Chapter 737: This Is Rome

Although the system did not mention anything about the dungeon, Zhang Heng could roughly guess the place he would be traveling to when it mentioned the five names.

It was Ancient Rome.

Or, to be more precise, the Roman Empire.

The origin of all brilliant stories often came from a legend, and Ancient Rome was no exception.

Numitor and Amulius were a pair of brothers, and their father was a king of the Latin people. Before the king died, he divided his inheritance into two and let his two sons choose from them. Numitor chose the throne, while Amulius chose the countless treasures their ancestors brought back from Troy.

So one of them became a king, and the other became extremely wealthy.

But Amulius, who possessed a lot of wealth, was unhappy to live under his elder brother’s rule. So he used his wealth to bribe the ministers and the army to take his side. In the end, he successfully usurped the throne and exiled his elder brother, Numito. And he also killed Numitor’s son. After his daughter pleaded, he decided not to kill his elder brother’s daughter, Sylvia. However, he made her into a Vestal Virgin.

The Vestal Virgin served as a sacrifice to the goddess of the Holy Fire, Vestal. And it required her to preserve her virginity. She was not allowed to get close to any men. In other words, Sylvia would not have any offspring. But no one thought that Mars, the god of war, would fall in love with Sylvia. He failed to control his desire and impregnated Sylvia with a pair of twins.

Amulius was furious when he heard about it. However, he did not dare to offend Mars. So, the only thing that he could do to Sylvia was to confine her. After she gave birth, she put the two babies into a basket and abandoned them in a river, hoping that nature would claim their lives. However, the river brought the basket to shore. After that, a wolf came to feed them with milk, a woodpecker brought food for them, and finally, a passing shepherd adopted them. He named then Romulus and Remos.

Like all the other great legends, a hero would always encounter a turning point before becoming a hero. After that, a surge of energy would grant him the strength to pull up the sword stuck in the stone.

The same thing happened to Romulus. The two brothers soon grew up, and not too long after that, Remus was involved in a conflict between the shepherds and was captured by the king. It was at that time that Romulus knew everything about him and his brother. So, he gathered as many people as he could that hated Amulius, starting an uprising. And eventually, he managed to kill Amulius and rescued his brother.

When the deed was done, neither of the two wanted to inherit the throne. Instead, they wanted to return the kingdom to their exiled grandfather, Numitor. After that, they built a new city where the shepherd found their bamboo basket.

However, in the process of building the city, the two brothers diverged again, this time leading to a great battle. Romulus won the battle and killed Remus.

And the new city was named after him.

This was the origin of the name of Ancient Rome’s capital, Rome.

…

The story might sound gory and ridiculous to later generations, but many similar stories originated from China, such as Liu Bang killing the white snake and Lao Zi seeing purple gas coming from the east when he passed by the Hangu Pass. The older the tales were, the more mythological elements were mixed in them.

In the words of the author of “History of Rome,” they are not based on reliable historical facts. So, I suggest that you don’t have to affirm them nor deny them.”

In short, with the establishment of the city of Rome by Romulus, Rome had officially entered the Roman Kingdom phase, around 753 BC. After that, Rome embarked on the road of kingdom expansion. In 509 BC, with the Etruscans’ help, the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by his ministers. And Rome officially entered the Republican era.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing during the process of this expansion. Rome was isolated by its neighboring countries. After the three Macedonian Wars, Rome had gained control over the whole of Greece. The subsequent Syrian war allowed it to conquer West Asia. It was at that time that Caesar made his appearance. After defeating his political opponents and two allies, he had all the power in the world that one could never imagine. With that, he became the emperor of Rome. Unfortunately, he was later assassinated.

Right after his assassination, his son Octavius inherited the throne. The first thing he did was eliminate his political opponents and two allies (Yes. You read it right. It was the same pattern.) He then established the Principate, officially entering Rome into the age of empires.

The Roman Empire welcomed its most prosperous period when it entered the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. The five princes in succession were introduced to the public. These were five people that Zhang Heng heard in the brief introduction from the system. They were also called the five emperors. From the period of Nerva’s to Antonine’s ruling, it was the golden age of Rome.

At this time, Rome was mighty, politically stable, and had control over a vast territory. They were basking in unprecedented prosperity.

But by the time Aurelius sat on the throne, Rome had begun to spiral downhill. Barbarians invaded the land, not to mention the frequent border wars and a plague that swept the country. Due to these unfortunate factors, Rome’s population drastically reduced. With that, they received far lesser taxes, and their military expenditure skyrocketed. It caused the empire to plunge into a financial crisis.

Fortunately, Emperor Aurelius was in power during this critical period. An emperor and a philosopher, he worked diligently from the day he took over the throne till the end of his life. While dealing with the nobles, he had also fought off the barbarians from the north and south. And at the same time, he had to handle the civil war and rebellion. While dealing with so many matters, he still managed to make time to write a philosophical masterpiece carrying the title “Meditations.”

However, with the death of Aurelius, the Roman Empire had started to turn away from prosperity again. Rome would never return to its golden age. His son Commodus was also the last emperor of the Antonine dynasty. As for what happened afterward, that was a story for another time.

Zhang Heng now could roughly guess that he was at the end of 2BC. At this time, Rome was in a bad state. After the death of Commodus, the empire would soon fall into a long period of civil war. But for now, with a territory spanning thousands of miles, a fifth of the world’s population still came under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was indeed a veritable empire.

In fact, Zhang Heng had been quite interested in traveling to the Roman Empire. After all, the ancient Roman civilization was an important foundation of Western civilization and would greatly influence future generations. Unfortunately, they could only learn about it from film and literature.

This time, Zhang Heng had been granted the opportunity to travel in this ancient, colossal empire. However, his main quest also reminded him that this trip to Rome was about to be extremely challenging.

So far, he had received a total of two survival quests. One of them was the novice quest. He was asked to survive on a deserted island. And the second survival quest was the Soviet-Finnish War dungeon. Survival quests were usually quite simple and straightforward. He just needed to live until the end. That meant he could stay in the dungeon and do nothing. The troublesome part, however, was usually finding a way to survive from all the potential threats he was going to face.

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