The senate discussion

P. Iunius Brutus sal.

Friends, I understand both sides, truly…

I have been a citizen in Nova Roma for nearly twenty years. Through my time there I discovered the beautiful traditions of the CDR and the idea of incorporating Roman culture into my life. When you strip away all the nonsense in Nova Roma its mission is pure and virtuous. Just as our mission here in the Roman Republic is virtuous.

It is important to recall why the Roman Republic was founded.

Our early history is inseparably linked to that of Nova Roma, for better or worse.

From pretty much 2009 onwards Nova Roma increasingly lost its way. The story about this is long, filled with egos, and incredibly boring and tedious. The bottomline, is that it resulted in two people by the names of Sulla and Caesar becoming sole controllers of the Nova Roma organization. They managed to do this through the help of some supporters and friends. But this group was fairly clearly the minority. To rectify this situation Sulla and Caesar expelled many people who opposed them. I was one of these people. Camillus was another. There were so many people that were simply cut out without any due cause. Many of these people had dedicated years of service to Nova Roma. Many had paid dues for years. Many had adopted their Roman culture into their lives. Having their citizenship simply removed was very upsetting. To be frank, the fact that this happened to me still bothers me.

After Caesar and Sulla expelled most active people, two choices became clear. If you wanted to continue as a Roman you had no other choice as your previous community was literally just torn apart. Your choices were;  (1) You fight Nova Roma and by default Sulla and Caesar legally through corporate law. (2) You move on and transfer what was good about Nova Roma to another place, like Aeneas gathering up the sacred relics of Troy and founding the pre-cursor to Rome in Latium.

Most of the early supporters of the Roman Republic in 2015-2016 belonged to the second group. But simultaneously most of those also supported the efforts of the first group. In essence we were all allies against a common enemy – Caesar and Sulla and by default Nova Roma as it existed in that time.  We all shared a common core mission. I, in fact supported both parties monetarily. Both had worthy causes.  My personal long term goal has always been recovery of the early enthusiasm seen in Nova Roma twenty years ago.

Now it is an over simplification to think that everyone in the Roman Republic group and the Exiled Nova Roma group were friendly towards each other. Sadly, some of the Nova Roma exiles viewed founding another group as betrayal of the organization they sought to recover. Others in the Roman Republic group felt that recovery of Nova Roma would require compromising with some very unsavory people who caused the whole initial conflict. Isn’t that right Consul, Q. Camillus?

It was a sad situation. But still most of us were friends. At this time both parties had their hands full. The Roman Republic was busy founding its organization. The Nova Roma exiles were busy with lawyers.

Throughout this time both Nova Roma controlled by Sulla and Caesar were not fans of the Roman Republic for obvious reasons. So they declared is a competing organization and banned their citizens from participating.

This upset some (not all) Roman Republic leaders who viewed the exiles fighting Sulla and Caesar as trying to recover an organization that was clearly hostile to the Roman Republic. Camillus, Philo and their supporters believed that the exiles were likely to simply continue an anti-RR policy even if they were successful in recovering Nova Roma. Again, a proportion of those in the exile camp viewed the Roman Republic in a negative light for founding another group in the first place and not fighting to recover Nova Roma. This led to unfortunate things being said by both the Nova Roma exiles and some Roman Republic leaders. Camillus you were one of those people. This wasn’t good.

This led to further deterioration of relations. In 2017 Consul L. Curio worked to improve relations between the Nova Roma exiles and the Roman Republic. The accord of friendship we talk about was the fruit of this effort. This agreement basically said both parties won’t talk badly about each other and both will work together when able.

Now between 2017-2018 neither group was really in a position to organize joint events. Both groups had their struggles to stay unified and active. But then Sulla died and Caesar resigned and the exiles found some success legally in recovering parts (not all) of Nova Roma’s assets. Suddenly the exiles now controlled Nova Roma. The situation changed markedly. Supporters of Sulla and Caesar were still around and salty, but they no longer ran the show as they pleased.

At this time in 2019, as Consular Tribune of the Roman Republic, I approached the exiles who were now effectively in control of Nova Roma. At this tine I proposed meeting in person (I was ready to fly to Rome) with the key leaders of both camps and discussing reunion of Nova Roma and the Roman Republic – a merger of equals into the Republic of Nova Roma. Such an act seemed to me to make sense. It represented the exiled parties returning home and would enable much needed reforms to occur in Nova Roma while also preserving the work done in the Roman Republic for the last five years.

This idea was strongly rejected by Nova Roma, now controlled by the former exiles. Despite the friendship accord still being active anti-Roman Republic sentiments were allowed freely on NR fora. Anti-competition regulations remained in effect. None of the collaboration hoped for in 2017 occurred.

This is the present situation.

The truth is that lots of people were hurt by Sulla and Caesar and their supporters still have a voice in Nova Roma, albeit diminished.  The former exiles were hurt by actions of some Roman Republic citizens who trashed them and Nova Roma in general. Roman Republic citizens were hurt by the exiles who labeled the efforts of the Roman Republic treachery or less than genuine. There are a lot of bad feelings here. I get it. I feel it too.

But I also am willing to forget it all. To move on. As Marcus Aurelius said, don’t be surprised or offended when people oppose you. Just be prepared for it. I think we need to recognize that a lot of emotions exist here and because of that a lot of suspicion exists on all sides.

We cannot move forward without acknowledging this and over coming it. As I said before, the Roman community is too small to fight each other. We could recover so much by viewing each other as brothers and sisters. To end the animosity and tolerance for the disrespecting of our bothers and sisters. If anyone can be mad with Nova Roma it’s me. Believe me. But I won’t be mad. It is pointless and obstructs us from our ultimate goal of restoring Roman culture.

Ultimately, for the immediate future I seek simple mutual respect and restoration of full unobstructed citizenship to all members of both organizations. I would also like to see disrespectful comments about both organizations viewed as breach of the mos maiorum and enforced.

I also still extend my invitation to meet in Rome (once travel is restored normally) with the leaders of all Roman organizations. I imagine looking each other in the eyes would do much to end all this silliness – most of which is probably misunderstandings due to high emotions.

Avete Omnes!

In principle, I love the idea of an eventual reunion.

I have not seen the Nova Roma messages referenced, but it looks like respect is not part of the equation at the moment in our sister organization. In that case, is it not better if the Roman Republic is a refuge from their continued chaos? A place where well-meaning people can escape the fighting, disrespect, prejudice, and intolerance? It would be alarming if unification or cooperation meant losing what we have in our respublica. We have Concordia.

Heated discussion is rare here. We have only had one or two discussions here that required reminders on the virtues and no heated resignations during my term as tribune. We must not undervalue our civility here. We must defend our values and our mos maiorum that does not tolerate such actions.

Thank you for your time.

Salvete Omnes,

As requested, I shall put my own thoughts into this.  Though it may not be what some might want or think it would be.

Sadly, I feel the spirit of the document was indeed violated very shortly after we signed it.  The idea behind the document was to allow participation in one another’s organizations (full participation, not half measures).  It was to allow for a more united Roman society where we could work towards a greater goal in the name of the gods and our ancestors.

However, when it came to backing up those policies, they outright refused to allow it.  They cherry picked what parts they liked, and threw everything else to the wolves.  I vividly remember after that document was signed, during their election for leaders, several of our members attempted to run for office (which should have been allowed no questions asked by said agreement).  It was met with censorship and denial, forcing these members to not even be considered for office.  Over this matter I had a particularly nasty blowout with Lentulus, who helped me form and get the documents signed on their side.

As things stand now, I don’t think a union is possible.  Cooperation is even shaky at best, like trying to keep a house of cards up during an earthquake.  We would need a major paradigm shift from their side to be even slightly closer to cooperation.  It’s quite telling that they just removed their ban last September on cross organizational involvement after 3 years of this contract of ‘friendship’.

That is my two cents on the matter.  We extended an olive branch years ago, and this was the result.  I personally think our efforts are better used elsewhere than to reattempt a losing battle.

Bonum Fortunum,

L. Aurelius Curio

Princeps Senatus

It noble to show our virtue and our goodwill… But under the current conditions, I wonder if it’s really wise to spend our time and our energy talking about that and trying to find again and again an accord Roma Nova. I think we should content ourselves with a mutual respect and a cordial (or neutral) relationship (for example, the elected magistrates shouldn’t speak about NR in a negative way). When Roma Nova will be open for an accord, it will be time for us to work on it.

In the meantime, we should remain focused on our Republic. We have so much to do here!