"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you is going to betray me." —Jesus

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After the killing, Caesar's soldiers threw all the corpses piled up on the mountain into the ditch at the bottom of the mountain, then poured fire oil on them, and then covered them with soil and buried them.

Of course, this is not what Li Bida is advocating on his own, this is Caesar's implied order, this dictator has been constrained and persecuted by the Senate like Pompey and Crassus since he rose to prominence, he hates this institution as much as the other two, but Crassus wants to rely on money, Pompey tries to control the country by virtue of merit, and get rid of the haze of "old manship" and "collective republic", Caesar is different, he hopes that through guò appropriate killing, so that this group of people can better die in the war, This excuse could not have been more appropriate in ancient times.

Therefore, when Caesar's token officer galloped in, Li Bida learned that this king had entered the surrendered city of Tapsus and went to extort the local council of elders for compensation, and it seemed that he had completely entrusted himself with the task of continuing the sweep, "The key targets to be killed are the former consul Aphranius, as well as the senator Cruise, and King Juba of Numidia and Pompey's father-in-law Scipio." ”

Li Bida then ordered the whole army to rest in Ruspina, and then ordered Itassos's Ligurian legion, in conjunction with the Pontus legion, to continue the advance towards Zama under the unified command of Antony. There were still remnants of the Eighth Army of the Pompeians. In addition, Scipio and King Juba also crossed Mount Jemal. Flee there—they'll have to go to Zama City, too.

But in the middle of the way, Scipio and the king of Juba still led more than a thousand remnants of the defeated army, galloped to the city of Utica one step ahead of time, forced the city to open the door, and paid fifty tarrants to come out, otherwise they would wash the whole city in blood. The city of Utica was suddenly in a state of readiness, and the Council of Elders and the Chamber of Commerce urgently convened a meeting at the town hall to decide whether to adopt a policy of resistance against Scipio. The discussion was extremely intense, and some of the elders advocated using Julius's Law, which Caesar's uncle had written, to first make a false accusation against Scipio, telling the Chamber of Commerce to raise some money to send the gang away, and then to give Caesar money and submit an application to the city of Rome for citizenship - presumably Caesar would not retaliate against Utica.

While the other elders were bowing their heads to this "wise" plan, President Garba, who was full of silver hair, angrily leaned on crutches and rejected the plan: "Friends, both in politics and business. Speculative means for the sake of immediate profit are not advisable, and will bring us complete disaster. Caesar certainly knew. The city of Utica has always been the base camp of Pompey's henchmen here, and he has a strong dislike and hostility towards us, and now we are undoubtedly playing tricks on him to do this - if Pompey's army has not been completely defeated, Caesar may still have the conditions to negotiate because of the importance of our city, but in the current situation, Caesar can destroy our city at any time. Therefore, now is not the time to swing and sell tricks, but to make a complete decision. ”

With that, Galba struck the marble floor of the hall with his cane, and said—Immediately send the nobles, with Pompey's wife and slaves, to the Acropolis to defend against Scipio, and to stand on Caesar's side.

"What about the citizens?" An elder asked cautiously.

"Accept the gods' arrangement." Garba said helplessly.

In the city of Utica, many armed slaves with weapons rushed to Pompey's house, claiming to have received orders from the Municipal Council of Presbyterians to follow Pompey's wife Cornellia to the Acropolis, because there were rebels outside who were committing atrocities, and Lord Garba was concerned about her safety.

In panic and sorrow, Demetrius peeked out of the courtyard by holding on to the lattice, and said to Granalia, who was crying in a chair behind him, "Your Excellency, the situation is very obvious, if the master had won the victory, the defeated army would not have come in the direction of the city of Utica, and if there was no accident, it should have been a complete defeat of the master." ”

Gao Nellia is simply six gods and no master, she can only continue to cry, I don't know what she should do in such a situation, whether her husband is victorious or defeated, life or death, and which inexplicable ocean can she, a weak woman, take the ship to? Then Cornellia saw the sword hanging on the wall, and a rush of impulse and sorrow swelled up in her heart, so she jumped out of her chair and rushed there, ready to draw her sword and kill herself. Then Demetrius rushed and snatched the sword empty-handed, and the blood flowed from the hands of the Jews, and then he fell down on his knees, and took the skirt of his mistress and said, "Do not do this, but have mercy on the master's request before leaving, and perpetuate the master's family." So, so! With that, the Jews climbed up to the chest by the pillars and pulled out a fine box, just as the cries and banging of the armed slaves of Utica outside grew more and more intense.

The courtyard was filled with despair, and some of the Pompey slaves had already begun to take out the poison and commit suicide, and Demetrius opened the enamel plate of the box, and took out a small crown of glittering light from it, and said to himself, "This is probably the repayment of debts, and in just ten years, the master will have to pay back all the qiē that he has won on Mithridates and the tuna?" After saying that, he took the box in his hand, and gave it to Cornellia, and instructed, "Master, when we go in at once, you will hold on to this, you are a noble man, and those slaves will not dare to infringe on your body!" If anything goes wrong, you shout that you are the wife of the great Pompey, and that Caesar will not forgive the city if her personal safety is not guaranteed. ”

At this moment, the door was smashed open, and many slaves in leather armor and daggers rushed in, and then they saw Cornellia and Demetrius standing at the door of the inner hall, and they rudely shouted to come up and pull and push, "Don't do this, don't do this! Cornellia shouted in Greek, and then Latin, but many of the armed slaves did not eat it, and when they saw the small box in Cornellia's hand, they decided that the contents were of great value, and the leader swung his dagger at Cornellia.

After a scream, Demetrius stabbed the saber in his hand into the chest of the leader, and time froze instantly.

After a few seconds, several slaves swarmed up and pressed the Jew, who was still unconscious, against the wall, and the dagger and dagger continued to pierce Demetrius's body, blood splattered on Cornellia's body and clothes, and she cried out, "You must not do this to the great Pompey, you must not do this to the great Pompey!" ”

Eventually, the love of the armed slave subsided, but Demitrius also tilted his head, covered in blood, and sat down slowly against the wall, his eyes still staring at the mistress before he died, with some relief, probably thinking that the mistress would not be violated at this time. (To be continued......)