The Sack of Rome

The Fifth Century Revisited

A Contemporary Account of the Late

Invasion of the Barbarians

(click to go directly to the most Recent Events)

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Roman Citizens at Play

The core of Ancient Sites is the game SPQR, a mystery set in third century Rome. It started out in the summer of 1995 as a series of on-line chapters hosted by Time-Warner's Pathfinder site, then moved to a site of its own (variously known as the mini-site and as CyberSites). A CD-ROM version of the game was issued in 1996, and prototype chapters set in Periclean Athens and Dutch colonial New York were added to the on-line site.

The game attracted a devoted community of players who adopted Roman identities under which we participated in the game and discussed classical topics. We corresponded, posted to an extensive bulletin board, met regularly in a chat room, and petitioned the game's developers (known to us as the CyberGods) for MORE. We even put up Rome-related Internet sites of our own, including two series of alternate chapters.

Many of us preferred the BBS software at the Time-Warner/Pathfinder "Rostra" to the AncientSites "Forum", and continued to post there.

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A Natural Disaster Destroys the Forum

AncientSites suffered a catastrophic hardware failure at the end of September 1997. A new bulletin board system, then in beta, was rushed into production on Monday, the 29th. The accumulated posts, being in a different format, were not restored. .

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Pathfinder Loses Its Way

That same Monday, Pathfinder changed software, and the new system was immediately and noisily rejected by users as grossly inferior to the one it had replaced. The remaining SPQR presence re-patriated to AncientSites.

We were followed by 100+ tribes of Barbarians who used to post to the 100+ other boards at Time-Warner/Pathfinder.

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My post on those events:
An alarm from a fellow citizen brought me here, to view the ruins of our beloved city. Even though the outlines of the original buildings are discernible -- fragments of structure and ornament even recognizable -- the air of desolation and the grief of the inhabitants is overwhelming.

And to find that our nearest refuge, the Forum, is also victim to some mysterious catastrophe! I fear, my dear fellow citizens,that the forces that lie behind the Calamitus are winning.

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The CyberGods Rejoice

The CyberGods welcomed the newcomers, expecting to prosper through the expansion of the population, and counting on the new immigrants to follow established custom.This they did not seem inclined to do

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The Barbarian Invasion

It was very generous of AncientSites to take in these refugees, but it wrought havoc on our beloved Rome The new arrivals seemed not to understand that AncientSites was a separate place and not a successor to their old site.They claimed to have had no idea that the territory was already inhabited, .

The "Home Improvers" were the advance guard of a flood of refugees,apparently the most enterprising and expansionist among them. They took over Neue Amsterdam. Babylon-5 fans were posting as Babylonians. The Politicals were everywhere. None of them could understand why WE weren't as interested in their off-topic posts as THEY were, and there were many patronizing and disparaging posts directed at those who reminded the worst offenders of long-established Internet customs.

It was almost comical how perfectly our barbarians fit the stereotype of the 5th C. ones. You could almost hear them exclaiming over the big, empty pillared buildings with the cooking stones out front. None of them seemed to question their good luck in stumbling into a built-up but apparently empty city. Swaggering around, defacing the walls, abusing and insulting the few remaining inhabitants ... we of Rome should have found that a familiar story.

Within two or three days, they had taken over all our topics, some of which had been running for as long as two years. They made us refugees in our own land.

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The Citizens Resist

At first, we Citizens tried to defend our territory. But we were swept away by multitudes who had taken our City as their own. We tried turning the other cheek, taking an eye for an eye, confrontation, coexistence -- nothing availed. Appeals to netiquette were sneered at. Our claims of a right to continue our usual way of life were roughly dismissed.

Within a week, many of the longest active and most substantially contributing of the citizens had retired from public life..

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Uneasy Peace

.The CyberGods were quickly compelled to establish separate suburbs for the newcomers, confident that order could be restored. This cut down on, but did not eliminate, the depredations. The Old Romans are gradually returning, constantly looking over our shoulders.

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Recovery and Renewal

The group of citizens who have long frequented the Rostra have now been recognized by that name. We have a restricted area of the AncientSites Forum where we maintain the old customs. Those who prove worthy on the Forum may be added to our number, although they cannot have quite the bond of those of us who shared the experiences of the early days.

We are working to recover and edit the last two years of postings, in order that the accumulated lore of SPQR can be made available to new Romans. The Chapter Hints are our first priority.

As always, we are looking forward to new chapters.

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Later Notes

(As of April 2004)
The Empire continues to flourish, and even to expand (Babylon, Germania, and, most recently, the Orient, have been added to the known world). The Chapters are making a comeback (the adventure begins ... ) and the cities of Rome, Athens, Egypt, Babylon, Celtia, Germania, MachuPicchu, and, now, the Orient are all visitable.

(As of February 2002)
This just in!!! AS is reviving! ..

(As of April 2001)
Vines seems to have been only a pit stop on the way from AncientSites to oblivion. The latest (and worst) news of the Fall of Cybersites is unencouraging (you can even visit the receivers site).

(As of January 2001)
Our beloved site seems to be (glug, glug, glug ...) going down for the third time. Independent successor sites are being discussed; I will post details on the Companion as they become available. Heather du Parisii is maintaining a list of alternate sites, as is IrysNepthys Nebet at the AS Cyber-Diaspora, plus there is the AncientSites Alliance.

(As of October 2000)
The original Rostra (updated address) is again available (preservation by FeAudrey, PERL script by Festus Didius -- a heroic effort by our favorite legionary). (May 2001 -- site is having technical difficulties; being fixed)

AncientSites has rolled out yet another venture, AncientVine. But, alas, back-ups are still shaky, and AncientSites has recently again been down for days at a time, losing posts each time.

(As of July 1998)
Most of the members of The Rostra are now most active on Britannia.

Technical problems wiped out all material on the new boards early in 1998. We have lost FOUR boards full of citizens' posting in the last year or so: Pathfinder, the "mini-site", the original AS, and an intermediate, post-Invasion AS.

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This page's URL is:
http://pages.prodigy.net/feaudrey/sackrome.htm

Graphics Credits:
"firering" courtesy of "Netuser"

FeAudrey invites all citizens to submit additions to this account. .