Chapter 350: Thuriis Medical Market
It’s necessary to know that only Theonia Union, who have the full support and help of Davos, an archon who had come from later generations and had been influenced by more than two thousand years of medical knowledge, could zealously trained physicians, established hospitals and medical school, and conduct in-depth research on treatment and medication, making Theonia, especially Thurii’s medical trade flourish and far ahead of other city-states and countries in the Mediterranean in this era. Thus the medical street of Thurii’s port market became unique in the whole Mediterranean.
However, although this street is very famous in South Italia, it is not as crowded with customers as the other streets. After all, most of the people who come to buy medical materials were mainly physicians and pharmacy staff. While most of the patients would just buy the medicines from a pharmacy in the city, and only a few of them would come to the market to buy this kind of unprocessed medical materials, while physicians, who have a higher status as Theonian citizens, only account for a small percentage.
Because of that, Nicostratos, who had been squeezed in the crowd, felt a lot more relaxed after coming to this street. They then curiously visited, watched and consulted the shops one after another.
As they walked, they came to a large medical store and found that the owner was actually a Bruttian, who was haggling with a customer with his stiff Greek pronunciation, “Lord Olivos, I know that you are from the Ministry of Military Affairs since you buy a lot of ‘beets’ from me every year. However, this year, you have come to buy too early, and we don’t have that much. You should know that the snow on the Consentian Plateau has not yet completely melted, so the only place that will bear fruit is the lower terrain. Thus the quantity is not much, and the price is certainly higher. If you think that it’s too expensive, then why don’t you wait until summer to buy when the price of beets goes down…”
“Come back in the summer?…that’s impossible as lord Kapus would tell me to get out!” The customer sneered, “I’d better go to another store.”
With that, he was about to leave.
“Wait!” The shopkeeper called him in a hurry. After hesitating, he finally gritted his teeth and said, “For the sake of the fact that our Bruttian soldiers often participate in training and need to drink this kind of fruit to quench their thirst…I am willing to reduce the price for another Obol! Lord Olivos, I am really losing money this time!”
Olivos’ anger immediately turned into a smile, “Agum, isn’t an Obol just a pound less? This thing is all over the wild in the Consentian Plateau, and you don’t even need to spend even one Obol. You only need to pick it up, so why do you feel distressed about it?!”
Agum said with a bitter smile, “Lord Olivos, picking up beets is not as easy as you say. As soon as spring comes, the women of our tribe would have to step on the slippery mountain path and go up the mountain to pick them. Besides the risk of being hurt by wild animals coming out looking for food, they have to also compete with other tribes. Up to now, two women have broken their legs and are lying in the hospital! And after picking up the fruit, it would still need to be dried in the sun. However, during spring, it would often rain, so we can only bake it on the stove…it is not easy to earn enough money to support thousands of people of the whole tribe!”
Olivos ignored his complaint and said casually, “Do you really care about your tribe? Or you think that since you earned less money, your visit to the brother would be lesser?”
Agum’s complexion changed. He then said, “Don’t speak nonsense!”
Olivos patted him on the chest and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry, we are all men.”
Agum looked around and stopped talking.
“Brothers, choose 150-kilogram beets to take away!” With Olivos’ shout, dozens of muscular soldiers immediately came up and began squatting on the ground and picking up the fruits.
Agum immediately said, “There is no need to choose. All of them are authentic beets, and their quality is good! The port market’s management would not allow us to cheat, and I still want to do business here for a long time!”
Olivos looked at him and laughed, “That’s right. I should trust you just for the sake of Chief Salu. Then you can weigh 150-kilograms of fruit for us.”
Olivos then said to the soldiers, “I will go to other places, so after they weighed the fruits, you directly carry them back to the training camp.”
“Roger!”
Olivos went out of the door of the store, but thinking of something, he turned around and said, “Agum, yesterday, lord Davos talked to me about the picking of herbs. He said that ‘don’t over pick the herbs, else they would decrease or even disappear!’”
As soon as Olivos’ spoke of Davos, Agum immediately worship, “Lord Davos is farsighted, which no one else can compare! But, lord Olivos, you are looking down on us Bruttians! We have lived on the Plateau for generations. The streams, trees, flowers and even the plants on the mountains are all the generous gifts given to us by Amara, the goddess of the plateau, to us Bruttians. So if we were to ask too much from the plateau, we would surely welcome Amara’s wrath!”
Olivos smiled and said, “Good! That’s good!” With that, he took a look at Nicostratos and left.
As Agum told the slaves to weigh the beets for the soldiers, Nicostratos, Strasippus and Lycasis took the opportunity to observe the small and hard red fruit.
“Excuse me, what is the medicinal use of this fruit?” Asked Strasippus politely.
“Oh, this fruit is called beets. In the past, it was all over our plateau. However, no one cared about it and only the horses like eating it when they are tired. Later, Thurii’s physicians took it to study and said that boiling it in water and drinking it could quench thirst and eliminate fatigue. Thus it became valuable. In the past two years, Theonia’s Ministry of Military Affairs bought hundreds of kilos of fruit from me every time, due to its effective use when drinking it after military training! You are not Theonians, are you? Buy some and try it back.” Agum patiently explained it to them.
“We are Crotonians!” Nicostratos coldly interjected.
Agum then let out an “Oh”, without feeling anything particular, as if the hatred between Crotone and the Bruttians were long past gone.
“How much is a kilo?”
“Six Obols.”
“Give me a kilo.” Said Strasippus, drawing out his coin bag.
Agum then poured a handful of red fruits from his hands into a straw bag, “Give me seven obols together with this bag.”
“Alright.”
“What’s the use of this grass?” Asked Nicostratos curiously as he stood next to a pile of dried grass that looked like thorns.
“That is a thorn weed. Thurii’s physician found that pounding it and bathing it in hot water can relieve itching, which is quite good!”
“Can this cure itchy skin?” Nicostratos carefully touched the thorns on the grass with suspicion on his eyes.
“Those physicians in Thurii are all students taught by lord Davos, a descendant of your…well, the god of death, and he is highly skilled in the art of healing, just…just like your Greek god of healing…As….kele..pi…”
“Asclepius.”
“Yes, that Greek god. What those physicians of Thurii say could still be false, but this one, I had specifically tried it, and it does have such an effect. Currently, pharmacies often ordered this grass! Now, every tribe in Bruttii, if they have any ancient healing methods passed down, would come to tell these physicians in Thurii, hoping to be proven useful. I also heard that the Lucanians also does the same…and lord Davos is truly worthy of being a descendant of the gods, as he had turned the wildflowers and weeds in our mountains into treasures!…” Agum said with both gratitude and admiration.
Nicostratos and Strasippus looked at each other with amazement in their eyes. Through these few days of studying, they learned that the Theonia Medical School was far ahead of other city-states in the study of medical theory, experience in inquiry and treatment, and the development of surgery. Still, they did not expect that they have done so much work, even in the field of medicinal herbs!
At this time, Lycasis ran into the shop and said excitedly, “Teacher, there is a shop next here that are selling what you said last time…that surgical something tools!”
“Really?! Take me there!” Nicostratos dropped the thorn weed in his hand and ran out with Lycasis while Strasippus picked up the straw bag before following them.
After seeing that all three of them had left, Agum muttered, “Crotonians…huh…”
Located next to the Bruttians medical store is a shop selling surgical instruments, occupying a smaller area, but has a variety of exquisite iron and wooden tools, which are carefully placed in different categories.
As soon as Nicostratos and the others entered, they looked around with delight. The shopkeeper then asked, “Are you physicians, Theonians?”
“No, we are from Crotone.”
“Then you can only see, not buy!”
“Why!?” Lycasis looked at him angrily.
“These tools were designed by Thurii’s hospital and sent to the iron workshop to be specially made. And they had made such a request, and with the port market’s management in charge of supervision, there is nothing we can do!” The shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly.
“Can’t we buy them even if we pay more?” Strasippus asked anxiously.
“Do not harm me. I don’t want to have any stain on the archives of the Census Registry of the city.” Glared the shopkeeper.
“Strasippus, come and see!” Nicostratos took a sharp knife the size of a leaf and said loudly, “This is the knife that master Herpus used to cut through the skin during the operation. This is-”
Nicostratos picked up another tool and said, “I remember that it was called a clamp, which is used to pick up boiling water to…uhm, sterilised linen…and this…this curved needle, which is used to sew the wound. Look at how exquisite they are!” Nicostratos could not stop himself from touching each tool.