Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Immediately afterwards, Prokris felt his race car slam out to the outside, and heard "BANG!" The sound of the crash, the violent vibration almost made him fall off his race car, but fortunately, he held the reins tightly in his hand.

The Gauls were yelling at him, but his car had collided with his opponent's. The racers were trying to regain the lead around the corner.

As the racers tried to regain the lead around the corner, they all accelerated their horses and tried to overtake from the outside, and the eight jammed cars almost squeezed together, causing multiple collisions.

Such an exciting scene caused the spectators to gasp in amazement, but also aroused them to watch the race with even greater enthusiasm and cheers.

Unlike some epic movie from a previous life where saw teeth were placed on the axles of race cars to destroy other competitors' cars, it was impossible to allow such cheating in the Greek Games, and the cars had to undergo strict inspection before they were allowed to enter the stadium, especially in the Dionysian Games, where bad behavior such as hitting opponents with a riding crop would only result in a penalty if discovered. So this collision between the cars did not result in a tragic crash, but it did affect the speed at which the cars were moving.

Just as Prokris's race car slowed down due to the collision, another race car quickly overtook it from the outside and rushed to the front.

The car was shining with gold, the driver was dark-skinned, his clothes were also shining with gold, and the four black horses were equipped with a magnificent headdress, making the whole car look magnificent. He was not a slave or a freed slave like the Greek drivers, but an Egyptian nobleman who drove for the pharaoh's heir, Jahro. The reason why Geoffrey sent him to race was to please Dionysia on the one hand, and to show the capability and image of Egypt to Dionysia and other Mediterranean city-states on the other.

Although he was behind at the start of the race, he was not in too much of a hurry, and did not speed up to grab the lane at the corner like other competitors, but calmly drove the car around to the outermost side, and with his superb driving skills, not only did he not waste time by taking an extra detour, but also took advantage of the other cars colliding with each other and crowding, and quickly rushed to the front.

The Gallic driver, seeing this, was anxious and whipped his horse, trying to get the cars to catch up, but ended up colliding with the outside cars again, infuriating the Brutti driver.

Prokris was quite calm, and instead of whipping his horse, he shook the reins lightly while whistling and shouting loudly, "Efira! Run up, run up!"

According to Coach Prokris, "Programming mares into the horses that draw racing, while they may be a little slower in speed, will keep the racing smooth, while at the same time stimulating the stallions to compete with each other and speed up the horses at critical times." Prokris took his advice, and the results were found to be so good in training that even later the mare, named Ephraim, became the stabilizer of the whole race.

And now the clever young mare seemed to understand her master's meaning, and she hissed a few times and fought straight forward, and the three young stallions pressed on with her, and Prokris's car instantly picked up speed and broke away from the crowded pile of racing, and if the horse's run had been slightly off, it might have met up again with the Gauloises who were getting into a fretful frenzy beside her.

A few moments later, the field was once again layered, with the Egyptian cars in front, followed by the Prokris, the Gauls, the Brutis and the Thebys, and the Cyrenaics and the Sinumibians a little behind ......, each in their own way, stirring up a cloud of dust, and the scene was fierce.

The cheers from the crowd continued to be hot.

Although the Dionysian engineers used a mixture of fine sand and fine clay to pave the course, it was still impossible to avoid the dust, and Prokris, following closely behind the Egyptian race car, naturally also tasted the pain of eating dust. He saw through the haze of dust that the crew on the mid-ridge platform was picking up hooks to hook down 1 of the rows of silver dolphin statues that stood tall, and had a small heartbeat: a lap already.

He immediately concentrates, because in front of these dolphins is another pillar of stone that should be turned around.

He saw the Egyptian race car in front of him clinging to the center spine line, apparently intending to hold the inside circle, and he turned his head to look to the side again, but no race car was catching up, so he didn't hesitate to take the reins to the outside while whistling sharply.

The four stallions immediately headed for the outside lap, still maintaining their high speed as they turned the corner, and because of the inertia, Prokris's car once again lurched outwards and also pitched to the right, looking like it would tip over.

There were cries of concern from nearby spectators.

But Prokris didn't panic, holding on to the reins, keeping his legs steady and his centre of gravity in check. The left wheel of the car was suspended and rolled only on the right wheel for a few moments before the left wheel landed safely on the ground again. ......

The Dionysian crowd was greatly relieved, followed by thunderous cheers from the entire stadium for Prokris's brilliant performance.

This is the fast cornering technique Prokris has been practicing for the past two years, and to successfully perform it in a real race also boosted his confidence, as he excitedly shouted, "Good job, Ephraim! Good lads!"

The four stallions responded with a high-pitched hiss, running with even stronger hooves, dragging the race car and catching up.

The Egyptian rider also felt a little nervous when he saw Prokris, who had caught up to his side, and immediately waved his whip and shouted, "Rack! Rack! ......"

The drivers had learned their lesson and tried to make spacing in the corners, but tragedy struck.

The Macedonian driver at the end of the race was in a hurry to catch up with the other drivers, but he still kept high speed in the corner, but he didn't have the superb driving skills like Prokris. After a collision with the Sinumibian car in front, the car overturned and the driver was thrown out of the car .......

The spectators were screaming.

The ambulance personnel immediately ran into the scene of the accident, lifted the injured driver with a stretcher and pulled the car to the exit of the race track.

The doctor arrived quickly and carefully examined the driver's injuries, and found that apart from a dislocated arm and some fainting due to a concussion, he had no external injuries.

This, of course, also has something to do with the safety measures taken by the Dionysian Games for racing: the Dionysian Games racing judges require drivers to wear helmets with soft cotton linings, as well as thick leather jackets and pants, and even reduce the starting gate to avoid collisions during the race due to too many cars ...... But even so, accidents still happen, and racing is really the most dangerous event in the games.

Shame, this is a disgrace for Macedonia! ...... At the VIP table, the Macedonian prince Phil was furious.

The Macedonian ambassador next to him reassured him, "You have no need to be angry, we have horses in Macedonia, but people love to ride them and very few drive them. And having never participated in any racing before (the native Greek city-states regarded Macedonia as barbarians and did not allow them to participate in the various Greek games), and having absolutely no experience in racing, it was only because of the generosity of Dionysia that they signed up for this event, and it was inevitable that they would suffer such a failure."

Apparently unable to accept this, Philly said with a stern face, "If you enter a race, you must have the ambition to win the championship! With no experience you can learn from someone who has, get caught up on your training! Dayonia sent out the invitation a year ago, and what has he been doing for over a year, and how is it acceptable to be so poorly behaved on the field that it causes the spectators of the countries in the field to belittle us!"

The Macedonian emissary was a bit embarrassed, he sank down and simply ignored Fili, staring straight at the arena with his eyes, thinking: although you are a prince, you don't have any rights, you have already caused me a lot of trouble by coming to Dionysia without permission, and now you're actually shouting at me, you simply don't know what to do!

The Macedonian ambassador's scornful attitude made Philip grit his teeth, although he was young, but already more knowledgeable about the world, he knew in his heart why the other side dared to do so, not only because he was irrelevant in Macedonia, even his brother, the Macedonian king Berdicus also did not have much influence in the country, most of the power was controlled by Ptolemy and a few other ministers, he even suspected: without Dionysian Ptolemy, who had the audacity to proclaim himself "Perticus and his stepfather", had already seized the throne. Domestically, the monarchy was in decline, and externally Macedonia was seen by many city-states and nations as a poor and backward country, a far cry from its neighboring region of Thessaly, the kingdom of Dionysia.

The reason why Fili had sneaked into Dionysia to watch the Games was not the main purpose, but to seriously seek to understand the real reason why Dionysia had become such a powerful kingdom from a small city-state in just two or three decades, but Tulii's population was so large that he was a drop in the ocean and unattended, and he was shocked by the prosperity of the giant city, while his lack of administrative experience could not look through it and see the real secrets that could lead to that prosperity.

To his dismay he sometimes wondered: was the Macedonian royal family to remain forever under the patronage of Dionysia! Will Macedonia never be able to perform miracles like Dionysia?!

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

The race was still going on fiercely, with two, three, four laps ...... of the Egyptian and Toulouse cars in the top two spots, with the two drivers clinging to each other, no more than a length apart. However, the third to fifth position was changing constantly, sometimes it was Gaul, sometimes it was Brutti, sometimes it was Collins ...... chasing me, so lively, and even aroused the cheers of the audience outside the stadium.