>Interestingly the point at which 'aristocrats' (tribunes/legates) start
>getting involved is about where 'general' ranks start and, for all our
>meritocratic pretensions, its not much of a stretch to see that as the
>realm where politics-with-a-P begins to intrude. Anyone know where in
>the chain 'civil liaison' types start cropping up with reliability in
>(for eg) the current Iraq imbroglio? I wouldn't be at all surprised if
>it was somewhere around regimental/brigade HQ for instance.... so now
>I've argued myself full circle and we are more like the Romans than I
>thought; albeit not in the way Jane originally suggested and we permit
>our 'centurions' to advance into the political sphere (as multi-starred
>generals) in a way that would make a senatorial from the early ADs
>blanch :).
It's never been more difficult than today to rise through the ranks. ISTR an Emperor who gained the purple after working his way up in the legions. By contrast today if you haven't succeeded in getting a place in officer training you can't get a commisson. Most of those places are filled with those who show academic ability before recruitment.
I suspect the political determines whether a particular general is promoted to a prestigous high profile position, commanding a force hidden in the backwoods somewhere or used as a fall guy for someone's mistakes. True political appointments are restricted to the things like the US president and the UK Lords of the Admiralty. Some things don't change and I'm sure they're the same in Glorantha.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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