After Davos found out about it, he sent messengers for negotiation.
And since Syracuse couldn't do anything about it and had to bow its head, how would they dare disagree?
As a result, Tethytes led nearly 3,000 people to leave Syracuse immediately. However, these thousands of people didn't return to Leontinoi but mostly came to Catania under Tethytes' persuasion. At that time, Catania occupied almost half of the Catanian plain and was short of labour, so they naturally didn't hesitate to accept them. And as their leader, Tethytes eventually became a statesman of Theonia.
However, Tethytes doesn't like mingling with the other statesmen from Sicily but chooses to get closer with the former mercenaries. Although he served as Thurii's constable and in the Ministry of Military, he was able to put aside his status as a statesman and actively participate in military training. Eventually, he became a senior centurion of Thurii's reserve legion.
In the fifth year of Theonia, Tethytes served as the praetor of Nerulum and completed it smoothly without any outstanding performance in governance. After all, Nerulum, as Lucania's territory that was the first to be merged into Theonia, had all its successive praetors devoted their efforts and made its system, agriculture, trade, and public construction fully developed, and he just needed to follow it. Thus at the end of his term, the Kingdom's Civil Servant Management Committee just gave him a ‘good’ rating.
However, Davos found it somewhat astonishing that the people of Nerulum are reluctant to part with him. After all, Tethytes treated the Greeks and Lucanians of Nerulum equally from the bottom of his heart even though he had only been in Sicily and had no chance to come in contact with the Lucanians.
Afterwards, Davos appointed him as the praetor of Vergae. And during his term, he once again displayed his characteristic in the people of Bruttii. Hence even though he had just left his position for less than two months, Davos still thinks he is a suitable candidate for Irna's praetor after Nicomachus.
‘What's happening?! Just a position of Irna's praetor had actually led four statesmen with excellent abilities to compete with each other!’ This situation interests Davos as well.
After saying the names of the four candidates to the statesmen again, Cornelius announced the start of the voting.
The statesmen then cut a small piece of papyrus they carried, wrote the name of the statesmen they wanted to elect with a quill, and then walked to the wooden table in front of Cornelius, where a large ballot box was placed.
Then the Grand Inspector Sesta and the Supreme Judge Tritodemos stood at the side to supervise it, mainly to prevent the statesmen from cheating and placing more votes.
If some statesmen are illiterate, they could raise their hands and an attendant and an inspector will come to their side. The attendant will then write the name the statesman whispered while the inspector will supervise whether he wrote it correctly.
In reality, it is very embarrassing for the illiterate statesmen to ask someone to write for them in full view of everyone. So after experiencing it one or two times, they would often take the initiative to find someone to teach them to read and write so as to get out of this predicament as soon as possible. For example, most of the former mercenaries already got rid of their title as illiterate for this reason. In contrast, the statesmen who could not read Greek were mainly from Peuceti, who joined the Senate last.
After counting the votes, Adrian won the most votes, followed by Tethytes, Milo, and Nicomachus, which was the same as Davos' estimate. In the absence of Davos' covert involvement, the former mercenaries, the largest group among the statesmen, had mostly voted for their comrade, Adrian, who had gotten along well with everyone. As for Nicomachus, even after ten years had passed, the resentment of the other city-states' statesmen of Magna Graecia against the Locrian has still not disappeared. Otherwise, the number of votes he received would not have been so different from the other three, which is utterly inconsistent with his ability.
After sighing, Davos looked at Nicomachus, who didn't look depressed. Obviously, he already expected this result.
When Davos announced that Adrian was the new praetor of Irna, he stood up to express his gratitude to Davos and the other statesmen.
Following the Senate's requirements and the distance between Thurii to Irna, Adrian must arrive in Irna to take up his post within eight days. Although the time frame is not tight, it is not much either.
But before leaving, he must go to the royal palace and listen to some of king Davos' suggestions when taking his position and giving him tasks and requirements. At the same time, he must also ask the Chief of Finance, Chief of Military, Chief Commercial Officer, and other important kingdom officials to understand the details of Irna in all aspects. Of course, he can also put forward some of his requirements to Davos and the ministers, such as applying for some funds or transferring several middle and lower-ranking officers from various departments that he believes are trustworthy… However, whether it was allowed still depends on Davos and the ministers.
Finally, he had to get the inauguration letter with the king's deal and signature before he could leave. Otherwise, the local officials would not follow his instructions when he arrived in Irna if he didn't have the official document.
Although Adrian is not the most suitable candidate for Irna's praetor in Davos’ mind, Adrian's performance in the past ten years has exceeded his expectations and given him a lot of surprises. Therefore, Davos still has great expectations for Adrian's future performance.
“Esteemed lords, do any of you have important proposals to say?!” Shouted Cornelius.
However, no one responded and making the venue a little bit quiet.
After waiting for a while, Davos was about to stand up and return to the royal palace. Over the years, he gradually began to separate the kingdom's internal affairs from the Senate's evaluation, approval and creation of various laws of Theonia and transferred them to the royal palace. So he would only attend the Grand Senate Hall when electing new statesmen and important officials, discussing important laws, as well as establishing new laws, war, diplomacy and other important matters that needed his final decisions. But most of the time, he would stay in his office in the royal palace to deal with complicated Kingdom matters.
When Davos stood up, the statesmen with crucial official positions in the kingdom, such as Marigi, Mersis and Philesius, also began to stand up and leave to work in the palace because Davos might send someone to call them about a particular matter under their jurisdiction at any time.
Seeing that, Ladician hurriedly poked at Antonios beside him and motioned him to stand up and speak.
Yet Antonios continued to sit still.
Seeing Davos was about to leave, Ladician immediately stood up and said, “Your majesty, please wait a moment; I have a proposal I wish to say!”
Antonios hurriedly turned his head and warned, “Ladician, I already told you not to mention this today! Sit down!!”
But Ladician ignored him and remained standing.
Showing a thoughtful expression, Davos sat down and slowly said, “What important proposal does Lord Ladician wish to discuss?”
“Your majesty, since we have just elected a new praetor for Irna.” Ladician continued sharply, “Why don't we take this opportunity to elect a new praetor of Naxos? After all, Lord Stromboli's term would end in four days!”
“Ladician, what do you mean by that?! Before Lord Stromboli could even return, you already want to start electing a new praetor of Naxos?!!” Tritodemos exclaimed with discontent. After all, He and Stromboli had a good relationship as they were both Amendolarans and had worked together for many years.
With Ladician needing something from Tritodemos, he immediately explained with a smile as soon as he saw he wasn't happy, “Lord Tritodemos, didn't Lord Stromboli already write to the Senate earlier that he would not run as Naxos' Praetor again?! So isn't it okay to choose a successor now and have him take over as soon as possible so that Lord Stromboli could leave Naxos at ease after working hard for three years? Moreover, there have been many such examples before.”
“It seems Lord Ladician is quite concerned and considerate about his hometown.” Davos interjected with a sneer before Tritodemos could speak, “But even if Stromboli leave Naxos for more than ten days without a praetor, there are still several vice praetors there! Thus there is no need for you to be too anxious as Naxos won't encounter any trouble.”
“Your majesty, you…you are right.” but Ladician still gritted his teeth and daringly said, “It's just…wouldn't it be safer if we can shorten the time?!”
“Hmm, you are right.” Davos nodded and then suddenly laughed, “Safe…but in what matter?!”
Antonios, who had been watching Davos, felt a little uneasy.
On the other hand, Ladician was puzzled by Davos' odd questions and didn't know how to answer them.
“Lord Ladician, as a statesman, your vision should be on the whole kingdom and not just your hometown!” The statesmen in the venue felt it strange as even though Davos' tone was soft, he would often call the statesmen by their first name and rarely use the honorific title of ‘lord’ just like now.
Davos then added in a more serious tone, “We will only conduct the election of the new praetor of Naxos after Stromboli returns. If Stromboli still has anything important to deal with, we could even approve extending his term of office! That's all.”
After that, Davos ignored Ladician. But before leaving his seat, he cast a meaningful glance at Antonios, startling him, ‘His majesty knows about it!’
. . . . . . . . . . . .
For thousands of years, the land of Apulia had the Ofanto river flowered from west to east through it. And year after year, the silt brought from the Apennines turned both banks into fertile land, but it also became the boundary between the Dauni and the Peuceti. For centuries, the two tribes fought each other over the ownership of this land, and the bones of countless warriors that were buried in it had made up for the land’s fertility that the crops consumed.
