Chapter 193
The three of them looked at each other.
Zantiparis quickly comforted him. "Agathia, you didn't do anything wrong! We're all grateful that you saved us from the battlefield of death in Asia Minor! As long as we stay in the Alliance patiently, I believe we'll eventually get citizenship and land. We're just not used to it yet. As for Sparta, you have to trust me and Timason. They won't do anything hostile to the Alliance for at least three or four years! "
Greeks liked to dilute their wine to prevent them from doing stupid things. However, Agathia didn't drink any beer tonight. He only drank wine without dilution and ended up drunk.
Timason and the rest struggled to help him back home.
When they came out, the three of them sighed.
Christian pouted. "He's regretting asking us to come to Greece. Is he not going to help us anymore?!"
"Agathia isn't that kind of person!" Zantiparis shook his head. "I think he's under too much pressure recently. He wants to relax by drinking. But we should really restrain those who don't listen to us! "
The two of them argued for a while. When they turned around, they saw Timason walking slowly with his head down. He seemed to be thinking about something.
"Timason, what are you thinking about?! We should go back to the docks! "Christian shouted.
Timason looked at the two of them and said slowly with a serious tone, "I still remember what Devers used to say. 'It's better to rely on yourself than on others!'"
… …
When Phoebidas arrived in Syracuse, he was welcomed by Dionysius. He invited Phoebidas and his entourage to his palace and set up a banquet.
Watching the alluring dance of the beautiful female slaves at the center of the banquet hall, Phobidus, who had trained himself to a rather strong self-control in the military since he was young, felt his mouth go dry. He drank several mouthfuls of wine in succession.
He heard that Lysander's life in the city-states of Asia Minor was comparable to that of the nobles in the East. It should be like this! Phoebidas thought.
"Phoebidas, I heard that you went to Diónia. Did you get it done?" Dionysius asked casually. Sparta's warship had circled around the Taranto Bay. Someone had already sent the news to Syracuse.
"Yes, but it didn't work." Phoebidas admitted with a hint of admiration in his tone, "The Consul of Diónia and the Senators of the Senate are very tough. Even in the face of Sparta, they are not willing to give in at all!"
"Oh!" Dionysius said with slight surprise, "It sounds like you have a good impression of them?"
"Although I haven't been in contact with them for a long time, I can feel that they respect war and victory very much. They respect capable generals and warriors, and they train very frequently, just like us in Sparta!" Phoebidas was not stingy with his praise, "And this new alliance is developing very quickly. I heard that it was only a small city-state half a year ago, but now it has three cities and two affiliated alliances. I believe it won't be long before it becomes a powerful force that dominates Greece! "
Dionysius heard this and squeezed out a smile, "That's good. At least the natives of Greece have met their match." Although he said that, he put down the wine glass that he had picked up, and the wine splashed on the table. He immediately changed the topic to his upcoming attack on Carthage's army.
Phobidus saw this and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
… …
On the way back to Sparta, Dorobicius, who had been holding back for a long time, asked, "Phoebidas, why did you praise Diónia during the banquet?"
"Dionysius won't be able to sleep with my praise!" Phoebidas smiled proudly, "Ever since the previous usurper of Syracuse, Gron, he has treated Syracuse as the leader of the alliance between Sicily and Greece. I remember the old man saying that Gron even sent his army north to Campania in central Apennine to defeat the Etruscans who besieged Cumae … And Dionysius's ambition is even greater. He used force to turn the Greek city-states in southeastern Sicily into Syracuse's vassals. Will he allow a powerful force to emerge in Greece and threaten Syracuse's position?! Unfortunately, he's about to attack Carthage and won't be able to take action against Diónia in the short term … "
"Oh, I see!" Dorobicius suddenly understood, but he immediately asked, "Since Dionysius is interested in Greece, I'm afraid that Diónia is not as important as Lijim and Crotone in his heart."
"Yes." Phoebidas admitted. "Diónia's current strength is not as strong as these traditional Greek powers, but its speed of development will still raise the vigilance of the greedy Sicilian."
Dorobicius recalled the magnificent sight he saw when he was invited by Dionysius to inspect his army. He could not help but exclaim, "Come to think of it, Dionysius is really impressive. He can actually send an army of fifty to sixty thousand men and two to three thousand cavalry to attack Carthage!"
"Although there are many of them, I don't think there are many who are good at fighting!" Half of what Phoebidas said was the truth, and the other half was sour grapes. Even Sparta, who had become the overlord of Greece, could not send such a large army at once. One could only imagine the strength of Syracuse and its vassals.
'Let Syracuse, Carthage, and Diónia kill each other!' Phoebidas cursed in his heart.
… …
In the new year (398 BC), the road from Turií to Castellón was completely built. The thousands of Crotone captives of Dioria had also returned to Crotone due to the half-year deadline.
The Devers were getting more and more nervous and excited as Kristoya's stomach was moving more and more. It was less than a month before her due date.
At this time, news came from Neutum that Potentia officially announced that they would support the son of Akepirus, Lusau, to recapture the Grumentum, and asked Sinsinag to return to Picossis. Otherwise, Potentia would send troops to fight.
Sinsinag suddenly became nervous. He took the initiative to send messengers to the tribes of Grumentum that occupied the south of the city, saying that he was willing to immediately implement their previous request, as long as they could reunite to deal with the coming army of Potentia.
Sinsinag's concession made these tribal leaders very happy. They were also afraid that if Lusau really recaptured the Grumentum, he would come after them because they knew that Lusau, like his father, was also a person who would seek revenge for the smallest grievance.
Everyone thought that it was external pressure that forced the two forces in Grumentum to compromise and come together again. However, when the tribal leaders came to the center of the city to negotiate with Sinsinag, they did not expect Sinsinag to ambush a large number of soldiers in advance. They suddenly launched an attack, killing all the participating tribal leaders in one fell swoop, and then launched a surprise attack.
The tribes in the south of the city suffered heavy casualties under the premeditated attack of Picossis's warriors because their leaders were killed and they were not prepared. Some of the warriors surrendered, and some escaped from the city of Grumentum.
Sinsinag unified the Grumentum in one fell swoop in the face of the threat of Potentia's military. Hearing this news, even the Devers had to admire Sinsinag's decisiveness and ruthlessness. Little did they know that Sinsinag could do this mostly because of the painful memory of being ambushed by the Zegs from behind.
Soon, Sesta sent another report to the Senate, saying that due to Sinsinag's massacre in the Grumentum, some of the Lucarians had fled to Neutum. Coupled with the impending war between Picossis and Potentia, the small tribes sandwiched between the two major forces were afraid of being involved in the war and had fled south, causing the number of registered citizens in Neutum to skyrocket to eight thousand. Neutum did not have enough land to distribute, nor could it support such a large population, so they requested that some of the Lucarians be moved to Turií.
The Devers and the Senate discussed repeatedly, especially during this period of time when Neutum was stable and the Lucanians had performed well, they finally reached a consensus: they agreed to move.
… …
Phoebidas returned to Sparta. The report of his diplomatic mission to Diónia did not attract the attention of the Elder Council. One of the reasons was that he had always acted on his own, causing the Sparta Elders who knew him well to resent his repeated emphasis that "the Diónia Alliance was disrespectful and unreasonable to Sparta and must be punished." Instead, they concluded that he was the one who stirred up trouble and caused such a result. The more important reason was that the Elders did not have the energy to deal with this small matter because one of the two kings of Sparta, Arcis, had passed away.
Since the time of Homer, Sparta had been ruled by two kings. The kings, who claimed to be the direct descendants of Hercules, came from two hereditary royal families: one was the Agidai family, which was located in the center of Sparta, and the other was the Ulipontes family, which came from the southern part of Laconia. Arcis was born in the Ulipontides family. Although in this era, due to the rise of democracy, Sparta's royal power had been greatly limited, it still enjoyed many privileges, especially when it died. The entire Sparta territory was preparing for Arcis's funeral: cavalry ran all over Laconia, announcing the news of Arcis's death; women banged iron pots and spread the news around the city of Sparta; after receiving the news, every household had to send two free men, one man and one woman, to mourn in mourning; the people of Pytheas also had to send a fixed number of people to attend the funeral held by the Elder Council.
Comments