“Persian, you shut up! I did not treat your wife and children badly when they were in the supply camp!” Said Mersis angrily.
“Mersis, you are really gonna have these dozens of slaves to receive…receive guest…?” Cheiristoya asked seriously while she blushed.
Mersis knew that he could not conceal it, and so he had to say, “There are still some women who have been captured by soldiers, but those soldiers had died in battle. As they have lost the one supporting them and are unwilling to do heavy work, and as they were influenced by these people and so they think that it is easier to earn money by doing this stuff. After all, we give priority to the soldiers for our food, and they also want to live…”
“Then why haven’t you let them go?” Asked Cheiristoya.
“Let them go? Where would they go? Their hometown is hundreds or thousands of miles away! They can’t go back, and instead of being captured and enslaved by the city-states and tribes along the way, they felt that it is better to just stay in our camp since they at least have a better life…” Said Mersis while pretending to be compassionate.
“These are all the faults of the soldiers!” Exclaimed Davos as he place his hand around the dejected Cheiristoya, and said, “Mersis, you don’t have to force them…What I am thinking is, we will provide them with food for free, and once we find a place to settle down in Magna Graecia, we will have them marry the soldiers…in the future, our soldiers will no longer plunder, because we will no longer be mercenaries!”
“Leader, you are so kind!” Mersis hurriedly said a compliment and hurriedly went away, as he doesn’t want to face Cheiristoya’s reproachful look. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
As time goes on. the news from the west became more and more worrying, the camp of the Lucanians in the mountain pass on the west is expanding as the day goes by. While the Thurians who are working on the northern bank of the river Crati became increasingly fewer…until a dozen days later, the scouts of the Lucanians appeared on the outskirts of Thurii and it had caused panic among the people in the city. The strategoi in the town hall knew that the attack of the Lucanians was coming, and so they had to get ready.
Therefore, Burkes, with a mission in mind, took a boat to the simple warf at the mouth of river Krati and landed. (The Greeks has a bad habit that as long as the place can be reached by a boat, they will never walk.)
On the shore, Burkes found that this place was obviously more popular than the other parts of the Sybaris Plain. People walk in crowds on the wide and rammed dirt road that leads to a fortified enclosure.
“What is that?” Asked Burkes to Moras.
“That is the market that was built by the mercenaries that I had reported to you last time.”
He didn’t care about it when Moras told him, but at this moment, he became interested. Anyway, it won’t take him much time to go to the mercenary camp even if he enters the market to check it.
Before he entered the gate of the market, the voices of people filled his ears. In front of the gate stood two women in gorgeous clothing, and both of them are beautiful with a graceful appearance. From their appearance, he knew that they are not Greeks, but the greek they spoke is sweet and pleasing, “Dear guests, welcome! Is this your first visit?”
Moras couldn’t help but nod.
“If you are here to sell things, then there is a wooden room behind the gate, which is the market management office. You can find the person in charge to select a stall for you, but they will charge you a small fee.”
“How much it would cost?” Asked Burkes in a hurry.
“1 obol a day.” (T/N: Obol is a currency in ancient greece and cccording to Plutarch they were originally spits of copper or bronze traded by weight, while six obols make a drachma or a handful, since that was as many as the hand could grasp.)
‘The price is very cheap, BUT these mercenaries actually dare use the land of Thurii to profit!’ Burkes is a little angry.
“However, the stalls are currently full, so you can only come back tomorrow.”
This broken place is so popular! Burkes was taken aback, and tentatively said, “If I have a little extra money, can you give me a stall?”
“Dear guests, we don’t charge this fee to earn money, but in order to maintain the order of this market. The assistance we will provide you even exceeds the value of an obol, and we just hope that the stall owners can fully display the value of the stall and earn far more than an obol every day!”
If a modern man heard this, he would feel that this sentence is very familiar. However, Burkes and Moras became completely shock.
The woman continued, “If you are here to shop, then there is a wooden sign hanging on the door of the market management office, which tells about the little requirement of our market for every customer. I hope you can comply with them, and if you encounter fraud or dispute during transaction, then you can go to the market management office to ask for help and they will gladly help you in solving it…”
Burkes and Moras had also traveled far and wide. But at this moment, they were astounded by the words of the women. In the Greek city-states that they had been to, they had never heard of such market that had such considerations for merchants and customers. With strong curiosity, they came to the market management office.
This is a simple wooden house with a large window that face the direction of the market. Several people are sitting by the window and politely answer the customers who came to ask questions.
“Hi! Is there any problem that we need to solve?” A dark-skinned, thin Egyptian politely asked Moras, who was looking through the window.
Moras was just about to make a perfunctory remark when someone inside shouted, “Lord Burkes, welcome!” A middle-aged man with brown hair and a long beard opened the door and warmly greeted him.
“You are?” Burkes felt that he was familiar.
“The chief official of the ministry of commerce of Davos, my name is Mariji.” Mariji wasn’t modest enough in telling him about his official post that Davos had promised him.
Burkes didn’t pay attention to what he had just said, but first corrected what Mariji said, “No! Please don’t call me lord! I’m just an ordinary citizen of Thurii.” Then he asked with curiosity, “Are you a Persian?”
“Yes.” Instead of avoiding this taboo, Mariji is a bit pleased of himself.
“What kind of races do you have here?” Exclaimed Burkes, then pointed to the “window” and asked with puzzlement, “What are these scales here for?”
“If a customer feels that the amount they bought is not enough, such as olive oil and fishes…and so on, they can take it here to weigh them, and once he learns that it is lacking, the management will find the seller and punish him. If it is a serious case, his stall will be cancelled and he will not be allowed to enter the market anymore.”
“Hm, this is indeed a good idea and it’s very thoughtful. Has such thing happened already?” Burkes said lightly, since he felt that the mercenaries doesn’t have the right to punish anyone on the land of Thurii, but he thought that it would be better to talk to their leaders about such matters.
“Only once, but after getting punished, no similar thing ever happened.” Mariji looked at him and cautiously said.
“You wrote on this board that there is ‘no spitting, littering, and the sellers must keep the booth clean.’ Why the need to emphasize this?! There is no such requirements in the markets of all city-states that I have been to, including Agora of Athens!” This is what interest Burkes most.
“This is the suggestion of leader Davos. He said that ‘the market is a place where people flow densely, and where garbage and sewage run rampart. When there is more garbage, it would not only stink and make people uncomfortable, but it will also attract a large number of flies and mosquitoes, which will affect the mood of everyone that are buying and selling stuffs. The most important thing is that those will lead to the occurrence of epidemics!’” Said Mariji discreetly.
“So serious?!” Burkes was a bit surprised.
“The leader is the favored of Hades, and his words cannot be ignored! We not only remind our customers, but also we have ten slaves to clean the whole market. I can say that although our market is simple, it is cleaner than any other market! We have spent so much sweat and effort, and so we charge a small fee.” Here, Mariji explained a bit for him without any change to his expression.
Burkes inhaled the still fresh air and looked at the flat ground, while lost in his thought.