Rhōmanía

Basileia of the Romans Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων (Greek) Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn
Flag Middle Coat of Arms
Motto: Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων (Imperial) King of Kings, ruling over rulers Ἀεὶ ὁ Θεὸς ὁ μέγας γεωμετρεῖ (civil) The Great God always geometrizes
Anthem: «Τῇ ὑπερμάχῳ στρατηγῷ» To Thee, the Champion Leader
Location of territories under Romæan administration
Capital	Constantinople (planned) New Constantinople (imperial) Hagiopolis (administrative)
Largest	Hagiopolis
Official languages	Greek
Recognised national languages	English, Szredian
Ethnic groups	Greeks
Religion	Greek Orthodox Church (Roman Orthodox Church)
Demonym(s)	Roman (official) Romæan, Rhomaian (common)
Government
• Basileus and Autokrator	Emmanuel I & II
• Antibasileus and Sebastokrator	Aggelos I
Legislature	Roman Parliament
• Upper house	Gerousia
• Lower house	Boulē
Currency	Drachma Euro
Time zone	+02:00 (Eastern European Time)
• Summer (DST)	+03:00 (Eastern European Summer Time)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+30

Rhomania (Greek: Ρωμανία, Rhōmanía), officially the Basileia of the Romans (Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn; Medieval Greek for Monarchy or Empire of the Romans), and commonly domestically simply as the Basileia when referring to the Empire itself as an institution (Greek: Βασιλεία, Basileía) is a self-administered territory claiming sovereignty, often referred to as a "micronation" or "new nation project" by outside observers. The state is located at the Greek Peninsula of the Balkans, in South-Eastern Europe, with cultural, ethnic and religious ties to Greece. Formerly known as Mouzilo, Rhomania considers itself a legitimate successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the direct inheritor state to the Republic of Pangratia and Mouzilo. The state was founded on May 19, 2012 as the Kingdom of Mouzilo, and reformed into the present form on May the 29th, 2020.

With the exception of a single territory in Turkey, Romaean administration claims sovereignty over several properties landlocked by Greece, in the regions of Eurytania, Attica and the Saronic Gulf.

Rhomania is a constitutional monarchy led by Basileus and Autokrator of the Romans, Emmanuel I & II. The Empire considers itself a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire and, as an extent, a continuation of the Roman Empire. The primary collective purpose of the state is to continue the Eastern Roman imperial tradition and to this end many, if not most, aspects of political and civil discourse are under direct Eastern Roman influence or inspiration.

Etymology

The term "Rhomania" (Ancient Greek: Ῥωμανία) ultimately derives from Ῥωμανός (Rhōmānós), itself deriving from the Latin romanus, meaning Roman. Throughout the Eastern Roman Empire's existence, and even after its fall, its predominantly Greek citizens considered themselves to be Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι, Rhōmaîoi), with the Empire itself using the name "Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων" (Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn), meaning "Empire of the Romans". "Rhomania" was used in less official contexts as a common term for the Empire and was first attested during or shortly after the Edict of Roman Emperor Caracalla which granted all free men born in the Roman Empire the Roman citizenship.

After the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453, Greeks continued using the Roman identity well into the 19th century, when it had evolved to Ρωμιός (Romios), with Ρωμαίος also being in usage. The Ottoman Turks referred to the Greek nation as the "millet-i Rûm" (Roman Nation) and mainland Greece was known as the "Rūm-ėli", also called in Greek as Ρωμυλία (Rhomylia), etymologically the "Land of the Romans". "Roman" and "Hellene" coexisted as the ethnonyms of the Greeks shortly before the Fall of the Eastern Roman Empire and up to the establishment of the First Hellenic Republic, when the "Roman" identity had slowly started fading and being replaced by the "Hellenic" identity, without ever disappearing; the term is still in usage in reference to the Greeks of Asia Minor (who indeed never stopped calling themselves Roman) and is also commonly used in Greece in the context of the "Romiosyne" (Romanity), ie. the modern Hellenic nation.

The current state of Rhomania has adopted this name in reference to that Roman identity that still is apparent in the Greek nation, as well as in order to stress the link between the Eastern Roman Empire and the present Roman state.

In English, the name is rendered as Rhomania instead of the historical and archaic term Romania in order to avoid confusion with the Republic of Romania, a modern country in eastern Europe. The Rh in Rhomania comes from the fact that in Ancient Greek the letter Ρ at the beginning of a word always takes rough breathing (Ῥ), which in Latin was transcribed as rh. For more on this subject, see Greek diacritics.

The term is not thought to be related to Romani people.

History

Kormenia

Mouzilo as a micronation can, in a way, trace its roots back in 2007 when Kormenia, a fictional island country, was created by the current president of Mouzilo, Emmanuel Tsompanoglou. Kormenia (Kormenian: Kormenjaa) was part of a fictional continent, Germ, speculated to have been located on the Atlantic Sea. Kormenia was modelled after Germany, the Netherlands and Greece and was said to be the strongest nation in Germ in both the financial as well as the military sector. Kormenia's biggest rival was a far eastern Asian-like state, the Socialist Republic of Harabutao (Harabutan: はらぶたお), while, on the other hand, Kormenia had the strongest ties with Khüliger Islands (Khüliger Inseln) and a slav-like nation, Daraja (Дарая).

The flag of Kormenia

Kormenia's capital and the biggest city was Maarvaal (literally "Sea Valley" or, in this context, "Sea Town") inhabited by ca. 9.792.717 people (2011, Vereignisuniversität Maarvaals), almost 1/5 of the country's population, 47.551.745 (2011, VerUni Maarvaal). Other major cities included Groſs See Stadt (7.715.342) and Morvonia (3.450.826). Out of 47.551.745 people, 94,2% or 44.829.376 individuals self define as Kormenians (out of which 32.589.664 are ethnic Kormenians, 7.128.425 are ethnic Græco-Kormenians and 10.621.278 ethnic Morvonians), 2.325.461 as ethnic Darajans and 330.732 as ethnic Holingans. The rest (66.176) are of unknown ethnicity.

According to the tradition, Kormenia was first inhabited by a Proto-Greek tribe, the Korims (Greek: Κόροιμοι, Mycenaean Greek: qo-ri-mi), lead by King Aepsus I and arrived to eastern Kormenia, to the area known today as Morvonia, founding the Morvonian Kingdom. Aepsus IV was the greatest ancient King of Morvonia and managed to expand his Kingdom, creating the first Kormenian Empire. After the Christianisation of Kormenia by Greeks in 96 AD, the country abandoned the old polytheistic religion and focused in creating a Christian empire, the Second Kormenian Empire which lasted almost 15 centuries, until 1468, when Harabutans defeated the Imperial Army in Holinga. Kormenians regained their independence, founding the Third Kormenian Empire on May 1572, lasting till 1887. On March 1887, and under the pressure of Republicans, the Emperor Georg XVII quit, leading to the establishment of the Kekropian Republic. On August 1941, Nazi Germans attacked Kormenia, bombing Maarvaal and Groſs See Stadt. The 4-year occupation of Kormenia lead to the creation of 2 different governments, a collaborationist and a republican one, which meant that after Kormenia's liberation, the country was split into two: the east was dominated by the Republic of Kormenia (Republik Kormenjaas), while the west was under the hands of the Hypssch family, the ruling family of the Free Republic of Kormenia (Freiesrepublik Kormenjaas). On February 1998, after massive demonstrations in both sides of Kormenia, Thomas Hypssch fled to the then friendly Harabutao, de facto disestablishing FR Kormenia. The result of this was the creation of Vereignisrepublik Kormenjaas, or Unitary Republic of Kormenia. Since March 2010 Kormenia has been on war with Harabutao over the territory internationally known as "Holinga" (It's known as "Kormenian Harabutao" in Kormenia and as "Harabutan Kormenia" in Harabutao.

Kormenia reached its peak of activity in 2010, with many major events taking place. However a downfall of activity soon became apparent and nowadays Kormenia is considered to be dead.

Pangratia

Following Kormenia's great activity, Tsompanoglou started thinking about making an actual country. The thought soon became reality as on March 2010, he announced the creation of the Republic of Pangratia, (Pangratian: Republicy f Pangratiaa) a bedroom-nation based on Pangrati, a neighborhood of Athens, Greece, which also coincided with the creation of a new "constructed language" with English elements, known as "Niitic" or "Pangratian". Pangratia was also very active throughout its existence, but remained away from the intermicronational community. On July 2011, Emmanuel was joined by his cousin Manuel (mostly known as Manolis) Triantafyllou, with the former taking the position of the Great Regus (similar to the position of the President) and the latter becoming the Great Prime Minister. Time would tell that even though Pangratia's great potential, the nation would fall into a long period of inactivity and no matter how hard the two men attempted at a later stage to make the nation active once again (late 2011 - early 2012), the project kept failing. While everything seemed to go wrong and become unsuccessful, the two cousins started thinking about quiting "micronationalism", which at that moment they didn't know it existed as a phænomenon. Luckily Tsompanoglou, while "lurking" on the internet, found a community of people doing the same thing – other micronationalists at MicroWikia. He and Triantafyllou, being mostly affected by the Principality of Imvrassia, an other Greek micronation, decided to move on and play big, this time by claiming the land of the village where they spend their summers: Mouzilo, near the town of Karpenisi, Central Greece.

Establisment of Mouzilo

Flag of the first Kingdom of Mouzilo

One of the main reasons for the establishment of this new micronation, was not only the fact that they were relatively unhappy with how Pangratia was going, but also the sociopolitical and financial situation of Greece at the time. Mouzilo was based on the idea that Greece needed a renewal and that one of the means to achieve this were gradual reforms that would start from something of a small scale, like Mouzilo, and would end in something of a much bigger scale, hopefully Greece.

Mouzilo was undeniably modelled after Greece, but was also greatly effected by one of its cultural and political ancestors, the Byzantine Empire. In fact, in its early days Mouzilo was focused on reviving the Byzantine Empire or creating something like it. Having this in mind, it was quickly decided that the new nation would be an absolute monarchy ruled by a King, followed by his Prince. The first King of Mouzilo was Manolis, being called from this point on "Manu the First", while his Prince was Emmanuel who initially rejected the position of the Prime Minister. Other friends and relatives took several governmental positions, filling the first seats. The Constitution was written and signed on the 19th of May 2012 in a meeting of the gov'ment in the new “Royal Palace” of Manupol (Agiopolis).

However, and even though the positive prospects, Mouzilo quickly became completely inactive, with a small period of activity lasting only a week or so on August 2012. Mouzilo became active again a month later, on September, as one day Emmanuel, who was also the Minister of Electronic Administration, visited MicroWikia and noticed that the main page, as well as other pages of the wiki were vandalized. This forced him to join in the chat and thus having a real time communication with other micronationalists for the very first time. From a neutral point of view, someone cannot definitely say that this first contact went good, as Emmanuel had a huge argument with the Turkish micronationalist Hasan Çakar, the Supreme Leader of Hasanistan, who later became a close friend of Emmanuel. This was the first out of many arguments between the two, that marked Mouzilo's course in history.

Transition to Autocracy

Flag of the Temporary Imperial Administration of Mouzilo.

When on December 10, 2012 Manu I removed Niitic (the old Pangratian language) from the official languages list, on the basis that it was associated to the older, "foreign" Pangratian state, major reactions were caused by the ones who participated in Pangratia. Baring in mind that Mouzilo was the historical successor of Pangratia, and that Niitic had become part of the culture by that time, they could not agree with this new development something which led in political instability. In reality, the "protests" of the people were not as much against the discarding of Niitic, as against Manu I's nature, who had been ruling Mouzilo with a strict, egoist and authoritarian policy seen as aggressive by the rest.

The Prince played a major role in this "uprising" which also determined Mouzilo's future. Being personally against Manu's policies and seeing that he was being given the chance to take over, he joined the protesters and managed to overthrow Manu from the throne, putting Manu's micronational career to an end. He then set up a provisional government mostly known by its initials in Greek, ΠΑΔΜ (Προσωρινή Αυτοκρατορική Διοίκηση Μουζήλου, Prosoriní Autokratorikí Diíkisi Mouzílou, "Temporary Imperial Administration of Mouzilo"). This provisional government lasted about 2 days, when, on December 12, he self-declared and was crowned the Emperor, writing a new page in Mouzilo's history books.

January 2013 Civil Conflict

The flag of ASPRM, a break-away state within Mouzilo

January 2013 is the month described by many as the worst in the Mouzeliot history, as it was then when the first civil conflict between the citizens of Mouzilo took place. Also known as "Black Month", "Black January", "Black Winter" and "Red Winter", the conflict began a few days after the 1st of May.

When the MSCP (Mouzeliot Soviet Communist Party), a parliamentary represented party, merged with the MLFP (Mouzeliot Leftist Forces Party), a non-represented party, the MSCP was expelled from the Parliament, as the law states that "no represented party can merge with an extra-parliamentary party". That caused a massive disagreement by the MSCP and MLFP sides, which, however, couldn't do anything about it as the law was clear. The expulsion of the MSCP also caused a huge problem in Parliament meetings, as the Socialist Party left the coalition government due to heavy disagreements, and as a consequence 4 parties with completely different policies were left in the parliament from that point on, which practically meant that no new decisions could be made for any matter(the situation was always 2 for, 2 against a new law). This lead to Mouzilo's total inactivity, in terms of new legislature, for a period of a couple of months.

Taking this into account, the Emperor and the then CNP-lead Government decided to, terminate Parliamentary procedures, until new elections were held. The decision caused major reactions by left-wing (and several right-wing) ideologists who felt that in fact democracy was being terminated. During this period, Mouzilo experienced the biggest "demonstrations" in its history. As a consequence of these major reactions, a physical civil conflict took place on January 2013 between Mouzeliot Communists and the Imperial Forces. The crisis was resolved a few days later, but the atmosphere was still tense. A few weeks later, the leftists created a de facto independent state within Mouzilo, the ASPRM (Autonomous Socialist People's Republic of Mouzilo), surprisingly with no reaction by the Imperial side. The ASPRM is nowadays considered to be defunct, having silently "died".

A couple of months later, Pan-Imperial Federal Elections were held, with the CNP winning once again. The left-wing ideologists competed with a coalition party, the Freedom Party and came second, becoming opposition. 3 more additional parties found their way into the parliament as well.

Post-2013 events

In 2014 and after briefly forming part of the United Empire and the United Districts of Kekropia, Mouzilo finally joined the Ashukov Federation in December 2014. The state remained part of the Federation until its collapse in February 2015. A few months later, Mouzilo briefly became associated with the Kingdom of Thessania, finally re-joining the reestablished Ashukov Federation for a period spanning from January to December 2017. With Ashukovo's descent into a renewed period of inactivity, Mouzilo departed and formed the only constituent state of the State of Ashukovo in January 2018, which it later absorbed.

After an inquiry by Jonathan I of Austenasia, Mouzilo became a Crown Dependency for over a year until the 23rd of May 2020, when it was granted independence. Soon afterward, the state began the necessary preparations for transformation into the current state.

Rhomania

After independence from Austenasia, the question of what should the course of the independent state be emerged. Taking into consideration that the sum of Territories excluding the Theme of Mouzilo was far larger than the Theme itself, it was considered appropriate to select a new name to represent the entirety of the Empire, for the first time since its establishment. The name change would also serve another purpose, namely avoiding confusion with the territory surrounding the Theme of Mouzilo, also called 'Mouzilo' but owned by the Hellenic Republic.

As the Empire would clearly orient itself toward an Eastern Roman Culture of the 21st Century, the decision to adopt the name 'Rhomania', a name used by the Eastern Roman Empire, was very quick. As such, Mouzilo renamed to Rhomania on the 29th of May 2020, the 567th anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople.

Government and Politics

The Basileia is an elective constitutional monarchy with semi-autocratic tendencies, a consequence of the extensive executive powers vested on the Basileus, ie. the Emperor of Rhomania. The nation's current monarch is Emmanuel I & II, who, other than the title Basileus, also enjoys the distinction Autokrator, a Greek word meaning self-ruler, ie. one who is on the Throne alone and has no superior.

The Basileus is kept on check by the Gerousia (Greek: Γερουσία, Senate, literally Council of elders), which considers itself the legitimate successor of the Roman and Byzantine Senates, and is composed of various Dukes from the entire Empire, selected and appointed by the Basileus for their merits. Along with the Boulē, a body comprised of elected citizens, the two constitute the Roman Parliament, often referred to as the Augustaion, each forming the upper and lower body respectively.

The result of the elections for the Boulē also provides the Empire's Grand Duke, who acts with similar authority as Prime Ministers do in most countries. He is the closest partner of the Basileus (save for the Sebastokrator or any other Regent he may have appointed), and is the only elected member of the Gerousia.

The aforementioned relations between the various bodies, offices and the Monarch are described in detail in the Fundamental Laws of the Basileia of the Romans (officially in Greek: Μεγίστη Βίβλος τῶν τῆς τῶν Ῥωμαίων Βασιλείας Θεμελιωδῶν Νόμων, Great Book of the Fundamental Laws of the Basileía of the Romans), a collection of legal books that de facto operates as the Empire's constitution.

Geography

The entirety of Roman territories lies in South Eastern Europe, in areas formerly held by the Eastern Roman Empire. Of those, all but one lie in the Greek peninsula, and the remaining in the Datça Peninsula in Turkey. With the exception of the Kingdom of Mouzilo, all other territories are in an altitude equal to or less than 200 m and are at most 5,5 km away from the sea. Mouzilo, on the other hand, is at an altitude of ~850 meters, with the nearest sea shore being 52,3 km far.

Unlike the other regions of the Empire, the territory of Roman Islands, ie. the town of Aegina, is situated not on a continental territory, rather on the island of the same name.

Administrative Divisions

The territories of Rhomania are currently distributed in 4 categories: the Capital Districts, the Themes, the Dioceses, and the Kingdoms.

The Capital Districts are currently two, namely New Constantinople, which is the Imperial Capital reserved for the Imperial Throne, the coronations and all other official events, and Hagiopolis, which is the administrative center of the Empire.

The Themes are the main administrative division for territories located in the Greek mainland. By contrast, the Dioceses are located outside that region, with currently one located in Asia Minor.

There is currently only one Kingdom in the Empire, the Kingdom of Mouzilo. Formerly a territory (Theme) of the Mouzeliot State, it was elevated to a Kingdom and adopted the former State's national emblems on 19 May 2020.

In early August 2020, the Crown revealed the plan for acquisition of territory in Turkish-held Constantinople, with the purpose of moving the Imperial Capital to the former seat of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Flag	Coat of Arms	Region	SCM-1000 Code	Capital	Established	Pop.	Area (m2)	Doux domestikos	Official language(s)
		Imperial, New and Second Constantinople, Third Rome Greek: Βασιλίς, Νέα και Δευτέρα Κωνσταντινούπολις, Τρίτη Ρώμη	NC	New Constantinople			2.956,74		Greek
		Hagiopolis Capital District Greek: Επικράτεια Πρωτεύουσας Πόλης Αγιουπόλεως	HA	Hagiopolis	19 May 2012	3	48,95		Greek
Kingdoms
		Kingdom of Mouzilo Greek: Ρηγάτον του Μουζήλου	MZ	Mouzilo	19 May 2012		2.956,74		Greek
Themes
		Novo Ashukovo Greek: Νέα Ἀσσουκοβία Ashukov: Ново Ашуково	NA	Novo Ashukovo	21 February 2022				Greek Ashukov
		Eliopolis Greek: Ἠλιούπολις	EL	Eliopolis	21 December 2020			Doux Alexianos	Greek
		Roman Islands Greek: Ρωμαϊκαί Νήσοι	MI	Aegina		1	~100	Doux Kointos Vitalios	Greek
		Sts. George and Andrew Greek: Αγ. Γεώργιος και Ανδρέας	GA	Bucephalus	19 May 2012	1	4.042		Greek
Dioceses
		Cnidus Greek: Κνίδος	CN	Cnidus					Greek
		Basileia of the Romans	RH	New Constantinople Hagiopolis			~7,716.52‬		Greek

Foreign affairs

The foreign affairs of the Basileia are managed by the Office of the Megas Logothetes, the official responsible for the international relations of the state. As of August 2020, the Office has signed 7 treaties with other nations, and has been admitted to the League of Hellenistic Micronations, de facto holding the chairmanship until November 2020.

The Office is also responsible for issuing statements regarding current international events, outlining the policy of the Empire regarding those events. As of 29 August 2020, the Office has released statements for the following current events:

Event	Stance	Date	Source
Libyan Civil War	Support to the Libyan House of Representatives	9 July 2020
Conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque by Turkey	Condemnation (along with Austenasia, the Holy Roman Empire, Imvrassia, Ashukovo, New Virginia, and Vlasynia)	15 July 2020
2020 Belarusian protests	Neutral - condemnation of excessive violence against civilians and journalists	20 August 2020
Conversion of Chora Church into a Mosque by Turkey	Condemnation	22 August 2020