Ancient Rome: Beginning With The Legionnaire

Three days later, Brian returned to the 13th Legion's garrison with three brigades and 1,000 pounds of gold.

As soon as he returned to the camp, he ordered his infantry to mint the gold into gold coins.

Because gold is the equivalent currency.

A gold coin weighs 8 grams.

So 8 grams of gold is worth as much as a gold coin.

The Roman Republic allowed nobles to mint gold coins in private.

Soon 1,000 pounds of gold turned into approximately 41,000 gold coins, equivalent to 10 talents.

1 talent = 100 pounds = 33000 grams

Seeing so many gold coins, Legion Chief Cateus was dumbfounded.

At first, Cateus, you thought that although there was gold in the Red River Valley, you just didn't expect so much.

Three brigades of Roman soldiers held the most primitive gold panning tools and managed to pan out 10 talents of gold within three days.

These are roughly equivalent to half a year's military expenditure of the entire legion.

It takes about 50,000 to 60,000 gold coins for the legion to pay the soldiers every year.

Plus the cost of food and clothing for the entire legion.

It is impossible to live without 70,000 to 80,000 gold coins a year.

"Is there any gold in the Red River Valley?"

Seeing so many gold coins, Legion Chief Cateus' first thought was to pull the entire legion over to mine gold.

"There are more, but there are not many!"

Brian spread his hands and said.

The fact is exactly the same, what he led the three legions got was the dog's head gold all over the small river.

Brian firmly believes that there must be rich reserves of gold ore underground in the entire Red River Valley.

However, professional equipment and a large amount of manpower are required to mine it, which will undoubtedly increase the cost.

Leading legionnaires to mine gold is no longer a profitable business.

In the past few days alone, in order to appease the soldiers, Brian had to pay 10% of the gold, which was 4100 gold coins.

This was quite a sum of money, averaging two gold coins per Roman soldier.

You know, the salary of a Roman soldier is only about 8 gold coins a year.

It is obviously uneconomical to use soldiers to mine gold.

The best way is to buy a large number of slaves and let them mine for free.

"How do you know if you don't try?"

Cateus obviously didn't believe Brian's answer.

After all, the golden coins are right in front of you, and if you say no, there will be no more.

Cateus, 54 years old this year, is considered an advanced age in ancient Rome.

I don't have much passion for foreign wars anymore.

However, there is an inexplicable desire for the pursuit of wealth.

Before Brian went out to play the autumn wind, some of the wealth he earned would be shared with him, just like this time.

He turned a blind eye to many things.

Privately mobilized the troops of the three brigades, if they were placed on others, they would have been crucified long ago.

"Anyway, the Red River Valley is there, old man, you can lead the team there yourself."

Brian shrugged helplessly, anyway, the Red River Valley is there, if you don't believe it, you can dig there.

"Oh!"

Cateus looked up at Brian.

For a long time, there has been an unwritten rule in Rome, that is, whoever discovers the mine belongs to whom.

Because the Red River Valley is not in Rome, but belongs to Gaul, Brian, as the first nobleman to discover gold mines, has the ownership of gold mines.

Right now, Brian actually let Cateus go digging.

"You really allow it?"

Cateus still couldn't believe his ears, and asked further.

You must know that his deputy, Brian, is notoriously greedy and lustful.

"Of course, you are the head of the 13th Legion! But I have a small condition, that is, if you dig a gold mine, I will give you some points!"

"Okay! According to the old rules, I will take the lead this time, I will be 5 and you will be 4."

The two have a habit of working together for a long time, that is, they get 5 or 4 points for property, and the remaining one point is given to the soldiers.

"Okay, that's it, but I'm going to take a line-up of soldiers into the city of Barcelona!"

A brigade can be divided into three formations, namely young soldiers, middle-aged soldiers and old soldiers, and is led by a centurion.

"Barcelona City? What are you going to do with your troops?"

Cateus had a bad feeling.

This guy will definitely cause trouble if he leads troops into the city.

Roman law provided, if not, the order of the local governor or legionary master.

The Roman army cannot enter the provincial capital city where the province is located.

The city of Barcelona is the capital of the Iberian Province.

"Of course it is to buy some equipment and develop the Red River Valley. I suspect that when they have rich gold reserves underground!"

Brian snapped his fingers.

Although Cateus is often uncomfortable with some of Ryan's practices, as long as it involves making money, the two people's opinions will be surprisingly consistent.

The Roman Republic provided less than 20,000 gold coins for each legion's annual military expenditure.

This money is not even enough to eat, let alone pay wages.

Often the senior generals of the legion support the legion out of their own pockets.

Before Mario's reform, citizens were all equipped with their own weapons to join the legion.

And before that, a small legion was implemented, and a standard Roman legion did not exceed 4,000 people.

After Marius' reform, the recruitment system was implemented, and the legion provided weapons and equipment.

And the formation of the legion has expanded to a large corps of five or six thousand people.

However, the military expenditure provided by the Senate for each legion has not changed, only a handful of 20,000 gold coins.

The 20,000 gold coins not only need to buy equipment, but also pay for the food, clothing, housing, transportation and wages of the soldiers.

In order to control the military power, senior generals often have to pay out of their own pockets.

So both Brian and Cateus have an inexplicable attachment to money.

Because as long as there is enough wealth, the legion can be maintained.

With soldiers in hand, you can maintain your noble status.

In Rome, nobles with soldiers and nobles without soldiers have different status.

"Okay, you can lead a line of soldiers into the city of Barcelona, ​​but you can't cause trouble for me!"

Brian spread his hands helplessly.

"When did I get you into trouble? Those previous troubles, I didn't use my personal relationship to get rid of them!"

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