Augustus Road

"You advise me to abandon my three beloved daughters, Pride, Greed, and Indulgence. Then I will marry them to the man who is most qualified to marry them. Pride will be married to a Templar, and Greed will be married to a monk from Gektaux. And indulge yourself in marrying a prelate." - King Richard of England to the priest.

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"Ah, my long-lost trousers!" Lepidus rode out of Caesar's camp, wearing Gauls' trousers, and felt like he was about to burst into tears. Behind him was Sabo Keimu, who was also pretending to be a Gauls. Si, but he is different. Wearing trousers is more uncomfortable than being tied up with ropes. The trousers of the Roman cavalry are grafted, that is, leather trousers are used to connect the short skirt and the cavalry boots. In general, Still not as comfortable as these pants.

This group of people then meandered along the safe corridor, amid the flying grass chasing the sunshine in May, towards the direction of the Allobrogis tribe, where Lepidah was preparing to meet Oplik's uncle, An old priest of the tribe contacted and initiated diplomatic action.

Oplik, to a certain extent, can be regarded as the "rebellious son" of this tribe. The Gauls have the habit of using living sacrifices. The priests usually decide the day of sacrifice to dedicate to the gods. They use a bronze insert called "Coligni". According to the calendar and astronomical results, he was going to honorably sacrifice him to the god who protected the tribe and tie him up with ropes. Smashing his head with a hammer in front of everyone. Sometimes his throat is cut with a sharp dagger in advance to relieve the pain. Then his body was thrown into the swamp where the gods were.

But Oplik should have been proud of being a sacrifice. But during the ceremony, in May, which was as sunny as now, he instinctively felt the beauty of life, and relied on his own great strength to break free from the rope. However, he was still beaten on the cheek by his uncle who had already taken action. This was him. The reason for the distorted scars on his face is, "I didn't suffer any serious injuries in the Colosseum in Rome. There are no people in the whole city who can treat me like that!" This is Oplik's pride. He later left the tribe and traveled to Rome to make a living as a gladiator until he met Lepidus.

Under the giant tree in front of the settlement road of Feilon, the "capital" of the Allobrogis people, in the surrounding fields, there are conical haystacks made of wooden frames everywhere, as well as a few cows. Or the dwarf Celtic horse plowing the wheat fields. Then there are the same thatched houses in Celtic settlements, the kind with straw as a roof. In a particularly low house, Omenei sat under the roots of a tree, raising his slightly cataracted eyes, still calculating the ancient calendar.

"I am different from the Seguuni people or the Aedui people!" Under Omenei's introduction, Lepidah and others met the master of this tribe in the chief's hall. The so-called "King" Adminius was somewhat He said angrily, "You know, I just fought a war with the Romans three years ago, and because I owed a lot of debts that I couldn't pay off, both the Aedui and the Sequani were pawned by the Romans. Come and bite me."

What Admenius said was true, or to be precise, he was deceived by Cicero. In order to apply for debt relief, the envoy of their tribe went to Rome, but was fucked by Lepidus (Calabis). Under the control of Antony, he was won over by Antony's stepfather Liantulus, and later betrayed the evidence of Catiline's "rebellion" to the consul Cicero. Cicero promised them at that time that he could consider reducing the tribe's two-thirds Debt, but words are always words. After Cicero left office, as soon as the Senate was about to discuss the matter, it was strongly protested by a group of creditors, most of whom were senators or knights in the financial world. In the end, they had no choice but to let it go.

In this way, two Roman envoys came to the tribe to collect debts on time. As the king, Admenius said that he really had no money now, and he would exchange some money for wine. The messenger became angry and said that you Gaul barbarians have money to buy wine but no money to pay off the debt, so you can only use people to pay off the debt. After saying that, you will sell several of the king's daughters as slaves to pay off the debt. But you must know that the king is extremely respected in the Gallic tribe, not because of his power (the power of the barbarian king is very small), but because he is often the first warrior of the tribe and a symbol of the glory of the tribe. Now we need to Sell ​​the daughter of the first family to a brothel in Rome to pick up customers? The Allobroges resisted. They tied one of the messengers to a dead tree and whipped him to death. They broke the legs of another and sent him back to Rome in a mule cart. The enraged Senate declared the war and appointed Bambutinas, the provost of that year, as general, and bloodily purged the tribe. In the end, the Allobrogis sacrificed 5,000 young men and women as slaves. , only to regain the forgiveness of Rome.

Therefore, Admenius’ anger was not without reason.

"It's just a debt of a few hundred talents... Some of the Roman officials have indeed gone too far." Lepidus began to encourage. First, he wanted to express that his position was consistent with the king's. "But there is no need to do so now." I am worried because the person sent to the province of Gaul is none other than His Excellency Julius Caesar. He is a good man who values ​​all his friends. "

"I have never been a friend of Rome," cried Adminius.

"But you can be Caesar's friend!" Lepidus stretched out his hands and said enthusiastically, "I've said it before, it's just a debt of a few hundred talents. Now, my dear king, you just need to block the mouth of the Ara River and force the Helvetii to turn to the other side of the Ara River and enter the territory of the Aedui. Then I can quote the governor's offer - there are now 300,000 Helvetii, and in the end they will inevitably be driven back to the original settlement of the tribe, Lake Leman. By then, they will only have one-third left, or even less."

"Where did the other two-thirds go?" The king was a little confused.

"Half will die by the sword, and half will be sold as slaves." The coldness of Lepidus' words made Adminiel shudder in the hot weather, but the legionary continued to speak, "That is to say, our legion will obtain 100,000 slaves at once, and then sell all these slaves to Etruria, Liguria and even Sicily in the south where manpower is in short supply. The price of each slave will be cheaper, about 300 sestes, which is only half of the price in the Roman market, and it will definitely be in great demand. Dear king, we can calculate that it will be a profit of 30 million sestes, a business with no capital at all. In this way, minus the rewards for the soldiers, I promise that you will have a gift of 2 million sestes by then."

"Two million..." Adminiel was still hesitating. Lepidus said loudly, "Don't get me wrong, this 2 million is just a gift for you alone." )