Augustus Road

Curio shouted that the shameful political enemies were coming and that they would use bloody means to prevent me from speaking. He jumped off the platform and flew away, escorted by the armed slaves hired by the Senate. Many citizens were shouting and cheering for Curio's vote just now. One of them is an old lady about seventy years old. Although she has never had the right to vote as a woman, she is blind in one eye. She has wrinkles all over her face and a shriveled mouth. She uses the remaining one eye to speak. Out of the corner of his eye, with an exaggerated expression, he stood by the wall of the club and shouted to Caesar's opponents, "What are you afraid of? When the dictator Sulla led his army to attack along the Porta Printina, At that time, I was standing on the roof of my arcade, smashing things and throwing torches at the big soldiers. Now you go tell those Claudius and Lepidus and ask them to bring their troops. I am not afraid of them. , If they dare not, everyone will sit in the assembly hall until this country makes way for us people.”

The citizens gave the old lady warm applause, but amid the smoke and noise, they saw the Claudians armed with wooden spears and iron rods getting closer and closer to the club. Many people ran and turned around to applaud and fled the club. . Only the old lady was old, deaf and blind, and she didn’t believe that the other party could do anything excessive to her, because her whole family were “professional voters” who usually relied on instigating street movements and selling votes. He makes a living, so he is very confident. "A country should be ruled by its citizens as they wish." This was her creed. Finally, she found it in the flying sand on the road. In a clubhouse full of trash. She was left alone. Thousands of ferocious gods silently surrounded him.

She was still waving her bony arms loudly, protesting and yelling at these people, but these were only in the sense of words. She was ready to leave, hunched over and holding on to the wall to go home, and continued to turn around and curse as she walked. With.

Until a gladiator hired by Lepidus, one of Oplik's subordinates, received a look of acquiescence. Suddenly he chased after him and hit the old lady's shoulders and arms with an iron rod. The old lady's frightened look was instantaneous. Her arms were broken, but she still hadn't reacted. This country's tradition happened. Something had changed, but she could no longer blame her, because her broken arm hung on her withered chest. She crawled and shrank under the gable wall of a small temple. "Don't think that this old woman is a person. When the elites and soldiers shed their blood and died for the Republic, she and her whole family were like maggots, attached to their heroic corpses, eating the flesh and blood residue of the heroes, and chattering endlessly." Dee encouraged fiercely and said, "If these scum are allowed to succeed and adopt this plan to support Pompey's army who are doing nothing in Italy and Spain, it will be an abandonment of Caesar's soldiers and a shame for the entire republic. Kill her, I say this as a tribune!"

Everyone swarmed up, punched and stamped on the old lady. When her family ran to the alley of the club and saw this tragic scene, all the bones and skin on her body had been beaten to perfection. The screams made her sons so frightened that they just ran away home, then packed up some belongings and fled the city of Rome like the wind, for fear of Claudius's subsequent more bloody revenge. After beating for half a day, the Claudians slowly dispersed. The old lady in the pool of blood was still crawling around. She raised her head with difficulty and saw the hopeful citizens in the surrounding buildings. The scene of him holding a weapon and shouting slogans to rescue her did not appear at all. The hallucinations in her head had deceived her for so long! It would be easy for a powerful person to take the life of an ant like her, but now this realization was obtained at a painful price. She could only drag her severed hand and call her She called her son's name, but no one came out to stop it. Only the street gangsters followed her, constantly taunting and insulting her.

"Don't think that since she has given birth to three children, she doesn't have to enjoy the shame of death." Claudius said coldly. Several henchmen immediately pressed and wrapped the old lady's head with linen cloth, and then set her on fire. The other party's head moved like a struggling shrimp for a while, and finally died tragically.

At this moment, on the other side of the assembly hall, Triarii and Ignatius also came with a large number of gladiators, and they came aggressively after hearing the news, "It is indeed Pompey's behind-the-scenes instigation, bastard!" Crow Di jumped onto the pillar of the clubhouse, bared his teeth and howled, while Li Bida slowly hid behind the queue, constantly slapping the shoulders and backs of all those running forward, and pointed with his other hand at the impending fierce battle. At the local people's assembly hall, they shouted, "Everyone will come to the Temple of Prema or the Goddess of Virtue to receive a reward of thirty dinars, and double the amount for the injured!"

The melee lasted for half a day and was not over yet. The dead and wounded lay all over the ruined assembly hall. From the residential areas or slums on the seven hills of Rome, people were still joining the battle group with weapons in temples and shops. The street was affected and burned. Finally, Triari and Claudius also exited the battlefield covered in blood, declaring that the "battle" ended without any embarrassment.

At night, in the Prema Villa, in the courtyard wall specially reinforced and thickened by Lepidus, Claudius wiped the blood and sweat on his body, surrounded by people, passed through the highly guarded gate, and came to the fountain under the flower gallery. While washing his hands, Lepidah lay on his side on a stone chair, listening to Habaruka and Kelly calculating and reporting the money he would need to spend today.

In another corner, Curio leaned on another stone chair with some melancholy, watching the musicians' flute and harp sounds. Seeing Claudius enter, he smiled politely, "The whole city of Rome is in an uproar. If the people fighting desperately knew that the three of us were holding a small party here, I really can't imagine the terrible consequences."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. Pompey and Caesar are still brothers and father-in-law, aren't they? Although the streets are so lively, Pompey still cares about this. He is a person who attaches great importance to trivial feelings. He is afraid that some people will accuse him of betraying Caesar, so now we are left to act in the front." After listening to the accounts, Lepidus stood up with a smile and strolled in the courtyard. The gold badge of "Ambrosius" was pinned on his robe and was very conspicuous.

"Laws are always based on human feelings. Didn't you, my former adoptive father, also start your career by marrying a widow?" Claudius sat down, tearing a roasted turtledove in his hand, and threw the butt meat to Matthias next to Lepidus, saying.

"Don't throw this kind of meat to him, he is not a slave!" Lepidus said, and then suddenly said this, "Speaking of widows, why doesn't anyone pay attention to the inheritance of the Crassus family? His family still has Cornelia, the widow of Crassus the Younger."

Hearing this, everyone was silent. (To be continued...)