ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 893 East Phoenician Fleet
When Tyre, the mother state of Carthage, received the request for help from the Carthage envoy, it did not neglect it and quickly contacted other neighboring Phoenician city-states, such as Sidon, Acre, Arvady, etc., and they finally agreed to assist Carthage. , after all, one of the main reasons why the Phoenicians have been able to live relatively comfortably under Persian rule over the years is that every year they contribute a large amount of gold and silver to the Persian royal court, and these gold and silver are mainly from the Kas. Taiji traded it to them at a lower price.

Although there were not many Phoenician city-states to the Kingdom of Persia and their territory was not large, they owned hundreds of warships. Because the Persians were located inland and were not good at navigation, their navy was provided by foreigners. , mainly from Phoenicians and Greeks from Asia Minor, and in recent years the Persian king has been interested in retaking Egypt and has been preparing for war. The Phoenicians are the main force of the Persian navy and there is no lack of training.

But there is an important issue. The Phoenician city-states in the Eastern Mediterranean are under Persian rule, and their warships are also affiliated with the Persian navy. Of course, it is impossible to leave privately and go to the Western Mediterranean. Therefore, Tire, Sidon... must also send The envoys went to the Persian court to seek permission from King Artaxerxes of Persia.

Since the signing of the King's Contract, Persia's biggest enemy, the Greek city-states, not only no longer antagonized Persia, but instead let Persia act as an arbiter to mediate conflicts and disputes between the Greek city-states, which was equivalent to expressing surrender to Persia.Artaxerxes felt that he had achieved great achievements that none of the great kings before him had achieved. In addition, the political situation in Persia was stable at this time, and the barbarians worshiped him. His throne was very stable, so he was very satisfied and could think quietly. He moved and ordered to attack Egypt. Although he suffered a small setback, he was not hurt.

Under his orders, more complete preparations for the attack on Egypt were being made in the kingdom.

The envoy from Tire met Artaxerxes and conveyed to him the Phoenician request.

This is not the first time that Artaxerxes has heard the name "Dionia". Although the two countries are thousands of miles apart, the prosperous maritime trade in the Mediterranean also makes the news spread quickly, and the Kingdom of Dionia quickly The miraculous story of the rise was also widely spread throughout Asia Minor, and naturally also in Persia.

The Persian King Artaxerxes began to pay attention to this newly rising kingdom in the far west because his intelligence department discovered that Dionia was originally a country established by Greek mercenaries who followed the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger. After all, Greece The story of the mercenaries fighting thousands of miles in Persia and finally escaping successfully was widely popular in Greece and also spread in Asia Minor. However, it was a shame for Artaxerxes and his Persian army.

Under further investigation by the royal intelligence department, Artaxerxes learned more. For example, he knew that the Kingdom of Dionia, like Persia, was relatively tolerant of foreign gods and religions; Similarly, he exercised stricter control over the conquered lands; he even knew that Dionia and Egypt had formed a military alliance not long ago... So in Artaxerxes' mind, the Kingdom of Dionia belonged to Persia The enemy is just that this country is too far away and its strength is too insignificant (Artaxerxes and many Persian officials think so), so I didn't take it too seriously in the past.

But since something now involves Dionia, Artaxerxes is of course willing to cause some trouble for it, so he agreed to "the Phoenicians sending a fleet to assist Carthage" without much consideration, and They also generously allowed them to use the Persian flag when necessary.

With the Persian king's promise, the East Phoenicians quickly dispatched a fleet of 130 large and small warships, including 90 triremes, and 30 cargo ships carrying food supplies. Under the flag of the Persian Navy, they sailed westward along the coast of Asia Minor unimpeded. The Greek city-states who saw this fleet along the way felt a little nervous, and they all secretly speculated: What major military action did the Persians have?

The most nervous people were undoubtedly the Athenians, because at this time they were joining forces with Thebes to fight against Sparta. The Persian fleet was sailing west at this time, which made them panic: Could it be that Persia wanted to support Sparta and join the war? ?If so, the outlook for Athens will be very bad!

The East Phoenician fleet was like a pebble falling into a water bottle, causing waves, but it did not attract too much attention from the Dionians, because Dionia was fully coping with several wars and was temporarily separated. There is no energy left to pay attention to things in the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the hearts of the Dionians, they believe that it is impossible for the Persian fleet to attack the Western Mediterranean, and let them mess up the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean as much as possible.

Furthermore, it is almost approaching autumn, and the farmland in Dionia is about to reap a bumper harvest. The kingdom's merchants no longer buy food from the Eastern Mediterranean. Instead, they mobilize a lot of people and flock to the Latium region in central Italy, in an attempt to grow crops in this area. The kingdom's new conquests have brought new business opportunities and more profits. Naturally, the number of Dionian merchant ships plying the trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean has decreased significantly. This has also caused the Ministry of Military Affairs to obtain little information about this Persian fleet. .

Later, the westbound East Phoenician fleet docked at the port of Kydonia in Crete, which made the Athenians even more nervous because the Cretan city-states were allies of Sparta, among which Kydonia Asia is closer to the mainland of Greece.

But a few days later, the Athenians received news that "the Persian fleet disappeared in Crete", which made them confused, but then no one saw any trace of this fleet on the coast of mainland Greece.

In fact, after the East Phoenician fleet rested in Caedonia, taking advantage of a strong north wind blowing from the sea one day, it quietly left the port and sailed southwest, avoiding the usual routes frequented by Greek merchant ships, and arrived in St. Cyrenaica, a substate of Badda, then continued westward along the African coast to Leptis, the easternmost colonial city among the Phoenician colonies in Africa.

After arriving and being warmly welcomed by the townspeople, the crew of the Phoenician fleet relaxed.The fleet continued westward, eventually reaching Hadrumetum.

This Phoenician city-state affiliated with Carthage was just south of Carthage, but few foreign merchant ships visited it. After the Phoenician fleet stayed in the port, it no longer headed west because of the shrewd East Felipes. After talking with their compatriots along the way, the Nikes realized that the Dionian navy they were about to fight was powerful, so they refused to enter the city of Carthage to avoid being forced to do so because they could not evade the Carthaginians' pleas. Confront the Carthaginian navy head-on, but want to choose the time to attack independently.

Of course, there is another reason to keep it secret. Although the East Phoenicians have close business ties with Carthage, the two sides have rarely had high-level political and military exchanges for decades. On the one hand, this is because of the Persian influence. The reason, on the other hand, is that the East Phoenicians (especially the Tire nobles) have always been wary of Carthage, which had taken away all their colonial trading points in the Western Mediterranean, and did not want to enter Carthage-this was The city called "the center of the West Phoenicians".

Later, the East Phoenician fleet staying in Hadrumetum refused to provide escort for the Carthaginian army to land in Sicily, because that would inevitably mean that they would withstand the crazy attack of the Dionian navy.

It was not until the Carthaginian army ventured to land in Sicily that the Dionian navy focused its attention on western Sicily. At the suggestion of the Carthaginian commander Mago, the Carthaginian Senate discussed with the East Phoenician fleet. They Only then did he finally agree to Mago’s plan.

The fleet quietly left Hadrumetum, sailed north, and reluctantly entered Kossyra.

Corsula is a small island belonging to Carthage. There is a Carthaginian town on the island with a population of about 2000 and a small port located in the south of the island.The island is located between Sicily and Carthage, facing the city of Selinus to the north.

The East Phoenician fleet was crowded on the island of Corsula. After staying for a few days, the clippers sent out to explore brought back the news. As expected by Mago, the Dionian warships were leaving the port full of soldiers!

How could the East Phoenician fleet miss this great opportunity to annihilate the enemy, so the warship left the port, raised its sails, sailed north with the weak south wind, and finally caught up with the Dionian fleet in time.

The East Phoenician warships lowered their sails and began to speed up. The entire fleet gradually spread to both sides as they advanced, but they did not implement any special tactics. The situation of the Dionian fleet in front was not worth their time. To arrange tactics, they just tried to increase the number of warships in the front line as much as possible, and strive to sink enough enemy ships in the first impact.

The Dionia Clipper, now in the outer patrol position, has raised two yellow flags one by one from west to east. Rough information about the enemy's situation has spread throughout the team, and the warships approaching the Miltias flagship have begun to move towards The coast retreated, but the easternmost warship had just received the "closer to the flagship" signal. The entire fleet was disorganized and unable to coordinate, and the warship almost lost its combat capability, making the crew panic and low in morale.

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At this moment, Sekerian, who already knew that there was an enemy situation, commanded the clipper he was riding on to catch up with a returning trireme, and then he anxiously ordered the clipper to approach immediately.

Then, he stood on the bow and shouted: "I am Sekerian, who is the captain of this ship?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a noisy exclamation in the cabin of the warship opposite: "Did you hear it? It's the voice of Lord Sekerian!"

　There is a dinner party tonight, so update in advance!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)