Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

This great news made Alexis completely free of worries.

At this moment, the Campania League to the north sent messengers.

Samonay had such a big war with Potentia and Dionia, but the Campania city-state, who is the enemy of Samonais, had been watching silently until the victory and defeat were divided, and Dionysian forces had already Approaching Campania, they finally sent the messenger.

The city-state from which the messenger came was only a small Sorrento peninsula separated from Enona by more than 40 miles. It was next to Mount Vesuvius and it was Pompeii.

The messenger came to investigate whether the Dionysians intended to threaten Campania.

Alexis told him without hesitation: The Dionysians were only countering the aggression of the Samonei, and had the desire to be friendly with the Greek city-state of Campania, and there was no malicious intention to invade. .

The Pompeii messenger returned happily, and at the same time took away a little request from Alexis: hoping to exchange the trophy of Samoney for grain.

………………………………

Micalesus is a citizen of Syracuse. He has lived here for generations. He owns ten acres of land, has two fishing boats, and owns a shop in the city’s market to sell fishing goods. If it were not for these years that Dionysius levied high war taxes every year, his family’s life should be said to be quite rich.

When news of the victory of Siracusa’s army in Great Greece came again and again and was announced on Apollo Square, the people cheered with complex emotions, and he always felt a little regret because the citizens were mobilized in the square. At that time, the goddess of luck failed to care for him, he was not selected, and lost a good opportunity to go to Great Greece to loot loot to improve the current situation of his dilemma in recent years.In his view, any hostile force cannot withstand such an attack under such a large force of Syracuse.

But the situation has changed in the past few days.After the bad news of "the two naval defeats in Syracuse and the almost complete loss of warships" came, a pot of cold water was poured on the excited people of Syracuse.

Never heard of the Dionysian fleet actually defeated the Siracusa navy that runs across the Ionian Sea?!The people of Syracuse couldn't believe their ears. They scolded the navy commander Leptinez and thought angrily: it was his stupid command that led to the fiasco!After the defeat in the naval battle with the Carthaginians, the defeated general should be replaced!

As a result, some people transferred the responsibility of failure to Dionysius. They believed that it was Dionysius's appointing kinship that made his talented younger brother have not been replaced!

Compared with the indignation of the people in the city, the port is a different scene.You need to know that more than 400 warships require a huge number of 80,000 or 90 thousand sailors. More than half of these sailors come from the Sicilian confederation, and a small half come from the poor and free people in Syracuse. Whether the warship is sunk or captured, those sailors will have no good results.

The bad news spread to almost every family in the port and the bay. Out of worries about the safety of their loved ones, these poor people wailed while they were more resentful about Dionysius who oppressed them.In the past few months, there have been some dissatisfaction with Dionysius in the port and urban areas, such as: "We are so poor because of those outsiders (referring to Dionysius The mercenaries) took away the land that should belong to us and occupied the city-state public office that should belong to us!"

"Even if we earn more drachma, we can't keep up with the taxation of Dionysius!"

"Dionysius prefers mercenaries to citizens who like Syracuse. He should not be a general general of Syracuse. He is more suitable to be a mercenary leader!"

...

But in the past few days, a new rumors quickly spread in the port: "The Dionysians only hate the tyrannical Dionysius. As long as he overthrows his dictatorship, Syracuse and Dionysia can achieve With the peace agreement, the 14,000 Syracuse sailors detained in Dionia will be able to return home safely!..."

This rumor was so nose and eye-catching that many people in the port were convinced, so it spread quickly across the bay and reportedly spread to neighboring city-states.

When Mikaresus heard this rumor, he was taken aback: it was a public request to overthrow Dionysius!I am afraid that the Dionysians are among them!

Even he can see that the intelligence department in charge of Hiparinus will not be indifferent. Not only have patrols been added to the port, but many agents have been sent to the entire Gulf area to interrogate the people... such a practice It also aggravated the resentment and anger of the port people towards the upper class of the city-state. Their gaze towards the patrol soldiers was full of uncovered anger, which made these soldiers frightened. They always patrolled on a scale of more than 20 people and did not dare to wander alone. So as not to cause death.

The quiet opposition between the port people and the city-state gradually began to emerge. The most obvious is that the work efficiency of port workers is decreasing, the speed of unloading of merchant ships is slowing down, and the goods are accumulated at the docks. It takes a long time to move to the warehouse. The greater the accumulation, the more the docks are almost blocked, and the merchants dare not get angry, because it is likely to anger these poor people who work with resentment, leading to a conflict, and it is them who will ultimately suffer.

Of course, Mikaresus does not have to worry about this. He has been traveling between the port and the market for many years. He is humble and has a good relationship with the fishermen in the port.

His fishing boat was handed over to the fishermen he hired, and he went fishing early in the morning. When he drove to the pier in the morning, the fishing boat had returned to the fishing pier.

The fishing wharf is built in the most remote and outlying location of the port. This is for the port's cleanliness and sanitation. The wharf is too smelly and often flies, mosquitoes, and insects gather on those dead fish and shrimp.

Of course, Mikaresus did not have this disgusting feeling. Instead, he walked on the pier and looked at the baskets of fresh fish unloaded on both sides of the road. He felt a sense of satisfaction.

"Tecitis, how is today's harvest?!" He waved at his moored fishing boat from afar.

Tacitis is a very experienced old fisherman. He not only has the first-rate boating and fishing skills, but also is good at judging the emergence of fish. Mikaresus spent nearly double his wages to hire him.

At the moment, Tethytis was sitting on the bow of the boat, enjoying the gentle sunshine, and said in a calm tone: "This is just spring, the sea is still cold, and the fish are not coming out, plus Poseidon does not Bless, how could there be a good catch!"

Mikaresus looked down at the two baskets of fish on the shore: one basket was half full of mackerel and cod, and the other basket contained a lot of sea prawns and squid.

Micalesus was already quite satisfied with such gains. Of course, he knew that Tethystis had higher demands on himself, so Micalesus joked: "While there is still time, the weather is warm Now, how about you go to the sea and cast some nets?"

Tethyss poked the mud on his finger and reminded him: "I'll be OK to go out to sea again, but can you sell it in time? The waste is punishable by Poseidon!"

In this era, because there is no refrigerator, the freshly caught marine fish must be sold on the same day, otherwise it will be thrown away the next day due to decay.Although the Greeks like to live on the beach, the staple food is still cereals, and the sea fish is only a supplement.In recent years, the tax burden of Syracuse has increased, and the purchasing power of ordinary citizens has declined. Naturally, it has also affected the sales of marine fish. Needless to say, if you cast a few nets, whether these two baskets of fishing goods can be sold out before the market closes in the evening The problem, maybe you can only take the rest home, cook fish porridge for the slaves, or use it to feed pigs and dogs.

Mikaresus sighed, said nothing, and turned back to direct the slave to move the wooden basket to the carriage.

At this time, another fisherman on the fishing boat shouted: "Hey, Mikaresus, have you heard that the army of Dionysius was defeated by the Dionysians!"

"How is this possible?! Where did you get the news?!" Mikaresus was shocked and couldn't believe it.

"How impossible! Our navy can be defeated by the Dionysians, and of course our army can be defeated by them!" The fisherman, instead of feeling sorrow for the failure of the city-state, carried a strange gloom on his face. Expression: "Now the whole port is spread, and some merchants from Greater Greece have confirmed this news. It is said that in this battle, our Syracuse was defeated badly, and this time it was the turn of the city who cried !"

"Whether it is people in the city crying or people in the port crying, Syracuse's defeat is not a good thing for us." Tethys said lightly.

"We are defeated, and Dionysius should stop the war and have peace talks with the Great Greeks." The fisherman said expectantly: "Without the war, there would naturally be no war tax!"

"I'm afraid that Dionysius will continue this war! Not only will it increase the tax burden, but...like you, like me, or even you may be called up to be a sailor." Tethys's face A trace of worry finally appeared.

"I will never die for Dionysius! This war should be ended!" the fisherman shouted loudly.

Mikaresus didn't mind listening to what they were saying. He walked back and forth with no heart in his heart because he didn't participate in the expedition and was lucky to escape the disaster. "Siracusa's army was defeated in Great Greece" The news was heavy on his heart, reminding him of the huge storm that took place in Syracuse when the Carthage soldiers were under the city a few years ago...

Fortunately this time in Greater Greece!...But he thought about it, if these tens of thousands of soldiers were stuck in Great Greece and could not come back, the anger caused by the people might be difficult for the officials appointed by Dionysius to quell!