The Mad Tycoon of Rome

< 254. Revolution 5 >

The triumphant Senate widely announced the bill they had created to the citizens in the Forum Romanum.

They believed that they had stopped Marcus from stepping down with their efforts.

In fact, Marcus seemed to be more interested in various things than politics lately.

Anyway, the citizens welcomed the Senate’s decision wholeheartedly this time.

Actually, their cheers were directed to Caesar and Marcus, not the Senate, but the senators were satisfied nonetheless.

Caesar and Marcus decided to take turns in handling the state affairs, alternating every month like the traditional consuls.

On his first day of taking charge of the administration, Marcus announced a major overhaul of Rome’s governance.

“I will carry out various reforms in accordance with your wishes, who trust me. The current administrative capacity of Rome is insufficient to rule over the enlarged state.”

“Will you increase the number of consuls?”

“Of course, I am considering that as well, but I also intend to place several bureaucrats under the consuls. The consuls will set up the big picture, and the bureaucrats below them will handle the practical matters.”

The Senate did not actively agree or disagree.

Instead, many of the nobles who had served as censors or praetors recently expressed their support.

The administration and judiciary of Rome were becoming more complex day by day, and the burden on the consuls was too heavy.

“We just ask that you do not reduce the authority of the consuls.”

The Senate’s condition was that they did not want their rights to be infringed.

Marcus said that he had intended to do so from the beginning and immediately proposed a reform bill.

This was not just about filling up the administrative bureaucrats.

It was a radical reform that completely revamped Rome’s governing system.

It was based on Augustus’s administrative reorganization in the original history, which Marcus had appropriately modified.

The first thing that passed was a reform bill for the provinces.

Currently, almost all of the provinces were under the direct control of Marcus and Caesar, leaving no room for the Senate to do anything.

Marcus took out a considerable number of provinces and gave them back as senatorial provinces.

The governor of a senatorial province had the authority delegated by the Senate as before.

However, there were no legions stationed in these provinces.

Marcus had deliberately chosen provinces that did not need legions to be stationed there.

The provinces that fell into this category were Sicily and Sardinia islands, Narbonensis which corresponded to modern southern France, Achaia which corresponded to southern Greece, Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, and North Africa and Numidia provinces.

They were areas that had no risk of being invaded by outsiders and did not need standing armies.

And even the governors of these senatorial provinces were under the supervision of Marcus and Caesar.

A typical example was that Marcus had the right to request the dismissal of any provincial governor to the Senate at any time.

The rest of the provinces were directly ruled by Marcus and Caesar as before.

They appointed and dismissed the governors as they pleased.

And at least one legion was stationed in each province and followed the orders of their superiors.

In other words, the governor of a province was only responsible for the administration of the province, not a ruler.

The legitimate rulers of these provinces were still Marcus and Caesar.

Still, the Senate welcomed and accepted this reform bill with open arms.

Compared to their current state where they could not do anything, it was better to have some provinces where they could appoint governors.

Marcus also added a legal guard unit and stationed it in Rome and Antioch.

This was not something he suggested first.

It was something he started after receiving a request from the Senate to prevent any unpleasant incidents like assassination from happening again.

“I will station soldiers consisting of ten infantry units at each base in Italy and Syria. They will be composed only of Roman citizens and receive higher treatment than ordinary soldiers.”

The current Roman legions were practically professional soldiers who already had service years, wages, and pensions fully equipped.

And naturally, most of the people who made up the legions now were not Roman citizens but people from the provinces.

It was because Marcus had officially passed a bill that granted Roman citizenship to anyone who served as a soldier for 20 years.

So he deliberately distinguished these new infantry units from ordinary legions.

This was a kind of elite unit that only Roman citizens could apply for, as well as Marcus’s personal guard unit.

It sounded good as a personal guard unit, but if he left heavily armed soldiers in Rome, it would exert pressure just by their existence.

And when Marcus tried to pass a bill that might provoke the Senate, he always gave them some carrots along with it.

“The legal system of Rome is becoming more complex day by day, and there are many areas where religion, administration, and justice conflict with each other, making it difficult to mediate. I think that the Senate should take charge of solving these problems.”

The senators smiled with satisfaction at Marcus’s flattering praise and replied.

“As expected, the only one who thinks of us is Marcus. We, of course, agree.”

“However, if hundreds of senators participate, it may cause inefficiency in the administration. So I plan to select about twenty people first and form a committee. I will call it Concilium Consulum (Consular Advisory Committee) for now.”

“Is it a lifetime position?”

“Of course not. It will be replaced every year. And if you are deemed unfit to perform your duties, you may be dismissed in the middle.”

If Marcus and Caesar were the consuls, then this committee was practically a cabinet that would perform the role of the executive branch.

Marcus showed a considerate attitude towards the Senate even here.

The right to recommend appointments was decided to be divided equally between Marcus and Caesar, and the other half by the Senate.

Of course, most of the senators were no different from the two men’s subordinates, so they could practically fill the committee with members who suited their tastes.

Nevertheless, the satisfaction of the senators was very high, as they had as much as half of the recommendation rights on paper.

What they liked most was the qualification that Marcus had set.

‘The senators who can become members of the committee are limited to noble families who have served at least two terms as senators.’

In other words, newcomers like Cicero, Surenas, or Verkingetorix, who were the first to enter the Senate, were excluded.

There was a tendency in the Senate to distinguish between newcomers and traditional noble families, and this tendency had become stronger recently.

It was because of the newcomers who came in large numbers from the provinces.

Marcus, who knew this dissatisfaction, had raised the prestige of the Patricians in this way.

And in fact, all of them recommended by the Senate were senators from prestigious families with more than 200 years of tradition.

Marcus approved them all, giving them the impression that he cared for the dignity of the Senate.

However, the committee was only a nominal cabinet, and they did not discuss or lead their own departments proactively.

Their role was merely advisers and mediators.

Marcus, who had roughly laid out the foundations of politics and administration, moved on to what could be seen as the most important task next.

It was about finance, taxes, and transportation of grain.

Fortunately, the navy had been inherited from Pompey’s time and was intact, so it was not difficult to organize.

“The importance of the navy is now more than a standing army stationed in the provinces. At least in the Mediterranean Sea, there should be no pirates that threaten trade and transport ships. So I will create a permanent navy to prevent Rome from suffering from pirate threats.”

Since both ships and soldiers were already prepared, there was no need to invest additional funds.

They only had to build bases for the navy to stay.

Naturally, this proposal also passed without any opposition.

Marcus divided the Mediterranean Sea into six regions and set up naval bases in key areas.

Not only that, but he also created small fleets on the rivers of Gaul and Germania, the Nile River in Egypt, and the Euphrates and Tigris River basins, and made them patrol regularly.

Their first goal was to protect the grain ships coming from each province to Rome.

And their second goal was to ensure that trade ships engaged in maritime trade did not suffer any damage, and to rescue them if there were any shipwrecks.

The trade volume of Rome was now so large that it was no exaggeration to say that sea routes accounted for more than land routes.

It was because they had completely taken over the Red Sea, Arabia, and Persia.

Marcus went one step further and invested in building large ocean-going ships.

He invited excellent designers from all over the country and asked them to build ocean-going ships that could sail across oceans instead of galleys.

Of course, since he could obtain basic designs or concepts with his own abilities, the progress was incredibly fast.

As long as Marcus ruled it seemed like Rome would have no problem with money.

But all he had done so far was spending money, not earning it.

It was easy to spend money lavishly and abuse policies, but if there was not enough income to match it, it was inevitable that finance would collapse.

He knew very well that a huge amount of funds had been exhausted by fighting the Hunnic War.

Moreover, Rome had a better welfare system for its citizens than any medieval country.

All kinds of free entertainment facilities and free grain support for the poor class, road maintenance and administration, defense system overhaul.

All this was money.

If he had not increased his treasury by various financial reforms until now, he would not have been able to dream of such reforms.

The problem was that there was no guarantee that it would continue to run well even after Marcus died.

Even if someone sat on top of him, he needed to set up various safety devices to prevent financial collapse.

To collect taxes, a reliable census must follow first.

Marcus conducted a large-scale census by referring to Augustus’s method.

At the same time, he completely revamped his weak tax system.

Rome’s tax system operated on the principle of ‘collecting widely and shallowly’.

But this method was prone to degenerate into ‘collecting narrowly and shallowly’ at any moment.

Roman citizens only paid manumission tax and inheritance tax as direct taxes, and luxury tax, customs, and consumption tax as indirect taxes.

The provincials also paid only a tenth of their income as provincial tax, which was not much different.

The number of Roman citizens would only increase in the future, and the proportion of provincials would decrease.

In other words, there were fewer places where taxes could come out, and not many places where they could increase.

To overcome this, he had no choice but to collect direct taxes from citizens.

But if he collected taxes that he had not collected before, he would face tremendous tax resistance.

Marcus decided to solve this slowly.

He had enough money to worry about until he died anyway.

So he made tax reform a lifelong project and improved it over decades.

‘If I take 5% of the tax, but the income increases by more than 30%, they will gladly pay. I have to set it up like this.’

There were still many ways to increase people’s productivity.

He could use bait such as the introduction of new crops, more advanced farming methods, and seedling methods to make them pay taxes little by little, minimizing resistance.

He had been working on building the foundation of the new empire for over a year, but reality was harder than he thought.

He barely achieved 70% of his initial goal, let alone completion.

‘I made such a big noise to Brutus, but I don’t know if I can make a proper system by the time I die.’

Marcus’s eyes darkened as he looked at the mountain of paperwork that seemed to be three times more than when he was a provincial governor.

But there was nothing that would change by crying.

Marcus regained his composure and searched through the pile of documents classified as diplomacy, calling the bureaucrats.

“Next up is Han Empire… I don’t know about anything else, but I can’t leave these guys alone.”

A mischievous smile appeared on Marcus’s face, which had been soaked with annoyance.

It was like enjoying the misfortune of someone he hated.

< 254. Revolution 5 > End