Ethnogenesis
History
Who Were the Romans?
By the first century of the common era, "Roman" had become less an ethnicity than a legal and cultural identity encompassing millions of people across three continents. A Syrian merchant, a Gallic farmer, an African bishop, and an Illyrian soldier could all be equally Roman — citizens of a universal state that promised law, order, and participation in the greatest civilization the world had known. The legions that defended this world drew recruits from every province, commanded by officers who might hail from Spain or Thrace, serving emperors who were as likely to be African or Balkan as Italian.
Yet this very universality contained the seeds of transformation. As citizenship expanded, its meaning diluted. As frontiers lengthened, defense costs soared. As Germanic peoples pressed against the borders — sometimes as enemies, increasingly as recruits and settlers — the line between Roman and barbarian blurred until it became almost meaningless. The Rome of 400 CE bore little resemblance to the Rome of Augustus; the Rome of 476 existed mainly as an idea that men were unwilling to abandon.
Homeland and Way of Life
The Western Empire's heartland remained Italy — its senators still met in Rome, its emperors occasionally resided in the eternal city — but real power had shifted to wherever the armies gathered. Milan, Ravenna, Trier, and Arles served as imperial capitals as emperors moved to meet threats or escape them. The Mediterranean remained a Roman lake, its commerce connecting provinces that supplied each other with grain, wine, oil, pottery, and manufactured goods. Roads built for legions now carried merchants; aqueducts fed cities that had grown for centuries; public baths and amphitheaters gave even provincial towns the texture of Roman civilization.
But the system was straining. Taxation crushed the peasantry while great landowners evaded assessment. Cities shrank as populations fled to rural estates where powerful patrons offered protection the state could no longer guarantee. The army devoured resources — perhaps three-quarters of imperial revenue — yet never seemed large enough to hold every frontier. Emperors debased the currency, fueling inflation that disrupted trade. By the fifth century, the Western Empire had become a hollow structure, its institutions persisting through inertia while real power fragmented among generals, landowners, and the Germanic leaders who increasingly filled both roles.
Warfare, Power, and Limits
The late Roman army remained formidable on paper — hundreds of thousands of soldiers organized into frontier garrisons (limitanei) and mobile field armies (comitatenses). The legions had evolved from the heavy infantry of earlier centuries into more flexible forces combining infantry, cavalry, and specialized units. Roman military engineering — fortifications, siege equipment, logistics — remained unmatched. A Roman army that could concentrate and supply itself could defeat any barbarian force it faced.
The problem was concentration. The empire faced simultaneous threats across thousands of miles of frontier — Persians in the east, Germanic peoples along the Rhine and Danube, raiders across the sea. Responding to one crisis meant stripping forces from another sector. Civil wars between rival emperors bled armies that should have faced external enemies. Increasingly, Rome solved its manpower problems by recruiting Germanic warriors wholesale, settling entire tribes as foederati who defended sections of frontier in exchange for land and payments. These arrangements worked until they didn't — until the foederati decided they wanted more than Rome was willing to give.
Beliefs, Customs, and Society
The fourth century transformed Rome from a pagan empire into a Christian one. Constantine's conversion and subsequent imperial patronage made Christianity first legal, then favored, then effectively mandatory. Pagan temples closed; their wealth funded churches. Bishops became powerful figures — administrators, judges, and spokesmen for their communities. Christian theology absorbed educated Romans who might once have pursued philosophy or rhetoric. The Church provided institutional continuity that would outlast the empire itself, its dioceses mapping onto Roman administrative districts, its Latin liturgy preserving the imperial language.
Roman society remained starkly hierarchical. Senators and great landowners (honestiores) enjoyed legal privileges and practical immunity from the taxes crushing ordinary subjects (humiliores). Slavery persisted, though the supply of war captives diminished as conquests ended. The urban middle class — merchants, craftsmen, minor officials — shrank as cities declined. Peasants increasingly bound themselves to great estates as coloni, trading freedom for protection in arrangements that foreshadowed medieval serfdom. The Roman ideal of citizen-soldiers defending their republic had given way to a society of taxpayers supporting professional armies they never saw.
Contacts, Conflicts, and Legacy
The Western Empire's final century was a chronicle of disasters. The Rhine crossing of 406 CE unleashed Vandals, Alans, and Suebi into Gaul and Spain. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 — a shock that reverberated across the Mediterranean world even though the city had lost political importance. Britain was abandoned; Africa fell to the Vandals; Gaul fragmented among competing barbarian kingdoms. By mid-century, effective imperial authority barely extended beyond Italy, and even that depended on Germanic generals who made and unmade emperors at will.
The end, when it came in 476, was almost anticlimactic. The Germanic general Odoacer deposed the last western emperor — a boy named, with painful irony, Romulus Augustulus — and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. No battles marked the transition; the Western Empire simply ceased to pretend it still existed. Yet Rome's legacy proved more durable than its government. The Church preserved Latin literacy; Germanic kings adopted Roman law; the dream of restored empire would haunt European politics for a thousand years. Rome fell, but Romans — transformed, fragmented, yet recognizable — persisted in the medieval world they had unwillingly created.
Abilities
In Glory of Civilizations, the Romans represent late imperial military professionalism struggling against mounting pressures. The extra barracks and starting swordsman reflect Rome's emphasis on organized infantry recruitment that remained unmatched even in decline. The ability to spend weapons for precise cube draws during battle captures Roman tactical discipline — the capacity to deliver concentrated damage through coordinated action. Reduced production costs suggest the sophisticated manufacturing and supply systems that kept Roman armies equipped, even as the empire's economic foundations slowly crumbled beneath them.
Romans I
to draw the same number of cubes from the bag. For each cube of your color, deal 1 damage to an enemy target; discard any remaining cubes
of one type, pay -2 
FAQ
Do I gain 1 coin for my virtual barracks during the achievement phase?
Yes. The +1 Barracks counts as a building for achievement phase purposes, just like any physical building on the game map.
If I destroy all enemy targets using ability 2 (spending weapons to draw and deal damage), do I win the battle?
Yes. After your ability resolves, the normal battle procedure continues, including determining the winner. If all enemy objects have been destroyed, you win the battle.
Does my ability 2 ("after bag preparation") activate before the defender's Conversion action?
No. Both abilities trigger "after bag preparation," but the defender resolves all their "after bag preparation" effects before the attacker. If you are attacking, the defender's Conversion happens first.
Can I use ability 2 when defending if I have no engaged army?
Yes, but your cubes should be in the bag for it to be effective. Even without military units, you may add action or experience cubes to the bag during preparation, then use this ability to draw and potentially deal damage with any cubes of your color.