Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 778

[Chapter 124 The Contest Before the Siege]

At the same time, the ballistas of the various legions of Dionysus were pushed to the southwest corner of the city of Rome, 200 meters away from the city, and lined up, shooting stones at the section of the city wall that protruded like dog ears. bomb.

Dozens of stone bullets bombarded the city wall at the same time, with a terrifying momentum, causing a burst of exclamations from the defenders on the city.

Round after round of stone bombardment, shattered wall bricks and stone flakes continued to fall down, which also made the defenders on the city uneasy.

Not only ballistas but also abdominal bows attacked the city of Rome.

This kind of huge iron arrows shot by a bow that was magnified countless times was not aimed at the city wall, but fell into the slums behind the city wall one after another, causing panic among the Roman people.

But soon the people in the slums found that these iron arrows stuck on the ground and on the houses were bound with several papyrus scrolls, and the daring people stepped forward curiously and untied the papyrus scrolls.

Scipio the Great, the chief of the city guard, had a copy sent by the soldiers. He carefully looked at it. The paper was full of words in Latin: My compatriots in Rome, my name is Valques. I was a Roman citizen. Lives on Mount Laventin.

Eight years ago, because a rogue drove the sheep, gnawed the wheat seedlings in the fields I rented, and provoked me with verbal provocation, making me angrily wounded, I was sentenced to a large fine by the court, which I was unable to pay. Under the coercion of the other party, I had to buy a slave to pay off this high debt. Later I found out that this person was a diners of Cabreus Claudius Sabinus, so I lost Lose this lawsuit that should not have been lost and become a slave!

All my compatriots who live in Rome and have no land like me, all my compatriots who own a small land but come from commoners, are you like me, living uneasy every day, very worried about those who own a lot of land and a lot of slaves The nobles who took their own insignificant share and turned themselves into their slaves, just because they were already rich enough, they wanted more!

We have fought against the greed of the nobles many times and wanted to gain a little right to protect ourselves, so we have abandoned the city many times to let the greedy nobles realize the importance of our commoners!

But to this day, these greedy Roman nobles still control all the power in this city-state, and we are their captive cattle and sheep, who may be slaughtered by them at any time!

Compatriots, are you willing?

!

Fortunately, Diana’s blessing, and now the Dionians are here!

Although Dionia is a country with a king, its citizens have a lot of power, they own their own land, and the law protects it from plundering, no matter what birth or race they are, as long as they can Can hold public office, and even become a patriarch in the end. Even ordinary citizens can report officials who violate the law and punish them by the law…

King Dionysus promised me that he would make Rome also like Dai Such a beautiful place as Onia!

My countrymen, if you do not want to become slaves, then join the Dionysian army and overthrow the rule of these greedy and ugly Roman nobles!

After reading it,

Scipio

felt a chill in his heart, his hands and feet became cold, and he ordered in a hurry: “Quick!

Send someone to confiscate all these papyrus, no one is allowed to have it!

”

When the city guards sent by Scipio the Great rushed to the slum, they saw some civilians gathered in piles on the side of the street, surrounded by a few literate civilians, listening to them read aloud from the iron arrow. The papyrus scroll

whispered,

“I know this Valks, who used to live in front of my house, a very good man. When he became a slave, he distributed some of his family’s belongings to everyone. ……Ugh……”

“The people of the Claudius family are really bad! They have always been strict with us civilians! Last month, it was this Cabreus Claudius Sabinus who just entered the middle school. The captain’s youngest son injured my neighbor just because of a trivial matter, and now he can’t go to the ground!”

“It’s not just the Claudius family, which of these big families in Rome is not bad! As I say, Dionia People are coming, it’s better to kill them all!”

“Do you think that what you say in this letter is true, that it is really so good to be a citizen of Dionia

?

”

When there was a lot of discussion about the story, the city guards who carried out the commander’s order rushed in and forcibly collected the sand rolls, which naturally caused a conflict.

Fortunately, the elders headed by Ambostus who got the news arrived in time to appease the enraged civilians on the spot and criticize the city guards who almost caused the incident.

At the same time, Ambostus held the papyrus scroll and shouted loudly: “Citizens, this is a conspiracy of the Dionians, they want to use this to divide us, so that we can’t defend the city together! Ten A few years ago, we had a conflict because of internal quarrels and discord. Some people abandoned Rome and went away to maintain love. Jupiter was angry, and the Gauls gave us the most painful punishment!

After rebuilding Rome, we have been in The Capitoline Mountain swore an oath to never make mistakes again! So, don’t be

fooled

by the enemy’s rhetoric, and never let the tragedy of the destruction of Rome be repeated!”

The anger of the Roman people who came over was quickly quenched.

But at this time, someone shouted: “Yes, the civilians who fled to Wei’ai finally moved back to Rome, but have the promises made by the Senate been fulfilled?! We still owe a lot of debt, and we can’t rent public ownership. We cannot hold important positions in the city-state, and we hope that among the two consuls elected every year, there must be a commoner’s request, and the Senate will simply ignore it!”

Ambustus looked intently, and the person who spoke was really Gaius Julius Brutus, the tribune. He had not explained it yet, and the roar of the people sounded again: “The tribune is right. That’s right, the senate is always trying to perfunctory us, just wanting us to sacrifice our lives, and not wanting to give us any rights at all!”

“This is the Rome of the nobles and the rich, not our Rome! Such a Rome is destroyed, and What does it have to do with us!”

“Whenever we are promised the same rights as the nobles, we will take up arms to fight against the Dionysians!”

…

The protests of the people are like a tide towards the elders They came, which made them panic.

In normal times, they would have many ways to deal with such protests, but now that the army is besieging the city, if one accidentally moves, I am afraid that the enemy’s attack will not start, and there will be chaos within themselves.

So Ambustus and the others hurriedly said: “The Senate will discuss their request immediately, please calm down and wait for the answer.”

With the consent of the people, the elders were able to return to the Senate and convened an emergency meeting. the meeting.

However, whether it is to cancel debts or share public land with the commoners seriously involves the interests of the elders and the nobles, not to mention that the commoners hold important positions in the city-state or even the consuls, which is a big taboo for the nobles. Therefore, the elders Although the debate was fierce in the court, no conclusion has been reached.

………………………………

At this time, Scipio the Great, who had been busy in the defense of Rome, got another urgent report: Dionia’s warship appeared on the Tiber River.

Although he had already considered the possibility of an enemy ship invading the Tiber River after learning that Ostia had fallen, he was still very nervous when the news came.

He immediately rushed to the southwest corner of the city wall, stood at the head of the city, looked south, and saw three-tiered oared warships lined up in long dragons, pulled by slaves and laborers, and under the full force of sailors’ oars, Going upstream along the Tiber River, the most front-line warships have already approached the river port…

These very small warships on the vast sea are extremely huge on the Tiber River with a width of only about 100 meters. The hull of more than 50 meters crosses the river, reaching half of the width of the river, which makes many people in the city still The Roman soldiers, who had never seen a three-deck oar, were very nervous.

What made Scipio the Great even more nervous was that he saw many Dionian soldiers board the warship from the river port, and then the warship sailed to the other side to dock, and the Dionian soldiers boarded the river beach on the other side…

The Dionians want to attack Rome from the north through Shiibashi!

Great Scipio’s heart skipped a beat, UU read www.sonicmtl.

The com immediately ordered: “Go and inform Cassius, strengthen the defense against Shibashi, and be careful of the attack of the Dionians!”

After the messenger left, Great Scipio thought about it and was still a little worried, and went to Shibashi again. An additional 700 Roman soldiers were dispatched, most of whom were citizens over the age of 50, of course.

Scipio the Great was worried about the north of the city of Rome, and another soldier came to report: outside the western city wall of Rome, a group of Roman slaves and Latin laborers appeared. Under the protection of Dionysian soldiers, they shouted to the soldiers at the front of the city. .

The content of these slaves and laborers’ shouting is actually similar to what was written on the papyrus before, but these people said it from their own experience, which is more persuasive, and they are not only aimed at Roman civilians, but also slaves.

Because of the lack of troops in the city, the Roman Senate had to let the city-state slaves serve as soldiers and promised to give them freedom after the war.

Now these civilians and slave soldiers on the west city wall are a little bit distracted, their state even infected the people in the city, and the Senate’s delay in making a decision also angered them, they gathered and ran to the gate of the Senate The former protested, and even declared: If the Senate does not give them a clear answer, they will go to open the gates of the city and welcome the Dionysians.

The urgent notice sent by the chief of the city guard, the Great Scipio, and the force of the people outside the gate made the elders panic like ants on a hot pot.