Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

"I see that you are hoping to be favored by a certain Dionysian princess, thus becoming the son-in-law of the King of Dionysia." His teammate snorted in discontent.

Not only did Silitaios not retort, but he seriously whispered, "Unfortunately, according to the information I've heard, several princesses of the Dionysian royal family are already married, so there's no chance! But it would be nice to be liked by the daughter of one of Deionia's ministers! I say you guys also make an effort to stay in the Kingdom of Dionysia!"

Although in the past women were forbidden to watch the Greek games, the selection of husbands through the games was an occasional and legendary event. For example, Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, had his daughter enter the games in disguise to choose her husband. As for Cyretaios, he was handsome, tall and well-proportioned, and was indeed likely to be favored by the Dionysian women.

The man beside her was somewhat impressed and momentarily caught up in the fantasy.

"It seems you are prepared to do well in tomorrow's game." Megakides placed his plate on the table and sat across from Silitaios.

"A good performance for sure, but I'm not sure if I'll advance," Silitaios said dejected words, but looked calm, "I've been watching well in the training room for the past few days, the traditional race powerhouses Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Ellis sent out very strong runners this time, fortunately this time Deionian completely changed the way of the race, everyone is not very comfortable with it, I still have a bit of a chance.

And even if I'm eliminated in the 100m, I still have the 200m and 400m to go, so I'll have a better chance of showing up on the track a few more times and getting seen by the Dionysian noblewomen."

McGakides was a little unhappy with Silitaeus' attitude to the race, which was not all about winning but focused on how to win the hearts of the Dionysian women, but Silitaeus was a nobleman after all, and he didn't dare to accuse, so he had to bury his head in the sand.

"I heard from the stadium's management that Deionia will hold a grand ceremony tomorrow, completely different from the opening of any previous games, I wish I had seen it earlier!" Silitaios's exclamation stunned Megakides: yes, what will Deionian's ability to provide such comfortable accommodations and sumptuous meals for the athletes be like for all the athletes and city-state representatives at tomorrow's ceremony!

McGakides is equally full of longing.

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The Hades Arena, the first arena to be built in Dionysia, is located in the east-central part of the city of Tureyne, and hosts the final match of the Kingdom's Rugby and Football Finals.

The arena is almost a gigantic circle, 42 metres high, occupying more than 15,000 square metres of space, with a capacity of nearly 60,000 spectators. It is not only a mecca of the game for ballplayers and fans alike, but also one of the architectural wonders of the Turii region.

In the early hours of July 2nd, 365 BC (the 29th year of the Kingdom of Dionysia), crowds of people from all over the world converged on the Hades Arena. At the same time, the 69 entrances to the Main Arena of Hades were opened simultaneously, with only one entrance remaining temporarily closed, the one for the royal family to enter and exit the arena.

The ticket inspectors and patrols took their respective positions, and even the Tulii City Hall had applied to the Ministry of Military Affairs, and four reserve brigades from the Tulii Barracks had been deployed in advance to help maintain order outside the arena.

Many spectators from all over Greece handed their tickets to the ticket inspector with some apprehension, because in the past they never had to pay money to watch the games held in Greece, and this was the first time they bought tickets.

But for the Dionysian spectators, buying tickets to watch the games was a perfectly natural thing, they had been practicing it for decades, every year the kingdom's Turii and other areas brought a lot of revenue to the city hall just by relying on the ticket money, and this time the tickets for the games were made of a new kind of paper fine and thick blue paper developed by the Chamber of Commerce of Kristoya, it was almost impossible for anyone to forge them, just to finish writing all the tickets with the games, location, date, and seat numbers, the dozens of scribes of the Chamber of Commerce spent nearly a month.

The ticket inspector will mainly check the authenticity of the tickets and whether the information on the tickets has been altered, and after everything is confirmed, he will invite the spectators to enter with a smile on his face.

After the audience passes through the entrance, they must also reach the tier specified on the ticket, and then once again give the ticket to the ticket inspector at the entrance of that tier in order to enter the audience (there are a total of 4 tiers in the Hades Main Arena, and the price of each tier is different, the 1st tier is mainly offered to the senators, ministers, VIPs, and citizens and heroes who have made outstanding contributions to the kingdom, and the 4th tier without seats is all standing tickets and the cheapest price).

"It's such a hassle to get into the spectator seats of the arena!" Iphikrates found his seat according to the seat number on the number plate and started complaining as soon as he sat down, "I thought we Athenians were calculating enough, but I didn't think the Dionysians were even stingier than us, charging to watch the games, it's unheard of!"

Calistratus, who was sitting next to him, said a few fair words for Dionysian: "It's understandable, they provide free accommodation and food to all the emissaries and athletes, it costs a lot of money, so it's understandable that they earn some money back by charging admission. I asked the ticket clerk when I entered just now, and the price of the tickets isn't very high, the cheapest one is only three drachmas, the most expensive one is only ten drachmas (the tickets for the various emissary groups are gifted by the Tulii City Hall, so there's no need to pay anything), so even a poor person should be able to afford it."

"Cheap is cheap, but look how many people can sit here! This competition will give Dionysian at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of drachmas, and how many competitions will they have to play throughout the Olympics ...... Dionysian will make a huge fortune by hosting one Games!" Iphikrates snapped his fingers, estimating the proceeds of the Games of Dionysia.

"What, you're tempted?" Callistratus said jokingly, "Shall we make a proposal at the council meeting to also study Deionia and start charging for future Pan-Athenian Games?"

Iphikrates really thought about it carefully, then shook his head and said, "I'm afraid that won't work, not to mention the fact that the Pan-Athenian Games have no tradition of charging fees, and the public is unlikely to accept it. Not to mention the fact that our arena is open, and it would be difficult to restrict the public from coming and going as they please."

"To build such a huge and structurally complex arena in Athens, the money and manpower alone would already be too much for us to handle, not to mention the construction techniques it would require are probably not available to us now."

Callistratus scanned the entire venue with a prudent gaze and finally said with a sigh, "Even if we build such an arena, the number of spectators it can hold is far more than the number of citizens in Athens (the number of citizens in the city of Athens is usually kept at 4,000-5,000), and I'm afraid it will take a long time to make back the profit, so ah. Such a huge building and such a charging method ...... can only be implemented by a great country with great power and a huge population like Daonia!"

Iphikrates was silent, he had a previous grievance against Dionysia. As the adopted son of the former Macedonian king Amintas, he had wanted to lead an army to the rescue during the Macedonian rebellion four years earlier, but was dissuaded by the executive council of the general of Athens and had to first call on the Greek alliance for help from Dionysia, only to find that by the time Dionysia sent his troops, his righteous brother Alexander had already died in battle, and instead of allowing Macedonia to join the Greek alliance after putting down the rebellion, Dionysia, alone with the Macedonian Alignment ...... Iphikrates believed that the Dionysians harbored selfish intentions.

Neither he nor Calistrapes had ever come to Turii, and this time, coming as a member of the Athenian emissary group, he had truly seen the great prosperity of Deionia, far from being comparable to Athens, and some of the other thoughts hidden in his heart had been largely dispelled. At this moment, he was still somewhat unconvinced and said, "The key also depends on whether Daonia can run the Games well, otherwise the arena will be useless no matter how well it is repaired!"

For some time after the end of the Greek wars, he also shared his resentment, but as Dionysia's domination of the Greek mainland became more and more entrenched, and more and more Ionian city-states (islands in the Aegean Sea) joined the Greek League, Athens' expansion by sea was blocked, and as a result of the alliance with Dionysia, the road to external expansion was closed. The channels of commerce in Athens, on the other hand, were greatly widened, the domestic market became more prosperous, the commercial taxes increased markedly, the treasury was enriched, the citizens enjoyed the peace and comfort more, the situation changed, and Callistratus was desperate to oppose Dionysia.

He did not talk further on this subject, but pointed to the side and said in amazement, "Look, here comes Agesilaus too! I had thought he wasn't coming to this sporting event."