The Era

In Rome the consuls give their names to the year. In 50 BC, the 704th year from the city's founding (DCCIV AUC), they are Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus. The maps show their world in that year. A campaign can begin as early as Caesar's command in Gaul in 58 BC or run to the Ides of March in 44 BC. The history behind the game stretches from the Gracchi to Augustus, about 133 to 27 BC.

The Year 50 BC

The last strongholds in Gaul fell in 51 BC. Caesar has fought there since 58 BC, and he now governs the Gauls and Illyricum as proconsul. He has ten or eleven legions and enough spoils to pay for a party in Rome. Pompey, who was sole consul two years ago, governs Spain through his legates and keeps an army within reach of the city. He has overseen Rome's grain supply under the five-year command he received in 57 BC. The ties between the two men have come apart. Julia, Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife, died in childbirth in 54 BC. Crassus, who once stood between them, died after Carrhae the following year.

The question of the year is Caesar's command. His opponents say the Senate can name a successor to his provinces as early as 1 March 50 BC. Caesar insists he can keep them until he stands for the consulship of 48 BC. If he goes straight from one office to the next, he spends no time as a private citizen open to prosecution. In 52 BC the ten tribunes gave him permission to stand without coming to Rome. Pompey's law on candidates, passed that same year, seemed to undo the grant. Suetonius and Dio say Pompey added an exemption after the law was already engraved. The Senate argues over what the laws of 55 and 52 BC settled. Historians still do.

On 1 December 50 BC the Senate votes for mutual disarmament, 370 to 22 (Appian). The proposal is Curio's. The tribune, whose debts Caesar reportedly paid, vetoes every motion to replace Caesar and calls for both generals to give up their armies. Earlier in the year the Senate had ordered each general to send one to Syria against Parthia. Pompey called back the legion he lent Caesar in 53 BC, so Caesar gave up both that legion and his own Fifteenth, and both stayed at Capua once the threat passed. On 2 December Marcellus meets Pompey outside Rome and puts the two legions and the levy at his disposal to defend the state. On 10 December Caesar's allies Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius Longinus take office as tribunes. Meanwhile, Paullus spends on the Basilica Aemilia what Plutarch and Appian say was a 1,500-talent payment from Caesar. The censor Appius Claudius Pulcher strikes senators and knights off the rolls, including Sallust. Cicero returns from Cilicia in hope of a triumph and finds war close (Powers of the Republic, In 50 BC: A Governor's Year). Caesar ends the year at Ravenna in Cisalpine Gaul with the Thirteenth, while eight more legions winter beyond the Alps. Italy is a short march from Ravenna. Rome's houses are taking sides.

The Mediterranean in 50 BC

From Spain to the Euphrates, the map shows the Mediterranean before the civil war, in 50 BC. The scale uses the Roman mile of 1,000 paces, about 1.48 km.

Reading the key. Look for Italy in deep red. South of the Po, every free man has been a citizen since the Social War. The provinces are lighter red: Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the two Spains, Transalpine Gaul (the old Province), Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum, Africa, Macedonia with Greece, Asia, Bithynia and Pontus, Cilicia with Cyprus, Syria, and Crete with Cyrenaica. The hatching covers Caesar's conquests of 58 to 51 BC. That part of Gaul pays tribute and has yet to become a province. Gold shows the kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt and brown the Parthian empire. In gray-blue are Rome's clients and allies, who owe troops and obedience: Numidia, Mauretania, Galatia, Cappadocia, Judea, Nabataea and Rhodes. Since Carrhae, Artavasdes II of Armenia has sided with Parthia. Dacia and the Thracian kingdoms are green. Beyond these powers, the map leaves lands such as Britain and the Germanic country across the Rhine untinted.

Symbols. Rome and Alexandria are the large red roundels. Ordinary dots mark cities. A ring around a dot marks a port, a square marks an oppidum such as Bibracte or Alesia, and a dashed ring marks a destroyed city still in ruins, such as Carthage or Corinth. The red lines follow the main roads. Blue dashes give the general routes of the grain ships from Africa and Alexandria to Italy.

Boundaries are approximate. Where a ruler has only a loose hold on the country, the tint gives the extent of his influence. Inland provincial borders are approximate enough for the GM to use in play.

At the table. The local ruler decides where a complaint is heard and who taxes the cargo. Distance tells the GM how long a letter, a legion or a grain ship takes (Era Rules, Travel). A nearby border can matter more than either. Germanic raiders cross the Rhine and Parthia lies across the Euphrates. Just north of Ariminum, a river too small to draw divides Caesar's province from Italy.

Who Holds Power

The table gives each power's position in 50 BC. For its leaders, resources and aims, see Powers of the Republic.

Law and Money at a Glance

Law. A magistrate's punishment leaves a citizen one recourse, the right of appeal. Peregrines and enslaved people have no such right. Praetors preside over standing jury courts for criminal cases. Buying votes is a crime and candidates do it anyway. The three tresviri capitales see to executions and keep watch with a few public slaves. A robbed householder has to find the thief or ask his patron for help, and a burning house depends on whoever owns enough slaves to fight the fire (Powers of the Republic, Marcus Licinius Crassus). See Era Rules, Law and Courts for trials, penalties and appeals, and Patronage and Rank for rank and standing.

Money. Accounts are in sestertii (HS), while silver denarii and bronze asses change hands. Gold is scarce in circulation. Era Rules, Money and Credit covers interest, credit and coins. Gear and Prices lists wages, rents, food, arms, horses, bribes and what it costs to buy a person.

Travel at a Glance

The Via Appia (312 BC) leaves Rome for Capua and reaches Brundisium, the port for Greece and the East. Northbound traffic takes the Via Flaminia (220 BC) across the Apennines to Ariminum. The Via Aurelia hugs the west coast and the Via Aemilia (187 BC) crosses the Po plain. On the Via Domitia (118 BC), travelers reach Spain by way of the old Province of Transalpine Gaul. Milestones count Roman miles. Paving gives way to gravel away from towns, and inns on the main roads have a name for bad wine and thieves.

A ship is faster until the sea closes for winter. Pompey cleared the pirates in 67 BC, but brigands still wait on hill roads. Rome has no state post. A household sends a letter with an enslaved tabellarius, a tax company with its messenger, and a governor with his own men. For distances, travel times, sailing months and winter risks, see Era Rules, Travel. The Stable covers mounts and their care.

How People Live

The Orders

In the eyes of the law, the senatorial order includes senators and their families (Powers of the Republic, The Senate). Below them stand the equestrians, among them lenders, shippers, landowners and the partners who farm the taxes. A citizen without rank belongs to the plebs, whether he farms or carries loads on the docks. Freedmen have citizenship and cannot hold office. Their sons can. Free people without citizenship include Gauls, Greeks from cities without the grant, Egyptians and Syrians. The enslaved stand below all these orders. For a character's Ordo, see Era Rules, Patronage and Rank.

At dawn clients gather at a senator's door to greet him and accompany him to the Forum. The rules for the favors they trade are in Era Rules, Patronage and Rank.

Houses

A visitor to a wealthy domus walks down an entrance passage to an atrium, open to the sky above a basin. Beyond are the master's tablinum and a garden court. In the house are wooden shrines for the wax masks of ancestors who held office. The family wears the masks at funerals. The poor rent rooms in an insula, a tall block of brick, rubble and timber with shops at street level. An upper room has no running water and often no kitchen. No law limits the height yet, and the blocks catch fire or fall. Before he became Pontifex Maximus, Caesar lived modestly in the Subura, the crowded valley between the Esquiline, Viminal and Forum. The rich also keep villas, both working farms and houses for pleasure on the Bay of Naples.

The Appia, Anio Vetus, Marcia and Tepula supply the public fountains. Wealth buys a private supply in lead pipes. After dark the streets are unlit, and a man who can afford it sends slaves ahead with torches.

Food and Drink

Wheat, emmer and barley go into bread and porridge. Olives and oil, cheese, beans, lentils and chickpeas, cabbage, leeks, onions and garlic, and figs, grapes, apples and pears round out the diet. The poor make puls, a grain porridge with vegetables, and get meat at sacrifices and feasts. Romans water their wine and take a man who drinks it neat for a drunkard or a barbarian. Falernian, Caecuban and Massic are the wines with names worth boasting about. Fermented fish sauce, garum, goes into almost everything. Honey and boiled-down grape must sweeten the rest.

At a dinner party guests recline on couches from mid-afternoon into the evening for the main meal, the cena. A lavish dinner calls Lucullus to mind.

Not on the table. A Roman has never seen a tomato, potato, ear of maize, chilli, orange or lemon, or tasted cane sugar, coffee or tea. Pliny credits Lucullus with bringing the cherry tree to Italy after the war with Mithridates. Romans think of beer as a foreign drink, brewed from grain in Gaul and Egypt.

Work

Most free people outside the cities farm. In town the plebs run shops, bake bread, full cloth, build houses and carry loads on the river docks. They compete with enslaved labor in every trade. Equestrians lend money, ship goods and farm the taxes. Women can own property and manage households and slaves. Poorer women work wool, trade in the market, deliver or nurse babies and serve in taverns. Character Creation and Roles gives the trades, pay and kits. Wages are in Gear and Prices.

Dress

A male citizen wears the toga, a wide half-circle of white wool, for business in the Forum. A man in exile or without citizenship cannot wear it. On ordinary days a man belts a tunic. A candidate chalks his toga white, a magistrate wears a purple border and a mourner wears dark wool. A married woman puts a long stola over her tunic and takes a palla for a shawl. The enslaved and the free poor wear the same tunics. Trousers are Gallic dress. Soldiers wear the nailed caligae and a heavy sagum cloak.

Women and the Family

Even a consul answers at home to the paterfamilias, the oldest living man of his family. A father keeps authority over his descendants and their property while he lives. A woman has no vote, public office, seat in the Senate or place in the army. By 50 BC, most wives stay with their father's family in law and keep their own property. Either spouse may end the marriage without a court. The great houses often marry daughters young to settle an alliance. Servilia, Clodia and Fulvia are names every senator knows. A woman of rank can deal through her father, husband or brothers, or use her own money.

The Day and the Year

Romans divide daylight into twelve hours and night into four watches. The hours stretch in summer and shorten in winter. In court a water clock measures how long a man may speak.

The calendar has drifted from the seasons. By modern estimates, Rome's civil dates in 50 BC are five to seven weeks ahead of the sun. The gap widens that year because no month is inserted. A harvest feast comes round while the crop is still in the ground. The exact gap has to be reconstructed. Romans call their seventh and eighth months Quintilis and Sextilis. See Gods and Religion, The Roman Year for day-counting, the year's length, markets and festivals, and The Arena and the Games for the games.

Medicine at a Glance

Most physicians in Rome are Greek and many are enslaved or freed. Anyone may practice medicine in Rome. In summer, fever threatens the low country, especially where the Appian Way crosses the Pomptine marshes south of Rome. Families carry the sick to Aesculapius's temple on the Tiber island. See Era Rules, Medicine and Illness for physicians, remedies and the illness clock, and Gear and Prices for drugs and prices.

The Slave Economy

Rome is a slave economy. An enslaved person may work in a school or an arena, a sickroom or a mine, a workshop, a household or a field. People are bought and sold in the ordinary course of business. There is no ancient count for Italy. Modern estimates range from one person in five or fewer to about one in three.

Where they come from. Dealers follow the army and buy most captives where they are taken. In 57 BC Caesar sold the Aduatuci of Belgic Gaul in one lot. The buyers reported 53,000 people. The next year he sold the Veneti of the Atlantic coast. Until Pompey's war of 67 BC, pirates and kidnappers supplied eastern markets. Strabo gives the saying at Delos as "Merchant, sail in, unload your ship, everything has been sold." The child of an enslaved woman is a slave. A slave born in the house is a verna. Debt cannot make a Roman citizen a slave, though it can enslave a foreigner.

What they do. A Roman household of rank may keep hundreds. Some carry a litter or take children to school, while others mind the door, the kitchen, the accounts or their mistress's hair. Enslaved overseers set gangs to work on estates, some in chains. Polybius counted forty thousand workers in the silver mines near New Carthage in Spain. Diodorus says the miners would rather die than carry on. Enslaved and freed teachers, scribes, physicians and craftsmen are common. Most gladiators are enslaved men sold to schools, and public slaves staff temples and keep the state's records.

How they are held. Roman law treats a slave as property. He cannot own property, marry in law or bring a suit, and a court takes his testimony under torture. An owner may sell parents and children separately. Cato the Elder advised selling old or sick slaves. Cicero cared for Tiro through illness and gave him his freedom. An owner may let a slave keep a peculium and buy his freedom with it. A freed slave becomes a citizen and owes obligations to his old owner as patron. On the street, slaves wear the tunics of the free poor, with no uniform or collar to mark them.

What Rome remembers. Spartacus's revolt of 73 to 71 BC and the Sicilian slave wars of 135 to 132 and 104 to 100 BC are still in living memory. Owners fear their own households. A slave who rebels or runs faces the cross.

Era Rules, Slavery covers sale, freedom and flight and the rules for enslaved and freed characters. See Gear and Prices, Purchased People for prices and Character Creation and Roles for the Enslaved and Freed Origins.

The Timeline, 133 to 50 BC

The timeline gives Roman civil dates. Before 45 BC those dates ran ahead of the seasons, so a battle dated to June might fall in spring. Where ancient figures differ, the timeline gives both with their sources.

From the Gracchi to Sulla

Pompey, Crassus and Spartacus

Pompey, Cicero and the Compact

Caesar in Gaul

Carrhae, Clodius and Alesia

The map year itself, month by month, is in Powers of the Republic, The Last Year Before the War.

The Record Beyond the Map Year

In January 49 BC the Senate passes its emergency decree and Caesar takes one legion over the Rubicon. Pompey and the Senate leave Rome. Pharsalus follows in 48 BC, Munda in 45 BC and Caesar's killing on the Ides of March 44 BC. His death sets up Actium in 31 BC and Augustus in 27 BC. In 50 BC all of this lies ahead.

See Historical Reference, After the Map Year, 49 to 27 BC for the people and events. Running the Era, The Approach of the Civil War explains whether the table can change that history.