Claudius' ban

4

The elder reported his visit to the village and he showed the Parisian council the document which he signed. The other elders, 210 in total, wanted to maintain at least some of their domestic culture. After they heared that Jehuda town was led by a half-Parisian king and that some of his descendants are still alive, they became more interested. The elders discuss.

''When I was a young boy I heared about that town. The town became a kingdom, which included the neighbouring rural region, under Ludoyahu, an Israelite. The people in that town were a mixture of Lusitanians, Israelites and Nerigos people. Ludo had some Parisian consorts whom he brought with him to Nerigos and one of those half-Parisian kids was Parisius. About 10 years ago that guy was killed. But long before the guy even got on the throne, there was a bloody civil war between the tribes of Nerigos. This reduced the native Nerigos population. When Parisius died, the whole region of the small mixed tribe became integrated into the Nerigos kingdom, but the mixed tribe was permitted to retain their autonomy in exchange for increasing taxes and the surrender of their military''

''I knew about its existence because I visited the town several times during my lifetime. I even knew Parisius and his brothers. Parisius also served in the Roman military in Gaul. He was a Roman in his thinking. I believe that this is what led to his fall. But putting that aside... their town is not the prosperous merchandise settlement it used to be decades ago. The Augustan and Tiberian era were their prime time. Now both towns, they also have a town further into the North of Nerigos, are just two small towns with a lot of Farmland around it as their property. Their small army is dismanteled and thousands of their people left to live in Germany or Gaul''

''Yet, there's still potential in that town, Jehuda. My son visited the place three years ago. At the moment they have a woman on the throne. Pianna. She is quite irresponsible, materialistic and a true attention whore.In her spending she has wasted much of the wealth of the town. According to my latest sources, the town is bankrupt and they may have tax debts to the Nerigos confederation''

''Isn't that Pianna in Britain now?''
''Yes she is. The Household of Parisius also''
''We should take advantage of this. I mean, I will not believe that those people are broke. I mean... Pianna payed for hireling to guard her daughter Tamila. And those Roman hirelings are expensive! Also, her daughter financed the construction of a small village''
''Look, I say that we have to refrain from making to fast conclusions. The Jehudan people may be still wealthy, maybe they are not. Maybe they are bankrupt. Who cares? It's none of our concern. Britain is now under Roman domination. That is own concern. Our concern is to secure the position of our people during this transformation so that we won't be decimated by our oppressors. Fighting the Roman Principate is useless: nobody will ever win that. They also outnumber is in military capacity and in decades or better centuries of experiene. Our ancestors were Gaulish Celts who migrated from the Sequana rivers to these northern shores of Britain. We didn't campain much warfar from that time on till now, because most of the rivalties between the British tribes were fought in small formation. Also, our countries here are not that populous. That's all about to change now. We will keep an eye on those Jehudan people for sure. And if we can strenghten ties with them we will. But we should do if without the Roman authorities know about it''
''Also gentlemen, we must remember that Nerigos itself is a large place! And also that Jehuda town is in Nerigos and therefore it's more likely to adapt to the interests of the Nerigos people. Nerigos is not yet under Roman occupation. We are. That's why we can easily use that town in Western Nerigos as a shelter for our own wealth, both communal as private. Large sums of our harvest we can ship them towards Jehuda town. In this manner we can avoid much of the taxes and retain much of our wealth. Also.. by being in contract with the Jehuda town we can rent much of the abandoned Farmland over there as our foreign investment''
''He has a point...''
''Look. Our families, because we and the king are in agreement with Claudius, will probably suffer the least from the Roman exploitation. Nevertheless, we cannot be certain of anything! Just be prepared to have alternatives. I? I don't trust any of those Romans. Many of the Parisians around the Sequana river were brutally executed by Julius Caesar and by his successor Augustus''
''None of us do! Nevertheless, our future and the future of our offspring are dependant upon the decisions we make today.''
''By the way, that Queen Pianna, is she married?''
''No..''
''No?''
''Not married?!''
''She has adopted a lifestyle of female indulgance that's common among spoiled Roman women''
''Ah... we understand..''
''So.. she's not interested in men. Ok... but we cannot get into a treaty with a female ruler folks..''
''We have to find a way to dispose of her and put one of Parisius' children on the throne over there...''
''And glad that you are so ambitious... how are you planning to do that?''
''Queen Pianna and some of Parisius' children are here right?''
''So?''
''So?! They are not there ..''
''Where are you going with this?''
''We keep them here till they agree with what we want. And by the way, this is Roman region now.. so they will behave''
''You have a point..''
''But.. we must not act to hastly. Jehuda town is an option we leave open .. but only to benefit our families in the area of avoiding excessive taxation..''
''Look, the Nerigos people dumped around 3000 of their folks here.. because they wanted to occupy the Romans in Britain right?''
''Speak your mind!''
''We should send a large sum of the poo Parisians over there too. The Romans still had no time to hold a census around here. I say we send around 5000 Parisians over there''
''What about the Nerigos government..''
''Nerigos is still like a confederation. It's not an organised state like Rome. So those 5000 we send may not even be noticed by the Nerigoan government at all!''
''All right...''
''What?''
''That's enough for today. We now must focus upon gaining as much advantage over that Pianna as possible...''

When they are discussing this, a poet comes formard ''I will deal with that..''

''Who are you?''
''I'm Calvin, my father used to work in Jehuda town. He had known the Parisian wife of Ludo, who is Pianna's mother. Pianna is not a daughter of Ludo, but of an affair Paulina had with a German soldier. Despite that, she grew up among the Household as one of his own. But the scandal was there. Years back I lived in Nerigos for a while and I had met Pianna and her mother, when Ludo was in his last years of reigning. Pianna never got along with his alleged half brother and with nobody else of the family. I can spy for you guys..''
''We'll see..''