Chapter 579
At this time, Ferosanus expressed that Syracuse was willing to sign a peace treaty with Diónia.
Devers was already prepared for this. He simply said, "If you want to sign a peace treaty with Diónia, Syracuse must agree to the following conditions.
First, the people of Syracuse started this war and caused serious damage to Diónia and Magna Graecia. Therefore, Syracuse must compensate Diónia with 2,000 Talent for the restoration of Diónia and the other city-states of Magna Graecia.
Second, the people of Syracuse who were captured by the Dionysian Army, as the invaders of this war, have the blood of Magna Graecia on their hands. Diónia will not release them easily. They must pay a ransom, the price of which is determined by the status of the captive.
Third, Syracuse must disband the Sicilian Alliance.
Fourth, Syracuse must recognize the fact that Taunis, Leontini, Catanai, Siculi, Naxos, and Tauromenian have joined the Diónia Alliance. The interests of these city-states must not be infringed upon.
Fifth, Messina … "
The straightforward Ferosanus was angered by these harsh conditions, but a sentence from Devers made him suppress the urge to leave immediately. "If you are not willing to accept these conditions, Diónia can talk to Dionysius."
This was what Harrolis and the others were most worried about. In order to prevent Dionysius, who had been beaten to the bottom, from rising again, Ferosanus had no choice but to negotiate with the Devers' subordinates, the officials of Diónia, led by Ancitanos.
On the second day, the news of Dionysius's raid on Syracuse was almost successful if not for the help of the Dionysian Army. When Ferosanus learned of this, he realized the risk that Harrolis and the others were facing, so the process of the negotiations accelerated.
… …
At the same time, the news of the Syracuse expedition surrendering to Diónia had reached the ears of the citizens of Rockley. The citizens in the city panicked.
At this moment, Hilos led ten thousand soldiers and marched secretly from the west to the east. They quickly passed through the mountain path and approached Rockley. They used a dozen ballistae to destroy the temporary defensive camp that the Rockley people had built at the exit of the mountain path. They used their fierce attacks to defeat part of the Rockley army's resistance and invaded their territory.
This bad news caused even more panic in Lockley City.
At this time, there were still rumors spreading in Lockley City. For example, "The main force led by the Devers has already headed south and will reach Lockley in a day!" These rumors made it hard for the commoners, nobles and politicians in Lockley City to remain calm.
Demodocas and his cronies saw that the situation was not good, so they ran to the port with their families, trying to escape Greece by ship.
The political enemies who had been suppressed by Demodocas in the past took the opportunity to incite the people, declaring that only by capturing Demodocas and his cronies and offering them to Diónia could Diónia's anger towards Lockley be alleviated …
Therefore, the docile citizens of Lockley, who usually strictly followed the laws of the city, attacked Demodocas and the others.
Blood dyed the sea of Lockley Port red. Demodocas and some of the generals, council members and their families, including the elderly, women and children, a total of more than two hundred people fell in a pool of blood. None survived.
The tyranny displayed after the anger of the docile citizens of Lockley made Demodocas' opponents secretly afraid. Everyone was in danger. In order not to follow in the footsteps of Demodocas and the others, the Lockley Council finally decided to agree to Diónia's harsh conditions and sent messengers out of the city to contact Hilos.
At this point, the war in Greece had ended. Other than Tarantum, the other hostile Greek city-states had been conquered by Diónia.
The people of Tarantum had also received the news that the Syracuse Army had surrendered to Diónia. At this time, they were already holed up in the city, surrounded by the Maypu Alliance. The reason they could still understand the situation outside was because the sea route had not been blocked. That was the credit of Diónia.
As the Diónia's fleet resolutely prevented the Maypu Alliance's fleet from entering the Taranto Bay, the Mesapi and Puchetti did not dare to provoke Diónia at this time. They could only order the fleet to retreat. This way, Tarantum would retain the sea route to the outside world and the passage of goods.
A large number of Tarantum citizens were imprisoned by Diónia. They could only rely on the old, weak and sick to resist the siege of the Maypu Alliance. In such a dangerous situation, the reason why the people of Tarantum were still struggling and unwilling to agree to Diónia's request to become a "Free City" of the Alliance was not only because of their pride as a former strong nation, but also because of Sparta. They hoped that Sparta could make the greedy Diónia give up their attempt to annex Tarantum and release their loved ones to save Tarantum from imminent danger.
At the beginning of March, the ship of the Sparta messenger, Kerissops, sailed straight across the edge of the Taranto Bay, around the land promontory of Crotone, and entered the port of Siletina.
The Devers had been sitting in Siletina for more than ten days. There were so many things to do that he was busy from morning to night.
First was the negotiation with the rebels of Syracuse. Although he was not specifically involved in the negotiations, he had to pay attention to the progress of the negotiations and control the general direction.
In the end, the peace agreement between the two sides was reached. Other than the amount of war reparations, the price of the captives' ransom, and some minor additions and deletions, the agreement basically achieved the goal of the Devers to weaken the strength of Syracuse, reduce its influence in Sicily, and protect the interests of Diónia in the east and central coast of Sicily.
Ferosanus hoped to immediately send back the militia of Syracuse to defend the empty city of Syracuse. The Devers also hoped to send back the newly surrendered captives as soon as possible. Otherwise, with so many people staying in Greece, not only would it consume a lot of food, but they would also have to send a lot of guards.
However, the two sides had diverged on two issues.
The first was the thousands of mercenaries among the surrendered captives of Siletina.
Ferosanus thought that they were all loyal dogs of Dionysius, and also targets that Harolis wanted to eliminate. To prevent any accidents, he did not want them to return.
However, the Devers said, "Before the army of Syracuse surrendered, he made a promise, and he is not willing to go back on it." In addition, the Devers did not want to keep these mercenaries who had followed Dionysius for a long time, and were used to killing and looting like bandits. Even though the rapidly expanding territory of Diónia urgently needed people to fill it, he was afraid that keeping these mercenaries would spoil the good atmosphere of Diónia. Right now, the war in Asia Minor and the Peloponnesus Peninsula was raging, and there were Greek refugees everywhere because of the war. Diónia would not lack Greek refugees who wanted land and a peaceful life.
Therefore, he threatened Ferosanus that even if they did not agree, he would send these mercenaries back, and they would have to bear the consequences.
Ferosanus was worried that the stubbornness of the people of Diónia would increase the uncertainty of Harolis and the others who already controlled Syracuse. He could only agree to pay the ransom for these former citizens and mercenaries, but requested that Diónia listen to his arrangements when sending them away.
The Devers only cared that he had fulfilled his promise. As for whether these captives would become slaves or be executed when they returned to Syracuse, it was not his concern.
The second disagreement was that Ferosanus hoped that Diónia would also release the people of Syracuse who had been captured in the previous battle.
The Devers rejected this and said bluntly, "The war has caused serious damage to the homes of the people of Diónia, and the population has decreased sharply … Diónia needs these captives as laborers to help the people rebuild their homes. We will only consider releasing them after a year."
Actually, this was only one of the reasons. The Devers did not mention the more important reason. He was more worried that if all the captives were released to Syracuse, Syracuse's strength would recover quickly, and the new leaders of Syracuse would have other ideas. With these hostages in hand, within a year, Diónia would be able to stabilize its rule in Magna Graecia and the east coast of Sicily with ease.
Ferosanus argued several times but to no avail. In the end, he had no choice but to add a clause to the agreement: during this year, the health and safety of the captives must be guaranteed.
Of course, the content of the argument did not include the thousands of Syracuse captives that Diónia had sold to Carthage. Most of them were Syracuse's militia, not the poor people of the port who were sailors.
During the negotiation with the Syracuse emissaries, the Devers also met with people from Rockley and Hibernian, preaching to them the benefits of joining the alliance of Diónia and dispelling their unease. At the same time, they observed the visitors and gathered information for the election of the senators of these two places in the future by the Senate.
In addition, the Devers had to discuss with the Senate through letters about the management of the new territories occupied by Medma and Siletina's governor.
At the same time, he also had to discuss with your chief general, his father-in-law, Attilius, about the matter of "joining forces to attack Messina".
Not only did the Devers not have any free time to rest, Secretary Henepolis had to help the Devers write letters and copy documents every day, until his hands were numb from all the writing.
At this moment, Cherisops's ship entered the port of Siletina.
The bustle of the port surprised Cherisops. He saw that every port was filled with empty-handed Syracuse people in thin clothes. They were escorted by Diónia soldiers onto the passenger ships. The fully loaded passenger ships left the port carefully, and under the protection of Diónia's warships, they headed south …
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