This post is here to sum up, once again, the main points of the "Scribal Plan," formulated mainly in two posts: the original integrating all the ideas post and a further refined later post. This post is very much a simplified account of the posts linked above.

Hopefully this post will be taken into account when ideas for neighbourhoods are being summed up and the neighbourhoods of Rome are being set!

I. The main ideas in Rome are as follows.

(i) Dividing the neighbourhoods based on interests what comes to Roman history.
- Division by other basis, such as family names, by "panel status," or just plainly the wishes of where one wants to live in the eternal city, would not work well or serve much of any purpose.

(ii) Having parts of Rome act as our neighbourhoods for the time being, until we can build other cities and areas, these parts being, because of their reasonable number, eight areas including "the seven hills of Rome" and the Campus Martius.
- One of these areas, the Capitolinus hill, is a city-centre without residents. Here the Roman mainboards would reside (see below) and people could generally get together.
- One of these areas, for example the Esquilinus hill (an area which "included" one of the main gates of Rome), would be for newcomers only. Daylings and novices would have this area as a default. Upon becoming Citizens or Patrons, the (not-anymore-)newcomers could then pick their neighbourhood based on their interests. This would encourage sticking to the site, and help us welcome our newbies.
- The rest of the neighbourhoods, six of them, would be divided by main interests of Roman history. The suggested list of different interests is as follows (also hill names attached):

Latin and Roman literature - Aventinus
Arts and entertainment - Caelius
Science, engineering, architecture, mathematics, etc. - Viminalis
War and military history - Campus Martius
Religion, mythology, philosophy - Quirinalis
Government, law, politics, economy - Palatinus

City Centre - Capitolinus (including the Forum Romanum)
Newcomers default neighbourhood - Esquilinus

- Later on, hopefully next year, other areas of interest such as Etruria and Pompeii, or even more distant cities of provinces such as Londinium/Britannia would be added. People residing in Rome could also have houses or villas in these additional cities. These cities would be selected by a popular vote.


(iii) Having the parts of Rome "house" both residents, open boards and groups, based on the interest-theme that best suits them.
- Citizens can swap neighbourhoods when they so wish.
- The groups choose their own neighbourhoods, with the assistance of the scribes.
- The four Roman mainboards, which also need to be renamed not to be confused with these neighbourhoods, reside on the Capitoline hill, and are renamed after constructions on the Forum Romanum, for example Comitium (committee meeting area) for the Capitoline of today, Tabularium ("national archive") for the Palatine, perhaps the Basilicae for the other two. The final name picks can be discussed further later.


II. Two further points.

(iv) Boards/threads for the neighbourhoods.

- Every neighbourhood should include a board for "neighbourhood discussion" - meeting others, discussing the area, even arranging neighbourhood get-togethers etc.
- The existing groups and threads should NOT be duplicated. Discussions on, for example, Roman arts and Roman law should be kept where they are now, in the respective Roman History groups.

(v) Leaders for neighbourhoods.

- The six theme-based neighbourhoods could have "Aediles" at some stage (conveniently six). This could be done in the future, but hopefully not start with more "bureaucracy."


III. Further idea if technically possible.

(vi) Clickable maps for neighbourhoods, through which public buildings housing groups and boards and private buildings housing citizens can be accessed.
- The public buildings individual pages would include information about the construction, as well as (S.P.Q.R.) graphics when possible.



IV. A (personal) note on the "seven hills."

As the discussion here shows, Romans were used to referring to the seven hills of Rome, but it is most difficult to determine what the "historically accurate" seven hills of Rome were. I had a discussion about this with Heraklia Aelius before the Scribal Plan was presented, and when Heraklia said it would be hard to get an agreement on what the hills are, I told her I think it wouldn't be a big issue. I thought Romans are practical and reasonable enough to go for the standard anachronistic view and not fight about the references - especially as we are including Campus Martius and that SURELY isn't a hill, think about the name already. (Heraklia was right, of course.)

In each case, nowhere on this topic it was claimed Romans ever had an agreement on what exactly the list of hills should include. For example Maurus Servius Honoratus's commentary on the Aeneid gives the most puzzling listing, with Ianiculum included, but the Capitoline omitted. Considering the fact the Capitoline hill was tmost important to the Romans, it might have been slipped off the list as self-evident. I am not going into a historical debate on this, in any case! Most probably we modern-day Romans cannot be a slight bit different than our ancient "predecessors."

Because we cannot tie our neighbourhoods to any particular historical period, no matter how well it would suit someone's own plans, we had to go for something above historical contigencies. In addition, what we wanted were neighbourhoods, not judicial districts. The hills of Rome, no matter which of them one author or two considered most prominent, all had names, and all were there - and still are. And in addition, what we needed was a reasonable amount of neighbourhoods. Eight areas seems to be a very reasonable number. If we had more, or planned for more, we couldn't proceed outside the city of Rome. If we had less, there wouldn't be a reasonable division of interests. The hills of Rome, as most often conceived, and the Campus Martius are tangible to everyone, including newcomers, and will serve their purpose in this respect, too.