ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1198 Rebuilding Sparta ([-])

During this difficult period, civil strife broke out in a town in the south. The king of this town led his people who were loyal to him to join Sparta. Sparta's strength was greatly enhanced, and with their help, Sparta finally Winning the war in Laconia established Sparta's leadership position in this region.

The Lacedaemonians in the surrendered villages were called Pileasians (that is, border residents of the dominant city-state). They had personal freedom and the right to deal with local affairs, but they did not have it in the Spartan city-state. political rights, and were also placed under the supervision of military governors sent by Sparta to ensure that they could perform military service and cultivate royal estates.

Even though the conquered village people were once compatriots, they were ruthlessly demoted into slaves. This was the original origin of the Helots.

From this time on, Sparta established a dual-kingdom system (one was the king born in Sparta, from the Agidai clan; the other was the king from the south, from the Eulipontides clan).

Now, Crotocactus wants to take advantage of this great opportunity to conquer Sparta, completely overturn Sparta's original political structure and establish a new political system.

He sent envoys to various Piliasian villages, invited them to come to Sparta, and promised them that Dionia would never do them any harm, but would give them the right to participate in the formation of A new Sparta.

In addition, he personally spoke to the captured Piliasian soldiers and then released them.At the same time, he also sent messengers to Messenia, recruiting a group of new Messenian citizens who were born as helots, and asked them to meet the helots hiding in the mountains, and use their own examples to persuade these fearful and fearful people. The starving helots came down from the mountain to cooperate with Dionia.

Meanwhile, Crotocartax did not speak to any of the Spartans.Just as he finished arranging these tasks and quietly waited for the arrival of the Pilians and Helots, he suddenly received a report from the garrison at the defense camp on the upper reaches of the Eurotas River: They intercepted the attack from the north. Nearly a thousand Spartan soldiers came. When these soldiers learned that Sparta had been occupied, they surrendered without fighting. Among the captured soldiers was King Agesilaus of Sparta.

After Crotocathax heard the news, he almost jumped up with excitement: the capture of Agesilaus and the army he led eliminated the last worry in his heart, and he could free his hands and feet to explore in this land. implement your own plans.

In order to prevent accidents, he also sent a heavy infantry brigade to escort these ten Spartan troops.

One day later, Clotocathax saw these captives at the northern entrance to the city of Sparta. They were ragged, unkempt, and staggered as they walked, seemingly about to fall down at any time.Crotokatax now understood why the garrison company of the defensive camp could easily capture the defeated troops of nearly a thousand people with only 200 people.

He and the generals focused their attention on the leading Spartan: pale hair, beard, gray face, skinny as a stick, with his left leg curled up, holding a cane, hobbling forward with the help of others, Only those eyes seemed lively.

Seeing Clotokatax and others in front of him, the old man pushed away the person who was supporting him and walked forward stubbornly and with difficulty.

"Dear King Agesilaus!" Crotoka Tax did not assume the arrogant posture of a winner, but said in a gentle tone: "Hello! I am the commander of Dionia, Crotoka. Tuckers.”

"I know you... the son of Davos." Agesilaus seemed a little calm at the moment, and said in a hoarse voice: "This time it was our Sparta who lost... I want to know how you dealt with it... Our Spartan people?!”

The voice of this last sentence was trembling, but it still revealed the worry in his heart.

There was a sarcastic smile on the corner of Crotokatax's mouth, and he said in a serious tone: "They have all been imprisoned. Many of them are still unwilling to accept the fact of defeat, and they seem to have dissatisfaction with the coalition forces led by you. hope!"

Agesilaus was silent for a while, then looked directly at him and said in a deep and meaningful voice: "A defeat is a defeat. The city of Sparta has been occupied, what else can we expect... But this We Sparta have been very influential throughout Greece for decades. Dionia wants to thwart the Persian conspiracy and dominate these city-states in Greece. We Sparta can still provide you with a lot of help!"

The old man, who is known as "Sparta's toughest militant", actually expressed his willingness to actively cooperate with him, which surprised Clotokatax. He calmed down and responded: "We are Sparta's disposal plan has been finalized, and I believe you will know it soon, and I hope you will lead the people to actively cooperate."

Agesilaus looked at him deeply, then looked back at the defeated soldiers passing by him: "Okay. But before that, I hope we can take a good bath and have a full meal. "

"Don't worry, we will make arrangements." Clotokatax said with a somewhat complicated expression: "I have good news to tell you. Your son Archidamus was injured and fled into the mountains. As a result, the wound suppurated. He was infected and fell into a coma. His guards carried him out of the mountain and surrendered to us. He is now receiving treatment from our doctors in Tegea City. He was not conscious when I left, but his physical condition is much better than before."

Archidamus is the only son of Agesilaus and a direct bloodline of the Agesilaus royal family. Hearing this news, Agesilaus’s heart, which he had been thinking about, dropped. He suppressed the excitement in his heart and said lightly Said: "It is the glory of Spartans to die on the battlefield. Too many Spartans have died in this war! But no matter what, thank you for your rescue. Every more true Spartan can be ah!"

Clotokatax stared at the retreating figure of Agesilaus in bewilderment. After a while, he turned around and said to Sekerian and others in a deep tone: "This King of Sparta is here." I'm afraid I've been wandering around in the mountains for several days. I'm so hungry. I finally walked back and learned the bad news that the entire Sparta was occupied. It's really not easy to be so calm! It's just... I wish he was here. How to remain so calm after learning about our plan to reorganize Sparta!"

The hint of resentment in the tone of Clotokatax's words made Sekerian a little surprised. Of course, he would not know that Clotokatax mainly blamed the Spartan commander Adoris for the death of Adoris. Gesilaus.

Some of the helots who fled to the mountains followed the advice of the envoys from Messenia and returned to Sparta one after another. Sure enough, as the messenger said, the Dionian army not only did not arrest them, but instead arranged for them shelter, and food distributed, prompting more starving helots to run down the mountain.

After listening to the persuasion of the Dionysian messenger, the people of various Piliasi villages sent their representatives one after another with doubts to come to Sparta to discuss matters.

A few days later, Clotocathus invited the representatives of Piliasis and the Helots into the Spartan meeting hall and asked them to sit on the wooden chairs where the Spartan elders sat. superior.

After everything was ready, Crotokatax stood at the front of the venue. Looking at the restless representatives, he said in a gentle tone: "Everyone, today is an important day for you. First of all, please Allow me to call you Lacedaemonians. Don’t be surprised. Both you Pileasians and you Helots were once the same race as the Spartans. It was just a few hundred years ago that your Your ancestors suffered a defeat in the war against Sparta's unification of Lagnia. Not only did you lose your land and rights, you were also deprived of your true racial name. Those who surrendered became Pilians and were captured. became a helot—"

When Clotokatax said this, there was a great commotion in the venue.

Although the Piliasians have some inheritance, over the past few hundred years, the real history has become unclear. On the contrary, the Spartans have been deliberately promoting the theory that generations of Piliasians have The memory became clearer and clearer: they were immigrants from outside who, after reaching an agreement with the Spartans, were allowed to settle on the borders of this land.

The situation of the Helots was even worse. They had been slaves for generations, and the Spartans would never let them read or write. Therefore, most of them were illiterate and spent their entire lives under the stick education of the Spartans. They all had to work hard to serve the Spartans. They didn't know the history of their own race, or even the names of their parents. They lived numbly and without hope...

But today, someone suddenly told them: "You, like the Spartans, were once the masters of this land!" This completely subverted their previous understanding, and they were all shocked as never before.

They talked to each other suspiciously, and even dared to ask Clotokatax.

"We Dionysian scholars have studied the history of Sparta and have obtained some very precious information, which can completely prove that you were all Lacedaemonians. If you want to see it, wait for the Greeks in the future Once the situation stabilizes, I will invite you to the library in Thurii to read these treasures.

What I want to tell you now is that the reason why the Dionian army captured Messenia is to regain the independence of the Messenians who were once enslaved by the Spartans. You have communicated with them before, and you should It’s clear that our Dionia has done what he said

And now one of the important reasons why Dionia captures Sparta is to let you, who are now enslaved, regain your lost land and rights and become the true master of Lagnia! "

(End of this chapter)