Chapter 239: The indignation of Leotychides
“With regards to the supervision of the implementation of the peace treaty and the cession of land and the resettlement of immigrants in the city-state of Elea, which was temporarily put on hold due to the death of Agis, I have recommended to the Gerousia for you to be the one responsible, I wonder if you are willing to go?” Said Agesilaus with seriousness.
“I am!” Phidias blurted out and said that apart from military training and attending the king’s funeral during this period of time, he had nothing else to do. So when he sees other people being sent to foreign places one after another to perform important tasks, it was inevitable for him to feel disappointed. Now that Agesilaus had placed such a delicious job in front of him, so how could he not be moved and grateful!
“Thank you very much for your trust in me king Agesilaus! You becoming our king is a gift from Zeus to Sparta!!”
Agesilaus smiled from hearing the flattery of the talented young Spartan, Phidias.
After Agesilaus and Phidias left, there were only a few dozen people in the mess hall remaining. A young man with linen cloth on his head then appeared stealthily from behind the pillar while looking at the back of Agesilaus with hatred.
He then hurriedly went to get his share of communal meals when the cook who was distributing the food jokingly said, “Leotychides, why are you dressed like this? You look like a woman.”
A Periokoi dared to make fun of him. If it had been the past Leotychides, he would have angrily beaten him to the point of possible cutting off his arms and legs, but at this time, the son of the previous king had no desire to argue, so after finding a corner to sit down, he then start eating his bread, and for some reason, tears welled up in his eyes. His failure of taking the throne had made him a joke in Sparta, while his usurper uncle had given half of the family’s fortune that was left by his father to those people who were having difficulty and thus won their support, and began praising the benevolence and righteousness of Agesilaus. While some people proposed to expel him and his mother out of Sparta on the reason that ‘He and his mother are not Spartans, and are a disgrace to Sparta.’ Although the Gerousia refuted this absurd proposal, the Spartans looked at Leotychides with increasing contempt.
“What have I done wrong?! That made the goddess of fate to punish me like this?! To prove myself, I grew up participating in ‘Agoge*’ which the sons of kings were not supposed to participate, and I have always excelled in all the training and tried my best to fight at the front in every battle. And I had always caused all my peers to be dumbfounded in my debates, and wrote better articles than them, but why?! Why?! They couldn’t see all of these and instead always focused on those rumors to insult me and my mother!! Damned Agesilaus! Damned Gerousia! Damn Agis, if you had not treated my mother so badly, how could there be such rumors spreading?!” In the end, Leotychides began blaming his dead father, “I can’t stand such humiliation anymore! I will take my mother and leave this disgusting place! I will leave Sparta!!” (T/N: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agoge)
Leotychides finally made up his mind, but when he was about to reach his destination, he saw a lot of people around the door of his house, and they were shaking their heads and sighing, while looking solemn. A sense of uneasiness suddenly rose from his heart.
“Leotychides!” Someone who have a good relationship with him saw him and said with sadness, “Your mother commited suicide.”
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Theophantes’ troops were plundering the territory of Scylletium, which made the garrison of Scylletium to go out of the city to meet with the enemy, but the Locrians retreated immediately.
The next day, the Locrians reappeared.
When the troops of Scylletium pursued them to the coast as they had done yesterday, they found that nearly two thousand Locrian soldiers were waiting for them.
The troops of Scylletium, which had been pursuing them and were no longer in a formation, had soon retreated, but the Scylletians had paid hundreds of casualties under the pursuit of the cavalry of Locri, and now, they could only hide in the city and could not go out. The only thing they could do was to send people to ask for help from the Crotonian army in Caulonia.
As the leader of the alliance, the Crotonian had to send 3,000 soldiers to assist Scylletium, but the Locrians had once more retreated to the sea.
Just as the Crotonian reinforcement hesitated whether to stay in Scylletium or return to Caulonia, 3,000 Locrians, Medmans and Hipponian troops marched along the west coast and crossed the Grande river, and entered the territory of Terina.
Terina, who had learned from the mistake of Scylletium, did not dare to rush out but went to ask Crotone for help.
Soon after the Crotonian reinforcements left Scylletium and went to Terina, the Locrians once again landed on the coast of Scylletium.
The Crotonian troops were forced to move back and forth, but they could not even touch a single hair of the Locrians, and had no place to vent their anger.
While Scylletium and Terina were also suffering, and their newly sown farms getting destroyed, and the people’s weariness of war began to rise.
Finally, the Crotonians found out that the more than 20 ships that have suddenly appeared during the naval battle, were not secretly built by the Locrians, but had instead come from the assistance of Syracuse.
This news had made the herald of Crotone panicked.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
During this time, in addition to dealing with the affairs of the union, Davos, who returned to Thurii, was staying at his home together with his wife and were taking care of their new-born baby, while educating his adopted children. He led a very full and happy life. Even if the envoy of Crotone had come to Thurii and asked for Theonia’s help, it still did not cause him any anxiety, because Hielos and Asistes had managed to push back the Locrians who invaded the territory of Crotone.
For this reason, the statesmen in the senate were praising Davos for choosing the right praetor of Aprustum.
In his letter to Hielos and Asistes, Davos greatly appreciated their decisiveness of taking the right measures in such a complex situation, and encouraged them to act boldly when the situation was critical and to not delay the time by being too concerned about his own feeling and waiting for the orders of the senate.
The excellent performance of Hielos had also made Davos to be completely relieved and to devote more of his energy in resettling Aprustum and Krimisa.
But at this moment, he got a report from Aristias that the “envoys of Crotone, Scylletium, Terina and Caulonia journeyed north together” and their purpose of coming to Thurii was obviously about the war between Crotone and Locri that Aristias was reporting to him these recent days.
The first thought of Davos was that this was a rare opportunity for Theonia to expand its strength and influence and that it was not unacceptable to engage Locri in a war by comparison.
But then, he began to hesitate due to the “special attention” of Aristias, who was in Catania, to Syracuse, so he also knew the truth regarding the defeat of the Crotonian fleet. Syracuse is the real ally of Locri and they have also sent reinforcements in this war, so Davos fighting Locri will certainly offend Syracuse, but is it worth it?
Davos had to consider it carefully.
In his previous life, he didn’t know much about the history of Syracuse and only knew that Archimedes of Syracuse was one of the culprits that triggered the second Punic War. And the Romans easily crushed Syracuse as if Syracuse’s strength was not worth mentioning, but it must be known that it was the Romans who used the power of the whole Italy to fight against Syracuse, which was in a period of decline.
When Davos crossed the Mediterranean world, it was in Magna Graecia where he felt the reverence of the Greek city-states of Italy for this great city-state of Sicily – Syracuse. Syracuse had repelled Carthage and dominated Sicily and Magna Graecia decades before, and now it seems that they are trying to regain their former glory and have the tendency to unify and rule the Greek city-states in Sicily and Magna Graecia. Although Sicily is only an island, its land is fertile and it is a famous wheat producing area in the western Mediterranean (mainly due to the volcanic ash), and what is more, the Greeks colonized Sicily in large numbers and had developed it very early on. In addition, Sicily being near the center of the Mediterranean Sea has made it become an important hub of trade between the eastern and western Mediterranean. All of these are the reasons why Sicily developed commerce and agriculture. Just looking at how Syracuse, who had only occupied the southeastern part of Sicily, could organize such a large army which Theonia, who was still in its infancy, could compare.
However, Davos is not a frog in the well who can not see the potential danger, on the contrary, countless cases in his previous life’s history, as well as the theories of politics, economy, geography and topography, and so on., all told him that no matter how much Theonia evade, once Syracuse truly defeats Carthage and unifies the Greek city-states in Sicily, then the rapid rise of Theonia will certainly attract the attention of Syracuse and will become an obstacle to its expansion, or even become the target for Syracuse’s next attack. So it is better to take advantage of the fact that Syracuse is caught in the quagmire of war with Carthage to seize this time to strengthen itself in order to have the strength to confront Syracuse in the future.
So after careful consideration, Davos finally made a decision and went to convince the senate.
Sisticos was the envoy of Crotone, and because of his accompaniment with Lysias and concluding a truce with Theonia and signing an alliance agreement, and then going alone to “persuade” the Theonians that were garrison in Aprustum to help Crotone repel the Locrians, had made almost everyone in the council of Crotone(except Lysias) to unanimously elected him to go to Theonia. So for the very first time, he was so highly regarded by the statesmen of Crotone, and the three envoys from the other city-states who accompanied him also looked up to him during their journey. Hence why Sisticos inevitably became somewhat proud.
Entering the city of Thurii, the envoys felt that the new city was not as bustling and wide as the city of Crotone. However, there is not a lot of crowding and noise.