ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 535 Xenophanes’ suggestion
Aristelas actually sent his own brother to Sicily, which shows that he really put a lot of effort into this place!Antonios' spirit perked up and he immediately asked: "Where is he now?"

"Catane or Syracuse? I don't know too well." Xenophones shrugged and said, "But you have come to Sicily, he should get the news soon, and he will send someone to contact us immediately. .”

Antonios nodded and asked seriously: "Now that the First Army has occupied Mayaro, what should we do next? What suggestions do you have?"

"Sir, I don't know much about military matters. I can tell you what I know about the situation here for your reference." Xenophanes' humility won the favor of Antonios, and he hurriedly left The map of Sicily taken from Davos during the Xiliting camp was placed on the table: "Please tell me!"

Xenophanes did not refuse, walked forward, looked at the map carefully, then pointed at the map and said: "Sir, you see that the location of Mayaro is actually very good. It has the ocean to the east and the ocean to the west. The huge Etna volcano, and although Tauromenion in the north is only more than ten miles away from us, its population is too small, and I am afraid that it cannot even send 500 soldiers. Sikuli in the south is more than 20 miles away, so It is also a small city-state. Now that Mearo has been occupied by us again and captured so many citizens of Sikuli, it is hard to say whether the tyrants of Sikuli can raise 3000 citizen soldiers. More than 40 miles to the south is Catanai - —”

When Xenophanes said this, his expression showed pain. He exhaled softly and said: "Originally, Catanay was a big city. There used to be 6 or [-] citizens. The fertile Catania plain provided the people there with With enough grain, he could easily organize an army of tens of thousands... But... after Catanai was destroyed by Dionysius, he let Campania mercenaries occupy the city, and Catanai... …It’s no longer Katanai!…”

"Are you from Katana?" Antonios asked suddenly.

"Yes, I was once a Katanaite just like Aristillas!" Xenophones said in a deep voice, "But now I am a citizen of Dionia!"

"After Syracuse is defeated, Your Majesty will definitely let the Catanai people rebuild your homeland!" Antonios comforted, and then asked: "How many citizen soldiers does Catanai have now?" When it came to Campa Antonios was more vigilant about the Nian mercenaries. He had just fought against them in the Battle of Crotone and knew that these mercenaries were difficult to deal with.

"...There may be between 5000 and [-] people. I haven't been to the Catania Plains since I returned to Sicily this time. I only heard from people in the town of Mearo." Xenophanes speculated hesitantly, and then Suggested: "Sir, if you want to know more details, you need to wait for the people from Antrapolis to arrive."

Antonios nodded, pointed to the Leotini icon between Catanai and Syracuse on the map, and asked: "Is this city-state also occupied by Campania mercenaries?"

"Leotini is not, it was once a sub-state of Syracuse. After Dionysius usurped power, he formed an alliance with our Catanai to fight against Syracuse, but Catanai was After its defeat, it had no choice but to surrender to Syracuse. In order to punish its betrayal, Dionysius forcibly moved most of Leotini's citizens to Syracuse. Now Leotini In terms of population, it is just a small city-state..." Xenophonis said with sad eyes.

"So how many troops are there in Syracuse now?" Antonios asked seriously.

Xenophanes had to speculate again: "This... I'm not sure. But a few months ago, Dionysius led an army to invade our Magna Graecia, and his general Mathias also led about Seven to eight thousand Syracuse soldiers went to the Millais Peninsula in the north of Sicily to destroy the new city built by the exiles from Naxos and Catanai. I think there must be tens of thousands of soldiers in Syracuse... …”

Tens of thousands of people!Antonios's face turned gloomy, and he stared at the circle of city-state icons surrounding Syracuse on the map: Taunis, Barclay, Hebesus, Pachinus...these are all Syracuse. Loyal subordinates, it is estimated that Syracuse can easily and quickly organize a force of 2 people!No matter how powerful the First Legion was, there were only more than 5000 people left after successive battles... Antonios believed that he did not have the magic of Davos to defeat so many enemies with such a small force.

Xenophanes saw Antonios' concern. He thought for a moment and said, "Sir, Syracuse has so many affiliated city-states in Sicily. It seems very powerful, but the people of these city-states have no regard for Syracuse." Dissatisfaction has been going on for a long time, and even the people of Syracuse were very dissatisfied with the dictatorship of Dionysius!”

"Oh?!" Antonios became interested: "Tell me more about this situation."

"In the past few years, Syracuse has been engaged in foreign wars. The scale of the war was very large, and the money and materials consumed were also very huge. Therefore, Dionysius forcibly demanded high tributes from various affiliated city-states, and He has no mercy on the people of Syracuse, and the special war tax he has levied has risen to 25%; in addition, he not only wants money but also people. Before every war, he requires various city-states to provide a large number of troops, and in At the end of the war, these citizens were killed and injured, but their families received nothing. He also supported tyrants in various city-states and attacked those citizens who resisted tyranny. Therefore, not only the people of various city-states resented him, but also the nobles They were also very dissatisfied with him, but they were afraid of his powerful force and did not dare to resist...

Dionysius's men must also be very aware of this situation. I think they dare not draw out all their troops to deal with you... After Dionysius led the army to attack Magna Graecia, Siku of Meara Li Gongmin often privately cursed him for the failure of this expedition.A few days ago, when the news that 'our fleet defeated the Syracuse Navy' reached Mearo, not only the free people and slaves, but also the citizens of Siculli seemed a little excited, so these days the town The people in the city are talking a lot, and the topics of discussion are more about Dionia. Even my mission has become much smoother. Like the two organizers of the riot just now, they have always been lukewarm to me. They have been contacting me these days...

This is the case in Mayaro, and the situation in other city-states should be similar.It feels to me that these city-states in Sicily are like a pile of dry firewood. They only need a torch to burn them into a raging fire!Now, the news that 'His Majesty defeated the army of Dionysius in the battle' has spread to Sicily, and I believe it will have a greater impact on the people of the city-states!As long as you, my lord, can defeat the Syracuse army once in Sicily, Sicily will definitely be in chaos! Serofanis said impassionedly, his eyes flashing with excitement.

"It's not easy to defeat the people of Syracuse in Sicily." Antonios said with a wry smile.Having said that, after listening to the detailed situation in Sicily introduced by Serofanis, he felt a little more confident: "Our current number of soldiers is still too small! Before coming, His Majesty once told me about the Sikel people. Do you think we can unite with them to deal with the Syracuseans?"

Xenophanes thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Although the Sikels are natives of Sicily, they are different from the Lucanians and Brutians of Greater Greece. They are far less barbaric than them... Oh, no , they are brave and fierce." Serofanis remembered that these two races were already citizens of the alliance, and quickly changed his words: "The life of the Sikelians is no different from that of us Greeks, except that they prefer to live in the inland mountains of Sicily. . They are a race with no credibility. When the Carthaginians attacked, they took refuge in Carthage. When Syracuse was strong, they allied with Syracuse...

But their fickleness was repaid by the gods. Dionysius pretended to form an alliance with them. After defeating Carthage, he murdered Agilas, the king of the Sikelians, and sent an army to capture it. He attacked the central town of Agilion and completely destroyed it. His atrocities frightened the Sikelians, and other Sikel towns quickly surrendered to Syracuse.

This time, Dionysius invaded our Magna Graecia, and the Sikelians also sent some soldiers to him.Therefore, I feel that the cowardly Sikelians will never dare to join us in attacking Syracuse, but they may not attack us and remain neutral.But if Syracuse loses to either of us, they will join the winning side..."

Antonios understood: This is a race that bullies the weak and fears the strong.

Note: In fact, it is not only Sikel who has this characteristic of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, other city-states and races in Sicily are also like this, because this is determined by the special political situation in Sicily: in the past hundreds of years of Sicilian history, Only two super powerful forces appeared on this small island - Carthage and Syracuse, and there was no third force that could compete with them.On this relatively closed and small island, other city-states and forces can only rely on whoever is stronger. If they resist, they can only be destroyed. Of course, Carthage and Syracuse maintain peace due to the balance of strength. Other city-states can have a few days of peace and quiet.In the history that Daves knew in his previous life, it was not until the intrusion of a powerful external force, Rome, that Sicily's closed political and military ecology was completely broken, and Sicily was finally unified.In this book, Dionia appears in Sicily for the first time. Will it break the balance of power in Sicily?
　I had dinner with friends last night and ended up drinking too much. I just woke up this morning. I urgently updated a chapter. I hope brothers and sisters will forgive me!Another reminder: Don’t drink with friends from Inner Mongolia, it’s too intense!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)