Augustus Road

Chapter 8 Fireplace Wind (Part 1)

"He squatted before the dead hag eel and cried bitterly, as if it was not a fish that died but his daughter." - Dio's "History of Rome" describes a censor of the Roman Senate in 92 BC

——————————————————————————

Outside the court, his supporters and free people cheered louder and louder, urging him to go to the main square to deliver the high priest's election speech, because the voting to determine the "uncrowned king" was about to begin.

For this election, Caesar quietly invested all the support given to him by Crassus and Luculas into the bottomless pit of bribing voters. In other words, he was burdened with debts that he could not afford to repay. This time, he either Skyrocketing, or doomed. In the wax corridor, Caesar gradually developed a strange sense of hearing. He heard the sound of dice rolling on the table...

In this voice, Caesar lowered his head, walked to the atrium, half-knelt down in front of his mother Otelia who was sitting in an armchair, gently put her mother's hand on his face and rubbed it, and kept kissing her mother. The back of his hand, and then said: "Oh, mother, today, either I will become a high priest and go home gloriously, or I will live in exile until death." Because his opponent in the election was the retired chief consul of the previous term, Ka Tirin's supporter, Quintus Lutacius Catullus, was a nobleman among the Roman nobles.

In the evening, it was the charming Caesar who finally walked slowly to the high priest's hall amidst the cheers of the people on Jucora Street. He waved to the enthusiastic supporters easily, as if this election was not difficult at all. - because he never infects any negative emotions to those who support him, which is an essential skill for any wise politician.

"Yes, Caesar wins again."

"This is nothing special. It was all within our expectations. Supporting Caesar is a risk-free but highly profitable gamble."

This is the impression Caesar hopes to leave in the minds of all his supporters.

While passing by a beautiful brick apartment in Jukora, he saw a young oriental man with black hair and a pierced left ear sitting on the terrace, having sex with a curly-haired woman and a light-blond curly-haired boy. Accompanying him, he smiled and gave him a thumbs-up salute, which is a gesture given to the winner in the Colosseum.

Caesar also smiled and made the same gesture. He knew that this wealthy freeman named Calabis had spent no less than half a million sesterces for his campaign. He was his sequestre and he must Something pays off.

"Is that Julius Caesar?" Paluma raised her head and asked her adoptive father.

Calabis squatted down, held down Paluma's little head, and said, "Yes, remember his face. Maybe ten years later, as a knight, you will meet someone from the Julius family. A woman enters into a marriage contract.”

"I would rather hope that the little pigeon will marry the daughter of a freeman or a knight, so that he can live a life of food and clothing without having to worry about being afraid." Potty said, covering his mouth, obviously on the street The air flow stirred up by the crowd made her feel uncomfortable.

"Yes, yes, this is obviously the life our other son, Leo, should live." Calabis said, pressing his face against Poti's proudly protruding belly, "Wait until Leo After we came out, we left Rome and settled in the country villa in Apilon, which was left to the care of the noble knight Paluma. "

"Aren't you worried about losing Rome's industry to little pigeons?" After taking the wind-shielding vest from Calabis and putting it on his body, Poti led Calabis into the inner room and said jokingly.

"No, don't worry at all, because Paluma (the dove) cannot leave the city, and Leo (the lion) is best grown in the countryside." After his wife sat on the couch, Calabis went out the door Go, "The virgins of the Vesta Temple have been busy with the New Year's Ceremony recently. Now I have some free time to go to Apilon to see if Milu and Pop have renovated our villa. ”

"Don't make things too difficult for them. Your request is something the Romans have never asked for." Potty reminded them with a smile and stroking his belly.

"Without new ideas, how can we get money from the renovation projects of so many knights' apartments in Rome? This is a big gift from Caesar for me to support his campaign, and it is also his last achievement after resigning as alderman. I It must be done perfectly." After Calabis said this, he prayed to the niche of the family god.

"Calabis...don't forget that you may have a child..." Potty said hesitantly. She knew that Calabis had rarely mentioned, or was unwilling to mention, the Amazon. Queen, Helenputina, "If the child were still alive, he would be as old as the Paluma we adopted."

"My power has not yet reached places as far away as the Caucasus and the Euxing Sea - I cannot protect that child, even if he really exists." After listening to Poti's words, Karabis stayed for a while. Then he put the key in the bag, gently closed the door and left.

The next morning, in the breeze-filled Apilon Valley, dozens of craftsmen were busy working on the exterior wall of Carabis's villa. Compared with the large villas of other nobles and merchants that stretched for thousands of Roman feet, this small villa seemed a bit too exquisite, but Carabis didn't care. Originally, the villa could have been completed long ago, but he then spent 20,000 drachmas and asked for rework. Because he wanted to use his villa as a "test product" for new architectural ideas.

Money always makes things easier, and the veterans agreed readily. Milou and Tagus were not here today, only Pope was on the scene constantly reminding and directing. After seeing Carabis, the two greeted each other warmly, and Pope said that the problem was solved. Then Carabis followed him into the villa's oval inner hall. There, against the wall, was a set of large floor-to-ceiling bookcases similar to Luculas' study. In front was a sycamore drawing table, plus a horizontal maple desk connected to the pottery frame. The floor was paved with the finest milky white marble from the East, with pale yellow Corinthian columns standing upright, and crisscrossing ceramic water pipes on the wall (Carabis did not dare to use the lead pipes commonly used by the Romans because he was afraid of poisoning), but Carabis's eyes stayed on a place in the center of the inner hall. He asked Pope to make this specifically, or in other words, he spent a lot of money to let Pope rework the small villa for this purpose.

It was a fireplace with a convection chamber underneath between the marble walls. That's right, in Rome, even the richest nobles could only use bronze braziers for heating, and there was no such thing as a fireplace. But now they have it, because Carapis told Pope about the "Franklin fireplace" method in advance. The nobles, knights, and wealthy freemen in Rome are about to set off a new and enthusiastic "fireplace trend", which, together with the "rooftop hot spring trend" and "fish farming trend", will blow countless silver coins into Carapis' pocket.

;

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like