Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 54 Solutions
After a few words, Orville began to analyze the situation with Tia.

Vespagentia was given full authority to consider things, which was actually training her thinking and problem-solving abilities. The Egyptian governor Antonis, who was sent over, would not interfere with her decision unless the decision was too unreliable. He was just an insurance mechanism in this matter.

In their view, there are several groups of people who need to be dealt with now: those who did not rebel, such as the Herod royal family, those who surrendered, such as the priest party, the captives of the Zealots or the Dagger Party, and the surviving civilians.

There is also another crucial issue: what to do with the holy city that has been reduced to ruins, what to do with this place that is so important to the locals.

After the two people's discussion, a slightly rough plan gradually took shape.

The Herod royal family who supported the Flavian dynasty would still be the supreme rulers in the area, and their territory would not be reduced. This was a reward for them for taking the right side.

But in addition to this, their management rights over the holy city will be temporarily deprived, and it will become the garrison of the Roman legions. Local people are not allowed to live in the holy city, nor are they allowed to go to the Temple Mount for pilgrimage and priestly activities.

This was a punishment for the locals, and the military occupation of the city would continue for a few more years until the Romans reluctantly left their garrison at the "earnest request" of Herod's family, who would then oversee the reconstruction of the temple.

As for the local rulers who were obedient to the Romans, the main approach was to win them over and support them. Orville knew that if the Romans were allowed to rule directly, there would be no such buffer between the two sides and the problem would sooner or later become bigger.

At least as king, the Herod family could communicate directly with the Roman high-level officials. Otherwise, the local people could only communicate with the Roman high-level officials through the governor. Most of the time, ethnic conflicts were instigated by the local governor. It would be strange if this dialogue mechanism could run smoothly.

If the local governor had not been stirring up trouble, the war would not have been so serious. If Emperor Nero had received King Archieta II's complaint letter and replaced or held the governor accountable in time, it would not have come to this point.

The problem was that not only was the governor not doing his job, but Nero was not in Rome at the time, he was on tour in Greece, and all the complaints fell on deaf ears.
Orville and Tia had no good feelings towards the surrendered priests. Such fence-sitters waiting for a good price were indeed unpopular, but they were still useful and could not all be chopped off or crucified.

Following Orville's advice, Tia decided to demote these people and let them continue to exist as nobles in the kingdom. The purpose was to check and balance the Herod royal family, prevent them from completely eliminating dissidents, and add some sand in the mix.

The auxiliary troops under Orville also achieved the same effect. The Romans' support would not come without a cost. One of the costs was that the king needed to distribute part of the land in the country to these auxiliary troops who were more loyal to the Romans.

In this way, at least the king would not increase his power suddenly due to obtaining too much land at one time. Most of the old nobles had died or been demoted, and the land vacated by them could not all be taken back by the royal family. The king's power changes had to be within the range that the Romans would be happy to see.

Tia showed no mercy to the captured prisoners of war.

The siege lasted for nearly three months. Those who surrendered at the last moment were diehards. No matter what their reasons or grudges were, the Romans believed that they were hopeless. Tia did not kill people on a large scale. She only asked the surviving civilians to identify several leaders who were guilty of the heinous crimes and crucify them. The rest would be auctioned off as spoils of war for the soldiers.

This scope also includes the wives and daughters of the Zealots or the Daggers. War is such a ruthless thing. The last thing Tia can do within the scope of her authority is to not execute the unwanted old people, children and women. She gives them a little bit of money and tells them to fend for themselves like other civilians persecuted by the war. What the outcome will be depends on themselves. In fact, she can only feel at ease.

Orville and Tia both sympathized with these civilians persecuted by the war, but they did not have the ability to arrange the lives of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, so they could only leave the matter to the local Herod royal family.

Palphi is now in a state of few people and abundant land, so it should not be difficult to give them a piece of land and ask them to cultivate it. But it would be very difficult to endure without a harvest this year, and there was not much that Orville could do. At most, he could continue to maintain the grain business with King Herod Archita, and import cheap grains through his personal relationship with the Governor of Egypt, and transport them to Palphi at a relatively low price.

He also planned to continue doing some business on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, but this was just a private act and would not help the locals much. Overall, he could only rely on the locals and the royal family to pay for it.

Those who can bear it will survive, and those who can’t will starve to death or sell themselves into slavery. That’s basically it.
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The plan was far from perfect, but it was feasible and realistic, and was implemented smoothly without much resistance.

Overall, the winning parties were very satisfied.

For the local royal family, their rule was stabilized and the kingdom was not reduced in size, but was mixed with some sand, which was not originally there.

For the Roman officers, this battle brought them experience, honor and money. The process was difficult, but the result was good.

For the legionnaires and auxiliary soldiers, they got the money and survived, and they don’t have to go to war for a while in the future. This result is not bad.

Of course, this result is not perfect for the locals, but they can no longer withstand a protracted war. The trauma will take decades to heal, and they have not yet figured out what to do next. The key is to survive the next few years.

At least during the two generations of Vespa and Thea, they did not have the energy to fight another war. This result was undoubtedly very good for Rome. The province was stabilized and could continue to provide taxes and manpower.

After staying there for another two weeks, the preliminary finishing work was basically completed, a simple celebration banquet and the distribution of spoils were also completed, and the 12th Legion was left in the Holy City as a garrison. The rest of the legions were transferred back to their respective garrisons, and only a few followed Tia back to Rome to prepare for the triumphal ceremony, mainly veterans who happened to be retiring and returning home on the way.

Orville counted his gains from the war - a fleet of twenty small and medium-sized cargo ships, about 300,000 dinars in cash, a small amount of fine spoils that had not been sold, and a guard team of about 500 people. He could be considered to have a small fortune.

(End of this chapter)