The Mad Tycoon of Rome

The king of Migasbati was confused as if he had heard something wrong.

What nonsense is he saying with a kindly smiling face?

Marcus looked at his face with cold sweat and brought out a cup.

“Are you cold? It’s warm weather, but if you see that, you might have a cold. It would be nice to continue talking while having a warm cup of tea.”

The king of Migasbati took the hot cup with his trembling hands.

Marcus calmly continued his words with coffee in his own cup.

“If you’re not feeling well, you can postpone the meeting date. It’s not polite to negotiate with a sick person standing up.”

“No… that’s not it. I was just surprised by the unexpected conditions. I’m not sick.”

If he postpones the negotiation date here, he might attach some additional conditions as an excuse.

The king of Migasbati took a deep breath and asked cautiously.

“Do you want to punish the person who led this matter?”

“Can you hand him over if I ask for his neck?”

“That’s…”

“I don’t have the mind to do that either. Anyway, I think that the punishment for him has been done by this war and compensation.”

It was as Marcus said.

The damage that Satavahana suffered from this war was not an exaggeration to say that it was the biggest since its founding.

Of course, there was bound to be criticism of the prince who triggered this situation.

Maybe he should reconsider making Sawati the next king.

The possibility of a problem in the succession that was expected to proceed smoothly increased.

‘Did he deliberately not ask for direct punishment of the prince to induce domestic turmoil?’

If there was another successor candidate, he could pull the prince out of the successor position by holding him responsible for this matter.

The problem was that the king of Migasbati had no good alternative for succession.

Besides, the prince, who was almost decided as the next king, had built his own power.

It was obvious that the prince’s power would resist if he tried to change the successor without a proper alternative.

Rather, if Rome demanded punishment for the prince, the prince’s power could not openly resist.

He might have succeeded more stably by turning the arrows of resentment to Rome.

‘Like a devil… He must be trying to delay the recovery of this side as much as possible.’

His hand holding the tea cup was so strong that blood vessels popped out.

He tried to suppress it as much as possible, but his voice trembled slightly.

“I appreciate that you spared the prince’s life, but the compensation… isn’t it too excessive? Can’t you show a little more mercy?”

“That amount is the price of the prince’s life. We can’t demand his head, but we deserve a fair compensation, don’t you think?”

“…Even so, it’s not easy to raise such a huge sum of money…”

The compensation that Rome initially demanded was ten times the damage suffered by the merchants and the war indemnity.

The war indemnity alone was half of the annual budget of the royal family of Satavahana.

But that wasn’t enough.

They also asked for twice as much, plus consolation money for the food consumed by the Roman army and the dead soldiers.

He felt as if his vision was darkening.

“Of course, we will consider your situation and allow you to pay in installments instead of a lump sum. We raised the amount of compensation by two times, so we will receive it in two payments. We can also divide it into more than three payments, but we can’t postpone it indefinitely. From the third payment onwards, we will also charge a nominal interest.”

He had never heard of anyone charging interest on compensation before.

“I will pay… in two payments.”

“That’s a wise decision. Then, shall we discuss the remaining issues?”

“Remaining issues? What else do you want to talk about besides the compensation?”

“The most important thing when a problem occurs is to prevent it from happening again. What if this unfortunate incident happens again? Then we will have to strike harder than we do now.”

The king of Megasbati turned pale.

“But… I will make sure that no one will ever disrespect the Roman citizens again. Please trust me.”

“I don’t doubt your sincerity, Samrat. But human affairs are bound to have flaws. The best and most reliable way to govern them is by laws and institutions. I hope you agree with me on that.”

“But…”

“If you have a more effective way that I don’t know, I’m willing to listen.”

King Megasbati tried to open his mouth, but no words came out.

After a brief silence, Marcus nodded and smiled with satisfaction.

“It’s a joy to see that we understand each other. If we had reached this agreement before crossing swords, we could have avoided the needless bloodshed.”

“…You’re right.”

“Then let’s leave the details to the officials and just set the general framework here. If you have any objections, let me know.”

“I’ll listen first and then decide.”

King Megasbati was afraid to hear more of Marcus’s words.

It would have been better if he had threatened him with a sword, but he pressured him with courtesy and logic, making it seem as if Satavahana was asking for this fate.

Marcus seemed oblivious to the king’s feelings and continued to state his demands in a polite tone.

“First of all, the Roman merchants should be able to freely use the western ports of Satavahana. And for the safety of the Roman merchants, our technicians will periodically survey the coast. Of course, we will share the results with you.”

‘He’s openly trying to make a map now.’

“And we should prohibit any interference from the officials in the trade between the merchants and the people of both countries. This applies not only to you but also to us, so don’t worry too much. This tragedy was caused by the officials trying to control the free trade of the people.”

“I see. Let’s do that…”

The more he heard the conditions, the more he felt like he was sinking into a swamp, but as a king, he couldn’t see through all of Marcus’s tricks.

He didn’t have enough time to examine them thoroughly, and his proposals seemed to have a minimum of fairness.

But he was sure that this treaty would be unfavorable for them and advantageous for him.

But what could he do?

Satavahana had no choice but to accept it, and that was the reality.

Marcus kept on listing new devices and incomprehensible terms.

“Satavahana should treat Rome as its most favored nation from now on. To put it simply, Rome has the right to demand that you apply the same preferential treatment that you give to any specific country to us as well. This is to prevent any possible discrimination against Roman merchants. Of course, we Rome will not discriminate against Satavahana’s merchants either.”

“What does that mean…”

“I’ll tell the officials about it later, so you can review it later. The point is that we don’t discriminate against each other in trade.”

“Well…”

It seemed reasonable at first glance.

But even King Megasbati couldn’t accept the last condition that Marcus proposed.

“Extraterritoriality? You mean… if a Roman commits a crime in our country, you will judge him in yours?”

“That’s one way to understand it. Of course, I promise you that the investigation and judgment will be fair and impartial.”

“What kind of absurd treaty is this… This is clearly an unequal treaty.”

“You might think so, but we have no choice but to ask for your understanding. How do you punish your people when they commit crimes? Do you follow proper judicial procedures? Can the guilty person appoint a lawyer? You can’t be sure of anything, can you? If your legal system had worked properly, this farce wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

In other words, your legal system is too backward for us to trust and entrust.

King Megasbati found it hard to argue logically against Marcus’s words.

This was a typical argument that modern countries used when they demanded extraterritoriality from non-modern countries.

“Can’t we just enforce trustworthy laws on our side?”

“Of course, if that’s the case, we can trust you and leave it to you. But until then, isn’t it right to maintain extraterritoriality?”

“…Hmm…”

“And don’t misunderstand, we’re not asking for extraterritoriality throughout Satavahana. We only want this treaty to apply to the ports where trade takes place and the gemstone areas where we have mining rights.”

“What if… we don’t accept this clause?”

King Megasbati pursed his lips with a cold expression.

He was tense, expecting the other side to get angry. He swallowed his saliva and watched Marcus’s reaction.

But Marcus answered without losing his smile.

“It’s up to you whether you accept it or not. We’re only stating our demands, the decision is yours.”

“So… we don’t have to accept it?”

“Of course, it would be sad, but the negotiations would fail and we would have no choice but to continue our actions. Please understand that.”

“So you’re threatening us with war if we don’t accept!”

“As I said before, the most important thing when a problem arises is to find an essential solution. If we can’t root out the insecurity peacefully, we’ll have to do it physically.”

At that moment, Marcus’s voice dropped to a chilling low.

“The choice is yours, so make a wise decision.”

He left only those words and kept silent with a gentle smile.

The king didn’t hesitate for long.

He had no choice but to narrow down his options to one from the beginning, as he was pushed by both power and reason.

“I’ll accept… your proposal.”

“Thank you for your kind words. Today is a truly happy day. The meaningless war is over and the two countries have made a new friendship.”

‘You mean you’ve got yourself a useful slave.’

King Megasbati couldn’t hide his bitter feelings anymore.

He shook his head with a hollow smile.

“I hope the friendship between the two countries lasts long… really.”

Marcus politely saw off King Megasbati, who left the meeting in a half-conscious state.

He had achieved all the goals of this war.

The Indian War was not a war he waged to conquer the region, unlike his previous wars.

Rome’s territorial expansion had already reached its limit with the current technology.

He didn’t want to expand his administrative area any further, even though he had established puppet regimes in Suren and Karen kingdoms.

The black soil region was a place where food was abundant, so he couldn’t help it, but it was too inefficient to rule over the whole of India.

Marcus had three main objectives for this war, besides securing gemstones.

The first was to show Rome’s power to the eastern countries and facilitate trade for the merchants.

The second was to enhance his prestige by subduing the Indian dynasty.

This was an achievement that even Alexander the Great had not accomplished, so it was the best feat for propaganda.

And perhaps the most important third goal was to experiment with Rome’s new war and international diplomacy and treaties.

Since directly ruling other countries was no longer possible, he needed to exercise his dominance in a different way than before, even if he won the war.

The conclusion itself went as he wanted.

Now he just had to watch the future flow and modify or supplement what was necessary.

He wrote a simple instruction for Surenas, telling him to add some flesh to the report he would send to the Senate and the phrase that would appear in the newspaper.

The words written there were as follows:

End