ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1147 Recognition
"In addition, you have to send someone to notify Tisias and ask him to lead the people from Tyndares to persuade and mobilize as many helots as possible to help us unload the baggage on the cargo ship..."

Muklu took the order and left.

Leoticides said to Adoris again: "Go and inform the soldiers of the First Legion not to pursue the enemy any more, and not to march further north. Gather at the Spartan military camp immediately and seize the time to expand that camp. .And...where did the Spartans escape into the mountains? Send two soldiers to take me to see."

Leotychides could roughly guess where the Spartans might have escaped from, but he needed to confirm it with his own eyes in order to make defensive arrangements.

..........................................

Having witnessed the power of the Dionysian army's ballistae with his own eyes, Dolios realized on the way to retreat that even if he retreated to the military camp, he would not be able to defend it for long (due to constant aggression from foreign enemies, the defense facilities of the Spartan military camp in Messenia Insufficient and relatively crude), so he decisively issued two more orders: First, he handed over the command of the army to the adjutant, and asked him to lead the soldiers to retreat to the Lagunda Pass in the Taygetos Mountains, and try to let Si Bada, an army of more than 400 people, mostly composed of real Spartan warriors, was saved; secondly, he sent messengers to the city of Pylos on the west coast to inform the soldiers in the city that the Dionian army had landed. Messenia was ordered to abandon the small city and retreat north as soon as possible.

But he himself decided to stay, even if he died in battle at the gate of the barracks, he would never escape, because he knew very well that although the enemy army was powerful, retreating was completely justifiable for the sake of preserving strength. , but the loss of Messenia is definitely a big deal for the Spartans. The resentment and rumors of the people will always surround him. As a former member of the king's guard and a veteran of more than 20 years, he would never honor has been defamed.

It's a pity that he only killed one Dionian soldier before he was stabbed in the thigh by a javelin thrown by the enemy and became a prisoner, despicable Dionian!
At this moment, he was held hostage by two soldiers and brought into the big tent. Under the candlelight in the tent, he saw a Dionysian general wearing black armor sitting directly in front: He had short hair and hair, and no beard on the chin. I heard that the Dionians have a strange habit of not keeping beards and hair, but this person looks like he cannot be younger than 50 years old... Huh?Huh!

"Spartans, tell me, how many soldiers have you deployed in Messenia? How many are Spartans?" Leoticides asked coldly.

Dorios didn't answer, he just stared at Leoticides' face, and even took a few steps forward involuntarily.

The guards on both sides immediately grabbed him and shouted sharply: "My lord commander is asking you something, answer it quickly!"

Dolios tried hard to break free from the soldier's grasp, and shouted excitedly: "Leotichides? You are Leotychides!"

Leoticides was taken aback. He thought he had changed a lot after leaving Sparta for so many years, and most of the Spartans who were familiar with him back then were either dead or retired, so it was impossible to recognize him on the battlefield. He came, but he didn't expect that his identity would be revealed as soon as he set foot on the land of Peloponnese.

Muklu next to him immediately shouted loudly: "This is Lord Proseus, the commander of the Dionian army. He once led an army to defeat the Carthaginian army, capture Syracuse, and conquer Gaul... It is Dio The famous victorious general of the Kingdom of Nia! Spartan, please stop being so arrogant and answer the general’s questions truthfully. If you behave well, we will consider releasing you back to Sparta!"

"He is really Leoticides, the son of our former king of Sparta, Agis!" Dolios still pointed his stubborn finger at General Dionia in front of him and said loudly: "I will never He will admit his mistake! The scar on his chin was when he was knocked down by the alpha wolf when we were sent by the instructor to hunt wild wolves. If it weren't for me, he would have been bitten to death by the wolf long ago!"

Dolios said that he had a nose and eyes, and several other people in the tent looked at Leoticides subconsciously: Indeed, Proseus did have a relatively obvious elongated scar on his chin.

If Leotychides had grown a beard and tied up his hair, perhaps Dolios was not sure, but except for the wrinkles on his face, Leotychides now looked the same as when he was young. Not much has changed.

With the continuous reform of Sparta's political system in the past few decades, the king's power has been almost lost. However, in addition to the right to command troops, there is another right that has not been deprived, that is, princes do not need to participate in brutal military training since childhood. Otherwise, babies like Agesilaus who were born with foot diseases would have been thrown into the cracks of the valley long ago. However, Leoticides was one of the few royal family members who actively applied to participate in Agego training. Naturally, He attracted a lot of attention from other Spartan teenagers in the military camp, but because of his character, he rarely paid attention to other people. However, the wolf kiss that almost killed him left such a deep impression in his memory, so even if the situation in front of him was The Spartan was disheveled and bloody, and he could roughly guess who it was.

The world is so small! ...Leotisides sighed in his heart, and then said in a deep voice: "Leave this prisoner behind, and you all should retreat."

Mukelu stared at Leoticides, saw that his expression was calm and resolute, he opened his mouth, but in the end he turned around and left the tent without saying a word.

However, the two guards hesitated: "Commander, it is too dangerous to leave this Spartan alone in the tent!"

"Am I afraid of a wounded Spartan, go out!" Leoticides said without refusal.

The guards retreated obediently, leaving only Leoticides and Dorios in the tent.

The two looked at each other, and after a while, Leoticides broke the silence, pointing to the wooden bench next to him and saying: "Sit down.

Dolios was not polite, dragging his injured left leg and sitting on the stool.

"I didn't expect to meet you here, Dolios." Leoticides said slowly.

"I didn't expect that the prince of Sparta would become the general of Dionia!" Dolios sighed with sarcasm.

"What's unexpected about this? Agesilaus became king. If I didn't escape from Sparta, would I be willing to stay in Sparta and be constantly accused of being a bastard? And then be like my mother...like my mother, Suffering injustice and hanging himself?!" Leoticides's voice was trembling, and his rare emotion was a little excited: "At that time, except for Dionia, which dared to oppose Sparta just after it was founded, the other The city-states were either allies of Sparta or tributaries of Sparta, so I didn’t have many choices...but now it seems that my choice was the right one, so I’m here today.”

"You made the right choice?!" Dolios suddenly became angry when he heard this: "Dionia raided the precious property left to us by our ancestors - Messenia without declaring war. This It's a completely dishonest act! Do you know how much difficulty losing Messenia will cause us in Sparta?! How many people will lose the nobility of citizens because of losing the territory of Messenia? Being reduced to a lower class because of your status?!...Just because you have enmity with King Agesilaus, you are willing to harm all Spartans, don’t forget that you are also a Spartan!”

Leoticides knocked on the table with his hand and said calmly: "I am now a citizen of Dionia, and it is not up to me to attack Messenia. It was an order from His Majesty Davos. Besides, it is not up to me to attack Messenia. , Sparta is the one who broke its promise. It was you who ended the peace agreement early, so that Thebes had the opportunity to ally with us, Dionia. You violated the Callias contract and led your troops to attack Thebes again. Of course Oniya must fulfill the covenant..."

"But Thebes has signed an armistice agreement with our Sparta!" Dorios roared.

"I have indeed heard rumors about this in Dionia, but Thebes did not send an envoy to inform us, and Dionia is so far away from mainland Greece that it is impossible to determine whether this rumor is true or false, so the attack There are no changes to plans.

In addition, there are some citizens in Dionia who were born in Messenia. His Majesty Daves promised them back then that he would 'restore Messenia's independence', and he has fulfilled his promise today..." Leoticid Si said lightly.

"So Dionia has decided to become the enemy of Sparta?!" Dolios said fiercely: "Don't think that Dionia is king and hegemon in the Western Mediterranean, and you think you have no opponents, just because of your Undeclared war and our lack of preparedness allowed you to succeed by chance! But soon we Sparta will gather a large army to retake Messenia. By then, I am afraid it will be the turn of the Dionian soldiers to become Spartan prisoners!"

"If Sparta really sends a large army to fight for Messenia, that would be the best." Leoticides emphasized his tone, with a strange light shining in his eyes, looking at Dolios, which was quite meaningful. Said: "In fact, even if you don't say it, we are very clear about the current situation of Sparta. The number of Spartan warriors stationed in Messenia will not exceed 500, and the total number of all Spartan warriors will not be more than 2000." to [-] people, so the Council of Elders passed a resolution to grant some Pilians and a very small number of Helots as Spartan citizens, but did not give them land. In fact, their status remained low and they fought His desire is not strong, and he even has conflicts with the Spartan warriors...

Also, the long years of continuous fighting made many Spartan warriors unable to supervise the work of their helots, and thus were unable to pay enough taxes. As a result, they were deprived of the qualifications for public meals, and they were actually reduced to inferiors. They must have deep resentment in their hearts. I think the situation in Sparta now may be even worse than when they hunted down Kinadun..."

(End of this chapter)