The purchase of the surrounding lands progressed smoothly. Septimus initially faced refusals, but after his conflict with the prefect of Capua, the owners of nearby villas and estates offered little resistance.
Due to Roman law, senators were forbidden from engaging directly in commerce. As a result, many Roman senators chose to invest in land in the fertile region of Campania, which was renowned for its grain production.
It was common knowledge that the best arable land in all of Italy was located in Campania.
In the original course of history, after Sulla landed in Rome, most senators who owned land in Campania were eliminated.
The senators were not fools. They were well aware of Septimus's bloody reputation and did not wish to risk their lives by refusing to sell their land.
In this way, Septimus acquired vast tracts of land near his villa.
The clones began occupying these lands, constructing warehouses and houses, and reinforcing the surrounding defenses.
The Roman system of vassalage was highly convenient for Septimus.
A vassal was obligated to support his patron unconditionally, even in rebellion against Rome. The three legions that Pompey would raise years later were recruited from among his tenant vassals.
In return, the patron was obligated to help his vassals overcome economic hardship and assist them in legal disputes.
The vassal system had persisted for years, and even freedmen automatically became vassals of their former masters after gaining their freedom.
Over time, the relationship between patron and vassal grew increasingly complex and could even be inherited across generations.
In history, the Roman general Labienus, Julius Caesar's most trusted right-hand man, betrayed Caesar without hesitation during the civil war against Pompey, inflicting heavy losses.
The reason was that Labienus's family had been tenants and vassals of Pompey's family for generations, which clearly demonstrated the strength of that bond.
The relationship between patron and vassal could even extend to kings or rulers of entire kingdoms.
During the Third Punic War, Scipio Africanus, after defeating Carthage, established a vassal relationship with the Kingdom of Numidia.
Scipio Africanus was required to fully understand the intentions of the Numidian king, oppose any Senate decisions that were harmful to Numidia, and support those favorable to it, both in the Senate and in the Roman assemblies.
He also provided the Kingdom of Numidia with Roman intelligence, making Scipio Africanus a privileged intermediary between the two realms for many years.
In return, Numidia provided Scipio Africanus with financial and military support. After the deaths of Scipio Africanus and the Numidian king, this bond was broken, ultimately leading to the famous Jugurthine War between Rome and Numidia.
Septimus planned to settle his clones in the newly acquired territories and disguise them as vassals of his family.
The clones could also adopt a surname derived from Septimus's given name. However, considering the lack of originality, Septimus intended to create a unique family name, one that would emphasize the bloody style of his new house.
As of yet, Septimus had not conceived a suitable surname that would be feared and remembered for decades.
The settlement of thousands of clones on the acquired lands, as well as the construction work, progressed without issue.
Meanwhile, at the villa's smithing area, more than twenty clones worked intensely, drenched in sweat.
Septimus wanted to recreate modern metallurgical methods. Unfortunately, he was a historian, not a blacksmith, and as a result, he had to experiment with different techniques.
As a historian, Septimus recalled reading a passage attributed to Aristotle that stated, "By placing iron in a furnace and heating it repeatedly, high-quality steel can be obtained."
The process sounded far too simple to be true, and after testing it, the result was a hard sword that broke easily.
The great Roman scholar Pliny the Elder wrote a book titled Natural History, in which he claimed that there were many types of iron, but that iron from the land of silk was the finest.
The famous Roman short sword, the gladius, and the long sword, the spatha, which appeared after the second century AD, were not even heat-treated. This fact confirmed Septimus's judgment.
The swords used in Rome during this period, due to the backward state of iron-smelting technology, could not be produced at extremely high furnace temperatures. Only the rich mines of Hispania could be used to produce scale-free iron, as that ore contained fewer impurities.
Before the advent of steel swords, humanity lived in the age of iron swords.
Many later historians argued that these weapons were actually made of scale-free iron, a type of wrought iron produced at relatively low temperatures of around 1,000 degrees Celsius and containing a large number of impurities.
For this reason, Roman weapons were short and robust, designed to prevent bending due to the poor quality of mineral processing.
After a long period of experimentation in the forge, the clones accumulated extensive experience as skilled blacksmiths.
Septimus was eventually able to summarize the necessary steps for producing weapons with superior materials.
The first step was called normalization, and its purpose was to refine the steel's grain structure by crystallizing it. In fact, every time a blacksmith heats part of a blade and forges it, he not only changes the shape of the steel but also alters its grain size.
When steel is heated to a certain temperature, austenitization occurs, meaning that the iron and carbon atoms begin to mix. The steel is then removed from the furnace and allowed to cool naturally. This reduces stress caused by irregularities in the blade's composition and ensures a uniform grain size throughout the sword.
The second step was annealing, which involved allowing the steel to cool very slowly. Normally, the steel was wrapped in insulating material to prevent rapid cooling. The annealing process could last from several hours to an entire day. Its purpose was to soften the steel, making grinding and cutting easier.
The key to the process was to make it as slow as possible. Due to limited resources, the clones prepared clay and wrapped the entire blade, except for the hilt.
After placing it in the furnace, the blacksmith clones allowed it to cool slowly. This took quite some time, so Septimus diverted his attention to the clones' armor.
Rome had begun using interlinked ring armor, weighing approximately nine kilograms, technically known as patchwork armor.
However, Septimus knew that this type of armor was difficult to repair and would eventually be replaced by the more practical scale armor. Fortunately, with a large number of clones possessing excellent smithing skills, repairing the clones' armor was not an issue.
Septimus added the creation of more defensive scale armor to his agenda.
With these new smelting technologies, Septimus held a clear advantage in the quality of military equipment. The only problem was cost. Fully equipping a single clone legionary would require a total of 210 denarii.
Establishing ten legions within four years using this new equipment would be a difficult task. For the time being, Septimus could only advance slowly.
Septimus reflected that money earned from white sugar arrived quickly and was spent just as easily.
Fortunately for Septimus and the Scipio family, income from white sugar outside Rome was enormous. The kingdoms surrounding Rome held great respect for the Romans, and even if they knew how extremely profitable white sugar was, they would not dare act against them, out of respect for the Scipio family's reputation.
At nightfall, under the clones' supervision, a short weapon was finally completed. It had undergone the main processes of normalization, annealing, quenching, and tempering. Although it still had many areas for improvement, it was already quite good.
Septimus took the short sword and swung it fiercely against another clone's blade.
"Clang!"
A notch appeared on the clone's short sword, as well as on Septimus's, but the damage to Septimus's blade was far smaller.
Septimus continued swinging his sword, delivering several strikes before finally breaking the clone soldier's weapon.
After a period of reflection, Septimus decided that this technique should be known only to himself. High-quality steel could be used not only to forge swords but also to manufacture firearms and cannons.
The formula for gunpowder was simple and easy to decipher. However, forging firearms and cannons required high-quality steel.
Anyone attempting to imitate his weapons and cannons would only succeed in producing models that exploded, which, in his eyes, marked them as utterly incompetent.