“Crotonian, let us hear how huge the appetite of Crotone is, by taking advantage of our Theonia!” Amintas, Scambras, and the other statesmen began to shout. A short while ago, they still felt guilty, but all of a sudden, they have joined together against a common enemy.
Lysias glanced at Davos, ‘This young man must not be underestimated!’
He cleared his throat and said, “Crotone and Krimisa demand Theonia to compensate Krimisa for the great losses they suffered in this battle by paying them 500 tarants-”
“What! FIVE HUNDRED TARANTS!! YOU ARE CRAZY!!!” Shouted Mersis.
Lysias ignored him, he looked at everyone and continued, “Secondly, in order to prevent the aggressive Theonia from invading its neighboring city-states again, we ask Theonia to dissolve the union and allow Amendolara and Nerulum to become independent, and to also abolish the alliance!”
“What?! Did I hear you wrong?! What right does Crotone have to tell us what to do!”
“We will never agree. This is a humiliation to Theonia!”
“LEAVE! You are out of your mind to even dare say such a thing at the Senate of Theonia!”
“Only a fool would agree to such a request! And only a fool would make such a request!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the senate hall, the statesmen screamed angrily. While those that have short fuse such as Amintas and Scambras even want to beat Lysias, but were stopped by Kunogelata, Cornelius and others. Everything is a mess.
Lysias and Androlis looked at it as if they were not responsible for this mess, until Davos stepped forward and said, “Do you hear me?! This is our answer!”
Davos then said it loudly, word by word, “WE! DON’T!! AGREE!!!”
“Then that means war, because you were the one who broke the agreement first.” Said Lysias sternly.
“Then war it is, isn’t that your real purpose by coming here?” Davos had already seen through their plan, and he was too lazy to argue with them. Their condemnation is just a pretext.
Davos brushed it lightly and had made Lysias not see the reaction that he expected, just like punching the air, so he subconsciously said, “War! I am talking about war between Crotone and Theonia!”
Davos slightly smiled, he turned around and said, “Are we afraid of a war with Crotone?”
“Wonderful! We can finally fight again!”
“I can’t wait to beat Crotone up!”
“We have defeated Crotone once, so we can defeat them again! And this time, we will burn the city of Crotone!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Facing the high-morale of the statesmen, which had exceeded the expectation of Lysias and had made him feel a bit uneasy.
“Kunogelata, write down the demands of Crotone. We will use it in the next negotiation.” Davos said abruptly.
“Next negotiation?” Lysias was confused.
“Yes, after the war is over!”
Lysias felt afraid by the burning will to fight in Davos’ eyes….
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After sending off the envoy, the mood on the senate hall was still warm. Compared with the high morale of the statesmen who were former mercenaries, the statesmen of Amendolara and Thurii expressed more concern about the upcoming war.
Kunogelata spoke what everyone is thinking, “Milord, are you sure that we will go to war with Crotone? Crotone has been a strong city-state in Magna Graecia for decades, and they also have a strong alliance, and can organize an army of 40,000 men! They also have 25 triremes, while we don’t even have one. Once the war starts, Crotone can easily block our port. This time, I am afraid that they will not make the same mistake of underestimating the enemy again….”
Davos listened carefully, then he looked at everyone. He could feel their fear of Crotone, especially the Thurians, which was the influence of having their city destroyed by Crotone thrice.
He thought about it for a bit, then just as he was about to answer, a voice suddenly cut in, “I have told you to get rid of those damned mercenaries, but you didn’t even listen. And now, the vengeance of Crotone has come! We should first investigate those people who had indulged in those mercenaries!” It was Bolus.
Agasias and the others glared at him.
“Am I wrong?!” Bolus glared back in order to not be outdone.
“Now that the war has broken out, it is meaningless to argue about this. All of us should unite and tide over the difficulties together, and we should not make arguments and weaken our strength!” Burkes persuaded his friend.
“It is precisely because this incident has led to a war that we need to figure out the problem in order to avoid similar incidents in the future!” Bolus stubbornly retorted.
Then Antonios stood up and said, “As the chief inspector, many people have recently reported to me that during the reconstruction of the city of Thurii, statesmen such as Burkes and Plesinas often went to the homes of the people to express their apologies. However, some people, as the subordinate of Nianses, who were responsible for the burning of Thurii, swaggered in and out of the senate everyday showing no remorse for the people of Thurii. We were asked to conduct a thorough investigation in case something similar happens again….”
The expression of Bolus changed drastically. .
Davos deliberately asked, “Bolus, do you think that it is necessary to clear this matter first?”
“I…I….” Bolus trembled slightly at the sharp gaze of Davos.
“Antonios, just like what Burkes had said, now is the time that we should unite and deal with this war that will decide our life and death, all other matters will be put on hold.” The calm tone of Davos penetrated through the ears of Bolus, as if he was pardoned, which made him relaxed and slumped on the stone bench.
Antonios glanced at Bolus with contempt, he then turned around and said, “Understood, lord archon.”
Davos then said with a relaxed expression, “Apologies, I was interrupted just now. What I want to say is that, everyone, you are all busy with your own matters during this period, so it’s natural that you don’t know much about the military strength of the union now. Scambras, do you think that the number of soldiers in our union is still only more than 5,000?”
Scambras, who was a stubborn old man, touched his beard and said with a smile, “There must be more than that! There are currently more than 6,000 official citizens in Amendolara, while I don’t know much regarding the other cities, but it is certain that they also have more.”
“Let us have Philesius, our chief military officer, tell us exactly how many soldiers we have.” Philesius stood up after Davos finished speaking, “Fellow statesmen, the numbers that I will state is the number of people in Thurii, Amendolara and Nerulum that have participated in military training and have been enlisted into the army. However, this figure is lower than the total number of those registered by the census office of lord Raphias, this is because citizens over the age of 45 and those that are in some special trades who are protected by the city-state, such as physicians, engineer, scholars and so on., were not included in the military training system.”
The statesmen nodded and turned their attention to Philesius.
“There are about 5,500 citizens from Amendolara who have participated in military training for more than 3 months, in Nerulum there are about 4,300, while there are 14,800 in Thurii.” Seeing the surprised expression of the statesmen, Philesius continued, “Among them are 7,000 official citizens, and all the rest are preparatory citizens. At the end of December, lord archon has ordered me to reorganize them into three legions.”
The first legion is mainly composed of veterans and preparatory citizens of Amendolara, they are the strongest, and the legatus will be Kapus.
The citizens and preparatory citizens of Thurill will form the second legion, and Drakos will be the legatus.
The third legion is mainly the official citizens and preparatory citizens of Nerulum, the legatus will be Hieronymus and the first senior centurion is Bagul.
The regular number of soldiers in each legion is now 7,000, and the total number of soldiers in the three legions is 21,000. In addition, there is a reserve force with 3,600 men, so the total will be 24,600. There is also the cavalry force that Ledes is leading, which has about 300 men….”
“Philesius did not even mention the freemen that have registered in the census office. In fact, we could even organize 20,000 freemen who have been trained to fight as light infantry. Besides, Laos can also provide us around 3,000 reinforcements, and even though Roscianum can not provide many troops, they at least have 50 cavalries….” Davos looked at everyone and said in a passionate tone, “If we were to mobilize the whole army, then we can at least dispatch nearly 50,000 soldiers! Considering the need to guard the port of Nerulum and Thurii, the actual number of troops that we can dispatch is certainly far less than this number, but it is certain that we won’t have too much difference with Crotone! Gentlemen, you can rest assured that the situation of fighting enemies with a lesser number of soldiers will not happen again! On land, we can compete with Crotone!” The words of Davos made the statesmen excited. Statesmen such as Amintas were even more confident and shouted, “Back when we have fewer soldiers, we were not afraid of Crotone, and now, Crotone is no longer our match!”
“As for the sea.” Davos looked at Kunogelata and said, “We can’t really do anything about it, but what else can the fleet of Crotone do besides block our port?! As long as they dare to enter the estuary of Crati river, we will annihilate them! And our cavalry will keep an eye on the beaches from Amendolara to Roscianum to prevent the Crotonians from sneaking in. I don’t believe that Crotone would do such a risky thing as long as they have a normal mind. Theonia and Crotone are so close that victory and defeat can only be determined in land!”
