Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Tapirus cleared his throat and said, “I've long heard how powerful Rome is and its long history and unique culture. Today, I saw with my own eyes that the city of seven hills is as unique and amazing as the rumours!”

Hearing Tapirus' praise, Minucius laughed heartily and said, “Our Rome is no more amazing than Theonia. I heard that it had only been more than ten years since your kingdom's foundation. Yet, you managed to repeatedly defeat your surrounding enemies and become the most powerful kingdom in southern Italia. Mars had truly blessed you!”

“Mars?”

“Oh, Mars is our Roman god of war!”

“You are mistaken. Hades, the great Greek god, was the one who blessed Theonia because our king is his descendant!” Tapirus said with a pious expression. His devotion came from the heart because King Davos gave him his freedom in front of the Temple of Hades while the ode of Hades was sung. And since it is known that Hades protects the slaves within the kingdom of Theonia, the Theonians, who were former slaves, respected Hades with all their hearts.

Minucius smiled and pointed his finger ahead to hide his embarrassment, “That hill in front is Collis Esquilinus, where the Sabines who first became Roman citizens lived…”

He gave an introduction while leading them to the front of Collis Esquilinus. There, they saw an arch spanning across the road.

“This is-?!” An official from the Ministry of Military pointed with excitement.

“That is the Arcus Triumphalis!” Minucius informed them with excitement as well. He then continued, “Rome will hold a triumphal ceremony for any general who won a significant war for Rome. He will ride a quadriga while leading the army to enter Rome through the Arcus Triumphalis and receive the Romans' cheers and the Senate's commendation. And that is the greatest glory that every Roman citizen wants to obtain!” Minucius gaze at the Arcus Triumphalis with yearning on his face.

While the officer of Theonia's Ministry of MIlitary and the other members of the envoy looked at each other with indescribable surprise in their eyes, ‘Theonia and Rome have quite a few similarities in their military. But when they saw the worn-out arch made of marble that shows it was at least a few decades old, they questioned who copied from whom this time.’

Minucius then led the Theonian envoys, who had complicated expressions, to turn left, pass through the Arcus Triumphalis and arrive at a square.

Tapirus frowned again: Although the square was large, many houses crowded around it; some even breaching into the square, causing it to lose its grandeur.

Ever since Tapirus stepped into the city of Rome, he felt that the Romans had mixed public facilities and private houses everywhere that they didn’t even spare the square that represents the heart of the city, making him feel a bit of pity.

Seeing the displeasure on Tapirus’ face, Minucius, out of the desire to not be looked down upon by the Theonians, said aloud, “This square is an old one, about a hundred fifty years old. We are now mostly using it for leisure and gathering. We have a much larger square to the west of this square; it could accommodate a hundred thousand people, which we use when gathering troops and sometimes used for citizen assembly. We call it Mars Square!”

‘Mars Square?!’ Hearing its name, Tapirus remembered that Mars was the Romans’ god of war, which the young man had explained earlier. And since their naming is similar to the Nike Square in Thurii, it showed the Romans' high regard for the military.

Minucius then took the lead and walked through the square. The people along the way would greet Minucius from time to time while casting their curious gaze at Tapirus and his party.

The Roman Senate building is just to the west of the square, a building similar to a temple.

After telling them to wait under the stairs of the Senate, Minucius quickly went inside.

Besides needing to attend some other meetings or festivals celebrating the gods, the Roman Senate usually held a meeting at sunrise every morning and ended depending on the matters they were discussing, which generally did not exceed past sunset. And since it is now dusk, the senators must have dispersed already. But since they were at a time of war, the Senate made a rule that there must be a military tribune on duty into the night so that they could prepare in advance in case there were urgent matters.

Once Minucius entered the guard room next to the meeting hall, he found the military tribune left behind was someone he knew. Thus he shouted, “Paulus!”

Paulus Valerius Potitus had just ordered the slave to light the lamp when he suddenly heard Minucius. Surprised, he turned around and asked, “Minucius, what brings you here? What happened?”

Since, Minucius, the praetorian prefect, came to the Senate at this time means that he had not come to chat with him.

“I came with an important matter.” Minucius directly said, “A delegate from the kingdom of Theonia came to Rome and said they had come to discuss something important with the Senate.”

“Theonia?!” Paulus certainly knew a lot about Theonia, so he immediately said with a grave expression, “What is the purpose of this Greek kingdom in southern Italia to send a delegate to Rome at this time?”

Minucius, without a smile on his face, said with an equally serious expression, “I tried asking them along the way, but they would evade my question with another topic. So they certainly didn't come here to establish friendly relations with us!”

After a moment of pondering, Paulus said with uncertainty, “The other day, the Carthaginians reminded us that they suspected that Volscian delegates had gone to Thurii. Could it be that they…came for them?”

That surprised Minucius, “Does Theonia wish to protect them?!”

“We can't hastily make a decision. Minucius, prepare an accommodation for them while I inform Pantheus and the other senators to discuss a countermeasure. We must be careful since Theonia isn't inferior to Carthage!” Paulus muttered.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Tapirus and his attendants stayed in a public inn under the management of the Senate, which was near the old square and not far from the Senate.

The delegation members thought of taking a closer look around Rome after dinner, but Minucius warned them not to go out at night because they had imposed a curfew to prevent chaos during wartime, and it would be terrible if the patrols caught them and caused misunderstandings.

Tapirus could sense the sudden vigilance of the young man against them.

After dinner, Tapirus and some of his attendants went to the inn's roof.

Although night has descended, the city's noise has yet to disappear. On the contrary, they could hear the laughter of the Romans, the crying of the children, the fighting among the men, the whistling of the patrol team and the barking of the dogs… All these noises had come from various directions and converged in the centre of Rome…

‘This city is truly disorder yet vibrant.’ Tapirus thought silently.

“It seems that's Mons Capitolinus.” The officer from the Ministry of Military looked in the west direction of the Senate and said quietly.

They could only vaguely see the outline of the hill in the distance under the cover of the night.

Although Minucius didn't talk about this hill, Tapirus knew its importance to Rome. The Romans regarded it as the place of the gods since the Temple of Jupiter and other gods and goddesses the Romans revered were mostly on that hill. In addition, it is where the Roman citadel was located, and that's why the Romans held onto Mons Capitolinus even after the Celts occupied the Roman cities. And they actually managed to hold on for months until the arrival of victory. And when they saw its steepness, it became the most concerned place of the Ministry of Military officials, ‘Will we really go to war with Rome?’

After looking at the attendant, Tapirus turned his gaze to the Senate since, no matter what happened, he would have to finish his mission first.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

On the following day, the Roman Senate invited Tapirus.

The dark red wooden chairs in the circular meeting hall, like the seats in the colosseum, has nearly three hundred senators wearing white chitons, including two military tribunes* from front to back, row by row, seating closely together. (As the conflict between the Roman nobility and the plebeians became more intense over the years, the plebeians refused to elect consuls in the citizens' assembly as protests against the nobility's monopoly of power. But since the situation around Rome turned worse, the nobility and plebeians negotiated to guarantee the safety of Rome and the smooth implementation of internal affairs by agreeing to elect six military consuls every year, referred to as military tribune, three from the nobility and three from the plebeians.) The other four military tribunes were away leading the army.

Half of these Roman senators were grey-haired old men, most of whom were patriarchs of major Roman clans. The other part, of course, were also senators of noble origin, who had previously held high-ranking Roman positions and, because of merits or political achievements, were recommended and selected to eventually join the Senate, which in turn made it easier for them to hold high-ranking positions in Rome.

However, among all the Roman senators, there was not a single one under the age of thirty, and none of them came from a commoner's background since they had either outstanding ability, were highly respected, extremely wealthy or extremely powerful. Now, all of them were cautiously gazing at the man in the centre of the meeting hall: Tapirus, the envoy of the kingdom of Theonia.