Chapter 190: The Court in the Market of Thurii
Chapter 190: The Court in the Market of Thurii
According to the law of Sparta, the throne will be inherited by the eldest son, but if the eldest was born before the king succeeded, he would need to give way to the oldest son born after the succession. If the deceased king has no offspring, the throne will be inherited by his nearest male relative. And if the heir is still young, he will be under a regent. (The founder of Sparta’s current regime is the regent, Lycurgus.)
Agis has only one son, Leotychides, who is 23 years old, so it should be logical for him to take over as the new king. However, whether Leotychides was the child of Agis has always been a topic of gossip among the Spartans. During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian strategos Alcibiades took refuge in Sparta, and king Agis valued him very much. However, he did not expect that the handsome and romantic Athenian would seduce his queen, and even made the whole Sparta find out about it. The humiliated Agis threatened to dismember Alcibiades, but after knowing about it in advance, Alcibiades cleverly ran back to Athens. Before long, the wife of Agis became pregnant. Therefore, the people of Sparta had doubts about making Leotychides king.
While the brother of Agis, Agesilaus, who is 45 years old, has always performed excellently. In the eyes of the public, he is a traditional and pure Spartan. Although he is lame, he also has the support of many people.
The elders can already infer that the next issue of succession to the throne will be enough for them to worry about. So, how can they even have the thought to deal with a trivial matter such as Theonia?
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Corinthian merchant, Tios, came to Thurii for the second time. The port has changed a lot after not being here for a few months: First of all, the Theonian dug inward on the estuary of the Crati river, thus expanding the port. Two long stone breakwaters were like a giant’s arm encircling the merchant ships that are entering the port. The docks are no longer as simple as they were when the last time they came, a wooden trestle bridge goes deep into the shore, and on the bank are orderly stone houses and buildings, and there is also a wide and flat road for transportation….
Although there are many merchant ships going to and fro the sea and port, the management personnel of the port still manage to command them to dock and unload the goods in an orderly manner with high efficiency. The porters at the port are also very quick in their work and they seldom act lazily or even try to cheat others.
From time to time, Tios saw people wearing white chitons walking back and forth between the docks while holding papers and pens, and wherever they went, those laborers became more diligent. Later, after he asked the other merchants he found out that those people are public officials sent by Theonia’s census office and are responsible in examining the usual labor performance of those freemen who want to become citizens of the union. If there are any bad deeds, it will become much more difficult for them to get the status of a preparatory citizen when the inspection deadline ends.
Of course, the two ~ three small groups of armed soldiers patrolling back and forth in the port has also helped maintain the order.
When Tios entered the port, he found that the Theonia Union had surrounded the port with a thick and tall wall, and the market was outside the wall.
When he came to the market, it was also a noisy place. The original wall of the market has been demolished, because there are too many shops, the speed of the market expansion can not keep up with the increasing number of shops. Shops and workshops line by row and occupy all the open space, leaving only a wide passage for customers to buy and sell, transport goods and for the firefighters to extinguish fires.
In addition, there are two special buildings that are independent of the market.
One of them is the hospital. Most Greeks in the northern part of Magna Graecia know that the physicians of Theonia Union are highly skilled. and some people even say that they are much better than the physicians of Crotone! Moreover, Davos has created an unprecedented general hospital in Greece, which is obviously different from the asklepieion. Regardless of the facilities, system and management, it is very standardized and strict. This is an unprecedented treatment method for patients who went to see a physician. That kind of sacredness had even made the patient feel better even before the physicians started their treatment. For the physicians, it is like a magnet that attracted their attention, and it was said that if it wasn’t for the rigid relationship between Theonia Union and Crotone, many Crotonian physicians would have liked to come here to study and visit. Naturally, every day, the front of the hospital is filled with people.
On the other hand, a lot of people were watching the other building, only after Tios asked did he found out that it was the court that was specially establish by Theonia Union for the market and port of Thurii in order to quickly deal with various trade disputes and conflicts that occurs frequently every day, and to provide convenience for the merchants, customers, as well as the large number of sailors and laborers. Tios was very interested in this pioneering work that other Greek city-states did not have, so he squeezed into the crowd.
The Theonia Union had set up the post of Judge in early November, mainly because after the influx of a large number of immigrants, the city’s praetor had to deal with more detailed and complicated legal disputes. So all the three praetors are complaining. Therefore, Davos proposed to establish the post of Chief Judge after discussing it in the senate(In Greek city-states, there is no special judge, and the case is often judged by the strategoi or the archon. In Athens, there is not even a judge, and the jury is the one that makes the verdict. In Theonia, as the only Archon, Davos certainly has the highest judicial power. However, he is busy with public affairs, so unless it is a major case, it is impossible for him to spend time to deal with common disputes. Therefore, this power was initially delegated to the praetors.) The Chief Judge oversees the junior judges that are assigned to various cities and handles appeal cases. One of the names to be elected by the senate was Bolus, but when it was submitted to Davos to review it, he didn’t say anything. In the end, the winner was Protesilaus(due to the strong recommendation of Davos).
Protesilaus was originally supposed to be in the court of Thurii(though it has not been completed yet), and his subordinates was the one in charge of the court next to the market. However, the newly established union is like the morning sun. The people are busy with their own affairs and there are few complicated and influential cases for him to deal with. Therefore, the energetic and idle new judge has come to the market and seized the power of his subordinates and tries the case in person.
“What is the next case?” Protesilaus asked eagerly as soon as he settled a dispute.
The second judge, Praxileos, looked at him bitterly. Praxileos was a former subordinate of Kunogelata and he assisted the praetor in legal affairs at the city hall, but after the judicial power was separated this time, and because there were not many people who were proficient in the law in the union. So Kunogelata recommended him and was quickly promoted to be a junior judge, and so, he had also entered the ranks of middle-ranking officials in the union. Who knew that after a few days of happiness, his court was taken over by Protesilaus, and he did not dare to say anything. After all, Protesilaus is not only a stateman of Theonia, but is also the chief judge. In order to show the importance of the law to the union, Davos made the position second only to the praetor of a city as soon as the position was established. And as the boss of Praxileos, Protesilaus has the right to report his performance to the Civil Service Council that is under the senate and to recommend him when he wants to transfer.
“It is the wife of a union’s citizen accussing a Rhegium merchant of discrimination against her.” Said Praxileos.
“Discrimination?” Protesilaus had some doubt.
“That woman is a Lucanian.” Whispered Praxileos.
“Oh.” Protesilaus nodded, “Then bring both the complainant and the defendant.”
The court in the market is not big, and can only accomodate a judge, clerks, guards and other public officials. The complainant and the defendant can only stand outside the open court with iron railings behind them. The public can freely watch outside the railing, so that the public and the outsiders can understand the union’s law and achieve the role to preach and educate the people, and at the same time, let the judges be supervised by the people.
A man and a woman entered the court, under the guidance of the guard. They then first recited the names of the three judges of Hades, Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, and swore by their names that all the things they say is the truth.
Then the complainant gave her statement.
The young Lucanian woman spoke with a weird but fluent Greek, “Your honor, I am the wife of Izam, a citizen of the union. Today, when I came to the market to buy an earthenware jar for the olive oil, I arrived at his shop-” The woman then pointed to the merchant next to her and said, “I found that the pottery he sold had many designs and they are also very beautiful, so I decided to buy them from him. He then suddenly became angry at me just because I had taken a bit longer to select a pottery and said, ‘Damn barbarian, do you want to buy it or not? If you can’t afford it then don’t touch my pottery with your dirty hands, otherwise my pottery will be broken. It won’t even be enough to make you a slave in order to compensate for it!’ and he said….he said….”
“Your honor, she is lying! I have never said anything like that!” The merchant shouted.
“Silence! Wait for her to finish speaking, and it will be your turn to speak afterwards!” Yelled Protesilaus, and then said to the woman, “You can continue.”
“He also said-” The woman blushed, then she glared at the merchant and gritted her teeth, “He also said, ‘A barbarian woman like you is not worthy of such noble pottery. It is better for you to become my slave and make me happy….If I am happy, I may reward you with a piece of pottery-’”
Author Note 1: The involvement of Alcibiades as a third party has been described in my other novel 《从城邦到帝国》
Author Note 2: The provision on the succession to the throne of Sparta “If the eldest son was born before the king succeeded the throne, he would need to give way to the oldest son born after his father’s enthronement.” There seems to be a similar tradition in Persia. One of the main reasons why Cyrus the Younger wanted to rebel at the beginning of the novel is that he was the eldest son born after his father ascended the throne, but his elder brother, Artaxerses, king of Persia, was not. Therefore, he thought that he was the rightful king.