Chapter 339
In order to maintain the friendship with Sparta, Dionysius had no choice but to move the Mercenians out of Messina. He built the city of Tyndaris in an inconspicuous place not far from Messina to house the Mercenians.
The reconstruction of Messina and the construction of Tyndaris made Lijim feel uneasy on the other side of the strait. The people of Lijim felt that Dionysius was coveting their city-state. They even felt that joining the Southern Alliance was not very safe. This was because Syracuse had not only unified the Greek city-states in the east of Sicily, but it had also conquered the Sikere people. It was too powerful. It was doubtful that the other city-states in the Southern Alliance would be willing to fight against the powerful Syracuse for the sake of Lijim! The only one who dared to challenge Syracuse was probably Diónia, the overlord of the Southern Alliance.
Therefore, the people of Lijim held a citizen's assembly. The discussion went on for a few days without any results.
At this time, a fleet of Syracuse sailed into the port of Messina. This fleet was originally to escort the Syracuse army to continue their expedition to the north coast of Sicily. However, it provoked the sensitive people of Lijim. The citizen's assembly quickly passed the motion, and an envoy was quickly sent to Turií.
In the Senate of Diónia, when the envoy of Lijim mentioned that "Lijim is willing to join the Alliance of Diónia," the senators, including the Devers, were quite shocked. In the Alliance of Diónia, Laos, Castellón, Metapontum, Elia, Heraclea, and Galagusso were all small and medium-sized city-states in the Southern Alliance. Although Potentia was a large city-state in the Alliance, it was forced to join the Alliance of Diónia. It was not very obedient to Diónia. In the past two years, Diónia had been busy reorganizing and governing Bruti and Picossis. It had not had the time to care about Potentia, which was far away in the northern mountainous region of Diónia.
Now, Lijim had volunteered to join the Alliance of Diónia! One had to know that Lijim was not only a powerful city in Greece, but it was also the top city in terms of sea trade and wealth. With the addition of Lijim, the merchant ships and fleets of Diónia could smoothly pass through the Strait of Messina. Not only would it be more convenient to trade with Iberia, Gaul, and the Western Mediterranean. At the same time, it would also be more conducive for the navy to protect Diónia's cities on the west coast of Italy, Knapetitia, Picossis, and the allied city-states Laos and Elia, connecting the territorial waters of Diónia.
The elders of Diónia were naturally overjoyed and prepared to accept Liguim into their ranks. However, Liguim's emissary had one condition: the Archon and Devers of Diónia had to marry a Liguim woman, and this woman had already been chosen by the Liguim. Her name was Aegnis.
Who was Aegnis? She was known as the 'Rose of Lijim', and was extremely beautiful at the age of 16. She even attracted a marriage proposal from the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius, but was firmly rejected by the vigilant Liguim.
The furious Syracuse emissary said, "Our all-powerful general will open his eyes and see who is more qualified than him to marry Aegnis!"
Then, Dionysius turned around and proposed to marry the woman of Rockley. He decorated the passenger ship that welcomed Rockley's wife with jewels and dazzling gold. This became a hot topic in Greece at the time.
In Liguim, Aegnis had never been able to marry because of the words left behind by the Syracuse emissary. As Syracuse continued to expand and become more powerful, not only the men of Liguim, but the entire city-state did not want to anger Dionysius, thus making Liguim the target of the tyrant of Syracuse's wrath.
In the end, a few years passed like this. Aegnis was already a single woman at the age of 21 (Greek women usually married after the age of 14, which was the end of puberty), but no one dared to marry her. She had no choice but to become the priestess of the famous virgin goddess Artemis.
Now faced with the threat of Syracuse, the realistic and sophisticated people of Liguim believed that the Devers were the true rulers of Diónia. Thus, they wanted to use Aegnis to bind the Devers to Liguim and deal with Dionysius together.
The Devers saw through the intentions of the Liguim people and immediately refused.
Who knew that a few days later, the Liguim emissary would actually persuade most of the senators of the Senate, including Merses, Marigi, Cunogorata, Cornelus, and the others, to jointly visit the Devers, hoping that he would agree to Liguim's request. They also refuted the Devers's claim that they had to "abide by the law of monogamy in Diónia". This was because there was no such mandatory rule in Diónia's laws. It was just a custom. Even in Athens, where monogamy was once explicitly stipulated, during the Great Plague before the War of Peloponnesus, polygamy was encouraged due to the large decrease in population.
At the same time, they also emphasized that Dionysius of Syracuse and the other tyrants of Sicily had multiple wives. Thus, the life Consul of Diónia, the hegemon of Southern Italy, could also do the same.
They also refuted the Devers' worry that Diónia would be dragged into the war with Syracuse by Liguim. Felicius, Antonius, and the others believed that although Syracuse seemed powerful, the people of Carthage would always be its greatest enemy. How would Dionysius dare to risk fighting on both sides and rashly offend the equally powerful Diónia?
In fact, the news from Sicily seemed to prove this point. The army of Syracuse swept westward along the northern coast of Sicily and began to approach the city of Sorus. Finally, the Carthage Senate, which had been enraged by Dionysius's army besieging Tauromenian, finally made up its mind. It appointed Margo, the younger brother of Hirmico, as its commander-in-chief. It recruited soldiers and prepared to lead the army to Sicily to resist the attack of Syracuse.
For the senators in charge of political affairs in the Senate of Diónia, accepting Liguim was not a great risk. On the contrary, it was a great benefit. For the senators in charge of military affairs, Liguim had a relatively powerful naval fleet, which could make up for the shortcomings of Diónia.
Under the persuasion of the crowd, the Devers were somewhat hesitant. At this time, his wife, Cristoya, stood up and expressed her support for the Senate's wish for the Devers to marry another wife of Liguim. She also persuaded the Devers to accept Aegnis.
Cristoya, who was born in Miletus, Asia Minor, had been influenced by Persia's culture since childhood. She was not too resistant to polygamy. Back then, Cyrus the Younger had more than ten favored concubines. Moreover, as a successful merchant, she knew the importance of Liguim's allegiance to Diónia's trade.
The Devers were finally persuaded to marry the 21-year-old Aegnis of Liguim into the official residence of the Archon of Diónia. Liguim also successfully joined the Diónia Alliance.
This matter shocked the entire Greek Empire.
When Dionysius received the news, he was leading his army to besiege Sorus. He had already ordered a retreat, but he gave a new order: blow the bugle horn to attack …
… …
In these two years, on the land of Asia Minor, the Greek allied army led by Deikridas created a lot of trouble for Persia.
Thus, in 396 BC, King Artaxerxes of Persia, under the suggestion of his mother, appointed Konon of Athens, who was temporarily living in Persia, as the commander of the Persia Navy. (Konon was originally the commander of the Athens Navy. In the Battle of the Ram River, he suffered a crushing defeat to Sparta's Lysander, which ultimately led to Athens' surrender to Sparta.)
Konon fled to Persia and never forgot to take revenge on Sparta. Thus, he often tried to curry favor with the Queen Mother of Persia, Palusatis. Now that he finally had military power in his hands, he immediately led 300 Persia warships and actively cooperated with the Persia's land forces. Soon, Sparta's army suffered heavy casualties and fell into a predicament.
Thus, Persia proposed a truce and peace talks, but Sparta refused.
At this time, Sparta, who was already the overlord of Greece, was unwilling to accept peace talks when they were in a passive state. Not only would the terms of the peace talks be very unfavorable to Sparta, but it would also damage the prestige of Sparta among the Greek city-states. Thus, the Council of Elders decided to send King Agesilaus to replace Deikridas and start a bigger war in Asia Minor.
Agesilaus had always shown his amiable and humble side in front of the Sparta people. However, under the mask of obeying Sparta's traditions and laws, he hid an ambition that no one knew. He longed for great glory and worshiped ancient heroes. He hoped to use unprecedented victories to make the world forget his lame foot and only remember his achievements. So when he received the order from the Council of Elders, he already saw himself as this era's Agamemnon to conquer the new Troy, which was Persia.
Thus, he led a part of his army to the city of Aulis (located in the Pioscia region, the most famous city-state in this region was the Thebes) to offer sacrifices to the Temple of Artemis, just like Agamemnon, the king of kings, had done before he led all the Greek armies to cross the sea to attack Troy.
However, during the solemn worship process, the Thebes appeared. They claimed that the Sparta's actions did not inform the Thebes and forcibly stopped the ceremony.
This incident cast a shadow over the already tense relationship between Sparta and the Thebes. For the extremely proud Agesilaus, this was a great humiliation! From then on, he remembered the Thebes.
In the end, Agesilaus led an army of 2,000 new Sparta citizens and a 30-man military council, including Lysander, and quietly crossed the sea to Asia Minor and settled in Ephesus.
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