Just as the veteran hesitated, a voice came from the crowd, "I am willing to pay forty drachmas alone to carve the monument." When they saw that it was Calabis, he raised his hand, and then quickly went up to Milu and gave him thirty pieces of silver.

"Who are you, and do you have anything to do with the Seventh Legion?" Milou squinted and looked curiously at what he had never seen before, the young Calabis.

"My name is Calabis, I was a camping slave of the Seventh Legion, and now a freeman, and I was released by the military tribune Apis during the recent Battle of Rikdania." Calabis tells the truth.

Milou happily accepted the silver coin, "Oh, then you're from the Seventh Legion." Appis, I recognize, is a gentleman, a true commoner. But, Calabis, are you going to give me all your wages now? ”

"Yes, I can see that you are a real man, and I am full of sympathy for the dead, but I am full of admiration for you. The most important thing in the city of Rome was faithfulness, both civil and free, native and foreign. Fides are the foundation of all interactions. Calabis said generously that he had read it in the Torah of Luculas, and he had learned it and sold it. Fides, the faith between Rome and the Gentiles, was more important than anything else, and the true Romans would be disgraced if they violated it. During the First Punic War, the Roman consul Rekilas, who had been captured by Carthage, was released back to Rome by the Carthaginians after making a promise that he would persuade his friends to return home, but as soon as he returned, he complained to the Senate about Carthage's internal and external difficulties, and strongly advocated that Rome fight again and seize Sicily. After the Senate decided to send troops, this Rekilas believed that his actions, although beneficial to his mother country, were contrary to the sacred fides, and he actually returned to Carthage by binding himself, only to be brutally killed by the angry Carthaginians.

When Milu heard this, his blue eyes looked at Calabis, his eyes were very gentle, he nodded, and asked, "What shape do you want the tombstone to be?" Crows, dolphins, or whatever—it's up to you. ”

"Say it!" Calabis asked, turning to the other veterans.

Zuihou, finalized plan, is made into the symbol of the Seven Legions, in the shape of a statue of Bacchus.

Milou put the silver coin in his bag and said to Calabis, "After a fair, come to the ground floor of the second row of apartments in the Soldier's House in Mount Evendini to see the plaster casts. Satisfied, three market days, it will be completed. With that, he put the money bag on his shoulder and left.

In fact, after giving away a full forty silver coins after a fever in his head, Calabis also had a hint of pain, after all, he was now financially strained, and when he returned to his apartment on Jucola Street in the evening, he gently kicked the door of his house with his foot (the Romans were not accustomed to knocking on the door with their hands, and usually kicked the door very "politely" with their feet), and Potty opened the door for him with a mysterious and excited expression.

There were a few pots of flowers that Potty had brought in the apartment, a few lamps were hanging, and the room was full of warm fragrances, Potty took his hand and came to the shrine on the wall, and said "Look" Calabis saw that the first floor of the shrine was a beautiful woodcut of the god, "our family god", Portit specially introduced the identity of this guy, and the second layer was a woodcut of a man and a woman, "This is the father and mother of my family", Calabis laughed and touched the two carvings, Apparently Porti had asked the craftsman to carve it according to the appearance of the two of them, and at the bottom was a small carving, which must have been the image of the little pigeon Paruma, because there was a small leather ball tied to it.

This family is alive and well.

Over there, Paruma was on the balcony, muttering to the little gray pigeon, not knowing what he was talking about.

"You have to be like the head of the family, and make sacrifices to the shrine every day to bless our family." Potty demanded very strongly, "Before dinner is the best time to worship the gods, come, give." Then he handed Calabis two plates, one containing half a loaf of wheat bread mixed with two flowers, and the other containing salt water. Calabis forced to laugh, following the example of a standard Roman, placed the plate on the shrine, dipped his fingers in salt water, and then stood respectfully, raised his palms upwards, and began to mutter to the shrine.

But when he saw that Potty was also praying with his eyes closed, his heart suddenly became hot, and tears almost did not catch him: the fire of Calabi, the mountain pass of Sophini, the wind and snow of Rikdania, so many ups and downs, and now he and Potty finally have a warm and small harbor in this vast ancient capital.

"Family god, I didn't have faith in you in my shijie before, but now I seriously ask you not to live up to our sacrifice to you." Calabis stared at the shrine, silently thinking in his mind.

In the middle of the night, Calabis and Potty were lying on the bed hand in hand, and for a long time Calabis asked, now the family's savings are not much, Potty hummed tiredly, so Calabis calculated, tomorrow to report to the temple of the Stove, a day salary twelve Sesdees, three drachmas, so it is not worrying about food and clothing, but to maintain this expensive apartment, it is indeed a bit stretched. And Lucuras's Villa Prima, can he get a piece of the pie? It's still unknown.

We have to take advantage of every opportunity!

The temple of the Vesta in Rome, a long and narrow temple attached to the mountain, in which the sacred fire of Vesta is enshrined, and the five virgins who guard the sacred flame are standing in unison at the entrance of the porch temple, and Calabis stands harmlessly under it, and he saw that day in the Subra neighborhood, the virgin in the white dress, the one whom Claudia called "Zeno", it seems that this Zeno is the youngest among them, and the leader is Lady Richilia, who is about forty years old, and is called "the head of the virgins".

Calabis bowed to Richilia and waited for her arrangement.

"The daily work of the temple is very leisurely, mainly we virgins do it, early in the morning we go to draw clear spring water, put it in the cistern of the temple, and then take turns on duty, guarding the temple to prevent the flame from being extinguished. You were hired to clean and take care of the house of the virgins behind the temple while we worked, but Lord Luculas had sent a letter two days ago requesting that you be appointed steward of the Sacred Weapon, and I am not in a good position, so Calabis, the key to the temple vault, take it. Richilia graciously handed a key to Calabis.

Calabis took it and asked casually, "Excuse me, what is the salary of the Sacred Keeper?" ”

Richlia visibly frowned at his philistine, and reprimanded in a low voice: "Although you are a free man, you must always regulate yourself by the virtues of the citizens of Rome, and the basis of our life is the respect and worship of the gods by the citizens. If it weren't for the former Sacristy Keeper going out to be a tax collector, it wouldn't be your turn. But I can tell you that the salary of the Sacred Cratekeeper is also twelve Sethres a day. Then the five virgins departed with beautiful water bottles (and one remained in the temple to guard the fire).

"Yes, yes, yes." Calabis was submissive, and secretly hated himself in his heart, "Don't say anything about offending the leader, I didn't expect it to be at this price, alas!" ”