Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Out of the market, Tioos saw rows of stables on the roadside, and there was no sight of the rough and messy scene of horse dung when he first saw it.

Tios had a good impression of the old driver, so he still wanted to take his car and began to shout: "Sorikos! Sorikos!..."

"The old man is rich now, no longer driving in person, take my car!" someone shouted.

"Don't talk nonsense, be careful I beat you!" Sorikos scolded with a smile.

Theos got into his carriage and said his destination.

"Oh, are you also going to see the land to be rented?! There have been a lot of people who have recently visited!" Solix said immediately.

Theos nodded and smiled: "I heard you got rich?!"

"Listening to their nonsense, that is, paying off the loan and interest of the carriage. I borrowed another carriage and rented it to a freeman. I believe that the loan can be paid off again soon! Then I buy another carriage... Solix said confidently.

"Congratulations!" Tios praised: "I think you can become a carriage merchant in another year."

Soricos laughed when he heard it.

"I remember you are a Dionysian citizen. The Union should give you a share of land. What do you do if you come out to drive a carriage to earn money? I heard that your Union has agricultural officers who specialize in monitoring the land use of citizens. The situation." Tios asked curiously.

"I rented it to free people to cultivate, there will be no problems." Solicos answered.

He drove a horse-drawn carriage and got on Turui-Amendolara Avenue. The carriage was on the plain of Xubari. A lot of houses had been built between the thousands of vertical and horizontal farmlands on both sides of the highway.

It’s time to build villages!Tíos thought: The new Turiri has developed very rapidly, and it has begun to gradually restore its former prosperity, and it is very different from the original. It will even surpass the past great Greek power!

After the carriage crossed a wooden bridge over the Subari River, it passed through grape plantations and wine-making workshops, which are the famous wine-producing regions of Great Greece.

After crossing the Saraceno River, he entered the territory of Amendolara, and the land to be rented was on the side of the avenue. It has been divided into pieces of land to be rented with a wooden stick inserted.It is close to the avenue, which is convenient for transportation; it is close to the river, and it is convenient to provide water for the workshop; close to the forest, there are trees that can be felled (of course, the Dionysian Union has strict rules for felling trees).In addition, after building a workshop on the leased land, you can also build a house for yourself and employees to live, so that you can have a place to rest during the business in Dionysia.There is a sea in front, a forest in the back, a river on the side, and an avenue for easy travel. It is also an ideal place to live!I believe that every foreign businessman who wants to rent land here has the idea of ​​building a workshop and a residence at the same time. Twenty years are enough for them to double the investment money and earn back, of course, provided that the Dionysian Union has always existed.

After seeing a few ideal plots, Tios wanted to find a hotel to stay at because the so-called "auction" would not be held until tomorrow.

At this time, Solikos suggested: "Today you happened to be here. Turui's arena was just built yesterday. To celebrate, Lord Daveus announced,'Tomorrow and tomorrow, there will be a four-city rugby match in the arena. !'. You are free in the afternoon, just go and see, I heard that it is very beautiful, more lively than the Olympia Games!"

"Rugby game?" Tios was curious and puzzled.

"That's a game invented by Lord Davos, I heard that he got the enlightenment of Pluto!" Soricos said mysteriously.

"It's... it's... the two teams are fighting for a ball made of olive-shaped cowhide... um... and then scoring... oops, I don't know clearly, anybody who has watched this game said it was very interesting , Very nice! You’ll know if you’ve seen it."

"Okay, I'll check it out." Soricos' strong recommendation made Tios interested.

"Go early in the afternoon, because there are so many people, I heard that it is too late, so I can't go in!" Solicos kindly reminded.

…………………

The arena is located on the east side of the northern city of Turi, close to the pier in the city, and far away from the main city. The construction of the arena here also takes into account that it does not affect the daily life of the people of Turi.

The city guards that usually conduct strict investigations are relatively lax today. As long as they do not carry weapons, after counting the number of people, they will basically let in, but if they exceed the specified number, they will be prohibited from entering the city.

Tios was lucky to enter the city because he came early.On the way to the city, I met Dick Polis, a Cretan businessman who was engaged in olive oil business. He also came to watch the rugby game, and he had already seen one in the morning, and was fascinated by this novel game. In his words: This is the best gift the Pluto gave the Greeks, and there is no match that can match it!

This aroused the interest of Tios even more.

At the gate of the arena, there were already long lines. Although there were many people, they were still in order under the supervision of a team of soldiers.

At this time, Dick Polis let Tios occupy the position, went to a store with a "beer" brand next to him, picked two cans of beer and two bags of dried fruit, and divided it into half.

Tios said embarrassedly and asked, "How much?"

Dick Polis said: "It's the arrangement of the goddess of fortune to meet you here and watch a rugby game together! If you pay, you don't like to make friends with us Cretans!"

Theos had to accept it, and Dick Polis's boldness and liveliness made him quite fond of it.At the same time, he also noticed that many people went to buy beer, syrup and snacks.

Dick Polis told him: "Because of the long playing time, we are easily thirsty and hungry when we watch the game in the sun. In addition, there are many spectators entering the venue. In case you want to pee, you can't find a place, and this one— —" He raised the wine can in his hand and smiled teasingly: "Dry it, you can use it as a urinal..."

The guards at the entrance of the arena released a group of people to enter, and later let a group of people in.When it was their turn to Dickpolis, it was clear that the arena had not yet been filled, and the guard signaled that they could enter, following the passage on his right hand side, and there was another passage on the left hand side, and they could not go. That leads to the VIP seats, and almost all arenas are designed like this.

The Touriyi Arena is not too big. All the stone benches on the side of the ring can sit up to about 4,000 people, but in fact more than 4,500 people have entered the field, and half of them are free citizens and foreigners. Bang people.Like other arenas, its inner and outer sports fields are runways, but inside the runway is a flat, rectangular sandy land divided into dozens of areas by dozens of white lines.

Dickopolis patiently explained the rules of the game to Tíos and told him why it was called the four-city rugby match: "The four cities are Amendolara, Turiri, Niutum and Laos, listen to my Daio The friends of Niah said that this game was first used by the governor Daveus as a military training project, starting from the mercenaries who became citizens of Amendolara... Later Turui and Amendora Wa established a coalition to conduct military training for Turiyi citizens and reserve citizens, and naturally let them learn this game... Later, they captured Niutum again, and the earliest batch of Lucanian soldiers took this The game was handed over to the Lucanians of Niutum... As for Laos, they sent a lot of labor to build the roads, and the Dionysians worked as supervisors. After rest, they taught the Laos to play This kind of game, to prevent them from being lazy because they are too tired...

It may be that the Laos have just started to play, and they are not skilled yet. It seems that the coordination is not very good, so when it was against Turri in the morning, Turri easily won.This afternoon is Amendolara v Niutum, I heard that the strength of the two sides is not much different, and more worth seeing!"

"You know so much!" Tios said with emotion.

"I'm interested in it, and naturally I want to understand it." Diopolite said complacently: "I have stayed here for a long time, and I have met several citizens of the Dionysian Union, one of them He also served as the captain of their so-called legion, he told me..."

"Why not Castron?" A voice came from the side.

Dickpolis turned his head and looked at it, wondering when there were some people around them.

"Maybe because they have less contact with the Union citizens and have no chance to learn..." Dickpolis shrugged: "However, this morning I saw some Castron people watching the game at the venue. I believe that after this time After the four-city competition, the next time it is held, I am afraid it will become a five-city competition."

"Cretans, you are right, we will definitely join Castron next year!" someone shouted from the crowd.

"Yes, make suggestions to the council when we go back!" another person echoed.

Dick Polit squeezed his eyes at Tios and whispered, "Look, I'm right."

At this time, the bronze trumpet sounded and athletes began to enter.

At this time, the players were not as simple as the original equipment when they played rugby in the military camp. They all wore fluffy leather caps that covered the entire head and neck and thick protective clothing mixed with wool and linen. It is dyed in red and blue to distinguish it, and the back of the protective clothing is embroidered with strange symbols (actually Arabic numerals, because Greek numerals are too complicated to write, which is not conducive to use) for the referee to identify the players.

As the players from both sides entered the court, a strong, rhythmic drum sounded.

The red team immediately lined up in a neat square array, with the rhythm, with strong and uniform movements, they jumped up and danced in praise of Ares when they won on the battlefield... There was a warm cheer.