"They feed their aging parents with great filial piety." - Pliny's depiction of dormice in his Natural History

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In the alley, Calabis stretched a wooden stick wrapped in strips of cloth to the hanging lamp in front of a house and lit it, and then illuminated the potholed road, and took the little pigeon and Van Lun Len Juana to take a shortcut, and walked to the apartment on Jucora Street, where the two children's eyes were constantly swept by the firelight, and the graffiti on the walls was lit up and disappeared into the darkness, and the three of them were very familiar with these paintings, some expressing aiqing, some political metaphors, some criticizing the enemy, the lines of the figures were painted with chalk, and the red paint was splashed, Expressions of anger, passion, and blood stand out in the light of the fire, just like the tragedy just now.

"Are you going to hate me because of Potty, kids?"

The little pigeon nodded, and Van Lunjuna shook her head, and Calabis laughed, crouching down to support the two children, "I also know that Potty will not hate me, but I will hate myself." I've been thrown into the muddy waters of Rome now, and you and Potty are in danger at any time, but I've been with Potty for a long time, and I know her, she's not a fool, she knows how to help me and my children get shelter. I wish I was still in the expeditionary corps of Ponticabion, so that no one I loved was in danger, but I was back in Rome, and I couldn't help myself, and there was another round of secret bloodshed, and we had to unite and fight our way through the blood, and Claudius had been bought by me, and he was now more or less able to help me, and he was now the Protector. The power could only cover a ten-mile area around the city of Rome. And Apilon, where Porti is, happens to be out of range. Don't worry about this fanatic; Claudius, at my instigation, will certainly fight Pompey and Cicero, who will not be able to take care of my family for the time being; Caesar was about to go to Lusitania, and Crassus—in order to avoid his jealousy and revenge, I had to go to the island of Sardinia and accomplish what he was expecting. ”

"Adoptive father, do you still want to marry that Sardinian widow?" Paruma asked directly.

Calabis was silent, and he stood up. Holding the torch, he continued to walk with the two children, and he also asked very directly, "Do you say you like Corinna, or Fan Lunjuna?" ”

"If it's to be close to my adoptive father and mother, of course it's Corinna. But if it's for myself, it's naturally Fan Lun Lingna. Paruma looked up at the blazing torches and replied, but the face of Van Lunjuna over there was not illuminated by the torches, so she couldn't see her expression clearly.

"Paruma. You have to ask if someone wants to do it first, because that involves the most basic etiquette. ”

"I do." In the shadows, Fanlun Lingna's tone was firm. "I would like to help the little pigeon, I would like to help Calabis and my own family, just like the sacrifice that Porti made for you."

"Then when I come back from Lusitania, you will be engaged, and I will accompany you to Van Lunjuna's house with the dowry." At this time, Calabis heard the sound of panic on the other side of the river warehouse, so he raised his torch upward, "Go home quickly—tomorrow you will have to go to a new school, and the former teacher is afraid that he will not be able to recover in a short time, and his grip will be completely broken." ”

The next day, at the river port of Via Ostia, Calabis "swept away" all the medium-sized merchant ships with which he had always had a working relationship—Rome had no state-owned fleet, and all merchant ships were privately owned, and then ordered the river port warehouses to be closed for a month, and all employees were paid a single fee, which was regarded as "paid leave", but the foremen were strictly ordered to manage them and not to leave the city of Rome. Next, Calabis let the ships out of the mouth of the Type and sailed north along the coast; Small riverboats follow the same direction as the Rhône: the destination, Etrunia.

He rode his own horse, and set off at full speed with a few close bookkeepers, clerks, and gladiator bodyguards in light carriages, carrying a large amount of money: a vehicle made of brown rope to lighten its weight, and it took a little courage to sit on it.

On the way, Calabis saw in the suburbs of Rome, many beautiful "Setfenistre" (large estates) stood under the hills, stretching to Naples and Campegna in the south, this kind of manor has all the internal facilities, it is a complex complex manor, which can produce everything necessary for the life of the noble manor owner, but because of this, in order to meet the luxurious life of the owner, in the eyes of Calabis, most of the manor is a nursery, flowers, fish ponds, olive groves, stables and other high-end buildings, Many slaves and freemen of the manor owners were transporting surplus produce on mule carts at the manor gates to be sold in Rome or nearby markets to earn a lot of money to support their masters' political operations.

Even many noble manor owners directly handed over Setfinnistrre to the knights for contracting, as long as they paid a high contract fee every year.

Spurred on by the high profits of luxury goods and the extravagance of Rome, the estates produced essential oils, fresh fish, flowers, and wine, but the city's basic rations, barley and wheat, were transported mainly from farther afield, especially Egypt, Asia Minor, Sardinia, and Africa.

Before leaving, Calabis Weishenme instructed Chemes to plant wheat in all the "Vera" (medium-sized specialized farms) that he had bought from Etrunia, and for this reason, he inquired that Egypt was now in civil strife, and that wheat production must have been greatly affected; Asia Minor had been half-dead by the Mithridates War, and there was no hope of recovering production for three or five years; The coarse and inexpensive taste of the Afridian wheat, and the risk of sea transport, were not at all cheap, which caused a headache for the municipal councillor in charge of distributing the rations, because even the poorest citizens were dissatisfied with the Africian wheat, and they would use the bread made from the wheat as bricks and stones to smash the officials in charge of the rations in mockery and protest.

Originally, there was a Sicily, but it was also damaged by the slave revolt many years ago, and now even self-sufficiency in food has become a problem.

So, the grain of Sardinia became his only competition, and he now had to help Yuria, the little widow who lived on the island, and make a lot of money from it.

At the intersection of the avenue, Calabis and the bookkeepers rechecked the details, and then he boarded a specially hired fast rowing boat (the white galleon Calabia was too slow) and set sail for the island of Sardinia, where all the sailors handed out twelve cesdes a day and good drinks, knowing that on a normal day their wages were only three cesdes, and the employer's request was only one: full speed, full speed!

Time is money.

After disembarking, Calabis immediately rode the white and cute Parthian mare "Owl", and hired two donkeys to salute and lead the cattle with ropes, and the two donkeys continued to chase the "owl" with a frenzy, which increased the speed a lot, and before evening, Calabis arrived at the Oristano plain, and also saw the manor of Ophelenu, Yulia, which was lying in the distant field. (To be continued......)