Looking at the countless raised right arms in front of him, Archytas said happily and with a trace of regret, “Davos, your wish has co true. Congratulations!”
Davos was relieved and said sincerely, “Thank you! I also earnestly hope that the council of Taranto will agree to my proposal, so that we can beco allies!”
“A total of 1,382 people have participated in the voting of this proposal, 1,076 have agreed and 306 opposed, and so, this proposal is passed! I declare that -” When Cornelius saw the result, his mood was a bit complicated at the beginning, but he was soon relieved. So he used all his energy and shouted, “From now on, all the rcenaries will beco citizens of Andolara!!!”
As soon as Cornelius' voice fell, the soldiers around Davos roared with joy. Then the excited officers warmly hugged Davos, and they kept saying a sentence to him, “Leader, we finally have a ho!!!”
Hearing this, Davos beca absent-minded, ‘Ho?!…unfortunately, my real ho is not in this world…’
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At the sa ti as the ecclesia of Andolara was held, the envoy of Thurii, led by Ansitanos, reached the gate of Andolara.
“We are the envoy of Thurii. We want to et your leader, please open the gate quickly!” Burkes said to the guard in the city.
Before the guard could answer, a man ca out and swear, “GO BACK, THURIANS! ANDOLARA DOESN'T WELCO YOU!”
On hearing this, the envoys were a bit angry, and even the always gentle Ansitanos exlaid angrily, “Rude rcenaries, don't think that you can do whatever you want after defeating the Lucanians, by ignoring the laws of the Greek city-states and forcibly occupying other Greek city-states!”
The man sneered and said, “Hmph, it seems that you really cared about the life and death of the people of Andolara! OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE CLEARLY, I am a citizen of Andolara who has lived here since I was a kid!”
Ansitanos was dumbfounded, and Burkes finally recognize him. After all, he is a rchant, and had often ca to Andolara for trade and knew a lot of people, “Is that you, Anticles?!”
“You didn't expect that I am still alive?!” Anticles spoke bitterly, “Thanks to Thurii, the Lucanians had cut off my right hand, but fortunately, I survived. Most of my neighbors and comrades are dead due to your selfish demands and threats, and made them anxious in reaching that damned city of yours. As a result, they were unprepared and got attacked by the Lucanians. All the sufferings of Andolara was caused by Thurii! From now on, you Thurians are not welco here! This is not my personal will, but the common will of every Andolara that have survived!”
Burkes, Ansitanos, and the envoys were shocked. They did not expect that the citizens of Andolara would treat them like this.
Although Andolara and Thurii are allies, their strength were quite different. There were more than 20,000 citizens in Thurii, and with a total population of about 100,000. In addition, the number of freeman is close to 140,000, without counting the slaves. While the largest population of Andolara were more than 10,000. As a result, Thurii had treated Andolara more like its own subordinate city-state, and rarely considered their feelings. When the Thurians received the report that Andolara was captured by the Lucanians, besides expressing their regret, they were more worried about whether it will threaten the northern part of the plain of Sybaris. When the fleeing citizens of Andolara asked Thurii for help in getting back their lost territory, the Thurians had just ignored them and have only considered on how to defend against the Lucanians. Now that they have felt the resentnt of the citizens of Andolara being so deep, besides from being shocked, they were alard.
“Don't think that you can ask anything more from Andolara, we will never listen to you Thurians ever again! Do you hear those cheers?!” Anticles laughed wildly and patted the shoulder of the guard with his left hand and said, “All the people of Andolara have voted to accept all the rcenaries as citizens of Andolara! Therefore, they have not forcible occupied Andolara, as they have beco the citizens of Andolara legally! I heard that the Lucanians that have defeated Thurii twice was annihilated by them, and now anyone who wants to invade Andolara in the future should first taste the strength of our new citizen!” The threat in Anticles' words made the envoy looked unsightly.
In the laughter of Anticles, the envoy of Thurii went back with resentnt.
Anticles stopped laughing and turned to looked at the guard that was beside him happily. When the guard felt nervous, Anticles then showed his pleased expression and asked, “What's your na?”
“Trotidis.”
“Where are you from?”
“Thessaly, the sa as leader Davos.”
“Your age?”
“28.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After asking a series of questions, Anticles then said to the guard, who was still in doubt, “I have two daughters. One is 21 year old, she is pretty and her husband is dead and has a 2-year old son. And my other daughter is only 16 years old and is not engaged. Choose one and beco my son-in-law. Decide tonight and tomorrow, I will bring you to my ho and get you married.”
Trotidis was stunned, and the other guard ca forward to congratulate him and then said unashad, “Anticles, you have two daughters, so let be your other son-in-law.”
And there was laughter on the wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The envoy of Thurii kept on shouting.
“Who is that Anticles?” Ansitanos asked quietly.
“A noble of Andolara, and is the captain of the patrol team and the fire brigade.” Answered Burkes.
Ansitanos said, “Oh” and didn't say anymore.
“Strategos, even if the people of Andolara have so problems with Thurii, but I know that the rcenary leader, Davos. Although he is young, he is very dependable and has a good impression of Thurii. Besides, we have an agreent with him, and will not be easily swayed by the people of Andolara. I believed that after a while, when the people of Andolara have cald down, we can still have a good talk with them.”
“I hope so.” Ansitanos sighed, “The rcenaries are now the legal citizens of Andolara, and so our protest will have no effect. In view of the present situation, we will have to discuss a new counterasures once we returned. Oh!…Burkes, do you think what I am thinking?”
“No.”
“My teacher had once said, ‘After the Peloponnesian war, because the Spartan was superior to others, they have treated their neighbors with harshness and cruelty. Therefore, the Greek city-states that were far away from Sparta made contact with the more friendly Athens, and eventually lead to the formation of the Delian League*.’” Ansitanos thought and bitterly remorsed, “Are we really tyrannical? It's not good to be so proud without having a powerful strength!…” sen.wikipedia/wiki/Delian_League
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After the voting, the won and children withdrew from the square, and Cornelius asked Archytas to leave, because the next step is the real ecclesia of Andolara.
In addition to the guards that were patrolling the city walls and the soldiers guarding the prisoners, there were 512 original citizen of Andolara and 2,920 newly promoted citizens (which includes the 1,837 rcenaries of Davos and the 1,083 of other rcenaries ) in the square, with a total of 3,432 citizens of Andolara.
Cornelius wanted to continue with the following topics but the cheering of the rcenaries interrupted the ecclesia for a while, and waited until the square regain its calm, and said loudly, “Citizens of Andolara, since most of you are new citizens, it is necessary to first teach you the political system of Andolara. Andolara is similar to Taran….similar to Athens.” Cornelius originally wanted to say Taranto, but on second thought, these rcenaries were from Ionia and probably did not know about Taranto, and so he ntioned Athens, a well-known city-state, for comparison.
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