by Aldus Marius on Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:52 am
Salve, Marce Aemeli, et Salvete omnes!
Oh, I remember when this thread was brand spankin'. I wasn't even Aedilis then--not even close. But you may have noticed the rather disjointed nature of the conversation; this is due to the abrupt and complete withdrawal of one of the participants, who, being the thorough type, deleted every spankin' one of his 200-something posts, including the edicta he published while he was our (last) Consul. Maiestas in my book; vandalism at the very least, say those of milder temperaments.
Everyone was expecting me to pick Gaius Marius, and I do; but that'd have been too easy and too expected. Na, what I came here to do tonight was to tender my admiration and respect for Quintus Sertorius. The man established a government-in-exile in my native Spain. He taught his Legionaries to fight like mountain men, and the local mountain-men to fight like a Legion; and from that point on, nothing on the Gods' green earth could defeat a Spanish Legion except another Spanish Legion. And Spanish Legions were not to be found in Rome. Young Pompeius had *no* idea what he was getting into with that man. Oops... >({|;-]
Besides being proud of my 'homie', I also learned a sound life-lesson from his later years. His lieutenants, for whatever reason, thought it'd be better for everybody if Sertorius were to be made suspicious of other Romans--all other Romans, even those who'd been with him fighting the good fight all that time. Divide and conquer, nonne? And that tactic was his undoing.
So when the Societas was very young, and our Senate was considering barring any and all Novaromani from being able to join, this was fresh in my mind. I was against it, though I wasn't a Senator or anything else at the time. Many Senatores, however, didn't like it either; all of us were former Novaromani, and most of us had experienced that organisation's miserable habit of cutting off its nose to spite its face. We didn't want to do the same.
This issue was one of the few real divisions we've had in our little group, and one of the reasons why conditor Florus left us. He couldn't stomach the prospect of an SVR with concurrent Nova Roman Citizens in it. Who knew, they might be spying (*gasp!*)... And NR felt the same way. They passed a few laws about its cives having to pick and choose, and for a while nobody could serve as a magistrate there who was active anywhere else.
Fortunately we rose above all that. A good thing too; or we wouldn't have enjoyed the pleasant and productive companionship of Q Servilius Priscus, M Horatius Piscinus, Q Valerius Poplicola, G Equitius Cato, Primus Galerius Aurelianus, M Arminius Maior and a cast of...OK, tens. Annia Minucia Marcella just joined us--she's NR's Propraetor of Nova Britannia in her 'other life'. Lucius Vitellius Triarius of the Mons Aventinus Project has applied; I'm just waiting for him to turn up here. See what I mean...?
And we've never had a rash of people walk out on us, either. The only one who did so and messed us up in a major way was, strangely enough, never in Nova Roma and didn't want us doing business with them either.
So...a toast to Quintus Sertorius! He didn't die in vain. Thanks to him, we're still here and still friendly. Io! Evoe! w00t!
In fide,
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.