Chapter 226
Ciaprotis stood there with his mouth wide open.
The Devers rubbed his chin, which had only a little beard, and fell into deep thought. Becoming an alliance was indeed a good move! The biggest obstacle to getting the Crotone people to agree to cede Assporstum and the land on the north bank of the Neto River was the security of Crotone. Becoming an alliance would remove this obstacle. Because the people of Great Greece now knew that the Archon of Diónia had always been known for keeping his promises. The weakened Crotone after the war could instead rely on the protection of Diónia. So, did Diónia need this alliance? Of course! With so much new land, just the immigration, administrative management, and the formation of new defense forces … would take a relatively long time. The most worrying problem was that the immigrants would clash with the Crotone people near the border, or even start a war again. With this alliance, the people of Diónia could rest assured to slowly annex, assimilate, and stabilize this piece of land. Therefore, an alliance was the best choice for both sides!
The Devers looked at Lucias carefully with a complicated expression. He thought to himself, His own city is being bullied, and in the face of the enemy he hates, he can actually come up with a clever proposal to form an alliance with the enemy. It is difficult to do this without a strong determination to keep calm and rational!
Seeing that the Devers did not speak and kept looking at him, Lucias was a little flustered, so he urged, "Does Lord Devers agree to this proposal?"
The Devers came back to his senses and kept his face calm, "What kind of alliance?"
"The Diónia Alliance and Crotone will form a separate offensive and defensive alliance!" Lucias said in a deep voice.
The Devers pondered for a moment and understood that Lucias was playing a trick. He did not want the forces of Diónia to enter the Crotone Alliance and affect the allies of Siletina, Triene, Corunna, and other Crotone states. The Devers did not care about this. He firmly believed that as long as they were strong enough, there would naturally be city-states that would come to them.
"The Diónia Alliance can only form a defensive alliance with Crotone!" The Devers responded calmly. It was not a problem for the Diónia Alliance to protect Crotone, but to help Crotone expand, such as: in the future when Crotone attacks Rockley, Diónia would also have to follow the alliance agreement and lead troops to participate … Of course, the Devers would not do such a stupid thing, and Lucias, who was in a weak position, could only agree …
The negotiations lasted until the afternoon, and a preliminary draft was reached: first, the Diónia Alliance and Crotone would form a defensive alliance (putting this in the first place was to appease the people of Crotone); second, Diónia would release all the soldiers of the Crotone Alliance unconditionally and let them return to Crotone; third, Crotone would transfer the city of Asplustom and half of the land in the northern plains of the Neto River (mainly the land near Crimissa) to the Diónia Alliance; fourth, Crotone would pay a one-time payment of 500 Talent to help the people of Diónia smoothly migrate to Asplustom …
The alliance agreement was finally set to be valid for five years. The Devers initially requested for the alliance agreement to be valid for two years, but it was Lucias who strongly requested for it to be increased to five years. Compared to the situation when the agreement was reached half a year ago, it showed that the positions of power between the two sides had changed.
The agreement did not mention Crimissa. The Devers believed that Crimissa was a neutral city-state and did not belong to the Crotone Alliance, so Crotone did not have the right to discuss it. On the other hand, Lucias considered that to minimize the impact of the agreement on the people of Crotone, he even changed the compensation to aid. Of course, it was best not to mention Crimissa if possible. In fact, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the city of Asplustom and half of the land in the northern plains of the Neto River belonged to Diónia, and Crimissa was already surrounded by Diónia, it had no other choice!
Lucias and Sisprotis returned to Crimissa. Myron immediately asked Lucias about the negotiations. Lucias was afraid of causing more trouble, so he said that the negotiations had just begun and that some of the conditions proposed by the people of Diónia needed to be discussed by the council before they could decide. Then, he hurriedly boarded the ship and left Crimissa.
Myron felt uneasy: with the fall of Asplustom and the declaration of war by Rockley, Crotone did not have much choice now. It all depended on how harsh the conditions of Diónia were.
… …
Even more uneasy were the people of Crimissa. Although they were trapped in the city, what happened in the outside world could not escape their ears and eyes through the port. Lucias appeared in the city many times. What was he doing here? They also knew in their hearts that a small city-state was struggling to survive in the middle of a large city-state, so they were quite sensitive to the situation.
The chief general of Crimissa, Antares, had taken the initiative to look for Lucias once. Lucias avoided the topic and did not have an in-depth discussion about the fate of Crimissa. Myron had also been avoiding him recently, intentionally or unintentionally … All these made Antares feel that the peace talks this time were very unfavorable for Crimissa. Crimissa fully supported Crotone, but in the end, it might be abandoned by Crotone! Antares felt his heart ache at the thought of this.
Therefore, after secretly discussing with Eurippus, Preades and the others, he decided not to sit still and wait for death. Instead, he took the initiative to contact Diónia and find a way out for Crimissa.
Although the defense of the whole city was handed over to the people of Crotone, Crimissa was the local tyrant here after all. They sent someone to sneak out of the city in the middle of the night, pass through the blockade, and arrive at Diónia's camp. After he expressed his intention, the guards brought him to the Devers.
"Crimissa wants to surrender?" The Devers had a mocking smile. "Your whole city is controlled by the people of Crotone. What benefits will your surrender bring me?"
The person was speechless for a moment. Seeing that the Devers did not seem to care, he gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "We, Crimissa, still have more than 300 citizens who can fight. When you attack the city, we are willing to attack the people of Crotone from the back and help you take over the city of Crimissa, then —"
"Then, when the war is over, the people of Crimissa will continue to maintain their neutrality!" The Devers looked at him and said playfully.
"No! No! … "The person shook his head hurriedly. By then, Crimissa would have already offended Crotone. How could he still maintain his neutrality? "Crimissa is willing … willing to join the Diónia Alliance!"
"It's too late!" The Devers said with a serious expression, "We don't need you to do anything risky, and we don't need Crimissa to join the Diónia Alliance either. There is only one way to deal with the Crimesa! "
The Devers' tone became heavier and said firmly, "Become a part of the Diónia Alliance! The people of Crimissa will become citizens of the Diónia Alliance! Then the land and property of the people of Crimissa will be protected. The generals and councilors of Crimea will also be elected by the Diónia Senate, and some of them will become members of the Senate! … "
… …
When Lucias and Sisprotis read out the draft of the covenant in the Crotone Council, they thought that it would incite anger and debate among the people, but in fact, there were not many objections. This was because just before Lucias returned, the army of Diónia once again appeared in the core area of Crotone. They showed off their might and destroyed a village outside the city. The members of the council witnessed everything from above the city. At the request of the people, they hastily gathered a few thousand people out of the city to stop them. In the end, they were easily defeated and fled back to the city. Fortunately, the soldiers of Diónia did not take advantage of the victory to attack the city. Instead, they took the initiative to retreat.
One could imagine the frustration in the hearts of the people of Crotone. In addition, on the surface, this was not a truce agreement for the defeated, but an alliance agreement to help each other. Although part of the land had been "transferred", most of the people of Crotone felt lucky to be able to successfully welcome back the captive citizens of Crotone and form an alliance with Diónia. The Archon Devers of Diónia, who had defeated Crotone twice, had deeply frightened them. Some people even believed the rumor that "the Devers were descendants of the gods and were blessed by Hades". Now that they could no longer be enemies of Diónia, which had the Devers, but had become allies, everyone was relieved. Some people even suggested that since the alliance agreement had been signed, could they invite Diónia to send troops to the south with the army of Crotone to repel Locri …
… …
At the end of January 398 BC, the Archon Devers of Diónia and the general of Crotone, Lysias, formally signed the alliance agreement after sacrificing a lamb to Apollo outside the city of Crimissa. The Second Crotone War had come to an end.
After the news of the end of the war spread, many of the soldiers of Crotone in the city of Crimissa cheered. During this period of time when they fought against Diónia, they had always dominated Greece, but they had never won. This huge blow had greatly reduced their morale. One could imagine how depressed they were. Now, they could finally remove the boulder that had been pressing down on their hearts.
"See, this is the voice of the citizens! They are tired of fighting against Diónia! " This scene made Lysias sigh. It was also in response to Myron's previous complaints about him compromising too much during the talks.
Through the window, Myron looked at the soldiers on the street as they threw away their shields and spears in relief and ran to restaurants to drink wine. It was as if they had won the war. He was speechless for a long time.
At this time, a guard came in. "General, Antaolis is asking when we will leave."
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