Chapter 217: Crotones naval harassment
As a result, the new village was composed of dozens of households with the majority of them being preparatory citizens. Aguilas was elected without any dispute because he was one of the mercenaries who had followed Davos to Thurii, and during the siege of the Lucanians, he was seriously injured in his left leg and had become a cripple. After the establishment of the Thua Union, Davos had come to visit these wounded soldiers and Aguilas had made a request to him, hoping to change his “share” of land allocated to him in Amendolara to the south bank of the Crati river, his purpose was for him to stay away from his comrades who are still active, so as to not get depressed due to his situation.
With the influx of people and the large-scale development of farmlands on the plain of Sybaris, new villages have sprung up on this flat and fertile plain. Originally, in the eyes of the dozens of new households, they found Aguilas to be difficult to approach, but under the supervision of the public official sent by the senate, Aguilas was easily elected as the village chief. Because he found out that Aguilas was a mercenary veteran who had followed the Favored of Hades, the benevolent archon, the invincible strategos, Davos, and had gone through life and death with him. Looking at Aguilas, he had immediately become awed.
Aguilas was a serious person, since he has become the chief of a village, he needed to do his duty in maintaining the order of the village, resolving the disputes among the villagers, teaching morals and customs to the villagers, checking the planting in the farmland in the village, reminding the villagers to participate in military training on time, supervising their military service and pay taxes, recording the population growth and guard against epidemic diseases…he is in charge of all kind of work, no matter how big or trivial it is.
Every morning, he gets up and walks around every corner of the village while clutching a cane, and sometimes, he even drags his injured leg to jump into the mud and repair the canal together with the villagers….
A few months later, the whole village praised him for his performance. When they encounter him, their faces are filled with respect from the bottom of their heart, which has made him find the meaning of his survival and struggle.
After the battle between Crotone and Theonia started, all the adult men in the village went to participate in the war. However, the spring was the season of sowing and the labor was obviously insufficient. Although every family has slaves, agriculture is after all, different from commerce. If there are too many slaves, they will only consume money and food. In fact, when the labor force is tight, they can just rent slaves to survive the busiest period. Therefore, each family has only one or two slaves. So Aguilas had to rush to the senate of Thurii, and after registration, he brought 30 slaves back to help the whole village to do farm work.
Except for Aguilas, who is disabled, the whole village only has women, elderly and children, and the rest are all slaves and most of whom are males, but Aguilas was not worried that the slaves would cause trouble because the law of the union stipulates that every year on the founding day of Theonia City-State Union(that is, October 30), a group of slaves that had work hard and has good performance will be given freedom in front of the temple of Hades. This is their reward and also to show the kindness of Hades. Since the promulgation of this law, the enthusiasm of the slaves of the city-state has become high, and their efficiency has doubled. For the slaves in rural areas, it is not easy for farmers to own a slave, and they depend on them so much that it is only natural for them to cherish the slaves. So they often treat the slaves as a part of their family, and the longer the time they spent, the closer the emotional relationship between the two sides, and the more freedom the slaves could have. And as long as the master is rich and can afford the payment demanded by the union, many of the slaves can be freed before their master dies, and after they are free, they will often return to their master’s home and continue to help with the housework as servants.
With the help of the slaves, the spring ploughing of the whole village was completed. Of course, in his spare time, Aguilas will comfort the women and elderly in the village who are worried about their relatives.
On this day, because the waterwheel in the village had broken down, Aguilas had to rush to the city of Thurii early in the morning to find someone to repair it. After making an appointment with a skilled carpenter, he hurriedly went home.
As soon as he opened the door, the female slave immediately came forward and told him, “Master, madame is sleeping right now and she did not vomit today.”
Aguilas was relieved. He had fought for most of his life in the battlefield and had thought that he would someday die in the wilderness or live a lonely life. However, he did not expect that he would become a citizen of a city-state and get an allocated land, marry a wife and establish a family, and now, he will even have a child. This is the blessing of Hades!
At that time, when he heard the news from the physician, he had danced with joy and had immediately used his savings to buy a female slave to take care of his pregnant wife.
“Master, have a drink.” The female slave then held the wooden cup filled with water.
However, Aguilas didn’t immediately drink it, and had instead asked, “Is it boiled?” In the past, the Greeks used to drink raw water, but Herpus, who is highly skilled in medicine, had repeatedly appealed to the citizens to drink “boiled water” and insisted that this can reduce the incidence of diseases. Aguilas was no stranger to this, because during the Persian expedition, Davos had strictly demanded his mercenaries regarding this matter. And for the sake of his unborn child, he needed to take good care of his body.
The female slave nodded, so he drank the water with confidence.
“Bang!” The door was suddenly pushed open and made a loud noise, then a child half of Aguilas’ height came in.
Aguilas glared and was about to reprimand the boy.
The boy then pantingly said, “Uncle Aguilas, I was just picking shells on the beach…I then saw…saw a big ship stopping on the beach, and many people disembark with weapons!”
Enemies!! Aguilas immediately became alert, he then turned to the slave and said, “Go to the field and call back Pomis(he is the male slave of the family), and have him immediately help my wife to go north and wait for me in the square of Thurii!”
“Yes, master!” The female slave then ran outside.
“Boy.” Aguilas then remembered that the boy’s name was Patroclus. He was usually mischievous and was often beaten up by his father, “When you saw those people, is there anyone else by the sea?”
“I am the only one.”
Aguilas then asked, “Can you ride a mule?”
“I have ridden other people’s cows and mules many times.” The clever boy was obviously aware of the emergency, so he confided his secrets and was not afraid of being scolded.
“Do you know about the village in the south, which is very close to us?”
“Yes, I had fought with a kid in that village.”
“Uncle wants you to ride my mule and immediately go there to inform them and say ‘the enemy is coming, and to immediately evacuate!’ Can you do it?”
“I can!” The boy nodded hard.
“Good boy!” Aguilas praised and stroked the head of the boy. Suddenly he remembered something, and then took out the seal of the village head issued by the praetor of Thurii, and put it into the boy’s hand, “If they don’t believe you, then show them this.”
“Understood.” The boy nodded again.
Aguilas then immediately took the mule from the shed in the courtyard, and the boy easily jumped on the back of the mule.
“Remember kid, after passing the message, you will then wait for us by the wooden bridge on the Crati river!”
“Got it uncle.” The boy then shook the rein and the mule ran out of the courtyard.
Seeing the boy’s skillful movements, Aguilas became a bit relieved. As a veteran mercenary, he and most of his comrades have similar ideas, and this union was created by them with their blood and sweat, so they have the responsibility to defend this union, and not just focus on their own villages.
Aguilas reluctantly looked at his house, then strode out of the door and limped to the village square, and went to ring the bronze bell to order the villagers to evacuate immediately.
Aguilas then led the slaves to support the elderly and the children. Shortly after they left the village, thick smoke rose behind them….
The women shouted and cried for their burning village….
Aguilas could still manage to keep his calm. Based on his previous experience of plundering, he judged that the enemy would not go out of the village immediately to catch up with them. He then urged the villagers to speed up, while changing his fist tightly: His first home in the union was destroyed!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“This morning, three villages in Thurii were destroyed and 15 people were killed, but we didn’t catch the enemy! Philesius, you have to do something! If it goes on like this, the Nike Square will be filled with people who have lost their homes, and then the people of the whole union will fall into panic! Do the soldiers at the front even want to fight?!” Kunogelata said anxiously, as the praetor of Thurii, he couldn’t watch Thurii, who had finally recovered its prosperity, suffer another disaster.
“Lord Kunogelata, just calm down and sit, in order for us to discuss it slowly.” Cornelius comforted him, then explained to Philesius, “To tell you the truth, the Crotonians are very cunning. They use their small warships to land on the coast of Thurii and Roscianum, and all of them are sailors with bows and javelins. And the young and middle-aged citizens of our villages have gone to war. Otherwise, how can they attack us so easily! As soon as the enemies found out that our troops had arrived, they would immediately flee back to their ship, and make us unable to catch up with them! And currently, there are only three brigades in the city and they still have to defend the port of Thurii and also to take care of Amendolara. We are really short of manpower!”
“But the problem must be solved as soon as possible!” Kunogelata snorted and then added, “If we don’t have enough people, then we can consider using those freemen!”
“Lord Kunogelata, that is a great idea.” At this time, Philesius, who had been pondering, then said, “There are tens of thousands of freemen who have nothing to do in the port right now. And as time passes, they are prone to make chaos. Yesterday, there were some freemen who had gone to the camp and said, ‘We have nothing to eat, give us what the soldiers are eating!’”