Augustus Road

"Great Macedonia will remember this shame, and King Philip fled like a doe in the forest." - After the battle of Scutusa, Arcius mocked the defeated Macedonian King Philip's poem.

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In the next few days of rest, Lepidus heard the most common words spoken by Centurion Hebrida, which was winter camp.

The so-called winter camp means that the legion cancels all combat plans and retreats to the relatively warm Bithynia camp in the coming cold winter. The soldiers can move freely in the local camp to relieve the mood of the war: gambling, drinking, * *, sell trophies including slaves to the military traders, and even find a local mother-in-law to form a "dew family".

This was not surprising at the time. When the Roman army arrived somewhere, Italian businessmen, journalists, tax collectors and speculators would swarm in from all over like flies. They quickly formed a network called "Visua" near the military camp. "The temporary town was equipped with bars, casinos, rental buildings, and hospitals. Many famous cities in Europe and Asia in later generations started from this "Visua".

Lepidus was directly named "Calabis" by Hyperida because he was found in Calabi; as for Adiana, Hyperida has not killed her yet, and of course she does not know her true identity. Instead, he called her "Calabia" and was still hesitating whether selling this exotic little beauty to a wealthy man in Rome at a high price would make him appear more reasonable.

As for Batiatus, who was severely injured by "Carabia" and was still lying on the couch in unconsciousness, that "sissy" was sent by Hebrida to take care of him. In fact, Lepidus already knew the true identity of "Sissy" at this time. He was a Jewish slave from Galilee named Demetrius. His eyes were very similar to the hero of "The Pianist" and he always talked with people. Before boasting about something like "I am educated, I served as a tutor to the children of wealthy Greeks in their villas in Asia Minor." Lepidus learned that he was captured by Hebrida during the war a year ago. Captured by the centurions, Hybrida also thought he was a cultured man and planned to sell him for a thousand sesterces during the winter camp.

Because Hybrida kept twenty slaves with the human traffickers at the port of Bithynia, all of which were his "war fortune". He often said that once the winter camp was over, Lepidus and Demetrius would be sent to him. Together with Adiana and other newly captured people, he sold all the old and new ones together, so that he could earn 20,000 sesterces. After retiring, he and his wife could own a large property in the suburbs of Rome, or they could go to Spain or Africa. In a new emerging town, I bought a three-story apartment building, rented out the second and third floors to tenants, and rented out the first floor to businessmen as a store.

Lepidus didn't know that he was worth hundreds of sesterces in the eyes of Hybrida? Anyway, his current "profession" is just a "camp slave". He does manual labor, cutting fodder, feeding mules, collecting ingredients, and taking care of camp sundries. It is always more "down to earth" than the summer practice when he was in college. .

Adiana never had to look at Lepidus, and she didn't even exchange greetings. She refused to do any work. She just wrapped herself in a cloak (given to her by Lepidus) and sat on the stone in front of the tent, looking at the distance with her noble and melancholy eyes. Skyrim.

After the fall of Karabi Palace, most of the people were killed or committed suicide, and only a few survived to become slaves. Their origins are unknown, but this also has the advantage that no one can reveal Adiana's identity.

Even so, Lepidus secretly figured out the joints of the Seventh Legion. He hoped to meet a commander-level figure before sending Adiana out, so that the princess's chastity and reputation would be better protected. And if someone like Hebrida knew about it, the consequences would be absolutely disastrous. However, because time was too short, Lepidus only got a vague understanding from the soldiers and slaves: the Seventh Legion was one of the three legions of the Roman Republic in Asia Minor, and its commander was Cedelius; the other number was Eight and Eleven, the former is on standby in Silesia, and the latter is on his way to Calabi, led by the Eastern Commander Luculas himself.

As for the Third Regiment of the Sixth Brigade, which Li Bida was in, he also learned a little bit about it. The Legion's Regiment was actually composed of two Centuries, and then the three Regiments formed a brigade, consisting of ten brigades. A legion. The two Centurions are logically commanded by two Centurions, but in order to centralize power, they are also divided into a senior and a junior. However, the status of the two is not as literal as the literal meaning, and is established by the age of service. For example, Uteris was born into a noble family. Although he was much younger than Hybrida, he was still a senior centurion and concurrently served as a military tribune. Of course, he only regarded this as a junior springboard for career advancement. He was from a famous family. He has a rich family fortune and is favored by the commander-in-chief. I believe that he will be able to serve as a branch officer of a certain province in a short time and be promoted step by step. But Heibrida, he has a nickname in the regiment, called "Forever Low-level", because although he fought bravely, he looted to become a surname. For this reason, he repeatedly disobeyed military orders, so he has been in the low-level position of the Sixth Battalion. The position of centurion remained unchanged for seven years (the centurions of the Roman legions first took up their duties in the 10th cohort, and their final destination was the chief senior centurion of the 1st cohort).

But because Uterius was a military tribune, he had served as a staff officer with Secydelius for a long time. Speaking of the actual commander of the third regiment, Hebrida was still the actual commander.

Therefore, Li Bida chose to remain calm.

A few days later, he was wearing a ragged fur coat and grazing mules and goats for the regiment on a hillside covered with autumn grass outside Kalabi. He was surprised that these tasks that he would never have touched before crossing over, after a short time After the adaptation period, he actually worked vigorously, just like the poem of Hosiod in ancient Greece: "When the farming season comes, you will go to the fields with your slaves, regardless of rain or shine, morning or evening." This is what Zeus or God imposed on mankind. The eternal hard labor on the head, something deeply hidden in the genes of generations, has now awakened in Lepidah's body.

You ask Lepidah why he didn't run away? It was useless, because the next day, he was tattooed with a tattoo unique to the slaves of the Seventh Legion, a row of curved grapevine tattoos. As long as he took this thing with him, he would be a prison wherever he went. Things that young men and women find cool in later years have caused Lepidah to lose his freedom and rights.

At sunset, a group of soldiers on patrol rode horses and galloped past with nervous expressions. They entered the military gate and shouted, "Please inform all our brothers that Commander Luculas and the 11th Legion have arrived. Karabi!"

The entire Seventh Legion camp became noisy.

About forty minutes later, Lepidus was just about to take the mule back when the sound of bugles sounded on the hillside, and a burst of birds preparing to spend the night were frightened and circled. The mountain road and woods blocked Lepidus' view, and he only saw (he The glasses before were actually flat glasses) A ​​golden eagle flew across the tree crowns, and finally appeared in his field of vision.

It was the eagle flag of the Roman legion. It was held by a flag bearer wearing a bearskin cloak and walked to the front of the team. The golden eagle flapping its wings at the top of the flag looked proud and stern. The flag bearer was followed by a team of buglers, and then a general riding a white horse and wearing a red cloak, surrounded by retinues holding "Fascist" batons and axes.

This general is probably Luculas.

After Luculas slowly passed by, the officers and soldiers of the Eleventh Legion behind him, in units of centurions, formed a column marching formation, marching to the rhythm of bugles and flutes, with the centurion's grape cane on his head. , engraved with the legion's number "Ⅺ", like a giant python lying on the hill. ;