"What exactly is going on? Did a war break out somewhere?"
"Spurius, perfect timing! You said you worked as a ship's carpenter during the campaign against the pirates, right?"
"I did."
Spurius placed the bag he was holding on the table.
The technical school was usually filled with the sounds of lessons and experiments, but today was something else.
Not only the students but also the teachers were engaged in heated debates, discussing something.
"Didn't you need light to illuminate the deck at night?"
"We did."
Spurius nodded.
He couldn't understand what was going on right now, but he could provide an explanation anytime.
"We used to rely on torches, but they were too dangerous. So we switched to an improved type the Carthaginians used."
"What does that design look like?"
"What do you mean, the design? You can just get one at the market if you want..."
Spurius asked, looking around.
"What exactly happened to cause all this? And why bring up lamps all of a sudden?"
"Sir Caesar sent an urgent message. He wants a lamp that burns olive oil, won't go out in wind or rain, and can stay lit all night. And he wants it right this instant."
"For use on ships?"
"It doesn't seem so. It looks like he intends to use them on land."
"Hmm..."
Spurius sat in a chair and took out a wooden tablet and a stylus.
"If you want a light that won't go out in wind and rain, you'd have to surround the fire with something transparent. We could probably use Lapis Specularis."
Lapis Specularis was a mineral found in Hispania; it was cheap and transparent, allowing light to pass through.
Spurius began to draw a design on the wax surface of his tablet.
"But at the same time, we'd need a hole for the smoke to escape."
As he muttered and drew, the students and teachers began gathering around him one by one.
The room, previously buzzing with voices, had fallen silent in an instant.
"If we make the oil reservoir not just refillable but easily replaceable... this should be usable enough."
Spurius let out a sigh and set down his stylus.
The next moment, he was startled by the crowd gathered around him.
"W-What is it?"
"This looks like it will be enough. No, "enough" doesn't do it justice."
Vitruvius muttered, picking up the wax tablet.
The other technicians around him nodded in agreement.
"I'll refine the design a little more and report to Sir Caesar. What is your name?"
"It's Spurius."
"You did fine work here, Spurius."
After Vitruvius left, his colleagues around him patted his shoulders and cheered.
"I knew you were capable, Spurius, but I didn't know you were this good."
"Do they really teach all this in the Roman legions?"
Looking at the colleagues congratulating him, Spurius could only wear a dazed expression.
"What just happened?"
***
Less than half a day.
That was all it took for Vitruvius and the technical school to hear my request and produced a prototype.
"This is quite surprising."
I inspected the lamp Vitruvius handed me from all angles.
Using transparent materials like glass to let light pass through, with a fuel reservoir designed for easy replacement.
"Did you make this yourself, Vitruvius?"
"I just built exactly what one of the technical school students designed. Perhaps because they were talented people gathered from all over Rome, their skills are truly remarkable."
"It certainly seems so."
Actually, if I wanted to, I could have found all the necessary blueprints I needed in the temple in my dreams.
But I figured their skills wouldn't improve if I simply handed them the answers every time, so I asked as a test.
I didn't expect them to produce a result this quickly.
Perhaps this design suited present-day Rome better than the blueprints from my dream.
"If we go into production right now, how many can we make?"
"If we put all the technical school students to work, we should be able to make about a hundred in five days. It's not an item that requires complex technology. The water wheel construction was also recently completed so we have plenty of hands available."
Vitruvius tilted his head.
"But may I ask why you suddenly need lamps?"
"Right now, the night streets of Rome are a dangerous place. It's no place for ordinary citizens to walk safely at night."
Saying that, I fiddled with the lamp.
A lamp built to withstand wind and rain, unlike torches.
Where could this be used?
"What if we installed these lamps on the main streets of Rome?"
"Lamps, on the streets you say?"
Vitruvius asked.
"But why would you do such a thing... Ah, is this related to the upcoming election?"
Instead of answering, I nodded.
There was probably nothing Rome needed more at that moment than streetlights.
While it was something completely ordinary in the twenty-first century, it didn't yet exist in Rome at this time.
When night fell, Rome was filled with darkness, and only a few bold souls dared walk the streets at night with torches in hand.
"If we brightly illuminate the streets, the Roman citizens might feel a little safer. Thieves and robbers would have to think twice."
"But wouldn't that require an enormous amount of oil? One or two might be fine, but completely illuminating the main streets..."
"The Palmolive factories produce a massive amount of olive oil waste every day."
I shrugged.
"It's too low-grade to sell as a product, but it's more useful as fuel than you'd think."
This was true eco-friendly technology.
Using the waste left over from making Palmolive as fuel for streetlights.
"I see."
Vitruvius muttered.
"Then I will head back and inform the students and teachers. We will gather the materials and start production right away."
"Wait. I forgot to tell you something."
Saying that, I quickly sketched it on a piece of papyrus.
The blueprint Vitruvius brought was excellent.
But it was missing one important part.
Romans hadn't thought that far ahead yet.
Seeing my drawing, Vitruvius asked.
"What exactly is this?"
"You put this round metal plate behind the lamp. And it will reflect the light."
A reflector, in other words.
Some car headlights use the same basic principle.
It reflects the light and throws it forward in a single direction.
Of course, compared to LED lighting, it would be extremely weak, but it should be enough to light the streets.
No matter how dim the light, it was better than total darkness.
"We could make one by hammering an umbo of shield thin enough to serve as a reflector. But will this really be effective?"
"You'll find out once you make it."
Saying that, I looked at the map of the city of Rome hanging on one wall.
Now it was time to decide where to install the streetlights.
Installing streetlights on every street in Rome right now was impossible.
So I had to choose the place that would leave the strongest impression on the people.
As I studied the map for a moment, one place caught my eye.
"Yes, here should do."
One of the most important roads running through Rome.
"The Appian Way."
***
The entrance to the Appian Way.
A stream of wagons rolled along the road with the loud clatter of wheels.
The snorting of mules and wheels scraping against stones echoed through the silence.
Tombstones were erected along the sides of the road, so that they seemed to stare down at passing travelers.
"Move quickly, quickly!"
"What are you all doing! Move that dead horse up ahead quickly! Can't you see the road is blocked because of you?!"
Merchants waved their hands and spat out curses.
Some wagons were loaded with amphorae filled with olive oil from Hispania, while others carried dried fish and sacks of Egyptian grain.
The wagons had small lanterns attached to them, giving off only a weak glow to save oil.
From afar, they looked like small embers slowly crawling into Rome.
The area in front of the city gate the worst part, as wagons and carts crowded into the narrow passage, choking the entrance every night.
"We're entering now!"
"Get out of the way quickly!"
Even the merchants who barely passed through the city gates couldn't rest easy.
Roman citizens threw garbage, broken pottery, and even filth from upper-floor windows, and unlucky merchants had to bear the brunt of it.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The real danger was the thieves.
In the narrow streets, wagons frequently stopped, and thieves took advantage of this to steal cargo from the wagons, or threatened the merchants and took their money.
Carrying a sword within Rome's walls was both illegal and sacrilegious, but criminals paid little mind to that.
So merchants hired guards or used their own slaves as escorts.
But today was somewhat different.
"In the name of Jupiter, what on earth is that?"
The merchants passing through the city gates all muttered.
The city before them was the opposite of what they expected.
Lanterns were installed on both sides of the main road, emitting a soft light that illuminated the streets.
The light bouncing off the metal plates was enough for people to see each other's faces.
"Who installed all those lamps?"
"Was there a festival today?"
"Not that I recall."
It wasn't just the merchants who were surprised.
Citizens who were in their homes also came out to the streets and looked at the brightened road.
"Who installed all these lamps?"
"Look at the mark engraved on the lamps here!"
"An eagle on a wagon wheel... isn't this what's on Palmolive too? That's the Caesar mark."
"Then did that man install all these lamps?"
"I have no idea."
In an atmosphere unlike anything the city was used to, merchants and wagons loaded with cargo passed through the streets of Rome.
***
"I didn't know why he asked to meet in the middle of the night. And to think this was what he had in mind."
"There were rumors that the technical school operated by Caesar had been making something for the past few days."
Pompeia said, keeping close to her father's side.
The two were looking at the entrance of the Appian Way under the escort of slaves.
The street, illuminated by dozens of lights, looked as if it were a festival day.
"This will certainly win the citizens' favor. There have been many politicians in Rome who threw money around until now, but no one has attempted something like this."
Pompey muttered.
"But the boy pushed it too far. To install things like that on the road, he would have needed the Aediles' permission."
"No, look closely over there, Father."
Pompeia said, raising her finger.
She looked at the locations where the lamps were installed.
All the lamps were installed on the outside of the insulae, not on the road itself.
"He probably persuaded the owners of those buildings to install them. Installing lamps on one's own property is entirely within their rights, after all."
"I see."
Pompey nodded.
"To think he used such a trick. Then he must have given money to those building owners, or..."
"Or he might have offered to lower their insurance premiums. Most of the insulae in Rome right now are insured."
Pompeia looked out at the street, intrigued.
Merchants and citizens were still looking at the lamps with surprised expressions, and as time passed, more citizens came out to the streets to watch.
"By tomorrow morning, what happened tonight will be known to all of Rome. Everyone will be talking about what Lucius Caesar did."
Pompeia muttered.
Her father's words were correct.
No politician in Rome had ever run an election campaign like this before.
To show his ability and will even before being elected.
The Vigintisexviri was, in the end, merely a gateway office young men of prominent families passed through; it was not a position known for accomplishing much.
Yet Lucius had already made his mark.
Recalling the conversation she had with him during Saturnalia, Pompeia said,
"The Metellus family won't just sit still either. Things are going to get interesting."