Duchy of the Claudia

The Duchy of the Claudia (Latin: Ducatae Claudia) is a small Italic Roman nation-state lead by the contemporary Roman clan Claudia located on the northern fringe of the Italic peninsula. It is bordered to the north by the Venetian Knighthood and in all other directions by the Kingdom of the Lombards.

History
Around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, circa. 800 AD, old republican ideals began to simultaneously grow in popularity inside Rome, accompanied with various growing independence movements within Roman provinces and client kingdoms. This would culminate in 850 AD with the simultaneous assassination of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Dominicus and the fall of Roman control over Britannia. The assassins proclaimed the Second Roman Republic, and various provinces and colonies either became lost to Roman authority and/or began to break off from the feeble republic and declare their own independence, be they under native barbarian or Roman hegemony. One of the first states to break off was a collection of villas that were captured or already owned by the Claudia along with the forts owned by the Dux Maurus Claudius Nero, who had aligned himself with his clan against the Roman republicans. The clan had already began building a militia in the event of a republican uprising, and the combining of this militia with the professional soldiers of Maurus Claudius created an effective fighting force, and they soon began to gain a foothold on the northeastern fringe of the Italic peninsula. Maurus Claudius quickly proclaimed this new state as a Ducatus, ruled by an individual with the role of Dux, and named the state after his clan. He had also made it a law that only members of the Claudia may be able to hold the title of Dux, based upon a basic father-to-eldest son succession line.

In 2 AIE (853 AD), the Duchy captured the city of Ravenna from a large collection of soldiers-turned-bandits, who had been governing the city as an independent entity, free from any other Roman rump state. Ravenna was quickly made the capital of the Duchy.

In 22 AIE (873 AD), Maurus Claudius passed away and left the title of Dux to his eldest son, Quintus Claudius Nero.