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- Epicurus (representative of the hedonism of Arestepus)

A few years earlier, when the Augustan Empire had just defeated Hannibal to unify Sicily, the Augustan Empire was still just the House of Augustus; The only area they ruled was the three islands with Sicily as the core and the Betica region on the Iberian Peninsula, but the rest of Rome recognized the potential of the Augustan family and moved towards unity.

Unfortunately, the union of the Roman powers did not really restrain the flourishing of the House of Augustus; Even the united Roman powers pinned their hopes on instigating the Kingdom of Spain against the House of Augustus, only to have the House of Augustus gain another five provinces of land, and the entire Iberian Peninsula became the territory of the House of Augustus.

After the development of things to this point, the Roman forces, which saw the hopelessness of suppressing and restraining the Augustan family, could only turn their attention to their own development; Thus, with the expansion of the Brutus family on the Greek peninsula and the Eullius family's invasion of Gaul and Germania, only the Marius and Scipio families, who were bound to Rome proper, could only watch the development of other powers.

It has never been Marius's style to be anxious, in order to better stimulate the development potential of Rome itself, and to control the entire Rome territory in his hands; Marius used conspiracy to deceive the support of Scipio's family, and finally established the Roman Empire in Rome itself, and then held the entire Roman Empire in his hands through a series of means.

Naturally, it was impossible for the other three major powers of Rome to be so willingly subordinate to the Roman Empire, following Marius and Julianus as emperors; The Brutus family, which had successfully expanded on the Greek peninsula, announced the establishment of the Roman Brutus Empire with Tiberius as emperor, and the Julius family was not to be outdone by establishing the Roman Ulius Empire with Flavius as emperor.

In fact, the timing of the alliance between Marius and Scipio to form the Roman Empire was not suitable for Julius to establish an empire of their own; Because at that time, it was the time when the Julius family marched into the Germanic lands and suffered a crushing defeat, the most important thing for the Julius family should be how to deal with the counterattack of the Germanic barbarians, rather than to establish the Roman Julius Empire.

Human ambition is always capable of eroding human reason at critical moments, and Flavies does not want the Julius family to be nominally inferior to other Roman powers, but he can't help but claim the title of emperor in his own heart; In the end, Flavis put aside the war of the Julius family in the Norricum region and ran back to Aletion to establish the Roman Ulius Empire.

Thankfully, the Julius family still has such a genius figure as Caesar; If it weren't for Caesar's support in the Noricum region, God knows if the Roman Empire of Julius, which had been hastily proclaimed emperor, would have been destroyed by the counterattack of the Germanic barbarians.

But the reality is not assumed, and the Julius family successfully survived their difficulties and transformed into the more powerful Roman Ulius Empire; These three Roman powers were all actively proclaimed emperors, so how could the Augustan family fall behind?

In this way, the Roman powers evolved into the four Roman empires; Among them, the Augustan Empire occupied the Iberian Peninsula and the Western Mediterranean Islands, the Brutus Empire occupied the Greek Peninsula, and the Julius Empire occupied half of the Gallic land and all the areas south of the Alps and north of Rome proper, leaving only the Roman Empire still entrenched in Rome proper.

When the situation within Rome reached this point, the alliance of the other three empires against the Augustan Empire collapsed; With the expansion of the Empire of Julius and Brutus, both of these powers have the potential to develop as much as the Augustan Empire, especially the Brutus Empire, which occupies the Greek peninsula, which is the foundation of Alexander's Empire!

In such a situation, it would be too naïve to mention any anti-Augustan Empire alliance, after all, the Augustan Empire no longer has a single capital, and naturally it cannot become the common enemy of the Roman forces.

After five or six years of development in such a peaceful manner, the four major empires that have accumulated almost all the strength will naturally expand outward again; Compared to the failure of the division a few years ago, the army of the Ulius Empire led by Caesar completely washed away the shame of defeat on the battlefield.

In just a year or two, since the whole of Gaul became the territory of the Ulius Empire, most of the Germanic lands also became the territory of the Ulius Empire; In this way, Julius's empire expanded to nineteen provinces, making it the undisputed largest of the four Roman empires.

Although Caesar's army suffered a setback when it continued to attack the remnants of the Germanic barbarians, the Germanic barbarians did not have the strength to counterattack the Julius Empire; In other words, Caesar's one or two defeats did not affect the overall situation of the Julius Empire, and they still had a large ruling area and strong overall strength.

The Brutus Empire, which had the rich and prosperous Greek Peninsula as its foundation, also began to expand its empire after several years of development; From a geographical point of view, the best direction of expansion of the Brutus Empire was the vast and fertile Eastern Continent, which was also the way for Alexander's empire to rise in the past.

After finding a powerful ally, the Brutus Empire successfully implemented its plan to expand its empire to the eastern continent; The Kingdom of Alexander, a former ally of the Brutus Empire, was completely annexed by the Brutus Empire, and the Bithynia region of the Pontus Kingdom became the Bithynia province of the Brutus Empire.

After such a smooth round of expansion, the ruling area of the Brutus Empire expanded from the original seven provinces on the Greek peninsula to the current twelve provinces across the eastern and western continents; This rate of expansion is not bad, at least much stronger than that of the Roman Empire, which has been busy with infighting for several years.

However, the expansion speed of the Ulius Empire and the Brutus Empire was still too far apart from that of the Augustan Empire, and the expansion of the Augustan Empire was truly shocking; In the years of his recuperation, the Augustan Empire ruled only six provinces on the Iberian Peninsula and five provinces on three islands in the western Mediterranean.

With the turmoil in North Africa, the defeated kingdoms of Numidia and Carthage were completely wiped out by the Augustan Empire in just a few months, and even the newly rising Cyrenaica forces did not escape the conquest of the Augustan Empire; In this way, the vast area of the nine provinces of the entire North African continent was completely under the control of the Augustan Empire.

Coupled with the islands of Crete and Rhodes, which were inexplicably incorporated under the rule of the Augustan Empire, the ruling area of the Augustan Empire directly surpassed the nineteen provinces of the Julius Empire and reached a terrifying twenty-two provinces; Even more troubling is the fact that the tentacles of the Augustan Empire thus extended from the Western Mediterranean to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

If the expansion of the Augustan Empire on the North African continent was merely unsettling, then the Augustan Empire's control of the Kingdom of Egypt was a mortal threat to the other three Roman empires; You must know that most of the nineteen provinces ruled by the Julius Empire were barren barbarian regions, while the areas ruled by the Augustan Empire were all areas with amazing development potential.

Now the Kingdom of Egypt, the largest grain producer in the Mediterranean, has become a vassal state of the Augustan Empire, and this form directly makes the other three Roman empires feel restless at the same time; The Kingdom of Egypt could supply the Augustan Empire with an almost endless supply of grain, and North Africa could also provide the Augustan Empire with a steady supply of high-quality horses.

With enough food and plenty of horses, would the Augustan Empire still lack an elite army? What's more, the islands of Crete and the Balearic Islands were already rich in elite light infantry; With the light infantry of these two regions combined with the hoplites of the Augustan Empire, supplemented by the cavalry of the North African continent and the Iberian Peninsula, who could resist such an army?

It's not that the other three Roman empires are unfounded, but that the current Augustan Empire already has the potential to dominate the world; Even Alexander's empire, which was once extremely powerful, did not have all that the Augustan Empire has now, so how could such a situation not make the other three Roman empires deeply worried?

After gaining the North African continent and the Kingdom of Egypt, the only thing that the Augustan Empire lacked was time; As long as the Augustan Empire can have five years and ten years to develop, after which there will be no country that can stop the progress of the Augustan Empire, even if the three major Roman empires are united, it is impossible for the Augustan Empire to be the opponent of the Augustan Empire.

Of course, the fact that the Augustan Empire has the potential to dominate the world does not mean that the Augustan Empire will definitely be able to dominate the world; No one can deny the existence of accidents, let alone the impermanence of fate, the original Alexander Empire can fall apart in an instant, and the current Augustan Empire may not be able to truly unify the world.

What really frightened Rome's other three empires was not the development potential of the Augustan Empire, but the Oscar who single-handedly created the Augustan Empire; Oscar's greatest asset is not his great ability, but that he is not yet thirty years old, which is the most feared part, because Oscar still has at least twenty years to fight for the Augustan Empire! (To be continued.) )