Death is insignificant to us, because when we exist, death has not yet come to us, and when we die, we no longer exist. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

- Epicurus (representative of the hedonism of Arestepus)

The Empire of Julius also had a much larger territory in Gaul and Germania than the mainland south of the Alps, and the Greek peninsula and the westernmost territory of the Eastern Continent ruled by the Brutus Empire were also far from the Augustan Empire; The real adjunct to Augustus' empire was the Roman Empire, the weakest of all.

Perhaps the strength of the Roman Empire should not be described as weak, but compared with the powerful Augustan Empire, the Roman Empire, which has been busy with power struggles within the empire in recent years, is too weak; For five years, the strength of the Roman Empire did not improve in the slightest, but consumed a lot in the internal strife.

From the time Marius staged a coup d'état to replace the Maxentius family, to the establishment of the Roman Empire five years ago, the Roman army remained at the size of nine legions; Even if there were no foreign enemies to face directly in Rome itself, the army of Rome itself should not have only nine legions under the pressure of the increasingly powerful Augustan Empire, which is enough to explain the inaction of the Roman Empire over the years.

With the emperor Julianus under complete house arrest, Marius, who had monopolized power in the Roman Empire, finally began to free up his hands to develop and strengthen the Roman Empire; While the Augustan Empire was busy with North Africa and Egypt, the Roman Empire's army had expanded from nine legions to twelve, and its military strength had suddenly increased by one-third.

However, even if the Roman Empire's military strength increased by one-third, it could not change the status of the weakest of its four empires; You must know that the current Ulius Empire has twenty-three legions, which is still the number after excluding the two legions that have just been captured by the Germanic barbarians, the Brutus Empire also has twenty-six legions, and the Augustan Empire has twenty-eight legions.

This meant that the other three empires were at least twice as powerful militarily as the Roman Empire; More importantly, the armies of the other three empires have been in a state of combat in recent years, and their combat effectiveness can be guaranteed, while the armies of the Roman Empire have been at peace for a long time, and only God knows how much combat effectiveness they can exert on the battlefield.

But one thing is certain, that is, the armies of the Roman Empire would certainly be no match for the armies of the other three empires in equal numbers; An army that has not experienced a real life-and-death struggle is just a showman, no matter how well it is trained, and Emperor Marius, who was born as an army general, is extremely sure of this.

If the weakness of the Roman Empire itself worried Marius, the rapid expansion of the Augustan Empire made Marius feel mortally threatened; The current Augustan Empire is not the Augustan Empire that only had the islands of the Western Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula in the past, and the entire Mediterranean Sea has almost become the inland sea of the Augustan Empire.

There are six islands in the Mediterranean with at least one provincial size, namely Sicily and Sardinia and the Balearic Islands in the Western Mediterranean, Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean, Rhodes and Crete in the Aegean Sea; All of these six important islands in the Mediterranean were now part of the Augustan Empire.

In addition, the Augustan Empire also had a large fleet that could defeat the naval fleet of any country, and the Kingdom of Egypt, whose naval strength was second only to the Augustan Empire in the Mediterranean, became a vassal state of the Augustan Empire; In such a situation, what other power in the entire Mediterranean could compete with the Augustan Empire for supremacy in the Mediterranean?

Six years ago, the Augustan Empire was only the maritime hegemon of the western Mediterranean, and six years later, the Augustan Empire has become the maritime hegemon of the entire Mediterranean; No country's naval fleet could compete with the Augustan Empire in the Mediterranean, not even the Roman, Julius, Brutus, and Seleucid empires combined.

Unfortunately, there are only six remaining forces in the Mediterranean; The Roman Empire, the Augustan Empire, the Julius Empire, the Brutus Empire, which belonged to the Roman sphere of influence, and the Kingdom of Egypt and the Seleucid Empire, which belonged to the Eastern continent.

With only six countries left in the Pan-Mediterranean region, the nations will have to fight each other for each other; This fact was most unfavorable to Marius's Roman Empire, which was the closest power to Augustus's Empire, and the best object for Augustus's Empire to continue to expand outward.

After the complete annexation of North Africa by the Augustan Empire, the Kingdom of Egypt, which was connected to the North African continent in the east, also became a vassal state of the Augustan Empire. In this way, the direction in which the Augustan Empire could continue to expand was the Seleucid Empire and the Roman Empire, and the Seleucid Empire was naturally stronger between the two empires.

Even more important than power is the importance of the Seleucid Empire and the Roman Empire to the Augustan Empire, which was, after all, a powerful empire on the Eastern continent; Even if the Augustan Empire could defeat and annex the Seleucid Empire, it would take a lot of time and effort to rule the original territory of the Seleucid Empire.

In general, an attack on the Seleucid Empire was extremely profitable for the Augustan Empire, but it also came at a considerable cost; This was not only the price to pay for defeating the forces of the Seleucid Empire, but also the price that the Augustan Empire would have to pay for ruling the territory of the original Seleucid Empire.

Compared with the Seleucid Empire, Rome itself ruled by the Roman Empire was even more tempting to the Augustan Empire; With the strength of the Roman Empire, it was certainly impossible to inflict heavy casualties on the Augustan Empire in terms of military strength as the Seleucid Empire.

More importantly, after the annexation of Rome proper, the Augustan Empire could also return to Rome without spending too much time and energy to solve the problem of rule; The Romans were originally a people who were subordinate to the strong, and as long as the strong man was an empire within the Roman sphere of influence, it was simply impossible for them to refuse the rule of the Augustan Empire for the sake of the Roman Empire.

In fact, once the Augustan Empire had acquired Rome, they could have quickly integrated the entire Roman mainland into the Augustan Empire; Because the most serious development problem in Rome itself, which has a huge population, has always been the most serious development problem, and the Kingdom of Egypt, a vassal state of the Augustan Empire, is the largest grain producer in the Mediterranean, is not this relationship obvious enough?

As long as the Augustan Empire could provide enough food to maintain their rule in Rome itself, Rome itself would become the most stable rear of the Augustan Empire; With the current strength of the Augustan Empire, coupled with the population advantage of Rome itself, is there any other force in the world that can stop the Augustan Empire from reaching the top of the world?

In addition to these considerations, there is another factor that cannot be ignored and the main factor that the Augustan Empire may attack on the Roman Empire, and that is the geographical location of Rome itself; The Seleucid Empire and the Augustan Empire were separated by an Egyptian kingdom, and even the Seleucid Empire had a coastline, but most of the Seleucid Empire's territory was inland.

The Roman Empire, on the other hand, was the opposite, and the Roman Empire ruled Rome itself was simply the Apennine Peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides; The powerful naval fleet of the Augustan Empire could definitely launch an attack on any of the provinces of the Roman Empire with their infantry, and even launch a war of aggression against all four provinces of the Roman Empire at the same time.

Even after the Augustan Empire annexed the North African continent, the core of the entire Augustan Empire was still Sicily, and the capital of the empire was also the ancient city of Syrac on the island of Sicily; Needless to say, the Roman Empire was only a stone's throw away from the island of Sicily in the Augustan Empire, which made it easier for the Augustan Empire to send troops to Rome itself.

Based on this consideration, the further strength of the Augustan Empire had already posed the deadliest threat to the Roman Empire; If he was not careful, the Roman Empire would even become the first of the four Roman empires to be wiped out, would Marius accept such an outcome?

How could Marius be willing to accept such an ending? The overall strength of the Augustan Empire is getting stronger and stronger, and the development potential is also increasing, which not only threatens the Roman Empire, but also inevitably poses a mortal threat to other countries; In particular, the Empire of Julius and Brutus, both Roman powers, must have also felt threatened by the rapid expansion of the Augustan Empire.

Marius then drew up an alliance against the Augustan Empire in Rome, and sent emissaries to Aretion of Julius and Corinth of Brutus, as well as Antioch of the Seleucid Empire. This time, Marius is no longer a petty alliance to deal with the Augustan Empire, but wants to form an alliance to completely solve the threat of the Augustan Empire.

With the current strength and potential of the Augustan Empire, if all the forces within the Mediterranean are not gathered, the union of only one or two forces will not be able to have the capital to fight against the Augustan Empire; Only by uniting all the forces together will it be possible to preemptively launch a war against the Augustan Empire and have the capital to win it.

In order to better negotiate this alliance between the major empires, Marius directly invited the emperors of the major empires this time, and the venue of the meeting was also set at Tarentum, in the Roman Empire's Apria province; This can be regarded as a deliberate arrangement by Marius, after all, the existence of the city of Rome is still too sensitive, and it is really not suitable as a place for the meeting. (To be continued.) )