Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 254: Lining one’s own pockets
Astolfo didn't care about what Orville said. He fumbled around in his pocket and took out a piece of parchment, which was covered with numbers. He showed it to Orville.

"My brothers and I are indeed unruly, but please do not doubt our abilities. We are all good at it. Although we have had a lot of fun during the time we came to Egypt, we have not been idle outside of having fun. I have learned about the laws of your country. There should be a "Julius Case Law" and a "Julius Civil Rights Law". Do you have some impression of the specific content?"

The Julius Case Laws contained many provisions on the code of conduct for state public officials, while the Julius Civil Rights Laws contained many legal provisions to protect citizens and provincial residents. Orwell certainly could not be familiar with all the specific provisions, but he had some impression of the general content of these documents.

Seeing Orville nod, Astolfo continued, "According to the laws of your country, public officials cannot accept bribes exceeding 10,000 sesterces (large-denomination copper coins, equivalent to about 2,500 dinars), and the list of all taxpayers must be made public to ensure fairness.

But this is what the law stipulates. What I found locally is not exactly the case. The bribes Antonis received far exceeded this order of magnitude. If you count them, it would be at least thousands of talents, and many things cannot be measured by money. You can look at the documents for the specific content yourself. What we have found out in a short period of time is definitely not complete. This tip of the iceberg is enough for you to impeach him.

There is one more thing. You have to collect a tribute from the Kingdom of Egypt. This amount is calculated according to the proportion of the tax-paying population in Egypt. I don't know the specific proportion, but I am sure that Antonisque deducted a part of it, and some people paid taxes but did not pay the tribute to you Romans as required. In short, like most places I have seen, the situation here seems okay at first glance, but if you look deeper, there are indeed many problems. "

Although he seemed nonchalant, Astolfo was a descendant of the royal family after all. He received a complete aristocratic ruler education when he was young. He knew more about the twists and turns between money and taxes than most people. As long as he looked carefully, he could easily find some clues and discover the disharmony.

After Orville understood the general situation, he opened the parchment and began to read it. He was deeply surprised by the data on it - he knew that Egypt was rich, but he did not expect that Antonis alone could squeeze so much of the people's wealth.

It was mentioned above that in the past half month alone, just discussing the situation discovered by Astolfo, Antonis's men have received bribes of at least millions of dinars, and Antonis's land and business properties here are even more incalculable. A rough estimate is that it is worth tens of millions of dinars. As for the wealth that Astolfo mentioned "cannot be measured by money", it specifically refers to retired Roman soldiers.

They were originally subordinates of Antonius. After retiring from the army, many of them obtained a piece of land to make a living according to the rules, and directly obtained a piece of land in Egypt. The distribution of the land was left to Antonius. Many of these soldiers became Antonius's protected persons in disguise. This is a relationship under the Latin patronage system. Academically speaking, the patrons of higher status use their power and resources to bestow favors or benefits on individuals or groups of lower status, and the protected persons return the support, loyalty or service to the patrons, thus forming a relatively stable reciprocal relationship.

To put it simply, Antonis took these people in as his stable subordinates, and their descendants would most likely continue to serve Antonis' family.

If Antonius had expanded the group of protected people with his own abilities, Orville would not have interfered. The problem was that Antonius actually relied on the empire to abuse his power for his own family. Soldiers who recognized Antonius as their patron could obtain good farmland, while those who did not would most likely be excluded.

It has not been long now, Antonius has only been here for a few years, and it has not yet become a stubborn problem. If it is delayed for another five or ten years, it may not be certain. Originally, the governor, especially the governor of a key position like Egypt, must be frequently replaced to prevent the governor from exercising power in the local area, but this practice has a little surprise for Antonius.

If we look into it more deeply, we can still blame Nero. After all, a dead person can be blamed at will, and his reputation has been badly tarnished by the Senate.

Nero was indeed a little slack in his rule in the middle and late period. Antonius, who should have been transferred back to his homeland early to change his post, never went back. Then there was a year of civil war in Rome. He probably reached some kind of agreement with Vespasian so that Vespasian could get his support to become emperor, and Antonius could continue to make money in Egypt. In the short term, Vespasian could not directly replace him because of the exchange of interests. This was one of the necessary prices for becoming emperor.

In short, judging from the final results, Antonis had been in office for nearly ten years, which was an unnaturally long time for a governor whose term of office was usually only one or two years, so Antonis had already reached a point where he was in a difficult position.

This was the reason behind Vespa's agreement to Orville's request. He didn't care much about what the Egyptians did. The main reason was that Antonius was too close to the Egyptians and had been operating in the local area for too long, so he had to find a way to kick him out.

The size of Egypt was enough to make Vespa wary. Although Rome's mainland could achieve a better economic level than Egypt by relying on bloodsucking during this period, the eastern Mediterranean was several levels richer than the western Mediterranean, and the mainland's advantages were not very significant.

Historically, before the demise of Egypt, the central government's annual revenue was about 6,000 talents. This was two hundred years later, and the productivity level was higher than the same period in history. Egypt's land and trade could provide at least 8,000 to 10,000 talents of fiscal revenue, which was probably more than ten times higher than Britain. Such a large piece of land could threaten the stability of the empire, especially since Egypt supplied one-third of the grain to Rome, so it had to be defended.

I have to say that Astolfo did a great job this time. He helped Orville find an excuse to take action, and now there was an opportunity to take action.

Putting away the parchment, Orville said to him, "You did a good job. I need more information on this matter, as well as the most crucial evidence. I hope you can take the trouble to help me find it. If you need any actual compensation, please tell me. I can meet your requirements within the limit."

"I will, and forget about the reward. I'm not doing this for the money, I just enjoy the process of doing good deeds." Astolfo casually refused Orville's reward.

(End of this chapter)