$256.8 Trillion
5.136 Trillion Dn
1.284 Trillion Au
GDP PPP
$120,000 per person
2400 Dn per person
Development
#1 in the world
Slavery Rate
2.4%
Formation
Foundation : 21 April 753 BCE (0 AUC)
Constitutionalization : 509 BCE (244 AUC)
Imperialization : 16 January 27 BCE (726 AUC)
Reunification : 21 September 1066 CE (1819 AUC)
Currencies
Denarius (Dn) Aureus (Au) Sestertius (HS)
Religion
92.3% Roman Christianity
3.6% Judaism
1.6% Islam
0.3% Atheism
2.2% Others
Ahauism
Andeism
Druidism
Arianism
Animism
Hinduism
Shinto
Territory
Mainland Europe up to the Ural Mountains; British Isles and Iceland; Anatolia; Coastal Middle East; North Africa; Saharan Africa; East African Coastline; North West Africa; OTL Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Madagascar; OTL India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan; OTL Australia and New Zealand; OTL Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay and East Venezuela; OTL Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola; OTL Bahamas and Turks and Caicos; US West Coast up to Michigan and Missouri line.
The Roman Empire (La: Imperium Romanum) or Senate and People of Rome is an autotheocratic constitutional monarchy covering a third of the planet. The most powerful sovereign state in the modern world and the largest and oldest country in history, Rome controls part of every continent and shares borders with all recognized countries. It is the only country justifiably called a global state.
The Imperium was founded with its capital, Rome, along the Tiber by the eponymous Romulus in 753 BCE. Shortly thereafter, the city came under the control of Etruscan kings. The last one, Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by Brutus of the Junii clan in 509 BCE. This event formed the Republic.
The Roman Republic's history was tumultuous, defined by long periods of unrest and dictatorship. But it upheld the democratic principles on which it was established until a general named Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River into Italy in 49 BCE. His actions plunged the Republic into civil war. Fighting did not end until 27 BCE. Rome was reborn from the fire like a phoenix into a magnificent new entity, the Roman Empire.
Rome's new empire experienced numerous wars in the last two millennia, and has not lost one. But the state almost met its downfall in the Second Civil War, seeing it split in twain. The upheaval ended with the combination of the papal and imperial thrones in 1066 CE. The power of this autotheocracy has ensured the persistence of the Imperium under its leader's nearly absolute religious and civil authority.
No country in history compares to the modern Imperium. It has control over land, air and space that is unmatched by states on this Earth or nearly any alternate Earth. The Caesar's domain encompasses a third of the planet's surface, and a fourth of the human race. In 1837, Alexander XIV reportedly told a Muscovite ambassador, "I am called the most powerful monarch in the world. The sun never sets in my dominion."
The name, Rome, is accepted to stem from its ancient founder, Romulus, descendant of Aeneas of Troy. This theory has been almost undisputed for the last two and a half thousand years. Nevertheless, many historians note a similarity to the Greek word rhòme (ῤώμη) meaning strength, but the comparison is only to show its appropriateness. Since the City encountered the South Italian Greeks, it has been referred to simply as Rome, even to denote all of its possessions. This is an insightful moniker because as a republic and an empire, the country has always existed to serve the interests of Rome, the Eternal City.
In the City, references to the country have been simple. The old name was the Republic and nothing more. In the time of Julius Caesar, senators could be heard urging people to act "in the interest of the Republic" or "to preserve the Republic". By the death of Nero, the popular name was the Empire. Before setting out to fight in Greater Germany, Sulla told his troops that they fought for "the glory of the Empire." The word itself, Imperium, evokes strong patriotic sentiment. No other country is called an empire. On maps, Romans write Mongol Kingdom or Kingdom of Japan with the distasteful word Regnum.
Officially, the state is the Senatus Populusque Romanus — the Senate and the People of Rome. The abbreviation, SPQR, is publicly displayed on Roman landmarks, like triumphal arches, milestones, palaces and churches. Elsewhere, it is known as the Roman Empire.
According to tradition, Rome was founded along the Tiber by Romulus in 753 BCE. Roman historians agree that he descended from Numitor, rightful king of Alba Longa and descendant of the Trojan prince Aeneas. This establishes Rome's moral legitimacy for Greece, Anatolia and Italy.
The early city was a monarchy governed by Kings (Latin: Regis) elected by the Senate and people of Rome to serve for life. But the Etruscan kings had no legitimacy on the throne and the seventh king, Tarquinius Superbus, was expelled by the efforts of Lucius Junius Brutus and the Senate. Subsequently, the monarchy was dissolved in favor of a Republic, the First Roman Republic.
A new Roman order began in 509 BCE, seeing the nation through its conquest of Italy, Carthage, Greece, Anatolia, Gaul and Egypt. Rome's ambition derived from similarly ambitious leaders, such as Cornelius Sulla, Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus and Marcus Antonius. However, the contentition for leadership of the City led to the Republic's downfall in a series of Civil Wars from 49 to 31 BCE. Four years later, Gaius Julius Caesar (Octavianus) was bestowed the title Augustus (Eng: Venerated One). His reorganization of the state into a Principate, where Caesars ruled by decree of the Senate and People of Rome, ended Rome's democracy.
The new government had a glorious millenial rule, ending when the state split into an Eastern Monarchy and Western Republic, the Second Roman Republic, in a civil war. The Imperium was re-united by the Pope, who crowned himself the next Caesar. Unification altered the mode of government. The new emperors were regarded as greater than other mortals, though not as deities. This period in Roman history is divided into two unequal parts. The Pontificate goes from 1066 to 1372, a time when the identity of the caesarship with the papacy was clear. After Faustus Galerius Pertinax took power in a peaceful coup, the Emperor became recognized more for his legal authority, rather than his religious one. This final period - the present era - is the Dominate.
The land area of the Roman Empire is approximately 47,614,000 km². Of this, 26,490,000 km² (55%) makes up the contiguous provinces of Imperial Eurasia. New World colonies constitute 9,330,000 km² of land while the Pacific island territories are another 7,880,000 km². Indian colonies extend for 3,850,000 km² and are composed of the Hindu and Islamic halves of the subcontinent. Altogether, Rome`s territories cover one third of the planet.
The variety of terrain, flora and fauna in the Imperium is astonishing. Regarding plants and animals, there are three areas of interest, dispersed throughout the planet. Additionally, unique environmental extremes of geographical significance can be found at three locations.
Of the ecological zones, the first is Mahagascar, an African island containing thousands of plant and animal species not found anywhere else on the planet. Of its flora, 90% are unique to the island, a fact which has made it intensely interesting to the Inca, who believe that it holds a wealth of medical substances. However, the human presence on the island, limited as it may be by provincial laws, has reduced the level of vegetation coverage to only 45% of what it was 300 years ago, and has led to a 70% level of deforestation.
The second region notable for its ecology is the Great Columbian Rainforest of South Columbia. While only 60% of it is in Roman land, the forest's diversity is tremendous in those 3.3 million square. One in five bird species, 3,000 species of fish and 2.5 million species of insect live there. The vegetation consists of some 50,000 species of plant,with thousands anticipated for discovery. Unfortunately, like Mahagascar, the rainforest experienced a great deal of deforestation over the last few centuries of industrial and agricultural expansion. 190,000 square kilometers of forest, greater than the surface area of the Greek provinces, has been cleared by slaves and a net clearance rate of 2,400 km² per year persists. The Rainforest, as an important source of future wood for the paper and construction industries, has been targeted for extensive corporate replanting programs. Guilds supporting the lumber industry expect a sustainable exploitation of the rainforest due to renewal efforts.Cotes Magnum in the summer
The last ecologically significant place in the Empire is Australis, a hub of unique aquatic and desert life. 80% of the species in the deserts on the mainland are endemic to Australis, including 800 unique species of lizard. The island's greatest contributor to biodiversity is the vast coral reef that stretches around 2,000 kilometers of its circumference. The Claustrum Cotes Magnum (Eng: Great Barrier Reef) is the agglomeration of billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps which form a reef belt visible from outer space. Unlike the aforementioned forest ecosystems, the Great Barrier Reef, far from being threatened by human presence, is actually growing in size and splendor due to expansion by Roman artists, architects and biologists. The aesthetic beauty of the reef alone has pushed many, the Caesar for instance, to protect and nurture this wonder of the natural world.
For geographic wonders, the Imperium is blessed with the Himalayan Mountain range at the north-eastern edge of India, home of the highest mountain on Earth, Alexandros Mons (after the ruling dynasty at its discovery), and over a hundred peaks more than 7,000 meters high. The mountains are so extensive that their drainage basin cover most of Asia, providing irrigation to over 3 billion people.
The Mediterranean Basin, known in Rome as the Mare Nostrum, is a 2.3 million km² body of water. The womb of Western Civilization, the Mediterranean was one of the largest seas in the world. A few decades ago it was terraformed into a lake geologically sandwiched between Europe and Africa. The transformation did not greatly alter the Mediterranean's physical state, only replacing entrypoints with dams and waterways, but what is incredible about it is that the entire environment of the "lake" is maintained by man-made forces. Flow in and out is fully controlable by Roman engineers in volume, salinity, and ecology.
The last of the Empire's geological wonders is the Columbian Falls near the border with Tawatinsuyu. The waterfall is the tallest in the world with a height of 988 meters and a plunge of 816 m. Engineers constructing scaffolding to release the stream at an elevated point. The new topmost edge is 9 meters higher than ground and surrounded by a marble archway. The peak's resort is one of the most popular tourist attractions in South Columbia and the location of choice for Roman-Inca political conferences.
Climate control is not a technology unique to the Romans. The Japanese, Maya, and Mongols can seed clouds to induce rain when and where they choose. While the Maya have the best chemical inducer, the Romans deploy it more effectively using nanotechnology. They do not even need to approach the target clouds by air. Cloud seeding is the only technique by which most countries control weather.
Rome can control the climate with three other mechanisms:
First, solar energy collectors in space can beam microwaves over an area to heat it at a rate of 11 °C/h under ideal pressure and temperature conditions. Fine-tuning of temperature on large scales is possible by this method, and so phenomenon like hurricanes, tornados and typhoons, which rely on temperature gradients, can be prevented. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico are destroyed yearly by microwaving in the Summer and Fall. Satellites were used several times to create tornados that were captured by wind turbines for temporary power generation. This has zero feasibility as a sustainable power source.
The second technique is integrating climate control networks into cities. Large municipalities have air purified of bacteria by ionizers, are heated by radiators in the fall and winter, and cooled by refrigerators in the spring and summer. Climate control is built seemlessly into the city and is visually inconspicuous. Urban temperature is regulated between 0 and 25 °C, except in Rome where heating systems are supplimented by mirror satellites in tundra orbits, shortening the temperature range on the upper end.
Global climate control is under strict government regulation. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere must remain under 300 ppm by volume. Higher concentrations risk a greenhouse heating effect on a planetary scale that melt large ancient ice in glaciers and permafrost. The atmospheric gas is periodically extracted by artificial carbon fixation into carbon polymers by the Galiran process. Once detected, holes in the ozone layer are sealed by oxygen processing aircraft that fly into the upper atmosphere. High-pressure ultraviolet factories in the plane's bowels transform dioxygen into trioxygen faster than natural atmospheric reactions, sealing the ozone holes. Invention of this technique was necessitated by the international scare of the 1780's when Romans discovered an antarctic-size seasonal hole in the ozone layer that scientists attributed to chlorofluorocarbons used in Roman and Mayan refrigerators. Planes had yet to be invented so ozone factories were built on the ground beneath the hole to maximize regeneration.
The Roman Empire is an autotheocratic constitutional monarchy governed by a Caesar (Emperor) under his AuctoritasPrincipis (supreme moral authority), Imperium Maius (civil and military power to execute orders) and Jure Divis (papal divine mandate). Other magistrates and noblemen possess similar legal powers but an emperor's supersede them. A Caesar's titles include Princeps Civitatis (First Citizen), Augustus (Venerable One), primus inter pares (first among equals) and Imperator (Supreme Commander). Separate from the public office, the bearer of the caesarship bears the highest Dignitas of any individual and has physical sacrosanctity protecting him from physical harm under religious and civil law. Violation of this sanctity is treason and sacrilege, punishable by death.
The papal counterrevolution of 1066 made a Caesar the representative of God on Earth under canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. The religious powers of pope are diluted in their new person, as a Caesar is not permitted to pass religious dogma. This authority was passed to the figure of Deydiakonos. Still, as Bishop of Rome the Emperor may issue binding Papal Bulls and execute structural reforms in the Church. The executive head of the Senate and People of Rome, he has the sole right to enact legislation promulgated by the houses of the Senate. Among his executive power, he has the authority to: Veto, block legislation; Abnustas, annul the tribune's veto; Recogite, bring old legislation back to vote and Tacite, silence the Senate to speak uninterrupted.
On top of his civil powers, the Caesar: has the highest imperium (command) in the Roman Armed Forces, can appoint or disband Ministers, and circumvent the traditional procedures of court to prosecute or acquit at a whim (unless the Senate opposes him). The Caesar's judicial powers are outlined in the Juris Augustis. Some rights are held by the Caesar by tradition, and are not legally binding. However, people's indulgence of their leader in these respects is owed to his supreme personal dignitas (social standing). The practice of enforcing imperial rights by physical brutality of the Guard is [thankfully] ancient history. A short list of what leeway Caesars are granted includes: the satisfaction of minor personal demands, the representation of Rome abroad, the use of Rome's treasury for personal purchases, and the calling or disbanding of the Senate and Congress.
The power of Roman citizens is exercized by their right of assembly. A matter that must legally be decided by the Romans is scheduled as a mass vote in a public area. Anyone with an Imperial citizenship in the designated voting zone is allowed one vote. The possible zones range from township, to Regio, to city. A conglomeration of voting citizens in a political or legal action is officially called a Popular Assembly (Comitia Popula). Direct democracy of this kind is the pride of the Roman people as it embodies their highly interactive government.
In many ways, the Empire is an autocracy, as almost total power is vested in an executive leader, the Caesar. However, the Empire's constitution is the ultimate authority in all judicial, executive and legislative matters. The Constitutio (Constitution) has 32 Pronuntiatios. All proclamations of the Roman constitution are inviolable. Neither the Senate, people nor Caesar can break them. The purpose of the document is for the citizens of the Empire to have inalienable rights in the face of imperial, senatorial, collegiate, social, or foreign oppression.
The government is run by a bicameral (two house) legislative organ known traditionally as the Imperial Senate. The Lower House is legally the Officium Imperium (Imperial Bureau) but custom is to refer to it as the Senate. Members of the Senate, the controllers of fiscal legislation, are referred to as Senatores (s. Senator). Regular bills need a 50% Senatorial majority to become senatus consultum. Such a bill will be posted in the Forum for review by Senators and citizens the following morning. Afterward the Caesar can declare it a new law.
Senatorial procedure is highly influenced by ancient tradition. Voting is to stand in support of a bill, and strong opposition by even one senator can put a motion on hold for further deliberation. No bill can pass through the Senate without originating in the Upper House of parliament, except fiscal legislation. Fiscal matters of the Senate, like public funding and taxation, are dealt with according to custom. One senator proposes a bill for discussion and then another senator seconds the proposal.
Legislature's Upper House is the Comitium Consularum (Consular Congress), a body which traces its origins to the Second Roman Republic. Members of Congress are Consulares (s.Consul) but are nothing like the identically named bureaucrats of the First Republic. Consulares govern the highest division of the Roman Empire (Foederatae), areas that are equivalent to cultural dominions. The power of Congress lies in its ability to create major legislation, which no other body can do, and monitor the regions of its Consuls.
The Consul Italii is the most potent legislative post in the imperial government. The most distinguished Consul and the only person other than a Caesar able to call Congress, the Consul Italii is elected by direct vote of ctiziens of the city of Rome on the Field of Mars (the location of all the City's popular assemblies). The Princeps Senatus, first man of the Senate, has the next most legislative power. Once just an honorary title, the title of Princeps now grants arbitrative rights over senatorial processions, and allows its bearer to call out orders of business and declare the winner of an argument. The Princeps is decided by indirect election in the Senate in July of each year, and begins his term on New Year's Day. When in power he can call the Senate, cancel the weekly sessions on Sunday, sway a vote (both legally and by his support) and act as deputy-regent in the complete absence of the Emperor while the Con. It. has the Caesar's representative duties. Tradition - always important in Roman politics - dictates that the Princeps must perform the acts of promulgating bills and declaring the Senate's final legislative position on a given matter. He also has the power of Tacite. When a Princeps' term is up in December, he must wait five years before running again (period known as a Lustrum).
Two thousand Senators (discluding Princeps Senatus) run the affairs of the Lower House and 40 Consuls (including Consul Italii) control the Upper House. Each Senator is elected for a 5 year term by popular assembly of the citizens in his Regio, a small administrative region theoretically consisting of 900,000 citizens. The people are however very limited in their election choices as senatorial candidates are approved at the whim of the local Praetor. He can allow any candidate he wishes but he must permit at least two to be in the running (or else there would not be a fair election). Consuls are appointed in a similar manner but only the Caesar himself decides candidacy and a popular assembly in the Foederata's capital city determines the Consul-elect.
Roman parliament consists of other bureaucrats than just Senators and Consuls. Praeministra (Ministers) are the administrators of the various operational government bodies such as treasury or technological development. Depending on the Minister in question, anywhere from zero to several thousand people can work within their Ministerium (Ministry). There are one hundred Ministries in the Roman government. Parliament's Ministry of Silver employs ten officers of the treasury called Quaestores. These scrupulous men are charged with collecting taxes from praetors for the federal government, calling out financial corruption and serving as right-hand men and messengers of the treasury and Mensarius Superbus (head of the federal treasury).
Outside parliament are other bureaucrats. Most powerful are the illustrious Censores: 18 members of the Bureau of the Census charged with maintaining public morality, protecting the Constitution and administering the official Public Census every Lustrum. Their duty to issue a public inquiry into literally any activity or political motion supercedes every institution of the Empire. Only the Emperor can avoid them by bringing his case to court and away from the Censors. Within the Ministry of Public Works are 120 Aedilis who supervise spending of money from the treasury, meaning they are basically the opposite of the Quaestores. Whenever any federal funds are appropriated, an Aedile must first be consulted; consequently, the Emperor always has three or four of them at hand. Furthermore, one or two will usually be sent to the construction sites of public monuments to ensure that money is used as efficiently as possible. The last major bureaucrat is the Tribune of the Plebs, a position with extensive oversight powers within the Senate. The duty of Tribunus is to safeguard the well-being of the common people, the Plebeian Order, from the greed and corruption of politicians and collegiates.
Between the Foederatae and Regios are Provinciae (Provinces), the most distinctive division of the Imperium Romanum. Each Provincia is run by its appointed Praetor (Governor), except Judaea where the Judaean Consul also holds the Judaean praetorship. Under normal circumstances, available, or soon to be available, praetorian posts are brought before the Senate in August so that elections are held to fill them with ambitious Italian patricians. All members of the patrician class in Italy can run for this office, the stipulations being that they give up their current job and leave for their appointed province no more than two months after winning their election (also the Princeps Senatus and Caesar are ineligible). The purpose behind the praetorship is for every province (Judaea having special sanctions against this) to be steared by a pure Roman citizen. However, the Emperor can impeach any reigning Praetor, forcing a new election unless the impeachment is vetoed by the Tribune. Such is the politics of an autocratic state like the Imperium.
The lowest level of the division is the Municipia (Townships), administered according to a system distinct from higher strata. Praefecti Urborum (City Prefects, mayors) are elected every other year by popular assembly of the inhabitants (not just citizens) of a municipium. This is the only titled government positions, other than Tribune, that can be held by someone beneath the patrician order.
Quite obviously: Romans love elections. They are a source of drama and are often very entertaining for the public. One of the most important facets of the elections is that they give the Roman people a sense of power and involvement in their government, explicitly demonstrating the Greek idea of the power of Demos.
The vast land of the Roman Empire is divided into territories known as Provinciae, ruled by Praetores (Governors) appointed by the Senate whenever a Praetorian position opens up (either by resignation, death or impeachment). Praetors must be patricians and able to trace their Italian heritage at least a millennium into the past. Once elected, they forfeit other magisterial positions or private jobs. Consequently, a praetorship is a common successive post for Senators or Consuls finishing their term. However, the position is precarious as the Emperor can remove and replace Praetors at his will. See above in Government & Politics for more information on the regional divisions of the Imperium Romanum (e.g. Foederata, Regio, Municipia).
While all provinces are equally safe, with the exception of some of the South African colonies, not every one has its own Legions for defense. Legionaries are stationed only in border provinces. Nevertheless, no provinces are without soldiers due to the protection they all receive from the National Guard (Castellanae Imperiae). This form of protection is extended by Castra (Forts) in every province. Usually a Castra contains 1,000 Guardsmen each, under the leadership of a Praefectus Castrorum (Base Commander). However, strategic sites can have two or up to five national guard units (a thousand men each) in a single base. Otherwise, there are military forts dedicated to training new recruits (Tirones) and supplying reserve soldiers (Adscripticii). Reserves can be deployed at a moment's notice to replace fallen legionaries so that Legions retain a consistent size.
The Constitution is the core of Roman law. Without a doubt, it is the most important document in the Empire. Nothing in the Constitution can be contradicted - no exceptions. Therefore, it's laws are protected by the highest officers of government, the Censores, who have the power to conduct an inquiry into literally any activity in the Imperium. During the investigation, evidence against the accused is brought before the 18 person Comitia Censoria (Censorial Assembly). A 78% majority for a guilty verdict is needed before the appropriate punishment for the crime, according to the Constitution, is administered. Only a Caesar can transform a Comitia into a normal legal case, putting him at the mercy of a public jury rather than a group of sacrosanct magistrates.
The Imperial justice system is strictly hierarchical. Centered around honor, a witness, who must be a Roman citizen, is always believed, unless directly contradicted by evidence. Lying in court is a fatal blow to one's dignitas, a permanent scar on the reputation. A citizen on trial is judged by a member of his social order under an interpretation of evidence by a semi-random jury of 4 plebs, 4 equestrians and 4 patricians. While most trials are held in a public urban field, an accused in Rome can pay 50,000 Dn to bring a case to the Tribunalis Ultima (Supreme Court) near the Forum Magnum. Otherwise, every citizen can rightfully plead his case to the local Praetor, which in Rome, is the Emperor. Whether a praetor hears a citizen's case depends on the his mood and the citizen`s persistence.
The law is egalitarian, preserving the natural rights of men, women, children and slaves alike. It guarantees the same legal treatment to members of all social classes. Legal proceedings of an accused can only be judged by a member of the defendant's Order (e.g. Pleb, Knight, Patrician) so that classism does not interfere with justice. The combined protection of the weak by the Tribune and Censors is immeasurably valuable. All Roman citizens are afforded medical care, and given a free education plus representation in legal and political affairs.
After the Third World War, a new probationary division, the Legio Aetheria, was instituted. This division has ranks, bases and medals that are separate from the rest of the armed forces. The LA is controlled by the ministry for space travel, not the air force as the Legates intended. The reason for this was never explicitly stated by Emperor Cicero, but it is likely so that he can keep a close watch on Rome's extraterrestrial military.
Military expenditure consumes 3.4% of Rome's GDP, the second highest rate in the world. This is greater than 175 billion Dn ($9 trillion) due to the Imperium's considerable wealth. Military spending goes 24% to satellite defense, 20% to the Air Force, 18% to the Legion, 17% to the Navy, 15% to static defenses, and the other 6% to miscellaneous expenditures like private jets and celebrations.
The Legion fields 1,242,180 Legionaries and 3,000,000 national guardsmen. Their engines of war are maintained by teams of thousands of military engineers. The most potent of these machines are the Testudos (Tanks). Smaller than the Mongol and Maya armies, the Legion equips its troops with weaponry that surpasses any other force in history.
The Classis Imperialis employs over 1,200,000 crewmen and thousands of commanders and engineers. The Imperial Navy is the second largest in the world, running 90 nuclear aircraft carriers, 320 battleships, 700 Destroyers, 980 transport-assault ships and about 440 assorted cruisers and small attack vessels. As the Romans take advantage of automation in many ship functions, the number of required personnel for each vessel is incredibly small compared to other countries.
The Legio Caelis Custodiae is the largest employer of Roman armed forces with 1,864,000 active airmen and 600,000 pilots in reserves. Another 350,000 engineers and IT specialists run the operations and logistics of the air force. Total employment of the Aerial Legion reaches 2,814,000 people. The Roman Air Force is the largest and most powerful one in the world, easily outclassing the combined air squadrons of all other countries combined.
As for the Space Legion, it was reported (in 1999) to have more than 4,300,000 technicians and officers in its command. Space artillery is vital to the imperial military machine. Rome has sent 40 missile satellites, 40 kinetic bombardment satellites and 160 laser-defense satellites into the planet's orbit, to say nothing of the hundreds of barracks and surveillance platforms they have in space. Ultimately, the combined use of such advanced equipment has made Rome a nearly omniscient and omnipotent force at war.
Backing their forces is the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Approximately 7,400 ICBMs are stored in underwater silos, in underground silos, on the moon and on fleets of battleships. Of these warheads: 50% are a pure-fusion design and 50% are two-stage hydrogen bombs. 70% of these missiles spread multiple warheads over the target and the other 30% release a single blast for maximum impact. The latter are often specialized for an anti-emplacement role against fortified targets like bunkers. A final 120 nuclear missiles are aboard the space Warship Alexander, surreptitiously violating a treaty which bans nuclear weapons in Earth orbit.
No secret is made in the national or foreign press of Rome's intentions with its military. Public statements admit to restraining foreign powers, stabilizing dangerous international states and destabilizing national enemies. The central strategic goal of the Legions and Classis are defense of the Imperium at all costs and pursuance of Rome's policies by non-political means.
However, subtlety and discretion are sometimes required, for which the Romans have the Munus Indicius Romanus (Roman Intelligence Service), a division of the Praetorian Guard. MIR Agents undergo intense psychological scrutiny and rigorous physical and mental training to become the most feared men on the planet. Their only equals are Ongtsegheon Monks. This is reflected in an incident where a Monk and an Agent were separately, and without each others' knowledge, sent to assassinate a high ranking Khmer statesman. The Monk killed the Agent and the target with full discretion. The incident does not lessen the fear that foreigners have of Praetorian Agents.
The Empire runs a mixed-capitalist economy whose corporate structure is dominated by monopolies in sparse competition. Roman industries tend to be dominated by a few large businesses rather than competing small ones.
Data from the World Bank, says that Rome's GDP is 5.136 Trillion Dn ($256.8 Trillion), the largest in the world (38%). Likewise, Rome's GDP PPP is the highest at 2400 Dn per person. Japan follows closely at 2250 Dn. However, it is important to note that this number does not reflect the average income of citizens.
Rome is the largest exporter and fourth largest importer of visible goods, with double any other country's per capita exports. Its Current Account recently ran a 26.8 billion Dn ($1.34 trillion) surplus, sustained mostly by visible exports. Trading partners by percentage are Maya 34%, Japan 28%, Mongolia 17%, Inca 11%, Nord 6%, and other 4%. The federal government's financial office, the Fiscus, is the highest credit rated organized body or person. It has not reneged on a debt for over 2000 years. Even in times of turmoil such as civil war, someone claimed and payed the federal debt.
The modern economy is 38.5% private activity, 41.2% federal government, and 20.3% provincial government. Meanwhile, the country's postindustrial economy is indicated by small manufacturing and labor sectors (14%), while the other 86% of the employed work in the service sector. The reason for this is that labor intensive jobscan be replaced by automated workers that need one technician where a thousand workers were once necessary. Sectors like agriculture account for a mere 0.001% of the labor force, as farming is nearly totally automated. The state's agricultural output is still 14.1 billion Dn ($705 billion). However, Rome has a balanced economy where no single job sector accounts for a disproportionate amount of economic activity. This protects the economy from long-term shortfalls in particular sectors that can result from structural economic development.
In 2751 AUC, the Empire fell into a recession but unemployment has yet to exceed 3.4% of the labor force (41 million unemployed). Once cyclical (i.e. recessional) unemployment is subtracted, the natural rate of unemployment fluctuates around 1 to 1.6%. Roman unemployment protection is almost non-existent. The federal government only offers assistace in the search for new jobs by facilitating communication. General unemployment benefits have never been offered in the history of the Roman Empire. Also, unlike the former platonic socialist countries, worker's unions are absolutely illegal. There are federal regulations that force guilds to provide a high minimum wage and a safe, unabusive work environment for their workers, but there is nothing in the way of health benefits or of allowances for worker strikes. However, severance pay is very large by government law and every Roman worker can expect no less than 35 days of paid vacation. Certain institutions such as federal buildings and schools are not allowed to offer so many holidays, but still offer about 20 days. With low regulation, no unions, high minimum wage, and no unemployment benefits, Rome's voluntary unemployment rate is the lowest in the world.
Data collected by the Imperial Census Bureau says that per capita GDP is 2400 Dn ($120,000), an amount unmatched by any other state in the world at any point in history. More meaningfully, the pretax income of the average Roman citizen is 2108 Dn ($105,400). This is marginally above their closest competitor Japan. Roman taxes are classed by the World Bank as the third highest in the world, after the Maya and the Japanese but unlike them, its income taxes are proportional for all strata of society. Presently, Roman citizens give the government 32% of their earnings so their average wealth is higher than their more strongly-taxed neighbours.
However, imperial society suffers from a severe income disparity ingrained in its economy for its entire history. The highest 10% of earners control about 87% of the wealth and the top 1% alone control more than half that. Nevertheless, Roman citizens - regardless of wealth - have a high standard of living relative to people in other countries. While 12% of citizens live below the measured Roman poverty line, none would be considered poor in OTL. In fact, the Roman minimum hourly wage is 86 Cn ($43 US) which is 1520 Dn ($76,000) with an 8 hour work day and 220 work days per year. Few Roman men have a yearly income below 1600 Dn ($80,000), only non-citizens, who are not subject to a minimum wage and Roman women, who tend to work few hours, will have comparatively lower salaries. And, of course, slaves have no definite income whatsoever.
Several important facts on income should be highlighted. First, the gender gap is huge. Nearly 95% of working Roman women receive less than 1000 Dn a year and most women don't work. Indeed one of the primary differences between the Roman economy and first world economies in OTL is that women have a small role in the former. A 1997 Imperial Census showed that 11% of working age (15+ year old) women have a paying job, but that all women have a prominent role in affairs around the house. Women who do work are usually in jobs that are atypical for a man (i.e. a job in the fashion industry or a brothel). Others work in jobs specifically oriented to females, often to put them beneath working men. A primary example of this is a secretarial position, which usually has a woman improve a business or politician's image by their feminine presence.
The working age begins at 15, an age that is commonly found in Roman law as it is men receive their first Toga Virilis (Eng: toga of manhood). There is no official or traditional end to a Roman's working life and retirement is a rare occurence in modern as well as ancient Roman society. It was only during the early 20th century, when cures for age-related diseases hadn't caught up with increased life expectancy, that people tended to retire from their jobs when debilitated. Today, there remains no legally defined upper limit for the working age.
In regards to the human development rating of the Roman Empire, there are several things to consider. First, no Roman citizen has died of starvation for over a century other than by their own or a supervisor's negligence or stupidity. Homeless people are almost unheard of - except in southern Africa - and since the 1700's the government has run the Doma Omni (Eng: Houses for All) fund that has guaranteed a low interest loan to citizens to afford a home. This reflects the government's policy of providing loans to assist its citizens rather than charity. History seems to have favored this method as it reduces public dependency.
Federal spending focuses on infrastructure development to help Roman citizens. Any standing asset that facilitates the consumption, transport or production of goods or services is infrastructure. Roman Imperial roads (Viae) are in optimal structural condition; highways are designed to last a thousand years with little maintenance. Water is universally available by Aquae (Aqueducts). A wireless communication network mediated by satellites and fiber optic cables covers the entire country and provides free, limitless access to citizens.
Every watt of power generated in the public sector of the Roman Empire comes from either renewable or nuclear sources. The Imperial Census Bureau states the figures are: 15,370 W per capita, 288,329.5 Terawatt-hours per year, 18% solar satellites, 31% hydroelectric dams, 47% nuclear fusion, 4% other renewable (Wind, geothermal, wave, etc.), average household electric consumption of 21,420 W. This does not reflect power output from the federal government and military.
The Breakdown for energy consumption by economic sector is as follows (figures only apply to Earth):
Residential: 14%
Commercial: 11%
Transportation: 36%
Industrial: 43%
Wasted Energy: 8%
Electricity waste as heat is reduced by superconductors that transport electricity over medium to long distances and by not using thermal engine type power plants.
A major industrial energy cost is urban climate control, something which has existed in major cities for the past twenty years. Cities with a population above 1-2 million people make use of an extensive climate control system to regulate temperature, precipitation and air quality. Meanwhile, animal life is restricted by natural and artificial means to permit eagles, falcons and domesticated mammals and eliminate rodents, insects and unwanted birds. Urban temperature is kept from 10 to 28 degrees Celsius by powerful heating and cooling stations built seamlessly into the city and below its streets. The city of Rome receives special treatment in this regard as there are satellites in Tundra Orbits above the city that reflect additional sunlight onto the city during the day, giving it warm Spring temperatures all year round. Weather control by cloud seeding keeps rainfall in the countryside and softens disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes to more manageable scales.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This idiom is evident in the Imperium. Its technology level is vastly superior to OTL and its neighbouring states, none of whom could understand most Roman devices if it were in front of them. The barrier to their understanding is as simple to expose as it is intrisically complicated: nanotechnology. The science of the very small allows Romans to accomplish incredible feats in medical, military and material technologies of which no one has ever been capable. They can, despite insufficient chemical knowledge, to create greater variety of compounds than Maya chemical engineers.
One factor in Rome's incredible technological advancement is its 160 year-old computer industry. More years than a hundred year headstart on OTL, the Romans have invented intricate electronics and robotics. Standard handheld devices made by Romans are more powerful than some OTL supercomputers, and their principles of computation use science that we can only apply on small scales. In order to link their computers together, Roman scientists invented the Cratis Imperis, known as the Cratis to most. Accessing the Cratis requires registry by ID code onto a computer with an online route of access (e.g. Wi-fi). The Cratis has no room for anonymity as everything action done on an ID code is registered to it and is easily verifiable by the Vigiles (online police). Uncreated domains (websites) may be bought from the federal government for 10 Cn, and existing ones can be bought from their current owner as if they were property. All domains are hosted on public server farms owned by the federal government and together require several million Denarii of taxpayer money each year to operate. The most impressive domain is the government funded "Apotheca", a vast repository of knowledge on billions of topics from the meaning of the word "imperium" to everything you want to know about apples but were afraid to ask.
Autokinetici (Eng: cars) are a class-oriented possession, with specific designs common for particular strata of society. Most lower class Plebeians don't own a personal vehicle and simply use the Empire's extensive public transit system. On the opposite end of the spectrum, patricians often own several luxurious vehicles with automated chauffeurs. Since vehicles larger than a bicycle are not allowed into the cities between 7 am and 9 pm, the state has always had some way to store people's cars while the owners visit a city. Recently, the government is building massive storage towers a few kilometers from major cities to replace the public parking lots that were used in centuries past. These parking towers are reachable by public transit from all nearby cities and can usually hold between 10,000 to a million cars at 10,000 per tower. These towers are very efficient in regards to space, extending several hundred meters underground (or aboveground) and using lifts to arrange the cars in racks.
Metropolitan areas of over 200,000 people have underground rail lines that stretch beneath the city streets. In most cities, the tracks criss-cross into a meshwork of 1 km sided squares with a station at each vertex. Between most cities are short distance maglev trains that run either underneath or alongside the highways. For longer distances high-speed maglev trains transport passengers several times a day in time periods that are impossible by other methods of travel. Several examples of these are the Transatlantic Highway and Circummediterranean Railway, which travel at 4570 and 2680 km/h respectively. Furthermore, every province has at least one major airport to satisfy long-distance and intercontinental travel.
Costs for public transport are extremely low in the Roman Empire. Any Roman citizen can buy a monthly transit pass, which is a programmable chip they can place in anything they own, at the cost of 1 Dn for each pass. This provides unlimited travel on underground rails, light rails and buses in all Roman cities. Most high-speed train tickets cost 2 to 10 Dn, but a Transatlantic rail ticket will lighten your wallet 12 Denarii. Plane tickets are from 14 Dn, Neapolis to Parisium, to 34 Dn, Constantinopolis to Halorium (Columbia). Ships are rarely used for transit except as part of a short-distance ferry service. These are usually very low cost (2-20 Cn) and require upfront payment in order to use. However, thousands of Roman cruise ships travel the world offering high price vacations for the leisure of the rich.
The population of the Imperium Romanum is an estimated 2,141,600,000. There are two main demographic regions. Nearly 64.1% of the population live in the Colonies, a region outside the imperial heartland. The latter is known to Romans as the Imperium. The demographic separation between these two areas are very distinct. The slavery rate in the Imperium is much smaller than the Colonies and nearly all free inhabitants of the former are Roman citizens. Holding citizenship is extremely important in the Empire. It exempts one from the Poll Tax, allows one to join the army as a Legionary rather than National Guardsman and permits appeal to the Emperor for legal judgement. Furthermore, citizenship grants voting rights at the age of 15 and allows someone to run for political posts based on their position in the social hierarchy.
While the Imperium Romanum is the second most populous country in the world after the Mongol World Empire, it is also the second least densely populated one before the United Chiefdoms of Columbia. It owes the latter to its great size, exceeding every other country by a large margin.The average population density is very small, but a lot of the population is concentrated in urban areas. Total urbanization is about 85%. Meanwhile, the cities are thinly populated compared to most other countries due to the absence of skyscrapers. Unlike other countries, the borders of Roman cities are very clearly delineated by large stone or metal walls. Currently about 1208 cities have populations over 100,000 people, an additional 83 are inhabited by over a million people and of that 29 are classified as global cities, i.e. with over 2 million residents. Of the 30 most populated metropolitan areas in the world, 14 are officially in Roman territory.
The Empire has had rapid population growth for the last two centuries. Today, it shows no sign of slowing down. The root of this boon is the country's high fertility rate, higher than any other place in the world, at a national average of 5.8 births per women. This is well above the replacement rate of 1.9 and adds significantly to the 3.9% aggregate population growth. However, immigration, the only source of non-natural growth, is severely limited by the Roman Constitution. Numerous bureaucratic hoops stand between a peregrini and entry into the state to live. Citizenship is even more difficult and costly to acquire. Therefore, most of the country's growth is natural, with 83.5 million more births than deaths each year. Net migration into the Empire only accounts for 430,000 new inhabitants a year, most of whom will leave the country within a year or two. The retention rate of immigrants to the Empire is low in spite of the desirability of a Roman lifestyle.
Total Population: 2,140,600,000 inhabitants
Percentage of World Population: 18.5% (1/6th)
Imperium Population: 770 million inhabitants
Colonial Population: 1.37 billion inhabitants
Citizenship: 1,819,000,000 citizens (85%)
Population Density: 44.96 inhb/km²
Population Growth: 3.9% (83.46 million people per year)
The heath standards of the Roman Empire, especially in its civilized regions, are the second highest in the world. The Roman life expectancy is a mere 38 years under that of the Inca and medical related deaths in the Empire are are among the rarest in the world. The Romans have cures for almost every disease, ranging from cancer to diabetes and even cholera and epilepsy. Even Alzheimer's, strokes and heart attacks are curable if treated early enough. Still, Romans are naturally very healthy, even without advanced medical countermeasures. All of their food is naturally grown, with no artificial additives, even preservatives, or drug residue from the plants or animals it is taken from. While this used to be at a great cost to productivity, genetic modification now protects their animals and crops from pests such as weeds, rodents and insects.
A Roman lifestyle is generally considered to be one of the healthiest in the world. It is perhaps their only health advantage over the Inca. Most Roman citizens, regardless of wealth, eat fish or other white meat weekly, supplemented occasionally by red meats such as pork and beef. Nuts and vegetables are staples of the Roman diet, as are natural condiments with no artificial chemicals, like tomato sauce and garum. A variation of the Roman way of eating is known in OTL as the "Mediterranean Diet", though the ATL equivalent is healthier.
Using OTL's standards, approximately 5% of the Roman population is considered obese, albeit mildly so. With the same standards, about 40% of the population is overweight and 4% is underweight/malnourished. Of those people that are overweight, nearly three-quarters of them are female - so 60% of the female population of the Empire would be considered overweight in OTL. This arises from the Roman attitude towards female beauty, which favors an accentuated, i.e. noticeable, low waist/hip ratio - a 1993 study of over a million Roman men showed that the favored ratio orbits around 7:10. This is a shape that many Roman women proudly possess. Roman views on beauty have changed very little since Ancient times, as evidenced by art from the Republican period. Fortunately for Roman women, their average size and shape is very beneficial to their health and is a contributing factor to the higher life expectancy of women over men.
An important factor in the success of the Roman health system is that the federal government provides free healthcare to every citizen within the age brackets of 1-21 and 60+. Literally all of their health needs, be it dentistry, optometry, or even medical check-ups, are paid entirely by the government. However, those citizens between the two ranges must fend for themselves as it is believed to provide incentive at the time to continue working hard. Even so, low-interest government loans can be requested by anyone in order to pay for medical expenses immediately, so in dire times it is always possible to receive treatment. This healthcare system has been integral to the Roman way of life since the XIIth century when it was one of many guaranteed rights in the Constitution (Proclamation 13).
In the Empire the age of consent, at which time people are considered legally responsible for their actions, is 15 for men and 16 for women. Meanwhile, the average child bearing age for women starts around 20 to 21. Since maternity care is no longer free passed that age, many women try to have at least one child beforehand. The notion "teen pregnancy," from OTL, is also far more common and accepted in Roman society. Nevertheless, about 85% to 88% of its instances occur within legal matrimony. Abortion is a crime punishable by life in prison, for both the doctor and the women, and is almost never performed, even in the more nefarious medical circles. There never was an organized movement to legalize abortion in the Roman Empire as there have been in other countries. Still, pre-intercourse contraception is available at most pharmacies, usually in the form of either a pill or physical countermeasure. Prostitution is also completely legal and even operated by government funded institutions. Even freelance courtesans receive continuous government healthcare coverage and wages, in the event of pregnancy.
It is also important to note that the Roman view on sexuality and hedonism differs significantly from OTL. There was never a period during which the Church or any other conservative organization made it taboo to be open in regards to sex and, consequently, there was no liberal counter-movement (e.g. Hippies or Casanova) against such a thing. Romans have always been very overt about sex, slaves for the purpose of sex are even occasionally given as gifts from one aristocrat to another. The Romans find absolutely no shame in such things. For over a millennium, brothels have been easily recognized public buildings and courtesan is an accepted form of employment for women, though not for men due to misogynistic Roman views. The enjoyment of women goes hand in hand with other indulgences and so bars, taverns and hotels are often found joined to public brothels. Most importantly, superficial entertainment in the form of strip clubs or pornography never developed into industries in the Roman Empire, as they saw little need for such things - though a great deal of literature and art is shameless in its portrayal of sex, often in an extremely graphic fashion.
Switching topics, therapeutic cloning is an especially interesting aspects of Roman medicine. It is a technique that can be used to create new organs for transplants and provide stem cells for regeneration therapies. Due to a law banning the retrieval of embryonic stem cells when it endanger the baby, Roman scientists had a great deal of pressure to come up with alternatives. Without foreign help, the process was perfected to a marketable level by 1949 CE. Today, injuries that cause the loss or damage of body parts, including organs, can be easily repaired by this process, as can permanent tissue damage such as tar build-up in the lungs and sensory damaging deterioration of the eyes and ears.
In spite of Rome's monumental healthcare system, indigenous people and foreigners are not covered. Therefore, certain communities in Africa and Columbia, including most of Swahilium, experience shocking levels of poverty that give them health averages far below the rest of the Roman Empire. Since they are non-citizens, the federal government cares very little about helping them and even less sympathy is given by the Roman people.
Unlike the equally populated Mongol World Empire, the Roman Empire has an extremely diverse population. There are over two thousand recognized ethnic groups within Rome's borders, and even if similar ones are lumped together, almost 20 completely distinct groups exist. Most of these are minor African or Columbian ethnic groups, separated only due to the tribal distinctions which they hadn't overcome by the time of Roman arrival in their lands. These two general groups are the most widely represented in Rome's slave population of which 59% are African, 30% are Columbian, 5% are Indian and 6% are some foreign group. By law, Mediterranean, Mexican and Japanese ethnic groups are not allowed to be enslaved in the Roman Empire.
The Mediterranean ethnic groups are by far the most prevalent within Roman society. Unsurprisingly, the Roman ethnicity is most distinctly so. Although a great deal of mixing has occurred between Romans and the other present races, about 64% of the population can claim ancestry along at least one Roman bloodline. However, only 39% of the population can claim a purely Roman, or at least purely Italian, line of descent. Most pure Italians live in Italia and Rome, or somewhere that has been under Roman control since at least the 300's BCE. The rarest of these mixed-race individuals are Roman-Africans, children of a Roman and African Tribal parent. The definition is so specific because Phoenicio-Romans and Roman-Coptics, while theoretically Roman-Africans, are never referred to as such due to their history.
The Foederatae represent past and present ethnic divisions of the Roman Empire, some of which are so old that the race is not even recognized anymore by the Imperial Census Bureau. For instance, families that are partially descended from Celts, such as the Picts, Gauls and Gaels are referred to as Romano-Celts, though only one community of actual Celts still exists. Germanians likewise no longer exist as when those provinces were conquered their populations were barely over a hundred thousand. The descendants of the Germanians now live in Roman Muscovy and are known by terms such as Lombards, Muscovites, Franks or Anglians. Dacians on the other hand have been almost completely assimilated by the Greek and Roman populations and have also ceased to exist as independent ethnicities.
Greek is by far the most widespread homogeneous non-Roman ethnicity, almost completely covering the Graecian and Anatolian peninsulas and possessing numerous exclaves throughout the New World. Phoenicio-Romans also cover a large area in the Empire, existing mostly in North-West Africa and southern Hispania. They have however been mostly assimilated due to the imperial importance of Carthage and the Mons Calpi Strait (Gibraltar). Judaeans and Egyptians, like the Greeks, are very well traveled and can also be commonly found throughout Columbia, India and the Australis Islands. The province of Judaea in particular is considered a nation within Rome, despite being managed similarly to a province, and has a very high population of purely Judaean citizens (upwards of 30 million in that province alone).
Furthermore, Indians have a noticeably large portion of the Empire's population, but nearly all of them live in their native lands. Unfortunately, prosecution and attempted integration led to many leaving, to the Islamic Republic of India, and so the Indian population is much smaller than it could have been. In fact, only about 41% of that subcontinent's population is actually Indian, and the rest are an amalgam of Mediterranean ethnicities.
Notably absent from this list are the Japanese, as the government of Japan outlawed its citizens from holding two citizenships. This makes it rare to find Japanese living outside the home islands. Only about 2 or 3 million live in the Roman Empire, most being only honorary inhabitants on behalf of the Japanese government, or simply Japanese wishing to leave their country behind and start a new life in the Empire.
With the Emperor's additional title of Bishop of Rome, leader of the Catholic Church, nearly all citizens of the Empire practice one of the organized variants of Roman Christianity. The distinction between these variants occurred in the early years of the Church when the Emperors along with the Popes formed specialized sections of the Church for major ethnic groups. For instance, Coptic Christianity is widely practiced in the provinces of Aegyptus, Cyrenaica, Axum, Nubia and Arabia; while Punic Christianity is practiced in most African provinces notably Numidia, Berberia and Mauretania. Although the religious Dogma of the Church does not differ between liturgies, and all of them see the Bishop of Rome as the Head of their Church, certain practices are adapted to their culture and the languages and art used in their churches very distinct.
Despite the centrality of Christianity in the government, Roman law allows for the free practice of any religion. Judaism in particular is considered to be a "state protected" religion, and the Jews often hold very prominent positions in Roman society. The province of Judaea has always had greater independence than other province and is especially adapted to the advantage of the Jewish people and culture. There are also large Muslim populations in Asia Minor and India, with the province of Palestina boasting the largest Sunni Muslim population in the world due to the diaspora that occurred during the Shi'ite genocide against them in the mid-800's.
Other foreign and small domestic religions exist as well, Ahauism and Hinduism being two of the most significant examples. The latter has seen dwindling membership over the past 4 centuries of Imperial rule, with many Indians already converted to Islam, and many others emigrating or converting to Islam or Christianity over time. The Empire also features one of the largest atheist populations in the world, mostly spread thinly amongst the provinces. Irreligious people are rare in the most developed countries, and are mostly found in the former socialist states such as the Danish Republic. The unusually high amount of atheists can most likely be attributed to the Humanist movement of the Empire, one which sparked the few known atheist movements in history.
Latin is the de jure national language of the Imperium Romanum. It represents its culture, its people and its influence throughout the world. It is required teaching in all schools within the Empire's borders, regardless of the school's public, private or foreign ownership. Several re-education programs in Africa, Columbia and India focus solely on the instruction of Latin, as its instruction is believed to be the first step towards bringing "civilization" there. Many native African and Columbian dialects are heavily discouraged in the Empire, with several state laws outlawing their instruction except in some private schools for anthropological purposes.
The de facto national tongue of the Imperium is Greek, which is spoken by approximately 39% of the population. Although it is not an international language like Latin, nor a required subject of instruction in the Empire, Greek is emphasized as a language of high-culture by both the Romans and the Greeks, and being able to speak it well is a high distinction in Roman society (a very small part of the non-Greek population can actually speak Greek properly). The other three major languages of Roman commerce are Pheonician, formalized since the mid to late 1400's, Coptic, another very popular language in Africa and Aramaic, the standard language of most Judaeans and Jews since even before the VIth Century when it superseded Hebrew.
Certain languages also hold local significance in certain provinces. Palestina and Arabia use Arabic as their language of business and politics, and Caledonia, Cambria, Hibernia and Magna Britannia all make use of Brythonnic in their laws and institutions. Other Ancient language groups such as Gaelic, Dacian, Hebrew, Syrian and the like have all become extinct, and only remain alive in their use by academics in the study of languages.
The international language of Nahuatl is the most widely spoken non-Mediterranean language in the Empire, with almost 100 million speakers. Although the majority of its speakers are expatriate Maya, nearly 30 million Roman traders, bankers and businessmen are fluent in the language as this allows them to more easily do business with the Maya Conglomerate. For the same reason, Japanese is spoken by over 40 million Romans, business with the Japanese being even more lucrative than with the Maya.
Like most modern countries, Roman society is stratified into a class hierarchy. At the very top are the Patricians, these are members of the government, usually very rich and have the highest amount of privileges except where taxation is concerned. Next up on the social ladder are the Equestrians. Known in Latin as Equites, they are part of the rich mercantile and business class that controls the greater part of the Roman economy and makes most of the profits. The next Order, the Plebeian Order is itself divided into two groups: The Upper Plebs and the Lower Plebs. Upper Plebs are the well-off low class citizens who are paid higher wages but are legally of the same order as their poorer brethren. They are essentially the average citizens of the Empire. The Lower Plebs are the imperial workforce, the laborers who do the kinds of jobs that no one wants but the country needs. Both Plebeian groups receive a good amount of benefits from the government and unlike in most other countries, have very comfortable lives. Unofficially there are also the Peregrini, the non-citizen foreigners like the Maya and Japanese. They have the least amount of legal rights and are expected to be taken care of by their own countries. No benefits are offered to them by the government and any who stay to live in the Empire usually do so in the hopes of one day becoming citizens.
The final two strata are the lowest order who, in addition to receiving almost no government benefits, are heavily looked down upon by the rest of society. The first are the Indigeni, who are the native Africans, Columbians, and, in some places, Muscovites, who have been conquered by Rome. Most citizens view them as inferior to the Mediterranean races and, consequently, most of the country's racism is directed at them. Lastly are the Servi, the very bottom of society. These are people, always non-Mediterranean, who have either had their families taken into slavery many generations ago during their conquest, or in rare cases, have sold themselves, or have been sold by their own people into slavery. Although their rights were improved by the proclamation of 1449, the life of a slave is a hard one indeed.
The culture of the Imperium reflects the diversity of its population. The rest of the world regards the Empire as a melting pot of ethnic groups, unlike the pure Japanese or mixed Arabo-Turkish states. Moreover, Romans tolerate and respect the majority of cultures within their Empire and encourage their personal practices through political measures. No other states treats as many groups with the same extent of care and equality. The primary cultures are Mediterannean in origin. This includes Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians and Aramaics. Each has its own liturgical sect in the Catholic Church, bureaucratic language, economic policy and congressional representative. Their cultural independence goes beyond mere appearance.
Rome is a mecca of high culture and intellectualism. For millennia, it has been a role model, emulated in the arts and sciences, and has had politics and philosophies that were copied around the world. Romans are the trend setters of the modern world, as they were of the ancient world. A Roman visitor to a foreign land will undoubtedly be treated with dignity and respect by the locals and visitors to the Imperium are even more respectful of its ways. Mistreatment of a Roman abroad has only been by the unbalanced or vengeful of another country.
The principle underlying Rome's cultural advancements is libertas (Freedom). Freedom of movement within the country, freedom to share ideas and practices, and freedom to seek wealth. The federal government barely limits these liberties of the Roman people by law, force or propaganda. Furthermore, inside the Empire's borders for the last 2,000 years has been a stability unseen in any other time or place. These factors of safety and liberty are no less immanent today so imperial cultures will likely keep evolving and setting trends in the future.
In the 600's, painting became the dominant mode of artistic expression in the Roman Empire, superseding (but not replacing) the earlier art of mosaics. Within a few centuries, the Veritamilis style, which sought to create art that looked as realistic as possible, emerged as the popular form of painting. Even with today's photography, the art of painting realistic images is far from dying out. Emperors are especially patrons of this art. For instance, for over a thousand years it has been customary for a Caesar to commission great works of art depicting major events of his reign, such as scenes of battle or their coronation ceremony. Some Emperors, and even members of the nobility, will pay an artist to live with them and occasionally paint scenes either on location or by memory.
Nearly every major city in the Empire has at least one art museum, and it is customary for a city to offer another city paintings that depict scenes set in its municipality. This was an idea pioneered by Emperor Magnus II and it has ultimately resulted in most major cities being able to display works of art featuring other major cities. The Imperial Museum of Art in fact has a series of rooms called the Orbis Urbum, which has skyline shots of all 98 provincial capitals. On the opposite side of the building is the 200 meter long Hall of History, which features the finest works of art that depict scenes from Rome's history, including the Capture of Vercingetorix and the Detonation of Michael. Meanwhile, the halls of the Palace of Imperials are lined with the imperial portrait of every emperor from Augustus to Cicero (except for Galba, Otho and Vitellus).
Art museums are very popular destinations within Roman cities. The three largest museums of art receive 14 million, 9 million and 4 million visitors each year respectively. Also featured in the art museums are the ever popular Roman sculptures. The art of sculpting is perhaps the greatest product of the Western arts, and definitely one which the Roman Empire made full use of. The Romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians are all very found of creating their sculptures, and cities in areas influenced by all three cultures are dotted with sculptures of many different kinds. The grandest statue in the Empire, however, is the Statue of Victory (depicting a Nike, or Angel) in the bay off the Neapolitan coast. Standing on a 60 m pedestal, the Statue itself is 240 meters tall. The Statue of Victory is a widely recognized national symbol representing the indomitable spirit and power of the Imperium.
The immensity of Rome's Empire and the security that its citizens enjoy means that a great deal of effort is necessary to both entertain and inform the public. Until recently, the primary means by which news was spread was the praeconis (Eng: heralds). These public-wage scribes stood in major plazas within the cities each day to declare the recent news to people walking in the streets, in the manner of giving a speech. Amazingly, this form of reporting was so popular with the Romans that not even personal television could supercede heralds in getting government funding relaying the news. It is only in modern times, in the larger cities, that live heralds have been replaced by holographic ones. These holograms look realistic enough that the change irrelevant to the public. The rich, meanwhile and as always, send personal secretaries to bring the news to them. Except in Rome and Carthage, the news given by heralds is relevant only to the city itself, with the exception of major national news. While news of a murder or disaster in Mediolanum will be spread by heralds there, no one elsewhere in the country will hear about it. An interesting case regarding disseminaton of the news is Constantinopolis whose heralds proclaim the global economic updates on top of local news.
Meanwhile, national and international news is relayed publicly by the Nuntia Imperia, the state run newspaper. Its main sections are: Ludonus (public events/sports), Artanus (the arts), Peregranus (foreign news), Forum (business), Otianus (leisure/vacation), Mortianus (obituaries), a front page for the daily top story and a dozen other pages for other major recent news. Some cities have newspapers that are published and circulated by rich business owners, but thse differ greatly from the government paper and tend to include the political bias or desired focus of their patron (say on sports). Next to the newspapers and the heralds, the only other sources for news are public announcements by city officials, gossip and, formerly, the radio (a kind of virtual herald).
Mass advertising never developed in the Roman world, leading to a commercial dynamic far removed from OTL. Advertisements of any kind are banned in newspapers, the radio, the movies and television. The only permitted and publicly accepted form of advertising is street signs, though some businesses shrewdly bribe heralds to mention their product in a good light. Nearly all shops abide in distinct market districts in the cities and villages, so business owners rely on signs and their own charisma to attract customers to their stall or shop. Nearly every product is sold by a regional monopoly, or by two or three large businesses, therefore advertising for products is wasteful anyways. Certain kinds of street adverts like electric signs or excessive lighting are outlawed in large cities since people find them to be disruptive and bothersome (especially neon signs).
Roman civilization is universally regarded as the model society. Its art forms and customs are widely copied throughout the civilized world and the Roman Consitution was the example of other monarchical laws. Romans are proud of their international stature. A global poll by the government of Japan, that queried 10,000 people from every non-Roman country, found that 65% of people view the Romans positively, but an opposing 32% see them negatively. Looking at these results, it seems that few people lack a strong opinion on Roman culture, whether good or bad. An internal census by Roman Censors in 1977, polling virtually the entire adult population of the Empire, showed that 91% of residents see their country as a positive influence on humanity. Another 4% were completely neutral on the subject and the final 5% believed that Roman civilization was harming the world.
Fascisma, or the fervent support of the Roman Empire and government (Nationalism), is common among Roman citizens. The name comes from the magisterial fasces, a symbol of strength through unity. Romans see themselves as a beacon of civilization in a world of rampant barbarism. However, a majority of Romans take this a step further. They believe that all affairs are the business of their Empire and they have earned the right to interfere in foreign events.
As bigoted as Roman society seems, the Imperium has strong ties to human rights and protecting what it sees as the interests of the human race. While slavery is not banned, the rights of enslaved people since 1449 are higher in the Roman Empire than any other country, and a Roman slave's standard of living is often better than the country or nation from whence he or she was taken. Furthermore, it was Roman philosophers, building on the ideas of the Greeks, who invented the political, ethical and legal notion of natural rights. They believed that every human being was entitled to certain things, the right to his or her own body, the right to breed, the right to equality among their peers, etc and that these natural rights are held equally by every human being, regardless of nationality, race or enslavement, and cannot be revoked under any circumstances. No other country on Earth guarantees the rights of human beings as strongly or as extensively as the Roman Empire.
The Romans also wrote the first Constitution in 1191, and that document is very specific on the legal rights of the Empire's residents. From its inception the Roman Constitution has ensured every citizen: two thirds of their income, a fair trial performed by members of their own social order, equal representation in the government, free education, the ability to afford healthcare, the legal right to keep their citizenship unless revoked by fair trial, and recently the rights over their own genetic information. Furthermore, the Roman Empire is the only country that offers absolutely free healthcare to at least one part of its society (the very young and the very old).
Romanitas (Romanity, or Romanism) is the name of Roman civilization as an idea, rather than a physical reality. This includes all things that are representationally Roman, and are identified with the Roman people. In other words, the symbols of the Roman Empire. The central symbol of Rome is the official formula of the country, which legally represents the Empire, the government and the citizens and is written as Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR). It is the most frequently used term in Roman Law and is flaunted on everything from government documents, buildings and property, to public works and milestones. Internationally, it evokes thoughts of imperialism and a sense of fearsome respect that causes most people to seldom say it, almost as if they think they would be struck down for using it in vain.
Another primary example of Romanitas is the Caesar, not as an individual, but as a position. No one believes that the Emperors are deities anymore but the extent to which Roman citizens venerate their Emperor is almost to the same degree as those states's which still hold that belief. The Caesar's importance to Roman culture cannot be overstated. Deus Caesaro Tege (God Defend the Emperor) is one of three national anthems of the Roman Empire, which is used in every event that directly involves the Emperor. Additionally, the current Caesar is always referred to as Augustus, even by people talking about him in casual conversation.
The anthem for the Roman people, used in public festivals and the opening of sporting events, is Cantus Arma Virosque (Eng:Song of Arms and of Men). This song takes its name from the first words of Virgil's Aeneid, and its lyrics from the story itself and the history of the Roman people. The last national anthem is Terra Nostrum (Eng: Our Land) which is customarily sung by other countries receiving Roman dignitaries. Another of the primary Roman symbols is the Aquila, or Roman Standard (an Eagle). Its visual representation is stitched into all military and public service uniforms, and its stone or metallic form is placed on top of most public buildings, usually over the aforementioned SPQR. The use of the eagle as a symbol is a right exclusively reserved by the Roman Empire, and should any foreigners try to use it now they would quickly expect an international incident.
The Romans study philosophy as a highly academic subject like they do science. As such, it is necessary for children to take several courses of it at the grammaticus (high school) level. Its courses are a necessary part of Roman education, studied as Ethica, Vitalogia, and Epitesmelogia. The time that philosophy had to develop in Roman academics has made its subject matter well-organized and has brought most philosophers to agreement on its most important topics. The structure of Roman philosophy is the following:
Logika
Metaphysica Naturalis Metaphysica Moralis
Physica Ontologia Mathematica Ethica Politica Oeconomica
The above diagram does not express branches as contained within their roots but rather that proper study of the branches needs an understanding of its elemental concepts, which can only be given by the preceding root, i.e. empirical physics needs a metaphysics of nature to be fully justifiable. Furthermore, branches on the same level provide information supporting one another.
The science of Logic is the root of Roman philosophy. The ancient Aristotelian Logika Syllogistica (Eng: Propositional Logic) went out of use after the publication of De Logika in 1218, a book which established the dominance of Logika Attributia (Eng: Predicate Logic). The application of logical systems, since the invention of symbolic logic by Archaedavincus, seems like an odd sort of verbal mathematics. The symbols and form of Archadavincus' system came from his development of set mathematics in the 740's.
The proposition 'There is perfect justice' can be expressed in symbolic logic as ∃(Justice)§Perfect(Justice). While the notation seems basic, and is quite straightforward, its proper use comes in the making of inferences to form new propositions out of original ones. The practice of making inferences from judgements or propositions uses the human faculty of Reason, and is called reasoning.
Logic, to Romans, is not only a study of rules of inference and judgement. Its domain is the form of thinking itself, in whatever is necessary and universal in human cognition. For this reason, it is the foundation of all Roman philosophy.
The two fields of Roman metaphysics come from the principles of logic as a system of the rules of thinking. Philosophers did not understand the necessarily cognitive nature of logic, in the sense that the rules of syllogistic judgements are the same rules as thought, for most of history. Immanuel Cornelius Hesserlus created the metaphysics of morals and nature taught in modern Roman philosophy, and his system is accepted by the majority of philosophers to be true. However, it requires what its few opponents call a 'monstrous leap' in reason, and has therefore been unable to supercede Eastern philosophy in the Mongol Empire.
The jist of Hesserlus' natural metaphysics is that knowledge of nature in the empirical sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, etc., is an understanding of absolute reality as it appears to the human cognitive faculties. Human beings are incapable of gaining knowledge of things as they are in themselves (Eimana), and can only know things as appearances (Phenoemena). However, the former can be thought by humans as long as their is no contradiction in the concept. In that case it is a non-representational, and non-empirical, object of thought - a things as it is thought to be in itself (Noumena). Technically speaking, a noumenon and eimanon are the same in terms of content but each one's relation to thinking beings in general is different.
Ethics, according to the laws of nature, is impossible except in a psychological sense, because thinking beings as phenonoema are subject to causality, and therefore caused to think thoughts determined by nature and nurture (i.e. biology and sensation, and habit). However, when considered as noumena, the thinking being can be totally free, and it is through the Idea of freedom that moral action is possible. The monstrous leap, as it were, is here in ethics, where a noumenon (freedom of the rational will), which in logic is justified only as an Idea not as an object of experience and thus not as a scientifically observable object, is the determinant of our actions. The specifics of why this is an unusual leap are deep within the principles of human understanding, but so too are the reasons in support of such an enormous inference.
Superpowers
This is a featured alternate history! Superpowers is a featured alternate history, which means it has been identified as one of the best alternate histories produced by the Alternative History community. If you see a way this alternate history can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, please say so on this page's talkpage.
A Superpower is a state which dominates its immediate geopolitical region and has a global sphere of influence. The first civilization to wield power on this scale was the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the Ist Millennium BCE. In its heyday, Persia owned land on all three Eurasian continents and was positioned on the silk road as a commercial mediator between the Romans and Chinese. Years later, the Romans themselves were the primary Old World superpower. The Mongols followed shortly with their dominance of the Eastern World. In Our reality, no superpower was a world leader for more than a few centuries as every one eventually collapsed under its own weight. Now this alternate history explores a possible world where three minor divergences allow some empires to persist, creating a world ruled by Superpowers.
This timeline has three points of divergence from Our reality. Each occurs at its own point in time and in a unique part of the world. The PODs are as follows:
173 AD: During his tour of the Greek Provinces, Marcus Aurelius meets a promising young boy named Gaius Correlus Sulla. Endeared by the child's intelligence, Aurelius adopts young Gaius and declares him the successor to the imperial throne over Commodus, the emperor's biological son. Sulla becomes Caesar in 180 CE and with a clearer mind than Commodus, prevents the Empire's tumble into centuries of unrest that would have ended in its collapse.
394 AD:Quich'en Ch'onle Mayapan is born in a family from the mighty Maya city-state of Calakmul. Mayapan grows into one of the greatest minds in history, and unites the Maya city-states by 452, thereby creating the greatest empire ever seen in the New World.
1185 AD: Genghis Khan successfully protects his wife Borte from Merkit raiders and the legitimacy of her son Jochi is never in question. The father and son grow closer than they otherwise would and Jochi is named the sole successor of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty when Genghis Khan dies.
The speculative goal of the timeline is to imagine the change that can be made by a single person. Two parts of the scenario give the helms of a country to a genius in a period of great potential, and a third gives a growing nation the leader needed to maintain its internal cohesion. If there is a plausible theory behind the events of this timeline it is that good leadership is a game-changer. It can be the difference between plunging a country into ruin or leading it into prosperity.
Flags are an integral factor in the understanding of a nation's culture as they can often reveal facts about its ideals or population. Colors for instance have, often several, distinct meanings. Red might mean solidarity and connections through blood to some countries whilst to others it might represent power and the blood shed in battle. Aside from their meaning, flags are also very interesting as a piece of art in themselves. The interplay of colors and symbols across their surfaces is considered aesthetically pleasing to some people, and often heart-warming to the residents of that nation. All in all, flags are an aspect of any timeline that should never be ignored.
Rome is a patriotic nation and so its flag is significantly covered with national symbolism. First off, the eagle at the top is the well known Roman Aquila that adorns most public buildings and leads military formations. However, this Aquila is distinctive for its three heads; reminiscent of the two-headed eagle of the Caesar. In this case the heads represent the three capitals of the Empire, from left to right : Carthage, Rome then Constantinople. The symbol directly to the right of the eagle is the Labarum, the Chi-Rho of the name Christ (Χριστός).
Just like the top banner, the centerpiece of the Vexillum Romanum has dual secular and religious symbols. In the very middle is the cross of St. George, the patron saint of the Legion. Slightly ahead of the cross is the Tetragrammaton of the Empire, Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR), which represents the Senate and the Roman people. Around those two is a wreath, the official crown of the Emperors. Finally, standing side by side with these other symbols are the crosses that both represent Christianity and remind the Romans of the time when they would cruelly crucify criminals. However, a more controversial theory exists in regards to the crosses. Many historians believe that the two crosses with the symbols of the Empire in the middle diagrammatically represent the scene of Christ's crucifixion. In this theory, the position of SPQR, etc. as the center cross means that the flag equates the Roman Empire itself to Christ the Messiah. The majority of proponents for this theory consequently feel that the flag makes the Imperium out to be a kind of savior or God-like entity. Given that the flag was designed in the 1060's when Church and State became one, there is quite a bit of weight behind this hypothesis.
The symbolism of the Conglomerate flag is a little more subtle, and certainly more open to interpretation. However, the creator of the flag, Qon Lopan gave the following reasons in 1255 for his design of the flag.
The gold/yellow stripes are representative of civilization and the cities, which are frequently draped in gold, whilst the blue represents nature and the resources, especially water, that hold the civilized world together. This is all very interesting when put into context with the meaning of the circles. Each one represents one strata of the Mayan population; these are circles because everyone is considered equal within their respective strata. The red circle on the right is the Mayan people and is colored as such to show their right to rule through their blood as well as their service to the God Ahau in their offerings of human blood. The green circle on the left represents the Mexican people who joined the Mayans in the cities in the early history of the Conglomerate. Though they are equals of the Mayans, which is shown by their equally large circle, they do not have the blood right to rule the country. Those two are considered to be the "civilized" races of the Conglomerate. This explains why they were placed within the gold stripes.
The central brown circle represents the Columbian tribal people who not only make up a smaller portion of the population but have also been given significantly less legal rights. Nevertheless, they are part of the country's backbone due to their importance in mining and agricultural projects. Some foreigners have tried to make comparisons with the solar system, given the Mayan's history of astronomy, but most Mayans just shake their heads at such notions.
To many, Japan is known as the Empire of the Rising Sun; a title that is very well represented in the country's flag. The sun in this case is the Mon of the Tokugawa Shoguns who brought the Empire out of its unstable Dark Ages. It is from the Mon that the sun ray radiate out of. The black represents the indomitable (never-surrendering) will of the nation whilst the red represents the purity of blood of the Japanese people. At each corner is the Imperial Seal of Japan, an ancient symbol of the Imperial Japanese dynasties. The use of the Emperor's crest is viewed as a supremely generous gift from the Emperor because it is otherwise forbidden for anyone but him to feature the seal.
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Added by Red VS Blue
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