Chapter 382: Instructions Before the War Begins

If the Apennine Peninsula had entered the city-state civilization, Roy only needed to occupy a few densely populated cities to conquer Campania and Basilicata.

Unfortunately, the Apennine Peninsula was still in the tribal civilization. If Roy wanted to conquer Campania and Basilicata, he had to occupy all the Sabine and Latin tribes in these two regions.

Campania and Basilicata have a population of about 70,000, which means there are at least 60 Sabine and Latin tribes in these two regions.

Roy could not personally lead 8,000 troops to occupy every tribe, because it would waste a lot of time and let the Sabine and Latin tribes unite to deal with Roy's army.

In order to conquer Campania and Basilicata in the shortest time, Roy divided the 8,000 troops into two thousand-man teams and 60 hundred-man teams.

The 60 hundred-man teams were responsible for occupying 60 Sabine and Latin tribes in Campania and Basilicata.

Roy and Caesar led a thousand-man team into Campania and Basilicata respectively to deal with attacks from other regions.

Roy was not worried that these hundred-man teams would fail when sixty hundred-man teams occupied sixty Sabine and Latin tribes.

Because the Sabine and Latin tribes usually had a population of only about one thousand.

Even if these tribes could gather two hundred men, they could not defeat the hundred-man team composed of seventy iron spearmen and thirty soldiers using bronze spears.

What Roy was really worried about was that without his own discipline, the soldiers would kill and rob property at will in the tribes or villages they occupied, and even take the women of the tribes or villages for themselves.

So before the war started, Roy gave a special speech to the soldiers.

Catanzaro City.

Eight thousand soldiers gathered around the Temple of Persephone, forming a circle to surround the Temple of Persephone.

Roy stood on the altar outside the Temple of Persephone and spoke loudly so that all soldiers could hear.

"Soldiers! Now we are about to launch a war that is bound to win. Now I have something to tell you. The Apennine Peninsula is already a Roman province of the Athenian Empire. The Sicules, Sabines, Latins and Etruscans on the Apennine Peninsula are all citizens of the Athenian Empire. When you occupy the tribes or villages of the Sabines and Latins, you must not harm ordinary villagers. The task I give you is to eliminate the Sabines and Latins who resist us, kill the leaders of the Sabines and Latins, and confiscate all the leaders' property. Even if the leaders of the Sabines and Latins surrender voluntarily, you must drive the leaders away, because I don't want to face the Senate and elders of the Sabines and Latins anymore. After occupying the tribes or villages of the Sabines and Latins, if you arbitrarily harm the villagers, rob the villagers' property, or even occupy women, I will definitely give you the most severe punishment. After this war is over, I will not only give you 20 kilograms of salt as a reward, but also arrange for unmarried girls to go on blind dates with you."

Twenty kilograms of salt-this is a generous reward equivalent to 1,000 kilograms of grain.

Roy would arrange blind dates for soldiers who won the battle, which was also known to all the soldiers.

After hearing Roy's promise, all the soldiers shouted excitedly.

"Long live the emperor! Long live the Athenian Empire!"

"Long live the emperor! Long live the Athenian Empire!"

"Long live the emperor! Long live the Athenian Empire!"

After the lecture to the soldiers, Roy summoned sixty centurions and told them with a serious face.

"Dear centurions! This time you have an important task, you must manage your soldiers well and don't let them do anything that violates the laws of the Athenian Empire. After this war, you will all get a reward of 40 kilograms of salt."

The centurions agreed and said that they were all capable of managing the soldiers.

Roy then had a one-on-one chat with Caesar.

"Caesar, you will lead a thousand-man team into the Basilicata region. Your task is not only to guard against the Sabine tribe in the Apulia region, but also to monitor the centurions in the Basilicata region. If the centurions do anything that violates the law, you must tell me everything."

Caesar said immediately.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely complete your order."

After all preparations were completed, Caesar's thousand and twenty centuries walked from the coastal plains to the Basilicata region.

Roy's thousand and forty centuries took warships to the Campania region.

The fifth day of the war.

Caesar's thousand and twenty centuries entered the Basilicata region, and Roy's thousand and forty centuries also landed on the coast of the Campania region.

The Campania region and the Lazio region in the northwest are both areas where Latins who worship Mars live.

Because the Latins also live a semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural lifestyle, Mars is not only the god of reproduction and plants, but also the patron saint of livestock, farmland and farmers.

In the history of another world, the city of Rome was established in the Lazio region.

Romulus, who built the city of Rome, was the son of the god who was deified as the patron saint of the Latins, Mars.

It is said that the Latins originally lived in the northern part of the Apennine Peninsula.

With the continuous invasion of the Etruscans who worshipped the sun god Jupiter and the moon goddess Minerva, the Latins were forced to migrate and seize the territory of the Siculians.

The Basilicata, Puglia, and Abruzzo regions east of the Apennines were the territories of the Sabines who worshipped the god of war Quirinus.

A thousand years later, the city of Rome established by the Latins eventually conquered the entire Apennine Peninsula.

A thousand years ago now, the Etruscans were the most powerful ethnic group on the Apennine Peninsula.

The Sabines were the second largest ethnic group after the Etruscans.

The Latins were only the third largest ethnic group on the Apennine Peninsula.

If the Calabria region, the last territory of the Siculians, was also taken away, the Latins would become the weakest ethnic group on the Apennine Peninsula.

Perhaps it was precisely because the Latins were in a weak position that in the myth of Romulus, the founder of Rome, Romulus used deception to forcibly obtain the married princess of the Sabines and became the son-in-law of the Sabine king.

As the king of Rome, Romulus used the most despicable way to occupy the married Sabine princess as his wife, which fully reflected the weakness of the Latins at that time.

Romulus could only ensure that Rome would not be destroyed by the powerful Sabines if he became the son-in-law of the Sabine king and made the Sabine king's grandson the heir of Rome.

This story is very similar to the Greek myth of Agamemnon occupying a married Spartan princess.

At that time, Agamemnon's situation was that if he did not marry the married Spartan princess and forcibly became the son-in-law of the Spartan king, Agamemnon might be killed by the Spartan king.

In the myth of Rome, when the angry Sabine king wanted to punish Rome for robbing the Sabine girls, the Sabine princess, who had become Romulus' wife, brought 29 Sabine girls to the outside of Rome and prevented Rome from being destroyed by the Sabine king.