Chapter 267
Cypross continued, "Now Neutum and Grumentum, the two towns that once belonged to the Lucanians, are now part of the Diónia Alliance, and many Lucanians have become citizens of Diónia. Then why would the other Lucanians really hate Diónia? On the contrary, with the help of Elia, Diónia can take advantage of the weakness of the Lucaria tribe to occupy the entire Lucania Municipality, and increase the power of Diónia even more. So how could Diónia not form an alliance with Elia? "
Canios was silent, thinking about every word that Cypross said. After a long time, he said, "If Diónia becomes stronger, won't the other city-states of the Southern Alliance be afraid?"
Cypross had not completely recovered from his excitement. He took a big gulp of wine and said without hesitation, "No matter what the other city-states think, I think the strength of Diónia is a good thing for Elia. We are tired of the frequent wars between the city-states and the invasion of the Bruti. The stronger Diónia is, the more peace it can bring to this land. After all, from the past practice of Diónia, it has always been friendly to its allies, unless you take the initiative to invade it. It is far less brutal than Syracuse in the south! "
Canios understood what Cypross meant by "brutal". After Dionysius conquered the Greek city-states of Sicily, he sometimes slaughtered the local residents and turned the remaining captives into slaves. This had never been done in the history of the Western Mediterranean, and it greatly shocked the Greeks of Sicily and Magna Graecia. So even though Canios was far away in Elia, he had heard of it. He looked at Cypross across the table, and thought maliciously: Is Dionysius's brutality also one of the main reasons why the Southern city-states are willing to form an alliance with Diónia?
He asked curiously, "The regime of Diónia is so special that I'm sure all the southern city-states, including Triene, should have noticed it. Have any city-states tried to implement these laws of Diónia that are beneficial to the expansion of the city-states?"
Cypross was stunned for a moment before he smiled bitterly. "During today's celebration, I had a brief conversation with a few members of the Crotone Council that I know about this topic. It's basically impossible. Do you think the citizens of the city would agree to it?"
Kanios suddenly realized that the conservative and xenophobic citizens of the Greek city-state would never allow outsiders to share the wealth and power of the city! And the highest authority of the city-state, the Citizen's Assembly, was made up of most of the citizens of the city-state. They would never allow these unfavorable proposals to pass!
"Why can Diónia do it?" Canios asked.
"Well …" Cypross gently tapped the table and said thoughtfully, "I don't know the details, but the great power and prestige of the Archons and Devers of Diónia is undoubtedly the most important reason."
Canios agreed with this point, but it was impossible for an Archon like the Devers to appear in Elia.
"But …" Cypross looked at Canios and said hesitantly, "There are still some problems with a new city-state alliance like Diónia …"
"What problems?" Canios asked anxiously.
Cypross looked back, and the waiter was already standing behind him. He shook his head and said no more.
… …
The next morning, the ceremony for the completion of the Temple of Hades was still going on.
This time, it was hosted by the High Priest of the Devers and the Devers in the name of Hades, granting freedom to the slaves of the Alliance.
As this was the first time the ceremony was held, not many slaves were released. Most of them were the Devers who had performed well in the past year, while the private slaves were mostly from the Devers' families.
As the territory of the Diónia Alliance expanded, the bank and restaurant opened by Cristoya were also expanding rapidly. At the same time, she was constantly opening up new business channels, such as Cristoya's shop, which mainly sold school supplies for the newly built schools of Diónia, as well as rugby and soccer equipment. For this reason, she bought a large number of slaves to ensure sufficient labor, and at the same time, granted freedom to the slaves who performed well. On the one hand, she wanted to use them as an example to give hope to other slaves and encourage them to work harder; on the other hand, the Devers, as the Archons, led the people to treat their slaves kindly, in order to ease the conflict between the slaves and their masters in the Diónia Alliance and the society as a whole.
Among the slaves released by the Devers was Cristoya's personal maid, Asuna. Asuna had previously told Cristoya that even if she was free, she was still willing to continue to serve Cristoya as an employee. Cristoya, of course, welcomed her very much. In fact, apart from the change in her identity, Asuna's lifestyle was not much different from before, including her salary. That was because Cristoya had long given her close slave money.
Because the domestic slaves spent a long time with their masters, they often developed a family-like relationship. So it was not uncommon for the slaves to be released before their masters died, or for the slaves to continue to serve their masters after they were freed. However, for the freed slaves of Diónia, there was one more thing they had to do as soon as possible, and that was to immediately apply to the Alliance's Household Registration Officer for probationary citizenship.
After the slave liberation ceremony, it was the beginning of a joyous celebration.
The play, paid for by the Alliance and free for the people to watch, would be performed non-stop for three consecutive days in a newly built theater in the city of Turín. If it was in Athens, there would be countless people lining up to grab the number plate and rush to get in to watch the show. But in Diónia, especially in Turín, the people were more interested in the Diónia Rugby Tournament. Last year, only the four cities of Amendolara, Turín, Neutum, and Laos participated in the tournament, attracting the attention of countless people. This year, Crimissa, Castellón, Aspuztum, and even Grumentum, which had just joined the Alliance, had formed a team to participate (mainly composed of soldiers who had migrated from Legio III to Grumentum). The expansion of the participating teams made the competition more intense, and at the same time, the opening ceremony was more formal.
The VIPs from the various city-states of the Ionian Alliance and the Southern Alliance had all received invitations. When the entire arena was filled to the brim, a loud bronze horn sounded in the arena, and the players from each city entered the arena one by one and circled around the arena.
The people cheered enthusiastically, especially when they saw the players from their own city.
When Amicris saw the Castellón players line up and pass the main stand, he applauded and said loudly to the people around him, "Look, those are our Castellón players! At the front is Gorkis, look at them, they are as strong as a herd of Lucanian bulls! "
The people around him laughed good-naturedly.
The three Crimissa senators, Antalys, Eurippus, and Priades, who had just entered the Senate, did not understand why the chief general of Castellón was so excited. Cunogorata smiled and explained to them in a low voice, "During the rugby match last year, we also invited Castellón, but Laos participated, while Castellón did not. So many people made fun of them and said, 'The people of Castellón are timid and weak by nature, and they dare not participate in this kind of intense men's game.' It seems that these words really provoked them, and this year, they specially formed a team to prove themselves. Even their general, Gorkis, has personally participated. "
For the three of them who had never watched a game, they could not understand the enthusiasm and madness shown by the people of Diónia, but they were also infected by the fanatical atmosphere around them. Like the other VIPs of the city, they applauded the players who were marching on the field.
Then, they saw the team representing Crimissa. Because the wooden sign held up by the leading player was engraved with the dazzling red letters "Crimissa", most of the team of more than 50 people were unfamiliar faces.
Antalys knew that for the past few months, there had been citizens and prospective citizens of Diónia moving to Crimissa because of the distribution of land. Therefore, even if they had only joined the Diónia Federation for a short period of time, the skills of this team would not be too bad.
Antalys also saw a few familiar faces in the team. Like the other players, their faces were full of excitement. They chatted cordially with their teammates and kept waving to the audience outside the field. These former citizens of Crimissa had now become citizens of Diónia. It had only been a few months, but they had already naturally integrated into this team.
Antalys had mixed feelings for a moment.
"Sir Antalys, I'm looking forward to seeing the performance of the Crimissa players." Cunogorata's meaningful words brought Antalys back to his senses.
"Don't worry, they will definitely perform better than Castellón," Antalys said, pretending to be relaxed. The few of them laughed.
The eight teams finally stood in the middle of the field.
At this time, the Devers stood up from the spectator's stand, and the originally bustling arena gradually quietened down.
The VIPs of the Southern Alliance were shocked and envious: the great prestige of the Devers among the people of Diónia was evident!
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