Chapter 1129
Perópidas's proposal was supported by Epaminonda. Since Epaminonda's former teacher was Lysis of the Pythagorean School of Tarantum, he knew more about the Kingdom of Diónia.
But other than that, the other leaders of the Thebes expressed strong opposition. The reason was simple: the Thebes government had never had any contact with the Kingdom of Diónia before. On the contrary, their enemy, Sparta, had maintained a 20-year peace agreement with this kingdom in the west. Without knowing the details of the other party, they rashly invited the other party to intervene in the disputes in Greece. Once Diónia changed its mind and supported Sparta, the Thebes might not even have time to cry. What's more, the strength of Persia was well known. Diónia might not dare to take the risk of offending Persia, which supported Sparta, in order to support the Thebes (the Thebes did not know that the Kingdom of Diónia and Persia had fallen out in the Western Mediterranean War).
Most of the Thebes chose to seek the support of Persia. Although Persia had been nominally a supporter of Sparta for many years, the Greek city-states had dealt with Persia a lot. They knew that Persia was capricious and unpredictable. Now, they supported Sparta only out of interest. Before this, Sparta had beaten the Persia army in Minor Siasia. Therefore, as long as the envoys of the Thebes performed well, they might be able to win over Persia.
After some debate, the Thebes government decided to also send envoys to Persia, and the envoys were led by the charismatic leader of the Thebes, Perópidas.
When Perópidas arrived in Persia, it was already the 22nd year of the Holy Kingdom of Diónia (372 BC), where Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, lived. He entered the main gate and set foot on the famous parade street. The ground was covered with colorful glazed bricks, and the streets were magnificent.
Perópidas was shocked for a while. He raised his eyes and looked forward. The first thing that came into view was the most amazing building in the city of Babylon. It was a magnificent pagoda temple. It stood high in the center of the city, overlooking the huge city. Any Babylonian would be full of admiration when facing it. This was the Artemenangi (also known as the Tower of Babel), which was called by the Babylonians as "the palace between the immortal world and the mortal world."
At the end of the parade street was the palace of the king of Persia. This palace was also made of colorful bricks, and at the same time, it was inlaid with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, ivory, cedar wood, and other precious materials. It was extremely splendid, showing the wealth and luxury of the royal family of Persia. When the Babylonians passed by it, they all lowered their heads to show their obedience to the royal power.
When Perópidas heard that the messengers from Sparta and Athens had been received by the king of Persia, he was worried that this powerful eastern king would refuse to meet him because of the bad words of the first two messengers. However, he didn't expect that not only did Artaxerxes meet him, but he also listened to his story about how the Thebes had been persecuted by Sparta over the past few years, and how they had to resist the Sparta in order to not be destroyed.
Perópidas spoke with sincerity and was very practical. He was not as pompous as the messengers from Athens, nor was he as arrogant as the messengers from Sparta. This caused Artaxerxes to have a good impression of Perópidas. Artaxerxes praised Perópidas for behaving like a noble. He even had a simple discussion with Perópidas about what the Thebes would say about the terms of the armistice if the Thebes and Sparta reached an armistice …
After receiving Perópidas, Artaxerxes also ordered his men to receive Perópidas well.
Perópidas was excited by the king of Persia's kind attitude towards him.
When the messenger from Athens, Taimagoras, and the messenger from Sparta, Lutyklis, heard the news, they both felt nervous and hurriedly moved around.
In fact, the reason why Artaxerxes was so friendly to the messengers from Thebes was partly because of Perópidas's charm, but the main reason was that he hoped to achieve peace in Greece, and this goal could not be achieved without the compromise of the Thebes, the main party.
It had been almost 30 years since Artaxerxes ascended the throne of Persia. Other than the initial uproar caused by Cyrus the Younger's attempt to usurp the throne, the political situation in the country had been relatively stable. However, his performance in the war had been criticized by the people of Persia.
When Artaxerxes first ascended the throne, a small group of Greek mercenaries killed their way in and out of the hinterland of Persia. The powerful Persia could not do anything to them. This made the Greeks excited and the people of Persia depressed. Then, the Egyptians declared their independence, drove away the troops stationed in Egypt, and confiscated the fertile lands that were distributed to many nobles in Persia. The king of Sparta, Agesilaus, led his army to invade Asia Minor, and defeated the armies of several governors of Persia. After much difficulty, he organized an army to try to re-enslave Egypt, but in the end, he encountered a rare flood on the Nile. In addition, the generals were not on good terms with each other, and in the end, he returned without any success …
Because of the dissatisfaction of the people, the year before last, when the Dukea people in the mountainous area of Armenia in the north of Persia rebelled, he finally decided to lead the army himself. He wanted to conquer these barbarians and show off his martial prowess. Although he only led 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, the region of Armenia was filled with mountains and precipitous ridges, and it was extremely difficult to pass through. Furthermore, the land in that region was barren and food was not abundant. Not only was it impossible to obtain food locally to fill the stomachs of the soldiers, it was also impossible to import the required amount of food from other regions in a short period of time. The only way was to slaughter the beasts of burden that carried the goods … In the end, Artaxerxes did not even have enough food for himself, and he was almost surrounded by the Dukea people. In the end, with the help of his minister, Tribassus, he was able to escape.
Artaxerxes was already 60 years old, and the shock of the battlefield made him seriously ill. It also temporarily extinguished the fantasy of obtaining unparalleled martial prowess with his own hands like his ancestor, Darius, and leaving his name in the annals of history. After recovering from his illness, he immediately took a concubine, using this happy event to dilute his depressed mood, and this young concubine was his biological daughter, Amestris.
Of course, the people of Persia did not feel that there was anything wrong with this, because this was the tradition of the Persia royal family. For example, in the past, King Cambyses had married his two sisters, who were later married by Darius, who usurped the throne, and gave birth to the incomparably noble fourth King of Persia, Artaxerxes.
Now, the envoys of Sparta, Athens, and the Thebes had arrived one after another, allowing Artaxerxes to see an opportunity that was delivered to his doorstep, a good opportunity for Persia to better control the mainland of Greece, and this could be achieved without the need for a war. Therefore, he received the envoys of all three parties with great respect, without any distinction between them.
A few days later, he gathered all three envoys together, and asked his most trusted minister, Terebassus, to be the host of the meeting.
Rather than a meeting, it was more like a small banquet. Everyone had a table in front of them, filled with delicious food, and there were beautiful Persia maids accompanying them. However, the faces of the three envoys did not look relaxed at all, because they knew that after a few days of contact, the people of Persia would finally show their attitude and who they would give more support to.
Terebassus saw the tension on their faces, compared to the envoy of the Thebes, Perópidas, who was calmer. No wonder the king liked this Thebes more, even though he was not as humble as the other two envoys in front of the king …
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Terebassus coughed softly, and after attracting the attention of the three envoys, he said in a clear voice, "Three envoys, before we meet, the king specifically asked me to express his gratitude to you, to thank you for your trust in the king, and to travel thousands of miles to seek help from him. Since the king ascended the throne, he has always shown great kindness to the Greek city-states, even though during this period, the Greeks helped the evil traitor (i.e. Cyrus the Younger) to disturb Persia, and later, the Sparta invaded Persia's Asia Minor … "
Although Terebassus did not specifically look at the envoy of Sparta when he said these words, Lutikeri still felt embarrassed, because these two incidents were directly or indirectly related to the Sparta.
"However, the king did not hold a grudge because of this, and his kindness towards the Greeks did not change because of this. Therefore, when the Kerian War broke out, the Greek city-states fought each other out of hatred, completely ignoring the fact that the people were displaced and their families were separated because of the war … The king made great efforts to let the states in the war sit at the negotiating table, and only then did the 'King's Agreement' was signed. The city-states that signed the agreement included Sparta, Athens, and the Thebes.
However, the peace in Greece has only been a few years, and war broke out again. Until today, it has not subsided yet. This made the king very sad! Fortunately, you have realized the harm of war and are actively looking for a solution. The king's opinion is … "
Perópidas and the other two immediately straightened their faces and pricked up their ears to listen.
Terebassus was satisfied with their reaction. He said in a serious tone, "The king hopes that the parties involved in the war will negotiate as soon as possible and restore peace! In the peace agreement, the independence and freedom of the parties involved will be guaranteed as much as possible, and the interests of the states will be protected as much as possible — "
Before Terebassus could finish his words, Lutikeri could not sit still anymore. He immediately interrupted, "Protect as much as possible the interests of all parties? What does this sentence mean?! The Thebes shamelessly declared that 'the entire Pioscia region should belong to the Thebes', and used this reason to attack many city-states in the Pioscia region. Are we also going to support such an arrogant request?! "
"Lord Terebassus, I'm sure you know that during the war a few decades ago, when the noble King of Persia, Xerxes' army entered Central Greece with the help of the Thebes, the Pioscia region with the Thebes as the center was a whole. However, in recent years, there have been frequent wars, causing it to fall apart. Now, we, the Thebes, just want to restore our former state."
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