Gallienus Snow
If the majority of blame for the prior conditions of Panem could be attributed to the actions of a single person, Gallienus would be an obvious contender.
Reign: July 3, 92 AF – March 20, 109 AF
Birth/Death: October 2, 75 AF – March 20, 109 AF
Personality
For lack of a better word, Gallienus was a real piece of work. He was as arrogant and unpredictable as he was inexperienced and selfish. Any action he did was usually in his own self interest, mood swings were very common, and he usually took criticism poorly. It was uncommon for him to settle on a single task, many times resulting in him leaving a multitude of unfinished projects in his wake. Occasionally his ideas would veer into the ridiculous, which would be accompanied by denial when people would inform him of the implausibility of the task, followed by severe tantrums when the idea unsurprisingly did not work.
He also did not share the paranoia that his other family members exhibited. In fact, he had a strong overriding belief that everybody in the nation loved him. Those who didn't were considered to be sinners in need of cleansing. Despite his married status, it was common for him to openly go to the districts to take various women to bed, something which he considered an honor to be bestowed upon them. The estimates of his illegitimate children stemming form these encounters range from around 50 upwards into the triple digits.
There is a possibility that he may have been legitimately insane, with narcissistic personality disorder being the culprit.
One of the only possible redeeming qualities of him was that he cared for the children of the nation. It was common for him to visit schools and orphanages, often sponsoring them in the process. He would later make pedophilia to be a capital offense. Also, despite his constant infidelity, he made sure to send support towards all his numerous illegitimate children. Of course, that did not take into account the multitudes of children that died of starvation under his watch.
He was also a strong believer in patronage of the arts as a way to uplift the nation. It was under his watch that District One gained as much influence as it did.
Early Life
Gallienus was groomed from a young age to run the country. To the consternation of his mother, he was highly sociable and wandered around Palatine on his own.
Unlike so many of his other predecessors, he looked forward towards the presidency as not just a duty, but the chance to gain control and shape the nation to his will.
With his mother's sudden death, he got that opportunity.
Claims of Divinity
Gallienus not only considered himself to be a legitimate successor to rule over Panem, he believed it to be his divine right to rule as the messenger for the nation. This would later morph into the belief that he was the physical embodiment of Panem itself. To put it simply, he believed himself to be a god. A few years into his reign and under his supervision, the Cult of Panem was established; it later became Panem's state religion in 98 AF.
By 105 AF, he outlawed all other religions in the nation, believing them to be a competing factor that led the populace away from their civic duty. This resulted in the Gallienic Persecution, where houses of worship throughout the nation were razed or converted into temples to Panem, which had statues of Gallienus in them. Members of various clergy were also imprisoned and executed, and adherence to any religion, other than that of Panem, became a crime of heresy, which was a capital offense. Holidays that bore any connection to religion had their names changed to reflect a Roman or national persuasion; the best known was the conversion of the holiday Christmas to that of Saturnalia/Solstice.
That is not to say that people still did not practice other religions. However it either became a personal practice or social practices were driven underground.
The Persecution was also widely denounced by the global community. However, since by now Panem became an economic keystone, they were unwilling to lose a key trading partner. Also the loudest voices of condemnation came from the three nations that Gallienus' predecessor had already cut ties with.
Finishing the Capitol
Gallienus set on fishing the job that his mother started in respect to the Capitol. However, he made several adjustments.
Artemisia wished for the Capitol to be a pragmatic and easily defensible city. Because of this, it was going to be simplistic brutalist architecture. Gallienus thought that was not appropriate for the "successor" to the Roman Empire. He set out to not only realize the dream of Romulus, but surpass it. Therefore, he commissioned a multitude of architects and artisans to overhaul the plans for the city.
The clearest example of this is the President's Mansion. In line with his vision, Gallienus decided to look to an existing complex for inspiration: St. Peter's Basilica in the Papal States. Except that he designed the Mansion to be bigger and more elaborate than its template, as "not even the god and saints of the Papists can compare to the grandeur of Panem". Though like the Italian Renaissance and Baroque style of the basilica, the architecture the mansion and surrounding complex made maximum use of ornamentation to showcase the wealth. Besides the Mansion itself, the City Circle and mile-long stretch of Capitol Boulevard were modeled after St. Peter's Square and Villa della Conciliazione, respectively.
At the opposite end of Capitol Boulevard from the Circle, Gallienus had a statue of himself commissioned as a way to serve as a centerpiece for the Capitol. It also served as a way to ensure the apotheosis of the president into a living god. The 100-meter-high bronze statue was based on the Colossus of Rhodes, and it was gilded in gold and platinum imported from the Zulu Empire.
Work was finished on the Capitol in 100 AF, in time for Founding Day.
Like Artemisia, Gallienus continued the program of reimbursing and settling the construction workers and artisans who helped build the city. However, he discontinued the reimbursement towards the districts for providing such a disproportionate amount of resources.
A Portrait of Excess
To put things succinctly, Gallienus set the standard for excess that defined Capitol culture to this day. Besides the major festivals held during Founding Day, the solstices, and autumnal equinox, the city-wide "bacchanalia", a mixture of festivities and orgies, scattered throughout the year became world-renowned. A large portion district production went simply to supporting these events, either directly by providing food or indirectly by providing resources to trade for exotic food, with little-to-no compensation to the districts.
It was actually more common of him to throw parties than it was for him to rule. In fact, the Cult of Panem soon espoused a hedonistic philosophy that unrestrained pleasure being one of two primary way of honoring Panem, as it showed that the people were happy to live there. The other was fruitful labor in the service of the nation, as it kept Panem fed and strong.
One of the most well-known examples of Gallienus' excess was his desire for Tyrian purple, as it hearkened back to the time of Rome and Byzantium. While the color was able to be synthesized, he wished for the dye to be natural to fully cement the Roman theme. He also wished enough of an amount so that not only all of his articles of clothing could be dyed the color but also every single banner in the Capitol. Thus, vast quantities of murex dye were imported from Neo-Phoenicia, which required a significant amount of both monetary compensation and resources from the districts to trade for it.
Another element of Roman times that Gallienus was eager to bring back was gladiatorial combat, which was hosted in the Capitol and broadcasted throughout the nation. When he first started it, the participants were simply murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. However, as his reign progressed, political and religious heretics were also included. Gallienus would actually keep in top physical condition so that he himself could personally participate in many of the events, though he would have the Praetorian Guard as backup in case things went out of his favor. Incidentally however, he rarely even had to use that backup.
Death
In March 20, 109 AF, during Founding Day, Gallienus was participating in another gladiatorial event. During this time, he found himself being outmatched by a retiarius and heretic who went by the name of Isaac Roth. Despite calling for the backup, the Guard refused to intervene. He was soon caught and speared multiple times (first in the abdomen, then in the neck) by Roth, who then was finally gunned-down by the Guard.
At that moment the Capitol erupted into chaos, though order was restored by the evening. Gallienus' young son, Gordianus, took his place the next day.
The most commonly accepted theory was that his wife, Sullustia, was responsible for the assassination, as she never cared for him. Further backing that conjecture was that the Praetorians were more loyal in practice to her than they were to him. Also, the week before, Gallienus expressed a desire to personally raze the Archive to the ground and burn all past knowledge as a "way to start anew"; this would have likely been the final straw for Sullustia.
…
Sullustia Snow
Former Name: Sullustia Chase
Birth/Death: May 11, 74 AF – December, 15, 110 AF
One could not discuss the reign of Gallienus without bringing up his wife, Sullustia. It is likely because of Sullustia that Panem exists as a nation to this day instead of falling into chaos due to its president's incompetence.
Sullustia was an heir to Chase Trading Co, which was a shipping conglomerate in District Four. Due to the family's power and past connections to the Williams, now Snows, she was wedded to Gallienus in 95 AF.
As mentioned previously, she hated Gallienus: not only for his infidelity, but also for his hubris, excesses, and incompetence that threatened to bring Panem to ruin. However, that was a bitter pill that she swallowed as it meant that she had close access to be able to run the government. So she made connections will all the advisers, sometimes appointing new ones if need be, and was the one who made most of the deals with other nations. Most of it simply for the sake of damage control in the wake of her husband's actions.
One would think that Gallienus was suspicious that Sullustia was undermining his rule, in reality, he did not mind. In fact, so long as she did not directly go against him, he was happy to have her run administrative duties as it gave him more room to pursue his pet projects and leisure.
What he did not expect was for her to have so much control over the Praetorians. Due to the vast spending of the president, Sullustia had to use the Praetorians repeated to help quell discontent in the districts. In that process, she gained the respect of the Guard. That came in handy when her husband met his inconvenient end.
With her husband gone, and her presidential son easily controllable due to being just eleven years old, she was now able to have a more hands-on approach to fixing the mess Gallienus made.
