The Socii And The Auxilia

Enabling the spawning of a fantasy Rome analogue

The History

The history of Rome, the real stuff not just the legends, had a strong impact on the political development of the Republic. Historical evidence shows that, Trojans aside, Rome formed as a collection of villages and tribes around the famous 7 hills. It was positioned on a key river at the border of the Etruscan and Latin societies and engaged with Greeks and Phoenicians in trade. It was also connected to the Umbrian Italic peoples.

Italy had roughly 4 or 5 linguistically and culturally distinct groups, counting Greeks, and was quite different from the more homogenous Greek homeland. Even Carthage was much more stratified between the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the native peoples. This opened the Romans up to the ability and the concept of an integrated multicultural state. When Rome was in trouble they often decided to make compromises about Roman citizenship in a way the Greeks would never engage in.

The Socii

The Roman Socii, essentially their allies who occupied a political position halfway between tributary kingdoms and true equals in a way unique to their part of the ancient world, would comprise almost half their armies and come under Roman power when the Romans picked a side on a conflict. The winning non-Romans would be allied by choice while the losers would be looted of wealth and slaves but then end up in an otherwise similar position to the locals the Romans had supported.

Roman Socii in Italy, which doesn’t include Sicily, didn’t pay tribute. They provided soldiers for Roman wars. And Rome was at war for 98% of the Republic. Roman citizens accounted for roughly half of Roman armies. Rome provided many more soldiers per capita than the allies in order for this to happen.

These “allies” were basically under self rule except for their foreign policy which was providing soldiers for Rome and basically nothing else. So they weren’t true allies but they were treated better than those outside of Italy because they didn’t pay tribute and they got a share of the loot from Roman wars.

There were different levels of status with different rights and these would be upgraded for long service as “allies” in many cases all the way to full Roman Citizenship.

The Romans often seized good land from the people they defeated, before they became Socii afterwards, and this land was settled with Roman citizens and other Socii and had a unique relationship to Rome. It was Roman land and people there were often Citizens “without the vote in Rome”. Note that Roman citizenship was distinct from the Greek model, which many others mostly copied.

The Socii were often religiously, culturally, and linguistically distinct from the Romans. The Etruscans for instance had their own religion, practiced haruspicy rather than augury, and had a language from no known language family. Umbrian and Latin were relatively distinct as well.

In any case this start in heterogenuous Italy sets up the Romans well for later expansion management. Following the Social War the Socii all became Roman citizens and their armies were permanently added to the Legions. A new system existed after this that dealt with non-italian allies assisting the Legions.

The Auxilia

The Auxilia arose mostly out of the Civil Wars including Gallic cavalry from Caeser’s army. Augustus essentially made them a permanent official part of the army and they end up around half the army just as the older Socii had been.

The distinction between Roman provincial troops and those of other empires was that their pay was a high percentage of that of the legions, they were taken seriously by the Romans as almost equals after their experience with the Socii, they were an official part of the army, and they were mostly volunteers because being in the Auxilia was a good deal. Addtionally they at some point began to gain citizenship after service including children and unofficial spouses. Becoming a Citizen was valuable.

Also the Roman empire was large enough geographically that Auxilia would always serve well away from their homeland and thus become Romanized by their interactions with the Romans in the Legions and because there were so many provincial cultures involved that everyone just defaulted to Romanism to connect.

How This Impacts Axioms

While the Greek or Egyptian or Persian systems including satrapies have some downsides they also have upsides. I wanted many of the historical imperial styles to be viable while still being differentiated. A lot of this comes from the population simulation. Elevating outsiders can upset native/core populations.

Additionally for states without the original composition of Rome the Ideology system would provide for negative impacts. Pluralism and nativism and other spectra in the Ideology system will cause Opinion impacts. You can’t just take any character in any society and shove through “reforms” to get the “best” system.

Certain organizational systems might truly have been more or less superior than others in history but in Axioms systems have emergent impacts from the population simulation but they are also somewhat balanced intentionally by flavor. It isn’t a 1:1 simulation of the real world obviously.

Once I have applied actual values and equations to things the emergent behavior of the system will be somewhat limited. And I can, at least try, to get certain things to balance certain ways. Comparing just the specific integration effects of the Roman vs the Greek system the Roman one might be 100% better in the real world but only 20% or 40% better in Axioms. And those benefits may be counterbalanced where a Greek style society interacts with that of another system. A third system of ruthless conversion of conquered peoples might have different trade offs.

The Mechanics

My main goal isn’t necessarily to play referee on what is best but to create game mechanics such that it doesn’t require too much work outside the game for the systems of various historical empires and federations and so forth to function. And the player or AI might even end up with a weird emergent political system like nothing in the real world. Making lots of meaningful decisions per area of government/diplomacy/economics is a key part of what differentiates Axioms from other simulationist games, whether they are fantasy, historical, or sci fi.

As a player you will have access to a ton of different actions and laws/edicts and policies to create your sociopolitical sturcture. This is very distinct from Paradox and their hardcoded cultural systems and small equation modifiers and so forth. You will have very few mana like mechanics. There is a somewhat similar prestige mechanic though it functions slightly differently. But this isn’t really a mana system. No other part of a Paradox game cares how much paper mana or bird mana you have. Mana isn’t compared to the mana of other characters/nations.

Government types are a set of modifiers. In fact government types don’t even exist. Populations and characters can prefer centralization, militarism, collectivism, and industrialization but they aren’t “communist”. You can make something that functions like a monarchy with blood inheritance, single decision makers, at least ostensibly, and a religious consecration but it doesn’t provide +10% military stuff and +10% admin stuff and -5% diplomacy stuff or w/e.

In any case I might do similar posts about other famous historical political styles but I’m not sure. Probably only 3 or 4 more if I can find something unique and interesting.