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The speech of Davos was met with thunderous applause, and the players and the audience became enthusiastic from hearing what Davos had said, and had joined the crowd off-field in singing the ode of Hades. After that, the teams hurriedly left and the Rugby Games officially began.

According to the new tournament rules, the eight teams will be divided into two groups, A and B. And the winner of last year and the runner-up, Thurii and Amendolara are seeded in the two groups, with the remaining teams drawing lots to determine their groups.

Finally, the members of group A were Thurii, Nerulum, Krimisa and Grumentum, and the members of group B were Amendolara, Laos, Roscianum and Aprustum.

And the two groups will compete in a single round-robin with one point for a win and zero points for a loss, there are no ties and the teams with the same number of points will go in a knockout stage with the top two teams in the group going to the final and finally decide who will be the champion.

In order to make a good start, Davos selected Thurii vs Nerulum as the opening match to attract the audience’s attention.

When Thurii and Nerulum re-entered the field, the crowd roared. Due to the majority of the audience being Thurians, they had naturally cheered for their home team, while the Lucanians were mostly cheering Nerulum. Amongst the cheers were the names of Tagetinos and Litom that were mentioned the most, because one is a strong and powerful running back and the other is a flexible and fast running back, and both of them are famous scorers of their respective teams.

Bagul who was in the audience was so enthusiastic that he shouted loudly while waving his fists and stamping his feet, he no longer has the appearance of a powerful statesman. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had just become the praetor of Grumentum and was so busy that he had no time to train with the team, he would not have stayed as just a spectator.

Asistes, who was next to him, saw through his mind and teased him by saying, “Now that you are the praetor of Grumentum, you should support the team of Grumentum. Nerulum is the main opponent of Grumentum and for Grumentum to enter the knockout stage, you should hope that they will lose.”

Bagul glared at him and then actually felt entangled.

The referee blew the whistle and the match began.

As the athletic powerhouse of Magna Graecia, the Crotonians are still dismissive of the Theonian Rugby Games, despite the fact that it had become well-known in Magna Graecia. Now, with the progress of the competition, these Crotonians that were invited became captivated by the fierce collision and confrontation. Even the Crotonian strategos and nauarch Askamas, who had been talking a lot before, have stopped his ridicule. The strict organization, reasonable rules, unique ball game, as well as the blood-curdling athletic scenes had still shocked this young strategos who had participated in the four major competitions on behalf of Crotone many times, and he exclaimed, “I didn’t expect that this Rugby is such a sport, it’s much more interesting than Sparta’s shot-put that you can only play by yourself. It really is very interesting and is very suitable for us Crotonians to participate!” 

“Why?” Someone nearby asked.

“You see, there are a lot of people on the field, and even though it looks chaotic, there are basically only two movements, which is attacking and defending.” Askamas pointed his finger to the field and made a reasonable analysis, “To achieve these two points, the players need to have great strength, fast speed, and not be afraid of collision, which is what our Crotonian athletes are good at!”

Askamas’ arrogant words had attracted the people around him to nod. The athletes of Crotone have long been dominant in wrestling and boxing, and have a rich experience in training the athletes’ strength and explosive power.

“Once we return, we should persuade the ecclesia to allow the Crotonians to practice rugby and join next year to beat these Theonian teams!” Askamas looked around at the cheering Theonian audiences, with some anger in his eyes.

At this time, Thurii’s Tagetinos scored a touchdown with the ball in his hand and the crowd erupted into joy, which has made Askamas itch even more.

“Lord Askamas is right! Next year, we will take part and beat the Theonians!” Some Crotonians said with hatred. Being defeated by the Theonians had made these proud Crotonians feel aggrieved, so they wanted to win back their dignity in the competition to prove the strength of Crotone, just like what Askamas said.

Lysias frowned as he listened to the chatter of his companions. He wasn’t completely fascinated by the game and was instead thinking about some deeper issues. There are four traditional games and a Panathenaea that is famous in Greece and known throughout the Mediterranean, and the athletes from the city-states of Magna Graecia attended it in great numbers, and are far more active than the Greek city-states along the coast of Asia Minor, and excelled at each of the sports. However, Magna Graecia itself does not have any influential sports games, and Crotone, who love competition, had once tried and failed to organise one even with only the city-states of Magna Graecia participating. On the one hand, Crotone was not influential enough that they could not make the people of Magna Graecia agree with them; On the other hand, there were long-standing conflicts of interest between several city-states and no agreement could be reached. As a result, it became a regret for the Crotonians!

Now, although Theonia’s Rugby Game is only a single game tournament, it has included so many city-states of Magna Graecia, and it seems that they are still able to attract more city-states to participate…allowing Lysias to see a vague glimpse of a regional tournament.

Is this a coincidence? Or did the Theonians do this on purpose? Lysias looked at the figure of Davos in the front row. Through these two days of contact, this seemingly gentle young archon has given him the impression of being a man of great depth. In just a few months, Theonia had not only stabilised the newly occupied Aprustum and Krimisa but had also recently captured Grumentum, a large city in the Lucanian region.

While the Crotonian ecclesia is still arguing over a number of issues such as whether the newly added native inhabitants of Aprustum will be granted citizenship and the redistribution of the plains of Crotone, which was damaged due to the war.

At first, Lysias wanted to get through this difficult period and let Crotone rise again, but after having more and more contact with Theonia, and every time he compared the fast-growing Theonia with the stagnant Crotone, Lysias almost lost his confidence. If it goes on like this, Crotone would be left far behind by Theonia!

Even though he was anxious, he could do nothing. This had always been the case with Crotone’s democracy. He had also researched why the governance of Theonia was so efficient, but those methods can not be implemented in Crotone. Sometimes he had even thought that joining the union would be the best thing for Crotone.

At the words of Askamas, Lysias laughed at their naiveness, because even if Crotone were to send their team next year, so what if they could beat Theonia? Win or Lose, Theonia will still be the big winner!

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

On the third day, as the Rugby tournament was still in full swing, the envoy of Elea, Kanos, was granted an audience by Davos.

The young archon received him very warmly, and Kanos, after two days, had now a deeper understanding of Theonia Union and had put aside his initial reservation, and so the two men engaged in a friendly conversation.

Davos listened carefully as Kanos talked about the current predicament of Elea, and learned from Kanos some information regarding the Campania region and the Samnium region…the conversation was pleasant, and in the end, an alliance agreement was reached with Elea joining the Theonia Alliance.

After the signing of the alliance agreement, the tension from the heart of Kanos could finally be relaxed because of Davos’ solemn promise of, ‘If any power dared to invade Elea, Theonia would immediately send troops to aid their ally, Elea, and repel the enemy!’

And at the same time, Davos had also implicitly said that in the future, when Theonia takes action in the Lucania region, he hopes that Elea can actively cooperate.

Kanos readily promised, and he realized with elation that at last, he is now able to see the arrival of hope for the end of the nightmare that has plagued Elea for decades, and the feeling of relying on a powerful force is truly reassuring!

Kanos’ mood was pleasant as he walked out of the living room. Then he saw a man coming towards him and waved at him with a smile.

‘Why is Siprus here?’ Kanos’ mind wondered as he returned the gesture.

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

“Milord, since we have become allies with Elea, do we still need to talk with the envoys of Pyxous, Potentia and Garaguso?” Asked Aristocrates with curiosity.

“What do you think?” Davos was very relaxed as he watched the back of the departing Kanos. Elea joining the union had made him feel one step closer to his goal of integrating Lucania.

“I think…that we should take advantage now that the strength of Pyxous and Potentia had weakened, and while they are still unaware that Elea has joined the union to suddenly launch an attack that will surely take down either Pyxous or Potentia easily!” Aristocrates had been following Davos for quite some time now that he had more or less learned of getting the most out of the situation with the least casualties.

However, Davos shook his head slightly and did not agree, “Your plan for a surprise attack is indeed good, but it is not suitable to implement it at this time.”

“Why milord?” Aristocrates quickly asked with a bit of dissatisfaction.

“You were also there yesterday when Bagul and Asistes came to report the situation of Grumentum. The situation in Grumentum is not very promising, conflicts arise between the tribes from time to time, which has almost led to a small battle…after all, Grumentum is different from Nerulum. Grumentum is located in the heart of the Lucanian region, with many tribes from complex origins, and surrounded by enemies. It will take at least a year or two of hard work for Bagul and the others to get these Lucanians to merge with us from the bottom of their hearts and accept our governance…if we were to rashly attack the other areas now, should something unexpected happen, then there is a possibility of an upheaval happening in Grumentum and will likely repeat the tragedy of Thurii….” Said Davos calmly.

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