Nova Roma

Chapter 18 - Trip to Olissipo (Lisbon)

During the following three months, July has a underwent a great change of personality, the Spartan training of his nephew change his way of thinking, he no longer took time to drink until he was in a coma, he learned the value of responsibility in blood thanks to these efforts.

In the months that Flavio’s uncle was being trained, Flavio fell in love with how simple Hellena is, she is not a spoiled girl who behaves in an unpleasant way to get attention.

On the contrary, she is very intelligent and always seeks to get ahead, sometimes while she sleeps next to Flavio on her face some tears are reflected but only Flavio needs to hug her with her little hands so that she can sleep peacefully again.

Hellena also calls Julia mother, this seemed to like her mother very much since whenever she does, Julia hugs her, to see that her fiancee and her mother get along, it is a rare scene but Flavio likes to see.

When July left Emerita Augusta and arrives Rome asked his father to allow him to command the invasion of Britannia, August was surprised by the change of attitude of his son and wondered what it was that he had lived with his grandson.

August first tested the capabilities of his son to test his son’s ability to command, he left him a simple task, he had to go fight in the city of Neapolis to kill the rebel slaves in the city.

July accepted his father’s test and left Rome with only 2000 legionaries and 500 cavalries, to face them he would use one of the tactics he learned with his nephew.

The doors of the city of Neapolis were made of wood, so he bought in the market of Rome before leaving oil used by farmers for cows.

When he arrived in the city he waits for the night and under the shelter of darkness he fills the north door of the city with oil, to prevent the attack from failing, the south oil door is also filled as a hook measure.

The south door was first lit and with it, the slaves went to put out the fire, unfortunately, they neglected the north door and soon after in the city the legionaries entered to kill any slave present.

In the morning July undertook his way with the leader of the slaves without legs and hands, he had suffered the punishment of Vitellius for killing Romans inside the city of Neapolis.

When July arrived in Rome, Emperor Augustus realized that his grandson had turned his stupid son into someone to trust the empire.

After that August entrusted his son part of the invasion of Britain taking as his second in command General Agrippa.

In emerita Augusta Flavio began to plan the development of the port of Olissipo (Lisbon currently), to reach the Americas it is not complicated the approximate time to reach Coatzacoalcos with the current technology is 90 days (3 months)

The question is that is only a one way trip there is no return, as soon as there is no return it is due to the future Flavio may know that his grandfather and his uncle will allow a trade to the Americas, but what happens if one day the imperial regime of the family falls through other emperors

They will not leave a large piece of meat in their sight, they will send troops to the Americas and start a great war and colonization, in the end, no one will win in these wars sooner or later Rome will fall and with it the Americas would be fragmented and only will form a kind of American Europe

So it is better to centralize power from the center of the continent (Mexico), go south and reach the darién (Frontera Panama, Colombia) create a wall to separate the wild south of the developed north, after that colonize the islands of the Caribbean and start trade in Asia

One of the very important strategic materials in the Americas is the sisal a plant that produces a very strong natural fiber with it Flavio can develop modern sailboats that have a greater capacity of speed and load.

Traveling to Japan to start trading is not a bad idea, as for why China is not due to the language as they know Flavio has blocked areas of knowledge this includes languages, because Flavio knows Mayan, Nahuatl and ancient Japanese, it is due to his past life he was a Mexican archaeologist who worked at INAH (Institute of Anthropology and History (Mexico))

Always felt the taste for the important cultures and languages ??of his nation and as far as Japanese is due to his liking for anime and his wife a Japanese linguist named Miyuki a rather peculiar relationship ar but thanks to it allowed him to know more about different cultures

Returning to the point of Olissipo the development is to allow docking a large Flavio fleet needs to emigrate to at least 1 million people

The number of people in the Americas was very small due to the great distribution that exists and the date it is, in 1519 AD there were approximately 32 million native people in Mesoamerica now it is 21 BC, the population must be of some few millions of between 5-10 million scattered in the area of Mesoamerica (All the data are approximate I did not find precise data, so all these numbers are suppositions formulated with the scant information that I found)

As to how to transport so many people, Flavio thought of sending 3 expeditions the first will be troops, priests and priestesses and population for the construction of forts

The second will be artisans, population in general, and the third and last will be animals horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, among others, Flavio would leave with the first expedition, the second would be commanded by his mother and the last by his wife Hellena.

For the creation of the Flavio fleet you are very lucky, in this era there are many tall trees perfect for the construction of the keel of the boats which has to be built from a single tree, the model of the boat that wants to occupy is the ship of line of 3000 tons, clear that with limitations and substantial changes the tonnage is reduced remember that the ships were made in an era with a global trade where resources could be taken from all places

But Flavio is sure that he can make a great 2500 tonnes single-use boat this mainly because the wood tends to rot in the sea if it is not treated correctly, with these large boats is sure to take about 5000 people per boat (including crew) and resources for their subsistence during the 3 months of travel

As for why no more is to avoid diseases and famines in the trip, therefore, needs 200 boats only to carry 1 million people but if you add exclusive ships of supplies, armament and animals would be 400 boats in total a large amount for the time, if you divided your priorities into 3 first the creation of a school of sailors, the second the expansion of the port and the third the improvement of the shipyard in the city of Olissipo.

Flavio spent a few days and traveled with hellena to the coastal city of Olissipo, during the carriage trip, Flavio enjoyed the trip with Hellena, this was a trip where Julia could not participate for what would be the first time the two were alone on a trip.

In the city of Olissipo, Flavio will start the construction of a school of sailors, at this time the sailors are quite common but Flavio needs a plus on their sailors is not the same travel in the Mediterranean than in the Atlantic.

If they are not careful a storm can end the expedition or they can end up going to another place, that’s why the training of the sailors, captains, naval police and the naval doctor is elementary

Flavio calculates that he needs to train more than 80,000 men and women 200 sailors by boat, to have effective and safe control of the goods and population that is transported until they reach the new world, the school decided to found near the port occupying more than 5 km2

Flavio explained the plans of the building to his trusted architect Marco the naval school was very similar to the "Mürwik Academy" with the difference that the clock of the tower and eliminated to build a watchtower and placed a sundial in front of the building, the capacity was for 2000 students

Flavio was not in a hurry since the construction would take at least 3 years enough time for trained and trained teachers he will publish some books to complement the education, while the shield he occupied was the Juarista eagle (symbol of the flag of the second Mexican republic), to make him Flavio he took the time to sculpt it in wood, while hellena enjoyed the beautiful beaches of Olissipo.