Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

“Since when have we Bruttians been so friendly to the Greeks! Are we afraid of them just because they are Theonians?!” Kanaru shouted angrily. Although the Bruttians were closed off, they still knew some of the matters that are happening from the outside. And the sudden rise of a powerful union of city-states around Bruttii had put the tribal chieftains under pressure. Only young men like Kanaru were not convinced, “We are wolves, while the Greeks are just sheep, so no matter how many and fat the sheep are, they would never be able to fight the wolves!”

“Kanaru, don't forget what your father said to you when he was leaving, surely you do not want him to get angry when he hears that you do not listen to us again, and deprive you of the power you just got and transfer it to your brother.” Another older man also stepped forward to persuade him.

Kanaru seemed to remember something and his face paled slightly and angrily left. While leaving, he glared at Androlis angrily.

Androlis was listening to his companion's translation of their conversation when he saw the older man approach and say in a gentle tone, “Envoy of Theonia, my name is Baripiri, I am the chieftain of Besidice, and he is Burim, another chieftain of Besidice.”

Androlis greeted him with a smile and gave his name.

“We will immediately send someone to inform Consentia of your arrival. In the meantime, stay here in Besidice temporarily. As soon as your entry is granted, we will even send someone to escort you to Consentia.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The sleeping of the Bruttians is simple, as they will only cover themselves with animal furs and slept directly on the wooden floor around the fire pit.

After an afternoon's trekking and fright, Androlis and his group were already dead tired, so after dinner, they lie down and soon fell asleep.

In the dark, only one person still had his eyes open.

Among Androlis' three companions, one was his most trusted slave, who took good care of his necessities during their journey. Another one is Adepiges, a registered freeman of Theonia; with Androlis not being able to understand Bruttii, the Senate had especially found a translator for him. The Bruttians had captured the mother of Adepiges, who is a Greek, and got pregnant after getting r*ped, and since his childhood, he was a slave of the Bruttians. After having experienced the hardship of life, he finally seized the opportunity to escape from the Bruttii mountains, and he ended up in Thurii. His last companion, the one who had not yet fallen asleep, was recommended to Androlis by Marigi, saying that he was a part of the Ministry of Military Affairs and needed to know what was going on inside the Bruttii region in case of a future war with the Bruttians, but the truth is, he is a reserve citizen of Theonia named Antrapolis, brother of Aristias, Davos' private intelligence officer.

With Izam's reconnaissance team following Davos to Taranto, Antrapolis needed to perform the scouting duties. At this moment, he was trying to recall in his mind what he had seen during the day, like how long it took them to reach Besidice from Theonia, the difficulty of traversing the road, the location and sturdiness of the city of Besidice, its population and the number of soldiers, and the personalities of the chieftains of Besidice that he judged from their conversations…and so on. Antrapolis recalled them over and over until he engraved them clearly in his mind, with some vague points that needed to be further confirmed by him the next day.

After that, Antrapolis turned his gaze to Androlis, who was sleeping opposite him. His other mission was to closely monitor and observe the performance of the new statesman from Krimisa during their mission to Consentia.

That was not the first time that Antrapolis had done such a thing. At the start, he was somewhat resistant. He even said to his brother, Aristias, that the former tyrant of Syracuse, Hiero, had gotten a notorious reputation from creating a secret service system to wantonly monitor the private lives of the citizens of the city-state. Therefore, he did not want Davos, to whom they were attached, to become such a person.

However, Aristias persuaded him that the notorious reputation of Hiero was mainly because he is too autocratic and is overly suspicious and oppressive of the citizens, which made the people seethe with resentment. Davos, on the other hand, as an archon for life, was open-minded and cool-headed, and he knew well how to safeguard the freedom of the people, so he definitely won't make such a mistake. And what is more, he has such an outstanding capability, and had shown it through the rapid rise of Theonia Union, and was the best strategos whom the brothers had chosen to fight against Syracuse and rebuild Catania. Therefore, one of Aristias' important duties was to consolidate Davos leadership and preventing people with ulterior motives from making trouble.

After getting convinced by his brother, Antrapolis began following and investigating the movements of several statesmen. It can be said that the vast majority of statesmen supported and agreed with the archon for life status of Davos, and despite the dissatisfaction of Pollux and a very few others, it had only stayed in words and did not take any concrete actions. As for Androlis, he was the leader of the Krimisians who joined the Senate. After coming to Thurii, besides attending the Senate meeting, he usually stayed in seclusion and had little contact with the other statesmen, which attracted Aristias' curiosity. Therefore, this mission was an excellent opportunity to find out more about this Krimisian and also to provide a reference for Davos to use when appointing senior public officials in the future. At least from his current performance, although Androlis is a noble of Krimisa, he could endure hardship and is courageous. Therefore, Antrapolis is looking forward to his next performance.

The next afternoon, a messenger came from Consentia, bringing a message allowing the entry of Androlis and his companions to Consentia. Consentia.

Baripiri had also sent ten warriors to escort the Theonian envoys to Consentia.

After leaving the city, they began to walk westward along the mountain path and shortly after, they were stopped.

Kanaru rode up and appeared before them and smugly said, “Greeks, I still have not entertained you, yet you want to leave just like that?”

Androlis and the others immediately became nervous.

At this time, the soldier in charge of the escort came forward to talk to Kanaru, but Kanaru sent his men to stop him, “Don't worry, I won’t let you go back without an explanation.”

After giving his promise, his face sank, and his eyes became fierce, “Give them five lashes! Let them know that it is not easy for the Greeks to pass through my Besidice without paying the price!”

After saying this, the Bruttian warriors swarmed Androlis and the others, who had no time to react and pinned them to the ground.

Each of them was given five lashes, and their skin was shredded, which made Adepiges so angry at the beating that he cursed in Bruttian.

Kanaru listened but just laughed it out and shouted, “Give them three more lashes!”

Adepiges wanted to swear more, but Androlis said to him in a low voice, “Adepiges, don't forget what we came here for!”

Adepiges shuddered at the words and slowly lowered his head.

Seeing that the Greeks were not responding, Kanaru became bored, and he did not dare to go too far to avoid his father's anger, “Timid Greeks, go.” Shaking the reins with both hands, Kanaru rode eastward along the road.

The four people help each other and walk forward with difficulty.

Although the terrain is getting higher, the road is no longer rugged and difficult to walk on. In front of them are gentle swaying grasses dotted with colourful wildflowers, just like a vast and colourful carpet, which extends to the distance…with herds of cattle, sheep, and horses grazing quietly on the slope or raising their hooves and running and frolicking. There are also scattered huts in the area, some of which have rising smoke from cooking.

And the number of people they could see on the road gradually increased, driving the cattle and sheep, carrying goods on their backs, and are appearing in various parts of the slope, heading in the same direction.

In the evening, under the moonlight, Androlis saw a looming huge black shadow appearing in front of him, and he knew that they had reached Consentia.

As the time to enter the city had passed, Androlis and his group had to set up tents outside the city for the night.

Early the following day, the Bruttian warriors who escorted them had immediately gone to inform the city.

Soon, Androlis and his group were welcomed by the guards sent by the tribal union and invited to enter Consentia.

After breakfast, Androlis was taken to the assembly hall of Consentia, which was more magnificent than the hut in Besidice.

On the centre sat a person, and on each of his side sat three people, and the seats seem to have been divided into primary and secondary, with the central seat being obviously higher.

Androlis respectfully bowed while thinking about the things he heard about the Bruttian tribes forming a tribal union under the leadership of the chieftain of Consentia, “Esteemed great Chieftain, I am Androlis an envoy of Theonia, bringing with me the greetings from the Senate of Theonia!”

Before Adepiges could translate it, the man said in Greek, “Envoy of Theonia, welcome to Consentia, the centre of the Bruttii Tribal Union. I am Pian, the chieftain of the whole tribal union.”

As soon as his voice fell, the man nearest to him on the lower left stood up and asked in Greek, “I wonder what the envoy had come here for, as Brutti and Theonia had never had any dealings before?”

As soon as this was said, the others in the assembly hall focused on Androlis.

Androlis had not expected for the Bruttians to put their question on the table as soon as they meet, but instead of immediately answering, he turned to look at him and asked, “And you are, may I ask?”

“Sedrum, the chieftain of Vergae, and also one of the elders of this tribal union.” Sedrum is the only one of the great leaders who have ever met Theonia. A year ago, when the Lucanian coalition attacked Thurii, he led his people to attack the camp of Davos, the former mercenary leader and now the archon of Theonia. Later, Davos devised a plan to encircle and annihilate the Lucanian coalition, which made Sedrum seize the opportunity to revolt against the Lucanian coalition. After that, due to the proximity of Vergae to Laos, he learned about the turmoil in Laos, the rise in power of Avinoges, the joining of Laos to the Theonia Alliance…and other series of events that happened one after another like a revolving lantern. Therefore, although he had not yet met Davos nor dealt directly with Theonia, he was wary of Davos and Theonia. So when he found that the envoy that Theonia had sent has arrived, Sedrum warned the others to act with caution because Theonia's strength has now clearly exceeded Bruttii.

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