Seeing the intimate conversation between Zhang Heng and Lucilla, the other gladiators showed envy on their faces.
Lucilla was the most distinguished woman in the entire empire. Although she was already in her early thirties, Lucilla had taken good care of her body and face. Although some gladiators were slightly resistant to selling their bodies, no one could refuse Lucilla.
However, Zhang Heng was wary of this beautiful woman. The reason was not simple. According to the trajectory of history, Lucilla would be involved in the assassination of her brother Commodus more than a year later.
As a woman, Lucilla was the daughter of the former emperor, the sister of the current emperor, and the only blood relative of Commodus. She basically had everything she needed, and it was impossible for her to become the next emperor. Hence, the assassination that she led could not bring her many benefits.
In terms of planning, there were also a lot of mistakes. For example, she hid it from her husband. The latter was a powerful figure in the military. If she could rope him in, both of them would have a way out, regardless of success or failure. However, her husband, Pompeo Nus, was kept in the dark from beginning to end. In the end, Lucilla chose her cousin, Eumedius Pomeranus. Kuvatratos as a partner.
The latter was an elder of the Senate. His position in the Senate was second only to Dior, and he also had influence over more than a hundred seats. He was a force to be reckoned with in politics. However, he and Lucilla were not good at planning political assassinations.
In the end, the two found Quintianus, the nephew of Pompeo Nus, to be the killer. This was also the biggest failure of the whole plan. Quintianus was a severe chuunibyou. Before he took action, he greeted Commodus and shouted, "The Senate sent you this …"
As a result, he alerted the nearby guards and was captured. He did not survive the trial, so Eumidius and Lucilla were exposed one after another, and one of them was executed. Another was exiled to Capri, and not long after that, he was executed.
This was also the real reason why Zhang Heng did not want to get close to Lucilla.
Not only was this woman a lunatic, but she was also a brainless lunatic. If Zhang Heng got too close to her, he would likely be dragged down with her. However, after the interaction between the two tonight, Zhang Heng found that Lucilla did not seem to be as stupid as described in history.
On the contrary, this woman was very smart and somewhat unfathomable, but this was more in line with her identity.
She was the daughter of the former Emperor, and her two marriages were to the Emperor and a person with real power in the military. She had been at the top of power all her life. How could such a woman be stupid?
Zhang Heng couldn't figure out why she would plan the stupid assassination that would take place more than a year later, but it was precisely because of this that Zhang Heng didn't want to have anything to do with this woman.
The banquet lasted until late at night. In addition to the gladiator display, there was also singing, dancing, and bards reciting. However, what happened after that had nothing to do with the gladiators. Considering that the gladiatorial performance would begin tomorrow, all the gladiators returned to their respective residences after the visit. They rested and prepared for tomorrow's battle.
…
Early the next morning, before dawn, Zhang Heng, Bach, and the others were woken up on time. They then took a donkey cart to the venue of the gladiatorial performance, the Amphitheatrum Flavium.
What the future generations could see was the wreckage of the Amphitheatrum Flavium. Only half of the external ring structure was left, and the interior was only left with some brick arch ribs and weeds all over the ground. Hence, the tourists who came here for sightseeing could only rack their brains to imagine the past glory of this place. At this moment, Zhang Heng was indeed standing under it, looking up at the complete Amphitheatrum Flavium.
Spectacular! This was everyone's first impression when they saw it.
The morning sun shone on the gold-plated bronze statue of Nero, making it shine. The bronze statue was located in the middle of a square full of colorful flags, and behind it was the Amphitheatrum Flavium, which was as majestic as a mountain.
The Amphitheatrum Flavianum consisted of four floors, with a height of 40 to 50 meters. The bottom three floors had 80 huge arcades with statues of different expressions. Each statue was much larger than the one in Dior's front hall. In addition, there were also shields and countless ribbons hanging on the arches, as if they were welcoming the triumphant return of a hero.
Of course, the most attractive thing was the top of the amphitheatrum. There was a circle of hard poles, and there were hundreds of them. The hard poles were tied with long cables, propping up a large ring that was more than a hundred meters above the ground. A tarpaulin woven from thin linen was laid on this ring, creating a huge roof to shade the audience from the sun.
Considering its scale, this roof weighed at least twenty to thirty tons. In order to operate this roof, the Empire had no choice but to mobilize a thousand well-trained sailors.
The stones used to build the arena were transported from the Albula quarry on the outskirts of Rome. Each piece was incredibly heavy, and the Romans at that time used the arch structure to the extreme. Unlike the pyramids, the structure of the Amphitheatrum Flavium was hollow, and its skeleton was built like a bridge. The amazing thing was that after more than two thousand years, it was still standing.
The Bernabéu Stadium could only accommodate 80,000 people, and the Amphitheatrum Flavium two thousand years ago could accommodate 90,000 people to watch a game at the same time.
"No wonder they say this is the temple of the gladiators," Bach murmured. "You have to admit that these Romans are quite good at building." Although the Germanic was a little reluctant, he had to praise his enemy.
It was still early in the morning, and no spectators had entered the arena yet. However, one could already imagine how grand the arena would be once it was filled to the brim. Fighting under the gazes of 90,000 people, those who were a little more timid would probably start trembling the moment they entered the arena. However, as long as one could obtain victory, they would be able to enjoy the thunderous cheers and applause of a group of tens of thousands of people, causing them to go crazy for one person.
Just thinking about such a scene made one's blood boil.
In fact, not only the two newcomers, Zhang Heng and Bach, but even the veteran gladiators such as Habitus had a strange look in their eyes when they saw the Amphitheatrum Flavium. Obviously, they felt the same way. Other than Zhang Heng, no gladiator could resist the temptation of fame and fortune. It had been more than a year since Sethnets retired. During this period, although many powerful gladiator schools had promoted many powerful gladiators, none of them, including Sartonilos, could replicate Sethnets' legend and become the undisputed number one gladiator. And now, the opportunity to reach the top was finally placed in front of all the gladiators.
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