Probably because they were about to be sent to the gladiator school to become gladiators, the work assigned to the two was not too heavy, and Zhang Heng did not feel the cruel oppression of the evil slave society for the time being.

After finishing the work at hand, the overseer did not appear again, and assigned them new work, as if they had forgotten them, so Zhang Heng and Varro, the two unconscious new slaves, naturally touched the fish.

Zhang Heng took the initiative to communicate with Varro, wanting to get as much useful information as possible from the other party, after all, his understanding of ancient Rome was limited to some well-known historical figures and historical events, and Varro was different from ordinary slaves, before becoming a slave, he was a Roman citizen and a businessman, and he was very well-informed, and unlike his burly figure, his people were very kind, and at the same time, he probably felt that what happened just now was somewhat indebted, and he basically answered all questions.

Considering the current situation of the two, Zhang Heng first asked Varro about slaves, because from Varro's previous words, it can be heard that although slaves are at the bottom of Roman society, the fate of different slaves seems to be quite different.

"Of course." Varro patiently explained, "For example, staying in the city is usually much better than selling to the countryside, because the city is relatively wealthy, and the living conditions of slaves will be better, and some nobles need to consider their own face and show their benevolence, most people will not oppress slaves too much, your job is basically to take care of the male and female masters, do cleaning or something, there is not much heavy work, but the countryside is miserable." ”

Varro licked his slightly dry lips, and continued, "Being sold to the countryside, either farming or mining, the food and living conditions are not good, because the owners there will try to make you work more, they don't care about your living conditions, the more you work, the less you eat, the more they will earn, and the female ** is even more miserable, may be required to keep giving birth, every time you give birth to a child, it is a sum of money, whether you keep it to work, or sell it is a good choice." ”

"And what about the investment you are talking about?" Zhang Heng then asked again.

"Oh, this is the best fate for a slave like me who has a certain talent, you can ask your master to invest a sum of money, open your own shop, as long as you can bring a steady stream of income to your master, your status will naturally become higher and higher, you will no longer have to serve your master like any other effort, and if you are lucky, you will eventually be free, because in order to motivate the slaves, many masters will set a certain amount, and after earning so much money, you will become a Roman citizen again."

"Sounds good." Zhang Hengdao.

Varro hesitated, then added, "Actually, gladiators...... It's barely a way out, if you can pass the assessment to become a gladiator, your status will be a little higher than that of an ordinary slave, and if you can win a certain number of games in the arena, you can also get free, but that's too difficult, many people who have been on the battlefield and have excellent combat skills won't survive that day, let alone us, by the way, where are you from, I haven't seen you look like this before. ”

"I'm from the Han Empire in the East." Zhang Hengdao.

He is not lying, in the second century AD, which is almost the Eastern Han Dynasty in history, the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire at this time were the two most powerful super empires in the world, so that many villagers on the Internet who were full of food and had nothing to do in later generations were very keen to discuss the topic of who could win in a fight between the Han Dynasty and Rome, and they kept tearing up.

But it's a pity that until now, although China has unearthed such a thing as a Roman cup, the archaeological community has not had a unified answer to whether Rome and the Han Dynasty have been in contact with each other, and how much contact there is, let alone who will win in a fight, but on the contrary, the more this kind of topic that can be voided and line-to-line, the more enduring it is, because no one on either side can convince anyone.

Sure enough, Varro was also a little dazed when he heard the Han Empire, and he didn't know where it was, "Then how did you come to Rome and become a slave?" ”

"I wanted to see what was in the west, so I prepared a trip, only to meet robbers on my way to Persia, and then to be sold to slave traders, and finally to Rome." Zhang Heng casually made up a lie that was not easy to be exposed.

"Then you are too unlucky, my friend of the East." Varro mourned for Zhang Heng for three seconds, in his opinion, Zhang Heng's temperament and well-maintained skin of modern people all prove that Zhang Heng is a nobleman in the Han Empire that he said, and it is estimated that he is still an aristocrat with an unusual status.

As a result, this guy doesn't know what kind of wind is pumping in his brain, and he lives a good life of the decadent and degenerate ruling class, but he has to pursue poetry and distance, and now he is well, and he has plunged into the arms of robbers, not only has he become a slave from a nobleman, and he will never return to his homeland, but he also seems to have to lose his life in Rome.

However, Varro didn't sigh for Zhang Heng for a few seconds, and it was no better to think of his tragic experience, so his mood was low again, but with this connection, he felt that his relationship with Zhang Heng was a little closer, both of them originally had a good life, but they suddenly fell into slavery, and they have a common language in this regard.

Varro couldn't help but pat his chest and said, "Don't worry, if I regain my freedom in the future and make money, I will definitely redeem you from the arena and let you return to your hometown." ”

"Thank you very much." Zhang Heng said politely, and didn't take Varro's promise to heart much.

Since he knows that the slave is at the bottom of Roman society, he will definitely not be a slave all the time, fortunately, although Rome is in the stage of slavery society, but the society is not completely mobile, according to Varro, slaves can obtain the status of Roman citizens through hard work, even higher than the status of foreigners, and in the same way, commoners can also be mixed into nobles, of course, the difficulty coefficient of this matter is definitely much more difficult than mixing from slaves to commoners.

Zhang Heng didn't need to think about it so much at this stage, he just needed to get rid of his slave status first.

The two chatted for a while until dinner.

In all fairness, the dinner was not bad, and the richness certainly could not be compared with later generations, except for the beans and porridge, but it was rare that there was meat and crabs in the porridge paste.

But Varro was not happy when he saw this, and whispered to Zhang Heng, "It seems that they really plan to let us enter the gladiator school." ”