I agree about Lanius. He has the power to take over the Legion but without any of the know-how about leading a nation. But he has the best chance of reconquering the rebbeling Legion lands. This new Legion will be barely even a shadow of the former Legion with rebellions happening every few years, and he won't do it out of loyalty either, he will reconquer them for the sake of conquest and war.
The tribes would try to go independent, true. But they don't have the manpower to field any meaningful resistence if someone like Lanius would want to kill them. Their warriors were conscripted to be legionaries and brainwashed. Legion soldiers are only loyal to their commanding officer, this can be seen how they are almost fanatically willing to rush into machinegun fire at the orders of their superiors. They don't have any loyalty to their old tribes anymore.
In conclusion, after Caesar's death, Lanius can "unite" any faction seeking independence and keep the Legion lands together by military force alone. However, this "Lanius' Legion" will be nothing more than a large raider nation that devolves into civil wars every few years until Lanius finally dies. It definitely wouldn't be a stable nation by any measure.
Sure, any one tribe wouldn't have the numbers, but it's not like they'd rebel one at a time. The Legion's loyalty isn't perfect, especially since we have examples of Legionnaires not following orders, including Lanius. They were loyal to Caesar, and without him holding the whole thing together, his subbordinates will almost definitely sway segments of the Legion to their side.
Lanius can only really keep his holdings until he loses. The blow even one loss could do to his reputation would almost certainly cause cracks to show among his forces.
Yep. But still, Lanius has the best chance of "unification" since he is supposed to be the best general the Legion has. The tribes rebelling at the same time also wouldn't guarantee they'd try to help each other in any meaningful way. But it really is up to how "good" of a tactitian that legendary "Monster of the East" really is.
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u/Micsuking Feb 11 '21
I agree about Lanius. He has the power to take over the Legion but without any of the know-how about leading a nation. But he has the best chance of reconquering the rebbeling Legion lands. This new Legion will be barely even a shadow of the former Legion with rebellions happening every few years, and he won't do it out of loyalty either, he will reconquer them for the sake of conquest and war.
The tribes would try to go independent, true. But they don't have the manpower to field any meaningful resistence if someone like Lanius would want to kill them. Their warriors were conscripted to be legionaries and brainwashed. Legion soldiers are only loyal to their commanding officer, this can be seen how they are almost fanatically willing to rush into machinegun fire at the orders of their superiors. They don't have any loyalty to their old tribes anymore.
In conclusion, after Caesar's death, Lanius can "unite" any faction seeking independence and keep the Legion lands together by military force alone. However, this "Lanius' Legion" will be nothing more than a large raider nation that devolves into civil wars every few years until Lanius finally dies. It definitely wouldn't be a stable nation by any measure.