Chapter 271
The city of Motia was small, but as Carthage's most important stronghold in Sicily, it had a large population. In order to ensure that everyone had a place to live, the residents of Motia had to build their houses high, usually six or seven stories high, like a steeple.
When the Syracuse soldiers entered the city, they were shocked to find that the residents of Motia not only had no intention of surrendering, but also stubbornly guarded every street and every house. When the soldiers wanted to break through the barricades of the streets, the residents of Motia could throw stones, javelins, and even boiling water and hot oil from the upper floors of the houses, which caused a large number of casualties to the Syracuse soldiers.
Dionysius had to stop the offensive, gather countless engineers, and spend time building siege towers as high as Motia's houses. It was six stories high, had wheels under it, and was huge … When everything was ready, the Syracuse people launched another attack.
Ten siege towers were pushed by a large number of laborers from the east, west, south, and north of the city along the widened gaps in the walls and roads into the city of Motia. They slowly approached the houses, lowered the bridge at the top, and put it on the roof of the houses. The Syracuse soldiers used the wooden ladder in the tower to reach the exit, trying to break into the houses through the bridge. The residents of Motia threw burning wood and asphalt at the siege towers, and desperately tried to stop the enemy from entering.
And so, the strangest scene in the siege of Moria happened: both sides were fighting in mid-air. Broken limbs and blood rained down from the sky. There were even soldiers and residents covered in fire, falling from buildings that were more than ten meters high. Screams rang out, and the ground was littered with corpses …
Due to the desperate fight of the residents of Motia, Syracuse's attack made little progress, and the battle was in a stalemate …
… …
In Sparta, the new king Agesilaus and the elders were now not in the mood to pay attention to the war in Asia Minor, because a conspiracy that threatened their rule was exposed.
Kinadun, a former citizen of Sparta, could no longer enjoy the privileges of Sparta citizens because he could no longer afford to pay for public meals, and was demoted to a second-class person. At first, he only wanted to retaliate against the nobles of Sparta out of hatred, but after a long period of observation and constant contact with other ruling classes in the Sparta territory, he gradually realized how terrible the inhumane slaughter and oppression of the Sparta system was, and how unfair it was to the second-class people and Pyriathi who also contributed sweat and blood to the city. So he decided to overthrow the rule of the Sparta nobles.
During this period, with the frequent war, the citizens of Sparta, Pyriathi, and even the Pyriathi were constantly conscripted to fight in the war. The land in the country gradually became barren due to the lack of labor, but the city's tax burden was increasing, causing people of all classes to become dissatisfied with Sparta. Therefore, under Kinadun's secret communication and propaganda, a large number of people in the Sparta territory were inspired by his ideas and joined his organization, including the frustrated citizens of Sparta.
As time went by, the number of people in this rebel organization increased day by day. Just when they were ready to take some action, out of fear, some of the participants informed the council of elders.
The king, the elders, and the censors were shocked when they heard the news. Because of the urgency of the situation, they hastily held an informal meeting and decided to send Kinadun and some young people to the towns in the suburbs to carry out a "cleansing operation." The so-called "cleansing operation" was an official, public, and legal operation that the government of Sparta was worried about the overpopulation of the Pyriathi and Sparta's rule. Not only did it remind the Pyriathi of the terror of Sparta, but it also trained the young citizens of Sparta to have a thirst for blood.
Kinadun did not doubt the order. Instead, he was happy. It was not because he had the right to kill any Pyriathi he encountered, but because he felt that with the right to roam freely, he could take the opportunity to contact the organization and start a riot.
But his thinking was too simple, and he lacked vigilance. As a result, not long after he left the city, he was secretly arrested by the Sparta soldiers who had been lying in ambush. The people of Sparta, who had been oppressing the Pyriathi for many years, were very experienced in torture. After being tortured, Kinadun finally revealed some of the important leaders of the organization.
While the censors searched the city for the rebels, they also escorted Kinadun around the city. At the same time, they announced to the onlookers that Kinadun was a despicable traitor who wanted to incite the Pyriathi to start a riot, overthrow the rule of Sparta, steal the wealth of Sparta, and become king himself.
Gina Dun didn't even have a chance to defend himself. As soon as he opened his mouth, the Spartan warriors would whip his body and hit his mouth with a wooden stick with iron thorns. Kinadun's body was covered in blood. Under the angry and contemptuous eyes of the people, he staggered and fell to the ground, dead.
The Sparta government succeeded in physically destroying Kinadun, discrediting him, and making the Sparta people who didn't know the truth hate these rebels. But there were too many people involved in the conspiracy, and the incident was far from over. The two kings, the elders, and the censors were busy stabilizing the situation in the country.
… …
The rugby tournament in Diónia lasted for more than ten days. The exciting games and fierce confrontations not only made the people of Diónia and their allies crazy, but also attracted the foreign merchants who came to trade in Turií. When it came to the semi-finals, not only was the arena full, but there were also countless people outside the arena clamoring to go in and watch the game.
The governor Cunogorata urgently increased the number of patrols to strengthen the order of the arena and avoid accidents.
The final was still between the two strong teams, Turií and Amendolara.
From the whistle to the end, the audience stood and cheered for the two teams …
In the end, Amendolara won by a narrow margin and avenged last year's defeat.
When the disappointed audience was about to leave the arena, the game host announced loudly, "Next, there will be a football exhibition game to thank the people for their full support!"
Football, as the name suggested, was a ball played with feet. But how could one play a game with feet? Many of the audience who had not seen this sport before sat down to watch again with doubt and curiosity.
The staff in the arena moved the goal and redrew the line with lime powder.
Just as the audience and friends who knew about the situation whispered, the players from both sides went on the field, and the referee stood in the middle of the field holding a real round ball.
The whistle blew, and the game began.
The audience was surprised to find that the round ball could bounce on the ground, and the players could touch the ball with their feet and other parts of their bodies, but not with their hands, which was the opposite of rugby.
The audience widened their eyes in amazement when they saw the players controlling the ball with their feet, making all kinds of wonderful movements, and dribbling the ball past their opponents. The audience could not help but cheer in unison when they saw the players dribbling the ball like the wind and scoring with great force.
When the audience really began to immerse themselves in the game, some people had already realized that Diónia had invented another ball game that was not inferior to rugby, and it would definitely become popular in the Diónia Federation and Greece!
At the end of the game, the game host announced, "On the founding day of the nation next year, a football match will be held in Diónia to celebrate!"
The audience left the arena reluctantly. For a period of time after that, the topic of their conversation revolved around the rugby match and the football match to be held next year. While the businessmen thought about the business opportunities brought by this grand game, they brought these novel topics to other ports and cities. The reputation of the Diónia ball game was slowly expanding its influence in Greece …
Just at the end of the football match, the senators in the Senate Hall looked solemn. Originally, they were only discussing whether to start a war against Bruti, but who knew that Tarantum had sent an envoy …
… …
Previously, Tarantum had gathered a large number of troops to capture Manduria, a stronghold specially built by the Mesapi people to attack Tarantum. Then, they spent a few months and paid a huge price to acquire the important port city of Brindisi of the Mesapi people, causing Tarantum's territory to suddenly double.
Despite the joy, the people of Tarantum did not dare to be careless. Although the Mesapi people had been hit hard, they would never give up. Hundreds of years of competition with the Mesapi people had taught the people of Tarantum a deep understanding of the habits of this race, so Tarantum sent more soldiers to the newly occupied city, and at the same time stepped up the repair of the city's defenses.
For a few months, the Apulia region (the area known as the "heel" of Italy) had been calm.
According to the estimation of the existing strength of the Mesapi people and the geographical location and importance of Brindisi and Manduria, the Senate of Tarantum had considered it in detail in advance, so they let the young Archita lead more soldiers to guard Brindisi, which was further away from Tarantum and more important. They did not deploy too many troops in Manduria, which was only 40 miles away from Tarantum, because the troops of Tarantum and Brindisi could come to reinforce at any time, and with the strength of the Mesapi people, it was impossible to focus on attacking two towns at the same time.
On the morning of the fifth day after the start of the Hades Celebration, Archita, who was inspecting the construction progress at the port of Brindisi, received a messenger from the Senate of Tarantum.
"Manduria was attacked by the Mesapi people?! How many people?! "Archita was a little surprised.
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