ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1142: Advancing to Peloponnese
This wave even spread to Argos. In fact, the Spartans never controlled the city-state of Argos, but due to its power, a group of pro-Spartan MPs gradually emerged in the political arena of Argos. Most of these wealthy MPs are now clubbed to death by angry civilians.

In such a wave, the Thebans were undoubtedly the ones who benefited the most. As the victors of the battle, Thebes' influence in mainland Greece greatly increased, which not only caused the remaining Boeotian city-states to actively move closer to Thebes, but also It accelerated its progress in unifying Piosia, even the Phocians and Locris who were friendly with Sparta (not Locris in Dionia, which was located in Central Greece and was divided into two parts, one in Pio The southwest and northwest of the Xia region) and even the Euboeans were showing favor to Thebes and wanted to form an alliance with it.

The reason is that they saw the decline of Spartan power and wanted to get military support from a new power to help them resist the threat.The Phocians and Locrians were worried about Thessaly, while the Euboeans were worried about Athens.

The Thebans have mixed feelings about this. They are happy that their strength has been greatly enhanced, but they are worried that the threat from Sparta has not been eliminated yet, and they may have to add a few more powerful enemies: Needless to say, Athens already has both sides. Crack; Although Thessaly is an ally, Jason's previous performance has already shown his ambition. At this time, he is recruiting troops in the north. When he leads his army south, I am afraid that the two sides will meet.

Under the strong advice of Pelopidas and Ipamilonda (the Battle of Leuctra made Ipamilonda the most prestigious person in Thebes), the Theban government decided to cooperate with Phocis The people, Locrians, and Euboeans formed an alliance to strengthen their strength as soon as possible to cope with future challenges.

Since then, almost all of Central Greece, except for Attica (Athens), has been under the influence of Thebes.

But Thebes is not the biggest threat to Sparta now. The biggest threat comes from the Arcadia region of the Peloponnese.

Arcadia is located in the center of the Peloponnese Peninsula. Geographically, the Laconia region where Sparta is located is separated by towering mountains on the east and west sides, and the sea on the south. The terrain in the north where the sub-regions are connected is relatively low, and the army is more convenient to enter and exit. Therefore, since the rise of Sparta, it has been interfering in the affairs of the city-states of Arcadia, trying to completely bring them under its own control.

Precisely because of Sparta's long-term suppression, compared with other regions in Greece, there has never been a city-state in Arcadia that has a certain influence in mainland Greece. Even before the Corinthian War, due to the disobedience of Mantinia (Mantinia is located in the northeastern part of Arcadia), invaded its territory brazenly, and used water attacks to completely destroy its city.Sparta's ferocity did temporarily frighten the Arcadians, but it also made the Arcadians increasingly vigilant and uneasy.

More than ten years later, when Sparta frequently fought against Thebes and was unable to care about anything else, the exiled Mandinians returned to their homeland one after another and began to work hard to rebuild their homeland.This aroused the vigilance of the Spartans, and soon a messenger was sent to warn the Mantinians: let them get out of this land immediately, otherwise Sparta will send troops to expel them.

But within a few days, other city-states in the Arcadia region sent envoys to Sparta to intercede for the Mandinians.

At this time, Sparta was short of manpower and materials due to years of war, and relied more on its allies. The Arcadians contributed a lot, so Sparta had to reluctantly agree to their request. Of course, the Mandinians also He had to promise: Re-accept Sparta as the leader of the alliance and send citizens to help it in the war.

The problem seems to be solved, but it is not.The Mantinians began to intensify the construction of city walls and rebuild the city. In order to prevent it from being flooded again, they even dug new river channels and changed the flow direction of the Orpheus River. The newly designed city was stronger, unique and difficult to conquer.

While the Mantinians were building the city, they were also secretly carrying out another important thing.During his long years of exile, Lycomedes, one of their leaders, gradually realized that the Arcadian city-states must unite and establish an alliance before they can have the confidence to say no to Sparta's unreasonable demands. Able to protect the Arcadians' own safety.

Therefore, Lycomedes worked tirelessly to convince other city-states in Arcadia, and things went smoothly, because these city-states had suffered from Sparta for a long time. With Lycomedes taking the lead, except for a few city-states, everyone agreed to form a Pan-Arcadian Alliance.

But there was another dispute over which city-state to choose as the capital of the alliance: because the strength of the city-states in Arcadia is not much different, no city-state with outstanding strength is enough to overwhelm others; but if you choose any one at will, It is possible for city-states to rapidly grow in strength after the alliance is established, which is something other city-states do not want to see.

It was Lycomedes who made a suggestion: gather the power of the alliance to build a new city as the capital of the alliance.

In the end, his proposal was unanimously approved by everyone. After much discussion, the address of the new city was selected, and more detailed discussions were held on the political structure of the entire alliance...

In short, in 371 BC (the 23rd year of the Kingdom of Dionia), the preparations for the Pan-Acadian Alliance were basically completed, and intensive implementation began.

Sparta learned that "Arcadia is preparing to form an alliance", but at this time its war with Thebes was at a critical stage, and there was really no spare power to stop it, and the city-states of Arcadia had been It sent troops and food to help it fight, so the Spartans pretended not to see it and wanted to wait until the problem of Thebes was solved before turning back to deal with this matter.

But I didn’t expect that the Battle of Leuctra would suddenly change the situation in Greece. The remaining Arcadian city-states were also shaken by this. So with Lycomedes’s active persuasion, they also began to actively request to join Panchayat. Arcadian League.

These city-states include Tegea, which is located in the southeast of the Arcadia region. Sparta has always regarded it as a firm ally and a strong gateway to the northern frontier. Now Tegea has turned against him , This made the Spartans finally unbearable, so the prosecutors sent envoys to threaten the city-states of Arcadia, demanding that they must immediately dissolve the alliance, otherwise they would be angered by the Spartan army.

Of course the Arcadians would not surrender, but they also knew that the Spartans were too powerful to fight with their own strength alone, so they had to seek support from external forces.The first destination they thought of for help was Athens.

After the Battle of Leuctra, Athens was happy about the decline of Sparta's power, but was also worried about the rise of its neighbor Thebes, so it took an action and invited its Maritime Alliance city-states and the Peloponnesian city-states to represent Athens. Re-swore the previous king's contract, and solemnly stated that when attacked by the enemy, all members who swore should help each other.

It seems that this action of Athens is a continuation of the Treaty of Callias previously signed in Sparta, and it is also a support for Sparta and its allies who suffered a defeat on the battlefield, but in fact Athens is trying to expand its power in Sparta. The influence of the Loponnese Peninsula wanted to usurp Sparta's leadership position, and at the same time, it also wanted to draw Persia over.

Many city-states of Mandinia and Arcadia also participated in this oath. According to the agreement, Athens was obliged to provide help, so the Arcadians sent envoys to Athens.

Just as the Arcadian envoy was on his way to Athens, a huge fleet was sailing through the Adriatic Sea towards the Peloponnese Peninsula. It was the Dionian expedition to Sparta. army.

According to the mobilization speed of the army of the Holy Kingdom of Dionysia, after the order to go out is issued, each region usually within four or five days (in a relatively vast and mountainous region like Lucania, the military camp will notify each town, And it will take a lot of time for the citizens of each town to meet at the military camp) to complete the assembly. Even if King Davos needs to discuss with the Ministry of Military Affairs and let him make some military preparations, the time required will not exceed 15 days.

The reason why the army was ordered to go out two months later was because the subsequent truce between Thebes and Sparta and a series of anti-Spartan waves in the Peloponnese caused dissatisfaction among the top leaders of Dionia. Attention, military operations were temporarily suspended to wait and see the development of the situation, and they were not restarted until two months later.

In order to prevent the news of the expedition from being discovered by the Spartans in advance, Dionia declared that "it was to attack the Lusitanians who had repeatedly harassed the southern part of Iberia." Therefore, the place where the army boarded the ship was not set at Breen. Dixie, but in Crotone.

The barracks of the Fourth Army was originally in Crotone. The First Army and the Sixth Army were located in the north and the other in the south, not too far apart. The three armies soon boarded the ships that had been prepared at the port of Crotone. The fleet, escorted by the 1st Fleet, headed east.

The huge fleet passed through the heel of Italy, rested for one night in Odrum, sailed through the Adriatic Sea on the second day, and headed south along the west coast of mainland Greece.

City-states, villages and towns were all frightened wherever the fleet passed, such as the island of Corfu.The Greek people have never seen such a huge fleet. It has more than 300 troop carriers, more than 500 cargo ships carrying baggage, and 550 warships. A total of more than 1200 ships are spread out on the sea. , a full five or six miles in length from front to back, this is because the entire fleet chose these days when the sea conditions were better, and the ships were arranged more densely.

(End of this chapter)