Chapter 677
Okridon immediately stood up, trying to dispel the impact of Pretacuba's words on the senators. "Pretacuba, do you know that the current Diónia is much stronger than Syracuse? They have at least ten legions, four fleets, and it is said that they have a population of two million. Their territory is also far larger than the land and city-states controlled by Syracuse. Therefore, they can easily form an army of 100,000 people. Can we do that?! Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to start a war with Diónia now. Instead, we should speed up the expansion in the interior of Afrika and strengthen our strength so that we can have a decisive battle with Diónia in the future! "
Pretacuba sneered. "In the future? When is the future?! When Diónia completely occupies all of Italy?! I think now is the best time to start a war with Diónia! Because Diónia is experiencing a drought, they are short of food! My lords, you should not have forgotten that we just refused their request to buy food not long ago. Let alone 100,000 people, I doubt that Diónia can even organize 50,000 soldiers!
And we have western Sicily, Numibia, southern Iberia, and also allies with the powerful state of Rome in central Italy and the Mauritanian Kingdom in western Afrika. And I heard that the Samonians, who were defeated by Diónia and forced to form an alliance with them, are now very dissatisfied with Diónia and are completely likely to be roped in by us. There are also Sparta who are afraid of Diónia's strength … You see, Diónia looks strong, but in fact, it has many enemies. We have a good chance of winning! "
Pretacuba's words caused the senators to discuss.
Hanno, who had been silent, heard the word "southern Iberia" and frowned slightly.
At this time, he saw the leader of the neutral faction, Esyaruba, stand up with a serious face. "Everyone, you all know that I don't like war. The war with Syracuse cost me a son, but I want to remind you of one thing. For more than a year, our trade with Sardinia, Carthage has been sharply declining! What is the reason?! I'm sure all of you are well aware that the Judges we sent to the various cities in Sardinia have investigated and found out that the citizens of these cities have secretly sailed their ships to the Dionic cities of Enona and Poseidonia across the sea to purchase clay pots, olive oil, wine, and even livestock … and so on.
Although our Judges have urged the cities of Sardinia to strengthen their management, they are still unable to do so because the Diónia sells goods at a much lower price than we do. Unlike the city-states of the Campania Alliance, Dionia ignored our protests and even imposed restrictions on our merchants within Dionia's borders. For example, Dionia's commerce officials recently punished a few of our merchants in Lokli just because they sold grains at a price higher than the price Dionia set. Tanit above, the price of goods is determined according to the demand of the people. This is the trade principle followed by the merchants of various cities in the Mediterranean Sea. Diónia actually punished our merchants because of this. This is simply unacceptable!
Senators, our ancestors of Carthage came here from Tyre and made a living as merchants. They gradually prospered and finally became strong today. Without prosperous trade, there will be no strong Carthage. Trade is our root! I don't care how much land Diónia occupies, but now it is deliberately restricting our trade and trying to dig out our roots. This must arouse our vigilance! We must also make a strong counterattack! We want Diónia to make concessions on trade! "
Esyaruba's speech was deafening and resonated with the senators.
"Lord Esyaruba is right! My family's caravan no longer sells wine to Sardinia because very few people buy it. This is all because of Diónia! "
"It's not enough to make Diónia make concessions on trade. As long as it continues to expand, there will only be fewer and fewer cities for us to trade freely and monopolize the sea routes. In the future, Carthage will have no choice but to submit to Diónia because of the decline of trade! If we want to continue to prosper in trade, we must eliminate the Kingdom of Diónia! "
"Yes, we will unite with Rome and wage war against Diónia! We will win back our dominance over the Western Mediterranean Sea! "
…
Listening to these words in the conference hall, Hanno's face became more and more gloomy. He knew that the continuous expansion of Diónia in recent years was the biggest threat to Carthage's security, but he did not want to start a war at this time. There were two reasons: first, the occupation of the Numibian region was not stable; second, although Margo was driven to the Iberian Peninsula, he occupied a large area of land there, built several towns, and appointed his own officials. He always disobeyed the orders of the Senate. Hanno had repeatedly tried to strengthen the management of the newly occupied territories in Carthage, but some of the means he took were ultimately unsuccessful, which gave him a headache. If he launched a war against Diónia at this time, it would give the warlike family a chance to return to the Senate of Carthage!
After operating in the Senate for more than ten years, Hanno had complete control over it. Although Pretacuba and Esyaruba's words had greatly moved the elders in the meeting hall, as long as Hanno did not agree in the end, the elders who were loyal to him would not easily vote in favor of this proposal. This proposal would not be able to reach a final decision due to the number of people supporting it.
Hanno stubbornly resisted the pressure and did not express his position for seven days in a row.
… …
Gaddis, a colony established by the Phoenician powerful Tyre in the southern Iberian Peninsula. It was said that it was discovered hundreds of years ago, when a high-ranking official of Tyre encountered a storm while on his way to the Bali Islands. The ship was blown off course, sailed past the Pillars of Hercules, and stopped on a beach. After these lucky survivors expressed their gratitude to the god Melekat, they found that the place where they were located was located at the end of a long and narrow promontory. The environment facing the water on three sides made it difficult to attack by land, but easy to enter by sea. It turned out to be an excellent natural harbor, so the colony of Gaddis was established here.
With the discovery of a large number of silver veins, iron, and other metals in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the trade between the Phoenicians and the Kingdom of Tartesus in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula strengthened. They actually controlled the mining and metal ore processing industries in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, and Gaddis became prosperous. It quickly became the main transportation hub for the Phoenicians in the Iberian Peninsula, and it may even be the most prosperous of all the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean. A large number of mined, melted and processed silver from the Iberian Peninsula were continuously sent to Tyre to meet the needs of its suzerain, Assyr, and thus to fight for more freedom for the Tyreans.
But in the following hundred years, the eastern Mediterranean Sea suffered frequent wars, the hegemony changed, and the mother state of Tyre declined. Carthage then rose and replaced Tyre's position. After a hundred years, all the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean were brought under his jurisdiction, and Gaddis was no exception.
The silver and other metal castings that were processed in the city of Gaddis were first transported to Carthage, and Carthage was in charge of all trade matters with the mother state of the eastern Mediterranean.
After the Magonid Family set foot on the Iberian Peninsula, according to the rules of the Carthage Senate, they were not allowed to interfere in the government affairs of Gaddis. But after more than ten years of operation, Gaddis had been secretly brought under the control of the Magonid Family.
On this day, a tattered merchant ship sailed in from the port of Gaddis, and to the surprise of the people in the port, it was a group of Greeks.
So, after receiving the news, the Gaddis City Hall immediately sent a patrol to detain the people on the ship. Only then did they know that the merchant ship came from the Kingdom of Diónia. Originally, it was going to the Greek colonial city-state of Sagonto in the northern Iberian Peninsula for trade, but unexpectedly encountered a storm, and the cargo ship was blown near the coast of Gaddis.
The friendly agreement between Carthage and Diónia stipulated that apart from trading with Carthage, the people of Diónia were not allowed to trade directly with other colonial city-states or affiliated city-states of Carthage. Otherwise, they would be punished, but the punishment must be jointly heard by the officials of both sides. If, for some reason, they mistakenly entered Carthage's territory, they could be allowed to leave after understanding the situation, but they were not allowed to stay in the same place.
Therefore, after the people of Gaddis understood the situation, they urged the merchant ship to leave. But the problem was that the merchant ship was too damaged and had to be repaired before it could set sail again. Therefore, the people of Gaddis had to send the ship to the shipyard for repair, and put the people of Diónia under house arrest in the hotel. Of course, they had to pay for the ship repair and food.
During this period, someone quietly slipped into the room of the owner of the merchant ship, Eonis. He claimed to be a Phoenician from Huerva, and his owner was a big merchant of Huerva. He owned thousands of mining slaves and controlled the mining rights of several silver mines. Every month, he mined several tons of silver ore. He could have made more money from this, but Carthage forced him not to sell it. He could only process the mined metal ore and sell it to Carthage, but the profit was much less. Therefore, his owner was very dissatisfied with this, and hoped to find a secret sales channel to sell the mountain of silver at a higher price …
Eonis was a little tempted after hearing this. Once an emancipated slave of the Cunogorata family, he later obtained citizenship and became a merchant with the financial support of Sostatus. And as he was in frequent contact with his benefactor, Sostatus, he knew that the Ministry of Commerce of the Kingdom of Diónia had a concern.
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