Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 12: Tarantum’s assistance

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At the meeting, someone was still complaining: Isn’t two hundred drachmas too much?

Some people also retorted that: it takes more to make them feel that it is not easy to become an Amendorara citizen, and then they know how to cherish it.

As a result, the next day, there was news from the household registration officer Raphaas: The consul's wife Christoya paid the money in advance for ten freedmen, and at the same time, Melses was also six. Free people advance money.

Everyone realized the preciousness of this group of free people. Not to mention that Merses has a vicious vision. He has searched for many talents who can write and count along the way in Persia. There are also skilled craftsmen. Most of the ordinary slaves are also physically strong, because they are the labor of the heavy camp. After many battles, they can become qualified soldiers with a little training. What's more valuable is that they are mainly Persian farmers. In the Mediterranean region, farmers in three places are very experienced in growing crops: one is the Persians, the fertile land of the Mesopotamia has cultivated excellent farmers; the other is the Egyptians, the Nile valley, which soars every July, makes the Egyptians I only love to do two things in my life-farming and worshipping gods; the third is Carthage, the two powerful magic weapons of Carthage-sea trade and agriculture. For this reason, they also specially compiled a farming book. As for the Greeks, because the land in Greece is poor, they mostly go sailing and trading, herding cattle and sheep, planting olives and making wine, and handicrafts... and these new citizens have been rushing around and fighting everywhere, and they have a complete eye on farming. A smear.

So everyone rushed forward, and the 300 freedmen were quickly divided up. Citizens who had not hired freedmen had to go to the market in Tarantum to buy slaves (At the time, Tarantum had the largest slave in Great Greece Market), and some citizens even picked up the idea of ​​the large number of free citizens in the neighbor Turriy, of course, this is an afterthought.

The Senate did not disband immediately after processing the slave proposal, because Mariji had returned from Tarantum.

Take the sea route from Amendolara, not far from Tarantum, and board the boat from Turri Port. It takes less than two hours to get there under the wind. Daves made a mistake in letting Marij go to Tarantum. Of course, he didn’t have better talents available at the time. As a Persian, Marij had no way to enter Tarantum at first. Achita anticipated this situation, and wrote a letter asking Mariji to bring to his father Hestiavis, plus Mariji’s kindness and a generous and novel gift with him, the senior veteran Hesty Yavis actively mediated for him, making Tarantum's Senate and consul express enthusiasm for Amendorara's initiative to request an alliance with Tarantum.

Of course, it’s not because of Histiavis that Tarantum became enthusiastic about the mercenary’s proposal. The actual reason is: Although Tarantum and Turri have been in the armistice for decades, they have both joined now. Defensive alliance, but this is a loose alliance after all, with no binding force. Since this alliance was established by Tarantum, it has also actively contributed. For example, the accumulation of hatred between some city-states is relatively deep, and it is good not to tear down each other, such as Crotone and Lokri. Including Tarantum’s grievances towards Turei. After all, as one of the largest states in Great Greece, Tarantum was defeated twice in a row when faced with a newly-built city-state. In the end, despite the signing of an armistice agreement, a peaceful co-existence was achieved. Heraclea was built, but Tarantum was greatly ashamed in Greater Greece. Amendorara, who was once an alliance of Turiyi, now wants to form an alliance with Tarantum. The Tarantum Senate has a big face, and the addition of Amendorara can also protect their affiliated city-states well— —Heraclea, how can there be any reason to disagree!

But another request made by Mariji made them embarrassed: Mariji asked Tarantum for assistance on the grounds that Amendorara had just gone through the war and was in short supply for his livelihood. Originally, as a newly-concluded ally, Tarantum is a wealthy city-state, and it is a matter of ease to aid some material. However, the quantity of materials requested by Mariji was relatively large, and the elders had to discuss the assistance.

Until the next day, Archieta led the troops back to Tarantum and reported to the Senate on the course of his expedition. He emphasized the combat effectiveness of the mercenaries and the outstanding military talents of the leader Daves. Emphasize: Amendorara is now in power by new citizens like mercenaries.

In fact, Mariji had already praised the performance of the mercenaries for the annihilation of the Lucanian coalition forces before, but it only caused some dissatisfaction among the veterans, who believed that they were trying to obtain the credit of Tarantum. Now they trusted Achita also uttered these words and praised Daves, which made them realize that in addition to sheltering Heraclea from the wind and rain, the newly born Amendorara also You can do something else. Therefore, not only did not reduce the number of materials required by Mariji, but also added some additional things.

When Mariji read out the covenant with Tarantum at the venue, the old citizens heard it and didn't feel much. They were all alliances, but the target was that Turri was replaced by Tarantum. , The content has not changed much. However, the Persian in front of him and the current citizen of Amendora, Mariji, attracted their attention. Not only was he fluent in Greek, but he also remembered that because of the two bills he introduced, the old citizens felt complicated for a while.

Next, Mariji read out the list of Tarantum's aid materials: one hundred tons of grain, one thousand catties of salted fish, two hundred sets of bucklers and spears, one hundred linen cloth...

Every time they listened to the quantity of a material, there was a surprise on their faces. In the end, before Mariji finished reading, everyone cheered: Tarantum is so generous! Not to mention anything else, but one hundred tons of grain is enough for all the people of Amendorara to live for six months. By then, the wheat fields of Amendorara should also be harvested. The biggest difficulty of Amendorara was so easily solved, and the elders seemed to be in a dream.

"Because of the large number of all the above substances, Tarantum will be divided into several times, transported by sea to Heraclea, and then transported here. The first batch will be delivered tomorrow!" Mariji's voice just fell. Everyone applauded.

At this time, Daves took advantage of the situation and said loudly: "Everyone, in view of the great achievements Mariji has made for Amendorara, I propose that Mariji, a citizen of Amendorara and city-state commercial officer, become the senator of the Senate!"

The proposal received enthusiastic support from the new citizens, and the old citizens barely raised their hands.

Next, the Senate also decided: Chief Executive Cornellus and Ombudsman Antonios will lead the envoy to visit Tarantum on the second day to express gratitude to allies and discuss the details of the covenant. One-step discussion.

The Senate meeting ended, and Mariji followed Davers out of the meeting.

"Thank you, my lord, for your help! But let me become a citizen of Amendorara, become a business officer, and become a noble veteran!" Mariji said gratefully.

"It seems I didn't lie to you." Daves chuckled.

"My lord, you always speak for words, how can you lie!" Mariji seemed to have forgotten what he said when he came to Greece.

"Marigi, you have to remember that this is not my decision. This is because the elders thank you for your reward for Amendorara's contribution!" Even though he was humble, Daves reminded him to say .

Marigi looked around, and then whispered: "What Senate! I only know that if you don't have you, I'm afraid I am not even an Amandorara citizen. Mariji will always be loyal to Master Daves! "

Maliji's words are sincere and sincere, Daves smiled again and said: "It seems that you have to slowly adapt to life as a citizen of the Greek city-state."

Marigi wanted to say more, Daves patted him on the shoulder and asked, "How is Tarantum?"

Mariji is a smart man. He didn't go on, but said seriously: "The time is too short. After walking around in a hurry, I feel that Tarantum is a big city, many people, and a lot of wealthy people... ...They have a lot of merchant ships in the port, the market is prosperous, and the daily transaction volume is estimated to be not low..." Mariji looked envied.

Davos nodded and asked: "I heard that the Mesapis are invading Tarantum. How is the situation now?"

Mariji wouldn’t care about these things before joining the mercenaries, let alone say one, two or three. Following what the mercenaries heard and witnessed, they also had some understanding of the military: “The Mesapi people have retreated. The troops they invaded were mainly composed of cavalry and light infantry. They did not face the heavy infantry of Tarantum at all. They could only invade the land outside Tarantum, but Tarantum had nothing to do with them. Because they can't catch up with the Mesapi."

"Cavalry? Do Mesapis have many cavalry?" Davers asked keenly.

"I don’t know. But I heard that the terrain to the south of Tarantum does not have many high mountains, few rivers, and most of them are flat grasslands, so the Mesapi people graze a lot of cattle and sheep there. Horses."

Daves' heart moved. He originally thought that except for the Gauls in the north of the Apennines, because of the vast plains and swamps of the Po River, the cavalry was strong and the cavalry was strong; the forces in other places were mainly infantry. , A small number of cavalry is just filling the front. Unexpectedly, in the south, on the "heel" of the "Italian leather boots", there is actually a tribe dominated by cavalry (actually, this is Maliji’s intelligence error, and Mesapi’s army is not dominated by cavalry). Let Antonios visit Tarantum, and investigate this Mesapi force.

Note: Messapi is said to be a race that immigrated from Illyria (the location of Epirus and Albania today) to the "heel" of southern Italy, because it was earlier than the Greek colonial era. Therefore, it is also regarded as a local aboriginal.