General Cassius Dumus
Cassius Dumus is hailed as the rescuer of ["The Amastus 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 Amastus.
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 nations 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 seized the imperial crown for himself, but 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.
History contains an account of how Dumus conducted a search for the heir to the imperial throne; identifying him was a straightforward process, but Dumus could not approach the heir who was with the Amastus family in ["Amastia"], for fears of the power of the rich business families in ["Nareth"]. It is not well accounted about how Dumus reined in these rich families; for this he used the military, who would turn up with large, one-off tax bills on the doorstep of these wealthy people in the morning, and expect payment by lunchtime. As they usually didn't pay, the crown would begin seizing family assets, especially art works, buildings and even businesses, until it felt the debt was covered. Two years of this brutal financial approach cut deeply into those who had for years abused their financial power inside the Empire.
By 1065, Dumus was in a position to stand down. He 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 public murmuring against their treatment.