Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 323 Study Tour
As expected, the letter began with a scolding of Ovid. It was the first time he saw Domitia using foul language in a letter, which was quite inappropriate and vulgar behavior. It was obvious that Domitia's mental state was not very stable when she wrote the letter.

After that, Domitia quickly got to the point. She was planning to travel to the eastern provinces to study, so she hoped Orville could entertain her. She had not yet decided whether to stay in Athens or Alexandria for a long time, depending on the situation.

Athens has a deeper historical heritage and is more well-known culturally, but it has been declining recently. However, for people like Domitia, it is still like a holy land. Alexandria is a typical emerging city with excellent comprehensive qualities (although it has a city history of hundreds of years, it is actually not new). There is indeed a challenge between the two.

Orville only said in the letter that he welcomed the other party to visit, and he had already decided to persuade the other party to go back or stay in Alexandria, because the situation in Greece seemed to be very unstable recently, and it was not a good idea to study in a turbulent place. It was safer to stay within the control of his own family.

This was a good thing in his opinion. After all, one might not learn a lot by staying in one's native place. Domitia was actually quite smart and had already learned what she should learn a long time ago. What she lacked now was experience. He wanted to take this opportunity to let her experience some things and make some choices to see whether she wanted to go into politics like her sister or be a normal royal princess.

Orville didn't care, because he felt that Domitian in the other world still had certain talents. By analogy, Domitia in this world would not be too bad in the end. It all depends on the other party's choice in this world.

He took two approaches to this matter. On the one hand, he found a teacher and a position for the other party in advance, and on the other hand, he started looking for a marriage partner for the other party. Now he occasionally mentioned this matter to Tia in letters.

He personally thought that Trajan might be a good choice, but of course others might be good options as well.
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At Alexandria's naval base, Pliny the Elder was staring at Ivar. His eyes were like a wolf seeing meat or a poacher seeing a protected animal, which made Ivar, a strong man, feel a little scared.

Only a few people knew about Ivar's affairs, and Pliny the Elder was one of them. As he was the temporary commander of the navy, he should have the right to know. At the same time, he was also an outstanding cultural person. Orville intended to let Pliny the Elder organize Ivar's experiences and then secretly report them to the emperor.

Pliny the Elder was very willing to do this job. He and Ivar had one thing in common - a strong curiosity about things, and he himself was killed by his own curiosity.

He has been a naval commander for some time, and when Mount Vesuvius erupts in the future, he will be stationed nearby.

Out of duty and curiosity, he resolutely ordered the fleet to rush into the residential area below Mount Vesuvius to rescue civilians who had not been evacuated in time and to observe the volcanic eruption.

In the end, he did rush in, but after that, he and many members of the fleet were trapped in the villa area at the foot of the mountain because of the tsunami caused by the volcanic eruption. In the end, he didn't know whether his curiosity was satisfied or not. Anyway, he died from toxic and harmful gases, which could be regarded as a dedication to his career and passion.

Even after his death, the memoirs written for him by his nephew Pliny the Younger are important documentary materials for studying the ancient city of Pompeii. In this respect, Orwell really admires him, as his death is useful.

Now, in order to satisfy his curiosity about the unknown world, Pliny the Elder was asking Ivar about India and the sea. "Where is your northern homeland? What is in the northernmost part of Britain? How long did you sail from the Red Sea? What is there in India and what is it like?!"

Pliny the Elder asked questions in rapid succession, because people who had traveled thousands of miles in ancient times were indeed rare, and Pliny the Elder was not a man who studied in a study, but traveled around the world all his life. In a sense, the two had some common language, but faced with such high-density language bombardment, Ivar, who did not know Latin very well, immediately became a little confused and at a loss.

In the end, the problem was solved by hiring an interpreter. Pliny the Elder slowed down his speech, communicated with the other party bit by bit, and got the information he wanted. It was finally a fruitful and good conversation.

Just after Pliny the Elder left, Ivar sighed unconsciously. He was indeed not very good at dealing with this kind of people.

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

As time goes by, the wounds inflicted on Egypt by its hasty civil war are gradually healing.

By buying and building ships, the number of ships gradually returned to the level before the fire. Although it would take time to fully recover, it would not affect the operation of the city and the country. At the same time, the Alexandria area destroyed by the fire was also gradually rebuilt. It took almost half a year to restore the area to its original state, but the process of the city's recovery could be seen with the naked eye.

Orville and Cleopatra took this opportunity to replan and design a half of the burned-down city area of ​​Alexandria. After all, the original city area was indeed a bit bloated and old, which once again increased the workload, which was exactly what they wanted. Now they relied on engineering construction to eliminate the unemployed population. After Cleopatra completed the planning of Alexandria, she began to plan to build a new large-scale canal network around the Nile Delta.

The economic value of the canal is needless to elaborate. In addition, in Egypt, the canal also has functions such as irrigation and water storage. Egypt's agriculture relies on the Nile River and is also restricted by the Nile River. The flooding of the Nile River means that the agriculture here can only be harvested once a season, and sometimes it is very unstable. Storing water through the canal can solve this problem to a certain extent.

At least in this era, it is impossible to have excessive infrastructure construction. Cleopatra is determined to reorganize Egypt's transportation and economic networks. This will certainly encounter many obstacles, but necessary things must always be done.

In addition, Orville once discussed with Cleopatra the "religious reform", which was to construct a ruling logic from Isis to Aphrodite, and then from the pharaoh to the Roman emperor. This matter was also slowly being implemented. The first step was to deprive the traditional temples of their monopoly and ruling status.

Egypt is obviously a river agricultural civilization, while Greece is undoubtedly a maritime civilization or city-state civilization. The two influence each other, but the differences in their internal logic are quite significant, which makes it difficult for the two to achieve integration to a certain extent. Religious manifestation is one of them.

(End of this chapter)