On the third market day, the day of the feast of the temple of the Vesta, Calabis wisely painted a sign of "No Battle" in a dark corner in front of the sacred treasury, and carefully arranged the interior - the folding bed he had commissioned from the carpenter was put away and turned into a cabinet-like thing; The hoarded plasters, spices, candles, olive oil, and other things he had put in the hidden cupboard; A few hired children with Cupid's little wings (who carried candles and lanterns to guide the lovers) were also given ten Sesces by him, and sent home with joy, and each of them was to continue his work with him after the festival.

So, on this day, the sacred treasury of the temple of the Stove God was very quiet, except for Calabis, who was standing at the door, there was not half a person--Richia, who had come to fetch the holy vessel with the other five virgins, saw that the whole scene was well organized and meticulous, and her strict face also showed a satisfied expression, and took out a small box, and said that it was your three market days together, a total of three hundred Sesdes, in order to commend you Calabis for your diligence, specially added to the full number.

Hmph, I've already made more than three thousand Seths in this time, and I don't know if you mature know what happened all day in the Holy Curry. However, Calabis had an extremely surprised expression on his face, took the money box with trembling hands, and said that he would do his best to serve the virgin and the god of the stove in the future.

Richilia nodded, and instructed the rest of the virgins, including the young Zeno, to carry up the various holy vessels, and they were to hold a public sacrifice ceremony at Capitor Hill tonight and early in the morning, so as to ensure the well-being of the Roman city-state.

After sending the virgins away, Calabis took a few deep breaths, and after leaving his work, he walked to the cemetery at the foot of Mount Evindini, where Milou and the rest of the legionnaires were to hold a monument to the deceased.

There, all the people were dressed in crudely colored mourning clothes, and Calabis was no exception, and he gathered sadly in front of the carved stone tablet to remember the years with the deceased, and Calabis really had nothing to do with the horn who was lying in the pit and was bargaining with the boatman Charon on the Three Ways, but he could only hang his head and say nothing.

At the end of the funeral, Calabis suddenly walked up to the tombstone and said to the crowd: "What about the pension for your service in the Legion?" What about the fields? ”

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what the freeman wanted to say, but the facts he mentioned were in front of them, the meager pension had long been spent, some of the settled land had been cancelled for no reason because of the internal dumping of the Senate, and the other part of the land had long been sold out. They were all rootless duckweed in this Roman city, and Calabis pointed to the tombstone of the deceased and shouted: "Do you want to be like this one, and when you die, you can't even afford to have an inscription that marks the course of your life?!" ”

"Nosy, you have a little money, but you are always a free man, and we are well-known Roman citizens." One of the veterans felt that his self-esteem had been hurt and curled Carabis to it.

Calabis followed Lucuras, resting one hand on his chest, and said, "Yes, I am indeed only a newly liberated freeman, but I can see the riches of the city of Rome, and you hate the arrogance of the nobles, you hate that they eat three thousand or five thousand drachmas at a supper, you hate that they reward the sword-fighting slaves with a Vances for a sword fight, and you hate that they spend dozens or even hundreds of Talents to build garden villas—but have you ever wondered where they spend so much money going? Right, what about the weishenme that can't go to our pockets? I mean, we all served in the Sulla Legion, comrades in the broadest sense of the word, so why can't we unite and put aside our stereotypes and cut off our own piece of our own with our own knives and forks in this big dinner plate of Rome. ”

The crowd of dozens of veterans shouted one after another, and many of them protested dissatisfiedly, in Rome, only citizens could make impromptu speeches, and it was not your turn to be a free man.

Just as there was a lot of noise, Milu's majestic voice sounded: "Calabis is right, even if he is a foreigner, why don't we restore the ancient faith of the Romans, fides, cooperate with him, and do a job!" With that, he took Pope and Tagus with him and stood on the side of Calabis.

"You are all madmen, Catiline has come to us before, promising that Sulla's old veterans, whether in Rome or in the northern Etrunian colonies, will put us back on the cloak and punish the power of the Senate's enemies as long as they can support him in the next year's consul election." At this time, an open-mouthed veteran shouted, "As soon as Catiline comes to power and becomes an archon or Dictida, he will be able to issue a list of public enemies, and we will follow the list and snatch the property of the senators and knights written on it!" ”

Hearing this, Milu said angrily, don't you people think that the blood shed by Rome in the past twenty years is not enough! The open-mouthed veteran was still about to make a noise, and Milu said coldly: "Don't forget, twenty years ago, we left behind in the non-commissioned officer corps and did something to those slaves who rushed into the city of Rome and wantonly burned and killed **. As soon as he heard Milu's words, all the veterans shuddered, and Milou said the truth: when Sulla led the army to Greece and Asia Minor to attack Mithridates, Sulla's sworn enemies Qin Na and Marius took the opportunity to correct the contract party and slaughtered into the city of Rome, counterattacked, and set off a bloody storm, and when Marius marched, in order to make up for the lack of the number of troops, announced the release of all slaves along the way, and at once five or six thousand slaves followed him, and as a result, this slave army came to the city, did all kinds of evil, killed and raped people in the streets- Zuihou angered Marius's general, the one-eyed dragon Sytrouris, and led the remaining non-commissioned officer corps to surround 4,000 slaves in the main square and wipe them out.

"Go back and tell your Catiline - today, if anyone uses lynching and extortion at will to use the public enemy's proclamation to execute or extort people, I will not spare you as I did with the slave legions of the past!" Milou Zuihou said that by this time a group of veterans had left, and there were about twenty-two or three, who were still in the same place, who had lost everything, and who preferred to believe that Calabis, a free people, would bring them a turn of events before their children were sold into slavery by creditors.

Calabis gave an impromptu speech, and saw that more than 30 people (including Milou's companions) were willing to obey him, and he was not very happy, so he shook Milu's hand and shouted: "Fides! ”

After a few days, the climate had become mild and pleasant throughout the Apennines, and Calabis, Milou and thirty former legionary veterans, dressed in shabby legionnary undershirts, carrying flat chisels, rulers, and saws like shields and javelins, marched in columns through the streets towards the beautiful city of Plema

"Believe in yourself, and believe in this Milou, who can dig tunnels to introduce seawater, fulfill the wishes of Luculas and Marcus, and make a lot of money, only us!" Along the way, Calabis kept cheering himself up.

(End of Volume 1)