I’m at the stage where I’m gathering possible ideas for a potential development so feel free to interject your opinions
Basically, the game will be set in a fictional empire inspired by Rome. In fact, very closely related to Rome but I opted for the fictional route because although I’ve done a fair bit of research and am quite well-versed in Roman history, I’m still no historian and I would like to avoid any history buff calling me out on historical inaccuracies
The time scale is around the fall of the Republic and you play as a member of one of the competing factions in their quest for domination. Your relationship with the fictional Caesar equivalent, social status and all the usual gender, sexuality, etc will most likely all be choices. But I might streamline one or two of those things for time’s sake since I’m only a one-man team
Perhaps you will gather men loyal to your noble house to finally uplift your bloodline to imperial glory? Perhaps you will rally what the remains of the Senate to save the dying Republic? Or perhaps you will gather your fellow common man and bring about a new ideological system altogether, perhaps you will call it ‘democracy’?
That’s all I have for now, any advice is appreciated since this will be my first ever project. Or if I’m convinced that the idea might not work well at all then I might start from scratch with something else
I’m a huge fan of the late Republic /early Empire (or the Kingdom of Rome before it). The post-split era is just not that romantic to me but not so romantic Rome is better than no Rome so more power to you.
Democracy isn’t older than Rome. It’s older than the Roman Republic (barely, if we accept the likely-fabricated date for the foundation of the Republic) but there were not any democracies prior to the 8th century BC foundation of the city.
Anyway, this is probably why OP is using a pretend Rome. Anyway, interesting project and I’m intrigued to see where this goes. I’ve followed most Rome-related WIPs closely.
If we really want to go over this with a fine-toothed comb the Roman Republic was not a democracy at all. I could describe it as a constitutional elective oligarchy with two tiers but really, it’s the Roman Republic and it’s not a true democracy at all.
Yes, I don’t think we can call the Roman Republic a democracy. The Populi Romani were sovereign, but their votes were heavily weighted towards the wealthy in the various assemblies (except the concilium plebis, but this is getting super in the weeds). Also the Romans invented the term republic and the Athenians invented the term democracy to talk about themselves, anyway.
But I don’t think anyone is saying the Republic was a democracy.
Not to speak for the other person, but I think they were referring to the Athenian democracy being established a year earlier than the putative (but historically dubious) establishment of the Roman Republic.
And I think OP is referring to one of the player outcomes being the establishment of a democracy (which does not yet exist).
Agreed on all counts. My point was merely that the Romans didn’t invent democracy anyway because the Res Publica was something else altogether.
And really, by our modern tack on democracy not even Athens had a proper democracy with how unevenly the votes were spread out. That, too, was an Oligarchy in all but name.
Nope. Athenian democracy was established just after 510 BC, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BCE. The Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE allegedly but that’s more likely a later invention to link them to Athens.
The city of Athens is centuries older than Rome (Bronze Age, at least), but its democracy is not.
The Romans were a backwards, semi-literate backwater during the Athenian golden age but they were definitely around.
I think this is a fantastic idea. I think exploring the conflict between the Optimates and the Populares could be a good angle to look at, and quite possibly this could be a good way to analyse the relationship between militarism, populism, and the rule of law. For research, I’d recommend you try consulting some sources on the period: one of the best starter sources on the late Republic period is Mike Duncan’s History of Rome podcast. Everything post-Punic Wars through to the Death of Augustus would be good inspiration for the period you’re contemplating.
