ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 188 Tarantum in action and Agacia’s regret

Seeing Phoebias boarding the ship unwillingly and leaving the port of Tarantum, Diomelas immediately changed his expression and said seriously to Eumarcus: "The Spartans have a saying That’s right, if Tarantum doesn’t cheer up, even a new city-state without any historical traditions like Dionia will look down upon us!”

"Are we really going to start a war with Messape?!" Umarkas hesitated.

"Haven't the Mesapians been waging war against us?" Diomelas asked, and he said sadly: "It is precisely because we have been tolerant to the Messapians that they will think more and more of us, Taran." Because Tumu is weak, it will increasingly intrude on us, and it will also make other city-states in Magna Graecia increasingly ignore the existence of Tarantum! We must fight back and completely solve the problem of Messape!"

"Completely solve it?! That's not what you told me last time!" Umarkas said with a frown.

Diomelas let it slip and hurriedly said: "What I mean is that we must first concentrate all our efforts to capture Manduria, which poses the greatest threat to us, and then look at the opportunity to capture Brindisi, so that our The strength will be greatly enhanced! Other Mesape city-states can slowly attack..."

Yumakas was a little moved, but he still hesitated: "Do we have the strength to defeat the main force of Messape in one fell swoop?"

"Of course we do!" Diomelas said firmly. In order to convince his colleagues, he added: "And we also have a strong reserve force!"

"What reserve force?" Yumakas was taken aback.

Diomelas pointed to the west of the sea: "Dionia, our ally, we have helped it for so long, it is time for it to contribute!"

Eumacus finally said: "I will support your proposal in the Senate."

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"Damn it, the city-states of Magna Graecia such as Dionia, Castellon, and Tarentum are all in the same group!" Phoebidas said angrily on the ship.

"How about we go to Crotone?" Dorobisis suggested carefully.

Phoebidus glared at him and said: "To Syracuse!"

Of course Phoebidas knew that Crotone and Dionia had a bad relationship because of the previous war.But he couldn't go, because Crotone's enemies were not only Dionia, but Locle had a worse relationship with it, and Locle was an ally of Sparta's ally Syracuse in Magna Graecia.If he had gone to Crotone, Syracuse would probably have gone to Sparta to complain.Although he wants to take revenge on Dionia, he does not want to be exiled like Tiburonyi, not to mention that Syracuse is a better partner than Crotone.

Just getting along with the Sicilian tyrant who was said to be a bit domineering, Phoebidas felt that he should learn from the lesson of being too public in Magna Graecia, and use another method to achieve his goals in a more subtle way.

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The newly built Kristoya restaurant in Turiyi is located in the southwest of the city near the pier. Compared with the other Kristoya restaurant next to the Turiyi market, its customers are mainly Union citizens and foreigners. State envoys and wealthy businessmen, so they provide high-end dishes, such as beef and mutton shabu-shabu.For this reason, part of the restaurant was specially partitioned into small open-air courtyards to facilitate the exhaust of smoke during barbecues.

When Timasong, Xantiparis and Crisano walked into the courtyard at the invitation of Agalia, they were not unfamiliar with what they saw. After all, they had enjoyed it in Davos's mansion.

Crisiano was interested in the price of beef and mutton. While eating, he asked the slave serving beside him: "How much does it cost to eat this once?"

The slave thought for a while and said: "Dear guest, it depends on how much you eat? Normally, one person needs about two to five drachmas."

"So expensive!" Crisano shouted in surprise, "I can't even earn a drachma a day now!"

"It's more expensive than ordinary dishes, but it's worth the price!" The slave explained patiently: "First of all, the beef and mutton in our restaurant are purchased from Niutum, Lucalia, all over the country. Greece is famous, and the price is certainly not cheap. Secondly, the restaurant also needs to send people to the top of the mountains in the west to collect unmelted ice and snow to freeze the meat. This is a very risky thing! And then, There are some meat-cutting slaves with excellent knife skills who are constantly cutting slices of meat of even thickness for you. The store also hired chefs from Egypt to prepare sauces of various flavors for you. Finally, I am always at your service... …Look, there are so many complicated processes and so many hands to make the hot-pot beef and mutton you like to eat, do you still think it is expensive?!”

"You have a clever mouth!" Crisano couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.Then, he sighed again and said bluntly: "It's a pity that he is a slave!"

"Although I am a slave now, my kind master still pays me a salary every day. According to the Slave Act promulgated by the Union, 'a slave only needs to work hard for the master for more than four years, can raise enough money to pay the ransom, and can obtain the master's If you agree, you can become a free citizen.' And our master Christoya is as kind as Lord Davos. She has already made a sacred promise to the great god Hades in front of us! Therefore, I want to do it in ten days. Years later, I will definitely become a Dionian citizen!" The slave's eyes shone with gratitude and hope.

Davos, you really know how to buy people's hearts!Aren't you afraid that those slave owners will object?Cleano looked at the slightly excited slave, but didn't say this, and asked casually, "What's your name?"

"Tanarus."

"I hope your wish can come true." Crisiano said against his will.

Tanarus responded happily: "Thank you for your blessing, kind guest!"

"Look, someone finally praised Crisiano for his kindness!" Timasong joked.

"Timazon, are you jealous?!" Crisiano pretended to be angry and held up the beer can: "Come on, let's drink!"

"Hey, with your drinking capacity, you want to drink me down?!" Timazong stopped holding the wine glass and picked up the wine can: "Here, let's drink it all in one gulp!"

"Just drink!" The two of them drank wine.

Zantiparis shouted hurriedly: "You two drink more slowly, Agarcia has to spend a lot of money to treat us to dinner!" Then, he jokingly said to Agarcia: "This restaurant should be regarded as one of the most popular restaurants in the world." It’s Firth’s property, he should be asked to charge less when settling the bill.”

"Uh... don't worry about Agacia. He is a senior member of the Senate, how could he not even be able to come up with dozens of drachmas!" Crisiano said loudly, burping from wine, and there was something in his words. A sour taste.

"Criano is right, you don't have to worry about money. Let's eat and drink as much as we want tonight!" Agcia said loudly, as if he didn't hear the sarcasm in Crisano's words.

"Bring me another can of beer!" Timazon said to Tanarus: "This wine is good, I like to drink it!"

"Give me another one too!" Crisano shouted.

"Please wait a moment." Tanarus hurried to the door and called out the guests' needs to the waiter in the corridor.

The banquet lasted for about half an hour, and everyone was already slightly tipsy.

"A year ago, we fought with the Persians every day, and what we saw every day were the stiff bodies of our comrades around us. At that time, we didn't even have much hope that we could return to Greece alive, let alone that we would be like this today. Drinking wine and eating meat happily..." Zantiparis said with emotion: "How difficult it is! We really have to thank the gods for their blessings!"

"Cheers to the fact that we can still live together!" Tima Song proposed with a toast.

"Thank you Zeus (Hades) for your blessing!" Others responded one after another.

Zantiparis put down his wine glass and said, "Agacia, you didn't just let us come to drink and dine, right?" He was careful and noticed that Agacia's expression was a bit depressed.

The colander that Agarcia stretched out to scoop out the meat paused in the air.After a moment, he put down the colander, wiped the wine stains from his mouth with his hand, looked at the three people who looked at him probingly, and said in a deep voice: "Today, the Spartan envoy came and asked the alliance to capture you and hand them over to you. Sparta…”

The news that the Spartan warships had arrived in Thurii had spread in the port. Of course Timasong and the others knew about it, but they didn't expect that the Spartan envoys came specifically for them.

"How did you answer the Spartans?" Crisiano asked urgently, and the other two also looked nervous.

"Don't worry, even though the Spartans threatened war, Davos still firmly rejected the Spartan envoy!" Agacia's answer made the three of them breathe a sigh of relief.

"Davos is indeed a leader who often wins battles, and he is not afraid of the threat of the Spartans!" At this moment, Kiliano praised Davos again.

"Actually, the Spartans are not terrible. We have followed them in the battles in Asia Minor for more than half a year, and we know Sparta fairly well. Their generals are indeed very experienced in combat, but the Spartan citizens they can really send to the battlefield are too many. They mainly rely on the troops of the allies and mercenaries like us when they go out to fight. The combat effectiveness is not very strong. Just dealing with Persia has already made it very difficult for them. I don’t think they still have the strength to come to the alliance to provoke!… ..." Timasong also consoled him.

These words didn't seem to have much impact on Agacia. He stared straight at the ground in front of him and murmured with an apologetic face: "It was I who forcibly obtained Davos's permission to go to Asia Minor to lure you. Come... In order to attract you all to come, I also arbitrarily set out some conditions that do not exist in the alliance. I wanted you to live a peaceful life like us after you come, but I didn't expect... to happen. So many conflicts and disputes have caused you to suffer so much and suffer dissatisfaction from the citizens of the Alliance... Alas, now it has caused Sparta to be hostile to the Alliance! For this reason, Davos was also criticized by the senators! I …Did I really do something wrong?!”

(End of this chapter)