Volume 4: The League of Dionia, Chapter 42: Phoebus's Provocation

“The Daonia Alliance has no intention of going to war with any Greek city-state, but if a city-state wishes to provoke war, to bully us, to invade our lands! Comrades, what is our answer?” Davos looked around and asked loudly.

“Fight to the death! Annihilate the enemy!”

“Fight to the death!...” the former mercenary senators shouted in unison.

...

Phoebidas, his face ashen, came out of the Council Chamber. Dorobisis stepped forward and, seeing his expression, urgently asked, “How did it go?!”

“Let’s go! On the ship! Back!” Phoebidas snapped out curtly.

Under the “escort” of the patrol, Phoebidas and his men hurried back, boarded the passenger ship, and sailed toward the harbor exit under the watch of two patrol boats.

“Tell me, if I ram my ship into them!” Phoebidas pointed at the patrol boats flanking his vessel on either side and asked angrily, “Would they sink?”

“Ah?...” Dorobisis was taken aback. Even before reaching the Council Chamber, he had sensed this diplomatic mission would fail, but for Phoebidas to be this furious—what on earth had happened inside? Wisely, he didn’t dare ask.

Phoebidas stared at Thurii, which had almost disappeared from sight, buried the humiliation deep in his heart, and said coldly, “We’re going to Castron!”

“Lord Magistrate, driving away the Spartan envoy like this may harm the alliance,” Cornelius said worriedly.

“I told you long ago to get rid of those mercenaries! You insisted on keeping them, and now trouble has come!” Polyxides said discontentedly.

Faced with the blame, Capus, Agasia, and the others—who had once been comrades of those mercenaries—found it hard to argue back. At this point, Pleisinas stood up and said, “Did the mistakes those mercenaries made not receive punishment under the alliance’s law?! Haven’t other freemen made mistakes? Why must we drive those mercenaries away?! Comrades, our alliance is desperately short of labor right now. It is precisely because of our alliance’s openness, freedom, and equality that so many foreigners and freemen have been attracted here. Rashly expelling those who have come to join the federation for no reason would only damage the alliance’s image and make all Greeks who want to seek refuge with us hesitant!”

“But what if Sparta declares war on us?” Oryphus asked with some concern.

“So what? Do you want to agree to Sparta’s unreasonable demands and let Lord Davos lead our citizens to Asia Minor?!” Pleisinas rebuked.

“I... I...” Oryphus glanced guiltily at Davos and dared not speak further.

“Sparta might not dare to go to war with us!” Davos said with a confident smile. “We are not a small city-state but a powerful force in Magna Graecia! It won’t be easy for Sparta to defeat us! But right now, most of its attention is focused on Asia Minor, and its war with Persia is no easy matter, nor will it end quickly! I’ve also heard that recently Sparta just went to war with Elis, the city-state that hosts the Olympian Games... It seems that even on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, there are many city-states dissatisfied with Sparta. At a time like this, I doubt it would risk starting another war in Magna Graecia!” Davos said this aloud, but inwardly he regretted agreeing to Agasia so rashly without careful consideration. Nothing is absolute in the world. If Sparta went mad and insisted on war with the Daonia Alliance, Davos was not afraid to fight them, but the alliance’s carefully planned expansion would fall through.

The Spartan warship’s move toward Castron caught the alliance off guard. The patrol boats reported this discovery back to the Senate immediately.

After an emergency discussion with the senators, Davos decided to send envoys to Castron at once with the Senate’s order: Castron must refuse to receive the Spartan envoys.

The envoy rode a fast horse, taking advantage of the newly built Thurii–Castron highway, and reached Castron quickly. By then, Amykles, the chief general of Castron, had already led other generals and some members of the Hundred-Man Council to the port, preparing to welcome the Spartan envoys. After all, when the envoy of Sparta, the hegemon of the Greek city-states, visited, a remote small polis naturally dared not be negligent.

As they saw Phoebidas disembark and were about to exchange greetings, a subordinate hurried over and handed Amykles a papyrus scroll. Amykles’ expression changed drastically upon reading it. He immediately said to Phoebidas, “Respected Spartan envoy, there is an urgent matter we need to discuss. Please wait a moment!”

Then, without waiting for Phoebidas’s reply, he took the generals and councilors aside.

“Seems something happened?” Dorobisis said curiously, watching them gather in a circle and argue.

Phoebidas said nothing, but stared intently into the distance, sensing trouble.

Amykles returned to face him, a resolute look on his face: “Respected Spartan envoy, I regret to inform you that Castron, as a member of the Daonia Alliance, has just received a stern demand from Daonia: you are not allowed to enter Castron city! So—” Amykles waved his hand apologetically, and a squad of soldiers stepped forward.

“You are insulting Sparta! Have you considered the consequences of this?!” Phoebidas threatened angrily. He had originally planned to enter Castron, sow discord between Castron and Daonia, and ideally make it leave the Daonia Alliance—since he knew Castron had not been in the alliance long. He also wanted to stay a few days, send soldiers into Thurii’s harbor disguised as locals, capture a few escaped mercenaries to bring back to the Council of Elders, and at the same time retaliate against the Daonia Alliance. Now it seemed none of that would be possible.

Seeing Phoebidas leave in anger, Amykles breathed a temporary sigh of relief but immediately grew anxious: The Daonia Alliance was too bold, provoking the Spartans. If they really came with an army, what would Castron do?

Phoebidas was still unwilling to give up. He turned the ship around and sailed to Tarentum.

As a powerful state in Magna Graecia, Phoebidas did not think the Daonia Alliance could influence Tarentum, and besides, Tarentum was a daughter-state of Sparta, with friendly relations.

The founding of Tarentum was somewhat dramatic: Several hundred years earlier, Sparta coveted the fertile land of Messenia west of Laconia and started a war that lasted nearly a century. Sparta finally annexed Messenia completely, turning the same-race Messenians into helots. However, because Spartan men were away at war for long periods, their women grew lonely at home and had relations with the Perioeci within Spartan territory, resulting in a batch of infants. When these children grew up, Sparta refused to recognize them. Their leader, Phalanthos, after many efforts, obtained Sparta’s permission to seek an oracle from Delphi. The Temple of Apollo gave a puzzling oracle: “Find a place where rain falls from a clear sky and build a city there.” So Sparta allowed Phalanthos to lead these bastards and exiles away from Sparta to establish a colony.

Phalanthos led the group westward in search of a settlement. Their fleet sailed through the Adriatic Sea and into the Gulf of Taranto, seeing many places along the way that did not meet the oracle’s requirement. The long sea voyage caused the accompanying people to complain bitterly, and Phalanthos was also disheartened. He confided his troubles to his wife, who placed his head on her lap to comfort him, but she herself grew melancholy. When Phalanthos felt her tears splashing onto his forehead, he suddenly realized the true meaning of the oracle—because his wife’s name meant “clear sky.” He immediately ordered everyone to disembark, and the place where they landed was later the Gulf of Salento near Tarentum. There they built a city and named it after Taras, son of the sea god Poseidon.

Although the founders of Tarentum left because they could not obtain Spartan citizenship, and later Tarentum developed into a democratic city-state (its dual magistrate system, Senate, and Assembly were derived from Sparta’s dual kings, Council of Elders, and Assembly, though it lacked the Board of Ephors and was less oligarchic), it remained a prosperous commercial city, very different from its conservative, agricultural mother city of Sparta. Yet it always maintained good relations with Sparta. During the Peloponnesian War, Tarentum steadfastly sided with Sparta. When the Athenian fleet sailed west to Sicily and passed through Magna Graecia, Tarentum refused to let it anchor or provide food and water, thus drawing Athenian retaliation—Athens strongly supported the Messapians to oppose Tarentum.

Phoebidas’s arrival was naturally given a grand welcome by Tarentum. But after exchanging pleasantries and formalities with Tarentum’s high officials, Phoebidas immediately brought up the Daonia Alliance’s arrogance and lack of respect for traditional Greek city-states. He warned Tarentum’s senators that the Daonia Alliance advocated force and was aggressive, making it a danger to the city-states of Magna Graecia!

He also suggested that Tarentum should no longer ally with the Daonia Alliance but instead curb its expansion.

However, the newly appointed magistrates Diomilas and Eumachus only talked around the subject, making jokes, until Phoebidas repeatedly pressed them for a stance. Then they smiled and said: “There must be some misunderstanding between the Daonia Alliance and Sparta. Tarentum is willing to mediate for you.” Beyond that, they refused to discuss anything else.