As a result, the new village was composed of dozens of households with the majority of them being preparatory citizens. Aguilas was elected without any dispute because he was one of the rcenaries who had followed Davos to Thurii, and during the siege of the Lucanians, he was seriously injured in his left leg and had beco a cripple. After the establishnt of the Thua Union, Davos had co to visit these wounded soldiers and Aguilas had made a request to him, hoping to change his “share” of land allocated to him in Andolara to the south bank of the Crati river, his purpose was for him to stay away from his comrades who are still active, so as to not get depressed due to his situation.
With the influx of people and the large-scale developnt of farmlands on the plain of Sybaris, new villages have sprung up on this flat and fertile plain. Originally, in the eyes of the dozens of new households, they found Aguilas to be difficult to approach, but under the supervision of the public official sent by the senate, Aguilas was easily elected as the village chief. Because he found out that Aguilas was a rcenary veteran who had followed the Favored of Hades, the benevolent archon, the invincible strategos, Davos, and had gone through life and death with him. Looking at Aguilas, he had imdiately beco awed.
Aguilas was a serious person, since he has beco the chief of a village, he needed to do his duty in maintaining the order of the village, resolving the disputes among the villagers, teaching morals and customs to the villagers, checking the planting in the farmland in the village, reminding the villagers to participate in military training on ti, supervising their military service and pay taxes, recording the population growth and guard against epidemic diseases…he is in charge of all kind of work, no matter how big or trivial it is.
Every morning, he gets up and walks around every corner of the village while clutching a cane, and sotis, he even drags his injured leg to jump into the mud and repair the canal together with the villagers….
A few months later, the whole village praised him for his performance. When they encounter him, their faces are filled with respect from the bottom of their heart, which has made him find the aning of his survival and struggle.
After the battle between Crotone and Theonia started, all the adult n in the village went to participate in the war. However, the spring was the season of sowing and the labor was obviously insufficient. Although every family has slaves, agriculture is after all, different from comrce. If there are too many slaves, they will only consu money and food. In fact, when the labor force is tight, they can just rent slaves to survive the busiest period. Therefore, each family has only one or two slaves. So Aguilas had to rush to the senate of Thurii, and after registration, he brought 30 slaves back to help the whole village to do farm work.
Except for Aguilas, who is disabled, the whole village only has won, elderly and children, and the rest are all slaves and most of whom are males, but Aguilas was not worried that the slaves would cause trouble because the law of the union stipulates that every year on the founding day of Theonia City-State Union(that is, October 30), a group of slaves that had work hard and has good performance will be given freedom in front of the temple of Hades. This is their reward and also to show the kindness of Hades. Since the promulgation of this law, the enthusiasm of the slaves of the city-state has beco high, and their efficiency has doubled. For the slaves in rural areas, it is not easy for farrs to own a slave, and they depend on them so much that it is only natural for them to cherish the slaves. So they often treat the slaves as a part of their family, and the longer the ti they spent, the closer the emotional relationship between the two sides, and the more freedom the slaves could have. And as long as the master is rich and can afford the paynt demanded by the union, many of the slaves can be freed before their master dies, and after they are free, they will often return to their master's ho and continue to help with the housework as servants.
With the help of the slaves, the spring ploughing of the whole village was completed. Of course, in his spare ti, Aguilas will comfort the won and elderly in the village who are worried about their relatives.
On this day, because the waterwheel in the village had broken down, Aguilas had to rush to the city of Thurii early in the morning to find soone to repair it. After making an appointnt with a skilled carpenter, he hurriedly went ho.
As soon as he opened the door, the female slave imdiately ca forward and told him, “Master, mada is sleeping right now and she did not vomit today.”
Aguilas was relieved. He had fought for most of his life in the battlefield and had thought that he would soday die in the wilderness or live a lonely life. However, he did not expect that he would beco a citizen of a city-state and get an allocated land, marry a wife and establish a family, and now, he will even have a child. This is the blessing of Hades!
At that ti, when he heard the news from the physician, he had danced with joy and had imdiately used his savings to buy a female slave to take care of his pregnant wife.
“Master, have a drink.” The female slave then held the wooden cup filled with water.
However, Aguilas didn't imdiately drink it, and had instead asked, “Is it boiled?” In the past, the Greeks used to drink raw water, but Herpus, who is highly skilled in dicine, had repeatedly appealed to the citizens to drink “boiled water” and insisted that this can reduce the incidence of diseases. Aguilas was no stranger to this, because during the Persian expedition, Davos had strictly demanded his rcenaries regarding this matter. And for the sake of his unborn child, he needed to take good care of his body.
The female slave nodded, so he drank the water with confidence.
“Bang!” The door was suddenly pushed open and made a loud noise, then a child half of Aguilas’ height ca in.
Aguilas glared and was about to reprimand the boy.
The boy then pantingly said, “Uncle Aguilas, I was just picking shells on the beach…I then saw…saw a big ship stopping on the beach, and many people disembark with weapons!”
Enemies!! Aguilas imdiately beca alert, he then turned to the slave and said, “Go to the field and call back Pomis(he is the male slave of the family), and have him imdiately help my wife to go north and wait for in the square of Thurii!”
“Yes, master!” The female slave then ran outside.
“Boy.” Aguilas then rembered that the boy's na was Patroclus. He was usually mischievous and was often beaten up by his father, “When you saw those people, is there anyone else by the sea?”
“I am the only one.”
Aguilas then asked, “Can you ride a mule?”
“I have ridden other people's cows and mules many tis.” The clever boy was obviously aware of the ergency, so he confided his secrets and was not afraid of being scolded.
“Do you know about the village in the south, which is very close to us?”
“Yes, I had fought with a kid in that village.”
“Uncle wants you to ride my mule and imdiately go there to inform them and say ‘the enemy is coming, and to imdiately evacuate!’ Can you do it?”
“I can!” The boy nodded hard.
“Good boy!” Aguilas praised and stroked the head of the boy. Suddenly he rembered sothing, and then took out the seal of the village head issued by the praetor of Thurii, and put it into the boy's hand, “If they don't believe you, then show them this.”
“Understood.” The boy nodded again.
Aguilas then imdiately took the mule from the shed in the courtyard, and the boy easily jumped on the back of the mule.
“Rember kid, after passing the ssage, you will then wait for us by the wooden bridge on the Crati river!”
“Got it uncle.” The boy then shook the rein and the mule ran out of the courtyard.
Seeing the boy's skillful movents, Aguilas beca a bit relieved. As a veteran rcenary, he and most of his comrades have similar ideas, and this union was created by them with their blood and sweat, so they have the responsibility to defend this union, and not just focus on their own villages.
Aguilas reluctantly looked at his house, then strode out of the door and limped to the village square, and went to ring the bronze bell to order the villagers to evacuate imdiately.
Aguilas then led the slaves to support the elderly and the children. Shortly after they left the village, thick smoke rose behind them….
The won shouted and cried for their burning village….
Aguilas could still manage to keep his calm. Based on his previous experience of plundering, he judged that the enemy would not go out of the village imdiately to catch up with them. He then urged the villagers to speed up, while changing his fist tightly: His first ho in the union was destroyed!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“This morning, three villages in Thurii were destroyed and 15 people were killed, but we didn't catch the enemy! Philesius, you have to do sothing! If it goes on like this, the Nike Square will be filled with people who have lost their hos, and then the people of the whole union will fall into panic! Do the soldiers at the front even want to fight?!” Kunogelata said anxiously, as the praetor of Thurii, he couldn't watch Thurii, who had finally recovered its prosperity, suffer another disaster.
“Lord Kunogelata, just calm down and sit, in order for us to discuss it slowly.” Cornelius comforted him, then explained to Philesius, “To tell you the truth, the Crotonians are very cunning. They use their small warships to land on the coast of Thurii and Roscianum, and all of them are sailors with bows and javelins. And the young and middle-aged citizens of our villages have gone to war. Otherwise, how can they attack us so easily! As soon as the enemies found out that our troops had arrived, they would imdiately flee back to their ship, and make us unable to catch up with them! And currently, there are only three brigades in the city and they still have to defend the port of Thurii and also to take care of Andolara. We are really short of manpower!”
“But the problem must be solved as soon as possible!” Kunogelata snorted and then added, “If we don't have enough people, then we can consider using those freen!”
“Lord Kunogelata, that is a great idea.” At this ti, Philesius, who had been pondering, then said, “There are tens of thousands of freen who have nothing to do in the port right now. And as ti passes, they are prone to make chaos. Yesterday, there were so freen who had gone to the camp and said, ‘We have nothing to eat, give us what the soldiers are eating!’”
Reviews
All reviews (0)