At the Council of Trina, Sipros gave a detailed and comprehensive account of the Dionian army: "...... I was struck by the strong discipline and obedience to orders of the Dionian Citizen Soldiers, unlike the armies of other allies I have seen, including ourselves. It is said that the Dionian League created a special military law to regulate the behavior of soldiers, as well as military training, marching, camping...... and other strict regulations, and there are also military judges in the army to supervise the implementation, and the soldiers do not have obvious resistance and resistance to the punishment of violating military law, but feel ashamed......

I learned from the Dionian militia that they had to train every five days during their slack season, a number that surprised us Trina, and that they seemed to be glad to train, and did not complain about the abandonment of their fields because of their training...... Thus they were able to use their shields, spears, bows, and javelins, and to maintain an intact formation on the march, and to build a camp with great care, and with a clear division of labor, and with great efficiency, so that in a very short time they were able to build a well-fortified camp that surprised me......

In addition, the Dionian army is also significantly different from other city-states, that is, their commanders, officers at all levels, are not temporarily designated after the mobilization of the war, but have always held positions in the army, so they are not only experienced in combat, but also familiar with every soldier under their command, so when marching and building camps, the command of soldiers is very smooth, and the cooperation is tacit, the responsibilities between superiors and subordinates are clear, and there is little prevarication and self-management when carrying out orders......

What amazes me even more is that these soldiers are not afraid of battle, and they are eager to fight. It reminds me of the native Spartans of Greece. Although I have not seen them fight, the defeat of Crotone with fewer victories is enough to prove the fighting power of the Dionian army. In short, the Dionian army seemed to me like a terrible weapon of war that was finely crafted and well-functioning! ……”

After listening to Cipros, the Council of Trina made a decision: to give Dioonia the greatest possible support in the Southern Italian Alliance, without affecting its own interests.

After several days of negotiations, a peace agreement was finally reached: Lockley compensated Coronia, Trina, Siritin, and Crotone a certain amount of gold and silver, and the two sides achieved an armistice......

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Just as peace was being restored in southern Italy, a major battle broke out in the Lucaria region northwest of Dioonia in early March.

The army of Potitia besieged and attacked Grummentum for more than ten days. Gnanet of Picosis led his army to storm the rear of the Pothenian army, while Sincinag saw the arrival of reinforcements at the head of the city and led the army in time, but Pothenia was flanked in front and rear and quickly retreated. The Picosis and Grummentum pursued each other, and the Pothenians lost their camp and fled in disarray.

Pikosis and Grummentum broke into the camp of Portentia, and saw herds of cattle and sheep, piles of grain, and many women of other tribes captured by Portetia along the way, a large number of slaves, and where they still had the heart to pursue the enemy, the two sides began to rob the camp property and women, and clashed.

The Pixis believed that they had defeated the Pothenian army and that the spoils of war should belong to them; The Grumentium, on the other hand, believed that most of this property had been plundered by the tribes belonging to Grumentim outside the city and should be returned to Grumentum.

The quarrels and conflicts that began quickly turned into fights, especially among the Grumentums, who were originally superior in the Lucanian League, during this time, not only were many leaders killed and ruled by the Pykosis, but also the Picsis contempt and instructions for them made them feel lost and humiliated, and the Picsis warriors who followed Sincinag in the city of Grumentum finally broke out the resentment that had accumulated in their hearts. The Grummentumites gathered one after another and frantically attacked the Pixis in the camp, and the two sides began to fight each other, and the scene was completely out of control.

Sincinag couldn't stop it at all, and when he finally made up his mind to destroy these capricious Grummentum together, the Pothenia leader Paulette led some of the reorganized warriors to kill again, and the Pikosis who were fighting with the Grummentums in the camp suffered from the enemy, and finally suffered a heavy defeat, Sincinag and his son took the remnants of the army, and even Grummentum City did not dare to return, and fled directly into the mountains, and finally fled back to Pikosis after several turnarounds.

Eventually, the Pothenians captured Grummentum.

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At the same time, after two months of siege and hard fighting, Tarantum finally captured Brindisi, a small city east of Tarantum and bordering the Adriatic Sea, which was a major breakthrough in the expansion of the territory since the establishment of Tarantum.

The populace gave praise to the generals who led the army, Deomillas and Acheta. Achita was not happy, this time the attack on the Mesapi was supported by the city-state, although the original plan of the council was realized, opening the land route between Tarantum and the Adriatic Sea, and cutting off the Mesapi from the north and blocking them on the peninsula, but the price was also high, and the casualties of the Tarantum citizen soldiers were as high as 4,000.

The ferocity of the Mesapi was well known in southern Italy. During the Great Greek Colonial Era hundreds of years ago, many Greek city-states were established in southern Italy, but there was always only one Tarantum on this "heel" peninsula. While other colonial city-states were attacking and assimilating the natives in the vicinity and expanding their territory, the Tarantum people were bemoaning their misfortune, their neighbors to the east, the Mesapi were not only fierce and numerous, but also not completely barbaric, according to their own claims, they were Illyrians from northern Greece near the Adriatic Sea, with similar cultural traditions to the Greeks (the Greeks never recognized them and still regarded them as barbarians), For hundreds of years, Tarantum had not been able to advance inland. In particular, decades ago, Tarantum supported his mother country Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, which caused the hostility of Athens, so Athens supported the Mesapi against Tarantum, and the Mesapi invasion of Tarantum began to increase, causing the people to suffer.

This time, if it weren't for the rapid rise of Dionia, the Tarantum Senate might not have made up its mind to attack the Mesapi, but Acheta knew that although the city-state was temporarily victorious, the Mesapi would not rest on their laurels, and the war with them would probably continue for a long time.

The wails of the wounded soldiers outside the city mingled with the triumphant cries of the crows pecking at the corpses......

Standing on the low walls of Bryndsee, Acheta stared at the western horizon, stained with blood by the setting sun, and his heart was full of worry about the future......

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In April, Syracuse's army continued its westward advance, and the city-states of Erix and Harucière surrendered one after another, while Sellingstad, the only one who remained loyal to Carthage, was besieged.

By mid-range, Dionysius' army reached the westernmost tip of Sicily, facing Modia, an island city in the bay and an important Carthage base in Sicily.

Motia destroyed the causeway connecting the land and prepared to defend it by the sea.

Dionysius commanded his army to rebuild the causeway. At the same time, he led his troops on a campaign in the vicinity. However, Celinsta repelled Syracuse's attack, forcing Syracuse to continue besieging it.

In May, the causeway was completed, and Dionysius returned with his army, ready to attack Mothia.

At this time, Carthage was also preparing to send troops to rescue the precarious maritime city. They first adopted the strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao, sent warships to Syracuse, broke into the port, destroyed the ships in the port, and tried to lure Dionysius back for help, but Dionysius was unmoved.

The Carthaginian general Shimilko had no choice but to lead a large army to directly rescue Motia, and a large number of Carthaginian warships bypassed the Cape of Palermo and sailed violently into the bay in an attempt to destroy the Syracuse warships that stayed on the beach.

Dionysius had been waiting for a long time, and he placed dozens of new weapons, ballistas, on the beach of the roundabout, and at the sound of the order, a round stone the size of a bowl flew out and smashed into the Carthaginian warships in the bay......

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Davers carefully examined the silvery-white coin in his hand: it weighed four grams, a very standard round shape, with the head of Hades with a thick beard and long hair on one side, the letters "Dionian Union" engraved on the bottom, and on the other side was a leafy poplar tree (the sacred tree of Hades) with the letters "The third year of the 95th Olympiad Games". The image on both sides is in the center, with subtle depictions, obvious concave and convex, and clear letters.

Davers tossed the coin, caught it again, shook it in his hand, and asked, "How much silver?" ”

Tritodemos stepped forward and said, "According to your proposal, and through the Senate's Coin Act, we have produced a silver drachma coin of more than ninety-five percent purity, which is comparable to the purity of the Athenian "owl" (i.e., the famous Laurion silver coin throughout Greece), but—" Tritodemos said worriedly: "We don't have the big silver mines of Athens, and the revenues of the treasury are mainly trade and tax revenues, and there will be a lot of losses in issuing such high-purity silver coins." ”

Davers nodded and patiently explained: "We will indeed suffer some losses, but I have made it clear at the Senate meeting that Dionia's monthly treasury income is now nearly 50 Talientes, and according to Marigi's analysis, this number will increase when we become more closely connected with the other allies of the Southern Italian Alliance...... Therefore, we can afford to lose this point. What's more, each of our cities and markets has a market management office, which can accurately determine the purity of silver coins in each city's trade, and banks can exchange them, plus additional handling fees, which can partially make up for the losses caused by the alliance due to coinage......"