Chapter 444: The Peoples Voice and Henis Request
While Hieronymus raided Petaru’s tribe, the Senate held a meeting early in the morning. They had a heated discussion on how they should deal with those three statesmen who defected.
The first to object was Sedrum, as he believed that even if the three men ran back to Bruttii without reporting it to the Senate, it is still not certain whether they defected.
He was obviously defending them, which Scambras, Tritodemus, Stromboli, and the others immediately refuted. However, they did not have evidence to prove the three’s betrayal. In the end, the discussion turned into a quarrel.
Only when the messenger from Consentia arrived and reported the arrest of Kaduk and presented the confessions of his men and slaves that Sedrum no longer have anything to say.
But at this time, Scambras, Tritodemus and Stromboli became infuriated. They all proposed to impose the death penalty on these three people and said in a righteous manner, “The Theonian Law stipulates that the severest punishment for treason is the death penalty. Now that the Theonia Union was facing danger, as a statesman of Theonia, Petaru, Kaduk, and Bodiam did not think about leading the people to defeat the enemy. Instead, they took the lead in inciting the people to betray the union, plunging our Theonia into great difficulty and bringing great danger. Not killing such traitors is not enough to calm the people’s anger and deter those who have different intentions!”
Thus the Senate voted to impose the death penalty on Bodiam, Petaru and Kaduk by a large margin. The Bruttian statesmen such as Sedrum and Baripiri were saddened after learning the result, while Scambras and Tritodemus became wary of them.
In such a critical moment when the Syracusan army was pressuring them, the Theonian statesmen should have worked together to overcome the difficulties. Instead, they became estranged and suspicious of each other, which made Kunogelata and Cornelius look at each other with anxiousness in their hearts. But the two of them have no other choice but hope that Davos, who is the only one that could eliminate their differences and unify everyone, to return soon.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
An uproar happened when the news of “Bruttian statesmen rebelling” reached the Thurians.
The panicking Thurians still had not calmed down after hearing the “Tarantine army was approaching Amendolara” yesterday, yet they heard such bad news again today. Since the start of the war, one bad news after another came. At last, they could no longer maintain their calmness as they quickly gathered in front of the Grand Senate Hall to protest, asking the statesmen to take immediate and effective measures to repel the enemy as soon as possible and restore peace Theonia.
But how could they easily fulfil such demand? While the statesmen such as Kunogelata had a headache thinking of a way to appease and quell the people’s anger, a messenger from Lucania had arrived just in time.
After reading the battle report the messenger brought, Kunogelata felt relieved. He then stood on the steps of the Grand Senate Hall, held the battle report high and shouted excitedly to the noisy populace at the bottom of the steps, “This is the battle report from Potentia. Lord Davos and our army has completely defeated the Samnites and are on their way back to Thurii!”
In an instant, the clamouring voices at the bottom of the steps disappeared, and a deafening cheer erupted.
“All hail Lord Davos!!”
“Hurray, Theonia!!”
“See, it is just like what the oracle of Hades stated: Only Lord Davos can defeat the enemy and ensure the peace of Theonia!”
“You are right! Hades had blessed his descendant, Lord Davos!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Amidst the relieved cheers of the people, someone suddenly shouted, “Let Lord Davos be the king!”
When the statesmen heard this, they all became a bit confused.
Rather than the shouting stop, it merged into a thunderous roar, echoing in the ears of the statesmen, “Take my blood as the king, and the peace of the union will be ensured!!!…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
While the Thurians shouted, “Let Davos be king”, Davos led his army to the Lao Fortress.
When he arrived at Nerulum yesterday’s evening, Nerulum’s Praetor, Hemon, told him that the South Italian Alliance’s army failed to prevent the Syracusan army from advancing northward and was forced to fight the Syracusans in Scylletium. In the end, Syracuse defeated them miserably…
Hearing this news, Davos was very surprised. He did not expect that after leaving Thurii with his troops for less than a month, the Syracusan army, under Dionysius’ clever and flexible mobilisation, attacked with fierceness and viciousness and caused the situation in the south of Theonia’s territory to collapse like this!
‘I underestimated Dionysius. He is not that simple!’ After Davos realised this problem, while he blamed himself, he also declined Hemon’s invitation for an evening banquet, locking himself in his room as he thought hard about Theonia’s following response, so much so that he did not sleep well that night.
Early the following day, he led the army and departed. After all, the battle that Hemon told him was about two or three days ago. With Dionysius’ ability and Syracuse’s dominance, it was enough to steer the war even more against Theonia. Therefore, he had to lead the main force back to Thurii as soon as possible.
Along the way, he kept pondering the war situation in his heart, looking for a way to win.
Once he went inside the Lao Fortress, he stopped only to rest for a bit.
At this time, he called Henipolis and asked with concern, “Heni, are you really sure that you won’t return to Laos and instead follow me to Thurii?”
“I have made up my mind, milord! Theonia is now in distress, and as an ally, Laos should lend a helping hand to help Theonia defeat our powerful enemy!” Henipolis passionately said, “I will also send someone to inform my uncle to send more soldiers to fight alongside the Theonian legion!”
Upon hearing this, Davos narrowed his eyes. He knew that the reason why Henipolis was willing to go to Thurii was due to him being tired of his cage life in Laos, where he could not decide anything.
Davos pondered for a moment and said, “Hmm… Alright, you could come with me, but there is no need for you to send Laos’ troops. After all, now that Terina had fallen, Laos will also need enough soldiers to prevent Syracuse from raiding its port from the sea.”
Henipolis doesn’t care much whether he sent more troops or not as long as Davos agreed. He then happily said, “Lord Davos, I have another thing that I want your permission for.”
“What is it?”
“Can…can I serve as your clerk during the war, helping you write your orders and collect information?…” Henipolis asked in a low voice.
“Eh?” Davos looked at him in surprise, “How did you come up with such an idea?” An archon of a city-state actually wants to serve as the clerk of the supreme commander of another city-state? This is too much a bargain…those who don’t know the story would see it as Davos humiliating his allies.
“Milord, you should know…that last time in Poseidonia, you had asked me to lead the army to intercept the fleeing Samnites…but when I saw the fierce Samnites approaching towards us…my legs were shaking…if it wasn’t for Izam’s help, I’m afraid that I would have already fled…” Henipolis did not conceal his embarrassment at all, “Thus, I now understand that…I am different from you, milord. I do not have the talent to lead a battle. Instead, I like reading and writing, but it’s too boring to search for information from countless materials and spend time pondering like teacher Ansitanos.
But if I were to stay by your side, milord, I would not only help you, but I can learn in more detail how you defeated the Samnites and how you would defeat Syracuse…such a glorious process, not only I want to know, but even the people of Theonia…no! The entire population of Magna Graecia wants to know! And if I were to write it, it will become popular!…” Henipolis became more and more excited.
Davos looked at him in surprise and thought, ‘This little guy wants to be a biographer!’
However, Henipolis’ request made him somewhat tempted. From his previous life, he knew that: Alexander the Great had scholars following him and writing anecdotes about him during his expedition to the east. Hannibal also had scholars following him when he invaded Italy, writing and advocating for him as Italy’s liberator. Caesar also had scholars following him since he crossed the Rubicon, and even continued the 《Civil War》 for him…‘Why can’t I have one as well?’
Thinking of this, Davos smiled and said, “Heni, I agree with you being my clerk during this war-”
“Great, thank you, milord!” As soon as Davos agreed, Henipolis immediately shouted and leapt with joy.
“It is still too early for you to be happy. If you want to write a book about me in the future, I must check the content first and only after I agree can you publish it. Do you agree?!” Davos said with a serious expression.
“Uh, yes.” Henipolis nodded repeatedly.
“And also…if you were to serve as my clerk, who will be in charge of Laos’ troops?”
“Ariandos. He is usually the one in charge of the army.” After Henipolis said this, an image of a man immediately came to Davos’ mind. Ariandos was the right hand of Avinoges. They could see his ability was not weak while he orderly led the Laos army to march and camp, and they could even see his loyalty to Henipolis.
Davos then expressed his approval, “Alright. You go and tell him to report to me from tomorrow. And also, don’t sleep late!”