Here it is. Tell me what you think, eh?
An excerpt from The Slow Revolution: Industrialization in Mediterranea
by Antonius Gracchus
The Reign of Ptolemy XV Philopater Philometer Caesar, 1st Imperator of the Romano-Kemetics, and of the Imperial Dominion of Mediterranea
1 A.E.--72 A.E. (43 B.C.--29 A.D.)
Part Two: Pax Ptolemaio
Upon Ptolemy's return from Hellas, he instituted a new rash of reforms and public projects. Hellas was officially added to the empire as a sixth magistrata. Arabia was officially split between the two magistrata of Judea and Kemet. Meanwhile, the recent agitation for demokratic(1) reforms along the lines of Demokratia Britannia caused Ptolemy to implement a revolutionary system in the six magistrata. Each magistratos would be elected by the people of the magistrata. Each candidate, however, would have to be approved by Ptolemy himself before being allowed to run. He also declared Hellenic the official language of Great Meditteranea, a move that is well-received in both Kemet and Hellas.
Meanwhile, in Judea, a rising Jewish politician named Yousef of Bethlehem(2), realizing that the laws of Mediterranea are not being recorded, commissioned the writing of a Mesogeios Vivlio ton Nomon, or Mediterranean Book of Laws. Ptolemy gave the project his official approval and adopts as the Book of Laws for all of Great Mediterranea; a copy was required to be displayed in the capital of each magistrata (3). Yousef was soon approved as a candidate for the Judean elections, and became the magistratos of Judea in 23 A.E. Though he was young, he soon became one of Ptolemy's most trusted advisors on legal matters, and indeed, would advise his leader to invade Parthia. But not just yet.
For twenty-six more years, Ptolemy's reign progressed peacefully and beautifully. A new Diolkos was completed in the Levant, connecting the Mediterranean to the rich ports of Arabia, and allowing delicious Arabian spices to begin flowing into the great inner sea. In Judea, rich Jewish merchants in Jaffa were beginning to prosper from the flow of spices from the south. Jaffa was rapidly becoming a second Alexandria, as the aforementioned merchants began contracting architects, artists, and inventors from the capital to come to the city and change it. The city was quickly becoming a paragon of Jewish civilization, with the great Temple of Jaffa becoming the new center of Judaism itself. Tall, close-together, sand-colored buildings perched on the shoreline, with some houses' doors opening right out onto the water.
There was a third great urban center developing in Mediterranea. The city of Knossos, on the island of Crete, was also using the profitable trade in spices to drag itself out of a long, long decline. Talented spice merchants such as the famed Ergoteles Minoas were beginning to use their newfound riches to beautify their home. Hellenic philosophers, architects, and artists began to stream southwards to this new center of Hellenic civilization. However, just as Jaffa was becoming a definitively Jewish city, so Knossos was becoming a definitively Hellenic city. Widely-spaced, light-but-colored, and massive buildings dominated the city. The city was filled with statues and temples of the god Poseidon, the patron deity of the city. The ancient center of Minoa was rapidly returning to its ancient glory.
However, not all of the Dominion was as advanced as these three great cities. Though Kemet was still a glorious center of civilization, its two neighbors, Africanus and Judea, were not as well off. While Judea hosted Jaffa and Jerusalem, two of the Dominion's greatest cities, this magistrata was the most volatile of them all. Jewish rebels conducted a low-level partisan war (even more low-level after Yousef's election) in the countryside, permanently damaging what could have been quite a substantial farming industry. Mediterranean troops were permanently stationed in the spice farms of southern Judea to protect the nation's most profitable industry. The cities, though, were oases of peace in a volatile magistrata.
Africanus was no better. Though it was, along with the Nile Valley, the breadbasket of Mediterranea, it was also the core of Mediterranea's slave trade. The native Berber people were looked down upon by both their Kemetic neighbors and their Hellenic masters, and were used as forced labor in the massive farms of Africanus. The “surplus” Berbers were shipped off to Caesarea and even Demokratia Britannia by the African slavers, bringing massive profits to the African slavers, who in turn brought them to their home cities of Alexandria, Jaffa, and Knossos, making them even more beautiful. As a result, Africanus remained poor, backward, and unequal.
Bosporus, in the north, was also quite volatile, though less so than Judea. Armenian rebels constantly
captured and killed travelers on the tiny roads, and attacked the few military posts scattered through the magistrata. With Ptolemy's absolute lack of interest in Bosporus, and the absence of any real economic centers in the magistrata, besides Rhodes, the magistrata remained poor, backward, and almost entirely untamed. The Mediterranean Book of Laws was ignored in the cities and backroads of Bosporus, while the magistratos sat happy and corrupt in his peaceful island seat at Rhodes.
Hellas, besides Kemet, was the most peaceful and civilized magistrata of them all. While Macedonia remained as poor and backward as it had been since its brief spurt of glory, Athens, Thebes, and the cities of the Pelopennesse, with their economies now geared towards Knossos, were excellent subsidiary cities, along the lines of Jerusalem or Memphis. However, the revolution in Britannia had sparked off a renaissance in demokratic ideals in the cities of Hellas, and many in Athens and Thebes were petitioning the magistratos in Knossos, Damocles Berias, to reform the political structure of Hellas even more than it already was, to allow the former city-states more say in their own affairs. Berias, in turn, was constantly asking his liege, Ptolemy, for the permission to enact these reforms. Ptolemy, who felt that this quasi-demokracy was as far as he would go in his reforms, refused. All of this led to an uneasy balance in the Dominion, all presided over by an almost universally-beloved Imperator. But this balance was soon to be shattered, in a succession of wars that would affect the politics, mindset, and culture of Mediterranea for over a generation.
Footnotes:
(1) Demokratic=democratic. Britannia's popularization of the word eventually leads to this little quirk in Mediterranea's dialect.
(2) The first fictional character I've introduced here. He'll play a large part in the succession crisis, later on.
(3) Pretty much a mixture of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and legal tomes worldwide, the Mediterranean Book of Laws details all the rights a citizen of Great Mediterranea has, all the actions that are considered crimes in Mediterranea, the legal definition of ownership, and pretty much every other legality in Mediterranea.
