Chapter 955
The high priest of the Temple of Apollo was very worried when he saw the unrest in the city intensifying. Although he had only been the high priest for a few years and did not have as much influence on Syracuse as the previous high priest (the previous high priest had worked hard to resolve the differences between the various factions in Syracuse, resulting in the establishment of today's political structure and the restoration of peace and tranquility in Syracuse, hence his high prestige), he decided to learn from his predecessors and do his best to restore order to Syracuse.
To this end, he took the initiative to find Teagenis and Falekus, trying his best to persuade them to stop attacking each other. Otherwise, it would only give the enemy in the north an opportunity to attack.
In fact, when Teagenis and Falekus heard about the chaos in the city, they were afraid. After all, tens of thousands of Diónia's army was watching from the north. If there was a civil war in the city of Syracuse, it would be dangerous!
Coincidentally, the high priest came to mediate, and the two agreed that they were willing to reconcile for the sake of Syracuse.
… …
On the morning of the third day, the councilors of Syracuse entered the meeting hall with solemn expressions. Before the meeting began, there was a sudden news: a Dionysian Army had left the city of Katanai and was marching south. There were more than 50,000 of them.
The councilors immediately became nervous. Is Diónia going to attack us?!
When everyone was panicking, Teagenis stood up and took the initiative to express his goodwill to Falekus. He spoke generously, reminding everyone not to be fooled by Diónia and that they should unite and defend against the coming attack.
Falekus and the other neutral councilors responded positively and began to actively discuss how to deal with the coming war.
There were no more arguments in the meeting hall. In fact, it was even more harmonious than the previous meetings, as if the quarrels, insults, and conflicts yesterday had never happened.
However, even though the generals were able to reach a compromise in the face of crisis and restore order in the council, it didn't mean that the ordinary people could do it easily. Moreover, they didn't know that the situation in the council had changed. Although the City Hall had sent more patrols, there were still conflicts in the city and it led to a tragedy.
Several young Teagenis supporters got into an argument with a group of neutral supporters, which eventually led to a fight. They were outnumbered and beaten up.
When the patrol team arrived and dispersed the crowd, they were shocked to find that a young man had been stabbed in the chest by a dagger and was lying in a pool of blood. Moreover, no one had seen clearly who had assassinated him.
The patrol team didn't know how to deal with this matter, but the pro-democracy people had already arrived at the scene. When they saw the tragic scene, they were agitated and angrily demanded that the murderer be punished.
When the news reached the council, the originally lively meeting hall suddenly became quiet. Both the pro-democracy and neutral parties held their own emergency discussions, discussing what measures should be taken to satisfy their supporters while ensuring that Syracuse would not become unstable under such a crisis.
Just then, the scouts sent back another piece of news: the Diónia army had passed through the ruins of Paragonia and continued south. The vanguard of the cavalry might have already reached Gela.
The councilors were stunned for a moment, but then they all looked happy. Some even burst into cheers. "So the Dionysian Army isn't going to war with Syracuse, but to attack the Carthage people!"
Without the dark clouds of war looming over the meeting hall, the atmosphere suddenly became relaxed.
At this time, Teagenis stood up and said sternly, "Since we don't know who the murderer is, the neutral supporters who participated in the fight are all guilty. They should all be arrested and put on trial!"
Of course, Falkus and the others firmly opposed this, and arguments were heard in the meeting hall again.
Not long after, Sebonus' speech once again intensified the conflict between the pro-democracy and neutral parties. He said, "Although the Diónia people have begun to attack the Carthage people, we, Syracuse, are still hostile to Diónia. In order to ensure that there will be no accidents in the future, and in order to let the Diónia people attack the Carthage people with all their might, it is necessary for us to temporarily restore friendly relations with Diónia. Therefore, I think that we must also fulfill the conditions given by the Diónia people!"
The condition given by the Diónia people was to ask the Syracuse Council to punish Falkus and the others! Suddenly, the storm that was set off in the meeting hall became bigger and bigger.
Although Hictas did not participate in it, the contents revealed by the attacks between the democrats and the neutrals made him feel sad and indignant. He understood a lot of things that he didn't understand before: Why did some councilors who had agreed to support the port civilians suddenly support a resolution that was unfavorable to the port civilians at the meeting? Why did the port civilians gradually become disunited and split? …
At dusk, Hictas returned to the port house exhausted, but was told by his family that a civilian said he had something important to discuss with him and was waiting in the hall.
As a general of the port civilians, Hictas often met some port civilians and even freedmen at home, listened to some of their opinions and requests, and tried his best to help them solve some difficulties.
While the servants were preparing dinner, he decided to meet this person first.
Seeing Hictas walk into the living room, the civilian calmly got up and saluted.
Hictas saw that he looked ordinary and had no impression of him in his mind. He should have never seen him before, so he asked, "What's your name? Why are you looking for me? "
A mysterious smile suddenly appeared on the man's ordinary face. He said softly, "Lord Hictas, Lord Antradoris asked me to say hello to you!"
Hictas's distant memories were stirred up by this sentence. His heart shook, and his turbid eyes suddenly became sharp as he looked directly at the man.
The man looked at him calmly.
Soon, Hictas reacted. He turned around and solemnly said to his trusted servant, "You go out first and tell the others that without my order, no one is allowed to enter here!"
After the servant went out, Hictas asked, "Are you a Diónia citizen?"
"Yes. My name is Artemis, a citizen of Diónia from Catanay. "The man said frankly.
"Diónia citizen, how dare you!" Hictas slapped the back of the chair and shouted sternly, "Tell me, how many of you are in the city of Syracuse?! Is the turmoil in the city caused by you?! "
The man was not frightened. Instead, he smiled and said sternly, "The civilians of the port of Syracuse haven't had a good life in the past two years, right? The area of land they own is shrinking, and some have even been relocated. The number of people participating in the citizens' assembly is limited, and the number of people elected to the council is limited. Even the number of people elected as generals has decreased. The civilians of the port can't unite and fight for their own interests. Instead, they are divided into several factions. They fight with each other because of the interests of unloading ships and fishing at the port. This gives the council a reason to suppress you. Hictas, if Lord Antradoris knows the situation of the civilians of the port today, he will be very sad! "
Although Antradoris no longer served in the intelligence department of the Kingdom of Diónia, he was the one who appointed the personnel to help the civilians of the port of Syracuse unite and finally launched a riot. Therefore, although Hictas and the others had never seen Antradoris, they were not unfamiliar with the name. This was the reason why Artemis mentioned him several times.
When Hictas heard these words, his face turned green and purple. He felt quite ashamed. The plight of the civilians of the port today was, of course, related to his lack of ability and poor leadership.
However, he quickly came back to his senses. The person sitting in front of him was the enemy of Syracuse!
His face immediately sank, and he wanted to refute.
Artemis suddenly took out a papyrus scroll tied with a black rope from his arms and said in a deep voice, "Lord Antradoris is far away in the north of the kingdom. Of course, he can't understand the terrible situation of the civilians of the port of Syracuse today. However, His Majesty the King of the Devers in Catanai has very seriously and carefully learned about the situation of Syracuse from us. He expressed unusual concern about your situation and said that he would do his best to help you. He also wrote this letter and asked me to bring it to you!"
As he spoke, he pushed the paper scroll in his hand forward.
Hictas subconsciously took a step back and stared straight at the paper scroll. His pupils shrank sharply. This was a letter written by the most feared enemy of the generals and councilors of Syracuse — the King of Diónia! If he accepted it, he was afraid that he would be tempted. He was also afraid that once the matter was leaked, it would become evidence of him colluding with the enemy. However, if he did not accept it, he was worried that he would miss a great opportunity. The situation of the civilians of the port was indeed not good, and today's meeting was a blow to him …
Hictas was very conflicted and stood rooted to the ground. Artemis, on the other hand, did not say a word and kept holding the paper scroll … The whole scene seemed to be still.
After a long time, Hictas sighed softly, "I'm old …"
He cautiously took the paper scroll that was as light as a feather but as heavy as a thousand catties with both hands …
… …
The scouts of Syracuse did not notice that while the Diónia Army was marching south, there was another Dionysian Army that had left the west gate of Catanai earlier and was marching northwest toward the mountains.
In the afternoon, the army approached Agilion, which was not far from the western foothills of Mount Etna.
Creru, who had received the news in advance and was waiting outside the city, came up to them.
"Lord Creru, sorry to keep you waiting!" Lizaru and Epitenis hurriedly dismounted and apologized. Although Creru was more than ten years younger than them, he was also a Senate elder. This time, he was specially ordered to temporarily give up administrative affairs to assist them. The two dared not be the slightest bit slow.
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