While Septimus was descending from the elevated wooden platform with his 20 slaves, he suddenly stopped abruptly in place and frowned.
The slaves also stopped and looked at Septimus somewhat confused, thinking that they had made him angry.
Septimus and all the clones shared the same senses thanks to a magical connection that was difficult to explain.
Therefore, communication between the clones was almost instantaneous without the need to send messengers to deliver letters.
When the incident of the prefect's death occurred, Septimus withdrew the clones who were directing commercial caravans to prevent them from being intercepted.
The commercial caravans of Capua and Naples, being relatively close in the same region, discreetly withdrew to the villa, being the first to arrive; on the other hand, the caravans from Rome and the more distant one from Sicily, to avoid problems, took longer auxiliary routes toward Capua, avoiding contact with other caravans.
Septimus's idea was to prevent the caravans from being attacked by local garrisons, but the Sicilian caravan, when crossing the Strait of Messina by sea, was seen as suspicious by merchants in the area, who informed the nearby municipal cities.
In Rome in the year 87 B.C., municipal cities were small cities in Italy that had a population of between 3,000 and 7,000 people, being administered by a magistrate with a small local council called the Ordo Decurionum.
It should be noted that these small cities did not have a garrison or only had a small number of guards incapable of confronting a commercial caravan of 200 armed men.
Consequently, to avoid pirate attacks, they maintained thick walls, and in the face of enemy attacks, they formed an army of volunteers within the small city.
Ironically for Septimus, his idea of maintaining a low profile attracted the attention of nearby caravans and the municipal magistrates who administered the nearby small cities, confusing the clones as pirates or bandits lying in wait.
For the merchants and magistrates who administered the small cities in Rome, a commercial caravan of 200 men that intentionally avoided trading was too suspicious.
Motivated by suspicion, the local magistrates of the region organized a force of 500 armed men and undertook a search for the caravan they considered to be bandits or pirates.
Septimus's Sicilian caravan was taken by surprise while it was camping near a small river.
Under the cover of night, the organized clone sentries glimpsed armed men with various garrison armors approaching the camp rapidly; without having time to think about who the enemy was, the clone sentries drew their gladii and confronted these enemies.
The alert from the clone sentries also alerted the other clones who were in the camp.
Instantly, combat broke out between both sides.
The battle was fierce from the beginning; many of the clones only had gladii or pugios (Roman daggers). After all, they were only a caravan dedicated to trade and did not carry many weapons or armor.
Although the clones were at a disadvantage in numbers and military equipment, their skills trained in individual combat in the underground arena helped them maintain a fragile balance against the 500 men organized by the local magistrates.
The battle became brutal from the beginning, with the clones fighting like trapped wild beasts.
The 500 men under the command of a Roman general who held the title of a local magistrate were also surprised by the ferocity of these men, reinforcing the idea that they were facing bandits or pirates.
The combat became savage from the beginning, with the clones dying little by little and leaving behind the corpses of sacrificed enemies; the advantage in individual combat skill could not change the outcome of the chaotic battlefield, with such obvious disadvantages in numbers and military equipment.
In just over two hours of chaotic combat, and amid the screams and groans of the wounded, only 57 clones survived, who dispersed in different directions in groups of 3 to 5 men.
The soldiers gathered from the local municipalities did not pursue these enemies; although they won, their losses were considerable, with nearly 200 men dead and 100 men wounded.
The magistrate who commanded this suppression of bandits or pirates was also surprised by how hard the battle had been and by the ferocity of the enemy; he considered that these bandits or pirates were an elite that had come to cause trouble in the area.
Septimus had been focused on the entire battle process, witnessing from the very moment those enemies broke into the caravan camp to the subsequent defeat.
For Septimus, this battle gave him a small lesson: Rome is characterized by forming heavy infantry; all the large cities and the smaller ones had garrisons equipped with armor and basic military equipment for heavy infantry.
If Septimus wanted to fulfill his objective of forming 10 legions for self-preservation, he had to think about how to equip them; if he spent money on each legion, he would have to spend half a million denarii to equip them.
The cost of forming a legion was more than 2 million denarii; thanks to his ability, Septimus only needed to spend half a million denarii on purchasing military equipment.
Septimus did not have enough time to use commercial means to accumulate that much money, and buying a large amount of military equipment would attract unnecessary attention.
The region of Campania also did not have copper mines, much less iron necessary to create more solid and resistant metal weapons.
In that situation, Septimus could only accumulate the necessary military equipment by using war and looting as a means.
With constant war, Septimus would strengthen and arm his troops with the purpose of defending himself and attacking all those who coveted his fortune or offended him.
Septimus devised a preliminary strategy that would change according to the real situation on the battlefield.
First, he would besiege the city of Capua, using its resources to equip other legions.
Second, he would conquer the city of Naples and, with the looted resources, use it as an enclave to take the entire region of Campania as his own territory.
The only problem was Rome; the region of Campania was not very far from Rome, and Septimus would have to face constant pressure, including sabotage.
Septimus could only consider this idea as a last resort if the plan to resolve the problem with Rome failed.
For now, Septimus would only stand firm like a rock and wait for the response of Senator Scipio Nasica.
While Septimus devised his ambitious war strategy against Rome,
far away, in a huge villa near the city of Naples, a beautiful middle-aged lady who moments earlier had been enjoying herself with male slaves was reading a message written on papyrus.
Her name was Cornelia Minor Scipionis, and she was related to the Scipio family.
While Cornelia Minor read the letter on papyrus and analyzed her husband's request, she could not help but think that he was being coerced.
The wife of the Admiral of Campania had superior background, which was why he obtained his title as admiral of a region, and consequently the noble lady Cornelia Minor had more voice and influence in the marriage than her husband.
Cornelia Minor frowned as she thought about her husband's request and the grave consequences for her husband due to the defeat suffered in Capua.
Like her husband, the noble lady Cornelia Minor had the idea of suppressing the incident of the prefect's death as a simple personal dispute that resulted in a tragic accident.
It was the only option that the noble lady Cornelia Minor could come up with to avoid punishment for her husband's defeat in battle.
"Prepare the horses and the carriage to go to Rome," said Cornelia Minor to her slaves.
She had to speak with her uncle, Senator Scipio Nasica, personally to find a way out for her husband and free him from a failure in his political career.
As a lady of the Roman high class, she valued political status more than the life of her husband; love is a feeling that disappears over the years in a marital relationship, and the effect becomes more evident in the Roman high class accustomed to libertinism and without moral restraints.