Chapter 499: Henipolis Guilt
But a hundred years later, many fleeing Messenians immigrated here, which changed the whole city that even its original name was changed to “Messina”, and the only thing that remained was the symbol of the coins issued – “a sickle and a dolphin”.
Then a few years ago, Dionysius rebuilt the city after Carthage destroyed Messina. However, the city’s residents became the migrants of Syracuse, Locri and their allies.
Since Messina was only about 6 kilometres away from Rhegium, the Theonian fleet soon reached it in a few moments. Seclian was currently standing on the ship’s bow as he looked at the city of Messina with interest. Compared to Rhegium, the city of Messina itself was not large as it was located in the lowlands between the mountains and the sea. Its area is narrow, and there is no large river around it. But what attracted’s Seclian was the extremely long breakwater arc built by mixing rock and limestones, and the refugees surrounding the port.
On the breakwater, a line of Messinians was hurriedly getting summoned; some rushed to the ships on the port, others with bows and arrows climbing the sentry towers on the breakwater… However, Seclian didn’t care as he had no intention of leading the fleet to burst into the port. Instead, he just did what he did outside Locri’s port – ram and sink the merchant ships coming in and out of the port. And after showing off their might, they continued to sail north.
Now that Syracuse dominates the western Mediterranean, the immigrants of Messina had never imagined that they would be attacked in such a way; one can just imagine the anger and frustration they feel.
After more than an hour, the fleet crossed the strait and reached the city of Taurania.
When the Tauranians and the Rhegians stationed in Taurania learned Theonia had defeated the Syracusan navy, they were equally jubilant.
Seclian thought persuading Pheidon would take a lot of time. After all, Pheidon had already failed in their attack and was ordered to return to Rhegium to be tried. Fortunately, there were no Rhegium citizens that could replace him against the terrifying Syracuse-Locri Alliance, so he was allowed to return to Taurania with the support of Athelycus. Thus Seclian feared that Pheidon would be afraid of attacking the Syracuse-Locri alliance again.
But after Seclian explained to this Rhegian strategos, Pheidon did not escape, and he immediately expressed his willingness to cooperate with Theonia to hold back the Syracuse-Locri joint troops. Just that, they were unable to make an effective plan until Seclian got in touch with Hielos in the Bruttian area.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meanwhile in Laos, Henipolis had just woken up.
Yesterday, the Theonian army cooperated with the rioting civilians in the city. Furthermore, nearly half of the defending warriors were almost unwilling to fight, so the city of Laos was easily breached.
In desperation of not wanting to be tormented by his nephew, Alobamus decided to kill himself after getting captured.
Afterwards, Henipolis did not rest as he ordered the punishment of anyone who participated and worked for Alobamus!
After all, almost all the entire officials of the city-state had defected to Alobamus when he usurped the throne, so Henipolis originally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to overthrow all those who opposed and hindered him. Yet he did not expect the rioting civilians, who had been oppressed and exploited for a long time, to unleash the hatred and violence that were hiding in their bones, which became a disaster for the city. Soon, the whole city fell into a frenzy of killing and looting.
Seeing the situation turned for the worse, Henipolis ordered, ‘Stop the looting and killing; else you will be heavily punished!’
But the civilians, who were already frenzied, no longer listened and even attacked the warriors ordering them to stop.
Thus Henipolis could only ask Hielos for help.
Hielos then sent all the troops to stop the riots caused by the civilians of Laos and ordered them to kill anyone who resisted.
Once the more than 5,000 trained Theonian soldiers entered the city, they began suppressing the mobs who broke into the various houses.
They finally put down the riot at dusk, but groans and howls covered the whole city soon after. And the city of Laos, which had grown increasingly prosperous after years of efforts of Avinoges and Alobamus, had become desolate and filled with the wounded and the dead scattered everywhere.
Henipolis, who entered the city, could not bear to witness such sights.
What made him even more upset was those people crying with the bodies of their loved ones on the roadside looked at him with hatred…
Thus Henipolis, who was deeply remorseful and frightened, did not get much comfort even after seeing his mother was safe and sound. At night, the tragic images he saw in the day appeared when he lay on his bed and closed his eyes, with the cries of people ringing in his ears. He tossed and turned for the night and was only able to sleep when it was almost dawn, only because of excessive fatigue.
At noon, he woke up to eat breakfast and lunch simultaneously.
At his meal, his mother joined him. Although Alobamus had conspired against him, he had only put his brother’s widow under house arrest. Besides that, he treated her as usual and suffered no harm, and she was only worried about her son’s safety. Now that Henipolis had returned safely and defeated the rebels, she was in a good mood, “My son, Ariandos, came looking for you several times in the morning, but I kept sending him back.”
“What does he need from me?” Henipolis listlessly asked while chewing his bread and thinking of other things.
“He asked what to do with the imprisoned civilians, so I told him to release them.” Henipolis’ mother was a cousin of Tula, a Lucanian noble and former great chieftain of Laos. Tula then betrothed her to Avinoges to better control and enlist Avinoges, the chieftain of the Sybarite’s descendants; that is why Avinoges and his wife did not have a good relationship.
Later, Avinoges united with Theonia and overthrew the Lucanian rule in the city of Laos. But even after almost wiping out Tula and his force, Avinoges did not divorce his Lucanian wife because she was the biological mother of Henipolis. More than that, the Lucanians had gradually integrated with the Greek descendants of Sybaris. In fact, even many small Lucanian tribes expressed support and submission when Avinoges rebelled, so having a Lucanian wife was to reassure the restless Lucanians.
But this woman kept the hatred of her family’s destruction to heart, and now she could finally smile, “Those ‘black pigs*’, who only know to roll in the mud, should have died long ago. My son, you have done well. They were the ones who killed your uncle Tula and his family! You know, your uncle’s second daughter, your cousin, was so beautiful that I had agreed with Tula that she would be your wife, but those damned-” (A derogatory term used by the Lucanians to call the Sybarites slaves.)
“Enough!” Henipolis suddenly slammed the wooden cup filled with wine on the ground, causing the wine to splash everywhere and startling the woman.
“I’m full.” Henipolis stood up and left without looking at his mother.
“Honey!” The woman could only give a pitiful cry.
Henipolis did not turn back as he was holding his anger, ‘I punished those officials and tribal chieftains who helped Alobamus usurp the throne, not to take revenge, but to establish a better political system. A system in which everyone can own land and has the power to participate in politics like Theonia. I am different from my mother, who hates the people of Laos! But-’
Thinking of the corpses that littered everywhere and the pairs of eyes filled with hatred… his enthusiasm immediately dissipates as he begins doubting himself again, ‘Did I really do wrong? Did I, just as Alobamus said, go too far?…’
Alobamus…Henipolis remembered that he didn’t feel any pleasure of revenge when he saw the body of his only uncle last night. Instead, what kept coming to his mind was when he played with his uncle when he was a child, making his heart feel empty and unsettled.
He aimlessly wandered until he finally reached the city hall next to his house.
In the centre of the city hall’s assembly room, there was a beautiful chair. He walked up and sat down slowly as he faced the layers of stone benches in front of him.
Henipolis’ father built this place three years ago, imitating the Greek city-states. But unlike Theonia and the other city-states in Magna Graecia, this one had an extra chair in the centre, a chair dedicated to the archon for life. He began wondering if his father and his uncle had felt superior and aloof when sitting on this chair as he did not have this wonderful experience at all. Rather, it made him sick like a lamb being gazed at by dozens of hungry wolves. After he became the archon, he was reluctant whenever he came here.
At this moment, he just dazedly sat in his chair and faced the empty meeting place until Ariandos hurriedly came in, “Milord, I finally found you.”
Henipolis looked back at the anxious face of the loyal man his father had left him, so he asked with interest, “What’s the matter again?”
“Those freemen did not want to leave and were asking when you will honour the promise you made, milord.” Ariandos’ words made Henipolis inexplicably angry, “Honour it?! Do they still want me to honour my promise?! Look at what they have done! I am already merciful for not executing them all!…”
Henipolis shouted to vent his discontent. He did not think that those vagrants who used to be pitiful in his eyes would turn into vicious and greedy mobs. Still, he was only saying that to vent his hatred as he certainly would fulfil the oath he made to the gods. Furthermore, Laos’ current situation does not allow him to renege on it.