Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Originally, in Orville's perception, Cleopatra should be extravagant and wasteful. After all, the name "Cleopatra" in later generations gave people this impression. Even people in the Roman Empire spared no effort to exaggerate her. She is charming and wealthy, claiming that even a villa on Mount Carpito in Rome is not worth a pearl around her neck, etc. Influenced by this, Orville inevitably has a somewhat stereotyped impression of her.

But on this trip, Cleopatra traveled lightly and in a low-key manner. The entire fleet totaled only five or six ships, two medium-sized warships as escorts, and four transport ships, which were not particularly large in size. Weir was even a little worried about the safety of the fleet, so he mobilized three Viking longships that had just arrived from Britain to follow the fleet as a guard.

It was obvious that Ivar had told his family something, probably asking them to increase their investment in Egypt. All in all, he mobilized hundreds of people to come over. Considering his current size, this was a huge increase. Orville felt that he must have been stimulated by the prosperity and wealth of Egypt.

It is also interesting to talk about how this group of people rowed their long boats to Egypt - first they arrived at the mouth of the Loire River on the west side of the Brittany Peninsula (near today's Nantes), and then rowed upstream through the Loire From the lush tributaries of the river, you can manually carry the boat for a certain distance, enter the Rhone River basin (that is, the basin where the capital city of Lyon is located), and then go down the river into the Mediterranean Bath, and the rest will be a matter of course.

Fortunately, the Viking longships were designed to be used in this way. This kind of maneuverability is beyond the reach of super-heavy warships in the Mediterranean.

Orville's ship guided them all the way to the Egyptian city. Since Ivar has not returned from his voyage, the leader of this Viking group is temporarily Ivar's brother [Snake Eyes] Sigurd.

He is still faithfully obeying Orville's orders and leading his fleet to visit Greece with Orville.

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On the boat, Cleopatra explains to Orville her idea of ​​​​traveling lightly.

"Don't reveal wealth that you can't control, and don't show off your identity in places that you can't control. This is the basic common sense of nobles. I can't put together a fleet that can definitely guarantee my safety. If I really do this, I'm afraid it's you Romans who are having trouble sleeping and eating.

Your Highness, you must realize this. If you want to avoid causing any diplomatic disputes, the best solution is not to show off. I'm not a peacock kept in a cage. I don't need to show off my wealth to show off my status. Besides, it's useless for me to show off my wealth to these outsiders. "

This statement was considered to have won Orville's basic approval: "I probably understand it, but actually I still recommend you to be careful. The situation in Greece is not stable recently."

"I know that the aftermath of the civil war has not passed here yet. If you ask me, the emperor is a bit too impatient. It would be more dignified to deal with this matter coldly, but at worst, use some small tricks."

Orville knew exactly what Cleopatra was talking about: "Small means will never lead to elegance. Political assassination is something that countries with a chaotic political ecology will do. As an emperor, you should have some lofty ambitions. You don't need to do this." The conspiracy is also reasonable. Although my father is greedy for money and a bit lustful, his integrity is no less than that of other emperors. "

To a certain extent, Vespa's radical measures should indeed be blamed for this. If it were just the political earthquake caused by the civil war after Nero's death and those Dacians on the border, Greece would have calmed down by now.

The actual reason Vespa also told Orville in private chats was that he deprived the spiritual Greek Nero of the independent and autonomous status granted to Athens and other city-states, and reassigned bureaucrats to carry out census and collection here. It's a tax job, and if you don't receive money, you won't be able to give up.

Coupled with the instigation of well-intentioned people, the current situation in Greece is still unstable, and it always makes people feel that some political crisis may break out.

But to be honest, if it were Orville, he would have done it more decisively and thoroughly than Vespa. Some things must be done sooner or later, and if done early, the country can prosper for a while longer.

Cleopatra waved her hands in disgust when she heard this: "We have to admit that our politics has not yet reached that level of stability and ideals, so necessary evils must also exist among the upper classes. Take the situation in Greece, for example. I suggest you write to the emperor now and find a way to control that fake. If possible, kill him. It makes me upset. "

Orville knew that she was referring to a nobleman from Asia Minor who claimed to be an orthodox direct descendant of the Kingdom of Pontus named Mithridates.

The Kingdom of Pontus is a somewhat faded term in the ears of the Romans today, but more than a hundred years ago, the Kingdom of Pontus was indeed one of the important enemies of the empire on the east coast of the Mediterranean.

He took advantage of the time when Rome was suffering from the War of the Confederates (in short, a war of native Italian Latins fighting for citizenship) and internal political turmoil (Marius and Sulla were fighting for power), and he expanded aggressively, and once occupied Most of the Asia Minor peninsula and even reached parts of Europe.

Under the banner of liberating the Greeks and overthrowing Roman tyranny, they did have a certain appeal at the time. It is undeniable that the Roman tax system at that time was a bit cruel and bloody. The Kingdom of Pontus almost acted as a savior in the Greek world. undergoing expansion.

But it can only be said that the gap between Rome and Pontus is difficult to make up, not only in terms of the rulers' political skills, but also in terms of basic national strength. After the three Roman-Pontus wars, the rising Pontus Kingdom failed and was basically annexed by the Roman Empire.

The details of the development of events in this time and space are slightly different from those in history, but the general trend has not changed. Pontus still competed for power with the Roman Empire more than a hundred years ago, claiming to be another successor to Alexander's great cause, and then was defeated and annexed by the Romans during its strong rise.

This may be why Cleopatra was unhappy with Mithridates. She claimed to be the orthodox successor of Alexander (in fact, it was almost true), and of course she looked down on these high-quality imitations.

Orville was quite generous about this: "There must always be some dissidents. This is a necessary measure to ensure political stability. My father is also very concerned about Mr. Mithridates. He asked for some power and restrictions to be released here, which is fine. If he really dares to do something treasonous, that's another matter."