Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 14: The Dionia Medical Forum

Although they called it an exchange, it was mainly the Daonian doctors who did the talking. The first day was a discussion of medical theory. The novel medical terms that came out of the mouths of those young Daonian doctors were not only unheard of to him, but the various unique medical theories and discoveries they presented completely overturned everything he had previously learned and experienced. Yet, they also plunged him into deep thought, as if opening a window for him to see a new, broader world of medicine. How could he not be extremely excited!

Nicostratus barely ate any dinner. He spent the entire evening pondering the knowledge he had heard during the day. At that moment, he only regretted that his memory was too poor to remember it all, so much so that even lying in bed, he was recalling what he had heard during the day, and he didn't sleep well all night. But early the next morning, he perked up again and rushed to the School of Medicine together with Stasippus.

Just as they arrived at the main gate of the Daonian Academy, over a hundred doctors were already waiting there. They were certainly not waiting for these two doctors from Croton, but were full of anticipation, waiting for the arrival of Davos, the magistrate of Daonia.

By this time, Nicostratus was no longer as extreme as before he had come to Thurii. Through the previous day's study and conversations with other doctors, he had deeply understood Davos's lofty position among Daonian doctors. Even foreign doctors who had heard his speeches spoke of him with respect. This made Nicostratus full of curiosity about Davos, and like the other doctors, he waited quietly.

It wasn't long before Davos arrived. Accompanying him was Helpus, the dean of the School of Medicine, followed by more than a dozen guards.

The doctors stirred, eager to approach him.

The guards immediately moved to block them, but Davos called them back. He smiled and actively stepped forward. Stesicondas also immediately asked the doctors to maintain order voluntarily.

Davos could call most of the foreign doctors who had participated in the forum last year by name and happily exchanged a few words with them. For the newcomers, Helpus and Stesicondas introduced them separately, and Davos welcomed them with a smile.

"Clausus, I remember you, the famous doctor from Metapontum. What wonderful speech have you brought this time?" Davos said with a smile to the doctor in front of him.

"Lord Davos, please don't tease me. How dare I call myself a famous doctor in your presence!" Clausus quickly replied humbly.

"In this sacred place, there are no lords, only doctors who heal the wounded and rescue the dying, and scholars engaged in medicine." Davos corrected him with a smile. "Just call me Davos."

"Da... Davos." Clausus bowed respectfully, then added: "Coriopompas of Tarentum is unable to attend this forum for certain reasons. He asked me to convey his apologies and his regret at not being able to hear your wonderful speech!"

Davos's expression turned somewhat helpless. He sighed and said, "Although Daonia and Tarentum have had some minor misunderstandings and conflicts in the past two years, this should not become an obstacle to academic exchange..."

After Tarentum reached a peace agreement with the Messapians, its strength gradually recovered. They began to resent Heraclea and Metapontum for leaving the Tarentine Alliance, and of course, they also hated Daonia, which had once come to their rescue. However, the now powerful Daonia Alliance could only make them swallow their anger. Daiomelas, the representative of the radical faction who had once been ambushed by the Messapian-Peucetii Allied Forces due to rashness and nearly annihilated, had originally been criticized by the Assembly and nearly expelled from the city-state. He seemed to have no future in politics. But in the past two years, he cunningly followed the public sentiment, repeatedly publicly attacked Daonia, and condemned the Council for being too weak in dealing with Daonia. He regained the support of the disgruntled populace and was unexpectedly re-elected as magistrate at the end of last autumn.

Thus, minor frictions between Tarentum and Daonia began to increase. Tarentines frequently entered Metapontine territory without reason; when fishing boats from both sides met at sea, there were frequent instances of cursing and fighting; goods stacked by Daonian merchant ships in Tarentum's port often went missing, and were occasionally detained... and so on. Daonian diplomatic envoys went to Tarentum many times to protest and negotiate. They once joked, 'The total time I've spent traveling to foreign states in my life is not as much as the time I've spent going to Tarentum.'

But overall, both sides remained restrained, as they were still allies. Tarentum still faced pressure from the Messapians and Peucetii and still needed Daonia's support. It was just that the newly elected generals were playing some small tricks to vent the public's frustration and respond to their expectations. Daonia, out of guilt for poaching Heraclea and Metapontum, turned a blind eye and tried its best to smooth things over.

As Davos sighed inwardly, he exchanged greetings with the doctors, and then the crowd surrounded him and entered the gate.

They had only walked a short distance when a man rushed out from the front. Martius was startled and was about to rush forward to stop him.

Then they heard the man shout excitedly: "Davos, we did it! We did it! The stone bridge model design for the Saraceno River is complete! After testing, there are no problems! ..."

It was Matikoris. Martius slowed down, but this served as a reminder. He immediately ordered the guards to patrol the perimeter and stop any reckless intruders.

At this time, Davos was also beaming with joy: "This is really great! Hand over the stone bridge model and data to Little Heracleides. Once I'm done here, I'll come see your great achievement!"

"And another good news! We designed a new pulley system that allows the lifting arm to rotate 360 degrees in place. You have to come see it too and give us some suggestions for improvement." Matikoris continued.

Davos was even more delighted and immediately made a promise.

Matikoris was no longer as ignorant of the world as when he first arrived in Amendolara. While conducting research at the Mathematics Academy, he also took on some management responsibilities. He gave a few more instructions, then hurriedly ran off.

"Who is that person?" Nicostratus was curious about the tone the newcomer used when speaking to Davos.

"Matikoris, the deputy head of the Mathematics Academy, a mathematical genius!" a Daonian doctor said.

"Daonia is finally going to build a stone bridge! This is really great!" a doctor from Heraclea said happily. There were many rivers in Heraclea, and during the rainy season, the river waters surged, turning the area almost into a swamp. Although they had previously asked Daonia to help them build several wooden bridges, during the rainy season, most of the bridge bodies were submerged. The people of Heraclea were very worried about the repeated, long-term soaking of the wooden bridges and the durability of the wood. Having a stone bridge would give them much more peace of mind.

Connecting this with the fact that the deputy head of the Mathematics Academy also sought advice from this young magistrate, Nicostratus, who had already felt some goodwill from Davos's cordial greetings, became even more expectant of his speech.

...

Davos stood firm on the podium. Below him, the doctors sat upright.

Under their expectant gazes, Davos cleared his throat and said unhurriedly: "Since we've already greeted each other at the academy gate, I won't do the same thing here."

The doctors let out a soft laugh. Every doctor who came up to speak had to introduce themselves and greet their colleagues; this had gradually become a custom of the medical forum.

Davos smiled and extended his right hand, making a fist in the air: "What do you think I'm holding in my hand?"

It's nothing! Some people immediately thought this.

Before they could answer, Davos said: "Air, the omnipresent air. This is the name I gave it. Although it seems to have nothing, every one of us and every animal cannot live without it. If you don't believe me, try covering your mouth and nose tightly with a cloth, isolating yourself from the air. Soon you will suffocate and die.

Everyone is well aware of this, but why is the seemingly empty air so important to us humans? What is its relationship with our human body? Today, I will talk about this issue, hoping to provoke your thoughts."

As soon as Davos finished speaking, the doctors opened their eyes wide and pricked up their ears. Even Helpus and Stesicondas in the front row leaned forward, their faces full of excitement.

"For air to interact with the human body, it must first enter the body. The entry points, everyone knows well, are our mouths and noses. Where are the exits?" Davos looked around at everyone: "Some might say it's the anus, because of farts."

Another burst of laughter came from below.

"Of course not. It can even be said that the air that enters our mouths has little to do with the farts we expel." As he spoke, Davos turned sideways to face a life-sized wooden human model: "I thank the doctors of the School of Medicine for their persistent research in human anatomy, and the exquisite craftsmanship of the Thurii artisans, for creating the most realistic and ingenious human structure model in the world. I will now use this model to give my explanation."

In the Greek city-states of this era, desecrating a body was illegal and could even be subject to capital charges. However, driven by the pursuit of truth, a few doctors risked their lives to secretly dissect corpses to resolve their doubts. Hippocrates was the most famous among them. But in Daonia, because doctors held a high status, Helpus was a member of the Senate, and Daonia had established a Ministry of Health and Hygiene last year, and more importantly, with the support of Magistrate Davos, the Senate specially enacted a law for "dissecting corpses": The School of Medicine could use unclaimed slave corpses or enemy corpses from the battlefield that were unrecognizable for medical research. But each corpse had to be registered with the Ministry of Health, could not be dissected in public, and after use, had to be promptly buried in designated locations to avoid causing epidemics... and so on.