Chapter 27 The Road of Silk and Color (Part 1)

"O Hercules, your baths are cold." - Jugurtha said after his defeat in the Turianum dungeon in Rome, where he and his two sons were hanged six days later.

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"Do you know how much a robe like the one you are wearing is worth?"

"About three thousand drachmas, which is roughly equivalent to the price of fifty pieces of gold jewelry." Adiana replied without hesitation, because the piece she wore was unique and could only be worn by kings in the entire East. Even Caesar and Lepidus could only wear light materials with silk or plain silk robes when they appeared in public in the Republic, otherwise they risked being criticized for extravagance. What Adiana wore was called "Parthian cloth" - merchants from the Parthian Empire spent a lot of money to first buy silk ribbons from the Seris Empire, and then resold them to Pontus, Greece and even Rome. Then the weavers from these countries made different cloths. The colorful silk ribbons are carefully disassembled with needles one by one, and then weaved into different patterns. They are rewoven into robes and sold at a high price. Therefore, the price along the way is simply shocking. Compared with the cost, it is More than three hundred times.

At that time, silk was money, and in any factory in ancient Rome, anyone who stole or destroyed silk would be severely fined and punished. "What I need now is to not only make myself rich, but also weaken Parthia's plan. Now Parthia is only doing the transit business of raw silk and silk ribbons on the land. It can get about three thousand talents every year. Huge profits, what I have to do is to interrupt its monopoly." Lepida was full of confidence, "The secret is to transport the raw silk here through another route, and also to obtain the technology of weaving silk ribbons, which is Siris' weapon. , Jacquard machine. As long as we have the Jacquard machine, we can get the raw silk from the Seris Empire, and we don’t need to use any intermediate countries to get the silk clothes or the silk clothes processed by them in our caravans. The price will be lowered. To achieve the purpose of dumping, our opponents and enemies, whether they are chambers of commerce, city-states or empires, will go bankrupt within three years. Of course, we will sell the linen fabrics printed and dyed with madder. To the common people. When the time comes, madder, porcelain and silk will be our invincible weapons."

But when Lepidus said the name of the instrument "Jacquard" in Greek words, Adiana was surprised because she had never seen such a mysterious thing in her life, but the queen was very interested in any new or mysterious objects. All with great interest, she hurriedly asked, since even Parthia could not obtain raw silk manufacturing and jacquard machine technology. So what exactly does Lepidus rely on? "Relying on this expedition, Cleopatra will gather several legions and go south to seek the various barbarian kingdoms between the Red Sea and the Nile River. Force them to sign treaties and open ports to lease to us. Then we will pass through the ocean and communicate with Get in touch with the Seris Empire," Lepidah said.

"Ocean? Is it possible to get in touch with the Seris Empire by sea?" Due to the geographical knowledge of that era, Adiana did not understand this little secret.

Yes, Lepidus explained to Adiana:

As long as we can obtain certain ports in Aden and Aksum. I then dispatched a voyage fleet composed of Tianzhu people, Nubians, Egyptians, Pontus people and my close associates, and set sail in April of the following year. With a favorable wind, you can reach the country of Ceylon in about one and a half to two months. Then transfer from the country of Ceylon and arrive in the country of Fulan in another month. You can purchase a large amount of raw silk there and even use it. The means was to lease a piece of land, just like Queen Dido of Phoenicia did to Numidia, and build a bridgehead for voyages and trade.

Then, my team of envoys will go north along the Fulan road. If nothing unexpected happens, they will reach the capital of the Seris Empire at the end of October and go to meet their emperor as a Roman envoy.

"Can I get a jacquard machine then?" Adiana asked a little naively, "Does that jacquard machine only belong to emperors?"

Lepidus laughed and said that it was impossible to get the jacquard machine directly. The border gate of Seris was heavily guarded. Let alone the jacquard machine, even a bug would be difficult to take away, but I would ask the envoy to bring enough gold gifts. As long as a famous Seris technician can be bribed to come up with the detailed drawings of the Jacquard machine, it will be fine, because the raw materials are no different from the Egyptian loom, the only difference is that it has some know-how in the components. So we kept going back and forth, and two years later we tried to successfully imitate the official jacquard machine. In addition, I will try my best to get raw materials for the production of dyes of various colors, because now we only have madder from Cyrene and can only print and dye one kind of red. I also need black, white, yellow, green, and the secret of processing a whole set of colors.

Now, Adiana understood, so she felt relieved and nodded, saying that I am Calabis who will fight side by side with you forever.

During the Saturnalia, when the whole of Rome focused on the discovery of Ilium, and even Caesar asked the Senate to issue an edict to hold a seven-day thanksgiving festival for this matter, many poor and rich people prepared dry food and money to cross the valleys of Illyria, preparing to pass through Lepidus and go to Ilium to worship and take a journey to find their roots. Lepidus ordered a checkpoint to be set up outside Lepidus and opened ships to cross the sea to collect coins from pilgrims. Then Achilles' fleet also set sail, carrying two legions, and headed towards Alexandria.

Then, in the Iperian Palace, Cleopatra sat on a lion-leg chair, wearing a dazzling dress made of "Sidonian fabric", which made her chest and arms even whiter. Generals such as Rufio, Achilles and Shebekhu stood on both sides in full military uniforms. Under the palace were the troops hired by Cleopatra, especially the three legions left by Caesar, plus the two legions brought by Achilles, and the Hormasi legion directly under the queen. A total of six legions each selected a hundred-man team and stood in the courtyard in front of the palace, which frightened the chiefs and barbarian kings of Aksum and Aden who were asked by the queen to meet.

Among them, a small chieftain on the Red Sea who dared to refuse the queen's request was immediately wiped out by the queen's vassal Nabataean Kingdom. He was directly pulled to Alexandria with a dog chain. The queen happened to want to kill this weak and ignorant "chicken", so the chieftain was thrown into the crocodile pool in front of everyone.

"The child next to me is not only the heir of the Ptolemaic dynasty, but also the flesh and blood of Caesar. Now some bold and reckless guys think that the sacred dynasty of Alexandria has lost its binding force on them, but fools are fools. They will not understand this profound truth until my powerful legion and fleet destroy him and his people with sword and fire." Cleopatra said majestically to all the barbarian kings and chiefs, the "monkeys", "I need all your ports now, otherwise the army will use my scepter to punish and whip you. The trade routes of Aden are concentrated in Petra, while the trade routes of Aksum are concentrated in the Nile Falls and then in Alexandria."