The Lex Liber stabilized Rome, and made easy to learn a law book that was once impossible. It made the ability to be a lawyer far and above easier. It made Rome work.
But it also destroyed the rights that many enjoyed. Roman citizens, male ones that is, were the only ones that enjoyed any kind of autonomy in this new law book. Women, slaves, non-citizens and other disenrranchised minorities, even in the heart of Italia, found the new Lex Liber to be strangely conservative. Caesar was not this conservative, that much is known.
While pleibians found Caesar to be a God, and so didn't question him (for now), but educated women, slaves, Celts and Greeks all questioned the Augur. Perhaps the most surprising is women, who had lived with their sub-human treatment in Rome for almost 400 years.
Most modern scholars say that it was most likely the actual creation of laws that put down Roman women, that really made women in Rome realize they were being swindled. Though they gave birth to the next generation of Romans, they were treated as mere breeding cattle and commodities. Roman women, educated ones, came to realize this as the Lex Liber was put into use.
Perhaps the most surprising development was the first Roman woman to speak out against the new laws. Porcia Catonis, wife of Marcus Brutus, penned a scathing critique of the new laws called A Treatise on the Role of Roman Women, in which she argues that Roman women are not simply cattle and objects. Though it is not of the level of the Christian Womanist Movement, which is a few years down the line, it was radical enough that Caesar demanded that she rescind it from publication.
She didn't. It is poetic justice that even though he avoided killing his friend, Brutus could not avoid imprisoning his second wife. Porcia was captured by Roman troops without a fight in the city of Thessalonika, where Brutus made his capital. She was sitting quietly on her bed, and when the troops entered her room, Brutus was leading them. She looked at him, and she smiled.
"Come to take me back to the pasture?"
She was put to death in the year 37 B.C.E. This was the first inkling that something wasn't right in this empire, that entered the regular populace of Rome. And it was Porcia's martyrdom that properly started up the journey of a middle aged housewife named Agnus.
Well, we call her Agnus. Her real name was never taken down, but she was called "Agnus" by every Roman man in power but a few, which means whore in Latin. It became clear that her early adventures were seen as a serious danger by the people of Sicilia, with the people of Syracuse calling her a harlot and a whore.
As she began to gain steam, far north the conquest of Britannia began. Or at least, it was supposed to begin. When Octavian landed 50,000 troops on the shores of Cinwalla*, he was expecting minimal resistance. However, after establishing a beachhead and heading inland, he arrived at what would later become known as Cymru*. The first leg of his journey was made immediately impossible by the Albas chariots that harassed him for hours on end, everyday. Octavian then came face to face with a massive army, on the plains of Dochas, that numbered somewhere about 100,000.
Or, if Octavian is to be believed, four million. That would be the entire population of Albion at that time, so he was probably wrong. And lying. However, 100,000 Albans comes to about 2.5 percent of the entire island being there to fight Octavian, so he should've been afraid.
They were led by a warrior king named Cu, Latinized to the name Cane. Cu was a warrior king of a small tribe near modern day Dinas*, and Cu was to be a small time warrior king. However, when he discovered that Romans had landed, and preparing for an invasion, he gathered as many Albans as possible.
Hundreds of tribes joined him into a massive confederation, and they were waiting for the future Augur. Octavian, who was terrified, took up defensive positions. Then, the chariots came in.
Alban chariots were fast, and had screaming Celts on them, so when they all crashed right into the Roman left flank, it was a bloodbath. Roman cavalry attempted to drive off the chariots, but failed miserably. Soon, with the left flank melting away, a massive charge of naked beserkers, high on a mixture of several local plants, smashed into the Roman right flank. The Roman legions held strong for a while, but eventually began to run. Soon, the army was enclosed upon, and Octavian barely escaped.
With over thirty thousand dead Romans on the field of Duchas, Octavian wrote home and called the invasion a failure, and recommended they invade Germania instead.
Caesar was furious, and wrote back that ten personal legions from Italia would head up there. Caesar would join them, and in 32 B.C.E, after the end of the traditional dates for the Pax Romana, Caesar suited up and headed north. He would arrive in full force, ready with all his army, in 30 B.C.E. What took so long? He had to take a pit stop for a year in Northern Gaul, due to a debilitating case of the flu. But he did arrive.
Meanwhile, out east, Brutus got himself slaughtered at a battle with the Parthians. Caught by surprise near the small town of Anka, his forces were decimated, he was decapitated, and his head was served, not willingly I might add, on a plate to the King of Parthia. The King was horrified, but was happy about a victory.
Brutus had no heir to speak of, so a small succession war broke out, until a suitable replacement was found. Young, inexperienced and a good commander, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was handed the reigns of Greekatolia.
Agrippa was a promising commander that Brutus had a fond nature toward, as did Octavian. He took over Byzantium and Athens during the Greekatolia Civil War, and eventually caused all other Generals to surrender to him. He was also a devout believer in Caesar, who thought Julius to be a living God as well. He prayed to him alongside Juno, Juipter and Saturn.
Agrippa immediately attempted to slaughter as many Zoroastrians as he could find, so began a period of war in the east titled The Troubles. Agrippa would live until around 12 B.C.E, when he died of natural causes, but he would leave an impact on the world in more ways then he knew.
Back in Italy, a cadre of Senators were left in Caesars wake. They were too keep things going. They tried to find Caesars will instead. Caesar took it with him though, thinking ahead.
As this occurred, The Crisis of the Patricians began to gain empire wide attention. Agnus had gathered about seven thousand women with her, and was making a move to the Roman Rex of Gaul. Though they were still under Roman law, most people there ignored it. They lived as they always had. Dirty, mostly free, and a little angry.
Agnus crossed the Tiber River somewhere around 30 B.C.E, and a year later, crossed the Rubicon. She arrived in Gaul in 28 B.C.E, with almost thirty thousand women, slaves, and other disenfranchised people behind her.
Soon, all of Romes conservative, and even progressive, politicians were in uproar. Something had to be done to stop this madness.
Marcus Lepides, always there when needed, organized a ten legion army, and marched toward her. They met somewhere around the Garonne River, near the city of Tolosa*. When Lepides met the woman, he was surprised to find her in armor, with her army at least decently armed. Surprised, and a little spooked, Lepides lost his nerve for a few days. Then, finally, he charged.
It was a slaughter. The disciplined Roman legions killed almost all of them, capturing Agnus and crucifying her outside of Tolosa. While the Roman men of the Patricians were satisfied, women, slaves and more became even angrier. Lepides, in destroying this revolt, had started the path that would eventually doom all of Rome.
The Crisis would not end until Rome did, and for almost twenty years, Roman women, slaves, non-citizens and more would make dangerous and illegal treks north to find freedom from the Lex Liber, usually in Gaul but sometimes in Albion, Danmork, and even as far east as Scythia an Polsa.
Perhaps the greatest thing about this is that, since most of the leaders of each group heading north or east were educated, we have huge written evidence. Indeed, it is surmised by some historians that this event is what would kick off the Gallic Reformation, though this is hotly debated to this day. Women wrote of their hopes of freedom, of justice, of equality. Slaves mostly wrote about freedom, if they could write. Non-citizens wrote about how they hoped to find land and peace in these places.
These migrations, which occurred from 30 B.C.E to 20 B.C.E, are a massive movement in people and places across Europe. The biggest change was a Gaul that eventually blended into it's eventual form, that of a mostly Celtic but somewhat Roman state. Scythia, on the other hand, experienced massive upheaval by a sudden influx of random people they had never met, even if they traded with them. It didn't latinize Eastern Europa, rather, it just created an entirely new culture, one that at this point in our history doesn't have a name yet, but will soon enough.
Well, this all seems fine and good. Rome is teetering on the brink, Caesar has left Rome for Albion, and all of the empire seems on edge. Citizens are catching wind that Caesar may not be all he's cracked up to be, and even if he is, he isn't doing the greatest job at the moment. Romans wanted peace.
What they got was doom.
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