I would like to start this week with a correction. In the episode Decades of Bloom, I told the story

of a wealthy grain merchant who attempted to use Sirb Republican control and install himself

as King. The grain merchant in question was not named Manlius, as I mistakenly said, but

rather Malius. We are about to meet a patrician named Manlius who will soon find himself

embroiled in a conspiracy to overthrow the government, but he bears no relation to the Malius,

who tried to use a grain famine to his personal advantage in 439 BC. I regret the error.

I would also like to say that those of you who are noticing an improvement in audio quality

are not hallucinating. I have recently upgraded my recording equipment. My only concern about the

switch is that my previous efforts will now seem poor cousins in comparison to these new episodes.

Please do not hold it against those episodes. It is not their fault. They were merely the victims

of inferior equipment. The Romans were riding high after their decisive triumph over V.A.

The defeat of their long time at Trustkin Rival had left the Romans an economic powerhouse.

They now control the lands north of the Tiber and began resettlement almost immediately.

The crops from the rich at Trustkin's soil promised an end to the cycle of grain famines that

had plagued Rome for the last 50 years. They also became the hub of commerce in central Italy

and took sole possession of the all-important salt trade, exponentially increasing Roman wealth.

Things were looking good for the Romans, but fate was about to deal them a cruel blow.

In an instant they would crash down from the highest high to the lowest low and find themselves

wandering aimlessly amidst the burned out rubble of their city, wondering how the gods could have

forsaken them so quickly and so completely. The barbarian sack of Rome would be one of the most

traumatizing events in Roman history and leave the Romans in fearful awe of the Gauls until Julius

Caesar finally exercised their psychological demons 350 years later. Rome would survive but just

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