Tapirus, together with his entourage, disembarked at Ostia.
He then beca surprised after noticing that most people in the port weren’t the black-haired, black-eyes Latins but the familiar Carthaginian rchants from the south of Theonia. On the port were shiploads of goods that the port staff unloaded and then loaded onto a wagon that would transport it to Ro. And when comparing them with the rchants from other city-states in this port, they are surprisingly much faster and well-organised, which shows they've been doing this for a long ti.
Besides them, Tapirus also saw rchants from Theonia. In the past decade or so, the kingdom of Theonia's rapid expansion in its territories, the increase of various resources, the construction and improvent of roads and bridges, and the implentation of multiple asures in favour of the developnt of comrce and trade that the Ministry of Comrce supported, had led to the kingdom's prosperity. Because of that, many rchants sprung up in various cities, and even foreign rchants have also actively applied to join Theonia, which resulted in the Theonian rchants spreading throughout the western diterranean. Except, of course, Sardinia, Corsica, southern Iberia, and so on, which were under the strict control of Carthage.
So Theonian rchants began coming to Ro to trade and beca an important source of information for Theonia's Intelligence Agency to learn about Ro. But they still couldn't compare to the Carthaginian rchants who had established close relations with Ro and could get more preferential treatnt.
Ro and Theonia are sowhat similar, with both not being port cities and located on the middle reach of a large river; the only difference is that Ro is farther away from the coast, more than 20 kilotres. Since it was difficult for ships to go upstream and enter the city of Ro, they needed the port of Ostia to transit goods.
After leaving Ostia, Tapirus and his entourage went north along the south bank of the Tiber river.
By three in the afternoon, they saw the city of Ro standing in front of them.
“…The Latins and Sabini ford the city of Ro together three years ago. At that ti, mudflats and marshes filled the area, and the many nearby powerful forces looked down on this city with contempt. But that doesn't an the Romans manage to develop quietly and peacefully. On the contrary, foreign forces would invade them from ti to ti.
The Etruscans once ruled them; then the Gauls destroyed their city; then the Volscians, Aequians, and even the Sabines, a mber of the Latin league and a fellow Romans…defeated Ro one after another. Yet despite the constant setbacks and wars, Ro gradually developed and expanded until it beca the most powerful city-state in central Italia today…”
When Tapirus heard this from king Davos, he could deeply feel the ruler of Theonia’s respect for Ro. At the sa ti, he could also feel the resilience and bravery of the Romans as they could still grow to this point, even with so many hostile forces around them!
Tapirus observed the city of Ro, which beca increasingly clearer, with interest. At the sa ti, he searches the information about it in his mory.
They called Ro the city of seven hills because of the seven hills in the city, all of which are concentrated at the bend of the Tiber river. But with the river bending to the west, east and then west, it easily ford sinkholes, resulting in the area being easily flooded when it rains during spring. Thus the initial Romans had to live on these hills…
But the Roman city Tapirus see now is a new city, built by the Romans upon the ruins after they drove away the Gauls ten years ago. ‘I heard the Romans only took a year to build it; how can they build such a big city in such a short ti?!’
However, Tapirus was even more surprised at the wall of Ro in front of him surprised, which wasn't as straight and smooth as the one in Thurii. Ro’s wall was curved and bent, and the bricks and rocks were put together in an irregular and sowhat distorted manner, resulting in the wall being rough, with large gaps that caused the wall to even spread outwardly. It was a good thing that their wall was high and thick enough. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves with such poor walls…
Of course, this was only Tapirus' personal opinion, while the more professional personnel hiding among his entourage would quietly and carefully observe the city, take detailed notes on Ro's situation and the surrounding area from military, political, comrcial and social…aspects, and summarising the information to report back to king Davos.
What Tapirus didn't know what that: Seven years earlier, when the city of Ro was in ruins and Camillus had just driven out the Celts, the Roman populace wondered whether to relocate the city that had already suffered misfortune because of the gods' curse. Or should they rebuild the new city on Ro's ruins? They debated the question so much that they decided to vote.
Just as they were about to start voting, a centurion that had beco a hero in the previous battle, together with a flag bearer, stepped on the stage and shouted, “Halt; look, the flag stood erect! Which shows this is the best place to build the city!”
Many of his forr comrades imdiately supported his words, with Camillus and several other respected senators declaring piously that this was god’s will!
And since the citizens were exhausted from this long debate and anxious, they were quickly led by their trusted senators into a quick turn of mood. Soon, everyone cheered and demanded they reconstruct Ro here.
Thus to not waste the people's enthusiasm that would result in another accident, they quickly carried out the city's construction. But since they didn’t have a plan nor divided the work, the construction process was completely up to the people or what they found convenient. Thus they built both the walls and the buildings rather badly. However, the speed guaranteed they could rebuild the city within a year. Hence you can imagine how it worked out.
But if it had not been for the painful mories of the Celts occupying Ro and the years of war, the Romans would have only repaired the city's defences after completing their harvest yearly. So if Tapirus had co to Ro five years ago, he would have seen the walls in an even worse state.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A long queue ford at the west gate of Ro, resulting in Tapirus and his entourage only standing in front of the guards near dusk.
The Roman guard looked at Tapirus and his entourage standing behind him and asked in surprise, “Are you the envoys from Theonia?”
After listening to his attendant's translation, Tapirus calmly said, “Yes, I ca to Ro to discuss important matters on the order of king Davos!”
The guard didn't hesitate anymore and quickly said to another guard next to him, “Go and get Minucius!”
After a while, a young man in full military clothing, with a red plu on top of his helt, ca out of the city. He was also surprised after hearing the guard's report, ‘Theonia, a kingdom as powerful as Carthage! What did they co to Ro for?!’
With this doubt in mind, Minucius stepped forward and said in fluent Greek, “I am the praetorian prefect, Minucius. Are you the envoy from the kingdom of Theonia?”
“I am Tapirus, envoy of Theonia. I had co here to discuss an important mission from the kingdom with the Roman Senate.” Tapirus greeted back.
“Ro welcos you, o noble envoy of the kingdom of Theonia!” Minucius smiled and said apologetically, “I apologise for keeping you here. Our citizens are currently fighting the invading Volscians, and another force has gone to quell the rebellion in Tusculum. Thus, the Senate only allowed Romans to enter and exit the city's gate to prevent the enemy from sneaking in.”
After Tapirus expressed his understanding, Minucius led them into the gate.
Once inside the city, Tapirus realised he didn't misjudge. Not only were the walls crooked, but even the various houses were the lousy result of hastily building a big city within a year. These houses, built without overall planning, were like weeds growing on the ground, making the streets narrow and curved with garbage littering the streets, overflowing sewage on the ground, and an odd sll filling the air. And if they weren't careful, they may even step on a poop…
When Minucius saw Tapirus and the others frown, and so even cover their noses, he imdiately understood the problem.
Thus he had to explain with a flushed expression, “After we drove off the invading Celts a decade ago, we found that they destroyed a large part of our city. And while we were rebuilding our city, our allies betrayed us, and enemies began their invasion. Thus our main focus was on how to repel our enemies, so we didn't have enough ti and wealth to rebuild the various areas of the city and just let the people work it out themselves. As a result, it beca what it is now…
A few years ago, the Senate even passed an order to widen the roads in each block. Yet because of the constant war every year, we couldn't spare ti… Even now, we can't spare enough people to transport the garbage in the city…”
Although Tapirus expressed his understanding, he didn't think so inwardly as he believed that such a terrible city environnt reflected the Romans' incompetence at city planning and didn't care about their people's lives. If these had happened in Thurii, the officials of the Departnt of Construction would have sent people to forcibly demolish them because it would lead to vulnerability in the city, caused houses to collapse, fire…and so on. And the houses that excessively occupy the streets, besides having them demolished by the Departnt of Road Managent under the Departnt of Construction, would also severely punish their owners because they are encroaching on public interests…
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