Lol....you left out the best part! In what horrifyingly exotic way was the failed poison assassin executed? Thrown into a pen of hungry pigs? Buried up to neck next to an anthill? Covered in honey and hung upside-down from a tree for the local bears?

I've always thought it interesting how Rome militarily dominated without a marked technological edge (at least, not a military one). It's not as if their armor and weapons were made out of metals or with designs the crafting of which other cultures weren't capable. IIRC, the gladius was a Spanish weapon, for example. It seems their military advantage lay in copying the best or most useful stuff from the peoples around them, and synthesizing it all through superior organization, administration, logistics, and training.