Rome Must Fall

“Let’s go and get the wagon ready,” Hamilcar said, then turned and walked towards the temple. Maximus followed closely behind. They arrived at the courtyard behind the temple, where two horses and a donkey were tied up, happily munching on barley brought by the gladiators from the gladiator school.

The two led the horses to the carriage and put on their bridles, connecting them to the yoke…

The original Maximus had learned knowledge from his young master since he was a child, and as a slave, he had also done these tasks before, so he quickly got the hang of it. Then he put the donkey in front of the cart.

Hamilcar threw bags of flour out of the cart.

“Why are you throwing away such good flour?” Maximus couldn’t adapt to the gladiators’ usual food, barley porridge. So when he saw Hamilcar throwing away the flour, he was quite puzzled.

“We need to make space to carry those weapons. We can always go and steal flour from farms, but we can’t just steal those weapons whenever we want,” Hamilcar replied.

Maximus thought it made sense, but he also felt it was a pity. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Why don’t we give this flour to the priestesses of the temple? It can be considered as our compensation.”

Hamilcar didn’t say anything, which was taken as affirmation.

But when Maximus faced the red and swollen eyes of the priestesses in the temple, filled with hidden resentment, he felt ashamed and hurriedly finished speaking before turning and running away.

When the two of them drove the wagon and donkey cart to the front of the temple, the leather armor piled on the ground had already been distributed. It was evident that Spartacus’s arithmetic skills were not very good, as the obtained weapons and armor were far from enough to equip all the gladiators. Maximus, however, was actually quite relieved about this fact.

The gladiators also disliked the fancy, heavy, and obstructive gladiator helmets, and all switched to leather helmets. At first glance, they looked just like a Capuan city guard unit.

But they disliked the heavy shields and were unwilling to carry them. Over five hundred shields were piled on the ground, forming a small mountain, which made Hamilcar furrow his brow, as the two vehicles could not fit so many things. So he immediately brought this matter to Spartacus’ attention.

Spartacus had to ask everyone to carry at least two shields and a spear each. In order to appease everyone’s complaints, he also promised to intercept more wagons as soon as possible to carry everyone’s weapons, making it easier for everyone to march south.

When everything was arranged and they were ready to depart, a piece of bad news affected everyone’s cheerful mood: Among the injured resting in the temple, one person had a festering chest wound, causing an unrelenting high fever, and the person had fallen into a coma.

Spartacus had no choice but to issue the order to “send him off peacefully.”

This time Maximus witnessed with his own eyes the process of the wounded man being stabbed in the chest and then buried in a pit. His mood remained calm, and he even felt relieved that the deceased was not Phaselus.

Since the previous battle occurred early and ended quickly, by the time the gladiators passed through the apple orchard and returned to the Via Annia, it was still not noon.

Via Annia was a major road in Rome that led to Regium, the southernmost part of Italy. It was frequented by pedestrians and vehicles every day. Although the news of Capua’s disastrous defeat had caused nearby pedestrians to avoid the area, it didn’t take long for new, unaware pedestrians and vehicles to restore its liveliness. When the gladiators walked on the center of the main road, these people mistook them for their own army. As a result, four wagons were quickly seized by the gladiators.

The gladiators threw away the contents of the wagons, placed their shields and spears inside, and even made space for their injured comrades to sit.

The gladiators were not concerned about the lack of enough wagon drivers, because Gauls were good charioteers, after all.

Maximus also exchanged the donkey cart he was driving for a wagon, and with the help of the previous Maximus’ muscle memory, he familiarized himself with the skills of driving a horse-drawn carriage again. Additionally, there was an injured Gaul gladiator sitting in his wagon to provide technical guidance whenever he needed it.

After this looting, pedestrians and merchants finally realized that these “soldiers” were not friendly and scattered away in all directions. The gladiators had no intention of chasing them, and the empty road was more advantageous for their march.

Although it was called a march, it was more like a leisurely stroll. Despite being equipped with the armor of the city guard, they had no concept of marching in formation. Over 200 people followed behind Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenomaus, chatting, joking, and playing around, just like ordinary pedestrians, moving southward in a relaxed and leisurely manner.

The disorderly scene made Maximus, sitting in the wagon, a bit uneasy. He understood that these gladiators from Gaul, Thrace, Illyria, or other places had battlefield experience before becoming gladiators, and their individual combat capabilities were terrifying after years of training in the gladiator school, as evidenced by the previous battle. However, could they still unleash their power with their free-spirited and adept at solo combat nature against the disciplined and coordinated Roman legions?

Even though Maximus had never served in the military in his previous life, he could confidently give a negative answer. Therefore, to avoid being bothered, he turned his gaze to the sides of the road.

Campania truly lived up to its reputation as a famous plain in Italy. The wheat fields stretched endlessly. Just a month after the spring equinox, the green wheat shoots were already higher than calves. Under the gentle breeze, layers of wheat waves rose and fell, resembling a vast green ocean. Occasionally, people could be seen weeding and tending the fields within this sea.

Based on the memories of the previous Maximus, the farmers wearing short shirts in the scorching hot weather at noon were probably the owners of the farmland, while those bare-chested, dark-skinned individuals were likely slaves. However, it seemed that the owners rarely bossed them around and often worked in the fields themselves, cooperating seamlessly with the slaves. They even laughed and joked together, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

This made Maximus doubt the knowledge he had about Rome from his past life:

Shouldn’t slaves and slave owners be hostile towards each other in a slave society?

Determined to find out the truth, Maximus decided to continue observing carefully.

………………………………………………….

Along the Via Annia south of Capua, there were towns like Calatia, Suessula, and Nola. These towns used to be small cities occupied by the Samnites. They used these strongholds to attack the Greek colonial towns along the coast to the west, which attracted the attention of the Romans. The Samnites were eventually defeated and became part of the Roman alliance, but they did not fully submit and occasionally caused trouble.

When Hannibal invaded Italy, many Samnite tribes joined him. During the Roman Social War, they were one of the main forces of rebellion. And over a decade ago, when Sulla led his army to attack Rome, many Samnites actively responded to the recruitment of the populares and fought against Sulla’s forces outside the walls of Rome. After their defeat, they were all taken prisoner.

Sulla was extremely angry with the Samnites. He believed that as long as the Samnites existed as an independent people, there would be no peace for the Romans. Therefore, he not only massacred nearly ten thousand Samnite prisoners of war but also pursued any important Samnite figures with even the slightest connection to the populares. During his dictatorship, he also enacted a series of measures to strictly govern the Samnite towns, such as prohibiting the construction or repair of city walls without Roman officials and forbidding the establishment of city defense forces.

Ten years later, these Samnite towns in the Campania plain gradually transformed into villages, and some of them had even disappeared. The fierce spirit of the Samnites in the plain had almost been extinguished. Although they clearly recognized that the gladiators marching arrogantly on the road as a band of thieves, they simply gathered together and watched from a distance, without any intention of attacking the caravan trailing behind.

After passing through Nola, according to the memories of the previous inhabitant of his current body, Maximus went to inform Spartacus: They couldn’t continue southward anymore. They had to leave the main road and turn west.