As the new head of senate Cabronus, now taking the name of his dead father as a surname in possibly the first visible sign of the guilt he was feeling, wasted no time in setting up his new senate, and in an inspired move located the headquarters of the new central government in Rema, a Market town close to the central point of the country where Chicochulo, Sicilana and Costa Nuestra share borders, although crucially for Cabronus Vernachii's plans in the Costa Nuestra Province. As we know Cabronus' plan worked and he himself ruled the country until he was in turned killed by his son, Menoscabron Vernachii, only slightly releasing his iron grip on the country towards the end of his reign. The people were, by then, used to the idea of an insane tyrant and accepted Menoscabron Vernachii without any question.
Menoscabron Vernachii, after inheriting a country that was both prosperous and ordered, set about establishing slavery, since there were a lack of peasants to do the menial, but nevertheless necessary, work needed by civilisation. Instituting in 340 UC a system of slavery that would be unknowingly copied by the Ephebeans more than 500 years later, Menoscabron Vernachii began to encourage, sometimes forcefully, the first immigration to Brindisi for almost a millenium. Most of the slaves taken to Brindisi were bought by farmers or rich town officials as field hands or menial workers, these were on the whole found in Genua, where people of all origins could be found, often alone and grateful for the chance to be slaves. This might sound odd, but there was very little forced slavery in Brindisi at this time, most of the forced slaves were criminals sent to work in quarries as the vast majority of goods were manufactured abroad and imported, only food and stone were seen as worth aquiring locally. Life for these slaves was hard, although not unbearable and they had a goal to work towards which made life easier to bear, after twenty years of service any slave would be freed, and not only freed, but given a plot of land by the local Signore and an amount of money to retire on. Life for the officials and 'native' Brindisians, by comparison, became easy. Sons of wealthy or middle class citizens had no need to work and could devote their lives to the pursuit of knowledge, or, more commonly, the pursuit of happiness. During the first century of the new Empire this arrangement worked well, there were both peace and plenty, a contented population that was productive and growing in culture and knowledge, however, the seeds of discontent were already sown, and rumours of social problems reached the ears of Vernachii Secudii, the third emperor.
In the spring of 380 UC, Vernachii Secudii decided that the cause of the social unrest, which had by now spilled over into riots and minor uprisings against the Signores, was that the lower class of native Brindisians had been over taken by the second generation of slaves, the childern of the freed slaves, brought up as free men and with an absolute claim to citizenship. Life for the lower classes had become harder, the institution of slavery had overtaken itself and now there were too many people for the available jobs, people could still import slaves cheaper than hiring locals and the powerful merchant cartels that sold the salves would make it difficult for even a god to outlaw the practice at this stage. Instaed, Vernachii Secudii embarked on a series of military conquests to use up the pool of young men, better that they caused trouble abroad than at home. With invasions in mind, Vernachii Secudii raised an army that comprised nearly 15 percent of the male popluation of Brindisi, equiped them from the pockets of the old Barones who still had their heredetary titles and money, and set about training them. Six months later, when the weather was cooler and warfare was beset with less risks in the balmy lands by the rim, Vernachii Secudii sent his army out to Kythiain boats stolen from the Genuan traders and began the greatest military conquest ever to been seen on the disc outside the cicle sea region.
With their superior training, being all professional soldiers, and shear weight of numbers, the Brindisian army marched over all that stood in their way. They cut a swath back up the coast that their ancestores once migrated down and arrived at the Blade mountains afer a bloody fifteen year campaign. Leaving a series of fortified towns the Generals returned home in triumph and the people of Brindisi basked in the reflected glory of owning an empire fit for their emperor god. For the next ten centuries the strategy that Vernachii Secudii had devised for peace at home, worked with amazing efficacy. The soldiers of Brindisi were constantly needed in the empire to defend borders and quell revolutions, and all the time gold and crafted items were returning to Brindisi itself. Yet the upper classes of Brindisi, after suffering a series of insane and yet more insane emperors began to become fat and lazy. Generals started to be picked for political reasons, or their taste in uniforms, and the armies for the first time started to lose battles. In-fighting was rife in the senate which, although having no power, was blamed for all the ailments of the population, from plagues to the weather. In short there was a storm coming, a radical change that would rock Brindisi and forever change the whole fabric of Brindisian society.