Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 335

Chapter 335

In order to maintain the friendship with Sparta, Dionysius had no choice but to move the Messenians out and build a city not far from Messina in an inconspicuous place to settle them, naming it Tyndaris.

The reconstruction of Messena and the construction of the new Tyndaris made Rhegium on the other side of the Strait restless. The Rhegians felt the desire of Dionysius over their city. They even began feeling that if they were to join the South-Italia Alliance, it would still not be safe because, at this moment, Syracuse had not only unified the Greek city-states in the eastern part of Sicily but had also basically conquered the Sicels. With Syracuse’s strength becoming greater, it became a big question whether the city-states in South-Italia Alliance are willing to fight against the powerful Syracuse for the sake of Rhegium! However, Theonia, the hegemon of South Italia, might be the only one that still dares to challenge Syracuse.

Hence, the Rhegians held an ecclesia. However, even after discussing it for several days, it still bore no result.

At this time, the Syracusan fleet entered the port of Messena, and their job was to escort the Syracusan army on its westward expedition to the northern coast of Sicily. However, this has stimulated the sensitive Rhegians that they hurriedly passed a proposal in the ecclesia and sent an envoy to Thurii.

In the Theonian Senate, the envoy of Rhegium proposed, “Rhegium would like to join the Theonia Alliance”, shocking the statesmen, including Davos. All the members of Theonia Alliance, such as Laos, Roscianum, Metapontum, Elea, Heraclea and Galaguso, were all small and medium-sized city-states in South Italia. And even though Potentia was a big city-state in the alliance, they were forced to join due to circumstances and were not obedient to Theonia. In the past two years, Theonia was busy consolidating and governing the Bruttii and Pyxous and had no time to pay attention to Potentia, which was far away from the edge of the mountains north of Theonia.

And now, Rhegium had willingly joined the Theonia Alliance on their own accord! Rhegium is a strong city-state in Magna Graecia and even ranks first among the city-state in terms of city trade wealth. With Rhegium’s joining, Theonia’s merchant ships and fleets can smoothly pass through the Strait of Messina, making it more convenient when trading with Iberia, Gaul and other far western city-states in the Mediterranean. At the same time, it also benefitted the navy defending the Theonian city-states of Clampetia and Pyxous on the western coast of Italia, as well as the allied city-states of Laos and Elea, connecting Theonia’s territorial waters.

Of course, the statesmen of Theonia were very happy to accept Rhegium. However, Rhegium’s envoy had put forward a condition, that is, the archon of Theonia must marry a Rhegian, whom the Rhegians had chosen, Agnes. 

Who was Agnes? She was known as the “Rose of Rhegium”. When she was sixteen years old, she was so beautiful that she even attracted Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, to propose marriage. However, the vigilant Rhegians firmly rejected it.

The enraged Syracusan envoy left while leaving a sentence, “Our almighty strategos will open his eyes and see who is more qualified than him to marry Agnes!”

Afterwards, Dionysius married a Locrian, adorning the transport ship with jewels and dazzling gold to meet his wife, which became a hot topic in Magna Graecia at that time.

And because of the words left by the Syracusan envoy, Agnes was not able to marry. And with Syracuse’s continuous expansion, they become more powerful, causing the Rhegium’s men and the whole city-state not to want to provoke Dionysius and focusing the anger of Syracuse’s tyrant on Rhegium.

That is why, in the past few years, Agnes, who had turned twenty-one, was still single(Greek women usually get married after the age of 14). With no one daring to marry her, she has decided to become a priestess of Artemis, the famous supreme-rulerdess among the Greek supreme-rulers.

Now facing the threat of Syracuse, the realistic and sharp Rhegians believes that Davos is the absolute ruler of Theonia. Thus they want to tie Davos and Rhegium together through Agnes to deal with Dionysius.

Davos, seeing through the thoughts of the Rhegians, immediately refused.

However, a few days later, the envoy of Rhegium manages to persuade most of the statesmen, including Mersis, Marigi, Kunogelata, Cornelius and the others. They kept visiting Davos, hoping that he would agree to Rhegium’s request and refuting what Davos has said regarding “abiding the monogamous law of Theonia” because there were no such rigid provisions in the Theonian Law, and it is only customary. Even in Athens, where monogamy was once explicitly stipulated, needed to promote polygamy during the great plague that preceded the Peloponnesian War because of the drastic decrease of the population.

At the same time, they also stressed that Dionysius of Syracuse and other tyrants in Sicily had married many wives. That is why the archon for life of Theonia, the hegemon of South-Italia, could also do the same.

They also refuted the concerns of Davos about Theonia getting dragged into a war with Syracuse because of Rhegium. Philesius, Antonios, and the others even argued that even though Syracuse seems powerful, the Carthaginians will always be their greatest enemy, so how could Dionysius risk offending the equally powerful Theonia at the risk of fighting on both sides.

As a matter of fact, the news from Sicily seems to prove this as the Syracusan army kept moving westward along the northern coast of Sicily and began to approach the city of Soluntum, finally making the Carthaginian Council, which had already been angered because of Dionysius besiegement of Tauromenium, made up their mind to appoint Mago, the younger brother of Himilco, as the supreme commander, recruiting soldiers and preparing to lead the army to Sicily again to resist the attack of Syracuse.

For the statesmen in charge of governmental affairs in the Theonian Senate, there is only a slight risk but greater gains by accepting Rhegium. For the statesmen in charge of the military, Rhegium has a powerful naval fleet that can make up for the shortcomings of Theonia.

Under the persuasion of everyone, Davos become hesitant. At this moment, his wife, Cheiristoya, came forward and expressed her support for the senate’s wish for Davos to take the Rhegian woman as his other wife and advised him to accept Agnes.

Born in Miletus, Asia Minor, Cheiristoya was influenced by the Persian culture and was not opposed to polygamy. Back then, Cyrus the Younger even had more than a dozen concubines. And as a successful merchant, she knew more about the importance of Rhegium’s submission to Theonia’s business.

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In the end, Davos was persuaded to marry the twenty-one-year-old Rhegian, Agnes, into the household of the Archon of Theonia, while Rhegium successfully joined the Theonia Alliance, causing great astonishment all over Magna Graecia.

Dionysius was leading his army and besieging Soluntum when he learned about this and ordered a retreat, only for him to soon reorder, ‘Sound the attack….’

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

During these two years, in the land of Asia Minor, the Greek allied army led by Dercylidas caused great trouble to Persia.

In 396 B.C., Artaxerxes, the Persian King, at the suggestion of his mother, appointed Conon, an Athenian temporarily living in Persia, as the navarch of the Persian navy.

Conon, who had taken refuge in Persia, had never forgotten to take his revenge on Sparta. Thus he often went to please the Queen Dowager of Persia, Parysatis. Now that he finally had the military power in his hand, he immediately led 300 Persian warships and actively cooperated with the Persian land army, causing great casualties to the Spartan army and gave them trouble.

As a result, Persia proposed a truce, but Sparta refused.

At this time, Sparta, which was already the Greek hegemon, was not willing to accept the truce while being passive, as it will not only be very unfavourable to Sparta but will also damage Sparta’s prestige among the Greek city-states. Thus the Ephors decided to send King Agesilaus to replace Dercylidas and launched a greater war in Asia Minor.

When in front of the Spartans, Agesilaus always presented himself as an approachable and modest man, but under the mask of obeying the Spartan traditions and laws, he hid his ambition. He longed for great glory, worshipped the heroes of the ancient past, and hoped to make the world forget his physical disability and for only his achievements of unprecedented victory to be remembered. That is why when he accepted the order from the Ephors, he thought of himself as Agamemnon of this era and wanted to conquer the new Troy, which is Persia.

And therefore, leading a part of his army, he arrived at the city of Aulis (it is located in the Boetia region, and the most famous city-state in this region is Thebes) to offer a sacrifice, just as Agamemnon, the king of kings, had done before leading the entire Greek army across the sea to attack Troy.

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

This incident cast a shadow over the already tense relationship between Sparta and Thebes. And for the prideful Agesilaus, this is a great shame! Thus from then on, he engraves Thebes from his memory.

Finally, with an army of two thousand new Spartan citizens and a military council of thirty men headed by Lysander, Agesilaus quietly crossed the sea to Asia Minor and marched into Ephesus.

Lysander thought that Agesilaus, whom he had supported, would rely on him, the real “king” who conquered Asia Minor and will hand over the command of the Spartan army to him.