Romanization

[Vacceo]

Roman merchants certainly brought Roman culture, that much we can agree on, and often made the upper class more open to Roman political involvement. Just look at the Briton nobility just prior to the second invasion, who had been recieving Roman mercantile goods for some time and were pro-Roman occupation.

That is also completely true for celtiberian oppida. I have found lots of roman stuff (glass, pottery, tools for make-up...) in rich vaccean tombs.

 

[berhaven]

I think there are a bunch of ways to represent the almost unique capability Rome had in integrating (and keep together for centuries) different peoples of different cultures.
Relatively high tolerance in peacetime coupled with the capability and will to brutally eradicate dissent, excellent infrastructure development (roads and aquaducts), stick and carrott policy towards local elites, extensive economical integration, strategically located colonial settlements (usually populated by veterans) were all elements that Romans used more and better compared to other expanding civilizations.
How to simulate these aspects is IMHO the most crucial choice in the hands of developers.

 

[Jolt]

Tell that to the Iberians.

Iberians where quite romanized by the time of Octavian, celtiberians weren´t that much romanized (though they were, to some exent, as archeology shows) and finaly, norther tribes (cantabrians and so on) weren´t at all.

What Vacceo said.

I suppose Romans wouldn't be able to turn Persians into Romans even if they had all the time in the world. As far as I'm aware, the real places where Romanization did have particular results were on the "barbarian cultures" resided on.

Speaking game-wise, as was said, Romans didn't turn the Gallic/Iberian population into Romans, it turned them into Gallics/Iberians with a Roman way of life, as such culture change is...impossible? Still one can simulate assimilation by decreasing culture penalties as that culture gets more and more used to it's conqueror way of government stratification, social organization, etc. But! I suppose it would be easier to turn...Barbarian? POPs into civilized ones. Those two might be interlinked, as more barbarian POPs pass to the civilized realm, more of the society accepts civilized ways, there are less elements to oppose a "change to a civilized way of life", thus leading to decreased penalties for that culture.

(It might be a little confusing, but I suppose my ideas can be understood)

 

[lvdogma]

The corner stone of the success of roman rule was their hability to romanize the local elites of the conquered territories. I'm curious to see if and how this is going to be modeled. I think it should be an essential component of the game.

G.

Yes Romanization was key to their success in western Europe. Romans believed that civilization could only spring from urban living and each newly conquered province would received a brand new stone-work town, settled by the veterans that conquered (and understood) the region.

Then the most pliable villages were relocated into these towns. The most anti-roman tribes would migrate away.

In any case, gold finished the process. All the natives understood that easy gold was made by selling goods, food and art to the brand new Roman capital. Thus trade and language and roads spread out from these Roman seed towns.

Also immediately after being conquered the Civil laws were applied instead of military laws. The Roman Civil laws were usually fair and and less harsh than the native codes and the embrace of civilized culture became more welcoming.

The strongest tool to Romanization of course was how they adopted the elites. Local tribe leaders could no longer wage war as they wanted but they were the first to be made Roman. They were immediately invited to the Roman baths. They were given Roman titles as magistrates to oversee lands and welcomed into the Roman army as auxiliaries. They wore Roman style togas and set the example for their people.

Finally Rome treated conquered areas better over time, granting more rights and eventually treating the locals as equals (not really but they SAID they did) and full Roman citizens.

...

So I hope they building Roman towns/buildings lowers anti-Roman penalties applied by the game. That also time itself will reduce partisan activity.