Looking at the countless raised right arms in front of him, Archytas said happily and with a trace of regret, “Davos, your wish has come true. Congratulations!”
Davos was relieved and said sincerely, “Thank you! I also earnestly hope that the council of Taranto will agree to my proposal, so that we can become allies!”
“A total of 1,382 people have participated in the voting of this proposal, 1,076 have agreed and 306 opposed, and so, this proposal is passed! I declare that -” When Cornelius saw the result, his mood was a bit complicated at the beginning, but he was soon relieved. So he used all his energy and shouted, “From now on, all the mercenaries will become citizens of Amendolara!!!”
As soon as Cornelius' voice fell, the soldiers around Davos roared with joy. Then the excited officers warmly hugged Davos, and they kept saying a sentence to him, “Leader, we finally have a home!!!”
Hearing this, Davos became absent-minded, ‘Home?!…unfortunately, my real home is not in this world…’
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
At the same time as the ecclesia of Amendolara was held, the envoy of Thurii, led by Ansitanos, reached the gate of Amendolara.
“We are the envoy of Thurii. We want to meet your leader, please open the gate quickly!” Burkes said to the guard in the city.
Before the guard could answer, a man came out and swear, “GO BACK, THURIANS! AMENDOLARA DOESN'T WELCOME YOU!”
On hearing this, the envoys were a bit angry, and even the always gentle Ansitanos exlaimed angrily, “Rude mercenaries, don't think that you can do whatever you want after defeating the Lucanians, by ignoring the laws of the Greek city-states and forcibly occupying other Greek city-states!”
The man sneered and said, “Hmph, it seems that you really cared about the life and death of the people of Amendolara! OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE CLEARLY, I am a citizen of Amendolara who has lived here since I was a kid!”
Ansitanos was dumbfounded, and Burkes finally recognize him. After all, he is a merchant, and had often came to Amendolara for trade and knew a lot of people, “Is that you, Anticles?!”
“You didn't expect that I am still alive?!” Anticles spoke bitterly, “Thanks to Thurii, the Lucanians had cut off my right hand, but fortunately, I survived. Most of my neighbors and comrades are dead due to your selfish demands and threats, and made them anxious in reaching that damned city of yours. As a result, they were unprepared and got attacked by the Lucanians. All the sufferings of Amendolara was caused by Thurii! From now on, you Thurians are not welcome here! This is not my personal will, but the common will of every Amendolara that have survived!”
Burkes, Ansitanos, and the envoys were shocked. They did not expect that the citizens of Amendolara would treat them like this.
Although Amendolara and Thurii are allies, their strength were quite different. There were more than 20,000 citizens in Thurii, and with a total population of about 100,000. In addition, the number of freeman is close to 140,000, without counting the slaves. While the largest population of Amendolara were more than 10,000. As a result, Thurii had treated Amendolara more like its own subordinate city-state, and rarely considered their feelings. When the Thurians received the report that Amendolara was captured by the Lucanians, besides expressing their regret, they were more worried about whether it will threaten the northern part of the plain of Sybaris. When the fleeing citizens of Amendolara asked Thurii for help in getting back their lost territory, the Thurians had just ignored them and have only considered on how to defend against the Lucanians. Now that they have felt the resentment of the citizens of Amendolara being so deep, besides from being shocked, they were alarmed.
“Don't think that you can ask anything more from Amendolara, we will never listen to you Thurians ever again! Do you hear those cheers?!” Anticles laughed wildly and patted the shoulder of the guard with his left hand and said, “All the people of Amendolara have voted to accept all the mercenaries as citizens of Amendolara! Therefore, they have not forcible occupied Amendolara, as they have become the citizens of Amendolara legally! I heard that the Lucanians that have defeated Thurii twice was annihilated by them, and now anyone who wants to invade Amendolara in the future should first taste the strength of our new citizen!” The threat in Anticles' words made the envoy looked unsightly.
In the laughter of Anticles, the envoy of Thurii went back with resentment.
Anticles stopped laughing and turned to looked at the guard that was beside him happily. When the guard felt nervous, Anticles then showed his pleased expression and asked, “What's your name?”
“Trotidis.”
“Where are you from?”
“Thessaly, the same as leader Davos.”
“Your age?”
“28.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After asking a series of questions, Anticles then said to the guard, who was still in doubt, “I have two daughters. One is 21 year old, she is pretty and her husband is dead and has a 2-year old son. And my other daughter is only 16 years old and is not engaged. Choose one and become my son-in-law. Decide tonight and tomorrow, I will bring you to my home and get you married.”
Trotidis was stunned, and the other guard came forward to congratulate him and then said unashamed, “Anticles, you have two daughters, so let me be your other son-in-law.”
And there was laughter on the wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The envoy of Thurii kept on shouting.
“Who is that Anticles?” Ansitanos asked quietly.
“A noble of Amendolara, and is the captain of the patrol team and the fire brigade.” Answered Burkes.
Ansitanos said, “Oh” and didn't say anymore.
“Strategos, even if the people of Amendolara have some problems with Thurii, but I know that the mercenary leader, Davos. Although he is young, he is very dependable and has a good impression of Thurii. Besides, we have an agreement with him, and will not be easily swayed by the people of Amendolara. I believed that after a while, when the people of Amendolara have calmed down, we can still have a good talk with them.”
“I hope so.” Ansitanos sighed, “The mercenaries are now the legal citizens of Amendolara, and so our protest will have no effect. In view of the present situation, we will have to discuss a new countermeasures once we returned. Oh!…Burkes, do you think what I am thinking?”
“No.”
“My teacher had once said, ‘After the Peloponnesian war, because the Spartan was superior to others, they have treated their neighbors with harshness and cruelty. Therefore, the Greek city-states that were far away from Sparta made contact with the more friendly Athens, and eventually lead to the formation of the Delian League*.’” Ansitanos thought and bitterly remorsed, “Are we really tyrannical? It's not good to be so proud without having a powerful strength!…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delian_League
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
After the voting, the women and children withdrew from the square, and Cornelius asked Archytas to leave, because the next step is the real ecclesia of Amendolara.
In addition to the guards that were patrolling the city walls and the soldiers guarding the prisoners, there were 512 original citizen of Amendolara and 2,920 newly promoted citizens (which includes the 1,837 mercenaries of Davos and the 1,083 of other mercenaries ) in the square, with a total of 3,432 citizens of Amendolara.
Cornelius wanted to continue with the following topics but the cheering of the mercenaries interrupted the ecclesia for a while, and waited until the square regain its calm, and said loudly, “Citizens of Amendolara, since most of you are new citizens, it is necessary to first teach you the political system of Amendolara. Amendolara is similar to Taran….similar to Athens.” Cornelius originally wanted to say Taranto, but on second thought, these mercenaries were from Ionia and probably did not know about Taranto, and so he mentioned Athens, a well-known city-state, for comparison.
