Chapter 149: Reconstruction of Thurii
“I will be like him in the future!” Seclian said it out confidently, full of hope for the future, “Untie the rope, let’s go to the estuary of the sea!”
Lysias also looked at the patrol captain in front of him, and asked, “Are you a citizen of Amendolara?”
The patrol captain looked at him and said, “No, we are citizens of the Thua Union!”
“Apologies.” Lysias then asked him politely, “I would like to ask what is the situation of the soldiers of Crotone who you have captured.”
“I can’t tell you where they are being held, because it is a military secret!” The patrol captain said seriously, “But I can tell you that they are in good condition now, and even Lord Davos had let the hospital treat the wounded soldiers, but if your negotiations fail, then their situation might turn bad. I heard that the statesmen of Thurii, had strongly suggested that they should be sent to the mine!”
Lysias was surprised. Letting the captives go mining will have them absolutely die! He remembered that after the Athenian army failed to attack Syracuse, about five thousand ~ six thousand men were captured and they were then sent to mine in the quarry. In just a few years, almost all of them have died! This made him a bit nervous.
After a while, a soldier came back and whispered into the ears of the patrol captain, “Lead them using the farthest route.”
And so the patrol captain immediately nodded and said to the delegates of Crotone, “The Senate has agreed to meet you. Let’s go.”
After the group passed through the ruins of the port and entered the city, the delegates of Crotone could not believe what they see. Compared with the very cold port just now, this place is filled with people and noise, both men and women, old and young, are busy. Some are cleaning up the ashes and carrying stones and debris. Some have already started to tamp on the land again, and pile the ground according to the instructions of the craftsmen. Then, more and more people build wooden frames, putting stones and bricks around the wall. Bricks, mortar and wood…?? The whole main city of Thurii has become a large construction site, where people sweat and enthusiastically rebuild their homes. They are so focused in what they are doing that when the delegates of Crotone passed by, almost no one looked up.
Although thousands of people were working at the same time, the noise was not chaotic, but are well organized. Lysias noticed that some people with red ropes on their heads played an important role in it. They directed and coordinated the operation on the construction site. And the real master was a gaunt old man. He kept on patrolling the place, and when he found a problem, he would stopped and check the drawing. Then he will talk to the people around him, and someone will then rushed to correct it.
“Who is he?” Some of the delegates of Crotone asked curiously.
“Heracleides, the disciple of the Greek architect, Hippodamus.” Replied by the patrol captain.
Heracleides was originally going to continue to direct the construction of the road from Amendolara to Thurii after finishing the construction of the warehouses and inns in Amendolara. However, after he heard that the Senate was going to rebuild Thurii, he immediately volunteered to design and preside over the reconstruction work of Thurii.
Davos readily agreed, and put forward some of his own requirements for the construction of the new Thurii.
Heracleides have a complex feelings about this city, which has recorded his glory and where he had lived for 20 years. He is so familiar with it that he can walk around the city smoothly even with his eyes closed. He can count the height of the terrain and the curvature of the river bank in every place…he poured all of his emotions into his pen and finished the design drawings of the new city of Thurii overnight.
Davos looked at it with great admiration. After that, Heracleides spent every day on the construction site, full of energy and meticulous supervision of the operation of the reconstruction work. His enthusiasm for the work has also infected the people who were rebuilding their homes for themselves, and so, the reconstruction progress was sped up.
And the delegates of Crotone certainly did not know the extent on how much the people of Thurii respected this gaunt old man, nor remembered who Hippodamus was. And so, they only responded politely, then they turned their attention to other places.
Lysias asked, seemingly unintentionally, “I am afraid that there must be more than 10,000 people working here? There should not be so many people in Thurii left. Could it be that the people of Amendolara are among them?”
“We do indeed have some people of Amendolara, but most of them are freeman and slaves.” The captain looked at Lysias, as if he knew what he was thinking, and said without any concealment, “You must be wondering why these freeman and slaves are working so hard? It is not only because they may become citizens of the city in the future, but also because the Archon, Lord Davos, has passed a temporary decree in the senate that ‘the widowed women of Thurii are allowed to marry a freeman, but they must be willing to marry them.’”
“What?!” Lysias was astonished.
“Crotonians, you should know that the citizens of Thurii that died were not only those who you have slaughtered after your occupation of Thurii. More than 10,000 citizens have died in the prior war with Lucania, almost all of them have wives that have become widowed. And I heard that Thurii was going to issue a decree in allowing citizens to marry more than one wife. This shows how much Thurii are short in men.” The captain showed a faint smile, “Now, these freeman are working hard in order to show their performance in front of the women of Thurii, who were busy rebuilding their homes, and earn their favor. You should know that once they succeed, they will not only get a wife, but also become a preparatory citizen of Thurii immediately and also get a house. Although they won’t get a share of land, but these won’t be a problem. These guys are really too lucky to have so many educated and beautiful women of Thurii to choose from, like us back in Amendolara-”
“Captain, don’t complain. Your wife is a famous beauty of Amendolara and is also a Persian beauty. Don’t you know how much the other citizens envy you?!” One of the soldiers couldn’t stop himself from saying it.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!…” The captain laughed brazenly, “Of course! Of course! My wife is the most beautiful woman in all Amendolara besides the wife of the Archon! Beautiful and cultured! And I was complaining for you sake for not catching up with the times!”
“My Lucanian wife is very good! Not only is she enthusiastic and tall, but also big here…” A soldier patted himself on the chest and said intoxicatedly, “Greek women can’t even compare!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
A group of soldiers began to argue about which woman was the most beautiful. The more they say, the more vulgar it became, but Lysias was not interested in listening to it.
These decrees issued by the Thua Union is a total deviant for the conservative Greek nobleman like Lysias. And it is totally impossible for Crotone, a city-state that has been built for a hundred of years and whose clan and phraties were already firm. But he had to admit, for the people of Thurii who had lost their homes and have lost a lot of their elite citizens, this is a good way for them to boost the strength of the city-state quickly. However, Thurii, who can quickly recover their strength and once again prosper, is not what Lysias would like to see, because they are the mortal enemy of Crotone!
Lysias thought of this and went out of the city together with the team. On their way to the camp, they “just in time” saw a dozen of group of soldiers training. They seemed to be playing a game with about fifty people on each side(it is actually a platoon). They use a long wooden rod wrapped with coarse cloth on the head and use it as a spear, and a crude board is used as a round shield. The two sides will charge and stab at each other as if they are in a real battle, until one side manage to draw a white lime powder on the other side, the game won’t be over. The losing soldier will then squat down and put his hands behind his back jump around the field (frog jumping) as punishment.
You can see that this game stimulates actual combat and it is quite hot and fierce. Lysias saw it with his own eyes on how several soldiers that got stabbed and directly went off to receive treatment. However, the enthusiasm of the soldiers did not diminished. They kept on clapping and cheering, wanting to join. The bloodlust and fighting desire of the soldiers were evident.
Some of the delegates asked curiously, “Do you usually train like this?”
The patrol captain chuckled, “We practice every five days, and there are a lot of training courses from morning to evening in each training session. This is just one of the less intense training course.”
The delegates of Crotone looked at each other. It was obvious that the intensity of the Thua Union’s military training is significantly higher than that of Crotone’s soldiers who had spent most of their time in the Amphitheatre.
Lysias did not fully believed the words of the captain, but he can also see from this that the soldiers of Amendolara are trained strictly and are experienced in the battlefield. Otherwise, it would not be possible for them to defeat the army of Crotone so easily, even if it is a sneak attack.
After entering the camp, they were then led to a big tent in the center. The patrol captain went inside and reported that Lysias and his entourage are waiting outside the tent.
Then, a man came outside the tent, and Lysias looked at him and felt that he looks familiar, but he couldn’t remember who this guy was for a moment.
The man did not expect to meet Lysias at this time, and so he was taken aback, then he calmed down. He smiled at Lysias and immediately turned away.
Lysias gazed at him, trying to remember who he was.
“His lord Archon has asked you to get inside!” The voice of the patrol captain sounded from behind.
So Lysias immediately returned from his thoughts, then opened the tent and went inside.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The patrol captain then took the soldiers out of the camp, and his serious expression immediately turned into a smile, “Brothers, how was my performance just now?”
“Captain Olivos, you did great! You are very serious, like you were a completely different person!” One soldier praised.
“I don’t think it became better. There’s a joke about women in the middle of the conversation, which showed too much of his identity!” Another soldier had raised his own objection.
“What?!” Olivos looked at him with contempt and discontentedly said, “Xenotemas, you are not serious in carrying out your mission today, so you must accept your punishment!”