Rome was a city in Italy before the Great War and was also the former eponymous capital of the Roman Empire.
Background[]
A city of marked significance since ancient times, its culture and historical relevance before the Great War was revealed to a young Followers of the Apocalypse member by the name of Edward Sallow by way of a set of textbooks, including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Commentarii de Bello Gallico.
Inspired, he began to train and conquer tribal members of the former southwestern United States and in 2247, Sallow crowned himself as Caesar, leader of the Legion, which he deliberately patterned after the Roman Empire.[1] In keeping with the quest to emulate Ancient Rome, Caesar pushed his armies westward, having determined that the city of New Vegas would serve as a grand enough capital to be his "Rome."[2][3][4]
Although Caesar believed Rome was too foreign for anyone to understand or have heard of, in an attempt to repackage its historical significance and present it as his own, the ancient civilization and city within were not unilaterally forgotten. Those familiar with the true history of Rome, such as Arcade Gannon, are incredulous in the face of its use for this purpose, and staunchly opposes Caesar's "abdication of responsibility to a myth of historical inevitability" and twisting the narrative to form Caesar's worldview and justify past and subsequent actions.[5]
Notes[]
- In the intro to Fallout, the expansion of the Roman Empire for slaves and wealth is mentioned.
- If the ARCHIMEDES HELIOS One defense system is activated and all the New California Republic troops are killed, the Legion will take over the power plant. Fantastic will join Caesar's Legion and dress up like a legionnaire. His justification for this is "when in Rome."[6]
- Arcade Gannon, as well as the Courier and several Legion soldiers, speak multiple phrases in Latin.
In a cut ending to the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues, the experiments of the Big MT are unleashed on the Mojave Wasteland. The Legion forces are brainwashed into believing they are living in ancient Rome, on the moon.[7]- Roger Maxson mentions the fall of Rome in a message to Elizabeth Taggerdy.[8]
- In a message to someone close to him from before the Great War, Tex Rogers says that he does not care whether he is called a knight, paladin, or grand poobah of the Roman Empire, as long as he is able to continue using power armor again.[9]
Appearances[]
Rome is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, its accompanying texts, cut content from its add-on Old World Blues, and Fallout 76.
References[]
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.459: "Rebirth of the Son of Mars
"In Gaius Juius Caesar the boy found a man who seamed
to have fulfilled the full measure of potential greatness allotted to him by fate, a man whose career spanned political accomplishment and military achievement in equal measure. Such adventure! And intrigue! And cool uniforms! The boy's frustrations with his lot in life gained sharp focus. In reading about Caesar, he was like an ant scurrying about the feet of a regal statue. He resolved that he would go to any lengths necessary to change the course of his life. The Commentarii would be his blueprint. In an illiterate, benighted world, who would ever know that Caesar was not his original creation? That night, Caesar offered a different sort of assistance to a tribe his expedition had contacted recently: weapons, medical supplies, and tactical expertise. He led several tribal accomplices back to the expedition's camp and through its defenses, and there oversaw the murder of his eight fellows. Within a week he was leading the tribe on ever more ambitious raids against neighboring bands of raiders and tribals."
(Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Behind the Bright Lights & Big City) - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.41: "Caesar's Legion
"In the NCR he has at last found a great adversary, against which he can wage a military campaign worthy of history books. And in Vegas, powered and watered by its great dam, he has found a capital worthy of, well, a Caesar. Contrary to the old saw, Rome will be built in a day. With that out of the way, the next step will be to proclaim his apotheosis."
(Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide faction profiles) - ↑ The Courier: "And since forming the Legion, all you've done is conquer other tribes?"
Caesar: "That's right. Decades of warfare, absorbing lesser tribes, gathering power. Forging the dross into a vast, razor-sharp scythe. My Legion's expansion has never ceased. Much of the Utah and Colorado, and all of Arizona and New Mexico, are mine. We have cities of our own, but nothing compared to Vegas. Finally, my Legion will have its Rome."
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Why is Caesar's Legion so... strange?"
Caesar: "I used imperial Rome as the model for my Legion precisely because it was so foreign, so alien. I'd seen what had become of the NCR's attempts to emulate the culture of Pre-War America - the in-fighting, the corruption. Rome was a highly militarized autocracy that effectively integrated the foreign cultures it conquered. It dedicated its citizens to something higher than themselves - to the idea of Rome itself. In Rome I found a template for a society equal to the challenges of the post-apocalyptic world - a society that could and would survive. A society that could prevent mankind from fracturing and destroying itself in this new world, by establishing a new Pax Romana."
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "He seemed pretty smart to me."
Arcade Gannon: "Being 'smart' doesn't matter if you're insane. Everything makes sense to Caesar because he's twisted everything to his world view. He's Caesar reincarnated, the NCR is the corrupt Roman senate. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought the Colorado River were the new Rubicon. He abdicates responsibility to a myth of historical inevitability. But he's not Caesar. This isn't Rome. And he isn't going to get away with this."
(Arcade Gannon's dialogue) - ↑ Fantastic: "Hey man, when in Rome."
(Fantastic's dialogue) - ↑ Old World Blues; Cut ending
- ↑ About the Brotherhood
- ↑ Message to Marge 2