Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Aristilas actually sent his own brother to Sicily, which shows that he really took a lot of pains here!Antonius's spirit was revived and he immediately asked, "Where is he now?"

"Katanai or Syracuse? I also don't know very well." Xenophanes shrugged and said: "But you are in Sicily, he should get the news soon and will send someone to contact us immediately ."

Antonius nodded and asked seriously: "Now that the First Army has occupied Meyaro, what should I do next, do you have any suggestions?"

"Adult, I don't know much about military matters. I can tell you what I have learned here for your reference." Xenophon Nice's modesty has won the favor of Antonios, and he will soon leave The map of Sicily taken from Davers during the Sileting Camp was on the table: "Please say it!"

Xenophonus did not refuse to say anything, stepped forward, carefully distinguished the map, then pointed at the map and said: "Adult, you can see that Meyaro's position is actually very good. It is to the east by the ocean and to the west by The huge Etna volcano, and the north of Tauromenion is only more than ten miles away from us, but its population is too small, I am afraid that even 500 soldiers can not be dispatched. There are more than 20 miles in Sicully in the south. It is also a small city-state, and now Meyaro is occupied by us again, and has captured so many citizens of Siculi. It is difficult to say whether the tyrants of Siculi can get 3,000 civilian soldiers. It is Katana that is more than 40 miles south. —”

Xenophonnis said here that his expression was painful. He exhaled lightly and said, "Originally, Katana was a large city, with a population of 50,000 or 60,000 citizens. The fertile Catania Plain provided people there. With enough grain, he could easily organize an army of tens of thousands of people... But... after Katane was destroyed by Dionysius, he let Campania mercenaries occupy the city, Katane... …There is no longer Katane!...”

"Are you Katana?" Antonios asked suddenly.

"Yes, like Aristilas, I used to be Katana!" Xenophon Nice said in a deep voice: "But now I am a citizen of Dionysia!"

"When you defeat Syracuse, Your Majesty will definitely allow the Katana people to rebuild your homeland!" Antonios comforted, and then asked: "How many citizen soldiers does Katana now have?" Nia mercenary, Antonios increased his vigilance, he had just dealt with them in the battle of Crotone, knowing that these mercenaries are not easy to deal with.

"...There may be four or five thousand people. I haven't been to the Catania Plain since I returned to Sicily this time, and I heard from people in the town of Meyaro." Xenophanes speculated hesitantly. Then suggested: "Adult, if you want to know more details, you need to wait for the arrival of the people of Anterapolis."

Antonios nodded, pointing at the Leotini icon between Katane and Syracuse on the map and asked, "Is this city-state also occupied by Campania mercenaries?"

"Leotini is not. It used to be a son of Syracuse. After Dionysius usurped power, he once formed an alliance with our Katane to fight against Syracuse, but Katane was After defeating it, it could only surrender to Syracuse. In order to punish its betrayal, Dionysius forcibly moved most of the citizens of Leotini to Syracuse, now Leotini As far as the population is concerned, it's just a small city-state..." Xenophanes said sadly.

"So how many soldiers can still be in Syracuse?" Antonios asked seriously.

Xenophonius had to speculate again: "This...I don't know very well. But a few months ago, Dionysius led the army to invade our great Greece, and his general Marcias also led about Seven or eight thousand soldiers of Syracuse went to the northernmost Mile Peninsula in Sicily to destroy the new city built by the exiles of Naxos and Katane. I think there must be tens of thousands of soldiers in Syracuse... …"

Tens of thousands!Antonios's complexion became somber, he looked at the city-state icons surrounding Syracuse on the map: Taunis, Barclays, Hebesus, Pacinos... these are all Syracuses The loyal subsidiary, it is estimated that Syracuse can easily organize a 20,000-strong army quickly!No matter how strong the fighting force of the First Army is, there are only more than 5,000 people left after repeated battles... Antonios believes that there is no magic of Daphes and can defeat so many enemies with so little force.

Xenophanes saw Anthony’s worries, he thought for a while and said, "Sir, Siracusa has so many affiliated city-states in Sicily, which seems very powerful, but the people of these city-states Dissatisfaction has been for a long time, and even the people of Syracuse are very dissatisfied with Dionysius' dictatorship!"

"Oh?" "Antonius was interested: "You talk about the situation in detail."

"In recent years, Syracuse has been fighting abroad. The scale of the war is very large, and the money and materials consumed are also very large. So Dionysius forcibly demanded high amounts of tribute from each subsidiary city-state, and He was not soft on the people of Syracuse, and the special war tax levied had risen to 25%; in addition, he not only asked for money but also people. Before each war, he had to provide a large number of soldiers from various city-states. At the end of the war, the deaths and injuries of these civilian soldiers, but his family members could not get anything; he also supported tyrants in various city-states to fight against those citizens who resisted tyranny. They are also very dissatisfied with him, but they are afraid of his powerful force and dare not resist...

Dionysius's men must also be well aware of this situation. I don’t think they dare to evacuate all the troops to deal with you... After Dionysius led his army to attack Great Greece, Meco’s Siku Li Gongmin also often cursed him privately in this expedition.A few days ago, when the news of'Our fleet's defeat of the Siracusa navy' reached Meyaro, not only the freemen and slaves, but even the citizens of Siculi appeared a little excited, so these days in the town Of the people are discussing, and the topics discussed are more about Dionia, even my task has become much smoother, like the two riot organizers who have just been welcoming me before, I have taken the initiative to contact me these days...

This is the case with Meyaro, the situation in other city-states should be similar.It feels to me that these city-states in Sicily are now like a pile of dry firewood, and they only need a torch to burn into a blazing fire!Now, the message that "Your Majesty defeated the army of Dionysius in the battle" has spread to Sicily, I believe it will have a greater impact on the people of all city-states!As long as you can defeat the Syracuse army once in Sicily, Sicily will inevitably be in chaos!Shelofennis said fervently, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"It's not so easy to defeat the Syracuse in Sicily." Antonius grinned bitterly.That being said, after hearing the details of Sicily introduced by Serofinis, he was a little bit more confident: "Our current number of soldiers is still too small! Before coming, His Majesty mentioned the Sikeirs to me, Do you think we can join them against the Syracuse people?"

Xenophonius thought for a while and shook his head, saying: "Although the Sikels are natives of Sicily, they are different from the Lucania and Bruti in Greece. They are far less brutal than theirs...oh no It’s brave and fierce.” Shelovinice remembered that these two races are already citizens of the alliance, and said quickly: “The life of the Sikels is no different from that of our Greeks, but they prefer to live in the inland mountains of Sicily. They are unreputable races. When the Carthaginians attacked, they turned to Carthage. When Syracuse was strong, they united with Syracuse...

But their mercy was retaliated by the gods, Dionysius pretended to form an alliance with them, and after defeating Carthage, they murdered Aguilas, king of the Sikels, and sent troops to capture He destroyed Aguirion, the central town of the Sikars, and completely destroyed him. His atrocities terrified the Sikels, and other Sikel towns quickly surrendered to Syracuse.

This time, Dionysius invaded our Great Greece, and the Sikels sent some soldiers to him.So I think the cowardly Sikels dare not join us in attacking Syracuse, but they may not attack us, but remain neutral.But if Syracuse is defeated by either of us, they will join the winning party..."

Antonios understood: this is a race of bullying and fear.

Note: In fact, it is not only Sikael who has such a characteristic of bullying and fear, other city-states and races in Sicily are like this, because this is determined by the special political situation in Sicily: In the past hundred years of Sicilian history, There are only two superpowers on this island-Carthage and Syracuse, and there is no third power to compete with it.On this relatively closed and small island, other city-states and forces can only rely on whoever is strong and can only be destroyed if they resist. Of course, when Carthage and Syracuse maintain peace because of their balance of power, Other city-states will have a few days of peace.In the history known to Daveus in the past, it was not until the invasion of Rome, a powerful foreign force, that Sicily's closed political and military ecology was completely broken, and finally Sicily was unified.The first time Dionysia appeared in Sicily in this book, will it break the balance of power in Sicily?