Easterling Government
The Easterlings are such an intensely militaristic culture it is hard to imagine that they would even consider a flexible response approach. Massive retaliation would be their core position. Mobilization would mean war in any crisis and they would mobilize at the first sign of trouble. This means a first strike posture. They would likely not tolerate any aggression at all. Also, knowing what we know about their fondness for enslaving conquered people, we can assume a counter value posture to deter aggression. We can also assume that the Easterlings would devalue diplomacy and instead rely on military power. The result would be gunboat diplomacy and brinkmanship. This means coercion would be the core of their international operations. With it comes a scorched earth policy applied to their external enemies and their internal ones - like slave revolts.
Now, they seek to overthrow the current status quo. They are religiously bound to Mordor, which is a pariah state in the established order. Not to mention the social darwinist logic of their political elites means they must expand or die. Thus, in order to get their objectives, the status quo must fall. Maybe not now, but the established order will die or they will. This same set of foundations means they will bandwagon with the rising superpower of Mordor against their enemies. After all, the power that also seeks to destabilize the system creates opportunities for the sort of expansion the Easterlings would want.
Their ideologies would be the main secondary motive they seek to act on. We know that they have a religious based duty to obey Sauron. This means that elimination of his enemies and following his orders would be their main interests. But we have to remember that no nation would ever sacrifice their primary interests to follow religious ideology. Even Sauron would not be able to control them if obedience to him leads to national extinction.
So, who would threaten their fundamental interests? First, Gondor. We would see a major security dilemma develop here. Each side has a record of attacking the other, so each side would naturally feel justified in thinking they will again in the future. Which means that the only way to survive is to build up the sort of defenses the other side would feel is offensive in nature. Thus, each one feels it must attack to attack the other. But Gondor would be the main great power rival that could be seen as a real threat. Gondor would probably not be interested in anything other than defeating the Easterlings though, so the existence of the people or internal stability would not be threatened. Just territorial integrity. I would imagine that the Easterlings would see their alliance with Mordor partly in terms of balancing against Gondor.
Rohan is closer and has some military power that could be threatening. But it too appears to lack offensive intent or enough power to win more than a limited war. But they are allied with Gondor. So any Easterling attack on Gondor must factor in Rohan. Such an attack would trigger the alliance between the two, chain ganging Rohan into war. But on its own, I don't see Rohan as a threat to the Easterlings. They do have a history of fighting Easterlings - but again when coming to Gondor's aid.
Mordor is interested in obedience, which is already secured via religious devotion. But it does have the geographic proximity and military forces needed to pull off a successful attack. In fact, it is probably stronger on this point than Gondor. Thus, the second the alliance breaks, Mordor can be expected to attack. And for similar reasons - the huge army close to Mordor with a record of military skill could not be tolerated. Add in Mordor's Cult of the Offensive and Sauron's hurt pride over the betrayal and the invasion would be fast and brutal. Thus territorial integrity and the survival of the people would be threatened. The Southrons are allies, are too far away, lack enough unity or power to be a threat. Corsairs lack the needed land power and profit off the slave trade. Plus they too are allies.
The Lonely Mountain would be the only power to the West to prove a major threat. Dale and the Iron Hills would not be a threat on their own, but would go to war if the Lonely Mountain did. This coalition poses a risk in terms of battlefield defeats, but due to the Economic Hit Man model used by the dwarves, I suspect their main threat would be to internal stability. Economic stability could be threatened if it cuts off the supply of slaves and/ strategic resources. Generally speaking, the Dwarves would be the only power with the military forces with enough quality and quantity to be a major threat. Only their desire to protect the status quo keeps them from acting in a hostile manner. Dale is a city of Northmen, who were conquered and enslaved by Easterlings. They have both historical motives and experiences fighting Easterlings. I would imagine that when things heat up, Dale might push for a more hawkish response to the Easterlings.
We can assume that the elven kingdoms would not be threats. Elves are typically too far away and appear to lack the offensive intentions to target anyone but Mordor and Isengard. But they do have the best trained and possibly best outfitted troops. This means they have powerful defensive advantages if the Easterlings attack. Or if the two find themselves fighting elsewhere (say at Minas Tirith). Technically they do have the option to attack, but they are too far to pose an immediate danger.
It appears to me that all the threats are regional. There is no superpower who directly threatens them as part of that superpower's attempt to become a world hegemon. Secondly, the expansion of Easterlings would occur region by region, not in one major attempt to conquer everyone at once. All of them would be long range, as conflict with them would be seen as inevitable. They must expand to get more land and slaves to feed their people - failure means famine. This then means all would be expanding and escalating to high intensity conflict as all of them would rise to become life or death struggles. But they would also be all national level. An attack on the Corsairs for example would not be an attack on the Easterlings. The main exception would be the White Council - which has offensive intentions against Mordor and wishes to kill the Easterling God.
In this sense, the White Council would be seen as the main political threat. Gondor would be the main military threat. The Lonely Mountain and its coalition would be a military and economic threat. The White Council would also be the main unconventional threat to the Easterlings. The White Council also is the main potential economic threat as well. The Blue Wizards aimed to undermine the Easterling culture via setting up rival cults of magic. This could prove to be a major threat to internal stability (a political threat) and provoke slave revolts (economic and political threats). This makes the White Council both lethal and nonlethal at the same time, but the most unconventional. I say both lethal and not lethal as getting the clans to defect can disrupt mobilization efforts even if no bloodshed results - but slave revolts we can expect to be bloody on both sides.
Structure
Politically their society was controlled by a loose tribal confederation. We can assume then that the government structures described here detail those that govern each specific clan or tribe.
There are some places that have part time assemblies that only meet for a limited time. Georgia's General Assembly I beleive only meets for 40 business days a year. It is possible that similar set up could be used as well. We can also assume that the value placed on war and flower wars as a tool to resolve disputes would mean that this assembly would have rather minimal powers. Any executive would be more of a figurehead. Possibly only a Speaker of the House position meant to manage the debates and keep records.
So, I will be borrowing the Spartan Constitution for the Easterling governing body at the top. The clan level local administration I will be borrowing from the Roman Curia framework.
This means that there would be three major tribes, each with 10 clans operating as further subdivisions. each of these would have their own meeting place.
Public Agenda
The government's agenda is probably going to be limited in scope to maintaining the border forts and the international trade. Local tribes would handle all other affairs.
In terms of international relations, the command of military forces would be the prime area the common Easterling government would handle. Its main objectives would be getting more land to feed its people.
In terms of war aims, we can assume that their main objectives would be pretty simple. The first would be (surprise!) more land. The second would be the defeat of Gondor - their longest running international rival. Lastly - and probably most important in the minds of the Easterlings - would be the fulfiling of their religious duty to Sauron. After all, when your god demands action and has an army to back up the demand, it would be pretty idiotic to go against it.
History
During the First Age, the ancestors of the Easterlings betrayed the Free People waging war against Morgoth. This became known as the Treachery of Men. After this, their allegiance to the Dark Lords became public knowledge.
After this, they invaded a region called Hithlum. They stopped their expansion out of fear of elves. Refugees were able to flee southwards, protected by a mountain range. After this, the Easterlings retreated to the north and apparently settled down. However, Morgoth betrayed them, preventing them from getting richer lands. The remaining human residents of the area were treated quite cruelly. The Easterlings robbed them. The young and men were frequently enslaved while the women were forced to marry Easterlings. This rein of terror ended with the final defeat of Melkor. The Easterlings then retreated back to Rhun.
The main event of note from the Second Age was the corruption of Khamûl. He was given a Ring of Power, which he used to become a powerful sorcerer. But naturally this was not to last. Around 2251 he became a full Ring Wraith.
After the Last Alliance, the Easterlings apparently did not attack the west for over 1,000 years. I have no evidence for this, but we can assume that they fought among themselves throughout this period. But after this, a series of devastating wars started that lasted 60 years. The ninth king of Gondor finally beat them back at heavy cost, even taking the lands west of the Sea of Rhun.
This territory was slowly lost. Generally, the decline was the result of Gondor's own internal problems. The Easterlings suffered the most from the Great Plague that ravaged Middle Earth and they remained fragmented politically. For the most part, they were quite content to watch the internal strife destroy their old enemies. But they did provide a bit of a push, engaging in a series of skirmishes that officially drove Gondor out.
Many wars were fought against the Easterlings. But it was not until the War of the Ring that they were finally defeated enough they would not become a threat again. They most famously conquered and enslaved Rhovanion. But they were evicted in part due to a skilled insurgent campaign.
After the War of the Ring, Aragorn pardoned many Easterlings and let them go free. But he still had to conduct operations into Rhun to keep them from being a threat.
Demography and Population
Now, the estimates I have seen suggest that there was between 40,000 to 50,000 free residents of Sparta. This means that the difference between these figures and the number of citizens would likely be the perioeci - free inhabitants that were not citizens. They were not able to become elected officials or kings. They were also not subject to the same repression faced by the helots. They too contributed hoplites to the army. Based on these numbers, I estimate them to number between 8,000 and 25,714.
It is difficult to get a handle on the exact size of the equivalent of the Spartiates for the Easterlings would be. Dale had a force of 200,000. But for Minas Tirith, the numbers get a bit fuzzy. For the movie the number given is “several thousand”. For the book, all I could find was 18,000 total for the Southrons and Easterlings. This means at best I can get is higher than 200,000 but less than 218,000.
Now, I would expect the 200,000 to 700,707 Perioeci to be the commercial elites in Easterling culture. The Spartiates would be purely military and political. As a result, I suspect that the Perioeci would have all civilian administration jobs, conduct all trade and manufacturing, while probably owning more total land. All government contracts would probably go to these families.
Now, the perioeci class that I suspect would make up the auxilia I estimate at anywhere between 200,000 and 700,707. The lower numbers seem unlikely, given that it is based on exact parity in numbers between them and the higher Spartiate class.
We now have the basis for calculating an estimated size of the Easterling population. Using the smaller estimates, I get 200,000 soldiers, 607,150 citizens, 200,000 perioeci and 4,250,000 helots. For the larger estimates, I get 218,000 soldiers, 872,000 citizens, 700,707 perioeci and 6,104,000 helots. This means between 5,257,150 and 7,894,707 people. Given the vast spaces the Easterlings are supposed to rule over, this does not surprise me at all.
Now, if we assume that the Roman Curia model holds, then we can expect each tribe to have between 202,384 and 290,667 citizens, 66,667 to 233569 perioeci and 1,416,667 and 2,034,667 helots. Clans would be 20,238 and 29,066 citizens, 6,667 to 23,357 perioeci and 141,666 and 203,467 helots. I would imagine too that there would be variations - so these figures would be somewhat averages.
Territories
I would imagine that each clan would have its own town. This town would probably be the center of their identity and its local history, culture and local deities would form the basis of its claim to be a separate clan. Each larger tribe would have their own capital serving as the seat for their first order civil divisions. Easterlings would then have a centralized capital.
Now, lets remember our numbers for the clans here - Clans would be 20,238 and 29,066 citizens, 6,667 to 23,357 perioeci and 141,666 and 203,467 helots. Now, as I suspect that the 6,667 to 7,266 Spartiate soldiers would be based in the cities and towns as the soldiers would take over the overall government administration. As would the perioeci class who would be the primary craftsmen and traders. The helots would likely be more rural, due to the fact they are the main class devoted to farming. As would the difference between the soldiers and the total citizen class. After all, they would be needed to manage the farms and keep the helots under control. This means that we can expect the average town to be roughly between 13,334 and 30,623.
This structure suggests that for all practical purposes the Spartiate soldiers would be the main political elites, elected officials and the core of the senior management of the administration as well. I suspect this because cities and towns would be the most logical place to have curia meetings. But because the rest of the citizens would be running the rural estates, the soldiers would be the only ones in town regularly enough to consistently attend meetings. I would image that due to their role as soldiers, the perioeci would take over a lot of the day to day operations of cities.
That is an impressive size. For comparison, London in 1000 AD was only 10,000 people. It did not get above this estimated range until around 1200 AD. Between 1000 and 1500 AD, Rome hovered between 33,000 and 38,000 people. Between 1300 and 1850, Cordoba Spain was estimated to be between 27,000 and 36,000. Around the time of the Siege of Constantinople, the event that the Battle of Minas Tirith was based on, the city was only roughly 45,000 people.
This suggests that the Easterlings are probably one of the most urbanized of Middle Earth's human civilizations. Rome struggled to feed its population - requiring imports from across the Empire to feed it. This was a huge concern naturally. It was not until the modern day that technology progressed to the point significant proportion of a city's food can be produced inside the city through things like hydroponics. It has yet to be seen if that technology can be scaled upwards to provide sustainable food supplies exclusively within the city limits. Perhaps this makes sense out of and provides solid economic foundations for the social darwinist idiocy that Easterlings use to justify their concerns over food supplies.
Now, the total population of Easterling territory is much less than the 56,800,000 estimated people of the Roman Empire in 27 BC. But it actually achieved a similar sized military to Rome due to much higher participation in the military. This means that we can use the Roman Empire as a basis for the total size. Between 25 BC and 390 AD, estimates range between 1,060,000 square miles and 2,500,000. I would imagine that the high slave population would demand more of a military presence internally for domestic control. Combine that with the poverty due to disdain for wealth and the poor economic policies of the Spartan government and you have limited funds available for much else besides the military budget. The large and powerful military combined with overall lack of resources for the government would probably balance out in the sort of mid range of 1,700,000 to 1,900,000 sq miles.
Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. Duke University Press. 3 (3/4): 125. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
Durand, John D. (1977). "Historical Estimates of World Population: An Evaluation". Population and Development Review. 3 (3): 253. doi:10.2307/1971891. JSTOR 1971891.
Military
In combat they were professional, disciplined and well trained – but noted for their cruelty and barbarism. Their military prowess allowed them to be effective shock troops. Sauron’s greatest diplomatic victory was getting them to his side, as such quality and merciless troops as the Easterlings made them perfect as a Forlorn Hope. They were well suited for moving quickly and methodically into the breach behind the siege trolls at Minas Tirith to exploit the general disarray the breakthrough would have caused. Meanwhile, they also have the sort of self sacrifice and valor that made them quite dangerous as rearguards. Many troops loyal to Mordor were not killed in the rout after Minas Tirith because of these actions by the Easterlings fighting to the last man.
Now, in Rome the auxilia were equal to the legions in strength or reached 1.4 auxilia per legionary troop. If we assume the 214,400 number for the troops in the legions, this means between 214,400 and 300,160. I settled with 215,040 above. Given that the helots would be the main food producers and a lot of those would be in reserves, this seems plausible. Granted, that is still a huge section of this class. It also gives a total Easterling Army of 428,800 to 514,560. Holy Etruscan Snoods Batman! That army alone would cause problems for Gondor’s 5,000 strong professional army.
Their mounted troops are described as mounted archers and chariots. This allowed many victories in Rhovanion and against Gondor. Granted, neither side was able to fully defeat the other. Gondor did conquer the western areas of Rhun, but not the full territory and not for long. The Easterlings only were able to reach the full extent of their conquests when Gondor was at its weakest and when they had allies.
For their armor, the movies give them crests similar to the ones used in Samurai helmets. These were bronze C shapes that produced what look like horns. The front mainly consisted of cheek and eye guards. The helmet was made to look like a dragon skull to scare enemies. A burgundy headscarf and black face covering was worn underneath. For body armor, they used steel lamellar armor with bronze overlays. A rising sun emblem was used on the armor itself. This had plates covering the stomach, heart and neck, the groin, upper arm, another for the forearm, thighs and knees. Their hands were protected with leather gloves covered in scales on the fingers. Their leather boots have upturned toes in a style that suggests Persian influences. Generally, ancient Chinese armor appears to be the main inspiration.
Their shield was 2 feet wide and three feet tall. It had curved top and bottom edges with an iron hand grip. The edges were bronze and the center formed a dark square. The very center had a brass circular boss. It could be strapped to the forearm during battle.
As for weapons, they appear to prefer spears. Sources state each soldier had two of them. Other weapons include axes and halberds. Scimitars appear to be the preferred sword varieties.
Religion
This is where Sauron’s influence was able to turn them. By supporting their military adventures, Sauron was able to gain their loyalties. In exchange they served in his army, paid tribute and worshiped Morgoth.
This to me would make Sauron a bit of a dangerous moderating influence. The Easterlings appear to be more into war for its own sake. More of a test of and demonstration of personal courage and skill. War serves to prove who is the strong and literally kill off the weak. Sauron meanwhile is interested in conquest. War is a means to his ends, not the end itself. This means he would have an interest in getting the Easterlings to conserve their strength until the right time. The result is the Easterlings would not be a constant threat to their neighbors. But when the conflict does break out, they will be more likely to win.
Now, the flower wars would have the added benefit of killing off soldiers that are not exactly ideal. Over a period of time, the allegedly weak soldiers would be killed off while those that remain would get combat experience in the process. The Easterling Army would thus thrive.
This then would make matters worse for their eternal enemies. The elite troops of the Easterling armies would be likely not be as numberous because some deaths can be expected even in the limited affairs that are flower wars. But, all those who do take part in external conflicts we can expect to have a lot of real world combat experience. The result is a much more powerful army.
Foreign Relations
We can assume that the Easterlings would be highly expansionist. Foreign policy would be based on militarization and threats or the use of force. Land and resources are seen as belonging to whoever is able to take and hold them – one does not need to justify conquests. Stronger tribes conquered weaker ones inside the confederation while large scale campaigns were launched outside it as well.
Colonies serve their sort of Social Darwinist ideology well, essentially providing space for food production and a release valve for excess population. One of the side effects of this would be the extra people that could not be supported in the original territory could be sent off to be the rulers or administration of the new areas. These colonists would then be put to work relieving the food supply issue. Conquests also grant more resources, which allowed for greater survival. Colonialism becomes the just rewards for strength. Now, this is not a universal set of ideals for Social Darwinism, but are some of the more common militaristic ones.
The border forts I get into would also be a perfect set up for preclusive or forward defense. Again, Luttwak’s descriptions might not be entirely accurate in describing Rome, but his writings on Rome did perfectly describe this concept. The first step is to station many auxilia brigades and legions on the border. Cavalry and scouts would locate enemy threats outside Rome’s borders. Once threats are found, the Legions would strike out and neutralize them before they actually entered Imperial territory. Conquests would aim to create strategic salients, which could be used to attack enemy formations from many directions, possibly even making pincers and envelopment realistic.
This means preemptive and preventative wars. Should tribes exist on the border that seeks to threaten Roman hegemony, that leader needs to be taken out. Bribery and intimidation could be used to break up the confederation. The leader could be assassinated. Rivals could be supported through indirect, covert support and bribes. Or more likely, war would be started to smash and humiliate those who attempted this alliance. Flower wars would work perfectly in this role for Easterlings. A network of clients can be expected to arise from this system. Clients would refrain from attacking Rome and work to prevent others from doing the same. Rome would thus protect their allies should war break out due to these treaties. This made outsiders the first line of defense. Punitive incursions with scorched-earth tactics were the response should locals break the treaty or rebelled against leader supported by Rome. Replace Rome with Easterlings and you get a a solid idea of likely Easterling foreign policy.
Agriculture & Industry
I would also suspect that like the Corsairs, the land would be divided based on rank and prestige instead of the equal plots of Sparta. The land would probably also be given to commanders from lands they captured. It would also not surprise me that the positions would have some basic qualifications. Should two people that meet these qualifications desire the same vacant post, duels could decide between them.
Meanwhile helots worked the land owned by the citizens, giving half of their produce to the citizens. This provided all the income the citizens earned. However, the helot population came from natives and relied on birthrates to sustain the population. This is instead of the prisoners of war that supplied most other slaves in other cultures. This had to provide a moderating influence on the cruelty. The whole population of helots was estimated at 170,000 – 224,000. This means that the total citizen population would be between 24,286 and 32,000.
Paul Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta. London: Johns Hopkins University, 1994, p. 174.
Though it seems unlikely that a society like the Easterlings would restrict itself in the way Sparta did in terms of using POWs. The Easterlings would probably use prisoners to add to the Helot population, who would then become chattel.
The social darwinist logic I apply elsewhere is justified in some circles on the idea of the Malthusian Trap. This is the idea that population growth will be faster than the rate at which food supplies increase. As a result, the population will inevitably be reduced due to famine. This would apply to the labor market as well. The result is that the per capita wages and availability of food would decline over time. Eventually the effects of working more for less would see increased premature death rates and lower birth rates in a society. This would affect the poor the most, as they would be the ones working in the lowest wage and most physically demanding occupations.
Trade & Transport
To aid in their roles, perioeci were allowed to own their own land. However, they were able to conduct trade and leave the city without permission. That freedom of movement was not even granted to citizens. Due to this, they were the main traders for Sparta. They also produced most of the manufactured goods, such as armor. As a result, they were a sort of middle class vital to the economy of Sparta. Interestingly to me, they tended to live in their own settlements. These had to follow Spartan foreign policy but were traditionally self governing in domestic affairs.
Education
The training for Spartiates included the normal military skills, such as stealth and pain tolerance. But dancing, singing and hunting were also built into the program. Ideally, the soldiers would become so good and loyal that they would sacrifice their own interests for the good of the city. In fact, they were to be so good the city would not need defensive walls. Conformity was prized and discipline was strict.
Infrastructure
There was a network of "great roads" built between Rhun and Mordor.
Tenets of Faith
Sauron is both king and god to the Easterlings. They are described as fearing him exceedingly. Sauron used his influence to push the Easterlings to loot areas to their west. What was the innate desires of dragons became a religious duty for Easterlings. We can assume then that those that are able to capture as much loot or slaves on campaigns would be seen as saints. At a minimum there would be an unofficial competition between commanders to see who could enrich their clans via loot. This played into Sauron, who was able to make the Easterlings hate Gondor and desire its riches.
Worship
So, in Aztec society there was a phenomenon of the “Flower War”. While this hypothesis appears controversial in the academic circles looking into it, flower wars appear to have started as a response to a famine. Drought led to crop failures that the religious establishment interpreted as divine punishment. Human sacrifices were demanded to placate the gods - which needed to be provided regularly. The Aztec gods appear to be some of the most bloodthirsty of the pantheons I know of. This would probably be mirrored by the Easterlings who fought for and worship Morgoth and Sauron.
These were different from traditional wars in that they occurred regularly at preset times and places that became sacred. They also incorporated many religious and ritualistic elements - such as burning incense before battles - that did not occur otherwise. Wars of conquest required larger armies and thus were limited to when mass mobilization would not disrupt harvest. Flower wars meanwhile were limited to the noble classes who could conduct war at any time. Thus, flower wars could be any time of year and declared whenever there was a shortage of sacrifice offerings. Generally, the flower wars were much more limited in percentages of soldiers killed, duration and numbers mobilized. Also, given the fact the troops were mostly nobles fighting for religious purposes, flower wars were much better as sources of glory and personal standing. As a result, flower wars were more about personal glory, so melee combat was more frequent if not preferred.
These wars had several benefits to the Aztec elites. The first was a source of sacrifices - essential for their religion. But they also served as combat training for both troops and commanders. Those that did well could also benefit in terms of social and economic well being. After all, wars of conquest are costly and potentially disastrous, while major diplomatic crisis are not regular enough. Thus, a society relying on war for major parts of its functioning needs a smaller scale version that can occur on a more regular basis.
They also served as a reliable way to continue conflicts that one side was not able to win outright. The stronger party could keep their enemy off balance by continually forcing the weaker to mobilize and lose troops to the sacrifices. When the stronger (Aztec Empire) party was able to end the conflict this was done. Meanwhile flower wars continued to demoralize and wear down the enemy. Weaker parties forced to mobilize the same number of troops as their stronger enemy means that nominal balance still put them at a strong disadvantage. losses might be equal in raw numbers, but greater in terms of overall strength.
Other theories suggest that the religious and training motives were used by failed generals to use tactical successes to justify wars to the people when in reality they lost the larger strategic goals they wanted. Or they might have been simple demonstrations of power. Potential enemies are shown the power of the Aztecs and quality of troops. This in turn was done in a way cheaper than all out war for both parties, discouraged full war and enriched the Aztecs at the same time. This is part of the reason certain sites were used and numbers were set at the same for both sides. The Aztecs needed to demonstrate that their troops were better at an individual level. When successful, this could even cause the allies of the enemy to defect and join the Aztecs.
Hicks (1979), pg. 90.
Isaac, Barry L (1983). "The Aztec "Flowery War": A Geopolitical Explanation". Journal of Anthropological Research. 39 (4): 416–417.
Hassig, Ross (1988). Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 130.ISBN 0-8061-2773-2.
Priesthood
The Easterling chief priests we can expect to be the Ephors and Kings. The main ceremonies would be conducted by them.
However, each curia would (like their Roman versions) would have local officials. These would worship the state deities and the local gods. Often, these would be unique rites and rituals. Naturally the capital had the main established religious buildings and priests. But the local curia had their own small altars and shrines, official ceremonies and so forth. This local priest was called the curio - always over 50, could not have any physical defect and had to be in good health. He was barred from holding any other position, was elected and served for life. He was assisted by a flamen curialis.
When the Curiate Assembly met, the assembly was presided over by a curio maximus, probably originally elected by the local curio officials. He was always a Partician, which means the official Spartiate class for the Easterlings.
Political Influence & Intrigue
As stated elsewhere, the priesthood would be the political executive and main justices as well. So there would be a huge political infulence by the priests. To the point there would likely not be any official separation between church and state.
Similarly, Sauron is their main deity. This means that his political objectives would become the religious duties of the Easterlings.
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Training Level
Elite
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Government System
Tribalism
Power Structure
Client state / puppet state
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Legislative Body
So, in the Spartan Constitution, it was from the Spartiate class that made up the Apella. This was the legislative body made of all citizens that could send proposals to the Council of Elders. This council was made up of the two kings and 28 other members - all who had to be spartiates over 60. This had all practical authority. It could try any citizen, including the king. It also had veto power over any proposals put to it by the regular assembly. From the popular assembly was 5 Ephors. They could not be reelected, but appeared to have a huge amount of power. From what it appears to me, the Ephors handled most domestic governance while kings led military campaigns. Though two ephors would go on long campaigns to make sure the king stayed in line.
The only major changes I suspect in the Easterlings would in the selection of Council of Elders, kings and Ephors. In Sparta these positions were elected. I suspect the Easterlings would actually have these positions be based on military performance – whether it be confirmed kills, captives or loot returned. Probably some combination of all three would lead to promotion.
The Curia was a uniquely Roman institution by contrast. While there are other curias throughout history, they all appear after Rome and occur in areas that were part of the Roman Empire. The two main examples of this is the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church and the Curia Regis employed by the Medieval European kings.
All Roman citizens were part of a curia officially - with 30 different curia at the peak of the institution. In the golden age of the Republic, they had more powers. But by the time the republic was in decline, they were much more limited. Namely to confirming the appointment of public officials and priests plus the handling adoptions and wills. In Imperial times, local curiae would elect local magestrates. More broadly the term came to refer to councils and assemblies were public and religious matters were debated and official decisions made. Hence the use of the term by the Catholic Church and why it was used for the Roman Senate.
Back when the Curiate Assembly was the dominant institution (prior to the Senate), it was practically a direct democracy. Naturally the Easterling version would be quite limited due to how restricted "citizenship" would be. Essentially, those who were present in the assembly could vote, but citizens had no power outside that vote. The leading magistrate did have effective power over the assembly, deciding all questions of legality and procedure. That being said, the assembly as a whole was the main authority in legislative and judicial affairs.
Palmer, Robert E. A. (1970). The Archaic community of the Romans. Cambridge: University Press.
Now, the official Roman Curia system divided Roman citizens into 3 tribes each with 10 clans each. There was a town council called the curia. The body was generally cooperative and formed by members who served for life. While numbers varied widely, 100 seems to be a solid averagein the Western Empire. 500 was the average in the Eastern portion.
We can assume then that there would be wide variety in the Easterling Curia. I will assume 100 as the average to account for the regional variations. But we can assume that the main Easterling capital would probably have closer to 500.
A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, p. 724.
Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, Second Edition, Harry Thurston Peck, Editor (1897)
Judicial Body
Both the kings and the ephors had judicial powers. Ephors for example were able to try kings. Kings had additional roles as the chief priests and top generals. Ephors had additional powers over finance and executive duties. Thus, the executive was answerable to the legislature and had judicial powers as well.
Location
Related Professions
Controlled Territories
Related Ethnicities
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