Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 631: Funeral

Apart from those who couldn't come due to important matters, such as Alexius, who commanded the army in the battle against the Dauni, most of the statesmen, even those who served as praetors in other places, and many middle and lower-ranking kingdom officials came to pay homage to Kunogelata.

Then most of the people of Thurii came. After all, Kunogelata worked hard to provide tremendous help to the Thurians after the city of Thurii was burnt, so how could the people of Thurii not remember Kunogelata, the praetor of this city, who had contributed a lot to Thurii’s current prosperity for the following five years?! Therefore, the people of Thurii didn't talk about the rugby match with great enthusiasm, nor did they go to the restaurants and bars to drink. Instead, a constant stream of people came to the memorial hall to pay homage to Kunogelata.

However, although everyone looked sad and melancholy, there was almost no scene of wailing and crying. On the contrary, the place was quite silent. Unlike other Greek city-state, where the deceased's family would hire professional mourners to add to the sombre atmosphere, the Theonians believed Hades' edict that the souls of the dead in Theonia could enter Elysium depending on the things they did in their life. And since Elysium is a beautiful paradise, entering there is a blessing rather than suffering, so the relatives and those who came to mourn do not have to be too sad. Otherwise, they are just cursing for the dead to enter purgatory.

The memorial ceremony lasted for a day, followed by Kunogelata's funeral the following morning.

Then Kunogelata's relatives placed his body in a wooden coffin with some offerings for his final journey to the underworld and Elysium. They then placed the coffin on a carriage, which four black horses pulled. At the same time, Kunogelata’s relatives, dressed in all black, walked slowly to the left and right of the carriage.

Behind the carriage were the royal family led by Davos, followed by the high officials of the kingdom, the statesmen and their families, who were all dressed in black and looked sombre. Afterwards, those who heard about the funeral consciously lined up behind them and gradually merged into a long line with no end, forcing Thurii's guards to send more people to maintain order.

In the funeral procession were dozens of trumpeters and bugles tasked with playing a solemn and slightly sombre piece to give the whole procession a melancholic atmosphere.

At the front of the carriage, Plesinas took a dozen black-robed priests to sing Hades' hymn, sprinkled water on the street, and led the funeral procession to the foot of Hades' hill.

After arriving, the eight palace guards in uniform lifted the coffin and walked steadily to a small temple beside the Temple of Hades: This temple was built after the South Italian War, and it was the Temple of Thanatos, the personification of death.

In front of the temple was an incineration basin, where the guards slowly placed the coffin. Afterwards, the priests began pouring olive oil into it through the pipes around the incineration basin.

Then Sostratus, Dicaeogelata, Kunogelata’s grief-stricken family, and the others bowed their heads in silent prayer. Only Davos, clad in white robes, walked close to the incineration basin, opened his arms wide and shouted to the sky, “O Great Hades, Kunogelata, a citizen of Theonia, would now return to the underworld today. He is your devout citizen, so I implore you to grant him the benefits he deserves after death according to the things he did during his life!”

Davos then took the torch from Plesinas and threw it into the basin.

At the same time as the fire rages, the dozen priestesses sang in unison, resulting in their ethereal singing spreading throughout the hills, washing the sadness in the people’s hearts.

Although the wooden coffin had turned into ashes, the funeral wasn't yet over. Kunogelata's relative then took the remaining bones from the burnt ashes, wrapped them in newly made linen and placed them into a jar.

Davos then spoke loudly to the people who came to attend the funeral about Kunogelata's outstanding contribution he made to the kingdom of Theonia during his life and announced that “Kunogelata's bronze bust will be placed in the Hall of Sages in the Temple of Hades while his urn will be placed in the Temple of Death and receive the blessing of the underworld!”

With the completion of these two things, the funeral ended.

Then the statesmen and officials no longer comforted Kunogelata's relatives. Instead, they congratulated them as they bid their farewell.

Previously, the statesmen had also attended Scambras and Baripriri's funerals, but Kunogelata's funeral attracted the most people and enjoyed the highest honour after his death.

Only those citizens who are loyal to the kingdom, worked their hardest during their lifetime and have made enough contributions could enjoy having their ashes in the temple. But what is even more difficult is to enter the Hall of Sages, as they must make great contributions to Theonia that could influence the development of the entire kingdom. After being admitted to the Hall of Sages, a monument would be erected where they would write the deceased' biography, which the later generations could see and thus could be said to be the supreme glory. Since the establishment of Theonia more than ten years ago, only Heracleides has been inducted into the Hall of Sages. Now, there is Kunogelata. Thus for many statesmen and officials, the funeral of Kunogelata became their envy and goal, which is what Davos likes to see.

For the ordinary people, they do not have such a huge goal; rather, their only hope is to have their body cremated in the main Temple of Hades because only the ordinary Temple of Hades would carry out the usual cremation of the body and only the citizens who made meritorious achievements may apply for the qualification to be cremated in the main Temple of Hades.

And the one to approve the application wasn't the Senate but the priesthood of the Temple of Hades. But the final decision was still in the hands of Davos, as he wasn't only the king but also the head priest of the kingdom, who, in the people's minds, was the descendant of Hades. However, in general, he would just let the priests led by Plesinas decide and would just verify it afterwards. Only when an important person in the kingdom died would he need to determine if that person was qualified to enter the Hall of Valour, the Hall of Sages, the Temple of Death, or the Prison of the Wicked.

After Kunogelata's funeral, the rugby champions league continued as if everything had returned to normal.

Only the statesmen could feel the slight change as Androlis was added to the rotating speaker, and his seat moved forward to the central front area of the hall.

When Theonia was first established, the speaker was rotated among the statesmen, and its only duty was to maintain order in the Grand Senate Hall and had no real power. After the South-Italian War and when Davos became the king, he stopped letting all the statesmen serve as speakers due to having too many new statesmen who were unfamiliar with the workings of the Theonian government. So instead, he appointed several statesmen to serve in this position on a rotating basis, usually once every ten days.

At the same time, he asked the Senate to give the rotating speaker more responsibilities, such as organising each Senate meeting, the one on duty would provide counsel to the king when deciding the main topic of each meeting, and when Davos attended the meeting, he has to ensure to convey the king’s wishes. And in Davos' absence, he had to ensure the meeting ran smoothly, and he could even command the guards to expel the statesmen who interfered with the meeting and report the meeting's result to Davos afterwards.

Because of the rotating speaker’s increased power, this position has become an important symbol to measure the status of a statesman in the Senate.

Previously, only Kunogelata, Cornelius, Sedrum, Vespa and Lysias served as the rotating speaker of the Senate. But now that Kunogelata has died, Androlis filled the vacancy.

Besides that, there is another change. Due to Ladician and other Sicilian statesmen committing dereliction of duty, some officials of Naxos, Sikuli and Catania were investigated and were found to be involved in this matter. And since they were all recommended to their position by the statesmen who committed this crime, Davos took this opportunity to lash at the Senate. Davos argued that the Kingdom's Civil Servant Management Committee failed to properly select low and middle-ranking officials because they could not select impartially due to the influence of the statesmen…

Back when they established the union, the Civil Servant Management Committee's duty was to draw up the candidates for the various positions in the cities of the union. Only after Davos approved and sighed the list of candidates would it be read out once in the Senate to inform the statesmen. Sometimes, the statesmen would object to some of the candidates, prompting the committee to make adjustments according to their opinions. And since Davos was already in control of the Senate, he wouldn’t obstruct them too much. But these years, with the expansion of the territory and the increase of officials, Davos needed to spend half of his time in the palace handling political matters, so he could not be as strict with the committee as before.

Hence Davos demanded to relocate the offices of the Kingdom's Civil Servant Management Committee to the royal palace, and they would no longer discuss the appointments of officials in the Senate. Naturally, some statesmen objected. However, Davos threatened that he would consider having Sesta investigate the officials in other cities of the kingdom to avoid more cases of dereliction of duties like those in Sicily from happening.

Eventually, Davos' proposal was approved, and the committee moved to the palace's second floor.

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

On the day after Kunogelata's funeral, Davos received Cheirisophus.

As for Sparta's request to renew the expiring treaty for another ten years, Davos and the Senate agreed to the request without much argument.

After all, the kingdom of Theonia's centre of attention is in Italy, followed by Sicily. For the strife-ridden Greece, neither Davos nor the statesmen were too interested in getting involved. With the previous decade of peace, Theonia had plenty of time to absorb refugees, expand its population, develop agriculture, trade and expand its land…so they certainly wanted to continue having such a peaceful environment.