Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 79: Xenophon’s mission to Dionia

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"I recommend someone to serve as our Spartan envoy to Dionia. I believe he can accomplish this mission!" Agcilius looked at everyone's puzzled eyes and said loudly, "This person It's Xenophon!"

Cleome Brotus was taken aback, and immediately retorted: "You are dizzy! Xenophon is not a Spartan, how could it be a Spartan messenger!"

Agsilius was not angry at Cleombrotus’s impolite words. He calmly said: “Xenophon has lived in our Sparta for more than 20 years and has followed the citizens to participate too much. In the first battle, even facing his mother state, Athens, he did not stop waving his spear, and his achievements were not inferior to our fighters. Moreover, he also used his pen to preach to the Greek city-states that we are Spartans. The excellent political system of Darfur has strengthened our influence on the allies, but this is something we Spartans can’t do!

In addition, his son has also been playing for Sparta, and he is still fighting in the Piotja area. Such a Greek scholar who has made so many contributions to Sparta, even if he does not have a citizen of Sparta. His identity, but what he did has proved that he is a Spartan and an excellent Spartan citizen!

As for why I recommend him as an envoy to Dionian, because he participated in the Persian Expeditionary Force that year, and later became a mercenary leader of the Expeditionary Force, I once heard Ke Lithorpes say, During the Persian campaign, Xenophon had a deep friendship with the current King of Dionian Davos. I believe that his envoy to Dionian will definitely produce better results than others! "

Despite the full recommendation of Agcilius, Xenophon has always had a good reputation in Sparta, but the conservative Spartan elders and inspectors still had a heated debate on this.

Finally, at the end of the 22nd year of the Kingdom (372 BC), the Spartan Council of Elders finally made a strange decision: appoint a Spartan general as an envoy and Xenophon as a deputy. Make Dionia, but Xenophon is responsible for all negotiations with Dionia.

This is Xenophon's first trip to the Western Mediterranean. The moment Xenophon set foot on the passenger ship, he couldn't help feeling full of emotions in his heart.

In the past few decades, it is not that he has not had the idea of ​​"a trip to Dionia". Even after Dionia held the Greek Scholars Conference, he has been invited many times, but he In the end, he didn’t go. One of the reasons was that he knew that the Sparta he settled in was hostile to Dionia, and the Spartan king Agsilius, who had always cared for him, was full of it. Be wary, if he goes rashly, he will surely make the Spartans feel grievances; and the other reason is that Daves once sent him an invitation when he went to Great Greece, but he refused. Now Daves is in West The Mediterranean has set up a big cause, and he can't pass it happily. After all, he is also arrogant.

Now, Sparta gave him this task, giving him the opportunity to see the Kingdom of Dionia established by his former friend Daves.

Xenophon's route to Turei is almost the same as the route of Kelithorpes's mission, but after more than 10 years of development, the situation is completely different.

After passing through the island of Corfu, the passenger ship crossed the center line of the entrance to the Adriatic Sea shortly before it encountered a patrol fleet of Dionia.

This is a fleet consisting of four three-layer paddle warships and eight small and medium-sized warships. When the captain of the passenger ship told him that this was a patrol fleet of Dionia, he even had some I can't believe it, because the strength of such a fleet is close to the naval configuration of certain mid-strength city-states in the mainland of Greece, and some city-states are even worse than that, and this is actually just a patrol fleet of Dionia?

So Xenophon asked twice, and after getting a definite answer, he was still skeptical, even thinking: Dionia intends to expand the size of his patrol fleet in order to intimidate surrounding forces .

The passenger ship landed in the port of Odrum.

Today’s Port of Odrum has expanded several times over the time when Krisops was on mission, and its sea trade scale has also increased several times, mainly due to Dionian’s conquest of Shannei Gaul over the years. , Which shocked the forces in central and northern Italy. The Venetians and Umbrians...have taken the initiative to show favor and form alliances with Dionian, and even Dionian's influence has spread to the east coast of the Adriatic Sea. Some of the Illyrian coastal city-states. When these forces took the initiative to move closer to Dionian, Dionian certainly did not miss the opportunity to strengthen the connection with it through trade and cultural infiltration.

The Adriatic Sea is a natural maritime traffic route. The many towns of Dionian on the edge of the sea and these newly joined Dionian allies have become unusually frequent maritime exchanges, but Odrum Is one of them. But its geographical location is special, not only can enjoy the benefits of trade in the Adriatic Sea, but also some of the merchant ships from the Eastern Mediterranean are also docking here...

In order to meet the growing trade and tourist needs, Odrum not only expanded the port, but later built two other ports nearby. Its urban area has also expanded again and again, and the size of the entire city of Odrum has even been close to Udia, the center of the area, and has long lost the appearance of the small town of Mesapi.

Odrum’s chief executive learned of the arrival of the Spartan envoy and sent someone to greet Xenophon and his party, and held a banquet to welcome them.

Xenophon politely declined, and praised him: The port of Odrum is extremely prosperous. It must be one of the top towns in the Kingdom of Dionian. If it continues to develop like this, it will be completely possible to compete with Piraeus in Athens. Fosport is comparable.

The chief executive of Aldrum quickly expressed humbly: There are many port towns like Aldrum in the Kingdom of Dionia. If Udrum wants to become the top port town, it needs put in more effort.

Many? ... When Xenophon heard this, he couldn't help but blinked. He felt that he had discovered a characteristic of the Diorian: he liked to exaggerate the power of the kingdom by outsiders.

Farewell to the officials of Odrum, Xenophon and his party got into the carriage and headed west.

Along the way, Xenophon saw the avenue built by the Dionians. It was flat, wide, strong and beautiful, and the carriage ran on it smoothly and fast. He was amazed by it.

But when he learned from the coachman that roads like this had already been paved throughout the kingdom and connected various towns, his previous prejudice made him subconsciously believe that the other party was bragging again, because in his impression: In the Greek mainland, only the section from Piraeus Port to Athens City can be compared to such a road. Odrum Port has a prosperous trade. It is understandable that the roads connecting him to the outside world are better, but other The place is hard to say.

But Xenophon gradually began to feel that this fine avenue was too long to be built, because the carriage has been driving for most of the day, passing through one or two towns, and the avenue is still extending forward. In his heart Prejudice is shaking.

When passing by Tarantum, Xenophon couldn’t help but look at him. The Spartans he had befriended over the years still talked with indignation about the forcibly taken away by the Dionians. The sub-state of Sparta, this is also one of the reasons why the Spartan people are hostile to Dionia.

At this moment, he wanted to go in and see what Tarantum, which became the Free City of the Kingdom of Dionian, looked like now, but the person in charge of the Odrum convoy who was in charge of transporting them refused, thinking: It is their duty to send the Spartan envoys to Turri safely as soon as possible. They must not be delayed halfway to avoid accidents.

Xenophon is a little dissatisfied, but there is no way.

The convoy finally arrived at the naval base not far from Tarantum. It was already dusk. The guards of the base carefully checked the documents of the Spartan envoy and Udrum before letting it in.

Because it was getting late, the Spartan envoys could only rest in the camp for one night.

Xenophon learned that this was the naval base of Dionian, so he wanted to take the opportunity to visit it and get a glimpse of the armaments of the Dionian Navy.

Who knows that the guards in the camp restrict them to stay in the house and not move around.

Of course the Spartans who accompanied them were dissatisfied, but Agsilius solemnly warned them when he was leaving: try to befriend the Dionians during the mission, don’t irritate them, and avoid giving Sparta brought disaster.

So the Spartan envoys chose forbearance.

Who knows that the second day happened to be the training day at the Tarantum Naval Base. The two squadrons of the Dionian 1st Fleet sailed into Dagang early to conduct array and confrontation training.

Xenophon and the others took the clipper to leave at the pier, they happened to be able to see a corner of the fleet training: amid the high-pitched bugles, nearly 200 warships were said to be in the wide bay, in fast sailing. , Constantly changing the ship formation, the scene is very spectacular and lively.

Naval battles are not what the Spartans are good at (Xenophon himself has not participated in naval battles). They can't see any way from this training, but there are so many three-layer paddle warships that make them feel surprised.

The size of this fleet is close to the naval level of Athens at its peak, so it is understandable that the patrol fleet has such a configuration...Xenophon thought this way.

The captain of the Clippers saw them so surprised and couldn’t help but proudly remind them: “There are more than these naval ships in Dionia, besides this naval base in Tarantum, there is also Brindisi. , Catania, Lilibo... and many other naval bases, with more than a thousand warships!"

Xenophon's heart moved. Although this time he still felt that the Dionians were a bit bragging, some words may be true. Although the other naval base Xenophon didn't know much about it, Brindisi was close to Burrow. The Spartans had a certain understanding of Pennesia, so Dionia, which has multiple naval bases, may indeed have multiple naval bases.