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Chapter 1271

Megakides was a little tempted by his words, but he still had some concerns in his heart. "But … I'm afraid the officials of Crete will not allow me to leave …"

"What's there to worry about?" Sirithaus reminded him disapprovingly. "With the support of the Diónia Ministry of Military Affairs, even if those officials are dissatisfied, they will not dare to do anything to you!"

With Sirithaus' reminder, Megakides finally made up his mind. He said gratefully, "Thank you, Sirithaus!"

"It's not enough to just thank you verbally." Sirithaus said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "When you become a citizen of Diónia and a military officer of Diónia in the future, don't kick me out when I need your help."

"Don't worry, I will definitely help you when the time comes!" Megakides said affirmatively.

… …

On the seventh day of the Dionic Games, most of the events had been presented to the audience. The traditional events of the Greek Games had been redesigned and arranged by the Dionians. Not only had the competition schedule become fairer, but it had also become more exciting, such as running and boxing.

Traditional boxing matches were held in a relatively large field. Only when the opponent was knocked down or admitted defeat would it be considered a victory. Contestants were often seriously injured or even killed. In the boxing matches of the Diónia Games, contestants on both sides had to wear thick gloves and win by hitting the opponent or knocking the opponent down within a specified time. The contestants were safer, and the matches were less bloody.

However, the matches had to be held in a five-meter square field surrounded by ropes and wooden stakes, which made it impossible for the contestants to dodge at will. The matches became more intense, longer, and more confrontational, which also won a lot of praise from the audience. Because the death rate of the contestants had decreased significantly, women and children were also allowed to watch the matches.

The same was true for the wrestling matches. Under the circumstances of ensuring the safety of the contestants and the fairness of the matches, the intensity and confrontation of the matches were increased. Some interesting segments were even added, such as the beautiful female slaves of the kingdom holding the number plate of the start of the next match and walking around the field to attract the attention of the male spectators …

Even the representatives of the Olympia and Delphi fell into deep thought when they saw these novel arrangements and designs in the competition.

Of course, a traditional sports event like "Melee" was too chaotic and bloody, which was not in line with the aesthetics of Devers. Therefore, it was completely excluded from the Diónia Games.

The newly established events of the Diónia Games gave the audience a huge surprise, such as archery and swimming.

The Greeks were a seafaring people. Most of them had been playing in the sea since they were young. Paddling in the water had almost become an instinct. However, there had never been a Greek Games that included swimming as a competition event. Perhaps it was because they felt that it was too difficult to compete in the competition. However, the Diónia Games had set the standard for swimming competitions. The organizing team of the Games had demarcated an area by the Krati River in the west of Turií and built an open stadium. A large rectangular pit 50 meters long, 25 meters wide, and 2 meters deep was dug in the center of the stadium. Devers cement and smooth marble were applied to the pit. This way, when the water from the Krati River was channeled into the pool, there would be no obvious leakage. Then, ropes were pulled up at the two ends of the wide pool every three meters, forming eight swimming courses. The conditions for swimming competitions were fully met.

Although the first Diónia Games allowed the contestants to use all kinds of swimming styles (there was no standard swimming style at that time) and only different swimming events were set according to the distance, the entire stadium was still packed with spectators. Cheers and shouts echoed along the Krati River every day.

Even though the participants of the swimming competition were not allowed to use olive oil, under the sunlight and in the rippling blue water, the vigorous movements of the swimmers when they swung their arms and kicked their legs also displayed their strength and beauty. It also stimulated the audience's longing and love for the sea.

It was the same for the rowing competitions. The Greeks had the means to set up rowing competitions, but the reason why they never held them was probably because most of the Greeks relied on the sea for a living. Sailing, fishing, and trading were very common. It was precisely because they were too common that they lost interest in the competitions. However, the rowing competitions of the Diónia Games were designed to be fun and competitive.

There were two types of rowing competitions in Diónia. The first type was the rowing competition, which used a wooden boat specially made by the Turií shipyard for the competition. It was narrow but very slender, and could accommodate four to eight oarsmen. There were no sails, and they had to row their oars to move forward. The competition venue was set in the Krati River. Just like the races on land, there were preliminaries and finals. There were also several events according to the course of the competition and the number of oarsmen. The shortest course was one mile. At the beginning of the competition, the contestants paddled quickly, and the speed of the boat could reach a maximum of ten knots. It was like the charge of the three-oared warship in the sea, which made the audience on the shore excited.

The other type of rowing competition was the sailing boat, which was modified by the Turií shipyard based on a small cargo ship. It could only seat one person, and it could not use oars. It could only move forward by controlling the sails. Therefore, it was held in the bay of Turií. There was no preliminaries, and all the contestants participated together. They set off from the port of Turií to the port of Tarantum. The competition lasted for a whole day, and many observation boats were set up along the way to prevent the contestants from cheating. This competition tested the contestants' ability to steer a boat in the sea, so the contestants were all experienced boat owners and fishermen from various regions and city-states. At the same time, it attracted a large number of boat owners and fishermen from the Kingdom of Diónia and various city-states to watch and learn.

On the seventh day of the Diónia Games, a very traditional competition that the people of Diónia were unfamiliar with began. It was the racing competition.

In all the Greek games, the racing competition was the most popular. After all, humans were always passionate about the ultimate pursuit of speed. Among the speed events such as running and rowing, the racing competition was the longest, most intense, and most exciting. It was also the most popular among the Greek nobles. According to the traditional rules of the games, the title of the champion of the racing competition did not belong to the driver of the carriage, but to the person who provided and owned the carriage. This gave the Greek nobles, who did not have time to train and could not compete in person, a chance to win the championship. Therefore, many famous nobles in Greece had won the championship of this competition, such as Alsibid of Athens, the King of Sparta, and the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius …

However, the Diónia Games had changed the tradition of this competition. In the invitation letter sent to all the city-states, when describing the rules of each event in the Diónia Games, it was emphasized that the glory of the champion of the racing competition would be shared between the driver of the race car and the owner of the race car. The prize money would also be divided equally between the two.

In the traditional racing competition of the Greek games, many of the drivers were slaves. It was a humiliation to the Greek nobles that the master and the slave would share the glory of the champion. Even so, many nobles from the Greek city-states still signed up for the competition. This was because Diónia was now powerful, dominating most of the Mediterranean Sea and controlling the Greek world. This was a great opportunity for them to show their names to the king of Diónia, which would greatly benefit their future development in the political arena.

These Greek nobles were not the only ones who were passionate about the racing competition of the Diónia Games. The people of Diónia, who loved exciting competitive sports, also flocked to the racing competition that had been rumored for a long time. Therefore, on the day of the competition, thousands of spectators flocked to the competition venue located in the northern part of the Sybari Plain from all directions.

As the venue had just been built, it did not even have an official name yet. It was simply called the Turií Racing Arena. When the preparatory team for the Games decided on racing as the event, the city hall of Turií, which had never held a racing competition before, sent a delegation to visit Olympia, Delphi, and other places to learn from them. The delegation included officials and engineers from the Construction Supervision Department.

However, when they returned, the design and construction of the arena was very different from the racing arenas in Greece. Just as the Greeks believed that any competition could be watched for free, the people of Diónia were used to paying to watch the competition. Therefore, the arena was closed. Due to the hasty construction time, it was not as magnificent as the main arena of Hades. It was only 20 meters high, and there were only two levels of spectator seats. However, its length was longer than any other arena in the kingdom, reaching more than 500 meters. Its appearance was long and oval, so it could accommodate more than 30,000 spectators.

It was still early, but the entire auditorium was almost full. The noisy arena suddenly burst into thunderous cheers. It turned out that the King of the Devers and his family had appeared in the grandstand dedicated to the royal family.

Like the main arena of Hades, the racing arena also had a grandstand dedicated to the royal family. However, unlike the main arena of Hades, it was not built in the auditorium, but on two levels of the auditorium, becoming the highest point of the entire arena. This was considerate consideration by the engineers for the royal family. Because the track of the arena was too long, only by sitting at a higher point could one see the entire track clearly.

After waving to the audience, the Devers returned to their seats. Cristoya, Dido, and the others restrained the children beside them, forbidding them from running around. Although there were railings around them, it was not a joke to fall from a height of more than 20 meters.