Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 381: Visitor from the South

As for the west, there is the vast sea and several large islands such as Sardinia, Corsica, Balearic Islands and so on, which was mainly under Carthage. However, Davos does not dare to offend another powerful force in the western Mediterranean while facing the threat of Syracuse. As for occupying a region in Gaul, Davos did not even consider it as Theonia's navy was not even capable. Besides wasting too much national power due to travelling long distances, they might not even be able to keep it.

With Theonia's expansion at its limit, how would he be able to break the stalemate? Davos thought deeply…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Theonians favourite month is September. Apart from being the harvest season, it is also the month when Hades, the patron of Theonia, was born. And during that time, besides the lively festival, Theonia Union would even hold the rugby finals. This is the month of festivity for the Theonians, especially in Thurii.

In many Greek city-states headed by Athens, September is the month of Elaphebolia (It is the month where the Greeks held a festival offering cakes in the shape of stags to Artemis.) While in Theonia, September was officially designated as the month of Hades. Similarly, April was also designated as the month of marriage and Hera's Day, while in many Greek city-states, the month of marriage is set in July…

Just from those, it could be seen that Theonia has gradually started deviating from the traditional Greek city-states in terms of life, customs and culture.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

On this day, a young man called Megaris came to the port of Thurii. He is a medium-sized man with a well-proportioned and athletic body.

It was obvious that this was his first time coming to Thurii, as he was surprised at seeing so many ships in the port. Just reaching the dock alone had already taken him a long time, and he even needed to squeeze among the crowd in the port. After getting out of the port, all horse-drawn vehicles were already taken, so he had to walk for more than an hour to arrive outside the city of Thurii, where there was already a long queue.

However, Megaris was not in a hurry. He patiently waited in line while listening to the people happily talk about “What kind of large-scale performance will be held in the Nike Square for this year's Hades' Day, or guessing which city's team will be the winner of this year's rugby finale…” It was already noon when he reached the city guards.

Although he was hungry and thirsty, he still patiently answered the guard’s question.

“Are you a Theonian citizen? If not, go back. During this time, the city of Thurii is not allowing foreigners and freemen to enter!”

“I am a Theonian citizen, my name is Megaris and I live in Krimisa, my number is 1356…” Said Megaris fluently.

The guard stared at him and said, “Show me your identity plate.” Following the proposal of Davos, Theonia made a palm-sized bronze plate for each official citizen since the previous year. Engraved on the front was the citizen’s name, while on the back were the citizen's city of residence and citizen number. Even though this is just a simple identity authentication, it is already a significant innovation in this era. It is especially convenient for managing the movement of citizens in the territory, particularly for the census officers. Previously, if a citizen living in Thurii broke the law in the city of Aprustum, the city would need to record his violation then send it to the Census Registry Department of Thurii. Afterwards, the census officers would need to find the citizen's file before they could record his violations. However, Thurii has tens of thousands of citizens living there, with a lot of them having the same names, so finding them would be a very troublesome thing, but now it has become easier to find them with the citizen number. And although the bronze identity plate is simple to make, the number of each plate is unique, so checking whether it is a forgery is relatively easy. And making a forgery of this would one be charged with felony according to the Theonian law, so no one dared to forge it.

Megaris calmly took the bronze plate out of his pocket and handed it to the guard.

After looking at it carefully, the guard threw the bronze plate back to him. With many people going in and out of Thurii every day, it is only natural for the city guard not to register them. He then pointed to the bulging satchel carried by Megaris and said, “What's in it?”

“They are all coins. With the rugby game lasting nearly a month, it would cost a lot just living here.” Said Megaris.

“Open it.” Said the guard as he looked at him seriously.

Having no choice, Megaris could only open it.

“clink clink clink…” The guard reached in and rummaged the coins twice. After checking that all are coins, the guard nodded and said, “Go in.”

Megaris then picked up the satchel, but when he was just about to take two steps.

“Oh right.” The guard shouted behind, causing Megaris' heart to jerk suddenly.

“Just to be safe, you'd better deposit all your money in Cheiristoya's Bank and only withdraw it once you need it.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Megaris thanked the guard.

After entering the city, he followed the map he had seen before, and after asking the people he met on the way, he finally found the inn not far from Theonia's arena.

In the lobby of the inn were numerous people.

Just when Megaris squeezed to the counter, the attendant looked at him and said apologetically, “I apologise. The place is already full.”

“I have a reservation.” Megaris hurriedly responded.

Taken aback, the attendant asked, “What room is it? Who made the reservation?”

“Room 17, and the one who reserved it is Aureas.” Megaris answered smoothly.

The attendant immediately opened the register, “Yes, room 17 was booked for five days. Are you Megaris?”

Megaris then showed him the bronze plate.

After confirming it, the attendant nodded and said, “Please follow me.” Then he took Megaris upstairs.

“Lucky guy.” Muttered someone in the lobby. In fact, many people who had come to the festival lived directly in the homes of the people they knew in Thurii. Only some new citizens or preparatory citizens had to stay in the inns because they had no friends and acquaintances in Thurii.

Megaris entered the room, and after the attendant left, he quickly locked the door and looked carefully at the room’s layout.

Then he went to bed, moved it out and reached the bottom of the bed near the side of the wall. Soon, he took out something tightly wrapped in linen.

He opened it carefully and saw a blue dagger inside…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the next few days, Megaris travelled through the streets of Thurii, especially the Temple of Hades, where he observed the terrain many times. Except for when he is inquiring about the festival from the Thurians, he always went on his own way and tried not to contact others.

Soon a problem occurred; he fell in love with the food of Cheiristoya's Restaurant. Despite the many trials of death on the battlefield, this mission had given him a considerable amount of stress. So, where is the best place in a city-state to relieve that stress? It is, of course, the restaurant.

As a mercenary, Megaris, who had been living a simple life, was soon enraptured by the delicious food of Cheiristoya's Restaurant, such as hot pot, beef tripe, fresh fish soup, honey bread and fried cod. Soon, he learned some of the “bad habits” among the wealthy Theonians – spending three meals a day in the restaurant.

But there is one thing that he had forgotten, that is, in order to stay in the guest room in the city of Thurii in time, he came eight days earlier before the festival on September 9. And with the food in Cheiristoya's Restaurant is not cheap, not to mention that during the festival, the city became crowded, causing the price of goods to rise, especially the food. Therefore, after a few days, Megaris found that he had used up his “Hades' Coin”, so he tried to pay with other city-state currencies, but the waiter refused his payment and said they do not accept coins from other city-states except the coins issued by Theonia.

Feeling helpless, and at the same time for convenience, Megaris brought all the money in his satchel to Cheiristoya's Bank.

When it was finally his turn, the bank employee asked him through the iron window from the counter, “Are you going to deposit or withdraw money?”

“I would like to exchange for Theonian coins.” Megaris patted the satchel.

The employee looked at it then handed out a piece of papyrus, “Write down the name of the currency you are going to exchange and the quantity…”

Megaris then said with embarrassment, “I…I can't read.”

The employee often encounters this situation, so he continued to say without a change of tone, “This…you can tell me how much money you want to exchange, then give me the money you want to exchange and watch me while I confirm it for you. Do you agree?”

After hesitating, Megaris nodded and told the employee the type and amount of currencies he wanted to exchange.

The employee listened as he began to take notes. But when he heard “Syracuse's Tetradrachms”, the iron stylus on his hand trembled slightly. However, some Sicilian merchants would sometimes come to Thurii and would deposit and exchange coins from time to time.

After writing it down, he called another employee to count and recheck as Megaris stuffed his satchel into the window.

The employee opened the satchel and began counting the coins. Although it seems that the employee looked at it carelessly, he is, in fact, examining the coins with great care. His heart then jolted when he saw that the majority of the coins in the bags were “Syracuse's Tetradrachms”, and some of them were even in mint condition…

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Lord Ansitanos, you must persuade that child when you go Laos this time! It has only been a few days since he became the archon, but before he could even warm the chair with his ass, he already wants to change the laws of Laos by strictly governing the illegal activities in the city…” Davos continued angrily, “This is like declaring war on those nobles of Laos(they are actually the former chieftains of the smaller tribes) and threatened by giving more rights to the commoners. Hmph! Who does he think he is? Even his father wouldn't dare to do that! What does he take Laos for? Theonia or Athens? No, he doesn't even know that Laos is not a true Greek city-state. It's just an old tribal union changing its name…”