When Calabis swept up his pure black hair with his hands, the piercing of his left ear was clearly visible, and Cicero was very proud, pointing to everyone present, and said, "You must be very curious to understand how the battle hero Calabis went from a slave to a citizen. If you look closely, you can see from his left ear that he was not born free, and that he was a slave of the legion. ”

"I was born free, Your Excellency! I was captured by the Roman legions during the war three years ago, and unfortunately became a slave. Calabis put his hair down and argued.

"Who else dares to say that he was born free, except the citizens of the Roman city-state, but also the descendants of the citizens?" Cicero suddenly raised his voice, "You are just a slave from a foreign country, and you are born with a lack of character and character, so it is normal for you to do things that violate the law and discipline. ”

"But Rome was originally a small city-state built on seven hills, and now it has spread throughout the Apennine Peninsula, and the city-state is constantly expanding, and the civic community is also growing, my Excellency, and I hope you will not forget that your family was once descended from the barbarian king of Volsy, not pure Romans, and did not obtain Roman citizenship until a hundred years ago, and Lingzun also prevented the implementation of the secret ballot system in your homeland, and you are not qualified to be born free." "When you entered the city of Rome to live in the city, you were only a knight, and through hard work and tempering, you have not now become a senator and the present consul?" This is where the Roman dream lies, inclusive, inspiring and capable, and you are the epitome of that dream, and now I don't want you to be in front of so many people in this room. Deny the charm and dreams of Rome with your own hands. Isn't it. You and Catiline. Actually holding the same argument? ”

Calabis couldn't have understood better, and Cicero shifted his focus and emphasized his former slave status in order to give the judge and the jury the impression that he was inferior and of bad character, so as to promote the establishment of his crimes, and then use him as a breakthrough to find out Crassus and Caesar. Because of the law in Rome. And in the consciousness of the people, there is an inherently credible difference between the testimony of a nobleman and the testimony of a slave.

"The city of Alpino, where I live, was the first free city in Rome to grant citizenship, I"

"I think Your Excellency, you should be sitting in the gallery now, I am being interrogated by the Judge, not you!" Calabis unceremoniously cut off Cicero's regression to his family's origins.

At this time, the entire courtroom was full of discussions. Cicero was actually speechless again, he didn't expect three of them. First, I didn't expect Calabis, a broker, to be so arrogant; Second, I didn't expect that the debate process that was supposed to be led by him was frustrated by this guy, you must know that many slaves and foreign freedmen in the past, under his sharp words, would only shout "I can't hear you clearly" and the like to escape; What San didn't expect was that this cunning Oriental actually knew his family context well, and he could also hit him with a backhand.

At this time, more and more citizens gathered in front of the grand courtroom, many people talked, quarreled, and expressed their opinions on both sides of the debate in the courtroom, until a group of slaves carrying ornate sedan chairs came through the crowd, and Crassus, who walked in the front, had an unpredictable expression on his face. Immediately, the people on the field fell silent, many of them were instinctively afraid of Crassus. In front of the pillar, Crassus slowly sat down on the sedan chair where he had been parked, asked one of the slaves to go to the stall outside the street to buy him a glass of water to drink, and then said to the other slave, "Send that thing in at once to the defendant in the court." ”

"What if the defendant can't hold up in front of Cicero?" The personal slave asked cautiously.

"You don't have to ask me about that. Then cut the line between the defendant and me and Gaius, and you still need me to teach you how to do it? The slave nodded, exchanged glances with some of the armed servants, and departed, while Crassus took the water he had bought, took a sip, exhaled, complained about the dryness of the weather, closed his eyes, and recuperated.

"This is a copy of the contract provided by the Legion Council, and you may see that before the overseer appointed by the Roman branch officer arrived in Etrunia, this little master of the scales, called Calabis, alone bought at a low price nine farms rich in barley and wheat, four stone workshops, and five apartment buildings in the city of Fesule, and you were violating the laws of Rome, and according to the letters of Neruda and Claudius, you led this vast and dirty deal, and you claimed to be the instructor behind it, Crassus the Procurator, and Caesar the High Priest. At this time in the courtroom, Cicero had committed another occupational disease, and he left the auditorium with a lunge, rushing to present the evidence and forcing Calabis to be questioned.

It seems that Neruda and Claudius wanted to shirk their responsibilities, or that they had already secretly colluded with Cicero to trap themselves.

"I'm right, who am I supposed to talk to? Your Excellency, is it to you, or to the Archon of the guest prosecutor? Calabis shouted in confusion, causing everyone present to laugh, and the chief legal officer coughed a little embarrassedly and motioned for Calabis to continue.

Calabis cleared his throat and gushed: "I think that everyone here has misunderstood one thing, and that is the relationship between public and private. I am indeed the chief officer of the legion, but this position, which was appointed by the legion committee before the expedition, is fair and reasonable, and privately I have taken out a million of the family property of Cestrius, recruited soldiers, purchased weapons, and helped His Excellency the Consul and the Republic to quell the rebellion of Catiline, and I naturally want to get a corresponding return in the munitions business, which is the most common rule in Rome. It's like I gave 500,000 Cesdeus to help Julius. It is only natural that His Excellency Caesar ran for high priesthood, and then I was given a decent contract, and that the two consuls, Cicero and Neruda, did not have their own Sequestre when they first ran for office? At this time, a court servant gave a wooden board to Calabis in court, and then he held up the plank, and at the same time walked to the evidence, the copy of the contract of the Legion Committee, and put them up on one side and one side, "Look, the copy of the contract has the seal of the Legion, is it possible that the members of the Legion, when they were doing business, in order to make the merchant group who bought the house pay money, easily put on the seal, and now in order to slander me, they do not recognize the responsibility and validity of the seal?" Also, please look at this, the honorable legal officer. "This is the document stamped by the procurator Crassus, who has promised in advance to contract me the ownerless property of Etrunia. According to the laws of the Republic, the power of the Ombudsman, in addition to the compilation of the lists of citizens, knights, and senators, is also the power to approve and approve the contracting of works to private individuals. ”

"You finally admit that you have an intimate relationship with Crassus and Caesar!" Suddenly, little Cato spoke coldly from the spectators. (To be continued......)