Chapter 575 The Intensification of Conflicts
The heavy hooves of horses coming from the Far North sounded at the walls of Ravenna, and the arrival of several uninvited guests filled the entire Ravenna with a strange atmosphere.
The soldiers guarding the city gates did not dare to stop these people, allowing them to swagger into Ravenna. On the street, citizens and nobles alike stopped and looked at them in surprise, as if they had never seen such an absurd thing in their lives.
Even the beggars on the street stopped crying and telling about their unfortunate fate. They sat on the cold stone slabs and stared with their mouths wide open at these dwarfs in exotic costumes. Please forgive me for describing it this way, because in the eyes of the Romans, these guys were really short enough.
However, their leader was actually a Roman. His appearance was not much different from other Romans, but he was wearing fur clothes of nomadic people.
They completely ignored the strange looks from the people around them and instead regarded it as their own glory. How confident or arrogant they were. They walked right in the middle of the street and even the patrolling soldiers gave way to them. They were so arrogant to the extreme.
Holy Rome, the original high and mighty image has long gone, and the spirit of looking down on all living things has also disappeared. The barbarians used to enter Rome with humility and trembling as if they were on a pilgrimage, and seeing the Romans was more like being shocked by the gods.
It's a pity that the situation is no longer as good as it used to be. Otherwise, how could the barbarians be so arrogant in civilized land and totally ignore the civilized Romans?
"See, they are the Huns your father spoke of."
An old man pointed at the backs of the group of people and spoke to his young grandson. The child looked at the backs of the Huns with fear in his eyes.
In the Trajan Forum in front of the Royal Palace in Ravenna, perhaps Valentinian had already known about the arrival of this group of Huns. In order to show them the powerful military force of the empire, Valentinian specially arranged for Verus to lead the Guards to line up in the square in front of the gate.
The guards were distributed on both sides of the road. The first four rows were fully armed infantrymen, holding broad shields with the same "black ear" pattern on them.
Behind the infantry were two rows of cavalry, wearing horned helmets, purple cloaks on their shoulders, and brass scale armor. Each of them held a dragon head banner in his hand.
Such a massive formation was intended to demonstrate to the Hun envoys in front of them and tell them: We Romans have soldiers who can fight and are well-equipped, and we are not afraid to negotiate any terms with you.
The commander of the Guards, Verus, stood at the outermost edge of the square and waited until he saw the Hun envoys. He then smiled and went up to greet them and said, "Welcome, guests from afar!"
"Of course, we are grateful for your hospitality. If I were not familiar with the streets here, I am afraid we would all be lost."
The leading Roman came up and gave Verus a warning, which made Verus embarrassed and at a loss as to what to do for a moment.
Although they both received higher education, compared with the Roman who served the Huns, Verus was obviously not good at speaking, so he suffered a loss before he even opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't receive any order to welcome you. That's the officer's business, not mine." Verus smiled and turned sideways. "Well, it's a good thing that you were able to find this place, so that the complicated streets of Ravenna didn't give you a headache for too long. Please come in."
The Roman snorted coldly, then turned around and nodded to the Huns who were following him, then walked forward.
Seeing that they had walked onto the vacated road in the square, Verus saw an opportunity and quickly raised his hand from behind to signal the soldiers.
"boom!"
The soldiers understood what Varus meant, and then without any verbal instructions, they all slammed their shields heavily to the ground. Then a roar like thunder rang out in the square.
To Verus's surprise, the Roman leader of the Huns did not show exaggerated behavior in response to the sudden shock. Instead, he walked forward, ignoring the soldiers on both sides of the road. This surprised Verus secretly, wondering who this guy was. When they entered the palace, Valentinian and others had been waiting in the hall for a long time. Seeing the Hun envoy walk in calmly, they naturally had many doubts in their hearts.
"Then please take a seat, envoy of the Huns from the Far North." Valentinian sat casually in his seat, pointing to the marble statue not far away and signaling to the Hun envoy.
The Hun envoy turned a deaf ear to Valentinian's instructions. He just looked around and finally saw Aetius sitting not far to his left.
"Long time no see, Sir Aetius." The Roman, who was a Hun envoy, actually ignored Augustus and saluted the captain of the soldiers who was one rank lower than Augustus, which made Valentinian unhappy. The courtiers present all saw the rudeness, but they could do nothing about it. No one dared to stand up for their Augustus.
"Oh, yes, sir, I think it has been a long time." Aetius nodded and said to Oedites, "Hurry up, sir, Caesar is waiting for you to take a seat."
Seeing Oedites sitting down slowly, Valentinian felt greatly insulted, but what could he do? He could only grit his teeth and swallow his anger. In order not to be too rude, Valentinian asked the waiter beside him for a glass of wine and drank it all in one gulp.
"Tell me, envoys of the Huns, why have you come here?" Valentinian asked Oedites.
"According to the princess of your country, the woman of Hedolia, she proposed to my king Attila and promised to give half of the land of Rome as a dowry." Oedites said, stretched out his hand and pointed his finger at his feet and drew a circle, and asked Valentinian: "I want to ask you, sir, my king Attila has been waiting for you, and he came to me to urge you to ask if the dowry belonging to my king Attila is ready."
"This is simply ridiculous!" Valentinian gritted his teeth and clenched the wine glass in his hand so tightly that it made a "click" sound. His eyes were almost spitting out raging anger as he stared at Oedites in front of him.
"Are you of Roman appearance?" a courtier in the audience asked Oedites directly.
"Yes." Oedites nodded and introduced himself: "I am from the province of Pannonia. I am afraid that everyone present here knows where it is."
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"Then why, sir, as a Roman, did you serve Attila?"
Such a question made Oedites sneer, and then he answered slowly: "Sorry, I only serve the strong."
"Enough!" Valentinian, unable to bear it any longer, threw the wine glass in his hand down.
“Boom!”
The wine glass fell to the ground with a dull sound and landed right at the feet of Oedites. Oedites did not dodge at this time. He raised his head and stared at Valentinian without saying a word.
"To hell with your king!" Valentinian jumped up from his seat, pointed at Oedites and cursed: "Now, I ask you to go back to Pannonia and tell your king that he can't get a penny on my land!"
Valentinian's attitude made the courtiers and even Aetius sitting around him gasp. They were all speechless at this moment. Everyone present was silent like a mute, watching Valentinian's insolence.
Oedites' face slightly raised, and he looked at Valentinian with mockery and ridicule, without any respect at all. Then he said, "If possible, I don't mind spending some time to meet your teacher. I have to admit that he is a loser."
"you!"
Valentinian roared like a mad lion at this time. Looking around and seeing no suitable guy, he simply picked up his scepter and rushed towards Oedites.
Oedites instinctively took a step back, but he never expected that he would proudly straighten his chest when facing Valentinian, and there was no fear at all in his expression.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Verus hurriedly called on the soldiers beside him to stop Valentinian and drag him out of the hall, thus hastily ending the farce.
(End of this chapter)