Great Levantia

Great Levantia, in its latter stages sometimes called the Levantine Potentate, was a civilization in ancient Levantia, which began as an Adonerii string of settlements in Levantia and centered on Urceopolis, conventionally agreed upon to have been founded in 887 BC. Great Levantia expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world.

In its many centuries of existence, the Levantine state evolved from a league of city-states to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic hereditary theocratic monarchy and finally to a military dictatorship. Through conquest and assimilation, it eventually dominated the Odoneran coast and most of south and northeastern Levantia. It is sometimes grouped into classical antiquity together with its predecessor Adonerum and ancient Istroya, and their similar cultures and societies are considered to be the nucleus of the modern Occidental world.

Ancient Levantine civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture and engineering. Levantia professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, similar to the development of governance in Caphiria. It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments, palaces, and public facilities.

Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the Levantine empire broke up into independent "barbarian" kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-medieval period.

Due to Great Levantia's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed. The Latin language of the Levantines evolved into the Romance languages of the medieval and modern world. Its adoption of Christianity led to the formation of Christendom during the Middle Ages. Istroyan and Levantine art had a profound impact on the late medieval Latinic Renaissance, while early Levantia's republican institutions influenced the political development of later republics. The corpus of Levantine law has its descendants in many legal systems of the world today. Great Levantia's architectural tradition served as the basis for Neoclassical architecture.

Rump Empire
Following more than a century of military setbacks and establishment of barbarian kingdoms within the traditional boundaries of Great Levantia, central authority began to collapse beginning in around 480 AD. By this time, Great Levantia was mostly contained to the northern two-thirds of modern Urcea, most of Burgundie and most of Dericania. The province of Pralia Maritima - an area approximately encompassing modern Roscampus, Lower Carolina, and southern Carna - declared that it would appoint its own governors internally in the year 482, denying the right traditionally reserved only to Imperial authorities. When the Imperial appointed governor died in 484, an Imperial army tried and failed to force a new appointee there, with the Imperator suing for peace. The capitulation of the Imperial court lead to most other provinces assuming responsibility for their own governance and protection. The transition to local rule occurred rapidly between 484 and 490, with most provinces ceasing sending taxes on to Urceopolis in the latter year. From 490, the authority of the Emperor in Urceopolis covered about the eastern half of the modern Archduchy of Urceopolis and the direct areas of the Urce River valley. A second campaign waged in 492 to reestablish control failed and saw the Emperor Candidius, deposed. Provincial armies besieged Urceopolis in 492 and induced the Levantine Senate to recognize an Imperial bureaucrat named Silvanus as Emperor. Distrusted by the Urceopolitans, Silvanus recognized the total autonomy of the provinces but made serious efforts to reform the Imperial "core lands" he had direct control over in order to potentially strengthen the power of the Imperial office. Silvanus built the last aqueduct in 496 and reinforced the city walls. As a career administrator, Silvanus attempted to streamline Imperial governance and eliminated many extraneous court positions, angering prominent Urceopolitan families. He also made efforts to reform taxation and remove some privileges for those in Urceopolis in order to refill the Imperial coffers.

End of the Empire
The reforms of Silvanus significantly angered the noble families of Urceopolis, not only due to fact that the nobility were targeted but also because it was clear the Imperial court and its policy aims were becoming an anachronism. The rest of Great Levantia was now under barbarian occupation or a functionally independent province; accordingly, the Imperial court was raising funds for a project that had failed and served no purpose. Accordingly, the nobles launched a conspiracy which deposed the Emperor Silvanus on 22 May 502. Rather than replace him, however, they left the office vacant and distributed the various regalia and other court objects to the provincial governors. The nobles established a new Duchy of Urceopolis under the leadership of an elective Dux. Many of the outlying cities and areas of the remaining rump Empire did not participate in this new govenrment, instead finding protection under the provincial leaders. The new Duchy was a loosely organized government intended to serve the interests of the nobility, but the competing interests of the nobility lead to an extremely weak government. By 550, the Urce River area was dotted with only loosely affiliated fortified noble estates and Urceopolis was largely abandoned due to continuing violence and also due to the aqueducts having been destroyed in one of the noble feuds that ensued.

With the vacancy of the Imperial office, it became clear to most that the Great Levantine state had come to an end, but Great Levantine identity and society continued onward. Many of the Imperial provinces continued to function nominally as provinces until the early 510s, when the governor of Pralia Maritima dropped the pretense and had himself crowned King - Rex. Most of the other provinces followed suit. The leader of one province - that of Vorenia Occidens (approximately modern Vorenia) - had himself proclaimed in 518 and announced his intention to reclaim Urceopolis, but following some successes he was defeated by a coalition of provincial kings and barbarian tribes and deposed, representing the last attempt to continue the classical Empire.

Government
The governing structure of Great Levantia changed considerably throughout its millennia in existence. For the first five hundred years of the state, Great Levantia was a classical republic featuring a non-legislative elder council known as the Senate, two executive consuls, a popular assembly through which laws were passed, and a variety of magistrates who served in various administrative roles. Historians believe this form of government was adapted from other city-states within Adonerum given its remarkable similarity to apparatuses within the modern Government of Caphiria. Not all of the institutions mentioned or typically associated with the republican government existed at the beginning; many scholars have argued that the Consular office and Senate were initially one body, an executive college of sorts, that eventually was divided into two separate institutions. Within the government, Great Levantia's class system - of noble patricians and plebians - influenced who could hold office. Throughout the republican period, plebians made continued advances towards gaining power, and the increase of the power of the Popular Assembly caused considerably instability during the final century of the republic's existence.

Economy
Much of the economy of Great Levantia was based on slavery.

Gaelicization
In the 21st century, several scholars have posited that the late Levantine state underwent a gradual cultural process of "Gaelicization", the adoption of Gaelic customs into civic and cultural life. This theory, which states that 5th century Great Levantia already had a significant Gaelic character, came about due to extensive research about the origins of the people of South Levantia, and particularly when the process of "Urceanization" began. While late imperial Gaelicization is not the consensus view, it has gained many adherents among prominent historians since 2010.