Augustus Road

"Since the Olikums have decided to turn against their side, will they still care about the lives of the hostages? Killing them now would cut off the way for future negotiations, which is unwise and has no effect except venting anger." Lepidus quickly rejected Cretas' request and asked him to inspect the progress of the fortifications with the cavalry captain Hansk, but soon the two reported that although all the citizens and soldiers were working hard, it would be difficult to complete the fortifications without two to three days.

Lepidus calculated in his mind and then decided on the process: The key to the battle of Salona is to consolidate the defense and then fight quickly, and the time must not be delayed too long.

Then, he went to the city council and asked if there were any brave young nobles in the city. The answer was that there was a man named Otacilius, who was a poor man with no family, but suddenly sued the owner of a gold mine in the suburbs of the city. Because of some minor festivals, he asked the owner to compensate him with 100,000 sestes. In court, Otacilius acted as his own lawyer and successfully provoked the other party's lawyer, dragging him into a state of anger. As a result, the other party yelled at Otacilius at the key stage of the debate: "Go, go and swear on your parents' ashes, so that I will believe your nonsense." As a result, Otacilius really asked someone to fetch his parents' urns, and in front of the jury and judge, he swore on the urns that what he said was true, and asked the other party's lawyer to abide by what he had just said. As a result, the court could only rule that Otacilius won. The young man received a compensation of 100,000 sestes and began to study in Rhodes. He has just returned now.

Isn't this kind of young man exactly what Lepidus needs? Lepidus called him over, "Does Dictato represent this country?"

"Of course. I firmly believe that the Republic can only absorb elites from all over the country under the leadership of Julius. If the foolish and old people like Pompey and Cato the Younger win, Rome will only become more and more closed and backward, and will always be a rural vegetable market on the hill." Otacilius answered happily.

Lepidus understood what he meant on the spot, and promised, "As long as you complete the tasks assigned by me, and of course the gods bless this city to hold on completely, I will lead you to Rome and enter the political arena. Then at least return home as a provincial treasurer."

"Then you must be one of the twelve judicial officers in Rome, my lord, and it would be best if you were a resident judicial officer."

The resident judicial officer, as the name suggests, happens to be a senior official in charge of the rights and interests of foreigners and colonial cities. This is exactly the position that Lepidus attempted to obtain as a construction officer, and of course it also fits his current characteristics. I didn't expect that this Otacilius really wanted what he wanted.

The next day at noon, Laelius led a mighty army to a high ground fifteen miles away from Salona to set up camp, followed by many Illyrian barbarians who came to see the wind. They also joined the general's team, because Laelius was also one-eyed (the scar on his face undoubtedly made people mistakenly think so). Therefore, these fierce and cruel barbarians, including the Tribarians, the Scotsians, and the Libournesians (they are seafaring barbarians active in this mountainous area near the sea, and the name of the Roman bireme comes from them) all call this general "Polyphimas", which is the Cyclops in ancient Greek mythology. According to legend, this giant and his wife and children are the ancestors of the Illyrian region. The name of this province comes from the giant's son Illyria.

During Caesar's reign, these barbarians had a much worse relationship with him than the relationship between the Illyrian city and the chief executive. The 11th Legion was attacked by them before, and all its baggage was lost. It was defeated by Laelius's men, and more than half of its troops were lost. Although Caesar now has no spare energy to punish these people, these barbarians still took the opportunity to join Pompey's side because they felt that Pompey was more tolerant of the barbarians.

In this case, Laelias divided the troops into two groups. The first legion went to occupy the city of Olycum and prevented Lepidus from landing. He took the second legion, more than 4,000 barbarian servants, and collected a large number of light ships from the Libournes. They set out from the seaport of the city of Issa and approached the city of Salona by land and water.

Coincidentally, at this time, Otacilius also brought the so-called envoys to meet Pompey's generals, "There is only one way out for your city, that is to surrender today." This was Laelias's request, which was very tough.

But Autacilius was very courageous. He asked for corresponding surrender conditions, that is, Salona would be made the capital of the province, replacing the original capital of Issa, which competed with his own city for navigation rights. Then Autacilius quoted classics and talked endlessly about the unique advantages and history of his city. He also said that Salona controlled the passage to the inland mountains of Illyria. If Laelias wanted to wait for reinforcements from the King of Thrace, he had to rely on the help of their city.

Laelias was always not interested in these empty words. After listening to these words patiently, he said that the status and power of the city could go to Delphi to ask for the judgment of Marcellus after you surrender. He was the one who presided over such matters, "and I only decide whether to accept your city peacefully or burn it down."

The envoy looked very disappointed, and then he asked the general to understand their difficulties with a second-best expression, "We were all Caesar's Creon. If we surrender the city directly without resistance, we will suffer a great stain on our credibility. So I hope that you can send a small number of troops to pretend to fight with our city for one day the next day, just pretend, and then on the third day of September, the priests of our city will formally surrender at the festival of the goddess Parthena!"

"Don't play any tricks, has the Lepidus team entered your city!" Laelius suddenly roared, and then his guards drew their swords, but Otacilius remained calm. Although the other envoys were scared and hugged each other, he pointed out righteously that even the governor of Macedonia should not treat a great city so rudely during the war, not to mention that he did not see any Lepidus troops appearing under the city.

Laelias, who was skeptical, finally agreed to this request temporarily, but he also said: "I will still leave the main force three miles outside the city, and then I will send two centurions to follow you into the city to investigate. If I find any fraud, I will attack at any time and destroy your city, and give all the treasures of your temple to the barbarians!" (To be continued...)