Lucuras's villa, located in a hill in the Bay of Naples, was the most desirable place for the wealthy in all of Rome, where every rich man who built a house was deliberately competing for luxury and flaunting his power, and a number of new villas were erected, while a number of old owners of the villas were disgraced by the failure of politics or shopping malls. But Lucuras has always been a rock of peace, and even though he is now disillusioned, he is still the richest man in all of Rome, as evidenced by his magnificent villa:

The villa was not elsewhere, it was built directly on the breakwater of Naples, and its golden flat roof could be seen from Calabis in the distance, shining in the shade of the trees, and when the chariot of Lucuras entered the huge side door, some slaves were carefully carrying a cherry tree from Pontus and moving it to the garden of the villa, "Attention, Kelly, it is the greatest harvest of my years of fighting. Lucuras, who had disembarked from the sedan chair, laughed at himself, and then called Calabis to follow him, and went over the garden of the fountain into the vestibule of the villa.

Elsewhere, two distinguished guests in casual robes were admiring all kinds of luxurious paintings and ornaments in the hall, and when they saw Lucuras walking in with his hands outstretched, they also kissed and hugged him.

"Lucius, you're too luxurious, really. This will not set a good example for the citizens of Rome. A sonorous man of about thirty years old, with a thin stature but a piercing eye, said powerfully.

"Luxury alone should not be enough to expose me to the accusations of the town council, dear Cato. Usensis. Luculas sighed slightly, and half-reclined himself on the couch. Another distinguished guest sat down where Luculas rested his feet, this gentleman was about fifty years old, his short hair was already mixed with gray, his eyes and nose were very large, and his head was extremely round because of his short hair, and there were deep wrinkles between his facial features, which made him look deep and full of desire, "Tuna, can you talk about your war with the king of Pontus and the king of Armenia in Asia Minor?" How, if you have five legions, can you conquer these two great countries. ”

Standing on the portico of the antechamber, Calabis thought to himself that Lucuras was right in warning Pompey when he handed over his military power: now all the powerful politicians of Rome are crazy about the cause of conquering foreign races, and everyone is eager to master the army, to gain the power of life and death, to obtain greater good and honor for themselves on the edge of the known shijie, in order to win the first opportunity in the struggle for power in the city of Rome.

Luculas looked at the big round head and smiled, and said, "My dear Crassus, I will soon write a memoir of the war in Asia Minor, which will take me about ten years, and if you live to be sixty-five years old, you can take ten legions and surrender Parthia farther away, according to the characteristics of friend and foe described in my book." ”

Crassus, the big round head, laughed in a shrill voice, saying that he liked Lucuras's jokes, and on the other hand, hiding his true thoughts, "Really, Tuna, you have written a good book, as good as your military skills, and that one is still on my desk." ”

On one side, little Cato, who was holding a pillar with his hand, also bowed his head to express his approval of Crassus's assessment, "The History of the Mathi War" was written by Luculas more than ten years ago (memories of the war of the Allies more than twenty years ago), and was regarded as a classic of war history books as soon as it was published. Then, little Cato cleared his throat, "On the issue of accusations in the town hall" Crassus immediately lost no time in shaking Lucuras's hand, "Don't worry, I also hate Pompey's hypocritical upstart very much"

At this time, Luculas made a gesture of silence, and he thought that there were too many and too many people in the antechamber - the lesson of Demetrius was still in front of him, so he called Kelly in, leaned on the ear of the nearest shield-bearer, and gave two commands, and then slapped his palms twice, indicating that only the two distinguished guests, Cato and Crassus, were left present, and the rest of them went out first.

On the boulevard of the manor house, Kelly grabbed his hair and said to Calabis, who was following him: "Listen, take your maid and the baby at once, and follow me to the city of Rome first, and do some chores—when you get to the city of Rome, rent an apartment near the Temple of the Goddess of War (Belona), and I will contact you at any time." Remember, don't forget to bring a broadsword. ”

"Is this the city of Rome?" A day later, when they entered Capua, which was connected to Appian Boulevard, Paruma, who was led by Calabis and Poti, asked with some surprise that Kapua was a city left by the Greek colonists, with a clean appearance and neat streets, and the blocks were like square lattices, and the houses of the citizens were all two-story brick buildings, generally tall and small, and contrasted with temples, bazaars, and green belts of uneven colors, and about 40,000 people lived here, full of geometric and artificial visual enjoyment.

Kelly Haha, who was driving a mule cart in front, laughed and said, "Capua is a paradise made of stone, and Rome is a big pigsty compared to it!" This puzzled Calabis, and he took the opportunity to ask Kelly, "I have read some works by Roman poets that describe the city of Rome as being located on seven hills, with bubbling springs in the valley and the scent of flowers in the breeze, and that it is the most beautiful haode city in the center of Shijie." ”

"The poet also said that they were happy to farm, so ask the people who accepted the patronage if they would like to go to the Sicilian farmstead for a few days." Kelly was unimpressed.

With such doubts, Calabis and his party slowly approached the city of Rome further north, and finally arrived at the intersection point of the Appian Avenue and the city wall in the southeast of Rome, and Carabis got his first glimpse of the living "Shijie Capital" of Rome.

The walls of Rome were extremely curved and irregular, and at the intersection, took on a concave shape. The avenues are lined with dense buildings, without rules to speak of, the eaves of this house often block the balconies of that house, all kinds of signs swaggering on the walls and tree trunks, taverns, brothels, hostels, apartments, cattle pens, and gambling houses, all of which are often decorated with chalk graffiti, with campaign slogans, the works of pornographic poets, obscene spring palace paintings, and young men's aiqing manifestos. There was a section of the avenue that was made up of sloping mass graves, and the hillside was full of tombs and tombstones, all of which were poisoned by graffiti, and the Calabis family also saw that there was a large pit in between, and several masked people pulled a cart, on which were all the corpses of starvation and collapsed, and then there was a burst of hula la, and all the corpses of all colors rolled into the pit, accompanied by the stinky water and rotting bones in the pit, until they became one, and the breeze came, sending a burst of stench of brain-smoking.

After entering the city, it is a terrifying scene, only the thoroughfare is still a little wide, but both sides are also full of undulating buildings, except for the "holy area" on both sides of the city wall, almost every corner is filled with buildings, each building is a one-sided arcade stretched out on the second floor, try to seize the space and sunlight, and the next floor is a more transparent arcade for people to enter and exit. The streets were full of pedestrians, chariots, and mule carts, and Calabis couldn't help but hold Paruma's little hand tightly to prevent the little cripple from getting lost.