Chapter 1059
At this time, another group of slaves quickly tied up the stone with straw and ropes. This was to prevent the stone from being damaged during the subsequent transportation, and also to prevent the stone from scratching the slaves.
The rope was divided into two groups. After it was tied around the waist of the stone, a dozen slaves on the ground struggled to pull it out, and the other end was pulled by ten slaves standing on the rock, dragging the stone. There were also a few slaves using wooden crowbars to continue to pry the stone, so that it could roll at a relatively stable speed to a row of logs that had been placed in front of it.
Finally, the slaves cheered. Their team had finished mining the first stone in a relatively short period of time, and there were no accidents.
The large rectangular stone finally fell smoothly on six or seven logs arranged at intervals. Then, a few slaves began to tie the stone with ropes again. Twelve slaves pulled the ropes together, while four slaves continued to place the logs that fell behind in front of the stone.
The huge and heavy stone rolled on the logs, and was dragged to the stone yard on the side of the entrance of the stone mine.
The foreman was informed. After inspecting the stone and confirming that it was qualified, he made a record on the wooden board he carried with him.
The group of slaves that Maximus was in once again cheered, which aroused the envy of the other groups, because they had already mined the first stone in a relatively short period of time, and there were no accidents. It was very likely that they would exceed the task today and receive a reward.
Maximus remained calm. He ordered the remaining slaves, who did not contribute much before, to start hammering wooden wedges into the second rock that had already been grooved. At the same time, he urged the returning slaves to recover their strength as soon as possible.
… …..
Before the stone piled up at the entrance of the mine was sent away, it had to be roughly shaped here.
It was not the slaves of the kingdom who shaped the stone here, but the personal slaves of Aristargeras. They were all quite experienced and had the skills to process stone. Aristargeras had been in this business for more than 10 years.
After all, the sale of stone was different from the sale of other metal ores. Few mine owners would sell the newly mined stone directly to the buyer. Instead, they would provide the relatively shaped stone according to the buyer's requirements. For example, the assistant sent to the stone mine by the craftsmen responsible for the reconstruction of the main temple of Hades arrived here after early morning as usual. According to the construction progress of the temple, which types of stone did the stone mine need to provide the temple today? How many types of stone were needed? … …
There were three main types of stone needed for the construction of the temple: square stones, which would become the stone bricks for the construction of the temple; round stones, which would become the pillars that supported the temple; and thin stone slabs, which were used to pave the floor of the temple.
Hundreds of slave craftsmen here were holding iron pliers, iron chisels, iron drills, metal wires, and other tools, carefully shaping the mined stone. Not only were they dressed in linen clothes, but they also wore masks and scarves. This was because they used metal tools to chisel the stone, and stone chips flew everywhere, which could easily cause injuries. This was a form of protection for the slaves. The slaves of the kingdom who mined the stone were basically naked except for the cloth that covered their lower bodies. Because they basically did not use metal tools, they did not have to worry about this. Without the burden of clothes, it was more convenient to move and exert force. The main danger they needed to worry about was the sudden fall of rocks.
Among the several ways to shape the stone, it seemed that cutting the stone into slabs was the most difficult. Because marble was different from limestone, its texture was harder, and it seemed difficult for the tools of this era to do this.
But the Greeks, who had been immersed in marble for hundreds of years, had long figured out a good way to deal with it. First, they drew a cutting line on the stone, then used a tool to cut a shallow groove along the cutting line, filled it with dry sand, and pressed on a metal wire. The slave craftsmen pulled the two ends of the metal wire along the groove, back and forth. The metal wire pressed down on the sand, which was the real material used to cut the stone, through constant friction to wear away the stone. As the groove became deeper and deeper, more sand needed to be added until the stone was finally divided into slabs.
The square and round stones that were finally shaped would be slightly larger than the stone used to build the temple, and the slave craftsmen specially left protrusions around the stone as handles, so that the craftsmen who built the temple could carry it.
… …..
The completed stone would be immediately transported away, and the kingdom's slaves would take over again.
Nearly 20 slaves laboriously carried the stone onto the raft, which was padded with circular wood. Some of the slaves used ropes to pull the raft, while the rest constantly placed circular wood in front of it. Just like before, the stone was slowly pulled and moved to the exit of the mine.
The exit was on the side of the entrance, and the road was paved with large pieces of stone. It was firm and flat, and at the end of the road, there was a platform more than two meters high. In front of the platform was a four-wheeled cart, which was at the same height as the platform, so that the heavy stone could be easily pushed onto the cart.
The four-wheeled cart was very sturdy, and its wheels were made of several complete pieces of circular wood pieced together. It was unusually tall and thick.
There was also a professional carpenter stationed at the exit, because when the stone had just been transported to the cart, this was the time when it was most likely to be damaged, so he could repair it nearby.
The wooden cart was pulled by four bulls. Although they moved slowly, they were reliable and could carry about 10 tons of weight at a time, which was about two to three pieces of stone.
Usually, they usually transported the stone to the simple dock next to the Cossegni River, and then used a cargo ship to transport the stone to the place designated by the buyer. This was relatively labor-saving and safe.
However, in order to provide stone to the main temple of Hades, the Turís City Hall refused to allow Aristaglas to use the dock in the inner city to transport the stone. This was because the stone would have to cross more than half of the inner city from the dock to the temple. This would not only damage the exquisite roads in the inner city, affect traffic, and disturb the rest of the people in the inner city (more than half of the people in the inner city were dignitaries), but most importantly, it would not be safe (because there would be many unfamiliar slaves entering and leaving the hinterland of the inner city). If they were to travel by land, the main temple of Hades was not far from the west gate of the inner city, which made it easier to manage and control.
But for Aristaglas, this was undoubtedly a headache, because the road from the mine to the main temple of Hades was about 10 miles long. Such a long distance, it was easy for accidents to occur during the transportation process. The wheels would be damaged, the stones would fall, and it would undoubtedly take more manpower and material resources to move them again. Worse still, if they hurt passersby, the compensation would not be a small amount. This was why Aristaglas decided to improve the transportation problem after losing a lot of money. He pinned his hopes on the railway that the scholars talked about.
The whole quarry was filled with the sounds of work from morning to night: the orders of the foremen, the chants of the slaves, the shouts of the coachmen as they drove the ox-cart forward, the creaking of wood under the heavy weight of the stone, and the screams of the slaves due to various accidents … These sounds rose and fell for a long time.
… …
In the evening, the kingdom's slaves dragged their tired bodies back to the slave camp. Although they had only worked for more than an hour, the fact that they were mining in the dark environment caused a slave to fail to avoid falling gravel from above. He was hit in the head and lost his life.
Of course, except for the slaves in the same team who were sad and uneasy because of this, the other slaves seemed indifferent, and some even knew nothing about it at all. In the huge quarry, there had been thousands of slaves working in it during this period. There were always people injured or even dead. They were already numb to it. At this moment, what they wanted most was to eat a sumptuous dinner and then have a good sleep.
Of course, their wishes were fulfilled. The dinner was even more sumptuous than breakfast. The slaves ate and drank their fill. They walked slowly back to their dormitories with their bellies swollen. After a simple wash, they lay down on their beds and fell asleep.
At this moment, the door of a dormitory was pushed open. Someone stood in front of the door and shouted, "Is Fibius Rabio Gaius here?"
Someone was suddenly awakened and cursed angrily, "Damn it, who is it?!"
The person standing at the door replied coldly, "The patrol!"
The room suddenly became quiet. After a moment, Gaius reminded him softly, "You seem to have called the wrong name. It should be Gaius Fibius Rabio."
"Are you sure you want to call him that?!" The soldier at the door said sternly.
Gaius did not dare to answer.
Last year, under the proposal of the King of Devers, the Senate passed the Surname Law of the Kingdom of Diónia. The law stipulated that whether it was a citizen of Diónia or a freeman who wanted to join Diónia, he or she must have a surname so that the Department of Household Registration could register and find his or her information. Moreover, the surname must be first, followed by the given name. Those who did not comply would be punished. In serious cases, they would even be deprived of their citizenship.
In the eyes of the ordinary people of Diónia, since the King of Devers used his own name as the surname of his children, his ministers and people gradually followed suit. It had been almost 20 years since then. Most of the citizens already had a surname, and their surname was first, followed by their given name. The promulgation of this law was just to formalize this custom into law.
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