Chapter 664: Rome: The City of Seven Hills (I)
Chapter 664: Rome: The City of Seven Hills (I)
Tapirus, together with his entourage, disembarked at Ostia.
He then became surprised after noticing that most people in the port weren’t the black-haired, black-eyes Latins but the familiar Carthaginian merchants 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 Rome. And when comparing them with the merchants 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 time.
Besides them, Tapirus also saw merchants 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 improvement of roads and bridges, and the implementation of multiple measures in favour of the development of commerce and trade that the Ministry of Commerce supported, had led to the kingdom’s prosperity. Because of that, many merchants sprung up in various cities, and even foreign merchants have also actively applied to join Theonia, which resulted in the Theonian merchants spreading throughout the western Mediterranean. Except, of course, Sardinia, Corsica, southern Iberia, and so on, which were under the strict control of Carthage.
Some Theonian merchants began coming to Rome to trade and became an important source of information for Theonia’s Intelligence Agency to learn about Rome. But they still couldn’t compare to the Carthaginian merchants who had established close relations with Rome and could get more preferential treatment.
Rome and Theonia are somewhat similar, with both not being port cities and located on the middle reach of a large river; the only difference is that Rome is farther away from the coast, more than 20 kilometres. Since it was difficult for ships to go upstream and enter the city of Rome, 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 Rome standing in front of them.
“…The Latins and Sabini formed the city of Rome together three years ago. At that time, mudflats and marshes filled the area, and the many nearby powerful forces looked down on this city with contempt. But that doesn’t mean the Romans manage to develop quietly and peacefully. On the contrary, foreign forces would invade them from time to time.
The Etruscans once ruled them; then the Gauls destroyed their city; then the Volscians, Aequians, and even the Sabines, a member of the Latin league and a fellow Romans…defeated Rome one after another. Yet despite the constant setbacks and wars, Rome gradually developed and expanded until it became 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 Rome. At the same time, 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 Rome, which became increasingly clearer, with interest. At the same time, he searches the information about it in his memory.
They called Rome 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 formed 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 time?!’
However, Tapirus was even more surprised at the wall of Rome in front of him surprised, which wasn’t as straight and smooth as the one in Thurii. Rome’s wall was curved and bent, and the bricks and rocks were put together in an irregular and somewhat 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 Rome’s situation and the surrounding area from military, political, commercial 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 Rome 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 Rome’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 become 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 former comrades immediately 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 Rome 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 memories of the Celts occupying Rome and the years of war, the Romans would have only repaired the city’s defences after completing their harvest yearly. So if Tapirus had come to Rome five years ago, he would have seen the walls in an even worse state.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A long queue formed at the west gate of Rome, 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 came to Rome 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 plume on top of his helmet, came out of the city. He was also surprised after hearing the guard’s report, ‘Theonia, a kingdom as powerful as Carthage! What did they come to Rome 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 come here to discuss an important mission from the kingdom with the Roman Senate.” Tapirus greeted back.
“Rome welcomes 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 smell 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 some even cover their noses, he immediately 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 time and wealth to rebuild the various areas of the city and just let the people work it out themselves. As a result, it became 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 time… 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 environment 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 Department 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 Department of Road Management under the Department of Construction, would also severely punish their owners because they are encroaching on public interests…