The Trap #
The montage shifts to the obstacles. The road to Rome is a graveyard of time and money, choked by ash and mud. The South is saturated; they have bought all the cloth they can wear.
The "Fodder Cliff" arrives. A shepherd shows Gaius an empty grain silo: "If we don't buy more soon, we start slaughtering the flock."
At the Council, Livia slams her hand on the table: "We need massive amounts of grain to save the flocks. Which means we need to increase our production of cloth beyond measure... and then find a way to sell it beyond these saturated hills."
"Then we listen to Marcus," Aulus says.
Marcus watches the exhausted weavers: "We have hit the ceiling. Every hand is working. Every loom is full. We cannot run any faster."