Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 665

[Chapter 10 The City of 7 Hills – Rome!]

However, it seems that the Roman people have long been accustomed to such a living environment. Pedestrians who come and go are crowded on the narrow streets, all busy with their own lives, but the expressions on their faces are a little calm, and they are not disgusted by this. The bad environment and the two wars going on in Rome are not worried. This open-minded state of mind is somewhat similar to that of the Turians in the Kingdom of Dionia.

Minusius led them around a street, and the vision in front of them was much wider. You could see a low hill lying in front of them, which was also densely covered with houses, and many Roman people dressed in ordinary clothes had solemn expressions. to and fro between the hills.

“That is the Raventing Hill, one of the seven hills in the city of Rome.” Minusius saw Tapirus looking at it carefully, and was busy introducing: “It is said that one of the two builders of Rome, the younger brother of Romulos Remus once lived on this mountain with his tribe. Now in the center of the mountain there is a temple of Diana built by our former king Servius. Diana is the goddess of hunting among our Latins. The protector of herdsmen. King Servius once made a rule, ‘As long as you fear this goddess, whether you are a Roman citizen or not, you can come here to worship.’ If it weren’t for the war during this time, you would be Seeing that the Latin tribes from the surrounding areas of Rome come to worship here every day, it will become very lively on the Laventin Hill, but it will be very noisy…”

Scipio said contentedly, his face filled with “Rome is Latin Center” pride.

Tapirus nodded politely, but did not speak.

The group followed the road and turned north.

The streets here were originally quite spacious, but the streets were full of Roman people with stalls and paving. All kinds of noises of hawking and bargaining made Tapirus and the others feel a little irritable, but during the war, in the city of Rome There is still a strong breath of life, which also makes them feel very surprised.

“Where is the arena?” an entourage asked with a finger to the front left.

Through the gap in the crowd, you can see a huge circular building standing in front of the messenger group. The shape of this building makes the messenger group too familiar.

“Yes, this is our Roman Colosseum!” Minusius

exclaimed: “We Romans often hold sports competitions in it, and gladiator games, which are most popular with the people! …”

At this point, Tapirus’ face showed a bit of disgust, because he had learned in advance from the materials in the Turii library about the gladiatorial games that Minusius said, which was for Roman prisoners of war or Slaves fought bloody battles in the arena with crude weapons, exchanging their blood and screams for the joy of the Roman people watching the game…

Tapirus, who was a slave, believes that this is not a game, but a kind of savage backwardness bloody game!

When passing by the arena, the

messenger group also heard shouts from inside.

An entourage pretended to be curious and asked, “Is there a gladiator match going on in the arena?”

Minusius shook his head and said, intentionally or unintentionally, “There is military training for underage Roman citizens. Some young and middle-aged citizens go out to fight, but if there is an enemy attack, we can still call in many Roman citizens from the surrounding colonies to come to rescue, without worrying about the safety of the city of Rome. But let the Romans get used to holding a shield and spear since childhood, Only when they grow up can they face the enemy bravely and have the ability to kill the enemy, and they also need to be familiar with Roman formations and tactics from an early age. When the city-state needs them to fight, they can quickly integrate into the army… So we Romans are not afraid of any strong enemy!”

Hearing this, Tapirus was shocked: this approach is very similar to the way Dionysus gave children military training from an early age.

His eyes touched an entourage behind him, who was an official sent by the Ministry of Military Affairs, I believe he had a deeper feeling.

But what the Dionian envoys did not know was that it was a Roman tradition to let Roman children receive military training from an early age, but it only began in the past ten years to let them practice Roman combat methods and tactics from an early age.

Ten years ago, Rome was devastated by the Gauls on the banks of the Aria, and eventually occupied by the Gauls.

This painful lesson made the Romans realize the inadequacy of their own fighting methods. After some investigation and reflection, the dictator Camillous carried out military reforms on the Roman army.

He learned the tactics of the Celts. First, he changed the Roman army’s previous large phalanx formation similar to that of Greece into multiple small phalanxes (ie squadrons). One legion had 50 squadrons, which could carry out separate assaults, making the former bloated and clumsy. The Roman legions had more flexibility and mobility.

Second, the principles of the configuration of warriors in the legion were changed.

The military tradition of the wealthy, well-equipped citizens at the front and poorer citizens at the back is now lined up by age and level of training.

The first column is for young people, the second column is for prime-aged soldiers, and the third column is for veterans with combat experience.

Third, the weapons of the soldier’s offense and defense have been improved.

Iron helmets replaced leather helmets, leather long shields replaced wooden shields, iron spear heads replaced bronze spear heads, and leather breastplates were mostly replaced by chain mail… Of course, the assistance of Carthage played a role in this. It played a big role, allowing many poor soldiers to use the standard equipment allocated by the Senate, thus expanding the source of soldiers, which of course must be returned after the war.

Fourth, it emphasized the need to build sturdy and comfortable camps when going out to fight…

Although traditional Roman military tactics have been practiced for hundreds of years, once the Romans who had been growing up in combat found that this kind of military reform was beneficial to their combat, they were very The rollout is about to begin, and adults from citizens to children are taking all their spare time to train in order to familiarize themselves with new equipment and tactics as early as possible, and it has already begun to produce noticeable results.

Over the years, Rome has almost maintained a complete victory in the battle against surrounding forces.

Due to Davos’ attention, the Dionysian Military Department also had an understanding of the current military system in Rome. They were surprised to find that these military reforms of the Romans were very similar to the military tactics of the Dionysian heavy infantry. They all believed that the Romans must have learned the tactics of Dionia secretly. This time, one of the purposes of sending officials into the messenger group was to witness the Roman army with their own eyes.

After passing the Grand Arena and heading north, the situation in the neighborhood has changed again. Not only are the roads really wide, but there is less rubbish.

Even the house has become luxurious.

Although there are still simple houses interspersed, the arrangement of the houses is still somewhat disordered, but the number of large houses with red bricks and white walls has increased significantly, especially the two not far from the north and south sides of the road are not too high and seem to be large in size. But there are more such dwellings on large hills.

An official of the envoys from the Household Registration Department of Dionia pretended to be curious and asked: “Is this a rich area?”

Minusius heard the meaning of his words: it used to be full of rubbish and the environment was bad. Slums, this is a wealthy area with a good environment and good housing. The gap between the poor and the rich in the urban area of Rome is so obvious?

!

He replied tactfully: “Every city-state has poor and rich, and there is always conflict between the poor and the rich. It is inevitable, and Rome is the same. But the difference is that Roman people quarrels are quarrels, once citizens quarrel. The meeting has passed the resolution, and we will work together to complete it together…”

Having said that, he looked at the hills on both sides of the road and said seriously: “Not all the people who live on these two hills are They are rich people, but most of them are the earliest builders of Rome and the early civic clans. They once contributed more to the city-state, and now they are also willing to sacrifice more for the city-state!”

Minusius pointed to the left The hill on the side: “This is Mount Partini. Romulus, the founder of the city of Rome, our first king, lived on this hill from the beginning with his people who followed him.”

He then points to the hill to the right Yau: “This is Mount Silio. It used to be the center of our Latin people 200 years ago – Alba Longa was defeated by our Romans, and its inhabitants were not taken prisoners, but were invited to emigrate to this mountain, Become a Roman citizen!”

Tapirus keenly felt the pride in Minusius’s words, and asked subconsciously, “Where does your family live?”

Minusius seemingly casually pointed to the Palatine Hill on the left, but in fact he did not tell the Dionysian his full name: Minusius Cornelius Scipio .

Cornelius is the name of the Roman clan, which is the noble of the Roman aristocracy and the wealthy of the wealthy.

Tapirus clearly felt this, too, the smiling, fluent Greek, elegantly worded young man inadvertently exuding an air of nobility.

In the Dionysian kingdom, there are of course some nobles, who all joined when Dionia conquered the neighboring city-states, and some even retained part of the land wealth and entered the senate.

However, under the strict control of King Davos and the laws of Dioria, they do not have much power, and the kingdom can basically treat nobles and commoners, old citizens and new citizens equally, so it is like Tapi. Slaves like Ruth can also gain wealth and power through their own efforts.

It is precisely because of the short time of the establishment of the Kingdom of Dionia and the fairness that Davos strongly promoted that Tapirus could hardly feel the difference of class in the country, and it was just when he first dispatched foreign countries. Today, he felt it, so he suddenly felt a sense of discomfort that he didn’t want to talk to this young man.