The Boom #
Campania. Year 2. The Season of the Loom. The Villa of Gaius has expanded into a bustling hub of dyed cloth and warehouses. Picentia has conquered the southern markets; every toga from Nuceria to Velia is woven there.
The cloth buys the grain that saves the herds. The "Regional Bailout" works—for now.
Around Picentia, the earth is breathing and turning back green. But the closer to Vesuvius, the deeper the ash. The fields cannot feed the living.
In the counting house, Aulus and Gaius count silver instead of copper. "We are feeding twenty thousand people," Aulus notes.
But Gaius sees the rising cost: "We’ve kept them alive through the autumn, but if we don't ramp up production by ten-fold, we’ll be eating our own future before the winter snows hit."