The Beautiful Woman of Pompeii: Love, Deceit, and Revenge

In 79 A.D. (832 A.D.), the Roman Empire was under the rule of the Flavian dynasty. The first emperor of the Flavian dynasty was named Vespasian. From the time Vespasian was embraced by the Senate as the new ruler of the Roman Empire ten years earlier, he had made it his goal to conquer the Germanic peoples. The Germans and the Celts, two foreign races, had always been the main enemies of the Romans on the European continent. His last dynasty had conquered the Celts. From the hands of the Celts to take the last piece of land in the south of the British Isles, so that they can only cower in the Scotland, Wales around the continuation of their own kingdom. Vespasian, who ascended the throne as a vassal of old, made the Germans the object of his necessary conquest in order to prove his martial prowess to his Roman subjects. His legions, valiant and warlike, did live up to the expectations of the Romans, and in the course of nearly ten years, conquered more than twenty Germanic tribes, including the Macchus and the Swabians. The Germans were losing ground and kept retreating to the fringes. But just six months ago, a Roman legion driving near the Black Forest to sweep up a tribe called the Cadets met with unexpected and stubborn resistance. In order to protect their homeland, the Kadis, at the call of their chief, united with the neighboring tribes and fought valiantly against the Roman invaders. Utilizing the favorable terrain of forests and swamps, they defeated the fearsome Roman legions many times with less than 5,000 warriors. Half a decade later, the Cadets still retained their homeland. The Romans, on the other hand, had lost nearly a dozen battles, and had been humiliated. This annoyed Vespasian to no end. In order to save face in front of the people of Rome, just a few months ago, he personally led three corps numbering 50,000 men to launch a fierce siege attack on the Cardinals. But this time, the gods enshrined in the Pantheon were still not on his side. Not only did the Romans suffer a defeat and were enticed by the Cadians in the swamps, with many dead and wounded, but worst of all, Vespasian himself was wounded by an arrow, and could not even retreat to Rome in time, dying on the way. The news came as a shock to the nation. His eldest son, Titus, succeeded to the throne of the Roman Emperor. The first thing Titus did after his succession was to summon General Hannibal, who was leading Augusta's legions in Dacia, and order him to destroy the Cadians, to save the face of the Romans and to avenge the death of Vespasian. Hannibal Claudius, who shared the same name with Hannibal, the famous Carthaginian general who had made a name for himself on the European continent hundreds of years ago, was the adopted son of Vespasian, the brother of Titus, and a famous general of the Roman Empire, who was the governor of the province of Mercia at that time. He and the legions of Augusta, which he led, were known as the Sword of the Empire, invincible and indestructible. At the age of twenty-five he received the supreme honor of a triumph. The dead Vespasian underestimated the fighting ability of the Cardinals, and so at first, instead of sending this righteous son of his, he sent him to what he thought would be a tougher battlefield in Eastern Europe. The miscalculation cost not only failure, but loss of life. After being ordered to do so, Hannibal drove to the area of the Black Forest with 5,000 legionnaires and defeated the Cadians in less than half a month, using a scheme to divide the few remaining tribes the Cadians were allied with. After he left with his troops, the Urbian legions that took over the area killed all the able-bodied males, including the captives, and the women and children were taken back to Rome and reduced to slavery. Ajani Cadi, the chief's daughter, was renowned for her beauty and valor. Known as the "Princess of the Black Forest", she did not escape capture and slavery after the defeat of her tribe. Titus's brother, Tumishen, heard of her beauty and expressed his desire to Hannibal through someone before Augusta's legions sailed to the Black Forest. Hannibal's relationship with Tumishen, his younger brother, was not as cordial as it was with Titus, his eldest brother. Tumishen was always very jealous of Hannibal. As a child, jealous of his own father's favor with him, and now, jealous of his prestige in the eyes of the Romans. So Hannibal and Tumishen usually had little dealings. But now, since this brother asked for something from himself, and it was only a woman, so he agreed. As soon as the battle was over, without even seeing what that princess looked like, he immediately ordered her to be escorted to Rome alone and given to that brother of his. But, unexpectedly, then, an accident happened. Ajani Kadi stabbed Tumishen. No one knows how she irritated him. Because it happened in a room with just the two of them, the process is known only to them. Tumisen was furious, and after ordering her to be tied up and beaten, and seeing that she remained unyielding, he ordered that she be thrown into the prison of the arena. In Rome, aristocrats and plebeians were keen on all kinds of bloody and violent entertainment. The rodeo was one of the most notorious of these performances. In addition to the rodeo between man-beasts and gladiators, there was also the rodeo of the female slaves. To have female slaves wearing armor and holding weapons, and to see them fight for survival and finally drive their blades into each other's bodies is a more perverse thrill than watching gladiators or human-beast gladiatorial battles. Therefore, when the news spread and the citizens of Rome learned that the princess of the barbaric tribes of the Black Forest, who had severely humiliated the Romans, was about to be driven to the Great Coliseum for the games, in order to witness her legendary and rare beauty, on that day, just as the day dawned, crowds of all kinds began to pour out of those crooked, narrow, and dense alleys filled with commoners in the districts of Eskwerin and Subura. Potters, blacksmiths, merchants, old gladiators who had survived to be bruised and battered, filthy beggars, crippled veterans of the Roman legions, women, jesters, theatergoers, prostitutes, and jostling children, all of them ran toward the great arena with gusto and gusto, like a tidal wave. Above, background. ------------------------------------- When Xu Jia regained consciousness, she felt like a thousand pounds of pressure had been exerted on her chest and throat, and the skin of her face felt as if there were needles jabbing densely, swollen and painful, and she was completely unable to breathe. She opened her eyes violently, and what jumped into her eyes were two thick arms supported above her eyes. Moments before the accident and her own loss of consciousness, she was on a special mission with her teammates. And now, her ears were filled with all sorts of shrill whistles and shouts. The mind was still a little scrambled. But it was very clear: she was now being held by the throat. And one thing she was also very sure of was that this person was now trying to kill her. Not only was he restraining her with his knees pressed dead against her chest, but also, the hands that were choking her throat were using all the strength of his body. This person who wanted to kill herself was huge in weight and incredibly strong. It was no longer possible for her to forcefully get up to save herself. Totally instinctive reaction, she violently raised her hand, broke the other party's left and right two little fingers, and forcefully argued in the direction of the back of her hand, and after the other party let out a cry of misery and pain, instead of letting go of her hand, she exerted herself even more, and her entire body weight was almost pressed up. This situation, as long as it lasted for a few seconds, there was no need to wait for her to suffocate and die, her collar bone would be broken. She gritted her teeth and continued to power up. In the sound of crisp bone cracks, the other party's two little fingers were rooted and broken. Taking the opportunity of the other party's hand strength to let go, Xu Jia lifted her leg and folded over the other party's neck, and twisted it towards the side, the person finally rolled off her body and fell to the ground, covering the hand of the broken finger and letting out a miserable howl of pain. The shouts that had been ringing in her ears just now also suddenly stopped, and the surroundings were silent. Xu Jia rolled over and sat up from the ground, opened his mouth to gasp for breath, and when he raised his hand to ease the sharp pain in his throat, he finally saw his current surroundings clearly. This is a space surrounded by stone walls, three walls crawling with moss, the other side is a grille iron door, the air carries a damp smell of rotting mold. A completely unfamiliar environment. Looks like a prison, and, well, an ancient one. A group of women are huddled against the wall. There were a lot of them, at least twenty to thirty. It should be them who made the noisy noise just now. At this moment, they were staring at Xu Jia and the woman who was rolling around in pain on the ground with different expressions. Yes, Xu Jia finally saw clearly now - the large man who had nearly strangled herself just now was actually a very strong woman. These women, although their skin and hair were different, there were blacks, white Europeans, and Asian faces, but they all had one thing in common, they were all big and strong, and their bodies were wrapped in a few pieces of cloth, some of which were so tattered that they could only cover their shameful places. Just when Xu Jia was astonished, suddenly, a few jailer-like people ran outside the iron gate, roared and opened the iron gate, and barged in. Xu Jia once again froze. White skin, black hair, and wearing the toga that only men would wear in ancient Roman times! "What for! What was that for!" A man with a whip in his hand and a scarred face that looked like an officer growled harshly. There was no doubt that if they were indeed ancient Romans, then they were now speaking Latin. Xu Jia didn't know how she understood it, as if it was as familiar as her mother tongue, what made her feel more surprised was still the next words she heard. "Kunta tried to kill her!" A black woman with a scarred face exclaimed, "Her people were killed by the Kadi tribe, so she wants to kill this woman for revenge!" Scarface looked at Xu Jia and stared at the woman still on the ground, a grim expression on his face. "Lord Tumishen wants her to participate in tomorrow's gladiatorial battle, and you're actually trying to kill her here?" He flung his whip. The whip mercilessly lashed at the woman's body, and soon, the woman's body was covered in blood. At first, she kept rolling and struggling on the ground, with all sorts of mournful cries coming out of her mouth, and gradually, the cries stopped, as if she had fainted. After dozens of lashes, Scarface stopped and ordered the jailers behind him to carry her out. "Throw her into the beast cage!" Scarface's gaze was grim, "Anyone who dares to make trouble again, this is what happens!" The women were silenced, and no one spoke anymore. After the woman named Kunta was dragged out, Scarface looked instead at Xu Jia, who had been sitting on the ground, his eyes resting on her bare arms and legs for a moment before revealing an evil smile with a hint of impishness. "Princess Ajani from the Cadi tribe, behold, tomorrow will be an orgy for all of Rome! Not only Lord Tumisian, but even the great new Emperor Titus and General Hannibal will be in attendance at the arena, so I hope you won't disappoint the adults!" Author's note: Ajani can also be called Agani.