Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 367 Seats (4K)

After that, Orville continued to greet two things with trepidation - the birth of a new life and the smooth passage of the "death crisis".

For a long time, Orville and Tia were in a long-distance relationship. It was good enough to see each other a few times a year, let alone a few times a month. They didn't have much time to care about romantic matters.

After that, Orville was much freer than before. He could stay here permanently. There was no physical defect between him and Tia, and they were both normal people. After a few months of preparation, Orville naturally received the good news.

He has a daughter who doctors say is healthy in every way and is thriving.

The reason why he was so nervous was not because he was afraid that the other party would have a difficult delivery. With a superhuman physique like Tia, Orville probably didn't need to worry about life and death. He was worried about the world line correction force. He was really afraid that Tia would have an accident in certain years.

Fortunately, he was just overthinking it in the end. Nothing unexpected happened until September 81 AD (the time when Titus died of fever). He just thought that God had let him off the hook, or that some god saw that he had done a good job and gave him some compensation.

During the past two years, there have not been many changes in domestic affairs. Orville has been promoting reforms little by little according to what he did in Egypt. The intensity of the resistance he encountered was not high and was still within the scope of coping.

He made some adjustments in personnel arrangements - first, he was transferred to the position of consul, responsible for central political affairs. It would be easier to do things with a legitimate title, and now his age also met the requirements on various levels.

Belisarius was transferred to become the commander-in-chief of the Upper German Legion, and the governor of Britain was temporarily served by Stilicho, a mixed-race man. After that, he planned to hand over the position of governor to Alfred for a period of time, with the position being alternated between locals and Romans.

On the other hand, he divided Egypt into two parts, the upper and lower parts. Although the nominal supreme ruler of these two lands was still the King of Egypt, two different governors assisted the king in ruling.

This was to divide the power of the governor. He had governed this land personally. This place was a bit too powerful as a province. If it was allowed to realize its potential, ignoring the issue of combat effectiveness and only looking at factors such as economic level, Egypt could completely compete with its homeland. It was not wise to have an overly powerful vassal state.

Now that Orwell and Cleopatra have a past, it is hard to say how future emperors will treat Egypt. Egypt is related to the food supply of the local area. In the two recent civil wars, the local people were threatened with food cuts by the party that controls Egypt. If they don't learn their lesson, it can only be said that the ruler is too rough.

If there had been a stronger and more capable emperor, Egypt would most likely have been completely incorporated into the empire and become an imperial province. Unfortunately, most of the emperors of the Roman Empire at this stage were political and military strongmen with considerable action potential.

Therefore, this is actually a matter of time, and it has nothing to do with what the Egyptians do. As the saying goes, an innocent man is guilty of possessing a treasure, and the outcome will be the same no matter what they do. The economic value of this place is too strong for the Romans to continue to allow it to maintain its independence, unless the Egyptians can use force now to make the Romans give up this idea.

Orwell had been on guard against this. Egypt's economic level could easily support an army of 50,000 or 60,000 or even twice as many. However, Orwell used the excuse that "with the protection of the empire, only a basic number of troops are needed" and only allowed the Kingdom of Egypt to have an army of over 20,000, which was totally inconsistent with its strong economic strength.

Cleopatra intentionally or unintentionally tried to probe Orville, trying to recruit more troops, but was firmly rejected by Orville. Although Orville assured her that "as long as he was alive, Egypt would be safe and independent", this meant that it was only until the time when Orville was alive, and he could not say what would happen after that.

Cleopatra knew what the other party meant, and she also knew that she had no military force to counter. Any idea of ​​armed confrontation would be captured and decisively thwarted, so now she had only one choice: to completely integrate into this huge country and exist as a noble within the empire.

This was not very difficult for her, so she happily chose to go to Rome.
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A luxury cruise ship several stories high landed at the port of Ostia, followed by a fleet of more than a dozen servants. It seemed that Cleopatra was planning to do a good job of publicity this time, so she was not stingy in many aspects to the point of extravagance.

The elders welcomed the arrival of the financial sponsor, but the Queen's attitude was quite ambiguous. She didn't even show up to meet him. This was normal. It would have been strange for her to greet him with a smile given his personality.

After discussing with the Queen, Orville held a Senate meeting on her behalf.

Standing on the podium in the middle, Orville, wearing a heavy and stuffy toga with purple edges, observed the expressions of the people around him.

Cleopatra was allowed to attend this meeting as an exception, but she seemed to be in a dull mood. She rested her chin on one hand and stared out the window in a daze. The other senators' eyes switched back and forth between Orville and Cleopatra. Those senators who had a better relationship with Orville looked at her with mostly mockery, while those who had an average or even hostile relationship with Orville had a very subtle attitude.

The look in their eyes clearly showed distrust. Orville knew what they were thinking. They were simply worried that he would make a mistake in his stance because of personal feelings. This worry was basically unnecessary.

After a long and redundant opening speech, Orville spent a lot of time on polite remarks, and finally got to the point: "In summary, although these Egyptians have their own country, I don't think this prevents them from getting their own positions in the Senate."

Someone replied to Orville: "There is no disagreement between us on this point. The question is how many seats you and the Queen want to share."

The senators present also knew what the emperor's faction was planning now. In their view, making the pie bigger without threatening their existing interests was undoubtedly a good thing. The problem lay in the allocation of seats in the Senate, how many seats Orville wanted to get on behalf of the emperor, and how much say the Egyptians should have.

"Between thirty-five and fifty seats. I don't think that's an excessive number. It's less than one-tenth of the total. What do you think?"

Orville looked at the people in the audience. After the civil war, the Senate would definitely go through a round of reshuffle, but the actual changes were not big, because the original interest groups were at best stripped of their skin, but not to the point of breaking their bones. Most of them could still get their own position in the Senate. This was also the reason why everything went smoothly after the victory of the civil war. Orville did not intend to kill all these people, as that would shake the foundation of his rule, but under this premise, he should also appropriately crack down on some of these aristocratic families to maintain a balance between the imperial power and the aristocratic families.

At first glance, this number does not sound excessive. After all, southern Gaul has more than 20 seats. Egypt's status should definitely be higher than that of southern Gaul, and it is not unacceptable to occupy more seats.

"This number exceeds the vacancies. Who do you think should step down?" Another elder asked Orville to explain.

"This involves another problem," Orville asked his attendants to display a list carved on a stone slab on the stage, and there was also a parchment copy for the audience to circulate. "I think the Senate should be made more professional, elite, and organized. We should realize that some senators obtained their seats not to contribute to the country, but just to get special seats in theaters, arenas, and racetracks. For the sake of the country, such people should almost step down."

Orwell's meaning is simple and clear: the capable should be given priority, and those who slack off should be punished no matter how hard they try, so they should not take up precious voting positions.

He pointed to the audience and said, "Look around you. How many empty seats are there? Although this is just a relatively ordinary meeting and nothing of vital importance will be decided, there are still people who are absent when discussing such important matters. It is inevitable that there will be one or two occasions, but some people's attendance is far less than the number of absences. Don't you think this is a bit unreasonable?
There is no trivial matter in national affairs. Do you think that it is a dereliction of duty to not care about matters that have nothing to do with your own interests and only pay attention to them when they are related to your own interests?"

He once again looked at the people in the audience with a questioning look and raised the topic to the level of life and death. Now it was difficult for everyone to directly refuse and they just said that it made sense and those who were often absent were indeed derelict in their duties.

"Well, I have actually had people record the number of people who attended each meeting in the past two years and who was absent in a special log. The people on this list are the elders who are often absent. Some of them have indeed retired from politics and only retain honorary titles. I can understand why they don't come, such as Nerva and others.

I think their positions can be kept for now and we'll see how things go later, but I think the rest should be changed. I counted and there are 50 of them, which is exactly the number of seats I want for Egypt. Do you think this is okay?"

Some people were unhappy about this: "Mr. Archon, I have to remind you of one thing. The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is from the Ptolemaic family, and the Ptolemaic family is from the line of [Savior] Ptolemy, the only remaining legitimate successor to Alexander."

This was more of a reminder to others than to Orwell, and it was about Cleopatra's family. If she wanted, she could contact the elders in Magna Graecia and get a seat in Magna Graecia, which would result in dozens or even hundreds of seats in the Senate.

Now these seats will go to the emperor's faction, which is not very favorable to their political balance. In the future, these seats may go to the heirs of the Ptolemy family. Then these people holding so many seats in the Senate will obviously be a threat, a huge threat to the entire empire.

This man saw it very clearly, and many people below were not stupid either. Once reminded, they reacted and began to whisper, and their eyes towards Cleopatra began to become unfriendly.

Cleopatra didn't care about these things. Her eyes seemed to be fixed on Orville, but in fact she seemed to be distracted.

Orville also knew the risk. He was not an Egyptian, so he certainly would not acquiesce to the passage of such a bill. He just asked for a sky-high price first and then started bargaining with the other party.

He pretended to think hard for a while, then tentatively said: "How about this? Let Egypt have 40 seats first, and then add or subtract seats depending on the situation. The remaining 10 seats will be returned to those who have been deprived of their status, and the final result will be decided by a vote of the impartial Senate.

As for the 40 seats belonging to Egypt, 20 will go to the Greeks and 20 to the native Egyptians, giving priority to the bureaucrats who serve the Roman Empire. This should be fair, right? "

This made many elders unhappy again: "Local people? Do you mean those dark-skinned people? Let them sit in the elders' seats?!"

In fact, she is still a white person, but her skin color is indeed a little darker. However, Orville did not have the leisure to argue with her about the depth of her skin color.

To the Romans, the Greeks were indeed half their own people, after all, they shared the same cultural roots, but the rest were outsiders. They would not have any problems giving the Greeks seats in the Senate, but they would more or less look down on outsiders, and giving them seats in the Senate would cause dissatisfaction among many conservatives.

Orville looked at him with a half-smile: "Caesar could do it. Caesar succeeded in doing these things. Can't we, the descendants, follow his ideas? It has been more than a hundred years since Caesar led the Gauls and Germans into the Senate. It's time to introduce some fresh blood.

I think there are many people here who are of mixed race, right? Including me. Since we were able to accept some fresh blood in the past, why can't we do so in the future?
I can accept the Egyptians. You know, historically my ancestors were slaves of the Egyptians. I am not as hostile to the Egyptians as you are."

"We are not excluding Egyptians, nor do we have any objection to you and Her Majesty the Queen in this regard. It's just that isn't it a bad idea to allow people who completely disagree with our culture into the Senate? What Caesar did was to introduce people who recognized Roman culture, and so did you. Are there such people in Egypt?" This statement actually made a lot of sense and attracted many people to agree.

"Don't worry, I've already made preparations. I've opened a school in Egypt that specializes in this area. Those bureaucrats can write in Latin or Greek, and they can also read many of our famous classics. In the future, I will find a way to require their children to study in Rome. This is a must if they want to get a seat. What do you think?"

Orville certainly would not teach native Egyptian writing in school. He would try to teach mainly Latin, supplemented by Greek. Education really affects people. After a long period of Greco-Roman education, it is not an exaggeration to say that these people are half-Esoteric Roman or even fully Esoteric Roman.

(End of this chapter)