Augustus Road

Luculas' villa is located under a hill in the Bay of Naples. This is the most desirable place for wealthy people in Rome. Every rich man who builds a house here is deliberately competing for luxury and flaunting his power. A group of new wealthy villas are erected, and at the same time, a group of old owners of the villas will sadly leave due to political or business failures. But Luculas has always been rock solid. Even though he is frustrated now, he is still the richest man in Rome. This can be seen from his gorgeous villa where he stands proudly among the chickens:

The villa is not elsewhere, it is built directly on the seawall of Naples. From a distance, Calabis can see its golden flat roof, shining in the shade of the trees. When Luculas' carriage entered the huge side door, some people The slave was carefully carrying a cherry tree brought from Pontus to the garden of the villa. "Kelly, pay attention, it is my biggest harvest in many years of fighting." Luculas got off the sedan chair. Without laughing at himself, he then asked Calabis to follow him, crossed the fountain garden, and entered the anteroom of the villa.

Over there, two distinguished guests in casual robes were admiring various luxurious paintings and furnishings in the hall. When they saw Luculas walking in with his hands outstretched enthusiastically, they also kissed and hugged him.

"Lucius (name of Lucullus), you are too luxurious, really. This will not set a good example for the citizens of Rome." A sonorous and powerful man in his thirties, with a thin body but piercing eyes, said Speaking of.

"Luxury alone should not be enough for me to face the accusations of the town hall, my dear Cato Usensis." Luculas sighed slightly and lay half on the couch. Another distinguished guest was sitting where Luculas rested his feet. This gentleman was about in his early fifties. His short hair was already mixed with gray. His eyes and nose were very big, and his head looked extremely round because of his short hair. There are deep wrinkles connecting the facial features, which makes this king's city deep and endless. "Tuna, can you talk about your war with the King of Pontus and the King of Armenia in Asia Minor? How about, if you have five Legion, can we destroy these two great countries?"

Calabis, who was standing on the porch of the front hall, thought to himself that Luculas was right to leave a warning to Pompey when he handed over military power: now all the powerful politicians in Rome are crazy about the cause of conquering foreign nations. Everyone is eager to master the army, gain the power of life and death, and obtain greater benefits and honors for themselves on the edge of the known world, in order to gain an advantage in the competition for power in the city of Rome.

Luculas looked at the big round head and smiled, and said: "My dear Crassus, I will soon write a memoir of the war in Asia Minor. It will take me about ten years. If you can live to six If you are fifteen years old, you can lead ten legions to conquer the more distant Parthia according to the characteristics of the enemy and ourselves described in my book."

The big round-headed Crassus laughed in a high-pitched voice. On the one hand, he expressed that he liked Luculas's joke, and on the other hand, he was hiding his true inner thoughts, "Really, Tuna, the book you wrote is good, and you His military skills are equally good, and the book "History of the Masi War" is still on my desk."

On one side, Cato the Younger, who was supporting the pillar with his hands, also nodded to express his agreement with Crassus's evaluation. "History of the Masi War" was written by Luculas more than ten years ago (about the Alliance War more than 20 years ago). Memories), it was regarded as a classic of war history books as soon as it was published. Then, Cato the Younger cleared his throat, "About the accusations at the town meeting..." Crassus immediately took the opportunity to hold Luculas's hand, "Don't worry, I also hate Pompey's hypocrisy. The nouveau riche…”

At this time, Luculas made a silence gesture. He thought that there were too many people in the front hall and was too mixed - Demetrius's lesson was still in front of him, so he called Kelly in, Leaning into the ear of the closest shield-slave, he gave a few instructions, and then clapped his hands twice, indicating that only the two distinguished guests Cato and Crassus would be left to discuss the matter, and the rest would go out first.

On the boulevard of the manor villa, Kelly grabbed his slightly bald hair and said to Calabis who was following him: "Listen, take your wife and that baby right away, and follow me to Rome first. ”

"Is this the city of Rome?" One day later, when they entered Capua, which was connected to the Appian Avenue, Paluma, who was being held by Calabis and Poti, asked in surprise - Capua is This city was left by the Greek colonists. It has a neat city appearance and neat streets. The blocks are like square grids. The citizen residences are all two-story brick buildings, generally of the same height and size, with temples and temples of different colors. The market and green belt complement each other. About 40,000 people live here, and it is full of geometric and artificial visual enjoyment.

Kelly, who was walking in front and driving a mule cart, laughed and said: "Capua is a paradise made of stone. Compared with it, Rome is a big pigsty!" This made Calabis very puzzled. He took the opportunity to ask Kelly, "I have read some works by Roman poets, and they all described the city of Rome as being located on seven hills, with gurgling springs in the valley and the fragrance of flowers brought by the breeze. It was the most beautiful city in the center of the world. ”

"The poet also said that they are willing to farm and cultivate the land. Then ask those who accept sponsorship if they are willing to work on a farm in Sicily for a few days." Kelly disagreed.

With such doubts, Carapis and his party slowly approached the city of Rome in the north. When they finally arrived at the intersection of the Appian Way and the southeastern wall of Rome, Carapis got his first glimpse of the living "world capital" of Rome.

The walls of Rome are extremely curved and irregular, and at the intersection, they present a concave shape. There are densely packed buildings on both sides of the avenue, with no rules at all. The eaves of one house often block the balcony of another house. Various signs are swaggering on the walls and tree trunks, including taverns, brothels, hostels, apartments, cattle pens, and gambling houses. They are often all decorated with colorful chalk graffiti, with campaign slogans, works of erotic poets, obscene erotic paintings, and love declarations of young men. There was a section of the avenue that was entirely made up of sloping mass graves. The hillside was full of graves and tombstones, all of which were covered with graffiti. The Carabis family also saw a large pit in the middle. Several masked men pulled a large cart, on which lay the bodies of people who had starved to death and fallen on the road. Then, with a whirring sound, all kinds of corpses rolled into the pit, accompanied by the stinking water and rotten bones in the pit until they merged into one. The breeze brought waves of pungent stench.

After entering the city, it was an even more terrifying scene. Only the main avenue was slightly spacious, but both sides were full of undulating buildings. Except for the "holy land" on both sides of the city wall where buildings were prohibited, almost every corner was filled with buildings. Each building had a single-sided arcade on the second floor, trying to grab space and sunlight as much as possible. The next floor was a relatively transparent arcade for people to enter and exit. The streets were filled with pedestrians, sedan chairs and mule carts. Carabis could not help but hold Paluma's hand tightly to prevent the little cripple from getting lost.

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