Chapter 104: The first council meeting (III)
Chapter 104: The first council meeting (III)
Cornelius now understand it clearly that Davos is trying to remake a new political system of Amendolara. And with Davos already being the one in control of Amendolara and the council, the only thing Cornelius could do is nod.
The appointment of these two people naturally passed.
“Hol…my lord, even after adding up the spoils that we seized from the Lucanians, we only have more than 3,000 drachmas in the treasury of Amendolara….” Cautioned Mersis.
“Hah, you just got elected and you are already started working, the enthusiasm of this public servant is too high!” Epiphanes jokingly said, and the crowd laughed.
“3,000 drachmas, and it’s not even a Tarant*…” Davos muttered to himself while frowning. (T/L note: Taranto/Tarant coin is much larger compared to other silver coins)
Cornelius felt his face heating up and quickly explained, “Amendolara has no port and that there are not many merchants coming to trade with us. And there are quarries available in many city-states and so, only Heraclea will buy some stones from us every year…”
“It seems that there is a need to set up a commercial officer responsible for the management of trades and to think of more ways to earn money for Amendolara.” Said Davos.
Mersis’ eyes lit up and said, “I recommend Mariji to be the commercial officer.”
“Oh, are you on good terms with him now?” Davos was surprised.
In fact, it wasn’t due to the relationship of Mersis and Mariji improving, but it is due to Mersis wouldn’t need to worry about money since Mariji is great at getting a lot of profit, which Mersis knows very well.
“Although Mariji is a persian, he has a strong ability in trades. Before that, he did a great job in the market that we had set-up next to our camp.” Olivos shouted from the back row.
“I also agree with him becoming the commercial officer. I have been to that market and it was really bustling.” Added Epiphanes.
“Olivos has a crush on Mariji’s daughter and wants to take this opportunity to please his future father-in-law.” Said Matonis to make fun of Olivos.
“Shut up you big oaf!” Olivos swears.
“Quiet! The council is a sacred place, and it’s not the place for you to hurl insults at each other! Anyone that tries to say nonsense stuff will be driven out of here!” Davos glared at them fiercely: A very good proposal was messed up by these two, and he is afraid that it will cause the others to think badly.
Matonis and Olivos immediately shut their mouth.
“This Mariji is a Persian?” Asked Cornelius.
“He was, but afterwards, due to the persecution of the Persian King, he, together with his family, joined us to fight against Persia, and came to Magna Graecia to participate in the fight against the Lucanians. He is one of my soldiers and therefore, he is now a citizen of Amendolara. This morning, I have sent him to Taranto to discuss our alliance, and he is indeed a very outstanding talent! I believe that with him as the commercial officer, the gold and silver in our treasury will significantly increase!” Davos spoke highly of Mariji.
Cornelius attentively listened. He hesitated at the proposal of Davos and glanced at Raphias several times, trying to signal him if he have no objection to it as the new census officer and not just have him oppose everything by himself!
Raphias hesitated, he then stood up and said, “But he is a Persian…the Greek city-state has never had -”
“What’s wrong if he is a Persian! As long as he is really willing to become our citizen and had made so many contributions for us, then we should accept him!” Davos suddenly stood up then faced all the people in the city hall and said out loud, “Originally, I wanted to wait until the right time to say this, but since the census officer has already mentioned this sensitive issue, so I would like to share some of my opinions with everyone here.”
“We all know that in almost all Greek city-states, it is very difficult to obtain citizenship. The richer and stronger a city-state is, the more difficult it is to obtain citizenship. For example, in Sparta, it is almost impossible for foreigners to obtain citizenship; in Athens, the current rule is that ‘only when both parents are Athenians, can a child become an Athenian citizen once he reach adulthood.’ Why is it so difficult to obtain citizenship?” Davos raised his question out loud, and the people sitting in the meeting place fell into silence for a short time, specially the new citizens as they remembered the sweat and blood that they had paid for their citizenship and the huge risk they had taken. The words of Davos resonated with them.
“That’s because they are afraid that outsiders will share political rights, land and wealth of the city-state with them.” Said Alexius bitterly.
“That’s right! The selfishness of the Greek city-state made them refuse outsiders from joining them, and at the same time gave up the opportunity to strengthen themselves! After their defeat in Sicily, Athens was unable to recover, why? Because they don’t have enough young citizens. Sparta, even though they now dominate Greece, had mainly sent mercenaries and allies to fight, why? Because they only have 3,500 citizens and they need them to prevent the Helots from rebelling. The Spartan citizens who love war could only fight less and less, and eventually lose their hegemony. Let’s take a look at our neighbor, Thurii, after the defeat of the Lucanian alliance, and knows that we had defeated them, they were careful not to open their gates, why? Because they don’t have enough young citizens to defend against us.”
Everyone laughed, and so did the original citizens. On the issue of Thurii, everyone had the same understanding.
“And then look at Persia, which we have been to. How large is the territory of Persia?”
“Large, too large!” The new citizens answered at the same time.
“Are there many Persians?”
“A lot! People from various races!”
“At the beginning, Persia was just a small tribe which was bullied by the Medes. However, Cyrus, the leader of their tribe, was very wise and open-minded. He was friendly with the surrounding tribes and generously accepted other tribes, and the races that was oppressed by the Medes who had dominated the plain of Mesopotamia turned to him one after another. Later, even their enemy, Media, surrendered to Persia. Persia is like a snowball on the top of a mountain, and in just a few decades, a small tribe has become a huge empire…”
Everyone carefully listened on Davos retelling of the history of Persia, including the well-educated Cornelius. He only knew little about Persia, a great country in the east, and listened with great interest.
“Why is the Persian Empire so powerful? It is because they had accepted other tribes as their own people, just as the Mediterranean sea is big because of the numerous rivers flowing into it.” Davos words made everyone ponder.
“As I had said before, if you are only content with farming in a small city-state every day, until other cities and forces become strong, and leads a large army towards our city and forced us to obediently surrender and become their vassals, then I will not say much. But if you are not satisfied with today’s ordinariness, and want to make Amendolara stronger and not be bullied by others, then please remember that the people is always the greatest wealth of a city-state! We Amendolara, must not be closed and conservatives like the other city-states! We need to be open, and must sincerely accept everyone who is willing to join Amendolara and contribute to its prosperity, no matter where they had came from. Only in this way, will our strength grow rapidly! Perhaps you would say that Amendolara doesn’t have so much land and wealth to share with them. It is because your eyes are only focus on the small land of Amendolara!”
Looking around the crowd, Davos pointed his left hand towards the west and said with great enthusiasm, “Look around us. There are the Lucanians and Brutians in the west, Messapians, Peucetians and Daunians in the east, and I heard that there are also Samnites to the north of Naples…and so on. There are so many indigenous people… don’t they have enough land and wealth to share?!!”
“Defeat them and take their land!…” The squad leaders headed by Matonis were shouting with excitement, and most of the new citizens were excited because this is the first time that their leader, Davos, had showed them his great ambition. For these former mercenaries who had their horizons broadened in Persia, after meeting the basic needs of becoming citizens of a city-state, Davos had given them a greater ambition, and with great ambition, these mercenaries, who were no longer able to cultivate land, graze or do farm work, and were used to fighting on the battlefield, had immediately gotten a new motivation, and they regarded it as their lifelong goal and became the biggest supporting force for Davos to consolidate his power.