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Fortunately, shortly after Crotone burned the city, Davos led his army to take back Thurii, and Diana returned to her home, however, she became depressed. She is now 23 years old, and as a father, Kunogelata wanted to make his children happy, so he wanted to find a good husband for her, which also became his worries.

“Sostratus, what do you think of Hielos?” Kunogelata asked abruptly.

“About what?” Sostratus wondered why his father had mentioned Hielos all of a sudden.

“In the event of him becoming your brother-in-law.”

“You want to choose Hielos to be Diana’s husband?!” Sostratus’ eyes widened in surprise. Seeing his father nodding his head seriously, he quickly thought about it carefully and said, “Although I am a soldier under him, he is the senior centurion, and so he does not have much contact with us at normal times. The only thing I know is that although he trains strictly, he is fair and takes good care of us…I heard that he is still single and has no bad hobbies. Therefore, if sister were to marry him, then she should be well taken care of! But, father, why did you choose him? It seems that none of the statesmen of Thurii are willing to marry their daughter to these former mercenaries!”

“These people are still immersed in the past honor of their family, and are still hesitant and unwilling to accept the change of Thurii!” Kunogelata sneered and said solemnly, “Why do I want you to show respect to the archon?! It is because he is indeed favored by the gods. He is so young, but has great ability and means. The people love him, the army supports him, and the Senate is completely under his control! If you don’t want our family to experience such tragedy again, then the best way is undoubtedly to become family with the former mercenary veterans that have followed the archon to Persia! Hielos…I heard that he was the captain of the archon in Persia, and had taken good care of him. Although Hielos always kept a low profile in the Senate, it can be seen that the archon trusted him very much. Besides, although he used to be a mercenary, according to Cornelius, he is modest, firm and good at learning from others, so I believe that he will walk smoothly in the politics of Theonia in the future!….”

“Father, don’t think that it would be easy. Among the statesman who were former mercenaries that was brought by Da…the lord archon, Hielos is one of the few who are not married, he is only in his 30s and is a statesman, I believe that whether in Amendolara, or in Thurii there will not be few who will offer him marriage, however, he is still single now…I imagine that he may not agree to your request!” Sostratus reminded Kunogelata.

“I will naturally not go to him directly. I will instead let the archon come forward and I am sure that Davos will be happy to do it!” Kunogelata stroked his beard and said with a proud smile, “I had asked the archon in order to test the water, and he was very concerned about the marriage of Hielos. So with him as the matchmaker, and with the talent and appearance of Diana, how could Hielos not agree!”

“It seems that from now on, I will have to please my sister more, so that she won’t let my brother-in-law put me in the forefront of the phalanx formation when she is not happy….” Sostratus made a joke, which reminded Kunogelata about something and quickly said, “Don’t go out for these two days, Sostratus. The first legion will go south soon.”

“Has the agreement of the alliance been signed? Didn’t Crotone heavily oppose it?” Sostratus asked in surprise. With his father being a statesman, he naturally knew more about the politics of the union than ordinary citizens.

“Terina, Scylletium and Caulonia had all spoken in favor of it; so what good can Crotone’s opposition alone do? Besides, the current situation is very unfavorable to them! Even Lysias had rushed to Thurii, so you can see how anxious the Crotonians are!” At this point, Kunogelata begame a little bit excited, “We only need for the agreement to be signed and once the alliance is established, Theonia will truly become the leader of Magna Graecia!”

“What leader? I have heard that all the allies in this new alliance will treat each other equally, without distinction!”

“It looks like that on the surface, but the strength of the city-states still determines the weight of their words in this new alliance, especially when it does not involve the interests of the other allies.” Kunogelata then said with sincere admiration, “The archon is really amazing! Proposing such a way of alliance, which was immediately supported by the other city-states while isolating Crotone and forced them to join. So once the new alliance is established, it will also disintegrate the current Crotonian Alliance, and let us Theonia to smoothly squeeze into Crotone’s sphere of influence and become the de facto leader of this alliance!”

“Is this not because of the archon making full use of our victory over Crotone?” What Sostratus said is just a reminder of the opposition of Kunogelata in starting the war in advance. 

Kunogelata was silent for a moment and instead of directly responding to his son’s question, he sighed and said, “I didn’t expect that during my lifetime, I would still be able to see Thurii becoming the center of Magna Graecia! Son, just as you had said before, Thurii is bound to usher in a big development!”

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

On the last day of February 398 B.C., Theonia, Crotone, Scylletium, Caulonia and Terina finally reached an agreement and signed a treaty to establish the South Italia Alliance.

Out of Crotone’s insistence, the agreement specifically stipulates that when discussing a decision, Theonia and Crotone will have two votes each, while the other three allies each have one vote.

The alliance’s base will be in Scylletium. At the start, Crotone asked for the alliance’s base to be set up on their territory, which was opposed by the other city-states. Later, Davos proposed it to be placed in Scylletium, which was approved by the other city-states, because apart from Theonia, Scylletium was in the center of the other allies, and its strength was not very strong, which made them feel at ease.

On normal days, the base of the South Italia Alliance will have personnel stationed in it to handle and negotiate the affairs among the allies.

With the Crotonian Alliance being officially disbanded, the new military defense alliance signed by Theonia and Crotone had also become invalid. And Crotone who had to pay 500 Talents to Theonia for the war reparations, but had only paid the initial 80 Talents and the rest were then annulled. This is one of the reasons why Crotone had finally agreed to join the South Italia Alliance, but it had left Mersis to hyperventilate and regret.

At this point, Theonia has the following treaties: Theonia Alliance, which is an alliance dominated by Theonia Union, due to Theonia controlling the diplomatic power of the alliance (i.e. other allies in this alliance are not allowed to sign any treaty or agreement with any city-states) and military dominance, so the other allied city-states are actually vassals of Theonia. Next is the alliance agreement with Taranto, due to the rapid expansion of Theonia, this agreement has been amended twice, from the initial dominance of Taranto to equal treatment and mutual assistance, and so far there has only been more trade and commerce, but no joint military. Finally, there is the newly established South Italia Alliance. In addition, there was also the non-aggression peace agreement signed with Pyxous in the north. With the exception of the Locrian League and the more southern alliance of Rhegium and one of two small city-states, Theonia and the other city-states in Magna Graecia had created a peaceful and stable surrounding environment for themselves in the form of alliance.

What Theonia urgently needs to do at this moment is without a doubt to fulfill the agreement and repel Locri.

This war is different from the previous battle, as it would take four days just to arrive at the battlefield, therefore, resolving this battle just by relying on the soldiers carrying rations that would last for a few days is not feasible. Their last battle with Crotone, the Crotonian fleet’s raid had already made the Theonians suffer a lot, and this time, the battle with Locri was even much more further away, which makes the food transport route to be much longer, and the Locrians also controlled the coastline, which would be a huge test for Theonia’s logistic.

In this regard, Davos adopted the following strategis. First of all, Mersis was responsible for the rapid formation of a huge logistic team, which would carry at least a month’s worth of rations enough for 10,000 people to eat. Then the transport team will depart together with the reinforcements, which would not only ensure the safety of the transport team, but will also reduce the labor force, escort and the surplus consumption of food. Secondly, it is to end the war as soon as possible, so for this reason, Davos sent the most elite of their army – the first legion.

Preparing military supplies, purchasing pack animals…these preparations for the war naturally cost a lot, but this time, Mersis was not stingy and had bought them, because the cost was shared equally by all the allies.

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

When the rooster’s first caw sounded in the city of Amendolara, Giorgris had turned over and sat up, and his wife Daeneya had woken up as well.

“Go sleep a little longer.” Giorgris said softly, “I am leaving.”

“I can’t sleep! I will send you to Thurii!” Although Daeneya was older than Giorgris, she likes to act coquettish, because it makes her feel younger than Giorgris and Giorgris also enjoys this feeling.

However today, Giorgris shook his head, “It’s not good for the child for you to walk so far while being pregnant.”

“Who said that?! Herpus said that pregnant women should exercise more in order for a smooth delivery and the baby to be healthy!” Daeneya retorted.

Giorgris didn’t talk back anymore, as he trusted Herpus very much and that he is the direct disciple of the favored of the gods “Davos”. And also, he could not stand Daeneya’s repeated request, so he had to take her together with a male slave to carry his weapons and equipment, then left home and went out of the city.

It was currently dawn and the hired wagons from the port of Thurii were already rushing to Amendolara to snatch their customers, for they all knew that this morning, the first legion of Theonia was to assemble, reorganize and then depart at the Nike Square in Thurii.

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