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The three looked at each other.

Xanticles then comforted him, “Agasias, you have done nothing wrong! We are all very grateful to you for saving us from the battlefield of death in Asia Minor! As long as we stay in the union patiently, we believe that we will eventually obtain citizenship and land, and it is just a bit uncomfortable now. As for Sparta, you have to believe Timasion and I that they will not be hostile to the union for at least three to four years!”

The Greeks like to drink alcohol with water. Agasias thought that it will not be easy for him to get drunk and made a stupid move, even though he didn’t drink beer tonight, he had drank liquor without water and finally got drunk.

Timasion and the others could only help him get home with difficulty.

When they came out, the three people sighed.

Cleanor’s mouth twitched and said, “He regrets that he had called us to Magna Graecia…is he not going to help us anymore?!”

“Agasias is not such a man!” Xanticles shook his head, “I think he is just under too much pressure recently and wants to drink to relax. But we should really restrain those who don’t listen to us!”

They argued for a while, but when they turned around, they saw Timasion walking slowly, and was thinking about something.

“Timasion, what are you thinking?! It’s time that we went back to the port!” Shouted Cleanor.

Timasion looked at them and said slowly and seriously, “I remember that Davos used to say, ‘It’s better to rely on yourself than to rely on others’!”

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

When Phoebidas arrived at Syracuse, he was warmly welcomed by Dionysius. He invited him and his entourage to his palace and organized a banquet and accompanied him in person.

Looking at the attractive dance of the beautiful slaves in the center of the banquet hall, Phoebidas, who had developed strong self-control in the military camp since childhood, also felt thirsty. So he had even drunk several mouthfuls of liquor.

‘I heard that Lysander had lived in a small city-state in Asia Minor that he controlled at that time and lived like the princes in the east. It should be like this!’ thought Phoebidas.

“Phoebidas, I heard that you went to Theonia, has the matter been resolved?” Dionysius casually asked, because the Spartan warship had made a trip to the Gulf of Taranto, so the news regarding it had already been spread to Syracuse.

“Yes, but it is without success.” Phoebidas frankly admitted, with some appreciation in his tone, “The Archon and statesmen of Theonia Union are very unyielding, and even in the face of Sparta, they refused to give in!”

“Oh!” Dionysius was slightly surprised and said, “Sounds like you have a good impression of them?”

“Although the time we met is not long, I can feel that they highly value battles and victory, they respect capable strategoi and warriors, and train very frequently, which is similar to us Spartans!” Phoebidas wasn’t stingy in his praise, “And the new union is developing very fast. I heard that it was only a small city-state more than half a year ago, but now, it has three cities and two affiliated allies. I believe that it won’t be long before it becomes a powerful force that dominates Magna Graecia!”

After hearing this, Dionysius squeezed out a smile and said, “This is a great news. At least the natives of Magna Graecia will encounter a worthy enemy.” Having said that, the mug that he was holding went “bang” and the wine splashed on the table. He then immediately changed the topic to his army that was about to attack Carthage.

Phoebidas noticed it and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

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

On the way back to Sparta, Dorotheus, who had endured it for a long time, asked, “Phoebidas, why did you praise Theonia at the banquet?”

“My compliment will make Dionysius sleepless!” Phoebidas said with a smile, “Since the time of the former tyrant of Syracuse, Gelon I*, Syracuse has been regarded as the leader of Sicily and Magna Graecia. I remember the old man once said that Gelon has even sent troops to the north in Campania in central Apennine in order to defeat the Etruscans who had besieged Cumae….but Dionysius was more ambitious. He used force to turn the Greek city-states in southeast Sicily into a subordinate of Syracuse. Would he allow a powerful force in Magna Graecia to threaten the status of Syracuse?!….unfortunately, he is going to attack Carthage soon, so he can’t take action against Theonia in a short time….” (T/N: Gelon I: was a 5th-century BC ruler of Gela and Syracuse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelon)

“Oh, I see!” Dorotheus was suddenly enlightened, but he immediately asked, “Since Dionysius is interested in Magna Graecia, Theonia might not be as important in his mind as Rhegium and Crotone.”

“Yea.” Phoebidas acknowledge it, “The current strength of Theonia is not as powerful as these traditional states in Magna Graecia, but its speed of development will also arouse his vigilance.”

Dorotheus recalled the magnificent sight he had seen when they were invited by Dionysius to inspect his army. He could not help exclaim, “Dionysius is so powerful that he can send a large army of 50,000 men and 3,000 cavalry to attack Carthage!”

“Although they have many men, I don’t think that they even have many soldiers who are really good at fighting!” Said Phoebidas, half of his statement was fact, while the other was out of jealousy because even Sparta, who had become the Greek hegemon, could not send such a huge army at one time. So one can imagine the strength of Syracuse and its affiliated city-states.

‘Syracuse, Carthage, and Theonia should slaughter each other!’ Phoebidas cursed in his heart.

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

Entering the new year (398 BC), the Thurii-Roscianum road has been completely finished, and the thousands of Crotonian captives of Theonia returned to Roscianum because the six-month period has ended.

For Davos, he was becoming more and more nervous and excited, because the stomach of Cheiristoya was getting bigger and bigger, and it is only less than a month before her due date.

At this time, information came from Nerulum that Potentia has officially announced that they would support the son of Akpir, Lusau, to retake Grumentum, and asked Cincinnag to return to Pyxous, otherwise, Potentia would send troops to join the war.

Cincinnag became nervous, and so he sent envoys to the tribes of Grumentum who were occupying the southern part of the city and expressing his willingness to immediately implement their earlier demands, as long as they can re-unite to deal with the army of Potentia that will come.

And these tribal chieftains were very happy with Cincinnag’s soft approach, and they were also afraid that once Lusau where to retake Grumentum, he would find them to seek revenge. Because they knew that Lusau, like his father, was also a man who always repaid grievance.

Everyone believed that it was due to external pressure that forced the two forces in the city to compromise and re-unite. However, when the chieftains came to the center of the city to prepare for the peace talks, they didn’t expect that Cincinnag had prepared a large number of warriors to ambush them in advance.

Because their chieftains were killed, it made the tribes in the southern part of the city unprepared. As a result, under the planned attack of Pyxous’ warriors, their casualties were heavy. Some warriors have surrendered and some of them fled the city of Grumentum.

In the face of the military threat of Potentia, Cincinnag resolutely unified Grumentum in one fell swoop. Knowing about this, even Davos had to admire the determination and ruthlessness of Cincinnag, but he didn’t know that the reason why Cincinnag managed to do this was mostly because of the painful memory of being attacked by the Vergae’s from behind.

Soon, Sesta sent a report to the Senate saying: As a result of Cincinnag’s slaughter in Grumentum, some Lucanians fled to Nerulum. In addition, with the impending war with Pyxous and Potentia, the small tribes that are sandwiched between the two forces had fled to the south one after another for fear of being caught in the flames of war. As a result, the number of registered preparatory citizens in Nerulum has increased to 8,000. However, Nerulum doesn’t have enough land to allocate and could not support such a large population, so he demanded that some of the Lucanians should first go to Thurii.

After a repeated discussion with the statesmen, especially during this period of time where the stability of Nerulum and the good performance of the Lucanians had led to the senate’s agreement in accepting their migration.

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

When Phoebidas returned to Sparta, his report to Theonia did not attract the attention of the Gerousia. One of the reason is that he has always acted on his own, and the Spartan elders who were familiar with him were disgusted at his repeated emphasis on the “Theonia Union is disrespectful to Sparta and is arrogant, so they must be punished” because they all knew that it was he, who had caused trouble and caused such a result. The more important reason is that the elders do not have the energy to deal with this matter now, because Agis, one of the two kings of Sparta, has died due to his illness.

Since the time of Homer, Sparta has been ruled by two kings. And both kings were known as the direct descendants of Heracles, and was born from two hereditary royal families: One is the Agiad family in the center of Sparta and the other one is the Eurypontid family in southern Laconia. Agis was born into the Eurypontid family. Although in this era, due to the rise of democracy, the monarchy of Sparta has been greatly restricted, but they still enjoy many honors, especially at the time of their death. The whole territory of Sparta was preparing for the funeral of Agis: The cavalry galloped around Laconia to announce the death of king Agis; The women beat the iron pans and spread the news all over Sparta. After learning about what happened, each family must send out two free people, one male and one female, in mourning clothes; The Perioikoi* also had to send a fixed number of people to attend the funeral organized by the Gerousia. (T/N: Perioikoi means those dwelling around – they were the members of a social class and population group of non-citizen that inhabited Laconia and Messenia.)

The funeral lasted ten days, during which public matters could not be dealt with. After ten days, the elder’s first priority was to elect a new king.

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