Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 47: Dionia Rugby Four Cities Tournament (1)
lnmao.org, the fastest update to the latest chapter of the Mediterranean Overlord of Ancient Greece!
Out of the market, Teos saw that rows of stables had been erected on the side of the road, and the primitive and messy scenes of horse dung on the ground were long gone when they first met.
Tios had a good impression of the old coachman, so he wanted to ride in his car and began to shout loudly: "Soricos! Soricos!..."
"The old man is rich now, he no longer drives his own car, let's take my car!" someone shouted.
"Don't talk nonsense, be careful I beat you!" Soricos scolded when he heard the sound.
Tios got into his carriage and said the destination he was going to.
"Oh, are you going to see the piece of land to be rented too?! There are so many people who have visited recently!" Solicos said immediately.
Tios nodded and smiled: "I heard you got rich?!"
"Listen to them nonsense, that is, I have paid off the loan and interest of the carriage. I took a loan and bought a carriage and leased it to a freedman to drive it. I believe I can pay off the loan again soon! Then I will buy another one. The carriage...Sorix said confidently.
"Congratulations!" Theos praised: "I think in one year, you can become a carriage merchant."
Sorikos laughed after listening.
"I remember you are a Dionian citizen. The alliance should give you a'share'. You come out and drive a carriage to make money. What about the land? I heard that your alliance has a farm officer who specializes in supervising citizens. Land use situation." Tios asked curiously.
"I rented it out to freedmen to farm, there won't be any problems." Solicos replied.
He drove a horse-drawn carriage on the Turiy-Amendorara Avenue. The horse-drawn carriage ran on the Subari Plain. Many houses have been built in the farmland on both sides of the road. .
It's time to build villages soon! Tios thought: New Turii is developing very rapidly, and it has begun to gradually recover its former prosperity, and it is very different from the original, and will even surpass the great Greek power in the past!
After the horse-drawn carriage crosses a wooden bridge over the Subari River, it passes by grape plantations and wine-making workshops, which is a famous wine producing area in Great Greece.
After crossing the Saraceno River, I entered the territory of Amendorara. The land to be rented is on the side of the avenue. It has been divided into pieces of land to be rented with sticks inserted. It is close to the avenue, which is convenient for transportation; close to the river, which is convenient to provide water for the workshop; close to the forest, there are trees that can be felled (of course, the Dionian League has strict regulations on felling trees). In addition, after building a workshop on the rented land, you can also build a house for you and your employees to live in, so that you can rest while doing business in Dionia. There is a sea in front, a forest in the back, a river on the side, and a avenue for easy travel. It is also an ideal place to live! I believe that every foreign merchant who wants to rent land here has the idea of building a workshop and a residence at the same time. Twenty years is enough for them to double the investment money and earn back, of course, the premise is that the Dionian Alliance has always existed.
After Tios was optimistic about a few ideal plots, because the so-called "auction" would not be held tomorrow, so he wanted to find a hotel to stay first.
At this time, Solicos suggested: "You came by coincidence today. The arena in Turriy was just built yesterday. To celebrate, Lord Daves announced, "Today and tomorrow, there will be rugby in the arena. The Four Cities Tournament!'. You are free in the afternoon, so you can just go and have a look. I heard that it is very beautiful and even more lively than the Olympia Games!"
"A rugby game?" Theos was curious and puzzled.
"It was a game invented by Master Davos. I heard that it was inspired by Pluto!" Solicos said mysteriously.
"It’s...that’s...the two teams compete for a ball made of cowhide shaped like an olive...um...and then score...Oh, I can’t tell, anyone who has watched this game anyway It’s very interesting and beautiful! You’ll know it after you go to see it."
"Okay, I'll go and see." Soricos's strong recommendation made Teos interested.
"Go early in the afternoon, because there are so many people, I heard that I'm late, so I can't get in!" Solicos reminded me kindly.
…………………
The arena is located to the east of the northern city of Turiyi, very close to the wharf in the city, and far from the main city. It was built here in consideration of not affecting the daily life of the people of Turiyi.
The city guards, who usually check strictly, are relatively relaxed today. As long as they don’t carry weapons, they will basically let in after counting the number of people, but if they exceed the specified number, they will be prohibited from entering the city.
Because Tios came early, he was lucky enough to enter the city. On the way into the city, I met a Cretan businessman Dick Boris who was engaged in olive oil business. He was also watching a rugby match. He had already watched one in the morning and was fascinated by this novel game. In his words: This is the best gift Pluto has given to the Greeks. No competition can match it!
This aroused the interest of Theos even more.
When I came to the gate of the arena, there was already a long line. Although there were many people, they were still observing order under the supervision of a group of soldiers.
At this time, Dickpolis asked Tios to take up the place, and he went to a shop next to him with a "beer" sign and picked up two cans of beer and two bags of dried fruit, and gave them to Tios. half.
Tios thanked him with embarrassment and asked: "How much is it?"
Dick Boris said: "It is the arrangement of the goddess of fate to meet you here and watch a rugby match together! If you pay, you just don't like to make friends with our Cretans!"
Tios had no choice but to accept it. Dickpolis' ostentation and liveliness made him quite fond of it. At the same time, he also noticed that many people went to buy beer, syrup and snacks.
Dickpolis told him: "Because of the long game time, we are prone to thirsty and hungry when we watch the game in the sun. In addition, there are a lot of spectators entering the stadium. This one—" He raised the wine jar in his hand and said with a teasing smile: "Drink it dry, it can be used as a urinal..."
The guard at the entrance of the arena released a group of people in, and then let in a group of people in a while. When it was Dickpolis' turn, it was obvious that the arena was not full yet. The guards signaled that they could enter, and walked in along the passage on his right hand side, and there was a passage on the left hand side. They were not allowed to go. That is the way to the VIP seats. Almost all arenas are designed like this.
Turiyi Arena is not too big, and all the stone benches on the sidelines can sit up to about 4,000 people, but in fact there are more than 4,500 people who have entered the stadium, and half of them are free. People and Gentiles. Like other arenas, the inner and outer periphery of its sports field is a runway, but inside the runway is a flat rectangular sandy land, divided into multiple areas by dozens of white lines.
Dickpolis patiently explained the rules of the game to Tios and told him why it is called the Four Cities Rugby Tournament: "The Four Cities are Amendola, Turri, Niutum and Laos, listen to me Those of Dionian’s friends said that this game was first played by the Archon Daves as a military training project, starting with those mercenaries who became citizens of Amendora... Amendorara formed an alliance to conduct military training on Turíi citizens and prospective citizens. Naturally, they learned this game... Later, they captured Niutum, the first group of Lucanian soldiers. This game was handed over to the Lucanians of Niutum... As for Laos, they sent a lot of labor to build roads, with the Dionians as overseers, and taught Laos during their rest. The Sri Lankan people play this kind of game to prevent them from being too tired and sabotaging their work...
Maybe the Laos people have just started playing and are not proficient. They don't seem to cooperate well, so in the morning they played against Turri, and Turri won easily. This afternoon, it was Amendorara vs. Niutum. I heard that the strength of the two sides is not much different, and it is even more interesting! "
"You know so much!" Tios said emotionally.
"I'm interested in it, so I naturally want to understand it clearly." Diopolit said complacently: "I have been here for a long time, and I made friends with a few citizens of the League of Dionia. , One of them also served as the captain of their so-called legion, he told me..."
"Why is there no Castro?" A voice came from the side.
Dickpolis turned his head and saw that some people were already surrounded by them at some point.
"Maybe because they have less contact with Union citizens and have no chance to learn..." Dikpolis shrugged: "However, I saw some Castellon people watching the game this morning. I believe After this four-cities match, the next time it is held, I am afraid it will become a five-cities match."
"Cretan, you are right, we will definitely join Castellon next year!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"Yes, we'll make suggestions to the council when we go back!" the other person agreed.
Dick Pollet winked at Tios and said in a low voice, "Look, I'm right."
At this time, the bronze horn rang and the athletes began to enter the field.
At this time, the participating players are not as rudimentary as they were when they played rugby in the military camp. They all wore soft leather hats that could cover the entire head and neck and thickened protective clothing made of wool and linen leather. It was also dyed in red and blue to distinguish it. Strange symbols (actually Arabic numerals, because the Greek numerals are complicated and difficult to use) are embroidered on the back of the protective clothing for the referee to identify the players.
As the players from both sides entered the field, a strong, rhythmic drum sound rang.
The red team immediately lined up in a neat square, matched the rhythm, used vigorous, uniform movements to dance the dance praising Ares when they won on the battlefield... There was a warm cheer from the audience. .