ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 376 Libraries

Isocrates was anxiously waiting for the final decision of the Dionysian Senate in a spacious lounge inside the meeting hall.

Soon, the guard came in and asked him to go to the venue.

When he walked into the venue, he found Davos, the governor of Dionia, standing in the center of the venue.

Davos smiled at him and asked him to sit down. Davos smiled and said to him: "Dear Athenian envoy, I am very happy that you have brought the friendship of the great Mediterranean city-state Athens to the Dionian Alliance. This made us in a remote corner of the Greek world stop mourning and complaining, because in the new play "The Dionians" by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, we Dionians are treated as barbarians. The people of Athens enjoyed themselves..."

As soon as he said this, Isocrates secretly shouted: "It's broken."

Sure enough, he heard someone shouting angrily from behind: "What right do the Athenians have to humiliate us Lucanians!"

"They are not only humiliating Lucanians, they are humiliating all Dionian citizens!" Another person shouted angrily.

"If Athenians view us with this attitude, then Athenians are not welcome here!"

……

One angry voice after another hit Isocrates sitting in front, making him feel as if there was a volcano about to erupt behind him, and his expression changed a little.

Davos looked at his embarrassment and continued: "Isocrates, you said that Athens and Dionia have a deep friendship. This cannot just be said in words. It needs to be seen in actual actions. And now as far as we know Athens The actual situation prevents us from seeing the friendship of the Athenians towards Dionia. What we see is that the people of the entire city of Athens ruthlessly ridicule and ridicule some of the characteristics of an emerging city-state alliance that are different from other Greek city-states. They can even For several months in a row, it has been the talk of the city of Athens over drinks. This is not the behavior of a city-state that once claimed to be 'the best school in Greece' and has a long history and tradition! Nor is it a behavior that claims to have a deep love for Dionia. This is what a city-state that is deeply affectionate and wants to form an alliance with should do!
Therefore, the citizens of Dionia will not safely hand over their backs to a city-state that discriminates against them when facing a strong enemy.Therefore, I think it is too early to talk about concluding a military alliance. "

Damn Aristophanes!Damn Aristophanes!Isocrates cursed countless times in his heart but could not change the reality of the failure of the alliance. Frustrated, he wanted to stand up in an attempt to make a final effort.

Daves in front waved to him, motioning him not to interrupt, and then said: "Although the current Thurii is no longer the Thurii of the past, and the Dionysian Alliance has no connection with Athens, but the Dionysian Alliance Human beings are by no means an ungrateful race. We have clear grievances and grudges. We repay the hatred that others give us tenfold, and we repay the kindness that others give us tenfold—"

"The Lord Archon is right! Tarentum once formed an alliance with us when we were in trouble, so we sent a large army to save their city-state! Thurii once gave your mercenaries a foothold in the beginning. Land, so when faced with the pressure of the Crotone army, we did not give in. Instead, we used a great victory to avenge the dead Thurii people! Dionia regards promises as life and cherishes the friendship that has been given, so friendship cannot be taken lightly. Promise!" The old man Scombbras shook his gray beard, held his head high, glanced sideways at Isocrates, and put on a arrogant look like "The friendship of Dionysia is extremely precious, and it really comes at a disadvantage to you." .

Davos smiled and continued: "Since the center of the Dionysian Alliance is in Thurii, we have naturally inherited some of the sentiments of the previous people of Thurii. We are willing to have friendly exchanges with Athens and strengthen exchanges. To eliminate misunderstandings between each other..."

When Isocrates heard this, he understood the meaning of Davos and other senators in the Senate: in addition to military alliance, Dionysia was willing to get along well with Athens.Strengthening trade and cultural exchanges does not seem to be much different from the core meaning of his previous speeches.

But Isocrates understood that the difference was obvious. If Isocrates initially negotiated cooperation as a condescending big brother in Athens, now the Dionians have trampled on the elegance and nobility in his bones. Instead, he told him: Dionia's friendship is extremely precious, and you can give some charity to Athens, but it depends on the performance of Athens...

It is not easy for this young man to be able to sit in the position of the consul and create today's Dionia with one hand!Isocrates looked at Davos in front of him and felt the pressure...

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

While Isocrates was giving a speech in the Dionysian Senate, Ansitanus took Lysias to the north side of Victory Square. There was a newly built building here that looked like a temple with steps. Below are the bronze statues of the nine Muses, lined up in a row.

"Could it be the Temple of Apollo?" Lucias looked at Ancitanos suspiciously.

Ansitanos still had a mysterious smile on his face, but he didn't speak.

With increasing curiosity, Lysias walked up the steps and finally found several large letters "Library" on the lintel of the temple entrance.

"This is?" Lucias can roughly guess the function of this building, but such a large building is only used to store books?Are there so many books?

He looked at Ancitanos again in doubt, hoping he could explain.

"This is the library that our consul Lord Davos took the lead in donating money to build!" Ansitanos proudly pointed to the words and said: "He once said, 'Books are the gems of human wisdom, whether they are from Persia, Egypt, Carthage, or earlier Sumer, Hittite, Assyria...the history and civilization they created are ultimately gathered in words and books, which are the common wealth of our mankind and enable us to escape from ignorance. , the ladder to a more splendid civilization, so we must make every effort to collect them! Protect them! If these treasures are destroyed by wars and disasters, it will be the most tragic loss for us humans! But we must not only collect books, I also need to give these books to more people to share and read, so that people in Dionia can use knowledge to improve themselves, use knowledge to create wealth, and use knowledge to create a more brilliant culture. This is what I want to build a library for. That’s what it means!’”

After listening, Lysias was fascinated and murmured: "A person who can speak such a great language must be a great person!"

Ancitanos smiled secretly.

"Take me in quickly!" Lysias couldn't wait to go in, but was stopped by the guard at the door.

"This is my friend. He came with me and wanted to go in for a visit." Ansitanos hurriedly stepped forward to explain.

"Okay, Lord Ansitanos." The guard saluted respectfully.

"There is actually force in a place where knowledge is stored!" Lysias said angrily as he walked inside.

"Books are precious and fragile. A fire can destroy them all. Of course, they need to be guarded to prevent accidents." Ansitanos explained.

Lysias expressed his understanding, and after calming down, he said: "It seems that not just anyone can enter here."

"Only Dionia citizens and preparatory citizens can enter."

"In this way, the free people of Dionia have another motivation to become citizens." Lysias stayed here for nearly two days, and he also understood the differences between citizens of Dionia, pre-citizens, and free people. How big is the gap in the rights enjoyed by the people, but this gap is not impossible to eliminate, unlike Athens, no matter how hard you try, you can still bridge the gap between the Athenians and the Gentiles.

"I'm afraid there are 5 to [-] Dionian citizens in Thurii. If they all crowd into this library, can it be accommodated?" Lysias asked doubtfully.

"We have already considered your concerns. First of all, the quality of Dionia citizens has not reached the level where everyone can read; secondly, they cannot appear here at the same time, even if they want to enter the library There are too many, and the library also has restrictions on the number of people, but now it seems that it will take many years before such a situation occurs. By then, Dionia may already have a second, third, and fourth A library..." Ansitanos's words were filled with confidence in his alliance.

Lysias was silent, but soon he was attracted by the sight in front of him: rows of tall wooden cabinets were neatly placed in the hall, cutting the huge space into a corridor for three or four people to pass side by side.Each wooden cabinet is open and divided into small rectangular spaces by strips of wood, inside which are placed rolls of books or materials assembled from papyrus or parchment.There is an area in front of these bookcases with many wooden tables, and only a few people are sitting there reading quietly.

Lysias, who was a book lover, could not help but said: "There are so many books!"

"In fact, there are not many. Most of the bookcases behind are empty. After all, the library has only been completed for less than 20 days." Ancitanos said with some emotion: "Master Davos once called on the citizens of Dionia to take out Let the library copy a copy of the books in my home and store them here, and also engrave the names of the citizens who donated books. At that time, there were so many citizens who responded to the call that the scribes in the library were too busy... ..."

Looking in the direction of Ansitanos's finger, Lysias saw several stone tablets erected on the left side of the library entrance. He had only looked ahead and ignored them before.

The stone tablets are densely engraved with people's names.

Lysias noticed that only the first name had the title written behind it: "This... this... this is -" He stroked the title in disbelief.

　Thanks to the great fan and book friend 20170214135030192 of Fengyuzhi for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　I will go back to Chongqing to spend the New Year with my parents from February 2th to March 12nd. During this period, I will try my best to update every day, but the update time may not be fixed because there will be various New Year greetings, dinners, etc.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)