a barbarian horde and the Cohort will attack Return -the Cohort will 9O back to its home Fort. Battles -When a Cohort and a group of barbarians meet on the Provincial Level, a battle will occur. You will have to decide the tactics used by your troops, and you will be given the results. It may take a few rounds of decision-response to finish the battle. If you have Impressions' Roman battle game, Cohort 2, you can play through the battle in detail if you wish to. To do so, just click on the informa- tion panel along the bottom, and follow the in- structions on the screen. Otherwise, click on the main picture. The bottom panel will display information on the state of your troops, and then on the enemy. You will see the name of your Cohort, its morale, and the number of regular, irregular and auxiliary Centuries in it. Below that, the type of barbarians you are facing will be shown, and then the number of Centuries of them there are. These statistics are updated during battle to show you the data after casualties have been taken out. The number they had originally will be given in brackets, so you can see how you are doing. You now have to choose a tactic from the following list: Tortoise - A close knit, defensive formation. Retreat - Pull out with Whoever you can save. Assault - A standard frontal attack. Flank - An attempt to encircle the enemy. Charge - An all out attack. Click on one of the icons along the right of the screen to make your decision. The result will be shown on the bottom panel. The strategy to choose depends on whether you or they are outnumbered, and also on what type of barbarians you are facing. UNREST IN THE CITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the people do badly under your rule, dissent will grow. Eventually, fierce riots may break out in one or other portion of the city. The rioters will wander about wreaking havoc in your city. Any militia soldiers you have nearby will try and contain the trouble. The mere fact that there is unrest indicates that you have gone wrong, however. By far the best way to deal with unrest is to prevent it from happening. Make sure the people are content, have money and jobs and feel secure and there should be few riots. The presence of barracks and prefectures will also suppress violent dissent. You can check out potential trouble spots by looking at the trouble areas mini map. DISK AND GAME OPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on theDisk Options icon to save your progress so far in the game. If playing from floppy, you will have to insert a fresh formatted disk. You can also load up a game that was saved previously, pause the game, or start again. If you wish to you can also forbid the usual message panels which appear, warning you of barbarian incursions, natural disasters and so on. This information is valuable and you should only do this if you are very confident that you can keep track of everything yourself. HINTS AND TIPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Divide your time carefully between the city and the province. If you get too wrapped up in working on the City Level, you might suddenly find your new buildings being decimated by a flood of barbarians because you have neglected to set up adequate defences on the provincial level. > Never forget water supply. Use the Mini Map to check that all of your houses are supplies. Lack of water will hurt land value very badly. > Similarly, don't neglect the road network. Build (or at least plan) the roads before the build- ings: don't set up housing and then worry about roads. Roads on the Provincial Level are very useful, but also very expensive. Before starting any such project, make sure you can afford it. > Always try and cover Fire Prevention, Road Maintenance and Building Upkeep needs com- pletely. If you don't have enough slaves, spend more on their welfare to bring the numbers up. If your city is expanding, allocate substantially more than you need, or you will soon realise that the growing requirements have exceeded your alloca- tion - when things start falling down. > If you let this happen, or if barbarians or rioters get into the city, check your infrastructure (roads, pipes, walls) carefully. One damaged section of pipe can cut off water to a wide area. > Don't be tempted to spend all of your money at once - always have something available for contingencies. > Remember that tax is only collected from administrated areas. Tax collection facilities - like new fora - are the best investment around. > Don't start off building hundreds of houses at once - they will just disappear because there are no amenities or jobs around. Work up housing, business and cultural centres in a balanced way. > Use the Mini Maps. Land Value especially will tell you just how valuable different projects are, and how far their influence extends. CAESAR ====== Once upon a time, a man stood on a hill looking down at the bend in a river. He decided that this would be a good place to build a house. Being a popular fellow, after a while some other people decided to come and join him on his hill and the foundations of the Roman empire were laid. A thousand years later, a young man called Marcus Publius sat in the Theatre of Pompey (not far from that first house) watching a very tedious Greek tragedy. We know this because most Greek tragedies are tedious and because in school books every young Roman man who is not an emperor is called Marcus Publius and has a slave (or a dog) called Titus. As yet another over-excited fat lady rushed onto the stage brandishing a bloodied dagger, the eyes of Marcus Publius glazed over and he set to dreaming of glory in the all-conquering legions of Rome. It would have been hard for Marcus to imagine a world which Rome did not dominate. As he sat and day- dreamed, there were no serious rivals to the Roman Army apart from a few barbarians in the north and an empire or two in the distant east. Yet a couple of hundred years later the city of Rome was just part of an Ostrogothic kingdom. Of course, ripples remain of Marcus Publius and his friends. Rome survives in our language, our govermnent, our judiciary, our buildings and our imagi- nations. Nevertheless, while some Roman roads are now three lane motorways, others are barely discernible tracks along the edges of obscure fields. Why Rome fell has been a popular topic of debate ever since, lending itself to dramatic reconstructions full of orgies, corruption and barbarian hordes. And yet why it fell is not as interesting as the simple fact that it did. Historically and for whatever reason, an empire always does. Had you asked Marcus, or an Ancient Egyptian, or a Ming Dynasty Chinaman, or a Napoleonic Frenchman, or a Victorian Englishman, or even a Russian five years ago about how their empire might disappear, they would probably have thought it a silly question. The fact that we cannot imagine how, for instance, the United States of America could break up or how western capitalism might collapse does not make our position any more secure than that of Marcus Publius. So far the United States has not lasted as long as the Roman Empire. Rome fell partly because the strength of the Empire was shifted east to Constantinople; the strength of westem capitalism is also shifting east. But then again, perhaps we are so different from every other empire in history that we, as opposed to anyone else, will last for ever... THE GREEKS ~~~~~~~~~~ It is not unfair to say that the Romans inherited from the Greeks much of the philosophy behind how a civilised society should organise itself and the Greek 'polis', or city-state, was fundamental to this. Thus, rather than starting the story of Rome in the foothills of central Italy it makes sense to take a quick look at the model for a city that the Greeks had already come up with and which they were about to hand on to the new boys in town. The Greek mainland and islands had been a centre of civilisation for a couple of thousand years before Rome was even thought of. They had been at the heart of both the Mycenaean and probably the Minoan civilisations and had thus enjoyed long periods of prosperity and settled conditions. This had produced a population increase which in turn led to a widespread process of colonization. New Greek cities were founded all along the Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor, North East Africa, Spain, France and Southern Italy. Among many others, Greeks were responsible for the founding of the cities of Marseilles, Naples and Istanbul (originally Byzantium and then Constantinople). The geography of Greece, consisting largely of islands and small plains encircled by mountains, made for small political units and created a sense of the value of inde- pendence and self-sufficiency. These values were passed on to the new colonies which regarded themselves as separate entities from their mother cities. Thus the Greek world came to be made up of hundreds of small city- states, most of them with populations of only a few thousand, who shared a common identity, culture and language and could be formed into various leagues to confront the barbaric outside world but who were also jealous of their own independence. This tension was an inherent part of Greek civilisation, on the one hand limiting the extent to which it could reach out and domi- nate its neighbours while on the other enabling it to survive as a vibrant part of subsequent civilisations; notably that of Rome. THE POLIS ~~~~~~~~~ The success and creativity of the Greek polis led to a number of developments which were reflected in the Roman city ideals. As the wealth of individual cities grew, tribal kingship gave way to rule by landed gentry which in turn was threatened by the political aspirations of the wealthy merchant classes. If by their endeavours they could acquire economic strength, why not political power as well ? With literacy came intellectual debate and the spread and development of reason. This brave new world needed to be ordered. The wild and amoral gods and demons were tamed and made to look and act like men. They were given proper houses to dwell in and dirty little shrines became magnificent temples, monu- ments as much to civic pride as to the deities themselves. Perhaps most important of all was the introduction of civilian law, to which all free men could appeal and to which all men, however well-bred, were subject. Rather than the law being meted out at the king's pleasure, it Was now the responsibility of elective and even collective govern- ment. Various experiments in democracy arose (even a form of communism) with different combinations of assemblies and elders being thrown up by variously constituted electorates. The roles of the feudal lord as priest, judge and military defender were taken over by the polis. An infantry was organised which reduced the significance of individual military prowess, which had been the mainstay of tribal and feudal rule. The ebb and flow of political power in Greek society need not concern us. Suffice it to say that by the 5th Century BC, Athens and Sparta had emerged as the two main rivals for dominance. The land-based Peloponesian league of the Spartan monarchy was supplanted by the sea-based Delian league of the Athenian democracy, only for Sparta to make a brief comeback. They joined to defeat external enemies such as Persia and then returned to their internecine struggles. Eventually, the merry-go- round was stopped by Philip of Macedon when he defeated the Greeks at Chaeronea in 338 BC, finally ending city-state freedom. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, exploded Greek culture throughout the middle east by taking a Greek army on a truly spectacular invasion of most of the known world. He then died at the age of only 32 before he could get home to Macedon, leaving his empire split between his generals. Three entities emerged (plus the little kingdom of Pergamum); Macedon (which had control of Greece), Syria (which included most of the eastern conquests) and Egypt where Ptolemy founded a new dynasty. The Greek cities, and especially Athens, largely abdicated from politics and concentrated on being centres of learning. They permeated the rising star of Rome which on a clear night could be seen in the west. THE CITY OF ROME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The romans took many of the ideas of the Greek Polis and adapted them to serve the building of an empire. The ideals of law and order were changed from moral standards to instruments of control. The common responsibility for defence became a way of recruiting for the legions. Perhaps most important of all, the notion of ultimate power resting with the citizen was developed so that power rested not just with any old citizen but a citizen of rome. The rulers of distant cities scrambled for the honour of Roman citizenship. The greeks were restrained from trying to rule an empire because they valued the principal of independance. Athens did not want to rule sparta so much as dominate a Greek league included Sparta. The Greek city-states sought allies wheras the Romans sought possessions. The Romans formed allies to defeat common enemies but in the end allies and enemies were swallowed up together. The Greeks produced a magnificent civilisation but not much of an empire. The Romans borrowed the civilisation and turned it into a great empire. However, we are bounding ahead of ourselves by about 700 years. The historical founding of Rome is less important and much less interesting than the legendary one. In any case we cannot be sure of early historical details beyond the reasonable assumption that the city coalesced from a small group of villages. In fact there are two legends about the founding of Rome which eventu- ally merged into one. In the 5th Century, the Greeks recorded that Rome was founded by Aags, the Trojan war veteran and son of the goddess Venus. The other legend, that Rome was founded by Romulus, twin brother of Remus, was joined to the first by asserting that Romulus and Remus were after all direct descendants of Aeneas. THE LEGEND ~~~~~~~~~~ The story of Romulus and Remus is a good one. Aban- doned as babes on the banks of the River Tiber, they were suckled by a she-wolf and brought up by a shepherd. Having killed his brother in a quarrel, Romulus founded Rome on the Palatine Hill in 753 BC. Reckoning that they were a bit short of women in this new city, Romulus went Off and kidnapped some from the nearby Sabine tribe; the so-called 'rape of the Sabine women'. To help him, Romulus also appointed one hundred elders, or 'patres', who became the first Senate and whose descend- ants called themselves 'patricians', thereby acquiring instant credibility and a pre-eminent position in society. Over the next one hundred and fifty years, Rome devel- oped from a cluster of hilltop settlements on and around seven hills into a fully fledged city, draining the marshes in the valleys between the hills and eventually building masonry structures such as temples and defences. Ruled by a succession of seven kings who were chosen by the Senate, she was very much under the influence of the Etruscan civilisation which held sway to the north. Indeed, the last three kings, of whom Tarquin I was responsible for most of the major building work of the period, were of Etruscan extraction. By 509 BC, how- ever, the Romans were ready to take matters into their own hands and Tarquin the Proud was thrown out of office for being much too unpopular and the Roman Republic was proclaimed. THE EAST ~~~~~~~~ As the Romans gradually defeated and took over the Carthaginian empire, the powers in the eastern Mediterra- nean began to get nervous and tried to face down the new threat. When the Romans attacked pirates on the Illyrian coast, the Macedonians to the south took the side of the pirates with the not too surprising result that the Romans extended their campaigns into Macedonia, defeating her in 197 BC. Just as the Romans were going home the Syrian empire in Asia Minor invaded Greece, forcing the Romans to sweep back through Greece and into present- day Turkey, defeating the Syrians in 190 BC. At this stage, however, Rome was not interested in direct rule of the east (it must have seemed like they were already doing quite well enough in the west, thank you very much) and withdrew into Italy. nevertheless, Macedonia continued to grow in strength, provoking a further Roman invasion in 171 BC. Finally in 146 BC, the new Roman province of Macedonia was created, which incorporated the whole of Greece after the southern Greeks had revolted a few years earlier. The rest of the Aegean went Roman in 133 BC when the last king of Pergamum, Attalus m, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome and it became the province of Asia, consisting of the western end of Asia Minor. 14C BC was an important year in the history of Rome. In that year both Carthage and Corinth were razed to the ground and the Corinthian citizens were sold into slavery. It marked not just the defeat but the end of the powers on either side of Italy and it announced Roman rule to the world. It marked a transition from Rome merely trying to secure its borders to feeling confident enough to boss the known world around. If in the same year they could do that to two of the greatest cities in the world, everybody else had better watch out. IMPERIAL ROME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ironically, but as so often happens, just as Rome acquired a position of unparalleled external strength, she very nearly fell apart. There had been rumblings for a while within Italy and the next hundred years or so brought civil wars and the death of the Roman Republic. Republics are not really designed for ruling empires (Napoleon had the same trouble and came up with the same solution and as the empire had grown the republican system had been hijacked by a senatorial elite. The rural and urban poor, who seemed to be getting poorer as Rome became richer asked the question, 'Are we a republic or not ?' and eventually discovered that they weren't. Theoretically, power rested with the citizens, who gave it to the Senate which acted as an executive, responsible to an elected Assembly. However, increasingly the Senate and the magistrates were dominated by a new nobility, made up of patricians and nouveau-riche plebians, who found it much more convenient to ignore the Assemb1y altogether. While this system was unchallenged, it worked very well but it had no constitutional validity and collapsed as soon as the boat was rocked. This was done initially by land reforms proposed in 133 BC by Tiberius Gracchus and then economic and legislative reforms proposed by his brother Gaius a decade later. Both brothers came to a sticky end. In 122 BC, southern Gaul was taken over and became the province of Gal Narbonensis but very soon after- wards the army started losing battles to troublesome Germanic tribes, putting the whole State of Rome at risk. As a consequence the Roman army was reformed by Gaius Marius, becoming much more efficient and professional but at the same time switching its allegiance from the State to individual army commanders. This made civil war a constant possibility and almost inevita- ble. THE DICTATORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ However, before ambitious generals could really get their act together, the so called Social War from 'socii ' meaning allies) broke out in 91 BC. The non-Roman Italians, who for two hundred years had been fighting to stay non-roman, had gradually realised that, in this new day and age, there was a lot to be said for being a Roman citizen. This resulted in the political unification of Italy, with citizenship granted to all in 90 BC, but it hardly led to peace. When war was declared on Mithridates of Pontus who had attacked the province of Asia, a squabble broke out about who should command the legions in Asia; Marius or the consul Lucius Sulla. In the end it was settled by Sulla marching on Rome and declaring himself dictator. Although his rule only lasted a year, it was the first (but not the last) time that Rome had been taken by a general at the head of her own legions. After Sulla, three men jockeyed for power; a politician called Crassus and two generals, Pompey (one of Sulla 's boys) and Julius Caesar. They formed a private alliance in 60 BC, known as the First Triumvirate, but they were really all out for themselves. Pompey had established his credentials in the 70s and 60s BC, first by helping Crassus to defeat the slave rebellion led by Spartacus and then by conquering a lot of eastern territory, including Bithynia, Cilicia, Pontus, Syria and Cyptus. Crassus put himself out of the picture by getting himself killed by the Parthians in 53 BC. Caesar, however, employed better tactics and made the most of his opportunity by conquer- ing the whob of Gaul by 49 BC and even having a look at the mysterious island of Britain. By this time Pompey had taken power in Rome and persuaded the Senate to take away Caesar's command. As a consequence, Caesar invaded Italy, forcing Pompey to withdraw to Greece where he was defeated by Caesar at Pharsala. Pompey escaped to Egypt, where he was murdered. Caesar returned to Rome to rule for four years until the infamous Ides of March in 44 BC, when he was murdered by 'Brutus and the rest'. There was thus another power vacuum, more civil war and three more contenders, Mark Antonyr, Marcus Lepidus and Octavian. Octavian beat Antony at Modena and marched on Rome, only to make friends again when Anthony and Lepidus joined forces. This was then the Second Trium- virate, formed in 43 BC as a legal dictatorship for a period of five years. The following year, Octavian and Anthony went off to defeat Brutus and Cassius while Lepidus looked after the shop in Rome. In 40 BC, they divided power, Lepidus being given Africa, Octavian the west and Anthony the east. Lepidus blew his chances with a failed power bid and Anthony suffered a series of disasters in the east, not least of which was to start a bit of thing with Queen Cleopatra in Egypt. All of this played into Octavian's hand, who in 31 BC got a mandate from the Senate to attack Egypt. Anthony and Cleopatra were finally defeated in Greece and committed suicide together in Egypt. THE EMPERORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although he claimed to have restored the Republic in 27 BC, Octavian was effectively the Emperor of Rome from that time, assuming the name Augustus and ruling very successfully for 32 years until his death in 14 AD. He brought stability and reform, taking the army out of politics with land grants, and undertaking a tremendous programme of public building. It was said that Augustus found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. He laid the proper foundations for Roman imperial rule which lasted for over 300 years. In the hundred years following the death of Augustus, the empire continued to grow, particularly in the north and in the east. Under the Emperor Trajan, the Empire reached its greatest extent, taking possession of Arabia and Dacia (modern Romania) in 106 AD and armenia, Assyria and Mesopotamia in 117, whereupon he died.The new Emperor, Hadrian, decided that it would be better to consolidate the imperial boundaries rather than seek further expansion. He even abandoned some of the eastern conquests of his predecessor. Nevertheless, the threat of invasion, especially from the northern Germanic tribes was always there and the army gradually re- asserted its influence over politics. In civilian life, things bubbled along but internal weak- nesses were beginning to appear. More and more people became Roman citizens until 212 when the Emperor Caracalla awarded citizenship to all free-born men in the empire. This was mainly a financial measure since it meant that there were more people to tax but it was part of a general weakening of the imperial structures. More and more emperors were being murdered and a long period of anarchy followed Caracalla's death in 217. The confusion was partially resolved by Diocletian, who came to power in 284 and divided the empire into four prefectures, ruled over by two emperors (Augustii) and two assistant emperors (Caesars). This was called a 'Tetrachy' or 'four-man rule'. However, this system was further evidence of weakness and inevitably it broke, down. In 324, the Emperor Constantine defeated his co-emperor, Licinius and took over sole power. Constantine was the first emperor to convert to Christianity and his ties with the pagan city of Rome were not as strong as some of his predecessors. In 330, he moved his capital to Byzuntiun, building a new unashamedly Christian city. The western half of the empire collapsed over the next hundred years or so and, although Justiniun re-conquered some of it in the middle of the sixth century, it was lost again three years after his death. The Roman empire had become the Byzantine empire, Greek-speaking and Christian. This new empire acted a thousand years more, to some extent carrying the Roman torch, until it was finally crushed by the Turks in 1453. THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The effect and character of Roman rule varied from region to region. In general, the western half of the empire underwent a rapid and far-reaching process of Romanization simply because the standard of government and level of civilization that Rome brought were so much better than what had been before. Without meaning to belittle the vibrancy, creativity and sophistication of the Celtic tribes, it is nevertheless true to say that relatively crude tribal societies were exposed to new levels of education and technology and had modern roads and buildings constructed in their midst. This is in static contrast to the eastern empite where the civilisations of the Greeks, Persians, Egyptians and the like were in no way inferior to that of Rome. Indeed, AS we have seen the so called Roman civilisation was very largely borrowed from the Greeks in the first place. Consequently, the eastern empire remained very Greek in character and was simply ruled from Rome. Great cities existed already and the Romans did not build that many new ones, instead building Roman baths and temples within existing Greek and Egyptian cities. As such, it is in the western and northern regions of the empire that we see more dearly how the Romans went about building settlements. It is here that they were given a relatively blank canvas to paint on. In particular, we will concentrate on Britain, that most northerly and magnificent outpost of the Roman Empire. Contrary to popular belief, Britain was not invaded by Julius Caesar, although he did pop over to study the form while he was in the area conquering Gaul. In fact, Britain was invaded a hundred years later by Claudius, partly because he felt that his imperial position needed a bit of A boost after the excesses of his nutty predeoessor, Caligula. Moreover, both the emperors previous to Caligula, Tiberius and Augustus, had enjoyed great military successes and Claudius no doubt felt that by finishing what the great Julius CAesar himself had started he would be putting himself right up there. It was also true that the troublesome Gauls had a nasty habit of slipping across the English Channel to hide out with their Celtic cousins. THE INVASION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So it was that in 43 AD, Claudius dispatched Aulus Plautius with four legions to invade Britain. Landing in Kent, they swept north west, defeatine the Britons under Caratacus near Rochester and then again on the future site Londinium (London). There, with the native capital of Camulodunum (Colchester) at their mercy, they waited until Claudius could arrive from Rome to lead them triumphantly to victory. After a full sixteen hard days sitting around being triumphant in Briton, Claudius went home again leaving poor old Aulus Plautius to resume command and continue the campaign. Over the nexct few years, the Roman legions moved steadily north and west, finally defeating Caratacus in Wales. He fled north to the Brigantes, only to be be- trayed to the Romans. Sent as a captive to Rome, the British chieftan so impressed Claudius with his courage and dignity that he was allowed to live out his days in honourable if captive exile. By the time Paulinus was appointed governor in 59 AD, most of England and Wales south of Lincoln was in Roman hands. He was busy trying to polish off the Druids in north Wales when a revolt broke out in East Anglia led by Queen Boadicea of the Iceni. In the folklore of British resistance to the Romans, the feisty Queen Boadicea in her heavy war-chariot takes pride of place. She quite eclipses Caratacus, which is very unfair because she was much less trouble than he was. Although the Iceni had a high old time and even sacked Londinium, they were an unruly bunch who got rather carried away with themselves. Heavily laden with booty they were easily routed by Paulinus when he returned from Wales. After that, the south of England was pacified and Romanized and the fighting shifted to the north. In 78 AD, Agricola was appointed governor of Britain and under him the Roman legions reached their most northerly point. Establishing three permanent legionary bases at York, Chester and Caerleon he headed north and defeated the Brigantes of northern England before marching into Scotland. By 84 AD he had control of Lowland Scotland and had inflicted heavy defeats on the Highland tribes. Exactly how far north Agricola got, we don't really know but it certainly seems to have been beyond Aberdeen. Just then however, in the winter of 84 AD, he was recalled to Rome and the border slowly sank back into England over the next forty years. HADRIAN'S WALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 117 AD, the Emperor Hadrian came to power and, as we have seen, introduced a policy of consolidating his borders rather than attempting new conquests. He went on a tour round his Empire, visiting Britain in 122 and initiating the building of a defensive wall along what was the northern border at the time; a line between Car1isle and Newcastle. However, Hadrian's Wall in Britain was only a tiny part of a defensive system, cal1ed 'the Limes', that stretched over 7,000 miles around the edges of the empire; along the Rhine and the Danube between the North Sea and the Black Sea, from the Caspian Sea to the Red Sea and from Egypt to Morocco. Without wishing to belittle Hadrian's Wall still further, in many ways it was built in the wrong place. It does not follow the natural features very well, with views some- times obscured by inconvenient hills, and it seems simply to have been built where the border happened to be when Hadrian arrived. In the hundred years or so after Hadri- an's Wall was built the Romans tried to establish a frontier 80 miles further north between the mouths of the rivers Clyde and Forth. This is a much shorter distance and makes much more sense. However, the so-called Antonine Wall built along this line was less substantial. Eventually the legions found themselves overstretched and the border fell back to the earlier line. The Wall -------- In fact, the Wall is not a defensive structure so much as a part of a defensive strategy. On its own, it could hardly have kept a horde of marauding Picts at bay. It was only about 8ft wide, which was enough for a legionary to patrol along but not enough to concentrate sufficient forces to defend it. It was thus primarily an observation platform and a boundary line. No doubt it was supposed to look like a formidable obstacle to the aforementioned marauding horde, in the sense that to approach it they would have had to have come over a mound and then down into a ditch to stand beneath a 22ft stone wall, but any horde worth their salt would have been able to scale it. The point was that simply standing on a wall exchanging arrows with the marauding horde below was really a waste of all the training that the Roman legionnaires underwent. It was in the open, where they had room to manoeuvre and organise, that they were the best fighting force in the world. Thus the Wall was designed to release legionaries into the open at the optimum time and place. A marauding horde simply had no idea how many legion- aries were about to burst out of the Wall and attack them, nor from where they would come. This trick was achieved with an elaborate system of milecastles, forts and turrets that were built along, in front and behind the wall. The milecastles were small forts positioned (surprise, surprise) one Roman mile apart along the wall. They were really guardhouses, usually holding far fewer than the 50 or 60 men they could otherwise accommodate, and provided access to the northern side of the border. The Romans could spot the enemy from afar, muster their troops unseen behind the Wall and emerge on either side to trap the unlucky horde against the very wall they were trying to attack. The main body of troops were stationed in fifteen forts along the length of the Wall, protected behind by the Vallum. This was a double line of mounds with a ditch between which seems to have been the Roman equivalent of a barbed wire fence; simply telling the civilian popula- tion to keep off military land. The forts were then serviced by the Military Way, which was a purpose built road running behind the Wall with branches going to each fort. Later on, a series of outpost forts were also built in front of the Wall, providing even more warning of an advancing horde and even more room to manoeuvre. In some respects, the role of the Wall itself was thus changed from a first line of defence to an administrative line to fall back on in times of crisis. THE END ~~~~~~~ The end of Roman rule in Britain is usually dated as 410 AD although in effect it simply fizzled out through lack of interest. As the Roman empire itself collapsed, a series of army commanders in Britain laid claim to the imperial throne and set off for the continent with all the troops they could muster. This, of course, progressively weak- ened the defences of Roman Britain against raids by the Irish, the Picts, the Sagons and various other assorted hordes. In 410 AD, the Romanised British people ap- pealed to the Emperor Honorius help and were told to go away and leave him alone; or words to that effect. As for Hadrian's Wall, it seems to have been abandoned by the Legions and taken over by the civilian population in 383 AD, although it may simply be that the soldiers had their families living with them from that time. Either way, it is not surprising that a civilian population in the wilds of the north of England would jump at the chance to live in fortified Roman buildings. This leads nicely into the topic of Roman cities, how they worked, how they contributed to the operation of the Empire and why they were thought to be such a good ides by barbarian people who had never lived in them before. WHY CITIES ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are two basic reasons why people choose to live together in cities (or towns); security and trade. This is as true for us as it was for the Romans and the Celts. However, as civilization has progressed, the relative importance of these two factors has changed. For tribal farming settlements, community life was mostly about protection from rampant hordes of Picts, although market day had a crucial role to play. For the Romans, security was important but easier to achieve and thus the benefits of trade came to the fore. For us, there is very little danger of rampant Picts (except for international soccer matches) and business is why we live in cities. It is interesting that we seem to be approaching a level of sophistication where business is going back to the coun- try, linked by phone, fax and computer. Often a town grows up to exploit a very specific natural resource or geographical feature. These might include a rich seam of coal, fishing grounds, a fertile plain, a lake, a bend in the river, a major crossroads, a bridge, a hill or a natural harbour. Moreover, the nature of a settlement is to some extent determined by what kind of security is wanted and what kind of trade is expected. While most Celtic houses were timber-framed huts with walls of wattle and daub, the Romans built elaborate stone build- ings. While a Celtic settlement consisted almost entirely of private dwellings clustered aimlessly around that of the chieftain, the Romans carefully arranged temples, bath houses, aquaducts, theatres and forums and linked them together with streets. The most fundamental reason to gather together is secu- rity. The human being is not designed to live in total isolation from the rest of its species and even nomads and hunter-gatherers, who do not build permanent settlements, move around in groups and maintain relations with their neighbours. For tribal peoples this safety in numbers is reinforced by long standing family ties, both real and imaginary. In this way there will always be people to identify with and club together with because there will always be kinsmen and fellow tribesrnen. More over, it makes sense to live in the same place as those most likely to help out in times of trouble. THE CELTS ~~~~~~~~~ The Celts were both tribal and warlike, forever sweep- ing off to attack some enemy, perhaps in order to take over more fertile land, perhaps because they had been driven off their own land and perhaps just for the hell of it. It was therefore a good idea to identify with the most powerful chieftain, join his band and build houses around his in the sure knowledge that in the face of an external danger he would lead them all into battle. Furthermore, since the settlements were often not much more than glorified military encampments (even if they stayed in the same place for a good many years) there was no particular reason to build houses that would last forever. Of course, even for the mighty Romans simple physical security was an important factor. The very fact that they were an invading force made them a target for attack from irate natives. Moreover, a legionary fort would often become the focus for a haphazard settlement; if you built your hut next to a Roman stronghold it was hardly likely to be attacked by casual bandits and if it was, you could shelter inside the fort. Many of the Greek and Roman cities started out with the basic model of a central forti- fied area surrounded by an agricultural settlement. In many ways, of course, this model was similar in form to the Celtic settlements but the Greeks and Romans substan- tially developed the basic theme. For those who chose to live in a Roman city, other aspects of security were becoming important also. There was the security of knowing that there were priests in the temple doing the right rituals to appease the right gods, there were teachers and doctors ready to educate and cure, there were merchants making sure that all the goods that might be wanted were in the market and as always there were neighbours who might hear the agonised screams if someone fell down and broke a leg. By subscribing to the laws and administration of the city, one became part of a whole that was greater than its parts could ever be. TRADE ~~~~~ This brings us to the other main contribution of cities; trade. At its most basic level, to trade with someone you or your representative generally have to be in the same place as them (at least you did before the invention of the telephone). The local market has been the foundation of many a thriving town, even some Celtic ones. By actually living next to the market, you had constant access to a wide range of goods, which was not possible for a farmer who might only come to market two or three times a year to sell his crop in exchange for some basic necessi- ties. More importantly, however, since the market provided you with all you could want, there was the opportunity to specialise and become a shopkeeper, a builder, a potter or a tailor. You could get an education or even go into politics. Whereas in an agricultural settlement everyone had to spend most of their time looking out for danger and gathering food for the day, in a city these were largely taken care of by others. Each individual had only to perform a specific role. Furthermore, the very fact that a city was permanent, built to stand for ever, made it worth while investing in infrastructure and technological development. Thus the structures, physical, legal and administrative, became more important than the individu- als that used them. Once established, they could just as well be used by every subsequent generation. Of course, it is very simplistic to suggest that the Celtic settlements were incapable of providing any of the goodies that the Roman cities offered. It is nevertheless. true that the Roman system was so much more efficient and stable that it constituted a totally different way of living. Things which before could be achieved only if you were lucky were now taken for granted. There is no doubt that Roman cities posed awkward questions for the local people. Farmers are naturally conservative and the idea of a Celtic warrior becoming a Roman shopkeeper was a bit of a sell out. At the same time, the Roman urban lifestyle was very attractive. This was all part of the Roman plan. Cities. were founded very largely as an instrument of control over the people they had conquered. On the one hand, of course, they provided somewhere to station legionnaires and an adminis- trative centre for a region. More important in the long term, however, was the Romanising effect that they had. By showing the people how wonderful it was to live like a Roman and by tempting so many of them to join in the fun, the threat of local insurrection receded. Even those who remained in the fields had kinsmen in the cities. It is significant that Rome was finally swept away by barbarian hordes from outside the Empire rather than through upris- ings among the subject peoples. ROMAN CITIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before looking at the bricks and mortar, it would be well to identify who lived in different types of city and how they were organised. As we have seen, primitive pre-Roman settlements were not much to write home about but there were exceptions, such as our old friend Camulodunum (Colchester) in Britain. Under Roman influence these often grew into cities and were called 'oppida'. Equally, where a proper city existed before the Romans arrived (more typically in the cast) a city charter might be granted by the Roman emperor and it would be given the title, 'municipa'. Sometimes these new cities would be re-organised along Roman lines and sometimes they would continue running in the same way, subject to Roman approval. However, it is in those cities that were founded by the Romans that we can see what the ideal was. These were called, 'coloniae' or colonies and were initially built and lived in by veterans recently discharged from the legions. Far from being old and infirm, these were highly trained and experienced rnen who had simply done their allotted time in the service of Rome and been rewarded with a plot of land. Legionary training included surveying, construction, engineering and a host of skills useful to the building of a new city. Perhaps it is not surprising that the cities tended to be built in the same grid formation as a Roman fort. Of course, in an emergency the veterans could also act as a highly trained militia. The coloniae were given a charter by the emperor which laid down its constitution, gave it a name and detailed its rights and privileges. The administration was very similar to that of Rome itself. Just as (in the good old days of the Republic) the Senate elected two Consuls to rule the Empire, each city had a town council, the 'ordo', which elected two chief magis- trates, 'duovirs' to act as mayors. There were then various city officials with functions carefully spelled out in the city charter. Each city was also given an area of land which it could cultivate and raise rent from. With respect to their internal working, the cities were relatively independent from the authority of the provincial governor. Roman citizenship was a valuable status to possess in that it bestowed several important privileges. As well as various legal exemptions and rights of appeal, there were two major rights that bore directly on the workings of the cities. The first, 'commercium', was the right to conduct commerce under Roman Law which was a great advantage, particularly when trading between provinces. The second, 'conubium' was the capacity to have a marriage recognised under Roman Law, thereby protecting the legitimacy of any children and their rights of inheritance. Thus Roman citizenship was of great advantage to anyone seeking to build and retain a fortune and became increasingly highly sought after. BRICKS AND MORTAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although early Roman towns (including Rome itself) were just as haphazard as everyone else's, by the 1st Century BC Greek notions of town planning had caught on and things changed dramatically. When they got going, the Romans were great little planners and relished the pros- pect of meticulously planned new cities. A site would be chosen and marked out by the imperial surveyors, closely following the layout of a legionary fort. Sacrifices would be made to the gods and away they would go. As far as local conditions would allow, the city would be in the shape of a playing card with two major roads crossing at right angles in the centre. The quarters thus created would be divided by side streets into a grid of numbered blocks, called 'insulae'. The surveyors would also allocate agricultural land to feed the population as well as making calculations as to land rents and the taxation needs of the new city. A Roman city was much more of an integral part of the surrounding countryside than is the case today. Since techniques for the preservation of food were not very highly developed, many of the needs of the city popula- tion had to be produced in the immediate vicinity. A city was simply not viable if it had insufficient agricultural land locked into its operation. Over time there was a tendency for smaller farms to be bought up by large landowners, who languished in plush villas and main tained substantial estates. Major public buildings would be built at the centre of the city, next to the main crossroads. Perhaps the most important of them was the forum. Although in the early days of the Republic the forum might sirnply be an open space, by the 1st Cantury BC the planners were starting to enjoy themselves and the forum took on a standard form, often resembling the headquarters of a fort. In the shape of a square, three of the sides would be formed by colonnaded walks, offices and shops. Along the fourth side would stand the basilica, which was a large assembly hall used for a range of activities, including court sittings, administration and political meetings. The area thus enclosed was used as the market place, with stalls set up much as they are today. The forum therefore acted as civic centre, market place and administrative he where goods and ideas were exchanged. CIVIC PRIDE ~~~~~~~~~~~ Civic pride was an important part of city life and many of the public buildings were constructed simply to show off. Huge arches and monuments were constructed to honour some great deed of daring-do performed ned by a founding veteran or simply to toady to the emperor. Temples would be built in honour of some deity but great trouble would be taken to made sure that it was just a little bigger than the one in the next city. The city walls and the gateways in them were usually much more elaborate and massive than a purely defensive function would dictate. However, this was not simple vanity. The more prestige a city could generate, the more trade and imperial favours it could attract. Well, all right, it was mainly vanity. Naturally enough, some of the building work was financed out of city coffers. As with any city, money was collected from a bewildering array of rents and charges; fines, water-rates, customs duties, market tax' entrance fee to the city paths, licences etc. In Ephesus, had you wanted to set yourself up in the potentially lucrative business of selling salt and parsley, it would have cost you one denarius for the privilege. However, many individual buildings were paid for by wealthy benefactors which, if gou were very luckg, might even include the emperor. Moreover, the management of city finances could in itself be a matter of civic pride. The city of Nicomedia got in big trouble with the Emperor Trajan for spending vast amounts of money on not one but two failed aquaduct schemes. Perhaps they just leaked. Nevertheless, apart from showing off, the city did provide extensive civic amenities. Although medicine was in its infancy, there were hospitals and there were schools, often in rooms off the basilica. As such, market days were usually a school holiday simply because no-one could hear what the teacher was saying over the din. While the very wealthy might live in luxurious town houses or country villas (or both), most of the city population were housed in tenement blocks. These were very badly constructed and were forever spreading disease, falling over or burning down (or all three). Eventually, a height limit of 60ft was imposed, presum- ably on the basis that if they were going to fall down it better not be from too great a height. In the northern part of the empire, it was more usual for the poor to live in rows of timber houses. WATER ~~~~~ However, the two most famous public amenities were connected to water. Aquaducts are perhaps the most spectacular legacy left by Rome. Many were fairly simple affairs consisting of underground pipelines. Some were colossal feats of engineering, blcing water careering down one side of a mountain and shooting up the other under force of pressure. They crossed gorges and went through mountains. One at Nimes went along a channel, through a mountain, and over a river on a bridge 1542 ft long and 161ft high. At Segovia, the quaduct is still in working order. On one rather sad occasion in Numidia, two teams of workers set about tunnelling through a mountain from either side but missed each other on the way. The other great watery contribution to world civilization were the Roman baths. In fact, of course, they were more like a cross between a sauna and swimming pool than a bathroom, with 'bathers' moving together from the undressing mom (apodytcnum) to the cold room (frigidanum) to the warm room (tepidarium) to the hot room (caldarium). Heat was produced by an underfloor system which sent hot air from a furnace into spaces beneath the floor and up the walls. It was so efficient that 'bathers' had to wear thick-soled sandals to protect their feet. The daily bath was very fashionable and a great social focus for both men and women. However, in the 2nd Century the Emperor Hadrian (who seerns to have been a bit of a spoil-sport) issued a decree forbidding mixed bathing. Although the aquaducts usually ensured a plentiful supply of water to the city as a whole, very few houses had the luxury of their own piped supply. The water was col- lected in large tanks and piped to the public baths and fountains. Moreover, since there was no mechanism for conrolling or stopping the flow, the drainage system had to be very efficient. The public latrines, with everyone sitting in rather sociable lines, were flushed with the water from the baths and the whole was carried away along drains and sewers. HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Straight roads are also something for which the Romans were famous. They built a transport and communica- tion network over their vast empire that was unparal- leled until the modern era. They built wooden cause- ways across marshes, bridges over rivers and zig-zagged roads up mountain sides. Moreover, it was all so well constructed that many roads and bridges have survived two thousand years or more. A bridge at Vaison-la- Romaine even survived a direct hit by a German bomb in 1944. Although the main roads were originally built for military purposes and to facilitate the running of the empire, once they were in place, of course, they were of great benefit to the communities through which they passed. The cities built side roads to link into the net- work and the maintenance of the system fell largely to the local communities. However, the legendary straightness of Roman roads is a little misleading. The road engineers were not stupid and if the easiest route was round a mountain or along the banks of a river, they could build curves with the best of them. However, when the terrain was flat and there was no particular reason not to go in a straight line, they went straight. Moreover, the Romans had the know-how to build in a straight line when they wanted to. The point really was that the roads were planed, so they actually went to where they were going by the shortest route. This seems to have been a revolutionary idea. Certainly the new roads must have seemed ridiculously straight to a local population used to tracks meandering their way happily across the countryside, apparently with no particular end in sight. Nevertheless, however good the roads were, they were much more expensive than water transport. Particularly when transporting large or heavy loads, a barge to the sea and then onto a ship was by far the most sensible way to go. Every permanent human settlement needs access to water and most ancient ones were built near to a river. If the river access was not sufficient for their needs, the Romans were more than capable of building canals to bridge the gap. A city with sea access could reap great rewards and would spend a lot of money on harbours and lighthouses etc. Although the city of Rome had very little sea faring tradition, with the advent of the empire and the large distances involved, it quickly acquired one. Not only did it make trade much more efficient and profitable but it made sense to rule the waves as well as the land in between. RELIGION ~~~~~~~~ Religion played a vital and obvious role in Roman society; it is the back-seat driver of every society. Al- though we may have a clear impression of who the Roman gods were (Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Mars, Mercury and their chums) in fact Roman religion was a highly complex, not to say unwieldy structure. Not only did they rule a huge empire which contained a dazzling array of faiths, deities and spirits but they were also (on the whole) very tolerant of them and incorporated many into their own system. This confusion was not helped when Julius Caesar was made a god after his death, initiating a practise of emperor worship. Even the spirit of Rome itself, Roma, was worshipped. Religious belief often starts with a vague idea that there must be a divine essence in everything. Like many primitive societies, the Romans believed that every aspect of life and nature had its own spirit. Thus there were spirits of victory, fortune, marriage, storms, trees, streams, animals and anything else you care to name. There was also a spirit, called a 'Lar', which protected each household. When they dedicated an altar or a city, they often ended with, 'and any other gods around that we might have forgotten to mention'. This divine soup was given a little more structure by adopting the gods of the Etruscans and the Greeks. In particular, the Greek gods were very handy. The Romans identified some of their deities with particular Greek gods (Zeus became Jupiter, Hera became Juno, Hermes became Mercury etc.) thereby acquiring a ready-made pantheon complete with well developed mythological characters and legends. As they conquered new territory, they discovered new gods and incorporated them also, as much as anything to avoid having to suppress indigenous religions. So in Bath for example, there was a temple dedicated to 'Sulis Minerva', Sulis being a local Celtic nymph. Moreover, some of the eastern deities, such as Mithras in Persia, Cybele in Anatolia and Isis in Egypt found themselves at the centre of Roman mystery cults. Of course, some local religions were suppressed because they were seen as a threat to the Roman State. Druidism in Britain and northern Gaul came in this category, as did Christianity and Judaism. At first Christianity was tolerated but it did rather inconveniently demand that its followers renounce all other gods, which sounded like atheism to the Ro- mans. However, after a period of savage persecution (being thrown to the lions and all that) Christianity eventually became the official State religion at the end of the 4th Century. Of course, all of this was quite literally a god-send to the civic show-offs. There was no shortage of spare deities to build a temple in honour of and most cities boasted a veritable rash of shrines and temples, including at least one to their own patron deity. With each new emperor there was yet another possible candidate, particularly since there could hardly be a better way to carry favour with someone than to dedicate an enormous gilded shrine to them. Furthermore, it was a good excuse to really go to town with the decoration. Nevertheless, temples did have an important civic role in that Roman religion was a public rather than a personal affair, in which the rituals and sacrifices necessary for cantinued protection and prosperity were performed by priests in front of the assembled community. Temples and religious festivals were funded by the city and the priests were highly esteemed city officials. GOOD TIMES ~~~~~~~~~~ As a society becomes wealthier and more technologically advanced, continued survival can be ensurred by working for less and less of the day. The wealthiest members of society do not have to work at all. As such, more time and effort is spent in working out how to have a really good time. To some extent the Roman empire collapsed because people ended up working so hard at enjoying themselves that they forgot to work at anything else. In modern legend, barbarian hordes gathered at the gates of Rome while the inhabitants were busy with the most enormous orgy. Moreover, with apologies to Virgil and Ovid, it is fair to say that the Romans did not spend their leisure time making great cultural and artistic strides. The drama was mostly borrowed from the Greeks and the chief role of music was to signal manoeuvres to fighting legions. In general, Romans were much better at eating, drinking and fighting than at writing sensitive poetry. Of course, the wealthy classes had cultural evenings in their homes, washed down with enormous banquets, but most people just went to the pub. These taverns also served as gaming houses and of the hundred or so identi- fied in Pompeii, several were brothels with unpaid accounts still scribbled on the walls. Under Greek influence, theatres were built and the educated classes sat and watched Greek tragedies arld comedies but it did not compare with what the Greeks themselves used to do. The rest of the public preferred less intellectually chal- lenging entertainment such as pantomime and mime, not least because women were not allowed to appear on the stage of a serious theatre. They were, however, allowed to appear in panto and these events soon degenerated into very vulgar and debauched spectacles, more in keeping with Roman sensibilities. THE GAMES ~~~~~~~~~ What the Roman people enjoyed most of all were 'the games'. These came in various forms, most of them with origins in Etruscan funeral rites and Greek theatre but slowly adapted to suit the sadistic nature of the Roman audience. In fact, one can divide the games into the sporting, which took place in the circus and the sadistic, which took place in the amphitheatre. Sport had been a popular part of Greek culture and in the early days of the Republic, Romans had gone to Greece to take part in their games. Later, Greek sports were includet in Roman pub1ic games. In 67 AD, the Emperor Nero went on tour in Greece in order to take part in a Greek sporting festival which included the Olympic Games. He returned home with 1,808 first prizes, no doubt as a consequence of many a potential gold medalist tactfully falling over in the home straight. The circus games included wrestling, boxing and athlet- ics but the most popular sport was chariot racing. As such the design of the circus was best suited to this activity. It consisted of a long, thin racetrack with tiers of seats either side and ridiculously sharp bends at either end. A low wall called the spina ran down the centre to prevent head-on collisions (no doubt to the disappoint- nent of many of the spectators). Some of the circuses were simply enormous; the Circus Magimus in Rome having a capacity of 250,000. Chariot racing was big business (much like horse racing today) and the chariot- eers became real celebrities. There were four racing factions (imaginatively called red, blue, white and green) and the rivalries often led to violent altercations. DEATH AT THE GAMES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The sadistic Roman games took place in the ampithea- tre, which was an oval structure with the tiers of seats often raised above a high wall to protect the audience from the nasties below. The biggest of five in Rome was the Colosseum which could seat 50,000 people and had an arena that could be flooded to produce a large in which to stage naval conflicts. Beneath the stadium there was a maze of underground passages from which would emerge wild animals, Christians and gladiators. The gladiatorial contest had its origins in the Etruscan ritual of a fight to the death being staged at a funeral to help the deceased on his way. The Romans gradually lost the ritual signifi- cance but liked the idea of a fight to the death. Not surprisingly, most gladiators were slaves, although successful ones could eventually earn their freedom. They all got their freedom one way or another. As well as fighting each other, gladiators called bestiarii would fight wild animals, including bulls, bears, tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards, lions and elephants. The animals were also pitted against each other to add to the fun and a thriving trade grew up with distant prov- inces to supply the games with exotic animals for slaugh- ter. Nero once produced a spectacle that brought about the death of 400 bears and 300 lions in one day and 9,000 animals are said to have died to inaugurate the Coliseum. It goes without saying that many Christians, Jews and other enemies of the State were executed by wild animals for the entertainment of the populace. They were a pretty bloody thirsty lot those Romans. THE LEGACY ~~~~~~~~~~ However, dont lets be beastly to the Romans. They did after all give us both the word and the idea of civilisation. While it may no longer be geographically true that all roads lead to Rome, she lingers on in our own culture. Roman letters, your date of birth is recorded using the Roman calendar, your home town may well have been founded by Rome, your country was ruled by rome and given a name by Rome, you are governed partially under the principals of Roman law, many of the very words you speak are Roman. It is hard then to deny, that to some extent, your identity is tied up with Rome. 2,000 years after the coming of Imperial Rome we all still know about gladiators and legionaries, aquaducts and baths, the Circus Maximus and Hadrians wall. Caesar and Caligula. Most of us know practically nothing about the Minoan civilisation, the Chinese Empire (which was just as great as the Roman one), the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hitties, the Persians, the Indians, the Goths, the Vandals, the Huns, the Slavs, the Greeks, the Britons. We dont know all that much about the greeks. We know they all existed but not much more than that. One almost gets the idea that the Romans were the ancient world; apart from Christ, the Battle of Hastings and Robin Hood they are what happened before Henry VIII.