ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 833 Athens joins the war
It turned out that although the Carthage Senate made the decision to let Marco serve as the commander-in-chief of the Sicilian army, the senators headed by Hanno refused to allow Carthage citizens to suffer heavy casualties in the last battle. Taiji organized an army to march to Sicily, but instead proposed that Mago lead the Iberian army, which had not suffered any casualties.

Of course, the senators headed by Preta Kuba would not agree to this proposal. While they strongly called for "further investigation of the culpability of the failure of the last war," they also helped the allied envoys from Sicily and loudly publicized the current situation in Sicily in the city. The tragic experiences of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians attempted to incite the common hatred among the citizens of Carthage, and pushed the Senate to pass the proposal of "reorganizing an army from the basic city of Carthage and marching to Sicily."

Time slipped away day by day in the dispute between the two parties. Although Mago, who was far away in southern Iberia, was anxious, he declined the Senate's request to send troops immediately on the grounds that he was "collecting troops." After all, he was alone. Iberia's military strength allowed Hanno to get what he wanted, which Mago cannot accept now.

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As the Italian peninsula and Sicily fell into war, a major event also happened in mainland Greece.

The Spartan king Cleombrotus finally led the assembled Spartan allies across the Isthmus of Corinth and entered Central Greece. He summoned Spartan troops stationed in this area and prepared to conquer the bottom of the world again. Pius, reestablishing Spartan authority in Central Greece.

But in the process, the Spartan general Sphdelias, who was originally stationed in Thespia, was afraid of being criticized by the new king of Sparta because he did not send troops in time to assist in suppressing the riots in Thebes. , out of the mentality of atonement, and out of the ambition to gain glory and compete with Phoebus, he formulated a plan - a night attack on Piraeus Port.

He believed that by seizing this important trading center in Athens, not only could he make up for the loss of Thebes, but he could even win glory that was not inferior to that of Phoebias (although many Greek city-states secretly despised it, Spartan citizens have so far Still think that Phoebus's successful sneak attack on Thebes was a great achievement).

Since the messenger from the new king of Sparta was already on his way, Sphdelias had no time to make more careful plans, so he led his troops to set off that night and headed toward the southeast port of Piraeus, but he The troops he led were not familiar with the terrain, and he underestimated the difficulty of this journey. As a result, it was already dawn before they reached the port of Piraeus.

The Athenians in the port discovered their traces and immediately mobilized to prepare for defense.

Seeing that the sneak attack failed, Sverdelias had no choice but to return along the way.During the retreat, in order to relieve their anger, the army ravaged the Athenian territory it passed through.

Such unprovoked provocation immediately aroused great anger among the Athenians.

Sparta once sent envoys to accuse two Athenian generals of participating in the riot in Thebes. In order to prove their innocence, Athens executed the two generals who acted without authorization.However, the Spartan envoy did not leave, but continued to stay in Athens, claiming to be executing the orders of the Spartan Council of Elders and continuing to supervise Athens' performance in the next period of time.

Now, the angry Athenians immediately arrested the Spartan envoy and angrily asked: Why did Sparta send troops to invade Athenian territory and plunder the Athenian people for no reason? !

The Spartan envoy, who was confused by the anger of the Athenians, learned about what happened in Piraeus in the morning. He secretly cursed Sphodelias for his audacity. He immediately loudly defended the robbery: This action was a foolish act made by the Spartan general on his own initiative and had nothing to do with the Spartan government!

Moreover, he firmly stated that the Spartan Council of Elders would quickly try Sphodelias and give Athens a fair explanation.

The Spartan envoy's defense could not completely calm the anger of the Athenians.

Thrasibulos, the leader of the Athenian political arena, died in battle a few years ago, but in Athens, which is full of outstanding people, a democrat named Callistratus stood out. He was not only an orator, but also a democrat. A very capable politician, he was elected as the Ten Generals of Athens for several consecutive years. He persuaded the still angry Athenian people and reminded them: If Athens is not ready for war with Sparta, then it is best to believe that Sparta will what the messenger said.

Although the citizens of Athens were angry, they also knew the strength of Spartan military power, so they finally agreed to release the Spartan envoys.

The Spartan envoy immediately rushed to the residence of Cleombrotus, the Spartan king, and reported to him what had just happened in Piraeus and the protests of the Athenians.

Only then did Cleombrotus learn of Sphodelias' stupidity. In anger, he immediately sent someone to arrest him and send him back to Sparta.

At the same time that Sphodelias was being escorted back to Sparta, the envoys sent by Athens also arrived in Sparta, which forced the Spartan Council of Elders and prosecutors to speed up the prosecution of this disobedient man. , the trial of the generals who provoked Athens without permission.

Sphdelias seemed doomed, but his son was close to Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, and urgently appealed to Archidamus for help.

Archidamus did not hesitate to plead with his father for the sake of his best friend.

Agesilaus made no promise.

But during the interrogation, Agesilaus spoke for Sverdelias.

He said: "Sphodelias is undoubtedly guilty, but we cannot put a good man to death. Whether as a child, a youth, or an adult, this heroic Spartan citizen lived a decent life , Diligently contributing to Sparta, Sparta needs such fighters!..."

Agesilaus is now very prestigious in Sparta. His speech made some neutrals in the Council of Elders choose to support Sphodelias' innocence. However, some elders originally felt that this man should not be punished. Spartan general.

They believed that the riots in Thebes damaged Sparta's prestige in Greece, and it was the time when war was needed to restore prestige. If Sparta punished its generals at this time, it would not only hurt Spartan citizens His aggressive fighting spirit and self-defeating behavior will make other city-states look down on Sparta.

In the end, the Council of Elders passed the resolution of "Sfodelias not guilty" by a majority vote, and the prosecutors who had the power to make the decision were originally selected from Spartan citizens. They were younger and more radical, and of course they agreed. took this resolution.

The awaited Athenian citizens were shocked when they learned of Sparta's verdict: Faced with Sparta's accusations, the Athenians executed two of their generals!Now, in the face of Athens' accusation, Sparta easily acquitted the perpetrator!
The arrogance of the Spartans completely angered the citizens of Athens, who strongly demanded that the Athenian government must retaliate against Sparta.

What Sparta did was beyond the expectations of the Athenian generals. Since the signing of the Peace Treaty with the King, the generals led by Callistratus and Aristotles, in view of Sparta's tyranny in mainland Greece, Therefore, we adopted a neutral policy of waiting and watching.However, they were not idle, but continued to establish alliances between Athens and many city-states along the coast of Thrace, the Aegean Sea, and Asia Minor. Frequent economic and trade exchanges and diplomatic mutual assistance resulted in the fact that Athens' current strength has exceeded that of Corinth. before the war.

But now the anger of the citizens makes it impossible for Athens to continue to hide its capabilities and bide its time. Although this is not what Callistratus wants to see, the overwhelming support of the vast majority of citizens at the citizens' assembly is against Sparta declared war, and Athens finally passed the resolution smoothly.

Athens' declaration of war shocked the Greek city-states. It not only made the Thebans feel happy, but also made Cleombrotus, the Spartan king who was preparing to attack Thebes, feel uncomfortable. He was afraid that he would attack Thebes with all his strength. At that time, the Athenian army attacked from the east again, so it became hesitant in the military operation to attack Thebes.

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Camillus decisively led the army to leave the city of Rome and march westward to attack Ostia.

Of course, Davos couldn't let his opponent's plan succeed. He had to send out the soldiers of the First Army, the Fourth Army, the Sixth Army and some of the Fifth Army, or take the cargo ship of the Chamber of Commerce and rush to the port of Ostia, or March along the north bank of the Tiber River to the mouth of the river, and then ferry to the city of Ostia on the south bank by warship.At this point, about 35000 soldiers (including the temporary reserve team formed by Telis) had gathered in Ostia to fully defend the siege of the Roman army of less than 6 people.

Since Davos still had to sit in Rome, he could only appoint Amyntas as the temporary defense commander of Ostia. After repeated thinking, he believed that Amyntas, who had rich combat experience and senior qualifications, could make him the temporary defense commander of Ostia. The other legion commanders obeyed the command and were able to defend the small city.

However, in order to prevent him from getting too hot-headed, Davos strictly ordered him to "only defend the city and not go out to fight!"

In addition, Davos also appointed Crotocathax, who fought in Ostia, as Amyntas' personal adviser. On the surface, he asked him to study military affairs with Amyntas, but secretly gave him a With a warrant, if Amyntas acts without authorization, Crotocatacus can use the warrant to remove Amyntas from his position and make Olivers the commander.

This was the first time that Crotokatax took on an important task, and he readily accepted the task, which enabled Davos to achieve another goal: to cleverly keep his son away from the battlefield and protect his safety.

　Thanks to Jiayi Bingding, Yijian 68, and No. 11 sniper for their rewards!Your support is my motivation to write! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)