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Dean of the University of Zootopia.\n\nWritten by Dan 1966 as a prelude to “Lupis Gloria Romani” by Ademi and Dan 1966[/center][/b]\n\n[b]Part 4[/b]\n\n[b]Wars, wars, wars and wars….From defense to devastate. Lupinian Rome under the Counselors. [/b]\n\n To keep this writing as brief as possible, we will not go too detailed into all the Counsels and Pro-Counsels and the intricate nature of Lupinian Rome’s political and governmental functions in the time between the end of the Monarchical age and the beginning of Cesaria Maximi.\n\n The between period between these two leadership extremes however was occupied by expansion, conquest and war, a plethora of all three. Romans were always told that “this legionary expedition” or “That legionary expedition” was done in the name of self-defense or the defense of some one else. When it came to predatory settlements, if alliances could be formed then Rome went to war to defend sed settlements. If alliances could not be formed and those settlements sat on or offered something useful to Rome….Rome just took them. If the settlement was full of pray mammals? Roman burned it, sacked it, raped it and brought the survivors back to be...slaves or dinner snacks.\n\n Two internal Civil Wars occurred during this period in years 236 and 370 which began to shift Rome towards the end of Republican government. Rome also fought five major wars, the worst and the one most threatening the Roman state was between years 237 to 245 with the Tusker Confederation and the way that war ended was to say the least….comical. The hero of this conflict who was crowned “Lupis Roma Deus Savitorium Affectionado” (god savior of Wolfen Rome we love you) was not a wolf….he was little bobcat.\n\n The Tuskers, a Confederation of War Elephants and Rhinos, swept down from the far northern plains in year 237 and after destroying four legions and ravaging many Romanized settlements; threatened the city state itself. Destroying a haste-fully cobbled together “Grand Legion” north of the natural barrier known then as the Verdia rift gorge (Where the Tundra Town south wall sits today) the Tusker’s leader Tantorius Getorex demanded Rome’s unconditional surrender or he would trample it to dust, erase its memory from history and sell every Wolf maiden into dog cages and perpetual whoredom. To give emphasis to his warning, he sent back barely alive the head Counsel of the Grand Legion that had been destroyed...minus his tail, his claws, his teeth and his pride was ….”well overly abused”.\n\n Rome was in a panic. Thus entered….Rufus Lynx. Simple farmer, raiser of wines and grains….who was not and never had been a soldier. But two things Rufus Lynx did seem to possess? Male organs the side of steel beach balls and a quick whit.\n\n Rome had only one way to span the natural defile of the Verdia Rift Gorge, the bridge of Mersali (Today it is where the central highway gate on the southern wall of Tundra Town stands or so the story goes.). It was here that Rufus Lynx arrived to see the beaten and abused masses of wolves from the Grand Legion streaming home. He went from Wolf to Wolf, Predator to Predator beckoning them to stand. Out of hundreds, he was lucky to find seven wolves who rallied to his angry snarling and hissing.\n\n Stripping another Wolf of his armor, sword, arrow quiver and javelin...Rufus devised a plan and sent the seven wolves to his home to gather oil, pitch and his fur grooming kit. When they returned, Rufus told them of his plan which they thought was suicidal. “We stand here or we run home to coward. Better to die here on our feet than home under our beds.” He told them.\n\n Dawning the legionnaire armor and preparing himself, the young Lynx waited on the Rome side of the bridge for the forces of Tantorius Getorex to arrive. Coming up to the end of the bridge, the war elephants and Rhinos noticed a lone Roman soldier at the other end screaming and hissing at them in a rage and daring them to come across and battle with him.\n\n Upon closer inspection of this obviously suicidal soldier. The elephants and Rhinos noticed that patches of fur were missing from his face and body and where his skin lay bare, splotches of red shown. Worse yet….foam was pouring from the small cat’s mouth. To them….Rufus was sick with mange, rabies or a terrible disease that would surely kill him soon enough.\n\n “Why do you wait!” Rufus screamed and hissed. “Are you all cowards! Come and fight me! Come and I will kill all of you!” Then...to show he was not only fool hearty but deadly serious...Rufus snatch up the bow he’d taken off a soldier, affixed an arrow and with almost deadly precision….sent a bolt flying true into the eye socket of Tantorius Getorex’s second in command, killing him instantly!\n\n While the wild feline taunted and berated the confederated army, his seven wolf compatriots were climbing over the underside of the bridge coating it with oil and pitch and when they had cleared themselves...they put the underside of the bridge to the torch!\n\n At one point while the underside burned...Rufus went into a screaming charge across the span, waving his sword, holding up his ridiculously over-sized shield, and demanded the Elephants and Rhinos fight him. He then was said to have looked right at Tantorius Getorex and snarled….\n\n[i] “I don’t know what beast birthed you? But she must have been the most reviled and ugly whore to have ever walked on land. And as for the dirty Socialator (Roman word for pimp) who raped her? He must have been so hideous as to make the god’s wretch!”[/i]\n\n Blind with fury, Tantorius Getorex charged onto the bridge with two platoons of his army determined to put the maniac little cat’s head on a pike and have it lead him into Rome. Much lighter and certainly quicker...Rufus ran over the now flaming bridge span and made it onto the Roman side of the Verdia Rift. The bridge, bearing too much weight for its’ burned up supports….shattered into splinters and sent Tantorius Getorex and most of his senior captains to their deaths on the rocks below…\n\n The remaining elephants and Rhinos. Deprived of their leadership, the bridge and having no engineers among them...retreated.\n\n Rufus’s seven wolf compatriots hoisted him high over their heads in great joy, throwing him in the air, singing songs and crying the news forward until all of Rome was wild with joyous cheer! Since soldiers could not enter the city itself because of the law...Senators took the young Lynx and carried him in a great triumph to the Senatorial hall where a special seat was brought out. A crown of laurels was placed on Rufus’s head, a robe of purple was wrapped around him, a baton of victory placed in one of his paws and all of the Senate bowed low to the floor proclaiming him the citizen’s gawd. The President of the Senate then told Rufus Lynx that nothing would be denied his asking. All of Rome waited to hear his words…\n\n Rufus Lynx could have had anything he desired and yet his answer endeared him in mammalian legend for all time to come…\n\n[i] \"I desire no such ostentation and deserve no such magnanimity. I did what desperation and duty called me to do and having done such? I only wish to go home and go to bed.”[/i]\n\n Rufus took off the robe, the laurel ring, kept the baton of victory and quietly walked out of the Senate house. When his words spread through the throngs awaiting to adore him, they reacted as he wished with simple tokens of affection and quiet appreciation. Rufus Lynx did as he said he would, he went home to his small farm, stacked his armor in a corner of the hut, climbed into his bed and went to sleep. Years later it was how the great hero of Rome was found when he died and in accord to his wishes there were no grand memorials, no great buildings and no spectacular tomb to remember him by.\n\n Perhaps there is a basis of fact to the story? When engineers began to construct the Southern Wall of Tundra town over the Verdia Rift...several skeletons of large Elephants and Rhinos were discovered at the bottom of the gorge. But fable or not, Rufus Lynx remained a powerful image of aspiration for admired Roman and Mammalian virtues. In the corruption poisoned later years of the Lupinian Roman Empire...Rufus Lynx was an image the citizens of Rome longed for against the largess and selfish supreme powers enjoyed by the Caesars. Rufus Lynx was an example of pure selflessness, of forsaking self and reward out of duty, honor and concern for country. He is still spoken of today with affection to cubs and among older mammals alike as an example of behavior and a watch word against power seekers and politicians alike. In a sense...a tomb would have been a little too grand a way to remember him. His very name does that quite enough.\n\n[b]Conquests and consequence: Falling into the Roman orbit or under the Roman claws.[/b]\n\n Lupinian Rome’s sweep of the known world now encompassing Zootopia, The Tri-Buroughs and all of the lands to the seas that make up our own large continent is staggering considering the span of time in which the Empire performed the feats of road building, bridge building and difficult land forming engineering. The Roman Legions were machines of efficiency but Rome was not just about conquest and war. She was hungry for talent, knowledge, skill and education. Lupinian Rome practiced a multi-prong approach to diplomacy, at least when it came to other predators. To pray animals however….Rome practiced absolute barbarism.\n \n If Roman Legions came upon wolf tribes, packs or villages, she approached them as beloved kin and where they didn’t pose a threat, Rome would leave them alone….except….they would “sales pitch” the glory of Rome like your typical door to door sales mammal. It was “Anim-way” (AMWAY) on steroids. Wolf tribes would be encouraged to share information, knowledge, education and in exchange Rome offered them society, belonging, kinship, trade, food and above all protection from harm. To lay one tip of any body part on a Wolf tribe or pack was to invite Rome like a “bully smasher” at a school yard brawl. The bully was going to get his snoot bashed in.\n\n If the Legions came upon a tribe of predators like a pride of Lions or a Tiger pack. If they offered no threat to Rome, they would get the sales pitch, offers of alliance, trade and food in exchange for knowledge. If the group of predators was large enough however to threaten Rome? War would surely break out and usually the wars didn’t last very long. Yet for Predators, Roman terms were generous and lavish enough to pacify further thoughts of opposition.\n\n If the Legions fell upon a pray village however...horror and bloodshed were the terrible results. Pray villages and societies would be torn to shreds and burned to the ground, the land to be taken over by Roman settlers later. The old, the infirm, the sick and most of the adults were killed. The younger pray mammals were thrown into slavery or sent to their deaths to feed and please the empire.\n\n Foxes, because of the old legend of Romulus and Remus, avoided making settlements and survived where they could. If a fox and his family were caught by the Romans? They were tortured, often skinned alive or chewed and beaten till they bled to death Their tails hung from Legionary standards, their entrails and private parts were boiled for soups, their skulls were collected as macabre trophies in the homes of the Roman elites. Foxes to Rome were enemies of the state to the extreme and only their cries from torture would be satisfaction. By the time Rome fell….foxes were ranked number 2 on the continental species threatened with extinction.\n\n[b]Slavery in Lupinian Rome. Walking or walking dead.[/b]\n\n Lupinian Rome was built on the backs of slaves. Sometimes fed by the fat and flesh of slaves as well. Slavery took on many forms within the capital city. Contrary to popular belief, a great number of slaves in Rome….were Romans because second to gladiatorial games….suing the hell out of your neighbor for looking at you wrong sometimes made him your slave and came off as good theater. Debt slavery reached insane levels in Rome by the year 500 of its’ existence. One writer remarked that there were more lawyers per square foot in the forum than there were bricks on the floor. Romans sued each other, counter sued each other and sued everything not nailed down for ridiculous reasons more than legitimate ones and there were always the “ambulance chasers” ready to offer their services and accuse anyone of causing heart failure. Uncontrolled howling was said to be the number one record offense for a law suit. The ancient wolf chronicler Livy wrote….\n\n[i] “Flavius Faustus, a young wolf in good standing was brought into the court by a young female wolf named Opsia who sued him for an exorbitant amount of money because he appeared to howl a little during a greeting which she suspected looked lurid and offending. She almost had him as a slave when on the next day he counter sued her claiming she was casting her eyes upon his private parts a moment too long for a proper female wolf of Rome. He even produced seven witnesses confirming that Opsia was a filthy female of the brothel district who gave them crabs and scabees. It just proves that if you have the money? You can get any actor to call anyone a whore.”[/i]\n\n Law suits and other legalities in fact were more lucrative a venture than slavery itself and for a predator taken as a slave in the many Roman wars, the vast throat cutting industry of law was the best and fastest way to regain your freedom. Perhaps it was a form of poetic justice when former predator species slaves got their freedom then turned around to become lawyers and trial judges. “Put me in chains? Now I’m going to bite you were it hurts puppy dog…..your change purse!” And yes I am not talking about the low hanging change purse.\n\n Predators taken as slaves during conquest wars found their lot difficult yet merciful. Many predators were educated by their masters to become accountants, teachers, trash collectors and other small time jobs Romans would not soil their paws over. A predator slave was evaluated annually and if they were found to be no threat to the Empire, they were ordered released then offered to work for their citizenship as compensation for their years of ill treatment. With predators, Rome was looking to build, expand and cultivate allies and citizens not enemies. Very few predators taken as slaves chose to leave Rome. More than a few became not only rich but eventually attained enough wealth and power to serve in the Senate itself.\n\n And then….there were the pray mammals. Their lives were a living hell. Rabbits, Pigs, Sheep, Goats, Deer even mice were fodder to be butchered for dinner plates or tortured and worked until they died. Whole industries were built around meat production. Auction houses, stock farms, slaughter houses. Many of Rome’s districts stank of blood and the bi-products of depriving a mammal their life and their identity. Female pray mammals, if they were young, were thrown onto large breeding facilities where they were forced to birth litters of cubs and kits without rest that they knew would end up in a meat market. Many of them found peace in waiting for a Roman guard to fall asleep so they could impale themselves on swords or lances or throw themselves into the Tyber River. The sight of bloated pray corpses in the Tyber enlisted no sympathy, they were after all just garbage.\n\n If you were a deer or a goat? you were hitched to carts or sleds and worked till you dropped dead. If you were a pig? You were worked in the mines or thrown to the meat processors. Over half of all prey Mammal youngsters ended up butchered or thrown into the arena where they were ripped apart by wild feral lions and Mastiff dogs for the Roman amusement. Around the city were meat shops called the “captionem ostium commutationem” or “Trap door exchanges” where prey youngsters were bid upon as they stood on extended platforms out from a stage and forced to expose and dance themselves before salivating predators. A winning bid meant a noose around the neck and slow strangulation as the trap door below the feet slowly gave way. The crowd of predators who gathered around the stand reveled in the awe of watching a poor prey child cry, struggle, suffer and lose their bowels as they died swinging.\n\n Cubs were cooked alive in ovens or skewered skillfully through their tail holes and out their mouths so they would struggle and scream as they were cooked to death. To Rome...pray animals were created to be harvested, exploited, abused and eaten. Yet one incident involving a pray mammal was a noted exception. That prey Mammal was the most gifted genius of the Common Middle age, Archimedes.\n\n Archimedes lived in a rare society for the Common Middle Age, the Seleucid Incorporation, a mixed predator/ pray safe haven fashioned by mammals determined to stand against the brutality and might of Rome. The Seleucid held out for a long time against continued Roman attempts to attack their city because of the genius of the near hermit like old bunny who devised defenses no one had seen or experienced, among them the famous Archimedian death ray that harnessed the suns power to set wolves on fire. The Death Ray and other inventions of Archimedes caused so much trouble for Rome that the Senate decreed at any cost that Archimedes must be taken alive.\n\n So it was that a pro-counsel named Marcus Numonis led two legions against Seleuca, the small city state and by infiltration through the water supply below, he conducted a night assault. His legionares killed the gate guards, opened the gates and the legions set upon the poor Selucids in an orgy of murder while searching for the famous genius. Problem was? The Romans were absolutely blinded by their hate of pray mammals and of course Archimedes….was a pray mammal.\n\n A solitary Wolf happened to come upon the great genius by chance. He stumbled into a large room where, on the floor, a massive math problem was written in chalk with the genius toiling away at it. So much for two plus two equals four….the soldier only saw a tasty food item with chalk in his paws…\n\n The Roman solider pushed Archimedes and demanded to know where Archimedes was. The old bunny simply replied...”Go away, can’t you see I am busy?”\n\n The soldier with one swipe of his sword, chopped the great genius’s head off.\n\n Moments later, one of Archimedes’s students, just happened to be a fox, came into the room and recoiled in horror. “Father! You’ve killed the genius!” The fox yelped.\n\n The soldier snatched the fox up by his neck and demanded to know where Archimedes could be found. When the fox pointed to the decapitated body on the floor...the soldier slit his throat.\n\n In their blindness, two Roman legions deprived Rome and the world of the most talented mammals of the age. They set Selucia to the torch and burned a wealth of ancient knowledge.\n\n The Senate however, understood completely and flew into a rage when they found out Archimedes had been killed. The wolf who killed him was de-fanged, de-clawed, Neutered and thrown out of Rome along with Marcus Numonis. It was probably the only time any Romans cared for a pray mammal’s death.\n\n[b]Next: The rise and fall of Cesar, the apex of empire.[/b]","writing_bbcode_parsed":"
A simplistic review of Zootopian History with Focus on the Lupinian Roman Empire as written by Doctor Emeritus Lulow Mandemus. Dean of the University of Zootopia.
Written by Dan 1966 as a prelude to “Lupis Gloria Romani” by Ademi and Dan 1966
Part 4
Wars, wars, wars and wars….From defense to devastate. Lupinian Rome under the Counselors.
To keep this writing as brief as possible, we will not go too detailed into all the Counsels and Pro-Counsels and the intricate nature of Lupinian Rome’s political and governmental functions in the time between the end of the Monarchical age and the beginning of Cesaria Maximi.
The between period between these two leadership extremes however was occupied by expansion, conquest and war, a plethora of all three. Romans were always told that “this legionary expedition” or “That legionary expedition” was done in the name of self-defense or the defense of some one else. When it came to predatory settlements, if alliances could be formed then Rome went to war to defend sed settlements. If alliances could not be formed and those settlements sat on or offered something useful to Rome….Rome just took them. If the settlement was full of pray mammals? Roman burned it, sacked it, raped it and brought the survivors back to be...slaves or dinner snacks.
Two internal Civil Wars occurred during this period in years 236 and 370 which began to shift Rome towards the end of Republican government. Rome also fought five major wars, the worst and the one most threatening the Roman state was between years 237 to 245 with the Tusker Confederation and the way that war ended was to say the least….comical. The hero of this conflict who was crowned “Lupis Roma Deus Savitorium Affectionado” (god savior of Wolfen Rome we love you) was not a wolf….he was little bobcat.
The Tuskers, a Confederation of War Elephants and Rhinos, swept down from the far northern plains in year 237 and after destroying four legions and ravaging many Romanized settlements; threatened the city state itself. Destroying a haste-fully cobbled together “Grand Legion” north of the natural barrier known then as the Verdia rift gorge (Where the Tundra Town south wall sits today) the Tusker’s leader Tantorius Getorex demanded Rome’s unconditional surrender or he would trample it to dust, erase its memory from history and sell every Wolf maiden into dog cages and perpetual whoredom. To give emphasis to his warning, he sent back barely alive the head Counsel of the Grand Legion that had been destroyed...minus his tail, his claws, his teeth and his pride was ….”well overly abused”.
Rome was in a panic. Thus entered….Rufus Lynx. Simple farmer, raiser of wines and grains….who was not and never had been a soldier. But two things Rufus Lynx did seem to possess? Male organs the side of steel beach balls and a quick whit.
Rome had only one way to span the natural defile of the Verdia Rift Gorge, the bridge of Mersali (Today it is where the central highway gate on the southern wall of Tundra Town stands or so the story goes.). It was here that Rufus Lynx arrived to see the beaten and abused masses of wolves from the Grand Legion streaming home. He went from Wolf to Wolf, Predator to Predator beckoning them to stand. Out of hundreds, he was lucky to find seven wolves who rallied to his angry snarling and hissing.
Stripping another Wolf of his armor, sword, arrow quiver and javelin...Rufus devised a plan and sent the seven wolves to his home to gather oil, pitch and his fur grooming kit. When they returned, Rufus told them of his plan which they thought was suicidal. “We stand here or we run home to coward. Better to die here on our feet than home under our beds.” He told them.
Dawning the legionnaire armor and preparing himself, the young Lynx waited on the Rome side of the bridge for the forces of Tantorius Getorex to arrive. Coming up to the end of the bridge, the war elephants and Rhinos noticed a lone Roman soldier at the other end screaming and hissing at them in a rage and daring them to come across and battle with him.
Upon closer inspection of this obviously suicidal soldier. The elephants and Rhinos noticed that patches of fur were missing from his face and body and where his skin lay bare, splotches of red shown. Worse yet….foam was pouring from the small cat’s mouth. To them….Rufus was sick with mange, rabies or a terrible disease that would surely kill him soon enough.
“Why do you wait!” Rufus screamed and hissed. “Are you all cowards! Come and fight me! Come and I will kill all of you!” Then...to show he was not only fool hearty but deadly serious...Rufus snatch up the bow he’d taken off a soldier, affixed an arrow and with almost deadly precision….sent a bolt flying true into the eye socket of Tantorius Getorex’s second in command, killing him instantly!
While the wild feline taunted and berated the confederated army, his seven wolf compatriots were climbing over the underside of the bridge coating it with oil and pitch and when they had cleared themselves...they put the underside of the bridge to the torch!
At one point while the underside burned...Rufus went into a screaming charge across the span, waving his sword, holding up his ridiculously over-sized shield, and demanded the Elephants and Rhinos fight him. He then was said to have looked right at Tantorius Getorex and snarled….
“I don’t know what beast birthed you? But she must have been the most reviled and ugly whore to have ever walked on land. And as for the dirty Socialator (Roman word for pimp) who raped her? He must have been so hideous as to make the god’s wretch!”
Blind with fury, Tantorius Getorex charged onto the bridge with two platoons of his army determined to put the maniac little cat’s head on a pike and have it lead him into Rome. Much lighter and certainly quicker...Rufus ran over the now flaming bridge span and made it onto the Roman side of the Verdia Rift. The bridge, bearing too much weight for its’ burned up supports….shattered into splinters and sent Tantorius Getorex and most of his senior captains to their deaths on the rocks below…
The remaining elephants and Rhinos. Deprived of their leadership, the bridge and having no engineers among them...retreated.
Rufus’s seven wolf compatriots hoisted him high over their heads in great joy, throwing him in the air, singing songs and crying the news forward until all of Rome was wild with joyous cheer! Since soldiers could not enter the city itself because of the law...Senators took the young Lynx and carried him in a great triumph to the Senatorial hall where a special seat was brought out. A crown of laurels was placed on Rufus’s head, a robe of purple was wrapped around him, a baton of victory placed in one of his paws and all of the Senate bowed low to the floor proclaiming him the citizen’s gawd. The President of the Senate then told Rufus Lynx that nothing would be denied his asking. All of Rome waited to hear his words…
Rufus Lynx could have had anything he desired and yet his answer endeared him in mammalian legend for all time to come…
"I desire no such ostentation and deserve no such magnanimity. I did what desperation and duty called me to do and having done such? I only wish to go home and go to bed.”
Rufus took off the robe, the laurel ring, kept the baton of victory and quietly walked out of the Senate house. When his words spread through the throngs awaiting to adore him, they reacted as he wished with simple tokens of affection and quiet appreciation. Rufus Lynx did as he said he would, he went home to his small farm, stacked his armor in a corner of the hut, climbed into his bed and went to sleep. Years later it was how the great hero of Rome was found when he died and in accord to his wishes there were no grand memorials, no great buildings and no spectacular tomb to remember him by.
Perhaps there is a basis of fact to the story? When engineers began to construct the Southern Wall of Tundra town over the Verdia Rift...several skeletons of large Elephants and Rhinos were discovered at the bottom of the gorge. But fable or not, Rufus Lynx remained a powerful image of aspiration for admired Roman and Mammalian virtues. In the corruption poisoned later years of the Lupinian Roman Empire...Rufus Lynx was an image the citizens of Rome longed for against the largess and selfish supreme powers enjoyed by the Caesars. Rufus Lynx was an example of pure selflessness, of forsaking self and reward out of duty, honor and concern for country. He is still spoken of today with affection to cubs and among older mammals alike as an example of behavior and a watch word against power seekers and politicians alike. In a sense...a tomb would have been a little too grand a way to remember him. His very name does that quite enough.
Conquests and consequence: Falling into the Roman orbit or under the Roman claws.
Lupinian Rome’s sweep of the known world now encompassing Zootopia, The Tri-Buroughs and all of the lands to the seas that make up our own large continent is staggering considering the span of time in which the Empire performed the feats of road building, bridge building and difficult land forming engineering. The Roman Legions were machines of efficiency but Rome was not just about conquest and war. She was hungry for talent, knowledge, skill and education. Lupinian Rome practiced a multi-prong approach to diplomacy, at least when it came to other predators. To pray animals however….Rome practiced absolute barbarism.
If Roman Legions came upon wolf tribes, packs or villages, she approached them as beloved kin and where they didn’t pose a threat, Rome would leave them alone….except….they would “sales pitch” the glory of Rome like your typical door to door sales mammal. It was “Anim-way” (AMWAY) on steroids. Wolf tribes would be encouraged to share information, knowledge, education and in exchange Rome offered them society, belonging, kinship, trade, food and above all protection from harm. To lay one tip of any body part on a Wolf tribe or pack was to invite Rome like a “bully smasher” at a school yard brawl. The bully was going to get his snoot bashed in.
If the Legions came upon a tribe of predators like a pride of Lions or a Tiger pack. If they offered no threat to Rome, they would get the sales pitch, offers of alliance, trade and food in exchange for knowledge. If the group of predators was large enough however to threaten Rome? War would surely break out and usually the wars didn’t last very long. Yet for Predators, Roman terms were generous and lavish enough to pacify further thoughts of opposition.
If the Legions fell upon a pray village however...horror and bloodshed were the terrible results. Pray villages and societies would be torn to shreds and burned to the ground, the land to be taken over by Roman settlers later. The old, the infirm, the sick and most of the adults were killed. The younger pray mammals were thrown into slavery or sent to their deaths to feed and please the empire.
Foxes, because of the old legend of Romulus and Remus, avoided making settlements and survived where they could. If a fox and his family were caught by the Romans? They were tortured, often skinned alive or chewed and beaten till they bled to death Their tails hung from Legionary standards, their entrails and private parts were boiled for soups, their skulls were collected as macabre trophies in the homes of the Roman elites. Foxes to Rome were enemies of the state to the extreme and only their cries from torture would be satisfaction. By the time Rome fell….foxes were ranked number 2 on the continental species threatened with extinction.
Slavery in Lupinian Rome. Walking or walking dead.
Lupinian Rome was built on the backs of slaves. Sometimes fed by the fat and flesh of slaves as well. Slavery took on many forms within the capital city. Contrary to popular belief, a great number of slaves in Rome….were Romans because second to gladiatorial games….suing the hell out of your neighbor for looking at you wrong sometimes made him your slave and came off as good theater. Debt slavery reached insane levels in Rome by the year 500 of its’ existence. One writer remarked that there were more lawyers per square foot in the forum than there were bricks on the floor. Romans sued each other, counter sued each other and sued everything not nailed down for ridiculous reasons more than legitimate ones and there were always the “ambulance chasers” ready to offer their services and accuse anyone of causing heart failure. Uncontrolled howling was said to be the number one record offense for a law suit. The ancient wolf chronicler Livy wrote….
“Flavius Faustus, a young wolf in good standing was brought into the court by a young female wolf named Opsia who sued him for an exorbitant amount of money because he appeared to howl a little during a greeting which she suspected looked lurid and offending. She almost had him as a slave when on the next day he counter sued her claiming she was casting her eyes upon his private parts a moment too long for a proper female wolf of Rome. He even produced seven witnesses confirming that Opsia was a filthy female of the brothel district who gave them crabs and scabees. It just proves that if you have the money? You can get any actor to call anyone a whore.”
Law suits and other legalities in fact were more lucrative a venture than slavery itself and for a predator taken as a slave in the many Roman wars, the vast throat cutting industry of law was the best and fastest way to regain your freedom. Perhaps it was a form of poetic justice when former predator species slaves got their freedom then turned around to become lawyers and trial judges. “Put me in chains? Now I’m going to bite you were it hurts puppy dog…..your change purse!” And yes I am not talking about the low hanging change purse.
Predators taken as slaves during conquest wars found their lot difficult yet merciful. Many predators were educated by their masters to become accountants, teachers, trash collectors and other small time jobs Romans would not soil their paws over. A predator slave was evaluated annually and if they were found to be no threat to the Empire, they were ordered released then offered to work for their citizenship as compensation for their years of ill treatment. With predators, Rome was looking to build, expand and cultivate allies and citizens not enemies. Very few predators taken as slaves chose to leave Rome. More than a few became not only rich but eventually attained enough wealth and power to serve in the Senate itself.
And then….there were the pray mammals. Their lives were a living hell. Rabbits, Pigs, Sheep, Goats, Deer even mice were fodder to be butchered for dinner plates or tortured and worked until they died. Whole industries were built around meat production. Auction houses, stock farms, slaughter houses. Many of Rome’s districts stank of blood and the bi-products of depriving a mammal their life and their identity. Female pray mammals, if they were young, were thrown onto large breeding facilities where they were forced to birth litters of cubs and kits without rest that they knew would end up in a meat market. Many of them found peace in waiting for a Roman guard to fall asleep so they could impale themselves on swords or lances or throw themselves into the Tyber River. The sight of bloated pray corpses in the Tyber enlisted no sympathy, they were after all just garbage.
If you were a deer or a goat? you were hitched to carts or sleds and worked till you dropped dead. If you were a pig? You were worked in the mines or thrown to the meat processors. Over half of all prey Mammal youngsters ended up butchered or thrown into the arena where they were ripped apart by wild feral lions and Mastiff dogs for the Roman amusement. Around the city were meat shops called the “captionem ostium commutationem” or “Trap door exchanges” where prey youngsters were bid upon as they stood on extended platforms out from a stage and forced to expose and dance themselves before salivating predators. A winning bid meant a noose around the neck and slow strangulation as the trap door below the feet slowly gave way. The crowd of predators who gathered around the stand reveled in the awe of watching a poor prey child cry, struggle, suffer and lose their bowels as they died swinging.
Cubs were cooked alive in ovens or skewered skillfully through their tail holes and out their mouths so they would struggle and scream as they were cooked to death. To Rome...pray animals were created to be harvested, exploited, abused and eaten. Yet one incident involving a pray mammal was a noted exception. That prey Mammal was the most gifted genius of the Common Middle age, Archimedes.
Archimedes lived in a rare society for the Common Middle Age, the Seleucid Incorporation, a mixed predator/ pray safe haven fashioned by mammals determined to stand against the brutality and might of Rome. The Seleucid held out for a long time against continued Roman attempts to attack their city because of the genius of the near hermit like old bunny who devised defenses no one had seen or experienced, among them the famous Archimedian death ray that harnessed the suns power to set wolves on fire. The Death Ray and other inventions of Archimedes caused so much trouble for Rome that the Senate decreed at any cost that Archimedes must be taken alive.
So it was that a pro-counsel named Marcus Numonis led two legions against Seleuca, the small city state and by infiltration through the water supply below, he conducted a night assault. His legionares killed the gate guards, opened the gates and the legions set upon the poor Selucids in an orgy of murder while searching for the famous genius. Problem was? The Romans were absolutely blinded by their hate of pray mammals and of course Archimedes….was a pray mammal.
A solitary Wolf happened to come upon the great genius by chance. He stumbled into a large room where, on the floor, a massive math problem was written in chalk with the genius toiling away at it. So much for two plus two equals four….the soldier only saw a tasty food item with chalk in his paws…
The Roman solider pushed Archimedes and demanded to know where Archimedes was. The old bunny simply replied...”Go away, can’t you see I am busy?”
The soldier with one swipe of his sword, chopped the great genius’s head off.
Moments later, one of Archimedes’s students, just happened to be a fox, came into the room and recoiled in horror. “Father! You’ve killed the genius!” The fox yelped.
The soldier snatched the fox up by his neck and demanded to know where Archimedes could be found. When the fox pointed to the decapitated body on the floor...the soldier slit his throat.
In their blindness, two Roman legions deprived Rome and the world of the most talented mammals of the age. They set Selucia to the torch and burned a wealth of ancient knowledge.
The Senate however, understood completely and flew into a rage when they found out Archimedes had been killed. The wolf who killed him was de-fanged, de-clawed, Neutered and thrown out of Rome along with Marcus Numonis. It was probably the only time any Romans cared for a pray mammal’s death.
Next: The rise and fall of Cesar, the apex of empire.","pools_count":0,"title":"Lupinian Rome part 4: Growth and slavery.","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"text/rtf","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"0","rating_name":"General","ratings":[],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"f","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"1","views":"51","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}