Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Isolacrates anxiously awaited the final decision of the Dionysian House in a spacious lounge in the Senate.

Soon, the guard came in and invited him to the venue.

When he walked into the meeting place, he found Dionys, the consul of Daonia, standing in the center of the meeting place.

Daveus smiled at him, and begged him to sit down. Daveus smiled and said to him: "Dear Athenian Ambassador, I am very glad that you have brought the friendly friendship of the great Mediterranean city of Athens to the Dionysian Union, So that we in the remote corner of the Greek world stopped our self-sorrow and complaint, because in the new play "The Dionysians" of Athens dramatist Aristophanes, we Dionysians are regarded as barbarians. The people of Athens have fun..."

As soon as this statement came out, Isocratic whispered: "It's broken."

Sure enough, he heard someone shouting behind him: "What right does the Athenians have to humiliate us Lucanians!"

"They are not only humiliating the Lucanias, they are humiliating all Dionysian citizens!" another shouted.

"If the Athenians look at us with this attitude, then the Athenians are not welcome here!"

...

One by one angry voices hit the Isocrates sitting in front of him, making him feel like a volcano about to erupt behind him, his face changed a little.

Daveus looked at his embarrassment and continued, "Isocrates, you said that Athens and Dionysia have a deep friendship. This can't just be spoken, it needs to be seen in actual actions. And now we know Athens The actual situation makes us unable to see the friendship of the Athenians with Dionysia. What we see is that the people of the whole city of Athens have ruthlessly mocked and ridiculed some of the characteristics of an emerging city-state alliance that are different from other Greek city-states. Becoming a talker for drinking and drinking in restaurants in the city of Athens for several months in a row. This is not a performance of a city-state that once claimed to be the “best school in all Greece” and has a long historical tradition! Nor is it a claim to possess Dionysia The performance of a city-state that is affectionate and wants to form an alliance with it!

Therefore, in the face of strong enemies, the citizens of Dionysia will not rest assured of giving their backs to a city-state that discriminates against themselves.Therefore, I think it is too early to conclude a military alliance."

Damn Aristophanes!Damn Aristophanes!The countless insults of Isoklady in his heart could not change the reality of the failure of the alliance. Frustrated, he wanted to stand up and try to make his last effort.

Daveus in front waved at him, begging him not to intervene, and then said: "Although the current Turri is no longer the former Turri, the Dionysian Alliance has no trace of contact with Athens, but Dionysian People are by no means ungrateful races. We have distinct grievances and grievances. The revenge that others give us is ten times as much as we give back. The kindness that others give us is ten times our return—"

"Admiral Lord is right! Tarantum once allied us when we were in trouble, so we sent a large army to save their city-state! Turriy once gave adults your mercenary foothold in the first place In the face of the pressure of the Crotone army, we did not succumb, but revenge for the dead Turui with a big victory! Dionysia regards the promise as life and cherishes the friendship paid, so friendship cannot be light Xu!" The old man of Scombras trembles his white beard, raises his head and raises his chest, and glances at the Isocrates obliquely. .

Daphes smiled and continued: "Since the center of the Dionysian Union is in Turij, we naturally inherit some of the emotions of the previous Turii people. We are willing to have friendly exchanges with Athens and strengthen exchanges. To eliminate misunderstandings..."

Isocrates heard this and understood the meaning of Daphes and his elders: In addition to the military alliance, Dionysia was willing to get along with Athens.Strengthening trade and cultural exchanges does not seem to be much different from the core meaning of his previous speech.

But Isocrates understood that the difference was obvious. If Isocrates was originally a senior brother of Athens to talk about cooperation, but now the Dionysian stepped on the elegance and nobility in his bones. At the foot, he told him instead: Dionia’s friendship is extremely precious, and you can give a little to Athens, but it depends on the performance of Athens...

It is not easy for this young man to be able to sit in the position of the consul and create Dionysia today!Isocrates looked at Davos ahead and felt the pressure...

………………………………

While Isocrates gave a speech at the Dionysian Senate, Ansitanos took Lucias to the north side of Victory Square. There is a newly built building that looks like a temple with steps Below are bronze statues of the nine muse goddesses, lined up.

"Is it the Temple of Apollo?" Lucias looked at Ancitas in doubt.

Ansitanos still has a mysterious smile, but just doesn't speak.

With more and more curiosity, Lucias walked up the stairs, and finally found several large letters "libraries" on the lintel of the entrance to the temple.

"This is?" Lucias could guess the function of this building, but such a large building is only used for books?Are there so many books?

He looked at Ansitano again in doubt, hoping he could explain.

"This is the library that our governor, Lord Dapheus, took the lead in donating!" Ansitanos pointed proudly at the words: "He once said,'Books are the jewel of human wisdom, whether it is Persia, Egypt, Carthage, or the earlier Sumer, Hittite, Assyria...the history and civilization they created eventually converged on words and books, it is the common wealth of our humanity, and we are free from ignorance , To the ladder of more splendid civilization, so we must make every effort to collect them! Protect them! If these treasures are destroyed by war and disaster, it will be the most painful loss for our humanity! But we don’t just want to collect books, I also want to give these books to more people to share and read, so that the people of Dionysia use knowledge to perfect themselves, use knowledge to create wealth, and use knowledge to create a more brilliant culture. This is what I want to build a library The meaning lies!'"

After hearing this, Lucias fascinated and muttered, "A person who can speak such a great language must be a great person!"

Ansitanos smiled secretly.

"Take me in and see!" Lucias couldn't wait to get in and was stopped by the guard at the door.

"This is my friend. He came with me, and he has to go in and visit it." Ansitanos stepped forward and explained.

"Okay, Master Ansitanos." The guard saluted respectfully.

"There is still force in the place where knowledge is stored!" Lucias said angrily as he walked inside.

"Books are precious and fragile. They can be destroyed by a fire. Of course, someone needs to protect them to prevent accidents." Ancítanos explained.

Lucias expressed his understanding, and when he was down, he added: "It doesn't seem that anyone can enter here."

"Only Dionysian citizens and reserve citizens can enter."

"In this way, the free citizens of Dionysia have one more motivation to become citizens." Lucias stayed here for nearly two days, and it also counted the knowledge of Dionysia citizens, reserve citizens, and free citizens. How big is the gap in the rights enjoyed between them, but this gap is not inevitable. Unlike Athens, even if you work harder, you can cross the gap between the Athenians and the Gentiles.

"I'm afraid that there are 40,000 or 50,000 citizens of Dionysia in Turriy. If all of them are in this library, can they be accommodated?" Lucias asked doubtfully.

"Your concerns have long been taken into consideration. First, the quality of Dionysia citizens has not reached the level where everyone can read; second, they cannot appear here at the same time, even if they want to enter the library. Too many, the library also has a number limit, but now it seems that this situation may be many years later. By that time, maybe Dionysia already has a second, third, and fourth Library..." Ansitano's words filled with confidence in his alliance.

Lucias was silent, but soon he was attracted by the sight in front of him: rows of tall wooden cabinets were neatly arranged in the pavilion, cutting the huge space into a walkway for only three or four people to pass side by side.Each wooden cabinet is open and divided into small rectangular spaces by strips of wood, inside which are placed a roll of books or materials assembled from papyrus or parchment.In front of these bookcases, there is an area with many wooden tables, and only a few people are sitting there reading books quietly.

Lucias, who loves books as much as life, can't help but say, "There are so many books!"

"In fact, there are not many. The bookcases behind are mostly empty. After all, the library was less than 20 days old." Ansitanos said with some emotion: "Adult Davis once called on the citizens of Dionia to come out For the collection of books in my home, let the library copy a copy, store it here, and engrave the name of the citizen’s tree monument dedicated to the book. At that time, there were many citizens who responded to the call, so that the library scribes were too busy... …"

Looking in the direction of Ancítanos's fingers, Lucias saw several stone tablets erected on the left side of the library entrance. He had only looked ahead and ignored it.

The stone tablets are densely inscribed with names.

Lucias noticed that only the first name was followed by the title of the book: "This...This...This is—" He stroked the title incredulously.