The world in the book is real and exciting. 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 then met a Roman slave, and finally set sail into the Mediterranean.
The situation in the Mediterranean Sea is described here: there is less wind and calmness, and the speed of the ship is getting faster and faster.
The mysterious trip to Rome finally begins.
Readers can't wait to turn the pages of the book and read on.
Rome was not the strongest country in the Mediterranean, but it was the country with the most potential. It was a democratic slave society.
At the beginning of the book, Cai He's impression of Rome is relatively simple: enthusiastic, comfortable, and knowing how to enjoy it. It can still be seen between the lines that Cai He has a good impression of Rome.
Of course, his time in Rome was not short, and Cai He's impression of Rome was constantly changing.
The prosperity of the city of Rome was supported by countless slaves.
A slave is a slave.
Ever since the discovery of the New World, the word slave has been accompanying the entire voyage story. Readers don’t understand why all civilizations, whether primitive or advanced, are slaves? Although there was human trafficking in the Qin Dynasty, it was all done secretly, and the law
Human trafficking has been banned for a long time, and slaves have slowly withdrawn from the stage during the Zhou Dynasty. I didn't expect that slaves would be so popular in the outside world. I can't even imagine it.
Then we saw that there were no emperors or kings in Rome. Each of their cities had governors, and these governors were decided by the Senate and the Citizen Assembly.
Such a novel system baffled the people of Qin.
The ministers thought: How can we ‘pass the buck’ if there is no one who calls the shots?
The nobles thought: How can we enfeoff the land without a king?
The common people thought: There is no emperor? Isn't this abnormal? Is there not even a wise emperor in that place?
Each class had different ideas, and the Roman political system was recorded in the book.
After the debate in the Senate, Cai He devoted himself to studying the political system of Rome, and finally discovered that Roman society included two types of people. The lowest level was naturally slaves, and then there were free people.
Among the free people there are citizens and commoners.
A citizen refers to a person with Roman nationality. This is a very important status, because with this status, Rome will not ignore its citizens, and will support its citizens even if they have no talent or virtue. Of course, if a citizen is very poor but rich
If you are talented, you may become a governor, executive, or even a noble just like winning the lottery.
Civilians refer to free people who do not have citizenship. They cannot enjoy the rights of citizens and cannot participate in citizens' meetings. Naturally, they cannot get any promotion.
In fact, citizens are equivalent to the privileged class. Only with citizenship rights can they have the right to vote and inherit, and citizens are given priority in protection.
Since citizenship is so good, how can we get citizenship?
First of all, of course, you have lived in the city of Rome for generations. There are upper-class people in the city and lower-class people outside the city. It’s that simple. And of course there is military service. If you are not dead after 25 years, you will be a citizen. Yes, 25 years.
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Of course, there will be emperors in Rome in the future, so the emperors also have the right to grant citizenship rights. 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 opportunistic way is to find a Roman citizen and ask him to take you as his slave. After a period of time, let him release you, and you will immediately become a citizen, but you will only be a third-class citizen.
Not all rights of citizens can be obtained immediately or immediately.
This is the same as going to Hong Kong and the United States to give birth to a child and allowing the child to obtain local identity.
There are other ways, such as spending money to buy a citizenship, provided you are rich enough. If you are really that rich, you will be happy in other places, and you don’t have to ask for citizenship, unless you are really very rare.
Become a Roman citizen.
You can also expose corruption. As long as you catch evidence of official corruption, you can become a citizen. But it may be difficult for ordinary people to take this path. If you are not afraid of being killed and silenced, you can still try.
As mentioned before, citizens also have classes. The first class are of course Roman citizens, the second class are Latin citizens, and the third class are third-class citizens who opportunistically obtain civil rights.
The customs and language of Latin citizens are exactly the same as those of Romans, but because they were 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. Of course, male Roman citizens can also marry other girls. It’s just that arbitrary.
However, becoming a citizen naturally comes with certain obligations, not to participate in politics, because most citizens are ignorant and short-sighted. Citizens can speak loudly, but they cannot affect the political situation if they do not become officials or parliamentarians. If you become a citizen,
If you join the army, you cannot surrender. If you surrender, you will immediately lose your citizenship. Unless you 'escaped' from the enemy, if the enemy releases you, you will also lose your civil rights.
At the same time, citizens have also lost the right to be "shameless". If someone exposes you for having sex, having sex with a young girl, getting involved in the entertainment industry, falsely accusing others, etc., although you are still a citizen, you will not be able to
Normal marriage, childbirth, and even a job are not guaranteed.
Therefore, you can be a citizen, but you cannot be shameless, because being shameless is a crime, and the crime is "shameless crime".
Cai He obviously investigated very deeply and showed the entire Roman society to everyone, a country where social classes were highly divided.
Then there is the introduction of Roman slaves. Compared with the splendor of Roman citizens, slaves were not so glorious. They had no rights, and even the most basic life and property were not protected, so the profession of 'gladiator' appeared.
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Not to mention freedom, even life is just a tool to please citizens.
The life of slaves was miserable. Cai He described: The sound of shackles in the countryside drowned out the chickens and dogs.
Those slaves who were captured worked completely in shackles. They were real slaves. Readers living in Qin State may only use the analogy of corvee labor. When sending corvee labor, they would usually use ropes to prevent the coolies from escaping.
They are tied to bamboo.
But it is unimaginable to wear shackles when working in the farmland, at least not in the farmland of Qin.
Finally, Cai He wrote at the end: There are as many enemies as there are slaves in the country of Rome. This is even more shocking.
"It is unheard of that there is such a country." The giant couldn't help but say, this is too far away from the Mohist policy of universal love and non-aggression. It only loves the citizens but uses slaves as inhuman labor. It is appalling.
Others are not very comfortable either. This kind of country is so evil that it has to have an emperor. I'm afraid whoever becomes the emperor will be infamy for thousands of years.
But more readers are still only attracted by the rights of citizens and ignore slaves. It seems that they must be citizens rather than slaves when they go to Rome.