ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1235 The Prosperous Port of Piraeus

Why Athenian pottery is loved by the rich people of Dionysia is not only because of the unique and high-quality black-on-red-painted pottery, but also because of the exquisite pictures on the pottery.Athens brought together many outstanding painters from the Greek world, and almost all of them were engaged in vase painting. Onesimus was the leader among them. He once won twice in the vase painting competition of the Panathenaic Society. Si spent a lot of money to hire him.

Facing the compliments of Heskraus, Onesimus's performance was not much different from that of other Athenians: "I hope the Dionians can fully appreciate the beauty of my works! Ah...this batch of The amount of pottery is too much, I’m a little tired and need to rest for a while.”

Looking at Onesimus who was pretending, stretching and yawning, Heskraus cursed in his heart, but echoed: "Yes, yes, you really should have a good rest... It seems that this of mine The order can only be postponed temporarily."

"Why are there still orders?!" Onesimus said impatiently: "We'll talk about it after I get some rest!"

"Then I can only reject this order with the buyer, because they want it urgently." Heskraus said seemingly unintentionally: "It is said that the Dionia royal family personally ordered the goods, and they want to sell this batch of pottery It was placed in the palace and used to entertain distinguished guests from all over the world during the sports games."

"What did you say? What the Dionia royal family wants?!" Onesimus suddenly asked seriously.

"Yes, I can swear to Athena that it was the order from the royal family of Dionia!"

"Uh... I think I can wait until this batch of pottery is finished before resting." Onesimus immediately changed his words shamelessly.Don't look at him looking down on the Dionians, but he knows very well that the Holy Kingdom of Dionia is the overlord of the entire Western Mediterranean and the Greek world, and how noble its royal family is. If his works can be owned by everyone, The powerful King of Dionysia loved it, and it was also used to receive distinguished guests from other city-states. Then he would be famous throughout the Mediterranean (Athenian pottery has a characteristic, the pottery has the signature of the potter and the vase painter).

A teasing smile appeared on the corner of Hesklaus's mouth, and he said: "Okay, I will make arrangements right away."

"Wait a minute, what are the requirements for the content of the vase painting?"

"It must be the relevant content of "Hades Divine Code". After all, the Dionia royal family is the descendant of Hades."

"I understand, buy me a copy of the "Divine Code of Hades" as soon as possible." Onesimus said without hesitation.

Another reason why the Dionians like Athenian pottery is because the Athenian pottery vase paintings are not like the pottery vase paintings of other city-states, which are mostly still life. Its vase paintings are narrative, such as wars, heroic legends, gods, etc., and There is often a sense of tragic epicness, which may be related to the Athenians' love of drama.

The requirements that Dionia buyers often make to the Athenian pottery merchants are mostly related to the wars during the rise of the Kingdom of Dionia, the miracles of Hades, and the great deeds of King Davos. The parents of food and clothing have requirements, The vase painters could only obey. Later, a smart man actually opened a bookstore in the town of Selesia, specializing in selling books about the sacred kingdom of Dionia: "The Long March" written by Xenophon, "Magna Graecia" "History" by Ansitanos, "War in the Western Mediterranean" by Hernepolis, "Chronicles of Northern Italy" (consulted by Ansitanos in the restricted area of ​​the Library of Turii, Maximus, the secretary of the Kingdom's Ministry of Intelligence) Adapted from the information written by the Etruscan Frontier Corps)... Of course there is also (The Codex of Hades).This also makes Thracia the only place in mainland Greece, besides Messenia, New Sparta, and Thessaly, where the "Tome of Hades" is publicly sold.

"Be careful! Be careful! If you break one, your three months' salary will be gone!..." The foreman kept shouting to remind the slaves who were carrying the pottery, and each piece of exquisite pottery was put into the shop. A wooden box filled with straw and thick wool.

Before departure, Hesklaus repeatedly told the foreman to start making the next batch of pottery as soon as possible, but he must keep improving and make no mistakes.

There is a port not far from Thalesia, which is dedicated to the transportation and export of pottery, but Hesklaus still transported the pottery back to his house on the outskirts of Athens first.It is said that it is his own house, but in fact it is only a long-term lease, because Heskraus is a foreigner and has no right to purchase real estate in Athens.

If it were four years ago, Heskraus would not have had the guts to come to Athens to settle and do business, because he was a small businessman from Thessaly, which was once regarded as a barbarian land by the Athenians, but Thessaly became Dai In a region of the Sacred Kingdom of Onia, the Thessalians became citizens of Dionia, and Heskraus was fortunate enough to meet a big businessman from Thurii, and with his support and funding, he moved his family to Athens. , engaged in pottery making.

Athens is an open city-state filled with a large number of foreigners in various industries, but most of them have low status.Although Athenian citizens hate the identity of Heskraus, his identity as a Dionysian citizen ensures that when he encounters trouble, the judge will not be too biased towards the locals. Of course, he must also abide by the laws of Athens, in addition to paying a certain amount of money regularly. In addition to taxes and occasional public donations, as a foreign merchant, he also needed to pay a small market tax that Athenian citizens were exempt from paying.

Of course, these expenses were only a drop in the bucket of the profits he earned. What reassured him most was that because of his status, he would not be arbitrarily recruited by the Athenian government to fight as a hoplite.Of course, since the establishment of the New Greek Alliance, there has never been a war in mainland Greece, and the days when the people were afraid are over.

Now Heskraus no longer has the desire to return to Thessaly, preferring to stay in Athens, which is full of commercial atmosphere.

In the evening, Heskraus held a banquet at his home and invited several Thessalian businessmen who were doing business in Athens like him.

Everyone sat at the banquet, eating delicious food, drinking wine, and talking about the tremendous changes that Dionia had brought to Thessaly in the past few years.

Not to mention other things, the format of their banquets has changed a lot. It is no longer like the traditional Greek banquet, where each guest has a couch, half-lying to eat, drink and talk. Instead, they all sit on wooden chairs. There is his own dining table in front of the body. This is due to the increasingly frequent exchanges between Dionia and Thessaly, and the impact of some native Dionia citizens migrating to the Thessaly plain.The Thessalians originally had an inferiority complex compared to mainland Greece in the south. Now they have become citizens of Dionia. Although this inferiority complex is gradually disappearing, another inferiority complex is quietly growing, that is, facing As citizens from the mainland of Dionia, the Thessalians who have close contact with the mainland of Dionia have been trying their best to learn. For example, businessmen have been trying to imitate their customs and habits in order to shorten the distance with each other.

The atmosphere of the banquet was very lively, and everyone drank a little too much. Heskraus also called his eldest son Lillias, and told him drunkenly that he would take him with him by boat to Thurii tomorrow.

The 9-year-old boy was so excited that he couldn't sleep well all night.

As a result, in the early morning of the second day, Hesklaus, who woke up from alcohol, did not remember the incident at all, and Lirias cried and made noises. Finally, under the persuasion of his wife, Hesklaus had no choice but to nod in agreement.

After breakfast, he took his son and the pack team to the port of Piraeus.

Piraeus is the largest commercial port in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thousands of cargo ships enter and leave the port every day, making it extremely prosperous.

Heskraus came to a remote dock. Although it was still early, the place was already full of cargo ships. The ground was filled with various commodities. Countless dock laborers and slaves were busy carrying goods to the ships.Fortunately, at the banquet last night, several Thessaly businessmen made an appointment to set off for Thurii together today. They have already booked a cargo ship and found labor (Piraeus Port regulations: non-port-owned pack teams Not allowed to enter the dock, so as not to disturb the order of the dock and cause losses), Heskraus hurriedly asked the laborers to carefully move the wooden boxes containing his pottery one by one to the warehouse of the dock, and then the labor foreman took him into the warehouse.

In the center of this huge room that is also full of goods is the office of the port officials of Athens at the pier. After they confirmed the type and quantity of goods that Hesklaus wanted to ship out of Athens, they asked Hesklaus to register and sign, and then After calculating the value of the whole batch of goods according to the market price, they are required to pay 1/10 tax on the exported goods immediately (Athens stipulates that no matter whether it is exported or imported goods, one must pay 1/10 tax, which is simple, rude and trouble-free, but the tax If the price is too high, the selling price of the goods will naturally be high. Once the goods are unsaleable, the owner of the goods will face losses).

Heskraus carried a large amount of Hades silver coins (Dionysian coins) with him. Since the establishment of the New Hellenic League, they have become popular in mainland Greece because of their high silver content and exquisite production. The Owl of Athens Due to the depletion of the Laurian silver mines and the heavy consumption of the treasury by wars over the years, the silver content of silver coins has dropped again and again, and they are no longer as popular as they used to be. Even many Athenians prefer to use Hades silver coins. ), it was delivered immediately as requested.

There is also a complete set of official measurement tools in the office. The clerks carefully tested these coins, and only after confirming that they are correct, the Hesklaus cargo ship is allowed to leave the port.

By the time all the goods were loaded onto the ship and the cargo ship left the dock, it was almost noon.

Hesklaus and the others were on the largest cargo ship. After the entire fleet left Saron Bay, the wind just turned south, and the fleet with its sails raised seemed to have wings.Hesklaus and other merchants were all happy, because with the help of the sea breeze, it meant that the fleet could reach Thurii earlier.

　Thanks to Jeanne d’Arc and βγδεζν for the reward!Your support is my motivation to write!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)