Rome Must Perish

Companions around were all talking about the virtues of the Nix Tribe, leaving Gowes no room to interject with further doubts.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!..." A sharp, urgent wooden whistle suddenly sounded, piercing through the clamor.

"The match is about to start!" Gleson shouted excitedly, and everyone immediately stopped talking, focusing their attention on the field.

Fifteen Pannonian players in white linen undershorts and fifteen Skodisqi players in black linen undershorts, led by two referees in red linen undershirts and shorts, entered the field.

At this time, Italians never wore pants, but the Skodisqi, as a part of the Celts, had the tradition of wearing striped trousers, which also influenced the Pannonians. After Maximus established the tribe, he encouraged the tribesmen to learn from the Skodisqi - to wear trousers. Of course, this required a process, not just changing perceptions and habits, but also due to the lack of fabric.

However, Maximus believed that players participating in rugby must wear shorts, firstly for ease of movement, and secondly to avoid exposing private parts, since the spectators were not just men.

For this reason, the Weaving Workshop had to modify the long pants worn by the Reserve Tribe Members, and to distinguish between opponents in the intense movement, the attire of both teams and the referees had to be vivid and unified. The Weaving Workshop, under the guidance of the Reserve Tribe Members and Emmerich, collected unique plants for dyeing the fabrics of the players’ clothes. Despite the colors fading easily, this marked a significant leap in dyeing techniques for the Weaving Workshop.

At this moment, the players from both sides stood in the center of the field, glaring at each other without any communication.

The captains of both teams were reluctantly called together by the referee...

The referee tossed a silver coin, having the two captains guess heads or tails, and the winning side got to initiate the attack...

Gowes, while listening to Gleson explain the rules of the game, gazed at the field: the pitch was vast, with 32 players appearing as mere specks scattered on a large pancake; at each end of the field stood four three-meter-high wooden poles, the tops of the middle two connected by a beam to form a massive, tall goal; spectators sat around the field...

This surprised Gowes a bit. When he first sat down, there were not many spectators on the side belonging to the Pannonian players, as the Reserve Tribe Members of Pannonia were significantly fewer than the Skodisqi, and the splitting across four fields left the opponent’s side sparsely populated. But in the short time they chatted, that side was suddenly filled, with numbers similar to their own.