Rome

The Creation of a Republic

Rome was one of the most powerful empires of the world. But it wasn't just from it's military might. Rome had any influences from the powerful greek civilizations before it and the Etruscans who had a advanced civilization in the Italian peninsula before the Romans. The Romans took much of its technological and architectural genius from the Etruscans, they used their arch and many other methods, including one which let them drain the swamps where Rome would be built.

There are many myths and legends about the founding of Rome, about the Romolus and Remus twins, who would have lived 6th century B.C.E. having founded Rome in 753 B.C.E. There are legends about how they fought over who would be king, and any how they founded the city. Whatever happened the kings of Rome were eventually pushed out, and a republic was formed. During the kingships Rome had been expanded. The kings fought often with its neighbors and quickly controlled much of the peninsula.

A republic was formed after Tarquin the Proud was chased out of Rome. The republic was ruled by two Consuls who effectively had the power of the old kings, except they could veto each other. The Senate had greater power than before because it controlled the funds. The social order was soon to change as well. The aristocracy, the patricians, began to be challenged by the rest of the population, the plebeians. The plebeians forced the creation of a new office the tribunes and the codification of law.

By 265 B.C.E. Rome controlled most of the peninsula. There struggles began to extend out of the peninsula. One of the most important conflicts was with Carthage. The Punic Wars lasted slightly more than one hundred years but eventually the City of Carthage was destroyed. Though the new Roman territories in North Africa were important the most important thing gained fro the war was the discovery of a new piece of technology. It was a rudimentary steam engine. Though there were versions of it before the one found in Africa was much more powerful. A captured Greek engineer was enlisted to study it. Within ten years he had designed a mechanical legionary: the Miles Ambulator.

The mechanical soldiers took the rest of the Mediterranean and Europe by storm. Rome expanded north and east as fast as the walking statues could walk and there mechanics could walk. By 45 B.C.E. they controlled half of Germania, most of Phrygia, Acedonia, parts of North Africa, Gaul, and Spain.

The Empire

Though Rome was nearly all powerful it wasn't invincible to itself. Constant social and political troubles plagued it. The last consul who had made himself the sole ruler Julius Caesar, was assassinated and his adopted son Octavian, now Augusts Caesar, had an inheritance to take. He allied with Mark Antony and Lepidus. With them he crushed the republicans, the only thing left were his own allies. Mark Antony claimed the east along with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, as his bride. Octavian used this as an excuse to attack him. Using advanced but simple steam powered rowing vessels from Rome he crushed Mark Antony.

Octaivan became a consul and ruled for four years when the Senate gave him the honorary title of iperator. Though little changed it became the standard government as an empire. Rome began to prosper.

The Decline

But all empires fall. One cause was the political corruption and failings of the emperors after Augustus. Another reason was economic problems because of its reliance on slave labor (It is unclear why they didn't adapt their machines to do labor, but they only used it in combat). One major reason was a plague that wiped out half of the Exercitus Molius Romanorum (the Roman Army of Engineers). The Miles depended on the engineers to keep them working. With limited supplies of engineers some legions fell into disarray or got stuck. This let several Germanic tribes that previously had been controlled easily to break through the line of defense and move towards Rome. The tribes managed to actually sack the city causing mass panic. Another cause of decline connected with the miles was the rise of the Christian religion. The Christian church began calling the machines "instruments of the devil," because of its ability to kill nearly instantly. When one of the Emperors converted to Christianity he attempted to replace some of the units with human soldiers, though he faced some resistance. To do it he tried to take men out of the Army of Engineers. This increased the rate of decay for the Miles. By the time the germanic tribes began to attack Rome there were barley any soldiers left. Rome would remain a power, but it had nearly collapsed and its legacy would remain.