Augustus Road

Cato the Younger's confidence stemmed from the "Martial Law Order" jointly issued by the two consuls. Under this order, all legions must leave their positions thirty Roman miles outside the city of Rome and be on standby. If martial law is not lifted for one day, , any soldier of the legion is not allowed to return to the city, even if ordered by the governor or commander, because his identity can be easily identified by legion tattoos.

In the past, the three-headed monsters joined forces, and the Republicans could not do anything about them. Now that there is only one left to deal with Caesar, Cato naturally thinks that it will be much easier.

Martial law will continue until the results of the consul election come out and then be lifted. Then what needs to be concerned about is how to jointly push Dumitius and Marcellus to power and defeat Caesar's candidate Hersius. "Previously it was As for Claudius, we still need to be a little wary. This countryman from Sicily is probably just a 'best man'."

Best groomsmen is a term used in Rome when running for consulship, which means candidates who are only qualified as foils.

Everyone was happy, but little Cato still felt a sense of uneasiness in his heart - Lepidus, who suddenly disappeared from the surface world, was like a cunning monster, sneaking into the cold and dark sea cave, but his eyes eager for prey emanated. The fierce light makes people shudder a little - what on earth is he trying to do?

After entering autumn, Lepidus' thoughts and whereabouts, not to mention the republicans, even the tribune Curio, who had been secretly communicating with them, were also confused. He kept visiting the Palatine Hill or the Villa Prima . I hope to meet with Lepidus, but I have never been able to do so. Even Claudia didn't know this trace. Some people said that this mysterious military officer went to the military camp outside the city to prepare for the triumphal ceremony of the Saturnalia. But Curio didn't believe it. He always felt that he could You can smell this person in the air, in the streets, in the arenas, at the racetracks. In row upon row of apartments.

At the same time, this season is also a critical time when the election campaign is intensifying. Curio can see teams canvassing and buying votes on the streets every day. The Republicans seem to have spent all their money for this election, and even civilians can smell it in the air on weekdays. Little Cato, who would shy away from smelling anything, actually started giving speeches on the streets. Although the topics were still inseparable from the pedantic words "republic", "honor", "civic duty", etc., for many people who wanted to get up close and personal with this incarnation of the republic for the people. His ability to condescend to appear in public has brought great joy.

Finally, even the former consul who hated Pompey the most was Byblos, who was ostracized by Caesar in the year of his election and became known as the "year of the union of Caesar and Julius" and became a laughing stock. Now he is also speaking out publicly, willing to use half of his family property to support the election of Marcellus (this is Pompey's man and a vanguard against Caesar), even compared to Bruce on the streets. He also said to other senators and knights, "If the republic is really in danger, I am willing to put aside all previous differences and elect the great Pompey to be Dictator, because someone (obviously referring to Caesar) has turned into a peaceful person." As ferocious an enemy as Gaul in ancient times, if he is not stopped and punished, he will surely lead his beast-like legion to sack the Capitol Hill."

In Curio's eyes, the Republicans were unstoppable, but what surprised him was that the candidate from Sicily, Hersius, was still very resilient. Although this fat man had a bad record in the past, he was even beaten when he was canvassing votes on the streets. The people have smashed rotten eggs, but they still persevere, clumsily and persistently trying to please everyone - he continues to sponsor festival competitions, buys sword-fighting slaves from Mauritania or Thrace, buys leopards and tigers from Asia, Elephants were bought from Africa, and they held money-burning performances again and again in the Colosseum left by Crassus or in the theater built by Pompey, and sent slaves to hold small gifts (some were small silver coins). , some of which are baked bread) were presented to the people who came to watch one by one, "Please sponsor a vote for Hersius, please sponsor a vote for Hersius!"

In Cato's eyes, this guy was simply stupid. The money was probably sent by Caesar, right? But how can the people trust a foreigner who can't even explain clearly the policy policy?

But the next trend surprised everyone - although it was not obvious, the votes drawn by Hersius were indeed growing steadily, especially the votes in various alliance towns in Italy, until one month later , the votes in hand of Hersius, after being accurately counted by Cato's staff, had begun to be close to those of his brother-in-law Dumitius.

"What's going on! Lepidus is probably behind it again." Little Cato cursed with sweat on his forehead. Even Pompey couldn't sit still after hearing the news. He sat on an armchair and pondered. After a while, he said, "The time has come to use the reserve troops - call my legionnaires to come and vote!"

What, will Caesar seize the opportunity and attack us? Cato the Younger and Marcellus raised such questions, but Pompeo pretended not to hear them. He just emphasized that in order to save the Republic and defeat Caesar, some extraordinary means must be used, and some laws can be flexible.

As a result, the matter was quickly exposed. The person who exposed the matter happened to be none other than the current Chief Consul Banks. He directly interfered with Pompey's book in the Senate and humiliated him in public. Pompey could only suffer the disadvantage of being dumb: Even though Banks may have received a high bribe from Caesar, the incident itself was indeed a violation of justice. Faced with Banks' questioning, he was speechless.

"If a similar situation occurs again, I will issue a decree from the consul to lift the martial law. Then you can compete with Caesar to see who has more soldiers in the legion. The army of the entire republic does not need to be on the front line, and they can take turns to return to the city to vote." Banks' words were not without irony. The anti-Pompey figures in the Senate, Spinzer, Piso, Basatus, and even Scipio were all making a fuss. Pompey covered his face with his sleeves in his seat, extremely embarrassed.

The news that Pompey asked the soldiers to return to the city to vote soon caused new waves. Caesar, who learned about this on the Gaul front, immediately wrote an open letter to the Tebris People's Assembly and asked the tribune Basatus to read it in public, angrily accusing Pompey and Cato the Younger of their petty intrigues. The people's assembly condemned it, and another more terrible news came: Caesar personally led a legion to Arimiron and confronted Libbo, who was guarding Etruria, claiming to ask the Senate or the People's Assembly to vote on the bills he was concerned about as soon as possible, "It's better to be fair and reasonable!"

The air instantly froze and became tense. Caesar even sent a rude centurion as an envoy to the temporary meeting place of the Senate to bring his master's request. However, many senators claimed that it was not time to resolve the Governor of Gaul's proposal. As a result, the centurion slapped his scabbard at the bottom of the steps and said arrogantly, "Really? Then maybe it can motivate you to resolve this matter."