During the last three years, the entire region of Campania had been facing constant changes and progress.
From agriculture to large-scale construction in the three main cities of the region.
The great demand for construction materials in the region of Campania caused many people among the nobility, elites, and merchants to obtain a large amount of money.
The demand for construction materials generated a boom in the purchase of slaves from mine and quarry owners.
Many upper-class Romans depended on Septimus' purchases to earn a large sum of money, and as a consequence, the bad reputation that Septimus had previously maintained vanished and was forgotten.
Inside his main mansion, Septimus completely ignored the opinion that the upper-class social sphere throughout Rome had of him.
Septimus' gaze was directed toward a group of children between five and seven years old.
The young children practiced various attack positions with custom-made wooden swords.
During the last few years, through the clones, Septimus had fathered thousands of sons and daughters throughout the region.
Septimus did not consider himself an irresponsible man and possessed enough wealth and power to care for and support the thousands of young boys and girls who shared the same bloodline.
The number of children was so great for Septimus that the initial excitement of being a father gradually faded, but the feeling of closeness through blood remained strong.
Without the need to prepare an heir, Septimus organized the education of all the children equally.
The educational methods of this era were very harsh, and many of Septimus' women did not know how to raise a child.
There was no parenting advice in these times; many people simply did not know how to raise children.
Of course, even with all kinds of parenting advice in modern times, 50% of people still did not know how to teach their children.
Septimus could not allow his children to be spoiled.
Boys and girls would learn discipline and basic combat concepts from a very young age so that they could defend themselves.
Rome was a society that emphasized militarism.
The children's combat training was modeled after the training of the Roman legions.
The Roman army trained with fencing shields and wooden swords that weighed twice as much as standard iron shields and swords. This served to better train the soldiers' arm strength, making them more powerful when using real iron shields and swords.
Since the children were very young, they used shields woven from dried straw and light wooden swords.
After watching the little warriors train, Septimus walked through the garden, observing his women and the younger children walking with unsteady steps.
The scene, full of life and harmony, eased Septimus' bloodthirsty mentality.
The mansion's garden was splendid, and hundreds of clones and slave women had worked hard to build it.
Septimus observed the beautiful garden, but his concentration was directed elsewhere.
Near the city of Naples, in a small village, a dozen clone soldiers carried corpses and piled them together.
Three hours earlier, a group of pirates had landed on the coast and discreetly attacked a small farming village.
Inside the village were clones who faced 200 pirates armed with all kinds of weapons.
The clone peasants numbered fewer than 100 and were poorly armed, but by using superior combat skills and fearless determination, they managed to stop the pirates long enough to receive support from clone legionaries patrolling nearby.
The battle between both sides was fierce, and despite the advantages of the clone peasants, the pirates inflicted heavy casualties upon them.
The clones were not superhuman, and the confrontation with the pirates caused many losses.
Finally, the arrival of a patrol caused the pirates to flee in disorder.
These pirates had plundered hundreds of cities and villages; even the outskirts of the city of Rome itself had suffered. They had also defeated the army of the governor of Sicily on the coast; their arrogance was completely lawless.
In the original history, they controlled almost the entire Mediterranean, repeatedly raiding Egyptian grain ships, which caused a major food shortage in Rome and led to Pompey's later expedition against the pirates.
Septimus' expression became gloomy.
The pirates had become a nuisance over the last few months.
They first began by harassing merchant ships operated by the clones, causing an increase in the cost of products sold outside Rome.
Septimus felt unhappy because the attack on the village would represent further incursions.
The region of Campania needed to build a strong navy, but the problem would be the long time required to construct ships.
Regardless of the era, a navy was a great consumer of money and time.
The Roman Republic did not have a permanent navy; they only built one during times of war, such as during the Punic Wars, or by requisitioning ships from their allies.
Sulla's fleet had also been requisitioned from his allies by his treasurer, Lucullus.
Having a permanent navy was a matter for Augustus and the later emperors.
Septimus was somewhat angry. Originally, piracy did not bother him and did not represent a serious threat to his current military strength.
On the other hand, rampant piracy affected Rome, and by common sense they should have been the most motivated to destroy it.
The pirate threat would only increase, and they could eventually even join Sertorius in Hispania, becoming a major threat to Rome.
Eliminating the pirates as soon as possible was indispensable.
Septimus felt dragged into a problem that had little impact on him personally.
On the vast sea, three large ships advanced slowly.
One of the quinqueremes had a golden mast on its bow, silver-inlaid oars, and sails dyed an expensive purple color.
Purple dye was the most expensive color in Rome; the dye for a single purple robe required 15,000 purple sea snails to be extracted, demonstrating the wealth of this pirate group.
Lesiux, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, stood at the bow of the ship with a bottle of wine in his hand, drinking in large gulps.
Not far from him, a burly pirate with a face covered in scars was bandaging his injured arm.
"What happened in that damned village? All the peasants attacked like madmen," said the burly pirate with an angry expression while bandaging his wounds.
A raid on a simple random village that should have achieved an easy success turned into a fierce battle with considerable losses for the pirates.
The peasants, armed with hoes, spears, clubs, and various weapons, confronted the pirates like madmen seeking death.
Lesiux was also surprised by the difficulty of attacking the village.
Unlike other regions, the peasants in the region of Campania showed no fear when facing a group of fierce pirates and even attacked like enraged beasts.
The peasants caused considerable losses among the pirates, and the raid ended in complete failure with the arrival of a group of guards.
Lesiux was a member of a noble family who had been forced to flee and form an alliance with the burly pirate named Gallio.
Both collaborated perfectly at the beginning to grow their pirate group and gain fame among the numerous pirate groups in the Mediterranean.
The raid on the region of Campania had been instigated by Lesiux and his desire for revenge.
Lesiux's family, like numerous noble families, had been victims of Sulla's relentless purge.
Lesiux deeply hated Sulla, and he also hated Septimus for betraying the Scipio family and being the greatest contributor to Sulla's victory in the civil war.