“Haha, that’s because he hasn’t played it himself!” With that, Davos said, “Do you want to play it?”
“Of course, I want to!!….” The Lucanian youths scrambled to answer.
“Good! I am going to be the quarterback. Whom of you would like to join me to challenge the winner of this match?” Shouted Davos.
“Me, I am willing!” Exclaimed Kesima. ．
Ulasa also stepped forward…and soon, a team of fifty-five men was formed, with the exception of Davos, and the captain of the guard, Martius, who were Greeks, the rest were all Lucanian youths. Davos then led them to the field, and more Lucanians soon followed. The guards didn’t stop them because of the instructions of Davos.
Sesta then grabbed Kapus, hoping that he could command the soldiers of the first brigade to maintain the order of the field.
The family members of the fourth brigade were then arranged to enter the city, while the statesmen of Thurii walked slowly towards the arena.
“Vespa, have you really, as what your son had said, become a member of the Senate of Theonia Union?!” Hemon looked at Vespa, who was among the statesmen, with admiration. He was dressed in the same clothes as the other statesmen, and his gestures seemed to have the semblance of a great man.
This kind of envious look greatly satisfied the vanity of Vespa. He was not only seen by Hemon, but also many of his former acquaintances. It was a mixture of surprise, fear and respect, which made Vespa feel that he had returned home in glory. This kind of pleasure drowned his guilt of turning to the “enemy”.
“It is of course true!” As the other statesmen did, he shook the sleeves of his chiton, revealing the purple sleeves that symbolizes the statesmen of the Senate, “Just like what the Archon had just said, ‘the Union belongs to the Greeks and also to the Lucanians.’ So it is normal for the Lucanians to enter the Senate of the Union and become a statesman!”
“Lord Davos is indeed very friendly to us Lucanians, and being able to get the recognition of those young people so soon shows that he is sincere and has no prejudice against the Lucanians! But-” Hemon pointed covertly at the statesmen of Thurii in front of him, and whispered, “Their attitude towards us seems to be bad.”
“There is no way! They are either from Thurii or Amendolara, and have suffered from us, Lucanians. It is impossible for them to change their attitude in a short time. Lord Davos has said that it would take time for their attitude to change. Fortunately, the Union is mainly decided by the Archon!” Vespa frankly whispered back.
“What do you do as a member of the Senate?” Asked Hemon curiously.
“Putting forward proposals, passing laws, discussing major events in the Union, and assist the Archon to come up with solutions….” Vespa said with a bit of complacency, “Sometimes, I have to be responsible for some specific matters. For example, I am now in charge of the affairs of the citizens in the Lucanian region. As long as there are issues related to Lucania, the Senate will first ask for my opinions, and I can also put forward my own suggestions and plans to safeguard the interest of the Lucanians, it’s like….uhm….uhm….for example, my proposal to levy a 5% tax on the Lucanian citizens of Nerulum. Originally, the Greek preparatory citizens in the Union would be charged 10% of the land they rent….” Vespa was obviously boasting, because he was not in the Senate when this proposal was passed.
“Oh! You have done us a great service!….” Hemon looked at him with admiration, which made Vespa more complacent. Fortunately, he had not forgotten his main mission in Nerulum, “It is just that there are only two Lucanians in the Senate, Bagul and I. And Bagul might always stay in Nerulum in the future. And I am too weak to argue with so many Greek statesmen, so I can’t fight for more interests for the Lucanians! Alas….”
“Then….can other Lucanians become a….statesman of the Senate?! This will also help you get more benefit for us, Lucanians!” Asked Hemon eagerly.
Vespa laughed to himself, ‘What other Lucanians? Isn’t it just you for you! I know what kind of person you are, so why the need to pretend!’
Vespa cleared his throat and said, “Of course, as long as he can make great contributions to the Union, for example, making more Lucanians to join the Union, get more support from the Lucanians, and be able to complete some difficult mission in the Lucanian region….and so on. If the Senate feels that he can play a more important role, it would then be easy to make him a member of the Senate….”
Hemon listened carefully, his eyes shone with scorching light….
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the evening, Davos and the statesmen listened to the report of Sesta at the praetor’s residence.
“To this day, Nerulum has registered 2,503 preparatory citizens, of whom, 2,2001 are Lucanians and 302 are Greeks. These days, there are 627 marriages between Greeks and Lucanians. And we have allocated 785 cattle and 5,400 sheep, and we have 203 cattle and 2,000 sheep left to be distributed to the soldiers of the fourth brigade.” Said Asistes, then Bagul immediately expressed his thanks. (T/N: Remember, females are not counted as citizens)
“Now, the small tribes in Nerulum, captives and slaves have all become preparatory citizens of the Union. If the fourth brigade settles here, there will be 3,455 citizens including the preparatory citizens….” As soon as Asistes had finished speaking, Davos said directly, “I can tell you clearly that the fourth brigade will settle in Nerulum and become the backbone to stabilize and defend Nerulum.”
“That is what the soldiers of the fourth brigade want! As citizens of the Union, we will firmly control Nerulum for the Union!” Bagul stated his position with seriousness.
The statesmen nodded, satisfied with his answer.
“Lord Sesta, Bagul and Asistes, you have been able to stabilize the situation in Nerulum in such a short period of time and have achieved so much. On behalf of the Senate, I would like to express my sincere respect for your outstanding performance.” With that, Davos took the lead to applaud.
In the applause, all three of them were excited: Sesta was excited because he used his performance to prove to Davos that his talens is not inferior to those of the leaders of the Persian expedition, thus attracting the attention of the archon; Bagul was excited because his and the performance of the Lucanians were recognized by these Greek statesmen, which will make it easier for them to integrate into the Union; Asistes was excited because he has proved to Davos that he has the ability to be independent. Maybe next time, Davos will assign him more important tasks.
“In addition, according to Bagul, the leaders of the small tribes, such as Hemon, Kesima and Ulasa, are going to send people to the mountains to persuade the tribes who had fled to the mountains to join the Union. And in these past two days, Laos had come to Nerulum and asked to join the Union.” Asistes added.
“Our livestock are now not enough. What should we do?” Asked Scambras hurriedly.
“All these tribes have livestock, so we just need to allocate land to them, because we have enough land.” Replied Bagul.
“Even if the ‘Fertile land between the mountain ridge’ has been divided in the future, we can still go to Thurii. Now, after the land in Thurii has been handed over to the preparatory citizens, there will still be a lot of vacant land to the west (mainly the lands to the west of Cosceli river), which are already ready to be leased to the registered freeman who have applied for preparatory citizenship.” Davos reminded everyone.
Some of them nodded, while the others were hesitant.
“As for Laos, let’s wait for Avinoges to come and discuss with us.” Said Davos hesitantly.
“Will Avinoges come?” Marsyas asked with uncertainty.
“He must come!” Protesilaus exclaimed, “The Union had helped him capture Laos, and yet, he has not expressed his gratitude to us. Now that we have arrived in Nerulum and yet he still has not come, couldn’t we, as allies go to Laos!”
“Maybe he doesn’t know that we are here yet.” Said Sesta to help Avinoges.
“Laos and Nerulum have always been in contact with each other. With so many of us and in such a big situation, it is impossible for him to remain uninformed. By tomorrow, we will know whether he will come or not. If he doesn’t come, then we would need to reconsider the sincerity of Laos!” Davos understood that Sesta, as the praetor of Nerulum, would need the support of Laos in the future, but as the Archon, Davos needed to consider the overall situation from a higher position.
The statesmen agreed with the words of Davos.
“Sesta and Bagul, after you have settled down the people of Nerulum, you should seize this moment to train the military, and I will send instructors from Philesius to train them. We should break up the youth of each tribe and try to mix them up with Greek citizens. If there are not enough Greeks, we should also mix them with other tribes. We must not let the soldiers of the same tribes be together! And….rugby games can be held as much as possible. It seems that the youth of Lucania like this game very much!”
“Yes, Milord. They have told me many times that rugby is much more interesting than bullfighting. We Lucanians like this kind of fierce sport!” Bagul interjected.
“Then let them compete, but a team has to be a mix of Greeks and Lucanians, which will also help the Lucanians learn to speak Greek. Oh….speaking of it, Bagul, you must think of a way to make the Lucanians of Nerulum learn to speak Greek as much as possible!”
“I’ll try my best, milord.”