Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 700

[Chapter 45 Syracuse’s 10-Year Past (Part 2)]

Of course, this amount of compensation is not cheap.

In many negotiations with Dionia, Herolis was finally forced to agree to pay the war reparations, which is why he wanted to concentrate his power to develop Syracuse as soon as possible, and let Syracuse get out of the quagmire of defeat as soon as possible. reason.

However, the people of Syracuse found that there were fewer Siracusa civilian soldiers and sailors who were released.

He and Rollis immediately sent people to negotiate with Dionysian, but the answer of Dionia’s officials made them feel helpless: because of the fierce attack of the Syracuse army, Dionia was already on the verge of destruction. With the food support of Carthage, they had to agree to the request of the other party and provided some Syracuse prisoners to Carthage.

Herolis had no choice but to make a fuss about the war reparations, urging Dionia to cut some of the reparations.

However, the people of Syracuse believed that Herolis did not do his best to allow the Syracuses to become slaves of Carthage.

The people were disappointed with him, including many in the port area, as many of the captives who did not return were Syracuse sailors.

At this time, Davos also ordered the spies lurking in Syracuse to spread unfavorable rumors against Haroris, because Davos knew that many decisions made by Haroris were correct, but he Don’t want to see Syracuse rise again.

As a result, the dissatisfaction and suspicion of the people against Haroris grew, and many people rumored that Haroris wanted to be the second Dionysius.

During this period of turmoil in the hearts of the people, according to the proposal promulgated by Herolis, Facipesas, Damocles… these former generals under Dionysius who should have been severely punished He and the minister suddenly got out of prison, and with some people who were dissatisfied with Herolis, escaped from the city of Syracuse, and joined the mercenaries of Mathias who were wandering in the mountains to the west, and even occupied the tin. The sub-state on the west side of Rakuza – the small town of Ackley.

Of course, Herolis could not allow the remnants of Dionysius to make trouble within the sphere of influence of Syracuse, so he decided to lead the army in person, and before leaving, he instructed Falecus, Kuchias, and Stacy. Coase and others guarded Syracuse City, after all, he also knew that the political situation was a little unstable recently.

Unexpectedly, when Herolis led his troops to Acre and was attacking the city, he received bad news: there was a rebellion in the city of Syracuse. of Herolis.

How could Herolis be ousted so easily in Syracuse?

That’s because of the support of Falekus, Kuchias, Staceikos, and others.

It turned out that these close friends of Herolis deeply felt that after serving as the leader of Syracuse, Herolis

became arbitrary and did not listen to their opinions. Although they were also members of the executive committee, they had almost no opinion. Real power, of course there is dissatisfaction in my heart.

Coupled with the influence of rumors in the city, they are worried that Haroris will really become a dictator.

So after Herolis led the army out of the city, under the persuasion of Theagenis, they resolutely chose to cooperate with the democrats and abandoned Herolis.

Hearolis heard the chaos in the city, and immediately led his army back to the division, wanting to quickly calm the situation.

Unexpectedly, before reaching the city of Syracuse, most of the soldiers under him ran away.

Seeing that things could no longer be done, Herolis had to escape from Syracuse by boat with his confidants.

He did not choose to flee to the kingdom of Dionysius, which had helped him overthrow Dionysius, nor to Sparta, the former ally of Syracuse, but to Corinth, the former mother state of Syracuse. .

At this time, it was the third year of the Dionysian Kingdom (391 BC), and the Corinthian War had come to an end.

In order to prevent a situation like Herolis from happening again, the democrats who held power in the city of Syracuse elected 25 generals headed by Staceikos and Falekus through the citizens’ assembly to manage the affairs of the city-state. , they also repealed some of the laws enacted by Herolis when he was in power, which included “the war reparations against Dionysus, and the resumption of the land allocated to the civilians of the port area…”

This not only worsened the diplomatic environment of Syracuse, but also made the people in the port area very angry.

At the same time, Theagenis also proposed: to aggravate the punishment of citizens who had served Dionysius.

This caused panic among many people in the city.

And Dionysian King Davos ordered the Chenbing of the Eighth Legion in Catanay and the northern border of Syracuse to put on a menacing posture to attack Syracuse.

In the end, the new Syracuse generals surrendered and had to increase the amount of war reparations.

As for the civilians who caused the riots in the port, Tai Argenis and others sent troops to suppress them mercilessly.

Just at this time, Faxi Pesas and Marcias led the rebel army in Acre to march on Syracuse, with the slogan “To avenge the injustice of the citizens who served Dionysius. ”, this slogan has been recognized by many people in Syracuse.

Therefore, Theagenis led the unstable citizen soldiers out of the city to fight, and they were defeated by the Fascipezas rebels who were less than them. Do not retreat into the city defense.

Fasipezas and Marcias were both experienced generals and were very familiar with the city of Syracuse.

Facipesas pretended to storm the southern city of Syracuse, but Marcias took a small number of elite soldiers to quickly bypass the mountains north, rushed to the north wall of Syracuse, and attacked the Hexa Gate, so he broke into the Inside the city, enter the Popikle area.

The people in the city were shocked.

But at this critical moment, the Generals Executive Committee composed of 25 generals was discussing who should be held responsible for the loss of the city, and at the same time, they were arguing over the issue of how to defend the enemy, and could not come up with a specific measure.

It was not until Mathias’s army approached the inner city that the generals hurriedly assembled their troops to meet the enemy, which naturally failed again.

The panic-stricken democrats had to retreat to Ortigia Island, and Fasipe Sas also took the opportunity to enter the city and join with Macias. .

Herolis, who is far away in Corinth, has been following the developments of Syracuse. At this time, after learning of the tragic situation of the people, as a patriot, how could he stand by and watch.

So he requested some reinforcements from the Corinthian government and led them back to Ortigia by boat.

It was already the sixth spring of the kingdom of Dionia (388 BC), and the people of Syracuse warmly welcomed the return of Herolis and asked him to forgive their betrayal.

On the island of Ortigia, Herolis delivered a heartfelt speech, saying: “…” No matter how the Syracuses treat him, he will come to protect this country and the people here without hesitation. If he can’t save his motherland, he would rather burn himself on the ruins of the motherland!

…” The

people of Syracuse, including friends and political enemies who opposed him in the past, were deeply moved by his words, and the people chanted: “Save Syracuse!

!

!

Save Syracuse!

!

!

…”

Seeing that the morale was high and the people’s hearts were available, Haroris immediately formed an army, opened the long-closed city gate of Ortigia Island, rushed out of the isthmus, and launched a fierce attack on the rebels.

Facipesa Marcias and Marcias hurriedly led their troops to fight. The people in the city heard that the leader

was

Haroris, and they responded one after another.

Captured, the rebels were basically wiped out.

The prestige of Herolis, who had won the victory, increased greatly, so he did not hold a citizens’ assembly, so he abolished the generals’ executive committee, and deprived Theagenis, Falecus… … The people did not object to the power of the 25 generals.

This time, when he regained power, Herolis clearly wanted to build a system in Syracuse that was similar to Dionysian, and at the same time combined the Corinthian system. A regime.

This is a regime in which a few elites rule the majority, for which he relies more on the Corinthians to help him with the task of changing the regime.

The turmoil in Syracuse in the past few years has caused the people to suffer a lot. Coupled with the fact that Herolis has reinstated the bill he promulgated in Syracuse before, many people have benefited. Therefore, the people acquiesced in the Rollis’s regime-changing and seemingly dictatorial approaches have not expressed strong opposition.

And the political enemies of Herolis, such as Te Argenis, Falecus, etc., did not have the support of the people, and they could not make a big storm, and the political situation in Syracuse began to stabilize.

The rule of Haroris has gradually become stable, but in this stability there are dangers.

Among the Corinthians who came to Syracuse with Herolis, there was a young nobleman named Andemacus, who was appreciated by Herolis because of his bravery in battle and served as the defense of the city of Syracuse. He was also the chief of the city guard, and also served as the captain of the palace of Haroris.

But he was jealous of what Haroris had achieved and tried to replace it.

In the eighth year of the kingdom of Dionia (386 BC), when Heroris was going to worship at the Temple of Apollo, a killer bought by Undermarcus stabbed the plenipotentiary general of Syracuse to death, and then Undermarcus took advantage of the situation to usurp the supreme power of Syracuse.

In order to consolidate his power, he promoted the Corinthians aggressively, and the people of Syracuse complained about this.

A few months later, at a harvest festival in Demeter, the widow of Herolis publicly revealed the truth about her husband’s assassination.

The people were outraged, and they rallied to overthrow the rule of Undermarcus.

Undermarcus also assembled an army to suppress it, but in the end he suffered a disastrous defeat, and he himself died in the chaos of the army.