The Eternal Empire (6 page)

The Antoninus family ran a very
successful woman’s fashion business which produced highly sought after and consequently
highly expensive clothes for the top layer of imperial society. Fulvia had a
natural eye for fashion. Her father had recognised this and for the past five
years she had been responsible for organising the shows which launched each
season’s new line of clothing. She had always wanted to be involved in the
management and marketing side of the business but up to now her father had
considered that it was 'not an appropriate job'  for a young woman. The Duchies
would certainly be a challenge. A group of small German States along the upper
Rhine, they had been dominated politically by the Empire since the last Saxon
war, when they had backed the losing side. Their proximity to the Empire
brought them into regular contact with Roman merchants but the people were
resentful of imperial control and tended to favour Saxon goods.

"What did you do to get your
father to change his mind?" asked Cornelius, "promise to marry and
produce ten grandchildren for him?"

"No! Let us just say that my
father has realised that his only daughter is also his only heir and should
learn about all aspects of the business."

She put down her wine, which by this
stage of the evening had been liberally mixed with water, and playfully poked
Cornelius's arm with a beautifully manicured finger.

"Never mind me. We have an
important decision to make. How are we going to handle our mothers trying to
marry us off now that we are both going to be in the same city for a lot of the
time?"

"That brings me to my bit of
news," said Cornelius, "in January I will be leaving Milan so that
takes care of that little problem."

"And where are you off to?"
asked Gregory

"Saxony. I have been appointed to
the Imperial Roman Embassy in Minden to assist the ambassador with the new
round of trade talks."

"Congratulations!" said
Gregory, "about time you did some real work. The Saxons and the other
Germanic States along the Rhine have been unhappy with our trade restrictions
and tariffs for some time. A relaxing of the regulations and taxes could help
stimulate the economies on both sides of the frontier."

Sextus and Marcus came over to join
them.

"Cornelius is off to Saxony next
year." Gregory informed them as they sat down.

"Well I hope you won't need the
army to come and rescue you," said Sextus, "with Dikouros in command
they'll probably end up in Africa."

"It's a diplomatic mission to
improve trade relations," explained Cornelius laughing, "Saxony and
the Empire have been at peace for thirty years, I do not expect to find myself
in the middle of a war."

"I certainly hope not," said
Fulvia, "we've enough problems without that."

"Let's hope that 1920 will prove
to be a better year than this one for everybody," said Gregory and stood,
glass in hand. "A toast everyone. To the New Year. I know it is still
early December, but we won't meet again this year. With Cornelius off to Saxony
and Marcus joining me in Constantinople I think it's appropriate."

They all stood, and in the glow of the
fire the four men and one woman raised their glasses.

"To 1920," said Gregory
solemnly, "may God bless it, and all of us."

"Amen," the others replied
and drained their glasses.

25
^th
December1919

Kingdom
of Saxony

“Merry Christmas” Count Frederick
Maleric raised a large gold goblet to his two younger siblings and make a
silent prayer that neither of them would turn the Christmas meal into another
family fight. He had had a quiet word with each of them in turn when they had
arrived at the Hunting Lodge after Church this morning.

They both smiled and raised their goblets
to each other and drank to the toast.

“A very good wine brother” commented
Franz appreciatively, “not one I have tasted before.”

“A gift from the Roman Ambassador. From
southern Italy I believe.”

The goblet in Franz hand froze in
mid-air, the congenial look on his face had disappeared” and you couldn’t find
a good German wine for us to drink?” He stared at his older brother barely
controlling the anger he felt.

“The Ham and the vegetables are from our
own estates, whilst the dessert is a Turkish delicacy recommended to me by the
Ottoman trade attaché. I thought that we should celebrate Our Lord’s birth and
its message of peace and goodwill to all by including food and drink from
Saxony’s traditional enemies.” Frederick then pointedly took another sip of the
wine and gave his brother what he hoped was a conciliatory smile.

“That’s a very lovely thought
Frederick,” interrupted Katherine their sister, keen to head off a potential
argument. “It is in keeping with the spirit of the season and the Bishop’s
message this morning at the service.”

Franz carefully put down his goblet and
forced a smile at his older brother and sister. “Quite so,” he agreed, then
picked up his knife and folk and began to eat.

“How are your studies coming along
Katherine?” Asked Frederick after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“Quite well. My paper on the revolt of
the Roman colonies across the Atlantic leading to the establishment of the
United Provinces is going to be published in the journal of Romano-Germanic
Studies sometime next year.”

“Now that,” said Franz, “is something of
yours that I would be interested in reading. The mighty empire being humbled
and humiliated. It’s about time you wrote something that’s not in praise of the
damned Romans!”

Katherine bristled at Franz’s comments
but kept her temper. “My research is neither to praise nor damn the Roman
Empire – it is an academic investigation into historical events so we can
understand the social, economic and military forces that shaped them.”

“Absolutely” agreed Franz, “then we can
use the ‘understanding’ to recreate events where the empire gets it’s arse
kicked!” Frederick could tell that Franz was baiting his sister, but Katherine
know her brother well enough and did not rise to it.

“Anyway,” continued Katherine, turning
her attention back to Frederick, “my next paper is on the lives of Imperial
Emperors and their contribution to the empire as it currently exists.”

“That sounds like a rather big project”
observed Frederick, “there have been a lot of Emperors over the last couple of
thousand years.”

“I know. My first problem is to decide
who to include. Some like Augustus, Constantine the Great and Justinian the
Great from the early centuries are fairly obvious. Augustus established the
Empire after the Republic, Constantine laid the ground for the theocratic state
of the following millennium and Justinian re-conquered the West after the
collapse of the 5
^th
century. But the closer we get to present time
the harder it is to decide since the impacts of their actions may not yet be
completely discernable.”

Frederick nodded. “I can understand
that. For history to pass judgement – or at for historians to do so – there
needs to be sufficient time so that the events, actions and policies from the
past can be viewed dispassionately.”

“Precisely,” continued Katherine,
“Constantine XX reunited the Empire after the Schism Wars and is regarded as
one of the greatest Emperors of all time – yet as I argued in my last paper,
his policies were a major factor in the revolt of the Novo Roma colonies that
led to the independence of the United Provinces.”

“An argument that would not have found
much support a couple of hundred years ago given the Saint like reverence
accorded him, especially by the Church hierarchies” observed Frederick

“It’s gets harder still where it is in
living memory. Should I include the previous Emperor Philip III – his economic
policies were praised and ushering in a new golden age of prosperity for all –
but the recession currently engulfing the world economy is being attributed by
many to those same policies”

“He also has the blood of thousands of
Saxon’s on his hand Katherine – don’t forget that!” Snapped Franz, joining back
into the discussion. “He led the legions that trapped our troops against the
Rhine and slaughtered them with artillery. Our own grandfather died there
together with hundreds of men from the estate and Saxony was forced to accept
an humiliating treaty!”

“That was a quarter of a century ago
Franz,” said Frederick quietly. “You were just a babe then, barely walking. I
remember the enthusiasm as they marched off to fight, envious that I was too
young to be with them.” He took a long drink from his goblet before continuing.
“I also remember them coming home after – the ones who did. Faces haunted by the
horrors, many maimed and crippled. Our grandfather dead and our father
embittered and emotionally shattered.”

“He never forgave the Romans” Franz
added.

“No, he didn’t. And I believe that hate
put him into an early grave too. We need to learn from the past, put aside the
anger and resentment. Saxony is a great nation in its own right – we do not
need to define ourselves in relation to our neighbours.”

“Saxony will never be a great nation
whilst we allow Constantinople to Lord it over us! They tell us the terms under
which we may trade, place restrictions on our military. Such things are
intolerable!”

“Things are changing Franz,” said
Frederick firmly. “The economic problems have provided us with the opportunity
to negotiate a more equitable trade relationship with the empire. Next month we
are starting a round of trade talks aimed at a new agreement that will be
mutually beneficial.”

Franz sat back in his chair, looked at
his brother and shook his head slowly. “You believe that if you want to
Frederick. The only agreement that the Romans truly believe in is one imposed
by the steel of their legions.”

5th
January 1920

Imperial
Railways Train:Milan to Lutetia Service

Cornelius settled into his compact but
comfortable 1
^st
class compartment on the train. It was a long
overnight journey to Lutetia in Gaul from where he would get a connecting train
to Confluentes on the Rhine frontier. After crossing the border the Saxon
capital of Minden was another train ride away.

The compartment had a desk and seat, a
washing area and a bunk bed which reminded Cornelius of his first room at the
Ravenna Military Academy. Thankfully this bed was a lot more comfortable and he
did not need to make it himself in the morning. Cornelius settled into the seat
which was by the window, opened his case and took out a book.

“Rome and Germania – A Modern History”
he read the title on the dust cover to himself. Well, this should fill in some
of the gaps in my knowledge. He opened to the chapter list scanning through the
summaries presented and made a decision. “I think I will start from here” he
muttered to himself, opening the book at the chapter covering the 18
^th
century. “Don’t think I’ll need to go back any further for now” and started to
read.

The early 18
^th
Century had
seen the Roman Empire still fragmented following the Religious Schism Wars with
many provinces under the control of breakaway regimes or foreign domination.
The Germanic states had taken the opportunity of Imperial weakness to effectively
annex the provinces of Germania Superior and Inferior west of the Rhine
proclaiming a pan-Germanic confederation under Saxon leadership. However this
new entity only lasted 3 years before Constantine XX defeated Saxon armies in
Gaul and Germania, re-establishing the Rhine frontier and the allegiance of the
two provinces. This caused a collapse of the Confederation across the Rhine as
well – the other German states had never been very happy about Saxon domination
of the Confederation and withdrew. However the idea of a single German State
had been mooted for the first time and became a dream of German Nationalists,
especially in Saxony – and something that Imperial Foreign policy continued to
work hard to prevent.

Cornelius stopped reading briefly to make
a few notes and then continued. The book went on to cover the Saxon support for
the revolt of the colonies across the Atlantic in the 1720’s which had gone
someway to salve Saxon feelings for the defeats earlier that century. There
then followed a long period of peace – or at least no open warfare – between
the Germanic states and the Empire. Constantinople concentrated on its other
colonies and recovery from the trials of the previous half century and Saxony
on assimilating the Polish territories it had incorporated after the wars with
the Turks and the small Baltic city states which had maintained a precarious
independence up to then. Cornelius continued to make notes as he read, mainly
on the social and economic relationships between the two states.

He stopped for dinner, going to the
dining car a few carriages along where he ate alone. After a coffee and brandy
Cornelius made his way back to his compartment and decided he should finish the
last couple of chapters before he turned in.