Chapter 153: The construction of bridges and the discussion in the Senate
Kunogelata could only sigh with a sad expression, and said, “Davos had Amendolara built these warehouses and inns, in hopes that it will increase the revenue of the treasury and benefit the people. If you are the only one who will own all those warehouses and inns, what do you think Amendolara would think?! Specially since we are still outsiders. Doing business and managing the city-state are one and the same, it is not for you to only earn money, but also to win the hearts of the people.” Kunogelata told his son with great care that Davos should be the role model that Sostratus should learn from. After this period of observation, he found that the young leader doesn’t only have outstanding military talents, but was also a genius in politics. As for each proposal that he put forward, he always considered the issue from the perspective of the city-state and the people, and he rarely cared for his personal interests. Therefore, it made people forget that he is actually an Archon for life. And as long as Davos stays like this, then Kunogelata is willing to be ordered by him.
“Father…I understand.” After pondering about it, Sostratus gave a slight reluctant answer.
“It’s good that you understand.” Chucked Kunogelata, then he remembered something, and so he asked, “Sostratus, it seems that you intend to do business, are you not going to take up public office?”
“Is it not possible to hold public office and do business at the same time in Thua Union?” Asked Sostratus with doubt.
“Of course it is possible. Since you like to stay in the market, then you might as well become a tax collector under Marigi, but you have to pass an examination.”
“Examination?”
“If you can’t calculate, then how can you be a tax collector?!”
“This is easy.”
“In a few days, the Thua Union Public Service Act proposed by the Archon, Lord Davos, will be announced. And all the citizens in Thua Union will have the right to hold public office and receive remuneration.” Kunogelata decided to give his son a thorough detail of the matter.
“Isn’t that like Athens?” Exclaimed Sostratus.
“It is not quite the same as that of Athens, You will find out about it.” Said Kunogelata, but in his heart, he could only sigh. The announcement of this law will make the people who has been very supportive of Davos to love him even more! What a terrific young man, to be able to think about it and carry it out.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Three months after the signing of the armistice agreement between Thua Union and Crotone, the main road from the Siris river’s fording place to Thurii was completed. The Lucanians who have taken part in the road construction were awarded by the Senate of the Thua Union on the same day: Their sentence got reduce by a half a year.
With this, the Lucanians only have a year and a half of hard labor left*. Of course, they and the Crotonian captives needs to continue building the road to Roscianum. (note: Fighting the Crotonians have reduced their sentence by 2 and half years, and it was once again reduce by half a year because of them managing to capture the high-ranking officers such as Melanseus.)
After the construction of the road between Heraclea and Thurii, the wide and flat and solid road has accelerated the speed of the pedestrian and carriages, and the time required for the journey was reduced by at least two fifths, which is a great convenience, specially for transportation.
In fact, after the slaves and the captives have straightened out and became proficient in the process of the road construction, their progress became very fast. However, the main difficulty they encountered lied on the bridge. This section of the road will pass through four rivers, except for Siris river, which was located at the border between Amendolara and Heraclea, which already have a pontoon bridge there. So three more bridges needed to be built and Davos requires that the bridge must be a flat bridge and not a pontoon bridge nor arch bridge, in order to facilitate the transportation of goods.
Heracleides the Younger had spent most of his time thinking on how to build the bridge. He even went to asked not only his father, but also the experienced craftsmen and even the two Pythagorean disciples. What kind of geometric bracket that can make the bridge more stable? Only after his ideas matured, did he submit his bridge construction plan to Davos, which got his approval. However, the Archon had asked that the captives must not be allowed to build the bridge, and had instead allowed the soldiers to participate in the construction.
At the same time, Davos issued an order that the soldiers must participate in the road construction in the morning of the military training day. Davos hoped that the soldiers could master the skills of building roads and bridges, in order to prepare them for future campaigns.
So Heracleides the Younger then ordered the soldiers to tie up the two bunch of logs, one end of which was pointed and slanted into the riverbed, and then another bunch of logs was driven into the riverbed, symmetrically 10 meters parallel to the stump. Then a thick wood was erected between the two group of logs, which was stuck in the gap at the upper end of the log (because the two piece of logs that were fixed together) they then tightened it up and tied it. In this way, a row of piers were completed, then they will spread wooden boards on the piers to make the bridge’s deck, with this, the main body of the bridge is completed. The work that followed was much easier, making guardrails, then additional support were added to the pier in order to prevent long-term water impact…and so on. It took them seven days to finish the first bridge, which was 15 meters long and 9 meters wide flat bridge and stretches across the Burano river.
With the experience of making the first bridge, the construction of the latter bridge became faster…by the time the third bridge was built, it only took them two days to complete it.
After hearing this, Davos greatly praised him and asked Heracleides the Younger to incorporate the methods and the steps of building flat wooden bridges into the《Thua Union Military Book》.
Heracleides the Younger was greatly encouraged, but then he gotten a headache, because building a bridge over the Crati river is much more difficult. Although it will be built at the place of the pontoon bridge on the west of the city of Thurii, but there was a delta in the middle, and the Coscile river is also more than 20 meters wide and the water was too deep to walk. Heracleides the Younger had to find a way on how to drive a bridge piles into the riverbed more easily and for it to be stable.
While he was thinking hard about it, Davos has also said, “Currently, the Thua Union will only build wooden flat bridges. But in the future, we will build stone bridges and make it possible for a trireme to pass through under the bridge. If you can do all of this, then you will be known as the master of bridge construction and be remembered by future generations!” in order to encourage and stimulate him.
The word of Davos made Heracleides the Younger feel the pressure, but at the same time, it ignited his spirit…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
A few days later, the reconstruction of the city of Thurii came to a temporary end. Countless freeman flocked to the census office, and the census officer, Raphias, received tens of thousands of applicants to become a citizen of Thurii in a day. He was so busy that he had to ask for more staff from the Senate.
And the Senate is currently holding a meeting in order to discuss about the construction of a large square that could accommodate tens of thousands of citizens to hold an ecclesia and to gather troops when the union goes on a campaign.
“I have no objection to the construction of the Grand Square. And from the distress letter of Raphias, we can see that our official citizens can easily surpass 10,000 in a few years.” After nearly half a year of hard work in the post of Praetor of Amendolara, specially in the past three months, Cornelius’ experience and self-confidence have increase which allowed him to talk and laughed in front of dozens of statesmen, and it has also aroused the laughter of a group of statesmen.
Then Cornelius questioned, “However, I am not sure if we also need to build an assembly hall that can accommodate 600 people for the Senate. At present, the number of statesmen is less than 50, and building such a large assembly hall will not only a waste of manpower and materials for the reconstruction of the city of Thurii, but also make us sit in such a large place to discuss issues, which will not be pleasant.”
The words of Cornelius were shared by some statesmen.
At this moment, Davos got up from the meadow, which have immediately attracted the attention of everyone. It wasn’t only because the building of such a grand assembly hall is his proposal, but also because the statesmen of Thurii who had managed to survived this disaster, are awed at Davos, who was able to rescue Thurii twice and gained the highest authority of the new union.
“The reconstruction of Thurii is not only to rebuild the homes of our people, but also to consider and plan the future development of the union. Therefore, we have to build better roads, better bridges, better ports, bigger squares, more orderly neighborhood, and elevated viaducts that have never been seen before…In the future, the new city of Thurii will be one of the most beautiful city-states in Magna Graecia and even the whole Greek world! Therefore, the Senate which is the central power of the Union, and where the statesmen of the Union will discuss and decide the survival, development and prosperity of the Union every day. If the place where the people often paid attention to and where they will often come to visit have not changed, and stay simple and thrifty, will make the people dissatisfied and they will say, ‘Look, that little Senate hall can’t match our beautiful city at all, and makes our beautiful Thurii ugly!’”
While the statesmen chuckled, many of them nodded to show that Davos was right.
Then, someone says, “Milord, then we…we can make the assembly hall more beautiful, but it doesn’t have to be that big.”
Davos felt that the voice was unfamiliar, and so he looked at him and turns out, it was Bolus, whom he had met before, “The reason why I have proposed to build an assembly hall that can accommodate 600 people, is because I am thinking about the future. The statesmen of Amendolara knows that half a year ago, there were only 20 statesmen in the Senate, but now, we have close to 50. Maybe in the future, we would allow other city-states or tribes join our inion, and will need to include their statesmen and tribal leaders of their city-states into our Senate, just as what we have done, in order to make the new city-states that joins and the union integrate smoothly, and to stabilize the hearts of the new people that will join and to ensure their interests?! For example, a year later, the tribe of Vespa will come and ask us for them to join us as a citizen of the union. And Roscianum, for example, may ask to join our union one day…”
The statesmen of Amendolara knew that Davos had long planned to attack Lucania. This time, he had successfully defeated Crotone and merged with Thurii, which have convinced them of the ability of Davos. Therefore, they had no objection.