Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 2: Davos's Second Wife

To maintain their friendship with Sparta, Dionysius was forced to relocate the Messenians from the city of Messina, establishing the inconspicuous city of Tyndaris nearby to settle them.

The reconstruction of Messina and the founding of Tyndaris made Rhegium across the strait uneasy. The Rhegians sensed Dionysius’s covetousness toward their city, and they even felt that joining the South Italy Alliance might not be safe. At this time, Syracuse had not only unified the Greek city-states of eastern Sicily but had also largely conquered the Sicels. Its power was so overwhelming that it raised a serious question: would the other members of the South Italy Alliance be willing to confront mighty Syracuse for the sake of Rhegium? The only one capable of standing up to Syracuse was Daonia, the hegemon of Magna Graecia.

Thus, the Rhegians held an Assembly, debating for several days without reaching a conclusion.

Just then, a Syracusan fleet sailed into the port of Messina. Originally, this fleet was meant to escort the Syracusan army as it continued its western campaign along Sicily’s northern coast, but it inadvertently provoked the sensitive Rhegians. The Assembly quickly passed a motion, and envoys were dispatched to Thurii.

In the Daonian Senate, when the Rhegian envoy proposed that “Rhegium is willing to join the Daonia Alliance,” even Davos and the other senators were deeply shocked. It must be noted that within the Daonia Alliance, Laüs, Castron, Metapontum, Elea, Heraclea, and Garagusus were all small or medium-sized city-states of Magna Graecia. Potentia was a major power within the alliance, but it had been forced to join under military pressure from Daonia and was not particularly obedient. Over the past two years, Daonia had been busy organizing and governing Bruttii and Pyxous, leaving no time to deal with distant Potentia on the northern edge of Daonia’s mountains.

And now, Rhegium was voluntarily seeking to join the Daonia Alliance! Remember that Rhegium was not only a powerful state in Magna Graecia but also the wealthiest among them in maritime trade. With Rhegium’s inclusion, Daonia’s merchant ships and fleet could pass unimpeded through the Strait of Messina, facilitating trade not only with Iberia and Gaul in the far western Mediterranean but also better enabling the navy to protect Daonia’s cities on Italy’s western coast—Clampetia, Pyxous, and allied cities like Laüs and Elea—thus connecting Daonia’s territorial waters.

The Daonian senators were overjoyed and prepared to welcome Rhegium into the alliance. However, the Rhegian envoy presented a precondition: Davos, the Daonian magistrate, must marry a Rhegian woman. Moreover, the Rhegians had already chosen her. Her name was Agnes.

Who was Agnes? She was hailed as “the Rose of Rhegium.” By the age of sixteen, she had blossomed into such beauty that even Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, had sought her hand in marriage—only to be firmly rejected by the wary Rhegians.

The furious Syracusan envoy had spat out a threat: “Our all-powerful General will wait and see who dares to be more worthy of marrying Agnes than him!”

After that, Dionysius had instead taken a woman from Locri as his wife, adorning the passenger ship that brought his Locrian bride with jewels and gilding it so radiantly that it became a hot topic throughout Magna Graecia.

In Rhegium, because of that Syracusan envoy’s remark, Agnes remained unmarried. As Syracuse continued to expand and grow more powerful, not only the men of Rhegium but the entire city feared provoking Dionysius, lest Rhegium become the target of the Syracusan tyrant’s wrath.

Thus, years passed. Agnes, now twenty-one—an old unmarried woman by Greek standards, since Greek women typically married around fourteen, after puberty—still found no one daring to wed her. She was compelled to become a priestess of Artemis, the famous virgin goddess among the Greek deities.

Now, faced with the threat of Syracuse, the pragmatic Rhegians believed that Davos was the true ruler of Daonia. They sought to bind Davos to Rhegium through Agnes, so that together they could confront Dionysius.

Davos saw through the Rhegians’ intentions and immediately refused.

Yet a few days later, the Rhegian envoy managed to sway most of the Senate, including Mesis, Mariji, Kynogoratas, and Cornelius, who jointly visited Davos, urging him to accept Rhegium’s request. They refuted Davos’s claim that Daonian law mandated monogamy, pointing out that no such strict provision existed in Daonian law—it was merely a customary practice. Even in Athens, which had once explicitly enacted monogamy, during the great plague before the Peloponnesian War, a sharp population decline had led to the encouragement of polygamy.

They also emphasized that Dionysius of Syracuse and other tyrants of Sicilian city-states had taken multiple wives. Therefore, the lifelong magistrate of Daonia, the hegemon of Magna Graecia, could certainly do the same.

They further countered Davos’s concerns that Daonia would be dragged into a war with Syracuse because of Rhegium. Philistos, Antonios, and others argued that despite Syracuse’s apparent strength, the Carthaginians would always be its great enemy. How could Dionysius risk a two-front war and rashly offend an equally powerful Daonia?

Indeed, news from Sicily seemed to confirm this: The Syracusan army was sweeping westward along Sicily’s northern coast, approaching the city of Solus. This finally spurred the Carthaginian Senate, already angered by Dionysius’s siege of Tauromenium, to decide on action. They appointed Mago, brother of Himilco, as commander, recruited soldiers, and prepared to send another force to Sicily to resist the Syracusan advance.

For the Daonian senators responsible for civil affairs, accepting Rhegium posed little risk but brought great benefits. For those in charge of military matters, Rhegium possessed a fairly strong navy, which could compensate for Daonia’s weaknesses.

Under the persuasion of many, Davos hesitated. Then his wife, Cheiristoya, stepped forward and expressed support for the Senate’s desire for Davos to take another wife from Rhegium. She urged Davos to accept Agnes.

Born in Miletus of Asia Minor, Cheiristoya had been influenced by Persian culture from a young age and was not strongly opposed to polygamy. Cyrus the Younger had once had more than a dozen concubines. Moreover, as a successful merchant herself, she understood the importance of Rhegium’s submission to Daonia’s trade.

Davos was finally persuaded. He married the twenty-one-year-old Rhegian woman Agnes into the residence of the Daonian magistrate, and Rhegium smoothly joined the Daonia Alliance.

This event shocked all of Magna Graecia.

When Dionysius learned of this news, he was besieging Solus. He had already ordered a retreat, but then he rescinded the order and commanded: “Sound the bugle for the attack!”

…

During these two years, on the soil of Asia Minor, the Greek allied forces led by Dercylidas had caused great trouble for Persia.

Thus, in 396 BC, the Persian King Artaxerxes, on the advice of his mother, the Queen Mother Parysatis, appointed Conon—an Athenian then residing in Persia—as Persian naval admiral. (Conon had formerly been the Athenian naval commander, who suffered a disastrous defeat to Sparta’s Lysander at the Battle of Aegospotami, ultimately leading to Athens’ surrender to Sparta.)

Conon had fled to Persia, constantly nursing his desire for revenge against Sparta, and often flattered the Persian Queen Mother Parysatis. Now that he finally held military command, he immediately led three hundred Persian warships, actively cooperating with the Persian land forces. Soon, he inflicted heavy casualties on the Spartan army and put it in a difficult position.

Persia then proposed a truce and peace negotiations, but Sparta refused.

By now, Sparta was the hegemon of Greece and was unwilling to accept negotiations while on the defensive, as that would not only produce terms unfavorable to Sparta but also harm its prestige among the Greek city-states. Therefore, the Council of Elders decided to send King Agesilaus to replace Dercylidas and launch a larger war in Asia Minor.

Agesilaus had always shown the Spartan populace an approachable and humble demeanor, but beneath his mask of adherence to Spartan tradition and law, he concealed an ambition unknown to all. He craved great glory, worshipped ancient heroes, and hoped that unprecedented victories would make the world forget his lameness and remember only his achievements. So, when he received his orders from the Council of Elders, he already saw himself as an Agamemnon of his era, destined to conquer a new Troy—Persia.

Thus, he led a portion of his army to the city of Aulis (located in the region of Boeotia, whose most famous city-state was Thebes). There, just as King of Kings Agamemnon had done before leading the combined Greek army across the sea to attack Troy, he offered sacrifices to the Temple of Artemis.

But during the solemn ritual, the Thebans appeared, declaring that the Spartans had not informed Thebes of their actions, and forcibly interrupted the ceremony.

This incident cast a shadow over the already strained relations between Sparta and Thebes. For the deeply proud Agesilaus, it was a monumental humiliation! From that moment, he remembered Thebes.

Finally, Agesilaus led an army of two thousand Spartan new citizens and a thirty-man military council, including Lysander, quietly crossing the sea to Asia Minor and entering Ephesus.

Lysander believed that since he had elevated Agesilaus, once in Asia Minor, this mild-mannered king would rely on him—the true “king” who had once conquered Asia Minor—and would hand over command of the Spartan army to him.