Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 313 Surrender
If we carefully analyze who the Byzantines should look for as their backer, Orville is actually the most suitable choice.

The nobles in mainland Greece have a discriminatory mentality towards the colonial cities, and now they are also struggling to protect themselves under Roman rule, so they are obviously not very reliable.

The senators in the Senate were calm and had ample space, because they had good cooperation with the Greek nobles and might not necessarily attach importance to the Byzantines' loyalty. Even if Constantine traveled all the way to Rome to join the senators, he might not necessarily be taken seriously enough to become a senator on an equal footing with these people.

Officers from the Germanic provinces or the Eastern provinces are also an option, but their say in the central government is not strong enough, and they may not necessarily need the support of the Byzantines. The governor of the Eastern provinces, Mucinus, has no intention of politics and is focused on defending the country. The two major commanders of the Highland and Lowland Germanic Legions are one the emperor's man and the other a typical political speculator. All in all, it would be better to directly submit to the emperor than to these people.

If we submit directly to the emperor, he will definitely look down on the hundreds of people who have surrendered to us. At most, he will be a little polite to us. Even if we can achieve our goal, it will take enough time.

Either he should join the current Archon Tiya or Orwell. Constantine was certain of one thing: if he joined Tiya, at most he would be admitted to the Guards system or promoted like an ordinary official, which would take too long and offer too few opportunities. On the contrary, Orwell, who was currently serving as the Governor of Egypt and the situation in Egypt was not peaceful, could provide him with a ladder for rapid promotion. At the same time, the medium-sized city of Byzantium could also provide various kinds of help to Orwell in Egypt.

The relationship between the two parties is not a simple prayer-reward relationship, but a relationship of mutual benefit and assistance, which is obviously more stable and reliable than the former.

After comprehensive consideration, Constantine decided to take this opportunity to join Orville, hoping to be quickly promoted and gain a foothold in the upper echelons of the empire. Orville didn't care about his idea and could accept it.

After all, it is a mutually beneficial relationship, a win-win situation, so it is normal for the other party to have his own ideas and goals.

Like now, if Constantine directly told Orville his purpose, it would make Orville feel more at ease. There would be no problem if he made it clear.

Both the Flavian royal family and Orville himself had shallow roots, so it was reasonable and appropriate for them to take Constantine's allegiance seriously when a prominent family came to serve them. Orville welcomed Constantine's surrender.

"Anyone has the opportunity to pursue honor and power. I promise to give you this opportunity. Due to some central political issues, I am afraid that I will not be able to continue to expand my direct army for a while. Maybe I will arrange for you to join the reorganized Egyptian Legion.

In name, you will accept the transfer of Cleopatra, the King of Egypt. In reality, I guarantee that you will have plenty of opportunities for promotion and training. The Egyptian army is just about to be reorganized. If you join at this time, as long as your ability is tested, you should be able to directly serve as the captain or a similar position. Overall, this is a more appropriate method. "

Constantine hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed: "No problem, I'll follow your instructions. What should I do specifically?"

If it were someone else, he would probably have to struggle for a while, because the Egyptian Legion was roughly equivalent to a vassal army, and its importance was far less than that of the Empire's direct legion. In terms of promotion potential, "family members" would definitely have a higher chance. But on the one hand, Orville had a good reputation and had always kept his word, and on the other hand, he also understood that Orville's situation was indeed very embarrassing.

According to the established customary law, if the number of troops under the command of a commander in the empire exceeded two legions, the commander should have served as consul.

The highest official position Orville had ever held was provincial governor, which was far from being a consul. This was against the rules, and many people in the Senate had opinions about Orville because of this incident.

In addition, as a peaceful province, Egypt's most difficult enemies on a daily basis are the Nubians in the south. They are not very interested in invading Egypt from the north, and their interest is at best a minor problem.

It is precisely for this reason that the Romans did not even send legions to garrison on the southern border. The Egyptians handled the matter themselves and they did not need to worry about much. The Roman troops stationed in Egypt were more responsible for maintaining stability and deterrence. To a large extent, the three legions are now very wealthy.

Spending more money to maintain the army would arouse suspicion of motives, and there was really no need for it. Constantine had done his homework in advance and understood these things, so he did not complain much and readily accepted Orville's advice.

After thinking about it, Orville said, "How about this, I will give you a letter of recommendation. You take the letter back to find Cleopatra, and then you will follow us back to Egypt."

Constantine nodded in agreement, and Orville quickly asked someone to bring pen and ink, and wrote down the matter briefly, asking Constantine to give it back to Cleopatra.

Those kings who attached great importance to power and authority would probably not accept Orwell's suggestion so readily. In their view, this was a dangerous move by the Romans to extend their hands into the army. But Cleopatra was different. She generally did not comment on Orwell's decisions, especially on military-related matters. She just wanted to see the results, and perhaps she did not care much about the results themselves.
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Orville and Cleopatra's fleet stayed in Athens for about three days. For Orville, these days were predictable and orderly, without any unexpected situations.

He didn't have many friends in Athens, and he mainly discussed business and inspection matters. He observed the general situation of the Greek province with his own eyes and felt that the situation was indeed not so optimistic.

To be fair, Greece's natural endowments were indeed not that good. No matter how much the Romans admired Greek culture, they would not spare no effort in providing blood transfusions here. Therefore, after the Mediterranean economic and trade circles stabilized, Greece fell into a state of decline.

This is also an important reason why the Greeks have opinions about Vespasian now. Their economy is really in recession, and Nero accidentally gave them tax-free privileges out of personal preference and political considerations. In this way, their lives can basically maintain a relatively comfortable level. But after Vespasian deprived them of the privilege, they obviously felt that life had become much more difficult within a few years.

(End of this chapter)