Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 19 The New Emperor
As we all know, Rome turned the Mediterranean into its own inland sea and had a vast territory, but an overly vast territory would also cause problems, such as slow flow of information.

In the headquarters of Caesarea, hundreds of officers were gathered for a meeting. The one sitting in the main seat was undoubtedly Vespa, but the others were not all his trusted legion commanders, but many outsiders. The leader was the governor of the northern Syrian province, who had four legions under his command and guarded the eastern border. He was also a powerful frontier official.

Vespa cleared his throat, his expression more serious than ever before: "I called you here because I just received news from Rome that Emperor Nero is dead."

As soon as these words were spoken, they caused an uproar. Everyone didn't even care about order and military discipline, and couldn't help but start whispering.

Vespa carefully observed the expressions of the people below, without saying a word, waiting quietly for the scene to quiet down. He knew that such important news would require sufficient time to digest.

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire, was a tyrant with a bad reputation in history, and his historical evaluation was similar to that of Jie and Zhou.

There are some controversial historical evaluations of him, and generally speaking, most of them are negative. Since he was an emperor without any military achievements, there were not many officers who were loyal to him. For example, Vespa also offended Nero and was hated by the emperor because he fell asleep at Nero's concert.

Vespa called these more than a hundred people over not to mourn, but because he had a more realistic problem to deal with - Nero was dead, and they had to swear allegiance to the new emperor before they could continue the war.

Vespa received a letter of appointment from Nero, allowing him to continue to be in charge of the war, but the new emperor did not nod his head to ask him to continue the war. Even though everyone knew that this was a foregone conclusion, it was obvious that acting rashly would give himself a handle. Vespa also had his own competitors in Rome, and being questioned by them about his loyalty to the emperor was a very serious political problem.

The same thing happened to the governor of Syria next door. He also had to swear allegiance to the emperor. If he didn't do it in time, he would be accused of treason, which was no joke.

The Governor of Syria and Vespa were acquaintances, so he said bluntly, "Who is the new emperor? You have to let me know before you swear allegiance to him."

Vespa didn't care and patiently explained what happened to everyone.

Nero, who was not very popular to begin with, encountered bad times. There were uprisings and unrest everywhere. The foundation of his rule was shaken. Finally, even the people of the capital Rome began to riot. He was driven out of the city of Rome and fled to the suburbs for refuge.

The Senate, as the gathering place of Rome's noble families, had always been at odds with Nero. Seeing this situation, they simply crowned Galba of northeastern Spain as emperor. This man had previously rebelled against Nero. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Nero committed suicide. In this way, Galba became the emperor in a somewhat unclear way.

Although everyone was curious about the cause and process of this incident, it was more out of curiosity than concern for politics. They were far away overseas and it was too late for them to care about Garba's governance measures. It would not be too late to wait until the war was over and they returned home to see what was happening.

Anyway, they thought they couldn't change anything. Now they were fighting in the eastern provinces, and this was just a topic of conversation after dinner.

It was reasonable for Vespa to summon them and the governors of neighboring provinces. After all, swearing allegiance to the new emperor was a very important matter, and the soldiers under the officers should also know the big news of the change of the throne, but this matter was just a formality.

Orville was among them, and he didn't think this was a trivial matter.

Generally speaking, it is widely believed that succession to the throne requires three things to support it: legitimacy, authority, and military power.

Galba did not have legitimacy. He had no blood relationship with Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, and there was no basis to replace this legitimacy. His authority was not very good either. The elders of the Senate were not very familiar with him. He was elected only because he opposed Nero and stood up, and everyone knew it. That was all.

The most crucial thing is military strength. Galba is the governor of northeastern Spain, which is a peaceful province with few local garrisons and low combat effectiveness, which is not enough for the emperor to rely on.

Lacking all three, the old and mediocre Galba was not qualified to be the Roman emperor, and anyone with a long-term vision could see this.

In other words, Rome's center of power will remain in chaos for a while.

Is submitting a loyalty pledge really a good option now?
Orville looked at Vespa meaningfully, but he didn't expect that the other party was also looking at him. When his eyes met, he lowered his head quickly, but Orville's eyes were still clearly captured by Vespa.
-
"Sometimes, being too smart is not a good thing."

Standing at the stern, Orville looked at the shrinking Caesarea with depression. He actually didn't want to get involved in political issues so early.

Vespa probably had his own plans. The others either didn't think so much or were pretending to be stupid. They all agreed to write this oath, and then Vespa sent his confidants to deliver it to Rome by sea to Emperor Galba.

The so-called confidant was Tia. Originally, King Architas II of Parphi should have been accompanying them. He also had to swear allegiance to the Roman emperor, but he declined, saying that he had other things to do, and asked his sister Berenice to do it instead.

Tiya was still in military uniform, with a smile on her face, and she was obviously in a good mood: "Don't worry too much, we have the navy guards of Caesarea, and the road is safe. If nothing goes wrong, we will be back in half a year. We will pass by many prosperous and interesting places on the way, and I will invite you to experience them well, just treat it as a journey."

Judging from the results, among the three main characters living on the flagship, only Tia was happy. Orville was thinking about his budding career, and Berenice was worried about her poor people.

When they heard that it would take at least half a year to go back and forth, they became even more worried and sad, and gave people the feeling that they wanted to jump into the sea and swim back.

In the end, Orville's mood changed faster and he just treated it as a funded tour. Vespa's daughter was still here, and considering his daughter, Vespa would have some military merit left for them to gain, so it was almost the same anyway.

His way of thinking has changed a lot now, and he no longer looks at things around him with the way of thinking of the ancients. But since he has this opportunity, he feels that he should live a decent life, otherwise it would be a waste of this healthy body of twenty years old.

He also smiled and joked, "I see that many of these ships are empty. It would be a shame to make such a trip. Otherwise, we can stop a few times to load and unload cargo. I think we can earn back the travel expenses and save Commander-in-Chief Vespa from spending money."

Normally, Tia, who is very serious at work, would not take the next call, but this time she made an exception and nodded in agreement: "Sure, no problem, that's great, but I'm not sure what to buy, you have to decide."

PS. Ask for a recommendation ticket

(End of this chapter)