ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 778 The battle before the siege
At the same time, the ballistas of the Dionysian legions were pushed to the southwest corner of the Roman city, 200 meters away from the city, and fired stone bullets at the wall that protruded outward like a dog's ear. .

Dozens of stone bullets hit the city wall at the same time, with a terrifying sound, which caused a burst of exclamations from the defenders on the city.

Round after round of stone bombardment caused broken wall bricks and stone flakes to continue falling down, which also made the defenders on the city feel uneasy.

It was not only ballistae but also abdominal bows that attacked the city of Rome.The huge iron arrows shot by this kind of bow that were magnified countless times were not aimed at the city wall, but fell into the slums behind the city wall, causing panic among the Roman people.

But soon the people in the slums discovered that the iron arrows stuck on the ground and on the houses had several papyrus rolls tied to them. The bold people stepped forward curiously to untie the papyrus rolls.

Scipio, the city guard chief, had a piece of paper sent by the soldiers in his hand. He opened it carefully and looked at it. The paper was filled with words in Latin: Fellow Romans, my name is Varchus, I was a Roman citizen, and I have been a Roman citizen since childhood. Living on Laventine Hill.Eight years ago, because a scoundrel drove the sheep and gnawed the wheat seedlings in the field I rented, and provoked him with words, I angrily injured him. As a result, I was sentenced to a large fine by the court, which I was unable to pay. Under the pressure of the other party, I had to buy a slave to pay off this high debt. Later I found out that this man was a diner of Cabrus Claudius Sabinus, so I lost. I lost this lawsuit that I shouldn't have lost and became a slave!

To all my compatriots who live in Rome and are landless like me, and to all my compatriots who own a small amount of land but are from commoner backgrounds, are you like me, living uneasy every day, very worried about those who own a lot of land and a lot of slaves? The nobles seek to seize their own insignificant share of land and turn themselves into their slaves, just because they are already rich enough and want more!We have fought against the greed of the nobles many times and wanted to gain some rights to protect ourselves, so we abandoned the city many times to make the greedy nobles realize the importance of us civilians!But to this day, these greedy Roman nobles still control all the power of this city-state, and we are their cattle and sheep, and we may be slaughtered by them at any time!Compatriots, are you willing? !
Fortunately, Diana has blessed us, and now the Dionians are coming!Although Dionia is a country with a king, its citizens have great power. They own their own land, and the law protects it from being plundered. No matter where they are born or what race they are, as long as they have the ability, they can Can hold public office, and even eventually become a senator. Even ordinary citizens can report officials who violate laws and disciplines and have them punished by law...

King Dionia once promised me to turn Rome into a place as beautiful as Dionia!Compatriots, if you don’t want to become slaves, then join the Dionian army to overthrow the rule of these greedy and ugly Roman nobles! "

After reading this, a chill arose in Scipio's heart, and his hands and feet became cold. He hurriedly ordered: "Quick! Send someone to collect all these papyri quickly. No one is allowed to hold them!"

When the city guards sent by Scipio rushed to the slums, what they saw was that some civilians were gathering in piles on the side of the street, surrounding a few literate civilians, while listening to them read the Shakespeare poems taken from the iron arrows. Scroll of paper, while whispering to each other.

"I know this Valquez. He used to live in front of my house. He was a very good man. When he became a slave, he even gave some of his family's things to everyone... Sigh..."

"The people of this Claudius family are really bad! They have always been very harsh on us civilians! Last month, it was this Caplus Claudius Sabinus who just became a middle school student. The captain’s youngest son injured my neighbor just because of a trivial matter, and he is still unable to get off the ground!”

"It's not just the Claudius family, any of these big families in Rome is not bad! According to me, the Dionians are here, and it's best to kill them all!"

"Do you think what is said in this letter is true? Is it really that good to be a citizen of Dionia?"

……

While the civilians were discussing what these papyrus scrolls were about, the city guards who carried out the orders of the chief rushed in and forcibly confiscated the sand scrolls, which naturally triggered a conflict.

Fortunately, the senators headed by Ambustus who received the news arrived in time, calmed the angered civilians on the spot, and criticized the city guards who almost caused the incident.

At the same time, Ambustus held the scroll and shouted loudly: "Citizens, this is a conspiracy of the Dionians. They want to use this to separate us, so that we can't work together to defend the city! Ten A few years ago, we had conflicts because of internal quarrels and discord. Some people abandoned Rome and went away to Viai, which aroused Jupiter's anger, and the Gauls gave us the most painful punishment!
After rebuilding Rome, we swore an oath on the Capitoline Hill never to make the same mistake again!Therefore, don’t be fooled by the enemy’s rhetoric, and you must never let the tragedy of the destruction of Rome happen again! …”

Ambustus's words quickly extinguished the anger of the Roman people who were gathering.

But at this time, someone shouted: "Yes, the civilians who fled to Vienna eventually moved back to Rome, but have the promises made by the Senate been fulfilled?! We still owe high debts, and we cannot rent public seeds. We cannot hold important positions in the city-state, and we hope that one of the two consuls elected every year must have a commoner's request, but the Senate simply ignored it!"

Ambustus looked closely and saw that the person speaking was really the tribune Gaius Julius Brutus. Before he could explain this, the people roared again: "The tribune said so." That's right, the Senate is always perfunctory with us, they just want us to work hard and don't want to give us any rights at all!"

"This is the Rome of the nobles and the rich, not our Rome! If such a Rome is destroyed, what does it have to do with us!"

"Whenever we are promised the same rights as the nobles, we will take up arms to fight against the Dionians!"

……

The protests from the people came towards the senators like a tide, making them panic.In normal times, they would have many ways to deal with such protests, but now a large army is besieging the city. If they are not careful, they may be in chaos before the enemy's attack begins.So Ambustus and the others hurriedly said: "The Senate will immediately discuss their request, please rest assured and wait for the answer."

With the consent of the people, the senators were able to return to the Senate and held an emergency meeting.

However, whether it is canceling debts or sharing public land with common people, it seriously involves the interests of the senators and nobles, not to mention letting civilians hold important positions in the city-state, or even consuls, which is a taboo of the nobles, so the senators Although the debate in the court was fierce, no conclusion was reached.

.............................................

At this time, Scipio, who had been busy defending the city of Rome, once again received urgent news: Dionysian warships appeared on the Tiber River.

Although he had already considered the possibility of enemy ships invading the Tiber River after learning that Ostia had fallen, he was still very nervous when the news came.

He immediately rushed to the southwest corner of the city wall, stood at the top of the city, looked south, and saw a long line of triremes, pulled by slaves and laborers, and under the full force of the sailors, Going upstream along the Tiber River, the leading warships have already docked at the river port...

These warships, which are very small on the vast sea, appear extremely huge on the Tiber River, which is only about a hundred meters wide. The 50-meter-long hull crosses the river, reaching half of the width of the river. This makes many city walls still empty. The Roman soldiers, who had never seen a trireme, were very nervous.

What made Great Scipio feel even more nervous was that he saw many Dionia soldiers boarding warships from the river port, and then the warships sailed to the opposite bank to dock, and Dionia's soldiers boarded the river beach on the opposite bank...

The Dionians want to attack Rome from the north through the Vertebra Bridge!Scipio was excited and immediately ordered: "Go and inform Cassius quickly to strengthen the defense of Shibashi and be careful of the Dionian attack!"

After the messengers left, Scipio thought about it and was still a little worried, so he sent 700 more Roman soldiers to the Veribridge. Of course, most of them were citizens over 50 years old.

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

The content of these slaves and laborers' shoutings was actually similar to what was written on the papyrus scrolls before. It was just that these people spoke from their own experiences, which made them more convincing. Moreover, they targeted not only Roman civilians, but also slaves.Because of the lack of troops in the city, the Roman Senate had to let city-state slaves serve as soldiers and promised to grant them freedom after the war.Now the civilians and slave soldiers on the west city wall were a little distracted. Their state of mind even infected the people in the city. The Senate's delay in making a decision also angered them. They gathered together and ran to the gate of the Senate. They protested before and even declared that if the Senate did not give them a clear answer, they would open the city gates and welcome the Dionians.

The urgent warning sent by the city guard chief Scipio and the pressure from the people outside made the senators panic like ants on a hot pot.

(End of this chapter)