blademind,
You sound like someone who likes movies, so I'll assume you have seen the new starwars movies: Episodes I, II & III.
This is almost the story of the roman empire. In starwars, there is a galactic senate, mirroring the actual roman senate.The Starwars prequel story: An old republic & senate which is effectively impotent & beaurocracy-bound. A power hungry senator who sees an opportunity to 'improve' the system starts a civil war in order to build his own private army. The army, now loyal to one person, not the senate, brings "peace" to the galaxy. Compare that to the roman story:
Early on, the romans were ruled by kings & petty tyrants. The roman people eventually rose up & overthrew the kings & established a senate, a council of 'equals' to govern the people. After several centuries, the roman senate was no longer fairly representing the masses from around the empire (since it became dominated by the nobility & rich of rome) & only citizens were allowed to vote & become senators - but then only romans (from italy) were allowed to be citizens.
Eventually the senate changed from looking after the people, to looking after the senators. Marius &, later on, Julius Caesar championed the common people, changing the requirements for military service & the distribution of food for the people of rome. They also conducted successful military campaigns, becoming popular with both the people & the senate. They eventually siezed power (through the triumvirates) to nominally 'bypass' the beaurocracy & self-interest of the senate. Eventually, Caesar ruled rome on his own, following the elimination of his rivals. He was only ever a dictator of rome - he never claimed the title of emperor & repeatedly declined the offer made by his own supporters to take up the title.
Perhaps the Starwars dictator/Emperor Palpatine is most similar to Cornelius Sulla.
As for historically accurate? Absolutely not. Perhaps the factions should be renamed to Julii, Pompeii & Crassii. (the last triumvirate) - that may be closer to history. There were many other equally important patrician families in roman history, so how else would they divide the factions? The game designers had to make some choices. Historically, there were no separate roman factions operating autonomously within the empire - there was ONE senate, ONE republic. R:TW is meant to be a simulation of the republic of Rome, up until the time of the dictators.
This is reflected in the Rome: Total Realism mod.
(I still haven't installed it so don't ask me anything else about it)
GM
Stupid questions & their appropriate responses from an Australian tourism web site:
Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.
[This message has been edited by GMRage (edited 07-18-2006 @ 00:35 AM).]