Roman Empire (Tournament Edition)

Background
The Roman Empire Alliance was founded on the first day of Tournament edition #2 with the premise of being a fierce and strong alliance united to seek a common goal, victory. This is where there motto comes from UBI CONCORDIA, IBI VICTORIA... through unity there is victory. Tech raiding is allowed with members not currently in an alliance. The Roman Empire Alliance seeks diplomacy out before acting in aggression towards other alliances seeking out a mutual friend and potential NAP's or MDP's.

Government
The government of the Roman Empire is headed by the Emperor, who is appointed by the previous Emperor. Currently residing on the Imperial Throne is Emperor Tiberius12, second Emperor of the Roman Empire. The Emperor appoints Praetors to head various departments, including but not limited to Department of Recruiting, Department of Internal Affairs, Department of Defense, Department of Foreign Affairs. A Senate shall also be elected, who will oversee such things as alliance law. Military Command is headed by the Praetor of Defense, who is assisted by Legates, each of whom command an individual cohort (12 man unit) of soldiers. For the official charter, look here: http://z8.invisionfree.com/Roman_Empire_Forum/index.php?showtopic=549

All matters within the alliance will be solved at the lowest level possible.

History
The Roman Empire was formed in Round 2 by two friends, Caesar43 and Tiberius12. These two friends recruited a few people into the alliance at the end of Round 2, finishing with a grand total of 7 members. The alliance had been the victims of many raids throughout the round, because of its small size, so Tiberius and Caesar planned to enlarge the alliance next round. After the reset, they started a recruitment blitz, sending out 400 messages to unaligned nations over the course of the day. By evening, the Roman Empire was the third largest alliance in Tournament Edition, with well over 60 members. However, organization within the alliance was minimal. Caesar and Tiberius were new to government. As such, the alliance did not have a forum, IRC channel, nor had it posted a Declaration of Existence. The alliance was approached by members of Mostly Harmful Alliance and Fark, who wished to form treaties with the new alliance. At the time, Tournament Edition was dominated by Murder Inc., who had more members then the next three alliances combined. Murder Inc. was a ruthless alliance, destroying alliances just because they were bored. United Nations (another new alliance) was attacked by them early on, and nearly destroyed. About eight days into the round, Murder Inc. declared war on the Roman Empire. The Empire had been working with a group of alliances called “Judgment,” who had agreed to defend each other from Murder Inc. attacks. Judgment was formed of the alliances the Roman Empire, Fark, Global Democratic Alliance, AZTEC, Orange Juice, United White, and later, Mostly Harmful Alliance. These alliances each attacked Murder Inc., and quickly decimated them in what was called the First Judgment War. Murder Inc. lost their spot at number one, and fell to be the seventh largest alliance. Mostly Harmful took their spot at the top. The Empire began settling in as a more official alliance- forums were created, an IRC channel established, and a government began to take shape. At this time, Caesar departed the Empire due to real life obligations, and Tiberius took over as sole Emperor. He began establishing close ties with Mostly Harmful and Global Democratic Alliance, with the three forming a ruling triumvirate over Tournament Edition. Mid-round, the United Nations, then the fourth largest alliance, had a huge internal shakeup, and her leader/founder abandoned them. Many United Nations members joined the Empire. Near the end of Round 3, a coalition of alliances attacked the Empire, Mostly Harmful, and Global Democratic Alliance. The war was close, with both sides suffering huge losses. In the end, the war, known as the Second Judgment War, ended in a victory for Rome and her allies. Murder Inc. was all but destroyed, and never rose to be a sanctioned alliance again. The only remnants of the Murder Inc. leadership fled to Common Defense Treaty, with the rest doing nothing but making rude comments on the Open World Forum. The round ended, and a new world was born.

Round 4 was the most difficult round the Empire experienced yet. The alliance managed to step into the second largest alliance spot; however, her old allies of Global Democratic Alliance had fallen significantly, to around 10th. Barely two weeks into the round, a huge coalition of alliances, formed of The Phoenix Federation, The Fellowship, Fark, Common Defense Treaty, The Fightin Division, Orbit Black, Rodentia Dominatus, United Nations, and a few other small alliances attacked the Empire and her allies in Mostly Harmful in the War of Vengeance. The war was the first loss the Empire suffered. Being outnumbered 3:1, Rome agreed to surrender to her enemies, while internally vowing to rebuild and come back victorious. At this point, Fark passed Mostly Harmful as the largest alliance, holding that position off and on for about three weeks. During the middle of the round, Rome saw its average nation strength pass 2,000 for the first time. Near the end of the round, Rome declared war the United Nations, Orange Juice, and the Old Atlantic Charter, and was victorious. Orbit Black then declared war on the Empire, but Rome fended them off. This war became known as the Pride War, due to it having resulted from Roman efforts to regain their pride. The war had been very bitter, with the United Nations and the Empire getting into heated arguments on the Open World Forum. After the Roman victory, steps were taken to repair the relationship, which strengthened to become a close one. The round ended more quickly this time around due to a new change, reducing rounds from 90 days to 60.

Round 5 was an excellent round for Rome. A new government began to form, with additions such as FolgerSoldier, who became the best recruiter the Empire had seen since Caesar (an excellent recruiter in his day), and Carpatus, who helped to touch up the forums and began leading Internal Affairs. Rome also reached out to new friends. Mostly Harmful and Rome had drifted apart from each other after the War of Vengeance, and this separation was compounded by the semi-retirement of Thaisport, the leader of Mostly Harmful, and a good friend and mentor to Tiberius. Tiberius had made friends with Burning Glory, leader of The Phoenix Federation, after the War of Vengeance, and the two decided to solidify their friendship with an alliance. Burning Glory also introduced Tiberius to NeoGandalf, leader of The Fellowship, who would become another close friend and ally to Rome. Another former enemy turned ally was the United Nations, who had retained their sanctioned position, despite a series of wars against them the previous round. Three weeks into Round 5, Rome declared war on Fark, who were slightly ahead of them in size. Thanks to a superb update blitz, Fark was defeated, and after about ten days of war surrendered, thus ending the Fark War. They fell in size to around seventh. As the round progressed, Lafayette Escadrille, an alliance based on invited members only with a very high average Nation Strength attacked a series of alliances, destroying each of them. First they destroyed IDIOT, an attempted rebuilding of Murder Inc. IDIOT quickly fell from sanction to around 20 members. Then Lafayette Escadrille hit The Red Guard, then the second largest alliance in the game. The Red Guard lost handily, and her membership plummeted, leaving room for the Empire to take second place. Around this time Rome began planning an offensive war against her erstwhile former friends of Mostly Harmful, after receiving intelligence that Mostly Harmful was planning an offensive war against them. About 20 days before the round ended, Rome attacked Mostly Harmful alongside the Roman allies of SWAT and The Fellowship. The United Nations then declared war on Harmful as well. The war went well, with Mostly Harmful losing significant amounts of Nation Strength. However, both SWAT and the UN officially withdrew from the war some time later, and The Fellowship began to back out as well due to a quasi-war with Lafayette Escadrille. This left Rome with the burden of continuing the war against Mostly Harmful herself. All attempts to offer Harmful peace were rebuffed, and eventually Rome embraced a campaign of total war. Harmful continued to lose strength for the remainder of the round, with many members of that alliance going inactive. By the end of the round both Rome and Harmful were exhausted.

Round 6 began with a huge surprise- Harmful had fallen from first place, and the Roman Empire had taken her place at the top. Emperor Tiberius, knowing that as the top alliance they would have a huge target painted on their backs, ordered a strengthening of ties between Rome and her allies of The Phoenix Federation and The Fellowship, as well as a diplomatic campaign to reach out to new friends. NOIR was one of those, and Rome signed an MDAP with them about two weeks into the round. Rumors swirl of a coalition being formed against Rome. Quick action by the Emperor and his commanders heads off the attack, by destroying the alliance The Shadowmen, whose leader, the glorious Cod God Ben, had said that the Roman Empire had pubic lice. After the destruction of the Shadowmen, the Empire fought against Mostly Harmful, then the second largest alliance. Rome managed to knock off more then half of Mostly Harmful's strength, and they lost numerous members. They fell from second to third, allowing The Phoenix Federation to take the second spot. After this, Rome focused on building, and at it's peak reached 280 members, with over 700,000 alliance strength. Together with their close allies of The Phoenix Federation, the Empire dominated Tournament Edition. Other alliances were disorganized and isolated, and did not form any sort of meaningful opposition. About four weeks before the end of the round, however, a coalition of alliances formed of Common Defense Treaty, UBD War Machine, and Priapism launched an attack on the Empire. Each of these alliances had a very high average nation strength, which caused huge damage for the upper echelons of the Empire. However, thanks to superior organization, the Empire managed to strike back quickly, and more then returned the damage done. Common Defense Treaty lost about half of its alliance strength, UBD War Machine lost over two thirds of its strength and had each nation thrown into anarchy, and Priapism lost half of its strength. Common Defense Treaty came very close to losing their sanction. After a end was negotiated, the Empire only had a few days to rebuild before being attacked by the alliances of SWAT, Mostly Harmful Alliance, and Fark. This attack came about as a result of the formation of the WOLF bloc. WOLF was a bloc conceived by Gabryal of The Phoenix Federation. This bloc was essentially a merging of the Empire and her allies, and The Phoenix Federation and her allies. This bloc controlled about one third of all the nations in Tournament Edition, and roughly forty percent of its total strength. Several alliances, including SWAT, Mostly Harmful, and Fark, felt threatened by this new bloc, and attempted to destroy it by attacking the Empire, the largest member. However, even before her allies had joined the fight, the Empire had gotten the upper hand and turned the tide on the attackers. As the round ended, the Empire had ten points on the second largest alliance, and her future seemed secure.