Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

The reason why Athens pottery was loved by the wealthy Dionian people was not only because of the unique and high-quality pottery with black background and red painting, but also because of the exquisite pictures on the pottery.Athens has gathered many outstanding painters from the Greek world. Almost all of them are engaged in the career of bottle painting. Oniximos is one of the best. He has won twice in the Pan-Athena bottle painting competition, Hesklau Si spent a lot of money to hire him.

Facing Hesklaus’s compliment, Oniximos’s performance was not much different from other Athenians: "I hope the Dionians can fully appreciate the beauty of my work! Ah... this batch There are too many pottery, I am a little tired and need to rest for a while."

Looking at Oniximos, who was pretending, stretching, and yawning, Hesklaus murmured in his heart, but he agreed with his mouth: "Yes, yes, you really should take a good rest... It seems, this one of mine The order can only be postponed temporarily."

"Why are there orders?" Oniximos said impatiently, "I'll talk about it when I have a rest!"

"Then I can only push this order with the buyer, because they want it in a hurry." Hesklaus said unintentionally: "It is said that the royal family of Dionia ordered the goods personally. They want this batch of pottery Placed in the palace, and used to entertain VIPs from various countries during the Games."

"What are you talking about? What did the royal family of Dionian want?!" Onhimos suddenly asked seriously.

"Yes, I can swear to Athena, it is an order from the royal family of Dionia!"

"Uh...I think I can wait until this batch of pottery is finished before resting." Oniximos immediately changed his mouth cheeky.Don’t look at him looking down on the appearance of the Dionians, but he knew very well that the Dionian Kingdom was the overlord of the entire Western Mediterranean and the Greek world, and how noble its royal family was. If his works could be possessed. The powerful King Dionia loved it and was used to receive VIPs from other city-states. Then he will be famous throughout the Mediterranean (Athens pottery has a characteristic, and the pottery has the signatures of potters and bottle painters).

A teasing smile appeared at the corner of Hesklaus's mouth, and said: "Okay, I'll make arrangements now."

"Wait a minute, what are the requirements for the content of the bottle painting?"

"It must be the relevant content of "The Codex of Hades", after all, the royal family of Dionia is a descendant of Hades."

"I understand, buy me a copy of "The Book of Hades" as soon as possible." Oniximos said without hesitation.

There is another reason why the Dionians like Athens pottery, because the Athens pottery bottle paintings are not like other city-state pottery bottle paintings, which are mostly still life. Its bottle paintings are narrative, such as wars, heroic legends, gods, etc. There is often a sense of tragic epic, which may be related to the Athenians' love of drama.

Most of the requests from Dionian buyers to the Athenian pottery merchants were related to the war during the rise of the Kingdom of Dionian, the miracles of Hades, and the great deeds of King Davos. The food and clothing parents have requirements. The bottle painters could only obey. Later, a wise man opened a bookstore in the town of Selesia, selling books about the sacred kingdom of Dionia: "Long March" by Xenophon, "Great Greece" "History" by Ansitanos, "The Battle of the Western Mediterranean" by Henipolis, "The Chronicles of Northern Italy" (by Ansitanos in the restricted area of ​​the Turiy Library to check the Kingdom’s Intelligence Department Secretary Massimus The information written in the Etruscan Border Corps back then was adapted)...Of course there is also (The Code of Hades).This also makes Selesia the only place in Greece where "The Code of Hades" is sold publicly except for Messiania, New Sparta, and Thessaly.

"Be careful! Be careful! If one breaks one, your three-month salary will be gone!..." The foreman cried out loudly to remind the slaves who carried the pottery. Pieces of exquisite pottery were put in the shop. In a wooden box full of straw and thick wool.

Before setting off, Hesklaus repeatedly urged the foreman to start the production of the next batch of pottery as soon as possible, but he must strive for perfection without any mistakes.

There is a port not far from Selesia, dedicated to the transportation and export of pottery, but Hesklaus first transported the pottery to his house on the outskirts of Athens.Said it was his own house, but he was actually renting it for a long time, because Hesklaus was a Gentile and had no right to buy real estate in Athens.

If it were 4 years ago, Hesklaus would not have the guts to settle and do business in Athens, because he was a small businessman from Thessaly, who was once regarded as a barbarian land by the Athenians, but Cesali became Dai In an area of ​​the Holy Kingdom of Onia, the Sesari became Dionian citizens, and Hesklaus was fortunate to know a great Turíy businessman, and he moved his family to Athens with his support and support. , Engaged in pottery industry.

Athens is an open city-state, with a large number of Gentiles in various industries, but most of them have low status.Although the citizen of Athens hates the status of Hesklaus, the status of Dionian citizen guarantees that he will not be too biased towards the locals when he is in trouble. Of course, he must also abide by the laws of Athens, in addition to paying a certain amount regularly. In addition to his taxes and occasional public welfare contributions, as a Gentile businessman, he also had to pay a small market tax that Athens citizens were exempt from.

Of course, these expenses are only a fraction of the profits he earns. What makes him most assured is that because of his identity, he will not be arbitrarily recruited by the Athens government to fight as a heavy infantry.Of course, since the establishment of the New Greece Alliance, there has never been a war in Greece, and the days when the people were frightened have passed.

Now Hesklaus has no desire to return to Thessaly, and he prefers to stay in this commercial Athens.

In the evening, Hesklaus held a banquet at home and invited several Thessari merchants who were doing business in Athens like him.

Everyone sat at the banquet eating delicious food, drinking wine, and chatting about the great changes that Dionian had brought to Cesare in the past few years.

Apart from other things, their banquets have changed a lot. It is no longer like a traditional Greek banquet. Each guest has a couch, half-lying to eat, drink, and talk, but all sit on wooden chairs. There is his own dining table in front of the body. This is due to the increasingly frequent exchanges between Dionian and Sesali, and the impact of some native Dionian citizens moving to the Sesali Plain.The Sesari people originally had a sense of inferiority compared to the native Greeks to the south. Now they have become Dionian citizens. Although this sense of inferiority is gradually disappearing, another sense of inferiority is quietly growing, that is, facing As a citizen from Dioria, the Sesari people who had close contacts with Dioria have been trying their best to learn. For example, businessmen have been trying to imitate their customs and habits in order to narrow the distance with each other.

The atmosphere of the banquet was very warm. Everyone drank a little. Hesklaus also called his eldest son Lirias and told him drunkly: Tomorrow, I will take him to Turriy by boat.

The 9-year-old boy was so excited that he didn't sleep well all night.

In the early morning of the second day, Hesklaus, who was awake, did not remember the incident at all. Lirias cried and made trouble. Finally, with his wife's persuasion, Hesklaus had to nod and agree.

After breakfast, he took his son and led the pack to the port of Piraeus.

Piraeus is the largest trading port in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thousands of cargo ships enter and exit the port every day, which is extremely prosperous.

Hesklaus came to a remote pier. Although it was still early, the place was full of cargo ships, and the ground was full of various commodities. Numerous pier laborers and slaves were busy carrying cargo on the ship.Fortunately, at the banquet last night, several Sesali businessmen agreed to set off for Turri today. They have booked cargo ships and found labor (Piraeus port regulations: non-port-owned pack team Do not enter the dock, so as not to disturb the order of the dock and cause losses), Hesklaus hurriedly asked the labor to carefully move the wooden boxes with pottery one by one to the warehouse of the dock, and then the labor foreman led him into the warehouse.

In the center of this huge room full of cargo is the office of the Athens port officials at this terminal. After they confirmed the type and quantity of the cargo Hesklaus wants to ship out of Athens, they asked Hesklaus to register and sign, and then After calculating the value of the entire batch of goods according to the market price, they are required to pay 110 tax on exported goods immediately (Athens stipulates that regardless of whether they are exported or imported goods, they must pay 110 tax. It is simple and rude and easy, but the tax is too high, naturally As a result, the price of the goods sold is also high. Once the goods are slow, the owner will face losses).

Hesklaus carried a large sum of silver Hades (the Dionian coin. Since the establishment of the New Hellenic League, it has been popular in Greece because of its high silver content and exquisite craftsmanship. The Athens owl Because of the depletion of the Laurion silver mine and the massive consumption of the national treasury during the war in these years, the silver content of silver coins has dropped again and again, and is no longer as popular as before. Even many Athenians are more willing to use Hades silver coins. ), immediately delivered as required.

There is also a set of official measurement tools in the office. The clerks carefully tested the coins and confirmed that they were correct before approving Hesklaus’s cargo ship to leave the port.

By the time the cargo was loaded onto the ship, the cargo ship left the dock, it was almost noon.

Hesklaus and the others were on the largest cargo ship. After the entire fleet left the Salong Bay, the wind turned south, and the sailing fleet swiftly moved like wings.Hesklaus and several other merchants all showed joy, because the help of the sea breeze meant that the fleet could reach Turri earlier.