Novels online

Chapter 633

Apart from those who had important matters to attend to, such as Alexis, who was leading the army in the battle at Downey, most of the senators, even those who served as governors in other places, rushed to Cunogorata's funeral hall to pay their respects. Many of the kingdom's middle and lower level officials also came to mourn.

Most of them were the citizens of Turín. Back then, Cunogorata had given his all to help the Turín citizens who had lost their homes and burned down their city. For more than half of the following ten years, Cunogorata had been the governor of this city. For Turín to have its current prosperity, Cunogorata had contributed a lot. How could the citizens not remember his kindness? Therefore, on this day, the citizens of Turín did not discuss football games excitedly, nor did they go to the restaurants to drink. Instead, there was an endless stream of people paying their respects outside the funeral hall.

Although everyone looked sorrowful and solemn, there was almost no scene of them crying. It was relatively quiet. This was different from other Greek city-states. In other city-states, the families of the deceased would even hire professional mourners to add a sad atmosphere to the funeral. According to the Divine Book of Hades, the souls of the deceased of Diónia could enter Elysium according to their performance during their lifetime. It was a beautiful paradise, and entering it was to enjoy happiness, not to suffer. Therefore, the relatives and worshippers did not need to be overly sad, otherwise, it would be like cursing the deceased to enter purgatory.

The funeral ceremony lasted for a day, and the next morning, Cunogorata's funeral began.

The relatives placed Cunogorata's body in a wooden coffin. There were also some offerings placed in the coffin for his last journey to the Underworld and Elysium. The wooden coffin was placed on a carriage pulled by four black horses. The relatives wore black muslin and guarded the carriage as it slowly moved forward.

Behind the carriage, led by the Devers, were members of the royal family, high-ranking officials of the kingdom, senators, and their families. All of them wore black muslin and had solemn expressions. The people who came after hearing the news consciously lined up at the back, gradually forming a long line that could not be seen at the end. This forced the inspection office of Turín to send more people to maintain order.

The funeral procession was specially equipped with a dozen flute players and trumpeters. They played solemn and slightly melancholy elegies, rendering the entire funeral procession solemn and mysterious.

In front of the carriage, Plesinas and a dozen black-robed priests silently sang the hymn of Hades and sprinkled water on the street. They led the funeral procession to the foot of the Hill of Hades.

Eight palace guards in armor lifted the wooden coffin and walked steadily to a small temple next to the Temple of Hades. This was the temple of Thanatos, the God of Death, the god of Hades. It was built after the Southern Italian War.

There was an incinerator in front of the temple. The guards put the wooden coffin in the incinerator, and the priests began to pour olive oil through the pipes around the incinerator.

The relatives of Cunogorata, such as Sostatus and Dikaokrat, were mournful. The others also bowed their heads and prayed silently. Only the Devers in white robes walked to the incinerator, opened his arms, and shouted to the sky, "The Great Hades, citizen Cunogorata of Diónia, has returned to the underworld today. I am your devout subject, and I beg you to grant him the blessings he deserves in death based on what he did in life! "

After that, he took the torch from Plesinas and threw it into the incinerator.

As the fire burned, dozens of saintesses sang in unison. Their light singing voice resounded through the hill, washing away the sadness in the hearts of the people.

The wooden coffin turned into ashes amidst the singing, but the funeral was not over. The relatives of Cunogorata took out the bones that had not completely melted from the ashes, wrapped them in newly made linen cloth, and placed them in urns.

The Devers also told the people who came to attend the funeral about the great contributions that Cunogorata had made to the Kingdom of Diónia. At the same time, they announced that the bronze bust of Cunogorata would be placed in the Pantheon of the Hades Temple, and that he would live with the Kingdom of Diónia! The urns of his ashes would be placed in the Temple of Death to be protected by the underworld!

With these two things completed, the funeral was finally over.

When the elders and officials bid farewell to their relatives, they no longer comforted them, but congratulated them.

Before this, the elders had also attended the funeral of Scombras and Bagylipi. However, not only did Cunogorata's funeral have the largest number of people, but he also enjoyed the highest honor after his death.

To place his ashes in the Pantheon of Death, only citizens who were loyal to the Kingdom, diligent throughout their lives, and had made enough contributions could enjoy it. It was even more difficult to enter the Pantheon of Death, only those who had made great contributions to Diónia, or even affected the development of the entire Kingdom. After entering the Pantheon of Death, they would have to write a biography for him, so that his name would be passed down to the future generations. It could be said to be the highest honor. Since the establishment of Diónia, there was only one Heraclide for more than ten years. Now, there was also Cunogorata. For the elders and officials, Cunogorata's funeral had become a goal that they envied and worked hard for. This was what the Devers hoped for.

For the ordinary people, they did not have such a big goal. Their biggest hope was to be cremated in the main Pantheon of Hades after their death. This was because the cremation of corpses was usually carried out in the ordinary Pantheon of Hades. Only citizens who had made great contributions could apply for the right to be cremated in the main Pantheon of Hades.

The people who approved the application were not the Senate, but the group of priests in the Pantheon of Hades. The final decision was in the hands of the Devers, because he was not only the King, but also the High Priest of the Kingdom. He was the descendant of Hades in the eyes of the people. However, under normal circumstances, he would let the group of priests led by Plesinas make the decision, and he would only need to look at it in the end. Only the death of an important person in the Kingdom would require him to decide whether the person was qualified to enter the Hall of Valhalla, the Pantheon of Death, the Pantheon of Death, and the Prison of the Wicked.

After the funeral of Cunogorata, the football finals continued, and everything seemed to return to the past.

Only the senators felt the subtle changes. The rotating president of the Senate was added to the list of candidates, and his seat was moved forward to the center of the front row of the hall.

When Diónia was first established, the position of the rotating president of the Senate was held by the senators in turn. It was only to maintain order in the hall, and it did not have any real power. After the Southern War, the Devers became the King. With the reason that there were too many new senators and they were not familiar with the operation of Diónia's political system, he no longer let all the senators take the rotating president position. Instead, he appointed a few senators to take turns to take the position, which was usually changed every ten days.

At the same time, he also asked the Senate to give more responsibilities to the rotating president, making them responsible for organizing every Senate meeting, and the main topics of every meeting would be decided by the King and the Devers and the rotating president. When the Devers attended the meeting, he had to pass down the order to ensure that the meeting was carried out according to the King's wishes. When the Devers were absent, he had the power to ensure that the meeting went smoothly, and he could even command the guards to drive away the senators who interfered with the meeting. He only needed to report the results of the meeting to the Devers after the meeting.

Because of the increased power of the rotating president, this position became an important symbol to measure the status of a senator in the Senate.

Before this, the rotating presidents of the Senate of Diónia were Cunogorata, Cornelus, Sedorum, Vesba, and Lucius. Now, Cunogorata had passed away, and Antares had filled the vacancy.

In addition, there was another change. When Laodisian and other senators committed dereliction of duty, some officials from Naxos, Siculi, and Catanai were also involved in this matter and were investigated. They were all recommended by the senators who committed the crime, so the Devers took this opportunity to rage in the Senate. He believed that the reason why the Kingdom's Civil Servants Management Board failed to do a good job in selecting the middle and lower officials was because the Senate was too influenced by the other senators, so they could not select the officials fairly. And the appointment of the middle and lower officials should not have been handled by the Senate …

When the League was first established, the Civil Servants Management Board's responsibility was to draft the candidates of the civil servants in the cities of the League. Finally, the Devers would sign off on the candidates. However, the candidates on the list would be read in the Senate every time, so the senators would be informed. Sometimes they would raise objections to some of the candidates, and the board would make some adjustments based on their opinions. The Devers did not obstruct too much because the Devers controlled the Senate, so everything was under his control. In recent years, with the expansion of the territory and the increase of officials, the Devers spent half of their time in the palace to deal with political affairs, so they could not control the board as strictly as before.

This time, the Devers requested that the office of the Civil Servants Management Board be moved to the palace, and that the appointment of officials should no longer be discussed in the Senate. Of course, some senators objected, but he quietly threatened that he was considering whether to let Sesta investigate the officials in other cities of the Kingdom, to avoid a series of dereliction of duty cases like the one in Sicily.

In the end, the Devers' proposal was passed, and the board moved to the second floor of the palace.

… …

The day after Cunogorata's funeral, Colissos was received by the Devers.

As for Sparta's request to renew the alliance for another ten years, Dyvers and the Senate did not have much of a debate and agreed to this request.