Chapter 1260
Cristede's second brother, Crimedes, grabbed the railing with both hands and shouted excitedly.
His lively second aunt, Eunice, even waved her fist and kept shouting, "Good job, Crimedes! You're such a brave boy! … "
Cristede smiled. This time, his smile came from the bottom of his heart. This smile also took away the tension in his heart. He held his head high, chest out, and led the referees around the field, then stood in the center of the field.
Just now, all the audience was curious about why the referees were pushing a wooden cart at the back of the field. On the wooden cart, there was a large bronze basin supported by a golden copper pillar. Now, the answer was revealed: the priests pushing the cart pushed the wooden cart to the center of the field, quickly dismantled it, and reassembled it into a small wooden platform. The bronze basin was placed on the wooden platform, which looked like a simple altar.
At this time, the host's podium flashed a red flag again, and the audience gradually returned to silence.
"Now, let's welcome the athletes' delegations of the various regions of the Kingdom and the participating city-states!!!"
With the host's excited shout, the band immediately played the "Victory March." The cheerful and joyful melody sounded in the field. The audience was refreshed, and they all raised their heads to look at the entrance of the field.
The athletes who had been waiting outside the main arena for a long time finally entered the field under the command of the Diónia soldiers.
Through the entrance of the band and the referees, the audience had begun to adapt to the novel opening ceremony of the Diónia Games. They began to excitedly guess who would be the first athlete to enter the field, and some even made bets. The answer in many people's minds was — the Turií region of the Holy Kingdom of Diónia, because it was the center of this powerful kingdom in the western Mediterranean, and it was also the host of the Games. It deserved to be the first sheep.
But when the Turií youth walked into the field first, holding a wooden sign, and the audience could see the words on the wooden sign, they were all surprised: Arcadia Union?! Why the Arcadia Union?!
Only some of the VIPs near the grandstand of the royal family could barely hear the host's voice through the noise. "… In order to demonstrate the principle of 'equality and justice' advocated by the great God Hades in this sports meeting, the wise His Majesty Dyvers has proposed to the organizing team of the games to arrange the entry order of each sports delegation according to the order of the Greek letters of the names of the participating regions and city-states …"
The representatives of the Greek city-states suddenly realized that Diónia had actually implemented their promise in the invitation letter that "all participating city-states, regardless of their size, will be treated equally". This made them more or less moved.
Lycomedes, who was talking to Perópidas in a low voice, immediately jumped to his feet when he learned that the athletes of the Arcadia Union were entering the field. Completely disregarding his noble status in the Arcadia Union, he waved his arms at the athletes like the other spectators from the Arcadia Union, shouting and cheering for them.
The city-states of the Arcadia Union did not have a large population and were not very strong. However, they were all Greek city-states with a long history, and they were very close to the four traditional Games. Influenced by them, they had always been good at traditional sports. Coupled with the close relationship between Mandinia and Diónia, under the strong promotion of Lycomedes, the Arcadia Union had sent more than 50 athletes to participate in other competitive events besides swimming, horse racing, car racing, and archery.
As soon as the athletes of the Arcadia Union entered the field, they were immediately shrouded in deafening cheers, which really shocked them. These athletes had participated in at least one Games, but they had never seen such a large audience or such a glorious field. The cheers were like muffled thunder, rolling and echoing in the circular space. It not only shocked them, but also ignited their blood.
The gloominess of waiting outside the arena was quickly forgotten. They also warmly waved to the audience, forming a good interaction inside and outside the arena, which made the atmosphere even more lively.
When the Arcadia Union delegation approached the stand reserved for the Royal Family, the Devers and their family members still had not returned to their seats. There was another person beside the railing, and that was Edu, the wife of the late Adoris. They smiled and waved at the young man who was holding the wooden sign, and cheered him on loudly.
The young man did not stop and continued to move forward, but his eyes were a little moist. The young man, who looked to be two years older than Cristos, was called Enon, and he was Adoris' only son. After Adoris died in the battle, both Cloto Catax and the Devers felt guilty, so they took extra care of Edu and her son.
When the Arcadia Union delegation walked past the Royal Family's stand, the second team entered the arena. The word "Argos" was clearly engraved on the wooden sign, which made the VIPs of the League completely believe what the host said: Diónia did arrange the entry of the sports teams according to the alphabetical order, and there was no bias.
Argos was not in a good situation now.
In the past, it had been working hard to bring the fertile Argos Triangle Plain in the northeast corner of Peloponnesus into its territory to fight against the powerful Sparta. However, several city-states in this area, such as Mycenae and Tirines, were secretly supported by Sparta, and they had always had conflicts of interest with it. Even Creona, which was under its control (the host of the Nemean Games), wanted to be independent from time to time.
After the Greek War, Argos surrendered in time and made some contributions during the siege of Athens. After many requests, it finally received the support of Diónia, and the unification of the Argos Plain was completed. It was known as the "Argos Plain Union." However, Argos was an oligarchy, similar to Sparta, and it lacked excellent political leaders like Perópidas and Lycomedes. In the past few years, the integration of the entire plain had been carried out in a simple and crude manner, which caused dissatisfaction among the other city-states in the area, and conflicts broke out. Therefore, this time, Argos actively responded to Diónia's invitation and sent a team of more than 40 athletes, hoping to get the support of Diónia when they discussed the conflict in the Argos Triangle Plain in the upcoming meeting of the Greek Union.
Although there were only a few Argos spectators in the arena, the passionate Diónia audience cheered for the athletes of the Argos Alliance like they did for the Arcadia delegation.
However, the formation of the Argos Alliance was a little strange. The athletes of Argos with more people gathered together and walked in front, while the athletes of the Argos Alliance with fewer people gathered together and walked behind. There was quite a distance between the two groups, and anyone could tell what was going on.
Plato, who knew the inside story, asked directly, "How does Diónia plan to deal with the conflict in the Argos Plain?"
"This will be an important topic in the meeting of the Greek Union at the beginning of next month. When the time comes, we will gather all the main councilors of the city-states in the Argos Plain for a discussion. Not only will we listen to the opinions of Argos, but we will also listen to the reasonable demands of the other city-states … "The Devers looked solemn, and said implicitly," We will strive to come up with a plan that is acceptable to all parties, and resolve this conflict peacefully. "
"The people of Argos are similar to the people of Sparta. They are conservative and stubborn, and have a long and deep-rooted tradition of dominating the Argos Plain. I'm afraid they won't give in easily," Plato reminded.
"Originally, Argos wasn't strong enough. Although there were some small battles with the other city-states in the Argos Plain, they could still maintain peace. Now that Argos has received strong support from Diónia, it has intensified the conflict in the region, causing the current tense situation. Diónia should be largely responsible for this!" Xenophon criticized bluntly.
"It's just some conflicts, not a war. The situation is much better than before, when there were frequent battles. How can you say that it has intensified the conflict —" Plato defended Diónia.
"That's just because the Greek Union has decreed that city-states that start a war will be severely punished, so they have been restraining themselves —" Xenophon retorted.
"Isn't this all thanks to Diónia? It's because of Diónia's establishment and leadership of the Greek Union that the Greek mainland has been peaceful for a long time — "
"I'm not denying Diónia's achievements in this regard. I just think that Diónia's handling of the problem of Argos and the other city-states in the Argos Plain is a little inappropriate —"
"You have to know that Argos did provide some help when Diónia pacified the Greek mainland. Since Diónia could help Mandinia and the Thebes integrate their respective regions, it's understandable that they supported Argos. After all, Mycenae and the other city-states didn't provide any help to Diónia throughout the entire Greek war."
"But it turns out that Diónia made the wrong choice back then!"
"You can't deny the rationality of the original decision just because the result is wrong! Besides, it's not a bad thing to make mistakes. Diónia can use this to make improvements. But I think that in the current situation, Argos still adopts the same oligarchic system as the old Sparta, and it's almost impossible for them to lead the other city-states on the Argos Plain — "
"The old Sparta was not an oligarchic system at all. On the contrary, it was a hybrid system of monarchy and democracy that had more classical traditional virtues than the other Greek city-states —"
"This is the first time I've heard this, but I don't agree. First, let's see, is Sparta a monarchy? — "
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