Gymnastics and music are the two aspects of equal emphasis in order to become a complete personality. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoBecause gymnastics can exercise the body, music can cultivate the spirit.

- Plato (one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers of Western culture)

The Julius family, the Scipio family, and the Brutus family, all three of whom knew Marius's wolf ambitions, and also knew that Marius was the culprit who almost wiped out the Maxentius family; However, in the face of interests, these are no longer important.

The current Roman Republic is no longer the Roman Republic of hundreds of years ago; The days when the four great families ruled the Roman Republic together are over, and the relationship between the four great families is no longer the interdependent that it once was, this is the real reality.

More crucially, with the passage of time and the development of the situation, the core interests of the Julius family have shifted from the Roman Republic itself to the area north of the Rubicon; Even the northern provinces of the Roman Republic were less important to the Julius family than they once were.

You know, theoretically, the Julius family now owns the territory of seven entire provinces; Although the five newly occupied provinces were relatively backward regions, they still did not affect the rapid growth of the Julius family's strength.

In terms of the current comprehensive strength of the Roman forces, the Julius family is definitely the most powerful; Even compared to the House of Augustus, the military strength of the House of Julius was in no way inferior to that of the House of Augustus.

It's just that the direction in which the Julius family can expand is the territory of various barbarians; In addition to the barrenness of the land, the potential for development is relatively small. If the Julius family wants to really develop, the upfront investment alone is enough to drag the Julius family for hundreds of years; This greatly limits the development potential of the Julius family.

Comparatively speaking, the Augustan family has much more potential for development than the Julius family; After all, the territories ruled by the House of Augustus were all sea islands with extremely easy sea transportation, and as long as the House of Augustus could redevelop the maritime trade in the Western Mediterranean, the House of Augustus would quickly become powerful with the help of the prosperous maritime trade.

This is also the key to why the Roman powers could tolerate the northward expansion of the Julius family, but could not sit idly by and watch the Augustan family seize the position of maritime supremacy in the western Mediterranean; The gap between the two is not a little bit of a star!

No matter how much the House of Julius continued to expand northward, their war potential was only slightly higher than that of the other Roman powers; It is simply impossible to truly override other families and become a truly powerful force.

The Augustan family is different, from the moment they won the decisive battle of Zama, the Augustan family already had the capital to rise to become the overlord of one side; This is precisely what other Roman powers did not have.

It is precisely because of this that the Julius family, led by Flavis, took the initiative to contact the Marius forces, wanting to create an alliance against the Augustus family in order to suppress the development of the Augustan family.

Flavies' political wisdom is naturally not comparable to ordinary people, but the leader of the Brutus family is not a fool either; Naturally, they also understood what the rise of the Augustus family meant, and the Brutus family also understood the truth of the death of their lips and teeth.

Although the Brutus family no longer has their own family territory in Rome itself, if the Augustus family really became the new masters of the Roman Republic, then the Brutus family can still resist the powerful Augustus?

As for the strength of the current Roman forces, the Brutus family knows better than anyone else; The Julius family, which was nominally the most powerful, lacked enough potential to become truly powerful in the short term.

Marius's power, which had gained countless riches through the bloody night of Rome, was nothing more than a façade; The reason is also very simple, the Marius forces have a lot of gold and silver treasures, but they have no real strength base, and there is no foundation to support the strength of the Marius forces.

Rome itself was indeed unusually wealthy, and it was not difficult for the Marian forces, who controlled the four provinces of Rome, to gain wealth; However, there is still a big gap between wealth and real strength.

Before the Roman Republic fell apart, the strength of the Roman Republic was based on a well-developed overseas trade network; Without the import of large quantities of overseas resources into Rome itself, there would have been no strong Roman power at all.

Since Marius's forces seized control of the city of Rome and took the four provinces of Rome proper, the situation in Rome itself has been reversed; Mallois had countless gold coins and huge human resources, but it was difficult for them to play their role.

The reason is also very simple, after the Augustus family completely wiped out the naval fleet of Marius and Scipio, they sent a special fleet to blockade the entire west coast of Rome proper.

In other words, from that naval battle onwards, the Marius forces and Scipio in Rome could no longer obtain various resources through maritime trade; Such a blow would have been fatal to the Marius forces and Scipio in Rome itself.

Because the resources of Rome itself are extremely limited, the rest will not be mentioned for the time being, and the most important grains will be taken as an example; There was simply not enough food to produce in Rome itself, not to mention how many armies there were, not even the most basic Roman citizens!

The reason why Marius was able to maintain the situation in Rome itself was only to maintain the state stock of the Roman Republic; Coupled with the fact that Marlois obtained food through some special channels at a high price, this is the key to his ability to control the overall situation of Rome itself.

Unfortunately, the measures taken by Marius are not a long-term solution at all, nor are they the fundamental solution to the problem; This greatly limited the development of Rome's native power, and also made it difficult for Marius and Scipio's family to become strong.

From these aspects, in fact, the most advantageous is the Brutus family; As long as the Brutus family can obtain the entire Greek peninsula with the support of other Roman forces, then the rise of the Brutus family is really unstoppable!

Why was Alexander the Great in the past able to rise all the way after taking the entire Greek peninsula with the not strong Macedonian kingdom, and finally established a powerful empire so large that the world trembled? Isn't this the contribution of the Greek peninsula?

Therefore, the purpose of the Brutus family is very clear, which is to take the Greek peninsula wholeheartedly; Then follow the path of Alexander the Great in the past, and forge the glorious hegemony belonging to the Brutus family.

However, there is always a stark contrast between the beauty of ideas and the cruelty of reality; The strong rise of the House of Augustus completely disrupted the established course of development of the House of Brutus. After the unification of Sicily, the Augustus family not only posed a great threat to the entire Roman mainland, but also recruited the Spartan city-state as a formidable enemy for the Brutus; This is where the Brutus family is helpless.

Helpless, since things have come to this point, the Brutus family can only continue to go on hard; Thus, this led to the Brutus family's initiative to contact Marius.

From the very beginning, the interconnectedness between the four great powers of Rome was an act of mutual understanding, and it was the best way that everyone came up with based on the current situation; Therefore, the envoys of the three parties met with Marius smoothly and reached some basic agreements.

The alliance between the four great powers of Rome naturally could not be decided by a few envoys and a few words; The exchange of emissaries in the early stage was only a test of the sincerity of the alliance between the two sides, and after confirming the sincerity of each other, the meeting of the leaders of the four major powers began naturally.

Considering that the relationship between the four major powers of Rome is no longer the same as it once was, the foundation of trust between them is also seriously lacking; Therefore, the final meeting place was chosen on a plain fifteen miles outside the city of Rome.

On that day, Marius dictator of Marius's power, Flavius leader of Julius, Iulianus of Scipio, Tiberius of Brutus; The leaders of the four major forces all led a guard of less than 100 people and came here.

The meeting between the four was a very rare opportunity and a negotiation that required absolute confidentiality; In order to ensure that the conversation of the four was not known to anyone, all the guards of the four were left a hundred meters away, and there were only four people in the military tent where they met.

In such a negotiation against the House of Augustus, the four Roman powers established a cooperative relationship with each other and formally concluded an alliance; In other words, from this meeting onwards, the four great powers of Rome would become a close working relationship.

In addition to discussing how to deal with the House of Augustus, the four powers also made a pact of large-scale trade with each other; In the future, the Marius forces will obtain various resources from the Julius family and the Brutus family with a large amount of money.

Of course, the Julius and Brutus families did not suffer any losses, and the prices they offered in such trade were far above the average price level; On the whole, this resolution is relatively mutually beneficial to the four major forces.

After the negotiation of the covenant required by each was over, it was time for the four powers to discuss the measures of how to deal with the House of Augustus; The discussion of this issue is the most important thing of this meeting, and it is also the basis for the alliance of the four major forces.

However, it is not an easy task to really solve this problem; After all, the current Augustus family is not the Augustus family of the past, as long as the Augustus family's powerful naval fleet always exists, it is impossible for the four major forces of Rome to directly threaten the Augustan family, which is the source of the headache for the four leaders. (To be continued.) )