Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

At the same time, the ballistas of the Dionysian legions were concentrated and pushed to the southwest corner of Rome, two hundred meters away from the city, and launched a stone at the section of the wall protruding like a dog ear. bomb.

Dozens of stone bombs bombarded the city wall at the same time, and the sound was frightening, causing a burst of exclamation from the defenders in the city.

Rounds of rounds of stone bombardment caused the cracked wall tiles and stone pieces to fall continuously, making the defenders in the city uneasy.

Not only the ballista but also the belly bow attacked the city of Rome.The huge iron arrows shot by such bows, which have been magnified many times, are not aimed at the wall, but have fallen into the slums behind the wall, causing panic among the Roman people.

But soon the people in the slums found that the iron arrows that were tied to the ground and inserted in the houses were tied with several scrolls of scrolls, and the daring people stepped forward to unravel the scrolls of curiosity.

There was a copy from the soldier of the City Guard, Da Sipiah, which was sent carefully by the soldiers. The paper was full of words written in Latin: The compatriots in Rome, my name is Valquez, I was a Roman citizen. Living on Mount Laventine.Eight years ago, because a rogue drove the flock, chewed the wheat seedlings in the field I rented, and provoked me with words, it made me angry and wounded them. As a result, I was fined by the court and I was unable to pay. Under the persecution of the other party, I had to buy as a slave to pay off this high debt. Later, I learned that this person was a diner of Capbrus Claudius Sabinos, so I would lose Lost this lawsuit that should not have been lost, become a slave!

All the fellows who live in Rome and have no land like me, all the fellows who have a small share of land but are born of civilians, are you like me, living anxiously every day, very worried about those who have a lot of land and many slaves Of the nobles seized their insignificant share and turned themselves into their slaves, just because they were rich enough to want more!We have fought against the greed of the nobles many times and wanted to gain a little protection of our rights, so we abandoned the city many times and wanted to make the greedy nobles realize the importance of our civilians!But until today, these greedy Roman nobles still control all the power of this city-state, and we are their cattle and sheep in captivity, and may be slaughtered by them at any time!Fellow citizens, are you willing?!

Fortunately, Diana blesses, now the Dionysians are coming!Although Dionysia is a country with kings, its citizens have great powers. They own their own land, and the law protects it from being looted. No matter what their birth or race, as long as they have the ability Being able to hold public office can even eventually become a veteran, and even ordinary citizens can report officials who violate the law and discipline, and let them be punished by the law...

King Dionysia had promised me that Rome would be as beautiful as Dionysia!Fellow citizens, if you do not want to become slaves, then join the Dionysian army to overthrow the rule of these greedy and ugly Roman nobles!"

After reading it, a big chill rose in his heart, and his hands and feet were cold. He anxiously ordered: "Quick! Quickly send someone to collect all these papyruses, no one is allowed to hold it!"

When the city guards sent by the Great Siberia rushed to the slums, they saw some civilians gathering on the side of the street, surrounded by several literate civilians, while listening to them read the Sasha taken from the iron arrow. Scroll, whispering while talking.

"I know this Varkes. I lived in front of my house before. It was a very good person. When he became a slave, he also distributed some things from his family to everyone...ah..."

"This Claudius family is really very bad! We have always been harsh on our civilians! Last month, it was this Capbrus Claudius Sabinos who just became a middle school The captain’s youngest son only injured my neighbor because of a trivial matter, and he is still unable to land!"

"Not only the Claudius family, which of the big families in Rome is not bad! As I said, the Dionysians are here, it is best to kill them all!"

"Did you say that what was said in the letter was true, and when the citizens of Dionysia were so good?"

...

As the civilians talked about these scrolls, the city guards ordered by the chief rushed in and forced the collection of the scrolls, which naturally caused conflict.

Fortunately, the veterans headed by Ambustus arrived in time to appease the enraged civilians on the spot and criticize the city guards who almost caused the incident.

At the same time, Ambustus held the scroll of papyrus and screamed loudly: "Citizens, this is a conspiracy of the Dionysians. They want to use this to alienate us so that we cannot work together to defend the city! Ten A few years ago, we clashed because of internal quarrels and dissatisfaction. Some people abandoned Rome and left for Victoria, causing Jupiter to be angry, and the Gauls gave us the most painful punishment!

After rebuilding Rome, we have already vowed on the Capitolin Hill and will never make mistakes again!Therefore, don’t be fooled by the enemy’s rhetoric, and never let the tragedy of Rome’s destruction be repeated!..."

The words of Ambustus made the anger of the Roman people who were gathering together quickly quenched.

But at this time, some people shouted: "Yes, the civilians who fled to Victoria finally moved back to Rome, but did the promises made by the Senate have been fulfilled?! We still owe a high amount of debt, and we cannot rent public species. We can’t hold a city-state’s important position. We hope that the two consuls elected each year must have a civilian request, and the Senate will simply ignore it!"

Ambustus looked closely, and the person who spoke was really the civil servant Gaius Julius Brutus. He had not explained it yet, and the roar of the public rang again: "The civil servant said That’s right, the Senate is always perfunctory, just wanting us to sell our lives, we don’t want to give us any rights at all!”

"This is the Romans of the nobles and the rich, not ours! Such a destroyed Rome has nothing to do with us!"

"Whenever we promise to have the same rights as the nobles, we will take up arms to fight the Dionysians!"

...

The protests of the people rushed towards the elders like a tide, and they made them panic.If they were in peacetime, they had many ways to deal with such protests, but now the army is besieging the city. If one of them is careless, I am afraid that the enemy’s attack has not started yet, and they will be in chaos within themselves.So Ambustus said in a hurry: "The Senate will immediately discuss the request made by them and ask them to settle down and wait for an answer."

With the consent of the people, the elders were able to return to the elders' home and held an emergency meeting.

However, whether it is to cancel debts or to share public land with the civilians, the interests of the elders and the nobility are seriously involved. Not to mention letting the civilians hold important positions in the city-state or even the governor. It is also a taboo for the nobles, so the elders Although the debate was fierce in the courtyard, no conclusion was reached.

………………………………………

At this time, the Great Sipiah, who had been busy with the defense of the Roman city, once again received an urgent report: Dionysian warships appeared on the Tiber River.

Although he learned that Ostia had fallen, he had already considered the possibility of an enemy ship invading the Tiber River, but when he caused this news, he was still very nervous.

He immediately rushed to the southwest corner of the city wall, stood at the head of the city, and looked south. He saw a three-tiered paddle warship lined up as a dragon, pulled by the slaves and laborers, and under the full strength of the sailors, Upstream along the Tiber River, the forefront of the warship has already leaned towards the river port...

These very small warships in the vast sea seem extremely huge on the Tiber River, which is only about 100 meters in width. The hull of more than 50 meters crosses the river and reaches half the width of the river, which makes many city heads Roman soldiers who had never seen a three-tier paddle warship were very nervous.

What made Grand Sipiah even more nervous was that he saw many Dionysian soldiers boarding the warship from the river port, and then the warship sailed to the other side to dock, and the Dionysian soldiers boarded the river bank on the other side...

The Dionysians wanted to attack Rome from the north through the spinal bridge!Da Xipia was excited, and immediately ordered: "Go and notify Cassius, strengthen the defense against the spinal bridge, and be careful of the Dionysian attack!"

After the subordinate soldiers left, Da Sipi Azuosi thought that he was still a little uneasy, and sent 700 more Roman soldiers to the bridge, of course, most of them were citizens over 50 years old.

Scipio was worrying about the north of the city of Rome, and a soldier came to report: outside the west wall of Rome, a group of Roman slaves and Latin laborers appeared. Under the protection of Dionysian soldiers, they shouted to the soldiers at the head of the city. .

The content of these slave and labor shouts is actually similar to what was previously written on the papyrus, except that these people have spoken with their own experience, which has increased their persuasion, and they are not only targeting Roman civilians, but also slaves.Due to the lack of troops in the city, the Roman Senate had to let city-state slaves serve as soldiers and promised them freedom after the war.Now the civilians and slave soldiers on the west wall all have dim sums. Their status has even infected the people in the city, and the elders’ inability to make a decision also angered them. They rallyed and ran to the elders’ gate The previous protest even declared that if the Senate no longer gave them a clear answer, they would open the city gate to greet the Dionysians.

The urgent notice sent by the chief of the City Guard, Da Xi Pia, and the forced palace of the people outside the door made the veterans like ants on the hot pot panic.