Volume 4: The League of Dionia, Chapter 44: Dionysius's Attention and the Funeral of the King of Sparta

The three of them exchanged glances.

Xanthiparis quickly tried to comfort him. "Agasia, you did nothing wrong! We're all grateful that you got us out of that death trap in Asia Minor. If we just patiently stay in the Alliance, I believe we'll eventually earn citizenship and land—this is just a temporary discomfort. As for Sparta, trust me and Timasion—for at least three or four years, there's no chance they'll take any hostile action against the Alliance!"

Greeks liked to dilute their wine with water, thinking it kept them from getting drunk and doing foolish things, but tonight Agasia didn't drink beer—he drank his wine undiluted, until he was dead drunk.

Timasion and the others struggled to help him home.

Once outside, the three of them sighed deeply.

Cleanho curled his lip. "So he regrets bringing us to Magna Graecia. Is he going to stop helping us?"

"Agasia's not that kind of man!" Xanthiparis shook his head. "I think he's been under too much pressure lately and wanted to relax with a drink. But we really need to rein in those stubborn fools!"

The two argued for a moment, then looked back and saw Timasion walking slowly, head down, deep in thought.

"Timasion, what are you thinking about?! We need to get back to the dock!" Cleanho called out.

Timasion looked at them and said slowly, very seriously: "I still remember that Davos used to say, 'Better to rely on yourself than on others.'"

...

When Phoebidas arrived in Syracuse, he was given a grand welcome by Dionysius. Dionysius invited Phoebidas and his attendants into his palace, hosted a banquet, and personally attended to them.

As he watched the seductive dances of the beautiful slave girls in the center of the hall, even Phoebidas—who had developed strong self-control from his youth in military camps—felt his throat go dry. He gulped down several mouthfuls of wine.

So this is what they meant when they said Lysander lived like an Eastern prince in those Asia Minor cities he controlled, Phoebidas thought to himself.

"Phoebidas, I hear you went to Daonia. Did things get settled?" Dionysius asked casually from his seat at the head of the table. The Spartan warship had sailed around the Gulf of Taranto, and word had long since reached Syracuse.

"Yes, but without success," Phoebidas admitted, a note of admiration in his voice. "The magistrates of the Daonia Alliance and the senators of their Senate were extremely firm. Even in the face of Sparta, they refused to budge an inch!"

"Oh?" Dionysius said, slightly surprised. "Sounds like you have a good impression of them?"

"Though our dealings were brief, I could tell they greatly admire war and victory, respect capable generals and brave men, and train very frequently—somewhat like us Spartans!" Phoebidas did not hold back his praise. "And this new Alliance is growing very fast. I heard that a little over half a year ago, it was just a small city-state. Now it has three cities and two allied states. I believe it won't be long before it becomes a powerful force dominating Magna Graecia!"

After hearing this, Dionysius forced a smile. "That's good news, at least those native peoples in Magna Graecia will have a real adversary." That said, he had just lifted his cup, then slammed it down with a thud, spilling wine onto the table. He immediately turned the conversation to his upcoming campaign against Carthage.

Phoebidas saw this and the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.

On the return voyage to Sparta, Dorobisces, who had held his tongue for a long time, asked: "Phoebidas, why did you praise Daonia at the banquet?"

"My praise will keep Dionysius up at night!" Phoebidas said with a smug laugh. "Ever since Gelon, the first tyrant of Syracuse, Syracuse has seen itself as the hegemon of Sicily and Magna Graecia. I recall the old saying that Gelon even sent troops north to Campania in central Italy to defeat the Etruscans who were besieging Cumae... And Dionysius is even more ambitious. He has turned the Greek city-states of southeastern Sicily into dependencies of Syracuse by force. Would he allow a powerful force to emerge in Magna Graecia threatening Syracuse's position?!... Unfortunately, he's about to attack Carthage and can't take action against Daonia anytime soon..."

"Oh, I see!" Dorobisces understood at once, but he immediately asked another question: "Since Dionysius is interested in Magna Graecia, Daonia probably doesn't carry as much weight with him as Rhegium or Croton."

"Yes," Phoebidas agreed. "Daonia's strength is still no match for those traditional powers of Magna Graecia, but its rapid growth will still put that ambitious Sicilian on guard."

Dorobisces recalled the impressive sight of Dionysius's army when he had been invited to review it earlier, and couldn't help but sigh: "Speaking of Dionysius, he's really something. He can send an army of fifty or sixty thousand men, plus two or three thousand cavalry, to attack Carthage!"

"Though there are many men, I doubt many are truly good soldiers," Phoebidas said—half truth, half sour grapes. After all, even Sparta, now the hegemon of Greece, could not dispatch such a massive army at once. It was easy to imagine the strength Syracuse and its allied city-states possessed.

Let Syracuse, Carthage, and Daonia tear each other apart! Phoebidas cursed inwardly.

As the new year began (398 BC), the Thurii–Castron road was fully completed, and the several thousand Croton prisoners from Daonia returned to Croton, their six-month term having expired.

For Davos, his mood grew more and more tense and excited, because Christhoya's belly was getting bigger and bigger, and she was less than a month from giving birth.

Just then, news came from Nerulum: Potentia had officially declared support for Lussau, the son of Acipirus, in his bid to retake Grumentum, and demanded that Sicinag withdraw to Pyxous, or else Potentia would send troops to join the war.

Sicinag immediately grew tense. He took the initiative to send envoys to the tribes occupying the southern part of Grumentum, saying that he was willing to immediately carry out their earlier demands, as long as they could reunite and face the coming Potentia army together.

Sicinag's submission delighted those tribal chiefs. They too were afraid that if Lussau really took back Grumentum, he would settle old scores with them, because they knew Lussau was just as vengeful as his father.

Everyone thought that external pressure had forced the two factions within Grumentum to compromise and come back together. But when the chiefs gladly arrived in the city center to negotiate peace with Sicinag, they did not expect that he had pre-positioned a large number of warriors. Springing a surprise attack, he wiped out all the attending chiefs, then launched a sudden assault.

The southern tribes, leaderless and unprepared, suffered heavy losses in the planned attack by the Pyxous warriors. Some surrendered, some fled the city of Grumentum.

Despite the military threat from Potentia, Sicinag had unified Grumentum in one stroke. Upon hearing the news, even Davos had to admire Sicinag's decisiveness and ruthlessness. He did not realize that Sicinag's ability to pull this off was largely learned from the bitter experience of being stabbed in the back by the Vergaeans.

Soon, Sestas sent another report to the Senate, saying: because of Sicinag's slaughter in Grumentum, some Lucanians had fled to Nerulum. And with Pyxous and Potentia about to go to war, the small tribes caught between the two powers were also fleeing south to avoid the conflict. This caused the number of registered preparatory citizens in Nerulum to surge to eight thousand. Nerulum had neither enough land to distribute nor the resources to support such a population, and requested the transfer of some Lucanians to Thurii.

Davos and the senators deliberated repeatedly. In particular, the stability of Nerulum over this period and the good conduct of the Lucanians led everyone to finally reach a consensus: they agreed to the transfer.

Phoebidas returned to Sparta. His report on his mission to Daonia did not draw much attention from the Council of Elders. One reason was his habit of acting on his own—the Spartan elders, familiar with his nature, were somewhat put off by his repeated insistence that "the Daonia Alliance is disrespectful and unreasonable toward Sparta and must be punished." They instead concluded that he himself had stirred up trouble and caused the outcome. More importantly, the elders had no energy to deal with this trivial matter, for one of Sparta's two kings, Agis, had died of illness.

Since the Homeric age, Sparta had been ruled by two kings, claiming direct descent from the hero Heracles. The kings came from two hereditary royal houses: the Agiad dynasty, centered in Sparta, and the Eurypontid dynasty from southern Laconia. Agis was of the Eurypontid line. Though by this era the rise of democracy had greatly limited Spartan royal power, the kings still enjoyed many honors—especially in death. Throughout Sparta's territory, preparations for Agis's funeral began: horsemen rode through Laconia announcing the death of King Agis; women beat iron pots and spread the news through the city of Sparta; upon hearing the news, each household had to send two free people—one man and one woman—dressed in mourning to observe the period of mourning; the Perioeci also had to send a fixed number of people to attend the funeral conducted by the Council of Elders.

The funeral lasted ten days, during which no public business could be conducted. After those ten days, the elders' first task was to elect a new king.