Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 229

[Chapter 27 The Things About Sparta]

“Diobetis, are you really a Spartan?!” Lysander sneered: “Don’t forget Demaratos!

” A longstanding disgrace for the Bada people.

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Spartan warriors advocate killing and despise pleasure, but they do not dislike beautiful women. While the best criterion for judging future wives is easy fertility, Spartans Whether a woman is beautiful is also a ready-made criterion for judging whether the mother of a future child is morally noble or not.

Participating in training with men since childhood also makes Spartan women have their own unique beauty, they have long blond hair, toned bodies, and elegant calves.

And giving birth to an ugly daughter will make the parents frustrated, but there is still a chance for change, that is, come to an ancient sanctuary next to Helen’s grave and pray to the bronze statue of Helen, which is said to make the child grow up beauty.

A hundred years ago, a pair of Spartan parents prayed to Helen for their ugly daughter. The ugly priestess in charge of the sanctuary grabbed the child’s long hair, and after seeing the child’s appearance, she made a prediction: she would become Lasdiamon The cutest woman.

As time passed, the girl turned out to be a famous beauty. Her charm fascinated the king of Sparta, so he took it away from her husband with royal power. After just over seven months, the new queen gave birth to a new queen. son.

Was the child’s father the king or the commoner?

The Spartans didn’t get to the bottom of it, the child grew up and eventually succeeded as king, and he was Demaratos.

When Demaratos succeeded to the throne, another Spartan king, Cleomenes, had been on the throne for five years, and his succession at the beginning was much more difficult because his father was unable to let His wife was pregnant, and the law enforcement elders asked him to divorce his wife and marry again. He hesitated and chose bigamy. Shortly after the second wife gave birth to three sons for him, his first wife gave birth to a gram. Leomenes.

But the king has long loved his second wife, and naturally prefers her children. Cleomenes was not favored by his father, and his half-brother, Dorius, was trained by the king and appointed As the rightful heir, Dorius is also considered to be the best of his generation.

But after the king’s sudden death in battle, the conformist Spartans believed that Cleomenes, who was born to the king’s first wife, had the right to inherit the throne first, so Cleomenes, who succeeded the throne, sent Dorius to the throne. On the grounds of colonizing the Western Mediterranean, he exiled several of his brothers successively.

Cleomenes was quick-witted, prudent, ambitious, and eager for power. How could Demaratos, who had just succeeded to the throne, be his opponent, and he was quickly overthrown by Cleomenes.

Cleomenes has been in charge of Sparta alone for more than 20 years, defeating Argos, controlling Arcadia, intervening in Delphi, interfering in the political situation of Athens… Sparta’s power has expanded to northern Greece.

At this time, the Persian king Xerxes was preparing to invade Greece again, learning from Darius’ lesson, he sent a large number of spies to Greece to divide and divide the various city-states, Aegina – from the east side of the Peloponnesian Peninsula An island city-state not far away offered soil and water to Persia, and Cleomenes angrily denounced this traitorous behavior and decided to punish Aegina.

The people of Aegina hurriedly asked for help from another Spartan king, Demaratos. Demaratos was happy to cause trouble for his political enemies, so he secretly united with the elders in the council of elders who were unwilling to go to war with Persia. Actively provide support.

This angered Cleomenes, who finally decided to get rid of this unbearable collaborator once and for all, so at the meeting of the council of elders he initiated, he questioned Demaratos’s life experience. Not only did he win over the people of Demaratos and most of the elders, but he also bribed the priests of Delphi, so that the oracle he sought was also unfavorable to Demaratos. As a result, Demaratos, who was in power, was deposed. He took the throne, defected to Xerxes, and became a traitor who led the way.

But the victorious Cleomenes was not able to be complacent for long. His bribes to Delphi were revealed, and the Spartans were furious. He was convicted. He fled from Sparta and then returned, but was relieved of power. , since then he was drinking, beating, shouting, everyone said he was insane, his two half-brothers Leonida and Cleom Brotes declared him insane, put him locked in the temple.

The next day, he was found dead, his flesh cut off piece by piece, with a knife at his hand.

This caused quite a stir!

Everyone was talking about this blasphemous punishment for Cleomenes, and it was generally accepted by the public: suicide.

Soon, Leonidas became king.

But privately, rumors spread from time to time: Cleomenes died at the hands of two brothers.

The reason why Leonidas led the 300 King’s Guards to go to Wenquan to defend against the Persian army was because of the situation, but also because of the desire to prove his innocence to the Spartans.

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It was a history that was turbulent for the Spartans, and it could even be said to be a shame for Sparta.

There was silence for a while in the venue.

Speaker Kleostida simply announced: “Start the election of a new king!”

No matter Agesilaus or Leotidides, both candidates have their flaws and their supporters, so both sides The debate was mainly a battle for neutral elders… and the final result of the vote – Agathilaus won.

With tears of humiliation, Leoticides looked at the elders who congratulated Agesilaus with hatred, and then left quietly…

Speaker Kleostida let the guards in. The five inspectors who had been waiting outside the council hall announced the results of the election to them.

So the prosecutors came to Agesilaus, who stood solemnly and listened to them read aloud: “The great Zeus is above, according to the results of the election of the council of elders, we proclaim holy Herak The blood of Ruth – Agesilaus is King of Sparta!”

Agesilaus couldn’t keep his calm expression again, he swore with a trembling voice: “I swear in the name of Zeus that I, Agesilaus, will govern and rule Sparta according to the existing laws of the city-state!”

The Ombudsmen responded at the same time: “As long as you keep your oath, we will ensure that your kingship will last forever!”

In the year BC, Agesilaus became the king of Sparta.

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At the southeastern tip of Sicily, Dionysius led Syracuse’s infantry, soldiers, and many warships on the sea to accompany them along the mighty coast of Sicily. The south coast marches westward.

During the easy liberation of the city-state of Camerina, which was forced to contribute to Carthage, Dionysius received the news that “Dionia defeated Crotone.” The valet said: “Write a letter to Philistos immediately and say that I agree to Locle’s request and send reinforcements to them as soon as possible!”

Then, he sent the messengers to urge the army, who was going to rest for the day, to continue to the army. march west.

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“Crotone asked Dionysus for peace!” After receiving the news from Crotone, Tarantum Archon Yumachus said in surprise: “I really didn’t expect that a year ago, Dionia was a small city-state that needed our protection to survive, but now it has rapidly developed into a powerful alliance of the Greater Greece!” The

former consul and now the elder of the Senate Disitimas sighed. : “Fortunately, we are allied with Dionia!”

“The safety of Tarantum cannot depend on the promise of others!” Yumachus shook his head and said firmly: “We should speed up the fight against the Mesapi people. Conquer and expand Tarantum’s power as soon as possible, so that you can speak with confidence when facing Dionia!”

“The capture of Manduria has already caused a lot of casualties to our citizens! But you still have to attack Brindisi. , then there will be more citizens of Tarantum sacrificed! How could the Senate agree to such a radical approach as you!” Disitimas rebuked angrily.

Yumachus looked at Dicitimas with a trace of contempt in his eyes: “Dicitimas, my friend, haven’t you figured it out yet! This is not only the wish of most of the elders of the Senate, but also The will of the people! Spurred by the rapid rise of Dionia, the people are tired of decades of inaction by the Senate! Hate to endure the harassment of the Mesapiens every year! They demand that we change! Although citizens have There are casualties, but we have Manduria in our hands, and it will be much harder for Messapi to invade our territory! Now, Lord Diomilas is about to return to Tarantum, Archita Continue to lead the attack on Brindisi. I believe Archita will increase his stance on Brindisi without our urging after learning that Crotone was forced to make peace with Dionia. Offensive!”

Dicitimas fell silent, and after a while, he hesitated and said: “I am a little worried that such a large-scale attack will irritate the Puchetti people in the north, who are from the same race as the Mesapis. ”

If we don’t attack, they won’t hate us?!” Eumacas retorted: “As long as we capture Brindisi, we can not only cut off the Mesapi people’s connection with the north, but also connect them with the north.” The trade with the Adriatic Sea has many benefits… If we really meet the Puchetti people you mentioned and see the emptiness of our city and take the opportunity to attack, then we can still-” Eumacas

looked at Dicitimas, Dicitimas understood what he meant and sighed: “Ask for help from our ally Dionysius!”

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Although Lycias tried his best to do for Miron

Defense, but the Citizens Assembly still made a sentence of “deportation of Miron and not to return for ten years”.

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