Chapter 298: Henipolis
Hearing this, Davos fell into thinking: The custom of the citizens of the Greek city-states when going out to war was to bring their own rations that would last for three days, not more than five days at most, and more than that is basically the same as making them give a direct donation which he has never heard of before. Citizens have an obligation to fight for the city and to sacrifice their blood and life, but they have no obligation to donate their own property for the city. He fears that doing so will not only arouse the discontent of the citizens but will also dampen their morale and set a bad precedent…
Seeing Davos’ hesitation, Mersis continued to convince him, “Although we asked the soldiers to bring more rations, they still would not lose out. After defeating Bruttii, they would get more allocated land!”
Davos pondered for a moment. He then shook his head and said, “The allocation of land according to military merits is a plan that Theonia has worked out, so we cannot use this bill to give additional benefits for the citizens.”
“Davos…” Mersis still wants to convince him.
Davos interrupted him. After pondering about it, he then added, “But…Mersis, you have reminded me that we can instead borrow a certain amount of grain from the citizens in the name of the Senate…and then repay the citizens that we have borrowed the grains from with interest once the treasury is abundant. What do you think of this method?”
“That’s a good idea!” Mersis said loudly, “But the interest should not be too high.”
“You will be the one to decide about the interest.” Davos became happy after seeing the problem of military supplies being solved, “You are the best financial officer in Theonia! But you’d better work out a plan as soon as possible and put it forward at the Senate meeting.”
“With your support, Davos, is there any bill that won’t be passed?” Mersis was also in a good mood and had taken this opportunity to flatter him and then added, “I went to the Tiro River the day before yesterday, and I saw that your…the one under construction…ehm…the hot spring bath is about to be completed. When are you going to officially open it? Don’t forget to inform me first, as I want to be the first citizen to enter the huge hot spring bathroom and enjoy it!”
When they were in Persia, Mersis enjoyed the massage of the female slaves that Davos had trained. Moreover, he had also heard that the combination of massage and hot spring bath was not only more comfortable but also more beneficial to the body and he had been long yearning it. Since the hot spring bath construction had started, he had run to inspect it more times than Davos, the actual owner.
Davos naturally knew about it, so he happily agreed.
After seeing off Mersis, Davos went back to the living room and pondered over the map of the Bruttii region drawn by the envoy from Siro, ‘How to fight the war with the Bruttians? Which would be the best place to breakthrough in order to shorten the war?…’
After a long pondering, he got up and went for a walk in the corridor to relax and clear his mind.
“Father!” In the middle of the courtyard, Adoris, who was playing catch with the slaves, waved at him.
Davos also responded with a smile and reminded him to be careful. After more than a year of living together, the two siblings that Davos adopted, who were unfamiliar and formal with him at the beginning, had now finally integrated into the family. According to Cheiristoya, Cynthia, in particular, had become very sensible and often helped her look after little Kro. Since his return, Davos has still not seen the bright and lovely adopted daughter of his. Now, she should still be studying in the akademia.
Davos pondered as he walked around the corridor. After walking a circle, he came across Henipolis, who had just returned from the outside.
As the son of Avinoges, the archon of Laos, when Henipolis first came to study in Thurii, Davos made him stay in his own home from the very start. This is not only to win over Avinoges but also to develop Henipolis’ sense of identity with Theonia. This practice of Davos had also gradually spread among the statesmen of the Senate, so instead of staying in the guesthouse, most of the children of the leading figures of the city-states of the union such as Roscianum and Nerulum or the children of the chieftains of the small Lucanian tribes that had come to Thurii to play and study were invited to stay in the homes of the statesmen, which even include the children of Amikles, the polemarchos of Roscianum and are now living in Kunogelata’s house.
“Milord, you are back?!” As soon as he saw Davos, Henipolis began to shout, “How did the beating of the barbarians go?!”
Davos laughed and only said a faint word, “Taranto has signed a peace agreement with them.” Then he changes the topic, “I heard that you are learning from lord Ansitanos.”
When Henipolis first arrived, he was at a loss. First, he went to the hospital and said that he wanted to learn medical skills, but after staying for a while, he backed out due to being unable to bear the wailing of the patients and bloodiness. Then he went to the Institute of Mathematics but had gotten a headache due to the tedious arithmetic. He then went to the arena for a while and practised. It wasn’t until after the establishment of the akademia and applied to study under Ansitanos, a famous scholar in South Italia, that he did quite well for at least these few months.
“Milord, old man Ansitanos had gone too much and is using me as his slave, not only giving me a lot of work as a scribe, but I am also often running errands for him…” Henipolis poured out his grievances.
“In that case, I will go and talk with Ansitanos and get you another teacher.” Said Davos seriously and looked at him with consideration.
Henipolis waved his hand and said, “No! Don’t! If you say that, I would not even know how he would torture me afterwards!”
He lowered his head and stammeringly said, “…actua…actually, studying with him…has really taught me a lot and got me interested in history…today, he even asked me to come back and write an article on ‘why did Sybaris perish.’”
“Oh.” Davos became interested, “What is the reason for why Sybaris perished?”
“Of course, it was due to the difference in the commanding ability between Sybaris and Crotone during their war! The reason why Crotone was able to defeat Sybaris is that they have Pythagoras, just as we in Theonia were able to defeat Crotone today because we have you, milord!” Answered Henipolis without thinking while giving flattery.
‘We!’ When Davos heard this word, his eyes brightened and laughed, “There is a more important reason. The long years of a rich and luxurious life had not only eroded the body of the Sybarians but also corrupted their thoughts, making them lose courage and morale. Otherwise, even if Pythagoras won the battle with skills, Sybaris, who had a powerful national strength, could reorganise the army and use their abundant resources and sufficient population to continue fighting the Crotonians on a protracted battle, so as to not allow the Crotonians to take advantage of their victory and easily occupy their city-state!
It’s the same with Crotone today. As the hegemon of Magna Graecia, they have become proud and had lost their vigilance, and at the same time, they have become used to peace that when our troops set foot on Crotone’s plain, they hastily demanded peace. If they had chosen to continue fighting with us, Theonia, our union would not have achieved the position we have today so quickly. That is why there is a saying that goes, ‘Difficult environment makes the city-state strive for survival, and comfortable environment makes the city-state easy to perish!’”
Henipolis’ eyes lit up and repeatedly recited the last sentence and said excitedly, “Milord, what you said is wonderful! I am going to put it in my article and let the old man know how good I am!”
Davos said, “Don’t say that I was the one who said that.”
“Of course!”
Then a burst of laughter resounded in the courtyard.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
A few days later, Androlis returned to Thurii. Once the Senate heard what the Bruttians had done, they were outraged and threatened to punish the Bruttians severely.
A day later, Siprus – the envoy of Terina, came to Thurii with a small number of people from Siro who were lucky enough to escape from the Bruttian Tribal Union.
Davos received them personally and made a formal promise that Theonia would, in due course, seek justice for them from the Bruttian Tribal Union.
Then these people whose family had been slaughtered and had lost their homes had not only told about their tragic experience to the Senate but also told the Theonians in the square and at the assembly place, which aroused the sympathy of many citizens, ‘We should help these poor Greeks and take revenge on those abominable Bruttians!’
For a time, a tense war atmosphere permeated the territory of Theonia, but the Senate did not mobilise for war because the autumn harvest had come…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Corinth, a Greek city-state on the Peloponnesian Peninsula and a city-state with a long history like Sparta, is located in the geographical centre of Greece, making it an ideal place not only for Greek alliance gatherings, such as the Greco-Persian War decades ago but also for the Peloponnesian alliance armies to gathering and departing here. Its unique geographical locations also bring convenience to its trade.
As early as more than a hundred years ago, Corinth was famous throughout Greece. Not only were they one of the richest in the Mediterranean, but also culturally developed. For this reason, the strong and confident Corinthians founded the Isthmian Games and soon became one of the four major games in Greece.
This quadrennial celebration of Poseidon, the god of the sea, which follows the Olympic Games, should have been held this summer, but for some reasons, it was postponed to September. Even so, a steady stream of Greeks had still come to the city of Isthmus from all corners of the Mediterranean to participate in and watch the games, and almost all the prominent Greek city-states had sent athletes, even Sparta, which had some conflicts with Corinth in the past few years, had still sent a team. Except for Athens, which still held a grudge at the end of the Peloponnesian War. When the city-states of the Peloponnesian League were discussing what to do with Athens, the Corinthians strongly insisted on killing all the Athenians and turning the whole Attica region into a wilderness, and thus they had not sent any participants.