Of all the endeavours to ensure lifelong happiness, the most important thing is to make friends. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Epicurus (representative of the hedonism of Arestepus)

When Marius waited for Flavius of Julius in Rome, the two had an all-night conversation at the Roman Imperial Palace in Rome; That night, Marius and Flavies barely talked about anything outside of the Augustan Empire, and they had been deliberating on how to limit the Augustan Empire, but they couldn't come up with anything for the whole night.

The present territory of the Augustan Empire consisted of only three parts: the Iberian Peninsula and the North African continent, which were adjacent to the Gallic land of the Julius Empire, and the six islands in the Mediterranean; The North African continent and the Mediterranean islands in these three parts are not the existence that the alliance they are about to form can deal with, after all, where is the navy of the Augustan Empire.

If the Seleucid Empire had agreed to join the alliance, the North African continent of the Augustan Empire would not necessarily have become a direct war zone; The Seleucid Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt are on the same Eastern Continent, and the North African Continent is connected to the Eastern Continent, and as long as the Seleucid Empire can defeat the Kingdom of Egypt, the North African continent of the Augustan Empire will be the most direct threat.

Of course, compared to the North African continent, Marius and Flavis still cared more about the Kingdom of Egypt; The reason why Marius would send an envoy to the Seleucid Empire when forming an alliance was that the Seleucid Empire could launch an effective military attack on the Kingdom of Egypt once the war broke out, which was the greatest value of the Seleucid Empire.

Although the military strength of the Seleucid Empire should not be underestimated, it will not let Marius take the initiative to win over, and what Marius really values is the special strategic position of the Seleucid Empire; As long as the Seleucid Empire could take the Kingdom of Egypt away from the rule of the Augustan Empire, the Augustan Empire, without a steady supply of food and grass, would be far less terrible than it is now.

The greatest strength of the Egyptian kingdom was not its own military prowess, but the almost terrifying grain production of the Nile Plain; If the Kingdom of Egypt had a steady stream of food to support the Augustan Empire, the Augustan Empire could even raise an endless army in future wars to be used in the wars against the four empires, which would be the most terrifying.

Whatever the Seleucid Empire would have demanded before joining the Alliance, Marius and Flavies had decided to satisfy the Seleucid Empire as much as possible; As long as the Seleucid Empire is pulled into the chariot of the alliance and the Seleucid Empire is persuaded to send at least 200,000 troops for the attack on the Kingdom of Egypt, the alliance side of this future war against the Augustan Empire will still have a strong advantage.

As for the Brutus Empire, their geographical location directly determined that it was almost impossible for them to participate in the war against the Augustan Empire; However, there will still be a way for Marius to make the Brutus Empire pay enough price in this alliance, otherwise how could the other three empires of the alliance be willing to let the Brutus Empire reap the benefits of the fisherman.

On the third day after Marius and Flavis arrived in Tarentum, Tiberius sailed to Apriria; In order to avoid attracting the attention of the Augustan fleet, Tiberius did not come to Apria on the warships of the Brutus Empire, but only came to the port of Apria on a very ordinary merchant ship with hundreds of guards.

Marius and Flavis, who had not received the news in advance, naturally did not go to meet Tiberius until Tiberius arrived outside Tarentum with his personal guards, and Marius and Flavies learned that Tiberius had arrived.

Speaking of which, Marius, Flavis, Tiberius and the other three have not seen each other for more than six years; The last time the three of them got together was to form an alliance against the Augustan family, this time they still came together to deal with the Augustan Empire, and the only thing that may have changed is that the heads of the three are already gray hair.

Especially the eldest Tiberius, who could hardly find black hair on his head, but his loose skin and full head of white hair made Marius and Flavis sigh when they came to greet him; After a brief reminiscence, the three of them went to the governor's mansion in Tarentum and began substantive negotiations on the formation of an alliance.

Aside from the fact that the people of the Seleucid Empire will not be able to reach Tarentum for a while, even if they can arrive in time, the three major Roman empires will negotiate a specific alliance agreement in advance; In any case, there was still a bit of friendship between the three major Roman empires, and the Seleucid Empire was an outright outsider, so it was natural to be excluded from the core.

Since the emperors of the three empires had come to Tarentum in person, they were naturally all in favor of forming this alliance; After establishing the anti-Augustan Empire alliance, Marius began to make suggestions on specific methods of suppression against the Augustan Empire.

Although the military strength of the Roman Empire was the weakest of the three empires, it was only in terms of land strength; As far as the naval fleet is concerned, the naval fleet of the Brutus Empire and the Julius Empire combined, that is, the size of the fleet of the Roman Empire.

During the years of internal strife, the Roman Empire's naval warship construction never relaxed; Coupled with the fact that the shipyards that built the warships were far away from the whirlpool of the battle, the Roman Empire had a fleet that could not be underestimated.

Therefore, Marius first suggested that the three empires should unite to form a large fleet to deal with the naval fleet of the Augustan Empire; In order to take into account the actual situation of the Brutus Empire, this combined fleet will consist of all the warships of the Julius Empire and the Roman Empire, as well as half of the warships of the Brutus Empire, which can be regarded as considering the special situation of the Brutus Empire.

In fact, neither Flavius nor Tiberius objected to such a proposal to form a combined fleet; After all, the size of the naval fleet of the Augustan Empire is there, and if everyone still fights separately if they want to start a war with the Augustan Empire, they can only be broken by the fleet of the Augustan Empire one by one.

What's more, the core military strength of the three empires is their own land forces, except for the Brutus Empire, which had to maintain a regular transport fleet because its territory was divided into two by the Aegean Sea, the other two empires could use all their fleets for the war against the Augustan Empire; The small fleet of the Julius Empire, which was subordinate to Calabes, was not counted at all.

The fact that the affairs concerning the navy were so easily passed unanimously was that the naval forces of the alliance were too weak, and to unite them was barely to protect themselves, and there was no need for disagreement; In addition, the Seleucid Empire, which is about to join the alliance, their naval fleet that cannot be used is not as good as the warships built by the Roman Empire in a year, so let them keep it for themselves.

Soon after the naval affairs were discussed, the focus shifted to the vital land war; The Augustan Empire was now directly connected to the Alliance's Powers, namely the Iberian Peninsula of the Augustan Empire and the Gallic Lands of the Julius Empire, leaving only the North African continent separated from the Seleucid Empire by an Egyptian kingdom.

Even if the Seleucid Empire could gather a large army to fight the war against the Kingdom of Egypt, the Kingdom of Egypt, with ten legions of the Augustan Empire stationed and 300,000 troops of its own, would not be so easy to deal with; With the strength of the Seleucid Empire alone, its greatest strength was to wage war, and it was almost impossible to win this war.

The Iberian Peninsula of the Augustan Empire must be handed over to the army of the Julius Empire to solve, and Marius also said that the Roman Empire could send reinforcements when the army of the Iberian Peninsula attacked by the army of the Julius Empire; Then the war between the Seleucid Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt, the Brutus Empire naturally needed to send troops to assist.

Otherwise, how could the Seleucid Empire be able to contend with the alliance of the Kingdom of Egypt and the Empire of Augustus on its own; However, on the question of how many troops the Brutus Empire should send to assist the Seleucid Empire, there was a serious disagreement between Tiberius and Marius.

Marius believed that the Brutus Empire needed to send at least eight legions to help the Seleucid Empire stabilize the war, while Tiberius made it clear that the Brutus Empire could only send a maximum of five legions; In fact, Tiberius also had his own little calculations, and once the Seleucid Empire gathered a large army to go south, it would not be a good opportunity for the Brutus Empire.

Towards the end of the war, the momentum of the Augustan Empire was suppressed, and the Kingdom of Egypt became part of the Seleucid Empire; The Seleucid Empire, which had obtained the Kingdom of Egypt, would have the capital to reproduce Alexander's Empire, and at that time, the empty Seleucid Empire in the north would be the best target for the Brutus Empire.

After the two sides had serious differences here, this meeting could not be held, after all, the most important thing in this matter was to consider the opinion of the Seleucid Empire; So, the three emperors stopped the pointless argument for the time being and began to talk about other things.

A few days later, the heir to the emperor of the Seleucid Empire arrived in Tarentum; After Marius convened this meeting again, Seleucus VII's eldest son directly put forward all the conditions of the Seleucid Empire, and bluntly said that only if the three major empires accepted these conditions, the Seleucid Empire would join the alliance, otherwise the Seleucid Empire would have to choose to give up joining the alliance.

Faced with the Seleucid Empire's unyielding conditions, Tiberius finally decided to agree to the Brutus Empire sending ten legions to help the Seleucid Empire; But he also had his own requirements, that is, the Seleucid Empire must send 150,000 troops to attack the Kingdom of Egypt, and the elite troops must not be less than 50,000, but Seleucus VII's eldest son directly agreed, and the alliance was officially established! (To be continued.) )