01_The King is not above the law

[this post under construction]


Despite the impression that may be given by its serious title, this post is about a computer game. The short of it is that the King of my in-game country was accused of corruption by his long-time rival, who happened to be his younger brother, and ended up being exiled to the most powerful of my several vassal states -- which shortly thereafter revolted, appointing my former king as their chief general. No doubt he had hopes of regaining his throne thereby.

Who knew you could exile the King for corruption?

So, the purpose of this article is to attempt to make the game, 'Europa Universalis - Rome' , sound interesting to Gentle Reader, such that you are severely tempted to try to get a copy of this game or some newer title from Paradox Interactive Games. Paradox's games are generally of the 'grand strategy' and 'alternate history' genres.

Background: 'War Exhaustion' and the Rebellion of a Governor
I am playing, for lack of a better term, a "fantasy alternate history" included with a user-mod to the game 'Europa Universalis - Rome Gold'; the State I chose to play is Judea, which has the government type 'monarchy/theocracy', starting in 474 AVC (280 BC). The events I relate here transpire mostly between September 1, 542 AVC (212 BC) and March 1, 549 AVC (205 BC).

I had discarded most of the savegames, so the images I'll use to illustrate this period will be incomplete. For instance, I don't have available a map at the start of the rebellion of the Satrap of Iberia (as the self-proclaimed King of the Second Kingdom of Kartli), but only after Our Glorious Kingdom had dealt with him as best we were able, given the rules of the game -- we were able to reclaim two provinces (Mekheti and Cytaea) of the three that the foolish Satrap had stolen from The Great And Glorious Realm, effectively granting him full sovereignty of the third province (Mtskheta). But, shortly thereafter, the Republic of Albania, one of our more powerful vassals, and the most powerful of them in the Caucasus, fully conquered the short-lived Second Kingdom of Kartli and incorporated its remaining province of Mtskheta into that Lesser Realm.

When Jannaeus Nehmid, the treacherous Satrap of Iberia, rebelled against the Kingdom Judea, declaring the second Kingdom of Kartli on September 1, 542 AVC (the first having been extinguished by the Tribe of Albania in 516 AUV), The Sublime Sovereignty had been at war almost continuously for a number of years. The present war was going well -- several provinces had been newly incorporated into The Resplendent Realm, including Thebes, which had been the sole objective of the war. However, there was a growing restiveness amongst the Kingdom's many peoples: partly over the length of the war, but mostly over the frightening fact that most of the States of the Known World had joined in the war, against The Judaic Juggernaut -- hostile armies from as far away as Mauritania, Hispania, Gaul, the Germanies, and even Skandia were beginning to arrive in the theatre of combat.

The traitorous Jannaeus Nehmid had misjudged the war-weariness of the peoples of the Kingdom of Judea: incorrectly believing that news of his rebellion would spark conflagrations throughout The Decretal Dominions, and scheming that in the chaos he would establish himself as a King. Nehmid failed in his vain ambitions, but he did set in motion the events which led to the Dethronement and Exile of Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III [when I started this game, I changed the family name of the first High Priest to 'Ilion', thus any characters with that family name will be direct descendants of my first King; there will be no 'spawned' characters with that family name].


Even a King is Not Safe (Being excerpts of the Journal of Armin, the High Priest Ilion_IV, of Judea)
Dramatis Personae:

Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III, of Judea

Armin, the High Priest Ilion_IV, of Judea

Jannaeus Nehmid, King of 2nd Kartli

Prince Ilas-Alex Ilion, of Judea

Armin, the High Priest Ilion_IV, of Judea, has undertaken a private journal, meant ultimately as instruction to his son, Ilas, who is fated to be the fifth High Priest of Judea of the Ilion family:

My Son, as these writings are to be seen by no eyes but mine and yours, I shall dispense with the 'majestic we' customary of Kings. Yet, heed well my instruction to you: for our world was changed in the span of a day, when my father, Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III, was cruelly deposed from his throne and I elevated in his stead. The wise man will study and learn from these terrible events.

Much as my grandfather, the illustrious Alexander Ilion_II, is called 'the Great', already there are those who call my father 'the Exile'. Due to the foreign origins of my mother's father, there are those who resent my ascension to the throne, both within the Family and without: may it be that the worst they ever call me is 'the Foreigner'. And, as you're aware, your mother's father is also of foreign origin. Thankfully, neither she nor you look Assyrian, as do I and my mother. May it be that there is no talk of you being a foreigner when you come into your own: it is good that have we named you for Ilas, the High Priest Ilion_I.

For, mark well: not even a King on his Throne is safe from the petty jealousies and spiteful machinations of the lesser mortals who sup daily at his table.

Akabon Ilion_III, now deceased, whose mother was Phoenician, was married to Daria Pacorid, the daughter of Nambed Pacorid, an Assyrian noble refugee from the extinguished Kingdom of Osroene, and Obadiaha Nahumid, a Jewish noblewoman of Judea.

Akabon's son through Daria Pacorid, Armin Ilion_IV, is married to Nissa Halditid, the daughter of Artaxias Halditid, an Assyrian noble refugee from the extinguished Republic of Chaldea, and Dov Eleazid, an Egyptian-Jewish noblewoman of Judea.

Thus, Armin Ilion_IV is by ancestry one-quarter Assyrian and one-quarter Phoenician; and his son through Nissa Halditid, Ilas, fated to be the fifth High Priest of Judea of the Ilion family, is by ancestry three-eighths Assyrian, one-eighth Egyptian, and one-eighth Phoenician.

A character's culture/ethnicity (and religion) is assigned when it is either 'born' to existing characters or 'spawned' as an adult unrelated to any other character. Several factors go into determining a character's culture/ethnicity: the primary determinant is the State's official or primary culture; a 'born' character may inherit its father's or mother's culture, if that differs from the primary state culture; and sometimes the culture of the province in which the character is 'born' or 'spawned', if different from the primary state culture, will determine the character's culture. The assigned religion is almost always that of the official State religion; though, sometimes a 'born' character will inherit the religion of its father, if that is different.

If a 'born' character with one or the other parent being of a culture different from the state primary culture is assigned the state primary culture, I oftentimes edit the game savefile to change the character's culture to that of its parent. For instance, Daria Pacorid, the mother of Armin Ilion_IV, was assigned the 'Jewish' culture and a 'Jewish' name when she was 'born'; I changed her culture to 'Assyrian', as he father's, and renamed her 'Daria'.

Of a truth, my son, the causes of the dispossession of Akabon, High Priest Ilion_III, have their roots in the reign of his father, Alexander, High Priest Ilion_II, called 'the Great'. As is said: "The father stubs his toe, and the son limps."

Fate had decreed, and it was the express policy of Alexander, that Thebes, the capital and last remaining province of the Republic of Thebais, should be brought into The Resplendent Realm. Alexander died before he could undertake this Glorious Conquest, and thus it fell to Akabon to carry out the command of Fate and of his father.

The game assigns various 'missions' to the states, to be achieved in a certain time, with some reward for success or penalty for failure. The 'Fate' to which King Armin refers is a 'mission' to conquer Thebes within fifteen years, with the penalty being a loss of popularity of the current ruler. Had Judea failed to conquer Thebais within the allotted time period, or had some other State conquered Thebes within the period, that would have counted as a failure of the 'mission'.

And, so it was that within a span of days in November 539 AVC (215 BC), Akabon had declared two wars: against The Theban Republic, as Fate had decreed, and against the Kingdom of Pergamon, who had long been causing trading problems between our gold-producing province of Argolis, on the Greek mainland, and our provinces of Caria and Sardis in Less Asia. All of these are amongst our patrimony from Alexander Ilion_II, called 'the Great'.

The Theban Campaign was resolved quickly -- by August of the next year, we had occupied Thebes and had accepted the surrender and annexation of Thebais -- and with minimum damage done by the desperate Theban Army to our other AEgyptian provinces: for Akabon had dedicated three full armies, that is, 18 of our 72 cohorts, to the subjugation of Thebais.

That strategy against Thebais was perhaps a mistake, given that not only had the other Greeks of Less Asia come to the aid of the Pergamese, as expected, but so too did the Kingdom of Cyrenaica, and their allies. As, eventually, did most of the other States of the known world.

The Galatians of Less Asia neither attacked us, nor allowed our forces to traverse their lands. They did, however, seize the opportunity to conquer both the Cappadocians and the Phrygians after we had compelled both to quit the war.

The Cyrenes had only recently completed their subjugation and conquest of the Cretan Republic, by then reduced to Gortyn and Patras, giving them control of most of mainland Greece and the west of Crete itself. They still had an army of 35 cohorts (and perhaps a further 16-20 of their allies the Tribe of Nassamones and the Republic of Africa) in Gortyn, the old Cretan capital, threatening our province of Knossos, and eleven cohorts in Patras, threatening Argolis.

The Cyrenes and their allies quickly invested both Knossos and Argolis. With all our forces committed in AEgypt and Less Asia, we could not relieve either siege; and against such massed force, Knossos could not long hold out. In short order, the Cyrenes occupied Knossos, and carried off any number of our citizens there as slaves to their wretched capital, Cyrene. May it be, my son, that if not I, then you, may yet rescue these unfortunates.

They exiled him from The Resplendent Realm on a charge of 'corruption'; but it was this loss, albeit temporary, of Knossos, and the later permanent loss of Mtskheta, together with his policy, instigated during this war, of offering denarii out of the public fisc to certain of our foes in exchange for truce that had turned the nobility of Judea against Akabon, the Ilion_III. They called it "bribes" and "paying tribute to the goyim"; he called it "saving the lives of my troops, when their deaths serve no purpose". For, never, not since Ilas, the Ilion_I of blessed memory, had ascended to the Throne had any province of Judea been captured by the enemy, nor had any King of Judea used anything but force of arms to compel our enemies to quit the field of combat.

Ultimately, however that the nobility would not forgive the Ilion_III for it, the Cyrene siege and capture of Knossos did serve the Kingdom. For, with the bulk of their forces confined by our navies to the Island of Crete, Cyrenaica was effectively out of the war until we chose to carry the battle to them. We lost half our navy in a number of naval engagements against the Cyrenes, but we did prevent them transporting their forces off Crete.

And, when the Ilion_III judged the time right to retake Knossos and capture Gortyn, we annihilated the Cyrene forces in Crete, for we had left them nowhere to which to retreat. My son, it was your humble father himself who personally commanded the forces which liberated Knossos and captured Gortyn, as he previously had captured Thebes during the conquest of Thebais.

When King Armin refers to "three full armies" committed to the Theban campaign, he refers to my policy, especially in the early game, to limit the size of any individual army to six cohorts. This has three pros: by having more separate armies, I can project power to more places at once, I can give generalships to more of my clamoring nobles, and, being smaller, the armies suffer less 'attrition' when marching through enemy-held territory; and with one important con: the AI-controlled countries sometimes throw massive stacks at me. For instance, when the Satrap of Iberia had declared the 2nd Kingdom of Kartli, he quickly fielded an army of 27 cohorts (fortunately, mostly militia), against which I could spare only 12 cohorts.

Armin's reference to some citizens in Knossos being enslaved by the Cyrenes is to a unique feature of this user-mod: when one captures an enemy province, some number of its residents are transported to one's own capital province and added to the slave population. Due to the many victories of the armies of The Sublime Sovereignty, by this time in the game, 549 AVC (205 BC), the population of Judea has grown to 18.6 citizens, 14.9 freemen, and 83.1 slaves: Judea is easily the highest revenue producing province in the entire known world. Let us hope the slaves do not revolt!

So, my son, we come now to that second fateful day, September 1, 542 AVC (212 BC), when the treacherous Jannaeus Nehmid, Satrap of Iberia, declared himself King of a re-born Kingdom of Kartli, that being comprised of the three provinces of Iberia: Meskheti, Cytaea, and Mtskheta. And, of course, our efforts, over decades, to more properly civilize the natives of these three provinces, were utterly lost.

Jannaeus Nehmid had long seen himself as a rival to Akabon. When the great Alexander, the Ilion_II, still reigned, this pointless and one-sided rivalry was manageable -- and do not forget that Jannaeus was a very talented man, who had served Alexander well. But, with the death of Alexander and the ascension of Akabon, the Ilion_III, Nehmid's resentment began to consume him, and he grew increasingly disloyal. The Ilion_III ought to have removed Jannaeus Nehmid from the Satrapy before his disloyalty lead to rebellion, but he did not see how to do this without sparking a civil war.

At the time Jannaeus Nehmid began his rebellion, the Ilion_III had moved two full armies of 12 cohorts into our Cappadocian provinces. For, while Colchis, Cimmeria, and Rhoxolani are our vassals, they had agreed to allow the forces of the wild tribes of Sythia, Dacia and the Germanies to traverse their lands: we were being attacked not only in Argolis of mainland Greece, and from across the Propontis into Less Asia, but also from the North into the Caucasus.

The four cohorts that the Ilion_II had long ago attached to the governorship of Iberia had joined Jannaeus Nehmid in his rebellion: we were compelled to annihilate them. By the time our forces engaged that army in Meskheti, Nehmid had raised a further force of 27 cohorts in Mtskheta. While greatly outnumbering our available forces, these were mostly ill-trained militia who, in the end, were no match for our seasoned men.

Our forces captured Meskheti on September 15, 543 AVC; they captured Cytaea on December 5, 543 AVC; and invested Mtskheta soon after. As the Fates would not allow the complete reconquest of Kartli, in February of 544, the Ilion_III offered Kartli an end to the war for the return of the provinces of Meskheti and Cytaea: officially recognizing Jannaeus Nehmid to be the King of Kartli.

However, Nehmid's kingdom did not long endure: various other Stares saw his weakness and hoped to profit thereby. Also, he had inexplicably declared war against the Sicilian Republic, whom he could not even reach, though they and their allies might have reached him in time -- surely, his resentment of my father had driven him mad. In the end, the Albanian Republic, whom we had envassaled when they were still a wild Tribe, completed their conquest of Kartli in May of 545 AVC (209 BC).

So, Jannaeus Nehmid styled himself a King for not much more than two-and-a-half years. When his kingdom was lost, he even had the audacity to beg the forgiveness of the Ilion_III, vowing his rivalry against him to be ended -- and the Ilion_III granted it!

It was a mere three months later that the nobles of Judea deposed and exiled Akabon, the Ilion_III, for "corruption".

Another consequence of the Nehmid Rebellion, together with the laws of the great Alexander, the Ilion_II, is that the children and grandchildren of Jannaeus Nehmid, while they had remained loyal to Judea (indeed, Ezena Nehmid has been promoted to the post of Tetrarch of Lycia), are now entitled to style themselves 'Prince' and 'Princess'.

On June 4, 545 AVC (209 BC), the Republic of Sicilia, who taken the lead amongst the Powers arrayed against us, agreed to an end to the Pergamese War. Despite the ancillary loss of Mtskheta, the Pergamese War was a glorious victory for the Great and Glorious Realm, adding both provinces and vassals to the glory of Judea.

Armin's speaking of Judean efforts "to more properly civilize the natives" is a reference to a feature of this user-mod: one can build a 'colony' in a province with a "foreign" culture or religion. It can take up to ten years to complete a 'colony' building (each effort adds one or more "levels" to the 'colony'); when the "level" of the 'colony' reaches ten, the province will convert to the state's official culture and religion.

In the 'vanilla' version of 'Rome' and other user-mods, the player may "bribe" a character with 50 denarii of State funds so as to increase the character's loyalty by some random level. Obviously, this can be financially ruinous to the State if not used judiciously. However, the 'Rule of the Ancients' mod disables this ability.

Another change of this mod is that it is more problematic to remove a character from an office or post once given. Simply removing a character from an office or post not only decreases that character's loyalty, but also angers all the other characters in one's nation. So, unless absolutely necessary, one needs to promote the character to a new position; and it increases the character's loyalty if the newly assigned position is the one he or she currently desires.

The only desire Jannaeus Nehmid had left was to become the Ruler; obviously, that was not going to happen. If I had simply removed him from office, he likely would have started a civil war, with no telling how many provinces would have rallied to him. It didn't occur to me until it was too late, but I think I might have been able to "promote" him to the command of one of my navies. That would have been a perfect solution: for while a wholly disloyal General may instigate a civil war, I have never seen a wholly disloyal Admiral do so; the worst they seem to do is to refuse to allow you to alter the make-up of the fleet they command. But, they still obey your other orders.

The "Fates" which would not allow the full reconquest of the Kingdom of Kartli is a rule of the game: an occupied country of less than three provinces may be wholly annexed, but if it has three or more provinces, than at least the capital must be returned to control of its legal owner.

The "laws of Alexander" which allow the Nehmid offspring to style themselves 'Prince' and 'Princess' are a modification I had made to this user-mod. This mod added the titles 'Prince' and 'Princess' -- as the mod was written, the siblings and children of a monarch, so long as of the same family, are entitled 'Prince' or 'Princess' so long as that monarch reigns. I had modified these rules to apply regardless of the family to which the characters belong, to not expire, and to extend to any grandchildren born while the monarch reigns.

The images below (click on them to see a larger image) show the Kingdom of Judea and the rump of the Second Kingdom of Kartli at the time of the end of Jannaeus Nehmid's revolt. Albania, who conquered 2nd Kartli, is the orange county to Kartli's east and north.

EU-Rome: (mod) Rule of the Ancients: Shattered World (544_03_12 AVC) Kingdom of Judea after the rebellion of Jannaeus Nehmid

EU-Rome: (mod) Rule of the Ancients: Shattered World (544_03_12 AVC) The rump 2nd Kingdom of Kartli, soon to be conquered by Albania

At last, my son, we come to that third, and worst, fateful day -- August 27, 545 AVC (209 BC), when the nobility of Judea deposed Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III, and banished him from his own kingdom. Akabon was exiled to the Kingdom of Persia, who had been our faithful allies since the days of Ilas, the High Priest Ilion_I of blessed memory, and who had been our most important vassals since their voluntarily submission during the days of Alexander, the High Priest Ilion_III, called 'the Great'. But, the Kingdom of Persia is no more, having become a Republic; and they are no longer our vassals, but our foes, against whom we shall likely be compelled to again go to war.

As I have said, the King was "convicted" of "corruption" -- and the charge was laid by his own half brother, Prince Ilas-Alex Ilion. But, the true reason behind the actions of the nobility was their displeasure over the King's prosecution of the Pergamese War: that he had used State funds to induce some of our foes to accept truce, and that the distractions of the war had given Jannaeus Nehmid an opportunity to rebel, resulting in the loss of the province Mtskheta.

As for Prince Ilas-Alex's part in this, that is easy to see. For, while the elder, King Akabon was the 'natural' son of King Alexander, called 'the Great'. And thus Prince Ilas-Alex had always resented that the Throne had gone to Akabon, rather then to himself.

During his reign, Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_II, added these provinces to the Decretal Dominions: Thebes, Soli, Iconiun, Synnada, Gortyn, Naxos, and Samos. He envassaled these realms: Cilicia, Pisidia, Pergamon, Bithynia and Pontus -- for, since the time of Ilas, the High Priest Ilion_I of blessed memory, it has been the policy of the Kingdom of Judea to envassal our foes when possible, rather than to utterly destroy them, as the goyim are wont.

Against all these gains, Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_II, lost the province of Mtskheta -- an all but worthless place containing nothing more interesting than cattle, and a people who speak the same language as their cattle.

The image below (click on it to see a larger image) shows the Kingdom of Judea at the time of the Exiling of Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III.

EU-Rome: (mod) Rule of the Ancients: Shattered World (545_08_27 AVC) Kingdom of Judea at the Exile of High Priest Akabon Ilion_III

The weeks and months following the Exiling of King Akabon were a parlous time for the Kingdom.

The Family were openly divided, with Prince Ilas-Alex having earned the emnity of many for his part in the Exiling of King Akabon. Fortunately, the Prince died of natural causes before these factions came to open warfare, and the divisions were laid aside.

Even more frightening to those who feared that King Akabon meant to regain the Throne was that of the total 72 cohorts in our armies, 27 were personally loyal to King Akabon, while only 6 were personally loyal to his heir, the new King. Yet, in the tumultuous times that followed, when King Akabon indeed took arms against the Kingdom in the cause of the Persian Rebellion, the commanders of the cohorts kept them all loyal to the Kingdom.

As I have said, the Kingdom of Persia had willingly become our vassals during the reign of King Alexander, called 'the Great'; they had been our most powerful allies both before and after their envassalation. Yet, of late, and since their final conquest of Parthia, the Persian nobles had become restive over their limited role on the world stage. Really, it was only a matter of time before they had rebelled against us; the arrival of King Akabon in the Persian court but hastened the day. Specifically, his arrival hastened that day to a bit over three months!

It is clear that the young (he was not yet 20 years of age) Persian King, Tigranes Pacorid, thought to use the personal loyalty of our cohorts to King Akabon against us. And, indeed, had a significant portion of those 27 cohorts gone over to the Persian cause, the result would surely have been quite different.

So, in late December of 545 AVC (209 BC) the Persian King, Tigranes Pacorid, declared war against The Great and Glorious Realm, and appointed our former King, and my own father, as his chief general against us.

But, we had been preparing for this day, having moved four full armies of 24 cohorts into the region: we swept the Persian forces from the field and methodically reduced their cities, all but Persepolis, which would soon have fallen when the Persian King agreed to peace in early August of 548 AVC (206 BC).

As recompense, we acquired the provinces of Hecatompylus and Tabae, giving us full control of Parthia, and the important pottery-producing Persian of Paraitacene. We allowed the Persian King his freedom, for what that freedom was worth. For, as it happened, this foolish and vain rebellion so discredited Tigranes Pacorid, and indeed his entire dynasty, that on September 11, 548 AVC (206 BC), the Republic of Persia was proclaimed and Tigranes Pacorid was executed. He was but 22, having ruled exactly three years and ten months.

Word has come to us that my father, the former King Akabon, the High Priest Ilion_III, died in Persia on March 1, 549 AVC (205 BC). Those cohorts formerly personally loyal to King Akabon have transferred their loyalty to his heir, as Nature decrees, and that danger to The Sublime Sovereignty of divided loyalties has passed.

Another "feature" of this user-mod is that having a large number of vassals, as Judea does, becomes a dangerous game of suppressing rebellions. During the reign of King Alexander, before Persia and Phoenicia had freely become vassals to Judea, most of, if not all, our vassals in Syria, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Medea, Persia, the Caucasus and Sythia had rebelled, frequently simultaneously. The resolutions of these rebellions is how Judea came to directly control so many of the provinces in these regions.

"We allowed the Persian King his freedom" because the game would not allow me to envassal them, given the provinces I also demanded.

The image below (click on it to see a larger image) shows the Republic of Persia following the peace accords of the War of the Persian Rebellion.

EU-Rome: (mod) Rule of the Ancients: Shattered World (548_08_07 AVC) Peace settlement following the Persian Rebellion of 545 AVC

M

The Game: technicalities
The computer game in question is 'Europa Universalis - Rome' from Paradox Interactive. Specifically, I am playing the 'Reign of the Ancients 2.00' user-mod applied to 'Europa Universalis - Rome Gold' (which includes the 'Vae Victis' expansion pack), with 'VV patch 2.32c'. Should Gentle Reader manage to wrangle a copy of the game, the patch is available for free download, as are various user modification packs.

'Europa Universalis - Rome' is an older title from Paradox; I don't know if Paradox is still actively marketing the game. I did recently see a copy of 'Europa Universalis - Rome Gold' at MicroCenter in Columbus, Ohio ... for a mere $10.00! If the company has any copies left, I expect it could be ordered online and shipped.

Europa Universalis - Rome
'Europa Universalis - Rome' is a 'grand strategy' and 'alternate history' game centered on the history of the mid-to-late Roman Republic, as the Republic gives way to Empire. The time period of available gameplay is roughly 280 BC to 27 BC. Note that one does not have to play as Rome -- any State represented in the game may be chosen.

The game models three categories of government, each with multiple 'flavors': republic, monarchy, and tribal. Republics and monarchies both have pros and cons; different players will prefer different mixes. Tribal governments have no pros -- if one chooses to play as a tribe, one's initial and over-riding goal must be to increase the State's "level of civilization" to the point that the government can be converted to a republic or a monarchy.

This is the copy from the back of the game's CD case --

Europa Universalis Rome Gold combines the epic strategy title Europa Universalis Rome with the expansion pack Vae Victis

Experience one of the most defining periods in world history!

Gain control over countries, cultures, provinces, and characters in a unique experience with great strategic and tactical depth.

Features:
- Explore a 3D map with integrated graphics and detailed topography [Ilíon: ho-hum! In my not at all humble opinion, this is one of Paradox's annoying traits -- the "3D map and detailed topography" add nothing at all to gameplay, and actively distract from it, yet do consume system resources]
- Start at any date between 280 B.C. and 27 B.C. [Ilíon: in game terms, this is 474 AVC to 727 AVC; as best I can tell, no matter what the start-date, the game ends sometime between 727 AVC (27 BC) and 730 AVC (24 BC)]
- Choose between 10 different cultures, including the Roman, Celtic, Greek and Egyptian civilizations, with more than 53 playable factions on a map spanning hundreds of provinces
- Watch your characters develop new traits through political intrigue and various interactions with thoushands of other characters
- Trade, negotiate or fight to united the Roman Empire

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Reign of the Ancients (user mod)
There

What interested me in the 'Reign of the Ancients' user-mod

Reign of the Ancients: Shattered World

Reign of the Ancients: Shattered World -- Judea