"The Emperor sat on a high throne, surrounded by weapons, horses, and guards, and the conquered captives crouched at his feet." - St. Cristo's description of the pomp and circumstance of the Eastern Roman Emperor

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The delegates were immediately stunned, and the leader of the head was holding the complaint of Yurabella with his mouth open, and he did not know whether to read it bravely or leave quietly, but the cold light of the axe was still flickering in the hall, and the cavalry commander still stood aside in a condescending posture from a distance.

In the end, Li Bida spoke, "Now there are no consuls in the city of Rome, only dictators and cavalry commanders, the system is a wartime martial law system, all the people should be respected only by the consciousness of the dictator, now you instigate the people to start a riot, occupying the temple is already a great crime, I can cut off your scalps now, and then ask the executioner to push you off the high rock and fall to your death." But after all, I still need someone to go to Ulabella to deliver the message, so the twelve of you only need one to go back, and the rest will rest in Capua for a few days. After speaking, Li Bida walked up to the representative who was trembling with the complaint in his hand, and slowly took his scroll, the representative did not mean to resist the pushing, and then Li Bida threw the scroll on the ground and stepped on it with his foot, "You go back, bring a message to Ulabella, and I, as the commander of the cavalry, announce that before His Excellency Caesar landed on Italian territory, the city-state of Rome would be closed, and no fairs and assemblies would be allowed." Neither in the Senate nor in the Terbris Folk Council. Nor are any bills allowed to be voted on. ”

The so-called "market closure". It is true that only consuls and dictators can issue orders, and generally the purpose of closing the market is to prepare the people for festivals or triumphal celebrations, to clear the squares and assembly halls, and to plan the course of the procession.

Now Li Bida is asking for the closure of the market, naturally in order to delay the vote on the debt proposal of Ulabella, once the dictator really returns to the city of Rome, then Ulabella will have more energy. I can't make any waves.

"The reason for my request for a market closure, you know, is that we have to give a reasonable reward to the general public who are leading the way in this proposal." Finally, the delegate mustered up his courage, looked away from the fascist axe, and questioned the cavalry commander.

"The market is closed for Saturnalia celebrations." Li Bida's face was expressionless.

"And what about after Saturnalia?"

"For the triumph of the dictator's legion."

"But now even the legion is in the God of War Grand Campus."

"Who cares, ten days later, with a finger on my finger, I told them to obediently return to their place of settlement and prepare to go to Africa." Li Bida is still a poker face.

"If only we were the people. What about refusing to close the market? ”

"The four legions of Nacofinium and Pasini, with the lark legions, which were originally on the Tiber River in Rome. They will enter the city and take the place of the Senate to enforce the order of the market closure. ”

All the deputies protested a little angrily, saying that the cavalry commander had no suitable reason for doing so.

"Of course, there is a reason, because these four legions have been granted the right to triumph, and for the first time in all my years of fighting in Rome, I can sponsor a large athletic tournament in the city of Rome, and when the time comes, eleven of you will not have to go back to the city alone, but go back with my guards and carriages to watch the great plays, gladiatorial fights, and processions, and I will have very rich gifts for you when they are done." Unexpectedly, the cavalry commander has changed his face again now, and he has put them under house arrest with such a generous reason, which is really laughable.

After learning that Li Bida had the audacity to detain the deputies, Yurabella was extremely angry, and he yelled and said, I heard that his women and children are in the city, and they are going to arrest them!

As a result, the mansion of the Li Bida family, guarded by a full 300 heavily armed gladiators, as well as thousands of dock workers and oarsmen from the port of the Ostia River, also crowded in front of the mansion with weapons after receiving the letter sent back by Paruma from Gaul, and voluntarily swore to protect the safety of Li Bida's family and not die. In the face of gladiators and well-organized unions, the rabble under Eurabella alone could not even touch the door frame.

So Eulabella thought of the veterans who were asking for money in the colonel's field, and sent a representative to contact them, meaning that they could be provided with weapons and let them act as the vanguard of the thugs, but Scalva and all the legion commanders sternly refused, "We are an army, and this request is extremely legitimate, and in the face of Antony's cavalry and swords, they have not degenerated to the point of using violence to solve the problem, and now the cavalry commander has achieved outstanding military achievements, and is a war hero in all Rome, and we have no reason to defile ourselves." ”

"This group of ruffians will pretend to be righteous." Angry, Yurabella scolded, and then he also realized that his father-in-law was also in Brindisi, which was actually equivalent to a hostage in the hands of Li Bida, so he could only give up the idea of hijacking each other.

But then the news came that shocked him even more: although the cavalry commander clearly said that he would not come to Rome, half a market day later, he suddenly appeared in the Roman Civic Square, followed by hundreds of senators, almost all the dignitaries who had Maxima power in Rome, were by his side, as if they had been discussed in advance.

When Eulabella's henchmen gathered in front of the Juilliard Hall, the other party also confronted them face-to-face in a leisurely manner, "Close, disband, Eulabella will return to her mansion and must not leave the sanctuary of the city. What you have to do is to wait quietly for the dictator to return and be lenient with you. Li Bida said directly to Yurabella like this.

The henchmen and the mob immediately became in an uproar, and many began to feel their weapons from their bosoms, and when they waited for Yurabella to give the order, they used violence to coerce the cavalry commander to publicly announce the abandonment of the "market closure" order.

But after looking at each other for a while, Eulabella was the first to compromise, after all, he was a young man who was not deeply involved in the world, and his blood came and fell quickly, thinking about his wife and children, lovers and father-in-law, and at the same time seeing the reflection of the soldier's sword hidden in the Great Hall by the cavalry commander, it could only be so, "The proposal to abolish the debt is far from finished, but the expansion of the riot will be detrimental to the whole state, so we should wait until Caesar returns before bringing up this topic." Then, with a frenzied moaning and cursing, Eurabella bowed her head and stood on the steps of the Senate, re-standing with all the nobles and officers.

The riots were quickly quelled by ordering the port of Ostia to be urgently transported with a quantity of grain, giving the people a sufficient amount of bread, giving all the citizens a certain amount of new currency as "gifts for Saturnalia", and promising debts and rents to be discussed when the dictator returned.

About a few days later, Cicero also returned to Rome in a light carriage from the post, and it seems that this place had given him "the courage to love" again. (To be continued......)