The Republic Reborn

[Magnus Pym]

Here's two changes I would suggest, if everyone agrees.

[ooc=Proposal]
ONE - Statement of Purpose
The Senate approves the establishment of a force responsible for preserving the public peace. This force, the Sentinels, will act to preserve not only the public peace, but also to enforce the rule of law as codified in the Justinian codex.

THREE – Emergency Removal of a Commander
Should the commander of the Sentinels be unable to perform his duties, because of death, serious injury or absence, or other causes deemed relevant by the Senate, the Senate shall convene a meeting of the senators in under seven days to select a new commander in accordance with the procedure established in TWO (C), above.[/ooc]

Do you guys think it's fair? They're basically just rewrites for clarification. Saying the Senate WILL do it instead of it IS doing it is kinda lame. And the THREE clause merges its suggestions because there's absolutely no need for multiple As and Bs on this.

Also, should we specify which consul has precedence over which, if the force should be under his command by default for some reason? Here I'm thinking about:
[ooc=TWO-   Appointment of Commander](A) Who May Serve as Commander of the Sentinels
(1) Direction of this unit rests with a Senator who is appointed by the Greater Council.
(2) A Consul may serve as Commander by default or by appointment, but not by election.[/ooc]

Maybe there's no need...

[Nomadic]

I'm fine with these modifications.

[LD]

Under (2)(C)(3), the Interior consul would have precedence in a situation of default.

Re: your alteration to 1, that is fine.

Re: Section 3- it should remain as it is in Sissmondi's recent rewrite- there is no need for the modification that you suggest. There is currently a distinction between what happens if there is an emergency v. what happens if there is a death, and I think the distinction makes sense. The rewrite eliminates the distinction.

[Magnus Pym]

Concerning section THREE, I fail to see your point that the distinction is absolutely necessary, as the result is the exact same. The Consul of the Interior would be acting commander of the Sentinels until the Senate vote procedure takes place and elects a new commander. But if clogging the text with unnecessary sentences satisfies you, I won't say anymore on the matter. As long as we can get this moving.

[LD]

[ic=Letter To Della Suburba]
I look forward to seeing you in Rome and I agree that my men will not interfere with the execution of Church Law in accordance with the Treaty. My understanding is that the Senate holds this view. My understanding also is that there are some in the Senate who have been acting to undercut the Consul of the Interior's power with respect to interior security, but it is also my understanding at least on this matter, they will not act at cross-purposes. When you arrive next season, I would be glad to discuss this at greater length.

-Consul Vittorio Manzinni.
[/ic]

[TheMeanestGuest]

[ic=A Letter to Gerardo Calafatus]Senator,

It is not my intent that they should be put to such a purpose - at least not on any regular basis. I have no desire to insult the skill and ability of these men. As Consul of the Exterior I must concern myself with securing Rome against her foreign enemies, and in this capacity I think your father's palatini will serve well. With the situation in Latium as it is, I fear that we shall shortly have need of them.

However, that is not to say the men should not expect to be utilized as such if the city is wracked with riot or civil strife, when loyal men are needed to restore the peace. I will set this as a condition of their employment, and if they are unwilling to restore the city's peace in times of extremity I do not think the Senate would be best served by their retention.

Consul Roberto Basile[/ic]

[ic=A Letter to Niccolo Capocci]Signore,

Signore Demetri has accepted your offer, and it is my hope - as I know  it is yours - that we all should put this behind us. I doubt Oddone will act openly now that Antonio is reconciled to you, but he is an ambitious man, and I am under no illusion that Rome is not among his desires. Eventually I am sure he will have his excuse, but I shall work to see that it is in a time of Roman strength, and Frangipani weakness.

Consule Roberto Basile[/ic]

[ic=A Letter to Antonio Demetri della Suburra]Signore,

As you have said, it is your right to execute the law in this regard in the name of His Holiness. The Senate shall not resist you in the matter of Arnold of Brescia. I will note my concern that such action will no doubt see the blood of Romans shed on the streets of the Eternal City - as you are aware - but if His Holiness thinks the apprehension of the friar worth the lives of the Romans, then I suppose we must abide it.

I expect that you will keep your men well in-hand and carry out your duty with the utmost restraint. Neither I nor the Senate could rightly tolerate a massacre.

Consul Roberto Basile[/ic]

[ic=Spoken privately to Arnold of Brescia by a messenger of Roberto Basile]Good Friar, my benefactor bids me warn you that the Prefect shall shortly make his return to Rome, and that it is his intent to seize your person and deliver you to the Curia. My benefactor cannot risk the order and peace of the city on your behalf, and the matter of the law in this regard is likewise without the jurisdiction of any civil power. He has bade me send you this message not with expectation that you shall resist, but with hope that the lives of your followers, faithful Romans, might be spared. Their ardour is well known, and they would no doubt defend you even against Papal steel. He humbly asks that you make submission peacefully and quietly, and carefully and privately prepare any necessary prior arrangement. My master hopes that you might perhaps come to reconciliation with the church, though he knows this unlikely.

There is no other option that should spare the Romans, save that you absent yourself from Rome with haste. My benefactor would have you know that he treasures the lives of the people, and strives always to their protection.[/ic]

[ooc=Orders for Summer 1159]- Basile shall see that the rioters taken at the Demetri estate are tried before the Senate's court for disturbing the peace of the commune, and will recommend that they be fined for their crime.

- To obtain the copper the mint requires, Basile must act decisively, and he must act now. Before the imminent return of the Prefect, Basile shall declare as Consul that in the absence of other authority it necessarily falls to the Senate to see to the good repair of all Rome's monuments and works. The portico of Santa Maria della Rotunda has been subject to decay and weathering, and as a good christian Basile would not see such a famous church languish in ill-repair. Therefor, he shall set workmen to erect scaffolding and pry up the weathered copper sheeting (and of course deliver this refuse to Romollo Vanetti's workshop for recycling), and replace it with new clay tiling - or something else relatively inexpensive. Basile shall hopefully in one stroke have done a good and christian deed, and seen to the needs of the mint. Spend up to 3 WP in this regard over the duration of the season.

- Basile shall resolve the matter of the Colosseum, and see its ownership pass to the Senate. He shall see to the organization of the payment to the Calafatii, spending 3 WP of his own, and gathering up a promised 3 WP from Senator de Vinti, 6 WP from Senator Borsarius, and 1 WP from Senator Sismondii. The remaining 2 WP shall come from the city treasury.

- Basile will essentially absent himself from the matter of the Sentinels, as he finds it tedious and distracting. He shall see to the retention of 50 Calafatan palatini to the city's service, and will commence their payment of 1 WP per season at the appropriate time from the city treasury.  Basile will ensure through his negotiations with Gerardo Calafatus that the palatini are in fact not contracted to be Sentinels, but a retained military force for the defence of Rome and the supplementation of the militia.  

- Basile will host Gerardo Calafatus (and his two brothers) for a sumptuous dinner at the Basile estate - his daughter and wife likewise present, both engaging in polite dinnertime conversation. He shall seek to know the son as he did the father, and ensure the continued friendship between the Basile and Calafatus families, expressing this sentiment happily and clearly, saying of Fortis that he was a true and great friend, and a stalwart Roman and protector of the city. Basile will of course ask after Gerardo's thoughts on the Commune and its future, and its current governance. Assuming things have gone well to this point, after dinner and over dessert wine Basile will broach the subject of a potential match between Gerardo and Olithia and gauge Gerardo's reaction. It would seem a sensible course, given the relationship that Roberto had with Fortis.

- Basile will politely greet the Prefect on his return to the city, escorting him with a score of armsmen. He will see that Capocci indeed restores the Demetri estate, and that the two men are reconciled amicably enough, and will attempt to diplomatically head off any further potential acrimony between the two men. He will observe the Prefect's actions carefully, particularly as they concern Arnold of Brescia.

- Having noted the goats and sheep that graze on the nearby hills, and ever-desirous of the diversification and expansion of his family's wealth, Basile shall investigate the acquisition of a flock or herd of his own, and determine the current scheme of extant grazing rights and the resulting feasibility of obtaining pasturage. Basile would prefer goats, and harbours a secret hope that he might eventually possess a functional and profitable dairy.

- Basile will send some of his agents to Gregoriopolis to monitor the activity of the Pisans, and any attempt they might make to establish themselves therein.

- Basile will accept de Vinti's invitation to view Trajan's Market, and will consider it as a potential courthouse, jointly investigating costs, restoration, and feasibility.

- Most importantly, Basile shall proceed to Ardea at the appropriate time for the birth of his first grandchild, bringing with him twenty of his guardsmen. Basile will pray for an easy birth and the health of the child and the mother, and look for the coming of Avenazon. If a boy he will propose the name Giovanni for Caetana's brother, and if a girl he will propose the name Emilia.[/ooc]

OOC: Sorry for not getting this up sooner! Had to write it during lecture as I currently have no internet, and won't until Friday afternoon at the earliest, but this should take care of everything.

[Polycarp]

Today's the day!  Please get your orders in if you haven't posted them already!

[Nomadic]

[ooc=Orders]
- Pay [1 wp] upkeep on Palatini
- Gift Basile [1 wp] for the Colosseum purchase
- Seeing the wisdom of his captain's words Sismondii will attempt to acquire [1 wp] worth of crossbows and bolts for the Nettuno armory. If some of his palatini can be trained on the crossbow all the better.

- Sismondii will earmark a further [2 wp] for work on the road. While he imagines that difficulties in finding labor will continue, especially as the year wears on towards fall, he hopes that at least that much work can be done.
- Sismondii will accept Senator Guillelmi's gracious offer to host him at his home. Sismondii will explain to the senator that with the current senate interest in preparing an official Roman legal structure it would be wise to make sure that the concept of a guild is given its fair due. He does not believe it would look too forward on the part of the schola as the schola firstly wouldn't be putting their name on it (Sismondii and perhaps Guillelmi would be doing that) and additionally it would not just be for the weavers. Rather Sismondii has been looking to the highly successful guild structures of cities like Pisa and Venice and hopes that in writing guild rights, duties, and protections into Roman law that he can strengthen local commerce by protecting Roman merchants. Obviously Sismondii would defer to Guillelmi and his associates on the particulars of what might be useful for a formalized guild structure but he hopes that Guillelmi and the schola as a whole might be willing to at least discuss options for making this work.
[/ooc]

[Elven Doritos]

[ooc=Orders]Gift the remaining total of the Colosseum purchase to Basile[/ooc]

[Polycarp]

Anno Domini MCLIX
Summer has passed into Autumn...
In autumn, laborers take to the farmlands to plow the fields and sow the winter wheat, while in the hills grapes and olives must be picked and pressed.  This is a busy time in Rome, for much work needs to be done between the withering summer and the onset of winter.  The wealthy return to the city from their country estates this season, and the Church prepares for the celebration of All Saints' Day.  On the water, merchants hurry to complete their routes before the winter storms make the sea treacherous, and citizens watch the Tiber warily, for floods come most often in autumn.

Our Consuls: To be determined
Our Pope: Adrian IV
Our Prefect: Antonio Demetri della Suburra
Our Rage: Frothing! [6]

[ooc=This Season's Top 5 Popular Issues]
1. "We demand bread!"
2. "Barbarossa is coming... will he be a tyrant or a liberator?"
3. "Good riddance to the prefect – Rome shall be free!"
4. "The Arnoldists endanger us all when they seize churches like this..."
5. "Niccolo Capocci is a loose cannon catapult." [/ooc]

News from Abroad

The army of Greek Emperor Manuel Comnenus, on its way back to Constantinople from the emperor's victorious campaign against Antioch, was attacked near Iconium by the Turkish Sultan Kilij Arslan II.  The attack took the Greek army by surprise, but after a prolonged battle the Turks eventually withdrew, causing significant casualties but not achieving a decisive victory.  Upon his return to the capital, the emperor dispatched his nephew Iohannes Konstostephanos with an army to punish the Turks and compel the sultan's submission.

The Emperor of the Greeks received more distressing news upon his return to Constantinople.  His wife and empress, Bertha von Sulzbach, had died in his absence.  Bertha, who took the Greek name of "Irene" at her coronation, was the sister-in-law of the late Holy Roman Emperor Konrad III.  She leaves her husband with only one living child, Maria Komnena, who is seven years of age.  Manuel reportedly grieved for his empress terribly, but is presumed the emperor will remarry.  He is forty years of age, and by a new wife he might yet father a son.

Władysław II, claimant to the Duchy of Poland, has died.  He held the position of High Duke until he was deposed by his brothers in 1146, and ever after lived abroad in the Holy Roman Empire.  In 1157, it seemed Władysław might finally reclaim his throne when an imperial army marched upon Poland, but in the end the victorious emperor decided to maintain Władysław's younger brother Bolesław IV as High Duke and extract an oath of vassaldom from him rather than restoring Władysław to power.  Władysław died at Altenburg in May.

The Almohad army besieging Mahdia, the last Sicilian-held city in Africa, successfully overran the commercial suburb of Zawila, but was unable to take the city's fortified center.  Later this summer, twenty Sicilian galleys arrived at Mahdia with supplies and reinforcements, and the Sicilians regained control of Zawila and some of the coast north of Mahdia.  The siege, however, continues.  Personally led by the Almohad Caliph Abd al-Mu'min, the besieging army is rumored to be a hundred thousand strong.

News of Italy

The war in Lombardy began in earnest this summer, with skirmishes and battles throughout the region.  Milanese horsemen plundered the contado of Lodi in June, but were intercepted on their return by Garnerio, Margrave of Ancona, who routed the Milanese and recovered the spoils.  A Milanese attack on a bridge over the Adda River held by the Lodigliani shortly after also failed.  An imperial force subsequently raided the contado of Milan, and fell back under pursuit; apparently they were intended to draw the Milanese into an ambush, but fled in the wrong direction and were nearly all captured.  The emperor himself, however, discovered this disaster and quickly moved to intercept the victorious Milanese, taking them by surprise from all directions and rendering almost the entire force either dead or captive.  After this, the Emperor was free to completely destroy the Milanese countryside with no further interference.

The emperor opted not to besiege Milan after this series of successes, but Crema, one of Milan's major allies.  Some believe that the emperor simply lacked the strength to invest Milan; the emperor sent home most of his German soldiers last year, and his current army is made up largely of Lombard allies, principally the nobility of Lombardy and the militias of Cremona, Lodi, Como, Pavia, and Bergamo.  Those allies may also have influenced the decision, as Cremona – which has supplied the emperor with the largest contingent of any commune – is bitter enemies with Crema and has been petitioning the emperor to raze its defenses for some time.

Cremona laid siege on July 2nd, with the imperial forces and the militia of Pavia arriving a week later.  The emperor was accompanied by Konrad von Hohenstaufen, Count Palatine of the Rhine and the emperor's half-brother, and Friedrich IV von Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia and cousin of the emperor.  On the 21st of the month, reinforcements arrived under the command of Heinrich "the Lion" Welf, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, followed shortly thereafter by Welf VI Welf, Margrave of Tuscany and Duke of Spoleto, and his knights.

All agree that this will be a truly massive siege – unlike the last siege of Milan, which soon ended as the city ran out of food, Crema is believed to be very well stocked.  Its own militia was reinforced with contingents from Milan and Brescia before the siege began, and the commune's defenses are overseen by magister Marchisio, a native of Crema, and one of the most renowned siege engineers in Italy.  For their part, the imperial forces have already constructed a series of wooden castles all around Crema's walls, armed with all manner of siege devices.  The men of Cremona are said to be constructing the most massive siege tower ever seen in Italy, though how it will make it past the city's impressive moat is not yet clear.

The last news from the north was that no major assaults have yet happened, though the defenders have launched several sallies attempting to burn the imperial siege engines, so far with only modest success.  The defenders have run into opposition not only from imperial troops and allies, but from bands of irregulars who have been skulking in the marshes around Crema and ambushing its defenders when they leave the walls.  Though apparently composed of commoners armed only with stones and knives, these bands – which the Cremaschi have dubbed fili Arnoldii ("sons of Arnold," referring to Arnold of Brescia, well-known in Lombardy chiefly for his life of poverty) – have made sallies even more difficult for the defenders.  The origin of these people is unclear, but many presume they are the urban poor of anti-Milanese cities hoping to loot the city and the bodies of its defenders.

A spectacular story is circulating about an attempt on the life of the emperor by some sort of magician; rumors disagree as to whether he was Italian or a Saracen.  The man allegedly infiltrated the emperor's camp with an assortment of poison-impregnated jewelry to give to Frederick, or possibly a poisoned dagger to use upon him, but the emperor's men were forewarned of this plot and arrested him at once.  It is said he was in the pay of the Milanese, though some claim he did not divulge his paymaster even under torture.  Either way, he was crucified by the emperor's men.

This summer experienced an unusually high level of Saracen piracy, with corsair fleets seizing merchant ships and even raiding the southern coast of Sardinia.  The consuls of Pisa have accused their rivals in Genoa of being complicit in these raids; Sardinia is under Pisan control, and Genoa has a trade treaty with the Almohads.  Genoese shipping has been conspicuously untouched by the latest rash of attacks.

News of Latium

Damianus Truffa, the Rector of Rieti, has died.  Reportedly, the rector fell from his horse while falconing and suffered a head injury; it did not kill him immediately, but his condition deteriorated over two weeks until his death.  His loss has precipitated a crisis of power in Rieti.  Traditionally, the city was a bishopric, controlled directly by the Bishop of Rieti – since 1137, that bishop has been Dodone, of the Cistercian Order.  In the 1140s the burghers of the city demanded their own government, and a council of "rectors" was established – technically under the supervision of the bishop, but with significant autonomy.  Among these was Damiano (Latinized to "Damianus"), who quickly consolidated his own power within the council.  By 1154, the council of rectors had been reduced to a "council of one," Damiano himself.  Though the rectors had been established as a counterbalance to the bishop, Damiano cultivated good relations with Dodone, and the two cooperated in campaigns against Farfa in recent years.

Damianus Truffa ruled with a strong hand and there was little opposition to him even as he did away with the short-lived democratic institutions of the council.  With his death, however, the democratic instincts of the burghers have come back with a vengeance.  When Dodone attempted to nominate a new Rector himself, a group of the city's prominent citizens met in the city's cathedral, declared the Rectorate to be abolished, and proclaimed a government of eleven elected consuls.  Bishop Dodone was prevented from entering the cathedral and since mid-August has been residing at Castrum Lunianum, a hilltop fortress-town about five miles northeast of Rieti.  The consuls have a strong position within the city itself, in part because they appear to have the loyalty of the city militia (organized and trained, in fact, by the Roman knight Fortis Calafatus).  Most of the contado of Rieti, however, is in the hands of the bishop, including a number of castles and monasteries in the hills around it.  So far there has been no bloodshed, but the situation is quite tense.

An even greater conflict has broken out in the north of the Patrimonium.  Last winter, the city of Bagnarea declared its independence from the lordship of the Monaldeschi, a prominent Orvieti noble family.  Initially, this seemed to be merely a dispute between a small city and a noble family, only of passing interest to Rome.  In June, however, the Monaldeschi allegedly stirred up a counter-revolutionary uprising within the city itself.  After several days of civil unrest and uncertainty, the insurrection failed - but Bagnarea, fearing further intrigue or even an armed assault, called for help.

Rumor has it that they called first upon the Faliscan League and were rejected, though this may be wishful thinking on the part of the Romans, ever eager to paint their northern rivals in an unfriendly light.  Another party, however, accepted – the commune of Acquapendente.  Acquapendente, a city only marginally smaller than Orvieto, has long been the target of Orvieti attempts at expansion; it has been able to resist this principally because of the prosperity it gains from being the "gate to Tuscany" and a critical stop on the Via Francigena.  The city's leaders have been proclaiming their pro-Imperial loyalties ever since Barbarossa passed through their city on the way to his coronation, and while he was in their midst they were brave enough to proclaim themselves subject "neither to Curia nor Commune" (meaning, respectively, the Pope and Orvieto).

A city rejecting the rulership of an Orvieti noble family was of but minor concern to the consuls of Orvieto – but it was quite another thing entirely for a regional rival to announce its "protection" for a city within the Orvieti contado.  Orvieto demanded that Acquapendente stay out of the dispute, Acquapendente refused, and on July 10th, the consuls of Orvieto voted to declare war on Acquapendente.

Acquapendente made the first move, burning farmlands in the Paglia river valley and demonstrating against the walls of Torre Alfina, a Monaldeschi holding, but their force retired without giving battle when the Orvieti dispatched an army in response.  The summer that followed was characterized by raiding and skirmishing throughout northern Tuscia with no pitched battles or clear victories for either side.  Orvieto is by most metrics the stronger city, but its position has been made difficult by internal divisions within the commune.  There are rival noble families happy to see the Monaldeschi humbled who have no desire to return their fief to them in triumph, and the consuls seem to have similar concerns about using civic arms to strengthen that family.  The loyalty of the commune to its local barons apparently only goes so far.

The conflict has been complicated in the past few weeks by other noble families of the region throwing their lot in with one side or another.  The Marsciani, ruling a large territory between Orvieto and Perugia, have supplied levies to Orvieto; as Signore Raniero Marsciani's father received his investiture from the Bishop of Orvieto, that was probably predictable.  The Bovacciani, rivals of the Monaldesci who control land on the opposite bank of the Tiber from Orvieto, have declared for Acquapendente.  The Counts of Calmaniare, who control Bolsena, have so far managed to remain neutral.  Another party to watch is the powerful Aldobrandeschi family, which controls a very large territory in Tuscany along the borders of the patrimonium and has posed a significant obstacle to the expansion of Orvieti power in that direction.

The Faliscan league has no official position on the conflict and its members have yet to intervene.  While the alliance is pro-Papal in theory, and thus would be assumed to be sympathetic to Orvieto, the Faliscan League is not a single state – each of its members have their own interests and their own histories with the participants in the conflict.  The Bishop of Sutri, Giovanni III, who is widely considered to be the architect of the league, may be purposefully remaining aloof to avoid causing any fractures amongst the members of his coalition.

In other news, authority over the city of Terni has been granted by His Holiness to Oddone, Goffredo, and Solimano, the brothers of Cardinal Ottaviano dei Crescenzi Ottaviani di Monticelli.  Although Ottaviano is believed to be the leader of the "Imperial" faction in the College of Cardinals that Pope Adrian opposes, this bequest is presumably meant to be an act of reconciliation.  Terni retains its communal government, though it now operates under the authority of the Crescenzi-Ottaviani family.

News of Rome

Rome sweltered under an especially hot summer this year.  While such summers pose no problems for the grape and olive crops in the hills – grapes in particular, as well as citrus, might well thrive – the heat may pose a problem for the coming year's wheat crop if the autumn rains are not sufficient.

For Rome, however, this was only the second-worst news regarding the all-important wheat harvest.  Summer is the season of the harvest in Latium, but the war in the previous year greatly disrupted the planting season last autumn; during the key planting months, many farmers in the Roman contado were still displaced from their land, or were unable to acquire seed corn because of the high price of grain or the destruction of their granaries and storehouses.  As a result, there was simply not much to harvest this year.  Bread prices, which had steadily declined since the winter but remained above-average, abruptly spiked again early this summer as the scale of the problem became clear, and civil disorder resulted.  Though the actions thus far have not quite been "riots" in the Roman sense, fistfights over bread, stone-throwing at merchants and the wealthy, and mass demonstrations at diaconia, estates, and taverns are growing ever more common.  The most violent, in Pontis et Scorteclariorum, resulted in the death of a 9 year old boy when he was hit in the head by an errant stone.  Many predict the crisis to grow worse in short order.  The diaconia of the Church, the traditional providers of charity, were already substantially depleted by the near-famine last year, and with the prefect still absent from the city the dilemma seems to be thrust upon the Senate alone.

In July, the Commune of Rome began minting its first independent currency.  The new coins, produced in the workshop of monetarius and camerarius Romolo Vannetti, are billon, an alloy of silver and copper (in this case, in a 1 to 3 ratio).  While billon coins are not common in international trade, the have occasionally been used for lower, chiefly domestic denominations (by the Kingdom of Sicily, for instance).  While the numbers produced so far have been fairly small, the minting appears to some to be more of a political statement than an economic act – not only is this an assertion of the Senate's ability to mint currency, something previously done only by the prefectural government, but the new coins bear the image and (abbreviated) name of Pietro Colonna.  The fact that the Senate has chosen to honor a popular (and dead) prefect without mention of the current and living one has not escaped notice.

Two weeks ago, an ambassadorial party sent by the emperor arrived in Rome.  The column of knights, retainers, and servants, around forty strong, was led by the Imperial Marshal Otto von Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of Bavaria, and Heribert, Provost of Acqui, a pro-imperial Lombard clergyman.  Otto is not an obvious choice as a diplomat – he rather famously drew his sword on a cardinal who impugned the imperial dignity a few years ago, and allegedly had to be restrained by the emperor himself from striking the clergyman down on the spot, in the middle of a church.  Count Guido di Biandrate, who headed the last imperial delegation, was apparently indisposed on account of the war in Lombardy.  Otto's Bavarian troops are with the emperor at Crema, but evidently their commander could be spared.

The Church of Santa Maria Rotonda, known in ancient times as the Pantheon, has resumed its normal services – just under new management.  As it turns out, most of the church's priests were already Arnoldists themselves, and have resumed their normal duties with a few modifications.  For one, the church's vicar has been expelled, and is believed to have fled the city; the priests now manage the church in council.  They have also stripped all the gold, silver, and other valuable ornamentation from within the building – except the actual implements of the Eucharist – and had it broken up and given to the poor.  Otherwise, the activities and facilities therein have remained unchanged.  Though Arnold himself still preaches occasionally from the steps of the building, he does not seem to have had any direct role in the reopened church.

The woodworkers of Rome are increasingly adopting a new technology.  Previously, bowls, cups, spindles, dowels, and all other sorts of turned wooden pieces were typically made on a "hand lathe," in which the piece was turned manually by crank or cord, requiring the woodworker's free hand or an apprentice.  Craftsmen from the north, however, have introduced the so-called "spring-pole lathe," which uses a flexible green bough connected to a foot pedal by a cord to allow the woodworker to turn the piece with his foot, leaving both hands free for working.  While the pole lathe has the potential to allow wheelwrights, furniture-makers, joiners, and other craftsmen to perform their work faster and more easily, it also has a military application.  The release system of a crossbow is the most delicate part of the weapon; the most modern release system, the rolling cylindrical "nut," is usually a piece of bone carved by hand.  The pole lathe allows workers to easily craft such nuts, and to make them smoother and more symmetrical than before, consequently enhancing accuracy.  [Crossbows are now slightly more effective.]

Court Roll

This new irregular section details any judicial proceedings of note.

Six men arrested by Consul Basile in the attack on the Prefect's estate were brought up for an ad hoc tribunal in the Curia Julia.  A fine had been proposed by Consul Basile, but legal experts on hand from the new school noted that the Digests allowed loss of property only for violations of the Lex de Vi Privata, that is to say minor disorder, in which a man is beaten in a public riot but not killed.  In any case, none of the prisoners had any property worth speaking of, belonging that class of destitute Romans who so often make up the bulk of civil disturbances.

The severity of this particular riot necessitated the application of the Lex de Vi Publica, which at the very least required the "interdiction of fire and water" – the formal phrase meaning "banishment" in Roman Law.  A case analyzed in the Digests, however, specifically noted that the exception to this was "attacking and plundering houses or villas with an armed band," for which the penalty was death.  A discussion over whether the mob constituted a "band" ensued, but a decision in the affirmative was eventually reached on the grounds that the group had come some distance together to the villa rather than coming upon site separately and coincidentally.  Despite pressure for leniency from some senators, all six men were sentenced to death.  This verdict met with the approval of most of the senate, which tended to believe that disorder resulting in plunder, arson, and death needed to be dissuaded in the most strenuous manner possible.

The six men were publicly hanged on June 12th.  A large crowd gathered to watch, which made those in charge of the proceedings rather nervous.  Evidently, however, the condemned did not have much public sympathy, and the proceedings were not interrupted.  Notably, these were the first public executions in Rome since the formation of the Commune.

Finances

Treasury: 4 WP

Income: 2 WP

• Duty, Patrician Pierleone: 1 WP
• Papal Stipend: 1 WP
• Rent, Colosseum: 2 WP (Spring Only)

Expenditures: 1 WP

• Upkeep, Senatorial Palatini (50): 1 WP
• Mint Fee: 1 WP (Spring Only)

State Projects:
None

State Properties:
Theater of Marcellus
Colosseum
Tabularium (Treasury)
Curia Julia (Senate House)
University

[spoiler=Personal Finances]Arrigus Sismondii
Income: 20 (9/3/6/2)
Enterprises:
3 Wine Presses (+6 Autumn)
4 Pastures [Rented from Calafatus] (+4 Spring)
1 Fulling Mill (+1 Spring)
1 Weaving Hall – Wool (+4 Spring, +2 Winter)
1 Dyeworks (+3 Summer)

Savings: 7 WP
Costs: Palatini (-1 Every Season), Alum (1 WP in Spring), Rent to Calafatus (6 WP in Autumn)
Projects: Mole (3/?)
Assets: Rocca 3S, 50 Palatini, 50 crossbows

Vittorio Manzinni
Income: 25 (12/4/4/5)
Enterprises:
1 Forge Mill (+1 Spring, +1 Winter)
1 Lumber Yard (+2 Winter)
1 Bakery (+2 Winter)
2 Storehouses – Glassware (+2 Spring, +2 Summer, +2 Autumn)
2 Storehouses – Linens (+2 Spring, +2 Summer, +2 Autumn)
2 Hospitia (+6 Spring)
Pontis Rent [Non-enterprise] (+1 Spring)
23
Savings: 10 WP
Costs: Palatini (-1 Every Season)
Projects: None
Assets: Estate 1S/2O, Land in Ripe et Marmorate and S. Angeli in Foro Piscium, 50 Palatini, Debt of 4 WP

Roberto Basile
Income: 20 (8/4/2/6)
Enterprises:
2 Storehouses – Loot (+2 Spring, +2 Summer, +2 Autumn)
2 Orchards (+2 Winter)
1 Perfumery (+4 Spring)
2 Fisheries (+2 Spring, +4 Winter)
2 Salinae (+2 Summer)

Savings: 8 WP
Costs: Armored Masnada (-2 Every Season)
Projects: None
Assets: Estate, Tower House [4S/2O], 100 Masnada (Armored)

Hugo de Vinti
Income: 23 (15/2/1/5)
Enterprises:
1 Storehouse – Marble (+1 Spring, +1 Summer, +1 Autumn)
1 Sculptors' Workshop (+1 Spring, +1 Summer, +1 Winter)
5 Flax Fields (+5 Spring)
2 Weaving Halls – Linen (+8 Spring, +4 Winter)

Savings: 11 WP
Costs: Palatini (-1 Every Season)
Projects: None
Assets: Gilded Palazzo [3O], Obelisk, 50 Palatini, 50 crossbows

Barzalomeus Borsarius
Income: 17 (3/4/3/7)
Enterprises:
1 Spetiarium (+1 Summer)
2 Storehouses – Spices (+2 Spring, +2 Summer, +2 Autumn)
1 Counting House (+1 Spring, +1 Summer, +1 Autumn, +1 Winter)
3 Lumber Yards (+6 Winter)

Savings: 16 WP
Costs: None
Projects: None
Assets: Estate, 8WP loan to Alessandro[/spoiler]

Senatorial Inquests

Senators that requested information or launched endeavors have the results of their efforts listed here.  This information is private, but you may certainly choose to share it with the Senate.

[spoiler=Roberto Basile]Ardea
Congratulations, Senator; you are a grandfather.  A son, baptized as Giovanni, was born to Caetana Caetani in Ardea, and is well-formed and healthy.  The nuns in attendance considered the date of his birth – July 27nd, the feast day of Saint Pantaleon, patron of physicians – to be especially auspicious for childbirth.

"Avenazon" showed up as promised.  In truth, he had little to do, and hurried back not long thereafter; a messenger from the Curia arrived at Ardea in early August, and though he did not read you the contents, the surgeon mentioned that "a noble personage" of the Curia required his services.  He apologized profusely for his precipitous exit, but gave the attending nuns some advice if various complications arose.  It was obvious that they did not much like each other, with the nuns resenting being instructed on women's health by a man – a foreign, Jewish man at that – and Avenazon arrogantly dismissing their "ridiculous" ideas about warding the mother and child from harm with gemstones and the like.

Trials
Unfortunately your recommendation for the rioters you captured carried little weight, particularly when the Digests and the "experts" from the new school were so clear on the law.  At least nobody rioted during the executions...

Santa Maria Rotonda
With the vicar of Santa Maria della Rotunda chased out of the city, even the remaining priests posed no obstacle to your activities on the roof of the building's portico.  Even if they suspected that your work was not entirely in the interest of the Church, they were at the same moment involved in selling off the ornamentation within the building and had little room to complain about the removal of the external ornamentation.

Even with significant funding, the whole season was required to do the work – the copper must amount to many dozens of tons, which was not easily moved.  Some of it was not – a portion turned out to be in metal support beams that were made of a bronze mixture rather than the purer copper of the tiles, and these were left in place.

Romolo Vannetti reports that even at a 3-to-1 copper to silver ratio in the new coins, the supply of copper now far outstrips the Senate's cache of silver, particularly if the silver coins given as part of the Papal stipend are not melted down – the prefect warned against destroying Papal deniers, and Vannetti has sworn that he has so far only melted foreign coins, bullion, and miscellaneous objects (candlesticks, tableware, etc.) that the Senate has accumulated from various ventures.  The supply of this is presently rather limited; much of it was left over from the plunder of Tivoli (including the Episcopal palace's tableware).  While you have, for now, solved the copper problem, the larger issue of silver is still unresolved.

Calafatii
Fortis' sons were hosted at your estate over the summer.  Certainly they resemble their father, but it is unclear if any share the martial gifts he was often credited with; except for the Tivoli campaign, where Gerardo served has his father's squire, the elder Calafatus did not take any of his sons to war.  Certainly they have been taught riding and swordsmanship like most noble sons, but it remains to be seen if any of their father's prowess will be repeated in the subsequent generation.

As far as the governance of the Commune, the brothers had little to say; of them, only Gerardo would be entering the Senate.  Gerardo noted that the other noblemen of the Senate, from his recent discussions, felt increasingly alienated by the Senate's policies, particularly the blind eye the Senate appeared to be turning to Arnoldist instigations.  Though many of them were rather distant from Fortis Calafatus, his departure means the consiliarii now have not one nobleman among them, and there is a general concern that the Senate will turn against them.

The division of the family estate, as so often happens to such families with many sons, has greatly diluted its wealth; Calafatus was one of the richest noblemen in Rome (aside from Pierleoni, Colonna, and other such great families), but his sons are more comparable in their incomes to well-off cattani.  They can easily maintain the arms of knights and are in no danger of poverty, but neither are they any longer members of the true elite.

Gerardo did not speak much of money over the course of the dinner, no doubt out of politeness, but this may be one reason aside from mere familial friendship that Gerardo seemed receptive to the issue of marriage you raised.  Between his share of the Colosseum sale and a presumed dowry for Olithia Basile, he would potentially possess a sizable fortune that he might well use to establish himself and his future family on a more stable financial footing.  Of course, any dowry would have to be negotiated between the two of you, a negotiation Gerardo seems willing to enter into.

Prefect
Antonio did not return to the city this season, nor was there any attempt by prefectural or Papal troops to enter the city or take Arnold into custody.  Work has begun on the Demetri estate, funded by Capocci's money; that promise, at least, appears to be being kept.  Capocci himself has not set foot in the city all season, though that is not at all uncommon for the nobility during Roman summers.

Livestock
"Grazing rights" in the disabitato ("uninhabited [land]," as the sparsely populated eastern parts of Rome are sometimes known, in contrast to the abitato centered around the Field of Mars) are difficult to sort out.  In theory all this land is owned by the Church, though various noblemen and clergymen have rights to various tracts of land.  These records, if they exist, are not readily accessible to you; Cardinal Breakspeare, as the Papal Chamberlain, might know more (if he doesn't, it's unlikely anyone does).

Dairy does form a part of the average Roman's diet, almost all in the form of cheese, and particularly grana or "grainy" cheeses (similar to modern Parmesan).  It is something you rarely eat, however, because cheese is widely considered to be the food of peasants and monks, eaten by those who cannot afford meat.  It would be almost scandalous were you to serve cheese to your guests, except possibly as a garnish to other foods.  A few rarely seen foreign cheeses are considered to be delicacies, like the goat cheese of Crete, but in general it is a commodity produced by peasants for peasants and traded only very locally.  A dairy enterprise is possible if you acquired enough of a flock, but it may not be terribly competitive.

In truth, the most valuable product of sheep is wool, not dairy.  Woolens are the most common export of Latin Christendom to the markets of the Greeks and Saracens.  Traditionally this is a trade that has been dominated by the Flemish, but increasingly Italian cities like Milan and Pavia have become weaving centers making cloth traded widely by Pisa, Genoa, and Venice.  Latium plays only a minor part in this trade, though the Alban Hills is a fairly well-respected wool producing region, and there are many sheep runs of importance in the mountains to the east.

Gregoriopolis
Although the Pisans were granted a quarter of the city by the Pope, as well as rights to garrison it, it does not appear that they have yet exercised those rights.  Extraction of marble by Pisan ships continued this year, and Pisan sailors associated with these trips have sometimes stayed at the town – perhaps more often than they used to – but no permanent Pisan presence has been established there.

Trajan's Market
"Trajan's Market" is the common name of a complex located just north of the Forum.  In ancient times, it is believed the Emperor Trajan built an immense new forum for the people; little of it remains save a semi-circular terraced complex of alcoves and halls dug into the southernmost slope of the Quirinal Hill.  The street that runs through it today is sometimes still called the Via Biberatica (from the Latin "biber," to drink) because there were taverns and other shops there until recent centuries.  The exterior of the structure, particularly on the lowest level, is riddled with alcoves that once held shops, but are now either abandoned, filled with rubble, or used as dwellings for the poor or hermitages for monks.  A layer of houses made from scavenged brickwork has been built on top of the structure in the last few hundred years, though as the building is a series of terraces this has not obscured most of the structure.

While most of the alcoves in the market are too tiny for anything but a shop or small dwelling, there are a few longer halls and one considerably larger space.  This "great hall" is a vaulted hall, 32 meters long, 8 meters wide, and three stories tall, and it is this building that Senator de Vinti pointed out to you as a possible site for a courthouse.  It is directly accessible by the "Via Biberatica," and connects to the "commercial" area of the complex as well.  It is not a fully enclosed space, but it does have a roof – an impressive vaulted roof, at that – which is more than one can say for most ruins in the city.

The complex is not visited much now, as it's somewhat peripheral to the populated center of Rome, but it has the advantage of being much closer than the Lateran, where the Senate attempted to establish a court some years ago only for it to fail because of its unreasonable distance from where Romans actually lived.

With some work this site could be made serviceable.  A chamber for hearing cases does not need to have any particular amenities, and the cost of cleaning up the place, acquiring basic furniture, and repairing the most obvious erosion and decay is not likely to cost more than 3 WP, and might well be less.  If the Senate wishes to do further work – to create space for archives, for instance, or establish a prison (which would require things like the restoration of the local cistern and such) the cost is likely to increase.

Pictured: Inside the Great Hall of Trajan's Market today (Click for big)



You have spent 7 WP and earned 4 WP this season.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Hugo de Vinti]Security
Nobody bothered your men or did anything suspicious that they could see at Trajan's Market.  If there were any criminals there, perhaps they have been dissuaded by the sight of armed men patrolling.

Although Arnoldists were certainly among the rioters this summer, it was hunger, not the injustices of the Church, that drove them.  Your twenty men did not feel at all comfortable intervening in the various bread riots throughout the city; though some turned violent, all remained relatively local.

The Colosseum, somewhat distant from the city center as it is, is not a particular hotbed of anything, let alone criminal activity.  Its residents tend to be low- to middle-class artisans – certainly not the upper crust of Rome, but neither the seething mobs of the city's inner slums.

Your men were unsuccessful in uncovering any of the "links" you were seeking.  Part of the problem may be that it is difficult to establish who the "leaders" of the Arnoldists are.  Arnold, though the movement bears his name, is primarily a preacher rather than an organizer; it was impossible to find any reliable tale of him "organizing" anything.  He simply begins speaking and a crowd gathers.

Fête
Your party went well, though it was largely skipped by the noble class, most of whom are not present in Rome during the summer (and are particularly unlikely to be present when the summer is so oppressively hot as this one was).  Pietro Colonna politely declined your invitation citing "duties as a curial officer" – he is believed to be an Anagni – and the Demetri of course were nowhere to be seen in Rome this season.  The only nobleman who was in attendance, albeit only briefly, was Cencio Pierleoni, the nephew and recently declared heir of Patrician Giordano.  He paid his respects and shared a glass of wine, but politely declined staying longer, mentioning that he had obligations that evening.  It was not much, though as far as you know, this is the first social event of this nature that Cencio has appeared at without his uncle since he left the Church just a few months ago.

The attendance was better among the merchant class, which generally are not in possession of country estates to which they can retreat during the hot and often unhealthy Roman summers.  Some, however, may have feared that during a time when poor Romans were rioting over a lack of bread, it might be ill-advised to attend such a lavish affair.  The result was that while attendance was not low enough to be an embarrassment, neither was it particularly encouraging.

Market
Consul Basile joined you on a tour of "Trajan's Market" this season.  Compared to other recent projects of the Senate, this one is unlikely to be terribly expensive; a chamber for hearing cases does not need to have substantial amenities.  The cost of cleaning up the place, acquiring basic furniture, and repairing the most obvious erosion and decay is not likely to cost more than 3 WP, and might well be less.  If the Senate wishes to do further work – to create space for archives, for instance, or establish a prison (which would require things like the restoration of the local cistern and such, as a prison necessitates permanent habitation) the cost is likely to increase.

Other
An agent has been dispatched to Naples and has sent word of his safe arrival.  Hopefully you will soon be informed as to the success of his attempts to gain new hands.

As far as you are aware, there are no practiced masters of letters, or dictatores, in Rome.  Such tutors might be found in Bologna, the location of the university which Rogerius studied at, or possibly in the great mercantile communes of Genoa, Pisa, or Venice, where literacy is increasingly important to the powerful commercial class.  It may well be possible to find rhetoricians from those cities to teach in Rome.

It is well known that the best masters of the art of letter-writing, however, come from Orleans in France, where Charlemagne first founded a school of classical translation and study.  Orleans, they say, is to literature what Salerno is to medicine, Bologna is to law, and Paris is to theology; even the Pope's present personal secretary studied there.  There are some critics of the Orleanist style, which leans heavily on the emulation of classical authors, but it is indisputably dominant in Latin composition, both of poetry and prose, in the western Christian world.

You spent 5 WP and earned 2 WP this season.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Vittorio Manzinni]Patrols
There was little your men could (or would) do to interfere with the various bread "riots" this summer; most did not result in fatalities, though even the ones that did were usually over before a response could be considered and mounted.  The unrest seems to be escalating, however, and before long your men might be called into action.  At the very least it gave your men some opportunities to practice with their new flags.

Gambling
When men gamble, it is usually with dice.  The game popular these days is azzardo, which is believed to have come to Europe from the east with the returning Crusaders [Historical note: This game is the ancestor of the modern game of craps, and the origin of the English word "hazard"].  Yet dice-throwing is something men do with one another in taverns (or alleys), and "organized" gambling is unknown in Europe.  The stakes are also not terribly high, has azzardo is most notoriously played by the lower classes, who seldom have much to wager anyway.

The most profitable vice in Rome is undoubtedly alcohol, as the wine merchants and tavern-owners will no doubt tell you, but that is a fairly established industry.  As a primarily agricultural industry, it is also best broken into by those with access to land, which as a non-noble may not be easy for you.

While "carnival" – in this case meaning the festivities leading up to Lent, the period of fasting before Easter – does exist, the medieval understanding of the term is a time of feasting and celebration, and there are not "carnival games" in the sense that we understand them today.  One particularly Roman tradition during carnival – which seems to have lapsed in recent years – was for local merchants to buy a number of (live) pigs, put them in a cart, and send the cart and its squealing passengers careening down a particular hill in southern Rome, ending in a thunderous crash and an explosion of pork products.  The people would then converge on the mangled pig carcasses to take home pieces to cook, courtesy of the generosity of the patrons.

This is – or was, at least – what passes for carnival fun in Rome.  While there's not much direct profit in restarting that tradition, locals who seldom ever eat meat might appreciate it, and Romans have loved a bit of spectacular animal death ever since the days of the pagan emperors.  Sismondii some years ago made some effort to establish a course of public games around this time, but seems not to have followed up his first effort.  Of course, that time of year doesn't come about until the spring.

Agosto
Your men were unable to locate your missing man, nor his location.  By interviewing locals, they were able to establish that the man was seen just outside the de Vinti estate, heading towards it.  Not one witness can be found who saw the man thereafter.  He seems to have vanished quite totally.  It's possible that de Vinti's men might have seen him, but you may need permission from their master to have them interviewed.

Theater
Nobody would actually be "tossed" from the Theater of Marcellus save perhaps a few vagrants camping inside; unlike the Colosseum, it has not in recent history been used for apartments or workshops, having been a fortress of the Pierleoni until its acquisition by the Senate.  It is quite possible that the space "under the bleachers," so to speak, could be turned into rentable apartments.  Whether the theater can do both that and serve as a barracks probably depends on the size of the force being barracked, though it's worth noting that using the building for rental properties would probably compromise its value as a fortification, which might not be ideal if the soldiers barracked therein are expected to be able to defend the theater itself from attack.

Aquetax
Nobody is quite sure how you would measure aqueduct water to tax it, exactly, seeing as the only functional aqueduct just empties into an above-ground cistern that anyone can collect from.  It might be possible to post guards and measure out the water, but this would sharply limit access and would require maintaining a round-the-clock guard presence there, possibly eating into any revenues.

In ancient times, some houses had their own direct connections to the aqueducts, but the science of plumbing is not so advanced as it once was.  If in the future men build estates near the aqueduct, they might potentially be taxed for building a diversion to take water directly from the aqueduct.  So far, however, relocations to the area of the aqueduct have been minimal.

Properties
Technically the Senate also "owns" the Tabularium, a decrepit old building on the Capitoline that used to be the archive building of the ancient Romans.  The building was partially converted into a fortress by the Corsi family, but it was stormed by Patrician Pierleoni in 1144 (while he still led the Commune) and was the site of the battle in 1145 between the Commune and the forces of Pope Lucius II, who attempted to retake the city from the newly formed Senate (with largely Frangipani forces) but was driven back and mortally wounded in the process.  It has been held by the Senate since then.  The building has been mostly unused save for the lowest story, which is utilized as the Senate's impromptu treasury.  Something could probably be done with this structure – it is certainly in a good defensive position – but it would need a lot of work.  Only the lowest story even has a roof.

The Senate also owns the newly established school in the northern part of the city, though that presently has a use and probably can't serve another purpose.

[I've decided to include this information under "State Properties," see above.]

Forge Mill
Construction on this enterprise has been completed.  As far as who might be able to utilize it, the best candidate was previously Senator Calafatus, but with the breakup of his territories and the dissolution of his own force this is no longer the case.  As it stands, the senator with the most armored troops is Basile, who retains around a hundred armored masnada in the city.  Giordano Pierleoni certainly has more men, but it's unclear how many are armored.

You cannot split the maintenance discount directly.  Only troops whose upkeep you are paying are subject to the upkeep discount.  Theoretically a senator could let you pay for his troops' upkeep and compensate you for it, but this might mean that the loyalty of those troops would be split (you are, after all, paying for their equipment), and most senators would probably not want this.

You could also simply loan the whole enterprise to another senator (as Calafatus loaned out pastures to Sismondii), but that would require loaning the whole enterprise, not just one part or benefit.

Mint
The mint just began its work this past season, as noted above, on a run of billon (silver-copper) deniers struck with the symbol of the city on one side and the name and image of the late prefect Pietro Colonna on the other.  The quantities made so far, however, have not been great, and after an initial flurry of production the mint seems to have drawn down somewhat.

When questioned on this issue, the monetarius Senator Romolo Vannetti explained that while the prefect is no longer in the city, he has not been ordered to break the prefect's rules, namely that Rome should not coin money of silver or gold, and that Rome should not destroy Papal currency.  This is the reason why Senator Basile authorized him to strike billon coins (an alloy of silver and copper), which evidently the prefect allowed.  It is also why not many have been struck to date; since it cannot melt down and re-strike Papal deniers, the mint is left with only that part of the Senatorial treasury that is both silver and non-Papal to use, which is fairly small (in fact, it consisted mainly of plunder from the Tivoli campaign years ago, including candlesticks and tableware, that had been sitting about in the Tabularium).  That silver has now been converted, and without another source there is very little for the mint to use.  The mint has not produced a profit because it was ordered to mint 3 to 1 copper-silver deniers with the same value; no profit is made by minting a quarter-denier which is worth a quarter-denier.  To make a profit, the mint would have to either 1) debase the new currency, 2) acquire a source of pure silver (such as a mine) that would be tempered with copper and thus debased, or 3) recall currency from the population to re-strike it and either debase it or return it only in part as a tax, but this would violate the prohibition against re-striking Papal deniers.

You have spent 21 WP and earned 8 WP this season, including 4 WP in loans.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Arrigus Sismondii]Crossbows
Though an exotic weapon merely a few years ago, the import and adoption of these weapons by the Senate in recent years means that there are local bowyers who are capable of making these weapons themselves.  You were able to acquire these weapons for your men, as well as a cache of bolts, extra strings, repair tools, and other such things; these crossbows were among the first in Rome to be crafted with the new lathe-made nuts that supposedly provide for a slight average increase in accuracy.

Training for these weapons is rather minimal, though practice is always helpful.  The equipment has been moved to the Nettuno "armory" and your captain has added them to the muster rotation, hoping to at least instill a basic degree of familiarity in the local recruits and his own men.

Road
Brutal heat did not do any favors for road-building efforts this summer, though the Latin coast is at least slightly cooler than Rome, which lies some distance inland.  Minor progress has been made in the northern section.

Guillelmi
While Senator Guillelmi inveighed against you in the Senate, in private he was quite polite, though reticent at first to speak much of the Schola.  You got the impression that he still was uncertain whether your invitation was some kind of trap.

Francisco Guillelmi is a fourth-generation Roman weaver; his great-grandfather was an Occitan weaver from Montpellier.  He lives and works in a residence in Pinee et S. Marci with his nephew, his apprentice, and is unmarried.  His house is not as stately as your own torre, though it was no worse than what you might expect from a home of one of Rome's minor equites (though Guillelmi himself is not registered as such).

According to Guillelmi, the advent of imported woolens, initially from Flanders and now from Lombardy as well, has made times harder now than in the days of his father.  Rome's lack of a good seaport may have paradoxically helped its small woolen industry, as it is more difficult to import great quantities of foreign woolens cheaply.  Nevertheless, Guillelmi does not really oppose your project in Nettuno, in part because he sees the opening of further trade as inevitable, and in part because given the other interests in Rome that want more access to overseas trade, he does not perceive this as a fight that he can win.

Roman weavers, he says, plainly cannot compete with the weavers of Lombardy or Flanders.  This, according to him, is for a variety of reasons:

1.  While sheep-runs in the mountains from Aprutium to the Alban Hills produce decent-quality wool, these flocks are owned by barons ranging from Norman knights to Papal bishops to the Counts of Tusculum, all of whom charge hefty fees for their wool; the powerful Lombard cities, in contrast, control their own contado and are not hostage to greedy barons.  When one can get cheap wool, one can afford to charge less for finished cloth.
2.  Pisa and Genoa control the sea, meaning that they give preferential treatment to their own woolens and those of their allies and vassals, making foreign woolens comparatively cheap within Rome and Roman woolens comparatively expensive abroad.  This is particularly problematic with Pisa, which receives much high-quality wool from Sardinia and charges such high rates for non-Pisan wool that it might as well be banned on their ships.
3.  Rome lacks the number of skilled weavers that the Flemish and Lombard cities possess, and is technologically behind them as well.

Guillelmi does not see an easy solution to any of these disadvantages, and believes that the best way to combat their effects is through protectionism.  Formerly, the Schola accomplished this "extra-judicially."  If a foreign weaver came to Rome, he might use foreign contacts to undermine the Romans, so the Schola would intimidate him into leaving or relocating far away as to damage his business.  Of course, this force was used for other reasons as well – to enforce standards and prevent shoddy weavers from damaging the reputation of other weavers, or to punish those who sold trade secrets or tried to undercut other weavers with low prices – but in his mind the chief goal of the Schola is protection from foreign competition.

He is favorable to the idea of moving this protection into the legal sphere.  In particular, he would support a tariff on foreign-made woolens sold in Rome or any territory controlled by Rome, which would prevent foreign weavers from selling cheap product to undercut Roman weavers.  To prevent foreign weavers from simply moving to Rome, he believes the existence of the Schola or an organization like it is still necessary, though if the Senate made non-schola weaving illegal in Roman territory and enforced that law, there would be no need for, as he called it, "pressure" from the Schola's "supporters."  Guillelmi was skeptical about the performance of the Roman legal system, but admitted the possibility that if a legal monopoly was enforced the Schola would not need to maintain that monopoly itself.  If judicial enforcement proved effective, it would likely be cheaper for the Schola to pay the Senate a charter fee for its privileges rather than employing its own "enforcers."

While the Schola is merely a guild of weavers, Guillelmi said that in the future the whole industry might be embraced by the Senate – like the Arte in Pisa, which is composed not merely of weavers but everyone involved with the process, including carders, washers, sorters, fullers, and dyers.  This organization would ensure, like the present schola, that quality was high, prices were standardized, and disputes between tradesmen were resolved instead of leading to violence or cutthroat competition.

Guillelmi also used the opportunity of your visit to push for a more aggressive foreign policy.  The prosperity of Rome, and particularly the wool industry in Rome, he argued, depends on Rome's control over its neighbors.  The local lords that overcharge Romans for wool and tax its merchants should be either overturned or forced into Roman citizenship and compelled to live within the city and abide by its laws.  Guillelmi argued in the Senate for Tusculum to be destroyed, and was not at all pleased by the deal that was ultimately worked out; now, he said, the Romans are still suffering from the predations of the Tusculani, but have won nothing for their trouble.  Guillelmi is indisputably a hawk, and according to him this is a view shared by many of the weavers, who wish the Senate would take a firmer line against its enemies.

You have spent 4 WP and earned 3 WP this season.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Barzalomeus Borsarius]Loan
You received a regular update from Alessandro, which said little of importance directly (aside from assuring you that everything is going well), but mentioned that His Holiness has been rarely seen lately.  Although the truth of his situation is evidently a closely-guarded secret, there is whispered speculation in the Curia that he is very ill.

A Familiar Face
The Imperial Marshal, the same man who glared at you ominously during your defiance before the Emperor, is now in Rome, and has continued to glare at you in much the same manner.  It is rather disconcerting.  As a diplomat in a foreign city, it is surely unlikely that he would take any action against you here, but one never really knows what a man who drew his sword on a cardinal in the middle of a cathedral is truly capable of.

Charity
With the price of bread spiking again, your charity has no doubt been sorely missed this season.  As you must buy your bread just like everyone else, however, the high prices mean that any charity in the near future will likely not be very cost-effective – you are no grower or wholesaler, able to shell out bread at cost.  This seems to be a problem facing many of the traditional charity-giving entities in Rome, the Church chief among them, which is facing a lack of supply at the precise moment that its leadership, in the form of the prefect, has been removed.  The seizure of one of the major diaconia by the Arnoldists has probably not helped either; though the Arnoldists are if anything even more interested in charity, they lack the organizational capacity of the actual Church, and once they have sold off the assets of Santa Maria della Rotonda they have little left to offer.

You have spent 6 WP and earned 4 WP this season.[/spoiler]  

[Polycarp]

Consular Election of 1159

Senators, it is time to decide who will lead our glorious city in the coming year!

[ooc=Election Rules]
All PCs are eligible for Consular status, though a character who wins an election may choose not to accept the position if he so desires.  All PCs are eligible to cast a ballot, though casting a ballot is not mandatory.

Each character has a number of votes equal to his Influence score.  When you cast a ballot, you must choose how these votes are allotted.  You may spend all your votes on one candidate or split votes between candidates however you wish.  A ballot should be in a red OOC box like this one, and be in this format:

[ooc=Election of 1159]Your Senator's Name

4 votes to Senator X
2 votes to Senator Y[/ooc]

The ballot is not secret.  Who voted for whom is in-character information known by all.  The whole Senate, all 100 members, takes part in this vote; our game simulates this using Influence, meaning that when you "cast a ballot" it actually represents your character and his friends and/or family actively cajoling and convincing NPC senators to vote your way.  This is a tedious process of pandering speeches, cloying flattery, empty promises, and boring dinner parties, and is by definition not a private matter.

Bribery, specifically the expenditure of Wealth to buy votes, is permitted.  Bribery will alter the final count of votes, depending on how much Wealth was spent.  Bribery works by  "stealing" one vote from a candidate of your choice and giving it to another candidate of your choice.  Stealing a vote in this way costs 2 WP.  It may be obvious that people were bribed if the final result doesn't match who players actually voted for, but there will be no direct indication of who bribed them unless the bribery is discovered.

If the bribery is discovered, there will be a scandal resulting in a loss of Influence.  The chances of a bribe becoming a scandal are 10% for each vote bought.  Note that a scandal does not mean the bribe was unsuccessful – it is still possible to win an election by bribery despite a scandal, but the loss of Influence may make it difficult to hold on to power.

If you choose to bribe, it should ONLY be done by sending me a PM indicating how much you are spending and who the bribed Senators are supposed to vote for.  If you post a bribe in this thread, it will not be accepted, and I will laugh at you.  Bribes are non-refundable!

The two players with the most votes (after Bribery) are elected Consuls.  The Consul who receives the most votes has the privilege of deciding which Consul, external or internal, he wishes to be.  Ties will be resolved in favor of who has the most Influence or, failing that, a coin flip.[/ooc]

[ic=On the Senate Floor]The chief occupation of the Senate this season is, once again, the bread crisis.  Although this time the Senate does not have to deal with hordes of peasant refugees, the crisis may be worse in another respect – the diaconia, charitable granaries owned by the Church and administered by the prefect, are practically empty from the near-famine last year.  Combined with recent Arnoldist activities, the civic peace of the city seems to be dangerously close to falling apart – it may be that only the oppressive heat kept Romans from turning out in violent mobs this past season.

Foreign policy too has been a subject of discussion amongst the senators.  The senate tends to be pro-consul rather than pro-bishop on the matter of Rieti, simply because of republican sympathies, but it is not really clear which of the candidates for leadership would be in the best interests of Rome.  The Orvieto-Acquapendente War is another topic of conversation, though where Rome's interests lie there is unclear, at least until Spring when continuing conflict there may spell trouble for pilgrims.  Some worry that if Rome takes a side in that conflict it will unite the Faliscans, who are currently straddling the fence, on the other side, and for that reason Rome should stay out; others (mostly Arnoldists) argue that pro-Imperial Acquapendente is a natural ally of Rome and should be supported.

There is some confusion as to the relationship between the newly-established "sentinels" and the 50 men, previously soldiers under Senator Calafatus, who have been retained by the Senate.  Though both consuls Basile and Manzinni authorized their payment, some seem to have believed that these men were being hired for service as the very same sentinels, while others figured these "sentinels" would be drawn from elsewhere and these men were merely consular troops.  Considering the legislation recently proposed and passed regarding the sentinels, it would probably be helpful to determine whether in fact these men were hired to fill that position or for some other purpose.[/ic]

[ic=Delegation from the Consuls of Rieti]One of the newly proclaimed consuls of Rieti speaks before the Senate...

Senators and Friends,

It has been a decade since the Normans destroyed our city, and a decade since the Roman Commune offered its assistance to us.  With your aid we rebuilt our walls, our houses, and our cathedral, and the people of Rieti have never forgotten.  The Romans and Reatini have fought alongside one another against Farfa, and when Rome was threatened by the Tusculani we sent soldiers to your aid.  I and the other consuls of Rieti mean to honor that friendship and maintain our alliance.

We know well that Rome has chafed under the rule of a tyrant imposed upon them by the Church; indeed, the Senate I have the privilege to speak before now was renewed, having fallen silent in ancient times, in righteous outrage against just such tyranny.  We, your allies, now find ourselves in the same position.  Our bishop has appointed his own man to be lord over us without the consultation or approval of the people.

All we desire is the same civic liberty, the same freedom, that the Romans themselves enjoy.  The bishop has refused us our liberty and has seized our countryside and fortified Rieti's villages and towers against us.  We do not seek to overthrow him in his rightful office, but we demand that he recuse himself from the governance of our city and bequeath to the city the villages and fortresses that rightfully belong to its people.

Rome is a more powerful city than Rieti, and if the Romans stand by us we believe we can force the bishop to accede to our just demands without bloodshed.  We humbly ask the Senate for its support in obtaining the same liberty that it has won for itself.[/ic]

[ic=Delegation from the Bishop of Rieti]A messenger from the Bishop of Rieti speaks before the Senate...

Noble Senators,

My lord the Bishop of Rieti sends you his greetings.  The Bishop gives thanks to God for the ten years of friendship between himself and the Romans; he stood in the ashes of Rieti after the fury of the Normans had passed, and welcomed the Roman delegates who arrived in Rieti's darkest day to aid and renew the city.  No man has been a greater friend to Rome than the Bishop, who encouraged the rectors to accept Rome's offer of alliance and gratefully received Signore Calafatus when he came on his campaign against the Norman foe.  Though Rector Damianus has passed on to God, the bishop pledges to honor Rieti's alliance with the Romans in good faith and true comradeship.

The Senate, perhaps, has heard of the "government" that now claims Rieti, and perhaps they have already come to seek aid for themselves.  He prays that you will not be fooled by their appeals to the liberty of the people – they do not represent the people of Rieti, but rather these "consuls" are a contumacious clique, a handful of merchants who have seized power in the city which they intend to wield only for their own enrichment.  They have bribed the militia commanders to support them, and now they doubtless seek to buy the Roman Senate with their hollow and deceitful paeans to freedom.

The Bishop of Rieti desires no harm to befall the city's people, but he believes that if the Romans give him their support the conspirators in Rieti will lose heart and return the city to lawful and peaceful rule.  Bishop Dodone beseeches almighty God to guide and protect the Romans, and prays that you, their leaders, will remember who your true and faithful allies are.[/ic]

[ic=Otto von Wittelsbach speaks to the Lesser Council]Senators.

Our Emperor expects loyalty and honor from his subjects, which is his due.  Yet his rule is one of justice and equity, in which the true and the faithful shall prosper.

When the Count of Biandrate was last in this city, he was informed that the village of Gregoriopolis, merely a few leagues from Rome, had been granted by decree of the Curia of His Holiness the Pope to the city of Pisa.  His Imperial Majesty praises Pisa's loyalty, but notes that by treaty already established, Pisa's dominion as ceded by the emperor extends only to Civitavecchia and no further south.  As Rome and its environs are indisputably the province of the Roman Emperor, His Imperial Majesty finds that the Curia did unlawfully cede this village to the Pisans without consideration of the law.

Related to this matter is the matter of the oaths of the Romans.  Your representatives to him at Roncaglia were of... different minds when the time came for them to join the Lombards in giving their oath of loyalty to the emperor.  It would naturally be inconceivable for His August Majesty, or any ruler, to bestow benefits on those who do not recognize him as such.  Therefore, to dispel any question of friendship and loyalty, I am ordered to ask whether the Senate, or its Consuls as representatives, are prepared to give the same oath given by every other city of Lombardy assuring the Emperor of their loyalty.  To wit -

"I swear that from this time forth I shall be faithful to my lord Frederick, the Emperor of the Romans, against all men, as is my lawful duty to my lord and emperor, and I shall aid him to retain the crown of empire and all its prerogatives in Italy, namely and specifically the city of Rome and whatever jurisdiction he is entitled to have in it.  I shall not deprive him of his royal rights here or elsewhere, and if they should be taken from him I shall in good faith aid him to recover and retain them.  I shall be party to no plot or deed to cause him the loss of life or limb or honor or to be held in captivity.  Every command of his, given me personally, or in writing, or through his representative rendering justice, I shall faithfully observe, and I shall by no evil means evade hearing or receiving or complying with it.  All these things I shall observe in good faith without deceit.  So help me God and these four Holy Gospels."

If your answer is favorable, then I tell you that, as this document will attest, our Emperor Friedrich von Hohenstaufen, sole Augustus of the Roman Empire, has empowered me to confirm his declaration that Gregoriopolis is bequeathed in its entirety to the Senate of Rome and shall be confirmed as the dependency of Rome, and its people rustici* of Rome, subject to the law of Rome and of the emperor.[/ic]

*literally "rustics," commonly "peasants," but used also to mean a feudal dependent of any kind.

[ic=A messenger comes before the Lesser Council]Noble senators,

I am here on behalf of the Roman Pandolfo Cassi, who was stripped of his titles and wealth and called a traitor for his involvement in a plot against the former prefect of Rome.  He is much aggrieved over his inability to return to the city of his birth, and confesses that he despises the Tiburtini, whose city he only sought refuge in out of expediency.  He swears that he is not a traitor to Rome or the Senate, but merely acted out of opposition to the tyranny of the Church and their prefect.  While he confesses to taking improper control of ecclesiastical property, he insists that he stole nothing from the city.

He humbly beseeches the mercy of the Senate.  He has already received tremendous punishment; he has lost all his earthly possessions and has been forced to live in exile for years among the despicable men of Tivoli, who treat him with scorn.  His name and that of his family are black with dishonor.  If he did not fear for his life, he would come before you himself as a penitent.  In the name of Christian charity he asks for your clemency that he may return to the city of his ancestors in peace.

To demonstrate his loyalty to Rome, he desires to give it valuable aid against its hated enemy.  Tivoli has, with the aid of the Frangipani, built defenses that are much stronger than those defeated by the Romans under Fortis Calafatus; it will not again fall so easily, and if the Romans war against it a second time they may find themselves facing a protracted and costly siege.  Pandolfo Cassi, having lived in Tivoli for several years, has acquired a deep familiarity with these defenses, and has made detailed plans of the walls, gates, and patrols at tremendous personal risk to himself.  He humbly offers this valuable information to the consuls if they will secure his pardon.

I have been contracted to return a reply to him if the consiliarii will deign to give him one.[/ic]

[TheMeanestGuest]

[ic=A Letter to Gerardo Calafatus]Gerardo,

I much enjoyed your company - as well as that of your brothers - and I am glad that you called at my estate. Having thought upon the matter that we discussed, I will propose that we proceed. Any father must surely despair when his daughter should leave his house, but he should likewise be buoyed up if his daughter has made a match with a man honourable and compassionate. And I think that there is no man in Rome who could be a better husband to my Olithia than you. It is always a father's desire that he should protect his daughter, and that she should have only the best. To see to Olithia's wellbeing, and that of your shared future, I am prepared to offer a dowry of [6 WP] in good silver, which I hope to be a fine and equitable sum for her keeping. If this is agreeable to you, I would be honoured to call you my son.

Roberto Basile[/ic]

[ic=A Letter to Ricardo Basile and Caetana Caetani]My Beloved Son and Daughter,

I am yet overjoyed at the coming of young Giovanni unto the world, and I am heartened each day to know of his good health and of the love his parents bear him. I knew the first moment that I saw his face that he should be a great man like his father, and like the uncle in whose honour he was named. He must of course come to Rome when he has grown and see his family estate, and the city that he shall one day call his own. I am a proud grandfather and I wish the best for my grandson. As a birth gift I shall shortly be sending [1 WP] of goods and silver, that his parents might be secure in their holding, and that Giovanni should have each and every advantage.

Your Father,

Roberto Basile[/ic]

[ic=In the Lesser Council]Signore, you are known as a fair man, and I think in this you have spoken fairly. His Majesty is due every respect that his sovereignty deserves, and again for his good works and his judgements. If any man upon this earth is ruler of the Eternal City, it is the Roman Emperor. His Imperial Majesty should know that The Senate and the People of Rome are his good and leal servants, as they have been to the Emperors since the days of Augustus himself, and the Commune shall not break this great and ancient bond. As a Senator of Rome and as a subject of the Emperor, I am grateful that the matter of Gregoriopolis should be considered with this deliberate equity. Law and rightful rule must be restored in Italy, and it is the Emperor who works to see it done.

I trust that His Majesty shall never forget the Romans, and I am therefore prepared to give my own oath, as I have been called upon to do. If again the Senate should elect me as Rome's Consul I shall give it on behalf of City and Senate both, who by my investiture with this office shall confirm their own loyalty. It is time that Rome cast its doubts aside, and it is time for the Romans to make plain their friendship and their allegiance. Councilors, heed the words the reichsmarschall has delivered here to us today, for they are good and wise. The Curia squats yet in Anagni, and it is clear that Rome's interests are not foremost in their minds. Think to the future, Senators.[/ic]

[ooc=Consular Election of 1159]6 votes to Roberto Basile[/ooc]

[Magnus Pym]

[ooc=Consular Election of 1159]6 votes for Roberto Basile
1 vote for Barzalomeus de Morroccho
[ic=Elections]Hugo De Vinti seems to be using his influence mainly to support Roberto Basile's candidacy. He has also endorsed Barzalomeus de Morroccho's candidacy. Perhaps to reassure the nobility of Rome. [/ic][/ooc]

[ooc=Orders for the Autumn of 1159]Pay Upkeep for Palatini [1 WP]
25 of my palatini will travel with me at all times.
10 of my palatini will patrol the area around the Pantheon to ensure "everyone's safety". They may arrest hostile troublemakers, which shall be judged according to the law.
10 of my palatini will be sent to Cappoci in order to increase security and responsiveness "should any unfortunate event occur". Should there be no need, they may travel to Labarum and get a feel for the Vicar's leanings and ensure the workers -and fields- are well. They may then reinforce my personal guard.
5 of my palatini will remain home and ensure the safety of my family, as well as of my property.
Most of my masnada will act as scouts and spies, serving primarily to ensure I have eyes at every important spots; the Leonine, the Senate, the Pantheon, Basile, Pope Victor, the Imperial delegation and others that might become more important during the turn.

I shall myself be on patrol duty all over Rome in order to "protect my brothers, sisters and the law", judging criminals according to the law and protecting whatever rights they may have.

The gilding of my estate shall be undone, the materials salvaged in order to be distributed to the poor. The date will be selected carefully, taking more interest in Holidays, especially those relevant to charity, benevolence and generosity. I think I had gilded with 5 WP.

Hugo has a preference for a peaceful solution to a solid and united government in Rieti, however he prefers to let Basile and other such able -or appointed- men in the Senate devise a plan.

While not convinced of the timing to restructuring our government in Rome, the idea has merits, especially since the latest consular appointee appears absent. Hugo will keep an open mind on the subject, preferring discussion on the matter.




[spoiler=Quick Notes on my Family Background]
Grandfather – Sienese. Has inherited the De Vinti's marble many contracts and expanded its activities, eventually passing the burden onto his children.
Father – 66 years old. Lives in the De Vinti's estate, in Rome. He has been retired for some time now and fears his days are nearing an end.
Mother – Died some years before the game started.
Uncle – Lives in Siena, always had. Still healthy.
Brother – 42 years old. About two years before the game started, he was sent to help uncle Giorgio in Siena. Has not yet returned to Rome, and stays in Siena with his wife, Julia, and his son, Luis.
Sister-in-law – Married to my brother. I'd like to eventually come up with a more detailed background for her.
Nephew – 22 years old. My brother's son, Luis.[/spoiler]
Summon my brother, Tomas De Vinti, his wife and his son back in Rome. The purpose is to familiarize him with the expanding family business in Rome and the workings of the Senate so that he may succeed my seat both as Senator and the family business' manager, should I die or else become unable to exercise my functions.

Dispatch an agent to Orleans, France, to initiate the process of finding a suitable master in the art of writing. It would be interesting to know about their background; things such as their religious beliefs, their political leanings, if any (especially how they view different monarchs), if they are indebted, if they are popular inside and outside of their domain of study.

For the time being, also send an agent to Genoa to seek out a dictatores and skilled rhetoricians.[/ooc]

[ic=Privately to the other Consiliarii]Regarding Pandolfo Cassi, we remember well his deep involvement in the "Marcellus conspiracy". He should consider himself lucky, for even though his heinous crimes are more important than those who the court sentenced to death this season, he still lives. Allowing his return discredits all of us and might very well serve to infuriate the Prefect needlessly.[/ic]

[Elven Doritos]

[ic=Note passed to Basile]What I could not say in Roncaglia, I certainly cannot say in Rome.[/ic]

[ooc=Consular Election] 4 votes for Barzalomeus Borsarius[/ooc]

[TheMeanestGuest]

[ic=A Note Returned]Then allow me to say it instead.[/ic]