ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 539 Port of Syracuse
This great news gave Alexis no worries at all.

At this moment, the Campania League from the north sent an envoy.

There was such a big war between Samoni and Potentia and Dionia, but the city-state of Campania, an enemy of Samoni, had been watching silently until the victory or defeat was decided, and Dionia's troops had already As they approached Campania, they finally sent out an envoy.

The city-state where this envoy came from is only separated from Enona by a small Sorrento Peninsula, only more than 40 miles away. It is Pompeii next to Mount Vesuvius.

This messenger came to find out whether the Dionians had any intention of threatening Campania.

Alexis told him without hesitation: The Dionians were only fighting back against the invasion of the Samnites, and they had a desire to live in friendship with the Greek city-states of Campania, and had absolutely no intention of invading them. .

The Pompeii envoy returned happily, taking with him Alexis's small request: he hoped to exchange the spoils of Samnite for grain.

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Micaresus is a citizen of Syracuse. As a native resident who has lived here for generations, he owns ten acres of land, two fishing boats, and his own shop in the city market to sell fish products. , if Dionysius had not imposed high war taxes every year in recent years, his family's life should be said to be quite wealthy.

When the news of Syracuse's army's victory in Magna Graecia came again and again and was announced in Apollo Square, the people cheered with mixed emotions. He would always feel a little regretful because he had mobilized citizens in the square to go to war. At that time, the goddess of luck failed to favor him. He was not selected and lost the good opportunity to go to Magna Graecia to plunder loot and improve his current difficult life situation in recent years.In his opinion, any hostile force would be vulnerable to such a huge attack by Syracuse.

But things have changed these days. After the bad news came that "the Syracuse Navy suffered two disastrous defeats and almost all its warships were lost," it poured a can of cold water on the excited Syracuse people.

The Ionian fleet, which I had never heard of before, actually defeated the Syracuse navy that was roaming the Ionian Sea? !The people of Syracuse couldn't believe their ears. They scolded the naval commander Leptinis, angrily believing that it was his stupid command that led to the fiasco!After the failure of the naval battle with the Carthaginians, this defeated general should have been replaced!
As a result, some people shifted the responsibility for the failure to Dionysius. They believed that it was Dionysius's nepotism that prevented his mediocre brother from being replaced!
Compared with the indignation of the people in the city, the port was a different story.You must know that more than 400 warships require a huge number of 9 sailors. More than half of these sailors are from Sicilian allies, and a smaller half are from the poor and free people of Syracuse. The Syracuse Navy is all Whether the warship is rammed and sunk or captured, the sailors will have no good outcome.

The bad news came and affected almost every household in the port and bay. Out of concern for the safety of their loved ones, these poor and humble people wept and became even more resentful towards Dionysius who oppressed them.In the past few months, some words of dissatisfaction with Dionysius began to circulate in the port and the city, such as: "The reason why we are so poor is because of those outsiders (referring to Dionysius' The mercenaries) have taken away the land that should belong to us and occupied the public offices of the city-state that should belong to us!"

"No matter how many drachmas we earn, we can't keep up with Dionysius's tax collection!"

"Dionysius likes mercenaries more than the citizens of Syracuse. He should not be the all-powerful general of Syracuse. He is more suitable to be the leader of mercenaries!"

……

But in the past few days, a new rumor quickly circulated in the port: "The Dionysians only hate the tyrannical Dionysius. As long as his dictatorship is overthrown, Syracuse and Dionia can achieve a goal." With the peace agreement, the 14000 Syracuse sailors imprisoned in Dionia can go home safely!..."

This rumor was so convincing that many people in the port believed it, and it quickly spread throughout the bay, and is said to have spread to neighboring city-states.

When Micaresus heard this rumor, he was shocked: this was an open request to overthrow Dionysius!I'm afraid it's the Dionians who are causing trouble!
Even he could see that the intelligence department in charge of Hyparinus would not remain indifferent. Not only did it increase patrols at the port, but it also sent many spies to roam the entire Gulf area to interrogate people... Such an approach This further intensified the resentment and anger of the port people towards the upper echelons of the city-state. Their eyes looked at the patrolling soldiers with undisguised anger, making these soldiers frightened. They always patrolled in groups of more than 20 people and did not dare to wander alone. lest it lead to death.

The quiet opposition of the port people to the city-state gradually began to appear. The most obvious thing was that the work efficiency of port workers was decreasing, the unloading speed of merchant ships was slowing down, and goods were piled up at the docks. It took a long time to move them to the warehouse. As a result, the goods were overflowing. The accumulation almost caused the docks to become clogged, but the merchants did not dare to get angry because they would probably anger these poor people who worked with resentment, leading to a conflict, and they would be the ones who suffered in the end.

Of course, Micaresus doesn't have to worry about this. He has been traveling between the port and the market for many years. He is modest and has a good relationship with the fishermen in the port.

His fishing boat was left in charge of the fishermen he hired, and he went out to fish early in the morning. By the time he drove to the dock in the morning, the fishing boat had already returned to the fishing dock.

The fishing pier was built at the most remote location on the outermost edge of the port. This was for the sake of cleanliness and sanitation of the port, because the smell of the pier was too strong, and flies, mosquitoes, and insects often gathered on the dead fish and shrimps.

Of course, Micaresus did not feel this disgusting. On the contrary, he felt a sense of satisfaction when walking on the pier and looking at the baskets of fresh fish unloaded on both sides of the road.

"Tacitis, how was today's harvest?!" He waved to his moored fishing boat from a distance.

Tacitus was a very experienced old fisherman. He not only had excellent boating and fishing skills, but was also good at judging the presence of fish. Micaresus spent nearly double the salary to hire him.

At this moment, Tacitus was sitting on the bow of the boat, enjoying the gentle sunshine, and said in a calm tone: "It's just spring, the sea water is still cold, and the fish don't come out very much, plus Poseidon doesn't come out." Bless me, how can I have a good catch!”

Mikalesus looked down at the two baskets of fishing goods placed on the shore: one basket was half full of mackerel and cod, and the other basket was full of sea shrimp and squid.

Micaresus was quite satisfied with such a harvest. Of course, he knew that Theisitis had relatively high requirements for himself, so Micaresus jokingly said: "While there is still time now, the weather is warm." Now, how many more nets will you go out to sea to cast?"

Tacitus poked the mud stains on his fingers and reminded him: "It's okay for me to go to sea again, but do you have time to sell them all? Waste will be punished by Poseidon!"

Because there were no refrigerators in this era, freshly caught sea fish had to be sold on the same day, otherwise they would be thrown away due to rot the next day.Although Greeks like to live on the seaside, their staple food is still grains, and sea fish is only a supplementary food.In recent years, the tax burden in Syracuse has increased, and the purchasing power of ordinary citizens has declined, which has naturally affected the sales of marine fish. Not to mention casting a few nets, it only matters whether these two baskets of fish can be sold out before the market closes in the evening. The problem is, maybe you can only take the rest home and cook fish porridge for the slaves, or feed it to pigs and dogs.

Micaresus sighed, said nothing, and turned around to instruct the slaves to carry the wooden basket onto the carriage.

At this time, another fisherman on the fishing boat shouted: "Hey, Micaresus, have you heard that Dionysius's army was defeated by the Dionysians!"

"How is this possible?! Where did you get the news?!" Micaresus looked shocked and couldn't believe it.

"How is it impossible! Our navy can be defeated by the Dionysians, and of course our army can be defeated by them!" Not only did the fisherman not feel sad for the city-state's failure, but he had a strange look of gloating on his face. Expression: "Now the news has spread throughout the port, and some businessmen from Magna Graecia have also confirmed the news. It is said that in this battle, we Syracuse were defeated miserably. This time it is the turn of the people in the city to cry. !”

"Whether it's the people in the city crying or the people at the port crying, Syracuse's defeat is not a good thing for us." Theisitis said lightly.

"We have been defeated. It's time for Dionysius to stop the war and talk to the Magna Greeks." The fisherman said expectantly: "Without war, naturally there will be no war tax!"

"I'm afraid that Dionysius will continue this war! Not only will the tax burden increase, but... people like you and me may even be drafted as sailors." Theisitis's face Finally, there was a hint of worry.

"I will never die for Dionysius! This war should be stopped!" the fisherman shouted.

Micaresus had no intention of listening to what they were saying. He walked back heavily, not feeling the joy that he had escaped disaster because he did not participate in the expedition. "The army of Syracuse was defeated in Magna Graecia." The news weighed heavily on his heart, reminding him of the huge turmoil in Syracuse when Carthage came to the city a few years ago...

Luckily this time it’s in Magna Graecia! ...But then he thought, if these tens of thousands of soldiers were trapped in Magna Graecia and could not come back, the anger of the people would be difficult for the officials appointed by Dionysius to calm down!
　Thanks to Zhan Billy, handsome Xida Pang, Yijian 68, and Yan Zihei for their rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)