Chapter 241: The Family Situation of Kunogelata
It must be known that the Crotonian Alliance, whether in foreign affairs or war, was dominated by Crotone, while the other city-states had to pay tribute every year. Naturally, Crotone contributed great efforts on the safety of the alliance in resisting foreign enemies, but with the strength of Crotone, they often decided many things without even consulting their allies, and their allies could only support them, just like their declaration of war with Theonia previously. But now, according to the proposal of Davos, the opinions of the small city-states in the alliance can be valued in the new alliance, which is a good news for Terina, Caulonia and Scylletium.
“I agree with the archon’s proposal in establishing such an alliance among our several city-states, so that our city-states in Magna Graecia can unite together to protect our interests and prevent enemies from angering us!” The envoy of Terina, Siprus, was the first to express his support.
Then the envoy of Scylletium agreed to the proposal, because his city was under the protection of the Crotonian army, and the envoy of Caulonia only implicitly expressed his approval.
Afterwards, everyone’s gaze was all focused on the body of Sisticos.
Sisticos’ mind was in a mess at this moment, because he knew that as soon as he gave his assent, this new alliance would be formed and the Crotonian Alliance would no longer exist and the century-long dominance of Crotone on Magna Graecia would end. In fact, after the second Crotonian war, the strength of Crotne had declined, but they still have the Crotonian Alliance as a cover to comfort their people.
Sisticos did not dare take such a big responsibility, and to become the scapegoat of the people’s blame, so he said, “This matter…I…I do not have the power to decide, it…it must be discussed and decided by the council.”
The other envoys were disappointed at Sistico’ delaying tactics, while Davos calmly said, “It doesn’t matter, we can wait.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Negotiations can wait, but the war will not stop.
The army of Syracuse managed to easily occupy Agrigento, which was the second largest Greek city-state in Sicily.
A few days later, with a small amount of reinforcements, the Locrian army came out of their camp and marched towards the city of Caulonia. Although the Crotonian reinforcements still had more than 2,000 soldiers stranded in the territory of Scylletium, they still resolutely joined hands with the soldiers of Caulonia and went out to meet with the enemy. An hour after the battle started, the Locrians began to gain the upper hand due to their large number of men, if it wasn’t for the coincidental gust of wind that prevented the Locrian cavalry from chasing them, then the joint forces of Crotone and Caulonia would have suffered not just a minor setback.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At the beginning, after the reconstruction of Thurii, each statesman of the senate was assigned a house. And Kunogelata had chosen a courtyard far away from his former residence so as to not think of the past and get depressed.
That night, when he came home, the living room was still lit with candle light, and his eldest son, Sostratus, came out and said, “Father, you have returned so late today, did something happen in the city again?”
Kunogelata glanced at his son while taking off his sweaty himation, he then stood on the courtyard and asked the male slave to bring water to wash his body and then said, “Androlis of Krimisa and the others have arrived at the Senate, which had caused me to busy today by registering them in the census office, assigning them residence and a whole lot of other matters….”
“But there is no need for you to do these things yourself tho, you can just let your men do them.”
“What do you know! Considering that Krimisa has just been merged into the union, we need to show these statesmen who represent the people of Krimisa that Theonia attaches great importance to them, so as to eliminate their worries….”
Sostratus, leaned against the porch pillar and said without regard, “Is that what Davos demanded again?”
“Fool!” Kunogelata grabbed the wet cloth from the hand of the slave and threw it at Sostratus and shouted, “I have told you a lot of time to not disrespect the archon, and yet you still do not listen!”
“When did I disrespect the lord archon?!” Sostratus cried out in aggravation while picking up the wet cloth and carefully threw it to the slave, “Lord Davos is my commander, and I have always obeyed the military law and his orders. It’s just that I can’t change the way I talk.”
Kunogelata looked at his son’s lazy appearance and could not stop himself from sighing. It seems that his son really is not fit for politics. Thinking of this, he asked, “Is the reason why you are waiting for me so late and still haven’t gone to bed is because you want to borrow money from me again?”
“Father, you are looking down on me. The last time I borrowed money from you was to contract the warehouses and inns in Amendolara, apart from paying you back and the rent I paid, guess how much I made?” Sostratus asked smugly and Kunogelata just ignored him.
“1 talent and 20 minae!” Sostratus shook his finger and triumphantly said, “If it wasn’t for the war with Crotone and the port of Thurii getting blocked, then I would have earned more money!” (T/N: Ancient Greek currency which goes 1 Talent = 60 Minae = 6,000 Drachmae = 36,000 Oboloi.)
After a pause, he continued, “Father, I have something to discuss with you.”
“Go ahead.” Kunogelata realized that his son must be up to something and said in a pretend casual manner.
Sostratus looked at his face and said casually, “After the war, the reward that the alliance will allocate to you and me is a total of 2,700 square meter of land in the northern plains of Crotone, which I would like to exchange to someone else for the land of Amendolara.”
“What?! You are going to trade the fertile Crotone plain for the barren land of Amendolara?!!” Kunogelata, who no longer valued money, could not be careless when faced with the issue of land, because land was the lifeblood of the Greeks.
“Father, let me explain!” Sostratus hurriedly said.
Kunogelata knew that his son must have a reason, so he rinsed his body and changed into clean clothes, then sat in the living room and listened to his son carefully.
“Father, you are the praetor of Thurii, so you should know the trade volume of the port has been rising since the reconstruction of Thurii last year.” Sostratus’s words made Kunogelata to snort. How could he not know of these things? He could even tell the number of cargo ships entering and leaving the port of Thurii every month and the amount of commercial tax for the market trade. Marigi had made a detailed plan to revitalize the trade of the union and had put a lot of effort to make this plan come true.
“Why could I earn money?! It is because the port of Thurii can no longer accommodate so many goods and foreigners, with the convenient transportation, it has made the warehouses and inns in Amendolara to be very popular. Now that we have defeated Crotone, we have not only expanded our territory once again, but also became a real power in Magna Graecia. Therefore, merchants and freemen will continue to flock here, however, the Senate has approved a law that forbids the use of the fertile land of the Sybaris plain for other purposes besides farming, otherwise it will be taken back-”
“Right, Burkes was the one in charge of this, it is to protect the arable land of Thurii.” Kunogelata interrupted.
“I also agree with this law!” Sostratus first praised it and then said, “In this way, Amendolara became the inevitable choice of these foreign merchants and freemen. Moreover, all the lands in the industrial zone that Marigi established last year have been auctioned off. I went there a few days ago to see, and a weapon workshop, pottery workshop and a stone carving shop have been started one after another. These are all large-scale workshops that require a lot of labor and slaves, so there is a great demand for accommodation, food and even entertainment. And a while back, I had a preliminary discussion with someone else to exchange 2,700 square meter of land on the Crotonian plain to 5,400 square meter of land on Amendolara near the industrial area. With such a large piece of land, I can build a large number of cheap housing and warehouses on it. Just the annual rent collected alone would not be a small amount, and we can also build some small stores to rent to others to do bakery, garments and so on…and if I have the money in the future, I can buy a lot of slaves and then rent them out to make a profit.” Sostratus talks about his dream.
“Father, no matter how fertile the land is, it will suffer heavy losses once famine comes. But according to my plan, as long as our Theonia Union remains strong, then our family’s annual income will be much more than when doing farming!”
Looking at his son’s spirited face, Kunogelata pondered for a long time and then said, “Sostratus, from now on, you will be the one in charge of the family’s finances, and I will announce this tomorrow and have Kleosus(the slave housekeeper of Kunogelata) listen to your arrangement from now on.”
“Really?!” Sostratus couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Of course! Since you have talent in trade, I won’t let you bury it. But-” Kunogelata added, “When I die, half of what you earn will be given to your brother. Can you promise me that?”
Under the gaze of Kunogelata, Sostratus calmed down and thought carefully and solemnly said, “Since the time when our family was driven out of Thurii, and my sister Sefina…left us, it made me even more cherish our family! Dicaeogelata is my only brother, so I will sign the agreement as father had requested, and once you go to…Elysium, I will share half of the family’s fortune with him! And once my sister remarries, I will prepare a rich dowry for her!”
“Good! Very good!!” Kunogelata was very relieved and felt that he had made no mistake in his decision. While the words of Sostratus had reminded him of one of his worries.
Diana, his eldest daughter, was already married when they were driven out of Thurii, so she did not follow them to Amendolara and got insulted by her husband’s family in the city of Thurii. And when her husband died during the attack of Crotone on Thurii, her husband’s family had driven her out of the house.