Latest news with #PaxRomana
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Three Ways America's World Order Could Collapse
Nothing lasts forever: Every international order finds its end. Pax Romana stabilized the greater Mediterranean world, until decline set in. The British global order flourished in the 19th century but came apart amid two world wars in the 20th. Today, in an unruly world led by an erratic America, it's hard not to wonder if the US-led order is on its way out. Since 1945, that order has generated tremendous peace, prosperity and freedom. It can only be termed a smashing success. But stresses on that order — those imposed by its challengers, and those imposed by its creator — have been mounting. One way of gauging just how severe the risks have become is by considering the various ways an order might end.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wisdom From the 'Philosopher King'—75 Famous Quotes From Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Wisdom From the 'Philosopher King'—75 Famous Quotes From Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius originally appeared on Parade. Marcus Aurelius is known as the "Philosopher King," the last of Rome's "Five Good Emperors." The latter title, assigned by Machiavelli, refers to five leaders who wisely sought out suitable heirs, rather than automatically naming their own offspring. Aurelius reigned from 161 CE to 180 CE, the final Emperor of the Pax Romana (Roman peace). He led the Roman people through the utter devastation brought on by the Antonine plague, the Parthian War and ongoing battles with the German tribes. He was well-loved by the was also known for being a student of stoicism, an ancient Greek and Roman philosophy that encouraged using reason and logic to guide one's perception. Virtue and duty received particular emphasis. Its founder, Zeno of Citium, studied at Plato's of the quotes from Aurelius come directly from his own book, Meditations, considered one of the greatest philosophical works. Here are some of his best 1. "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."2. "You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."3. "Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. Think constantly on the changes of the elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life."4. "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."5. "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."6. "Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."7. "How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."8. "The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."9. "Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."10. "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."11. "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."12. "If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it."13. "Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what's left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?"14. "Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking."15. "Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live."Related: 16. "The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time." 17. "Try praying differently, and see what happens: Instead of asking for 'a way to sleep with her,' try asking for 'a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.' Instead of 'a way to get rid of him,' try asking for 'a way to not crave his demise.' Instead of 'a way to not lose my child,' try asking for 'a way to lose my fear of it.'" 18. "Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours." 19. "[I have learned] to read with diligence; not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken of." 20. "You shouldn't give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don't care at all." 21. "It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices." 22. "The mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress—a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time." 23. "That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance?" 24. "A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions." 25. "Let each thing you would do, say or intend, be like that of a dying person." 26. "The best answer to anger is silence." 27. "Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing, and cease roving and wandering to and fro." 28. "Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible." 29. "You have been formed of three parts—body, breath and mind. Of these, the first two are yours, insofar as they are only in your care. The third alone is truly yours." 30. "Don't return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you'll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care." 31. "Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." 32. "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks." 33. "No random actions, none not based on underlying principles." 34. "Keep a list before your mind of those who burned with anger and resentment about something, of even the most renowned for success, misfortune, evil deeds or any special distinction. Then ask yourself, how did that work out? Smoke and dust, the stuff of simple myth trying to be legend…" 35. "Whenever someone has done wrong by you, immediately consider what notion of good or evil they had in doing it. For when you see that, you'll feel compassion, instead of astonishment or rage." 36. "Choose not to be harmed, and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed, and you haven't been." 37. "Stay calm and serene regardless of what life throws at you." 38. "Kindness is invincible, but only when it's sincere, with no hypocrisy or faking. For what can even the most malicious person do if you keep showing kindness and, if given the chance, you gently point out where they went wrong—right as they are trying to harm you?" 39. "How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy." 40. "If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed."Related: 41. "Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well." 42. "All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment: action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way." 43. "It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire and give up, if you aren't busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed." 44. "Don't be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill, just like a soldier on the wall of battle. So what if you are injured and can't climb up without another soldier's help?" 45. "Whatever anyone does or says, for my part, I'm bound to the good. In the same way, an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim: 'whatever anyone does or says, I must be what I am and show my true colors." 46. "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." 47. "Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth." 48. "I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too quickly with those who have a lot to say about something." 49. "Life is short—the fruit of this life is a good character and acts for the common good." 50. "Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging." 51. "That which isn't good for the hive, isn't good for the bee." 52. "Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." 53. "Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not 'This is misfortune,' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'" 54. "Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just." 55. "We live only now. Everything else is either passed or is unknown." 56. "To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony." 57. "Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good." 58. "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." 59. "What we do now echoes in eternity." 60. "Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire or something like that?"Related: 61. "The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it." 62. "Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look." 63. "This is the mark of perfection of character—to spend each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, laziness or any pretending." 64. "Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature." 65. "It isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength." 66. "Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil." 67. "For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose." 68. "Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it." 69. "Receive without conceit, release without struggle." 70. "You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone." 71. "There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the nature of things." 72. "Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What's closer to nature's heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? Can't you see? It's just the same with you—and just as vital to nature." 73. "Often, injustice lies in what you aren't doing, not only in what you are doing." 74. "Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?" 75. "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." Up Next:Wisdom From the 'Philosopher King'—75 Famous Quotes From Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius first appeared on Parade on Jul 6, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
The Mainichi
01-07-2025
- Science
- The Mainichi
Tokyo Univ. team may have unearthed 1st Roman emperor's bathhouse
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Researchers from the University of Tokyo have unearthed what may be an ancient villa they believe belonged to the first Roman emperor, Augustus. What appear to be five large furnaces -- presumed to have served as boilers to heat an enormous bath -- were discovered in the ruins of an ancient Roman building in southern Italy, drawing keen interest from the archaeological community due to it being an exceptionally rare find. The researchers point out that Augustus, who boasted immense power as the founder of the Roman Empire, may have used the building as a guesthouse featuring a luxurious public bathhouse, or thermae, for entertaining influential people. The 3,650-square-meter ruins were buried beneath volcanic ash at the Somma Vesuviana site located at the northern foot of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted in 79 AD and destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii. The research team headed by Mariko Muramatsu, professor of Italian studies at the university, began an archaeological survey in 2002. Since 2019, the team has excavated to about 15 meters below the surface, where they discovered the remains of five circular furnaces -- each about 1.4 meters in width -- lying in a row in a stratum dated to earlier than the mid-first century. The ruins are in an area once ruled by the Augustus family. Researchers say the discovery may strengthen the case that the villa belonged to Augustus, despite the lack of conclusive evidence. "There has never been a case where five large furnaces have been excavated from an Italian site. It makes sense as an explanation that no one else but the emperor could make such a magnificent feat possible," said Muramatsu. Through a process of elimination based on the size and design of the furnaces, it was ruled out that they had been used for cooking, firing earthenware or for heating rooms -- leaving a bathhouse as the remaining working theory. "The furnaces are the same shape as water heaters. It is almost certain that they were used to heat a large amount of water for a huge bath facility," said Masanori Aoyagi, former commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, who served as the first project head of the research team. Another piece of evidence supporting the team's theories is the fact that the site is located more than 200 kilometers from Rome. As the successor to the assassinated Julius Caesar, Augustus quelled a civil war and gained immense power, but the citizens of Rome were wary of him becoming a dictator. Aoyagi believes "Augustus built a guesthouse with a huge bath beyond Roman citizens' scrutiny in a bid to show his greatness to aristocrats and military officers and have them feel the Pax Romana (Roman peace) in the bath." In ancient Rome, thermae served as centers for interacting across social status, and the remains of huge bathhouses built by later emperors, such as Caracalla, can still be seen in the city. The remains of the five furnaces may soon be ranked equally with past thermae discoveries, Muramatsu suggested. The research team has already begun excavations on the south side of the furnace remains, and if the thermae theory holds water, they should find the remnants of a luxurious bathing pool in the vicinity of the furnaces. Mari Yamazaki, known for her award-winning manga series "Thermae Romae" about ancient Rome, said, "If the first emperor's villa had a luxurious bathhouse, it may have served as a reference in the design of bathhouses in later generations." She added, "I hope that the exciting discovery of bath cultures that connect ancient and modern times will continue." The University of Tokyo is soliciting donations for the continuation of the archaeological dig.
Geek Culture
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Building Worlds & Breaking Boundaries With The Architects Of 'Anno 117: Pax Romana'
One way to move forward is to go back to before where it all started, and that's what Ubisoft Mainz is doing as it redefines historical strategy gaming with Anno 117: Pax Romana , an ambitious city-building game that promises to transport players into the heart of Rome's most fascinating era. The eighth game of the long-running real-time strategy, economic simulation video game franchise, which made its debut in 1998, is set to take place in an era long before the events of the other games in the series, and while each game is a standalone exploration of diplomacy, trade and resource management with other civilizations, as well as battles over land and sea, Pax Romana will continue the series' complex gameplay that has won over a legion of fans. But far from a traditional strategy title, this game offers players an exploration of empire-building during a time of relative peace and expansion. Creative Director, Manuel Reinher. When Manuel Reinher, Creative Director at Ubisoft Mainz, speaks about Ancient Rome and about developing the upcoming sequel during that era, his passion is palpable. 'The Roman Empire has an everlasting appeal,' he says to select media in Rome, Italy, during an exclusive preview of the game in April 'Symbols like the Colosseum aren't just landmarks, they're gateways to entire worlds of stories.' And it's through this philosophy that drives this next chapter, as it's a strategy game that's more than just city-building, offering historical storytelling through gameplay, says Game Director Jan Dungel, who chimes in with a knowing smile,. 'We're not creating a game. We're creating an experience.' But with the last game in the series, Anno 1800 , released in 2019, the team knew they faced a unique challenge, of developing a game that resonated with fans, but how do you make a deeply complex strategy game that's appealing to newcomers without alienating the fanbase? The simple answer is, you don't. Middle: Manuel Reinher (Creative Director), Right: Jan Dungel (Game Director). 'Our goal was never to make the game less deep,' Dungel explains. 'Hardcore Anno players would revolt if we stripped away the complexity they love.' Instead, the team implemented subtle innovations and players can now take their time, build at their own pace, and explore without feeling overwhelmed. 'We've created a world that's welcoming,' Reinher promises, 'but still rich with strategic depth.' With previous titles, the structure was more linear, and players had to accomplish all needs before they could venture further, to another island or province to build another city, and then proceed to do more from that point. This didn't allow for much freedom, and understandably, players started to drop out at this point because it had gotten a little too repetitive. The current team specifically wanted to address this issue with Anno 117, so that the more casual players can take their time to build their city, and won't be forced to go to another island and build another city. 'So this was the strategy that we chose to actually still allow those who wanted to go big with everything and enjoy a deep, complex game, but also allow the more easygoing players to actually do what they want and not force them to follow a fixed path like how some players who want to accomplish everything', explained Dungel. Reinher also explained how the team invested a lot into player onboarding, transforming what was once a complex and intimidating experience into a more welcoming journey. 'We have now a lot more onboarding tools than ever before,' Reinher explains, highlighting the game's new approach to guiding new players. Specifically, the team introduced permanent help features, with a small question mark symbol appearing next to UI elements that players can click to get more information at any time. Additionally, they've integrated an in-game advisor who serves as a narrative guide and system explainer. 'He will also tell you more about the systems in the background to understand it,' Reinher notes. Unlike previous iterations where new players might have felt overwhelmed, these tools are designed to provide context and clarity without disrupting the core complexity that veteran Anno fans love. The goal, as Reinher sees it, is to make the game more accessible while maintaining its strategic depth, ensuring that both casual players and hardcore strategy enthusiasts can find enjoyment in Anno 117: Pax Romana . And what players might see as simplifying the game actually has some level of historical accuracy, explains Dungel, who shares how the modular ship customisation feature is rooted in authenticity. 'In ancient times, they didn't have different ship designs like clippers or frigates,' he explains. 'They built one light hull and then added components to it.' This historical insight directly inspired the game's innovative ship-building mechanic. 'We wanted to create ships the way they actually built them,' Dungel says, highlighting how players can now customise vessels by adding different modules. Want a faster ship? Add more rowers, or have two masts. Preparing for combat? Attach additional armaments such as archer towers. This new system offers unprecedented flexibility, while remaining true to historical practices. 'It creates a lot of nice possibilities,' Dungel notes, emphasizing that the feature caters to different player types. For micromanagement enthusiasts, it offers deep customisation, while casual players can simply select pre-designed blueprints. 'As a casual player, you just need to click a button, and you'll have a perfectly fine ship,' he adds, underlining the team's commitment to making the feature both complex and accessible. Thus providing depth without overwhelming players. On land though, Reinher is equally excited about giving players the ability to build diagonal roads as 'it completely transforms how players can build,' he says. 'It's about giving players more creative freedom while respecting the game's core grid system.' Dungel's enthusiasm for the military feature in Anno 117 stems from a strategic understanding of modern strategy game design. 'We know that city builders and strategy games tend to have this part of potential warfare,' he explains, highlighting the feature's importance in creating a more immersive gameplay experience. For Dungel, the military component is more than just a combat mechanic, it's a way to deepen the game's world and expand its appeal. 'We wanted to have the military part from day one in the game,' he says, emphasising the feature's integral role in the game's design. The ability to build armies, potentially lose them, or even overtake other territories adds a layer of complexity and excitement. 'It creates possibilities and deepens how the world can be immersive,' Dungel notes, pointing out that this approach not only enriches the gameplay but also attracts new audiences who enjoy multi-dimensional strategy games. By incorporating military elements that feel organic to the historical setting, the team has created a feature that promises to engage players beyond traditional city-building mechanics. And what about the long-standing traditional of having the numbers in the franchise's game titles always adding up to nine? If there's a reason behind it, the team isn't sharing. 'Maybe it's superstition,' Dungel laughs. 'We like it, our fans like it, maybe there's a deeper meaning behind it. You'd have to join the team to find out', Reinher adds, with a grin on his face. Clearly, Anno 117: Pax Romana isn't just about building cities. It's about creating worlds, telling stories, and inviting players to become architects of their own historical narratives. 'We're not just making a game,' Reinher says, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. 'We're creating a universe.' Anno 117: Pax Romana releases this winter on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home's centre-piece. Anno 117 Anno 117: Pax Romana interview Ubisoft
CNET
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Anno 117 Pax Romana Preview: A Beautiful Simulation of a Prosperous Time
Over three decades, the Anno series has plunged gamers into deep real-time strategy experiences set within some of the most massive empires that humans have ever built. From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, Anno tasks players with balancing ravenous economic growth with conflicts of ideological revolution -- and coming out the other side with a strong, unified state. The next game in the series, Anno 117: Pax Romana, has the earliest historical setting for the Anno series to date, and it's an incredibly ambitious shift (nearly as much as the brief stint in futuristic settings with Anno 2070 and Anno 2205). As the dates suggest, Anno 117 takes place during a time of immense economic and cultural prosperity in antiquity -- and I got an early peek at how that looks during a three-hour hands-on virtual preview session moderated by an Ubisoft employee. While Anno 117: Pax Romana is a game where you'll still be focusing on your economy and fostering positive relations first and foremost, you'll also need to consider building fortifications and training units for land and sea combat. As the game is centered on growing your own Roman empire, you'll have to choose which end to colonize first, either beginning in Latium (in modern-day western Italy, around Rome) as a Roman governor or expanding Celtic influence by starting in Albion (in modern-day England). My hands-on preview was limited to Roman gameplay, but I was able to see how much depth the Celts add to the game. Starting in Albion doesn't just change the map geography and resource nodes you can build around, it changes the research trees, religions and construction projects you're able to access as well. Many contemporary 4X strategy games (it stands for explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) such as Sid Meier's Civilization 7 and Age of Mythology: Retold focus heavily on outmaneuvering and destroying your opponents. In Anno 117, there isn't really the same type of "win condition" -- and there's far less extermination to revel in overall. The interwoven construction systems of Anno 117 are easy to pick up but difficult to master, especially if you want your empire to span multiple islands across the map. Here's what I picked up about the game during my three-hour preview. Majestic mountains and flowing fields of wheat surround the first stone residences of my budding province. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET When building a civilization, the devil is in the details If you're choosing to set a game in the golden age of Roman civilization, it definitely makes sense to focus on graphical fidelity -- I'm sitting down here to engage with the beauty and culture of Pax Romana. Anno 117 doesn't disappoint in this regard. Toward the tail end of my hands-on preview, I frequently found myself straying away from my self-imposed objectives to simply watch my citizens barter in the marketplace or work away on the wheat or hemp farms that stretched across the countryside. Each dwelling you build adds three new citizens to your island, and these nonplayable characters are fully simulated as they go about their day-to-day business. My citizens are enriching their interior lives in the grammaticus, a cultural center for reading and learning. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET I watched the plebeians master their crafts, making silks and baking bread before they retired to cultural centers to find an education. The lower class libertini mined ore, chopped wood and delivered goods on handcarts, creating a constant stream of foot traffic that was mesmerizing to keep an eye on. The complexity of these real-time interactions is a real treat. If too many workers gather at a warehouse with goods and raw materials, the roadways jam up and productivity drastically drops. It felt incredibly natural to manage these blockages and make necessary adjustments because I was already so involved with the little lives carrying on in the game. Once you build something you feel truly proud of, Anno 117 has features that let you toggle the heads-up display off -- I used this photo mode to capture some of my favorite pictures for this section of my preview. The images can't capture the simple joy of watching fields of golden wheat swaying in the wind, but I think they convey the splendor of a budding city-state in Latium. You can snap new structures diagonally onto roads and other buildings. But this feature is no substitute for poor city planning. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET You might need an urban planning degree to run a well-oiled machine If I could go back in time and restart my Anno 117 preview play session, I'd choose to take a beat before beginning construction on my starting island. That's no joke -- every resource node, production center and citizen dwelling will affect how future supply chains are built, and that's before factoring in the increasingly complex web of roads you'll have to build to connect everything to the docks. I shrugged and placed my first houses and farms randomly in the middle of the map, and it started causing problems for me hours later when I needed to build out unhygienic pigsties and hazardous kilns to broaden my civilization's economic prospects. There's almost an overwhelming number of variables to juggle. Resources can only be extracted from certain nodes (and some fisheries and farms can only be built where the soil or water is suitably fertile for them), warehouses need to be located close enough for storage and production facilities will need speedy access to requisite materials. I tried to separate my clay tile-producing kilns from the homes in my province's city, but as my civilization expanded it became a greater fire hazard. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET More complex goods require multiple resources to make, which means your supply chains will become even more complicated as ore, grain and animal products move further and further around your budding city. As settlements become cities, problems emerge. Certain structures can spread disease and others are fire hazards, and you'll need to invest in Pax Romana's version of hospitals and firemen to mitigate these risks. I didn't have to worry about invading forces in the demo -- my Pax Romana was a true time of peace -- but you'll have to secure your borders in the full release, ensuring that there is enough military manpower spread around that your citizens are safe. It's been some time since land combat was featured in an Anno game, but you can train warriors and scouts that patrol your land for different quest objectives. The speed of your city's growth and expansion is largely dependent on the caliber of citizens you're drawing to your island: In order to upgrade your citizens, you must cater to their basic needs and their luxury wants by building them into the city-state's supply chain. While certain buildings provide debuffs to nearby citizens, other buildings will raise their happiness or fulfill certain needs. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET This can be confusing to a new player -- I was left momentarily scratching my head about being limited to construction of logging camps, wheat farms and basic food and clothing production -- but the real construction possibilities open up once you begin diversifying your population with more worker types. I unlocked the plebeians in the latter half of my first hour with Anno 117, and that's when the game truly picked up and more construction options became available. Even so, I'd caution against rushing the citizen class upgrades. Expanding too quickly is a huge strain on your purse, and I found that I needed to spend a lot of denarii in order to establish a decent income. This is one of the cases where slow and steady improvements to your supply lines are extremely important. I quickly learned the lesson that private equity seemingly hasn't: Don't sacrifice long-term growth on the altar of short-term profits. That's a good way to get hosed down with a net negative denarii drain, which will slow your expansion indefinitely. If you're willing to take the time to do some very basic planning before clearing out trees and establishing your first builds, I expect players will find Anno 117 to be a very rewarding (if occasionally confusing) city builder spanning a rich territorial tapestry of different island factions. I didn't personally get a chance to sail the seas, but I built my first boatyard -- this will be an extremely important part of Anno 117's core gameplay loop. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET Hidden at the periphery: Trade routes, disputes and random events During my three-hour play session, I was largely relegated to a single island, building out the basic necessities and cultural landmarks that serve to kickstart a burgeoning Roman province. Even still, I was able to get a glimpse at some of the game's deeper systems -- and there's a lot going on in the wider world while the player is getting themselves situated. There are many other nonplayable characters governing their own states on neighboring islands, and I would occasionally get notifications informing me of their achievements in research, development and trade. These pop-ups created a sense of urgency -- my civilization was not being built within a vacuum, and I couldn't be sure if these other peoples had a tendency to build mutually beneficial relationships or if they stood only to conquer their nearby foes. I mostly enjoy building trade routes and forging alliances with others, but I would be lying if I said that these infrequent updates didn't have me contemplating an investment in a bigger military presence. I imagine that starting with the Romans in Latium or the Celts in Albion won't just affect the nodes you can unlock in your research tree, but will change the way different neighbors interact with you as you make contact with them throughout the wider world. Not every interaction with outsiders is a promise to paint the streets or oceans red -- and outside of trade, there are other ways that NPC factions help you build a better future. I chose Ceres as my patron goddess, since I was primarily building into agriculture. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET Provinces that adopt the same faith as you cement the belief in your gods, and both societies will reap greater buffs as the religion spreads among a larger population. These boons can increase research speed, military might or economic production. A rising tide raises all ships, and spreading religious fervor benefits all governors who worship the same gods. Players will exert influence on the wider world, but it will also exert an influence on their own city-state: The society they'll build is only one piece of a much grander, ever-shifting puzzle. On a more granular level, a player's civilization will undergo random events and disputes that keep it in a state of perpetual motion. Their people are never at a standstill (unless one uses their omnipotent powers to literally pause time) and as such, they'll have trade disagreements, spread rumors and even riot. Some of these events are simple decisions: In a moment of economic turmoil, I took a bribe from a wealthy businessman, but ended up enraging workers throughout the city; another time, I chose a personal advisor who increased my passive income instead of one who would optimize the storage of my warehouses. The buffs (or debuffs) that are attached to these choices are not insubstantial, and so it feels like your decisions really matter. They drive the future direction of your province. Ubisoft/Screenshot by CNET Other events start up more involved questlines -- when citizens live in fear of a nearby shipwreck that is said to be haunted, I'd have to train up a scouting party and send them into the depths to report on what was truly happening. These secondary objectives make your territories feel alive and engage the player outside of the usual city-building activities. There's a complex world hidden behind the curtain of Anno 117, but the game is approachable for new real-time strategy players, continuing the series' usual throughline of placing an emphasis on solving conflict through economic and diplomatic means. Combat is certainly present, but I was able to completely avoid it during my preview session, leading me to wonder how much fighting there will truly be for the more military-minded players. Either way, Anno 117: Pax Romana sold me on its premise -- and I wanted to continue building my empire during this historically unprecedented time of peace. Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to be released in 2025, but we don't have an exact date as of yet. The game will be available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.
