Chapter 3125 viaticum (3)

The ancient Romans never regarded usury as a decent thing, such as Crassus, Caesar's main loan recipient. Because usury was disgraceful, nobles and senators often let their freed slaves or slaves come forward to run the business, and they Then provide support for it "behind the scenes".

Caesar's bill to distribute fertile land to the landless people in Rome was strongly opposed by the Senate, so he tried to put the plan to a vote in the Citizens' Assembly. However, the senators refused to hold the Citizens' Assembly on the grounds that "there was no good omen". Time was delayed again and again, and eventually it was simply said that there would be no good days for meetings this year.

The handicraft industry of ancient Rome has never moved from small handicraft workshops to the "industrial revolution", and the handicraft industry during the Roman Republic still lagged behind the Mediterranean. First, because the nobles were more enthusiastic about land, although they would also lend money to small craftsmen and small businessmen, they mainly lent money to small farmers. The second is because they prefer to invest their money in "more practical" places, such as public works in ancient Rome.

No one in ancient Rome would openly speak out against war. Instead, they highly praised and encouraged war, because Rome gained too many benefits from its victory in the war, whether it was the influx of massive supplies, self-confidence, a sense of honor, and a sense of accomplishment. and massive war reparations.

War reparations are a mandatory clause in the post-war peace treaty issued by Rome, but the "asking price" of the reparations offered by Rome is not high, unlike the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

In short, war reparations are not an economic weapon, but maintain the unequal political relationship between the two countries through reparations. Every year, they remind the other side that "you are a loser and you must fulfill your peace obligations." After the Second Punic War, Carthage proposed to advance the The repayment, which would settle the payments for decades to come, was rejected by Rome.

Every time a place was conquered, a "Roman road" would be built there. It was not even just for the convenience of transporting troops.

The Romans were very proud of the roads they built. They were evidence of the empire's conquest of the world and a symbol of Rome's prosperity. They will use colored marble to inlay the route map in the corridor of the building to show the "route" to people coming and going. It is somewhat similar to a travel guide, making it convenient for people to travel, and it is both "practical" and "beautiful". Function.

In fact, in the early days of the founding of the country, the quality of roads in Rome was no better than that in other parts of the world. For hundreds of years, there were only naturally formed roads such as the Via Salari and Via Latium, which transported salt, connecting Rome to towns and villages.

It was not until the 4th century BC that Appius, then the censor, personally inspected and drew up a road plan, was a brand new avenue paved. This road was called the "Queen of Roads" by later generations—— Appian Avenue, all future Roman avenues were built based on it. It is said that in order to confirm the smoothness of the road, Appius took off his shoes more than once and walked barefoot on the road to test it.

This road consists of four layers. The upper layer is made of large stone slabs, the second layer is made of manually crushed stones, the third layer is a mixed layer of gravel and clay, and the fourth layer is a foundation paved with stones.

Of course, the amount of road construction work is huge, but the Romans did not let slaves do it like the Pharaohs did. Instead, they used ancient Roman legions. Until the "barbarian" component of the ancient Roman legions became more and more important, and the "barbarians" did not Interested in building "Roman roads".

During the archaeological process, many tombstones were discovered along both sides of Roman roads. Appius once made a last wish to build his tomb on the side of the road. This also allowed later Romans to gradually develop the habit of building tombstone cemeteries facing the road.

Some of these tombs belong to road builders, and some belong to residents of nearby manors. The young Cato would rather die than surrender to Caesar. His fifth-generation ancestor Cato was a very "calculated" man. He was born as a commoner. He became commander of the legion due to his heroic performance in the Second Punic War, and later served as censor and treasurer.

He once wrote a book about agriculture, in which he introduced his ideal manor. This kind of manor was once very popular in Italy in the 1st century BC. Not all the people working in the manor were slaves, but many free men were also employed. They are farmers and small farmers, and manors of this type are mostly built near the seaside, boating rivers, roads and near bustling cities.

The "main" method of obtaining slaves in ancient Rome was war. The army was often followed by slave traders, who sold prisoners of war as slaves. After Rome became the overlord of the Mediterranean, it basically became peaceful, which was very beneficial to the development of trade. It was precisely because Rome provided a series of conditions such as security, order, and roads that the huge and diverse Mediterranean world formed a whole. It makes it possible to move people, money, and things over long distances.

This also resulted in the slave trade losing its "source of goods." Although Rome defeated Carthage, they did not pay attention to "maritime obligations" and did not pursue pirates. The ocean still belonged to the Greeks and Phoenicians.

As a result, the main way of obtaining Roman slaves became domestic slaves. The small-scale peasant economic model was more positive than slavery, because the "earnings of labor" of small farmers were their own. Slaves have little motivation. No matter what they produce, they get nothing.

Roman law stipulates that children born to citizens, freedmen and female slaves are also slaves. Some loan sharks even lend money to slaves. As long as they "reproduce", the debt can be offset. However, this still does not change the problem of scarcity of slaves. They were once very cheap. The Sardinians were just a flash in the pan. Later, the price of slaves rose to the point where a medium-sized farmer could live for four years.

In summary, the mixed labor of slaves and free laborers will be cheaper, and because slaves are expensive, slave owners must treat them better. If a slave dies, his loss will be great.

Pomona took a "London Travel Guide" with the blurry "alien" photo in it and came to Severus's residence in London. The "Duke" bar downstairs is also open during the day, but it is very clean and bright inside. The customers are also well-dressed office workers, and even their nails are carefully manicured. Unlike the Leaky Cauldron Bar, which is full of old witches and old men smoking cigarettes. witch.

She walked up the stairs to the room Malfoy had rented to Severus and knocked on the door in a brisk rhythm.

A few seconds later, the sullen old bat opened the door. He turned his good house into a "bat cave", and it was dark in broad daylight.

"Good afternoon." She smiled and said, "Can I come in?"

He let go of his hand and turned around silently. Pomona pushed the door open and walked in. He was stunned by what he saw.

This apartment was originally empty, without even a table, but now it was filled with all kinds of files, and the living room almost had no place to stand.

"What's going on?" Pomona asked in surprise.

He ignored her and walked to a low table, mixing an unknown potion placed on the table.

She shrugged and was about to pick up the file bag closest to her.

"Don't touch anything that doesn't belong to you," Severus said coldly.

"Is this how you thank people who help you?" Pomona teased and withdrew his hand.

"What did you find out?"

"I'd like something to drink. What else do you have here besides 'poison'?" Pomona said easily, pointing at the curtains with the wand, and the closed curtains opened. Although the sky was gloomy, it was OK See the park in the distance.

He patiently put down the potion and took a bottle of firewhiskey from under the table.

Pomona searched for a long time but still couldn't find a place to sit. Fortunately, she was prepared.

She took out a pink inflatable sofa from a velvet bag embroidered with magical animals, and placed it on the floor of the living room.

When Snape poured the wine and turned around to hand it to her, he spotted the "new furniture" and was stunned.

"I want to buy other colors, but this is the only one they have." Pomona said innocently, "Or can you accept the elephant shape?"

"What did you find?" he said coldly, handing her the poured wine.

"How's your new job going?" Pomona asked, looking at his increasingly pale face.

He let out a long sigh, but just when Pomona thought he was going to confide in him, or complain a bit, he said instead.

"I don't have time to play with you."

She pursed her lips.

She didn't ask him to accompany her to London, as if she had nothing to do.

"Are you not used to life here?" Pomona asked.

"No, that's not my problem." He said as he came to sit diagonally across from her. There was an armchair that was almost submerged between the file bags.

"Then what's your problem?"

"I was wondering which direction I should go. There are too many people around power in this place."

"You are a Slytherin, don't you desire power?" Pomona asked.

He shook his head with a wry smile, took a sip of wine, and looked out the window.

"I used to think that as long as I accomplished something, no matter what it was, she would look at me differently." Severus said slowly.

"Is she Lily you're talking about?" Pomona asked, raising her wand and adding a chunk of ice to his glass. This was what she had just seen the guest inside drink through the glass window.

"I want to find some evidence."

"Prove what?" Pomona asked.

"I don't know." He said as if he was at a loss for words. "Do you understand what I mean?"

She looked into his dark eyes.

The simplest answer was "success", but she felt that was not the most accurate answer she saw from these eyes.

"Don't you know either?" he asked.

"Do you know the myth of Sisyphus?" Pomona asked. "He works hard to push a boulder to the top of the mountain every day, but no matter how hard he tries, the boulder will fall and all his efforts will be wasted, because this is God's will to him. As punishment, he kidnapped the God of Death so that there would be no death in this world."

He listened intently, eyes only for her.

"Do you think he would be happy if he pushed the rock up one day?" Pomona asked. "He can 'prove' that he did it."

"Then what does he do next?" Severus asked.

"He was the builder of Corinth, and he might have gone back to rule that place, if it hadn't been occupied by the Romans yet." Pomona smiled. "Caesar had regarded it as an outpost of Rome's expansion into Greece."

He smiled and took a sip of wine.

"There are so many choices and no choice, which one do you think is worse?" Pomona asked.

"I've never had 'too many choices.'" He played with the wine glass in his hand, letting the ice cubes in the glass clink against the glass, making a clinking sound.

It's like conducting some kind of chemical experiment, and the experimental phenomenon is fire burning on ice.

"Have you?" he asked easily.

Muggles will also drink whiskey on fire, but they must wait until the fire is extinguished before drinking, otherwise the fire will burn them.

The Freezing Fire Spell will make the flames burning on the body no longer painful, but will also give a numbing sensation. The floo powder will be specially processed to make the flames harmless and only target wizards.

"Yes, many people taught me to be tolerant and kind."

He looked at her in surprise, as if he saw something in her eyes.

"The world burned me, now I'm going to watch the world burn."

The world burned me, now I will watch the world burn.

She said it without thinking, and felt much better after saying it.

It was like climbing to the top of a mountain, no longer needing to push the heavy boulder, and my whole body felt relaxed.

"You really look like a villain." He said with a smile, taking another sip of wine with admiration in his eyes.

"I know what you want." Pomona said with a silly smile, leaning on the sofa and curling her hair with her fingers.

"What?" he asked, still smiling.

She thought and he waited patiently.

"The house elf in the photo has just been kicked out. He has nowhere to go." Pomona threw the London travel guide to him. "While wandering, he met a Muggle. They were both startled. Then He just used the Levitation Charm on the Muggles."

He opened the travel guide and saw the photos inside. It was already movable like the wizard photos.

"This is what you want," Pomona said, standing up and about to leave.

"Wait." He stood up and blocked her way with his hand.

"Is there anything else?" Pomona asked pretending to be stupid.

He gritted his teeth for a long time.

"Take your time, Severus, choose the car you really want to get in. Don't blindly follow others and squeeze into the same car." Pomona patted the ashes on his black coat. "You don't need to follow other people's rules." The Happiness Manual goes that way.”

"You're playing tricks," he said through gritted teeth.

She smiled at him, then leaned into the "vampire's" ear and said "bite me."

While he was in a daze, she escaped from his grasp and left the apartment.

She was in such a good mood that she even took out her lipstick and applied it in front of the mirror.

This lipstick was homemade by her. In the past, she only looked at it or applied it secretly. Now she wears makeup and walks down the street with ease.

"You're still lying to me!" A man yelled at a woman by the window upstairs. "You saw him secretly, do you remember that you are married?!"

The woman cried and said something, and there was a faint cry of a baby.

A fire truck passed by with its siren honking at the corner of the street, seemingly rushing to put out the fire.

With the current density of houses, there seems to be no need to worry about a fire on the scale of the Great Fire of London.

It's a shame, so that's not much to see.

So she turned around, walked into a deserted alley, and disapparated in the next second.