Augustus Road

"In all things, politics, economics, law and argumentation are the first priority, and art has no role." - Ancient Roman proverb

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At that time, Pompey unconsciously took off his blood-stained robe and handed it to the slave. The slave held the clothes and ran back, leaving the chaotic grand square and running towards the suburb of Alba. , shouting as he ran, "My master, the great General Pompey, has been seriously injured in the fight in the main square. I want to go back to summon the doctor and exchange for clean clothes."

At this time, a panic-stricken Cicero and his friend Aetius had just run down from the Palatine Hill with their slaves, and were about to go to the main square to resolve the dispute. When they saw this slave running around holding a bloody robe, Cicero Luo immediately shouted, "My disciples, go forward and kill that talking animal that is running crazy. His nonsense will cause turmoil that spreads throughout the city!" But when Xi When Cerro's disciples drew their swords and chased after him, the opponent had already crossed the city gate and fled away.

In Alba, Pompeii's low-key and luxurious villa, when the male and female slaves at the door saw their master's bloody robe being sent back, they could not suppress their excitement and worry and burst into tears. The sound was like a plague, The sound reached the inner room. Julia, who was holding her bloated belly in pain, heard the ominous sobbing and immediately struggled to get up from the bed, passed through the curtains and curtains, and came to the center of the courtyard.

Under the bright summer sun, she saw her husband's horrific bloody clothes. She began to breathe rapidly. The slave girl next to her saw that something was wrong with her, so she tried to calm her down and shouted for the doctor to come out quickly with calming herbs. , but it was too late. Julia's pupils enlarged rapidly, beads of sweat soaked her clothes, and finally the blood from her lower body ran along her swollen and shaking legs. It fell like a waterfall to the floor of the yard. Then the wailing in Pompey's villa and courtyard became even louder.

"This is really a tragedy. Three lives are lost." Under the setting sun, almost all the people in Rome were discussing this unknown day. The three lives they talked about were Caesar's mother who died of illness. Caesar's daughter was frightened and died in childbirth, and of course the child who also died in her belly was Caesar's grandson, Pompey's son.

About half a month later, Caesar in the Gaul camp was holding his forehead, silent in pain. With the letter from Lepidus hanging in his hand, he knew all about the tragedy of Rome. Pompey also fell painfully ill, and all bills and candidate registrations were forced to stop. The thanksgiving ceremony was interrupted. According to the priests of the Temple of Jupiter, bad omens continued to emerge. Flocks of birds flew from the north, all with miserable cries, and they were thrown into the river and drowned. On the Palatine Mountain at dusk, The ever-lasting smoke from Romulus’ shepherd’s hut actually stopped.

"Please ask Pompey to stop all this. In the end, two families will be sacrificed." Caesar choked and said to his men, "As a sign of sincerity, I am willing to donate money to build a Juilliard Hall next to the main square for all For the sake of peace, all this should stop."

Caesar's proposal received continuous response from all walks of life in Rome. Pompey, who was mourning on his bed, also instructed Demetrius to remove Julia's stone coffin from the Alba countryside cemetery (owned by the Pompeian family). ), and with the spontaneous help of many citizens, they entered the city along the streets and were buried in the cemetery of the Temple of Mars. The people not only took this opportunity to express the same respect for the two tit-for-tat heroes, Caesar and Pompey. , and also hope that this move can eliminate the unnecessary dispute between the two. Heroes kill each other, which is the greatest tragedy known from ancient times.

Correspondingly, Cotta, a member of Caesar's matriarchal clan, was appointed as the head of the Juilliard Hall together with Lepidus. Cotta was a generous and wine-loving man without any scheming, so Caesar did not take him to Gaul. , but just let him be responsible for managing the family assets. After all, in the Roman world, the concept is not too different from the Han people: public offices and family affairs need to be held and managed by pillars, and the family is also the same as the royal family. , the most important thing is a reasonable division of labor. Such a personnel arrangement means that for the construction cost of the synagogue, Cotta will allocate half from the private property of the Julius family, and the other half will be provided by Lepidus, which is regarded as a loan from Caesar.

This kind of project was no stranger to Lepidus, and he had his own way of winning over people like Cotta. He first asked Cotta to withdraw a hundred talents from his family's property, and then Lepidus mobilized the knights to start from Etrunia purchased large quantities of high-quality and cheap wood and iron nails (almost free of charge, anyway, Crassus's mines there were all his own industry, and both of these things were available), and imported them from Samoa in Greece. On the island, lead sheets and marbles were introduced, and the relevant machinery and technicians were also ready-made. In the end, it was just a circle on the books. Cota only spent twenty talents, and the rest went into his private pocket. , I was so happy that Kota wanted to give all the family property to Lepida to take care of.

And now, Lepidus had good reason to squat in the city of Rome legally. Not only that, he also expanded the camp outside the gate of Printina on the pretext of asking legionnaires to join the construction project, with no less than two thousand elites. Soldiers shuttled through the streets day and night, transporting stones and bricks with the packhorses belonging to the legions. Of course, these people were also his and Claudius's backers.

This is also a complete test of Pompey, because it is generally accepted that Pompey has the support of the entire army behind him. If this is true, Pompey will not tolerate him openly "showing off his armed strength" in the city of Rome. . But unexpectedly, Pompey was nestled in the countryside of Alba. His army did not exist at all, at least not around the city of Rome. The only few elite legions that had not been demobilized were concentrated in the Spanish garrison. The only Spanish army The first legion, designated "Hare", is still in Capua. After Lepidus made detailed investigations and notes, he told Caesar all the facts about Pompey, "He is a completely overconfident guy. The so-called thousands of troops are just a figment of his own imagination. It's pitiful that little Cato can actually do this." Putting my money on him, I can even say without boasting that if you, Governor, want to capture the city of Rome, the 12th and 13th legions under my command are enough to do the job, and the 10th legion will be left to guard Gaul, Your Excellency. Lead the remaining legions to sweep across Greece along Illyria, cooperate with the Cyrenaic fleet, and cut off Pompey's connection with the East. As long as we can force him to flee, we will definitely capture him in a market town in Mauritania or Spain. ”

Lepidus' arrogant and naked suggestion was angrily rebuked by Caesar in a secret letter, and he was warned not to say such nonsense in front of anyone, but Lepidus knew very well that what he said was Caesar's ultimate goal. plan, because the Senate's liquidation of Caesar will eventually come in the coming year. Even Caesar himself added this to his reply, "Try to make the city of Rome uncontestable, so that my seat will be Because there is no one to replace him, it will be automatically extended for one year.”

ps:

I couldn't update because of something in the morning, so I will update twice in the evening. Thank you everyone for your monthly support!