Augustus Road

In front of Valin's apartment, the early morning fog had not yet dissipated. A tightly tied pig grunted in the mud until Timothée stabbed it in with a knife. It screamed and twisted a few times and lost its life. Then Timothee used a knife to move in the pig's abdomen neatly, took out the bloody gallbladder, and handed it to several Tianzhu guys standing next to him holding trays.

Timothee's current clinic has been expanded to four floors. He faithfully followed Calabis's warnings and led his gang of Tianzhu guys to specialize in surgical injuries that arose in the election campaign. He made a profit in this month alone. With a large amount of money, probably no less than five thousand drachmas, he got what he wanted, and erected a bronze statue of a horse and a flying fish in front of the clinic instead of the usual bronze statue of a snake in front of a Hellenistic clinic. Now satisfied with his ambition, he received the commission from Calabis to extract the bile from the boar, and immediately brought his assistant to do it.

On the other side, veterans such as Milu, Pop, and Tagus who built simple wind towers were using instruments from the classical era to carefully map the architectural data of the apartment rubble.

The plate with pig gallbladder was handed over to the little pigeon Paluma. After looking at it for a while, the little guy probably felt that the fishy smell was tangy, so he handed it to his adoptive mother Potty. Potty nodded and handed it over again. Calabis.

Finally, Calabis was handed over to the fortune teller next to him, who had spent a lot of money to invite him. After looking at it pretendingly, the fortune teller pinched the pig's gallbladder and faced the veterans and craftsmen holding shovels, picks, and hammers. They declared loudly: "This is the first boar born here, raised here, and died here. His feelings for the Varin apartment are just like the feelings of the citizens for the city of Rome. I found that his courage is full and full." It is ruddy, which shows that this place has been favored by God, and the land, air flow, and moisture are all very healthy, so it has cultivated such perfect courage. The new building built here will be strong, durable and blessed!”

Everyone present cheered, and Calabis quietly gave the fortune teller a bag containing three hundred silver coins, secretly saying thank you for your hard work.

"It doesn't matter. The pigs shipped from Shannan Gaul are all fat and strong. Now this pig..." the fortune teller whispered.

"Don't worry, after the sacrificial ceremony, in addition to cutting off the pig's tongue and making it into a meal for the craftsmen to enjoy, the rest will also be given to you, which is disrespectful." The arrangement made by Calabis obviously satisfied the fortune teller, and he brought After his assistants left, Calabis jumped up to a high platform made of earth and said to everyone: "The salary for each person is five sesterces a day, and the one who completes the fastest will get an extra reward. After the building is completed, each person will receive 20% of the total salary as a completion allowance. Everyone, cheer for me! I want the name of my son, Paluma, to be engraved on the tower of this new building. This is The buildings he dedicated to the city of Rome are his!”

Amid the praises of everyone, Bodi held Calabis's hand and touched his shoulder with the other hand, "May the goddess of fate favor you, you have given everything you have."

Karabis kissed Poti and said, "Like those guys who run for office, the richest returns are found in the most dangerous investments."

Under the gloomy winter clouds, the daily atmosphere of the city of Rome reached fever pitch on the New Year's Day of 63 BC. If an eagle flew over the city, it would see the criss-crossing streets and row upon row of buildings. In the courtyard, the nobles are having a feast with their own agendas, you can see the consul candidates fighting with their retainers to protect the people, you can see the passionate speeches of the candidates in the square, and you can see the epic buildings erected to please the people. The densely packed scaffolding, and then its wings were touched by the cold water rising from the Tiber River. It couldn't help but think of the warm Sicily, and changed its course between the sky and the clouds.

"Hey, you wood on the deck, what's the point of an eagle? Keep paddling. Quick, turn the helm, dammit, every winter, this Tiber river channel will be crowded and blocked - get out of here, ship. Little grasshopper boat for relief food, please don't interfere with my business. What we are transporting here are Dojon bricks from Greece. Each one is exactly five palms long. If it breaks, I will lose all my money, and your grand theater will also be built. I can’t get up.” A shipowner entering the Tiber River complained loudly, holding the side of the mast to urge the sailors to work, “Damn it, aren’t there any docks and warehouses that can be docked on this river?”

But on the gray shore, there were only dirty civilians wearing the same gray clothes, holding baskets and pottery urns, making noisy noises, all crowded at several small ferries, waiting for ships to transport food. But the entire river is full of ships from all over Italy. Some of them are loaded with Spanish marble, some with mortar bricks from Utica, and some with steel bars and copper blocks from Abyssinia Minor, all brought for the upcoming construction. The sails of various colors were crowded together for the Coliseum and the Colosseum that were being built, and there were scoldings asking each other to give way - the shipping capacity of the Tiber River in the Roman city was so limited that there was now even a dock for unloading cargo. There are no ports.

Not even by land. The traffic in Rome is terrible, with streets as mysterious as intestines, narrow and winding, and nightmare-like congestion.

A bright light flashed through the eyes of the boat owners. They looked up and couldn't believe their vision. A huge building complex stood between the Avendine Mountains and the Tiber River. To be more precise, there was a huge building complex. , is a warehouse dock with a lighthouse (the bright light just now was emitted by the large bronze mirror above)! On the wall tiles of the tower, there are eye-catching and huge Latin words engraved, "Paluma Karabis welcomes you!"

This is why Carabis bought the Valin Apartment. After asking Caesar, he activated the map of Rome in his mind and found that the location of the Valin Apartment just formed a symmetrical triangle with Crassus's Theater and Neruda's Colosseum. In addition, it was adjacent to the river, which was the most suitable place for building materials distribution. Carabis measured it step by step. Yes, this place is the most suitable, no doubt about it.

Leveling the land, building warehouses, erecting cranes, clearing the silt in the river bay, and laying long piers cost him almost all his previous assets, but he felt that this gamble was worth it.

But when he saw the ships approaching from the lighthouse, he understood that it was indeed worth it! The name of his adopted son Paluma was engraved on this building. He hoped that this achievement would benefit the child's future after Paluma became a citizen when he came of age. Yes, he would become a respectable knight when he grew up, although his academic performance in school was not very good.

When it comes to paying the ship owners for providing warehouses, Carapis was never soft-handed. He had done precise calculations before and set the price at a level that would make these people "half dead and half alive", neither making them happy nor driving them to the land.

Silver coins jingled like water, flowing into Carapis' pockets as the bricks and tiles of the Grand Theater and the Colosseum were piled up. The biggest beneficiary of Crassus and Neruda's huge public works was actually me, a free man of a foreign race, Carapis.

This year, Carapis just turned 24.

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