The workshop at the bend of the Tiber sounded like no other place in the Roman Empire. It did not ring with the chaotic, uneven beat of hammer on anvil, but with the rhythmic, clockwork thrum of water-driven cams and precision-turned gears. Outside, dozens of hopeful young men lined the dusty stone path—sons of senators, scholars, and wealthy merchants, all desperate to study under the enigmatic Architectus, the man who had single-handedly revolutionized construction, irrigation, and metallurgy across Italy.