Chapter 7093 The Shattered Consensus

Chapter 7093 The Shattered Consensus

To put it simply, when Chen Xi learned what the Roman Empire was doing, he was completely stunned. You see, any large empire has a consensus that ensures the stability of the empire's overall ideology. And the consensus of the Roman Empire was undoubtedly that the Roman Empire was an empire of Roman citizens, and that every Roman citizen had the potential to become emperor. As for the slim probability, that's not important. Just tell me if it's possible!
It can be said that the Roman Empire was able to stand proudly in the world and become one of the two great beacons of light. These two consensuses were the foundation: the Roman Empire belonged to its citizens, which ensured the centripetal force of all citizens, and the fact that every Roman citizen had the potential to become emperor, which maintained the upward mobility of the Roman Empire.

Severus was just an ordinary knight's son, yet through his ability, luck, and the tides of the times, he became the emperor of the Roman Empire and gained the approval of the vast majority. What is this? This is the Roman dream, the consensus of all Roman citizens!

Later, sons of slaves, blacks, and barbarians all rose to become Roman emperors. Even though many orthodox Italian citizens were quite unhappy, wasn't this, in a way, the so-called Roman dream? Wasn't it a true reflection of how citizens could become emperors?
What does birth matter? What does one's father or grandfather matter? Under the reflection of this real Roman dream, none of that matters. These Roman emperors, all of whom came from humble backgrounds, are proclaiming that as long as you have the ability, as long as you can seize opportunities, as long as you can ride the waves, the laurel wreath of the Roman Empire will beckon to you!

Regardless of your background or the names of your ancestors, it doesn't matter. In the Roman Empire, you can achieve this most glorious position through your own abilities, opportunities, and your own efforts. This is the consensus of the Roman Empire, a dream acknowledged by all Roman citizens.

Therefore, at this time, you could say that the Roman Empire had all sorts of problems, but it did indeed have that terrifying upward trajectory.

Severus was not of Claudius family, but merely the son of a knight from North Africa. Yet, through his own efforts, he seized the throne, was crowned by Caesar, became a direct descendant of Claudius, became the supreme ruler, the emperor with the greatest political power in history, and a Roman among Romans. He was truly the symbol of all Romans of that era!
Why were Roman barbarians willing to kneel at Severus's feet, kiss his toes, and follow him with their lives? It was because Severus, with his completely lowly bloodline, created a miracle that everyone could see. This was not only the dream of Roman citizens, but also the dream of barbarians.

It can be said that at the moment Severus was crowned by Caesar, the consensus of the Roman Empire, the greatest dream in the history of the Roman Empire, was directly projected into reality. Because at that moment, not only citizens, but even barbarians saw the possibility—that people could indeed climb from the bottom to the top through hard work, and even inherit the thousand-year-old Roman lineage, the glory of the Claudius family, could also be inherited by ordinary people! What kind of charm was this, what kind of stimulation was this!
From a certain perspective, when Severus was crowned by Caesar, everyone witnessed the process of ascending from mortal to god. Although there were many members of the Black Claudius family, if we really talk about bloodline, this is indeed a lineage of divine blood.

After all, as long as you acknowledge the Christian lineage and God, then the Claudius family is the greatest enemy, the Antichrist, 666, the human embodiment of Satan, the ultimate terror that created the Ten Killings in the face of the Ten Commandments. This is the terrifying monster whose blood you must possess if you acknowledge the existence of God.

Similarly, even if you don't acknowledge the other party as a god, they are still one of the six great families that founded Rome a thousand years ago, possessing the noblest bloodline in Europe and being one of the only six great crowns in world history, truly the top nobility among humankind.

Even with such bloodline, such legend, such family, and such lineage, the moment Severus annihilated Parthia and returned from the battlefield, Caesar stepped out from history and bestowed upon Severus the most glorious crown, allowing this mortal from North Africa to ascend directly to godhood.

It can be said that at that moment, the mind and will of the Roman citizens were almost the same as that of Emperor Wu of Han after defeating the Xiongnu and sealing the wolf's lair. It was a terrifying belief that anything was possible in the world. It was witnessing firsthand how mortals ascended to godhood, or, with evil intentions, how mortals desecrated the noble blood of the gods, allowing themselves to bathe in glory and become the most honored among them.

Killing gods?

Why bother? Even though I am a mortal, without divine blood or divine weapons, I ascend to the heavens step by step, trampling all the immortals and gods under my feet. They will kneel at my feet and call me Your Majesty. Whether I have divine blood or divine weapons is no longer important. I am a god, not because I can slaughter them, but because I can command them!

It can be said that this was the most powerful period of the Roman Empire. Why were the three emperors willing to risk dying at the hands of the Kushans and lead the barbarian elites to the Ganges to fight against the Han Dynasty? It was because of hope, opportunity, and possibility!
Severus proved with facts just how simple the path from mortal to godhood can be: simply become a citizen. Yes, as long as you become a citizen, anything is possible!
Therefore, the barbarian elites tried every means possible, even racking their brains, to break in and become citizens, because only by becoming citizens could they have a future.

It can be said that at that time, no one in the Roman Empire could have imagined that such a day would come. At that time, all the citizens probably thought, "I also have the hope of becoming emperor, and I can also have divine blood!"

Claudius's legitimacy was seen by everyone at the time as something more noble and therefore more deserving of desecration. After all, the Roman Empire's system of adoption, coupled with the practice of citizens becoming emperors, truly represented that anything was possible. They could become members of the six founding noble families, and they could become Claudius, as long as they were strong enough!

However, that was in the past. Now, this consensus has been broken, and even within the Claudius family, there has been a split in thought. There are too many distracting ideas, such as imperial rule, the rule of one family, and the possibility that the Claudius family's empire can be passed down forever.

“If Rome continues like this, it will definitely be finished.” Chen Xi said very solemnly. “For an external force to defeat the Roman Empire, it would have to be a power of the level of our Han Dynasty. But if the consensus within the Roman Empire is broken, then the Roman Empire may very well split itself apart.”

Chen Xi hadn't studied Roman history properly, but he at least knew that the split of the Roman Empire into the East and West was essentially a collapse at the ideological level. If it weren't for ideological issues, given the strength of the Roman Empire, it would have taken quite some time to collapse.

After all, even if a thousand-year-old family line is ruined, there are still plenty of people willing to use it as a backdoor listing platform. Only when there are internal problems will it suddenly split in two.

"Is it really that big of a deal? My student in the Roman Empire recently wrote to me about this, and I just laughed it off. I never imagined it would be this serious?" Cookie asked Chen Xi with some surprise. He had no idea that things could be this big; it was just too outrageous.

"Let me put it this way," Chen Xi said with a touch of melancholy. "If the Roman Empire couldn't reform itself and unify its thinking, then civil war would be inevitable." "This was actually a very big deal. The Claudius family's answer directly determined what the rest of the Roman Empire should do."

The Roman Empire is the empire of the Claudius family, so there's nothing to say about that. At this stage, all the actions taken by the Roman government to protect the Claudius family are correct. After all, it is their own empire, and it is only natural for their own empire to protect their own family.

Conversely, if the Roman Empire was the empire of the Claudius family, then it would be natural for all other citizens who were not of the Claudius family to oppose Rome. After all, no one has an obligation to protect an empire that exploits them and does not love them. On the contrary, it would be natural to overthrow such an empire and build an empire that protects and cherishes them.

If the Claudius family's response is that the Roman Empire belongs to Roman citizens, then they need to explain what their previous actions were all about, and most importantly, limit Claudius's power. After all, the overly powerful Claudius family has begun to encroach on the rights of other citizens, and protecting the citizens is the obligation of the Roman Empire!

Therefore, this problem is essentially a double-edged sword; theoretically, the Claudius family would suffer losses no matter which option they chose.

However, the younger generation chose the former, while the older generation wanted to maintain a consensus, which led to ideological turmoil within the Claudius family, making the situation even more critical.

"Let me first share my assessment. Just listen to it, and you'll get a general understanding of the matter." Seeing that Qu Qi was confused and didn't say much, Chen Xi began to explain in great detail.

“From the perspective of the nation, the actions of the older generation of the Claudius family were entirely correct. The judgments and responses made by the elites led by Pompiannis and Sergio were completely reasonable. In fact, Pompiannis had already initiated the process of nationalization, trying to have the Roman Empire use money from the Claudius family to acquire the Claudius family's assets. This action was absolutely correct,” Chen Xi said solemnly.

To be fair, this behavior is a major reason why Chen Xi believes that Pompiñus and Pomponi are the most brilliant economists of this era, which also greatly improves his opinion of Sergio, the acting head of the Claudius family who is often dragged out to take the blame.

The idea of ​​borrowing money from the Claudius family to acquire their assets is unimaginable to most people, but this act completely explains who the father and son really are.

Similarly, if this action is accomplished, even if the Claudius family clamors for an unbroken lineage for ten thousand generations, as long as the accounts are presented, the other elders will understand. After all, the Claudius family has contributed so much, it's understandable that they might grumble and complain in the council of elders; after all, people need to vent their grievances, right?

However, the problem lies in the fact that this process has not been effectively promoted. Even with the help of Pompiñus and his son Pomponius, as well as Sergio, the acting head of the family, the progress of this matter has encountered great resistance.

Pompiñus didn't care about his family's losses and was willing to sacrifice his family for the country. Papinian was also willing to accept his family's losses, since a little more or less didn't matter. Herodian didn't care about his family's plantation in Sicily either; if it was gone, he could just move to another place. Ulpian said that he didn't care if the raw materials for wine were gone, as long as they could be supplied later. The question was, what about the other Claudii?
Not every member of the Claudius family can accept this nationalization process. After all, they were once part of the state. After Nero's death, they separated from the state and entered the process of privatization. More than a hundred years have passed, and now they have privatized a large amount of property. Now they want to nationalize it again. Can they really expect to encounter no resistance?
What a joke! The resistance is enormous. In fact, the group led by Claudio Tacitus has pulled off an even more outrageous move in the nationalization process in Pompiñus. They believe that nationalization is acceptable, but this kind of behavior of borrowing their money to buy up their industries is completely unacceptable!

Since we're going to nationalize it anyway, why don't I just donate it all? Let the Roman Senate be awestruck by the grandeur of our Claudius family, and let them experience the majesty of the six oldest noble families!

When Pompiñus heard about the actions of the Tasitou branch, he just wanted to strangle the entire Tasitou branch. Damn it, that's not how things are done! Don't you know what's going on? You bunch of bastards!
A redemption is a redemption, and a donation is a donation. If the Roman Empire dared to make the Claudius family donate their property this year, then at some point, the Roman Empire will have a reason to skin all three hundred senators alive. You bunch of moral paragons, this is not the time to talk about morality, get out of here!

Even so, the Tasitaw faction still donated 800 million silver coins, which is equivalent to about 26 billion five-zhu coins. And this is only in physical silver coins. If you include farmland, land, houses, etc., it would be even more outrageous.

In short, this move caused a great uproar at the time, leading other senators to believe that the Claudius family wanted to skin them alive. After all, if the eldest senator donated, how could the others not donate? That was impossible. Let alone the idea of ​​forcing donations, if only the eldest senator donated and the others didn't contribute a single penny, how would the Roman citizens view the senator family?
Are the Claudius family really that powerful? Are all the other families just penny-pinchers? Damn, isn't this a recipe for disaster? So after the Tacitus line donated a ton, many other senator families in the Roman Senate also reluctantly made their own donations, since nobody knew what the Claudius family was really up to!
After all, the Herodian, Gaius, and Papinian branches had joined forces to donate a wave of grain production, which reduced the price of grain in the Roman Empire by 15%, benefiting all citizens and senators. Later, the Tacitus lineage donated countless properties.

What do the other elders think? Don't even think about it! Let's stop discussing it for now. We'll all donate something too. This trend is a bit off. Anyway, let's donate first. At least donating won't cause any trouble, right?
In short, there are all kinds of birds in a big forest. This includes Claudius's direct followers who completely ignore Pompiñus and use their own morality and patriotism to coerce everyone, as well as a branch that fully understands Pompiñus's behavior but refuses to be redeemed.

Even more outrageous, when the Roman Empire was using Claudius's money to buy back Claudius's property, some branches that were unwilling to be bought back actually purchased the property of the Herodian, Gaius, and Papinian branches, which were being sold to the state at low prices.

This move completely contradicts Sergio's earlier statement: "You pay for something, so it's yours?" What a joke! Who are the people doing the work for? How can you be so clear about that? What are you thinking? Stop daydreaming!
Pompiñus's response was, "I know this is indeed the case, but should we just not do it? If we don't, they will be a thorn in everyone's side. So even if we're just pretending, we should pretend to be buying off the property. Enough talk, pay up, and start buying off the property today."

Then the government came into play. Due to manpower issues, the Claudius family, which was completely interdependent with the government, took the initiative in acquiring the Claudius family's assets!
If you buy, I'll buy too! The Gaius family's windmill only costs three small silver coins, equivalent to one hundred five-zhu coins. Buy it, buy it! If you don't buy now, you'll lose a fortune!
What an outrageous act! This is practically a replica of certain privatization processes. Especially since the head of the Gaius family had finally managed to persuade the elders of his own lineage to calmly observe the situation, only to find that when his own elders, wanting to avoid seeing it, went to other families to drink with their elders, they overheard that the other families had acquired very good properties at extremely low prices.

Then, upon looking at the industry report, it seemed increasingly familiar. Upon further confirmation, it turned out to be their own family's business. Under such circumstances, what were these old guys thinking? What the hell? These old folks wanted to skin Pompiñus alive! Damn it, your nationalization process is just a transfer from one hand to the other, huh? No, this is blatant embezzlement and poverty alleviation, asset transfer!

In short, things were very unpleasant. Only Pompiñus knew that even with so many bugs, this project had to be done in order to withstand the pressure of being criticized and to produce high output. But who could have predicted that after overcoming one difficulty after another, they would encounter this situation? Damn it, even if you beat Pompiñus to death, he would never have imagined that Rome would be in a food shortage!
Vote! Please vote! I'm practically dying sitting here, it's awful.