ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 700 Syracuse Ten Years Past
The amount of compensation is certainly substantial.Herolis was finally forced to agree to pay war reparations after many negotiations with Dionia. This is why he wanted to concentrate his power on developing Syracuse as quickly as possible and get Syracuse out of the quagmire of defeat as soon as possible. reason.

However, the people of Syracuse discovered that some of the Syracuse citizen soldiers and sailors who were released were missing.

and Rollis immediately sent people to negotiate with Dionia, but the reply from Dionia officials made them feel helpless: Due to the violent attack of the Syracuse army, Dionia was already on the verge of destruction. With food support from Carthage, they had to agree to the other party's request and provided some Syracuse prisoners to Carthage.

Herolis had no choice but to make a fuss about war reparations and strongly asked Dionia to reduce part of the compensation amount.

However, the people of Syracuse believed that Herolis did not try his best and allowed the Syracuse people to become slaves of Carthage.

The people were disappointed with him, including many civilians in the port area, because many of the prisoners who did not return were Syracuse sailors.

At this time, Davos also ordered the spies lurking in Syracuse to spread unfavorable rumors about Herolis, because Davos knew that many of the decisions Herolis made were correct, but he Don't want to see Syracuse rise again.

As a result, people's dissatisfaction and suspicion of Herolis grew, and many people spread rumors that Herolis wanted to be the second Dionysius.

And during this period of turmoil, according to the proposal promulgated by Herolis, Fasipesus, Damocles... these former generals under Dionysius who should have been severely punished However, the ministers and ministers suddenly escaped from imprisonment and escaped from the city of Syracuse with some people who were dissatisfied with Herolis. They joined the mercenaries of Mathias who were wandering in the mountains to the west and actually occupied Syracuse. A sub-state to the west of Lacuza - the small town of Ackley.

Of course, Herolis could not allow the remnants of Dionysius to cause chaos within the sphere of influence of Syracuse, so he decided to lead the team himself, and before leaving, he asked Falecus, Kuchias, and Stacy Cos and others guarded the city of Syracuse. After all, he also knew that the political situation was somewhat unstable recently.

Unexpectedly, Herolis had just led his troops to Ackley, and when he was attacking the city, he received bad news: a rebellion broke out in the city of Syracuse. The citizens' assembly not only re-elected the generals, but also unanimously passed a proposal to try the dictatorship. Herolis.

How could Herolis be ousted so easily in Syracuse?That's because of the support of Falekus, Kuchias, Staceikos and others.

It turned out that these close friends of Herolis deeply felt that Herolis had become arbitrary after he became the leader of Syracuse and could not listen to their opinions. Although they were also members of the executive committee, they had almost no Real power, of course there is dissatisfaction in the heart.Coupled with the influence of rumors in the city, they were worried that Herolis would really become a dictator.So after Herolis led the army out of the city, under Theagenis's persuasion, they resolutely chose to cooperate with the democrats and abandoned Herolis.

When Herolis heard about the commotion in the city, he immediately led his troops back, hoping to calm down the situation quickly.Unexpectedly, most of his soldiers had fled before they reached the city of Syracuse.

Seeing that nothing could be done, Herolis had no choice but to flee Syracuse by boat with his confidants.

He did not choose to flee to the Kingdom of Dionia, which had helped him overthrow Dionysius, nor to Sparta, Syracuse's former ally, but to Corinth, Syracuse's former mother-state. .It was already the third year of the Kingdom of Dionia (391 BC), and the Corinthian War had come to an end.

In order to prevent a situation like Herolis from happening again, the democrats who took power in the city of Syracuse elected 25 generals headed by Stacekos and Falaikus through the citizens' assembly to manage the affairs of the city-state. , they also repealed some of the bills promulgated when Herolis was in power, including "war reparations for Dionia, and the land allocated to civilians in the port area was also recovered..."

This not only worsened the diplomatic environment in Syracuse, but also made the people in the port area very angry.

At the same time, Theagenis also proposed that citizens who had served Dionysius should be punished more severely.This caused panic among many people in the city.

King Davos of Dionia ordered the Eighth Army Corps in Catanai to present troops and the northern border of Syracuse to assume a menacing posture to attack Syracuse.

In the end, the new Syracuse generals capitulated and had to increase the amount of war reparations.As for the civilians who caused riots in the port, Theagenis and others sent troops to suppress them mercilessly.

Just at this moment, Fasipesus and Mathias led the rebel army in Ackley to march towards Syracuse, with the slogan "Avenge the grievances of the citizens who once served Dionysius" ”, this slogan was actually recognized by many people in Syracuse
Therefore, Theagenis led the unstable citizens to fight out of the city. They were defeated by the rebels of Fasipesus who were smaller in number than them, and had to retreat into the city for defense.

Fascipesus and Mathias were both experienced generals in combat and were very familiar with the city of Syracuse.Fasipesas pretended to storm the southern city of Syracuse, but Mathias led a small number of elite soldiers quickly went northward around the mountains, rushed to the north wall of Syracuse, attacked the Hexa Gate, and broke into the city. Inside the city, enter the Popikle area.

The people in the city were shocked.

But at this critical moment, the General Executive Committee composed of 25 generals was discussing who should be held responsible for the loss of the city. At the same time, they were arguing endlessly about how to defend the enemy, and could not come up with a specific measure.It was not until Mathias' army approached the inner city that the generals hurriedly assembled their troops to meet the enemy, but the result was another failure.

The panicked democrats had no choice but to retreat to the island of Ortygia, and Fascipesas also took advantage of the situation to enter the city and join Mathias. The former mercenaries under his command took the opportunity to wreak revenge in the city, and the people were miserable. .

Herolis, who was far away in Corinth, had been paying attention to the developments in Syracuse. Now after learning about the tragic situation of the people, as a patriot, how could he stand by and watch.So he asked the Corinthian government for some reinforcements and led them back to Ortygia by ship.

It was already the spring of the sixth year of the Kingdom of Dionia (388 BC). The people of Syracuse warmly welcomed the return of Herolis and asked him to forgive their betrayal.

Herolis gave a touching speech on the island of Ortygia. He said: "..."No matter how the people of Syracuse treat him, he will come to protect this country and the people here without hesitation. If he could not save his motherland, he would rather burn himself on the ruins of his motherland! …”

The people of Syracuse, including former friends and political opponents who opposed him, were deeply moved by his words. The people chanted: "Save Syracuse!!! Save Syracuse!!!..."

Seeing that the morale was high and the people's support was available, Herolis immediately formed an army, opened the long-closed city gate of Ortigia, rushed out of the isthmus, and launched a fierce attack on the rebels.

Phasipesus and Mathias hurriedly led their troops to fight.

When the people in the city heard that the leader was Herolis, they also rose up to respond.

The rebels were defeated in consecutive battles. In the end, Mathias was killed, Fasipesas was also captured, and the rebels were basically wiped out.

The prestige of Herolis, who had won a complete victory, was greatly increased. Therefore, without holding a citizens' assembly, he blatantly abolished the generals' executive committee, and deprived 25 generals including Theagenis, Phalaicus... of their power. The people They actually didn't object to this.

And this time when he regained power, Herolis clearly wanted to establish a political system in Syracuse that was similar to Dionia and combined with the Corinthian system.

This is a political system in which a few elites rule the majority. For this reason, he relied more on the Corinthians to help him complete the task of transforming the system.

The turmoil in Syracuse in the past few years has caused the people to suffer a lot. In addition, Herolis restored the bill he had enacted in Syracuse, and many people benefited. Therefore, the people acquiesced in Herolis. Rawlis did not express strong opposition to these attempts to change the political system and seemingly become authoritarian.Herolis's political opponents, such as Theagenes and Falaikus, lost the support of the people and could not make any big waves. The political situation in Syracuse began to stabilize.

The rule of Herolis is gradually becoming more stable, but within this stability lies danger.

Among the Corinthians who followed Herolis to Syracuse, there was a young nobleman named Andemachus. Because of his bravery in battle, he was appreciated by Herolis and was responsible for protecting the security of Syracuse. The city guard chief, and also the palace captain of Herolis.But he was jealous of Herolis' achievements and tried to replace him.

In the eighth year of the Kingdom of Dionia (386 BC), when Herolis was going to the Temple of Apollo to offer sacrifices, a killer hired by Andermachus stabbed the plenipotentiary general of Syracuse to death, and then Andermachus took advantage of the situation to usurp supreme power in Syracuse.

In order to consolidate his power, he promoted Corinthians on a large scale, and the people of Syracuse complained a lot about this.

A few months later, at a harvest celebration gathering in Demeter, the widow of Herolis publicly revealed the truth about her husband's assassination.

The people were angry, and they gathered to overthrow Andermachus' rule.

Andermachus also assembled an army to suppress it, but in the end he suffered a disastrous defeat and died in the chaos.

　Thanks to Yijian 68 for the reward!Your support is my motivation to write! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)