In front of Valin's apartment, before the morning fog had lifted, a well-bound pig was humming in the mud until it was stabbed by Timosius, screaming and writhing a few times, and losing his life. Then Timosius used his knife very neatly, slashed in the belly of the pig, took out the bloody gall, and handed it to a few Tianzhu men who were holding trays next to him.

Timothy's clinic had now expanded to four floors, and he had faithfully followed Calabis's admonition, taking the gang of Celebrium with him, who had made a fortune in the month alone, probably no less than five thousand drachmas, and he had done what he wanted, erecting a bronze statue of a horse and a flying fish in front of the clinic, instead of a bronze statue of a snake in front of a Hellenistic clinic. Now that he was satisfied, he received a commission from Calabis to get the boar's gall, and he brought his assistant to do it.

On the other hand, veterans such as Milu, Pope, and Tagus, who had built a simple wind tower, were using classical instruments to carefully map and map the architectural data of the pile of rubble in the apartment.

The plate containing the pig gall was handed over to the little pigeon Paruma, and after the little one looked at it for a while, he probably felt that it smelled fishy, so he handed it to his adoptive mother, Potty, who nodded, and handed it to Calabis.

Zuihou, Calabis handed over to the intestinal diviner next to him, who had paid a great deal of money to bring in, and after looking at it in a pretended manner, he pinched the pig's gall and declared in a loud voice to the veterans and craftsmen with shovels, pickaxes, and hammers: "This is the boar who was born in Si, grew up in Si, and died in Si, and his feelings for the Valin apartment are like the feelings of the citizens for the city of Rome." I found that its gall is full and ruddy, which means that this place has been blessed by the gods, and the land, air currents, and water are all healthy, so that such a perfect gall has been raised. The new building erected here will be strong, durable and blessed! ”

All those present cheered, and Calabis quietly stuffed a money bag containing three hundred silver coins to the bowel, and secretly said that it had been hard work.

"It doesn't matter, the pigs brought from Shannan Gaul are all fat and strong. Immediately this pig," whispered the intestinal diviner.

"Don't worry, after the sacrificial ceremony, except for the pig's tongue cut off and made into a meal for the craftsmen to enjoy, the rest will also be given to you, not a tribute." After he had departed with his assistants, he jumped on a high platform made of earth and said to everyone, "Each person's salary is five cesths a day, and the fastest one will receive an additional reward, and after the completion of the whole building, each person will receive twenty percent of the total salary as a completion allowance." Cheer me on, everyone! I will have the name of my son, Paruma, engraved on the tower of this new building, which he dedicated to the city of Rome, is his! ”

Amid the praise of the crowd, Potty took Calabis's hand and stroked his shoulder with the other, "May the goddess of fate favor you, you have given everything you have." ”

Calabis kissed Poti and said, "Like those who run for consul, the greatest returns are in the most dangerous investments." ”

Under the gloomy winter clouds, the daily atmosphere of Rome reached a fever pitch on the New Year of 63 B.C., and if an eagle flew over the city, it could see the streets and courtyards crisscrossed with the nobles feasting with their own ghosts, the fights between the protôtes and the protectors, the passionate speeches of the candidates in the squares, the dense scaffolding of the epic buildings erected to please the people, and then its wings stained with the icy splash of the Tiper. It couldn't help but think of the warmth of Sicily, and between the sky and the clouds, it changed its course.

"Hey, you deck wood, what is there to see for an eagle, keep paddling. Quick, turn the rudder, damn it, every winter, the course of the Tiber will be crowded and clogged - get out of the way, little grasshopper boat carrying relief food, don't get in my way, we have Dojon bricks from Greece on it, each exactly five palms long, if it is broken, I will break it, and your great theater will not be able to be built. A shipowner who had entered the Tiper, urging the sailors to work while holding his mast, complained loudly, "Damn, aren't there docks and warehouses on this river?" ”

But on the gray shore, there were only dirty civilians dressed in the same gray clothes, holding baskets and pottery urns, noisy, all crowded at a few small ferries, waiting for the ships carrying grain. But the whole river was full of ships from all over Italy, some of them of Spanish marble, some of the mortar bricks of Utica, some of the steel and copper blocks of Abythynia Minor, all brought in for the great colossium and the Colosseum to be built, and the sails of all colors were crowded together, and there were shouts of invectives for each other—the city of Rome was so capable of shipping on the Timber that there was not even a port to unload its cargo.

You can't do it by road, the traffic in Rome is enough, the streets are as mysterious as intestines, narrow and winding, and there are nightmarish congestions.

A flash of light flashed through the eyes of the shipowners, and when they looked up, they couldn't believe their sight, and between the Evandini Hill and the Tiber River stood a huge complex of buildings, or more accurately, a warehouse dock with a lighthouse (the light just now was from the large bronze mirror above)! On the wall tiles of the tower, the striking and huge Latin inscription is engraved, "Paruma. Welcome to Calabis! ”

This is the reason why Calabis bought the Valin apartment, after he asked Caesar at the beginning, he activated the flat map of the city of Rome in his mind, and found that the location of the Valin apartment happened to form a well-proportioned triangle with the Grand Coliseum of Crassus and the Colosseum of Neruda, plus the proximity to the river, it was actually the most suitable place for the distribution of building materials - Calabis measured one foot at a time, yes, this is the most suitable, I didn't say it.

Leveling the land, building warehouses, erecting cranes, clearing the river bay silt, and laying long trestle bridges cost him almost all of his previous assets, but he felt that the gamble was worth it.

But when he was on the lighthouse and saw the ships approaching, he understood that it was indeed worth it! In this building, the name of his adopted son, Paruma, was inscribed, and he hoped that this merit, when Paluma became an adult and became a citizen, would bring benefits to the child's future, yes, he would grow up to be a respectable knight, although he was not very good at school.

Calabis had no mercy in paying the shipowners for the warehouses, and he had done precise calculations before, setting the price at a level that would make them "immortal" and not make them happy, but would not drive them overland.

The silver coins jingled like water, and as the Colosseum and the Colosseum were stacked brick by brick, they flowed into the pockets of Calabis, and the great public works of Crassus and Neruda were the biggest beneficiaries, in fact, me, the alien freedmen, Calabis.

In this year, Calabis had just reached the age of twenty-four.