ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 70 Investigation

After crossing the Saraceno River, Davers clearly felt that the terrain was rising. The mountains and the coast were parallel to the north, but the distance between them shortened a lot. The small space made Davers's trip safer. However, he did not take it lightly. He asked Asistes and Ledes to serve as scouts on the left wing of the team, paying close attention to the situation in the mountains to prevent the enemy from detouring from the mountains and taking their retreat.

On the next journey, Davers did not see a coast with soft beaches. Instead, he saw steep rock walls and rugged reefs. The seawater lapped at the coast rhythmically, and the sound was quite alarming.

It seems unlikely that Amendolara has a port.Davos thought in his heart, a sense of loss rose from the bottom of his heart.

At this time, the guide shouted: "Look, that's Amendolara."

Following the direction of his finger, a city appeared and disappeared in the distance.

Davos perked up, clamped the horse's belly hard, and rushed forward, and the soldiers who followed quickly caught up.

Now he saw clearly: Amendolara was actually a mountain city, which was inconsistent with Greek tradition!It is built on a hill, seemingly quite high, facing east, overlooking the Gulf of Taranto.The morning mist in the mountains and forests spreads around it, making it look vague and hazy.

In order to see more clearly, Davos continued to move forward.

The guide followed cautiously, because it was less than a mile away from the city of Amendolara. Although the Lucanians had not been seen before, it did not mean that the Lucanians would not come out when they arrived at the door of the house. 'welcome'!
At this time, another river blocked the way. The width of the river was less than ten meters. The bottom of the river was clearly visible in the clear water, so there was no problem in wading through it.

"This is the Sisno River. Not far to the north is another river called the Burano River, and Amendolara is between the two rivers. Come here, we can't cross the river anymore," the guide begged.

Davers couldn't help but sigh: The water resources in the Apennine Peninsula are so abundant!No wonder the citizens of Greater Greece lived more moistly than the natives of Greece. The snow in the Apennines melted and finally formed rivers. The rivers washed the soil and rocks from the mountains to the lowlands. Year after year, the land is not fertile!Compared with the gravel ground in Greece, one is like heaven and the other is like earth!The plain area is too small.

During the war, mountain cities are generally easy to defend and difficult to attack, but they need to solve two problems, food and water.Since Amendolara is surrounded by rivers, water is not a problem...Davos thought while observing the city of Amendolara not far away: This city does not seem to be big, at least 100 meters above the ground, but the slope is It's gentle, with a stone wall surrounding the city...

When the guide saw that Davos was neither crossing the river nor walking, he stood by the river and looked repeatedly at Amendolara. He felt a little anxious and was about to urge him again.

Davos asked: "What is the relationship between Amendolara and Turiyi? The city was built by immigrants from Turiyi?"

This guide is not an ordinary slave. As a domestic slave, he has accompanied Burkos to study and play together since he was a child. When he grew up, he followed Burkos around the world and did business everywhere. As an important assistant of Burkos, he can be regarded as a well-known person. Well-informed, Burkos was able to send him as a guide because he felt guilty for breaking his promise, so he thought about Davos's profound historical question and answered: "It is said that Amen The city of Dorara was built by the indigenous people here a long time ago. Later, the Sybaris people occupied it. After Crotone destroyed Sybaris, they did not capture it... After Thurii was established, it took the initiative to fight with the Sybaris people. Thurii formed an alliance, and once worked with Thurii to resist the attack of Tarantum in the north..."

alliance?Looking at the small city of Amendolara, and then thinking about the size of the city of Turii, it is obvious that the two are not the same size. It would be difficult to have an equal dialogue, that is, an alliance in name, but a vassal in reality. .However, as long as it is not the colonial city of Thurii.Davos secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He has been in this era for more than half a year, and has deliberately learned a lot about the actual situation of Greek city-states, completely reversing the concept that a city-state was just a city in his previous life.After the Greeks established a city, they would expand outward as much as possible, establish villages and towns, and bring the surrounding land under their control. When the land exceeded the direct control of the city due to distance, they would establish colonial cities or capture others. The city can, on the one hand, continue to maintain the momentum of expansion, and on the other hand, it can provide protection around the main city.

In the beginning, these colonial cities obeyed the orders of the mother state. After all, the citizens of the colonial city all immigrated from the mother state, and even the consuls may be appointed by the mother state.As time went by, the Greeks' love for independence and freedom came into play. In addition, the Greek city-state politics was a closed political management model, which naturally rejected unification, so they became independent one after another. .However, due to geographical proximity and close blood ties, as long as the mother state still maintains its strength advantage and does not bully these neighbors with too much force, they will form a natural alliance with the mother state, dominated by the mother state.However, if the colonial city is separated from the mother state by an ocean or is too far away, decades later, due to the estrangement of the relationship, it is very likely that the colonial city and the mother state will become two different city states, or even enemies of each other, such as Corinth and Corinth. Kira.

Obviously, Amendolara was a colonial city of Subaris back then, and to Tuliyi it was just a subordinate ally, so the land here did not belong to Tulii... Daves thought to himself, and asked again Said: "How did the Lucanians capture this city?"

"I'm not sure about this. It seems that not many citizens of Amendolara escaped... At that time, Thurii was in the midst of a tragic defeat of the entire army and countless citizens were killed. It was also busy defending against the Lucanians. attack, and ignored the calls for help from the citizens of Amendolara. I wonder where they went afterwards?..." The guide said nonchalantly, but Davos took it seriously in his mind.

At this time, Asistes shouted: "Chief, someone is coming out of the city!"

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

Vespa, the leader of the Lucanians in Amendolara City, has been a little agitated during this time because the city of Grumentum sent a messenger asking him to lead the tribe to participate in the Lucanian Tribal Alliance. The second attack on Thurii.

The tribe to which Weisba belonged originally lived on the banks of the upper reaches of the Agri River southeast of Grumentum City. There were many tribal settlements there. Weisba's tribe was considered the larger one and had always relied on grazing and simple farming. For decades, they lived in peace with the surrounding tribes.But the year before last, since the marriage and alliance between the city of Grumentum and the city of Picosis, the already powerful Grumentum became even more powerful. They no longer took into account the equally powerful city of Potentia in the northwest. Check and balance, they began to expand aggressively, attacking and incorporating the settlements and strongholds of surrounding small tribes. Under the pressure of Grumentum's army, the Weisba tribe did not want to be annexed by it, so they had to flee to the southeast and hide in Amen. In the forest at the junction of the western mountains of Dorara and Heraclea, tribesmen continued to die due to hunger and disease, including Vespa's two sons.Just when Vespa could barely hold on and wanted to surrender to Grumentum in order to survive, he heard a message.

Since Grumentum's expansion, its population and military strength have increased dramatically, but at the same time it has brought about a problem - food.Originally, the Lucania mountainous area did not produce abundant grain, and relied more on grazing, and grazing also relied on the weather.The winter before last was much colder than previous years, and a large number of livestock froze to death, making food a major problem for Grumentum to maintain its hegemony in southern Lucaria.So, last winter, Grumentum united with Picosis and led a large army to join forces from Niutum, Laos... and other tribal cities that recognized its leader status, and prepared to attack Thurii.

Weisba started thinking. He wanted to take advantage of the war between the two sides to fish in troubled waters so that the tribe could escape the danger of destruction.So he mobilized the entire tribe to build rafts, stockpile food, and prepare to go eastward to plunder.

Just at this moment, he heard the good news: Thurii mobilized ten thousand troops to attack Laos, and the entire army was wiped out.

Vespa was overjoyed, thinking that the opportunity had come, and immediately ordered the whole family to take a raft down the river, cross the dangerous shoal by force, and finally entered the territory of Amendolara.

Note: Grumentum
Pyxous
Nerulum
Laos
Potentia Potentia
(End of this chapter)