ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 267 The Kinatun Incident and Mesapi's Counteroffensive
The city of Mortia is small in area, and it can be regarded as the most important stronghold of Carthage in Sicily. However, it has a large population. In order to provide everyone with a place to live, the residents of Mortia had to build their houses high. It is six or seven stories high, like a spire.

When the Syracuse soldiers entered the city, they were shocked to find that the residents of Mortia not only had no intention of surrender, but also tenaciously guarded every street and house.When the soldiers wanted to break down the street barriers, Motian residents could throw stones, javelins, and even boiling water and hot oil from the upper floors of their houses, which caused a lot of damage to the Syracuse soldiers.

Dionysius had to suspend the offensive, recruit countless engineers, and spend time starting to build a siege tower with the same height as Mortia's residence. It is six stories high, has wheels underneath, and is huge... everything is ready when everything is ready Afterwards, the Syracuseans attacked again.

The ten siege towers were pushed by a large number of laborers from the east, west, south and north outside the city along the widened gaps and roads in the city wall and entered the city of Motia. They slowly approached the houses and lowered the top to connect the bridge. , set up on the roof of the house, the Syracuse soldiers used the wooden ladder in the tower to reach the exit, trying to break into the house through the bridge.The residents of Mortia threw burning wood and asphalt at the siege tower and tried their best to prevent the enemy from entering.

As a result, the most bizarre scene in the siege of Mortia occurred: both sides were fighting in mid-air, with stumps and blood constantly falling from the air. There were even soldiers and residents covered in fire, falling from floors more than ten meters high. Falling down, screams continued, and corpses lay on the ground...

Due to the desperate fighting of the residents of Mortia, the attack on Syracuse made little progress and the battle fell into a stalemate...

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The new king of Sparta, Agesilaus, and his elders were now uninterested in the war in Asia Minor because a plot had been revealed that threatened their rule.

Kinadon, a former Spartan citizen, no longer enjoyed the privileges of a Spartan citizen because he was no longer able to pay for public meals, and was reduced to a second-class person.At first, he was just out of jealousy and wanted to take revenge on the Spartan nobles. However, after long-term observation and constant contact with other ruled classes in the Spartan territory, he gradually realized that the Spartan system was harmful to the Spartan nobility. The helots' inhumane massacre and oppression were so terrible, and so unfair to the inferiors and Piliasians who also contributed sweat and blood to the city, so he decided to overthrow the Spartan aristocracy. 's rule.

During this period, with the frequent wars, Spartan citizens, Pileasians, and even Helots were continuously recruited to fight. The domestic land was gradually deserted due to lack of labor, but the tax burden of the city-state was increasing. , causing people from all walks of life to become increasingly dissatisfied with Sparta. Therefore, with Kinadon taking advantage of various opportunities to contact and publicize secretly, a large number of people in the Spartan territory were inspired by his ideas to join his organization. , even the frustrated among Spartan citizens.

As time went by, the number of this rebel group increased day by day. Just when they were ready to take certain actions, some participants reported it to the Council of Elders out of fear.

The king, elders, and censors were horrified when they received the news.Because the situation was urgent, they hurriedly held an informal meeting and decided to send Kinadon to lead some young people to carry out "clearance operations" in suburban towns. The so-called "clearance operations" were the Spartan government's fear of overpopulation of helots. , threatening the rule of the Spartans, the public and legal official action of regularly killing some helots every year not only allows the helots to always remember the terror of Sparta, but also exercises the young Spartans. Citizen bloodlust.

After receiving the order, Kinatun did not doubt it. Instead, he was happy. It was not that he was excited because he had the right to kill any helot he encountered at will, but he felt that having the right to roam freely was just the right thing to do. Take the opportunity to contact organizations and launch riots.

However, he thought too simply and lacked vigilance. As a result, shortly after leaving the city, he was secretly arrested by the Spartan warriors who had already ambushed him and taken back to the cell.The Spartans, who had exploited and oppressed the helots for many years, were very experienced in torture and extorting confessions. After torture, the tortured Kinadon finally revealed some important leaders of this organization.

While searching for rebels throughout the city, the prosecutors also escorted the bruised Kinadon around the city for public display. At the same time, they declared to the watching people: Kinadon was a despicable traitor who wanted to incite the helots and launch a riot. Overthrow the Spartan rule, rob the Spartan wealth, and become the king yourself.

Kinadon had no chance to defend himself. As soon as he opened his mouth, the Spartan warriors whipped his body with a whip and slammed his mouth with a wooden stick with iron spikes.Kinatun's whole body was covered in blood. In the eyes of the people's anger and contempt, he staggered and fell to the ground and died of convulsions before he could complete the journey.

The Spartan government succeeded in physically eliminating Chinadon, ruining his reputation, and making the Spartan people who did not know the truth hate these rebels.However, there were too many people involved in the conspiracy, and the incident was far from over. The two kings, elders, and censors were busy stabilizing the situation in the country in the following time.

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The rugby match in Dionia lasted for more than ten days. The exciting games and fierce confrontations not only made the people of Dionia and their alliance VIPs crazy, but also the foreign merchants who came to Turiyi to trade. Be attracted.When it came to the semi-finals, not only was the arena full of seats, there were countless people outside the arena clamoring to go in and watch.

Chief Executive Kunogorata urgently increased the number of patrols to strengthen the maintenance of order at the stadium and avoid accidents.

The final was still between the two strong teams Turiyi and Amendolara.

From the whistle to the end, the audience stood and cheered for both teams...

In the end, Amendolara narrowly won and avenged last year's revenge.

When the disappointed audience was about to leave, the host announced loudly: "There will be a football exhibition match next to thank the people for their full support!"

Football, as the name suggests, is a ball kicked by the feet, but how to kick the ball with the feet for competition?Many spectators who had not seen this sport sat back to watch with doubts and curiosity.

Staff in the arena moved the goal and re-lined it with lime powder.

While the spectators were whispering to friends who knew the situation, the players from both sides took the field, and the referee stood in the middle of the court holding a truly round ball.

A whistle blows and the game begins.

The audience was surprised to find that the ball could bounce on the ground, and the players used their feet and various parts of their bodies to touch the ball, but not their hands, which was exactly the opposite of rugby.

The audience's eyes widened in amazement when they saw the players controlling the ball with their feet, making all kinds of wonderful moves, and dribbling past the struggling opponents; and seeing the players running like the wind with the ball and scoring goals , the audience couldn't help but cheer in unison.

When the audience really began to be immersed in the game, those who were interested had already realized: Dionia has invented another ball game that is no less popular than rugby, and it will definitely become popular in the Dionia League and Magna Graecia!

At the end of the game, the host announced: "On the founding day next year, a football match will be held in Dionia to celebrate!"

The audience left the arena unsatisfied.For a while, the topic of their chat will also revolve around the rugby game and the football game to be held next year.While the businessmen were thinking about the business opportunities brought by this grand game, they brought these novel topics to other ports and cities. The reputation of the Dionia ball game is slowly expanding its influence in Great Greece. ...

At the end of the rugby match, the senators in the Senate Hall looked solemn. They were originally just discussing whether to launch a war against Bruti, but Tarantum sent a messenger...

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Previously, Tarantum gathered heavy troops to capture Manduria, a stronghold town specially built by the Messapians to attack Tarantum, and then spent several months and paid a huge price to obtain the important Messapian town. The port city of Brindisi suddenly doubled Tarantum's territory.

Although they were overjoyed, the Tarantum people did not dare to be careless. Although the Messapian people had been severely damaged, they would never give up. The hundreds of years of competition with the Messapian people left a deep impression on the Tarantum people. Understanding the habits of this race, Tarantum sent more soldiers to the newly captured city and at the same time stepped up repairs to the city's defenses.

For several months, the region of Apulia, the "heel" of Italy, has been quiet.

Based on the estimated current strength of the Messapians and the geographical location and importance of Brindisi and Manduria, the Tarentum Senate had considered it in detail in advance, so they asked the young Archita to lead the more More soldiers guarded Brindisi, which is further away from Tarantum and is more important, while Manduria, which is only 40 miles away from Tarantum, did not deploy too many men because Tarantum and Brin Dixi's troops can come over for reinforcements at any time, but with the strength of the Messapians, it is impossible to focus on attacking two towns at the same time.

On the morning of the fifth day after Hades' celebration, Archieta, who was inspecting the construction progress at the port of Brindisi, received a messenger from the Senate of Tarantum.

"Mandulia was attacked by the Messapians?! How many people were there?!" Archita was a little surprised.

"According to the scout report, there are many enemies, no less than ten thousand people, and their attack is very fierce! The Senate has sent 2000 people to Manduria, temporarily containing the enemy's offensive in Manduria..."

(End of this chapter)