It is pleasant to stand on the high shore and watch the boat sail in the bumpy ******, and it is also pleasant to stand in the fortress and see the battlefield in the fierce battle, but there is nothing more pleasant than climbing the peak of truth and looking down on the layers of obstacles, smoke and twists and turns on the way!

- Lucretius (Roman philosopher)

At a time when the Augustans were busy occupying the overseas territories of the Carthaginian kingdom, Hannibal was busy expelling the Numidian invasion in North Africa, and Marius was busy with the political struggles in Rome itself; The Julius family, which dominates the north, has not been idle. The conquest of the Alpine tribes by Calabis was not an expansion of the Julius family; At best, it's just a solution to worries.

Since the conquest of the two provinces of Gallic in the mountains and the kingdom of Regulia with the assistance of Carabes, the focus of the Julius family has shifted from the original military construction to internal governance; After a period of grace and power, the three newly conquered provinces were finally stabilized, and the Gallic barbarians accepted the rule of the Julius family with great ease.

There's a reason for that, though; The Gallic barbarians in the mountains are essentially different from the Gallic barbarians outside the mountains. Although the Gallic barbarians on the north and south sides of the Alps all descended from the same ancestor, the habits and civilizations of the two sides began to differ from each other hundreds of years ago.

The Gallic barbarians north of the Alps are still the same barbarian people they once were; The life they lived was the same as it was hundreds of years ago, and it hadn't changed even the slightest. The Gallic barbarians south of the Alps are no longer the barbarian people they once were; The life they live is still far behind that of the civilized world, but it is much stronger than that of the real barbarians.

The centuries-old expansion of the Roman Republic made the Romans neighbors of the Gauls; The two sides fought and fought along the Rubicon River for hundreds of years. However, war is never the main theme of both sides; For hundreds of years, there were only a dozen major wars and more than 70 battles between the Romans and the Gauls, and the rest of the time they coexisted peacefully.

The Romans were not as arrogant as they thought, and the Gauls were not as barbaric and rude as the legend suggests; Many of the Romans and Gauls who lived along the Rubicon had established a very good habit of life. The Romans on the south bank of the Rubicon always exchanged some salt and iron for hides from the Gauls on the north bank, and each side took what it needed and got what it gained.

Over time, the Gauls south of the Alps gradually began to adopt some of the way of life that belonged to the Romans; For example, drinking red wine, eating bread, growing wheat, bathing frequently, and so on. Many Gauls even began to do something their ancestors had never done, and that was to do business; The relationship between the Gauls and the Romans had developed to the point where specialized merchants were needed to organize trade.

It was not only the prosperity of trade that drove the civilization of the Gauls, but also the outbreak of war! The aggressive Gauls would always cross the Rubicon when their livelihood was struggling and go to the Roman settlements on the south bank to plunder enough food and grass for their survival; In many cases, the things they plundered also included some things that were unique to the civilized world, such as the massage utensils used by the Romans for bathing.

In short, in the course of hundreds of years of subtle evolution, the Gallic barbarians south of the Alps have transcended the ordinary barbarian definition and become an existence between a civilized people and a barbarian. It was from this that the Kingdom of Regulia was born; You must know that in the social composition of the Gallic barbarians, there is no concept of king and nobility, there is only the concept of tribe and chief.

The fact that the Regulian tribes were able to evolve into the Regulian kingdom was itself a manifestation of civilizational progress; As for the provinces of Gallic and Veneto divided by the Romans, although they have not yet gotten rid of the shackles of tribal concepts, they have finally learned the concept of civilization, and they have begun to learn that the Romans use provinces to refer to their hometowns and governors to call their tribal leaders.

Such a Gallic barbarian south of the Alps is actually not a true Gallic barbarian; Because the society in which they live is filled with all kinds of objects of the civilized world, and it is also full of the atmosphere of learning about the civilized world. In contrast, the Gallic barbarians north of the Alps not only did not come into contact with the objects of the civilized world in their own lives, but also rejected the civilized world in their minds.

It is precisely because the ideological consciousness of the Gallic barbarians in the mountains has reached a period of yearning for civilization; Therefore, they were not very repulsed by the Roman conquests, but were filled with a feeling of fear and anticipation. The fear was based on centuries-old feuds between Gaul and Rome, and the Gauls feared that the Romans would retaliate after their conquest.

The expectation is based on the yearning of these Gallic barbarians for the civilized world, and these Gauls have used the objects of the civilized world and have also come into contact with the social life of the civilized world; They are well aware of the gap between the life of their nation and the life of a truly civilized person, and they desire to be part of the civilized world themselves, and they hope that their life can also become a truly civilized life!

The arrival of the House of Julius may have been a fantastic blessing for the average Gallic barbarian; Flavies' brilliance and wisdom were known to the Romans. The Julius family, which he was in charge, not only did not suppress the local Gauls and Gallic nobles, but did their best to spread everything from the civilized world to the world of the Gallic barbarians.

Whatever the purpose of Flavis and Julius doing all this, the results were remarkable; The Gaul people and Gallic nobility of the provinces of Regulia and Gallic in the mountains and Veneto accepted the rule of the House of Julius as quickly as possible, and began to support the House of Julius and the leader of Flavis.

Of course, the Gauls were not fools either; If it weren't for the fact that they knew that Flavis and the Julius family had brought them the change they had always dreamed of, they would not have easily accepted Flavis and the Julius family, let alone embraced them. It was thanks to the joint efforts of both sides that the entire three provinces under the rule of the Julius family were quickly stabilized within a few months.

After the stability of the three newly incorporated provinces of Gaul under his own rule was restored, the Julius family, who had no worries, began a new expansion plan. There are now four channels of expansion in front of the Julius family, namely Illyria in the east, Gallic beyond the mountains in the west, Norikum in the northeast, and Lugdunansis in the northwest.

Flavis's mind is naturally clear about which of these four directions is superior or inferior, but Flavis can't insist on doing what he wants to do according to his own ideas; Because Flavis spent his time in the future to cultivate his most optimistic heir, Caesar, otherwise it would be too late.

In order to create an opportunity for little Caesar, Flavies decided to convene a meeting of the highest families of the Julius family; In addition to the seven captains of the Julius family and the heirs of the family, the only people who attended the meeting were Flavis and Caesar, who he had always taken with him. The generals didn't know why Flavis had suddenly started a military meeting, but they instinctively prepared for war before they set off.

When the meeting was held, it was nightfall; Perhaps it was because the Roman families had a habit of holding meetings at night, as if every Roman family held a family meeting at nightfall. After all the generals had taken their seats, Flavies appeared in the conference room with Caesar; After only a few months, Caesar was already as tall as a normal child at fourteen or fifteen years old.

After a simple greeting with the generals who were usually stationed in various places, Flavis officially began the family meeting under the attention of the generals; I saw Flavis say to everyone present with great ambition: "Ladies and gentlemen, with the joint efforts of all of us during this time, the three provinces of the Gauls have been completely brought under the rule of our Julius family!"

Now that we have sorted out our housekeeping, we are sure to start our expansion abroad; There are now four channels of expansion in front of our Julius family, namely, Illyria in the east, Gaul beyond the mountains in the west, Norikum in the northeast, and Lugdunansis in the northwest.

In these four directions, except for Lugdunansis in the northwest, which requires us to cross the Alps, which is not suitable for our expansion for the time being, expansion in the other three directions is possible; Today I want to hear from you and see in which direction it is in the best interests of our family of Julius to expand. ”

Of the nine people present, Caesar was only a ten-year-old child, and was not yet able to speak at such a family meeting; Quintus Julius (not the Sardinian Quintus Scipio) is the heir to the family, and the remaining seven are all captains of various legions, and they are naturally full of anticipation for the upcoming war.

For a general, only war can lead to victory and glory; Of course, they are gearing up for it, and they are ready to do it. However, Flavies did not simply announce who he was going to war against, but asked everyone to discuss who to go to war against; This is not an easy question, and it is very difficult to answer.

All the generals are you look at me, I look at you, and no one wants to stand up and say their opinions first; No way, who doesn't know the wisdom of Ephravis, he must have already made a decision, and throwing this question out at this time is nothing more than to test everyone. If you get it right, everyone will be happy, but what if it's wrong? Not everyone wants to be a bird! (To be continued.) )