ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1105 Jason

In the Western Mediterranean War, the power of the Dionian army in the city defense battle caused Hasdrubal to suffer a lot. In the frontal battle, although there was only one encounter, the Dionian army led by Leotyzides The Oonian coalition was defeated, but on the right wing that was fighting the real Dionian Army, Hasdrubal's Phinian infantry, which he relied heavily on, was beaten back steadily, which made him have a strong influence on the Dionian Army. interest.

The Ministry of Military Affairs is busy setting up the border corps, and the Ministry of Finance is also starting to get busy. The new "Taxation Bill" has been announced and is gradually accepted by the people of the kingdom. Although there are still several months before the nationwide collection of direct taxes, the new Finance Ministry Minister Archibides has begun to urge the tax offices in various towns to estimate the income of the people under their jurisdiction this year in advance, so as to calculate the possible total tax revenue based on the new tax rate, and then use this number to formulate new plans. The financial allocation plan was submitted to King Davos for reference.

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The new "Immigration Act", the new "Tax Collection Act", the formation of new legions, the establishment of new administrative divisions... a series of new measures are being implemented in an orderly manner, which means that the development of the kingdom has entered a new era. On the track, governance will be more efficient, finances will be richer, and military security will be more guaranteed.

It was also in this year that the war in mainland Greece entered a new stage.After the Battle of Thesis, the Thebans gained great prestige. They seized the opportunity to drive away the Spartan garrison around Thebes, and gradually united the neighboring Boeotian city-states around themselves, thus further strengthening their strength. , and also sent troops to attempt to occupy the city of Thisbe in the north of the Gulf of Corinth and in the southern area of ​​Boeosia to support the Spartans, thereby preventing the Spartans from landing here again and directly threatening the security of Thebes from the south.

After receiving this news, Sparta had to send King Cleombrotus to lead the army again and sail across the Gulf of Corinth to help the Thesbys and repel the invading Theban army.

Just as the two sides began a new round of fighting, an envoy from Pharsalus, a city-state in Thessaly, came to Sparta.

This messenger's name was Polydamas, and he had a high prestige in the city of Pharsalus.Whenever Pharsalus fell into internal strife, the people would unanimously agree to hand over the management of the acropolis to him and entrust him with the responsibility for the city-state's financial revenue and expenditure, whether it was religious affairs or administrative revenue and expenditure. , he can act in accordance with the law and arrange all aspects in an orderly manner.At the end of each year, he would also submit a detailed account of the city-state's finances. If there was a deficit, he would make up for it out of his own pocket.Therefore, he was not only highly respected by the people in Pharsalus, but also enjoyed a high reputation throughout Thessaly.

When such a man came to Sparta, he was naturally received with great ceremony by the Council of Elders, who agreed to his request and convened a special meeting for him.

At this meeting, Polydamas mentioned something.

Thessaly is located in the north of Central Greece. In the north, it is separated from the Macedonian territory by rolling mountains. Mount Olympus, the divine kingdom of Zeus revered by the Greeks, is located among them.It is bordered on the west by the mountains of Epirus, on the east by the Aegean Sea, and on the south by the land of the Marians, where Thermopylae is located.

Geographically, Thessaly is surrounded by mountains. Countless streams flow down from the mountains and converge into multiple rivers, carrying the soil in the valleys and alluvial into fertile plains, thus raising a large population.In addition to its developed agriculture, Thessaly's many gentle slopes provide natural high-quality pasture for raising horses, while the plains below the mountains provide horses with vast open spaces for galloping. Therefore, Thessaly is famous throughout Greece for its horses and cavalry. . (Note: Historically, Alexander the Great’s famous war horse Bucephalus came from Macedonia, and most of the 5000 cavalry he brought in his expedition to Persia came from Thessaly.)
Although Thessaly has such good geographical conditions, there are many conflicts and constant wars among the city-states in Thessaly, so it has never become an important force in the entire Greek mainland.

But this split has begun to change in recent years.Philae is the only coastal city-state in Thessaly with prosperous port trade, and its own developed agriculture and animal husbandry, so it is also the richest city-state in Thessaly.

There was a citizen in the city-state of Philae named Jason. His father named him this ancient hero when he was born (Jason is the protagonist in the legend of the Golden Fleece) in the hope that he would be successful when he grew up. as.Jason lived up to his father's hopes. When he grew up, he used various means to eventually become the tyrant of Philae.But he was not satisfied. He used Philae's wealth to recruit 6000 mercenaries, trained them rigorously, gave generous rewards to soldiers who performed bravely in battle, and gave good care to injured soldiers. If he died in battle, he would be given a grand funeral, so the mercenaries were loyal to him and willing to fight to the death for him.

The cavalry in Thessaly is famous, and the heavy infantry here is also famous. They are already in his newly formed team, but Jason still feels dissatisfied because in these years he has paid attention to what happened in Greece south of Thessaly. The war made him realize the importance of peltasts (the Athenian general Iphithrax was good at commanding Thracian peltasts in combat and had repeatedly made military exploits), and the mountains around Thessaly were also rich in excellent peltasts.

Therefore, he commanded this well-trained and heroic army, and successively conquered the Malachi, Donops (a race in the mountains north of Thessaly) and Epirus in the mountains northwest of Thessaly. people, thus strengthening his mercenary team.

Under his powerful rule, Philae became increasingly powerful.He also took advantage of the fact that the Greek overlord Sparta was busy dealing with the war between Thebes and Athens and was unable to look north, and successively forced several northern Thessaly city-states such as Larissa and Cranon near Philae to surrender to him. Then he set his sights on Pharsalus.

Pharsalus is located in the center of the Thessaly region. It has always been a powerful state in this area. Many Thessaly city-states follow its lead. By conquering it, they can unify the entire Thessaly region more smoothly.

So Jason led an army of tens of thousands of people and marched toward Pharsalus in the south.

Pharsalus also hurriedly summoned other allied armies to fight against the invading enemy forces.

After winning the first battle, Jason did not immediately attack the city of Pharsalus. Instead, he sent envoys into the city to persuade him to surrender. A personal letter from Jason.

In the letter, Jason bluntly told Polydamas: With the powerful force in his hands, he could completely annihilate Pharsalus and his allies in one fell swoop. The reason why he did not do so was because he hoped to use The Thessalian city-states headed by Pharsalus were able to join the Thessalian League he established with sincerity, so that they would not always be prepared to plot rebellion, but would do their best to jointly safeguard the interests of the alliance.

He also hopes that Polydamas will fully assist him and help him become the Tagus of all Thessalians (the Thessalians’ name for the overlord of all Thessally), and he will also give Polydamas generous support. Retribution, let him be inferior to him and superior to ten thousand people.

In the letter, he also showed his ambitions to Polydamas: as long as Thessaly is under the rule of a Tagus, the years of war will be quelled, and there will be ample food, a large population, and The well-trained mercenaries...allowed him to send an army of 6000 cavalry and more than 1 heavy infantry at any time, and could form an alliance with the Boeotian city-states headed by Thebes to the south. If he could By freeing them from Spartan control they would be sure to obey him; at the same time he could control Macedonia further north, where the Athenians obtained shipbuilding timber, from which he could build far more He formed a powerful fleet with the ships of the Greek city-states in the south... And his real target was not the barren land in the south, nor the small islands in the Aegean Sea, but Persia on the vast continent to the east. Since that year The Greek mercenaries and later the army of Agesilaus were able to fight in and out of Persia, but he had a more powerful army. He was fully confident to conquer the Kingdom of Persia and gain unprecedented glory and wealth!
Polydamas was completely stunned by the ambition revealed in his letter.

After Polydamas calmed down, he wrote back a letter to Jason: He thought that the various issues mentioned by Jason in the letter were indeed worthy of his consideration, but letting Pharsalus wait for these was an ally of Sparta. (After Sparta helped the King of Macedonia defeat the Chalcidian Alliance, it increased its influence on Central and Northern Greece. Many Thessalian city-states such as Pharsalus also formed alliances with Sparta).To break away from an alliance and turn to their enemies without any excuse is unethical and unprotected by the gods.

Jason quickly responded.

In the letter, he praised Polydamas, thinking that he was a person who kept his promises and that such a person was more trustworthy.

And he suggested that Polydamas could send an envoy to Sparta to request assistance from Sparta.

At the end of the letter, he said very confidently: "If the gods allow you to persuade Sparta to send an army strong enough to fight me, then I can only wait and see what happens and accept any consequences of this war. ; But if they cannot provide you with sufficient aid, then you had better carry out my previous requests, and all of Thessaly will unite under me, a new Tagus!"

(End of this chapter)