Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 272

[Chapter 70 History of the 3 Clan]

Polydorus explained: “…In the archaic age, the king of Arcadia, Lycaon, was arrogant and disrespectful to the god Zeus. One day he came up with an evil idea to make fun of Zeus. , so he killed one of the servants, made his flesh into a soup, and invited Zeus to a feast. Zeus saw through his tricks, struck down the palace with lightning, turned Lycaon into a wolf, and destroyed his kingdom “…”

“I know this legend that the king of Arcadia blasphemed the main god, and it is normal for him and his kingdom to be punished by Zeus, but what does this have to do with the Mesapi people?” Felixius was curious. Interject.

Polydorus looked at Davos and saw that he was also interested, so he smiled: “Yes, everyone in Greece knows the story of Lycaon, but his story is not over… Luca Weng had three sons, and when the kingdom was destroyed, they took their own people and slaves, crossed the Adriatic Sea by boat, and fled to the south of Italy to settle down.”

Polydorus glanced at the crowd and said in a deep voice : “The names of the three sons are Downey, Puchetti and Messapi.”

“Oh.” Felixius was a little surprised.

“After hundreds of years, the tribes led by these three sons have grown and grown, and they named their tribes after the first three leaders to distinguish them from each other… There has always been a saying among the Mesapi people. It is said that we Tarantum have been at war with them for a long time, so we will know.”

After Polydorus finished speaking, Caps asked worriedly: “There is another Downey?! These three races turned out to be the same race. , when we are fighting with the Maple coalition, will the Downeys suddenly join?!”

Polydorus explained: “Although they used to be the same race, with the development of hundreds of years, whether Messapi, Pulau Chetty and Downey were both large races with dozens of tribes and more than a hundred thousand people, each with their own fixed territory. Not only did they have different political systems, but they also had conflicts of interest with each other, and even became mortal enemies.

The Dauni people are in the north of the Puchetti people. It is said that they have a large river plain, the land is fertile, and there are four or five large towns.

The Puchetti people are sandwiched by the Downeys and the Mesapis. They have neither fertile land nor good port cities and trade channels like the Messapis, and it is the most difficult to develop, so it has always been with Downeys before. Humans fought for land on both sides of the Ovanto River, so the two races were enemies of life and death, and it was impossible for them to unite.

In the south, the Puchetti and the Mesapis also clashed from time to time, but because of the existence of our Tarantum, the battle between them was not so intense…”

Davers looked down at Polidoru He had drawn a sketch of Tarantum and surrounding forces at his request, and while listening to his narration, he suddenly asked: “The three races of Downey, Puchetti, and Mesapi are What’s the difference in government?

”

Polidorus didn’t expect Davos to ask this,

frowned and thought about it for a while before he said: “Well… Now the political systems of the various city-states in Messapi are somewhat similar to our Greek city-states, but in ten Many years ago, they were still a unified kingdom. King Attas warmly welcomed the Athenians who were going to attack Syracuse, and sent a large number of soldiers to join…” As he spoke, Polydorus Si sneered: “Messapi’s territory is surrounded by our Greek city-states, and there are frequent trade exchanges, so the Messapi people have long been influenced by the Greek people’s democratic thinking, and those nobles, tribes, and towns have been clamoring for To limit the power of the king, Attas was a fool and had close contacts with the Athenians.

How did he know the insidiousness of those Athenians, and as a result, within a few years after the fall of the Athenian army in Syracuse, the Messapi nobles launched a riot, the rule of Attas was overthrown, and he himself lost his life… Then, the various towns of Mesapi became independent one after another, and now they are basically ruled by nobles. They elect a consul and the noble council to rule the city-state every year. The city-state alliance of Pi, which rarely fights with each other, is more united–”

When Polidorus said this, his tone was a little low, making Davos realize that this emerging Messapi city-state alliance seemed to make Tarantu Mu people have more headaches.

“And Puchetti and Downey are still ruled by kings…” Polydorus quickly turned the topic to the other two races: “The difference is that the Puchetti king is more powerful, while the Downey king… …It is said to be bound by various city lords…”

Davos listened thoughtfully, and then asked: “Since Messapi and Puchetti have always been in conflict, how could they be allied?

” Smile said with a wry smile: “You can stop me… However, according to the analysis of our Senate, the reason why the Mesapis are willing to ally with Puchetti is probably scared by our Tarantum attack. !”

There was a hint of pride in Polydorus’ face, Davos nodded, he looked at the map again, but he was thinking: Before, Tarantum’s attack on Messapi, I heard that Tarantum attacked Mesapi. Rantum suffered more casualties, but they captured Brindisi and Manduria, and once the newly captured territories were secured, Messapi could be cut off from the north, while Tarantum The navy is one of the best in Greater Greece, so Tarantum can surround the Messapien and slowly nibble away at it.

The Tarantum people died in battle, and there were free people to supplement them, but the Messapi people died one less, and they would only become weaker and weaker. This is probably the original plan of the elders of Tarantum.

“As for the Puchetti people, perhaps they would rather have the Mesapi people with the same bloodline adjacent to their territory than be a foreigner! Besides, after forming an alliance with the Mesapi people, the Puchetti people can deal with them with all their strength. The Neanderthals are

…”

This is just Polydorus’ guess, Davos thinks: There must be other reasons, otherwise Puchetti’s own situation is not good, and he is willing to take the risk to offend a great Greek power!

“The Pucherti sent a large army out to fight, aren’t they afraid that the Downeys would take the opportunity to attack?” Kapus asked.

“I heard that Puchetti attacked Downey last year, was defeated, and lost the land they occupied on the south bank of the Ofanto River. Puchetti finally signed an armistice with Downey.”

“A armistice agreement can guarantee .

Don’t the Downeys take advantage of the situation to attack?”

Polidorus shrugged and said angrily: “Who knows what the stupid minds of these natives are thinking, anyway, the Puchetti are already on our land!”

Drakes yawned and said to Polido. Ruth was not interested in what he said, but he was embarrassed to interrupt when he saw that Davos was listening carefully.

At this time, when he saw that Polydorus had stopped speaking, he couldn’t wait to ask: “What are the characteristics of the Mesapi and Puchetti armies?

” The Mesapis used to be like the Pucherti, they had a lot of cavalry, but their infantry was not good, they didn’t have good armor, and they were loose in formation, lacking discipline, and didn’t know how to arrange a phalanx, so they never dared to fight us head-on. , only know sneak attacks and intrusions, like cowardly robbers! But the Athenians—” Polydorus’s voice doubled: “We are the sons of Sparta, and of course stood in the Peloponnesian War. On the side of the mother state, but the Athenians actually went to help the aliens because of this, provided the Messapis with armor and weapons, sent people to help them train heavy infantry, and encouraged the Messapis to oppose us! The Messapis have mastered it! The tactics of our Greeks, and the support of Athens, would have done more damage to our Tarantum than ever before! If it weren’t for Archita—” Having said this, Polydorus looked slightly gloomy.

Drax didn’t take into account the change in Poridorus’ mood at all, and continued to ask: “What are the combat characteristics of the Messapi cavalry?

” “The Messapies are good at riding. It is said that they can control the direction of the horses with their legs without holding the reins, and they are good at throwing spears on the horses, which is a certain threat to our heavy infantry.”

Davos Glancing at Felixus.

Polidorus saw it in his eyes and said hurriedly: “Although the Messapi cavalry is stronger than our cavalry, the cavalry is only an auxiliary in battle after all, and the heavy infantry really plays a role on the battlefield. With the help of the Athenians, their heavy infantry still can’t compare with the real Greek heavy infantry!”

Drax asked again: “How many people are there in the Maple coalition? How many citizens can you send to the war in Tarantum?”

Polydorus looked at him, spread his hands, and said, “I’m just a messenger. It’s up to the Senate to decide how many citizens to send to the war. I can’t be the master. As for how many people there are in the Maple coalition. … We don’t even know whether Architect is alive or dead, let alone the specific number of Maple’s coalition forces. However, I personally estimate that it should not exceed 30,000, and we count the citizens who can fight in Tarantum now. There are at least 16,000 young citizens stationed in Brindisi and Manduria, joined by your 14,000 Dionysians, plus 3,000 in Metapontum and Heraklia. , the total number of our coalition is far more than 30,000 people, it should not be difficult to defeat the Maple coalition!”

……………………

Send Polydorus away, Davos and the others returned to the mansion and continued to discuss.

“Lord Davos, if it is as the messenger said, Tarantum can send tens of thousands of people to join us, then we can go to aid Manduria first.” Drax pointed to the map, full of confidence. Said: “Our strength is twice that of the Messapi and Puchetti coalition forces, not only can we defeat them, we can even consider eating a part of them. In this way, when we go north to reinforce Brindisi, it will be a lot easier. “