Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 232 Discovery of the Roman Trip

Although Belzoni is a cunning strongman, he is still very serious when it comes to "fulfilling the contract".

It turned out that he returned to Rome from Amsterdam just to take on the job of tour guide for British tourists, but in the end his employer turned out to be Russian, which was not a bad result.

"You are going to the tomb of Augustus?"

"Yes, Giovanni, can't you go?"

"If you want to go there, you still have to be careful. After all, it is a desolate place, and it has even been used as a landfill, as well as the personal territory of the Soderini family."

"This sounds even worse than the Roman Republic I read about in books. Many places are private territories."

Of course, in the Pope's territory, what Solovyov said was not so extreme. After all, for Rome, Christianity was more or less occupying the nest of the "Eternal City".

Now when you pass by Trajan's Column, you can still see the shadow of the illegally built foot church outside. If it weren't for Pope Sixtus V, another "sixth man" at the time, who cleared the illegal buildings and erected a statue of St. Peter on top of the tomb of "Marshal" Trajan, this place might have been like a very undignified mass grave.

"The great buildings left by Rome are now the spoils of Christianity. It all started with Constantine the Great, but he was a man who did not live up to his reputation."

"How can you say that about the great emperor?"

"What did he bring to Rome? Did he take the reliefs to Constantinople?"

Belzoni's words seemed to make sense.

Solovyov read a lot of books, especially history books written by the British. He didn't want to read anything else, but he often carried Edward Gibbon's books, especially the first half from Commodus to the destruction of the Western Empire.

It seems that Constantine unified religions, but he destroyed the traditions of the Mediterranean world. Although he probably converted to Christianity before his death with a "tyrannical" attitude, what he believed in was still heresy, which was not so outrageous.

If anyone saw the disasters in the eastern Mediterranean and the centuries of saints during the Roman Empire, would they say that the polytheistic young people in Rome have tastes like some French heads of state, or that all this content is too fake.

Well, that’s not very polite to say, so he didn’t say it, and it could easily backfire.

He himself did not know that his great aunt was Josephine, who was older than Napoleon.

After all, Napoleon married an older widow at the right age. If it were Marco, the taste would not be as strong as those stories about martyred saints.

Can't Christianity use some idols to spread its teachings? They also killed many priests of the old gods, and even colleges that had nothing to do with religion were persecuted, and scholars were persecuted - if you argue with them, it is obvious that sometimes Christian priests are not very good.

As for Constantine, the only person in this dynasty who was famous for his foreign wars was Julian the Apostate, but a Persian spear ended his life. After that, Rome entered several decades of chaos, and finally in the Theodosius period, during the reign of his two incompetent sons, the big battles began.

"Indeed, the reliefs were taken away. Where did they go?"

"It's in Constantinople, the current capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many things there were moved there, or under the ruins of the old palace, there are still treasures."

As soon as the content involved "treasure hunting", Belzoni's eyes began to light up, even brighter than the green light in Solovyov's eyes.

"So, a lot of Rome's wealth was taken away?"

"You can think about it this way. I also don't believe that Alaric the Goth destroyed Augustus's tomb and urn in Rome."

"I am interested in accompanying you there, but first I need to establish good relations with the local families. Although you are only a lieutenant colonel, you are from Petersburg. I don't think even the Romans can afford to offend the Russian Tsar, even if it is only his aide-de-camp."

"But I was just visiting, I had no intention of destroying it, and I was expressing my respect for the ancients. After all, he is a pagan god and it is also August, and no one should forget his achievements."

By the way, I have to say that Alexander was an actor, and Augustus was an early form of this kind of "movie emperor". Even Christians did not dare to erase him, and his performance was so perfect that he avoided the most troublesome period.

But the four "generals" from Tiberius to Nero were unlucky. The story of Caligula's boots is difficult to describe, but the other three did a lot of work and were badly slandered. If you look closely at what he did, it seems that compared with later tyrants and previous tyrants, he is no different.

"It is unforgettable. It is very impressive, sir."

"Belzoni, take me to have a look. At least Rome was not looted by Napoleon on a large scale. They came here only to capture the Pope. Maybe he will need him again when he is crowned as emperor one day."

The old man in the Roman pit-pipe hat more or less represents the authority of the Western Church. As the authority of the Eastern Church lies in an onion-turban, we can only look to the Patriarch of Moscow.

"You know those Gauls very well, and the Germans, too."

"Okay, now that we've seen Trajan's Column, we can go visit Augustus's Mausoleum."

It is indeed very desolate here at the moment, and garbage is piled up on one side.

For safety reasons, Solovyov asked Sylvia, his daughter, and Adela to stay outside while he went in with Belzoni.

"Although this is private territory, we can still go in. We just have to be careful."

Lack of oxygen is no joke. Fortunately, some areas above the mausoleum have been cleared, but the environment here is really not that good.

They said they wanted to build a garden, but in the end, this mausoleum that represented the glory of Rome's past was turned into a garbage dump, and a lot of marble was also taken away.

It can be seen that the white marble would be fine if it were used as building material, but the problem is that a lot of it has been calcined into lime, after all, it is still convenient to use here.

This was the same all over the world, and much of the gold that the French looted from northern Italy was simply melted down.

All countries do this, and even the Russian army, which is called barbarians, seems to be more civilized than them.

"This is the tomb of Augustus, sir."

It can be seen that the interior is empty, only the urn of Agrippina the Great is still there, but it seems to have become a measuring vessel for weighing wheat, and the ashes inside are no longer there. If it is reasonable, the Visigoths will still negotiate with Honorius for some decency, and it is unlikely that they will destroy everything here when they plunder Rome.

Even the Vandals, after arriving in North Africa, used Carthage, which was rebuilt by the Romans, as their capital.

"It's a shame that this place is all empty. Although his achievements are gone, the history and legends are still preserved."

"Yes, a truly devout person would never desecrate a tomb."

"Belzoni, the problem is the destruction of order. The failure to maintain order will bring serious damage, and then there is ignorance."

"Yes, sir."

"Of course, you can't steal. That's really tasteless. Some people even steal just for the treasure. I'm talking about the British and French. Although the French are civilized thieves, they will classify these ancient artifacts for research instead of just displaying them."

What he said was a bit pretentious, but the British research was indeed unreliable in many places, and they also caused large-scale destruction. The Belzoni incident was more or less the same. The exhibitions in London and Paris were all for the purpose of profit.

As for Elgin, if he had stolen from the Parthenon, he would also be despised by the British. After all, such theft was entirely for profit, not culture, and was quite shameless.

Solovyov also captured a batch of artworks on the battlefield. He brought them back to St. Petersburg and collected them carefully. However, it is impossible to verify who the original owners of the artworks were.

You should know that after the Palace of Versailles was opened, there were many thefts there, especially the jewels of the French royal family, many of which fell into the hands of the British.

In fact, at this time, there is no buying and selling, and no killing.

After all, Peter the Great did spend money when he came to Rome to buy the statue of Venus.

All Solovyov saw here was decay, but there was nothing he could do. After all, the Roman nobles did not seem to care for the ancient monuments here. Many places had been discovered in the early years, but they were left vacant and often suffered from theft.

Even tomb robbers in the world are extremely hateful for being able to dig a hole in such a solid stone tomb. It makes people feel that it was not necessarily the Goths who destroyed this tomb. After all, Alaric was a formal Roman mercenary leader before him.

"It should be enough to see this. There is nothing more to see. I am not Caesar. I can't think of my own achievements when I see the statue of Alexander. It is Augustus's deeds. Sometimes, this holy Augustus can find some similarities with our Russian emperor."

Both are actors and both are good at military operations, but Alexander lacks the ruthlessness of Octavian, and they both seem to be somewhat close to their sisters, but Alexander is a sister-con, while Octavian may be a sister-con.

That's the feeling I get when I see the statue of Octavia the Younger wearing traditional Roman women's clothing. She was a beauty, but she lived 1800 years ago.

"Interesting, indeed very charming, but this was a person long ago, not now."

If this continues, there will be nothing left to visit in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Solovyov came here just to see this ancient monument, but it is right next to the landfill. Many sculptures have been moved away, but there are still many ancient monuments left.

Not to mention, there are still many pantheons in the city of Rome that are still open at this time, but they may have been used as churches.

Speaking of which, Constantine always gives people the feeling of a crazy person.

"How do you feel, sir?"

This guy Belzoni, with his height, can always breathe fresher air.

"Okay, where are we going to visit next?"

"Today it is the mausoleum, and later on there are the villas that have been excavated, especially the official residence of Augustus himself, and that of his queen Livia."

"If it is a residence, there should be many murals there, and you don't have to go in with a torch. This is not good for the murals and carvings, as they are easily burned by smoke and fire, and then they cannot be restored to their original appearance."

"Yes, sir."

I am talking about Belzoni. His destructive power is still enormous. Even Howard Carter, the archaeologist who dug Tutankhamun out of the Valley of the Kings, who admired him very much, has always criticized his ability to destroy the site.

Then, these two people may have severely damaged the mummies of Tutankhamun and his wife (sister and brother). It is also a kind of irony that the people who brought the Egyptian cultural boom are always conquerors or explorers, and the destructive power of the latter is indeed enormous.

"Let's go there. We still have time in the afternoon, but now... I'm hungry."

"Sir, everyone is hungry."

Of course, there was also something that surprised Solovyov, that is, some strange pizzas appeared in Italy, which were obviously brought from St. Petersburg.

However, when it comes to the heresy of pizza, Italians don't complain about meat and some minor changes. What they will protest is the tropical fruits and strange things added to pizza.

The same goes for Belzoni, but he was very satisfied with the donkey meat pizza.

"Sir, I heard that this donkey meat pizza came from Russia."

"Yes, I can only say that the byproduct produced by boiling medicinal materials there is donkey-hide gelatin, which can replenish blood and has some effect. By the way, I selected it from their traditional medicinal materials in the far east, and the effect is really very good."

Surprisingly, southern Europeans don't seem to have a big problem with eating donkey meat, a food sometimes associated with the donkey that Christ rode, but rather an important supplement to the meat diet.

In particular, people in Spain brought the custom of eating donkey meat to the New World, and many people in Latin America eat donkey meat.

Speaking of which, Solovyov's donkey meat theme restaurant might actually be able to be opened in southern Europe, and it would be more convenient to use these places as underground communication stations for the anti-French alliance.

You may have thought that it was a bit like Kurofuji Taijun, or it was a French bistro. After all, in the British version, the shopkeeper is the core character, and you have to look at it from the perspective of the actual local situation.

It seems like there is a lot of fun in this.

(End of this chapter)