General Cassius Dumus
Cassius Dumus is hailed as the rescuer of The Antaurus Empire, although his work was reasonably short-lived. Dumus was a military man, and had served as chief of staff under both Emperor Victus and Emperor Gravus, both of the house of Antaurus.
The young Emperor Gravus was not well liked when he assumed the throne in 1059 after his father's death, there was widespread corruption in the highest circles of the Empire which culminated in the Emperor's poisoning. The Senate tried to settle the situation, but the corporate leaders that seemed in control of the nation's finances scuppered every attempt to put a new Emperor on the throne for the next two years.
As the Empire spiralled out of control, Cassius Dumus stepped up and took control. He still had control of the military, and his troops had remained loyal to him in the absence of any clear imperial lead. Using this military loyalty, Dumus took the unprecedented step of seizing the imperial crown for himself. He did not do this lightly; there were imperial traditions that were being broken, and the state of the Empire was at risk. He knew he wouldn't survive long if he did this for his own ends, so took a mandate to remove corruption and restore a rightful Emperor. For the first time in imperial history, the Senate was suspended, and martial law was imposed. In place of the senate, the senior military figures arranged a council. To this council they appointed two senators, but security was high. Dumus never attended a single council meeting, he worked solely through a proxy. The council made recommendations to him, and he enacted then where he could, he also reported back to the council through his proxy.
While the business of running the Empire continued, Dumus also conducted a search for the heir to the imperial throne; identifying him was a straightforward process, but it was kept shrouded in secrecy. Only Dumus and his two senior generals knew who it was, but there could be no official Imperial approach to the heir, who was with the Antaurus family in Antaurus, Dumus rightly feared the power of the rich business families in Nareth, these had to be dealt with first.
It is not well accounted about how Dumus reined in these rich families; the remnants of this part of the tale show that the military was used, and they had several tactics. It seems that approach would be to turn up with a large one-off tax bill on the doorstep of ond of the wealthy business people in the morning, and expect payment by lunchtime. As they usually couldn't pay in this time frame, the crown would seize the family assets, especially art works, buildings and even businesses, until it felt the debt was covered. In some cases, the Emperor would re-assign the family to a smaller house in a suburban slum. Business people were put out of business, and the crown took over the running of their enterprises. There are other accounts of torture and intimidation of some of the wealthy folks. Some of the Empire's greatest commercial names simply disappeared. Two years of these brutal tactics cut deeply into those who had for years abused their financial power inside the Empire. Dumus achieved what he wanted, to bring the might of those who were crippling the Empire to their knees. Seized assets were sold on to others, siezed businesses were broken up and sold in small chunks as going concerns.
By 1065, Dumus was in a position to stand down, and he was tired of the whole business. He travelled personally to Antaurus to discuss the Emperor's role with the Dominus Antaurus, the heir apparent. It took some convincing to persuade Dominus that he was the right man to pick up the Imperial crown, and it took the promise of Dumus' personal protection while the transition of power was made to finally win the debate. Dumus made Emperor Dominus II a very wealthy man when he passed the crown on to him, and many of the corruption problems in the Empire had been eased. There was a heavy level of resentment among those who had been stripped of valuable assets, but as Dumus was appointed chief of staff once again, there was little murmuring against their treatment in public.