Chapter 1368 Ancient Roman Citizens

The world in the book is real and wonderful. Although Cai He is not a qualified storyteller, he can always record the most critical parts.

They stayed in the British Isles for a few days, exchanged some furs, and met a Roman slave, and finally set sail into the Mediterranean.

Here is a description of the situation in the Mediterranean: less wind and stable, the speed is gradually increasing.

The mysterious trip to Rome has finally begun.

Readers can't wait to turn the pages and read on.

Rome is not the strongest in the Mediterranean, but it is the most potential country and a democratic slave society.

At the beginning of the book, Cai He's impression of Rome is relatively simple: enthusiastic, comfortable, and knows how to enjoy. It can still be seen between the lines that Cai He has a good impression of Rome.

Of course, he spent a lot of time in Rome, and Cai He's impression of Rome is constantly changing.

The prosperity of the city of Rome is supported by countless slaves behind it.

Slaves are slaves again.

Since the discovery of the New World, the word slave has been accompanying the entire story of the great voyage. Readers don't understand, no matter whether the civilization is primitive or advanced, why are there all slaves? Although the Qin Dynasty still had human trafficking, it was all done in secret. The law had long banned human trafficking, and slaves had slowly withdrawn from the stage during the Zhou Dynasty. I didn't expect that slaves would be so popular in the outside world. It was unimaginable.

Then I saw that Rome had no emperor or king. They had governors in every city, and these governors were decided by the Senate and the Citizens' Assembly.

Such a novel system made the Qin people puzzled.

The ministers thought: How can we "pass the buck" without a person in charge?

The nobles thought: How can we divide the fiefdom without a king?

The common people thought: There is no emperor? Isn't this abnormal? Is there not even a wise ruler in that place?

Each class has different ideas, and the book records the political system of Rome.

After the debate in the Senate, Cai He devoted himself to studying the political system of Rome, and finally found that Roman society included two types of people. The lowest level was naturally slaves, and then there were free people.

And among the free people, there were citizens and common people.

Citizens refer to people with Roman nationality, which is a very important identity, because with this identity, Rome will not ignore citizens, even if citizens are incompetent and immoral, they will still support citizens. Of course, if a citizen is very poor but very talented, then he may become a governor, executive officer, or even a nobleman just like winning the lottery.

Commoners refer to free people without citizenship, who cannot enjoy the rights of citizens, cannot participate in citizen meetings, and naturally cannot get any promotion.

In fact, citizens are equivalent to the privileged class. Only those with citizenship have the right to vote and inherit, and citizens are protected first.

Since citizenship is so good, how can we get citizenship?

First of all, of course, we have to live in Rome for generations. People in the city are upper class and people outside the city are lower class. It's that simple. Of course, there is also military service. If you don't die after 25 years, you will be a citizen, that's right, 25 years.

Of course, there will be emperors in Rome in the future, so the emperor also has the right to grant citizenship. In the future, all free people in Rome will become citizens. However, with the proliferation of citizens, the rights of citizens will naturally be diluted, and citizens will not be so beautiful.

Another way is to take advantage of the situation. You find a Roman citizen and ask him to take you as his slave. After a while, he will release you. Then you will become a citizen immediately. However, you are only a third-class citizen and cannot immediately obtain all the rights of a citizen.

This is the same as going to Hong Kong and the United States to give birth to a child and let the child obtain local identity.

There are other ways, such as buying a citizenship, provided that you are rich enough. If you are really that rich, you can be happy in other places, and you don’t have to ask for citizenship, unless you really want to be a Roman citizen.

You can also expose corruption. As long as you catch evidence of official corruption, you can also become a citizen. But it is probably difficult for ordinary people to take this path. If you are not afraid of being killed, you can still try.

As mentioned before, citizens also have grades. The first class is of course Roman citizens, the second class is Latin citizens, and the third class is third-class citizens who obtain citizenship rights by taking advantage of the situation.

The customs and language of Latin citizens are exactly the same as those of Romans, but because they are not born in Rome, they cannot participate in elections or inherit the property of Roman citizens, and of course they cannot fall in love with female Roman citizens.

Only Roman citizens can fall in love and marry Roman citizens, and of course male Roman citizens can also marry other girls. It's so willful.

However, becoming a citizen naturally has certain obligations. It's not about participating in politics, because most citizens are ignorant and short-sighted. Citizens can speak freely, but if they don't become officials or parliamentarians, they can't influence the political situation. If you become a citizen, if you join the army, you can't surrender. If you surrender, you will immediately lose your citizenship. Unless you "escape" from the enemy, if the enemy lets you go, you will also lose your citizenship rights.

At the same time, citizens also lose the right to be "shameless". If you are exposed for prostitution, having sex with young girls, being involved in the entertainment industry, framing others, etc., although you are still a citizen, you will not be able to get married and have children normally, and you can't even guarantee a job.

So you can be a citizen, but you can't be shameless, because shamelessness is a crime, and the crime is "shamelessness".

Cai He obviously conducted a very in-depth investigation, showing the entire Roman society in front of everyone, a country with highly divided social classes.

Then there is the introduction of Roman slaves. Compared with the splendor of Roman citizens, slaves are not so glorious. They have no rights, and even the most basic life and property are not protected, so the profession of "gladiator" appears.

Let alone freedom, even life is just a tool to please citizens.

The life of slaves is miserable. Cai He described: the sound of shackles in the countryside drowned out the chickens and dogs.

Those captured slaves worked completely in shackles. They were real slaves. Readers living in Qin State probably can only compare them with corvée. When sending corvée, they were afraid that the coolies would escape, so they were usually tied to bamboo with ropes.

But it is unimaginable to wear shackles while working in the fields, at least not in the fields of Qin State.

Finally, Cai He wrote at the end: There are as many enemies as there are slaves in Rome. It is even more deafening.

"I have never heard of such a country." The great man could not help but say that this was far from the Mohist policy of universal love and non-aggression. It was appalling that they only loved citizens but used slaves as inhuman labor.

Others were not very comfortable either. This kind of country was too evil. No wonder there could not be an emperor. I am afraid that whoever became an emperor would be infamous for thousands of years.

But more readers were still attracted only by the rights of citizens and ignored slaves, as if they would definitely be citizens rather than slaves if they went to Rome.