Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 232 044 Discovery of the trip to Rome

Belzoni, although a cunning strongman, was very serious when "fulfilling the contract".

It turned out that he returned to Rome from Amsterdam just to take on the tour guide job for British tourists, but the final result turned out to be that the employer was Russian, which was not a bad result.

"Are you going to the Mausoleum of Augustus?"

"Yes, Giovanni, can't you go?"

"If you want to go there, you still have to pay attention to safety. After all, it is a desolate place, and it has even been used as a landfill, as well as the personal territory of the Soderini family."

"This sounds worse than the Roman Republic in the book. Many places are private territories."

Of course, Solovyov's words were not so exaggerated in the Pope's territory. After all, Christianity has somewhat occupied the "Eternal City" for Rome.

Now when you pass by Trajan's Column, you can still see the shadow of the illegally built foot church outside. If it weren't for Pope Sixtus V, another "old six" at the time, who cleared the illegal buildings and erected a statue of St. Peter on top of Trajan's tomb, this place might have been a very undignified mass grave.

"The great buildings left by Rome have now become the spoils of Christianity. It all started with Constantine the Great, but he was a man who did not live up to his reputation."

"How can you evaluate that great emperor like this?"

"What did he bring to Rome? Did he move the relief to Constantinople?"

Belzoni seemed to have some truth in this.

Soloviev read a lot of books. He didn't want to read other history books written by the British, but he often carried Edward Gibbon's books, especially the first half from Commodus to the destruction of the Western Empire.

It seems that Constantine unified religions, but destroyed the traditions of the Mediterranean world. Although he probably converted to Christianity before his death with a "kingly hegemonic" attitude, he still believed in heresy, which was not so outrageous.

If anyone saw the disaster in the eastern Mediterranean and the centuries of saints during the Roman Empire, should they say that the young people who believed in polytheism in Rome had a strong taste like some French heads of state, or that these contents were too fake.

Well, it was not polite to say this, he did not say it, and it was easy to boomerang.

He himself did not know that his aunt was Josephine, who was older than Napoleon.

After all, Napoleon married an older widow at the right age. If it was Xiao Ma Ge, his taste was not as strong as the stories of martyred saints.

Can't Christianity use some idols to preach? It also killed many priests of the old gods, and even colleges that had nothing to do with religion were persecuted, and scholars were persecuted-if you quarrel with them, it is obvious that sometimes Christian priests are not good enough.

As for Constantine, the only one in this dynasty who had a big reputation in foreign wars was Julian the Apostate, but the Persian javelin ended his life. After that, Rome began several decades of chaos, and finally came to the Theodosius period, the reign of his two incompetent sons, when the big ones came.

"Indeed, those reliefs were taken away, where did they go?"

"In Constantinople, the current capital of the Ottoman Empire, many things there were moved there, or there are treasures under the ruins of the old palace."

Once the content involves "treasure hunting", Belzoni's eyes begin to shine, even brighter than the green light in Solovyov's eyes.

"In other words, a lot of Rome's wealth was taken away?"

"You can think about it this way, and I don't believe that the Goth Alaric destroyed Augustus's mausoleum and urns in Rome."

"I am interested in accompanying you there, but I have to establish good relations with the local families first. Although you are only a lieutenant colonel, you came from Petersburg. I think the Romans can't afford to offend the Russian Tsar, even if it's just his aide-de-camp."

"But I'm just visiting, I don't mean to destroy it, and I'm expressing respect for the ancients. After all, he is a pagan god and August, and no one can forget his achievements."

By the way, I have to say that Alexander is an actor, and Augustus is an early form of this "movie emperor". Even those who believe in Christianity dare not erase him, and his performance is too perfect, and he avoided the most troublesome period.

But the four "great commanders" from Tiberius to Nero were in trouble. The story of Caligula's boots is hard to describe, but the other three did a lot of work and were badly slandered. If you look closely at what they did, it seems that compared with the tyrants in the future and the tyrants in the past, they are just the same.

"It can't be forgotten. It's too impressive, sir."

"Belzoni, take me to see it. At least Rome was not plundered by Napoleon on a large scale. They came here just to capture the Pope. Maybe one day he will be crowned as emperor and will need him again."

The old man in the Roman melon-shaped hat more or less represents the authority of the Western Church. The authority of the Eastern Church is in an onion turban, so he can only come to see the Patriarch of Moscow.

"You know those Gauls and Germans very well."

"Okay, we've seen Trajan's Column first, and now we can visit Augustus's Mausoleum."

It is indeed very desolate at the moment and the rubbish is piled up on the side.

For safety reasons, Solovyov asked Silvia, her daughter, and Adela to stay outside while he went in with Belzoni.

"Although this is on private property, we can still go in. We just have to be careful."

Hypoxia is no joke. Fortunately, some areas above the mausoleum have been cleared out, but the environment here is indeed not that good.

It was said that a garden was to be built, but as a result, such a mausoleum, which represented Rome's past glory, was turned into a garbage dump, and a lot of marbles were also taken away.

It can be seen that if the white marble is moved and used as building materials, it will be fine. The problem is that a lot of the marble inside has been forged into lime. After all, it is still easy to access here.

This aspect is the same all over the world, and a lot of the gold plundered by the French from northern Italy was directly melted.

All countries do this, and even the Russian army, called barbarians, seems to be more civilized than them.

"This is the tomb of Augustus, sir."

It can be seen that the interior is empty. Only the urn of Agrippina the Great is still there, but its purpose seems to have been a measuring instrument, used to weigh wheat, and the ashes inside have long since disappeared.

To be fair, the Visigoths would still maintain negotiations with Honorius for the sake of dignity, and it was unlikely that they would destroy everything here when they sacked Rome.

Even the Vandals, after arriving in North Africa, used Carthage, which was re-established by the Romans, as their capital.

"It's such a pity that this place is empty. Although his achievements are no longer there, the history and legends are still maintained."

"Yes, a truly religious person cannot do such desecration of the tomb."

"Belzoni, the problem is the destruction of order. Failure to maintain order will cause serious damage and ignorance."

"Yes, sir."

"Of course you can't steal. That would be too tasteless. Some people even just want the treasure. I'm talking about the British and the French. Although the French are civilized thieves, they will classify and study these ancient cultural relics. Rather than just as a display.”

What he said was a bit rude, but the British research was indeed unreliable in many places, and they also carried out large-scale destruction. This is more or less the case with Belzoni. The exhibitions in London and Paris were all for profit. for purpose.

As for Elgin, if he had stolen from the Parthenon, he would have been despised by the British. After all, this kind of theft was entirely for profit, not culture, and was quite shameless.

Solovyov also seized a batch on the battlefield. He took it back to Petersburg and carefully collected it. However, it is impossible to verify the original owner of the artwork.

You must know that after the Palace of Versailles was opened, there were many thefts there, especially the jewelry of the French royal family. Many of them fell into the hands of the British.

Speaking of which, at this time, there is no buying and selling, and there is no killing.

After all, when Peter the Great came to Rome to buy the Venus statue, he still spent money.

What Solovyov saw here was only decay, but there was nothing he could do about it. After all, the Roman nobles did not seem to care for the monuments here. Many places had been discovered in the early years, but they were all vacant and often encountered theft.

Even being able to make a hole in such a solid stone mausoleum is really hateful to all the tomb robbers in the world. It makes people feel that it is not necessarily the Goths who destroyed this mausoleum. After all, Allah Rick used to be a formally established Roman mercenary leader.

"Seeing this should be enough. There is nothing more to see. I am not Caesar. I can see the statue of Alexander and think of my own achievements. It is the deeds of Augustus, the holy Augustus. , sometimes we can find some similarities with our Russian emperor.”

They are both actors and military masters, but Alexander lacks the ruthlessness of Octavian, and they both seem to be somewhat close to their sisters, but Alexander is a sister-controller, and Octavian may be a sister-controller.

This is the feeling when I see the statue of little Octavia wearing the traditional dress of Roman women. She is a beauty, but she was a person from 1800 years ago.

"Interesting, indeed charming, but this was someone from a long time ago, not now."

If this continues, there will be nothing left to visit in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Solovyov came here just to see this historic site, but it is right next to the landfill, and many carvings are It has been removed, but there are still many ancient ruins left.

Not to mention, in the city of Rome, there are still many Pantheons that can still be opened at this time, but their use may also become churches.

Speaking of which, Constantine always gives people a strange feeling.

"How do you feel, sir?"

This guy Belzoni, with his height there, can always breathe fresher air.

"Okay, where are we going to visit next?"

"Today there are the mausoleums, and later there are the villas that have been excavated, especially the residence of Augustus himself, and the residence of his queen Livia."

"If it is a residence, there should be many murals there, and you don't have to go in with a torch. This is not good for murals and sculptures. It is easy to be smoky and burn, and then it cannot be restored to its original appearance."

"Yes, sir."

He is talking about Belzoni. His destructive power is still very huge. Even Howard Carter, who admires him very much, the archaeologist who dug Tutankhamun out of the Valley of the Kings, has always criticized his ability to destroy the scene.

Then, these two people may have seriously damaged the mummies of Tutankhamun and his wife (sister and brother), which is also a kind of irony. Those who bring the Egyptian cultural boom are always conquerors or explorers, and the latter's destructive power is indeed very huge.

"Let's go there. There is still time in the afternoon, but now... I'm hungry."

"Sir, everyone is hungry."

Of course, there are also things that surprised Solovyov, that is, some strange pizzas appeared in Italy, which were obviously brought from St. Petersburg.

However, Italians do not complain about meat and some minor changes in pizza. They protest against tropical fruits and strange things added to pizza.

The same is true for Belzoni, but he is still very satisfied with donkey meat pizza.

"Sir, I heard that this donkey meat pizza came from Russia."

"Yes, I can only say that the byproduct of boiling medicinal materials there is donkey gelatin, which can replenish blood and has some effect. By the way, this is what I selected from their traditional medicinal materials in the far east, and the effect is really good."

Surprisingly, southern Europeans do not seem to have much objection to eating donkey meat, which is sometimes related to the donkey ridden by Christ. Instead, it is an important supplement to meat.

In particular, in Spain, people there brought the custom of eating donkey meat to the New World, and there are many people who eat donkey meat in Latin America.

Speaking of which, Solovyov's donkey meat theme restaurant may really be able to open in southern Europe, and it is more convenient to use these places as underground transportation stations for the anti-French alliance.

I have somewhat of a brain into Kurofuji Taijun, or it is a French bistro. After all, in the British version, the shopkeeper is the core character, and we need to put it into the actual situation of the local area.

It seems that there is a lot of fun.