Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Plato smiled and said seriously: "My opinions have already been said in previous academic conferences. There is nothing updated. How can I stand on the podium again. Besides, there are many young scholars at this academic conference. The speech was also very exciting, especially your son Apox, so young people have such amazing discoveries, which is really enviable! And most of these young scholars come from your Dionysian Academy, you can see that you Dionys Asia’s long-term commitment to education has finally begun to bear fruit. By comparison, other city-states, including ours, Athens, are falling behind a lot!” As he said this, Plato's face was a bit worried.

"Yesterday, Spicy's speech also won the praise of many scholars! Plato, you don't have to worry about successors!" Lucias comforted.

Spicy Sips got up and thanked the elders.

Plato was not humble, he pointed to his nephew and said: "Compared with the first academic conference, the current Sipesipu has indeed made very great progress, but my school has so far only him. It can be called a'young scholar', and there are many outstanding young scholars in your school. This gap is very big!"

"The Dionysian Academy is a public institution of the Kingdom. It is funded and supported by the Dionysian Treasury. Every year, the best students are selected from the graduates of the town schools in the Kingdom, and further training is carried out. The natural talent rate will be very high. The Akademi Academy is established by your own capital. Due to the limitation of funds, venues and the number of teachers, you cannot enroll more students, which of course cannot be compared.

However, I heard that the reputation of the Academia School has begun to spread in the Eastern Mediterranean. I believe that gradually more outstanding young people from various Greek city-states will be willing to study in your school, and the situation will be greatly improved. ."Lucias comforted.

Plato sighed: "As I wrote in "The New Ideal Country",'A country and a city-state want to achieve sustainable and prosperous development, we must first focus on good education, education can not only make young citizens Have wisdom, and can cultivate them to have sound ideas and morals from an early age. Only when the quality of citizens has been improved and they understand and think, can the whole country develop healthily...'

It is a pity that our citizens in Athens do not think so. They only value their immediate interests and hope to distribute the assets in the treasury evenly. Therefore, in the previous years, they unanimously agreed to implement the civic conference allowance system in the civic conference. Of the citizens of Athens, each time half of the drachma is paid as compensation, as the price rises, this allowance will increase accordingly, and even expand to participate in other meetings can also get compensation.)

After tasting the benefits of sharing the wealth of city-states, they formally adopted the'Implementation of Theatre Watch Allowance System' the year before (the occasional subsidy will be given to poor citizens to buy theater tickets during the Athens celebrations. This tradition first began in Bury. Klee era), for this purpose, a financial officer was specially established to manage the drama subsidies..."

Plato said worriedly: "Now the citizens of Athens enjoy the benefits of sharing the wealth of the city-state. They hope that the city-state subsidies will be paid more frequently and in greater amounts, and the remaining part of the tax revenue in Athens will be less and less able to cope with the economy. The ability of the situation is getting worse and worse. But the citizens of Athens are living more and more comfortable, and they become unwilling to engage in hard and dangerous military operations.

Some time ago, Timonius, Konon's son, proposed at the meeting,'You should lead the navy around the Peloponnese peninsula, attack the Spartan navy, and thoroughly establish the advantages of the Athens navy.'The council passed his proposal, but did not allocate the levy money, and the people did not actively participate in the army. Timothy had to raise his own money, hire soldiers, and pay the remuneration before forming the convoy.

As a result, after conquering Corfu Island, the sailors refused to fight for him again because of lack of funds, and the entire military operation was hurriedly ended halfway.The military generals who encountered such a dilemma were not only Timothy, but also Iphicrates, Cabrías... These excellent Athenian generals also suffered from military expenditure restrictions, which led to the A series of military operations have had little effect.

This also led to excellent generals willing to play for Athens had to often play for foreign monarchs, but also gave them enough money or the ability to borrow to support their military operations in Athens, like Iphicrates not only often He played for the Thracians and married a daughter of the Thracian king. Timothy had a high reputation in Ionia, and also married a daughter of the king of Asia Minor....

In peacetime, they spend more time abroad than in Athens, because then they have more freedom and can live a luxurious and flashy life without being blamed by public opinion.Over time, how much loyalty do they have to Athens?!

This is simply a vicious circle!But the citizens of Athens do not see these dangers. Most of them only value the free theater, and they can get money by sitting in each venue every day... This is the most sad!"

After listening to this, Davers didn’t want to express his opinion on the affairs of Athens, but he thought about it again and said: "The Athens government's unwillingness to pay for the formation of troops from the treasury to fight will lead to a worse result. Athens The generals used the money they raised to pay the mercenaries. The mercenaries naturally obeyed the generals’ orders instead of the Athens government. The Athens government completely lost control of the army and it was difficult to order the army to implement the strategy it formulated. Even If the general of the army had some ambitions for Athens and ordered the army to attack Athens, would you say that these mercenaries would obey?"

Plato heard it for a moment, slowly lowered the wine glass to his mouth, and hesitantly said: "Although there are some contradictions between Timothy and Iphicrates, the generals of Athens today are still full of Athens. I love you...but you are right. Since the army is working for the city-state, the city-state should of course pay the soldiers to protect their lives, and the two sides have obligations to each other. But if one side gives up this obligation, the other side of course With the right not to perform this obligation...

The day before yesterday, I came to Turiri and had heard about the'Dionysia's tax increase to build a border army'. It is indeed a very happy thing for the Dionysian people to have a strong and intelligent government!"

Plato took a sip of wine and didn’t want to discuss this annoying issue anymore. Instead, he continued: "The reason why I came to Turri at the end of the academic conference this time was because I spent some time traveling around Dionysia Of other towns."

"Oh!" Daveus said regretfully, "You should tell me in advance and let me arrange it for you, so that your travel itinerary will be more convenient and safer."

"I'm not telling you, just to make your wandering more free and make your eyes more real." Plato pointed his eyes and asked narrowly, "Dear King Daveus, you want to give me Arrangement, is it afraid that I see something bad?"

Davies smiled heartily: "You should know me, I have nothing to worry about."

"Indeed, I should congratulate you!" Plato said enthusiastically: "I went to the south-the former military center of Carthage, Lilifang, and also to the north of the large city of Rome, still in the old Samone The central town of Bereventum spent two days... Dionysia's territory is indeed vast, and it took me a lot of time just on the road.

However, I want to correct what the king said just now. This road is very safe. No matter whether it is by sea or land, I have not encountered pirates, nor encountered bandits, nor have I seen the war. Heping is peaceful, even in the domain of the Samonais, which the Greeks called a "fierce barbarian".

You should know that more than a decade ago and more than 20 years ago, the greater Greece and Sicily regions were as warlike as the native Greece. War... Now the war conflict in the native Greece continues, but the west side of the Adriatic Sea is completely another scene. This is the great change that the existence of the Kingdom of Dionynia brought to the Western Mediterranean!"

Plato took another sip of wine and continued to say aloud: "I have to mention another important change. Although the journey is long, the traffic is very convenient, the sea route is smooth, and the port towns I visit no matter how big or small, its port facilities It is relatively complete and the management is orderly.

When it comes to land, you have to mention that the roads you have spent on the treasury and built a lot of business are smooth, wide and strong. Even in the rolling mountains of Samonay and Lucania, they still exist.You are also building roads in the confederate territory of the Walsi and Campania...Oh, you call it a'road network', it is indeed a network that connects most races in the Italian peninsula Together, it provides great convenience for their travel and trade, and also strengthens communication between people of all ethnicities.

When I was walking on the avenue, the pedestrians on the road were always endless, and most of them had a spirit of optimism on their faces. I saw a desire on their faces, and this desire forced them to appear in a hurry This is true whether you are driving a car or carrying a package, but this rush is not because of poverty, but for a better life... and this desire is what the Kingdom of Dionysia has given!"